Audio Transcript:

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Good morning, welcome to Mosaic church. Somebody this week, started on Instagram, a Mosaic memes page. I don't know who it was, but there's some quality content in there. My favorite thus far, was a meme of Bernie Sanders, where he says, "And now I am asking you again, please fill out the connection card. That's me every Sunday." So if you are new, welcome, please fill out the connection card. Either online or the physical one you got in the back. With that said, would you please pray with me with preaching of God's Word.

God what a great God you are. You created us for the paradise of your presence, that was the greatest thing in Eden. As a fact that Adam and Eve could walk with you in the cool of the day. Lord, and we gave that up. We believed the lies of the evil one who said we could have paradise without the presence of God. We wanted to banish you God from the garden for which you created us. Instead, we got banished. And we thank you Lord, that you didn't leave us in the state of banishment, or state of ostracism. Instead, you sent us your Son, Jesus Christ.

Jesus, you came and you've lived and you called us, you called your disciples and you're calling us. Hey, follow me. You're calling us into that blessed paradise of your presence to walk with you. And we fall short of that Lord so you fulfilled the walk perfectly, and you went to the cross and you died and you were buried. And you rose on the third day in order to offer us redemption, offer us healing, offer us restoration, offer us reconciliation. We thank you for that, Lord.

And we thank you Holy Spirit that you are with us today. We feel your presence. We want more of your Lord, we want more of your power. We want more of your presence in our lives. So we welcome you here now. Holy Spirit, take the Holy Scriptures and ignite our hearts, make our hearts burn with the scriptures. We love you and we pray that you bless our time with the holy word. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen.

The title of the sermon today is lift up your eyes. We're going through a sermon series in the book of Genesis. Jesus in Genesis, we're calling it because all the scriptures point to Jesus Christ. He is the word at the center of the word. He's the living word at the center of the written word, which is also living. And we last week looked at Genesis 12. Today we're in Genesis 13. And we have a text where we see that two people are making choices. So much in life, so much of what we do is based on choices that we make. And the more gravity a choice has the more intentionality we need to have and coming to that decision and making that choice.

When you figure out what you're having for lunch, there's not much gravitas there. The answer is always Los Amigos. That's always the answer. When you're deciding where to plant your life, that's a more weighty choice. When you're deciding whom to partner with, who will be your spouse, with whom will you fulfill the calling that God is calling you to, there's more gravity therefore, there must be more intentionality. And it really comes down to calling, what is God calling us to? And that's what we see in Genesis 12. With the story of Abram, who then becomes Abraham. It's a story of calling. What is God calling me to? That's the question I need to answer.

And then when I know, when God has made that clear, I have a choice to make, will I fulfill the calling of God? And what's most important from this text, that we're going to look at today in Genesis 13. It's not what a person chooses, it's how a person chooses and why a person chooses. What's the end goal? This is what reveals who we are inside, like nothing else reveals our priorities, our desires, what we want most in life, what we value most in life.

We see two men, two very different choices, two very different outcomes. One man is blessed. His children are blessed. He leaves a legacy of blessing. The other person is cursed. His family is cursed. He leaves a legacy of curse. The context is about 2000 years before Jesus Christ, so 4000 years removed from us. Jesus saves a Babylonia named Abraham. And he calls him to himself, to his mission, to a promised land. God promises I will bless you, and I will make you a blessing. And from you will come one who will bless all the nations talking about Jesus Christ.

So God calls from Ur of the Chaldean to Haran. He goes to Haran and then to Canaan. And when he goes to Canaan, we read about this last week. In Canaan, he sets up an altar. He sets up a church. This is a place that we will worship God. Abraham said, me and my family, everyone around me, my friends, we're going to worship God in this godless pagan place, and nothing's going to stop us. And then something did. There was a famine in the land. What happened is, Abraham started losing money. Abraham's prosperity started waning. Abraham's stock portfolio was in the red completely.

