Genesis 13:1-18: Seeing Through the Eyes of Faith

Introduction

https://www.newsweek.com/italian-artist-sells-invisible-sculpture-more-18000-1596608 Someone spent $18,000 on nothing.

If you choose a life of faithlessness you’ll look back some day and say, “I spent everything on nothing...”

If you choose a life of faithfulness, you’ll spend your life on what seems like nothing in the eyes of the world but you’ll actually gain everything.

Interesting story… A contrast between a man who looks at life through the eyes of faith and a man who looks at life through the eyes of the world. One gains everything God has for him, and the other gains everything he sees with his eyes, but it ultimately costs him everything.

Abraham’s story… Teaches us to look at life through the eyes of faith. Like Abe, we’re on a journey of faith, and a journey of faith requires eyes of faith.

How would your life be different if you walked by faith and not by sight? How would the choices you make be different if you consistently saw life through the eyes of faith?

Three truths about seeing life through the eyes of faith.

You can always start over.

Life got tough in the Promised Land, and Abe fled to Egypt. Didn’t work out well for him. In Egypt, he deceived and had his wife taken from him.

Grace! God delivered him. Brought plagues on the house of Pharoah. Abe leaves with his wife and with riches. Not a bad way to get out of a really bad situation.

From Egypt, Abe returns to Canaan. He could have gone back to Haran… “God’s done with me...” But, God wasn’t done with Abe. If God was done with him, God would have left him in Egypt to suffer and die.

The long journey back to Canaan to where Abe had built an altar.

“And Abram called on the name of the Lord...” (vs. 4). He came back to Canaan. He came back to the promise of God. He called out…

Called out = worship. Delivered. Called out in confession?

Abe’s story first recorded story of someone coming back to God in Genesis.

Gen. 13:1-3 a story of repentance. You can come back to God. You can start over.

Repent = a change of mind that leads to a change of action. Being delivered by God in Egypt changed the way Abe thought of God, and that change of thinking led Abe right back to the place of promise to start again.

Abe’s story is the story of every believer - constant grace and constant repentance.

God doesn’t stop showing you grace, and there’s never a time that you can’t repent and start again in your walk with the Lord.

Temptation to think, “I’ve messed up too bad.” No marriage where repentance can’t take place. No friendship where repentance can’t take place. No addiction that you can’t repent of. No sinful thoughts or words that you can’t repent of. No area of your life where repentance can’t take place.

Lay down your pride. Be honest with yourself - you need to come back. Be honest with God. Be honest with others that you’ve hurt along the way because of your poor choices.

Call out to God. Confess. 1 John 1:9. Restoration and reconciliation flow out of confession. When’s the last time you actually confessed your sin to God?

Pick up where you left off. Temptation to think, “It will never be the same...” Not true. It will be better. Get back in the Word. Get back in community.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/massachusetts-lobster-diver-swallowed-whale Thought life was over but given a second chance… You’re given second chances all the time.

You can always choose what’s best over what’s better.

It’s a new start, but that new start didn’t take away all of the problems Abe had. His biggest problem: his wealth and a greedy nephew.

Seemed like Abe got out of Egypt well. He got out with his wife and lots of stuff. But, that’s the problem. The land can’t support all his stuff. There’s so much stuff that Abe can’t take care of it all himself. Imagine Abe puts half of the possessions under Lot’s care.

The land not large enough nor fruitful enough to support all of Abe and Lot’s stuff. Abe’s servants and Lot’s servants were fighting with each other. Canaanites and Perizzites in land as well. Not room for everyone.

Don’t know much about Lot or why he followed Abe. Peter calls him righteous (2 Pet. 2:7), but he doesn’t seem very righteous. He seems like a freeloader. He has a different perspective than Abe. After Egypt Abe determined to keep eyes on the Lord while Lot has his eyes on what he can see.

Another trial, but Abe responds differently this time than he did in Gen. 12. He’s growing in faith. He lets Lots choose where he wants to go. That takes faith!

