PERADVENTURE TEN

So [Abraham] said to Lot, “Please let there be no strife between you and me, and between my herdsmen and your herdsmen; for we are brethren. Is not the whole land before you? Please separate from me. If you take the left, then I will go to the right; or, if you go to the right, then I will go to the left.” 

And Lot lifted his eyes and saw all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere (before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah) like the garden of the Lord... Then Lot chose for himself all the plain of Jordan, and Lot journeyed east. And they separated from each other. [Abraham] dwelt in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelt in the cities of the plain and pitched his tent even as far as Sodom. 

But the men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked and sinful against the Lord."

Genesis 13:8-13

In Genesis 18, the angel of the Lord and two additional angels met Abraham to deliver the news of great blessing. But there were two matters on their agenda. The second item on their itinerary concerned Abraham's nephew Lot, and more specifically: the city he had chosen to dwell in. While the angel of the Lord remained with Abraham to inform him of the impending destruction, the two angels went into Sodom. 

• Genesis 18:20-22 PERADVENTURE TEN

The cry of the city was great, and the sin very grievous. Therefore, the angel of the Lord told Abraham that the city would be destroyed. Abraham nearly panicked, he had family there! But because he had such great faith in God, he ventured to understand the necessity of such widespread destruction. Abraham wanted to be sure, as he suspected, that God would not destroy a city full of righteous people. When God assured Abraham that he would not destroy a city that housed even "just" ten righteous people, Abraham returned to his home and God to his plans for Sodom.

The fact learned from God and Abraham's conversation was that there were fewer than ten righteous souls living in the city. God had no plan to destroy them, but to move them out, prior to the destruction. Those few belonged to Lot's family, and the two angels who were with God, were sent to not only to destroy Sodom, but to get them out. 

This is a dark and somewhat complex chapter in scripture if not viewed from the right perch. Understand that we have a powerful God who does choose and enact destruction when He deems fit. But the order of destruction comes from God's heart, not His fist. When God chooses destruction, it is actually the preservation of righteousness that He is chooses. God is able to discern the truth within each individual; no innocent will ever be caught in the crossfire of God's wrath for the guilty. Our God is equal parts power and compassion; He planned and delivered the destruction of Sodom with as much attention to detail as He planned and delivered the innocents within it. Therefore do not cower away from "Old Testament" God as many do; for even here in the dark, He is working to preserve the light He has planned for you.

• Genesis 19:1-11 INTO YOUR SERVANT'S HOUSE

As Lot sat near the entrance-gate of Sodom, the two angels walked in. Lot bowed himself to the ground in reverent greeting and invited them to his home. The angels declined, likely a test for Lot, and opted to remain in the street overnight. Lot pressed them to reconsider, he knew that it was a sinful city and they would not be safe. And though Lot was deeply flawed, he did have reverence for God and respect for his messengers. He evidenced that by his insistence on offering protection for them, even though it would make his home a target in the corrupt city.

And a target indeed his home became. A mass of sinful people from all over the city crowded around Lot's home. They knew that Lot housed two guests. By the size and fervor of the crowd, they knew these were not ordinary guests but angels. They demanded that Lot release the angels to them. Lot refused; in effort to protect the angels, he even offered to give the crowd his two daughters instead. This proved that while Lot had not yet reached the level of depravity that would harm angels of God, he had been severely influenced enough by the corruption of his neighbors as to be not far from it.

Nevertheless, the angels intervened: they pulled Lot into the house and blinded the crowd of aggressors, preventing their ability to find and compromise the shelter of Lot's house. Matthew 8:28-34 and Mark 1:24-28 help us to understand why this evil crowd so desperately wanted to have the angels in their possession.

Although the righteous often neglect to recognize the power of God, the truly evil do not: for to their deep annoyance and distress, they cannot forget how mightily they suppressed by it.

