Which Will We Choose? Series

Genesis 13

March 23, 2003

She’d cut off her nose to spite her face.

I used to laugh when my mother would use that expression to describe someone who was so vindictive that they didn’t even care if they got hurt as long as the other person got what was coming to them.

I say I used to laugh because I have found that the more I am out in this world there are more and more of these kind of people I encounter.

In some ways they remind me of children. One child has a toy. A second child wants it. Along comes mom and takes it away. The first child is heart-broken. The second is satisfied - fine - if I can’t have it she can’t have it.

If you take a moment I am sure that you can think of a number of people you have seen act this way.

Today’s passage is so striking because we have someone who acts in the totally opposite fashion.

Tell the story

1. An abundance of blessing 13:1-7

2. A resolution to strife 13:8-13

3. An announcement of blessing 13:17

The Point:

A. How does a child of God resolve conflict

- does not demand his rights

- capitulates to others - turns the other cheek

- treats other as equal

B. Walking by faith not by sight

Lot is the foil for Abram

verse 10 - Lot saw - looked and coveted - by sight he took what was best

He thought he was choosing paradise and instead was camping at the door of hell.

By contrast - Abram trusts the promises God has given him.

Hebrews 11:9 By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise.

10 For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.