Genesis chapter 18.
I'm going to speak about when God rests
under the tree, when God rests under the
tree.
Father, I thank you for the anointing of
the Holy Spirit.
Holy Spirit, if you didn't come, this would
be a worthless exercise.
It would be dead letter.
It would have no effect on any heart
or any life.
God, you have spoken this to me first,
and I'm asking, Lord, that you give me
the ability to simply speak it to your
church.
I know this is from your heart.
Help me not to get in the way
of it.
God, I'm asking for a clarity of thought
and mind.
Lord, that you would quicken my mind and
physical body, and I thank you for visiting
me this season in such a powerful way.
God, I thank you, Lord, for giving me
grace where I lack.
I thank you, God, for your supply is
all that I will ever need.
Now minister to the church, O God, through
this vessel.
I thank you for it and your mighty
and your precious name.
Amen.
Genesis chapter 18, beginning at verse 1.
Now, of course, this is about Abraham and
the Lord appearing to him.
And the Lord appeared to him in the
plains of Mamre, as he sat in the
tent door in the heat of the day.
Verse 2 says, he lifted up his eyes
and looked, and lo, three men stood by
him.
And when he saw them, he ran to
meet them from the tent door and bowed
himself toward the ground, and said, My Lord,
if now I have found favor in thy
sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from
thy servant.
Let a little water, I pray you, be
fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves
under the tree.
And I will fetch a morsel of bread,
and comfort you your hearts, and after that
you shall pass on.
For therefore, that means for this reason, are
you come to your servant.
And they said, So do, as thou hast
said.
Now, verse 1 of Genesis 18 tells us
that the Lord appeared to Abraham in the
plains of Mamre.
Now, this is a significant thing because Mamre
represents a place of separation.
In Genesis chapter 13 and verse 18, it
tells us that Abraham removed his tent and
came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre,
which is in Hebron, and it's in this
place that he built an altar unto the
Lord.
Now, Abraham was called initially to be separated
from his former way of life, his former
house, and all that he was familiar with.
We know that story, but this is a
secondary separation, and it's a separation from a
carnal following of Christ.
In 1 Corinthians chapter 3, verse 3, Paul
says to the Corinthian church, For you are
yet carnal, for whereas there is among you
envying and strife and division, are you not
carnal and walk as men?
Paul says, You may declare that you are
a spiritual man or woman, whatever the case
is, but if you are involved in strife
and division and envy of other people's gifts
or position, you are carnal and still walking
as natural men walk.
This is really a strong indictment of the
Apostle Paul to the Corinthian church because they
were divided.
They were saying, I'm of Paul, I'm of
Apollos, I'm of Peter, I'm of Christ, etc.,
etc.
Now, Genesis 13 tells us that there was
a strife that got in between the herdmen
of Abraham and his nephew Lot, who was
a family member.
Both of them, on this journey, began to
increase in goods.
And, of course, there's an increase in knowledge
as we walk with Christ.
There's an increase of God's blessing.
His favor comes into our lives, and there's
a decrease of what used to afflict us,
and an increase of the strength and blessing
of God.
And in Genesis chapter 13, verses 7 and
8, tells us there was strife between the
herdmen of Abraham's cattle and the herdmen of
Lot's cattle.
And the Canaanite and the Parasite rather dwelled
then in the land.
Parasite might be probably a better way to
pronounce that.
And Abraham said to Lot, you see, Abraham
takes always the high road by taking the
low road.
He's a servant.
And he said, let there be no strife,
I pray thee, between me and thee, and
between my herdmen and thy herdmen, for we
be brethren.
He said, the whole land is before you.
Separate yourself, I pray you, from me.
If you take the left hand, then I'll
go to the right.
If you depart to the right hand, I'll
go to the left.
That's why Jesus said, blessed are the peacemakers,
they shall be called the children of God.
Abraham's a man who knows that if I'm
walking with God, this journey I'm on is
not to be a place of striving.
It's to be a place of peace.
The end result of the man or woman
who walks with God, the scripture says, is
peace.
A desire to walk in peace, an inward
peace that does not vaunt itself, is not
puffed up, is not proud, does not seek
its own, is not offended at the slights
of others.