When He [Jesus] had come to the other side, to the country of the Gergesenes, there met Him two demon-possessed men, coming out of the tombs, exceedingly fierce, so that no one could pass that way. And suddenly they cried out, saying, “What have we to do with You, Jesus, You Son of God? Have You come here to torment us before the time?”

Matthew 8:28-29

Like the two demon-possessed men above, the evil people of Sodom recognized entities of God. They too knew that the time of their destruction had come. 

Now there was a man in their synagogue with an unclean spirit. And he cried out,  saying, "Let us alone! What have we to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth? Did You come to destroy us? I know who You are--the Holy One of God!" But Jesus rebuked him, saying, "Be quiet, and come out of him!" And when the unclean spirit had convulsed him and cried out with a loud voice, he came out of him.
Mark 1:23-26

Once again, the first thing evil does upon seeing a man of God is recognize its impending destruction. The city of Sodom knew that the arrival of the angels was the arrival of their end. In desperation, they attempted to resist it. But they could not. Like the men from the verses above, they wanted more time to languish in sin. They would not receive it.

• Genesis 19:12-26 OUT OF THIS PLACE 

With haste, the angels began to prepare Lot and family for departure, but Lot's family would not go. They were content citizens of the sinful city, as God knew. He had numbered the righteous in the city below ten. But Lot was distressed; his family did not believe his warning, and more importantly: did not want to leave. Lot lingered so long, trying to convince them, that if not for God's mercy, Lot would have been detained by their refusal and stuck in the destruction of the city.

The angels were able to remove Lot, his wife and two daughters from the city. Once again Lot had the chance to choose: follow God's orders, or choose his own way based on what his own eyes could see. Lot chose wrongly again; he asked if he could escape to another city, rather than the mountainous haven God had planned, and his request was granted. God does not suppress our free will! But life is so much better if we suppress our own will in favor of His.

Lot was not the only one to make a mistake. As the city crumbled, Lot and family were told not to turn back, not to look back, but to continue along God's route. But Lot's wife did look back... and died because of it; turned into a pillar of salt. Lot's wife "looking back" was a metaphor for the choice in her heart. She wanted to return to that lifestyle. She lamented the destruction of her life there. God had committed to comprehensively destroy Sodom and all corrupt members and she, in her heart, had declared to be one. Though she had physically left the city, she was stunned and reduced to particles of nothing along with it. 

• Genesis 19:27:-29 THE SMOKE OF THE LAND

And Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the Lord. Then he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain; and he saw, and behold, the smoke of the land which went up like the smoke of a furnace. And it came to pass, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when He overthrew the cities in which Lot had dwelt.

Genesis 19:28-29

It might not be outrageous for one to wonder whether Lot himself was innocent enough to deserve escape from Sodom. Ultimately, only God knows the answer to that. What is obvious, because scripture has told us so, is that Abraham prayed for his nephew and God answered affirmatively. Therefore, we also know that our powerful God puts power in our prayer. We do not waste our time when we intercede in prayer for others.

And therefore though we may witness darkness in life and scripture, like Abraham observing from the hill, we can have peace knowing that there is hope and purpose even in the smoke of the land. 

EYES ON YOU, I

Everybody wants to walk on water. Everybody wants to walk on water, but walking on water metaphorically, requires the same amount of extraordinary strength and coordination it would require literally. If we want to have the type of extraordinary blessings that "walking on water" implies, we need to build the spiritual muscle and coordination skills to do it. In part 1 of this 2-part sermon, we explore Matthew 8:23-27 and Matthew 14:22-33 to understand what it takes to walk on water into miraculous blessing.

• WALKING ON WATER 

Immediately Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side, while He sent the multitudes away. And when He had sent the multitudes away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray. Now when evening came, He was alone there. But the boat was now in the middle of the sea, tossed by the waves, for the wind was contrary.

In the fourth watch of the night, water sloshed in darkness against the disciples' boat in the middle of the sea. Quietly, Jesus walked across those waters to meet them. When the disciples noticed the figure approach, they were astonished to the point of fear. They had never witnessed power so strong it could defy the laws of nature. 

