I'd like to invite you to take your Bibles and turn to Genesis 13. I'm gonna read the chapter, but our focus is gonna be on verses 14 through 18. Genesis 13, I'll begin our reading with verse one. Genesis 13. beginning with verse one and reading through verse 18. Moses, by the Spirit, writes, So Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife, and all that he had, and Lot with him into the Negev. Now Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver and in gold, 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 had made an altar at the first. And there Abram called upon the name of the Lord. And Lot, who went with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents. so that the land could not support both of them dwelling 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. At that time, the Canaanites and the Perizzites were dwelling in the land. Then Abram said to Lot, let there be no strife between you and me and between your herdsmen and my herdsmen, for we are kinsmen. Is not the whole land before you? Separate yourself from me. If you take the left hand, then I will go to the right. Or if you go, if you take the right hand, then I will go to the left. And Lot lifted up his eyes and saw that the Jordan Valley was well watered everywhere, like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt. In the direction of Zor, this was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. So Lot chose for himself all the Jordan Valley, and Lot journeyed east. Thus they separated from each other. Abram settled in the land of Canaan, while Lot settled among the cities of the valley and moved his tent as far as Sodom. Now the men of Sodom were wicked, great sinners against the Lord. Now our text. The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward, for all the land that you see, I will give to you and your offspring forever. I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted. Arise, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I will give it to you. So Abram moved his tent and came and settled by the oaks of Mamre, which are at Hebron, and there he built an altar to the Lord. Well, last time we focused on verses five through 13, and we looked at it under two heads. First, two pilgrims and their trial, that was verses five through seven, and the trial was that of prosperity. And then secondly, we consider two pilgrims and their choices, that's verses 8 through 13. I said two pilgrims because the Bible reveals that both Abraham and Lot were true believers, although I would have to say that it would be much easier as a preacher to have preached Abraham's funeral than Lot's. You know, we sometimes hear bandied about in our day what is called the carnal Christian doctrine, which I do not believe to be biblical at all. But the teaching is essentially this, that many Christians in our land have Jesus as Savior, but they don't yet have him as the Lord of their life. And so that's why they consistently live as carnal, as worldly people. But they're really saved, notwithstanding the fact that their life doesn't really show that they are saved. Well, I don't think that's biblical at all. I think a person who is consistently carnal, consistently worldly, is an unregenerate person who needs to be born again and somebody who needs to be evangelized. But if you want to argue, on the other hand, that a true believer can be both spiritual and carnal, and that at the same time, now I think you're on solid ground. All Christians are spiritual people because the definition of being spiritual is that you have the Holy Spirit. And so it's impossible for a true Christian to be nothing but consistently carnal. If you have the Holy Spirit, you are a Christian. If one does not have the Spirit, then you're not yet Christ. That's what Paul teaches in 1 Corinthians. Well, if you want to argue that a Christian can be both spiritual and carnal, I think I am on board with you because that's what we see with Father Abraham. The spiritual man go down to Egypt in Genesis 12, 10 through 20, where he acted in a very carnal, a very worldly way. God disciplined him, and now he's back where he belongs, and he's living as the believer that he really is. The Corinthians are described by Paul as being both carnal and spiritual. He is affirming that these people have the Holy Spirit in the church of Corinth, that they're not merely carnal people because they have welcomed the gospel, they have welcomed the things of God, they have an appetite for the things of God, they give evidences that the Spirit of God is really at work in their lives. Paul made this distinction between the natural man and the spiritual man. In 1 Corinthians 2.14, he wrote, Well, the Corinthians weren't like that. They weren't natural men, if you will. They were people who had the Spirit. They loved the things of God. They had an appetite for the things of God. They manifested in other ways that they really did have the Holy Spirit. And yet Paul goes on to indicate how carnal they can yet be in their thinking. In 1 Corinthians 3, one through four, he writes this. Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual, but as worldly, mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. You are still worldly, for since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men? For when one says, I follow Paul, and another, I follow Apollos, are you not mere men? Well, Paul is not saying that they were carnal only. He has already affirmed that they're spiritual. The fact is, is you can be both spiritual and carnal at the same time. And that, I think, explains Lot. Now, I will agree with those who say that, you know, if you had to judge by the narratives of Lot's life in Genesis, There wouldn't be a whole lot of confidence for the preacher when he comes to preach his funeral. But then we're just given a couple of glimpses of the man's life. And Peter gives us the deeper picture of the man and assures us that he really was the Lord's. He was one of those people who was saved as passing through fire, literally, in his case. As we get to Genesis 19, we're going to see that. That's what Paul talks about some believers in 1 Corinthians 3.15, they'll be saved, but by the skin of their teeth. Peter gives us the deeper picture in 2 Peter 2, verses six through nine, where he writes this. If by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes, God condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly, and if he rescued, now listen to this, righteous lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked, for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard. Then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment. So Lot was indeed a righteous man, He never was at home in Sodom, unlike his wife, unlike his daughters who were unregenerate. He had the Spirit of God within him. That's why he was so distressed by the wickedness all around him. The Spirit of God would not permit him to be at home in Sodom. And so the man was spiritual and not just carnal. But while it's true that he went to heaven when he died, he was one of those people saved as passing through fire with everything else burned up, having virtually zero influence in terms of his life on planet Earth. He is more of a warning than a comfort in our passage today. Now surely God records Genesis 13 that we might take Abraham as our example of how to relate earthly wealth to the kingdom of God and Lot as a warning of the danger of worldliness. What we have in Father Abraham is a picture of a pilgrim that is making progress in chapter 13. We have in Lot a picture of a pilgrim's regress. The trial of the two pilgrims that we looked at last time revolved around prosperity. How would they relate their wealth to the kingdom of God? Abraham did well. Lot did not do well. Abraham met the trial with generous faith. Lot manifested covetousness, which is idolatry according to Ephesians 5.5. In other words, the idols of the heart have Lot in the grip in this chapter. Now we considered the choices of these two pilgrims last time in verses 8 through 13. Abraham's generous spirit would not be applauded by many people in our world. I'm afraid that even some people in the church would think of Father Abraham and his deportment in this passage as being a chump. And there are many people in our society, and I fear even in the church, who would kind of give a nod to Lott, because in their opinion, Lott was doing what Americans should do, and that is look after number one. But it's Abraham and not Lott who fares well after these two men parted company. Let's remember that there is a God in heaven, who is able to bless the faithful, and he's also able to withhold his blessing. And we are reminded of that as we follow the lives of these two men going forward. It's Abraham who will fare well, not Lot. You know, in a covetous, grasping world that is constantly playing what I would call the king of the hill game, I think one of the purposes of Genesis 13, one of the reasons it's in our Bible, is to bring us more prayerfully before certain texts of Scripture elsewhere, like Romans 12, verse 2, where Paul says, by the Spirit, and do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is good and acceptable and the perfect will of God. Well, today our focus is going to be mostly on Abraham, the pilgrim who is making progress, making more progress in verses 14 through 18. And as we consider this pilgrim who is making progress, I think we need to be paying attention, metaphorically speaking, to his anatomy, because his anatomy is telling us something of the progress that he is making. The Bible is directing us to his eyes. The Bible is directing us to his feet. The Bible is directing us to his hands. And this is telling, spiritually speaking, metaphorically speaking, of a pilgrim who is making progress. This is a kind of roadmap for us. And as we look at the passage today, I'm going to look at it with you under three heads. First, Abraham's sight was directed by the Word. Secondly, Abraham's feet walked and rested, as it were, upon the promise of God. And then thirdly, and finally, Abraham's hands built an altar to the Lord, which is the key to life in the highlands. He's being contrasted at the end of the passage. He's living at the highlands, and Lot is literally living in the lowest place on planet Earth. And there's a lesson in that geography. Let's begin with Abraham's sight being directed by the word of God. Look at verse 14. The Lord said to Abram, after Lot has separated from him, lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are northward and southward and eastward and westward. Well, Moses is clearly contrasting where God's word is now directing the eyes of Abraham to where Lot's gaze had been directed earlier. Lot's eyes were being directed by his covetous spirit. Look at verses 