Genesis 13 To Plunder and To Prosper

Lord God, we're coming to you again, excited for this amazing teaching in the book of Genesis.

We continue to see the life of Abraham and how he has walked and his strengths and his weaknesses.

We pray, Lord, that the teaching today is not just information, it draws us to a relationship that you would have, we would have, with you in Jesus' name, amen.

Amen. Amen. If you were to take a guess, the gross domestic product per capita of the nation surrounding

Israel, what would you guess those are? The nation of Egypt, what do you think it is? Per capita

GDP, that means per person gross domestic product. I'm not a finance guy.

Three camels and a tent. That is not politically correct,

Paul. It's about $5 ,000. Okay. How about Syria? Probably less.

A little bit less, 4 ,800. How about Palestine? A bit less, around the 4 ,000 per person mark.

How about the nation of Israel? Higher. How much higher?

Double. More than 10 ,000 per person? Oh, yes. What if I told you it was 58 ,000 per person?

Wow. I'm moving. That's great. Bob's in. He wants to move to Israel. Make a

Leah. Mazel tov. Flight to Israel. Many people in the world, especially in the

Marxist influenced West, assume that whenever a nation is more wealthy than another, they are the oppressor and those who have less must be the victim.

That is, a richer nation must have become rich by plundering and pillaging and wrongly taking from others.

That's not at all the case with Israel. Israel has only been a nation since when?

1948. May 14th, 1948, Israel became a nation. And when they became a nation, there were already many

Jews living there. But at that point in time, many more returned to that land.

Now the population is about 9 1⁄2 million people. Seven million of those are

Jewish people and 2 1⁄2 million are Arabs living peacefully with the Jewish people in the nation of Israel.

Israel is not an oppressor nation, but rather, by industry, by intellect and work, they have been able to create prosperity.

They have invented new methods of irrigation that have made the desert bloom.

Amazingly, you can see orchards and you can see just vineyards of grapes where they actually have precisely calibrated an irrigation system that will release just the precise amount of water that is needed for the grapevine without wasting any water.

It's just intelligence, it's just hard work and industry that has made Israel so prosperous.

But there's also a spiritual component to what you see in Israel. God has always visited

Israel as the apple of his own eye. He does hold them in a distinct and unique position in the world stage.

It's not just a coincidence of history that Israel became a nation and that Israel has prospered in the land.

Let's go to Genesis chapter 13. The largest division of the book of Genesis is into two parts, 11 chapters and then the remaining 39.

Genesis 1 to 11 is the creation of the world culminating in a covenant that God made with Noah which will abide for all people for all times.

What happens at Babel is a rejection of God's creation design and God still fulfilling his own purposes despite the wickedness of man.

The first 11 chapters sit as a unit and then from chapters 12 to 50, we have the creation of the nation of Israel from a particular man named

Abraham and we follow his story and his family tree through four generations to see a nation born and a particular nation that God uses to mediate blessing to the rest of the world.

Israel is a nation that God has called his chosen people and designed to mediate blessing to the world.

Now, we will learn in the new covenant that that is particularly through a seed, singular, not plural.

What do I mean by that? The seed of Abraham is Christ himself and he will be the one who will mediate blessing to the nations because in large part,

Israel as a nation will fail to be the lighthouse to the nations. They will constantly fall into sin, be sent into exile and no longer represent

God as they were designed to do. But the book of Genesis is a book of beginnings.

It's when God makes these promises and establishes the Abrahamic covenant as John talked about in Genesis 12.

Before we begin in chapter 13, let's review what we saw in the first 12 chapters of the book.

Before you get, let me just ask. Is there any significance to not only first 11 chapters, but at the end, almost, the balance is really kind of.

That is an interesting because from chapter 37 to 50, the emphasis is upon the story of Joseph.

But I would argue also, Judah is very prominent in that story because he goes from a rejecter of Joseph to the one in chapter 49 verse 10 who will receive the promise of the seed line.

