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So Genesis chapter 13. So Abram went up from Egypt to Negev with his wife and everything he had.! And Lot went with him.
! Abram had become very wealthy in livestock and in silver and gold.! From Negev he went from place to place until he came to Bethel, to the place between Bethel and Ai, where his tent had been earlier and where he had first built an altar.
There, Abram called on the name of the Lord. Now Lot, who was moving about with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents.
But the land could not support them while they stayed together, for their possessions were far too great that they were not able to stay together. And quarreling arose between Abram's herdsmen and Lot.
The Canaanites and Parasites were also living in the land at the time. So Abram said to Lot, Let's not have any quarreling between you and me or between your herdsmen and mine, for we are close relatives.
It's not the whole land before you. Let's part company. Lot looked around and saw that the whole plain of Jordan towards Soa was well watered, like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt.
This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. So Lot chose for himself the whole plain of Jordan and set out towards the east. The two men parted company.
Abram lived in the land of Canaan, while Lot lived among the cities of the plain and pitched his tents near Sodom. Now the people of Sodom were wicked and were sinning greatly against the Lord.
The Lord said to Abram after Lot had parted from him, Look around from where you are, from the north and south, to the east and west.
All the land that you see, I will give to you and your offspring forever. I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring could be counted.
Go, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I am giving it to you. So Abram went to live near the great trees of Moran, near Hebron, where he pitched his tents.
There he'll build an altar to the Lord. Well, thank you very much, Joanne, for reading. And let me add my very warm welcome to you all.
If your Bible has fallen short, then please keep it open at Genesis chapter 30. That would be a brilliant help to me and a great help to you as well. Let's join together in prayer and ask God for His help as we come to study and think about His Word.
Heavenly Father, You know us. You know each of us here this evening. You know our baggage. You know our situations.
You know our anxieties. You know the things that we are dealing with in our lives at the moment. You know the decisions that we may face in the days ahead.
And so we pray that you would send your Holy Spirit to speak into each of our lives. Address us in power, we pray. Transform our thinking.
Transform our desires. Shape and mold us by Your Word. And give us, living God, eyes to see our lives as You see them. And hearts that are ready to respond to what You have to say to us.
For we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Well, I received a WhatsApp message from my wife this week.
Now this happens from time to time. It usually means that she wants me to buy something that she's seen often of the cute sort of four-legged variety.
But this time the message was, wait for it, I think I found us our dream home. Amen. And so this time, curiosity got the better of me and I clicked through and opened the link.
And there it is. Dream big, as they say. Six bedrooms. Views over the Clyde estuary. 22 acres period.
Features. Basically everything you'd want. And then some. And the price? More or less the same as a three-bedroom house in the west end of Glasgow.
So obviously I started seriously considering it. There were admittedly one or two minor logistical questions.
22 acres is quite a lot of garden. Especially when you struggle to manage to tame what is a fraction of that in our present place.
And it is described as a remote peninsula. Estate agents speak for basically you're on your own. Now never mind that Alice doesn't even drive.
Still I thought it could work. It would be great for hospitality. On brand with our vision this year at St Silas to be a place to belong.
Although getting everyone back for Sunday lunch might be slightly ambitious. And roots on a Wednesday night. Well apparently it's a one hour 47 minute cycle from St Silas.
Yes I checked. And yes that probably would finish me off. So perhaps there are a few drawbacks. But it did get me thinking.
What actually makes somewhere a good place to live? Because we make decisions like this all the time. Where to live. what to study.
What job to take. Who to marry. Who to be friends with. What to prioritize with our time. And there are so many opportunities where on the surface we can look at them and think what's not to like?
But perhaps the more important question is what else is there to see? Because sometimes the things that look most attractive to us are not necessarily what are best for us.
And sometimes we make decisions based on what our eyes can see without ever stopping to think about what God might have to say about it. Well that's exactly the situation we come to in Genesis chapter 13.
Do look with me at verse 5 or pick up the story there. Now Lot who was moving about with Abram also had flocks and herds and tents.
But the land could not support them while they stayed together. So this is the context upon which the rest of the drama unfolds. Abram and his nephew Lot had become incredibly wealthy and their households had basically outgrown each other.
Abram generously gives Lot the first choice and what's striking is how deliberately this passage invites us to compare them to compare Abram and Lot.
So verse 10 Lot looked around and saw then in verse 14 after Lot has gone God says to Abram look around from where you are both men survey the land Lot is invited to choose Abram is given a promise and Genesis wants us to ask what is the difference between these two men.
What's the difference? What do they see? What do they value? What do they trust? Because Genesis 13 gives us a tale of two outlooks.
