Sermon Tone Analysis

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*Intro*
When our lives are stuck on pause, it is often a great opportunity for the Lord to show us the things that our hearts are stuck on that are not of Him.
We saw that with Lot.
He wanted the “Garden of the Lord” (Gen.
13:10) without the Lord.
His heart was stuck on it.
And so he set his heart on it and lusted after it and took it.
Self-gratification is always a deadly snare.
This desire to master your own existence and arrogance thinking we know what is good for us apart from God was the problem of Eve (Gen.
3:6), the sons of God (Gen.
6:1-2), Pharaoh (Gen.
11:14-15) and now Lot (Gen.
13:10-12).
A lot of times we know what our hearts are stuck on by looking at our dreams and nightmares.
What would you say is your worst nightmare?
What would say is the thing if it came true would be utterly devastating?
To be honest I have a nightmare and it feels silly sharing it, but actually it is a literal nightmare I have at least once a week.
Usually in this nightmare, I am speaking to a group and somehow it ends up being the fact that I am not prepared to speak.
As a result, I end up feeling this sense of humiliation.
I feel like a loser and a fool.
I don’t want to go all Freudian on you, but I do see it as the Lord showing me my heart and where my motivations lie, the things my heart gets stuck on that are not of Him.
What is it for you?
Perhaps it is a fear of personal loss?
Or fear of being exposed of what your heart is really like?
Or fear of failure?
Or is it a feeling of shame?
Physical death?
Being alone?
Lack of love?
It could be a number of things.
Even those of us who seem like nothing bothers or phases us are often like that because we are really afraid to deal with any kind of pain at all and your greatest nightmare is to have a nightmare!
We all have our worst nightmares.
Lot had his worst nightmare come true.
He put his hopes in a dream piece of real estate.
He lets financial prosperity control and propel him.
And now we find in our text that all of that is taken away from him.
He ends up in bondage.
Thankfully he has an uncle who has a bigger heart than him and rescues him.
He could learn a lot from Abraham, but he will not as we shall see in the coming weeks.
But the question remains: how do you deal with your heart’s worst nightmare?
Today we will see the answer in two words: humble courage.
It sounds like an oxymoron, but we will see that this is the heart of the Gospel.
What do I mean by humble courage?
Tim Keller says, “/Courage is the ability to do the right thing regardless of the consequences and regardless of the dangers/.”[1]
Where do we find this kind of courage?
The world says, “Look at yourself.”
Look within yourself.
Visualize success.
Speak it.
Think positive thoughts.
And sometimes when you see people who make the headlines on television with these tremendous acts of bravery, they will tell you, “I knew I had to do it.
I just pictured saving that person and etc.”
We hear stories about the soldier who risked his life for his comrades, or the pilot of a plane who safely landed his plane on the Hudson River in New York, or the people who took down the terrorists of a flight.
We think of /Braveheart/: “You may take our lives, but you will never take OUR FREEDOM!”
I think you can have those courageous moments and I am not minimizing so many men and women who have had their moments and are models of courageous acts.
However, that’s adrenaline courage.
True courage is much deeper.
How do you have courage for the long haul?
We need something that will overwhelm our fears.
How do you have courage to face your heart’s worst nightmares and do the right thing anyway?
Where do you find the strength, especially when your life is stuck on pause, to persevere in a tough marriage?
To maintain under the strain of a difficult trial?
To keep serving a family member with a lifelong illness?
To see your singleness as an opportunity to show off what it means to be exclusively devoted to Jesus Christ?
To keep giving your best in a hard job?
To stay pure in sex-saturated society?
To keep loving and praying for that unsaved loved one?
To forgive someone who keeps on wronging you?
To parent children by sacrificing your personal time?
As William Gurnall says, “It requires more prowess and greatness of spirit to obey God faithfully, than to command an army of men; to be a Christian than a captain.”[2]
And Christians say, “Just have faith like Daniel!
Like David!
Like Abraham!”
This is somewhat helpful, but inadequate.
In the end, this is similar to the world’s solution and just a spiritualized version of “Find it within yourself.”
The truth is, we are cowards.
Our cowardice shows up everywhere and we have brought havoc in our lives and in the lives of our loved ones because we have given ourselves over to our fears.
Abraham here is a picture of true humble courage, but he himself is pointing to a true and better Abraham who is ultimately the humble and courageous One, from whom we find true humble courage four our lives.
What does it mean to have humble courage?
Take note of this:
*I.
LOVING SERVICE: Not stifled by self-absorption (vv.1-14)*
We have in Gen. 14:1-12 an unusual account of war.
This is actually the first recorded war in the Bible.
It seems odd for Moses to give us all of these details, which seem to come from something out of /the Lord of the Rings/.
Basically what happens is that there is war between four eastern kings and five southern kings.
The southern kings (including kings of Sodom and Gomorrah) were slaves of the eastern kings (including the king of Shinar, which is modern day Babylon in Iraq and the place of the Tower of Babel incident in Gen. 11) for twelve years.
Finally, in the thirteenth year, they had enough and decided to revolt.
Their revolt started other revolts.
The eastern kings would not have this.
If they ignored this rebellion, the southern kings could potentially take over  “a strategic commercial land bridge between Mesopotamia and Egypt.
Whoever controlled this land bridge maintained a monopoly on international trade.”[3]
Krell adds, “The eastern kings defeated everyone who opposed them.
They were an enemy that seemed invincible, relentless, unstoppable, striking fear into every heart as they steamrolled over every opposing military force.”[4]
When the eastern kings finally came up against the southern kings, they were in the Valley of Siddim.
The Valley of Siddim had a lot of pits.
The southern kings figured that despite the odds, these pits would be a good defense against the eastern kings.
However, to their surprise, many of the southern fighters fell into these pits they relied on.
This is interesting commentary on what happened to Lot as well.
The very thing he relied on, a garden of the Lord without the Lord, was what gets him into trouble.
Lot’s worst nightmare has come true.
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