God Tests Before He Promotes - Part 4

Man shall live by every word that proceeds from God's mouth. Okay? God told Abraham when he was 75 years old and living a comfortable retired life with his wife, built his house and settled down, expecting to live there till he dies. All of a sudden, God speaks to him one day and says, Leave your country, leave your relatives, leave your father's house and go. This thing is what the Lord had spoken to him before chapter 11, verse 27. Or before chapter 11, verse 29. Sorry, before chapter 11, verse 31. This section of scripture should come before 11, 31. This is what the Lord had told him. And when Abraham heard it, he told his dad. Dad, his father's name was Terah. He told Terah, God's told me to leave this country and I presume he's going to take me to a better land. And the dad said, Oh, that's great. I'll come along. And what had God told Abraham? Leave your father. I have nothing to do with him. Leave your relatives. I'm calling you alone. And then Lot's, Abraham's brother's son Lot heard it and said, Hey, that's great, uncle. I'll come along too. So this man who was supposed to go alone, went with his dad and his nephew and they caused a lot of trouble for him. Which always happens when you don't obey the word of God exactly. When you try to please your relatives. Rather than do what God says. Now, I don't blame Abraham. Because he never had a Bible. He never had the background of information that we have with a full Bible. He was starting out, I mean, he was an idol worshiper. He was contacting God for the first time and he had to learn that when God said, leave your father, you gotta leave your father. When he said, leave your relatives, you gotta leave your relatives. But he failed. And it says here, it doesn't say in verse 31 of chapter 11 that Abraham took his father along. No. His father was the boss. It says, Terah took Abraham, the 75-year-old son and said, hey, you're coming with me, okay? Abraham said, fine. And Terah said, we're taking Lot as well. And they went out in order to enter the land of Canaan, which God had called them to. But, when they reached halfway and they reached a place called Haran, they stopped. Because Abraham's dad said, hey, this looks a fantastic land. This must be the place God told us to come to. It looks as if the grass is fertile here and our cattle can pasture and we make a lot of money here. So, we're gonna stay here. This must be the land. And poor little boy Abraham, 75-year-old Abraham, says, okay dad, we'll do what you say. Isn't it terrible? When God's told you something and you allow your dad and nephew and all types of people to override what God has said and you miss out on what God God loved Abraham so much. You know what he did? You know what he did? He killed his father. Don't wait till that happens. Please. I think Terah would have lived a long life if he had just lived in Ur of the Chaldees. Poor man made the mistake of going along with Abraham and fooling around with Abraham's God. It says he died. 205 years. I think he probably lived about 300-400 years if he had lived in Ur of the Chaldees. You know, we make our parents suffer when we try to please them. I'll tell you that. If you want to bless your parents, obey God. Now, God didn't forsake Abraham just because he failed a test. And he won't forsake you because you fail a test. Boy, if God forsook us because we failed one test, none of us would be standing here. Thank God. He has such mercy on us. We fail a thousand times and he says, OK, we'll try again. That's great. He's like no other teacher. I love that song that says, No earthly father loves like you. No mother ever so mild bears and forbears as you have done with me, your sinful child. Think of the best earthly father bearing with his sinful child and multiply that by a million. And you'll understand the heart of God. It says we are children of Abraham. You know, I didn't choose God. He chose me. Jesus said that very clearly to his disciples. You didn't choose me. I chose you. And I want to say to all of you dear brothers and sisters, it was no accident that you landed up in Bangalore and that you came to hear the word of God in this church. Things that can lead you to the most glorious life than any human being can ever live. How do I say that? Because I've tasted something of that. I don't believe that there is a message on the face of the earth that can lead people to a more glorious life than what we preach here and what I've experienced for a number of years. Think of that, that God has allowed you to hear it. That doesn't make you spiritual. You can take an absolute useless dunce of a boy or a girl and put him in the best school in Bangalore and he'll fail. He doesn't take his studies seriously. It's like that. You can sit in the best church in the world and go to hell. Sure. I don't have any doubt about that. In fact, I fear that some of the people who've been here through the years and heard the word of God and they got offended and left. I tell you honestly, I fear for them. I'm not God. I'd be very happy if God takes the whole world to heaven, including all the non-Christians and every other religion. I'd be very happy, but it's not true. It's not going to happen if God's word is true. It's not going to happen. And so I have a great fear for a lot of people who have not responded to what they've heard and just taken it lightly and played the fool with the word of God. But God is very, very merciful. As long as you're willing to sit in the school, as long as you're willing to stick it out, God will stick it out with you. But if you give up, then God won't force you. He doesn't grab a person by the neck and say, stay in school. It's like earthly schools too. If some student drops out, the principal doesn't go running after him saying, come back. God does that a number of times, but he won't keep on doing that. So thank God for his mercy with people like Abraham that though they failed, he still continued to work with them. I mean, he did drastic things like killing his father. And it says then, verse 4, then, chapter 12, then Abraham went forth as the Lord had previously spoken to him. I want you to understand this. Verse 32 of chapter 11. Terah died. And I want you to read this. Let me paraphrase it. Terah died. But the Lord had spoken earlier to Abraham saying, go forth from your country, from your relatives, from your father's house, chapter 12, verse 1, to the land I'll show you. And Abraham had not obeyed. But now when Terah died, at last, verse 4, chapter 12, Abraham went forth as the Lord had originally spoken to him. But the problem was not completely solved because there's one more fellow there. Lot was still with him. So God has to do something to separate Lot from Abraham. And that he doesn't do. He could have done it by killing him. But I think he was a little merciful to him. He separated Lot from Abraham by creating a fight between Lot's servants and Abraham's servants over property. Sometimes God separates certain people from us by allowing some controversy. Some fight. I've experienced that in my life and I've experienced that in this church. God does a separation because he says, that's not the way I want you to go. You're gonna get mixed up, Abraham, if you link up with Lot. He's got other plans.