10 through 13 with me again, where Moses writes, and Lot lifted up his eyes and saw that the Jordan Valley was well watered everywhere like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt in the direction of Zor, This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. So Lot chose for himself all the Jordan Valley and Lot journeyed east. Thus they separated from each other. Abram settled in the land of Canaan while Lot settled among the cities of the valley and moved his tents as far as Sodom. Now the men of Sodom were wicked, great sinners against the Lord. So we read that Lot lifted up his eyes and he saw that the Jordan Valley was like Eden and it was like Egypt. We have a kind of reference to the Garden of Eden and the temptation of Mother Eve in Genesis 3-6. And then with the reference to Egypt, we have a reminder that that's the metaphor for the world and worldliness in the Old Testament. And so we're to think both of temptation here and worldliness as we think about Lot's gaze. Moses is using vocabulary here that reminds us of Mother Eve in the garden in Genesis 3-6 where we read, so when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took its fruit and ate. She also gave it to her husband with her and he ate. Moses is telling us that Lot, no less than Eve, was being tempted by the devil and, in his case, to put his economic interest ahead of his spiritual interest, ahead of his never-dying soul. This looking of Lot is what John had in mind When he talked about worldliness in 1 John 2, he gives us the different ingredients of what worldliness is. He defines it this way. If you want to know what worldliness is, it's first the lust of the flesh, but then listen to this, secondly, the lust of the eyes. That's what we got going on with Lot here, this covetous desire in his heart, the lust of the eyes. And then finally, John says, the pride of life, you know, that boasting spirit of what one has and what one has accomplished, which is everywhere about us. This is the world. That's what the world is all about. Now, given that Lot was a farmer slash rancher, we can understand why this was a powerful temptation. Moses adds that not only Was the Jordan Valley well watered and lush as the Garden of Eden was? That is before God turns that part of the world into a permanent wasteland in Genesis 19. But it was also like the land of Egypt. Remember back in chapter 12, at the end of chapter 12, the reason why Abraham went down to Egypt in a time of famine is because there was some relief from famine down in Egypt, given the fact that they had the Nile River, which they could irrigate out of. And I think that that was what was going down on in the Jordan Valley, and that they had a river that they could irrigate out of. It was a kind of, not complete famine proof, but it did give a little bit more security, if you will, to a rancher. You know, when I was a young man, In fact, when my wife and I got married, we lived on a dairy farm just south of Linden, Washington. And we were literally about a half a mile as the crow flies from town. And we were on the other side of the river. The town was built up on a ridge where it was above the floodplain, and we were in the floodplain in the valley. And the Jordan, not the Jordan River, the Nooksack River, bordered my boss's farm. My boss had a lot more ground than the land around the buildings. But the land around the buildings were all in permanent pasture. It was 43 acres and the Nooksack River did a bend all around that part of the property. And my boss took advantage of it. And part of my job and that of others working on the farm was in the summer to move irrigation pipe twice a day, and the result was incredibly lush pastures and satisfied cows. Well, on one level, I have great sympathy for Lott in his livestock operation. It looked like a good business move. I mean, I know that there's at least one, or there's actually two that have been involved in farming in this room, but most of us have not been farmers, but I can tell you that farming and ranching is not for the faint of heart. And so I have sympathy for what Lott was facing here. But the problem with Lott's decision is that only the economic side of things was being looked after. I mean, if there was some godly people down there in that Jordan Valley, some godly people that he could gather with in public worship. If there were a capable leader to give leadership to a gathering of saints, you know, a man of the stature of an Abraham or a Melchizedek or somebody like that, that would have been another thing. But there was no such church down in the Jordan Valley. There were no saints down there. And Lot obviously was not making that a priority. You know, we have souls, and there's a God in heaven who says to his children, but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And all these things, referring to the necessities of life, your heavenly Father knows that you need them. They will be provided. If you make the kingdom of God to be the central priority of your life, God will take care of the rest. Lot saw the perks. but not the perils. Dr. Ralph Davis applies Lot's regress to us in this way. He writes, Lot's assessment of things here seem to be superficial. And so the story pushes us to plead with God for the discernment we need, not to be content with obvious appearances or merely economic factors. We should ask questions like, will this