Making the Tough Choices

Presidential campaign: the “tough choices”

The toughest choice in life is whether to follow God’s will or follow your own.

Review Genesis 12…

Abram doubted God’s ability to provide…

His doubt led to distance from God, as he went down to Egypt…

His distance led to deceit, as he lied to the Egyptians about his wife…

His deceit led to disaster, as he lost his wife…

His disaster led to deportation.

Genesis 13, we find Abram returning to the Promised Land, chastened.

- he had learned that from now on, he had better rely on God to provide for his needs.

- came to Bethel, v.4, where he called on the name of the Lord.

- an altar of repentance and forgiveness

- is there such an altar in your life?

When Abram returned from Egypt, he brought two things with him that were going to be a problem.

1. He brought cattle and livestock, silver and gold. He had obtained these in Egypt, because of his deception of Pharaoh. This was ill-gotten wealth. These things were shortly going to become a problem, as we shall see today. Egypt’s illegitimate wealth would create division and strife in Abram’s family and lead to his nephew’s downfall.

- when we become wealthy on our own terms, apart from God’s blessing, our wealth becomes a problem to us and to our families. But God’s blessings never become a burden.

2. 12:16 - menservants and maidservants. One of these was a young girl named Hagar, who became a handmaiden to Sarai. Hagar was going to become a burden and a problem and a snare to Abram. We’re still feeling the effects of this today, in the conflict between the Arabs and the Jews.

v. 5 - 7 (read)

The ill-gotten gain in Egypt became the cause for quarrelling among the servants of Abram and Lot.

notice v.7… the Canaanites and the Perizzites… why is this verse there?

It is to remind us that when division arises in the household of God, there are unbelievers watching. Our testimony is ruined in the eyes of the world when we begin to quarrel with one another.

Jn.13:35… by this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.

- not “if you are doctrinally correct”

- not “if you have a full church calendar of activities”

- not “if you are giving thousands of dollars to missions every year”

v.8 (read) - notice that Abram was the peacemaker? He sought to settle the dispute, because he knew that if it were to continue, it would soon affect his relationship with Lot.

v.9 (read) - There are two things that Abram did in this verse that are absolutely crucial in the spiritual life…

1. He gave up his rights.

In Mid-Eastern culture, where age is honored, Abram would have been well within his rights as the patriarch of the family to simply tell Lot where to go. There wouldn’t have been anything wrong with his doing so. He could have simply exercised his perogatives as Lot’s uncle and leader.

But Abram waived his rights. In so doing, he foreshadowed what Jesus Christ would do in coming to earth to die for us. He waived His rights.

Philippians 2:5ff Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross!

2. He placed his destiny in the hands of God.

Abram had learned a hard lesson in Egypt. Better to let God choose for us, than to choose for ourselves. Abram was content in this situation to let Lot do the choosing. He trusted God to direct his own footsteps through the circumstances as they unfolded.

v. 10-11 (read) - There are two things that Lot did in these verses that are absolutely devastating in the spiritual life.

1. He chose on the basis of sight

Lot looked up and saw. What did he see?

- beautiful land - the plain of the Jordan.

- well watered - good for raising livestock.

- like the garden of the Lord - the Garden of Eden.

Who wouldn’t want to live there?

e.g. - my feelings about Sarasota/Bradenton. Consider carefully what God wants for you!

This area that Lot saw looked very good. But it was temporary. Notice the little remark in parentheses in v.10. This was how the land looked before the Lord rained down fire and brimstone upon Sodom and Gomorrah.

- that sounds to me alot like a volcanic eruption. A geographical catastrophe.

- we are not absolutely sure where S - G were located, but we believe they were located on the South east shore of the Dead Sea. This land today is one of the hottest, most inhospitable places on earth. 1300 ft. below sea level. Temperatures in the 120’s.

But at one time, it resembled the Garden of Eden. Before the judgment of God fell upon it.

Lot looked up and saw this land. And he began to make plans for himself. But he didn’t know that God also had plans for this land. What Lot saw was only temporary.