And he decided I need to leave this place of calling, I need to go to Egypt. He goes to Egypt and he knows he's going to get killed because apparently his wife who's 65, his wife or sister, whatever that was, she apparently was really good looking. And then Abraham knew that my wife is going to get taken from me, I'm going to get killed. So he concocts this plan that he's going to sell Pharaoh, his wife. Basically, pimps her up, basically prostitutes his wife so that she can save him. We see all of that. And before Pharaoh consummated the marriage, before all that God intervenes and saves him from this mess. And then this is where we are in the text today. Would you look at the text with me Genesis 13.

So Abraham went up from Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had and Lot with him into the Negeb. Now Abraham was very rich in livestock and 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 Abraham called upon the name of the Lord. 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 Abraham's livestock and herdsmen of Lot's livestock. And at that time, the Canaanites and the Perizzites were dwelling in the land. Then Abraham said to Lot, let there be no strife between you and me. And between your herdsmen and my herdsmen, for we are kinsman.

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 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.

Abraham 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. And the Lord said to Abraham, after Lot had separated from him, 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 Abraham 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. This is the reading of God's holy and air infallible, authoritative word may he write these eternal truths upon our hearts. The four points we're going to look at today to frame up our time. First, choose to repentance and worship, choose to resolve conflict, choose God over prosperity, and choose to walk with the Lord. Choices that lead to blessing. First, choose repentance and worship.

Look at verse one. And Abraham went up from Egypt. It's the language in Scripture, not just of movement, it's also the language of spiritual movement. Chapter 12 it says he went down to Egypt. Chapter 13:1 he's coming up. So God is lifting him up. And then the text says he and His wife, what did he tell Pharaoh? So Pharaoh that's my sister. And then God rebukes Abraham through Pharaoh speaks through Pharaoh and says, "How could you lie to me? You're supposed to be a man who knows God." So now Abraham, he feels conviction of the Holy Spirit. He knows he sinned, he and his wife. And by God's grace, God gives them the gift of repentance, rekindles his faith, and by God's grace, Sarah forgives him.

And God keeps Abraham and Sarah together because God is a God who cares about covenant marriage. So we see a man who's changed, he changes directions. And that's what repentance is. Repentance isn't just feeling bad about your sin or the mistakes you've made. Repentance is actually making a change in life, a direction change. And he leaves Egypt behind goes up back to Faith back to obedience, back to rich relationship with God. And we also see in verse one, that Lot went with him.

In Genesis 12, what happens is God tells Abraham, you need to leave your family. Leave everything behind, because your family are pagans, and they're going to keep you from the Lord. And this guy, Lot his nephew, he says, "Abraham, I'm going to come with you, because I heard that God's going to bless you. And I want to ride the coattails, so to speak of your blessing." And Abraham disobeys God by taking Lot. This is something that the text doesn't give a direct commentary on but what we can discern from the text.

So Lot was with him, he was with him in Egypt now he's with him again. Verse two. Now, Abraham was very rich in livestock and silver, and gold. So he had livestock, he had silver, he had gold, but he got more from Pharaoh. So he commits a sin and still from that sin, there's a windfall, and he gets to keep that windfall. And you say, "how does that work? I thought, if I sin, God punishes me. If I do righteous things, God blesses me. Well, that's not the economy of Scripture. The economy of scripture doesn't work like that, because the economy of scripture includes a thing called grace. And what Grace says is that God is much more gracious, much more loving, much more generous with us than we deserve.

We don't deserve his blessings. And here, we still see that God treats him with grace. Verse three, and he journeyed on from the Negeb, as far as Bethel, to a place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and AI, to the place where he made an altar at the first. And you see in the Scripture, this emphasis at the beginning. This is where he started his spiritual journey. He came to the land of the promise, the promised land in Canaan, and he built an altar, a place where people could worship God. This is where God met him at the first and there Abraham called upon the name of the Lord.

He eventually returns to this place where he started signaling that he returns to a life of loving God, a life of faith where God is now a priority again. And there's so many lessons here for us. There're ebbs and flows in the Christian life, you know this, I know this. There're times in your life where you feel God is in the room, that God's voice is pulsating in your heart. And you just know, you know that God is, you know that God has a plan for your life, you want to obey. And then there're times that, it says if you're walking through the valley of the shadow of death I don't feel God. There's a dryness, there're weariness there.

