It’s Your Turn to Move

It’s Your Turn to Move                                                      Kelly Durant  4-8-18

Genesis 13:12 Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent toward Sodom.

2. When I was a teen I use to love to play chess. I’d move a pawn then I’d say, “It’s your move”, then my friend would move a piece and say to me, “It’s your move”. Certain phrases you hear more than others in life and that one is a common one, and I have heard it maybe a few thousand times.

In other words, something happened, someone did something, and then you have to react to what was done. This is a basic in life, an ‘action’ happens, and then the ‘reaction’ must happen. You are a part of the action or reaction, depending upon the event, right? Either way, no one gets to stand still, even not moving at all is a decision, and in a game it means you lost by forfeiting what could have been at least a chance for something unexpectedly good to happen.

But just like in chess sometimes we make the wrong moves. We think we are watching out for ourselves but then we get surprised that because of what we did and where we went, by being self-protective, we may cause ourselves to end up losing. With chess you can play another game, but with life you only get this one and you have to move with God or you will lose much!

3. Today I will discuss moving, how many of you have ever moved from one city to another? From one country to another? I grew up in one city only until I was 16, and then with my driver’s license in hand, I drove to as many little towns nearby as I could. I wanted to discover what was out there in the world. At 18 I had gone to nearby states, and at 21, I moved away for 14 years to So. America to do mission work. In So. America my family and I moved a few dozen times between countries living in 5 different ones and in my life I have moved around probably 10 times more than your average person.

I think it is healthy to want to discover, to be curious, to want to move and grow to be at the stage where you need to be according to your age. There is a time for everything, a time to “go” and a time to “stay.” The trick is allowing God to guide you in where to go or where to stay because when you are not in tune with Him everything seems to go wrong.

I have known people, even I have experienced for myself, that have stayed when they should have gone (went), or went when they should have stayed! Do you know what I am talking about? Over time most all of us experience missed opportunities, we lose because we were either too anxious or too comfortable to move and do what God needed us to do and be where he wanted us.

4. Let’s look at the situation of the scripture today. Abram, or Abraham was a tent dweller and it seems that God chose Him to be an example to the rest of his descendants. He pleased God because He was willing to move where God wanted Him to move. He was a simple man that worshipped God, believed, and obeyed.

He is honored with the title of being the ‘father of faith’ and why? Because He would move when God said move! When God said ‘jump’, he asked ‘how high?! Genesis 12:1 Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee.

Did Abram go? Yes, he did! But before he went he had already had a life style of moving from one place to another in order to feed his flocks of hundreds of animals. He was familiar with the local land, but he was not familiar with what was in another country. When people go to other countries they are often shocked that practically no one can speak their language, and the food, music, habits, attitudes, and customs are all different like you are on another planet. This provokes a reaction on your part, will you copy and learn to fit in, or will you be a misfit, a special case that becomes isolated, condemned to live without connecting to the larger community. You grow or regress depending on your reaction.

5. So here we see Abram moved with God but before He moved far away he was sharing the land with those of his family and he wanted to be nice and give the best land, the bottom fertile land to Lot. How did that turn out for Lot?

Lot lived near the city of Sodom and that became a wicked city, full of violence and lust as most big cities are today. Big cities offer wealth and comfort but are they the best for us really? Lot stayed at Sodom despite the corruption, and he had enough faith, conviction, and purity, to not become a pagan worshipping, carnal, evil person like all those around him, but staying there did cost him. Today we know God’s judgments are overdue on many wicked cities around the world, and you had better be ready to get out when the calamities start to come.

You know the story. God told Lot to move, to “get out!” as Sodom was going to be quickly destroyed by fire. So Lot left with his family but all the goods he had worked for all those years stayed behind. What else did he lose? His wife! She was not as strong as he was in the faith and she repented that she was forced to go and she looked back. When God calls you to go, it is a horrible thing to look back!

6. So we have a terrible 3 word verse in the Bible to remind us to never look back and desire the things of this world when God has called you to move on with Him. Luke 17:32 Remember Lot's wife. She became a pillar of salt!

The problem with us as sinful human beings is we want to find a comfortable spot, make our nest there, and stay there so we can spoil ourselves and ‘be happy’ thinking we have made it in life. But God is not interested in our comfort, He is interested in how many souls we will win for Him! His mission is: Mark 16:15 15 And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. That is the mission of every Christian!

So from today we conclude that Abraham was always ready to move with God and he would go on the dangerous hillsides and go to the valleys as well, moving as he needed to. But Lot went to Sodom and stayed there the whole time and his roots prevented him from pulling out, and he should have pulled out long before he did. If he would have moved earlier, maybe he would have saved his wife from the vanity and comfort she had gotten so attached to. How many of you know people who came from poor places with practically nothing, but once they are here in America, they forget their humble roots and become vain, materialistic, and proud and act like they are better than everyone else? I hate that, and you?

7. So what is your next move? Is God calling you to serve Him and you have been resistant, or do you feel like you are in class still, learning His ways, that you are in a preparation phase? Every action provokes a reaction.

With these words shared with you today I am invoking a reaction from you! Should you go or should you stay? I am no one with any super powers or with psychic ability, nor do I presume a position as some false prophets to tell you what God wants you to do with your life, whether it is time for you to move or stay put. That decision is between you and God. But have you prayed really hard lately to for God to speak to you about what you should be doing with your life? What is important that you have neglected?

If you are alive and breathing, hearing and seeing, then you must recognize how God has been working with people ever since the beginning, ever since Genesis, and you must recognize He has been preparing you for something that is greater than what you have ever imagined. But you’ve got to move, with God.

8. God has great things for you if you are willing to move with Him. 1 Corinthians 2:9 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.

This verse, I understand it to be applicable not just for heaven, but for this life as well! I could talk to you for years of all of my adventures in So. America and as well of the shocking things I have done in the Salvation Army for 25 years in the worst neighborhoods of Atlanta and Miami, but this what God had for me and my family to do. The way The Salvation Army moves people is actually wise as it helps people to grow, to learn new things, to progress, and to not live in a routine.

But you may respond to my experience in life that what I did was me and that it is not your life, but that is my point, there is something out there unique for you. My life is a testimony of being faithful to move with God for over 40 years now, and I can tell you if I had not moved with Him I probably would be miserable and possibly dead!

9. The fact that Jesus rose from the dead and gave us a mission to “Go (you) into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature” requires a response. You can either start doing it locally today with the talents God gave you, or you could even become a missionary or Salvation Army Officer to obey as far as God can take you. But whatever you do, don’t look back! It’s your turn to move.

Nothing we hear from the word of God is in vain, it has a purpose. It’s like the seed planted, it will either do nothing, grow, or it will die out and God leaves what it produces in your hands, in your free will!

Choose the high ground like Abraham, don’t get stuck in the low ground like Lot. Be mobile, be ready to go, or ready to stay for Jesus. Pray now and ask God to show you His will for you and your life. Remember for each person what God has for you is very different, but you will only find peace if you allow God to move you. Let God decide where to place you, like in a cosmic chess game, and His move for you will bring you an amazing life and eternal rewards in the Kingdom of God!