Even though Abraham clearly knew what was in
the heart of his nephew.
His nephew was a type, as it is
of a carnal Christian, a carnal follower, a
man who's not given to hearing the voice
of God and walking by faith.
But he walks by his sight, he walks
by his senses, and Abraham knew that.
But still he gave place to this young
nephew of his.
And verse 10 of Genesis 13 tells us
that Lot lifted up his eyes and he
beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it
was well watered everywhere before the Lord destroyed
Sodom and Gomorrah.
He lifted up his eyes but not quite
high enough.
He lifted them up halfway and he looked
at what was around him.
And even though in some measure he was
on this journey of inherited blessing that was
being given, or as he understood it, to
God, to his uncle Abraham, he still had
not learned to lift his eyes and to
behold and to embrace things that are in
heaven, where Christ is sitting at the right
hand of God, as of course applies to
the church today.
But he lifted up his eyes only as
high perhaps as the highest building of his
generation.
He looked around him and all he couldn't
see God.
All he saw was grass and water, buildings,
commerce going on around him.
And he said, oh this is a good
place to go.
And here's how he describes it in chapter
13 verse 10.
He says, as the garden of the Lord.
In other words, oh this looks like what
we've been searching for.
You know in the garden of the Lord,
of course, was the tree of life.
And that's always been man's quest for eternal
life.
For that which satisfies, not just temporally, but
eternally.
And he looked out at the area actually
surrounding Sodom and Gomorrah and said, oh this
is like the garden of God.
This is where life is.
You know, we look at that today and
say how foolish that is.
But think of the myriads of Christians today
who are not looking any higher than the
tallest building in cities like New York and
saying, oh this is where the garden of
God is.
This is where I'm going to find life.
And they pursue the very same things that
were leading Lot.
And he says, and it's like the land
of Egypt.
As thou comest to Zohar.
If you really understand this, he starts by
talking about this looks like the garden of
God.
Then he moves down to the land of
Egypt.
Egypt, which is always symbolized that which attempts
to captivate the people of God.
Incredible.
He's seeing it, but he's not understanding it.
And Zohar is a little city.
Zohar means little.
He could have had everything that God promised
Abraham, but he settles for little.
And he winds up in this place called
Zohar in a cave with his two daughters.
In eventuality, he has an ancestral relationship with
his daughters.
Fathers two tribes of people, the Moabites and
the Ammonites, who are consistent and enemies of
the ways of God.
It's an amazing thing when you see that
God was actually revealing to him what he
was looking at, but he simply refused to
see it.
Now, Abraham might have been separated from Lot,
but he recognized that Lot was still family.
And we need to be careful today.
We can open this Bible and there are
many things that we can see.
And quite often we become aware of perhaps
where others have failed in their pursuit of
Christ.
But we need to be careful how we
treat them, if indeed they are family.
And Abraham was willing to do all in
his power, to even risk his own household,
to try to deliver Lot from the captivity
that was all around him.
Lot was a man who was destined to
be captivated.
But instead of Abraham washing his hands of
him or standing at the gates of his
place of dwelling and pointing the finger, saying,
well, he's only getting his just reward because
he's carnal and pursuing these things that he
should have known would have brought him to
destruction.
No, Abraham goes after him.
And I believe that's the heart of every
true Christian.
We don't write anybody off in the body
of Jesus Christ.
No matter how foolish their practice might be,
we go after them.
And God can only use people with this
kind of a spirit to bring deliverance to
those who might be caught in the pursuits
of things that are going to lead them
to little.
It's funny, his name is Lot, but he
ends up in little.
It's kind of a play on words.
There were four kings that came against, or
the scripture mentions four kings that came against
this dwelling place of Lot.
It's a place where he chose to live.
And in the same way, those who live
in a carnal or a flesh-led Christianity
will be attacked by these similar types of
attack in their walk with Jesus Christ.
I'll just read them to you.
Genesis 14.1 mentions Arioch, which by name
means servant of the moon god.
And it speaks about an attack of other
concepts of the origins and purpose of divine
power.
And there are many, many people today living
in carnality who are under this attack.
This attack of who is Jesus Christ?