opportunity calcify my marriage? Will it estrange me or distance me from my family? Will it disrupt worship personally, domestically, or publicly? Will it desensitize me to sin and evil? O Lord, when I lift up my eyes, make me able truly to see. Well, the sight of Abraham, the pilgrim making progress is by contrast directed by the word of God. Look at verses 14 and 15. The Lord said to Abram after Lot had separated from him, lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are northward and southward and eastward and westward for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever. The word of God is directing Abraham to gaze upon the promised land or his inheritance. And he's not just reminding Abraham of the promise that he made back in Genesis 12, seven. He is expanding upon that promise. We're going to see that in a moment. The word directed Abraham to the promise of God. And likewise, God is directing the children of Abraham in this room to the promises of God. And those promises include the fact that you too have an eternal inheritance. that has been purchased for you by the blood of Jesus. And this is a critical truth in terms of your own hope and in terms of being able to persevere in your holy faith. And to be a pilgrim making progress, this truth is so important. It needs to be kept front and central in your life. This inheritance, this blessed hope of yours is to help you to hold the things of this life loosely and to live the life of a pilgrim. And I want to remind you that a pilgrim is not a drifter. A pilgrim has a destination. And that destination is in the inner arm heaven. And finally, at last, it's going to be in the blessed conditions in the body, in a resurrected body in the new heavens and new earth. They have been sealed with the blood of Jesus. And that's important. to our faith, it's important to our perseverance, it's important if we're going to be pilgrims making progress, and so important is it that our God gives us a mighty help, not just in his word, with the promises of his word, but he knows how weak our faith is, and that's how come he directs us to come as a church on a regular basis to the Lord's Supper. Because in the Lord's Supper, what we do is we look back to the cross and what Christ purchased on the cross, all the redemption that he purchased, and at the same time, because we don't yet have it all, Our eyes are directed to the future. We proclaim his death until he comes. Our eyes are directed to the day of the Lord and are entering into our eternal inheritance, body and soul, in the blessed conditions of the new heavens and new earth. That is vital. That's important to be kept front and central if we're going to be pilgrims making progress. But the Word directs our eyes in other ways, too. And I won't go into a lengthy explanation in all the ways that the Bible would direct our eyes, but let me just point out an additional way. It's not an accident that the children of Abraham in this room are still living on planet Earth. I mean, God could take you to heaven anytime he wants. Just like that, he could take you. And he will take God's people in this room one by one over the coming years to heaven, but he hasn't done it yet. And the question you ought to be asking is why? Why are you on earth and not yet in heaven? You'll be going to heaven soon enough, but he obviously has something for you to do on earth. And I think one of the things that he would have us to focus on, not the only thing, but one of the things, is that we're living in an age of harvest. And this is how he directed the eyes of his disciples in Samaria who were just really preoccupied with lunch and getting out of Samaria as soon as possible. You remember how Jesus had evangelized that woman at the well, and how she had gone off to the town to tell the people that she had met up with the Christ, who told her whatever, all that she had ever done, and they looked at her and said, everything that you have ever done, I gotta hear this guy. And they were coming out now, being led by this woman, when Jesus says this, to his disciples, John 4, 35, do you not say there are yet four months, then comes the harvest? Look, I tell you, look, I tell you, lift up your eyes and see that the fields are white for harvest. Some people believe that the Samaritans wore white robes and that he is referring to all these white robe people that are coming. I think that's a pretty good educated guess. In any event, Jesus calls the children of Abraham to look at the fields and remember the Great Commission. We are to look to being involved in the sowing and reaping of this harvest age. Well, first, we've considered Abraham's sight was directed by the word. Secondly, Abraham's feet walked and rested, as it were, upon the promise of God. Look at verses 15 through 17. Verse 15, for all the land that you see I will give to you, and to your offspring forever. I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted. Arise, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I will give it to you." Well, God renews and expands the promise that he had given to Abraham of the land in Genesis 12, seven, where he had said this, then the Lord appeared to Abraham and said, to your offspring, I will give this land. So he built there an altar to the Lord who had appeared to him. Now notice the promise is not only renewed here, but it's expanded in our text. Notice that God will not only