Classic Sermon #6059: How to Win by Losing

Let us turn to Genesis chapter 13. This is a passage I have commented on in previous years, and I feel that the Lord has given me a fresh perspective on it, one that I believe is for today, for today and right now, for this day, for my life, I believe, and for the life of our congregation. And we are going to ask the Lord to speak to us through this word that he has for us. Genesis chapter 13. Attune your spirit to what God wants to say to your life. The word of the Lord says:

“Then Abraham went up from Egypt toward the Negev, he and his wife, with everything he had, and Lot with him. And Abraham was extremely rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold, and he journeyed from the Negev back toward Bethel, to the place where his tent had been before, between Bethel and Ai, to the place of the altar he had made there previously; and there Abraham called upon the name of Jehovah. Lot also, who traveled with Abraham, had sheep, cattle, and tents, and the land was not sufficient for them to live together, for their possessions were many, and they could not dwell in the same place. And there was strife between the herdsmen of Abraham’s livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock; and the Canaanite and the Perizzite were then dwelling in the land. Then Abraham said to Lot, let there now be no quarrel between the two of us, between my herdsmen and yours, because we are brothers. Is not the whole land before you? I beg you to separate from me. If you go to the left, I will go to the right; and if you go to the right, I will go to the left. And Lot lifted up his eyes and saw the whole plain of the Jordan, that it was all well watered like the garden of Jehovah, like the land of Egypt in the direction of Zoar, before Jehovah destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. Then Lot chose for himself the whole plain of the Jordan, and Lot went eastward, and they separated from each other. Abraham camped in the land of Canaan, while Lot lived in the cities of the plain and pitched his tents as far as Sodom. But the men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked and sinful against Jehovah. And Jehovah said to Abraham after Lot had separated from him, now lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are toward the north and the south and the east and the west, because all the land you see I will give to you and to your descendants forever. And I will make your descendants like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone can count the dust of the earth, then your descendants also may be counted. Arise, walk through the land along its length and its breadth, because I will give it to you. Abraham, then, moving his tent, came and dwelt by the oaks of Mamre, which are in Hebron, and there he built an altar to Jehovah.”

May the Lord bless his word. In recent days, the Lord has been moving me to speak about this theme, which has to do with what we might call the gentle spirit, the spirit of reconciliation, the spirit of love, of forgiveness. A few Sundays ago we spoke about bearing one another’s burdens; you will remember that subject. We have also spoken about Jesus Christ’s call to go that second mile, a call that is so painful and so difficult for all of us, I would say. And we spoke about it, saying that it is often the most powerful spiritual weapon we can use to put the devil to shame, to glorify the Spirit of Christ, and to overcome evil with good.

Last Sunday we reflected on Hannah, the woman who was the mother of the great prophet Samuel, and we used Hannah as an example for our lives. And one of the qualities I pointed out was Hannah’s meekness, her meek spirit, her way of responding to Eli when Eli insulted her because of his lack of spiritual discernment. Her way of dealing with her rival, her husband’s concubine, who insulted her and laughed at her because she could not have children, and how God used Hannah and that attitude of Hannah’s to bring a great blessing into her life and led her to become the mother of a prophet who brought liberation to the people of Israel.

And time and again the Lord has been speaking to me, brothers and sisters, about our need to use this very powerful spiritual rule that the Lord left us: to overcome evil with good, to overcome the spirit of violence and aggression that dominates this world with its opposite, which is the spirit of the cross and the spirit of forgiveness, the spirit of tolerance and the spirit of yielding even when we have every right.

And I was saying that this is an immensely powerful spiritual weapon and a very mysterious, paradoxical weapon. It violates the rules of reason, and it violates the rules of Darwinism that so often control human relationships: this struggle in which the bigger one devours the smaller one and the stronger one prevails over the weaker.

And the Lord Jesus Christ came to deal the devil a decisive blow through the cross, and you will notice that the cross is the complete antithesis of that diabolical spirit of conquest and aggression, of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Through death, the cross brought life; through the greatest shame, it brought glory to Jesus Christ. And through immobility and total powerlessness, it unleashed an irresistible power in the universe, which is the power of salvation and eternal life. Do you understand? There was Christ, nailed to the cross, bleeding, unable to move within the humanity he had chosen. There, the Bible says, Christ did what had not been possible throughout all the centuries in which humanity had previously existed.