Jesus announced His presence, but before they would allow themselves to be mollified, indeed before the fear would dissipate, Peter responded: "Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water." For Peter knew from his recent and intensive course with Jesus that only He was capable of such power; if it was Jesus, Peter knew that he would be made able to walk on the water. Such an expression of faith it was! Peter knew that he could identify his Lord by the power He held. He knew that only Jesus was capable of answering affirmatively to impossible requests. Jesus answered simply: "Come." And Peter climbed down from the boat and began to walk on the water toward Jesus. 

Most of us make it to this stage of the desire to walk on water; that is, we all ask God to help us to do that seemingly impossible thing we have been praying and striving for. We are all willing to take that first step of simply asking. And it is not a small thing, that first step. Truly it is an accomplishment in faith to direct a prayer to God rather to some other thing. We could be asking any other source to help us, like the secular world does, but we have chosen to ask God. Unfortunately, most of us then make the same mistake Peter then made.

• BOISTEROUS WIND

The faith was short lived... for when he noticed the wind was boisterous, Peter became afraid and then began to sink. Like Peter, we all put our first, faithful foot forward, but before the second foot lands, our faith falters. Instead of keeping his eyes on Jesus, Peter looked at the tumult the wind caused. He looked at the bobbing boat, the stirred up waters. He looked at the chaos and the chaos got its grip on him; suddenly he was wet, subject to the whim of the tumultuous wind. 

Why don't we realize that extraordinary blessing will require extraordinary faith? How can we expect to walk steadily toward a blessing if we are not walking steadfastly in faith? If we want to walk on water, we need to make that request to God; if we want to keep walking on water, we need to develop the faith to do it. As we work, wait, and pray toward blessing, we need to keep our eyes on God. We need to burrow deep in scripture in order to receive the guidance and reassurance, instruction and discipline from God required to obtain the blessing.

It's easy to become distracted by the boisterous wind. There are constant and fierce and fearsome distractions in life. We must choose to look at the Creator rather than the destroyer. Why should destruction hold our attention when our God's strength is mightier than its? Circumstances, relationships, opportunities and so much more in life might falter, fail or even end but with eyes on God, we are directed away from becoming the debris of those storms.

Peter was fine, firm on the water when he looked toward Jesus in order to meet up with him. Realize this crucial detail: the wind did not start when Peter began to walk. The wind had already been blowing destructively... but it did not matter, it did not effect Peter until Peter took his eyes off of Jesus. He did not even notice the wind while he was engaged in conversation with Jesus! We do not get wet in the storm when we stand with Jesus in the center of it. When we give the winds our fear, they suck out our faith. We become so focused on the turmoil that we neglect to use the tools God built in us to endure the storm. 

How could we ever endure it, if in giving our attention to the storm, we neglect to remember to use the arsenal of spiritual weapons which enable us to survive it? Strength and discipline, prayer and hope, wisdom and faith... righteousness and compassion, two actions which reap what they sow! 

• LORD, SAVE ME

But as he sank into the dark waters, Peter remembered Jesus' presence and power and willingness to save and cried out: "Lord, save me!" And through Peter's faith, Jesus swooped in to support: "And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him..."  We need to remember that our God is present and powerful... and willing to save. Our Father in heaven knows us so well; He knows that we will break our gaze of faith and falter in fear. Therefore He has made Himself receptive to our calls for help. When we call to God in earnest faith, there is no delay in His answer. Scripture uses the word "immediately" to describe the speed in which Jesus reached out to catch Peter. We need to train ourselves in faith to automatically call out to God as soon as we lose our balance on the water, as soon as we lose Him in our line of sight.

When they climbed into the boat, Jesus asked Peter: "...why did you doubt?" He was genuinely curious. Why don't we believe, though many of us say that we do, that God is capable of keeping us afloat? Is it because we start to sink and instead of blaming our brittle faith we blame God?