give this land to Abraham's offspring, but notice that God is saying, I'm gonna give it to you, Abraham. Implicit here is a promise that I'm going to raise you from the dead on the last day, and you are going to enter into your eternal inheritance, body and soul, in the blessed conditions of the new heavens and new earth. I'm giving this land to you. And by the way, this land is going to be a whole lot more than Canaan, and your children are going to be a whole lot more than saved Jews. You couldn't count them, the dust of the earth later on, if you could count the stars of the heavens. You can't. And so, you know, if man tries to count how many people will be saved, you're going to not be able to do it. That's how many people God is going to save throughout history. He has in mind in this promise all those spiritual children, not only among the Jews, but among the Gentile nations of the earth, saved throughout the century, saved across the globe, who will ultimately enter the blessed conditions of new heavens and new earth. Even Abraham understood that the ultimate promised land was the new It was the whole of the earth, read Romans 4.13. Now it is this promise that God bids Abraham to tangibly feel and experience a kind of foretaste. God directs him to walk all over the promised land and feel the promise beneath his feet. Look at verse 17. Arise, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I will give it to you. You know, this is what some kings did in that day. They would walk upon a certain land, and wherever the soles of their feet did trod, they were saying, this is going to belong to me. We see that kind of thing in the book of Joshua. Caleb and Joshua were the two faithful spies. You remember that from the Bible. And they, unfortunately, were outvoted by the 10 unbelieving and wicked spies who turned Israel toward unbelief, and that was why they wandered for the next 38 years in the wilderness. But later on, at the time of the conquest, Caleb has a conversation with Joshua, and he reminds Joshua of what Moses had said to them. And he says this in Joshua 14, nine, and Moses swore on that day saying, surely the land on which your foot has trodden shall be an inheritance for you and your children forever because you have wholly followed the Lord my God. So link this walk of Abraham upon the promise in Genesis 13 as a kind of foretaste of his future inheritance. Does this apply to us? And I'm really thankful for the way that Dr. Ralph Davis answers that in the affirmative, it most certainly does. This is what he says about it, very helpful comments. He writes, a pilgrim is one who enjoys the foretaste of the goodness of God. Rise, walk around through the land, down its length and across its breadth, for to you I will give it. One could say Yahweh was giving Abraham the royal treatment, for this was the sort of thing kings sometimes did. In Hittite and Egyptian sources, the king might have to do a ceremonial walk around a field or a tour of his realm to symbolize the renewal of his sovereignty over the land. Abraham's tour was a claiming of his dominion, enjoying a foretaste of what he was to receive. My wife told me that when she purchases something from the deli section in one of our grocery stores, whoever is serving her always gives her a sample of what she orders. I like Colby cheese, especially for grilled cheese sandwiches. It always melts so ghoully. So when she asked for a half pound of Colby, the person at the counter gives her a small sample to try. It's not much, it's only a taste. but it's a bit of the same stuff you'll have later. And the Lord is like that with his people. He tends to give them foretaste of what he will do for them as he did in the land tour of verse 17. Christians may think of their celebration of the Lord's Supper. No, it's not Matthew 8, 11 yet. Many will come from the east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. Nor is it yet the marriage supper of the Lamb, Revelation 19, but it's a foretaste of what is to come. It is one of the Lord's gracious appetizers, and pilgrims always prize them. So we've looked at Abram's feet walked and rested, as it were, upon the promise of God. Finally, Abram's hands built an altar to the Lord, which is the key to life in the highlands. Look at verse 18. So Abram moved his tent and came and settled by the oaks of Mamre, which are at Hebron. And there he built an altar to the Lord. You know, I think Moses wants us to see an important contrast made by geography. We read that Lot ended up in the lowlands, whereas Abraham lived in the high country. Verse 12, Moses had written, Abram settled in the land of Canaan, while Lot settled among the cities of the valley and moved his tent as far as Sodom. You know, the place that Lot viewed the lost Jordan Valley was actually from the heights near Bethel, and now that he's gone down into the Jordanian valley, he's in a low place, not literally, not merely a low place, he is literally the lowest place on planet Earth, where Sodom and Gomorrah were, is adjacent to the Dead Sea, which is the lowest place on planet Earth, 1,300 feet below sea level. More importantly, the Bible is telling us that his life went into a spiritual pit. And we're given a hint of that in verse 11 when we are told that he moved east. And that's ominous language in the Bible. That's that east of Eden language associated with Cain or the builders of Babel in Genesis 