I'd ask you now to please stand with me for the reading of God's word. We begin this morning in Psalm 57, as we read together verses 1 through 11. Psalm 57, verses 1 through 11. Beginning in verse 1, the word of the Lord says, Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me. For my soul trusts in you, and in the shadow of your wings, I will make my refuge until these calamities have passed by. I will cry out to God Most High, to God who performs all things for me. He shall send from heaven and save me. He reproaches the one who would swallow me up. God shall send forth his mercy and his truth. My soul is among lions. I lie among the sons of men who are set on fire, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword. Be exalted, O God, above the heavens. Let your glory be above all the earth. They have prepared a net for my steps. My soul is bowed down. They have dug a pit before me. Into the midst of it they themselves have fallen. My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast. I will sing and give praise. Awake, my glory, awake, lute and harp. I will awaken the dawn. I will praise you, O Lord, among the peoples. I will sing to you among the nations, for your mercy reaches unto the heavens and your truth into the clouds. Be exalted, O God, above the heavens. Let your glory be above all the earth." May God add a blessing to the reading of his word. And now would you turn with me to Colossians chapter 2. we look together at verses one through five. Galatians chapter two, verses one through five. Beginning in verse one. For I want you to know what a great conflict I have for you and those in Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh, that their hearts may be encouraged being knit together in love, and attaining to all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the knowledge of the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. For this I say, lest anyone should deceive you with persuasive words. For though I am absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ Jesus. While all flesh is like grass and all of its glory is like the flower of the grass, the grass withers and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord abides forever. And all of God's beloved said, Amen. Please be seated. Would you join with me once more in a word of prayer? Gracious Heavenly Father, we Lift up this time that we have together in your word. And I pray, Heavenly Father, that you would give us eyes to see and ears to hear. And I pray, Heavenly Father, that you would encourage us, that you would strengthen us, that you would direct us to your mercy, that we might, all the days that you have given to us, trust, Lord, that your love does in fact endure forever. that Your covenant of grace, that Your salvific work within our hearts and transforming grace in our minds, we pray, Heavenly Father, would be so, and that we would rest in the work that You do within us. We ask these things in Your precious Son, Jesus Christ's name we pray. Amen. Well this morning, if you haven't turned there already, I invite you to turn with me to Genesis chapter 13, as we look at all 18 verses together. Genesis chapter 13, verses 1 through 18. And I have entitled this, Lot's Folly. Lot's, as in Abram's nephew, Lot, and his folly. Well, last week, as you remember, we looked at Genesis chapter 12, verses 10 through 20, as we finished chapter 12 together. Where we see there is Abram, his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, go from the promised land Canaan that God has promised to him, as well as his progeny, where he leaves and he goes to Egypt. What we see in that story, the point to that story, are the two areas in which Abram falls short in the area of his faith. The first, verse 10, is in the area of want. Abram, at the beginning of chapter 12, was given seven promises that we can find in verses 1 through 3. Most of these promises start with what it says, I will, where God makes a promise to Abram as to how he will lead Abram and bless Abram and take care of Abram, as well as those who are with him, namely his wife Sarah and his nephew Lot and all of those who he has acquired throughout his years on this earth. In verse 7 of chapter 12, we see that the covenant that God makes to Abram is reintroduced, that Abram and his progeny, that is, his spiritual descendants, Jesus Christ being His true Son, but those who are in Christ, His spiritual progeny, will not simply receive a land, the land of Canaan, but the eternal reward for our being in Christ Jesus. Abram is called in this covenant to leave his family and to go where God will lead him to go. Something that Abram is able to do, and we've said this repeatedly, because of the regenerating work of the spirit within Abram. And in verse 10, Abram comes to Canaan, forgetting all that he has been promised by God, and finds there in the promised land, it says, severe famine. And upon seeing this severe famine, Abram simply leaves with his nephew, his wife, and all of their possessions going to Egypt, where he simply forgets that God has promised to him by covenant to bless and take care of Abram. He has a struggle, if you will, in his faith in the area of want, providing for himself, for his wife and those who are with him. Therefore, he goes to Egypt. The second area in which Abram falls short in his faith goes from verse 11 to 20, and that is in the area of fearing man. You remember that as Abram goes to Egypt, the first thing that he tells his beloved bride, who, by the way, Scripture provides the detail that she is quite beautiful, that as they enter