INTRODUCTION

So if you have your Bibles, let's go ahead and jump into the sermon for today. Open up to Genesis chapter 13. I'm so encouraged to see so many of you reaching for your Bibles and opening up to Genesis. If you're new to the Bible, Genesis is a pretty easy book of the Bible to find. It's right after the table of contents, right in the beginning. The very first book. And Genesis chapter 13 is where we find ourselves this morning.

SERIES RECAP

So let me give you some brief context before we read today's passage.

So we've been recently introduced in Genesis to a man named Abram or Abraham. Same person, his name gets changed a little bit later here in Genesis. But we've seen how God chose Abraham and chose to initiate his plan of redemption in and through this man named Abraham. And we saw last week that even though God chose Abraham, that he was chosen by God, that Abraham still was not a perfect man. In fact, last week we saw at the end of Genesis 12 that Abraham failed gloriously or miserably. He didn't live with faith, he lived with fear. But the cool thing about last week's lesson, last week's passage, was that we saw that even though Abraham wasn't faithful, what? God was. God was still faithful. I'm just curious how many of you can attest to the fact that even though you were faithless at times, God was still faithful to you. What an awesome thing. And today we're going to see another test in Abraham's life in Genesis chapter 13. So if you would let's stand together and honor the reading of God's word.

Today's account of Abraham's life spans all of chapter 13. It's just 18 verses. I'll read it for us, and it will be, you can follow along in your Bibles or it will also be on the screen for us as well. Here's what God's Word says.

SCRIPTURE READING - GENESIS 13 ESV

So Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had, and Lot with him, into the Negeb. Now Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold. And he journeyed on from the Negeb as far as Bethel to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai, to the place where he had made an altar at the first. And there Abram called upon the name of the LORD. And Lot, who went with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents, so that the land could not support both of them dwelling together; for their possessions were so great that they could not dwell together, and there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram’s livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock. At that time the Canaanites and the Perizzites were dwelling in the land.

Then Abram said to Lot, “Let there be no strife between you and me, and between your herdsmen and my herdsmen, for we are kinsmen. Is not the whole land before you? Separate yourself from me. If you take the left hand, then I will go to the right, or if you take the right hand, then I will go to the left.” And Lot lifted up his eyes and saw that the Jordan Valley was well watered everywhere like the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt, in the direction of Zoar. (This was before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.) So Lot chose for himself all the Jordan Valley, and Lot journeyed east. Thus they separated from each other. Abram settled in the land of Canaan, while Lot settled among the cities of the valley and moved his tent as far as Sodom. Now the men of Sodom were wicked, great sinners against the LORD.

The LORD said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward,  for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever. I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted. Arise, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you.” 

So Abram moved his tent and came and settled by the oaks of Mamre, which are at Hebron, and there he built an altar to the LORD.

PRAYER FOR THE MESSAGE

And if we would let's bow our heads together and pray.

Heavenly Father, we are confident that all scripture is breathed out by you. And there are no accidental parts of scripture. There's no throwaway passages. Even to the point that we believe that every word, even as Jesus said, every word is from your mouth. So God use it today to challenge us and to encourage us and to speak to us by the power of your Holy Spirit. And God, again, I'm just I'm amazed, I marvel at the fact that you know every single person that's within the sound of my voice. You know every thought, you know every inclination of their heart, every desire, every fear, every failure. God, you know the plans you have for us. So help us in these next few moments to humble ourselves before you. It's not an accident that each person is here. It's not a it's not purpose, God. It's by your plan and design that that we're covering this passage at this time for those who have gathered here today. So, God, use it. We're expectant, we're excited. I pray that we'd have ears to hear and be attentive. We thank you, and we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.

THE MESSAGE

You may be seated.

So I'm gonna give my best attempt at a really bad or really good, depending how you look at it, dad joke from this passage. Alright. I think today we're going to learn a LOT from this passage. Okay. I know that's really bad. I got some applause. I love that. I got some applause from my fans.

But we learned a couple chapters ago at the end of chapter 11 about this person named Lot. And we learn in that chapter that Lot is Abram's nephew. And we don't know a lot of details about him. But we know that his family chose to travel with Abram. This could have been because of loss. Maybe Lot had some kind of loss in his family. Maybe this was by choice. But for some reason, Lot decides to travel with his uncle Abram. And what we're going to see today is that even though Abram is not perfect, we're seeing that Abram is learning to walk with God by faith every single day. That's what I want you to walk away with this morning. Is that I would encourage you, challenge you to learn every single day to walk by faith in God.