The scepter will not depart from Judah. So Joseph becomes a picture of Christ as an innocent sufferer who then comes back.

So there's a picture of death and resurrection in Joseph. So many typological indications that point to Christ.

And I think that's why he is so prominent because he's like the innocent one among the brothers who the brothers reject, but then ultimately is the salvation of the nation.

And what the brothers meant for evil, God means for good. So Joseph, yeah, he will be key at the end of the book.

Very good question. So of the first 11 chapters, what we're seeing in the world is how it's always been.

The thoughts of man's heart is wickedness all the time. But those who are of the covenant belong to God and believe the word of the

Lord. So in Genesis one, God says that he made the heavens and the earth.

What does the world say? Evolution. And even before Darwinism, that was the view of the

Roman and the Greek philosophers that matter was just eternally existent.

And the pantheon of gods were not so much a transcendent creator above all, but just part of this created order.

So God says that he created the heavens and the earth in chapter one. The world has always said there is no

God. There is no one transcendent God above all. There is only little

G gods and monism, a world that has God infused into it as the world still views it today.

Chapter two, God made them male and female. What does the world now say? There is no male and female.

Chapter three, sin comes into the world, but the world says there is no such thing as sin.

Chapter four, Cain kills Abel. God values the blood, the lifeblood of the innocent

Abel, but the world says, like Lamech, I killed a young man.

Killing the innocent as if it's no big deal. Devaluing of life. Chapter five is the genealogy of Seth, the family tree, nuclear family so important to God, establishing the very centerpiece of society.

It's all built on this nuclear family. You see that in the line of Seth, but the world discards the value of family in the line of Cain.

Chapter six, demons and the devil, the sons of God, seeing that the daughters of men are beautiful, but the world says there are no demons, there is no devil, there is no evil, good or evil, no right standards of right and wrong.

Chapter seven, what does God do? He judges the world with a worldwide flood that destroys all the living animals and people in the planet.

This sounds like God's wrath, but the world says that God would never judge.

No judgment. In chapter eight, he has mercy. The waters recede and he gives new life, rebirth.

He brings the ones, the world that he judged now back, but there's no mercy if there is no judgment.

There's no God that judges. The world says there is no mercy. Chapter nine, Noah's covenant. God says he would regulate temperature and seasons, months and years, summer, winter, hot and cold.

What does the world say? Climate change is this impending global disaster, whereas the rainbow itself actually signifies

God's promise of regularity, that he would not destroy the world with a flood, that he's in control, but the world that rejects

God doesn't have that assurance. And so they live in fear. Chapter 10 and chapter 11, the horizontal and the vertical genealogies.

Chapter 10 is about the nations, where all of the nations come from, and they are from the three sons of Noah.

And each one forms a nation, an important nation in the biblical narrative. But the world says nations don't matter.

Why? Because what does the world ultimately desire? One world government and one world religion.

And so in chapter 11, you have the story of Babel, the establishment of a one world government and religion, because we learn later in history that Nimrod was the founder of Babel, Babylon mystery religion, which falls in Revelation 17 and 18 at the end time.

So this is the seed of idolatry in the world. And it grows from there, and it even exists in our day, mystery

Babylon, a one world religion and empire that will ultimately be centered around one man, not

Nimrod, but the Antichrist. The rest of Genesis 11 was to trace from the

Semitic people, the tribe of Shem, a particular line, a vertical genealogy, to show that from Shem came

Eber, the Hebrews, and all the Hebrew people, but then ultimately from among them, one man whose name was?

Abraham. Abraham, later to be called Abraham. And he is called out from amongst the idolaters of the

Mesopotamian Valley, from Ur of the Chaldees, Babylon, the

Chaldean people is an area of Babylon, from that part of Mesopotamia to go north to Haran, and then come from there where Terah dies, he only makes it halfway, and then to travel into a promised land, a land flowing with milk and honey that God himself has given to Israel.

So you wanna know the fundamental divide between those who support Israel and those who would like to see them destroyed from the river to the sea?