into Egypt, he feels the need to tell her that as they enter into Egypt, that she's to tell people that she's his sister. We're told, why? Because if they find out that you're my beloved bride, they'll kill me and they'll take you and have their way with you. Gives this justification to somehow prove that he's looking out for his best interest, but what's at heart is actually his not trusting in the Lord. Now, what we are looking at is Abram's failing to believe upon the promises that God has made him according to His Word. But in that failing on Abram's part to point his trust in the Word of God, what we see here is God's grace in keeping His promise to lead, bless, and take care of Abram in spite of the way his faith falls short of the glory of God. In other words, even though Abram falls short in his faith, God, because of His covenant faithfulness, continues to minister and take care of Abram. And the idea is to see that even though you and I fall short of the glory of God, God continues to sovereignly minister and take care of and bless each of us. Amen? God's grace is not something that we get to take advantage of, however. In other words, we're not given free reign to sort of do what we want because we see in God's Word and practically in our life that we can do whatever we want to. Contrary to that, Paul writes in Romans chapter 2 verse 4, In other words, His grace is so effectually working within you that your desire isn't to continue to live in the sin of your past, but to continue to pursue righteousness as he allows us to do so. This morning we look at the compromise and the folly of his nephew Lot. Some of The choices that Lot makes ironically, you may find this to be ironic, but the Apostle Peter will describe him in the New Testament as righteous. In 2 Peter 2 verse 7 it says, And delivered righteous Lot who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked. What Peter is telling us there in 2 Peter is that even though Lot, in his sinfulness, flees from God's presence with his uncle Abram and dives into ungodly practices of Sodom and Gomorrah, the Lord, our God, who has covenantly and faithfully brought Lot into a saving knowledge of the promised and coming Messiah, Jesus Christ, and therefore causes even a lot, even after making these poor decisions, to cause him to persevere. It's interesting because Peter is describing the way in which God causes you and I to persevere in the midst of the wickedness of the world. And like God causes you and I to persevere in the wickedness of the world, he has caused Lot to persevere. The big picture here is not that we won't at times live in compromise as Lot does, because our sin nature, we will most certainly struggle with the sin of compromise. The big picture, however, is for you and I to avoid that compromise, realizing that as we grow in Christ, we will inevitably see a need to depend on Him all the more. See, it's a beautiful picture. The more we grow, the more you and I are going to come to the realization that we actually need God more, not less. As we live this life and we experience things that God sovereignly brings upon our plate and our life, whether it is extremely heart-wrenching or it's easy-peasy, I just need to get through this time, it is the greater reality that we continue to need Him. And therefore, our desire to cry out to Him should also grow. So the praise of His glorious name, the persevering grace of our good God. We need to make note that the idea here isn't to shame us as we struggle with obedience to God, but it is to help us see that our ability to follow God in making wise choices, as it says in Hebrews chapter 12, verse 1, we are to throw off the sin that so easily entangles, does not come from my passionate, zealous pursuit of Christ, but rather Christ's work in us, leading us to a desire to live more godly lives for His glory. With that being said, would you follow along with me as I read Genesis chapter 13 verses 1 through 18, beginning in verse 1. Then Abram went out or went up from Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had, and lot with him to the south. Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver and in gold. and went on his journey from the south 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 at first. And there Abram called on the name of the Lord." Lot also who went with Abram had flocks and herds and tents. Now the land was not able to support them that they might dwell together, for their positions were so great that they could not dwell together. And there was strife between the herdsmen of Abraham's livestock and the herdsmen of Lot's livestock. The Canaanites and the Perizzites then dwelt in the land. So Abram said to Lot, Please, let there be no strife between you and me and between my herdsmen and your herdsmen, for we are brethren. Is not the whole land before you? Please separate from me. If you take the left, then I will go to the right, or if you go to the right, then I will go to the left. And Lot lifted up his eyes and saw all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere, before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, as you go towards Zoar. Then Lot chose for himself all the plain of the Jordan, and Lot journeyed east. and they are separated from each other. Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan and Lot dwelt in the cities of the plain and pitched his tent even as far as Sodom. But the men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked and sinful against the Lord. And the Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are, northward, southward, eastward, and eastward, for all the land which you see, I give to you and your descendants forever. I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth, so that if a man could remember the dust of the earth, then your descendants also could be numbered. Arise, walk in the land through its length and its width, for I give it to you." Then Abram moved his tent and went and dwelt by the terabinth trees of Mamre, which are in Hebron, and built an altar there to the Lord. May God add a blessing to the reading of his word. Begin this morning in verses 1 through 5 as Abram repents and returns to Bethel. As we see here in the first five verses of chapter 13, Abram, his wife Sarai, and Lot, and all of their stuff is in Egypt, but due to the Pharaoh rebuking Abram for lying to him regarding who Sarai is to him, kicks him out, they leave, and they head south, we're told, to Bethel. If we look back at chapter 12, verses 8 through 9, we see that the reason Bethel is an important location is because this is the place, the second place, that Abram makes an altar unto the Lord. You notice it says there that these two passages that Abram, it says, built an altar to the Lord and called upon His name. Well here, again in verse 4, as he returns to Bethel, it says that he called again on the name of the Lord. Verse 4, "...to the place of the altar which he had made there at first, and there Abram called on the name of the Lord." This verb, the phrase called on, comes from the Hebrew word kara. In English it's Q-A-R-A. meaning Abram cries out to God, he meets with God, he falls upon God, he worships and is thankful to God. The bigger point, however, is that as Abram goes to Bethel, realizing how God has taken care of him in spite of his sin and both doubting that God would provide for him in Canaan and then going into Egypt and lying, he comes to this place where he has made this altar, and the first thing that Abram does upon getting there is humbling himself before the Lord. This is the beautiful picture of someone coming and realizing that in the midst of various and sundry mistakes, God has blessed him, taken care of him, guided him, and led him back unto himself. And Abram, the first thing he does is take the opportunity to humble himself beneath the mighty hand of God and bless God for what he has done. in his life. He humbles himself before God. It's interesting as we consider the testimony of Abram in chapter 12 up until through 17, one of the things that we are reminded of is what the New Testament and 1 John in particular informs us of the black and white reality that if someone who has made public profession of faith in Jesus Christ and has the ability to live in sin and makes no effort to rectify that behavior by the power of God the Holy Spirit, that that person must examine themselves. Living in sin has within it the idea that even though I know my behavior in a particular area is wrong, either in my actions or my motives, and rather than crying out to God to help me overcome this behavior, asking my brethren to hold me accountable that I may never do it again, I simply continue to do so. That is, live in rebellion to God. And I do it until I no longer feel conviction in my heart that this behavior is a sin before the Lord. And suddenly, although I know this thing that I do is wrong, I have become indifferent to it." See, the picture that Abraham depicts for us is the encouragement that the believer in Jesus Christ, whether it makes us feel uncomfortable to discuss or it is the opposite, greatly encouraging for us to discuss, is the reality that Abram is soft in his heart towards the Lord. And like Abram is soft unto the Lord, the believer is to be soft. Amen. before the Lord. We are to, like Abram, seize opportunities to repent of our sins, to reconcile with our brothers and sisters, because doing so is not only worshipful unto him, but it is a joy. It is a delight. And Abram, as simple as it is, he comes, verse 4, and he calls on the name of the Lord. What is being communicated to us is that in the teachability of Abram's heart, he leaves the mistake of Egypt, coming back to where God had given him these blessings and promises, and he humbles himself. So the issue, as we look at this testimony of Abram's God dealing covenantally with his servant, you and I must find ourselves to have a willingness to be teachable before the Lord, to be humble, to humble ourselves before the Lord, recognizing our dependence upon the Lord. We're encouraged by Abram in his softness towards God. The second thing, however, that we see, verses 6-13, is the problem between Lot and Abram, and Abram's willingness to give to Lot. Look at verse 6-13. It says, Now the land was not able to support them that they might dwell together, for their possessions were so great that they could not dwell together. And there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram's livestock and the herdsmen of Lot's livestock. The Canaanites and the Perizzites then dwelt in the land. So Abram said to Lot, Please, let there be no strife between you and me and between my herdsmen and your herdsmen, for we are brethren. Is not the whole land before you? Please, separate from me. If you take the left, then I will go to the right. If you go to the right, then I will go to the left." And Lot lifted his eyes and saw all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, as you go towards Zoar. Then Lot chose for himself all the plain of Jordan, and Lot journeyed east, and they separated from each other. Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan, and dwelt in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent even as far as Sodom. But the men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked and sinful against the Lord." So first we see that Abram is humble before the Lord and now what we see is this tension that exists between Abram and Abram's livestock and the men that watch the livestock as well as Lot and the men that watch Lot's livestock. Both Abram and Lot have become rich in livestock, silver, gold, flocks, herds, and tents. If we go back to chapter 12, verse 6, we see how the Pharaoh blessed Abram and Sarai and Lot with sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male and female servants, male donkeys and camels. It all comes from the Pharaoh. What this indicates to us is that although financial blessings are not the only means that God blesses his people, God has, in keeping with his covenant with Abram, blessed Abram as he said he would. Although Elad is not the vocal point of any blessing being promised to him, he is blessed by God simply by being a part of Abram's family as well as a believer himself. Notice the problem that occurs between the two. Groups of people that are traveling with Abram and Lot have become so large that as they head back to Canaan, that in their minds, as the text indicates, there is no way for them to live together, that they need to separate. It says, verse 7, strife develops between them. strife from the Hebrew word re'ib, meaning contest, controversy, contention, a failure to be of one mind. But what we see in the text is a remarkable response that Abram gives to his nephew Lot. Verse 9, It says, is not the whole land before you? Please separate from me. If you take the left, then I will go to the right, or if you go to the right, then I will go to the left. What exactly is Abram telling Lot here? what Abram is doing in a great deal of humility, because as you remember, the promise was made to Abram that this would be your land and your progeny's land, the land pointing to the greater reality of heaven with Christ our Savior. But as Abram assesses the situation, by way of humility and love for his nephew Lot, tells Lot, that the choice is yours. Let's pretend I'm facing north. Y'all are facing south. This then is east and this is west. Abram looks at his nephew Lot and he says, if you go east, I will go west. If you go west, I will go east. He humbles himself. He gives what God has given to him. simply so that these people who work for Abram and for Lot will no longer continue to fight together. Notice how Lot responds, verse 10. It says, And Lot lifted his eyes and saw all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere. Before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt as you go towards Zoar. What does it mean that Lot lifted his eyes? The idea that's being conveyed here actually goes back to Genesis 3, verse 6. The serpent comes to Eve. And what does he do? He looks at her, knowing that her desire to know, to understand is an idol within her. And he somehow manipulates her into thinking that God has set up the tree of the knowledge of good and evil so that you're prevented, Eve and Adam, from knowing all that God does. that God is somehow keeping you at an arm's length from knowing all that He does so that you can't know all that He does because He doesn't want you to. He's somehow jealous and He doesn't want you to know. This is what happens. She looks at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and she sees that its fruit is good, that it is pleasing to the eye. And in her heart, she desires to know all that God has known, to be like God and idol unto herself. And she takes a bite. She gives the apple to Adam, and he takes a bite. Well, like Eve, gazing at what Satan dangled in front of her lot, looks over all that he could possibly possess, and he sees that this place over here to the east, although it is near Sodom and all of its wickedness and ungodly practices, has the promise of satisfaction and fulfillment, and therefore I will go there. Though Abram, true to his word, goes to the West. It says here that Lot chose for himself. Verses 11 through 13, he writes, Then Lot chose for himself all the plain of the Jordan, and Lot journeyed east and they separated from each other. And Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelt in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent even as far as Sodom. The men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked and sinful against the Lord." You notice that the text tells us that Sodom is wicked, it's exceedingly wicked And it adds sinful against the Lord. Why does that matter? Why does it add that to the story? You look into the future. In Ezekiel 16, verses 49-50, the prophet says, Look, this is what the iniquity of your sister Sodom. She and her daughter had pride, fullness of food, and abundance of idleness. Neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor or the needy, and they were haughty and committed abomination before me. Therefore I took them away as I saw fit. Jude verse 7 in the New Testament says that Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. The reason this detail matters as we look at the testimony of Abram is that Even though Lot had been blessed by God, Lot chooses worldliness and wickedness over the things of God. He feels this tug-of-war within him, and he chooses wickedness. We know the text, we know in Genesis chapter 19 verses 1 through 28 that Sodom and its wickedness become so great that God tells Abram that he will destroy Sodom and Gomorrah with burning sulfur from heaven. Abram is to