By This All Will Know: From Abraham to Antioch

Claude Houde: My title this morning is, By This All Will Know: From Abraham to Antioch. By This All Will Know: From Abraham to Antioch. Unusual title, but I'm believing that by the end of these few minutes, not only will it make sense, but by the grace of God and the anointing of his spirit, that it will have an impact on your life. Jesus said in John 13, verse 34 and 35, "A new commandment I give to you that you love one another as I have loved you, by this all will know..." Would you say out loud with me, by this all will know.

Congregation: By this all will know.

Claude Houde: By this all will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. I want you to turn with me to Genesis chapter 12. Genesis chapter 12. Everyone please turn with me to Genesis chapter 12. Share your Bible with the person next to you if they don't seem to have a Bible. I want you to be able to see the word of God this morning. We will look at this principle of, by this all will know, a new commandment Jesus gives us from Abraham all the way to the church of Antioch. Abraham over 2000 years before Christ and the resurrection and the birth of the church and the church of Antioch. But Jesus speaks of the definite distinguishing mark, the ultimate differential, the only true identifier and passport of a citizen of the kingdom of God as the love that we have for one another.

Now, this morning we will look at Abraham as our model of faith, as our model of faith because the scripture tells us to look to Abraham. In the New Covenant, in the epistle of Romans, when Paul writes a letter to the Roman, to the New Covenant church, he calls us to look to the faith of Abraham. Abraham is our model of faith. Romans chapter four, verse 16, 17, 20, 21, I'm going to read it for you. Therefore, it is of faith that it might be according to the grace that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only of those who are of the law, but those who are of the faith of Abraham who is the father of us all, of many nations.

I have made you a father of many nations in the presence of him whom he believed, God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did. Abraham did not waiver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God. Being fully convinced that what God has promised, he is able to perform. Faith that gives life to what is dead and call into existence what does not exist yet being fully persuaded that what God has promised, he is able to perform. No wonder the disciples cried out. This is our model. This is God's intent for our faith in him. This is what God has in mind for your faith. So much more than salvation faith or knowledge faith or being in church faith, but actually every believer walking in that dimension of calling to life what was dead.

Calling into existence what did not exist, fully persuaded that what God has promised, he is faithful to accomplish it. No wonder the disciples cried out, "Oh Jesus, increase our faith." How many of you are crying out this morning, "Lord increase my faith?" Because without faith, it is impossible even to please him. Hebrew 11:6, without faith, it is impossible to please him, there can be scripture, there could be knowledge, there could be church attendance, there could be past testimonies, there can be doctrine and knowledge, but unless today faith is in your heart, vibrant faith, confidence, trust, bold, audacious, trust in him, it is impossible to please him. Without faith, it's impossible to please him. Without faith, we are prisoners. We have faith scriptures that teaches us we are prisoners.

Without faith, we're prisoners of legalism or are prisoners of our tradition, prisoners of our past failures or even our past successes can lock us and rob us of what God wants to do today. Without faith, we're prisoners of the measure we are known of God, as God always wants, as we sang today so anointedly and I believe directed by the Holy Spirit, as God always wants us to go deeper in him, without faith, we're incapable. It's impossible to possess. Hebrews 11:2, it is by faith that the elders possessed, that they acquired a good testimony. Without faith, there's no peace. The fruit of the spirit is faith and in peace and in love in joy and in self-control, without faith, we can't conquer our past. Without faith, we forget that our past has no future.

Say that to somebody next to you. I thought I was very deep. Say that to somebody next to you. I want you to say to somebody next to you, your past has no future. Say that to somebody please.

Congregation: Your past has no future.

Claude Houde: Isaiah 51, one and two, tells us, Abraham is our model. Listen, freeing us from our past. Isaiah 51, one and two. Listen to me you who follow after righteousness, you who seek the Lord... Anyone here following after righteousness and seeking the Lord? Seek righteousness and seek the Lord, look to the rock from which you were hewn. Look to Abraham your father and to the hole of the pit from which you were dug out of. For I called him alone. I called him when he was alone and I blessed him and I increased him.

I'm here, I had on my heart this week to say, I preached this last week at our church and I had all my heart all week in prayer to speak to somebody who feels alone. I want to say, somebody who feels that your past is too much you can't be dug out of that pit. Maybe it was a pit of addiction or depression or oppression, pit of past mistakes or failures. A pit of neglect or abuse. You feel abandoned. You feel overwhelmed. I want his voice to ring to your heart, reach a depth of your soul this morning. He is calling you and he will bless you and he will multiply you. Hell has not created a pit that God can't dig you out of. Hell has no pits he can't dig you out of. And earth has no sorrow that heaven can't heal.

A word for those who feel alone, you say, "I'm alone. I've gone through a divorce and I feel so alone. I feel so abandoned." He is calling you. He will bless you. He will and still can and will multiply you. I'm a single mother. I'm a single father. I feel so alone sometimes, so helpless. He has called you. He will bless you. He will multiply you. I'm single. I'm single. I've been to 15 of my friends' weddings. I am single. I'm single. Sometimes I feel so alone, it almost pushes me over the edge to throw away the whole thing. He has called you, he will bless you and he will multiply you. Hold onto him. We look to Abraham. We'll look at three elements of his faith this morning. By this all will know from Abraham to Antioch.