The book of Colossians says that on the cross Christ disarmed the principalities and powers. There, without moving, bleeding, being mocked by the people, and apparently contradicting his deity and his power and his glory and his eternity, the Lord took from the devil the keys of life and death and the universe and humanity. He disarmed the principalities and powers. It also says that he obtained salvation for us; he canceled the record of the decrees that stood against us. All the accusations against us were neutralized. How? By doing nothing, by sinking into shame and death and the greatest powerlessness.

And that is the fundamental principle, brothers and sisters, which I believe triumphs in the universe. And it is the principle that, when we, the children of God, adopt it, brings us great victory and unleashes the power of God through our lives. It neutralizes the devil, puts him to shame, binds him, and then unleashes the power and grace of Jesus Christ.

What happens is that when we seek our own glory and always seek to get our own way, then we are alone, at the mercy of our wisdom, our cleverness, and our strength. But when, in the name of the Lord, through a conscious, spiritual, and biblical decision, we decide to give the glory to the Lord, then things change. And then the Lord comes in and becomes our partner. The Lord becomes our partner and gives us the victory. He goes into action on our behalf.

That is why, brothers and sisters, although that rule is so difficult to put into practice, it is so beneficial and so mysteriously effective. And I believe that Abraham demonstrates this eminently in this passage. That is why I want to illustrate this principle for you through the life of Abraham.

God had chosen Abraham for a very, very special destiny. He had chosen this obscure man, unknown to anyone, and had said to him—Abraham, as we see in chapter 12—“I will make of you a great nation, I will bless you greatly, I will be your name, it will be a blessing; I will bless those who bless you, and those who curse you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed…”

What a great promise for a man who, up to that point, had lived a normal, ordinary life: for God to come and tell him, I am going to make of you an immense nation, and whoever curses you will be cursed, and whoever blesses you will be blessed, and I will give you all the land upon which the soles of your feet tread.

Why did God do that? He had to be a very special man. There had to have been something in that man that caught God’s attention and caused God to say, from this seed I want to make my nation, my chosen people. So Abraham had to possess some very special qualities. And here in chapter 13 one can begin to see what there was in that man that had touched the heart of God.

If there is a marvelous testament that illustrates Abraham’s moral and spiritual greatness, there you have it in chapter 13, in that small event from his life. Many times in our lives, it is the small actions that reveal the whole of a man or a woman. The great theologian, writer, and well-known Spanish philosopher Unamuno used to say that many times, in a moment, in a second, one can observe an action by a man or a woman, and in that tiny action the entire personality of a human being is portrayed and contained: his greatness or his smallness, his wisdom or his foolishness. An act, a word, a reaction can say a great deal.

Just as each tiny gene, which the eye cannot see, contains all the qualities and physical characteristics, at least, of a human being, so too an action can sometimes contain the entirety of an individual, his moral nobility or his moral baseness. That is why we must be so careful, brothers and sisters, with what we speak, with what we say, because our actions reveal so many things, and sometimes we are careless and do not understand that we are projecting what we are and revealing it.

And here in chapter 13, Abraham reveals to me his moral greatness, what made him a man pleasing in the sight of God. A dispute arises between the herdsmen, the employees of Abraham and his nephew Lot. As always, possessions, brothers and sisters—what a thing! Material things divide brothers. The very blessings God sometimes gives us become obstacles to our spiritual lives and to our relationships with others. And that happens in every area of life. Sometimes in marriage it may be the bills and what the money is spent on, and whether we are going to Hawaii for our vacation or are going to visit his or her parents, or whether we are going to buy clothes for the children, or invest the money in a new television, and so on. In the church, it can often be another kind of possession; it can be the possession of authority and of the rights we have. At work it may be other things, but wherever it happens, possessions are involved. And unless there is a gentle spirit, a detached spirit, and a spirit that commits its cause to the Lord, there will always be struggles in churches, at home, at work, in the street, and society will go nowhere, because unless someone yields in the name of the Lord, there can be no peace.

