Introduction
Let me begin with a discipleship question: will we trust and obey Jesus in the real decisions of everyday life? Christ forms us through truth received, repentance practiced, and obedience lived out.
Main Points
Faith and Obedience
you sang something just now if you were singing out loud or if you were worshiping in your heart that is the point of our sunday gathering this morning as we look at genesis chapter 13 and this incredible story that we're going to read this morning you just said there's nothing better than you sang it i sing it twice now and i don't know if you realize how profound of a statement that is when you say it because when you leave this place there's going to be a lot of things that will test that theology that you're just saying you said there's nothing better than you god and you gave a list of all of these things that god does to make you believe that and assure you of that truth in your life that as jake just prayed he can turn graves into gardens death to life he's faithful and he's good but the challenge with singing something like that is not living it and we're going to study a story in the book of genesis where we get a picture a case study in someone who lives it out it's not a song that we're going to study but there's going to be a practical moment in the life of abram part two of our study in his life where he declares through his actions and some steps of faith that he's going to make that there's actually nothing better than god we're also going to look at his nephew lot who we were introduced to last week as well and he's actually going to make the opposite declaration through his actions he's going to choose some things in life and in his portfolio above the will of god for his life and we will all have a fork in the road starting at about 35 or 40 minutes from now you're like hopefully 35 probably 55 where you're gonna have some decisions to make about how true that song is there's nothing better than god and really what this is coming down to is how much do you trust god's goodness in your life how much do you really trust that when you study something that is declared as a promise or a truth of god's word that it really is better than anything else in your life and that will be tested today we're going to read about a test in that and it's going to come down to how much you trust him how much you believe that god really is better and part of you believing that is believing that his will for your life there's nothing better than that the way that he provides for your life there's no better provision the way that he cares for you comforts you encourages you builds you up edifies you into the plan that he has to make you there's no better way than god's way for your life that is what you declared that is a case study this morning that we find in genesis chapter 13 and that really is one of the primary and fundamental challenges of following jesus and living for him in our life last week we looked at this foundational truth in the life of abram that we can apply to our life that god really does call us to something that he will make happen in our lives we have to now look at part two of that is not only are we called but we're called to trust that god is good in the midst of the call before we get into this story i'm reminded of another story a story i heard years ago that is always i think about is almost like a parable i guess it's a modern parable in a sense but it's also kind of a challenge to try to put myself in the shoes of this the hero of the story in a sense there was a man who went out to buy a car and as he was shopping in the you know the car dealership he starts working with a salesman and he finds the car he's been looking for it's got the specs it's got the look it's got the price and the salesman is ready to close the deal and he's like all right let's do this is this is the moment uh why don't we go and sign some paperwork and get you this car and the man says hey love everything about this car but i am actually gonna just wait just give it a day i'm gonna go home i am a man of faith and i'm gonna go seek the lord i'm gonna go pray and uh see if this is the lord's will for me to have this thing and that sounds like something that is wise it sounds like something that we would all love to be able to say to a car dealer a car salesman in the midst of the close and of course as the close is now becoming more tense the car dealer says listen i respect it you're a man of faith but i'll tell you this right now you leave this car dealership and somebody comes up and they try to buy this awesome car at this awesome price i can't hold it for you that's just so you know you've got you take as much time as you need but this car might not be here when you get back to which the man says if i go home and god tells me that i'm supposed to buy this car you actually can't sell it to anybody else it won't be possible because if god tells me it's mine it's mine and i don't have to worry about somebody else taking it now he's the hero of the story and i look at that and i'm like hey amen right we believe that what god gives us even before we cash it in it's yes and amen the promise of god always yes and amen and jesus christ but how often do we come to the close and we see the thing that we want and it's got the right price and the right look and the right style and we say if i don't act now if i don't get this limited time offer it's going to be gone like we need to do this right now i don't have a second to waste i prayed beforehand and i was going to cover this for the rest of the day that's the challenge of our life is to look at the things that we think we need and we think we want and we think that we'll care for our life and provide our life and say if i don't do something it's not going to happen today we look at abram as a case study and some really good examples of trusting the lord as we go on in our study we'll look at abram as a an example of a man who wavers but the wavering whether it's abram today and as an example of the good or lot today is an example of something to watch out for it will be an unending challenge