And when we look at Genesis chapter 12, we look at what we would call the refusal of his faith. Now when we speak of faith, we often talk rightly so of things we accept. We accept Christ, we accept his love. We accept his grace. We accept his will for our lives, but there is a definite, there is a fundamental refusal to our faith. In Genesis chapter 12, verse one to three, we have the calling. Roman says, look to him. Walk in the steps of Abraham. By this, all will know from Abraham to Antioch. Genesis chapter 12, verse one to three. Now the Lord had said to Abraham, "Get out of your country from your family and from your father's house to a land that I will show you and I will make you a great nation.

I will bless you and make your name great, and you shall be a blessing and I will bless those who bless you and I will curse him who curses you. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." There's a refusal to great faith. There's a refusal to our faith. If we are to call to life what was dead, and if we are to call to existence what does not exist, if we are to live in a dimension that by this, they shall know that we are his true disciples, there's a refusal of the very heart of true faith. In this calling, there's a refusal that becomes from Abraham's refusal to you and I. It is faith that says, I refuse to be limited by my background, my context or my culture. Get out of your country.

We honor certain aspects of culture, but I will not be limited to my background, I will not be limited. And I don't know what your background is, but this was essential to me at age 17 when I came to Christ and it's just essential at 55. Now, all these years later, I come from four generations of men. My family, my country, my background is alcoholics and criminals and liars and adulterers and cheaters and addicts and men that break every promise and ruin their lives and the lives of the ones around them. And when I came to Christ, I walked into this knowledge and understanding, I refused to die in that place. God calls me to come out of that into his will. Say yes.

I refuse to be limited to what I have seen. He says, "No, no, look up. Lift up your eyes to a place that I will show you." Something needs to rise up in your heart this morning. I refuse to be limited no matter how great it has been. I refuse to be limited to the experience I have with God, to the measure I have now. I refuse to be limited to what I see in my life, in my children, in my circumstances, in what is happening, in my health. I refuse to be limited to what I see. Lift up your eyes, I will show you. I refuse. I refuse to be limited. I refuse to be limited to what my name, my identity had been. I will make your name great. It is not a matter of pride and you'll make your name known. You'll be on Entertainment Tonight, Lifestyle, The Rich and Famous. It's not about getting your name on a stone.

It's not about that. It is about your identity. Your identity. You will not be limited to what your name has been. It doesn't matter what your name has been, your identity is in Christ now. I have plans for your life. He who is approved by Christ has nothing to prove. I'm not going to be limited to my... I refuse to be limited by my enemies. What has been my enemy? The addiction has been my enemy. This pattern of my life has been my enemy. This wound in my spirit has been my enemy. I refuse to be limited by enemies. God says, "I will bless those who bless you, curse those who curse you." It is Old Testament language for God to say, your battles have become my battles. Your enemies have become my enemies. Walk with me. I will fight your battles until every enemy has fallen. Say, yes please.

Congregation: Yes please.

Claude Houde: I refuse to be limited to my father's house. Come out of your father's house to the place that I will show you. Now, to fully understand the impact of that calling, you need to go just a previous chapter. You need to go just a little bit before that in chapter 11 when there's actually what we... This is what the Christians call the genealogy chapters. You know when at January you start a Bible reading plan and you got behind in July or August. You say, "Man, I'm behind." You get to Leviticus or you get to Genesis 11 and you skip right over to get back into... How many of you have done that? Raise your hand as we sing, Just As I Am. Now there's something important to catch to full impact in Genesis 12 is, come out of your father's house.

But when you look at Genesis 11, you have in verse 31, and Terah took his son, Abraham, his grandson, Lot, and his daughter-in-law, Sarai, his son's wife. And they went out with him from Ur of Chaldea to go to the land of Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they stopped there, they dwelt there. And actually verse 32 of chapter 11 says, and Terah, Abraham's father, Terah died in Haran. Please understand the key words. Terah is Abraham's father. Joshua chapter 24 tells us that he was following other gods. And a call came to get out of the land of Ur of Chaldea, which speaks of their... it was their land of security. Everything they had known. It was the known. It was the secure land in their call to a land of promise.

Canaan for every one of us, speaks of the land of promise, of the fullness of our destiny, the prophetic fulfillment of what God has prepared, the abundant life God has prepared for all of us. And we know just from the geography of it, that it was a long journey and they journeyed two third of the journey. And we know a little bit, just glimpses from the previous chapters. It was a hard journey. They're surrounded by enemies. There was a mourning that took place, somebody died, Lot's father died and Abraham takes over as his father, as his protector. We don't know all the reasons, but they stop in a place called Haran. And the place Haran, in the Hebrew speaks of... it illiterately means the dried up mountain of the parched land or literally the place of small fruit.

