Just remember you get to sit in the service now. They have to go back to work. Those ladies, so God, God bless them. Starting at the 11th chapter of the book of Genesis, it says, the whole earth used the same language and the same words, and it came about as they journeyed east that they found a plane in the land of Shainar and settled there. They said to one another, come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly and they use brick for stone, tar for mortar. They said, come, let us build for ourselves a city and a tower whose topple reached into heaven and let us make for ourselves a name. Unless we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth and the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the sons of men had built and the Lord said, behold, they are one people and they all have the same language. And this is what they began to do and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and their confused their language that they may not understand one another's speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth and they stopped building the city. Its name was called Bable because there the Lord confused the language of the whole earth and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of the whole earth. These then are the records of the generation of Shem. And if you were to plow all the way through chapter 11, you have come to verse 31 where it says, and Tara took Abram, his son, and Lot, the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarah, his daughter-in-law, his son Abram's wife. And they went out together from Er of the Caldeans in order to enter the land of Canaan. And they went as far as Haran and settled there and the days of Tara were 205 and Tara died. Now the Lord said to Abram, go forth from your country, from your relatives, from your father's house, to the land which I will show you. And I will make you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great. And so you shall be a blessing and I will bless those who bless you. And the one who curses you, I will curse and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. So Abram went forth as the Lord had spoken and Lot went with him. Abram was 75 years old when he departed Haran. Abram took Sarah, his wife, and Lot, his nephew, and all their possessions which they had accumulated and the persons which they had acquired in Haran. And they set out for the land of Canaan, thus they came to the land of Canaan and Abram passed through the land as far as the sight of Shechem to the Oak of Maura. Now the Canaanite was then in the land and the Lord appeared to Abram and said, to your descendants, I will give this land. So he built an altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him. And then he proceeded from there to the mountain on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, Bethel on the west, AI on the east, and there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord. May God bless this reading of his holy and infallible word. Would you bow your head and would you pray for the preacher? Just silently would you ask God to give the preacher faith, conviction, insight, compassion, clarity, anointing of the Holy Spirit.
Now Father, thank you for the sweet prayers of these folks. Make us hungry for Jesus so that we'll run to Him with all our heart, with all our soul, and all our strength. Amen. Be seated, please.
Genesis chapter 11 and 12 is the tale of two cities. Augustine described these cities as the city of man and day Sivitate dee, his famous work, the city of God. You know, the city of man is what feels natural to us. It's where we were born. We're all citizens of the city of man by birth. The city of man is attractive and alluring. It holds great promise. It feels so comfortable to be a part of it, to be headed on the road to the city of man. But you ought to know this, that the city of man with all its promise, with all its attraction is always a disappointment. It's mirage-like. It's fruit. It's fulfillment. It's always just around the corner. Just out of reach, John D. Rockefeller was known for having a lot of money. And when Rockefeller was asked, how much money does a man need to make him happy? He offered the well-known response to what? He needs just a little more. No matter what you got, you need more. Such it is in the city of man. Always holding out such great promise, luring, pulling us in. This is the way to go. Pull yourself up by the bootstraps. Do it yourself. Hard work. Discipline. You can have it all. Go for it. But you've got to be determined. If you are though, you can get there. And yet you never do. The city of man always leads to disillusionment and despair. There's another city. It's called the city of God. Who would want to go there? The answer is nobody. The way there is narrow. The gate is barely discernible. It's hard, and they're signposts all along the way that remind you that to get in the city you have to what? You have to deny yourself. You have to take up your cross. You have to die. It's a hard road. Who would ever want to go that way? Who would choose it? It doesn't look like the way of life. It looks like an awful life. Nobody I want to suggest would go to the city of God unless something supernatural, something transformational, compelled, what's that noise? Is that a hearing aid?