And Abraham, what does Abraham do when he felt that weariness? He goes back to where he had met God, I don't know about you. But there're places in my life where I know that God met me. And every once in a while, I got to go there. I think of this retreat center in Ashford, Connecticut. I grew up in a Russian Baptist household. And this is where all the youth events happened. And it's like, this is a place where you know that the Lord moves partially because so many people prayed over that place, it was a holy place. And every once in a while, you get to go back to places like that, in your life where God meets you.

So now God gives him a restored relationship. He sees again, he's regained spiritual sight. And now there's again language of this altar. And let me just pause here and mention the altar. I mentioned this last week and now it's in the text over and over and over. An altar in the Hebrew, if you just do the linguistic analysis, but also the theology behind it, it's a place where you go to meet God. It's a place where you go to worship God. It's the place where you go to bring sacrifices to God. It's a place you go to hear from his word and sync to him and pray to him. And have fellowship with him to tell God your sins and receive repentance from God.

It's place where people who messed up their lives can come and confess their sins and find reconciliation with God and find restoration. And this is how God works. And in the Old Testament people who know God love God, know his word, they build altars. In places of godlessness and paganism. And we see the same thing happen in the New Testament, where the apostles go and they make disciples of all nations by planting altars or churches. And this is where church is. The church is an altar. It's a place where we go and we meet God.

And this is crucial for every Christian to understand. That when you come to know the Lord, when you have your sins forgiven, God calls you into a community of faith. He doesn't call you to be out on your own, he calls you into a body of believers, so that you become a member of that body of believers. And I love this altar, I love Mosaic. I love that we are in a place of godlessness and paganism, where very few people know the Lord. And you're here you're serving, you're listening, you're giving and praise God for that.

And this is what the text emphasizes. The importance of the altar in our spiritual lives. It should be a priority in our lives. We should make our decisions around the church that we will be a part of, not as just a secondary decision. So that's where the text emphasizes. That's where we start that Abraham has reconciled with God and then Abraham as he's worshiping God. He realizes I need to be reconciled with my nephew Lot. I realize there's sin between us, there's conflict between us. So this is point two. Choose to resolve conflict. Verse five. 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. For there was strife between the herdsmen of Abrams livestock, and the herdsmen of Lots livestock. And at that time, the Canaanites and the Perizzites were dwelling in the land.

So God blessed Abram, and just by virtue of Lot being next to Abram, Lot gets blessed as well in his own right. He's sharing the blessing that the Lord has bestowed on Abraham, and that blessing becomes a point of strife in their relationship. They had flocks and the flocks became too large to occupy the same space in the central plateau of Canaan. They're semi nomads coming into foreign land, they don't own any of the land. So they just try to go where they're allowed to go. And what happens is, they start competing with one another. They're family, Uncle Abraham, nephew Lot, huge age difference in an honor shame society, where the younger is supposed to honor the older, and now they're competing.

And Lot knows that he's been blessed because of Abraham, because of God is making Abraham a conduit of blessing and Lot is still competing with his uncle. First thing I just want to point out is, sometimes, when we ask for God's blessings, in particular with prosperity, the reason why we don't receive prosperity when we ask for is because we're just not ready for it. Our character is not ready for it. This is partially why God allows Abraham to go down into Egypt. He allows Abraham sin and folly to be exposed to himself of how dependent he must be on God. God allows that to happen. And then he allows him to come back travel hundreds of miles, meditating on the fact that I'm such a wicked sinner. That I'm so selfish. I love myself more than my wife. I love myself more than God and what he's called me to.

And God restores him gives the gift's repentance, and then he comes back and blesses him. And we see with Lot, his character hasn't caught up to the prosperity that God has sent him. So what does Abraham do? So this is really important to emphasize. Lot should not have been competing with his uncle. Lot should have gone to Abraham and say, Hey, man, I don't know what our herdsmen are doing. You know what, I'll just back off a little bit or let's share, let's come to an agreement, something needs to happen. The younger one does not initiate, he lets the conflict fester. So who initiates the process of reconciliations? It's Abraham.