Why did he come?
What is the origin?
What's the purpose of his life within me?
And they're confused and they're running all over
the country while this king is attacking them.
Always trying to undermine the foundation and the
essential purpose as it is of the reason
why God chose to come and dwell among
them.
The king of Elam.
And Elam in the ancient biblical times was
a center of political power.
And it represents man's attempt to dominate his
own world.
Those who walk in carnality will always be
trying to make things happen.
And even spiritualizing it by saying we're doing
something for God.
The concept is really backwards.
We don't do anything for God.
We open our hearts and we let God
do what he wants to do to us.
We simply become channels, vessels of God's goodness.
And it can be big, it can be
small.
It really makes no difference as long as
you and I are walking in obedience to
the Lord.
Because ultimately when it's all over, it's not
that we did many things.
It's that we did a few things and
we did them well.
This is what the Lord Jesus will hold
as the criteria when he finally judges his
people who stand before him.
The king of tidal, his name was.
It means the king of nations.
It means the king of people, of the
Gentiles.
And it represents a battle with common wisdom,
which seems to be prevailing.
And those who are living a carnal Christianity
are always struggling with what the Bible is
saying, as opposed to what society is saying.
And there's this battle in the mind with
with common wisdom and this this attempt to
take common wisdom and somehow somehow put it
into the scriptures and make the scriptures say
what they don't say.
For example, why is it so bad that
homosexuals should get married after all their their
people and they have feelings and such like
common wisdom?
But yet the scripture is clearly opposed to
this type of thing and calls it an
abomination.
But those who walk carnally will become confused
and you'll see it even more in the
coming days.
Carnal Christians believe that it's God's desire that
everybody be always happy, always healthy, always prosperous.
Yet you cannot cram that into the scriptures
because there are scriptures directly opposed to this,
that it may be appointed to some to
suffer.
There may be times of difficulty coming into
people's lives.
I challenge you to go to Uzbekistan where
I just was and try to preach that
to those who are still being arrested and
tortured and put in prison and given twenty
five year sentences for their faith in Christ.
Tell them that it's God's will.
Everybody always prosper and be happy.
There are times of deep sorrow that come
into the hearts of those who walk with
God.
But God Almighty himself becomes the source of
their indwelling strength.
Their joy is not in the things of
this world.
Their joy is in the risen Christ.
Their hope is in a sustaining power.
Their future lies in the fact that one
day God will return and take his church
home to be with him for all of
eternity.
There's another king came against Lot, the king
of Shinar and Zechariah 511.
It represented, Zechariah described it as the spirit
of godless commercialism that originated in Babylon.
Daniel chapter 1, verse 2 describes it as
the place where the temple treasures were taken
from Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar.
And this is a spirit of lust for
prosperity which seeks to take captive the true
treasure of Jesus Christ.
And folks, you see all of these battles.
You see these four kings still gathered in
array against those who have that same spirit
that Lot had upon them.
They lift their eyes, but not quite high
enough.
Their aspirations are only for happiness in this
world.
They really don't want to understand what it
means to be part of the body, the
church of Jesus Christ.
They do not want to yield to the
purposes of God.
So therefore they always battle with confusion about
the identity of Jesus Christ.
They battle with confusion about the purpose of
the church of Jesus Christ.
They move in fleshly wisdom.
They attempt to dominate their world.
They attempt to build the kingdom of God
by committees and ideas.
A kingdom you can't even see, let alone
build with the natural mind.
They have a battle constantly with common wisdom,
always trying to infuse itself into the church
and change the very nature and the doctrine
of Jesus Christ.
And ultimately the true foundation of their walk
comes to the surface.
It is a lust and unbridled lust for
prosperity which comes to take the true treasure
of Christ away from them.
All of this Abraham walked away from.
He kept his eyes fixed on a higher
purpose which God had for his life.
He walked away from it and said, I'm
not going to live here.
If you want to go there, go there.
And so Abraham chose to simply dwell in
a tent.
And this is where God comes in chapter
18 to meet him.
Now the Lord appeared to him, in verse
1, in the plains of memory, as he
sat in the tent door in the heat
of the day.
