June 4, 2006

Your Way or His Way?
Genesis 16 1-3

Now Sarai Abram's wife bare him no children: and she had a handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name [was] Hagar. And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the LORD hath restrained me from bearing: I pray thee, go in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai. And Sarai Abram's wife took Hagar her maid the Egyptian, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan , and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife.

You may recall, if you are either older, or a connoisseur of fine music, a song by Frank Sinatra that said "I did it MY WAY. He is not alone in that sentiment.

We have dealt with the fact that Abraham was a man who believed God. We have also dealt with the fact that Abraham was a man, after all. And He, like you, tended to get ahead of God and do it his way, and when that happened, just as with us, there were lasting consequences.

I want to note a few things today that I am not alone in thinking. I see a trend in myself and in the Church as a whole, to something that Jack miller, in His book "Outgrowing the Ingrown Church" calls "Spiritual Tunnel vision.” Listen to what he says,

"Members of the ingrown church body are characterized by tunnel vision that limits potential ministries of the church to those that can be accomplished by the visible human resources at hand."

He continues "These possibilities are often further limited by recollection of past negative experiences and perceptions of present obstacles. At bottom this is unbelief based on a secularized ignorance of the Spirit's power - His ability to supply us with God's goals for the Church and the supernatural means to meet them. "

Abraham believed God, yet Abraham was easily swayed away from a trust in God's abilities. Here in this passage we see Sarai, Abram's wife, "helping" Abram to find a solution. Here's what she says." Abe dear, I am an old woman. I am past the time of Child bearing. Look, I have this maid, Hagar, and we could have a child by her, now don't you think that's OK?

I mean, didn't God say the child of promise would be from your loins? He said nothing about mine, did he? I mean Abram Dear, that would be asking an awful lot from God, and we already have one Awful Lot in the family.

And Abram checked out this foxy Egyptian maid and said, Wow, it must be God's will. Only it was NOT God's plan for Abram.

Abram bowed to "tunnel vision" looking to the visible means of attaining a goal, and stepping outside the bounds of faith.

Now a few historical notes here: This was against God's strict law of Monogamy, remember Genesis 2:4? One man one woman one flesh? But it has historical precedence.

In the ancient near East a childless couple had several alternatives available. They could adopt a son, the husband could marry a second wife, he could attempt to obtain a son through union with his concubine, or his wife could provide him with a slave girl. These solutions are found in different texts from many periods and places, though the only site known to practice all four is called Nuzi.

The fourth option appears in connection with the barrenness of Sarah, Rachael and Leah. This practice is also documented in the ancient Code of Hammurabi as well as in an Old Babylonian contract.

This is a case where the phrase, "every one else is doing it" may have been the reasoning. More likely is that it was a common cultural practice and Abraham had accepted it as part of the culture.

Therefore when it came to persuading Abraham that "this must be of God" He sang the song "It can't be wrong cause it feels so right." And once more Abram forgot the promise.

A little aside here. God never ever allows for pre or extramarital sexual relations. Yet many believers have so tolerated this in the world, watched it as NORMAL on TV, that when they are tempted they don't feel as if its all that bad. I want you to know that there are degrees of sin, and God says sexual immorality is one of the worst ones for a believer because you, being joined to a harlot make your Jesus part of that unholy relationship. It is a horrible thing and sadly we are slack in this generation concerning this.

Now Abraham listens to Sarah's reasoning and Reasons a little himself and by passes God's best.

In 1948 Israel became a nation again after hundreds, in fact over a thousand years of being scattered. They moved into the "Promised land and there waiting for them with less than open arms , was Ishmael. Abraham's "MY WAY" had ripened.

I want to deal with this thought of "MY WAY" How often we, as supposed followers of and trusters in God decide that His way is not fast enough and forge ahead and do it our own way. One thing that gets us into trouble is our human reason. You and I often say or hear others say :" Well God wouldn't want this or that to happen, would HE?" Or "I feel as if this is right". Or "I know it may not be best, but what other choice do I have?" And so you and I do just what we feel like doing and it may be many years before it catches up, or maybe not so many.