John, what do we say? From the river to the sea, Israel always will be. Amen.

We got that from Amir Safar, because we believe in God, that he has said that this promised land belongs to the seed of Abraham, to the descendants of Abraham.

And so we affirm that, but the world that doesn't believe in God sees no God -given right or claim on that land.

So we pick up now in chapter 13 where John left off, he gave us an incredible teaching from John 12,

I mean from Genesis 12, about the Abrahamic covenant, and also demonstrated in that that those

Protestants who translated R -E -S -V and King James and New King James are handling the word of God right, whereas the translators of the

N -R -S -V, the Catholic Bible, have contradicted the book of Galatians in saying that people can bless themselves by obedience to covenant rather than the passivity of God will do the blessing on those whom he calls.

Clearly, Abraham did not earn anything. Circumcision and all the works of the law came after he was called and covenanted with God in Genesis 12.

That was a gift of grace. There was nothing special in Abraham. It was God's grace to Abram that called him out and said go.

And he believed and followed God. So let's go around. Yes, and then it's interesting, he added that little story at the end of chapter 12 almost to emphasize the fact that it was not

Abraham's righteousness. It was God's calling because the very first test in Egypt, Abraham failed, but God in his sovereign grace took care of it and protected

Abram and Sarah. So it's not Abram. It's all God. It's not of works that anyone should boast.

The test in Egypt, if you forget, there was a famine. They go down to Egypt, and Abraham pretends that his wife is only his sister because he doesn't want himself to get killed.

And so he completely fails that test, but God in his grace restores.

So Rick, would you read for us Genesis 13, one and two? So Abram went up from Egypt.

He and his wife and all. Now Abram was worried.

Where did he get all that money? All that livestock and silver and gold? Did he bring it with him down to Egypt?

He plundered the Egyptians. Do you remember when Moses brings them out of Egypt just the night before during the final plague?

What did all the people do for the Israelites? They brought them earrings and necklaces, and when

Israel came out of Egypt so many hundreds of years later, they plundered the

Egyptians. Here, foreshadowing that prophetically, Abraham himself plundered the

Egyptians. What do you think God is saying in that? First of all, was this unjust gain?

No, was Abraham unjust in taking this? It's God's judgment against the

Egyptians. There it is. It was God. And notice, God was the one who gifted these things to Abraham.

Yes, he erred in calling his wife only his sister, but then in order to curry his favor, they showered gifts upon him, and he simply said, oh, thank you, thank you.

Thank you very much, thank you. Oh, yes. And also Lot, he was receiving all these gifts, and then when he left, they sent him out with all their stuff.

Amazing. So he plundered them, but it was God's doing, not Abraham's.

He was being blessed despite his disobedience. Yeah, you. Where does,

I don't see it here. Well, it says, so Abraham went up from Egypt. When he went down to Egypt, what did he have?

Pretty much nothing. He's in a famine. He's just trying to survive.

So here's the deal. Abraham goes down, as he just said, really not with much.

They've just been journeying all the way from Gadameram up there through the land.

He has seen the river, the sea. He has seen it. Then there's a famine. We don't know how long, but they don't have anything.

They go down there. All he has is Sarah, and he basically offers

Sarah at the altar of things, and he, instead of standing up and saying, you know what, you can't take my wife.

She's my wife. He says, okay, give me all of this good stuff.

It's actually an act of plundering without being forceful by taking stuff.

That's it. It's taking stuff you have no right to take. It was a plunder of fear. They offer up.

Well, that too, yeah. You see this horror coming down and no one has done since coming into Egypt.

Yes, and I think what John said there at the very end is what I'm referring to, Neil. I'm using the word plunder, not as like, you think like someone, a tribe comes in and rapes and pillages and plunders the possessions.

Yes. Like they could have just gone down there. Yeah, but look, well, it's not that many years, so it's a famine, but if you look at verses 16 and 17, and for her sake, he dealt well with Abram.