You see, there are battles that come to
men and women of God that the carnal
Christian will never fight.
Carnal Christian will never even be aware of
this battle.
These types of battles come to those who
are truly seekers of Jesus Christ.
They want to walk with God with all
of their heart.
And here's where we find Abraham.
He's in the tent door.
He's there in the heat of the day.
It's not comfortable.
It's not a pleasant time.
He's not involved in all of the things
that Lot is involved in.
Here's a man who's a passionate pursuer of
God.
But tremendous struggles are upon him.
Verse 2 tells us by reference that his
eyes are down.
He's sitting in the tent door and perhaps
looking at the ground.
And I can't help but wonder, what is
he thinking about?
I wonder if he's battling like the psalmist
did, who said, why do the heathen prosper?
It seems like they're not afflicted like I
am.
His eyes are looking down at the sand
because he has to raise them to see
the men.
In verse 2, he has to lift up
his eyes and see the men, God and
the two angels who are standing before him.
He's most likely very aware of his own
weaknesses.
It's been 24, going on 25 years since
he began to follow this word of the
Lord.
This promise that God said, I'm going to
make you a blessing and all the world
is going to be blessed through you.
An incredible promise.
He leaves home at 75, he's now 99,
going on 100.
And what does he have to show, oh,
there's been partial blessing.
Of course, foreign kings have blessed him in
spite of his mistakes.
God has increased him in servants and flocks
and herds and all of it.
It's amazing, all these things that Lot is
lusting after God just gives naturally to the
man whose attention is fixed on him.
But his leading it brought difficulty.
He brought his family first into famine, telling
them we're on this journey to the promised
land.
How many fathers here or mothers came home
and you came to Christ and you walked
in and you've been sitting in church and
you found Christ as your Savior.
You began to understand what God wants to
do in your life.
You walked home, you made these pronouncements and
only the first thing that happens, he walks
into the promised land and it's a place
of famine.
There's no food.
He has to lead his family now into
Egypt.
And in Egypt, he led his family into
fear and compromise.
He has trouble now in his own home.
Sarah, perhaps in some measure, has lost respect
for her husband because he has lied to
save his own skin.
In reality, he said this is my sister
and ran the risk of her being taken
into another man's harem and become another man's
wife to save his own life.
He has now two wives and now he's
really got problems.
For those who think you have problems with
one, he's got two now.
And he really has trouble.
I remember an older man one time was
a friend of mine, shook his head mournfully,
said only a fool would want more than
one wife.
Sarah and Hagar don't get along.
There's tension in the house.
He's got a son by Hagar and Hagar
has begun to resent Sarah.
And there's a lot of tension in that
house.
Maybe that's part of the reason why he's
sitting at the door in the heat of
the day.
He had to get out of the kitchen,
wherever that was.
But he has promises.
In Genesis 17, 17, he's aware of that
there's no power left in him to fulfill
them.
He says, And Abraham fell on his face
and laughed and said in his heart, Shall
a child be born to him that is
100 years old?
And shall Sarah that is 90 years old
bear?
In Genesis 17, 18, he's tried his best,
but he's aware that it's fallen short of
what God has intended for him.
And he said, Oh, that Ishmael might live
before thee.
God.
It's been 25 years.
I've done my best.
I've tried my hardest, but I've failed.
And if this is so doesn't look like
a blessing.
God, please, will you just bless the little
effort of my hands, this little bit that
I've added to your kingdom?
Can you not bless this?
God says, No, Abraham.
Yes, there will be a blessing there of
another sort.
But I have something much greater for you
than what your works of your own hands
can produce.
And folks, so many people give up in
this place, so many righteous people, the seekers
of God come to the place where they're
so aware of their failings.
And if you are a seeker of God,
you will become aware of your failings.
You have to.
You can't escape it.
Charles Finney said it this way.
I read it years ago.
He said the man who's far from God
feels very good about himself, quite happy with
all his directions and plans and purposes in
life.
The man who's getting close to God becomes
increasingly aware of the depth of his failing.
He sees the glory of God like Isaiah
and says, Woe unto me, I'm undone.
I've seen God.
I've seen his holiness.
I've seen something of God.
