Lift Up Your Eyes

Good morning.

Welcome to church this morning.

Uh, today's reading is from Genesis 13, 14 through 18.

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.

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 the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you.

So Abram moved his tent and came and settled by the oaks of Marm, which are at Hebron, and there he built an altar to the Lord.

This is the word of the Lord.

Please be seated.

Good morning.

Thanks for joining us this morning.

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All right.

Now let's pray and we'll get into our text for today.

Holy Father, we praise you for bringing us together.

We ask that you would work in our hearts through your word, that your word would impact our hearts and shape us and bring a transformation and a uh Lord, that your word would do the work.

Lord, let our hearts be open to what you have for us today.

We lift this up in Jesus' name.

Amen.

So the writer of Hebrews begins this list in chapters 11 uh that people refer to as the hall of faith, uh, which is hilarious.

And it's just this list of these great acts of faith by people that took place uh throughout the biblical story.

And so uh he the writer of Hebrews begins by saying, uh by defining faith.

He says, now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen, for by it the people of old received their commendation.

Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

Faith has this relationship with our vision in that it transforms the way that we see the world.

And today we're going to see how Abram is commended as a man of faith, why he is such a hero of the faith.

And it's because he doesn't depend on his own vision, but he depends on the promises of God.

So what happens today is basically a minor land dispute.

Abram moves back from Egypt and he leaves wealthier than when he arrived.

And he leaves with his nephew Lot, and they both come back to the land of Canaan.

But when they come back to the land, the land seems to be insufficient again.

And so we see this pattern happen in Abram's life where he leaves Egypt and he makes this pilgrimage, which we'll look at back to Canaan.

And when he makes this pilgrimage, he's move, he's literally repenting.

He's turning in faith back to God's promises in a really tangible way, like walking with his feet.

But then we see that there's pressure put back on those promises of God once again.

But this time, instead, when unlike last time, when he fled to Egypt, when he experienced pressure from the promises of God, this time he remains in Canaan and acts generously towards his family.

So we're gonna see how his faith in God's promises allows him to live in peace with the people around him.

So we're gonna go ahead and begin, and we'll look at the pilgrimage that Abram makes.

Pilgrimage, pressure, and then eyes of faith and eyes of flesh.

Genesis 13, one through two.

Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had, and Lot with him into the Negeb.

Now Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold.

Now you remember last week there was a famine in Canaan, so Abram fled to Egypt.

And when he fled to Egypt, he lies to the Pharaoh, and he does all uh he acts in the and lives in a way where he's just profiting off of his lie.

But then God curses Pharaoh, frees Abram and Sarai from Egypt, and when they leave, despite their lies, they leave more lavishly blessed than when they went in.

What Abram experiences is a completely unmerited grace from God.

He doesn't deserve to leave Egypt more rich.

He went there in a live, and yet he does, and he experiences this completely unmerited favor.

And we start to see that unmerited favor, God's consistency to his promise towards Abram, even though Abram is abandoning his own promise.

We see that consistency of God start to change Abram's heart.

And so the walk back to Canaan is described in terms of like a pilgrimage, a pilgrimage of faith back to where he was originally called.

This is the way it's recounted.

And he journeyed on from the Negeb 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.

See how, in the journey, the text is showing us this transformation of Abram's heart.

He's going back to where God originally called him, to where he originally responded in faith and built an altar to mark the promise of God, an altar that wouldn't move so that he would remember the promise that God had made.

And it describes him as going back to Bethel.

It does.

And it's a pro it it uh describes him as going back to Bethel.

Now, uh this city wasn't called Bethel at that time.

It was called Luz, L-U-Z, Luz.

I don't know.

You guys remember.

Depends on where you're from.

Some people call it LUS, people call it Luz.

It's like uh Arvada, Arvada, Buna Vista.

That one's just wrong.

Uh anyway, they uh it it but the text refers to it not as Luz, but as Bethel, which means house of the Lord.

It will be named that when God visits Jacob there later, Abram's grandson.

But at this point it's just called Luz.

But here in the text it's referred to as Bethel because Moses writing Genesis is wanting us to see clearly, Abram is returning to the house of the Lord, and it's there that he's calling upon the name of the Lord.

Now that phrase that it ends with, and there Abram called upon the name of the Lord.

It's a phrase that's common throughout the book of Genesis, but we remember its absence last week when Abram fled to Egypt during the famine in Canaan.