They are called to a place of abundance. They are called to a place of promise. They are called to a place of destiny, but they stop in a place of small fruit. Now, I don't believe after 30 some years of pastorate, I don't believe that they meant to stay there. I don't believe that they purposed to stay. I'm going to be content with small fruit in my life. I'll never reach the land of promise. I'll just content myself with this. I'll live a small life in a place of small fruit. I believe it is more insidious than that. I believe the devil is more conniving than that. Maybe they stopped and said, "Well, I'm just taking a few steps back." Maybe they were comparing themselves with before or with someone else. I've seen Christians for over 30 years in one area of their lives, just stop. Just content themselves in a place of small fruit.

But the voice of God rings to Abraham and to you and to me calling you to a holy refusal. Come out of your father's house. Come out of the place of small fruit. I want to bring you into my abundance. Now when you study the genealogies, what is startling and striking is that when we do the genealogies, we realize that even if chapter 11 tells us that his father died there, we realize that Abraham was alive when the call came. He had to come out of that comfort. He had to come out... There was something in his spirit that said, "I'm not going to die in the place of small fruit." You know the place of small fruit in our lives today. Small love, small life, small commitments, small conquest and crowns. Small inspiration and small investment on my part. Small impact, small risks, small rewards, small aspirations, small accomplishments, small sacrifices, small spiritual successes, small brokenness.

You don't allow the brokenness of God to be done in you. Now, small brokenness, small breakthroughs. Small generosity, small glory to God. Small dreams, small destinies. Small repentance, small resurrection and restoration. Small transformation, small testimony. Small in sanctification, small in the supernatural. Small in forgiveness, small fire, small favor, small faith. Something has been rising in me all my Christian life. And I pray today for a powerful anointing of the Spirit on me again, on you again to rise up and say, I will not die. I refuse to die in a place of small fruit. I'm coming out of my father's house. Say yes, please.

Say to somebody next to you, I'm coming out. Say that to somebody next to you.

Congregation: I'm coming out.

Claude Houde: This is a lifestyle. This is a heart cry. You have to understand for us even in Quebec, in ministry as a pastor, it's hard for you to fathom this, but the average evangelical church in our nation, even if, say, just a few hours away in Canada, the French nation of Quebec on the average age, number of years of the church is about 67 years of existence, but the average attendance is 70 people. 97% of our churches are under 100 people. It is a mentality of smallness. When we come and say, by the grace of God, we began with 40 people, and there's over 4,000 today and we helped to plan 40 churches. It is something that was birthed in our heart to say, I refuse to die in the place of small fruit.

And I remember years ago, beginning my ministry, just a few years, I was having... After a long fast, I was having breakfast a few weeks after with a pastor friend of mine and we were having coffee and what he was doing was complaining about the movement of churches. And then, it's like this and it's like that, and nothing moves and nothing changes. And I was doing it with him. "Oh yeah, you're right. And this is wrong, and this is wrong, and this is wrong." And as we came out of the restaurant, we're walking on a sidewalk and the Holy Spirit hit me, I was walking on the sidewalk and I saw myself five or 10 years before having the same conversation with him. Just complaining and moaning, it's small and it's this, and it's that. And as I was walking, I felt so convicted right there on the street. He was a bit startled.

We're walking on the street and I stop on a sidewalk and I said, "You know what, Dan, five years ago we were on this sidewalk having these talks. I'm tired of it." In words of Abraham, "I'm not going to die in the place of small fruit." I told him, "You know what? I'm changing sidewalks. I'm changing sidewalks." And he said, "I'm going with you. I'm going with you." I spoke this to our church a few weeks after and there's a man, an engineer from our church who was doing construction in the city on bridges and he mounted a piece of sidewalk on a plaque and he came in and it says on it, "I'm changing sidewalks. I am not dying in a place of small fruit." Right now, if you come to Montreal, anytime come into my office, walk in, the first thing you'll see is a piece of sidewalk.

I pray someone here hears the voice of God today and says, "Oh God, Lord Jesus, today, July 2017, I'm changing sidewalks. I want to go in a place of fruit. Say yes, please. That's the refusal. Now listen carefully. Most of us at some point had that burning desire for more of God. Everything we sang, everything everybody sang, and the choir sang this morning, deeper and more and more God, more of him. I'm not voluntarily, I'm not willingly dying in a place of small fruit. But in the next step in his journey, in the next principle from Abraham's to Antioch, Abraham models for us, this could change your life, and identify one of the worst and most devastating faith killer and how to overcome it and protect and increase our faith.

We were in Genesis chapter 12, if you turn your page to Genesis chapter 13, here's the context. Abraham obeyed. Abraham came out of the place of small fruit. And he's walking with God step by step. Look up here for a second. Genesis 13 will still be there. Look up here for a second. I want to get you to context. And he... chapter... verse one to five. And the Bible says he's building altars. He's calling on God and he's trusting God and God is blessing him in the going and he has become a man of influence. He's become a blessed man. He has influence. He has an army, but we'll hear of his army in a second. He has an army. He has power. He was a protector and he was a benefactor to his nephew, Lot.