He's trying to curry favor with Abram. He had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and camels, but the

Lord afflicted Pharaoh in his house, so what's clearly happening is the

Lord is behind all this. He's the one who's going to afflict Egypt, and it's because of Sarah, but remember, these are just like the people of Ur of the

Chaldees. Pharaoh at this time presents himself as the sun god. The various idols of the land are all an affront to God, and God judges through Abraham in type and in shadow to what will later become a massive national judgment.

Now, Pharaoh has complete authority, autonomy. He's going to be all of that.

Nobody is going to countermand what Pharaoh does, says, wants, except, except.

So this gorgeous, and we don't know for sure, she could be at this point in time 75 years old, but she's still a babe.

So much so. So much so that Abram's afraid for his life because of the beauty of his wife, okay?

So now, Pharaoh, Caesar takes her. Nobody is going to stop Pharaoh, except, but the

Lord afflicted Pharaoh. Now, how does Pharaoh react to this? In whatever occurs within Pharaoh's heart, there is an acknowledgement,

I can't do this, because then he says, Pharaoh called Abram and said, what is this you have done to me?

But he recognizes Abram can't countermand

Pharaoh, but something has happened that God has countermanded Pharaoh so that he knows he can't do anything about it.

And all of this ill -gotten gain, just go, just go take it.

You can call it, you know, whatever, but plunder is actually a good word for it because he had no right taking what he had, much less taking it away, but he did.

Yeah, so I learned it from Charlie Baylis of Dallas Seminary and his idea here in kind of a prefiguring,

I think the key word, if you look in my notes, Abraham essentially plundered. I'm not using that term as if,

I wouldn't even say ill -gotten gain, not ill -gotten gain. Everything was gifted to him, but it's the sovereign

God behind the scenes, blessing one, that's Abraham, despite himself, and at the same time, judging or cursing, in that sense, the people of Egypt.

They're losing their possessions, he's gaining possessions, but not ill -gotten gain. He doesn't do anything wrong to them.

He takes what they're willingly giving, but it's actually Yahweh behind the scenes who's doing it.

So I would use the word plunder in the sense that I'm saying it here. Abraham essentially plunders the

Egyptians, as Israel will later do, and I don't mean by that forcefully taking, but it's

God who's doing this in judgment of one and in blessing of the other. Okay, so in verses three and four, and he journeyed on 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 where he made an altar at the first, and there,

Abram, this is very important, because remember what's happened in earlier chapters with the line of Seth in Genesis five?

He called upon the name of the Lord. That's an important phrase. People first began to call upon the name of the

Lord in early days, the godly line of Seth, Enoch being in that line, walking with God.

Abraham actually does know God. So although he has erred in that prodigal walk in Egypt, when he was saying that Sarah was only his sister for his own self -protection, now he's calling on the name of the

Lord. So that's a sense of returning. Who would like to read for me, and it's in your notes.

You don't have to turn there, but Revelation 2 .4. Reniel, Camille, would you do that, and then Barb, I'll come to you next for Genesis 13.

But I have this against you that you would. Very good. Jesus rebukes churches for becoming lukewarm, or here, abandoning their first love.

Are Christians able to return if they ever have a season of drifting, a prodigal walk?

They sure are. The reason Jesus calls them back to the first love is because they had begun to lose it.

The prodigal son, was he a son before or after he went on his prodigal walk? Before and after, yes.

Now, he had to come to a place of repentance to come back, but even in that, he came back pretty tentative, not sure that his father would welcome him.

How did the father, in one of the most beautiful pictures in all the Bible, how did he meet the prodigal son?

By running, lifted up his robe, and he ran, and he hugged that son. That's the heart of the father, and that's how

Abraham would be received when he calls on the name of the Lord. Yes, Barb, would you read

Genesis 13, five to seven? Now Lot, who was moving about with Abel, they stayed together, for their possessions were so great that they were not able to stay together.

And quarreling arose between Abram's herdsmen and herdsmen of Lot.

The Canaanites and the Perizzites were also living in the land at that time.

