Abraham: The Pilgrimage of Faith, Part 2

If you learn to look at heaven, you'll live better on earth. But if your mind leaves heaven and you only live for earth, earth is all you get. Dr. Tony Evans talks about keeping our eyes on eternity as we navigate our way through life.

If you have a heavenly perspective driving you, you'll be ready for heaven and you'll be okay till you get there. Celebrating 40 years of faithfulness, this is The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans, author, speaker, senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, Texas, and president of The Urban Alternative. Following God's direction may take us into unfamiliar territory, but today Dr. Evans talks about keeping something familiar in sight no matter how much the scenery around us may change.

Let's join him. Now this is described for us in Genesis chapter 12, chapter 13, when God told Abraham, I want you to leave your city, your community, your house, and even your people. And I want you to go to a place that I'm not going to tell you about yet. Said he didn't know where he was going. All he knew is God told him to leave without knowing where God was taking him. Why is God telling him to move away from family and friends and the things he grew up with? He's in a context of worldwide paganism.

Joshua 24 2 says that he was raised in a family of idols. God says, I have something for you to do. I've got a plan for you, Abraham, but in order for me to fill my plan, you've got to leave here. In other words, stay with me. If you want to see where I want you to go, I'm not going to show you where I'm taking you till you leave where you are. You cannot stay here and have me. You cannot stay around paganism and have me.

You cannot stay around humanism and have me. So you've got to leave and you've got to trust me that I know where I'm taking you even though I'm not telling you. He based his life on a promise. Unless you leave the old, you will never discover what God has for you in the new. So the question is, what do you want?

Do you want him or you want to hang out where you are and not have him? Because he will never coalesce with the world. James 4, he won't do that. So the first thing you need to know is that your life of faith will require a leaving of worldliness, desires and actions that are in conflict with God. Secondly, your life of faith from the superstar of faith will involve a living—a leaving and then a living. Notice this, verse 9. By faith he lived—see that? By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise.

Wow. He left and then he lived. Now watch this.

It says he lived in the land of promise as a foreigner and an alien. Wait a minute now. Wait a minute now.

Watch this. He left. He left Earl of the Chaldees paganism. He is now in the land God is promising him.

Okay? God promised him a land. But in the land that he's now in and living in, he's living as an alien and a foreigner in the middle of a promise. The good news is, is they're in the vicinity of the promise without actually getting all of the promise. But if you're in the vicinity of what God's going to do, even though you haven't gotten yet what God's going to do, that means you're closer than you think. See, some of us are in God's waiting room and there's probably no greater discipline in the Christian life, no harder discipline than waiting. God, how long is this going to take? When are you going to come through for me? How come I take two steps forward, three steps back? How come every time I look like you're getting ready to do something, you flip on me and the thing doesn't work out?

Anybody know what I'm talking about? You're in the vicinity, but you haven't become a citizen yet. You haven't taken full ownership of this thing yet. I remember one time I was on a plane coming into a city and the pilot said, ladies and gentlemen, there's bad weather around the city and so we're going to have to enter a holding pattern and we're going to hang up here in space because there is a weather system moving in and we can't land. So I was in the vicinity of where I wanted to go without being able to touch down. Some of you are at a red light that won't change in your life. You're in the waiting room in the doctor's office and the doctor and the nurse, they're not coming in.

How long is this going to take? You may be in a holding pattern and God hasn't landed the plane, although you're in the vicinity of it. So I know what you want to know. You want to know when this plane is going to land. Remember, we're walking by faith. So I don't have sight.

I don't know. I'm up in the air, my holding pattern. I can't even see down.

It's too cloudy. When is this thing going to land? And God answered my prayer, deliver me whatever it is that He has destined for me. When is it going to happen? I'm tired of waiting.

Okay, here it is. God is always doing two things at one time related to your life and mine. Here are the two things. He's preparing the promise for you and He's preparing you for the promise. You have no control over the promise part, over the part that's not you. God is doing that over here. You can't control that.