So if you know much about me, you know that historically I have not been a pet person. And my family can attest to this, especially my youngest daughter. She is grieved by the fact that we don't have a dog. But I have held my ground-ish. When we when our kids were especially young, it's like absolutely not, no pets. And if you want to know the reasons why, you can ask me later. There are reasons, but I know some of you don't like me already because you know I'm not a pet person. That's okay, deal with it. But over the last year or two my heart has softened. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. But so Annabelle started a little side business where she'll walk dogs and feed dogs and somehow morphed its way into what about dog sitting? And so we'll have the dog come over, give a little trial run and, it may be one of these, or maybe one of these. but so we've had that that opportunity. And there is one of the neighbor dogs, the dog behind our house that Annabelle will occasionally reach out to for play dates, right? And ask, can Penny come over and play? And so this dog, golden doodle, really cute dog. Now I know it's just weird for me to even say those words, but a really cute dog, she is fixated on chasing after a ball. And it's almost to a point where it's annoying, honestly. Like she'll just sit there the whole time with the cute puppy dog face, right, obviously. And she'll just have her eye and you move the ball and she'll she will not take your eye off the ball. And she's actually really good, which I'm impressed, you know, it's again weird for me to say that she's impressive to me in that way, but she's very good at fetching the ball, bringing the ball back, and she will do that all day long. She is locked in. She is dialed when it comes to chasing that ball. I just think that's a really good analogy for where we should be as Christians in regard to our faith in God. That we must keep our eyes fixed on Jesus. We must continue to live life with eyes of faith, trusting God. And that's regardless of what happens in life. And I'm not sure about you, but I could stand to learn a lesson about keeping my eyes fixed on God no matter what comes along.

So it's not surprising, my sermon today is divided into three sections. This passage divides easily that way. And so we're looking at Abraham's life and see about this event in his life and how he handled this experience of living by faith.

So number one, the test of faith. Abraham's faith was tested both by lack and by abundance. So if you remember from last week's passage, last week's passage, Abraham's faith was tested by not having enough provision. So he found himself where God had led him into the promised land. But in the promised land there is a famine. And so in fear, Abraham left where God had led him, and he went to Egypt, and there in Egypt he lied about his wife, and it wasn't pretty, but God still rescued him and sent him back to where he had directed him in the first place. And we just talked about how that's a common theme for our lives sometimes is that in moments of trial we will get off track, we will lose sight of God, but God graciously brings us back. Aren't you glad that God graciously brings you back because of His faithfulness and kindness.

So, in this scenario, in these first seven verses, the test this time for Abraham's life isn't a test of lacking, it's a test of prospering. Let's go and read those verses again. Verse one:

So Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife, and all and all that he had, and Lot with him into the Negev. Now Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver and in gold.

And then if you go down to verse five:

And Lot who went with Abraham also had flocks and herds and tents, so that the land could not support both of them dwelling together, for their possessions were so great that they could not dwell together. And there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram's livestock and the herdsmen of Lot's livestock.

So just imagine, so like now they're at a place of abundance. God has blessed them so much that the land can't support both of their herds and both of their business. And so they have to find a way to make peace So I'm not sure if you've ever thought of this before, but having a lack of things is a test. And in that test, we might ask questions like, will we be good steward with what we have even though it's not a lot? And will you trust God to provide even when things are tight? And another important question is in time will you maintain your integrity and not cut corners? When we lack is when we're tempted to not be truthful or not be honest. We're tempted to compromise things so that we can provide, but again, that's part of the test of lack.

But there's another test. I don't know if you ever considered that abundance is a test. And you're like, well, if I had to choose, I'll take that one, please. But having an abundance is also a test. We also are confronted with questions like what will you do with what you have? Will you manage it well? Will you be generous with what God's given to you? Will you honor the Lord with it? And will you use it for his purposes. Will you trust God and hold loosely to even the abundance that God has given to you? So this is a test of abundance now for Abraham. At times, abundance can be an even greater test of faith. Like again, like I'd like to give it a try, but the question is, will you trust God even in abundance? So the Bible is really clear that having a lot of stuff is even a greater test of faith than not having enough.

Let me read some things from Jesus from Matthew chapter 19:

And Jesus said to his disciples, truly I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. And again I tell you it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.

That's crazy, isn't it? That's severe. I think it's tied to, I love this prayer in the book of Proverbs, the writer of Proverbs in chapter thirty says:

Remove from me falsehood and lying, give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, Who is the Lord? or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.

There's a lot of wisdom in that prayer, isn't there, in that proverb? God, I don't want to be so lacking that I that I lose my integrity and compromise and dishonor you, but I also don't want to be have so much abundance that I don't remember you, that I don't trust you, that I don't rely on you. So Abraham faces this test of abundance, and he's learning to walk every day by faith.