Very good, thank you. Is it wrong to have great wealth? No. No, there is a movement in Christianity, it's essentially the poverty gospel.

We hear a lot of really against the prosperity gospel, but the poverty gospel is the flip opposite of that, that to have great wealth is inherently sin.

There are many wonderful Christians who have great wealth. Abraham and Lot both had great wealth.

One of them was led into sin on account of it. Now, the New Testament, 1 Timothy six, many other places speaks about, and James, speak about the unique dangers of great wealth.

What are some dangers of great wealth? Yep, Proverbs 30, verse eight.

Remove far from me falsehood and lying. Give me neither poverty nor riches.

Feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, who is the

Lord? Or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.

What's the unique danger of being exceptionally poor? Temptation to steal.

Yeah, I don't have a temptation to steal a loaf of bread on the windowsill of my neighbor, right?

I don't think any of us would. But if you were starving and your nephew was gonna die like Jean Valjean, or, no,

Jean Valjean was the chaser, right, who was the guy who stole? Javert, Javert, right?

He stole a loaf of bread because he was afraid, this is Les Miserables, in case you're wondering.

He steals a loaf of bread. Yeah. It's Jean Valjean who steals a loaf of bread. It's Jean Valjean who does the thieving and then

Javert chases him down? All right. Whichever it is to me. He was uniquely, yeah,

Ewing. He was uniquely tempted because of that station, that poverty.

There's a unique temptation to self -reliance, even overindulgence, and quarreling.

Because what happens is, with wealth, you would think people would become satisfied.

Instead, they become more and more greedy. There's a temptation toward those things. Not that it's wrong to have wealth, because some people can manage and steward that well.

But many people fall into temptation. So Proverbs 30, also in Ecclesiastes 5 .12, sweet is the sleep of a laborer, whether he eats little or much, but the full stomach of the rich will not let him sleep.

Overindulgence, you ever had a stomachache because you just ate way too much at that party, and you can't sleep at night?

That's kind of what's in view here. Great wealth can be a temptation. So here it says in verses five to seven, you've got

Abram and Lot. Both of them were exceedingly wealthy. Where'd they get that wealth? Egypt.

They both were showered with gifts, and now they're so wealthy, they're on top of each other.

Their possessions were so great that they could not dwell together, and there was strife, strife between the herdsmen of Abram's livestock and the herdsmen of Lot's.

You're gonna see two very different responses to that in verses eight and nine.

So Candy, would you mind reading for us, eight and nine? And Abram said to Lot, let there be none, if he takes the left hand, if he takes the right hand, then he will not eat.

In verse 10, you'll see Lot lift up his eyes, and there is, I think, in Lot, a greediness. And you see that because he cast his tent towards Sodom, which will eventually be his snare, his downfall, to his whole family.

But Abram holds God's gifts like this, and this is an incredibly important lesson for every

Christian. Everything that God puts in your hands, you're to hold with an open hand.

Offering it to God to do it as he pleases. As soon as you begin to cling to the time, the talent, the treasure that God has made you steward of, you may have to have some broken fingers if God tells you to let go of something.

One of the most telling men you've made in law or grandmother said, hold him loosely.

Mm, hold him loosely, amen. That's what I'm saying. We have to hold our wealth loosely.

Look in verses eight and nine. He doesn't want strife, so he says, let there be no strife.

And listen to what he says in verse nine. The whole land before you, separate yourself from me.

If you take the left, then I will go to the right, or if you take the right hand, then I will go. Is there a competition there for the best?

No. There is such an openness. You go, and I'll trust God with whatever

I get. That kind of attitude, that open hand. Ecclesiastes 11 .1

says, cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days.

Now isn't that interesting? By giving the best land to Lot, or the choice of the best land, does it look like Lot or Abraham would get the highest return?

Lot. Lot? That's where the return seems to be most likely. But you know the story of Lot.

