Avoiding Costly Mistakes at All Costs - Our Plans
Genesis 15-16
Pastor Don Jones
West Glendale Baptist Church
The word disciple occurs in the New Testament 261 times. Jesus called His disciples and Jesus calls us to be disciples. The Greek word for disciple is properly translated, "learner". In the Greek world disciples were allowed to select their teacher and would follow that teacher’s particular "theology".
Jesus differs in that He calls us, we do not call Him, and perhaps it is because we are called to an extreme life style. Unfortunately, far too many believe that receiving Jesus as Lord is the end of their commitment and not the beginning. The word disciple implies life long learning.
But how do we learn? I believe there are three readily accepted methods of learning. We have looked at these before but let me take a minute or two to remind you.
The first and most obvious method of learning is formal education. Public schools or private schools for the early years and college or university for the later years are forms of this education. Depending on the college or university it can cost between ten and forty thousand dollars a year. The four years required for most degrees makes this a costly method of learning. Even the disciples learned in this manner. Jesus taught, they listened, and they learned, right? Wrong! While this is the most common, it is not always the most effective.
The second method of learning is known as "the school of hard knocks". This too is costly. You might make a mistake that could cost financially, physically, or spiritually. Many people go bankrupt because of one mistake. Some lose their lives because of foolish mistakes. Others lose eternity because of misguided pride. Costly mistakes but for most of us, we remember what we learned.
The final method of learning is what we are going to concentrate on for the next few weeks. The series is entitled, "Avoiding Costly Mistakes At All Costs". We are going to focus on the mistakes of others. The Bible never sugar coats the accounts found within. We get real pictures of real people making costly mistakes. It is a less costly method of learning and if we can learn from others mistakes, perhaps we can avoid them and save ourselves a lot of grief.
In the Middle East lives have been lost, both Arab and Jew. A cease fire has been declared but I do not think I am the only one who believes it will be an end to the hostility. More lives will be lost. History paints a clear picture of seething hatred between Arab and Jew.
I have said before that the deep rooted hatred today can be traced back to its beginnings at a point in history described in Genesis. Because of a costly mistake of old, people continue to pay the price today. How do we avoid this costly mistake? Let’s look at what scripture says.
Cue slide - The Blessing of God
God had called Abram. He said in 12:1,
Leave your country, your people and your father¡¦s household and go to the land I will show you.
God gives Abram a tremendous blessing\promise for both present and the future. It encompasses every aspect of Abram’s life. He says in verses 2-3,
I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.
The next verse says,
So Abram left, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Haran.
Abram demonstrates to all of us unquestioning obedience to God. He doesn’t even ask the "where" or the "why", he simply gets up and goes. If we were this obedient, we would make great strides for the kingdom. Abram leaves, with God’s blessing and promise, on a new adventure.
Cue slide - The Doubt
Abram changes his perspective in chapter 15. Abram has seen and experienced some hard times. He has continued on his journey, and made several mistakes. He has gone after and helped rescue Lot. His travels have taken him to meet with the rich and famous. In chapter 15:1 God gives Abram a vision of encouragement. He says,
Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.
Almost immediately Abram voices an immediate concern. He has looked at the promise and looked at his life and he comes to a disconcerting conclusion. His servant Eliezer of Damascus will get the inheritance. Put simply, he has no children and he is really old. Most of us would say hallelujah!
Abram realizes that a large part of the blessing\promise is in jeopardy of not being fulfilled. How can he become a great nation without having children or at least, a child? The truth of the matter is we all would have come to the same conclusion. Frankly, that is the logical line of thinking, the logical outcome considering most of the factors. No child equals; no great nation.
You might say, "Alright pastor, I get it, you can stop now." But this is not the main point today. We have all at one time or another doubted God’s promise. You might say, doubt comes naturally to us. I submit to you that doubt is not the costly mistake. If you say you have never doubted then I will say your faith has never been pushed to the limit by trial or temptation. Without the possibility of doubt there can be no faith.
Frederick Buechner exclaimed: ¡§Without somehow destroying me in the process, how could God reveal himself in a way that would leave no room for doubt? If there were no room for doubt, there would be no room for me.¡¨ Doubt does not bury faith, it gives birth to faith.
Cue slide - The Covenant
The costly mistake is not Abram’s doubt. God again restates and affirms his promise to Abram. Verses 4-5 says,
Then the word of the LORD came to him: ¡§This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir.¡¨ He took him outside and said, ¡§Look up at the heavens and count the stars¡Xif indeed you can count them.¡¨ Then he said to him, ¡§So shall your offspring be.¡¨
Abram again affirms his obedience to God and we read the often quoted passage. Scripture says in verse 6,
Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.
You might think that this would be the end of the discussion, but Abram continues to seek an answer from God concerning his offspring. The next few passages we witness the great covenant between Abram and Yahweh. It is significant that we understand it is the LORD (the I AM) who makes this covenant and is dealing with Abram. He instructs Abram on what to do. Verses 9-18 state,
So the LORD said to him, ¡§Bring me a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon.¡¨
Abram brought all these to him, cut them in two and arranged the halves opposite each other; the birds, however, he did not cut in half. Then birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away.
