Genesis 13 Abram and Lot Monday
Joy’s Notes:
Genesis 13 notes
WHO ARE YOU GOD?
WHAT ARE YOU LIKE?
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After pharaoh sent Abram on his way….
Gen 13:1-2 “Abram went up from Egypt (BACK)to the negev, with his wife and everything he had, and Lot went with him. Abram had become VERY wealthy and livestock and silver and gold.“
(Hebrew text indicates Going to Egypt was based on fear & disobedience)
• what did you accumulate in your season of disobedience?
• “Wealth” of the world that promised to bring happiness, satisfaction, fulfillment?”
Story: MATTHEW PERRY interview
• The worst day of my life was when I realized I had everything that told me would make me happy —but it never did”
Epidemic of narcissism
Satan knows narcissism makes us big— which makes fear big, anxiety big, stress BIG (because I’m God)
⁃ The more I’m IMPRESSED w/ God, the Less im impressed with myself
⁃ The more I see the bigness of God, the more I see the smallNESS of me
ISAIAH- antidote is reverence
• The fear of God eradicates the fear of man!
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Gen 13:3
“From the Negev he went from place to place until he came to Bethel, to the place between Bethel and Ai where his tent had been earlier (before disobedience to Egypt) and where he had FIRST built an altar. There, Abram called on the name of the Lord, again
⁃ FULL CIRCLE!
• God rescued ABRAM & brings him home—back to where he FIRST built an alter (first experienced the enoughness of His Father)
*500 yrs later—This place (bethel /Ai) is where Joshua’s men were conquered JUST AFTER having victory in Jericho— because of an IDOL OF THE HEART!!!
Joshua 7:13
“ I cannot stand against the enemy, until I remove the idols”
The idols on throne of heart keep us open to satans FIERY DARTS!
This is story of Jonah!
“But Jonah got up & went in opposite direction to “GO AWAY” from the Lord. “ (v.1:3)
Sometimes Gods rescue doesn’t look like a rescue.
God brought Jonah —right back to where he began— & Jonah had NEW BEGINNING to obey this time!!!
• Could this suffering you’re in be an UNEXPECTED RESCUE MISSION!?
Peter called “the Son of Jonah” by Jesus (Matt 16:17).
• he knows peters going to disobey & then be RESCUED & obey!
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Gen 13:5-7
“Now lot, who was moving about with Abram, also had flocks & herds and tents. But the land could not support them while they stayed together, for their possessions were so great that they were not able to stay together. And QUARRELING arose between Abrams herders and lots...”
• We tend to think MORE is better. If we had MORE money or time or friends, we would be happier and at peace….
• what did you accumulate in your season of disobedience thats now caused quarreling in your relationships today? (W/ spouse, friends, family, co-workers)
• Quarreling occurred because of wealth accumulation in Egypt— a place of disobedience… which later led to separation of Abram & lot !
• Unhealthy Coping skills, unhealthy view of sex, deceit, self-protection, manipulation, control, Fear, game-playing, assumptions, spirit of offense, bitterness, rage, addiction, fraudulent comforts, anxiety, jealousy, competition, resentment….
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BOUNDARIES 101
Gen 13:8
“ So Abram said to lot, let’s not have any QUARRELS between you and me, or between your herders & mine, for we are close relatives!
Is not the whole land before you?
Let’s part company.
If you go to the left, I’ll go to the right. But if you go to the right, I’ll go to the left.”
• Abrams teaching us that boundaries aren’t just a good-idea, theyre a God-idea
The very first conversation that God has with man is God choosing a boundary: (Gen 2:15) “You are free (no control) to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil”
• christians should be the best people at making healthy boundaries!!
• Abram had discernment to recognize the only way to cease the quarreling was to separate from his beloved nephew
• it’s for the sake of this relationship, that this boundary is being established!
• Abram shows us how to set HEALTHY BOUNDARIES! (Just like Gen 2)
• Abram gives Lot the FREEDOM to choose! (Go to left or the right!)
• He’s not controlling lot!!!
Boundaries are never about control of another person!
• When a relationship starts to feel unsustainable & draining —> we’ve put expectations on this person that they aren’t meeting.
Expectations= premeditated disappointment
(they don’t have the ingredient to give us!)
it’s time to have a FUNERAL — & lay our “EXPECTATIONS” at rest in the grave!
(grieve the loss)
• Paul & Barnabas separated (over John mark)
Forgiveness & reconciliation are NOT one of the same!
⁃ we’re mandated to forgive ! (70 x 7)
⁃ But we can forgive them from a far.
• “We can’t confuse the good command of LOVING, with the bad pattern of ENABLING” - Lysa T.
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• Abram wasn’t afraid to choose loneliness!
Sometimes we choose:
Agony over loneliness!
Abuse over aloneness
Suffering over solitude
Fear over friendlessness
Toxicity over time-apart
Because we’re not healed within!!!!
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Gen 3:10-13
Lot looked around and saw that the whole plane of the Jordan towards Zoar was well watered, like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt. (This was before the lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.) So lot chose for himself, the whole plane of the Jordan and set out towards the east. The two men parted company.
Abram lived in the land of Canaan, while Lot lived among the cities of the plane and pitched his tents near Sodom. Now the people of Sodom were wicked and we’re sinning greatly against the Lord.”
LOT
• Lot wasn’t just going to the place that looked the best….
• He was going to the place that touched a spiritual nerve, a sense of longing, a homesickness.
• Lot wanted the Garden of Eden. He wanted paradise.
Lot was trying to get back into the Garden.
Abram knew he was already there!!
ABRAM
• We have front row access to Abram maturing on this spiritual journey!
• one page over, Abram was fearful of a famine, now he knows God is in the famine!
Abraham understanding this life-lesson:
“Christians are like teabags. It’s purpose is revealed only after being put in hot water
.”
-tony Evans
• He’s allowing lot to pick which territory he wants. Because Abram knows whether there’s little or there’s lots in the external— God is always ENOUGH in the internal
”i’ve learned to be content in all things“ -Phil 4:11
• Abram knew wherever God is, there’s abundance.
⁃ “Lot chose by sight; Abram by faith. Lot moved to the edges, Abram to the center. Lot found corruption and temptation; Abram found assurance and peace. Lot was spiritually compromised; Abram was spiritually alive. Lot moved in with sinners; Abram moved in with God. Lot built no altars; Abram built them all.“
• Our past mistakes teach us Gods enoughness, kindness, undeserving rescuing power & redemptive love!!!
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Gen 13:14-18
“ The Lord said Abram after Lot had parted from him, “look around from where you are, to the north and south, to the east and west. All the land that you see I will give it to you and your offspring forever. I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring could be counted.
Go, walk through the length and breadth of the land for I am giving it to you. So Abram went to live near the
great trees of mamre at Hebron, where he pitched his tents. There he built an altar to the Lord.”
• Abram’s life was worship— the result of believing God’s promise.
⁃ Abram LIVED NEAR & BUILT AN ALTER next to a natural structure(a great massive tree) demonstrating his faith in the One-true God providing:
1. Promise
2. Protection
3. Presence
4. Provision
5. Power
Jer 17:5-8
“This is what the Lord says: “Cursed are those who put their trust in mere humans, who rely on human strength and turn their hearts away from the Lord. (Abrams Egypt days)
They are like stunted shrubs in the desert, with no hope for the future. They will live in the barren wilderness, in an uninhabited salty land.
“But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence.
They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and they never stop producing fruit.