Never do we hear Abram calling upon the name of the Lord at that time, but here, when he returns to Canaan, he calls upon the name of the Lord.

We've seen a transformation in Abram's heart.

He's returning in faith.

Now the question is, how?

How do our hearts transform so that we return in faith?

What is the difference between the person who returns in faith and between the person who remains obstinate and stays in Egypt?

Well, in Romans chapter 2, verse 4, Paul describes the disposition of the Lord that is meant to lead us to repentance.

Romans 2:4

He says this, or do you presume upon the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?

God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance.

Why is Abram such a man of faith that we see here?

It's because when he receives the completely unmerited blessing from the Lord when he leaves Egypt, at a point where God should not have blessed him, but should have punished him, God instead demonstrates this unmerited favor, gives this grace, and Abram, as a man of faith, is able to see this is the one that I should return to.

The Lord is being patient with me.

Who am I to turn my back on such patience?

How could I possibly walk away from one who is so kind, who is so patient, who forbears with me?

How could I turn my back on that one?

And so Abram returns.

Look, it is the grace of the Lord towards Abram that transforms his heart.

Do you see that?

That's how our hearts are transformed.

It's when we're given the eyes to see, I didn't deserve this favor, I didn't deserve this grace that the Lord has given me.

And so I'll turn towards him.

Now that's the opposite of what we typically think.

We think, like when we get out of out of line, what will change our hearts is if God beats us back into position.

And a lot of us live our lives in a way where we're just waiting for that to happen.

And the Lord, of course, does discipline us, but his discipline always has this flavor of calling us back into his kindness.

The Lord is patient, the Lord is long-suffering, the Lord will bear with you.

Seeing that is what changes your heart.

And we see that take place in Abram here.

Remember, you know that you all like Mumford and Sons.

I can tell because you listen to Zach.

And there's a, it's okay, he's not in the room.

Uh and there's uh there's this Mumford and Sons lyric.

This is, I'm sorry I'm doing this, but uh I'm indulging myself.

The uh um where it says it's not the long walk home that will change this heart, it's the welcome I receive at the restart.

You know that lyric?

That's like this.

Yeah, you don't.

Sorry, David, it wasn't a fish lyric.

But that's the principle that we see here.

Uh it God's grace really changes us.

It really does.

Causes us to return in faith towards him.

Now, we see this change in Abram's heart because of the grace that he's received from the Lord, but it's immediately put back under pressure.

The faith that he has in the promises of God towards this particular land in this place with his offspring is immediately put back under pressure when he returns to Canaan.

And so our drama begins to unfold again.

What do we do with the promise of God when it seems to be unfolding in such an unexpected way?

How can we continue to trust him?

In Genesis 13, 5 through 6, we see what the pressure is.

And Lot, that's Abram's nephew, 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.

Once again, it looks like this land that God has provided is just inadequate.

They can't even stay together.

This blessing that they've given, they aren't even able to graze their own flocks together.

Lord, why would you promise me this land?

Why would you promise Canaan instead of a land like Egypt?

It seems like that's constantly fertile all the time.

And here you bring me back with this blessing, and we aren't even able to utilize it.

In fact, it's just causing this tension between Abram and his nephews.

And so we've got a couple of options here at this point.

Uh the herdsmen are um arguing with each other, and uh there's just a tension brewing.

And remember, this is kind of uh this is an open range situation where this is land that's just available that you graze your flocks on, but it's surrounded by uh kind of rival cities, the Canaanites and the Parasites.

So they are together in this open range situation, and they find we can't even utilize the land of Canaan.

What's wrong with this land that God has promised?

We got a couple of options.

Option one is they could turn on one another, uh, they could engage in the battle that the herdsmen are engaging with, and they could uh they could fight one another in that space.

Option two is they could leave the land, noting its insufficiency.

Abram's done that before.

Before, when the land was experiencing a famine, he said, let's just go to Egypt, forget it here.

Or Abram could see something that Lot didn't see.

He could look at this situation through the eyes of faith to see the promise of God operating here.

And that's precisely what Abram does.

In Genesis 13, 8.

Then Abram said to Lot, Let there be no strife between you and me, between your herdsmen and my herdsmen, for we are kinsmen.

Now, this is important in a book like Genesis.

We see that scarcity is forcing this drama between them.

