Decisions and Our Destiny

As most of you well know, life is a series of decisions We all make them You made a decision today about what you were going to wear to church Some of you made a good decision, some of you didn't No, I'm just kidding But every day, we have to make a decision about something And the question comes, how do we make that decision? What is the governing factor behind the decision-making process in our lives? Genesis 13 is about men who made their decisions, Abraham and Lot One man's decision was not so wise It cost him dearly for the rest of his life Another man made wise decisions

And God blessed him because of that Turn with me in your Bible if you're not already there yet Genesis chapter 13 We'll begin reading in verse number one So Abram went out from Egypt to the Negev, he and his wife and all that belonged to him and Lot with him Now Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver and in gold And he went on his journeys from the Negev as far as Bethel to the place where his tent had been at the beginning between Bethel and Ai, to the place of the altar, which he had made there formerly And there Abram called on the name of the Lord

Now Lot, who went with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents And the land could not sustain them while dwelling together, for their possessions were so great that they were not able to remain together And there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram's livestock and the herdsmen of Lot's livestock Now the Canaanite and the Perizzite were dwelling then in the land Then Abram said to Lot, Please let there be no strife between you and me, nor between my herdsmen and your herdsmen, for we are brothers Is not the whole land before you? Please separate from me

If to the left, then I will go to the right Or if to the right, then I will go to the left And Lot lifted up his eyes and saw all the valley of the Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, as you go to Zoar So Lot chose for himself all the valley of the Jordan, and Lot journeyed eastward Thus they separated from each other Abram settled in the land of Canaan, while Lot settled in the cities of the valley, and moved his tents as far as Sodom

Now the men of Sodom were wicked exceedingly, and sinners against the Lord And the Lord said to Abram, After Lot had separated from him, now lift up your eyes, and look from the place where you are, northward and southward, and eastward and westward For all the land which you see, I will give it to you, and to your descendants forever And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth, so that if anyone can number the dust of the earth, then your descendants can also be numbered Arise, walk about the land through its length and breadth, for I will give it to you

Then Abram moved his tent, and came and dwelt by the oaks of Mamre, which are in Hebron And there he built an altar to the Lord Five things I want you to see this morning in Genesis chapter 13 about decisions and our destiny Number one, heading home Number two, family feuding Number three, Abraham's advice Number four, Lot's land And number five, God's graciousness Number one, we want to look, first of all, at heading home If you were with us last week, you know the story of Abraham and Sarah, and how he lied to Pharaoh about Sarah, his wife

And how Pharaoh found out about that, and through a series of circumstances, he was unable to cohabitate with Sarah because of a sexual disease that came his way Realizing that Abraham somehow was behind this, had lied to him, he gave Sarah back to him, and he was allowed to keep his livestock, allowed to keep his herds, his riches that he had obtained in Egypt, and now he's heading home Now he and Sarah, all the livestock, all of his servants and slaves, even Hagar, who is not mentioned yet, but she will be soon in Genesis 16, she comes back with him They're on their way back home

But two things are certain about their journey home One, Abraham was a rich man Two, Abraham was a repentant man Very, very important The Bible says that on the way back, he was very rich Very rich Silver, gold, livestock, the things he had obtained in Egypt And you think just by reading through Genesis 12 and 13, you'd think that the ends would justify the means Abraham would suffer many consequences because of one little lie One little lie We'll see it with Hagar, we'll see it with his son, we'll see it with his wife, and today we'll see it with his nephew Lot

But he paid dearly because of one little lie One little compromise on the truth of God would cost Abraham the rest of his life But I want you to notice something He didn't see the cost at first The cost would come later in life But before he ever felt the consequences of his sin, he was a repentant man Very significant You know, it's pretty easy to repent once you face the consequences of your sin Right? You see the turmoil you've caused, you see the problems you've caused, you think, you know what, I better get right with God or things are probably going to get worse for me

Sorry to say, there are consequences we pay for our sins, right? And Abraham would pay them But the difference being is that he'd be able to accept God's plan and God's discipline in that plan because he had a repentant heart. A repentant heart is a submissive heart to whatever God decides he wants to do as a result of your disobedience to him And that's where Abraham was Heading home, rich, oh, he was a rich man Yet he headed home a repentant man Which leads to point number two, and that is this, family feuding There came a feud between Abraham and Lot His herdsman and Lot's herdsman

Lot, of course, was Abraham's nephew He brought him from Ur of the Chaldees. I believe that Lot was a believer Second Peter speaks to that accord And so we understand that when he crossed over the great river, the Euphrates, he then became a Hebrew man, which means to cross the river And when he crossed the river with Abraham, I believe that he too was a believer in God and became monotheistic in his beliefs instead of polytheistic and therefore was a believer in God And yet two things lead to the family feud One is wealth and two is the witness in the land One is their wealth Is their wealth

