01(Gen 13,01-18) Choices That Matter

Genesis 13:1-18

I.       Abram chooses to return to the path of obedience (13:1-4).

A.     Strife comes from the possessions.

5   Lot also, who went with Abram, had flocks and herds and tents.

6   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.

7   And there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram's livestock and the herdsmen of Lot's livestock. The Canaanites and the Perizzites then dwelt in the land.

B.     Abram gives Lot the choice of land.

8   So Abram said to Lot, "Please let there be no strife between you and me, and between my herdsmen and your herdsmen; for we are brethren.

9   "Is not the whole land before you? Please separate from me. If you take the left, then I will go to the right; or, if you go to the right, then I will go to the left."

II.     Lot chooses the city he can see.

A.     Beautiful in appearance.

10 And Lot lifted his eyes and saw all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere (before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah) like the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt as you go toward Zoar.

B.     Abundant in provisions.

11 Then Lot chose for himself all the plain of Jordan, and Lot journeyed east. And they separated from each other.

C.     But a city built by wicked and sinful men.

12 Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelt in the cities of the plain and pitched his tent even as far as Sodom.

13 But the men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked and sinful against the LORD.

III. Abram chooses a promised land.

A.     Abram saw his promises by faith.

14 And the LORD said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him: "Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are -- northward, southward, eastward, and westward;

15 "for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever.

16 "And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if a man could number the dust of the earth, then your descendants also could be numbered.

B.     Abram chose to walk by faith, not by sight.

17 "Arise, walk in the land through its length and its width, for I give it to you."

18 Then Abram moved his tent, and went and dwelt by the terebinth trees of Mamre, which are in Hebron, and built an altar there to the LORD.

C.     A city not built by temporal methods of wicked and sinful men (Hebrews 11:8-16).

§  In Promised Land living, choices matter. Everything counts.

§  “There is a land that is fairer than day, and by faith we see it afar.”