After sending the title Lot
2009.1.31 Sunday morning service sermon
Bible: Genesis 13:10-15
Title: After Sending Lot
Genesis 13:10-15 ‘10. Then Lot lifted up his eyes and looked at the Jordan, and there was plenty of water in all the land as far as Zoar, before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, it was like the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt.
11. So Lot chose all the Jordan and moved to the east, and they departed from each other. 12 Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelt in the cities of the plain, and moved his tents as far as Sodom.
13. The men of Sodom were wicked and were great sinners before the LORD,14. After Lot had left Abram, the LORD said to Abram, "Lift up your eyes and look from the place you are, east, west, north, south, east, west, north and south 15. To you and to your descendants I will give the land you see, to you and to your descendants forever." - Amen.
When Abraham was called by God, he left his hometown and was on his way to the land that God had promised. When he left Egypt, he lived in the vicinity of Jesus-Salem between Bethel and Ai. Lot's nephew, who had moved away to live together, had a large herds of sheep and cattle, and while the shepherds were arguing with each other, Abraham suggested to his nephew Lot that we should live apart so that we would not fight each other.
Genesis 13:9 “Is not the whole earth before you? Leave me. If you are left, I will be right; if you are right, I will be left.”
Without a word to say thank you for Abraham's leisurely choice,
Genesis 13:10 “So Lot lifted up his eyes and looked at the Jordan, and there was plenty of water in all the land as far as Zoar, and it was like the garden of the Lord, and it was like the land of Egypt, before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.”
I was greedy with my eyes on the world, so I went there and lived in Sodom and Gomorrah, but in Genesis 19:24- I saw that it was judged by fire and burned down. Today, rather than a lesson from Lot's error, we want to examine the economy of God who appeared and blessed Abraham after he sent Lot. So, we decided to title it <After Sending Lot> and we would like to share the message.
1. It was wrong to bring Lot.
When God called Abraham, according to Genesis 11:26 and below, Abraham's father Terah was seventy years old when he had Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Among them, Haran died before his father Terah in Ur of the Chaldeans.
So when Abraham was called from Genesis 12:1 and left his hometown, it seems that he took Lot, his nephew, to take care of him.
Helping a brother's nephew has always been and still is, and it will be called deep love through brotherly friendship. The problem was not that God had called his nephew Lot. In the course of going to Canaan, the land God instructed, there were times when Abraham was tested because of his weakness, but there was a lot of suffering because of his nephew Lot. However, Lot himself was a person with a lot of worldly greed, and it is said in 2 Peter 2:7-8 that he suffered a lot mentally in Sodom and Gomorrah.
Loyalty is also called love, such as showing recognition, loyalty between colleagues, or loyalty to a teacher. But you should know that pure human affection is sometimes harmful.
When he prophesied that the Lord would be arrested and killed, Peter tried to prevent the death of the Lord by saying that it was impossible. At that time, the Lord uttered his anger, which was not the usual word of exhortation. Matthew 16:23 Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan, for you are a stumbling block to me, and you do not consider the things of God. Rather, he considers the things of men.”
When we know the Lord's commands as eternal life and follow them, we must keep in mind that if we are drawn to our instinctive rational judgments or especially human affections, it will be difficult to receive God's guidance.
2. God Appeared After Lot Left
Moments of experiencing God are rare. In the Old Testament, the New Testament, the church age, it is possible to receive, realize, and be moved by God's teachings, but it is not common to experience God spiritually and gain personal experience.
There was no voice or appearance of God when he was with Lot. After you let him go, he appeared immediately. That's it. Genesis 13:14 “After Lot had left Abram, the Lord said to Abram…”
However, cults who pray or claim that they will receive revelation directly ignoring these changes in their environment are disturbing the Korean church.
The Korean church mysticism movement began to appear in the late 1920s. The goddess who was active in the northern region was also a Methodist woman named Myung-hwa, who claimed that Jesus had come into her body and propagated herself as the Second Coming Lord.
Truly experiencing God's presence is not what the mystics claim. Only if you change your life according to the will of the Lord, organize your life, beat yourself up and obey, and pray with environmental changes to live a new life.
To truly experience the Lord, it is impossible to eat and lie comfortably. Even if you go through hardships like the Lord, you have pain because of your faith, and you live separately and feel lonely, you have to report and feel your presence.
Even if you fast for 3 days, you will be able to feel the voice of the Lord when you say that I am thirsty.... In order to experience the presence of God, you must first organize your life like a saint.
3. The land that Abraham saw after sending Lot
Lot took the land on his own and left. And Abraham was left alone. Then God appeared and said,
In verse 15 and below, Genesis 13:15-17'... Lift up your eyes and look from the place you are, east, west, north, south, 15. ... I will give it to you and to your descendants forever and ever, 16. I will be your descendants of the earth. I will make it like dust...17...walk through the earth in length and breadth, and I will give it to you.'
You get this great promise. This covenant was not obtained through optimism or any prayer. It is a covenant of blessing that God simply came and gave purely unilaterally. This is the most precious belief.
Lot, a human being who was attached to Abraham, went to the place his eyes could see, and Abraham saw the place God wanted him to see, and it was a blessing that he would give him all the land in east, west, north, south, length and breadth. The land was in fact barren and not very good, but later it became a blessing by the will of the Lord,
Genesis 14:14, there were 318 servants in the latter days.
1 Kings 4:20 “The population of Judah and Israel became as great as the sand on the seashore…
The conclusion of the verse is this. After Abraham sent Lot, there was a revelation from God and a blessing was given. As long as our environmental factors and social relationships are sanctified, God's work will come soon. If you pray all night and do not separate yourself, it is of no value.
Aren't the worldly things that I am troubled and worried about are the same as Lot, who was attached to Abraham and made it difficult? If so, you must send it. Then you will be blessed. Don't think that the problem is simply the lack of prayer. If you are not supposed to be with Lot, I pray that God will bless you and me by sending them.