His father died and he took him under his wing and he allowed him to grow. He probably started him out. And Lot is being blessed, and Lot is growing and progressing and prospering, and so is Abraham. And they're walking together on their way to the promised land, on their way to where God called them to be. And in verse 14 of chapter 13, in verse five, excuse me, verse five, and Lot also who went with Abraham, had flocks and herds and tents. Now the land was not able to support them that they might dwell together for their possessions were so great, and so they could not dwell together. Don't miss verse seven. Now there was strife between the herdsmen of Abraham's livestock and the herdsmen of Lot's livestock, and the Canaanites and the Perizzites were all around in the land.

Look up for a second. This is a prophetic picture. This is an actual, this is a picture. You have a picture of leaders, of the shepherds, Lot's shepherds and Abraham's shepherd. You have a picture of leaders in conflict warring against one another inside as they are surrounded by enemies. These are pictures of the modern church. One church against the other and one church splitting and people inside the church and one against the other and the strife that is on one side and on the other while we are... Well, our fight is not supposed to be inside, it's not supposed to be with one another. Our fight is supposed to be against sin and against darkness and against the devil and against activities of hell. Our fight is to be against injustice and famine in the world.

And our fight is supposed to be together against darkness, one light together in the cities. Say yes please.

Congregation: Yes please.

Claude Houde: And here's the crux. Here's the moment. There was strife between them. And Abraham, verse eight, said to Lot... There was a refusal to Abraham's faith, but watch this. There's a release. There's a release to his faith. There's faith from Abraham to Antioch. By this they shall know, his faith put a release. Verse eight. So Abraham said to Lot, "Please let there be no strife between you and me and between my herdsman and your herdsman for we are brothers." Would you say out loud with me, for we are brothers.

Congregation: For we are brothers.

Claude Houde: Please understand the context. Just the history, just by the culture, the history and the culture, the Hebraic and Judaic culture where the elder is to be honored, where the elder is to be respected, where the elder is to have preeminence and you always have to step back for the elders. This conversation should not even have happened. Automatically, Lot should have just said, "Well, uh, there's strife between... Oh, let me... you take... You take the land, you take the..." And Abraham is so conscious, he's so aware of the power of impartation. He says, "You and me, the way... Lot, you and I, how we behave with each other will have impact. Let there not be strife between you and me, my shepherds and your shepherds.

There's power of impartation. I want to say to every married couple, every family, every mom, every dad, how you deal with your strife, how you deal with conflict, whether you are forgiving or an unforgiving, will have great impartation. Will have great influence over everybody you touch. Say to somebody next to you, you're very contagious. Say that to somebody next to you please.

Congregation: You're very contagious.

Claude Houde: There's a power of impartation. And on a human standpoint and scale, just logical and just wisdom, Abraham is the man with the power. Abraham is the man with influence. Abraham is the father with the army. He has soldiers. In that chapter, he'll arm 318 of them. He has the power. He can wipe out Lot with the back of his hand. And you can hear, it's not in the text, but I've been pastoring for over 35 years, so you can read the voices, what's going on around. You can see, you can hear people saying, the herdsmen saying to Abraham, What are you saying? Well, how dare he after everything you've done for him, how generous you've been? He's wrong. Don't let him step over you. Don't let him... Oh, you're about to lose..."

I'll tell you this, Abraham was not so concerned about losing face on the human level. He was more concerned about losing the face of God over his life. Many of us have been at moments where to save face, we're losing the face of God. Let there be no strife among us. There's something higher. There's a higher purpose to my life. Let there be no strife. We are brothers. I have a testimony to give. I have to keep the anointing of God on my life. We have a message. We have a name we will give to the nation. By this all will know. By the love that we have for one another, the name will become the name that will change the world. Say yes please.

Congregation: Yes please.

Claude Houde: Let there be no strife between us. We are brothers. Let there be no strife between us. We are brothers. I remember a few years ago being with Pastor Carter in the city of France in a theater called the Bataclan in Paris. And you might remember that name because it was where the terrorist struck and massacred 80 people, 130 people over about three hours were massacred. 80 people in the very place in the year before. The year before I was preaching there, I was interpreting for Pastor Carter and we were sharing in preaching to thousands of Christians in a crowd. It was one of the first times that that theater, that mythic theater in Paris had the permission to have Christians and we were praying... had allowed Christians to be there.

And I remember one night Pastor Carter preached amazing words. I remember one night I felt to call the Christians that were there from 30 denominations. My message was a prophetic call to supernatural love and unity. And it struck me when I sat there watching the news in horror that on the very place, very stage, very backed rooms, everywhere where we preached unity and where believers were called to come in to be the voice of peace to the nation, hell itself came and struck and shed blood. And there was article after article that spoke of the Bataclan generation. A generation where there'll be hatred. Generation where there will be cynicism with one another, divided nations, nations becoming more and more divided.

And in the midst of all these voices, and in the midst of all these divisions, God is calling the church of Jesus Christ. You in this city, in this city, in this city to be within the church, a city, a people who will speak of a love, who will live out a love, a forgiveness, a capacity to love, a capacity to respect, a capacity to let go of strife that is supernatural and will become the anointing that will reveal you to this city and to this world and to these nations. Say yes please.

