same reason.  We were back on Monday night.  And in between all the newspapers wrote our obituary, so God acted faster that time.  The point for this message is it’s par for the course.  If you are going to reach into God’s Book—not everything that happens in the Bible is for our example—but if you’re gonna reach into this Book for the promises that are given, and I could name a lot of them: “The Lord will provide,” God never promised everybody would be rich but He says He’s never seen His seed begging bread.  I tell my congregation there is nobody in Christ’s camp that’s poor.  You may be broke on occasions but you’re not poor if you have Faith in God.  Broke is a condition of fact; poor is a state of mind.  And God has said He will provide. 

The promises—I could catalog them; I preach them every Sunday—“As thy day, so shall thy strength be.”  Don’t ever quit at the end of the day.  God measures it out individually.  Now how many of you have had an occasion in your life to think you wouldn’t make it through a day?  Anybody?  You’re here aren’t you?  Don’t ever quit at the end of the day.  God’s promise, practical and real in God’s Book outlined again and again, you don’t let go of your Faith!  Moaning, groaning Christians have never broken through to what God is looking for—trust.  “As thy day, so shall thy strength be.”  Elijah never got a barrel of oil; he just had enough to keep him day after day. 

I could go on 10 hours with promises.  That’s not the issue today—you know the promises.  The message today is in pursuing those promises.  You don’t have to be perfect because Abram sure wasn’t and you’re gonna have setbacks and the wrong reactions.  And wherever you may be today and whatever your situation—and this Church who’s back downtown again because of the premise I’m teaching today—you got the option and the opportunity, whatever your condition, whatever might be breaking you, whatever mistakes that

you know you’ve made that God and you know and I’m not needing to know, you’re no worse than Abraham.  And 2nd Corinthians 1:20 says “All the promises of God in him are yea”—that’s ‘yes’ to you—“and amen”—or ‘so be it unto you’—and by Faith you can mentally reach out and grab this promise given to Abram and make it yours.

And what is the promise?  “Lift up now thine eyes.”  The presupposition is a circumstance has got you downcast.  Whatever your circumstance that’s beating you down….  Every circumstance that this Church has faced could of crushed us and we could have dug a pit and a grave and laid down in it and prayed for God to come because we can’t go any further forward.  Yes, you can!  Wherever you are today, whatever you’re doing.  That which we are doing by coming down here, we’re “lifting up now our eyes from the place that we are.”  “Well if God would change my circumstance, get me out of this spot I’m in, I could do that—I could hang my body in that action, believe God would help me, and have the confidence to lift mine eyes up.”

“Lift up now thine eyes from the place that thou art.”  I don’t peddle mysticism.  I’ve said it already, obliquely.  Faith is 90% courage—guts; 9% tenacity; 1% all that other stuff.  I’m hoping to bring down to this city people that will not be cowed by any circumstance.  Whatever your problem today, God gives you the simple opportunity to grab hold of your guts and “lift up now thine eyes from the place that thou art.”  If you wait for your circumstance to change to start practicing Faith, you’re never gonna get out of your mess.  As Gideon wasn’t out of his vineyard when he made his peace with God, Abram from the place that he was shall lift up his eyes.  “Well, I’m gonna think about that—maybe, maybe that’s what I need to do.  Whatever circumstance I’m in that’s about to crush me—and, in