Faith is a mighty thing. A small but compact word, dense with spiritual tools we build and sharpen throughout our lives. Faith is the comprehensive tool we need to wield throughout life if we plan to walk on water. There will be wind on the water and it will not always be easier to keep our eyes trained on God. In order to actually do it, to keep our eyes on God, we need to develop a relationship of familiarity and trust in God. We need to know (soul-deep) Who He is, what He has promised, and what He is capable of in order to rely on those things while on the sea in the storm. 

• YOU OF LITTLE FAITH 

"Now when He got into a boat, His disciples followed Him. And suddenly a great tempest arose on the sea, so that the boat was covered with the waves. But He was asleep. Then His disciples came to Him and awoke Him, saying, “Lord, save us! We are perishing!” Matthew 14:23-25

We are not always aware of God's consciousness, even true believers. As beautiful and unique and indescribable as those moments of awareness of His presence are... they are also intermittent, sometimes even rare. There would be no need for faith if we sailed our little ship with a conscious Jesus at the helm and in sight. Let 2 Corinthians 5:7 remind us that we walk by faith, not by sight. It might appear sometimes that God is sleeping...if we allow ourselves to believe that lie, our own anxiety will stir the storm up several more degrees in severity.

But He said to them, “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. So the men marveled, saying, “Who can this be, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?”

It is ludicrous to us that the disciples actually thought that they could sink while in the presence of Jesus, right? Well since Jesus told us in Matthew 28:20 that He is always with us... since Jesus told us in John 14:17 that the Holy Spirit will be with us and in us, it would be ridiculous for us to think that we could possibly sink.

Eyes on God is faith. We look past the mess, through the chaos, to our Light and Guide and source of strength. We place our attention on His direction, rather than on the boisterous wind. We are not subject to the dangers of the sea when we are walking on it toward Jesus. In part 2 of this 2-part sermon, we will explore what "Eyes on You" means from the battlefield. 

PRAY HOPE WAIT TRUST

So it was, year by year, when she went up to the house of the Lord, that [it] provoked her; therefore she wept and did not eat. 

1 Samuel 1:7

Have you every wanted something so much that not having it caused soul-deep distress? Have you wanted it so badly that you felt provoked by the people who did have it? In this sermon, we are talking about those as-yet-unanswered prayers and the (sometimes long and arduous) process of blessing. We have an extraordinary God who makes it easy for us to love Him, but that doesn't mean it's easy to wait for Him.

We open with Hannah, who exemplifies in scripture the level of desperation we experience in life. Hannah was hollowed and wearied by not having what her body, mind and soul, desperately hoped to have. Hannah had a good life, an almost full life, but there was still a prayer in her heart that had not yet been fulfilled. She cried to the point of anguish; her prayed slurred and bitter to bystanders, to her own self, but not to God. He understood clearly not just her speech but her heart.

It's sometimes funny and easy to be glib about human melodrama, but our emotions can truly cause hurt in our heart: so quickly do we determine that "not yet" actually means "no," "never" or "not at all". But actually God has a history of answering prayers in the affirmative. He also has a history of what appear to be rather delayed affirmatives... but if we look closely at scripture, God never delayed anything at all. God chooses a perfect moment, time and season to deliver blessings and sticks with it. So how to fill and even thrive in the space between asked and answered? We pray, hope, wait and trust. Simple in concept? Fairly. Simple in execution? Not exactly. Effective? Yes. 

• PRAY 

The basis of our life and relationship with God is communication. It is in fluid conversation with Him that we learn about each other's heart. Steadily as we grow with God our character develops, and as our character develops we begin to develop the cornerstone hopes for our lives. The cornerstone hopes for our lives are dreams that solidify as the pursuit and purpose of our life.

We were encouraged to pray without ceasing, 1 Thessalonians 5:17 for there is so much development that occurs while we do. The more time we spend with God, the more inspired is He to deliver blessings intricately-specific to us as individuals. God is a skilled creator in the art of blessing; constant communication with Him allows Him to know what you need better than you do, and He will put His whole heart into creating it, His full strength into delivering it, Romans 8:28. It is good to have clout with God in the business of blessing, for when the boss of blessings intercedes for you, you're sure to get some.