I was just hoping it wasn't an alarm. Then you guys would have an excuse to leave. We can't have that. The city of God, nobody would go there. Nobody in their right mind would head for the city of God. Unless something extraordinary and supernatural were to take place. I want to ask this morning if that's happened in your life. If something extraordinary has happened, a friend of mine's a pastor of a church who's been there about five years. He said when he came there, a PCA church, one of the biggest problems were the elders that weren't converted. That can be a problem. He said just this week, even, he has a meeting with a man who five years ago, he had to sit down with this man and he had to say, by all evidence, you are not born again. You have been an elder of this church but you will no longer be an elder of this church. Because there is no evidence of a supernatural work of God in your life. The fruit of your life does not give indication that you are a Christian. Now, understand, he probably could have recited the doctrine upside and down. He probably could have recounted his years in the choir and his years leading a small group or whatever else ministry he might have. But what I want you to understand is to be on the road to the city of God. You must be spiritually regenerated, made a lie. Something supernatural and extraordinary must happen in your life. John Bunyan could hardly have considered the road to the city of God an easy way. He spent a good part of his adult life in prison and while in prison he penned a story about a pilgrim who hears the call to the city of God and he had all of his culture and all of his family and all of his friends tell him he is nuts. And that is a pretty tough thing when everybody you love. You have to leave behind to pursue that city so Bunyan says he put his fingers in his ears to drown out their words, calling him to safety and security. Stay, stay in the city of man and he ran for the holy city crying out, life, life, eternal life. Well, that is my goal. When you leave this place today, I want fingers in ears and people running for the city of God. But I can't do that. And neither can you. God must come and that's what we want. All right, got your sermon outline. Let's talk first about the city of man together. The city of man, as we see it in Genesis chapter 11, captures the spirit of man after the sin in the garden. And the first thing you ought to notice about the city of man is that man is capable. Man has made the image of God. When men bind themselves together, they can accomplish great things. Away from Armenia where the art came to rest on error at, man has migrated into the plains of Babylonia and there they are building an impressive city, taking the elements of the earth, baking them, using tar and pitch, which we know that part of the world to this day has an awful lot of. And building waterproof homes, the level that archaeologists tell us of sophistication in this society, you may not like to hear this, but it rivals today. These were people of technological savvy. These were people who who figured it out how to make it in this world. And they were building an impressive city. So the first thing you ought to notice is man, when he puts his mind to it, is capable of tremendous progress. But what fuels this progress? Pride. Pride, arrogance. What does it say? We know this, that when man is separated from God, he's insecure. Once naked and unashamed, now he is clothed and he is hiding. He is insecure. And so man binds himself together. Those gods said, I want you to be fruitful and multiply and what? And fill the earth. Man says no in defiance of God. We will bind together and we will build our own Eden, our own place. We can do it and we can do it without you. So see the arrogance. See the defiance. See the pride. And all of this summed up in this statement in verse three, or verse four of chapter 11, where it says that they, that they desired to make a what for themselves? A name. A name. What does it mean when a people want to make a name for themselves? Somebody goes into, into a business and they want to make a name for themselves. What does that mean? They want immortality. They want a reputation. They want a, a living such a way that all will have to acknowledge that they did it. They made it. They made a name for themselves. And this prideful defiance of man, this arrogance in the face of God, we can do life without you. God is summed up in the building of what? In a temple. The tower of Babel is a temple. It's a religious worship site. It's a stepped up ziggurat figure at the top. There would have been an altar. And here we have in the city of man, the this impressive structure that represents the religion of the world. The religion of the world. Christianity says that for us to have any meaningful relationship with a God who is, he must come down and reveal himself to us. The religions of the world all say that the way to deal with God is to what? Build yourself up. You build yourself up. You live in such a way that you qualify. And so you see in the stepped up ziggurat figure of the temple that man is building himself up to the gods. In fact, they named their city, Babel, Babel, which for them meant gateway of the gods. Very humble name for their little town. Now, what becomes of such a place? What becomes of this endeavor? The Bible says that God looks down on the city of man. And you should know that the tone of Genesis chapter 11 is very mocking. The tone of Genesis chapter 11 has got in the Israelites as they often do in the Old Testament, poking fun at man, poking fun at idolatry. They have built this impressive city. They