And I am now aware of how deeply
I fall short of what he has intended
me to be in him.
But so many turn back, not realizing that
you are on the pathway to the blessing
of God.
You're on the pathway to every promise that
God has ever made to you.
You're on the pathway of being a man
or woman through whom God can flow and
bless the nations.
Don't turn back.
Don't turn back, no matter how hard it
gets.
The principle Jesus spoke about in Luke 11,
24.
This is only the principle, he says.
But when the unclean spirit has gone out
of a man, he walks through dry places
seeking rest and finding none.
And he says, I will return to my
house from whence I came out.
Now, the end result of that is he
ends up worse than he was in the
beginning because now he's gone into deeper depravity.
He had knowledge of God, but didn't use
it wisely, didn't pursue where this knowledge should
have taken him to in Christ.
You see that same principle in the children
of Egypt, Israel rather, when they wanted to
turn back in the wilderness and go back
into Egypt.
They wandered in dry places.
Remember that the call of God to Egypt
was to serve me in the wilderness.
We're not called just to serve him when
things are going well, when there's all kinds
of food in the cupboard and all kinds
of shingles on the roof.
That's wonderful.
Thank God for that.
But if you wind up in jail for
the cause of Christ, you're to serve him
there too.
If difficulty come to your door, you're to
serve him there too.
We're called to serve him in the wilderness.
It's not a circumstance dependent religion we're called
into.
God asked through Isaiah the prophet in chapter
66, verse 1, he said, tell me, where
is the place of my rest?
In other words, what can you do that
will meet the need of my heart?
Where's the house that you build for me?
In other words, I've made all these things.
He said, tell me, what can you do
that will bring rest to me?
What can you build?
What can you produce by your own effort
that will do something that will satisfy the
need of my heart?
Then he gives a very curious statement after
that.
The two don't even seem to go together
unless we understand something of the workings of
God.
In chapter 2, he answers his first question
and says, to this man will I look,
in verse 2 rather, even to him that
is poor and of a contrite spirit and
who trembles at my word.
God said, what can you build for me?
What can you do?
Where can you?
What can you do that will meet the
need of my heart?
He said, let me tell you where I
will come to.
I will come to a man who knows
he doesn't have the resources to do it.
I'll come to those who are poor.
I'll come to those who know they could
never win the victory without me.
I'll come to those who have failed.
I'll come to those who have tried with
their best efforts and after 25 years are
left in the dust saying, God, I'm dead.
If you don't raise me, there's no hope
for me.
He said, I'll come to that man.
I'll come to that woman.
I'll come to them in the heat of
the day.
I'll come to them when they sit in
their tent door.
I'll come to them in their failure.
I'll come to them in their difficulty.
I'll come to you when you least expect
it.
I'll be at your door.
Lift up your eyes for your salvation draws
nigh.
And who trembles at my word is a
contrite spirit to God.
He knows he has failed.
He knows.
He knows that God, there's nothing I can
do to make this happen.
I've tried for years to make it happen.
I can't do it.
God, my best efforts have failed, but I
still stand in awe of your word.
I still believe that you created the universe.
I still believe that the God who said,
let there be light lives in me.
I still believe that in a moment, in
the twinkling of an eye, you can change
me.
Abraham knows he's experiencing a divine visitation.
Chapter two, chapter 18, verses two and three
said he saw three men.
We know one of them was the son
of God.
The other two were angels.
He saw them.
He ran to meet them from the tent
door, bowed himself toward the ground and said,
my Lord, if now I've found favor in
thy sight, pass not away.
I pray thee from thy servant.
Oh, God, stay with me.
His cry.
Oh, God, it's been such a long, dry
journey.
God, stay with me.
God, why can't I keep the sense of
your presence?
Some cry this morning, the clarity of your
voice.
Why do these things have to leave me
when I leave the church today?
I hear it so clearly from you today.
God, I have worshiped you.
I've been in your presence.
Oh, I feel your glory.
God, stay with me.
God, stay with me, because I have to
go home to a dry place in the
heat of the day.
God, stay with me.
I know I've been promised an endless supply
of blessing.
Verse four.
He says, let a little water, I pray
you be fetched and wash your feet and
rest yourselves under the tree.