go into Sodom, he's supposed to get his nephew and to bring him out. But the idea is that from heaven, sulfur will come and destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. And it says, for detestable practices. You know, this word, or phrase rather, detestable practices, is something from the Hebrew that literally means morally disgusting. It refers specifically to the sin of homosexuality. You read some liberal theologians and what they'll tell you is that although homosexuality was an issue in Sodom and Gomorrah by way of certain adults and certain children, that the real issue as to why Sodom and Gomorrah is destroyed has everything to do with hospitality. That's silly. Where in the world do you get hospitality as the primary issue in the text? It's clear these people lived how they wanted to, when they wanted to, and they rejected the testimony of God our Father that such behavior is sinful and would be destroyed. And what we see is Lot headed towards that wickedness. Lot, if you didn't know, stands as a warning to those of us, and all of us will at times struggle with the tug of war within us between constantly choosing between the world and the things of this world and those things of God. The issue is not that we won't, all of us at times, struggle with the things of this world up against the things of God. We're all going to struggle. But is it even on our radar, as we think about this, that there are trials and temptations in my life that I simply need to cry out to God in order to help me with? Lot doesn't even consider this. He moves right into the heart or the mouth, as it were, of wickedness, and it says that he establishes, he builds his tent, and he becomes its neighbor. His neighbor is wickedness. James 1, verses 6-8, it says, The double-minded is the serious issue that as we as Christians called out of this darkness and into His glorious light, are going to struggle with this tug and pull within our hearts to flee the things of God and to run towards the things of this world. Because the things of this world make it look like if only you could take a bite of this thing, your life would be so much more satisfying. You'd feel so much more joy and delight. You'd have so much more money to play around with. You'd be able to feel so much better about yourself. Whereas the testimony of God's Word concerning the things of Christ is that what we're called to is a joy that does not depend on how we feel. It's a joy that depends on the finished work that redeems us and saves us from our sins. It's a work that causes us to crucify our flesh that we might find true fulfillment in Him. The idea isn't that we're not going to somehow struggle with the things of this world. The issue is that you and I, as believers, that it needs to be on our radar that as we struggle with these things and we come across bigger temptations, that the one thing we must do that we so often neglect is a humbling of ourselves before Him, asking Him to help us in our heart of hearts that we might walk this walk of faith. It's interesting as we think about this text, one of the things that I thought of is the beauty of our getting together on Tuesday evenings. I thought to myself this week in Titus chapter 2, the Apostle Paul encourages Titus that older men are to invest in the lives of younger men. that we are to help one another in our walk of godliness, to spur one another on to godliness, that we might live lives to the glory of God. We're told that Paul encourages Titus that older women are to have relationships with younger women, whereby you are spurring one another on to being godly wives and mothers to your children. In other words, there is someone older, both a man or a woman, who is looking to teach and encourage, and there is a younger man or woman who is looking to be taught and encouraged. It is the two coming together to the glory of God. And although studying a book or looking through the book of Philippians may not sound like the kind of discipleship that we're hearing about in Scripture, it nevertheless is. It is lives spurring one another on to the glory of God. And both the young need to learn from the older, and the older need to teach the younger for the glory of God. So that as we struggle with our fight against this world, we spur one another on. It's a beautiful thing. make jokes about going upstairs and eating cookies. I like cookies. Somebody said amen. I like the fact that we sit around, guys, we sit around at my whatever kind of couch that is, and we talk about this book. We're encouraged by the work of this man, our brother. We joke. but we also spur one another on. I sit downstairs and I hear the ladies laugh. I don't know, can you guys hear us laugh? Sometimes. And I'm reminded of the beauty that our sisters, our brothers are gathered together in this one place to spur one another on. We need to be spurred on, amen? so that we might not give way to the wickedness that pulls upon our hearts." It's interesting, some of our older brothers and sisters may not feel that they're quite gifted or knowledgeable enough to invest in the lives of some of these younger folks, but don't believe that lie. Don't ever Think of yourself as somehow unable to speak truth into the life of our younger brothers and sisters in the faith. Because on paper, you may not have as much of this thing here memorized as they. God has given you by virtue of the fact that you have been walking with Him and He with you for all these years have something to give us. And if you, who are looking at some of these older people, want to be careful, and you