Congregation: Yes please.

Claude Houde: There's an increase... say out loud with me. There's an increase in the release.

Congregation: There's an increase in the release.

Claude Houde: There's an increase in the release. Abraham's got all these voices, "How do you let him do that?" And they're all coming and he's not worried about these voices. I'm waiting for another voice. What is God saying to me? What is God saying to me? Releasing. Because Abraham in the human standpoint seemed to be losing. Some of you know the rest of the text. Read it at home. It's a homework. Read it at home. He says, "You go. Let not there be strife among us. We're brothers. Take the land that you want." And Lot takes the land that appeared good to him. The fertile land, the land that seemed to be where he's got to have more prosperity.

And Abraham turns and walks toward the land that looks dry, that looks like he's lost, that looked like on a human level, he's lost. But listen to what God says to him. Listen to God's response. Verse 14, and the Lord said to Abraham after he separated from Lot, "Lift up your eyes now and look to the place from where you are, North, South, East and West, for all the land..." Say, all the land. "All the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever. And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth. And if a man can count the dust of the earth, then your descendens also could be numbered. Arise, walk in the land through its length and its width, for I give it to you."

And Abraham moved his tent and went and dwelled and built there an altar to the Lord. As Abraham released and as you walk in this release from Abraham to Antioch, great faith refuses and great faith releases, releases hurts, offenses, failures, what we perceive as injustices, abuses, disappointments, questions without answers, betrayals. As we day-to-day release ancestral racial tensions, present racial tensions. I grew up to be told that, they grew up to be told about us that, as we release, that there'd be no strife. We are brothers. As we release, the voice of God says everything will increase. The clarity of your vision will increase. Lift up your eyes from the place you have been. You know why? Because bitterness and unforgiveness makes us blind.

It blinds us to the good things God is doing. It blinds us to the qualities of the people around us. It blinds us to our own wrongs and mistakes, in the conflicts. We are blinded. Our own responsibilities, we never learn. We never see them. It blinds us to destructive patterns in our own lives that ruins relationship. It blinds us to new, life-giving relationships God would want to give us because now we've become cold and hardened. It is the release that opens our eyes to see with clarity. It increases clarity. It increases communication. And the blessing shall be on you and your family and your descendants from generations to generations because bitterness and unforgiveness poisons, diminishes, and even eradicates our power to communicate faith to our children or people around us.

Congregation: We got to be born again. We got to be born again.

Claude Houde: Yes. Yes sister.

Congregation: Hallelujah.

Claude Houde: When you're experiencing your born again experience and you're living in faith, what will kill your capacity to communicate faith to your children is when you're trying to do it with bitterness in your own heart. Children that grew up in Christian homes where the songs were sang and the great declarations of faith were repeated, but bitterness was in their heart, strife, criticism, attack against him or her or family or the church, have become desensitized, become hardened to the gospel and to the message. I want to give a very, very sound advice to every parent. I'm a parent now and a grandparent. You want to have a flow of communication of your faith to your children.

Ask God everyday, Lord, release bitterness, release anything from my heart. Put a guard at my lips and in my heart that when I speak of you, when I speak of your people, when I speak of your house, when I speak of your servants, I'll lift up the name of Christ. It will increase clarity. It will increase communication. It will increase concrete fulfillment and more than mere confession. All this land that I've promised you I will give you because bitterness and unforgiveness results in unclaimed treasures and blessing, unclaimed destinies, unfulfilled promises that God had planned and prepared for you that never seem to materialize. The promise is there, but it's never possessed.

Bitterness prevents you from laying hold of what God has for you. As a pastor and shepherd and a developer of men and women of God, mentor, we have a Bible school with over 300 students. I've seen some of the greatest callings in ministry and in the church. Some great destinies be aborted when bitterness is allowed to stay. Unclaimed treasures. Recently I was reading... Every month of July, 1st of July in Quebec, the Revenue Canada, which is like your IRS, they publish in a newspaper a list of unclaimed money. It's people that had heritages, they had money in the bank, they had savings and they... $16 million in six months in unclaimed funds, wills, successions, investment, bonds, I always check to see if my name is there just in case too.

It never has in 50 years. But what you have, you have, and you know about it. When I was looking at this, the Spirit of the Lord just moved me. I was looking at all these treasures that are unclaimed and something came so powerfully in my spirit as if God was saying, "You don't realize through bitterness, how many spiritual unclaimed blessing, how many things are left on the shelves of God's provision and God's plan and destiny. I say today, release them and you will be free, release it and you will be free. Let there be no strife. We are brothers.

It increases in so many aspects of our life, but it will increase in our capacity for compassion and conquest. Turn the page again to Genesis 14. And then you have Abraham that released his nephew, Lot, calls him his brother. After everything he had done for him, he released him and they're walking each in their way. And Lot went close to Sodom and Gomorrah and there was back in those days, nothing is new. There were bands of terrorists who would go around killing people and kidnapping people. From ISIS to Boko Haram, nothing's new. So there's a band of terrorists that kidnapped Lot, his nephew. They kidnap him in Genesis 14, him, his family, everything he owns.

