Sermon Tone Analysis

*Money, Possessions and Family *

Gen. 13:1-18

 

*Introduction*

 

·     Dr.

Duguid – plot, scene divisions, characters & application

·     Bookends, contrasts, dialogue, drama and repetition

*Read text~/pray *

·     Don’t know any Hollywood writers

·     Hoosiers and scenes in a movie

·     Each scene is meant to communicate something

·     Ultimately to learn about God – to know Him, love Him & worship Him more

 

*Narrators background *

·     WENT UP – contrasted with 12:10 WENT DOWN

·     SEVERELY RICH, LOT is with him and he is on a JOURNEY

·     Narrator’s specifics call us to pay attention – V. 3 & 4

·     THERE ABRAM CALLED UPON . . . .

·     */What’s going on?

Abram is on a pilgrimage of repentance/*

·     LOT . . .

ALSO HAD  . . .

LAND COULD NOT SUPPORT THEM

·     */Appearance that God is not faithful – drama, tension /*

·     Notice the repetition of the word “DWELLING” 

·     STRIFE – CANAANITES & PERIZZITES

·     */Stage is set – something must change/*

·     Abram is on a pilgrimage of repentance, he and Lot are prospering but God’s prospering creates other problems, there’s other people groups there, it looks like God has failed Abram, he wants to do the right thing but now he’s got other problems

·     What will he do?

How does he respond?

·     Next scene we will see a very different Abram than Gen. 12

 

*Abram~/Lot dialogue *

·     THEN ABRAM SAID

·     Patriarchal society – so it’s appropriate that Abram leads here

·     Dialogue – 2nd time Abram speaks but notice how different he speaks here

·     Before – fearful, timid & compromising

·     Now – Clear, firm and trusting

·     Verse 9 – This is amazing Patriarch becomes peacemaker

o      */Abram is out of the cultural box – meant for us to ask why?/*

o      Why would Abram prefer Lot?  Risk the promised land to his nephew?

o      Abram’s motivation is not obvious in the text but next we will see Lot’s

·     Verse 10 – LIFTED UP HIS EYES & THE GARDEN OF THE LORD

o      Lot is walking by sight – wants “heaven on earth”

o      Nothing about God or Abram

o      Lot is a picture of you and I without the call of God, the grace of God working in our lives

·     Verse 12 –  Intentional use of the word “SETTLED” or dwelt

·     Lot goes east, settles in cities vs. Canaan

·     WICKED same word as the people killed in the generation of the flood

·     GREAT SINNERS rare phrase and implies the extreme seriousness of Sodom’s sin

/“Lot, when he fancied he was living in paradise, was nearly plunged into the depths of hell.”

/

John Calvin

 

*God~/Abram dialogue*

·     God speaks after Lot separates – significant

·     Separate, lift up your eyes, look – just like Abram said to Lot earlier

·     Notice what God does:

1.

The land you see I will give you – “the land I will show you”

2.  You and your offspring – before it was to Abram now explicitly to his offspring

3.  Forever – God commits to Abram forever

4.  Dust of the earth – from general to specific EXPLAINS THE METAPHOR

·     v.

17 Is the legal way they would take possession of land

·     V.

18 is Abram’s obedient response

 

*/Transition/*

·     Just like scenes in a movie – Abram, Lot and the others are just the actors communicating a message.

·     What is that message?

What is it that surfaces from this story?

*/God is faithful despite human failures/*

·     God’s faithfulness IS NOT dependent on human action

·     God’s faithfulness is a reflection of His glory – His character

 

*/God’s faithfulness in repentance /*

·     REPENTANCE IS A GIFT FROM GOD

·     REPENTANCE ULTIMATELY DISPLAYS GOD’S FAITHFULNESS

·     Abram has failed miserably

·     God is leading him in a PILGRIMAGE OF REPENTANCE

·     One of the most distinguishing characteristics of Christianity is this – how God’s people respond in failure

·     More than any victory, or even suffering, how you respond in failure speaks volumes of who your God is!!

·     Where do you go when you fail and “go down” to Egypt?

·     Guilt – that makes a statement about the God you serve!!

·     You should feel guilty – but do you stay there?

Do you retrace your steps?

·     Condemnation – double pride

·     FIRST – God’s Word isn’t true that there will be no condemnation

·     SECOND – I didn’t perform right – More attention on what you are doing or failed to do than on what Christ has done.

·     REPENTANCE IS A GIFT FROM GOD

·     REPENTANCE ULTIMATELY DISPLAYS GOD’S FAITHFULNESS

 

*/God’s Faithfulness in prosperity /*

·     Abram has a test of prosperity here

·     How will he respond?

What does trusting God look like?

Three relationships:

1.  Abram and his money

2.  Abram and his family

3.  Abram and his God

·     Abram is a changed man

·     Abram is trusting God’s promise – and it’s affecting his daily life

·     Abram can get out of the box of cultural ways of doing things

 

/Heb 11:8-9// By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance.

And he went out, not knowing where he was going.

By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise.

10 For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God./

 

·     Abram was looking forward to something much better than this life