And when we are so entrenched in our positions—and the person who always wants to get his own way, who never gives an inch, and who never lets himself be beaten, as we say in good Dominican Spanish—he cannot be an agent of blessing; he cannot be a good Christian. In other words, he cannot continue to be a fitting model of Christ Jesus. There has to be a spirit of giving and a spirit of yielding.

To me, that is the essence of what I see here in Abraham, in that event. If Abraham had not spoken with Lot, in one way or another there would have been bloodshed; there would have been hostility lasting a lifetime, and perhaps the history of Israel would have been very different. What does Abraham teach us here? I quickly see one point, and it is that—and this is part of that attitude of giving, surrendering, and yielding—Abraham maintained continual communication with God. Abraham had a very healthy life of worship.

Look at verse 3. Abraham has made a long journey; he has been away for several months or years—we do not know. Before leaving, he had built an altar at the place from which he had departed. And what does he do when he returns from his long journey? It says that he returned to where he had previously been, to that place between Bethel and Ai, to the site of the altar he had made there before. What did he do? And there Abraham called upon the name of Jehovah.

As soon as Abraham returns to the area where he had been, he goes to the altar he had built before leaving, returns there again, and worships the Lord there. He calls upon the name of the Lord and asks for God’s blessing upon his life. And as they understood it at that time, God dwelt in certain specific places. Now, obviously, he dwells in our hearts through his Holy Spirit, but Abraham understood that there was a special presence of God there at that altar. And right away—I imagine him arriving from his journey without even taking off his clothes—he first goes there and thanks God for having accompanied him during his journey, reconsecrates his life, praises the Lord, worships the Lord, acknowledges God’s sovereignty, and then continues with his duties.

Time and again we see Abraham building altars, communicating, receiving revelation from God. And how interesting, brothers and sisters, that in Hannah’s life, as I was saying, one of the things besides her meekness was precisely that: her great communion with God, which we see in the song she offered to God when she had Samuel. She said, my strength is exalted in Jehovah, and I rejoice in the God of my salvation.

That is to say, brothers and sisters, you will always see these things linked; I believe one is not possible without the other. It is not possible to have a spirit of meekness and a peaceful spirit unless one is in deep communication and close contact with God and has profound communion with the Lord. To live in peace with others, one needs faith and communion with God; one needs to be spiritually strong. Christ’s rule of going the second mile is not for weak people; it is not for emotionally unstable people; it is not for people with childhood wounds and pains that have not healed.

Many people resist this attitude of yielding because they believe it is for weak people and for people who are always being dominated, with their neck under someone’s boot, and that is why they resist it, because no one wants to be a parasite; no one wants to be a victim. But, brothers and sisters, that is the irony of the Gospel: in truth, for you to apply the law of Jesus Christ, you have to be quite spiritually mature, have grown considerably in the Lord, and have your strength very clearly rooted in the Lord. Because only those who have much can give much. A poor person will generally hold tightly to money, food, and possessions because he understands that his survival depends on the little he has. Generally, a person who has a little more, if he is a fairly normal person, will allow himself the freedom to give more, because he can do without it. That is the natural rule, and the same thing happens emotionally: if we are healthy and strong in the Lord, and our confidence is in the Lord, and we know that our life depends on God, then that will allow us to be more generous with others, to forgive more, to tolerate a little more, to let things slide a little more, to forget a little more, and to wait for a time until God does His work, because we know that God is real, that God acts, that He has done it before, and that He will do it again in our lives.

You see, then, that is why what Christ asks—going a second mile, turning the other cheek, and overcoming evil with good—is for people who are emotionally and spiritually healthy, for people who are continually drinking in the sap of God and who are strong, and who can therefore afford to forgive others and love others despite their faults. One needs to be spiritually strong, and Abraham had that contact with God. Abraham knew that God had given him much, and that is why Abraham could afford to treat Lot as he did.

What other reasons are there? Communion with God makes us participants in divine wisdom. When we are always praying, reading the word of the Lord, and reflecting on spiritual truths, that allows us to receive divine counsel in times of conflict and difficulty, and then God’s revelation comes for the need. It makes us participants in divine wisdom.