of our life to continually sing the song not with our lips but with our heart there's nothing better than god his timing his provision his way and his plan to look at that we're going to really pick up at the story where it left off last week so let me give a little bit of the context last episode in our two be continued part two abram has been called from his father's land the place where he grew up he's 75 years old so the place where he had really built his life in the community that he was in god called him to a land that he would show him and we looked at abram and the example of his faith to say okay he counted the cost of the call he leaves everything to follow he lands in the land of canaan and in genesis chapter 12 as he gets to canaan it says that the lord met him there and said i'm actually going to give this land to you or descendants they're going to have this land and to really take hold of that promise abram would have to believe that he would someday have descendants because he didn't have a son he would have to believe that god would get him to a place where that would be possible by caring for his life and providing for his life but in a moment of great doubt because where there's opportunity for great faith there is opportunity for great doubt abram finds himself in a famished land uh he's going through in a season in this land that ancient people just had to deal with in ways that we don't always have to relate to but there's no food and there's limited water and it's not looking good so abram takes matters into his own hands and goes down to egypt the land of plenty at the time to basically provide for himself that was an example of the wavering faith that all of us need to learn from because that was not the plan and he sold out his wife said it was his sister she goes into the household of pharaoh there's a plague on the household and they basically kick abram out and now he's going to get back on track so praise god good news not disqualified he's able to get back on track and that's what we're going to look at today and there's an interesting plot twist that has happened because he went to a famish land into the land of plenty and now he's going to return to the land that god actually called him to with some surprising blessings in his life look what it says now starting in verse 1. then abram went up from egypt he and his wife and all that they had and lot with him to the south abram was very rich in livestock in silver and in gold that is the portfolio of the ancient days he had livestock he had silver he had gold he had buying power we'll come to find out he also had people working for him so he is now coming back into this land where last chapter he was leaving everything to a land he wasn't even sure where he was going now he's going back to the call and he's got a bunch of stuff that's a detail that we're going to study this morning because a bunch of stuff does not mean endless blessing as you probably all know we'll talk about it a little bit i don't want to belabor it but you've probably all heard the story plugged to friday night rap song mo money mo problems that's a reality 90s rap too so that's good i can't i cannot endorse all of the lyrics of that song by the way so just leave it at that verse 3 and he went and journeyed from the south as far as bethel to the place where his tent had been at the beginning between bethel and ai abraham abram still in this portion of his the story of his life is getting back to where he left off and as i invite all of us to get back into this worship of our lives god there's nothing better than you one example we can leave learn from this morning is that what abram had to do was go back to worship he had to go back to the time of his life when god was meeting him and speaking to him and encouraging him and making him promises and i hope that is some of you this morning as you can relate to the wavering faith that leads to a part of the plan that's not god's will the answer of abram to get back on track is to go back to where he met the lord maybe that's church for some of you welcome back maybe that's a place in your life where you were hungry for the word and you have to go back to the portion of the word that was speaking to you last whatever it is it's not complicated to get back on track with god you go back to where you met him and where you worshiped him and where he was speaking to you and then we'll see that abram makes a simple statement of faith he calls upon the name of the lord and he's back on track as he as he continues in verse four it says to the place of the altar which he had made there and abram called on the name of the lord abram now is going to be an example of some really incredible faith this is what he will become known for in the purposes of our study and most studies that look at the life of abram as the father of faith but he's not always but in this example he uses restoration of meeting with god once again to make some really clear faith moves in his life and this is what it looks like verse five we're going to set up the tension in verse five it says lot also who went with abram had flocks and herds and tents abram and lot traveling together both being built up in the things that they possess they had stuff they had abundance they had things that they needed to start managing and here's the problem now the land was not able to support them that they might dwell together for their possessions were so great that they could not dwell together i underlined that it's a very simple statement in the bible to remind us that not all of your problems are as simple as well god hasn't provided this thing yet or you know right now in my life i'm just barely starting out in my finances or in my career or even in my knowledge of god and as i grow things will get better there is a thing that happens in the course of our lives where we need to trust god when we have nothing and we also need to trust god to deal with when we have too much i'm going to belabor this slightly because depending on where you are in the state of the world there will be different audiences that will relate to