First time wealth is mentioned in the Bible is Genesis chapter 13 And the very first time it's mentioned, you have a feud between family members Wealth Not always a good thing The Bible has a lot to say about riches But note this, wealth was not the problem It was a surface problem But the problem really was at the heart of man, right? Because Abraham had wealth He did not have the problem that Lot had But Lot had gotten a taste of Egypt in his blood He had seen the prosperity in Egypt He had seen the greatness in Egypt He had seen the success in Egypt

You see Abraham's flight to Egypt in the midst of a famine by taking his nephew with him did not know how greatly that would affect his nephew and his pursuit in life for success And Lot saw the greatness there in Egypt And now that he had attained all this wealth, he wanted more success He wanted more wealth The Bible speaks clearly over in 1 Timothy chapter 6 about this

It says this in verse number 10, Many people, although they might not have lots of things, lots of money, lots of possessions, because they want them, their heart has been directed in that way and therefore have brought upon them and their family many a pain That's why the Bible says in the next verse, 1 Timothy 6.11, If you want to be a man of God, you've got to flee the love of money You've got to flee the wanting for more things Got to flee it Be careful about the deceitfulness of riches And that's the way Lot was He got a taste of worldly success, went to his head

Now he began to long for more and more and get his uncle away from his possessions First of all was the wealth Second of all was the witness There was the Canaanites and the Perizzites in the land And they would be watching this man Abram as he came and built this altar to his God and worshiped his God And they would begin to examine this man's family Why? Because when you take a stand for God, the first thing the world looks at is your family Because if your God is as great as you say he is, he is going to transform your family They're going to see it in your relationship with your wife

They're going to see it in your relationship with your children They are going to put you under a microscope and they're going to say, okay, you serve one God, let me see how your God operates Let me see how your God operates in your marriage, in your family And then I'll decide whether or not I want to believe in your God Now granted, whether your marriage is good or bad or whether your kids are good or bad is irrelevant to whether or not God is true to his word because God is always true

But the world is looking for something, some credible evidence that they can see, something tangible that they can get their hands on Then they can say, okay, I see this family They say they believe in God Now let me see how their God operates And Abram knew if there was strife in the family, it would be a hindrance to their relationship He knew that He knew, he learned He learned that when he went down to Egypt, he didn't take a good strong stand for his God He could have, he didn't

He didn't want to make the same mistake again because he knew that Pharaoh was looking at him when he went to Egypt Now he knows the Canaanites are looking at him He knows the parasites are looking at him That's not the parasites, that's the parasites They were looking at him and they were observing his conduct observing his family And so therefore their witness became a key instrument on how they would handle their lives That moves us to point number three, Abraham's advice

And I want to draw this together with you with last week's message to show you this man and the advice he gave all stems, listen very carefully, by the fact that he went back to the house of God And because he went back to the house of God with a repentant spirit, with a repentant spirit, it governed how he made his decisions and how he handled his nephew Lot Very important in the decision-making process Two things I want you to notice about Abraham's advice Number one, there was a desire for harmony And number two, there was a demonstration of humility

Abraham said these words in verse number eight, please let there be no strife between you and me nor between my herdsmen and your herdsmen for we are brothers. A lot of us, when it comes to our own rights and our own desires, decide that we'll make decisions no matter what anybody else thinks or no matter what anybody else believes about us or our family But Abraham was able to make a wise decision There was much wisdom behind his talking to Lot and trying to bring a solution to the family feud Abraham was a peacemaker Abraham was not a troublemaker He wanted to make peace

He had a desire for harmony Well, this is the point number two Not only did he have a desire for harmony, but he demonstrated his humility Look what it says He demonstrated his humility He gave Lot the choice He had every right legally, morally, spiritually, every right to choose which part of the land he would take because it was his land anyway But see how he demonstrated his humility? Lot, look to the left If you want that, it's yours You choose it Look to the right If you want that over there, it's yours Take it, whatever you want Now, let me tell you how dumb Lot is

If Lot should have said, Abraham, listen, God gave you this land God promised to bless you and your seed He promised to bless me and my seed He promised to bless you and your seed Abraham, I'm going to stay with you. I will stay with you. I want to be where you are because I want the blessing of God But that's not what he did That's not what he did In fact, the text says in verse number 11, so Lot chose for who? Himself No regard to Abraham No regard to God Just he chose for himself Let's move on to Lot's land Lot made a choice Here's his land Two things you need to know

Number one, his land was delightful to the eyes and dangerous to the life Look what it says down in verse number 10 And Lot lifted up his eyes and saw all the valley of the Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah If you've ever been in the land of Israel, the place in which Sodom and Gomorrah was, is a wasteland today Will always be a wasteland It stands as a monument to the judgment of God upon mankind in his rebellion against him But before he destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, the text says it was like the garden of the Lord