Moab and Ammon will be the wicked nations that come from him, under the boot of Israel, and cursed of God, because of the sexual debauchery of their mothers, and how they even came about as a people.

But Israel, the inheritance of Abraham, will be blessed. And it's because Abraham is calling on the name of the

Lord. He's rightly related to God. It's about God, not the outward. God will bless as God sees fit.

It's not of Abraham to take and grab for himself. Yeah.

So, would you like to read verses 10 to 13 for us? And Lot lifted up his eyes, and saw all the valley of the

Jordan. This was before the war destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, and 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. Okay, so as you read that passage, you see where the author,

Moses, is taking the narrative. Right? You see it's actually a terrible choice on his part.

But look at verse 10. Lot lifted up his eyes, and saw. The picture there is what delights the eyes.

What he's coveting, what his eyes desire. He sees the beauty of the land. Now, Moses will make a note.

This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. Sodom and Gomorrah would have been luscious land, beautiful, flowing with milk and honey, grapes, and all the wonderful things.

It came to my mind that I liked it.

And that's exactly what Satan felt, and also Adam and Eve both felt the same way.

Lust of the eyes. Yep, he's coveting here. And notice what it says in Moses' language, verse 11.

So Lot chose for himself. Did he call upon the name of the

Lord and ask God's will? Or did he choose for himself? Was he concerned for the other, namely

Abraham, who kind of brought him out of Ur of the Chaldees? And Nephew Lot's sort of been riding in the coattails of Abram as the patriarch.

Shouldn't he have given honor to the patriarch? And say, oh no, far be it from me to take the better part,

Abram. I'll defer to you, and I'll take this area over here, and give you the best part.

That should have been the attitude of his heart, but it's not. It says here, Lot chose for himself all the

Jordan Valley, and Lot journeyed east. Thus they separated from each other.

Verse 12, Abram settled in the land of Canaan while Lot settled among the cities. Now, remember the land of Canaan is particularly noteworthy from Genesis 10, because cursed be

Canaan on account of Ham's sin. Canaan would not be a believer.

I think MacArthur makes a point that all three sons of Noah were saved, as pictured by them being invited on the ark.

But the first son of Noah that wasn't a saved man would have been Canaan. And so there's no curse on a saved man.

Ham himself, who looked on Noah's nakedness, was not cursed, but Canaan was. And it was really referring to Canaan as the patriarch of the

Canaanite people. So that when the Israelites come out of captivity, after their sin has reached full measure, 400 years of debauchery and Moloch worship,

God will actually declare holy war on Canaan. And Moses and the people, it won't be

Moses, it'll be Joshua, that will go in and destroy all the Canaanites. Abraham here settles in that promised land.

That's the land. But their sin has not yet been lifted up to that level.

It hasn't been increasing over those years. At this point, Abram is going to live as just one tribe among the

Canaanites. It says here, Abram settled in the land of Canaan while Lot settled among the cities of the valley and moved, this is an important phrase.

I tell the young people this, and I always focus on this particular line when teaching teenagers.

Don't even cast your tent towards Sodom. Lot did not become a

Sodomite at any point. Lot's downfall was that he got too close to Sodom.

He moved in that direction. He opened doors. He became worldly.

As Christians, we are not to cast our tent towards Sodom. We're to flee sexual temptation.

Don't toy with it or get close to it. Flee sexual immorality. Lot cast his tent as far as Sodom.

Now we get a preview here of what comes in Genesis 18 and 19. Now the men of Sodom were wicked, wicked.

That should have caused Lot to run the other way. They were great sinners against the

Lord. Verses 14 to 18. Would you mind reading for us?

Thank you. Land which you see,

I give to you and your major descendants as the dust of the earth so that if a man can number the dust of the image before I give it to you.

The neighbor moved his tent and went and dwelt by the tarry trees of Mamre which are in Hebron.

Thank you. Verse 15. I will give to you.

Who is the I? Who's the pronoun there? God. But he just gave it to Abraham, right?

It's not an eternal thing. Doesn't last to this day. Look at the rest of verse 15.