have built this enormous worship site. But verse 5 says, for God to even see it, he has to what? What does it say? You get to Bible open? It was a say verse 5. He has to come down. He can't even find it. He has to come and look. The Bible says that God confuses the language. He scatters the people over the face of the earth. He brings an end to their city building. And the Hebrews, when they write about this place, they call it Babel, which doesn't mean gateway of the gods. It means babbling, confusion, place of confusion. When we use the word babbling, we also use another word often, right? It was a babbling idiot. That's the Israelites. That's the tone of this passage. They were reduced to being babbling idiots in their attempt to build a city without God. Isn't it fascinating that when man sets out to secure the things he needs without God, he accomplishes the very opposite? We will build a city. We will fortify ourselves. We will bond together. We will not be scattered in what's the end of the story. They are what? scattered. We will build a bank account. We will enter our retirement with enough so that we have security and people rip open the paper every day and they run their finger right down to the business section and how their stocks are doing because they live every day anxious and afraid. I will build a healthy body. I will run. I will eat right. I will exercise. So often driven by what? Fear and insecurity. I will make a name for myself. I will be immortal. The effort of men to secure what they cannot secure without God. The end of life. Trying to find life without Jesus. Sitting in my office a couple years ago was a young woman. She was college age and she was with child outside of wedlock. And she was sorry. And she was there to tell me that she was sorry. And we talked about it and we prayed and we talked about the future and all of that. And at one point I looked at her and I said, do you think it's a sin that you're pregnant? And she said, well, I guess so. And I said no. Being pregnant is not a sin. The fact that there's a life growing inside is a precious gift of God. That God has made a life and that life is precious and that child is going to welcome here at this church and that child ought to be esteemed and valued and God has done an awesome thing. Now I said, the activity that got you pregnant, would we call that sin? She said, well, I think so. I said, well, you know, we would but that's not really the problem here. If you walk out of my office and stop drinking and partying and wild living, then honestly we haven't gotten anywhere. Because the real problem, the real issue is you've been seeking life without Jesus. I said, do you realize that there's a lot of other girls that went to college are getting their degrees, are studying hard, are going to have a 3.8, who are going to be virgins until they're married, are going to find a nice young man, marry him and buy a home in the suburbs, pass their CPA exam and go on in life who are seeking life without Jesus. You sit here ashamed by your behavior. They will be applauded by everyone for there. And so the bottom line is in many ways they will be far more lost than you are because you've been forced to come to grips with the end of somebody who seeks life without Jesus, whereas they will go on completely fooled to think that you can do it. What do you think a church like ours has more of? People who are seeking life without Jesus by wild living, some have been there, some of you are still there. But most people in this room are committed to the city of man. The idea that with discipline, hard work, education, study, a good family, all of this, marriage, relationships, I can have life. Oh yeah, with a little Jesus smeared on. You understand you're not just as lost, you may be more lost. You'd be committed wholeheartedly to pursuing life in the city of man and perhaps not even see it. There's a big difference. May God bring us to the place every one of us where every day we have to say I need Jesus right on that life. We live in America. We live in the land of opportunity. Chris Encing described it perfectly, didn't he? Build your own business, be your own boss, be honest. You can have it. You can get there. When people get there very often they throw a little church going in there too. You know, that's all part of it in America. But it can be completely idolatry. There is no life. Accept in Jesus. You cannot do it on your own. Billy Graham in his autobiography just as I am told of going to a Caribbean island at the invitation of an impressively wealthy man. In fact, the man described himself as one of the wealthiest men of the world. He had a private airplane that ferried him to the island. He had a fleet of helicopters to transport him. He had a yacht. He had this polatial mansion, one of many homes. When they sat down at lunch together he told Billy Graham, I have more money than anybody on this island. Wasn't anybody I know? And I am miserable as hell. Graham said he left that house and he walked down the mountain into the valley, into where the squalor, into where people who were from that island lived. And he went into the disheveled, you know, I mean, he had broken down poor squatters like home of a simple Baptist pastor. He was 75 years old. With the remaining strength of his life he spent most of his time caring for. He was a widower. He cared for his two invalid sisters. He said to Billy Graham the same day. I don't have two pounds to my name. But I think I'm the richest man on this island. And the visage on his face showed it. Let me tell you something. They lived on the same island but they lived in separate cities.