It was like Eden It was beautiful It was lush It was green It was well watered He saw it He looked with his eyes and says, man, there's success right there. I can breed the livestock. I can grow the grass. I can grow the feed. I can make the money That's where I'm going, baby That looks so good. I am there If you're giving me the choice, I'm looking and I'm longing and I'm leaving because that's where I want to be Right there where everything is swell And so it says Lot chose for himself the valley of the Jordan He chose for himself the place that looked good

Folks, just because something look good to you, doesn't mean it's good for you. A lot of things look good to me, but they're not good for me It's not true that in our world today, they try to sell us on what looks good Right? Sure they do They try to make everything pristine Everything just right Let's just watch TV Just go buy the billboards. I mean, you're either lacking something You're either too dumb and you got to be smarter, right? You don't look good enough You're too ugly You got to be prettier You're too poor You got to be richer You just don't measure up to the world standards

None of you do. I don't You don't All of us are below standard So the world keeps putting all the stuff And it says, if you do this, you're going to look like this Remember Eve saw the apple It was delightful to the eyes Thus, we are where we are today What did John say, 1 John 2? The lust of the eyes Boy, it kills you It might look good, but it doesn't mean it's good for you Not only was it delightful to the eyes, it was dangerous to the life It was dangerous to the life Look what it says in verse number 12

Abram settled in the land of Canaan while Lot settled in the cities of the valley and moved his tents as far, where? As Sodom Now listen, Lot still wanted to maintain some semblance of his testimony So he moved his tents as far as Sodom He didn't move into Sodom He doesn't do that to chapter 14 Chapter 14, verse number 12, right? What's it say? Now he dwells in Sodom Now he dwells in Sodom In chapter 13, he moved his tents just on the outskirts of Sodom so he could look at it He could observe it

Now the text says, in verse number 13 of chapter 13, that men of Sodom were wicked exceedingly and sinners against the Lord But he was outside Sodom just so he could see it He wanted to maintain some semblance of a testimony He didn't want to go in there because he knew they were wicked So he'd stay on the outside He could look at it He could long for it, but yet not have it But he looked, he longed In chapter 14, he lives in the city When you get to chapter 19, guess what? He's leading in the city

Know when it all began? All began back when Abraham took Sarah and Lot to Egypt because of the famine in the land He got a taste of the good life He wanted more of the good life Therefore, it became dangerous to his life Over in 2 Peter chapter 2, it says that his soul was vexed He grieved inwardly He grieved inwardly so much so his soul was tormented, it says And when we get to Genesis chapter 19, we'll examine more about what that means But this man was not at ease at all in Sodom But he stayed there because his success was more important to him than anything else

Became dangerous to the life So much so it affected his wife She was turned into a pillar of salt His girls committed incest with him Sad story Sad, sad story He looked, he longed, he lived, he led, he lost How about you? Are you on the journey toward losing? Because you long for that which is not what God wants you to have And lastly, look at God's graciousness Just by word of note, Deuteronomy 23 tells us that the Moabites and the Amorites, descendants of Lot, were not allowed to worship in God's house because they were so wicked

The effects of sin run from generation to generation to generation But look at God's graciousness That's in verses 14 down to the end Look at his reward God immediately began to speak to Abraham Lift up your eyes Look from the place where you are Northward, southward, eastward, westward Lot looked and took God gave to Abraham his reward He gave him the land Lot lifted his eyes to see what the world offered, and God offered Abraham more than the world could ever give him He gave him heaven and beyond

Lot, excuse me, Lot chose a land he eventually lost, and God gave Abraham a land that he has even to this very day, and will one day be occupied by the king Who will rule from the city of the new Jerusalem, because he promised them that land Lot would lose his family Abraham's family is great for you and I are a part of that family That's the reward Look at Abraham's response Verse 18 He moved his tent, came and dwelt by the oaks of Mamre, which are in Hebron And there he built an altar to the Lord There it is again Chapter 12, verse 7, he built an altar Chapter 13, verse 4, he built an altar

Chapter 13, verse number 18, he built an altar What was his response? Are you ready for this? More worship of his God Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you Are you a seeker of God's kingdom? Are you a seeker of his righteousness? If you are away from the Lord, you make a decision today, right now Say, Lord, forgive me of my sins. I was wrong in doing this. I confess my sins to you, and I want to live according to your Word And say, from this day forward, Lord, I want to honor your name above all names and serve you

That's the right decision That's always the right decision to follow God and serve him and to honor his Word And then every decision you make after that, base it on who God is, his coming again, his call upon your life with the renewed confidence that God will do in and through you what only God himself can do And watch God bless you as God blessed Abraham Let's pray.