He doesn't.
He's promised a river and we are promised
in John 7, a fountain of life springing
up.
But some days it doesn't seem like we
have that, does it?
Or is it only me?
Some days I feel I have hardly enough
to moisten the dry areas in somebody else's
life.
But he had a little water and he
said, let a little water, I pray you
be fetched and wash your feet.
I have only a little.
But let me fetch it and serve you
with it.
Let me wash your feet, Jesus.
Yeah, you might not have a lot of
what you feel you should be, but I'm
telling you today, if you're a Christian, you
have enough to wash the feet of Jesus.
You have enough to thank him.
You have enough to say, God, thank you
for coming to me in the heat of
the day.
You have enough just to come and just
say, let me wash your feet.
Let me bless you, Jesus.
Oh, God, instead of complaining, let me give
you thanks.
Oh, thank you for the journey.
Thank you, God, for the cross.
Thank you, God, that in spite of my
struggles, you remain faithful.
In spite of my failure, you still keep
coming to me, God.
You still keep speaking into my heart.
Oh, hallelujah.
Let me take the little I have and
let me serve you with it.
Oh, Jesus, let me wash your feet.
Let me get the dirt off your feet
that you have endured to give me this
salvation, that you have endured to come to
me night and day.
Oh, God, you come to me in the
most difficult times of my life.
Let me just take the little I have
and give it to you and worship you
with it.
Oh, God.
And he says, let me wash the feet
also of those who are with you.
Let me.
Let me serve those who are called with
you according to your purpose.
Let me wash their feet and rest under
the tree.
As a Christian, we have a sense in
our hearts that we're called to do great
things, and I agree with that, but the
problem is our concept of greatness is askew
as it is.
What is great?
The kingdom of God.
It's when I help a stranger to find
rest under the tree, which is the cross.
It's a type of the cross.
When I bring a stranger there, I don't
have a lot of water, but I say,
come, let me wash your feet.
It's when I am kind to brothers and
sisters in Christ.
When I, I have my own struggles, but
yet I see somebody else and I'll just,
I have only a little bit of water,
but I'll take that little bit and I'll
speak something into their lives that will help
them in their journey with God.
It doesn't have to be the whole Bible,
just a sentence, just a word of encouragement,
just a little bit of water.
The Lord says, this is my rest.
This is where I dwell in Psalm 132.
This is what I have desired.
I've chosen Zion.
I've desired it for my habitation.
David said, we'll go into his tabernacles.
We'll worship at his footstool.
Arise, oh Lord, into thy rest, thou in
the ark of thy strength.
In John 19, Jesus on the cross said,
I thirst, I thirst.
And you know, all that mankind could provide
for him was a sponge on a stick
with vinegar in it.
A type of water, I suppose, but is
unfulfilling.
It's unsustaining.
It's bitter.
It only dulls the senses and provides no
lasting relief.
And that's not what he was thirsty for.
He was thirsting for fellowship underneath the tree.
The whole purpose of his journey was you
and me.
The whole purpose of Christ coming to the
earth was for you.
When he said, I thirst, he was thirsting
for you.
He was thirsting for your heart to open
to him.
He was thirsting for you to begin to
understand and me to begin to understand that
he is the one who will be the
constant source of supply.
He is the wellspring of blessing and life.
There is no other life.
There is no other reason.
There's no other purpose for living.
The whole purpose of his journey was for
you and for me.
Today, we can take a little water and
worship him, can't we?
No matter what situation you might be in
today or how dry your tent is or
how much trouble is in your home, you
can take a little water and worship him.
You can take a little more and encourage
others who are walking with him today.
You can take a little more and help
a stranger to find rest.
Remember Rebecca in the Old Testament, how she's
just a girl coming out to draw water.
The scripture says she had a water pitcher
on her shoulder, probably big needs back at
home.
And here a stranger, Abraham's servant, shows up
with a whole entourage of people with him
and camels and all kinds of need.
And he said, can I have a little
drink?
And this girl not only gave him drink,
but gave water.
And so she hasted, she ran to the
well to find that the supply never goes
out.