Which city do you live in? I want you to see the end of the city of man. But I also want you to see the Genesis 11. It's even worse than that. It's the end of all civilization. It's the end of any hope. You know, in the previous chapters of Genesis, man's pretty rotten, right? We got man's violent. He's murdering. There's sexual immorality. Brother killing brother. But in the midst of all that darkness there was always a life. There was always a remnant. The family of Seth. Then the family of Shem. This is the chosen family of God. When you come to the end of chapter 11 I want you to understand that there's nobody left. He traced the line all the way down to Abraham. And it says Tara and his son Abraham. We learn in the book of Joshua who live in the land called Er of the Caldees. They are what? What does it say of Joshua? They are right in your sermon outline. They're idol worshipers. They're polytheistic. They're not followers of Yahweh. Abraham is it and he's not God. There is nobody left. The candle has gone out. Abraham's family. Tara and Abraham are from Er. Er was the center of moon worship. Tara means moon. This was a polytheistic pagan idol worshiping totally lost, totally separate from God family. Not only are they spiritually dead and completely but they're physically dead. Abraham and Sarah have left. No children. This line has hit a brick wall spiritually. It's hit a brick wall physically. It's over unless something extraordinary. Supernatural. Enteres in and changes this picture. And thus we come to the second city, the city of God. The Bible says that into the darkness God speaks and he plucks out one man. His name is Abram and he says I will make you a nation. I will make you great. I will make your name great. In the city of man back in in Babel they said we will make our name great. God says I will make your name great. You won't do it yourself. I'll do it. In Babel they said we'll build a city. God says I'll build the city. God says I'll build the nation. You can't even produce a sun. Whether it will let alone a city, let alone a nation. I'll build the city. I'll build a nation. I'll give you offspring. I'll make your name great. I will do it all. That's the complete character. There's discernment in the nutshell. The city of man is man's effort. Man's ingenuity, man's mind, man's gifts. The city of God is the divine, unmerited, merciful and gracious initiative of God to say I will do it. Because you cannot. I'll do it. Got it? So what's the extraordinary supernatural work of God? We call that the call of God. God called Abraham. Hebrews chapter 11 says, and he obeyed. God called. So we want to talk about this call. The first thing I want you to see is the necessity of the call. The call is necessary. Abram is from the best family on the earth, but he needs to be called. He needs to be spiritually made alive. They're spiritually dead. They're idol worshipers. Abram doesn't call out for God. God calls Abram. Abram isn't qualified for God to love him. God loves him and that qualifies him. The call of God is needful no matter how good you are. And the call of God is effective no matter how rotten you are. Now what is the call of God? It is a supernatural, extraordinary work of God in which he determines to transform you by sending his spirit to open your mind to see what henceforth or what would prior to that you've been unwilling to see. So that people have the experience of saying it makes sense. It's true. Call of God opens the mind. The call of God transforms the heart and the will because it's one thing to see that's something true. It's another thing to say. I submit to it. I submit to this. Call of God is a supernatural work that enters the life of a person where we can say they are regenerated. They are transformed. They've born again. God beckons them to come and they come. That's what Abram experience. Now by the way Abram, Abram, Abram, Abram is two different people. Abram means father. Abram means father of many. Abram means daddy. Abram means big daddy. Okay. Now you got that. But we'll call them either one but it's God's call of Abram that changes him and it's necessary to change you. You cannot build your way up to God. God must come down into your world and say you're a citizen of the city of man and you are too blind and too dumb to know that it is the way of death but I am going to pluck you out of it and make you alive. It's got absolutely nothing to do with your wisdom, your spirituality, your faith, your getting it, your it's a sovereign work of God and his mercy and his goodness to you that ought to leave you sitting there with your mouth wide open saying how could you be so good to me God. It's Paul on the road to Damascus going to kill Christians, not seeking God, not seeking to love God, going to end the way of the cross and God interrupts his life and says Paul your mind. It's it was call of God that's necessary. Let me say something. Our kids need to call of God, understand that. My children have had a tremendous blessing of a mother who loves Jesus their whole life. They've had the blessing of this church and that means Sunday school and vacation Bible school and camps and youth groups and all of families and people in this church of pray for them and love them and my kids have had Christian school their whole life and teachers and coaches and instructors and all that influence but guess what none of them can make them spiritually alive. You can you can take stone and you can chisel it into the figure you can you can press it you can chisel it you can make it life like but it's still dead who can make the stone become flesh and blood who can make a statue come to life to extraordinary supernatural work of God our children need it that's why parents bring their children in baptism and we ask them the question do you look in faith to the salvation of your children even as you do for your own if you look to Christ to do something in them that they can't accomplish and you can't accomplish call of God it's necessary necessary I want to ask if you've experienced it. Oh wait a minute pastor I've been in Episcopalian a long time I've got I've been a Presbyterian I've been a require right super natural work of God it's made