Lot sees with the eyes of the world and Abram learns to see with the eyes of faith. So firstly Lot is presented with a very significant choice.
Look at verse 8 Abram said to Lot let's not have any quarrels between you and me for we are close relatives. And then Abram says is not the whole land before you let's part company if you go to the left I'll go to the right I'll go to the left what a crazy generous offer Abram is the older man he's the more senior of the two the one to whom God has promised all this land and yet he gives Lot first choice so what is Lot going to do with this offer verse 10 Lot looked around and saw that the whole plain of the Jordan was well watered like the garden of the Lord so you can imagine Lot looking out over the valley from his elevated position there taking it all in soaking it all in it is lush it is fertile there's agricultural potential his people will definitely prosper and flourish there it's like finding that dream property online and thinking this is it!
what's not to like the land in fact looks so beautiful and so abundant that it reminds them of the garden of Eden this is paradise on earth as far as Lot is concerned and you can imagine him thinking quick make the decision get it signed this offer seems too good to refuse Quick before Abram has a chance to change his mind but as we follow Lot's gaze we begin to notice and detect some warning alarms the first is in verse 10 itself the land is described as being well watered like the land of Egypt now why mention Egypt especially since as we saw last week they both all just come from Egypt that didn't go particularly well for any of them but I think this is very interesting because in
Deuteronomy chapter 11 Moses contrasts the land of Egypt with the land God is bringing his people to specifically he contrasts their water supplies Egypt was irrigated from the Nile by human effort it still is today but the promised land was different it depended on rain from heaven in other words Egypt represents a kind of security that could be engineered and managed by human beings human autonomy essentially the promised land on the other hand depends on the Lord's provision so when Lot looks at the Jordan Valley and sees something like Egypt he sees a place where life just seems to work where there's prosper and flourishing and security who wouldn't want to go there who wouldn't be attracted by that there's nothing inherently wrong with wanting those things either but there is a danger when we think the good life is simply securing enough of those things for ourselves enough money enough comfort enough luxury enough in the bank enough security enough that we no longer really need to depend on
God we can basically write him out of the picture we become self made self sufficient self reliant that is a very appealing way to live isn't it you leave home maybe you go to university you get a job earn money buy your house build up savings and an investment portfolio without necessarily saying it out loud you begin to think I've got this I can manage life on my own thank you very much I don't really need God to be involved much at all that is one of the great temptations in this world to build a life that is increasingly secure as we become increasingly independent of the God who gives us everything in the first place lot is looking at a land that seems to offer precisely that sort of a life but there's another warning alarm verse 11 so
Lot chose for himself a whole plain of the Jordan and set out toward the east now he went east so what well in Genesis east doesn't really just mean east movement east often signals movement away from the Lord let's just think about it Adam and Eve are sent east out of the garden away from the Lord Cain heads east after murdering his brother away from the Lord the builders of the Tower of Babel journey you guessed it east as they pursue their own independence and glory it's not that east is somehow objectively a bad direction so if you're here tonight and you're from the east end of Glasgow or perish the thought from Edinburgh don't worry you've made it to the west no it's not that east is objectively bad but within
Genesis east is the place where you go if you're heading away from the Lord another clue that Lot is heading down the wrong path Then comes the biggest warning alarm of all Lot heads out towards Zohar eventually pitching his tent near Sodom verse 13 warns us now the people of Sodom were wicked and were sinning greatly against the Lord now let's notice the way the story works verse 10 tells us the land looked like the garden of the Lord verse 13 tells us what the people living there were like Lot sees the fertility of the land the narrator wants us to see the wickedness of the people Lot sees a promising place to build his future the narrator wants us to see the danger and the moral landscape and just in case we miss the warning verse 10 reminds us in the brackets this was before the
Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah presumably by the time it's written it was no longer the lush and fertile place after God's judgment in other words as we read this story we know what Lot does not know and what looks like a brilliant decision for Lot in the moment is going to have a devastating outcome on his life yes the land is really is attractive yes it really does look like paradise but the problem is that Lot only sees part of the picture and that matters he sees what he can gain but that doesn't reckon with the eternal consequences of the matter doesn't reckon with what living there will do to him he just sees immediate benefits that is a very real danger for us too the world around us is constantly advertising a version of the good life a better home a better car better holidays better sex more money more comfort more adventure more opportunities those things aren't necessarily bad but we can become so preoccupied with building paradise here on earth that we lose sight of the world to come and