As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. Then the LORD said to him, ¡§Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. You, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a good old age. In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.¡¨
When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram and said, ¡§To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates¡Xthe land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites.¡¨
This suzerainty covenant is unique and we could spend days digging through these passages. The Commentary of the Old Testament says,
"In this symbol, the passing of the Lord between the pieces meant something altogether different from the oath of the Lord by Himself in Gen 22:16, or by His life in Deut 32:40, or by His soul in Amos 6:8 and Jer 51:14. It set before Abram the condescension of the Lord to his seed, in the fearful glory of His majesty as the judge of their foes. Hence the pieces were not consumed by the fire; for the transaction had reference not to a sacrifice, which God accepted, and in which the soul of the offerer was to ascend in the smoke to God, but to a covenant in which God came down to man. From the nature of this covenant, it followed, however, that God alone went through the pieces in a symbolical representation of Himself, and not Abram also. For although a covenant always establishes a reciprocal relation between two individuals, yet in that covenant which God concluded with a man, the man did not stand on an equality with God, but God established the relation of fellowship by His promise and His gracious condescension to the man, who was at first purely a recipient, and was only qualified and bound to fulfill the obligations consequent upon the covenant by the reception of gifts of grace."
Simply put, the person of the LORD Jehovah, came to man because man could not get to Him. Abram’s only task was to be obedient to God. Unfortunately he was not.
Cue slide - The Costly Mistake
It is after this astounding and awesome covenant that we see Abram’s costly mistake. Scripture says,
Now Sarai, Abram¡¦s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar; so she said to Abram, ¡§The LORD has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family through her.¡¨ Abram agreed to what Sarai said. So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian maidservant Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. He slept with Hagar, and she conceived.
As time passed, approximately ten years since leaving Ur, and the promise still had not been fulfilled, Abram and Sarai took matters into their own hands. You might assume that Abram sleeping with Hagar is the mistake but shockingly, this was a common occurrence of the times. Building a family through the use of slaves took place quite often. Simply put, their mistake was that they took matters into their own hands and did not leave it to God as He had promise. They conceived of a plan not of God, but of man. That was their costly mistake.
They jumped the gun. They grew impatient and took matters into their hands. I could point out that it was again the woman who hatched the plan and Abram was just the "victim" but that would be untrue. He jumped at the opportunity to sleep with another woman. Now ladies, I trust you will leave it alone and admit they both made a horrible mistake.
How many times have we taken matters into our own hands after waiting upon the Lord? We grow impatient even though we a cognizant of the promises of God. When we do, the result is always the same disaster.
Cue slide - Steps to Failure
What were the steps that led to their mistake? First, they doubted God’s promise. Why, because the used human logic to understand the things of God. As I have mentioned not a costly mistake but the beginning of one. Abram continued to doubt but each time God affirmed His plan and promise until He personally reveal Himself to Abram through the suzerainty covenant.
Secondly Abram blamed God for their plight. The key word in this passage is given. Listen for it. Verse 15:3 says,
And Abram said, ¡§You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.¡¨
Even Sarai gets in on the blame game in verse16:2 and note the word kept. It says,
¡§The LORD has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family through her.¡¨
In each instance they do not praise God for what He has done for them, the protection, the wealth, the promise that was to come, instead the begin to blame God for one part if the blessing that had not been fulfilled. Before we say shame on them, we have to ask ourselves, "How many times we have blamed God for having to wait on His blessing?" Like spoiled children who open hundreds of gifts on Christmas, we throw a fit and get angry because we have gotten the one little thing we wanted.
They doubted, they blamed God, then, thirdly, they used "their plan". They took matters into their own hands. They hatched a perfectly logical plan that would "help God" fulfill His promise.
Cue slide - The Result
Sarai is he first to suffer from the mistake but soon after Abram suffers as well. Scripture says,
When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress. Then Sarai said to Abram, ¡§You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my servant in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the LORD judge between you and me.
Ultimately the child is born but things become so bad that Abraham sends Hagar and Ishmael away. It is at this point I believe we are paying the price even today for this one mistake.
Cue slide - Steps to Success or How to Avoid Costly Mistakes
So how do we avoid costly mistakes? First, begin now by entering into the covenant that is fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Trust and believe in Him today. That is the starting point. You can’t experience the blessings of God without knowing Christ personally. If you already are a believer, begin by being obedient to the promises of God. Step out in faith and trust God with your life.
Second, realize you will never understand fully God’s plan for your life. Scripture is very clear on this, Proverbs 3:5-6 says,
Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.
Thirdly, when thing begin to go wrong and life puts the pressure on, don’t blame God. The rain falls on the "righteous and the wicked". No one is exempt from the trials of life but don’t allow that to keep you from God’s blessings.
Fourth, believe and trust. I know, I said this first but it is the truth. Go through your doubts, the blame, the mistakes, but ultimately trust Him with your life. Amazingly, Abram and Sarai went through trials because of their failings but God was faithful. Scripture says later in 21:2
Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him.
God is the same today as He was yesterday. Perhaps you have experienced the hardship from not following the Lord. It is time to change today. Scripture says,
That if you confess with your mouth, ¡§Jesus is Lord,¡¨ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.
I wish I could tell you how it works but I can’t. I simply trust. Have you?
Avoiding Costly Mistakes: Our Plans 8-20-2006
Genesis 15-16 WGBC
I. The Blessing
„« Great nation
„« Blessings
„« Bless others
II. The Doubt
„« No child equals no "great nation"
III. The Covenant
„« Suzerainty covenant
„« Yahweh revealed, promise affirmed
IV. The Costly Mistake
„« Their "logical" plan
V. Steps to Failure
„« Blaming God and others
„« Did their "own" thing
VI. Steps to Success
„« Trust and Believe
„« Acknowledge your limitations
„« Don’t blame, you’ll have problems
„« Trust