How often we look at the good things of the world and we want them. We want the nice house. We want the luxury car. We want this and that. Sometimes the things of the world almost look as good as the Garden of Eden to us. And there’s something in us that wants that.

Joni Mitchell: Woodstock

“We are stardust, we are golden. And we’ve got to get ourselves back to the Garden.” The natural man has been trying to get back to the Garden ever since Genesis 3. He’s been trying to do it on his own terms, not God’s.

Now Lot was not a natural man. We understand that he was a believer, because of what we read in 2 Peter 2:7-8. But he was not walking with God. He was a carnal believer - one walking according to the desires of his own flesh. One of the characteristics of such a person is that they make their choices on the basis of what looks good. Lot made the choice of sight, not the choice of faith.

2. He chose for himself, without regard for what God wanted.

We read in v.11 “so Lot chose for himself the whole plain of the Jordan and set out toward the east.” As a Christian, when you start making choices for yourself, without regard for what God wants, you’re in deep trouble.

We think we know what’s best for us. We give lip service to God, but we really say “step aside and let me decide what I want.” That’s what’s behind this theology that says that you can have whatever you want, and pray for it, and God will give it to you. If we try to seize God’s blessings before we are ready for them, they will become a burden to us. e.g. Israel and a king.

Look how Lot ended up. What did he gain by choosing for himself the plain of the Jordan? Nothing but heartache, disaster, and death in his family.

Matthew 6:33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

v.11 - the two men parted company. Sooner or later, a godly man and a carnal man will have to part company. They will have no choice. They are living their lives on a different basis. They are marching to the beat of different drummers, so how can they stay in step?

Lot went down to the plain of the Jordan and pitched his tents near Sodom. The carnal believer thinks he can get close to the world and not be affected by it. Lot thought he could live near Sodom and enjoy the good land and not be influenced by what was going on in Sodom. That’s a lie of Satan.

Christian adults and young people often think this way. I’ll go to that place and enjoy what I can, but I won’t let the evil affect me. It’s a lie.

2 Corinthians 6:17 “Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.

Lot pitched his tents near Sodom in 13:12.

In Genesis 14:12 he was living in Sodom.

In Genesis 19:1, he had become an alderman of the city of Sodom, since he was sitting in the gate.

And he was a miserable man…

2 Peter 2:7-8 and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the filthy lives of lawless men (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)

But Abram, by contrast, allowed God to choose where he would live. And God chose for him to live in Canaan, the Promised Land. If you know that you are where God wants you, then you better not move!

Notice what God does for Abram on the basis of his decision.

v.14 - (read) - he gives Abram all the land he could ever want. And he gives it to him as a permanent possession - forever.

In v.10, we read that Lot lifted up his eyes…Lot saw what he wanted and took it.

In v.14, we read that God told Abram to lift up his eyes. Abram was a different man now. He didn’t dare lift up his eyes until God told him to. He remembered Egypt all too well!

Better to wait for God to do the giving, than for us to do the taking. And God will give to us in remarkable ways. e.g. Dan Oliveros’ tuition.

The key is to walk by faith. When we walk by faith, God brings his promises to us into clearer focus.

v.16 the dust of the earth - Abram’s physical offspring

15:5 the stars of the sky - Abram’s spiritual offspring

Abram began to see and understand these things more clearly because he had begun to walk by faith. And when you walk by faith, you begin to see things that you didn’t see before. God opens your eyes of faith.

Hebrews 11:7 By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family.

Hebrews 11:8 By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

Hebrews 11:13 All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance.

Hebrews 11:23 By faith Moses’ parents hid him for three months after he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child

Hebrews 11:25 He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward.

Hebrews 11:27 By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible.

God told Abram to walk through the length and breadth of the land. He told him to look north and south and east and west. It was all going to be his. Because Abram was right in the center of God’s will for his life.

He wasn’t perfect. He still had problems. But at last he was where God wanted him, and walking the way God wanted him to walk - by faith and not by sight.

So Abram built another altar. You could always tell where Abram went because he always left a testimony. The altar at Bethel was an altar of repentance and forgiveness. This altar at Hebron was an altar of worship and thanksgiving for all that God had done for him.