Furthermore, communion with God makes us aware that the solution to my problems does not depend on me alone, that God is also a player in my circumstances. Knowing that I am not the only one who has to defend himself and seek the solution to his problems produces peace within us; it lowers our level of tension, which is often what makes us attack and counterattack when a real or imagined offense comes. And that allows us to yield, and sometimes it allows us to give our opponent a word that calms him down and tempers his emotions, thus allowing him to see the other side of the matter. Why? Because I am aware that God is also at work in the matter.

Third, being in direct contact with God takes away from me that tendency to want to get even, to seek revenge, always to counterattack, and to make the other person pay the consequences of his actions, because I know that God is also a player in the matter.

Look at what Romans chapter 12 says: “...do not avenge yourselves, my beloved, but give place to the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is Mine; I will repay,’ says the Lord. Therefore, if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for in doing this you will heap coals of fire on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good...”

You see? That is to say, this is a calling: when I know that God is the One who brings justice in life, I do not have to live constantly under the pressure that I must bring justice upon the opponent who offended me. That is why so many people live imprisoned by resentment and bitterness for years and years over something that was done to them: because they did not have the satisfaction of taking revenge, and so they feel as though they were cheated, as though that right they had was taken away from them, and they are stunted and somehow incomplete because they believe that, since I did not do it, no one else will.

But the Bible says, “Vengeance is Mine,” and the Lord says, “I will repay.” God is a just God. Although we may not see it, the universe is governed by laws of justice. In the long run, things must always be made right, and God’s justice must always be fulfilled.

So if I am in communion with God, I know that in His time God will do what must be done, and that helps me to be a calmer person, an agent of peace. I believe Abraham acted as he did toward Lot—taking him aside and seeking a solution—because he had such intimate communion with the Father.

Second, I see that Abraham was diligent in maintaining peace. Abraham was eager to establish peace with his nephew. He did not wait for things to deteriorate. He did not wait until things reached a point at which there was no solution; rather, as soon as he discovered that something was happening, he immediately went to Lot and very diligently sought a solution to the problem.

What does Ephesians chapter 4, verses 1 through 4, say? “...I beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all humility and meekness, bearing with one another patiently in love—and here is the key—being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace...”

Being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Brothers and sisters, unless we are diligent... What does the word diligent mean? Industrious, willing, attentive, proactive in maintaining that peace. And for there to be peace among human beings and in human relationships, there must be diligent people; there must be people who are attentive to this dynamic of peace. That is why I am taking this time to speak, because I want to plant that concern in your hearts, as well as reinforce it in myself. We must continually revisit these ideas and cause them to spring up again in our hearts and minds, because otherwise, if we do not do so, we will not remember them.

We must be diligent in preserving that bond of peace among brothers and sisters, because that peace does not happen automatically. It requires vigilance; it requires effort; it requires us continually to pay attention: Is everything all right with my brother? If I notice that things are becoming complicated, I must go immediately and speak with him or her, put things right, and establish peace instead of letting it become a mountain that will later be impossible to tear down. We must always be in prayer, examining ourselves so that bitterness and resentment do not accumulate, seeking ways to communicate what we feel in an appropriate manner, and reflecting and meditating on what the word of God tells us about reconciliation, forgiveness, love, and bearing with one another. It requires diligence.

As soon as Abraham learned that there was a problem between his servants and Lot’s servants, he immediately called Lot. “Lot, let’s talk. What is happening? Let’s communicate. There are problems between our workers; let’s not allow that to spill over into our relationship. You and I are brothers; there has to be a solution.” And Abraham did not have to do that. He was the elder; he was the uncle. In Jewish culture—or rather, in Semitic culture—he had every right to say, “Well, hey, let him come to me. I am older than he is; I have more rights than he does. Let him speak with me, and then we will see whether the situation can be resolved.” No, he went to his nephew, the younger man, and said to him, “Come here, let’s put things right; let’s find a solution to this problem.” He was diligent. He did not remain there in his glory, saying, “Well, since he is the one who is supposed to do it, let him come to me.” He applied the law of yielding, and he went to his nephew.