You have a control over the person part. Abraham needed some development and God was not about to give him a miracle without a development. He was not about to give him his destiny until he came to his senses, grew in his faith. But that's good news and hope for you and me because that means when we have not learned to live by faith, God will hang out until we get the message. And He'll keep us hanging out, circling the airfield in the neighborhood of the promise until He's ready to land us because we've grown. So one of your major reasons to want to leave Ere the Chaldees, the world and want to live in God's presence and move quickly in obedience is so you can get what He has as soon as He can give it, because you're ready for it, because God doesn't want to give you a destiny that will cause you to forget Him. See, that's the problem with everybody running around here looking for a blessing. God, if you do it for me this time, if you get me out of this this time, if you help me this time, I'll serve you for the rest of my life.

Come on, tell the truth. You promised Him. He got you out. He delivered you.

He met the need, and you were good for two weeks. After that, you went back to your whole life because God knows you're not fully committed yet. So He did not let him own the promise. He just let it be in the vicinity of it. The Bible says that you and I are foreigners and aliens here.

So watch this now. God does not want you to be too attached. A foreigner is somebody, they're there, but they're not fully attached. Say, he was in a tent.

That's not a permanent location. God is moving them from this place to this place to this place to this place to this place. See, if you're going to walk by faith, you have to have on loafers, because you got to be mobile. You got to be—because God can get weird on you. You know, it doesn't all lay out smoothly. He does this and does turns, like we talked about Joseph detours and destiny. He never let him settle in because he wasn't ready yet. Never let him settle down.

He kept him a little off-kilter. When I go to a hotel, I live out of my bag. I don't take stuff up and put it in the hotel drawers and organize stuff and take out my kit and put my toothpaste all lined up there and all that. I don't do all that. I open up the suitcase, get what I need.

That's it. And the reason I do that is because that ain't home. I don't live there. I'm passing through. So I don't get too comfortable because I know I'm not staying. God says, if I'm going to take you to your inheritance, I've got to develop you for your inheritance. And when I develop you for your inheritance, keep your shoes on light because I'm going to send you through some stuff. I'm going to take you through some things. There are going to be some mountains. There are going to be some valleys, but they're all designed to develop you. I got my piece out here I'm going to take care of.

I just got to get you right. Some of us are working on 50 years of things that should have been solved in three years, but we didn't pitch our tent and built ourselves a house that we ain't going to move out of. And so God does not have flexibility with our lives.

And so He can't grow us like He wants to grow us because we're not available for Him to do His thing. But it says, by faith, Abraham was willing to live as an alien, to live as a foreigner, not become too attached, looking for God to change his scenario. Dr. Evans will be back in a moment with more of his walk through this spiritual hall of fame, part of his current series, Heroes of the Faith. But before he returns, I want to tell you about a brand new book that he's just written, going hand in hand with today's message. It's called Kingdom Heroes.

In it, you'll learn that spiritual reality is about much more than we can see or touch, and you'll see how much can be overcome and accomplished when you act as though God is telling the truth. We want you to be one of the first to receive a copy of this new Kingdom Heroes book as our thank-you gift when you make a contribution to help us keep Tony's teaching on this station. Along with it, we'll send you a companion Bible study workbook and all 13 messages in Tony's Heroes of the Faith series as a bonus.

You can get them on CD or digital download, whichever is more convenient for your needs. But this limited-time offer won't last long, so get in touch with us today to get the details and make the arrangements. You can do that online at tonyevans.org. That's tonyevans.org. Or reach out to our Resource Center at 1-800-800-3222 any time of the day or night.

That's 1-800-800-3222. I'll repeat that information for you right after Part 2 of today's lesson and this. Coming to theaters this November. We're at the Church of the Nativity here in Bethlehem, where it is believed that the birth of Jesus Christ occurred. Deal with Dr. Tony Evans as he retraces the life and human journey of the greatest being to ever walk this earth. Well, we're here in Capernaum, a place where Jesus did most of His miracles. And it is in this place that He demonstrated He truly is the Son of God. You'll travel the streets, fields, and synagogues where Jesus walked and visit the locations where some of the most powerful events recorded in the Bible took place. It is highly likely that much of what we read about Jesus' ministry in Galilee happened right here. Journey with Jesus in theaters November 15th, 16th, and 17th with Dr. Tony Evans.