And she started though with just a little
bit, started just giving this stranger just a
little drink, probably a cup full out of
this pitcher, only to find that the source
of supply that God was willing to give
her was a never ending supply.
And in verse, chapter 18, verse 5, Abraham
says, I'll fetch a morsel of bread and
comfort your hearts.
A morsel of bread.
Jesus said, I am the living bread.
How does it comfort the heart of God?
I don't have to know the whole Bible,
but when I have a promise or two,
just a morsel and I bring it back
and I in a sense feed him with
it because I'm saying to Christ, I trust
you.
I believe that you are the one who
is the source of my supply, who will
bless my life.
I believe you gave me a promise that
in Abraham's case, I'm going to have a
son.
I'm going to have an heir.
I believe it, God.
It's only a little promise, but I have
taken this thing to heart and I am
bringing it to you and I'm going to
feed you.
And he says, and comfort your hearts.
Did you know today you can comfort the
heart of God?
Were you ever aware today that God has
a need as well as us?
He needed you.
He wanted a body to dwell in.
He wanted a bride for all of eternity.
How it grieves him when we don't believe
him.
We choose to look at our circumstances and
say these are higher law and reality than
the promises of God.
But how it comforts his heart when you
and I come once again to him with
the little morsel that he's given us and
say, God, I feed you, Jesus, with trust.
I believe you.
I believe that my marriage is going to
be a type of Christ in the church.
I believe that my children are going to
walk with God because it's Scripture.
Paul could speak to a dirty old centurion
that if you believe your whole house will
be saved, it applies to me too as
well.
I believe in God with everything that is
in me.
I believe that you will make me a
man or woman of prayer.
I believe that you'll take the stone cold
heart and you'll put the love of God
in it.
I believe that you'll take the fear in
me, the fear to stand out and be
a bold declaration of Christ.
I believe that you'll take that fear out
of my heart and replace it with a
love that casts out fear.
God, I believe it with all my heart.
I believe it.
It's only a morsel, but I bring it
to you today, Jesus.
I wash your feet with the little strength
I have and say thank you for making
the journey.
And now I bring you back the promise
you've given me.
And I say, God, I believe.
God, I believe.
Comfort your heart, Jesus.
Comfort your heart today.
And after that, he said, you shall pass
on for for this reason or for therefore
you come to your servant.
Abraham had a revelation.
He said, God, this is the reason you've
come to me.
You've come to me that I can wash
your feet with the little water I have.
You've come to me that I can bring
the little morsel that I have and give
it to you.
This is the reason you stop.
God was on another journey.
He was doing something else, but he stopped
by Abraham.
He's never too busy to stop by your
tent.
He might be doing something that is magnanimous.
He's about to send fire and brimstone on
a wicked countryside, a whole area.
But he stops at Abraham's place along the
way so that Abraham can just minister to
him.
Have you ever seen that?
Have you ever even thought of God that
way?
That sometimes you'll just stop so that you
can wash his feet, so that you can
bring your promise back to him again.
Say, God, I believe.
God, I believe.
He said, this is the reason you've come
to your servant.
And they said, so do as thou hast
said.
Now, in chapter 18, verse 14, I'll conclude
with this.
After these little acts of faith on Abraham's
part before leaving, Jesus says, is anything too
hard for the Lord?
At the time appointed, did you know that
the day that God made you promises, there
was an appointed time that he would fulfill
them?
He may have spoken to you one day
in your devotions and said, I'm going to
do this for you.
That could be in 1972 you read that,
and it was in 2002 it was going
to be fulfilled.
He doesn't speak in the concept of time,
but he did say, I'm going to do
it.
And every promise of God is yea and
amen.
He's not a man.
He cannot lie.
At the time appointed, I will return to
thee according to the time of life and
Sarah shall have a son.
Now he's comforting Abraham's heart.
Abraham has comforted the heart of Christ.
Now Christ is comforting the heart of Abraham.
Yes, you brought me the little faith that
you have, but let me tell you now,
I'm going to give you a bigger promise.
There's an appointed time not long from now
and I'm going to come and what I
promised you, you're going to have, you're going
to possess it.
Sarah will have a son.