say to yourself, well, they don't know as much as I do, ergo, they don't have a part to play, you're believing a lie. I can't even begin to tell you how blessed I've been by sitting around and talking about the things of the Lord with my brothers, ending in a time of prayer that we might spur one another on. Yeah, we joke around. Yes, we go upstairs specifically because there's cookies, but we need that. Amen? Thirdly, verses 14 through 18, God continues to be faithful to Abram. Let me read this for you, beginning in verse 14. The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are, northward, southward, eastward, and westward, for all the land which you see, I give to you and your descendants forever. And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth, so that if a man could number the dust of the earth, then your descendants also could be numbered. We're to see a stark contrast here. Lot is told You go where you want, and I will go in the opposite direction. The first thing that Lot does is he locates the place where all of the wicked action is located. He goes there. But Abram is ushered out and God very kindly, gently, lovingly tells him to look up in the sky look over the earth, look at the east and the west and the north and the south, and the idea here is he goes out and he lifts up his eyes, very different looking for Abram than for Lot, and he sees that all God is going to give him. sharp contrast or distinction between Abram by God's grace and his desire to follow after the Lord as opposed to Lot's lackluster desire to follow after God while also fiddling around with worldliness. God again informs Abram of what he's going to do. If you can look down at the shore and if you could pick up all of the sand and count them, so the number of your descendants will be, meaning there's no way that you're going to be able to count all of them. My provision for you will be so grand, so beautiful, so profound, that as I draw your progeny unto Myself through the promised coming Messiah, you'll be humbled by all that I do, as those who come after you believe in Me as you have, as a result of what I have done, both in you and in them, to the praise of My name. Because apart from that work, there is no hope. It's not about you, Abram. It's not about you following after me, leaving your mother and your father and all that you know. It is about what I have done in you and what I will do for you because I have made a covenant with you and I have called you to be mine." It's very humbling, I think. So profoundly different for Abram than for Lot. How is it that Lot could literally be in the midst of all that God is doing in Abram's life and not taste and see that the Lord is good to the point that he would rather go after the things of this world and forget about the things of the Lord, and yet that is literally the tug that is within us every day? the struggle of sitting week after week as the Word is preached and not thinking about all of the things you want to do or have to do, rather than simply sitting at His feet and learning from Him. Because learning from Him, although it may be difficult and it may cause us to look inside and examine ourselves, is infinitely better. than anything that this world could offer you. If we could count on our hands the number of times that we have seen God and His grace minister to us, save us, protect us, we wouldn't have enough fingers. The infinite number of times that God in His mercy beckons us to leave this world and to come onto him as he works in you and giving you what you need in order to do so. Isn't that precious? Isn't it beautiful? Let me offer up two quick applications. First of all, As we observed in verses 1 through 5, Abram exhibits a softness towards God. And in the reading we read from Psalm 57, let me reread for you verses 1 and 2. It says, "'Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, for my soul trusts in you, and in the shadow of your wings I will make my refuge until these calamities have passed by I will cry out to God most high, to God who performs all things for me." Again, the issue, even as we see in Abram's life, is that if we're honest, there is such a difficult thing as believers being in the world and not of the world. We have to be careful about something. We have to be so careful that as we live in this world and struggle, as we do, that we don't sin to the point that we become comfortable doing so, that we don't look to justify our sins, that we don't become hardened because of our sin. The testimony of Abram, as God works in him, is that the reason he has a soft heart is because God has worked in him that it may be so. How often do you and I, as we take inventory of our walk with the Lord, our prayer life, our time in the Word, how we treat people, how we talk to our children, our neighbors, our co-workers, so on and so forth. How many of us will sit down with the Lord at either the beginning or the ending of the day and ask our good God to search us and to create within us a pure heart that we might know very things that we need to repent of because he'll show us. Is that on our radar? Is it on our radar to look at this thing that we've perhaps struggled with for years and say, God, I've tried to do this by myself and I can't. Please help me. Please help me and allow me to confide in a brother and a sister. Apart from you, I can do nothing. I need you. the softness of our heart. Secondly, you remember Abram give Lot his choice. And this Abram is gracious like God has been gracious to him to give Lot a piece of the land that God had given him. And frankly, Lot