Doesn’t make sense. Lot’s been riding Abe’s coat tails. What he has is because of Abraham. The promise came to Abe; not Lot. You would think Abe tell Lot where to go. “I’m god’s man, listen to me!”

vs. 10 - Lot looked out and saw… Similar language when Eve saw the tree in the garden… It looked good. He saw the land he wanted, and he had to have it.

Abe had been where Lot had been. Ch. 12 - Famine in land and Abe saw Egypt. That’s where the better life was. Away from the land God called him in the lush land of the Nile. But now, Abe knows better than to look with the natural eye. Abe is learning to look through eyes of faith.

Lot… Looks with the natural eye. It looks like the Lord’s garden (vs. 10.) Lot looks and thinks of Eden. Lush… Beautiful… Fruitful… Perfect.

But… it’s eastward. In Gen., when someone moves east, Moses’ way of saying away from the presence of God. Moving far away… To a land close to Sodom. Lot eventually moves into Sodom. It’s not going to go well.

Lot looks… That land is better. But, it wasn’t what was best.

What looks like Eden isn’t always what’s best for you. You’ve got Eden on your mind right now. Something that looks better to you than anything else in the world. You’d give anything to have it. A relationship. The college you want to get in. The house on the lake. The new job in the new city. “If I get it, I’ll be satisfied.” Not wrong to want better - but problem is you want it more than you want God’s best for you.

What’s best for you doesn’t always look like Eden. What’s best for you is God’s will, and many times God doesn’t call you to what looks better to you. What’s best for you is to fight for your marriage when it doesn’t look like Eden. What’s always best for you is to look at life through the eyes of faith.

You’re looking for what’s better, but you already have what’s best: God Himself. God has you where He wants you. God will move you when He wants to. God will lead you as He desires. Your responsibility to call out, believe, and live out His Word in every situation of life.

You can always see what matters most.

Lot looked and saw, and he left Abe for the better land. Abe watched as his nephew walked away… Perhaps heartbroken. Left in a land that looked nothing like where Lot was headed.

Lot looked, and then God came to Abe and said, “You look...” Reiterates the promise… “Lot gets the fertile land..” But we know the rest of the story. He wouldn’t get the land for long. In his lifetime, he would see the land where he settled destroyed.

To Abe: “This land is yours forever… Generation after generation of your descendants will come behind you and walk on this land...”

God doesn’t tell Abe how or when this will happen. He’s old. Sarai is barren, but Abe sees it with the eyes of faith. The God of all creation has told him what He will do in Abe’s life. Abraham can take it to the bank. It will happen. Challenge for you:

Lift up your eyes. You’re making the choice to look to things that will not satisfy when you could be making the choice to look to the One who loves you, who desires to make you into His image, who promises you an eternal Kingdom - a Promised Land.

Lift up your eyes and see how God wants to use you. Lift up your eyes and see the impact you can have on future generations as you live faithfully before God.

Leave it up to God. Abe didn’t know how it was going to turn out. He didn’t know how he was going to become a great nation. He didn’t know how his wife was going to have a child. All he could do was leave it up to God. He struggles with that, but that’s all you can do. (Going to Lidl… My lack of detail orientation. God knows every detail.)

God is great at working out the details of your life. Focus on living for Him and leave the details in His hands. He will always lead you to what’s best, and He will always reveal Himself to you in His way.

Your life might not look promising right now, but the God of the promise is faithfully at work.

It didn’t look promising 2,000 years ago when the Son of God was nailed to a cross. It seemed as if the serpent had one. The sky went dark. The earth shaked.

But on a day that didn’t look promising, God was fulfilling His promise to us. He was fulfilling His promise to bring us into His Promised Land, an eternal relationship with Him. On the cross, Jesus died the death you deserve, suffered the punishment for your sins, and then rose from the dead three days later so you could have life.

The God of the promise will continue to fulfill His promise to you. Lift up your eyes and leave it up to God.

This morning a new start. Unbeliever - start a relationship with Jesus. Believer - start again in your walk with the Lord.