Jesus makes a similar point in Luke chapter 14 he tells the story about a great banquet the master sends out invitations but the invited guests begin making excuses and what's striking about it is that none of these excuses are inherently wicked they are ordinary aspects of life work possessions marriage good things even but they've become so important that the invitation to the banquet is pushed aside we can become so obsessed or absorbed in building a good life here on earth that we miss the life God is offering us so let me put this plainly beware of trying to build paradise here beware of trying to build your life too much in this world beware of allowing the world to tell you where fulfillment is found beware of making your decisions simply by asking what looks attractive what's going to make me more comfortable what's going to make my life easier what will give me the biggest opportunities those are not necessarily bad questions but they're not enough on their own we also need to ask what else is true about this decision what will this do to my relationship with
Jesus and his people what kind of a person might have become if I choose this path what am I failing to see because I'm so attracted by the thing that's right in front of me think about decisions that you are making at the moment and for some of you that might mean how you start the time at college or school the courses you choose the friends you make how you spend your time what place church will have in your life which church to belong to and making decisions for yourself maybe new territory for you that's part of what it means to be growing up will you make those decisions with God in view will you seek his will and be shaped by his perspective or will you use your new freedom to build a life in which you no longer really need him and for others of us here those decisions will concern our work our relationships where to live how to use our time and money perhaps an opportunity offers a better salary or a more attractive lifestyle or a relationship that seems to promise the life that you've always wanted but are you looking only at what the opportunity offers you or are you also asking what it will do for your life with
God because our decisions are not simply about where we end up they're about the kind of people that we become on the way and that's what makes Lot's story so sobering he sees an attractive opportunity he makes a decision that seems to make sense he can certainly rationalize it and then step by step he finds himself going nearer and nearer Sodom and all that represents and when we reach Genesis chapter 19 we'll see ourselves the tragic consequences the world he chose has a grip on him a stranglehold on him he's comfortable there he's reluctant to leave his children don't leave and the decision that seemed so promising in this chapter has taken him somewhere he never presumably intended to go and that is a warning for us what looks like a small decision today can shape the kind of people that we become let me give you a personal example when
I was 17 I chose to go out with a girl and there were plenty of things about her that I could point to that were very attractive to me back then but at the level that mattered most there was something I should have cared about more she didn't share my faith in the Lord Jesus and at the time it seemed like a small innocuous decision just a date just another date but it became a serious relationship and set me off on a path away from the Lord theologically east you could say and can't always see where a decision will lead but what we choose really matters the things we allow into our lives shape our love shape our priorities our habits and direction and sometimes what looks most attractive in the moment can take us somewhere we never intended to go so what are we to do we cannot avoid making decisions but we need to learn to make them differently we can learn not simply to look at what our eyes can see but to look at the world in light of
God's promises and that brings us to Abram because Abram is standing in the same place as Lot standing in the same world as Lot he sees the same land he faces the same opportunities he has the same responsibilities and problems to shoulder but Abram is learning to live by faith And that so secondly and more briefly so far we have seen Lot choosing by sight and losing sight of God what about Abram what does it look like to make decisions with the eyes of faith let's go back to verse 9 Abram says to Lot is not the whole land before you let's part company if you go to the left I go to the right I go to the left remember Abram is the one to him God has promised all this land he has every reason to insist on his rights but instead he has chosen peace he's humble of personal advantage this is not simply because
Abram is somehow a more holy kind of a guy and we saw last week that Abram is capable of some very serious failures indeed the difference here is that Abram is learning to live in light of God's promises learning to trust God's promises and God has promised him land God's promised him offspring and blessing and Abram is learning to believe that God will fulfill God's promises in God's time that changes the way he looks at the present now Abram is not blind he can see everything Lot can see he can see the fertile land he sees the opportunities he sees what Lot is choosing he sees why Lot is choosing it but Abram sees something else as well he sees the unseen reality of God's promises he knows that the future does not finally depend on grabbing or grasping at the best looking opportunity in front of him that means he can afford to be open handed he can afford to be generous he can afford to lose even he can afford to be humble he can afford to put peace ahead of gain and faith frees us to surrender present advantage faith frees us to surrender present advantage because we know that what we surrender for the sake of
God is never ultimately lost that is not just a principle for dramatic heroic decisions it shapes ordinary decisions too think of friends from a previous church she's from Bearsdown one of the fancier parts of Glasgow but they moved their family into Easter House because they saw a gospel opportunity there her husband in fact had been training for ministry in a church but during a placement in a church in Easter House he saw the need there of the broken families that part of gospel and the need for positive role models male role models for the children there so he changed direction he stopped his training for full time ministry and retrained as a primary school teacher where he now seeks to be a light for the gospel and they were willing to make decisions that might seem very strange indeed to the lots of the world around them because they were asking a different question not simply what will make our lives most comfortable but how may we honour the