Visit tonyevans.org for locations, showtimes, and to learn more. Then the third one is a looking, verse 10. For He was looking, it says. He was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

Wow. If you miss everything else, don't miss this, because it will change everything for the rest of your life. He left the world. He no longer associated with that which left God out. He lived in the arena of the promise but stayed fluid, because He had to grow in that situation. Because before God gives you destiny, He always deals with development after having provided deliverance.

So it's deliverance, development, destiny. And then it says the way He survived and the way you and I survived was where He looked. While He was living on earth, while He was waiting for the promise that was going to come on earth, namely a son born out of His old age, while He's waiting for this, it says He kept His eyes on heaven. He looked for a city whose builder and architect was God. That's the heavenly city.

Okay, watch this. He wasn't going to heaven yet. He still had a lot of years to live on earth. But even though He wasn't going to heaven, He was looking at heaven.

Because here's the secret. If you learn to look at heaven, you'll live better on earth. If you stop looking at heaven and only look at earth, you will be looking through bad glasses because you'll be living like this is all there is. And this is not all there is.

In fact, this is so small a piece of the pie. He says, I want you to look to heaven while living on earth. That's why the Bible says in 1 John 2, this world is passing away. Don't hang on to this world too tight.

See, that's why things get boring because this world is passing away. That's why the drug addict has got to get more. That's why Satan offers more. He always ups the dosage because he knows this thing is passing away. So he got to up the dosage to keep you going and craving it. God says this world is passing away, so don't hinge your whole life onto this wagon because it's passing away.

And guess what? We're passing away. So since this world is temporary, look eternally and it will change your temporary movement. When you lose sight of heaven, your perspective will be ruined on earth. But if you are heavenly minded, Colossians chapter 3, seeking the things that are above, if you have a heavenly perspective driving you, you'll be ready for heaven and you'll be okay until you get there. It has to do with your perspective.

That needs to be a shift in your perspective. Like the boy playing baseball, he threw the ball up, swung and missed. He threw it up again and said, you're a real good batter. Swung and missed. He threw it up again and said, you're the greatest batter that ever lived. Swung and missed. He threw it up again and says, there could never be a batter that could compare with you. He swung and missed.

He threw it up one more time, missed again and said, boy, you're some kind of pitcher. He shifted his perspective. There's got to be a shift in our perspective that you wake up in the morning thinking eternally, that is thinking God's perspective, a spiritual worldview. This has got to be how you live. This is how he lived by faith, thinking heaven while functioning in history. Anthony suffered severely with asthma growing up. He got that from me.

I was an asthmatic sufferer pretty bad in my young years. We had a pediatrician named Dr. Denny. He's with the Lord now, a Christian doctor. Dr. Denny was a very wise man. He would pull out the drawer and pull out a lollipop and give it to Anthony.

Anthony would go, he'd be struggling. He's trying to breathe and sucking the lollipop. He's trying to do both, but the reason he's sucking the lollipop is because the lollipop's sweet.

Dr. Denny began it. And so he's struggling, he's struggling, but he's sucking the lollipop. He's sucking the lollipop. While he was focused on the lollipop, Dr. Denny would come around with an epinephrine shot and boom, give him a needle pop while he's sucking the lollipop.

So Anthony sucking the lollipop, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. All of a sudden, he feels this painful sting in his arm and he goes, ah, ah, ah, he'd been faked out by the doctor. So he cried because he in pain. He thought I brought him to a place of deliverance, looked like his father, his father. The one who said he loved him brought him to a place of pain. So his father was a contributing element to his misery. The one he was looking to, to save him, help him, deliver him, had brought him to a place of pain. He was already in pain. He couldn't breathe. His father added to it.

His arm is hurting. In the middle of his pain, he remembered something. He remembered something sweet. He remembered something delectable. He remembered something delightful. He remembers it. And with tears coming down his eyes, he went back to the sweet place.