So then what does Abraham do? Number two, the decision of faith. Abraham and Lot they choose by completely different motivations. Look at verses 8 through 13. It says:

Then Abraham said to Lot, Let there be no strife between me and you, and between your herdsmen and my herdsmen, for we are kinsmen. Is not the whole land before you? Separate yourself from me. If you take the left hand, then I'll go to the right, or if you take the right hand, then I'll go to the left. And Lot lifted up his eyes, and he saw that the Jordan Valley was well watered everywhere like the garden of the Lord.

Skip down to verse eleven:

So Lot chose for himself all the Jordan Valley and Lot journeyed east. They separated from each other. Abraham settled in the land of Canaan while Lot settled in the cities of the valley and his tent as far as Sodom.

Now I just want to encourage you, the writer of Genesis, Moses, is giving us these little breadcrumbs, these little clues about what he wants us to see. So what you can see in these verses is that Abraham is choosing by faith, and Lot is choosing by what he can see. Does that make sense? So Abraham says to Lot, “hey, I don't want this to come between us," which side note, how often have money has money and finances come between family members? How often has an inheritance separated siblings? Yeah, a lot. A lot. I got you. I got you. Need the drums back here. But yeah, so so but Abraham's even though he's the elder statesman, he says to Lot, you can go ahead and choose. I'm gonna let you choose. And Abraham is expressing faith in God that regardless of what you choose to do, I know God's going to provide for me. He's going to take care of my needs. If you go to the left, I'll go to the right. If you go to the right, I'll go to the left. Lot you go ahead and choose. Then how does Lot choose? Look at verse 10:

And Lot lifted up his eyes and saw that the Jordan Valley was well watered everywhere, like the garden of the Lord.

There's a little parenthetical note at the end of verse 10:

This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.

So Moses' foreshadowing for us. If you know anything about Genesis, you know that in a couple chapters is the destruction of a two towns called Sodom and Gomorrah. That their wickedness is right out in front for everyone to see, their sexual immorality, and God brings judgment on them. And that the end in verse thirteen says now the men of Sodom were wicked, great sinners against the Lord. So Lot chooses this valley that's rich and green and lush, but what also is there? The wickedness of Sodom. So Lot is choosing by what he can see, and Abram is choosing by faith. So this decision for Lot is materially prosperous, but it's spiritually dangerous. Do you guys see that?

So Lot is choosing something that on the surface, this looks awesome, I'm gonna prosper financially. But what dangers lurk as he chooses to go towards Sodom. And we know that later on in just a couple chapters, this turns out to be really a bad decision for Lot. Abram eventually comes and rescues him, and we'll see that in the next couple chapters. But I'm curious, have you ever done that before? Have you ever made a decision that seemed on the surface to be something that would prosper you and benefit you materially, but it's spiritually dangerous for you. So someone takes a job or puts themselves in a situation that has material benefits, but it harms their relationship with the Lord. It takes them away from church or from Christian community and in the end it harms them spiritually. That's really what's going on in this situation. They're looking through human eyes and not through eyes of faith.

It reminds me of Romans chapter 14, verse 23, where Paul writes:

For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.

I'm not sure if you ever thought about this before, but every sin is essentially a lack of faith. Every time that we choose to sin, it means that we're not trusting God. We're choosing to believe that doing this thing is going to satisfy us. And we're choosing to distrust God instead of trusting God in his ways. So essentially every sin is a lack of faith. So Abram had a decision of faith here to make, and he chooses to live by faith in God and not by what he can see.

Then the third thing we see in the third paragraph is the life of faith. Abraham chose to live a life of faith rather than chase or worry about material possessions. Look at the last paragraph with me, starting verse fourteen:

The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward, eastward and westward. For all the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring as an inheritance forever. I'll make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring can also be counted. Arise and walk throughout the length, the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you. So Abraham moved his tent, and came and settled at the by the oaks of Mamre, which are at Hebron, and there he built an altar to the Lord.

So Abram journeys in the land that was the leftover land, and instead of his tent being settled by Sodom, his tent settles where he builds an altar to the Lord to worship him. He chose to worship God. Abraham chose to say, God, I am content, you have led me here, you are good, and I am resting here and choosing to trust you. What a good word that is for us. Abraham is learning to walk by faith and not by sight. That that phrase or that verse comes from 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 7, where Paul simply says, For we walk by what? We walk by faith and not by sight. For we walk, as Christians, we live by faith in God and not by sight, not by what we can see.

