MESSAGE OF THE WEEK

29 August 2010

RESISTING THE CALL OF THE WORLD

TEXT:  1 Corinthians 5:6, ⁶ Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?

INTRODUCTION:  When we look at the life of Lot, we see what can happen when a Christian begins to compromise.  Lot made the fatal error by believing he could compromise with the world and not be affected by it.

I.          LOT HAD A GOOD BEGINNING.

A.        He was raised in the household of Abraham after his own    father died.

Genesis 12:1-5,  ¹ Now the LORD had said to Abram:  “Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you.   ² I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing.  ³ I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”  ⁴ So Abram departed as the LORD had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. ⁵ Then Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people whom they had acquired in Haran, and they departed to go to the land of Canaan. So they came to the land of Canaan.

1.      Abraham was and is the Father of Faith.

2.      Yet Lot who had Abraham as a role model never developed his uncle’s king of faith.

NOTE:  The traits we find in Abraham never seem to become a part of Lot’s character.

Genesis 13:5-13,  ⁵ Lot also, who went with Abram, had flocks and herds and tents. ⁶ 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. ⁷ 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. ⁸ 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. ⁹ 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.”  ¹⁰ 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 toward Zoar. ¹¹ Then Lot chose for himself all the plain of Jordan, and Lot journeyed east. And they separated from each other. ¹² 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. ¹³ But the men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked and sinful against the LORD.

B         Although he lived with a man of great character, he never learned or developed his own character.

1.         He made wrong decisions.

Genesis 13:11, ¹¹ Then Lot chose for himself all the plain of Jordan, and Lot journeyed east. And they separated from each other.

a.         Lot walked by sight

Genesis 13:10, ¹⁰ 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 toward Zoar.

2.         Abraham chose to live with God.

Genesis 13:14-18, ¹⁴ 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 westward; ¹⁵ for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants^] forever. ¹⁶ 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. ¹⁷ Arise, walk in the land through its length and its width, for I give it to you.”   ¹⁸ Then Abram moved his tent, and went and dwelt by the terebinth trees of Mamre,^] which are in Hebron, and built an altar there to the LORD.