And in verse 13 of Genesis 14, we read, then one who had escaped came and told Abraham about his nephew Lot. Verse 14. Now when Abraham heard that his brother was taken captive, he... Stop a second. Look up, what would you have done? What would you have said? "Huh, him after everything he's done to me? I hate to say I told you so, but you wanted to go to Sodom, you got Sodom. After everything we've done. After everything... I'm not going to put myself in danger. I'm not going to..." No. You know what he did? The Bible says as soon as he heard, he armed 318 of his best soldiers and went after to free the one who had offended him, to free his brother and to go and bring back and fight and even this, again, impartation.

Do you think he would have been able to convince 318 of his servants who had been witnesses to this fight and to this strife if he had been bitter for all the time in between? You think he would have convinced them to risk their life for others? We lose our capacity to... even ourselves, we become desensitized. We become completely somebody who's bitter and somebody who is in his offense. And the Bible says, it's likened beyond the bars of a dungeon. You become self-centered. All you see is what was done to you. You walk right by needs all around you, ways that God would want to use you. You don't see anything. If bitterness had had any root in Abraham, he would not have been able to say, "What, I am called to free him. Let's go. 318 of us, we're going to save my nephew. My brother, Lot."

And when he brought him back he was again, he was again preparing. He was announcing to the world, a people that would bear his name, a people that would bear the name that is above every name, a people that will bear a name. I shall make your name great, a people that will be distinguished by their love in cities of hatred. They will love in cities of past bitterness, they will release. In cities of tearing down, they will intercede and love and be kind and by this love they shall know, all will know that we are true disciples in Jesus' name. We have to release.

From Antioch, by this all will know. From Antioch, turn now, last verse together, go all the way. You're going 2000 years later, but to Acts chapter 11. Please everybody, let me hear the pages. Acts chapter 11. In this age of phones and tablets and I don't know what, I don't hear pages anymore. Turn the pages. I'm hoping you're still going there. Acts 11. Now God said to Abraham, "I will make your name great, and in that name you'll be a blessing to all the families of the earth." While you're turning to Acts 11, he said, "I will bless you. Your descendants will be as the stars of the heaven, the sand which is on the seashore, and your descendants shall possess the gate of the enemies.

In your seed, all the nations of the earth shall be blessed because you have refused to dine in a place of small fruit, because you release that there be no strife among us. We are brothers. I will make your name great and your descendants will be as the sands on the seashore." That's the human descendants that will come unto faith, but they will be as the stars of the heaven, as human beings with eternal destinies. That's us. That's people of God. A people who will bless all the families of the earth. Now, religions, movements, philosophies, empires conquer by force. They conquer by fear. They conquer by fierceness. They conquer for their own fortunes.

But God said to Abraham, "In you and in your seed, a name will rise and this name will build families and become a family, the family of God. A family of families that will bless and touch all the families of the earth." And this message is modeled by Abraham and Jesus comes and fulfills every promise and dies and resurrects. And the church is born from Abraham. And Jesus said, by this, there's new commandments, totally new, there'll be a new, not race in a sense of racial, but there will be a new kind of human beings on the earth. There will be children of God, there will be Christians and they will be modeling my heart and my desire and my purposes for the nations, reconciliation and peace and love and the capacity for forgiveness and love and in every relationship that is totally supernational and beyond any capacity human beings can attain outside of a relationship with Christ.

And we get to the church of Antioch and we read this in the book of... It's one of the first churches we read about, but in Acts 11, and if you read in verse 19, now those who were scattered after the persecution that arose and Stephen traveled and they came to the city of... No. After the persecution that arose over Stephen, they traveled and went to Antioch preaching the word to no one but the Jews only. But some of them were men from Cyrus and Cyrene and they came to Antioch and they also spoke to the Greeks preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them. Great numbers believed and turned to the Lord. The news of these things came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem and they sent out Barnabas to go as far as Antioch.

And when he came and had seen the grace of God, he was glad and encouraged them all that with purpose of heart, that they should continue with the Lord. For he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith and great many people were added to the church. Look up for a second. There's a great... When the church is birthed, the Holy Spirit is poured out and healings are taking place and thousands being converted, and there's a radical terrorist by the name of Saul of Tarsus, a religious, radical terrorist, who is persecuting Christians, putting them to death. And to a point where in Jerusalem it comes to a moment of horror where a man of God, Stephen is arrested and they stoned, they put him to death. I've actually once witnessed a stoning in Africa, I never forgot it. It just stayed with me, the horror of it.

And they stoned Stephen in front of this man breathing murder and revenge, Saul of Tarsus. And as they did, they take the blood soak garments of Stephen and they bring it at the feet of Saul of Tarsus. And you would think that would put him to his knees and he would say, "What am I doing?" No, no. The Bible says he's galvanized by it. The next verse, he's breathing murder against the church. So the church in Jerusalem is scattered. They lose everything. In our modern terms, listen to me, they become migrants. They become immigrants. They're going to a different place, they have nothing. They've lost everything they had. So they end up in Antioch, Christians coming together in Antioch.