Verse eight. Abraham said to Lot, let there be no strife between you and me, 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, if you take the right hand then I will go to the left. This is basically saying you choose and I get the leftovers. And this is absolutely unexpected in this culture of honor, where you must honor your elder, you must honor your family, who's older. It's counter to every customer of that day. Abram was older, he's richer. Abram has received a direct promise from the Lord. And Abraham is the first.

So what this is showing is Abraham came back from Egypt a changed man. He's more generous, he's wiser, he's more noble. And he comes to the situation says there's conflict, and he thinks about himself third. First he thinks about God. Does it honor God when there's strife between brothers and sisters? No, it does not. So he thinks about Lot second, you know what, how am I going to handle this strife? I want to be generous to my nephew. And he thinks about himself third. And when you do that, guess who thinks about your needs? When you put God first, the Kingdom of God first, the calling of God first and others second, you put yourself third, who cares about your needs is God.

So he comes to Lot and he says, "Hey, man, we're kinsmen." And the word if you've probably got a footnote in your Bible, it says, "We're brothers." And this by the way, this isn't the word that you use for uncle and nephew relationship. He's saying, We're literally brothers. He's bringing himself down to the level of his nephew. We're brothers. I've got nephews, I love those guys. We've wrestled sometimes. Every once in a while when we wrestle, I pretend we're equal. I pretend we're equal. And after a while, I stop pretending when the second one jumps on. When the second one jumps on, I just stop pretending. Abraham is doing this, he's like I'm coming down to your level. And this shows incredible work of God in his heart.

The scripture talks about strife in a Christian community in 1 Corinthians 6. And Abraham was doing what St. Paul said to do in 1 Corinthians 6. In 1 Corinthians 6, St. Paul is addressing Christians who did business together. And one of the Christians shafted the other Christian. Just stole from him, ripped him off. Promised the service or product, charge him twice as much and took twice as long. And so the other guy wants to sue this guy for finances, right? That's the issue. Church is church, business is business.

And God goes to this guy, the guy who has been, who's at a loss, who's been injured financially, and God says to that guy, Hey, why not be wronged? Why not be wronged? Do you believe that God is sovereign? Do you believe that God is judge? Why are you suing that guy? Why not be wrong? Why not rather be cheated than bring disrespect upon the name of the Lord. And that's exactly what it is. It's disrespect on the name of the Lord. When we think Yeah, love God, love your neighbor, except when it comes to push them to shove. Yeah, love your brother, love your sister, except when it comes to business and money. No, true love comes especially in that place of conflict.

So this is what Abraham chooses. He's like, fine, I'll take a financial loss. You can make more money than I'll make as long as I don't disrespect the Lord. My relationship with you, my peace with you, my peace with God is infinitely more important. In chapter 12, Abraham risked everything to obey God, time passes, he loses his faith. And then he sins himself by becoming more selfish. Lot here and chapter 13, Abraham's faith has recovered, and he lets Lot makes the first choice.

Do you not think that Abraham already knew the character of his nephew? Of course, he did. Of course, he did. He knows his nephew is a scoundrel. He knows he's going to choose the best one. But Abraham is showing his faith and action. He says, You know what? Fine. God's with me. God loves me. God promised to bless me. And whatever you decide, God is going to superimpose by his sovereign will a situation where I will still be blessed. And Lot should have said, You're my uncle. He should have said, I've heard the promise you decide for us. So his modesty shows a deeper sin and that sin is selfishness. It's greed. He's opportunistic. He's a financial opportunity. He prioritizes self interest. Lot chooses what's best for Lot and let's see what happens.

And this is point three choose God over prosperity, meaning don't do what Lot did. Verse 10. 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. In parentheses, just a little note. So both are standing at Bethel, which is about 3000 feet above sea level, and Lot looks and he sees the magnificent Green luscious Valley that's east to South East. He could see the green from a distance. He saw the green. And then there's a phrase that just brought in like the Garden of the Lord.