Then, and I have heard this, we say,"well, God allowed it so it must be his will right?" That is a very demented view and places YOU in authority over the will of God.

One thing that you and I need to realize is that God knows best. Simple truth and the sooner you get it the better. God has a purpose and He will accomplish it, Listen to Is.55: 6-11 Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts [are] not your thoughts, neither [are] your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For [as] the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returns not thither, but waters the earth, and makes it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: So shall my word be that goes forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper [in the thing] whereto I sent it.

You see it is important to understand some things.

Gods ways and plans are not contingent on your pleasure. He knows what is best for the outworking of His plans. SO if God says something in His word, you and I had better listen to God's way, for it is a higher and better way. Understand also what verse 11 teaches God's Word accomplishes that which HE PLEASES. You see, you are here for the purpose of bringing God glory. He has ultimate right over you. He can take as much time as He needs to or wants to, to see that He gets glory and that is His right and His due. Does that bother you? If it does then you need to take it up with God. You see, the creator made us. (Isa 64:8 But now, O LORD, thou [art] our father; we [are] the clay, and thou our potter; and we all [are] the work of thy hand. ) We are the clay, that speaks of moldability. We MUST realize that God is in charge.

That means we MUST obey Him and do it His way. Jesus faced the temptation to shortcut God's way in Matt. 4 and then again in the Garden.

In Matt 4, recall, the Devil brought Him up to a pinnacle of the Temple and said, Jump because if you do then God promised to send angels.

And what he was intimating is that the Jewish leaders, who expected Messiah to come from a pinnacle of the temple would see this and accept Him and He could forego that "cross" training. Jesus, you recall, knew better. He said "IT IS WRITTEN you shall not tempt the Lord your God. Jesus knew that what was written was right and far surpassed any man or devil made way. Then in Gethsemane you recall Jesus prayer?" Father, if it be possible remove this cup from me, nevertheless not my will but Thine be done." You see no matter what it cost him He opted to tough it out and do it God's way.

What if He had reasoned it out humanly. Hey, I am a powerful person, I can do a lot of good here. I don't think God would actually want me to die. He's so good after all and everyone knows I deserve better than that. What we are speaking of here is doing the will of God from the heart. The outcome is up to God. Now obedience involves trusting God to take the best course as we follow His way. If we can't make money without doing the wrong thing, or so we think, then give that to God. He says do what is right and that is what He wants.

If we cannot defend ourselves and still do what God wants, then we need to trust God to work it out for His glory and according to His purpose.

His purpose you may remember is to conform us to the image of God. And Patient endurance is needed to hang on to God's way in spite of circumstances.

Heb 10:36 For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise

God is faithful to, perform what HE promises. What He requires is that we be faithful to do as He asks.

Now Abraham did what He saw as a reasonable way to get God's plan accomplished. God had other plans, and I want you to notice that he did not alter those plans at this time and say,"Oh well, you've done it so I might as well go along." Not at all, for God had a perfect plan then and He does now.

Are you willing to wait on God and do as HE says?

Are you willing to do the pure and right and trust Him to provide?

Are you willing to suffer hardship to wait on Him?

Listen, I believe we in this church have tried to pay attention to business, but there are many occasions when we have not moved ahead with a missionary or a goal because we could not see the visible means. We then fail to trust God and honor Him.

There are many today, yes even here, who have problems and God wants to help. Yet the cure involves listening to the revealed truth of God. Instead we willingly buy the plan of the world, the wisdom of men with degrees, and ignore what God has to say. The reasoning process tells us, "well, they are the ones who know". And God is not honored because we fail to trust Him, the one who really does know.

The song is nicely sung "I did it my way" But when it comes to doing things RIGHT, then let us take care to see if it is MY way or GOD’S way which we are pursuing.

Sometimes we forfeit God's best just because we haven't read the book to find out what really is HIS WAY.

You think about that...AMEN