you new made you humble not proud transformed you you know it came upon you from God he set his hand his love on you Henry the second was of you know a body king I suppose so many were absolute power corrupt us absolutely and back in the 1100s Henry the second had a partner in crime Thomas a Beckett Thomas a Beckett would drink and party and woman eyes and and live out this carefree life with Henry and then something unusual happened the Archbishop of Canterbury the head of the Church of England died and it was appointed to Henry to select a successor so he got a wild idea why don't I put you know a fox in the henhouse and he named the rascal Thomas a Beckett as the head of the Church of England now talk about church state problems they always have have a sailed rulers right I mean there's always some John the Baptist around running around trying to tell you to shape up your life if you're a ruler there's always some church there nagging at your side so he takes his drinking partner and makes them the head of the Church of England guess what happened when Thomas a Beckett was ordained into this high office God called him he was transformed he became devout and and holy and a grip by the gospel and he became the proverbial thorn in the flesh and the side of Henry Thomas a Beckett lived a outstanding life and it infuriated Henry he at one point probably in a drunken rage said who will deliver me from this medal some priest and a couple nights four nights heard that and they thought there's a way to score points with the king and they went to Canterbury Cathedral and they stabbed Thomas a Beckett to death at the altar and as he lay dying on the ground it's said that his last words were poor Henry you see the call of God made Thomas a Beckett like Jesus Jesus who could say Father forgive my murderers so Thomas could die with pity on his lips for his oppressor it's the call of God that makes us new no matter how good you are you need it no matter how bad you are it will change you it's necessary second I want you to see it's radical Abram was called away from everything that was secured him you must leave you or what by by the way our our most your translations probably say you know I want you to leave your country the old King James says Abram get the out so much better get the out get out get out from your idol worshiping culture get out from polytheism you'll be the only man on the earth who believes there's one God stand against the whole world get out get out from your family get out from the land get out from your culture get out from everything that makes you secure and I must have a complete surrender of your will Abram and we see this don't we God says get out and go and Abram says where and God says I have no intention of telling you Hebrews chapter 11 says Abram heard the call of God and he obeyed and he went out not what not knowing where he was going where do you want me to go and maybe I'll go go God says get out God says to Abraham I'll give I'll give you a son and Abraham says how and God says get out I'll make you a great nation get out how you gonna do that I don't even have one child I have no intention of telling you get out God says to Abraham take your son up on the mountain and kill him and Abraham says why God says start walking I have no intention of telling you why you see there's a temptation in our hearts to remain in control to not have a broken will to say God all right I've come to a place where I'm an acknowledged that you know more than I do so if you lay out your plans for me very clearly I'll consider them and if you show me exactly where this is taking me you know I'll lay it all and I'll make a decision and if it looks like a good idea I'll go and God says I have no intention I have no intention of making my plans clear to you get out and follow me I will not give you clarity I want you to trust without it I have no intention of showing you what to do you just follow me well I want to follow Jesus but you say I got this boyfriend and our activity so can I if I follow will I have to give up the what get out get out well I want to follow Jesus but I don't know is this gonna be like a hit on my bank account on my lifestyle I've got retirement plans I want to be able to travel the country and do whatever I want and I'm not sure what if God says I want you to stay in a church and work in a church I don't want you traveling all over the place in your retirement I've dreamed of that on my life that I have the freedom to do that what if God tells me I'm not free to do that so God before I commit tell me what you have in mind I have no intention of telling you God said get out surrender your will set your heart to do whatever I tell you to do not whether it makes sense to you
and so I have to ask this is a radical call of God if you've experienced the call of God it is a breaking of your will Jacob Jacob is the making progress in the city of man is he not he is becoming a great man of God by stealing his brother's birthday by scheming by tricking his father he's making progress he's using all his ingenuity and craft and all that life is working for Jacob until the day God comes in the middle of the night and does what smacks him down didn't he God smacks down Jacob knocks the stuffing out of him and keeps beating his head on the ground until Jacob says uncle and God says now I got somebody to work with how about you have you said uncle not my will but I will Lord not my way have done on way Lord have done on way have you have you've been willing to say I've got you know if cancer would advance the kingdom of God give me cancer and don't cure me