He lifts up his eyes and he sees a land that's like the Garden of the Lord. What's the garden the Lord? It's Eden. He sees something that looks like Eden and he lifts up his eyes. And whenever scripture talks about lifting up your eyes, it's not just talking about physical eyes. It talks about the eyes of the flesh or the eyes of the heart, it's talking about desire. Scripture talks about lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh, the pride of life. There's a sense where we follow our eyes, when we love what we see and our hearts follow what we see.

And he sees paradise. And his soul is tugging him at paradise. And this is deep down inside every single one of us, we want paradise. We want to recreate paradise, a place with this perfect rest of perfect beauty, perfect acceptance. And this is what he's longing for. Every single person on earth is looking for heaven. We're looking for paradise. We're trying to get back to Eden. We're trying to get to the place of perfect satisfaction, perfect joy, perfect love, perfect acceptance. And every single one of us we have an idea of what it is. We have this idea. And it usually has to do with real estate. There is such a thing as Zillow, there is, that's a thing. That's a thing, where just for fun, you go on Zillow, and like, Hmm, what could I afford in Wyoming? What could I afford in Idaho? Coeur d'Alene it's calling my name. What could I afford?

I can afford acres. There's this idea, it has to do with real estate partially because we want to create a home. Like there's an idea of a forever home, we have that idea. That's a thing. You have this. I remember going to Arizona, Scottsdale Arizona with my brother in law, he's a builder is connected with a builder. And we got to tour this house that's getting built in a mountain. It's been carved in a mountain.

And they're given us a tour and we go to the bathroom, there's a literal gold tub. Wow. And the guy's like, this is just one of the 14 bathrooms or whatever, it was just something absurd. And you're like, just pulling. This is the paradise on earth, we want to create paradise on earth. The problem is, when we try to create paradise on earth without God, when we try to create heaven on earth without God, there's no such thing as heaven without God. The without God turns anything into hell. And this is what Lot is wrestling with. He sees this fake version of the garden. You could put this into the language of Genesis 3:6 where Eve is tempted by Satan and then she looked and she saw that the fruit was good.

And translate that with Lot. When Lot saw that the land east of the Jordan was good for food, and that it was delight to the eyes and that it was to be desired to get back to the garden of God. So he moved there and he ate. By the way, just to set the context, Lot knew that God spoke to Abraham. Lot knew about the call on Abram. This is why Lot came with Abram. Abram you're going to be blessed I want to be next to you. I want to get some of that even if I get leftovers.

He knew about the call of God. He knew about the mission. He knew about the plan. He blatantly chooses to live outside of it. Calling something that isn't the Garden of the Lord, the Garden of the Lord. He chooses the fertile plain of Sodom, the beautiful farmland prime real estate, and he leaves behind Abram. He leaves behind the altars. He leaves behind covenant community.

Verse 11. So Lot chose for himself all the Jordan Valley and Lot journeyed East thus they separated from each other. Abraham 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. He goes further east. What's fascinating is, it doesn't say before this decision, Hey, Abraham, maybe we should pray. Hey, let's go to the altar. Let's think about it. Let's meditate together. Let's ask God, what God wants or where does God want me to live. And he also doesn't visit the town. He doesn't visit the town to see if there's any righteous people.

And what's fascinating is there weren't any righteous people, because before God brings down fire and brimstone, sulphur upon Sodom and Gomorrah because of their wickedness has just reached the level that God couldn't tolerate anymore. There weren't 10 righteous people. So meaning before, and the only ones that got saved was Lot's family. So meaning before he made this decision, he didn't ask, Hey, is there a church there? It's a prime real estate, but is there a church there? Who's my wife going to be friends with? Because whoever my wife is friends with, they're going to shape her. Where are my daughters, he had two daughters, where are they going to go to school? Are they going to have Christian friends? Are they going to do that?

Perhaps Lot thought, online church is enough for me and my family. Before we move somewhere else, we look for churches so that we know when we get there, this is the wise thing to do. We're going to be in a church, a physical church, with physical people. Because those physical people are going to shape me, they're going to shape my family, they're going to shape my children. You don't say before I go somewhere else, I'm going ... I don't need the church. I'll just watch Mosaic online. I'll just watch another church online. We don't do that.