different problems as i travel in the mission field of india that we are supporting and connected to in a church often times i encourage them in their lack god's a provider and god will give you what you need and he'll comfort you and there's something greater that god has for you than this world has to offer in this context let us be reminded that oftentimes we need to see god as a pruner also a god that helps us as we become overwhelmed with the treasures of this world with the possessions that sometimes and i hope you can relate in ways that will be cleansed by the word your possessions can possess you that is much more a message for the state of our country and our churches and oftentimes our families that we have so much of a good thing that we become people who can't even get along in the blessing and that's what happens it says in verse seven there was strife between the herdsmen of abram's livestock and the herdsmen of light lots livestock and the canaanites and the perizzites then dwelt in the land verse eight abram's going to offer a solution to lot and the rivaling herdsmen uh in a way that we'll look at to say let that be true in abram's life in his example in genesis chapter 13 may that be true of our life but we pause to just really think about the way that we need to be built up in the lord it is not always to be provided for sometimes it is once again to trust god that there is nothing better than him there is no amount of possessions there's no amount of stuff that you can have that you can somehow remove your dependence and need from god and the way that he gets our attention in that is sometimes he'll give us too much of a good thing and if i can give a state of the church from a full-time ministry person to uh to all of you man i am so grateful for the way this encourages me because in so many ways the american church has so much of a good thing right now if you come as a visitor to calvary boise and you want to do your due diligence to make sure that god has placed you in the right church according to you know where you line up with theology and how you want to serve and how you want to do missions you have about 250 churches to decide from in this valley that's just the churches that have buildings and programs and things for you to take part in and then countless churches that just meet in homes and gatherings that are off the radar we have a plethora and almost an embarrassment of riches in the way that we have been blessed by god in our plenty if you don't like this sermon on genesis chapter 13 this morning or you feel dry and still hungry for the word you can go home and find thousands of sermons on genesis chapter 13 many of them will be better and more eloquent than the one you hear today i'm not saying that's a good thing i'm saying that's a challenging thing because we have so much that we can focus on the blessing more than each other we can lose sight of the fact that really all we have to offer the world and then each other is an intense love for god because he first loved us and then working out all of our differences to love one another because as it says in this day the canaanites are still in the land the inhabitants of the land that are not the lord's people that don't know the goodness of god in a sense you get the idea they're watching it's like okay what's this family dynamic like in fact one of the reasons abram is going to be so concerned about this problem is because he's brethren with lot look what he says in verse 8 abram said a lot please let there be no strife between you and me and between my herdsmen and your herdsmen for we're brethren we're not supposed to be fighting we're supposed to be building each other up and caring for one another and how much does that apply to the state of american christianity and by proxy the blessing of just being an american let me give you the definition for the word strife and i don't think it will take you long to realize that this is one of the ways that we have got to figure out as brethren how to be different and set apart from the world it says strife to be angry or bitter or in disagreement over fundamental issues and conflict welcome to america the land of much strife it seems as though this is the problem that defines all other problems when you think about what is happening to the unraveling of our country because we can't stop strife everybody is so conflicted about the arguing and the problems and the tension and so we see it in the outside world and then you look around you're like well half of you came from other churches because you didn't like people there you know it's like why are we striving so much why are we always arguing and abram says a lot listen we're brethren we've got to work this out because people are watching and the new testament says the same thing to the church which we are an extension of in a blink of an eye we are the new testament church and paul says listen don't grow weary in doing good a time of harvest is coming prefer one another and stir up good works especially in the household of faith because if we can't figure out how to love one another and how to somehow prefer one another in the way that abram will give us a model of in this bible or this bible passage what in the world are we inviting people into just a more pleasant way to strife a strife without cussing a strife with uh collared shirts on a strife where we sing songs once a sunday and get back to strifing it's like what are we offering and abram says hey bro we got to figure this out we're in this land of promise and there's all these people around and we are a family so here's the solution one of the takeaways this morning there's nothing better than you nothing and that will be true of your church preferences your church style the sermon style even theological differences there are so many things that god allows to creep in to our churches so that we can say you know at the end of the day can we just run to the presence of god please at the end of the day can we realize that these things that we argue over and i'm telling you they seem big at the moment but they're not when we see through