And as the Christians come together in Antioch, the grace of God is so strong and the love of God is so strong in them that they begin to pray together and they gather and they begin to share their faith. And some of them are sharing only with Jews as they were always taught that the spirit of God is breaking down every barrier. So now they're sharing with Greeks and many are getting saved. And the Bible says that there's a lot of things that today we'd say, "Well, this is the name. This is the name. This is the gospel. This is a real church." Because there's a crowd. People are saved. There's great joy. If you read just the verses around, there's mercy, they're taking an offering for missions as we took this morning because there was a famine and there's great teaching and preaching. And the Bible says even in the next chapter that Apollos, and teachers, and prophets.

So there's all this going on great, but at the same... So all this taking place and it came to the... we just read it, came to the ears of the leaders of the church in Jerusalem and the leaders of the church in Jerusalem sent Barnabas, he was a good man full of the Holy Spirit, but to go and to verify, to authenticate, is this truly the church of Christ? Is this truly the church of Jesus? Is this the name? Is this the name that will change the world? Is this real? Because already at this time you have false churches, false prophets, false teachers, false salvations, so they send him. When he's coming in, he's impressed. The hand of God is upon them. There's great salvation, great healing, great advancement, mercy, preaching, teaching.

So he encourages them. He says, "Go, continue to stay firm in the Lord. I'll be back." And now he has to go and he needs to get the ultimate test. He needs to get the, by this, they shall know. So he goes to the city of Tarsus because the persecutor, the murdering persecutor became a Christian. At first the disciples would not believe it, but finally he's coming in. So he goes to Tarsus and he takes Saul of Tarsus and he says, "Come with me. We're going..." It was now the apostle Paul, new convert Paul. "Now we are going on a journey together." I don't know at what points Barnabas told him where they were going. I don't know at what point he told him. That's going to be one of the first DVDs I get in heaven when I...

Because he's going and he's so honored maybe to be with Barnabas and he's telling his testimony and Paul was very, very wounded by the hurt. All his life, 30 years later in some of the epistles, he will write with great pain what he had done to Christians. I, the worst of sinners, I persecuted the church. It's something that only the grace of God could lift off him. But he's walking with Barnabas and I don't know how close they were getting to the city, but eventually Paul says, "And where are we going? " "We're going to the church of Antioch." And you could see, Paul saying, "No Barnabas, no, don't take me there. This is the people that I hurt. This is the people that lost everything because of me. This is the people I persecuted. Some of them are Stephen's family, do you understand? They stoned him. I was so blind. I was so filled with hatred.

I was so... They brought us. His family will be there. Please don't take me there." "No, come with me. We have something greater in ourselves where I have eternal purpose here. We have to determine if this is the name, if this is the name, if this is the name, if this is the people that will change the world. If this is the people who will carry the name of God to the nations all the way to the end of times in 2017, in the nations that are filled with strife and anger and rising divisions in the nations." So they come in and I don't know, you have to imagine it when they come in and what a Sunday morning.

The Bible says that Antioch says, this is my privilege, a bit like Patrick said this morning, "It is my privilege this morning to invite our guest to come and speak. We're so happy to have him with us. Please open your heart and can welcome please, brother, formerly Saul of Tarsus, now our brother Paul. Please welcome him warmly." It wasn't only a matter of grinding your teeth and enduring him for one Sunday, the Bible says that they taught for a whole year. He became part of the body with them. And this next verse has to be extremely important. God said to Abraham... as the musicians come, please, we'll sing, What a Wonderful Name. That beautiful song by which we began. The Bible says that when he had found him, he brought him, verse 26, to Antioch. So it was that for a whole year they taught a great many people.

And it was in Antioch that for the first time they were named Christians like Christ. Before that they're disciples. And most commentaries believe that it was actually the unsaved, the secular people of the city that said, when they saw the capacity for forgiveness, when they saw the capacity for people who had hurt each other and had been hurt and wounded with such different racial backgrounds and religious backgrounds and every nationality and every racist prejudice possible rooted so deeply in them being uprooted, seeing them being freed from it. And when the unsaved people would walk by the gathering and see the former persecutor with tears in his eyes speaking to people he had persecuted and each other calling themselves brother, living out let there be no strife among us, we are brothers.

Seeing this for the first time, they called them Christian. God said, that's my name now. That's the name of my people in the nations. When purposes are stronger than our pasts, than your past, then we're Christians. When the offering of obedience in your life is greater than the offenses, I've been offended but I want to glorify God more. So God release this. I release this to you and free me. When forgiveness is stronger than fear, when my gospel is more important than the grievances, when my spiritual testimony is more important than society's tensions. When my light shines in love, we will be called Christians.