However, with this pandemic, some of us have gotten to a point where online church is enough. Online church isn't enough when your daughter's go to the high school of Sodom and Gomorrah, where the mascot is a literal Satan. We need the church physical Christians in our life. Worshiping online is great, singing online is great, we did it for a long time. It's great. It's not as good. Seeing Vlad on the drums come on, bro. Holy Spirit just every time with his little drumsticks. Every time is online, not as good. Not as good. That's my brother by the way, the drummer Vlad. Ladies and gentlemen, that's my bro and everyone else. Everyone else I can just do that to my brother.

It's like I'm telling you, have you ever been to Hibachi? On my birthday we went to Osaka Hibachi. Hibachi is awesome. They're cooking right in front of you. You feel, like you see the joy the people. I'm going to eat, I'm going to eat, it's awesome. There's a show and there's a fire and then you eat and you eat together. Yeah, the food's good by yourself but it's so much better together. It's awesome. Online church is like getting Hibachi grub hub. It's not as good.

And I say this with all love. I understand that some people just can't go, I'm just setting us up. New Hampshire lifted the mask mandates, what's going to happen to Massachusetts lifts the mask mandates. Are we going to keep at this, that's what I'm saying. I'm planting that seed, that's how I lead the church. I plant and then I water, and then I pray for the Holy Spirit to bring fruit. Amen. Hallelujah.

The scripture doesn't say that Lot made a bad choice. It doesn't say that. But it does bring in this comment about the wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah. It's foreshadowing the destruction, foreshadowing that this was a foolish decision. Sodom was prosperous but it was wicked and wicked in the real sense. We're going to stick at home from school centers wicked strong family, awesome. We wicked awesome. No, and then we call cows holy, holy cow. No, God is holy cows are delicious. Awesome is awesome and wicked is wicked. They were wicked people. They hated God. They hated any idea of the principles of God over their lives.

So Lot had a decision to make. There's two men, there's two choices, there's two different sets of priorities, there's two different ways of looking at life. And we see one man is wise and one man is foolish. One acted like a believing man should and one act like believing men never should. And that's because Lot prioritized his god over God. He prioritized his god and his god was money. That was his god, that was his idol and that's how he made decisions.

Lot saw the fertile plain, he saw the grass, he saw how fat his sheep will get. He saw how fat his cattle will get and they will be grass fed, which is the best way to do it. And I understand there's debate there. So Abraham settles in Canaan. Canaan is the promised land and Lot moves out of the promised land. And he sacrifices his relationship with Abram, he sacrifices his relationship with the covenant community, he sacrifices his relationship with God for grass. Because he asked where will I be most materially fruitful, not where will I be most spiritually fruitful? That's really the difference. That's what we got to ask, where will I be more spiritually full? Meaning, where can I be used by God more than anyplace else? Where can I serve more than anywhere? This is why it's so important to gather together as a church.

You're like, I can get the content online. Yeah, you can. Are there people that you can serve there? Like really serve hug, kiss, minister to, pray over, lay hands upon. He prioritized the riches that he could see over the riches that he could not because he was blinded by what the world could offer. That's why in Genesis 3:10 it says, This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. Verse 13. Again, that emphasizes the men of Sodom are wicked, great sinners against the Lord.

St. Paul, in 2 Timothy talks about this guy named Demas who was one of his disciples. He poured into them, he taught him. And then St. Paul writes that Demas has deserted me having loved this present world. He doesn't say that Demas got this present world, he says he loved this present world. He doesn't say he got it. And Lot's choice lead to destruction. Abraham is going to have to rescue Lot twice from Sodom once in the next chapter. Again, in chapter 18 minutes before God destroys Sodom.

And Lot compromised here. And then we see the compromise growing. And chapter 13 he moves next to Sodom. Chapter 14, he's actually inside Sodom. Chapter 19 now he's one of the most respected people in Sodom. Perhaps he thought, I'm going to change Sodom through politics. And he joins whatever the board was. Instead of saying I'm going to change this city through church, through worship, through the gospel, through the Holy Scriptures, and we see this downfall. And the point isn't that Lot went to live to a sinful place that's everywhere. We're in Boston, one of the most sinful places.