a mere dimly lit and there's going to be a day coming where we are known like we know god as we are known meaning the veil of temporary life and eternity will be torn and we will see the glory of god and i promise you on that day we are not going to be like hey lord can you help us decide who was right we will be blown away at all the things we wasted time arguing about and i know it seems intense right now but politics are not a big deal as you think we live for a different kingdom i know it seems like a big deal now but the theological preferences that we have are not going to be a big a deal as you think because it says in first corinthians chapter 13 that prophecy fades away tongues fade away faith hope and love remain the greatest is love everything else fades away a little case study in this came to me this week because i'm a sermon junkie i just loved listening to sermons and because of that i just i just watched them i listened to them and i found a sermon from 2008 from one of the coolest churches in the calvary chapel movement it was so cool and 2008 the peak level of cool and goodness for 2008 in 2021 i was like oh my gosh they are so dated and here's the reality you all are dated always i mean you give yourself five ten years and the arguments and the discussions that you're having right now you won't even remember them there'll be new ones and the principle will remain can we please prefer one another as we seek and run to the presence of god together and let some of these collisions that happen be ways that we show the world that we are all together different how well abram shows us away he says this listen let's separate so that we don't continue to fight and you take the land he says to lot take whatever you want i hold nothing back from you if you take the left then all go right verse 9. if you go to the right then i will go to the left abram says there's nothing better than what god has for him in his actions at this point we're going to see lot make a decision and one of the things that he has to decide between is do you honor your elder or do you take really awesome options there's a really good option on the table and everyone's like i don't care do what you got to do and if we don't figure this out as people as family members as brothers and sisters in christ we're no we're no different than the pagans heathens gentiles non-believing world and it's important that we realize that this is one of the critical issues of the faith is that we've got to figure out a way to not constantly quarrel to the point where we're no longer getting along in fact c.s lewis has a book called the great divorce if you haven't read it i recommend it is a book of fiction there's been times i've quoted it before and it's making some thought experiment ideas about hell that are not perfectly aligned theologically it's a fictional book in fact it kind of gives a thought experiment if hell was a town that people were sent to and then they have to figure out how to now live in this town so it's certainly a work of fiction but it does this really interesting thing oftentimes we think of hell in medieval terms and we do the same thing with heaven by the way neither one of them are great ways to think about eternity uh medieval heaven harps angels clouds uh floating in blue skies and a moxie java mural that's not really what heaven will be and in the same way like pitchforks and flames it's symbolic of separation and um torment because that's what it will be when you're separated from god but i love what the great divorce gives us as a picture of what this potentially could look like here's a little excerpt as the man who is visiting this town that is symbolic of hell he gets this picture of what a society would be like that was completely godless and look what it says he says this seems like a really nice town and that's what i can't understand the parts of it that i saw were so empty was there once a much larger population not at all said my neighbor the trouble is that they're so quarrelsome as soon as anyone arrives he settles in some street and before he's been there 24 hours he gets in a fight with his neighbor and before the week is over he's fought so badly that he decides to move very likely he finds the next street empty because everybody has already moved from that street and they've quarreled with all their neighbors and moved on so he settles in but if he stays it makes no difference he's sure to have another fight pretty soon and then he'll move on finally he'll move right out of to the edge of the town and build a new house and here's the problem it's too easy here all you've got to do is think of a house and there it is that's how the town keeps growing leaving more and more empty streets until finally everyone lives on the edge of town he says what if hell was actually you get exactly what you want apart from the will of god and every time you get in a fight you're like you know what if this person was just gone out of my life i'm just gonna move and get a new house and he's like what if that was the picture that we're all being worn from and why we desperately need the love of god to be shed abroad into our heart so that we save ourselves from this evil desire that exists in our human nature to completely quarrel to the point of cutting each other out and so we have to figure this out we have to figure out what abram had in his heart that allowed him to say i'm just going to give it all to you i'm going to le
Conclusion
We return to the opening teaching: discipleship is not just information, it is transformation through faith and obedience to Jesus. If we receive His Word and walk it out, He will shape us into people who endure and bear fruit.
Lord Jesus, help me hear Your Word, obey it with faith, and grow as Your disciple. Amen.
Conclusion
We return to the opening teaching: discipleship is not just information, it is transformation through faith and obedience to Jesus. If we receive His Word and walk it out, He will shape us into people who endure and bear fruit.
Closing Prayer
Lord Jesus, help me hear Your Word, obey it with faith, and grow as Your disciple. Amen.