And in that situation, they're surrounded by enemy peoples, and Abram notes, we're kinsmen.

There shouldn't be this strife between us.

We're we're family here.

Now think how much different that is from the first brothers that we saw not living in faith, where we see God come after Cain had murdered Abel, and he comes to Cain, and God comes to Cain and says, Where's your brother?

And Cain responds, Am I my brother's keeper?

Well, here, instead of, Am I my brother's keeper?

We see why should there be this conflict between us?

We are kinsmen.

We are brothers.

Here's the connection that I want us to make.

Abram had set his eyes on the promises of God and said, Let us use that to interpret the goodness of the land, the reality of the situation, the scarcity that we're in the midst of.

And in doing so, his relationships horizontally with his own kinsmen were affected and preserved.

Do you see that dynamic how it unfolds?

We'll get to follow it more.

This is what Abram plots to do.

He says in verse 9, is not the whole land before you?

Separate yourself from me.

If you take the left hand, then I will go to the right.

If you take the right hand, then I will go to the left.

Abram goes to Lot and he just opens his hand.

He says, Look, take what you want.

Which space you desire to have, just let it be yours.

Go.

It can be yours.

Abram generously opens up his hand to his nephew.

Now that's the type of generosity that's only possible when you know that it is God who distributes the blessing.

It isn't you who wrestles it into your own hand.

And because of that, even when you can't see a pathway forward, you can just open your hand in generosity because you know that it's God and his faithfulness that is in control here.

So Abram's able to say, look, I'll stay in the worst land.

And yeah, it just doesn't look that great, but you go ahead and go.

So now we begin to see this interaction where we get to see Lot and Abram as these kind of parallel examples.

And the text uses the same phrase to draw our attention to the differences and the way that they see.

It says, Lift up your eyes.

Lot lifts up his own eyes.

Abram is told by God to lift up his eyes.

So that's the difference that we're paying attention to.

Genesis 13, 10 through 11, and Lot lifted up his eyes and saw that the Jordan Valley was very was well watered everywhere, like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt.

So Lot chose for himself all the Jordan Valley.

Thus they separated from each other.

So Lot lifts up his eyes.

He's like, okay, I can go anywhere.

The Jordan Valley, it looks like it's well watered.

And it looks to me, it's like the land of Egypt.

It looks like a wonderful place to be.

There's a great city there called Sodom, didn't have the reputation it has today.

And that looks like a wonderful place to go and settle.

By the eyes of just reason or the flesh, it seems like he's just making the obvious decision.

Look, that's the well-watered place.

What's our problem?

Scarcity.

We aren't getting enough grass to graze our flocks.

I'm going to go where there's going to be plenty of grass to raise our flocks.

He lifts up his eyes, and that's the best he can see.

We're given the outcome of Lot's choice basically immediately.

Lot settled among the cities of the valley and moved his tent as far as Sodom.

And the text says, Now the men of Sodom were wicked, great sinners against the Lord.

Lot chose what the eyes of the flesh can see.

And it resulted in him being isolated among wickedness and sinners who will desire to attack him.

Just the next chapter, we're going to look at a battle that Lot is engaged with.

That's the outcome of stepping outside the promises of God and saying, I can discern this on my own.

Now in Genesis 14, or excuse me, in verses 14 to 15, the Lord said to Abram, After Lot had separated from him, the Lord said to him, Lift up your eyes.

See, the Lord tells Abram to lift up his 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.

Everything the light touches.

He takes him up.

You see, Abram responds in faith, trusting in what he couldn't see, convicted by what he couldn't see.

And then God gives him new eyes.

He says, Turn around, look, look to the north, to the south, to the east, to the west.

Look.

Everywhere that you look, I'm giving this to you.

All the land that you see, I will give to you and to your offspring forever.

He's saying, look at the expansiveness of what you've stepped into by faith.

And then God expands this promise that he had given to Abram before.

In verse 16, he says, 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.

He says, Look, you are surrounded by the expansiveness of my blessing in terms of the land.

And then the other part of the blessing that I've Promised you in terms of your offspring, I'm telling you that it surpasses knowledge.

What I am giving to you is incomprehensible.

You can't see it right now, but I'm giving you the eyes of faith to see it.

What you are stepping into is an incomprehensible blessing.

Can you count the dust of the earth?

No.

You can't.

Can you count the offspring of Abram?

No.

You can't.

Part of what was being promised there was this room, this morning.

As we gather as children of Abraham by Christ.

Do you think Abram could have known about us?

No.

It's incomprehensible what was being promised there.

The promise of God is stretching beyond what we could possibly imagine, surpasses knowledge.

And then when God gives him these eyes, he calls him to walk.

Arise, in 17 and 18, arise, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you.

So Abram moved his tent and came and settled by the oaks of Marm, which are hidden at Hebron, and there he built an altar to the Lord.

Another altar is marked.

Arise, walk in the promise that I have given to you.

See how faith becomes a new vision of the world.

And that new vision becomes a new way of walking into the world.

Now, I think I can't prove it, but I think that this passage was in the back of Paul's mind when he was writing his letter to the Ephesians in this particular section because it parallels so completely.

We look all around us and explore a vast expanse, and then we're introduced to a blessing that surpasses our knowledge, and then we are called to walk.

So I want you to hear these parallels.

In Ephesians 3, verses 18 to 19, Paul prays this.

Ephesians 3:18–19

He prays that you may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Just as Abram, God said to Abram, from the place where you are, I want you to turn around and look at this expanse.

You and your life right now.

How unimaginable that the grace that was given to Abram, the unmerited favor, might one day amount not to just land on the eastern side of the Mediterranean, but that instead it might amount to a new heavens and a new earth that we might walk in in glory forever.

It might not just be his offspring that are brought in genetically, but that we by faith might be grafted in so that all the peoples of the world might be able to call God our Father.

Look at the height and length and breadth and depth of this love.

It is a love that surpasses knowledge.

The love of Christ towards us is inarticulate.

You know, we can't, we don't have words for it.

We can't articulate it.

We can't say it in a way that communicates it enough.

We're responding to something glorious and massive, like counting the dust of the earth.

It's inexhaustible.

The riches of his kindness cannot be expressed.

And so, what do we do in the face of something like that?

We examine it, explore it, gaze and wonder at it, and then we walk.

Ephesians 4, 1 through 3, I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace.

You see how we're called to walk.

The eyes of the flesh do not value those things.

This word for humility, with all humility, it in Greek that was never used positively.

Okay, that word is only used as a curse or a slander against someone who's like a slave.

But with these eyes of faith, we're able to see that our humility before the Lord is rewarded in things far beyond what we could ever see.

See how we're given new eyes, whole new values, whole new ways of being in the world when we look at the promises of God and we walk in the faith of what he's shown us.

Just as the kindness that God showed Abram when he was leaving Egypt transformed his heart so that he was able to seek peace with Lot instead of trying to grab and take what was his.

So too, for us, when we see the glory of Christ and his love towards us, it transforms the way that we walk out into the world.

So I invite you, look with the eyes of faith.

What a simple thing to say.

Look with the eyes of faith.

Trust the promises of Christ, see his goodness, come to him in repentance, see and walk.

Okay, do we have any questions today?

In Genesis 12, 1, God told Abram to leave his family.

But now we find out here he brought Lot with him.

Was Abram right to do so?

Good question.

Some commentators are basically commentators are basically split on this, on whether or not it was right to uh bring along Lot.

I think it was okay to bring along Lot, his nephew, uh because uh the family dynamic that he was leaving was it was what mattered more was the patrilineal structure.

It was leaving his father's household, which was something that was never done, to begin a new line in a new place.

And so that seems to be the meaningful aspect of God's call to leave the family.

And bringing along a nephew doesn't really interrupt that.

Uh although Lot does cause some trouble uh here soon.

Likewise, Lot is uh it's more Sodom uh causes the trouble.

But the uh uh likewise another reason to think that it wasn't wrong to bring Lot is Lot is commended in that very hall of faith that is referenced earlier in Hebrews 11.

And it's just for bearing with the people of Sodom.

Uh that is uh something that's commended.

So I think with that type of commendation, uh it's uh it's good that Lot tagged along.

Um good question.

Very like good question.

Okay, let's pray.

Holy Father, we praise you for your patience with us, your kindness towards us.

Lord, I pray that we might examine the height and breadth and depth of your love towards us just as Abram looked out over that land, that we might gaze out over something even more glorious.

That you would give us the eyes of faith to see that and to trust you in it and live according to it.

That way we might walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, seeking to glorify you in all that we do.

Father, we lift this up in Jesus' name.

Amen.