were paying attention as Abram says, you know, go here, go there, you choose. If Lot were humble at all and he recognized that this is something that could very easily be overcome, He would have said, the choice is yours and I'd rather go with you. But Abram is gracious to Lot. The question is, why do you think that Abram gives Lot this piece of land? You see the answers in verses 14 through 17. Abram said, And the Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are, northward, southward, eastward, westward, for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever. And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth, so that if a man could number the dust of the earth, then your descendants also could be numbered." We won't read verse 17, but the answer is also given in Hebrews 11, verse 10, which is about Abram. It says, "...for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God." It's interesting, the reason that Abram gives Lot this choice, gets to choose where he's going to move, is because at the end of the day, Abram is confident in what God has promised him. It's the simple fact. He's not somehow disrespected because Abram's people and Lot's people are arguing and the only seeming solution is for Lot to pick where he wants to go and he goes. Abram's dignity isn't somehow taken from him because the land isn't the promise in and of itself. It's that God Almighty will give Him and all His spiritual children after Him the superior gift of being in His presence for all of eternity. The point is that Abram's strength is not in Abram laying the law down for Lot. It's that in the quiet of his heart, he trusts God to provide the promise according to his timing. In other words, he allows Lot to choose because Lot's choosing the land does not somehow take away the promise given to Abram. He knows that when the time is right, God is going to give it to him. The question is, as we look at God's Word, are we as confident in what God has promised you? In fact, do we learn how to rest in those promises? One day, a little boy is a Boy Scout. He gets on a plane with three other people. You have the pilot, you have a computer whiz, and you have a minister. Four people, tiny plane, two-hour flight or so. They all get in there. The plane takes off. They get into the air. The pilot looks over his shoulders. He says, God willing, we're not going to have any issues on this flight, but if there are, we have three, count them, three parachutes. Soon as he's done making this announcement, they look over off into the distance, and they see the handy-dandy engine begin to die. Black smoke comes out. The thing is dying. The pilot stands up and he looks at these four people with three parachutes and he says, look, he says, I've got a wife and I've got three kids. I need one of the parachutes. He grabs them. He jumps out. That means that there are three people left, two parachutes. The whiz, the computer whiz looks at the other two and he says, look, you know, I've got all this information saved up in my head that the world needs. I'm going to make the world a better place. I need one. He grabs one and off he goes. There's two left. There's one parachute. The minister looks at the Boy Scout and he says, young man, So I've lived this life, I'm old, you're young, you've got a whole world ahead of you, I'm at the end of the rope. I don't mean for that to sound disrespectful, but the young boy smiles and he looks up at the minister and he says, Mr. Minister, the computer guy was in such a hurry that he grabbed the knapsack. There are two parachutes in there for us, and to finish the story, they get the parachutes on, and off they sail into the Son of God's glory. Amen? That was a silly story. The point is this. We struggle with anxiousness, don't we? We've got a lot of things to be concerned about. We've got job issues. We've got relationship issues. We've got health issues. We've got issues, issues, issues, issues, issues. And they pile and they pile and they pile. And sometimes we feel overwhelmed. But in the graciousness of God in His Word, we have by His grace the ability to take this deep breath and exhale, and to open God's Word, and to yet again breathe in all of the beautiful promises that are ours through Christ Jesus the Lord. And to put those struggles that are piling upon us, and nobody's saying they're not real, amen? Nobody is saying, be a man, pull up your big man or woman pants and deal with it. What we're saying is that God allows difficulties. Sometimes we just need to quiet our hearts, open up God's word and be reminded of all the blessed promises that are yes and amen through Christ our Lord. To the praise of his glorious name. Let's pray. Lord God in heaven, Gracious Father, we thank you for your Word. We ask, O God, that there would be no shame and condemnation. The point isn't that you and I go buck up and do better. It's that you and I need to be reminded this morning of where our help is even coming from. Help us to know where our help is coming from, O God. that even in the worst of times, the scariest of situations, we are not left alone. We have our brothers and sisters and we have the Word of God. Remind us at that moment, at the midnight hour, that as scary as this thing is, I can literally open up your Word and I can be reminded of your mercy and your grace through Jesus Christ our Lord. Abram didn't have Christ. Abram had the promise of a coming Messiah who would suffer and die for his sins. But we have Christ. We behold his glory. Help us, O God, at that moment. For it is in your precious name we pray. Amen.