Another thing I see here is that Abraham placed spiritual principles above material ones. Where do I see that? Look at verse 8 of Genesis 13. It says, “...Then Abraham said to Lot, ‘Let there now be no strife between the two of us, between my herdsmen and yours.’ Why? ‘Because we are brothers.’”

You see? What was Abraham saying there? “Lot, let us not allow strife, division, problems, and fighting to arise between us, because there is something that must stand above this situation, and that is the fact that you and I are brothers.” Before that, in verse 7, the preceding verse, it says that the Canaanite and the Perizzite then dwelt in the land. They were outsiders, and yet Abraham and Lot were blood relatives; they were brothers in the sense of flesh and blood. And so Abraham says, “Lot, it is not possible for you and me, being brothers, to give a bad testimony before these people who are unbelievers. You and I, being brothers, cannot afford to fight and kill each other and remain in conflict. Let’s resolve this situation.” You see?

Brothers and sisters, above your rights or mine are the rights of Christ Jesus, the Gospel, the word of God, and the principles that have been revealed through the word of the Lord. You remember what I said the Sunday before last about the family as a system and marriage as a system, and how the problem is often that we are so concerned about me, my needs, my rights, and my dignity, which has been violated, that we do not think about the health of the couple, the health of the family and the children, the health of the church, or the health of the testimony we give before unbelievers or those who are weak in the faith. Because we are not thinking about that larger structure; instead, we are thinking about me and my need. That is why I said that wherever there is continual fighting and disharmony, selfishness lies at the root: me-ism, an undue focus on the self and the needs of the self instead of thinking about the larger system into which we are integrated.

And that is why Abraham said, “Lot, it is not possible for us to fight like cats and dogs over sheep, cows, and grass when you and I are brothers.” The fact that we are brothers is much more important, much more profound, and much more consequential than the cows, the sheep, the grass they eat, and the land where we are.

You see? That is what I mean, brothers and sisters. Many times in the church, for example, we have to be careful because sometimes there can be a conflict between my brother and me, and I can say a hurtful or cutting word to him. And do not think, as I was saying, that this simply happens in thin air. Even if the two of us were shut inside a safe-deposit box, inside a vault, and no one else saw or heard it, the very air is permeated by the holiness of the church and the presence of God. Around us we have a great cloud of witnesses; we have demons and angels; we have the Holy Spirit, and we have Satan always watching. Our actions give glory to the devil or give glory to God. And so we must always be attentive to the fact that, by acting improperly, I am bringing shame upon the Kingdom of God. Sometimes, brothers and sisters, we are not careful, and a father and mother may fight in front of their children, and we are not thinking about the greater principle of our children’s health—their emotional or spiritual health. Or at work, there is a fight, and we do not realize that this fight may be poisoning the environment and may not concern only the two people who are fighting. There are greater principles.

I do not know whether I am explaining myself clearly. Abraham gave the principle of brotherhood greater importance than the principle of ownership, and that often helps us to be people of peace. Look, I am preaching something that I myself have to learn to apply. Do not think I am speaking to you from some position of glory. It is difficult, but I believe these things help us.

And finally, Abraham applied the principle of giving the advantage to his opponent; he gave his opponent—who in this case was Lot—the advantage. He applied the principle of yielding; he gave up his rights. In verses 9 and 10, what does Abraham say to Lot? “...Lot, is not the whole land before you? I beg you to separate yourself from me. If you go to the left, I will go to the right; if you go to the right, I will go to the left...”

Now look at Lot. Do you see what I mean when I say that a man’s character is portrayed in a single action? Just as Abraham was portrayed in a glorious and admirable light, look at what immortalizes Lot. Verse 10 says, “...And Lot lifted up his eyes and saw the whole plain of the Jordan, that it was all well-watered, like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt in the direction of Zoar, before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah...” And what did Lot do? “Then Lot chose for himself the whole plain of the Jordan...”