To your offspring. For how long? Forever. Well that pretty much settles the dispute over the river to the sea.

Answer that question right there. To you and your offspring forever. I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth.

Now that's not literally. There won't be as many human beings. I think that some estimate that there are 100 billion humans that have lived.

Right now, 9 .5 million people live in Israel.

Seven million of those are Jews. And there's another seven to 10 million

Jews spread out across the earth. Living, many of them in our area, believe it or not.

In New York and New Jersey. And then large pockets still in Europe. And still in Russia, some.

But many have made the flight back to the promised land. This is the promise of the land and of the people.

These people. Now where do the Gentiles fit into that promise? Grafted in, right?

As unto that tree that supports us. Right, so Gentiles are brought into the promise by faith into inclusion in what's called the church.

The body of Christ in the New Testament. But does that mean that we've replaced this promise?

No. No. Is this not still fully in effect? Yes. Abraham's covenant, of course, still is

God's covenant. With Abraham. And is he here referring to spiritual children by faith or to an ethnic people?

Yes. Yes. Yes, in some sense. But here, because the church can be called the

Israel of God. Galatians will refer to the church that way. But in context here, it's his descendants.

Let's be, let's follow the literal, grammatical, historical, hermeneutic way of interpreting. Your offspring, your seed, verse 15.

Your offspring will be as the dust of the earth. Verse 17.

Arise, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you. So Abraham moved his tent and came and settled by the oaks of Mamre, which are in Hebron.

And there he built an altar to the Lord. He's a worshiper of the true

God. And I apologize to this side of the room because I always work from right to left. I just, the heart of the right just inclines to the right.

So I can't help, Ecclesiastes, I can't help but go right. But I feel bad for you.

Well, if you look at it from that orientation, they're the right and they're the left. But you guys never get a chance to read because of my habit.

But I apologize for that. I'm gonna get here early next week instead of early today. Yeah, there you go.

Rick is the most to the right of all of us. But I'm teaching next week. Yeah, let John go this way. The gentleman.

Yeah, okay, yeah. John goes left, I go right. No, no, no, no, no. No. All right, well, hey, it was fun studying about Abraham.

Two minutes we have left. Listen, hold loosely to the things of this earth.

Your possessions are only a stewardship. They're not really yours. If you hold them like this, trusting

God to do what he will, he very often blesses, greatly blesses. I don't know about you, but I feel so abundantly blessed beyond anything

I could have ever imagined. And just to drive a car. How blessed are we to be able to scoot across the earth at 60 miles an hour to get where we wanna go?

Like we have cars. We're so blessed. We don't ride camels, we ride cars.

How blessed are we? Our houses just that give us shelter from the sun and from the rain.

The food that we eat. We're so blessed, but recognize it comes from God. Don't covet what other people have if they have more.

And if people have less, be generous. Abraham was generous toward those with less.

Only God can make of our lives something that lasts. Abraham's legacy was secured by God.

So focus on the things that we can't control in this world, but that God can. Your eternal meaning.

I heard someone recently say, it just feels so hopeless, like there's no point anymore. And I thought to myself, and somebody actually said to that person, only one life will soon be passed.

Only what's done for Christ will last. If you live with that, God will establish your legacy.

Abraham, when he heard this promise, didn't even have a son. And he probably thought to himself, how could this be?

But now we sit here so many thousands of years later and everything God said is true.

We can see it with our eyes. He can only hold it by faith. In the same way, what

God will do with your life, your time, talent, and treasure, will redound for all eternity if you call upon the name of the

Lord, figuratively build an altar to the Lord, worship Him, let your life be laid down as a living sacrifice, entrusted to God.

Let's pray. As Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

The lesson here is so solid in this chapter of Genesis. Seeing the reality of God's blessings versus what you perceive with your own eye.

Seeking after God's ways instead of seeking after your own fulfillment. Hold loosely to the things of this earth, the teaching from today.

pray that we would take this and make this part of our life, in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.