SERIES: 2017 - The Year of Promise
The Journey: Living in the Land of
Promise
RF, February 5, 2017
INTRO God has prepared a place of blessing for His children. We often reserve this for heaven, and heaven
is a wonderful place! But I believe God
wants to give us heaven on the way to heaven. We have spent several weeks
talking about promises. I believe God wants more for us than simply claiming a
few of His promises. I believe God wants us to "Live in the Land of
Promise"!
Hebrews 4:9 (NKJV)
There remains therefore a rest for the people of God.
John 10:10 (NKJV)
The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have
come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
This place of
blessing has been called many things.
In the Old
Testament, it was a real place with boundaries and history and inhabitants both
good and bad. It had a name: Canaan, the “Land of Canaan”. It was called that
because that's where the descendants of Canaan settled. You remember Canaan,
don't you? He was Noah’s grandson. And
he was cursed. Not for his own sin or mistakes, but because of his father’s.
Let me refresh your memory...
Genesis 9:18-27 (NKJV) Now the sons of Noah who went out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and
Japheth. And Ham was the father of Canaan. 19These
three were the sons of Noah, and from these the whole earth was populated.
20And Noah began to be a
farmer, and he planted a vineyard. 21Then he drank of the wine and
was drunk, and became uncovered in his tent 22And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of
his father, and told his two brothers outside. 23But Shem and
Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and went backward and
covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned away, and they
did not see their father's nakedness.
24So Noah awoke from his
wine, and knew what his younger son had done to him. 25Then he said:
"Cursed be Canaan; A servant of servants He
shall be to his brethren." 26And he said: "Blessed be the Lord, The God of Shem, And may Canaan be his
servant. 27May God enlarge Japheth, And may he dwell in the tents of
Shem; And may Canaan be his servant."
Now if you are
like me, you have to be asking, "Why did Noah curse Canaan and not
Ham?" Let’s look at a possible
answer.
Genesis 10:15-19 (NKJV) Canaan
begot Sidon his firstborn, and Heth; 16the Jebusite, the Amorite,
and the Girgashite; 17the Hivite, the Arkite, and the Sinite; 18the
Arvadite, the Zemarite, and the Hamathite. Afterward
the families of the Canaanites were dispersed. 19And the border of
the Canaanites was from Sidon as you go toward Gerar, as far as Gaza; then as
you go toward Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, as far as Lasha.
Genesis 11:10-31 (NKJV) This is the genealogy of Shem: Shem was one hundred years
old, and begot Arphaxad two years after the flood. 11After he begot
Arphaxad, Shem lived five hundred years, and begot sons and daughters. 12Arphaxad
lived thirty-five years, and begot Salah. 13After he begot Salah,
Arphaxad lived four hundred and three years, and begot sons and daughters. 14Salah
lived thirty years, and begot Eber. 15After he begot Eber, Salah
lived four hundred and three years, and begot sons and daughters. 1 Eber
lived thirty-four years, and begot Peleg. 17After he begot Peleg,
Eber lived four hundred and thirty years, and begot sons and daughters. 18Peleg
lived thirty years, and begot Reu. 19After he begot Reu, Peleg lived
two hundred and nine years, and begot sons and daughters. 20Reu
lived thirty-two years, and begot Serug. 21After he begot Serug, Reu
lived two hundred and seven years, and begot sons and daughters. 22Serug
lived thirty years, and begot Nahor. 23After he begot Nahor, Serug
lived two hundred years, and begot sons and daughters. 24Nahor lived twenty-nine years, and begot Terah. 25After
he begot Terah, Nahor lived one hundred and nineteen years, and begot sons and
daughters. 26Now Terah lived seventy
years, and begot Abram, Nahor, and Haran.
Abraham was a
descendant of Shem. He was a Semite. The Jews are known as the Semitic people.
If you are against the Jews, you are called anti-Semitic.
27This is the genealogy of
Terah: Terah begot Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran begot Lot. 28And
Haran died before his father Terah in his native land, in Ur of the Chaldeans. 29Then
Abram and Nahor took wives: the name of Abram's wife was Sarai, and the name of
Nahor's wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran the father of Milcah and the father
of Iscah. 30But Sarai was barren; she had no child.
31And Terah took his son Abram and his grandson Lot, the son of Haran,
and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram's wife, and they went out with
them from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan; and
they came to Haran and dwelt there.
How did they
know to go to Canaan? They knew the prophetic word spoken by God years ago. The
descendants of Shem would conquer and live in the land of Canaan! This is why
Noah cursed Canaan, to provide a land for His people to inherit!
God spoke to
Abraham, or Abram, about Canaan. It was called “The Promised Land” because it
was the land that God promised to Abraham and his descendants, both physical
and spiritual.
Acts 7:2–4 (NKJV) And
he (Stephen) said, “Brethren and fathers, listen: The God of glory appeared to
our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran, 3and
said to him, ‘Get out of your country and from your relatives, and come to a
land that I will show you.’ 4Then he came out of the land of the
Chaldeans and dwelt in Haran. And from there, when his father was dead, He
moved him to this land in which you now dwell.
How did God move
Abraham to the land of promise? These
are lessons for all of us.
Genesis 12:1, 4-5 (NKJV)
Now the LORD had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family And
from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you. 4So Abram
departed as the LORD had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was
seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 5Then Abram took
Sarai his wife and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they
had gathered, and the people whom they had acquired in Haran, and they departed
to go to the land of Canaan. So they came to the land of Canaan.
1. Action is required!
Get up and get
out! Half of success is showing up!
2. A journey is required!
When God gives a
promise, it always involves a journey. God takes us out to bring us in. The
process involves movement from one place to another.
3. Leaving security is required!
God told me I
had to plant a church because I had never done anything by faith!
4. Not knowing is required!
We will miss God
if we demand all the details up front!
5. Faith is required!
Hebrews 11:6 (NKJV)
And without faith it is impossible to please God, because he
who comes to God must believe that He is and that He rewards those who
diligently seek him.
Hebrews 11:8–10 (NKJV) By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go
out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not
knowing where he was going. 9By faith he dwelt in the land of
promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the
heirs with him of the same promise; 10for he waited for the city
which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
Acts 7:5-7 (NKJV)
And God gave him no inheritance in it, not even
enough to set his foot on. But even when Abraham had no child, He promised to
give it to him for a possession, and to his descendants after him. 6But
God spoke in this way: that his descendants would dwell in a foreign land, and
that they would bring them into bondage and oppress them four hundred years. 7‘And
the nation to whom they will be in bondage I will judge,’ said God, ‘and after
that they shall come out and serve Me in this place.’
You see, Abraham
was standing in a gap; a gap is the area that exists between where you are
today and what God has promised. God is looking for men and women who will
’stand in the gap’!
Ezekiel 22:30 (NKJV)
So I sought for a man among them who would make a wall, and stand in the gap
before Me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no
one.
What an epithet! God found no one who would stand with Him in
faith! Jesus cried out the same
message...
Luke 18:8 (NKJV)
"I tell you that He will avenge
them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?”
Who will stand
in the gap today, not just for you, but for a generation to come?
Hebrews 11:32-39 (NKJV)
And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and
Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets: 33who
through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises,
stopped the mouths of lions, 34quenched the violence of fire,
escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant
in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. 35Women
received their dead raised to life again. And others were tortured, not
accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. 36Still
others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and
imprisonment.
37They were stoned, they were
sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in
sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented-- 38of
whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens
and caves of the earth. 39And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith,
did not receive the promise,
They did it for
those who were to come!
Acts 2:39 (NKJV)
"For the promise is to
you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our
God will call.”
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