We will become a blessing to every city, every family, every place of work, every city, and every nation of the world. And it starts right where we live. Last week I was... we have different ministries in our church as you do. And of the ministries is the ministry to group of... we called it, well, it's a ministry of people 65 and over. And a few times a year, I go with a pastor that leads this great ministry and we have seniors. So there was about 150 to 200 people, 65 and over. And I went to speak to them and to pray with them and spend time with them last Saturday morning. And there was a man leading, involved in worship and he leads groups and visitations and I thought, what an amazing power the Holy Spirit has when we allow him to work.

It is with the family's permission that I share this without mentioning their name, but they said, "Share it, that it'd be a testimony." It's a Christian family. This man was the first in his family who became a Christian years and years ago and he brought his family to Christ and they grew up in church, not in our church, but in church. And they became adults and married. But the grandfather was a Christian, but a bitter man, a conflictual man. A man who criticized a lot, a man who switched from church to church to church because nobody was ever... and this I don't like, and this is not right, and this is not this. And he tore up a lot. And he criticized a lot and he became embittered. A talented, gifted man, but embittered and for years and years and years to a point where the impartation as Abraham said, took place.

And it was a sad, sad thing. I didn't know this. He started coming to our church a few years ago, I didn't know him. And his family started coming to our church and there was a season, and I say this with great hurt. There was a season of two years where the three families, one daughter, two sons and their husbands and wives and kids were not talking to one another, but coming to our church every week. And they weren't talking to their father. And there was all this strife and everybody is singing and everybody is praising and everybody is... and their grandkids are away from God. And I'm not putting a burden on you. That's not the only reason. But there's something very deep there.

And New Year's Eve, two years ago, New Year's Eve, 2000 and the last service of the year, last Sunday of the year, 2015, I spoke a word and one of the brothers sitting over there, one of the brothers, just the Holy Spirit, and he was one of the most bitter like his dad and he just broke in tears. And very unusual for him, he walked all the way across during the call at the end of the service. And he went and he grabbed his two brothers and sisters and said, "It's enough. It's enough. How can we do this?" And he was anointed. And at first they were resistant, but then they began to weep together. And the father wasn't there in that service that morning. And they finally went to him in the days that followed, first days of the year 2015, they went together and said, "Dad, it's enough, we..." In the words of Abraham, "Let there be no strife among us.

We are brothers, we're family, we're Christians." And something so miraculous took place in his family step by step and month by month, and over the last two years, it's almost always just coincidence. In the last two years, six of the grandkids have been baptized at our church. Six of the grandkids. And every single one of them have said, "When this happened in our family, we thought this is amazing. If God can do that to grandpa, if he can change my dad..." It's as if their heart reopened. Do you understand that that family was communicating the gospel, you shall be born again in a very perfect way, but their lives, the strife in their heart was like a wall. But when forgiveness flowed, when the release took place, then the revelation of who Christ is and they were Christians.

And last week I was watching during that Saturday morning and that grandfather, that man was leading and the Spirit of God was upon him and he is in his 70s and I was shuddering at the thought of what he could have lost, what could have been lost. I'm saying today, God, we rise today and say from Abraham to Antioch to Times Square Church, by this all will know that we are your disciples as we refuse to die in a place of small fruit and we release what needs to be released. Let there be no strife, we are brothers and testimony to this city of the power of love in our hearts, in Jesus name and all of God's people say, amen and amen. Can we stand? Can we stand? Can we stand and can you give God an ovation this morning? Can you give him a standing ovation? We're going to sing the beautiful name of Jesus.

Hallelujah. Before we go, can you just stop for one second? Can you lift your hands with me all over the building and say, God, I will not die in a place of small fruit. Come on, everywhere, in your own heart, in your own words. Oh God, I'm coming out of my father's house and whatever needs to be released, I want to release to you. I want to release to you... Do you understand prophetically that this church has been called with many other churches in this city, but has been called to be a voice for forgiveness, a voice for reconciliation? The church with a hundred nationalities. This is a city within the city, the city of thousands within the city with such different backgrounds and nationalities. Our call to model, our call to shine. We are called together to shine. Let there be no strife among us. We are brothers.

I release, I release this morning all over this place. Begin to release. The Holy Spirit will show you. I'm releasing pain. I'm releasing hurt. I'm releasing offenses. I'm releasing my own shortcomings. I'm releasing failures. I'm releasing abuse. I'm releasing. Come on, begin to do it all over. The scripture says, when we know not how to pray, even the spirit will intercede within us. So begin to pray in English or in Spanish or in your spiritual language all over this place releasing. Lord, we want to walk in your way that is worthy of your beautiful name as we sing the beauty of your name. Your name is so beautiful, but we will become worthy of carrying your name, of living out your name, of sharing your name as we release, as we walk in forgiveness, as we release before you in Jesus name.

Hallelujah. All over this place, just a few minutes as the musicians play. We're going to sing the beauty of the name of Jesus. But as we sing, I pray you will release this morning. Lord God, I release to you and I pray in the name of Jesus for a great anointing of release, a great anointing of forgiveness, a great anointing of healing, a great anointing of mission. We're called to carry your name. We will release today in the name of Jesus. And in New York City, in Times Square Church, they shall be called Christians.