you want my child Lord it'll give you glory they're yours you want to take them to the the Arabian world use them they're yours you want my stuff you want my strength you want my health whatever I have have done on way I'm not saying it'll be easy it won't be easy it's counterintuitive when Jesus knelt in the garden what did he say I can't wait for the cross what did he say is there another way I will I will not mine so this call of God if necessary the supernatural work it's radical and last I want to see it's missional he says to Abram I will bless you so that you will be a blessing it's not it's not it doesn't end with you I'm blessing you for a purpose that you might be a blessing it's a missional call how many people say I want God in my life because he'll bless me and I want that to be the end that's what it's all about God comes in my life he blesses me says I am blessing you I'm blessing you to be a blessing and so you begin to realize that the kingdom of man is built on life is about me life has to work out for me it's about stuff for me comfort for me security for me and the kingdom of God is about how it would be vine name see key first the kingdom of God how am I to be a blessing and so I can't say hey you know I'm gonna have as many kids as as works for us as a couple and I'm gonna take a job that works best for us and I'm gonna live in a neighborhood that works best for us and I'm gonna put my kids in a school that works best for our family because that's the guiding value in my life instead you say the guiding value in my life is how am I going to be a blessing because the purpose and end of my life is to be a blessing not just to experience the blessing of God but to be a blessing and that's the call of God Chuck Coulson you know with Abraham God said the strip away all his security and say I want you to go out in a place that feels totally alone totally risky herb the Caldys was a sophisticated culture canon was the wilderness God said go out there trust me I'll make you a blessing what's the wilderness that God would send you into I don't want that I want comfort and I want I want God to maintain the safety of my life using the wrong place that has no intention I told you nobody would walk on this road of their own choice to be a nuts to be a Christian who would take your family like Christians of old and go to Africa knowing that all your family would probably die in a year or two because there were diseases for which there were no antibiotics and no natural protection who would do that that's absolutely ludicrous unless there's a city of God unless the supernatural God comes to convince you that whatever blessing I've given you is that you might be a conduit of blessing for the world so Chuck Coulson spends his time in prison as a water date convicted felon and when he walks out of prison he swears that the one place he will never visit again in his life as a prison he flies back to Virginia and can't sleep that night God wakes him up in the middle of the night and says Coulson get the out get the out of this comfortable bed get the out of this comfortable house get the out of this comfortable suburb and get back to prison and he's been there for the rest of his life not as an inmate but as the head of a ministry he flew back the next day and appeared at the gates of the prison in South Alabama the minister to prisoners and he's done it for the last 25 years and you know that in this country the recidivism rate the rate of return for convicts who are released from prison is 70 percent 70 percent go back in four states state governments have allowed prison fellowship to run a portion of their prison system and the recidivism rate where prison fellowship runs the prison system is five percent I will bless you so that you might be a blessing to the whole earth such as what we are in the midst of this world that's his God's appointment pastor I know of an extremely large church said they got to know an African-American fella down at a car wash this man's support like four or five kids didn't own the car wash he just worked there and then he found out the car wash was going out of business you know what the pastor did he bought the car wash and he gave it over to be run by this African-American man so they have employment for his family you think he wanted a car wash do you think he wanted the hassles and had his thousands of people go to his church he didn't have any vision for car washing he could care less about car washing but God said get out of your comfort zone I gave you that money use it for that provide that man in his family a job and when he's on his summer break where he doesn't preach very much do you know what he does in the afternoon he said I go down to wash cars one of the most famous pastors in America down there washing cars how God going to say I want you out of your comfort zone you said I raised my kids but God said I want you to adopt I'm not doing it I'm not doing it have thine own way lord have thine own way get out of your comfort zone God says I want you to move back towards your spouse in marriage one year ago five years ago ten years ago you let this relationship die you're still in it but you stopped giving a long time ago I can't go back lord it doesn't work it's too painful have thine own way lord I won't have thine own way lord which is it God says get the out can I adopt your grandchildren gonna pay for your grandchildren to go to Christian school I don't have enough money to make it through retirement myself good don't make it through retirement pay for your grandchildren to go to Christian school well then I'd have to get up every morning and say God if you don't feed me then I won't eat exactly exactly throw away your security and your safety they're called of God pastor nobody will do that yes tell your house live in a cheaper place so you have lots of money to give away pastor nobody's gonna do that I totally agree unless you experience an extraordinary supernatural work of God that sets your heart free may God by his spirit do just that so that when you leave this place today you have your fingers in your ears I want you to know that the city of God comes about entirely because of this Abram needed a son to be born by an extraordinary work of God and Abram needed to leave his father the bible says that a greater Abraham comes to build that new city because after all it's God who builds the city not Abram the greater Abraham left his father's throne and he was born of a virgin of the supernatural work of God he left his father's throne he left his security he left his well-being he left his culture he left his country he left everything he lost his father so that you could have him Jesus is the builder of that great city it's built on the foundation of his redemptive work put your fingers in your ears