I've waited 25 years to bring this promise
to fruition so that when it happens, you
would know that it's me and it's none
of yourself.
You would give all the glory to God
because God cannot, will not, must not share
the glory with any man.
Jesus, let my trust in you comfort your
heart.
That's the prayer I prayed last night, I
guess.
I bring the little that I have to
worship you.
I bring the promise that I hear to
say I trust you.
Rest in me under the tree.
Find your rest in me.
I've never really seen it quite that way
until recently that I start to understand that
Jesus himself is looking for rest in a
dwelling place called his church.
A place where people take what they have
to worship him and bring what they have
to say I trust you.
And he finds rest and we find rest
and he finds rest and we find rest
and he finds rest.
It's an amazing relationship.
Today, I want to encourage you to bring
the promise that I have to you.
Some people here today, first of all, you're
fighting a carnal Christianity.
You're not even, you're not anywhere near what
I've been describing in the latter part of
this message.
You're still in the former part.
You're fighting these four kings.
Confusion.
The desire to live your own life your
own way.
You're fighting this insatiable lust for prosperity.
You find that you're gravitating to gospels that
are not the gospel of Jesus Christ.
You're confused about which is the true Christ.
And the confusion comes from a divided heart,
folks.
It's not because there are a lot of
television preachers distorting the word.
If your heart is single, if your eye
is single, the scripture says your whole body
will be full of light.
If you are singly focused on the honor
and glory of God, you will discern immediately
which is his voice and which is his
not.
The confusion comes because of carnal pursuit, a
divided heart.
And if you are fighting these four kings,
I will open this altar to you today
to come and give up that fight.
Let God's word deliver you and start on
a deeper journey, a much deeper journey, because
that other battle is not a winnable battle.
It will lead you to little, and it
will lead you to father children, spiritual children
that are enemies of the cross of Jesus
Christ.
Don't go there.
Don't stay there.
Don't walk there.
But there are others here today that you
say, I'm like Abraham.
I have these incredible promises, and it's just
been so long.
And I've just made a mess.
So yes, there's been some blessings, but there's
just a mess too.
And my eyes are on the ground.
I'm sitting in the heat of the day,
and I'm looking down.
I'm not even looking halfway like Lot did.
I can't even lift my eyes anymore.
And the Lord says, I'm coming to you.
I've come to you today.
Take the little water you have, that little
bit of life, that little bit of stirring
that's still in you, and come and wash
my feet.
Come and thank me for loving you.
Thank me for dying for you.
Thank me for being faithful to you.
And then bring the little promise that you
have that's not yet fulfilled.
Bring it to me and feed me with
faith.
And I'm going to give you rest.
And in due season, that promise in your
heart is going to become a reality.
Would you stand, please, with me?
The Holy Spirit is drawing you today.
Please make your way down.
Balcony, you can go to either exit.
Annex, please just step between the screens.
Make your way to the altar, please, if
you will.
And we're going to pray together.
If you're backslidden, you need to come back
to God.
You're always welcome.
Christ's arms are open for you today.
Just move in close.
Make your way here.
We're going to pray together.
Bring the little bit that you have.
I'm giving it all to call for the
discouraged today, the depressed, the ones who's sitting
in the tent door, and it just looks
like such a mess.
Come.
Let God encourage your heart today.
Jesus, we just come to wash your feet
this morning.
We come to say thank you.
Pray with me.
Jesus, thank you for loving me, for coming
to me.
Oh, God, I take the life you've given
me and the hope that's in my heart
and I bring it to your feet with
a grateful heart.
I believe that you are my God.
You will never fail me.
You will never forsake me.
You could never lie to me.
I place my trust in you.
I say thank you, God.
You will keep me.
You will sustain me.
I will not be burnt by the heat
of the day.
My testimony will not diminish.
At the appointed time, everything you promised me
will be mine and my life will be
a praise and a glory to your name.
I will acknowledge before heaven and earth that
what you have done in me is your
grace and all your mercy.
I give you praise today.
I give you thanks.
I give you my love.
I say, God, I trust you.
Jesus, I love you.
God, thank you for your goodness to me.
Thank you, Lord.
Thank you, God, for your goodness.
Thank you, Father.