East Coast Korean Camp Meeting

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Andrews Korean Church

Plenary

Chester Clark

The Need to Know

Giving Up All

Where Are We

Father Abraham

Lamp Feet

Building Altars

This Is Good

Always Giving

Looking To Jesus

We've looked at a number of characteristics of Father Abraham, the father of the faithful.

Of course we've seen that he was the father not just of many nations but also of all those who believe.

I believe even at the end of time, maybe even especially at the end of time, we've looked at a number of his characteristics.

He was willing to leave that which was comfortable and do that painful work of detachment as well as attachment.

We've seen also how Abraham was somebody who was regular in his, and intentional in his worship and his teaching and his instruction.

He built altars on a regular basis wherever he went.

Today we're going to be looking at another characteristic of Abraham.

In fact, as I've studied his life, I found that there's just so many attributes of Abraham, besides his lying part.

But there's so many attributes of Abraham that we can learn from, that we can see counsel and instruction and I guess a model for us living in the last days.

When we look for example at the story of the rescue of the kings of the valley, Sodom and Gomorrah and the others, And we see how Abraham would not take any money, any reward from the plunder of those cities.

He said, lest anyone say that you have made Abraham rich.

In other words, the wealth of Sodom was not what he wanted.

He wanted people to know that he was prosperous, if he was prosperous, because God blessed him.

It wasn't because he won the lottery or something that was not, I mean he didn't approve of the lifestyle and all in the cities so he couldn't be enriched by it.

But today we're going to look at just briefly at another characteristic of Abraham.

It impresses me as I look at his life, as I look at his character.

It impresses me that he was always giving.

He was always working to try to bless others and benefit others.

So if you have your Bibles, you can just look with me.

We're going to begin with some passages from the life of Abraham here.

We're going to begin in Genesis chapter 13.

You'll remember that when Abraham left Ur of the Chaldees there were some family members who came with him and a number of relatives.

I'm sure it wasn't just Abraham and Sarah and a few goats that left Ur of the Chaldees.

But 1 of those who came was his brother's son, Lot.

And of course Lot becomes famous or infamous later on because of his own decisions that were somewhat different than those of Abraham.

And you know what, as I think of this, the contrast between Abraham's decisions and Lot's decisions, don't you think those 2 sort of pathways still exist today?

I mean, It wasn't that Lot wasn't a person who loved the Lord.

It's just that he didn't prioritize, perhaps, the obedience of God and applying the things that he knew to be true in his life.

Abraham is very rich in cattle, silver and gold, it says in verse 2.

Verse 5, Lot also which went with Abraham had flocks and herds and tents, and the land was not able to bear them, it says, that they might dwell together, for their substance was great, so that they could not dwell together.

Verse 7 says there was strife between the herdmen of Abram's cattle and the herdmen of Lot's cattle, and the Canaanite and Perizzite dwelt there in the land.

Verse 8 now says, And Abram said to Lot, Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herdmen and thy herdmen, for we be brethren." We could just stop right there for a minute, couldn't we?

There's always going to be differences that arise, right?

There's always going to be cause for contention.

There's always going to be something that comes up and says, well, we don't see eye to eye.

And in the church, there's always going to be those opportunities.

I suppose Korean churches have those opportunities as well, perhaps.

But I know in the churches that I've pastored, in the churches I've been a member of, there sometimes have been issues that arose.

And you know what's really amazing to me?

The type of issues that churches will split over.

I mean, you have the proverbial color of the carpet, right?

What color carpet are we going to put in the sanctuary?

And churches get into knock down, drag out fights over such trivial things like that.

I've heard stories of churches that couldn't agree on what kind of food to bring to potluck.

What's the point of having potluck if you don't get along well enough to agree on these things?

I even heard of 1 church that they decided that you shouldn't use aluminum pans to cook anymore.

And some people said, well, why the big deal?

And the church split over whether they'd use aluminum pans to bring food to potluck or not.

And I look at these things and I think, we need to follow the example of Abraham.

I mean, Abraham said, look, there's problems here.

This isn't something and we're not going to fight over this because we are, what does he say, we're brethren.

There's more that unites us than that which divides us, right?

We're not gonna fight over these things that aren't really that important anyway.

And I'll be honest with you, if I hate the color of the carpet, it won't really bother me that much.

Do you ever notice that you go to church long enough you don't even notice the color of the carpet?

You know, if you have a cluttered corner somewhere, after a while you don't see it anymore.

But when someone walks in that's never seen him before, it jumps out at them.

Or when you go to someone else's house, you know what I'm talking about, right?

Like, we don't need to fight over these things.

I'd rather die early from, I don't know, Alzheimer's from having aluminum pans or something, and have a fellowship while I'm alive, then live my life with my stomach tied in knots and enmity and bitterness and resentment because we've been fighting over something that's so trivial.

If we can't get along now, what are we going to do throughout all of eternity?

You know, he should have used gold instead of silver on it in my neighbor's house.

You know, in heaven, I suppose, there's going to be personalities still, right?

We're still going to have uniqueness and we're still going to do things differently.

But the good news is that in heaven, we're all gonna get along and we're all gonna be brethren.

So there are many things in Abraham's life that we can just look at and say, wow, if we could just apply this to our life, we can see why Abraham could be called the father of the faithful.

Abraham said, let no strife be between me and you, for we are brethren.

Verse 9, is not the whole land before you?

If you will take the left hand I will go to the right hand.

If you will depart to the right hand then I will go to the left." And so Abraham is very simple.

He's like, look, there's a whole world out there, right?

There's no point in us fighting together.

And you know, there's some other wisdom here in what Abraham did.

He had a steady, calm hand that we read about in Patriarchs and Prophets yesterday, that as he governed his household.

Abraham could have said, well, we need conflict resolution.

We need to get these herdsmen together, and we need to say, okay, this is how we're gonna deal with these prophets, you all have problems, you shouldn't be getting angry and throwing rocks at the other herds and stuff, and you need to start.

He could have just tried to deal with the problem.

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Always Giving

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