Yet prayer is also a space for the weariness and even hollowness that crops up as we live, praying for blessings to manifest. There are many outlets for our outpourings of distress but only productive one is God Himself. God honestly does renew and rejuvenate the broken spirits that are placed in His hands. We must be able to talk through our emotions with Him. He helps us to understand our emotions and even cope with their negative effects on our lives. He assists us in lightening and shouldering burdens in healthy and productive ways. He teaches us to dismantle the grip fear and desire can have on us, causing us to give in to temptations that only harm and derail us. Indeed prayer is a space for the weak days, when we need God to be strength for us, 2 Corinthians 12:9:10.

Prayer is also a place to claim God's promises, to remember what He has spoken to us; Isaiah 43:26. Prayer is a space to call upon God as He has encouraged us to do. So often God's children forget that option, Isaiah 43:22. God has made Himself accessible to us in the hope that we do access everything He has to offer: strength, patience, endurance, and anything we lack but need is available in His storehouses: 

And try Me now in this,”Says the Lord of hosts,

“If I will not open for you the windows of heaven

And pour out for you such blessing

That there will not be room enough to receive it.

Malachi 3:10

Ultimately we need to remember Jesus' promise on God's behalf: knock and the door will be answered; ask and it shall be given, Matthew 7:7. Did God say "ask so I can deny"? Absolutely not, so why do we live wearied as though that is what He has said? Actually there is reason to be joyful even before blessing because God as already assured us of its arrival. We must combat the pricks of desperation-born-of-hopelessness we feel with bursts of hopeful light that God has provided. We must develop skill in spiritual combat, able to deflect negative emotions that will crop up with the strength we have derived from prayer.

• HOPE 

Then Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them,  and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 

Matthew 18:2-4 

Lack in life can cause us to be jaded in spirit. Therefore Jesus taught us to retain our youthful spirit, the one that readily hopes and is easily inspired. Adulthood can cause us to spiral into daytime nightmares where instead of dreaming as we once did, we only contemplate the depths and darkness. It pleases God when His child is able to retain the vulnerability of hope, the daring to dream. He wants us to think in color, to contemplate what could be coming rather than dwell on what might never arrive.

When we retain or reclaim our youthful spirit, we readily choose love and mercy and humility instead of their opposites, which circumstances in the world can cause. Darkness cannot get a grip on a happy spirit. There is hope able to be fulfilled in every day, not just in the future; God does not want us to pass by those ripe fruits because our spirit was too downcast to notice them. 

The apostle Paul understood the power of hope when we stated, in Romans 15:13, May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Are we right then, to wallow in hopelessness? Certainly not! We are children of the God of hope. Even though it is a truth, we must train ourselves to believe it. The human spirit is not always inclined to hope. Often feelings of lack, loneliness, depression, dejection, and other miseries are merely our forgetfulness to be hopeful. We neglect to realize that we are walking in the wrong direction, looking down not up.

God will always fill our hopeful expectations... so make that hope big. Do not allow life to lesson your faith, shrink your hope, shrivel your expectation. Once again, God wants us to become spiritual combatants against these invisible invaders.

• WAIT

Arguably the most difficult in the process of blessing is the reality of waiting. 

We have to remember that God is a creator skilled in the art of blessing, and that the process of creation is a quiet one. Focused. Determined. Sequestered. God is quietly planning, sketching, measuring, sculpting, and perfecting your blessing. The silence may seem like neglect or absence but it is actually the sound of hard work! We cannot expect to hear or see or feel the final product when it is in the development stage.

But waiting is difficult further still because we have homework during it. 1 Peter 5:10 states:

And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.