Lot said, this is my opportunity; this is where I’m going to make myself rich. And I imagine he grabbed a pair of glasses and looked very carefully and saw all the little trees and all the streams, and all the lakes and the grass that looked greener, and he thought, this is the way I’m going. He was thinking about himself, he was thinking about his advantage, he was thinking about his future profit, his bank account and everything else, and the benefit to his livestock, and his future prosperity. He staked everything on it and chose openly like that, and said, well, since you gave me the opportunity, I’ll take this part, the best of all. And Abraham remained there, calm.

Brothers and sisters, how many of us would have said, what a fool Abraham was. How many of us would have said, no, Abraham’s brain short-circuited at that moment; he blew a fuse. Yet Abraham’s closeness to God gave him a tremendous peace that allowed him to entrust his cause to the Lord and use the principle of yielding and of the cross long before the cross emerged in history. That is why Abraham was a spiritual genius; that is why I believe God chose that man, because He knew the heart that was there in Abraham, although Abraham also made great errors in his life. He made serious mistakes, but he had a heart like David’s, which was after God’s own heart.

And so Abraham knew that Lot’s character required a desperate, dramatic, and very, very spiritually powerful action, and that is why Abraham said to him, okay, Lot, you choose first; wherever you go, I will go in the opposite direction. And Abraham did not reproach his nephew, he did not accuse him—we see none of that—but Abraham said, okay, I made my deal with you; now you go over there, and I’ll go over here. I imagine Lot must have gone away singing and shouting and jumping, and he threw a big party at the end of that encounter.

But look at what happened afterward. I imagine Lot left at that moment; a few minutes passed, and then the Spirit of the Lord came and drew near to Abraham. And look at God’s words to Abraham after Lot had separated from him: “Abraham, lift up your eyes now and look from the place where you are, toward the north and the south and the east and the west…”

That included the land Lot had chosen, my brothers and sisters; that included the land, because it was all that he could see from where he stood—all that land, including the land Lot had chosen and from which he had already gone away happy, believing it was his. But the land belonged to the Lord; the land did not belong to Lot. And what does He say to him?

“…for all the land you see I will give to you and your descendants forever, and I will make your descendants like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone can count the dust of the earth, then your descendants may also be counted….”

Brothers and sisters, do you see the glory of God when one uses these principles of spiritual warfare? Whom do you want as your guarantor: yourself, with your limited understanding and strength, or almighty God, who guarantees blessing for you, for your children, your grandchildren, your great-grandchildren, your great-great-grandchildren? I always want the Lord to be blessing my lineage because I know that I am not capable of blessing it, nor is the person right next to me. And that is why I need God to be my channel and my intermediary and my defender. And I have to entrust my cause to the Lord and place my affairs in God’s hands. And the only way is by making room for God to do the work.

Brothers and sisters, let us imitate the spirit of Abraham today; let us imitate the spirit that offers itself in sacrifice to the Lord. Let us display the spirit that imitates the Christ who said, Father, not my will, but Yours, be done. Let us imitate the spirit of the Christ who went up onto the cross and opened His arms to a humanity that neither loved Him nor was seeking Him, in order to give it salvation and eternal life. And what happened to that Christ then? The Bible says that God gave Him a name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow—of those in heaven, on earth, and under the earth. Why? Because Christ used that principle, and then He was lifted up. Before you are lifted up, you have to descend. Before you are exalted, you have to humble yourself. Before you are resurrected, you have to be crucified. That is the rule of the Christian life.

Brothers and sisters, let us embrace that principle; let us carry our cross, because in carrying our cross there is rest. Take My yoke upon you, and you will find rest for your souls. Do you want peace to reign in your home? Begin to yield in the name of Christ. Do you want your children to grow up healthy? Practice spiritual judo, and ask God to give you revelation about how to do it in your life. Do you want there to be peace at your workplace and for you to be an agent of good? Begin to give Christ room to defend your principles, and do not insist on defending them yourself every day and exclusively.

Brothers and sisters, may the peace of the Lord reign in our hearts, and may that spirit, so difficult to understand yet so full of life and healing, come to reign in our churches, in our homes, in our workplaces, wherever we go. May the Lord bless us.

Classic sermon by Dr. Roberto Miranda #6059

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