11 too. We read that they moved east and moving east in Genesis is code for moving away from the Lord. In this case, it's a real believer and it's backsliding. He's moving away from the Lord. He's moving in the wrong direction. And in verse 12, Moses is telling us this always spells going downhill to a very low and sad place. Lot has all the marks of Pilgrim's regress in our passage, and it's not gonna go well for him in the lowlands. He's gonna discover that the idols of his heart cannot satisfy that soul of his. He will be saved. but only as one passing through the fire. His life is more of a warning than it is a comfort. Abraham, by contrast, ends this chapter by living on the very highest plain in Israel near Hebron. Hebron is the exact opposite in terms of altitude as Sodom and Gomorrah. It's not that far as the crow flies, and Gedi, which is on the Dead Sea, is only 20 miles from Hebron as the crow flies, but boy, is it a hike. You move from 1,300 feet below sea level to over 3,000 feet in 20 miles. And Abraham is now living in the place that commands the best views of the promised land. He's got perspective up there. He's got the perspective that Lot does not have. One has no view and no perspective near Sodom. That's the way it was for Lot without the altar of public worship or saints around him. He couldn't see the land of promise. Indeed, he's now living outside the land of promise. He lost the tangible awareness of the promises of God, and that makes for a miserable and despairing man. Abraham, on the other hand, has a tremendous view at Hebron. Abraham saw more than the land of Palestine stretched before him. Paul tells us that he saw his ultimate inheritance. He saw the whole of the redeemed earth that Jesus would bring about on the last day and his eternal inheritance. Romans 4.13, for the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith. Well, Hebron is the place where Abraham would buy the only real estate he ever owned in his life. And that was a burial plot. And that's where he and his wife would be buried. I find that interesting that the cemetery where he was buried, where Sarah was buried, where the other patriarchs and their wives were buried, is that place that commands the best view of the promised land. And I think what Moses is saying is that the promise of God greatly impacted the life of this pilgrim making progress and greatly impacted him as he faced death and as he thought about the ultimate future. Abraham had a tremendous view at Hebron. And Lot had no view at all. Abraham had built an altar, public worship was a priority to him. And the reason why he's a pilgrim making progress is because the priorities in his life are right, and he's enjoying fellowship with the promisor. Moses is telling us that the altar and what it preaches is key to understanding Abraham, verse 18. So Abraham moved his tent and came and settled by the oaks of Mamre, which are at Hebron, and there he built an altar to the Lord. An altar under the old covenant was the place where the sinner met God in grace. And it preached, it promised, it prophesied the cross. And we who live under the new covenant, we meet God in grace at the cross. And because of the atonement of Jesus Christ, that is the very basis for having fellowship with God. We can enjoy fellowship with God on that basis and that basis alone. We're told the key to living in the highlands And the key is really quite simple. The cross needs to be central. The gospel needs to be central. The kingdom of God needs to be the great priority of your life. You could say that the altars that Abraham built testified to his priorities. They also hint at the gospel impact that he left behind. And that should be the aim. of the children of Abraham. I trust that in light of Genesis 13 and the warning of Lot and Pilgrim in Regress and the example of Father Abraham, a pilgrim making progress, that Abraham will be your model and that your prayer will be to live that kind of life that Father Abraham models for us in our text. You know, if you were gonna ask me how should we sum up Genesis 13, if you're gonna do it succinctly, what is this chapter all about? Why is it in our Bibles? What is the big point? What is the big idea? I can put it really quite simply. Jesus tells us the big point. Matthew 6.33, but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Make that the priority of your life. And all these other things, the necessities of life, your Heavenly Father, he knows all about it. He will provide those things. But make the kingdom to be the priority. Make the righteousness of God to be the priority of your life. And then you will be a pilgrim making progress. Amen. Our Father, we thank you for the narratives of the Bible, that there are truths that they contain that are helpful to receive in the form that you have given them, to see these truths fleshed out in living color in the lives of Lot and Abraham. And we pray that we would derive the profit of that, the blessing of that. And Father, that we would leave this place today prayerful that we would be helped by your spirit to keep the kingdom of God to be the priority, if that is true of our lives. And Father, if it's not true of someone here, we pray that it would become true, that your spirit would use even this message today to bring about a change of thinking and a change of direction. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen.