Prepare for More Pt. VII
Tim Ross | October 25, 2020
“I just want to encourage somebody. I don’t know who this message is for but I’m telling you, God has some promises for you but it’s not going to be based on the way it looks. Doesn’t matter how attractive it looks, if you don’t hear a word from God, walk away.”
Listen
Transcription
What's up Embassy City Church? I love you guys so much and we are back again ready to open up God's word. Listen, I'm so excited I am wrapping up the series Prepare For More. This is Part Seven and I just want to thank you all for just hanging in there with this as we unpacked this life of Abraham with this prophetic word of how God was to prepare us for more.
If you have your Bibles, we are in chapter, guess what? We finally made it. We're in chapter number 13. We finally made it after all these weeks, chapter number 12. We actually ran out of verses. I wish chapter number 12 would have kept going, but no. Whoever formatted this book decided to put 13 and start over. Genesis chapter number 13, if you open up your Bibles there, I'm going to read 18 verses, I want to give you the story and then I want to unpack the story in a way for you that you've probably not heard it before. Maybe you have and if you have, yeay but if you haven't, yeay because I'm happy to be able to give you some context to it in a way that I hope helps you.
Genesis chapter number 13 starting at the first verse, here's what it says, "Abram left Egypt and traveled north into the Negev." Now, remember, last week, I talked about the fact that he got kicked out of Egypt after Pharaoh find out he was deceitful about his sister-wife. As a result of Pharaoh finding out that this was really his wife-sister, he banished him from Egypt.
Abram now leaves Egypt, he travels north into the Negev, along with his wife and Lot, and all that they own. Remember, all that they owned was also part of that dowry that he got when he was deceptive about Sarai being only his sister. Parenthetically, verse number two, "Abram was very rich in livestock, silver, and gold. From the Negev, they continued traveling by stages toward Bethel and they pitched their tents between Bethel and Ai, where they had camped before."
Abram has actually circled back to a place that he used to be. This was the same place where Abram had built the altar. Remember we talked about that last week. Where there is no altar, there's no anchor. "Now he comes back to a place where he has a reminder of God. This was the same place where Abram had built the altar and there he worshiped the Lord again.
Lot who was traveling with Abram had also become very wealthy with flocks of sheep and goats, herds of cattle, and many tents but the land could not support both Abram and Lot with all their flocks and herds living so close together. Disputes broke out between the herdsmen of Abram and Lot. At that time, Canaanites and Perizzites were also living in the land.
Finally, Abram said to Lot, let's not allow this conflict to come between us or our herdsmen. After all, we are close relatives. The whole countryside is open to you. Take your choice of any section of the land you want and we will separate. If you want the land on the left, the I'll take the land on the right. If you prefer the land on the right, then I'll go to the left.
Lot took a long look at the fertile plains of the Jordan Valley in the direction of Zoar. The whole area was well watered everywhere like the Garden of the Lord or the beautiful land of Egypt. This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.
Lot chose for himself the whole Jordan Valley to the east of them. He went there with his flocks and servants and parted company with his uncle Abram. He wasn't Abraham yet, I still got to keep that in mind. Abram settled in the land of Canaan and Lot moved his tents to the place near Sodom and settled among the cities of the plane. The people of this area were extremely wicked and consistently sinned against the Lord.
After Lot had gone, the Lord said to Abram, "Look, as far as you can see in every direction, north and south, east and west, I am giving all this land, as far as you can see to you and your descendants as a permanent possession. I will give you so many descendants there like the dust of the earth, they cannot be counted. Go and walk through the land in every direction for I am giving it to you."
Abraham moved his camp to Hebron and settled near the Oak Grove belonging to Mamre. There he built another altar to the Lord." You can see Abram learned his lesson when he was in Egypt. I'm building that altar right now. If you're taking notes on this message, it is Prepare For More Part Seven but there's a subtitle to this that I need you to write down. The subtitle is, we have a Lot to deal with but I want you to put it in first person, I have a Lot to deal with.
I want to deal with Lot today. You like the idea of that? [laughter] I want to deal with Lot today because every single one of us has a Lot on the inside of us, that if left unchecked could put us in some very bad situations. Again, like I said, I had to give you some fine print to this Prepare For More so you can really hold on to what God wants to give you. Bow your heads, let's pray over the word, shall we? Holy Spirit, help us to deal with our Lot in life. Amen.
Abram leaves Egypt. Comes back to a place that he is familiar with. Begins to worship God again. Everything seems to be restored. Abram has amassed more wealth than he had when he got his promise from God and decided to leave the area where he was. He's on this journey with God trying to figure out where should I be and what should I be doing next? As he gets back to a place where he can re-center, refocus on the God of his salvation and the One who gave him this promise, there begins to be some contention between Lot's herdsmen and Abram's herdsmen.
The contention never said it's between Abram and Lot. There was never any issue, beef or disruption between Abram and Lot's relationship. It was between Abram's herdsmen and Lot's herdsmen. Abram being a good fatherly type figure, assesses the situation, understands that he has actually raised Lot like his own son. This was his brother's son who died and Abram took him in and raised him as if he was his own.
Because Abram didn't have his own children anyway, there had to be a deeper affection for Lot than maybe there would have been for the average uncle and nephew. As a good father figure, Abram has assessed the fact that my son's grown up, he's got some things now and I don't want there to be any contention between us. He's a grown man, he can start his own family and he does what any good father would do. He prepares his son to leave. This is what good dads do for their kids. They prepare sons to leave.
One of the great things I heard from a mentor of mine a couple of years back was fathers send sons, they give daughters. They send their sons, they give their daughters. There's this dynamic I want to explore between Abram and Lot because I don't know about you, maybe by a show of hands, how many people have ever heard the story of Abram and Lot preached or taught before? Show of hands. All right, put your hands down. How many people have heard the story of Abram and Lot preached from the standpoint that something was bad with Lot and he had to be kicked out? All right, so that's almost the same amount of hands.
The narrative that you've usually heard about Abram and Lot is that Lot had to go. He wasn't a part of the promise. Get rid of your Lot. Get him out of here. He's bad for you. Excess Baggage weighing you down, dragging you under. Get rid of that Lot. I've heard those same type of sermons. I might even preach a couple. I've been preaching a long time, I had the right to change my mind. [laughter] When you know better, you do better.
Abram and Lot don't have a beef. Lot has been a good nephew, he's been with his uncle Abraham for a very long time, he doesn't come to Uncle Abraham and say, "Hey man, give me my stuff." Like the prodigal son did to his dad. This wasn't a cantankerous, spoiled, rebellious child. This was a young man who had become wealthy because he was around his uncle who was wealthy and now he has an opportunity to move on. I want this for my sons. My boys are 12 and soon to be 10. Noah, it will be 10 on the-- actually, he already had his birthday, he's 10 years old and I'm so happy about that. I have two boys in double digits.
They are really cute and I love them in my house at 12 and 10. At 32 and 30, my hope and prayer to God Almighty, that they are no longer in my house because I want Juliet back to myself with exclusivity. Every dad wants to see their sons grow up, get out and succeed. It's the way of life. What Abraham is setting his nephew up for is not because something's bad and it's not because there was a breakdown in their relationship.
He has some wealth, Abram has some wealth and Abram is the one that initiated the fact that "Hey, you need to do something else." And he gives Lot the opportunity to choose what he wants to do and this is what I want to explore. It's not the fact that Abram and Lot separated, it's how Abram and Lot separated and it has nothing to do with Abram. It has everything to do with Lot. Lot is the issue here. Lot represents every single one of us and before you try to put up a wall of defense to prove you don't have a Lot on the inside of you, I just happen to have Bible to pin you in. Are y'all ready?
Point number one. Write this down. Lot had options. Here's what it says Genesis 13:9, the whole countryside is open to you, man, take your choice of any section of the land you want and we will separate. If you want the land to the left, then I'll take the land on the right. If you prefer the land on the right, then I'll out go to the left. Abraham is wide open with his nephew. You pick wherever you want to go. You got the option right now, look around, you get to pick wherever you want to go now. How many people can say that you've gone through the majority of your life with options? That should be 100% of the people or somebody has you by gunpoint.
Here's what it says in Genesis 3:1-3, "The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. One day, he asked the woman, "Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?" "Of course, we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden." The woman replied. Options. "It's only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, "You must not eat it or even touch it if you do, you will die." Show hands again, how many people have had some options in your life? You've had options to do this or do that, go left or go right, put on clothes or not? Thank you COVID in quarantine. I stayed in my pajamas today.
We've had options. How many people by show of hands can honestly say that you've chose wrong before? If my left foot goes up, I am levitating and all y'all would be scared and my mom would start rebuking the TV. Lot had options. Here's my issue with Lot. Lot saw his uncle get a word from God and move on a word from God.
Lot has these options in front of him, he's not trying to get a word from God nor is he asking the guy to get a word from God. Lot's just out there with his own options weighing it all in his own mind and about to make a step in a direction that has nothing to do with being informed by the God who gave the promises to his uncle, this is baffling me. There's nothing wrong with Lot of Abram separation. There's a problem with Lot's mindset when he separated.
Point number two, please write this down. Lot looked too long. Genesis 13:10 says this, Lot took a long look. Can I just pause right there? Anybody ever looked too long? You know what I'm talking about. You might have just looked too long and something, I don't know about-- I'm from LA so we play dominoes and we have a couple of sayings but one of the sayings is you study long, you study wrong. You're looking at this board way too hard, you either got to move or you don't. Play.
Lot took a long look at the fertile plains of the Jordan Valley in the direction of Zoar. The whole area was well watered everywhere like the Garden of the Lord or the beautiful land of Egypt. This is before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah parenthetically. Lot took a long look. Say it with me. Lot took a long look. Again. Lot took a long. One more time real loud, Lot took a long look.
What about our faith includes looking? I just want to put that out there. You tell me what it is about your faith that requires you to look at something? Based on what? The Scriptures tell me, I don't get what I look for, I get what I hear. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. The just shall live by faith.
We walk by faith not by sight.
Lot took a long look. The moment you start looking long is the moment you're seeing wrong. From the kingdom, our ears are our eyes. You don't get what you see, you get what you hear. Abram heard a word and left. He said, I need you to leave and I'm going to show you a place. He didn't even show him, but here is Lot under the tutelage of Abram, there's nothing wrong with him leaving. The issue is he never picked up what he was supposed to from his uncle.
Your uncle got everything he got by listening, you think you can get everything you got by looking? Let me take you back to Genesis because I want you to see this is in our DNA. I just want you to see it shows up in other places besides here.
Genesis 3:6 "The woman was convinced, she saw that the tree was beautiful, that it's fruit looked delicious and she wanted the wisdom it would give her." She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious. She hadn't had it yet, she saw it and said it's beautiful and it looks good. Anybody beside me can be honest enough to say you've seen some things that look good, it ain't good.
You ever thought you saw a deal too good to be true? It was because it was. [laughs] You thought that person was just the most amazing person in all of the world. That job is the most amazing job in all of the world but you looked too long. Why was this message so important, Tim? You get us all the way to seven and now you hitting us with the Lot in us? Yes, because we have to shrink that Lot in us. I don't want there to be a big Lot you have it on the inside of you. I need that to be a really tiny Lot that's on the inside of you.
When you feel that person needing the opportunity to see what's going on, that's when you got to shut your eyes and remind yourself, "I don't get what I see. I get what I hear."
Thank you Holy Spirit. Which begs the question, have you heard anything? Yes, sir. Have you actually heard anything? If you're saying, "Well, I've been having a hard time hearing from the Lord, and I've been having a hard time getting a word from the Lord." Well, it might be because you haven't closed your eyes. It might be. I would probably have a hard time hearing from God too if I was scrolling through Instagram for four and a half hours. It's too much stuff to see and double-tap.
I'd probably have a hard time hearing from the Lord too if I was scrolling through Facebook for five and a half hours and liking posts and disliking posting and giving somebody a piece of my mind. It's a lot to look at. It would be hard to get a word from the Lord if the only thing you've been watching is the news for five days in a row and you got to word from Tucker Carlson and you got to word from Don Lemon but you ain't got a word from the Lord.
You don't get what you see. You get what you hear. My problem with Lot is that Lot should have known that there was nothing he had that didn't come from his uncle. Lot didn't have nothing that his uncle didn't give him. My issue is, how in the world could you not go, "Hey, Uncle Abram. Hey, man, you're telling me I can go here or I can go here. Where would you go? Because you're the one with the good ears, man. Ain't nobody heard what you heard but ever since we walked away with you, we've been getting blessed. Why don't you tell me where you want me to go or teach me how to hear from God myself? I don't want to just be out here looking.
Thank you, Holy Spirit. Every single one of us are going to be given options. Thank you, Holy Spirit. Where it can get real, real subtle is that it won't be, this is a demonic move or a God move. Then if you love God, you're not going to start selling drugs like, "Well, listen you all, I tried. Tried the best I could but I'm going to have to go back to slinging rocks." I'm just, "But what do you expect me?" I tried. I thought the job was good. I thought they were going to call me back to work by now. Listen, I'm going to have to start slinging crack. There's nothing we can do about it. Family, pray for me. I got to go out tonight. I hope to come back with double or nothing on these two birds I got. I'm so sorry.
It's not going to be something that bad versus a God idea. It's not going to be devil versus God, it's going to be good versus God. The good idea is going to be, "Come on. Let's go into business. We know a woman that works in-- Look at the money we'll make. We already added it up and it'll work. It looks all good. We studied the numbers." Did you hear anything or are you just going off what you looked at? It all looks good but if you don't have a word from God, it will not last.
Lot took a long look and what and he picked the stupidest place. When you think about it historically, you could never pick a worse place than what Lot picked. Lot picked the city right next to Sodom and Gomorrah. Your luck can't be this bad, bro. Are you serious, out of all the places in the whole world you could have went, your long look got you put next to a city that got burned to a crisp?
How many of us have been in the same situation and the relation burnt up in a crisp? The job burnt up in a crisp. The bonus burnt up in a crisp. The peace burnt up in a crisp. The connection burnt up in a crisp. Why? Because we looked longer than we put ourselves in a position to hear. I just want to encourage somebody. I don't know who this message is for but I'm telling you, God has some promises for you but it's not going to be based on the way it looks. Doesn't matter how attractive it looks, if you don't hear a word from God, walk away. You don't want to be stuck with nothing that looks good, but don't sound good. That was good. That was good.
Point number three then I'm done. Lot chose for himself. Genesis chapter number 13, verse number 11. Here's what it says, "Lot chose for himself the whole Jordan Valley to the east of them. He went there with his flocks and servants and parted company with his uncle, Abram." He chose for himself and he went. Now here's what it says in Genesis chapter number three, verse number six because this is part of our dammit nature. This is the second part of Genesis 3:6, she took some of the fruit and ate it.
Remember, after she looked at it and saw that it was beautiful and that its fruit look delicious and that she wanted the wisdom it would give her, she took some of the fruit and ate it then she gave some to her husband, who was with her. Adam didn't just get tricked into this, he was right there and he ate it too. They chose for themselves. Listen, I've been doing ministry for 24 years. Every season that God has brought me into is because I heard a word from Him.
I would love to say that I was just smart enough to know what to do next. No, what I was smart enough to do was get on my knees, close my eyes and listen. I'm telling you, I don't know who this is for but this needs to be your posture for this next season. You're preparing for more. Instead of trying to stand up tall and proud and high, it might be time to get low. When you get low and you bow that head and you close your eyes, there is nothing more humbling than knowing that there's no part of your life that you want to be in charge of that God doesn't have a right to influence.
You put yourself in this position. Head low, knees bended, eyes close and you say, "God, I need to know what you want to do. I need a word from your word. I need to hear it from the preacher. I need to hear it in worship. I need to hear it in my devotion time. I don't care. At a stop sign, if the billboard speaks, Jesus, here I am, I will listen to whatever you got to say but I want to hear your voice.
There is nothing more important in my life than hearing your voice. I will only move when you say so, I will not move until you say so, I don't take my orders from man, I don't take my orders from Mammon, I don't take my orders from anybody but you. There was no one that has more influence over my life than you do and I do not move based on what it looks like, I move based on what you sound like. Speak, Lord.
Speak Lord, your servants are listening. Speak, Lord into this situation of what I'm supposed to do in my marriage. Speak about where I'm supposed to take my next steps in my career. Speak about what State I'm supposed to move to, what vocational job I'm supposed to take. If I'm supposed to step into ministry, God, speak a word. I don't want to hear the flattery of men right now, I need to hear a word from you. Yes, that's my secret to success. It's not that I've made all the right decisions because I was smart. I can hear Him and I refuse to let anything get in the way for me hearing from the Lord. I'll cut out everything else, every other voice, every other influence. I need a word from you. So God speak.
You're preparing us for more but we cannot get what we see, we can only get what we hear so speak, God. This is your church God, speak. This is your move God, speak. This is your will, speak. This is your way, speak. Holy Spirit, you have control over Embassy city, not me. We go when you say so, not when we see so. Ladies and gentlemen from my knees at Embassy City Church, 6300 North Belt Line Road, Irving Texas 75063. This has been your seven-week series on Prepare For More and it is the end. God bless you. Bye-bye.