It didn't change the pain, but it changed his perspective on the pain because the sweet outweighed the pain when he shifted his focus. So when you read Genesis chapter 12 and 13, guess what you find? Over and over and over again, when it tells the story of Abraham in Genesis 12 and 13, he says, everywhere he went, he built an altar. An altar is a worship place. He didn't just go to church. He carried an altar with him. So every time he was in a new situation, he built himself a worship place so he could keep his eyes on heaven in the middle of earth while waiting for promise as he was trying to develop.

He said, God, it's you and me now. He can't pick up his altar, go to another place, hey, worship. He picked up his altar. So if the only time you worship is on Sunday, you leaving your altar at church. The idea is to keep a spiritual perspective until God joins you in destiny, having left Ur of the Chaldees. If your confidence about going to heaven isn't as rock solid as one of Abraham's altars, maybe it's time to think about the foundation underneath your faith.

Here is Dr. Evans with a thought about that. You're not a Christian because you're religious or because you go to church or even because you believe in God. You're a Christian because you've accepted Jesus Christ as your personal sin-bearer. Being religious, doing good works, that's nice, but it's not sufficient when God demands perfection. 2 Corinthians 5 21 says, he who knew no sin became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him. So what God has said is, he placed your sin on the cross, on to Christ, and then judge Christ for your sin. If you will go to Christ, he will take Christ's righteousness, which is perfect, and he will credit it to your account. So you will stand before God as though you've never sinned, not because you're sinless, but because you've got a sinless credit on your account. If you will receive Jesus Christ right now, if you will invite him into your life believing that he died for you and rose for you personally, he will credit your account with perfection because he's already credited your sin on to Jesus Christ. So go to Christ right now and get this free gift of salvation that he's offering to all who come to him for it.

Find out more about what it means to be a real Christian. Visit tonyevans.org and follow the link that says Jesus. You'll get a straightforward explanation from Tony and some free resources to get you started off right. Again, that's tonyevans.org. And while you're there, don't miss out on your chance to take advantage of that resource package I mentioned earlier, all 13 messages from both volumes of Tony's current audio series, Heroes of the Faith, along with his brand-new book and Bible study, Kingdom Heroes. They're yours with our thanks when you make a donation to help keep this listener-supported program coming your way. Just visit tonyevans.org to make the arrangements, or call our Resource Center at 1-800-800-3222, where team members are standing by to assist with your request.

That's 1-800-800-3222, or online at tonyevans.org. For some of us, it takes all the faith we can muster to trust God to do something unlikely. So what happens when the answer we need from the Lord is downright impossible?

We'll find out tomorrow. Right now, though, Dr. Evans is back with a final story for today. Her name was Dorothy, and she was taken from home, a place called Kansas. She found herself in a foreign location with a wicked witch that wanted to destroy her life. But through a shift in scenarios, a good witch showed up. She said, I want to go home, the witch said, if you'll follow the yellow brick road, there's a person at the end of the road.

He's called the Wizard of Oz. And if you'll follow the road, the road will take you to the wizard, and the wizard will get you home. That witch gave her a different perspective of hope, that there was hope out there in Oz, but she had to follow the yellow brick road. So she developed a song, follow the yellow brick road, follow the yellow brick road. On her way to her destiny, she ran across some other messed up people, too, as a messed up lion scared to death, as a tin man.

We got a straw man, all of them messed up. She said, why don't we be a small group? Since we all messed up, we got different messes, let's just be a small group and follow the yellow brick road. Now, on her way following the yellow brick road, there were problems.

There was monkeys, crazy monkeys, monkeys coming out of nowhere, flying monkeys that tried to mess her up. There was enemies, there were all kinds of problems, but she was told to follow the yellow brick road, because if you get to Oz, there is somebody in Oz who knows how to get you to where you need to go. A good witch showed up, because once you click your heels, once you close your eyes, we'll turn this thing on a dime, and suddenly you and Toto are going to wake up where you came from because you followed the yellow brick road. God says, if you will leave where you are, if you will move toward me, keeping your eyes on King Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith, he will know how to get you home and take you to where you ought to be. If you will leave the world, live under me, and look toward me, I will deliver you home. The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans is brought to you by The Urban Alternative, celebrating 40 years of faithfulness thanks to the generous contributions of listeners like you.