The point is that he went there with no intention of worshiping God and serving God and actually reaching these people for the Lord. And finally, his dragged out of this place, by angels, with his two daughters, and his wife, who had grown so in love with the materialism of Sodom. She turns around, and she dies. And his daughters are influenced into perversion by Sodom and they commit incest with their father. He starts off as a greedy businessman ends up with nothing a dead wife, and two daughters that committed incest, while Abraham kept prospering. Kept being blessed by the Lord.

CS Lewis says, when we put first things first God multiplies the second things. And when we put second things, first, we lose not only first things, we also lose the second things. So Abraham allows Lot to go, and Abraham remains and he walks with the Lord. So choose to walk with the Lord. Verse 14, 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."

Lift up your eyes, same phrase. And you see the commentary from the text. Lot lifts up his eyes, and he only sees with the eyes of his flesh. Of what he can gain, of only material wealth. And God comes to Abram and says, lift up your eyes. Lift up the eyes of your heart and see with faith, what I'm going to give you. I'm going to give you more of me. That's really the greatest blessing of this text. God shows up again, God sees that Abraham is a change man. He's repented, he does the right thing. He's seeking reconciliation and God shows up again. Lift up your eyes, Abraham, see, filter reality through your faith not through sinful desire. Abraham thinks after my thoughts see reality as I've defined it.

And it gives a more specific promise of what would someday be his. Lot's lush Valley would soon be barren desert tar pit smelling of sulphur. And here, God says, I'm going to bless you and bless this land. Abraham walks with God and that's what scripture actually ... The commentary of walking the Hebrew word is hâlakh. This is a relationship with God.

We see Adam and Eve walked with God. We see that Enoch walked with God. We see that Noah walked with God. Jesus Christ then comes and what does he say to his disciples, follow me, walk with me. This is the greatest thing that God can offer us is himself. Question is, did Lot walk with God? Was he a Christian? Scarcely. Like, barley. He was a barely Christian. How do I know he's a Christian? Because the Holy Spirit comments through St. Peter in 2 Peter 2:7-8. And it says this, If he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked, for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard.

Peter calls Lot a righteous man. We don't see him doing many righteous things. Even after we're like, okay, he was disturbed and vexed by the sin around but he didn't do anything about it. And we are never told of one spiritually minded thing that he does anywhere else in scripture. And then even after the destruction of Sodom, he remains a pathetic figure in scripture, with such as the grace of God. God chose this guy, says this guy is mine. Scripture comments on situations like this. 1 Corinthians 3:15. If anyone's work is burned up, that means if you haven't done anything for the Lord, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.

So apparently Lot was saved. How? If you believe that we're saved by workspace salvation, what we do for God, how can you say he was saved? Well, we don't believe that, we don't believe in workspace salvation. And the Old Testament doesn't believe in workspace salvation. It's only by grace through faith. The story of Lot is the story of the fall. Genesis, the Fall is repeated over and over and over. God gives an explicit command, the command is broken, judgment comes and people are cast out of God's presence. That happened with Adam and Eve, that happened with Cain that he's cast out after killing his brother. It happened with the Tower of Babel where they tried to create paradise on earth apart from God and they were cast out from each other and from God. And with Lot heard an explicit command of God, left he was expelled.

So how did Lot get back to God? How was Lot considered a righteous person? Hmm, Well, this land where Abraham was called to, is a land that then later is going to have another garden. Scripture talks about gardens often. In the beginning there was a garden, the Garden of Eden. In the end there's a garden. Revelation 20 new heavens and new earth, there's going to be a garden, a well water garden.
But for us to get from here, we're cast out. Now how's God going to save us? How's God going to save a person like Lot? How's God going to save a person like Abraham who also sinned, or like one of us? And get us to that garden, the garden that we're really longing for. How are we going to get there, from this garden to that garden?