Before big blessing can come into our lives, God has to ensure we have the space and skill for it. While He plans and creates the already-assured blessing, He teaches us how to care for that blessing. But the lessons are never so on the nose obvious. Seemingly purposeless and even trying circumstances are lessons and courses in patience and mercy and generosity. God is also working on our character as though it is a masterpiece. He wants us to be well rounded, complex individuals. He wants us to be able to execute justice, discern, love, submit, lead, support, feed. 

Even though the process of character growth and spiritual discipline is not always enjoyable, it is for the purpose of ensuring that once we receive our blessing, we are able to keep it. And keep it healthy. And since it's natural that life is always going to challenge us, God wants us to be balanced. To, like Paul, be able to find contentment in every situation, Philippians 4:11. He needs us to be able to see the miracle and value and opportunity in every moment so that we waste none of them! So that we claim every blessing on the path of our lives. Because even though we may be solely focused on one specific blessing, there are quite a lot of them God wants us to claim. But we cannot do that if we are distracted by hopelessness and impatience. Impatience will cause us to reject the process of blessing and trade it for something immediate, cheap and temporary. 

We have very complex and convincing brains. We cannot allow them to convince us that we are starving. We cannot allow ourselves to develop an inner mantra of desperation. We must never believe that we have no more left to give, no strength left to wait, no inspiration left to hope. We are not starved for God will never allow a righteous soul to famish, Proverbs 10:3. The thought that you have nothing left is a lie you have allowed yourself to be convinced of not a reality. We must not give lies power; for with power lies will control our lives and obscure the hope and blessing and active presence of God that is there.

• TRUST

Waiting was "arguably" the most difficult stage in the process of blessing because it can also be argued that trust is. But if we truly do pray without ceasing, trust in God will develop naturally. Not only will it develop naturally, evidence of God's faithfulness will manifest in the  "little things" as proof of its overall truth.

In 2 Kings 6:17 the prophet Elisha trusted God emphatically... the man accompanying him did not. All the servant could see was that they were confronted by an enemy army. But because Elisha had developed trust in God, he saw the full picture: an angel army at his back. We are well covered by God and His host and their methods of protection are more advanced that our enemies skill at destruction. 

Similarly Jesus in Matthew 26:53 assured the people around him that nothing could happen to him that was not sanctioned by God: "Or do you think that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He will provide Me with more than twelve legions of angels?" When, and only when, we submit our whole selves and whole lives to God's authority, we can rely on every circumstance working out in our favor and in accordance with His will. Even loses will eventuate as gains. But trust is required! God awaits us to proclaim Him as the authority in our lives. He will not do anything in our lives we have not trusted Him with. He respects our boundaries... so when it comes to God, ensure that you don't have any.

Are you not aware that you can pray for the very same? Our enemies are not always literal soldiers or weapons. Sometimes our enemies are depression, hopelessness, failure, regret, shame, listlessness, wandering. Sometimes our enemies are people but the way to combat them is not war or weapon or word. God can train us and provide trained assistance when it comes to adeptly outmaneuvering those people and circumstances. When we feel confronted or even surrounded by fear, depression or hopelessness we must remember that angel army at our backs ensuring that despite how we feel, we will defeat it.

Trust God's love for you; the whole Bible is a love letter written to you and for you to thrive. God loves to bless you, Luke 12:32. He's asked the whole world to, if nothing else, love you, Matthew 22:39. If you can trust that God loves you, you can trust that He will bless you as though He does. In perfect time and measure. Pursue His love and let Him do the hard work of adding blessing into your life, Matthew 6:33; you do not have to work and worry to manifest things God has in control and under development. 

Finally, Jesus asks us to use our common sense:

Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!

Matthew 7:9 

God blesses His children. He promises good things and gives good things. He listens to what we pray for and He answers in kind. We do not always receive blessings in the manner or timing that we desire but their manner and timing is always good. When we pray, hope, wait and trust in God, we come to understand and even enjoy the time it takes to get to that understanding. 

Therefore I will look to the Lord;

I will wait for the God of my salvation;

My God will hear me.

Micah 7:7