Lord where the Lord is calling us sometimes it's much smaller than that for us it's meant allowing our son to go to rugby training on a Monday evening but choosing to not let him play in matches on a Sunday because that would mean that he misses out on kid zone and church now that may seem like we've lost the plot to some of the guys at Canber Slang Rugby Club they see the world through the eyes of sport and achievement but if we believe that knowing Christ and belonging to his people matter eternally then those decisions begin to look very different and the eyes of faith help us to see this life in the light of the life that is coming that's exactly where the passage takes us in verse 14 the Lord said to Abram after Lot had parted from him look around from where you are to the north and south to the east and west all the land that you see
I will give to you and your offspring forever so Lot looked around and chose for himself now the Lord tells Abram to look around and reaffirms his promise so Abram may have allowed Lot to choose first but notice he has not lost out the Lord will indeed give him the land not only a portion of it but all of it not merely for a temporary period but forever and the promise is bigger than Abram could yet see and as the Bible unfolds we discover that God's promise to Abram reaches beyond a plot of land in Canaan Romans 4 speaks of Abraham as heir of the world a whole renewed creation in which God will dwell with his people that is the future Abram is learning to live for and that friends is the future that we are invited to live for as well so the question is not simply what can
I gain now the question is what has God promised what will still matter when this present world has passed away what am I willing to surrender now because I know that God is preparing something better than a six bedroom mansion in a remote peninsula in Dumbartonshire and the apostle Paul puts it like this in Philippians chapter 3 whatever gain I had I now consider loss for the sake of Christ I consider everything a loss because of a surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord Paul had learned to see the whole of life differently once looked like gain he could now count as loss not because those things had no value in themselves but because knowing Jesus is of infinitely greater worth and you can see the same way of looking at the world in the life of
Eric Liddell the film chariots of fire tells the story of the Scottish Olympic runner who declined to compete in his strongest event because the race was scheduled for a Sunday he believed that honoring God mattered more than winning Olympic glory and he gave up the opportunity to win the race that he was most likely to win so from the perspective of the world around him that looked like an extraordinary loss but Liddell was convinced that honoring God mattered more than the honor of the world so he entered another race instead not his proper event and as he went to the starting block somebody ran onto the track and placed a piece of paper in Liddell's hands on it were the words from 1 Samuel chapter 2 those who honor me
I will honor those who honor me says the Lord I will honor and Liddell famously went on to win gold against all expectations God now that outcome is not the promise that God makes to us faith does not mean that every act of obedience automatically will lead to earthly recognition and reward God but the deeper principle is true when we honor God we are never ultimately the losers we honor God God will honor us we may lose comfort we may lose status we may lose dignity we may lose opportunities we may lose what the world counts as success but we will not lose the future that God has promised to those who belong to
Christ Lot looked at the world and chose what seemed best for him in the moment Abram looked at the world around him through the eyes of faith and trusted the promises of God that brothers and sisters is the tale of two outlooks one man lived by what he could see the other learned to live by what God says so as we make decisions in the great choices of life and in the small ones let us ask God to give us the eyes of faith eyes to see beyond the immediate eyes to see beyond the superficially attractive eyes to see beyond what the world counts as success eyes to see the promises of God God because when we trust him we too are free to live lives that are humble generous and courageous and we can know this whatever we give up for the sake of
Christ we will never finally lose heavenly father we thank you that in Christ we are are never ultimately going to lose out thank you that your promises are sure and that the future you have promised us is greater than anything this world can offer help us to trust your promises to have our perspective shaped by your word we repent of the unwise and ungodly decisions that we've made in the past we repent of the ways we've rebelled against you and your good and holy ways and where there are decisions we are currently toying with or considering give us wisdom help us not simply to ask what looks attractive or what will make my life easier but help us to ask what will honor you what will help me to know and follow
Jesus what kind of person will this make me and so living God help us to hold lightly to the things of this world to fix our eyes on the eternal life that we have in Christ and give us the courage to surrender what we need to surrender the generosity to put others before ourselves and the faith to trust you when obedience is costly and so by your Holy Spirit make us your faithful people generous loving and peacemaking and a faithful witness to the lots of this world may we live with our eyes fixed not on what we can see now but on the promises of the God who keeps his word in Jesus name Amen well we're going to respond now to God's word first by singing a song that gives expression to what we've been thinking about that what we give up now is nothing compared with the surpassing worth of knowing
Jesus please stand and