Well, there's two other gardens in Scripture. The first is the garden of Gethsemane. Jesus Christ in the garden of Gethsemane is crying out to God, My God, my God, if there's any other way, let this cup pass. The cup of condemnation wrath poured out on me for the sins of everyone including Lot including every single one of us. But let not my will but yours be done because I want to give everyone heaven. I'm going to go through hell to give everyone heaven.

And then Jesus Christ goes to the cross and he does, he experiences hell literal hell, this is being abandoned by God. He cries out, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why was he forsaken? Because, he took our sins upon himself. And then he dies and after he dies, the soldiers come up to him, and they were going to break his legs in order to be done with the crucifixion. And they saw that he was already dead. So they speared his side and blood and water come out. He's taken down from the cross. And then Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus come to him, and they take his body. Where do they put it? John 19:41.

Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had been laid. He was placed in a tomb in a garden, you get death in a place of life. Adam, the first man entered the garden alive and he left it dead on the inside. He brought death into the garden of God and Jesus entered the garden of God dead because of sinful loss of hearts like ours, and through his death, he brought life back into the garden.

The whole point of this is that Jesus Christ is the garden. Jesus Christ is Eden, Jesus Christ is paradise. Lot was chasing a garden, outside of God. Abraham, he's in a barren desert and God comes to him, now there's a garden because God is paradise. This is the point that Jesus is The Promised Land. So how can we get more of the Promised Land, the more of the presence of God into our life. It begins with repentance. Repentance and faith, Jesus says, but repentance and faith is two sides of the same coin.

Because true repentance and faith isn't just oh yeah, I believe in Jesus. True Faith assumes repentance and you say something like, I believe I crucified Jesus, my sin, my selfishness, my greed, my lust crucified Jesus. That's what repentance is. And you ask for forgiveness and you ask for the Holy Spirit, and then you asked for God to give you strength to honor him and follow him and walk with him.

Lot, okay, you got saved, bro. You got saved. But your life was a legacy of curse and destruction. And some of you perhaps may be saved and perhaps you're on the same path was like, Yeah, I believe. Yeah, I follow Jesus but I love the things of this world more than Jesus. Repent of that sin, turn back to the lord, walk with him that's where the true blessing is.

What's fascinating is that this text begins with the worship of God and ends with the same thing. Verse 18, Abram moved his tent and came and settled by the oaks of Mamre, and there at Hebron, there he built an altar to the Lord. He goes to another place where God called him and he plants another church because that's what he does.

What's fascinating is, oaks of Mamre is 20 miles south of Bethlehem. And this is close to the place where Abraham bought the only property, the only real estate he ever got in his life. He bought it here. God promised him the promised land, Abraham ends up with only a little tiny piece for what, is the burial cave of Machpelah. All he got, the only real estate that he got is where he was buried. Incredible commentary. That God promised him the promised land, takes him to the promised land, doesn't give him any of the promised land, but only gives him himself because God is the promised land. And he only got the piece of real estate that he was buried in. And that's ultimately the only piece of real estate we ever get.

So we need to be as people thinking, what comes after this? What comes after this real estate? What comes after is the promised land in heaven and the presence of God if we believe Jesus Christ. Every day, we're faced with the same question. Will I follow Jesus today? Will I take up my cross and follow Jesus today? Will I make every sacrifice necessary to obey Jesus today? Consider carefully before you choose. Trade, trace each alternative out to its end.

Look to Abraham who walked with God, and got God, which is the greatest blessing. And look to Lot who left God to enter Sodom and all he received was destruction and pain. But praise be to God, we have forgiveness that he offers us that we can turn even if we went on the path of Lot. Let's pray.

Lord Jesus, we thank you for this text. What a text, what a rich text. We thank you, that you blessed our time with the Holy Scriptures. By the power of your spear we thank you for this community, we thank you for this altar, so to speak. Where we can come and we can worship. We can sing to you, we can pray to you, we can honor you, we can sacrifice to you. We can be transformed by you. And we're here so that those around us also are served by us and come to know you. Continue to build your church here in this place and we thank you Jesus that you are our garden, you are Eden and you are paradise and pray this in Jesus name, amen.