This faith was expressed by a missionary by the name of Adoniram Judson. Adoniram Judson was a missionary to a country called Burma in the 1800s, and as he's preaching the gospel, the government of Burma believes that he's an English spy. So they prohibit him from preaching the gospel and they put him in jail. And they bound him his ankles with chains, the historical report says 32 pounds of chains. And they chained him to a bamboo pole in this stinky, dirty prison, and a fellow prisoner who was hoping to make fun of Judson said this. “Doctor Judson, what about the prospect of the conversion of the unbelievers?” “So you're in prison. How's this working out for you, Judson?” Essentially is what he's saying. And Judson's reply was: “the prospects are just as bright as the promises of God.” I love that response. He's like, “hey, I may be here, but I know that God is still at work. And so whatever God's plans are right now, I trust his plans.” Judson was choosing to live by faith and not by sight.

So in this account in Genesis, material possessions are not Abraham's motivation. He was walking faithfully with God. Let me give you some teaching from Jesus from the New Testament that connects with this. In Luke chapter 12, Jesus said this to his disciples:

And a crowd that had gathered. He said, Take care and be on your guard against all covetousness. For one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.

That's an awesome verse, by the way. If you want to jot a verse down to memorize or to post on your refrigerator, if you struggle with coveting or struggle with jealousy of of other people's things, which I'm sure nobody at Evident Church does, but I've heard other people do. If you ever struggle with that kind of jealousy, that kind of coveting what other people have, just this reminder, be on guard, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. Jesus goes on:

And he told them a parable saying, The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, What shall I do for I have nowhere to store my crops? And he said, I will do this I'll tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods, and I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years, relax, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said to him, Fool, this night your soul is required of you, and the things that you've prepared, whose will they be? So is the one who lays up treasure for himself, but is not rich toward God.

Jesus also said in Matthew 16:26:

For what will it profit a man to gain (how much?) The whole world and yet forfeit his soul?

What will it profit a man to gain the entire world and yet forfeit his soul? So this passage in Genesis thirteen I think is kind of twofold. It's a warning to us based on Lot's decision, and it's also an example to us based on Abraham's decision to trust God. I love hearing quotes from kind of the giants of the faith over the centuries. So here's a couple for us. Martin Lloyd Jones said this about faith. Faith is the refusal to panic. That's nice and punchy, isn't it? Faith is the refusal to panic. I'm gonna trust God, whether I have a lot or little.

Charles Spurgeon, he's a regular that we reference around here. Charles Spurgeon, this is so good. Little faith will bring your soul bring your soul to heaven, but great faith will bring heaven to your soul. That's awesome. That gets a couple of fire emojis right there. Sorry. Philippians chapter 4, the apostle Paul, 11 through 13, he said:

I've learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of facing plenty and facing hunger, abundance and need. (What’s his secret?) I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

So what about you? Are you walking by faith today? Are you looking through the eyes of faith today? Are you learning to live every single day according to faith? Or on the other side, are you chasing material possessions and neglecting your relationship with God? Is your joy and your contentment and your peace found ultimately in God, or is it found in things?

I love this quote from another giant of the faith, Martin Luther, from the Protestant Reformation. He said, God our Father has made all things dependent or depend on faith so that whatever has faith or whoever has faith will have everything, but whoever does not have faith will have nothing.

Are you walking today by faith and not by sight? Let's go ahead and take a moment to pray.

I just would encourage you to bow your heads for just a moment. And like I said at the beginning, , God knows your heart. He knows what you're holding on to, he knows what you're putting your trust in. I encourage you to give your cares and concerns and worries to God in this moment of prayer. Go ahead and keep your heads bowed and just use this time to express your heart to God? What is he pointing out that you're holding on to instead of trusting him? What do you need to surrender to him this morning.

CLOSING PRAYER

Father, I thank you for this time that we are blessed with as people and as Christians, as the church, I pray that we would treasure these moments, we'd treasure these opportunities. I pray it's not so, but there could be a day when we're not able to do this. There are brothers and sisters in Christ around the world this morning or today that can't do this. Help us never to be bored or tired of it, to have a copy of the scriptures in our own hands in our own language, to be able to have a place to meet, have people to pray with us and people to pray with. God, we are so blessed. I pray that our abundance would not cause us to be lazy in our faith and lazy in our relationship with you. God, please forgive us for all the ways that we take on the weight of the world on our own shoulders and help us to walk by faith and to lean into you and to trust you in all things, whether we have a lot or whether we have a little, the secret of contentment or the secret of peace and joy is to trust in Yahweh God, the one who loves us and saves us through Christ, has poured out so many blessings upon us. So I pray that our eyes would be fixed on you, like we said at the beginning, just locked in and dialed daily on Jesus Christ. You are our joy and our hope and our treasure. We thank you so much for all that we get to do and enjoy. Thank you for the mission you've called us to. But help us to keep center centering ourselves and bring ourselves back to the fact that Jesus, you are our hope and our joy. Give us contentment in you. In all things we pray this in Jesus’s powerful name, amen.