Flourishing and Faith after Failure

Well, let me, invite you to turn in your Bibles, this morning to Genesis chapter 13. By the way, this is the last Sunday that we will be in Genesis, for a while, probably until about the middle of May. starting next Sunday, we will be doing a several week series on the topic of marriage, and, and then when we're done with that series, I'm gonna be, in Albania, for, a couple of weeks and then when we get back, we'll be able to get back to our series to the Book of Genesis. So this is our last stop in the Book of Genesis for, at least a couple of months, and I would encourage you to be here next week and in the weeks to come as we give focus to this most important topic of marriage.

But Genesis chapter 13, we're gonna be looking at the entirety of this chapter and if you wanna give A title to this chapter, it would be flourishing and faith after failure. Flourishing and faith after failure. How many of you have ever failed the Lord and sinned against Him? Before, raise your hand OK.

How many of you, this will narrow it down, how many of you have ever failed the Lord and sinned against Him since becoming a Christian? Raise your hand. Oh, no different. if so, and my hand would go up, then this message, our study of Genesis 13 will be a great encouragement to you.

when we studied the second half of Genesis 12 a couple weeks ago, we saw how Abraham failed miserably down in Egypt, right? He leaves the promised land during a famine and he goes down to Egypt, and while they're approaching Egypt, Abraham tells Sarah to lie. And tell people that she was only his sister. Abraham's goal was to save his own hide because he was fearful and anxious, but also he wanted to profit off the situation should it arise that someone would want to take Sarah as their husband.

When Pharaoh himself shows up wanting Sarah, Abraham told Pharaoh that she was his sister, thinking that Abraham would now have time to negotiate with the Pharaoh and stall for a year or so and get a lot of gifts in the meantime. And then get out of dodge before he actually had to give Sarah away in marriage. But Abraham, we saw two weeks ago, got busted and humiliated in his sin. Pharaoh took Sarah right away into his house.

God plagued the Pharaoh's house. Pharaoh discovers Abraham's deception. Pharaoh rebukes Abraham, and Abraham. gets unceremoniously escorted out of Egypt and back to the Negev, where he started.

Genesis chapter 13 verse 1. Begins with these words. So Abraham went up from Egypt to the Negev, he and his wife and all that belonged to him, and Lot with him. Imagine how quiet the camel ride was back from Egypt to the land of Promise.

How quiet it would have been for Abraham and for Sarah. Imagine how her trust in her husband's leadership had been damaged in Egypt. But imagine how grateful they both were to be back together again as a result of the gracious faithfulness of God. And this is where our narrative picks up today in chapter 13.

But imagine before we look at this chapter, imagine for a moment that you don't know the rest of the story of Abraham's life. Your question at this point of the narrative would be, is the Abraham that we saw in Egypt, the real Abraham? Is that who he really is? Would the real Abraham, please stand up.

In the first half of chapter 12, In the first half of that chapter, we saw Abraham trusting God, obeying God's call, worshiping God, building altars, calling on the name of the Lord, and listening to the voice of God as God spoke to him on his journeys. But then, in the second half of Genesis chapter 12, we see that Abraham turned short-sighted and selfish, forgetful of God's promises. Deceptive and scheming. None of us are ever inconsistent like that, are we?

But which is the real Abraham? We get two versions of Abraham, Abraham in Genesis 12. Well, in our passage today, we will see Abraham returning. After his failure in Egypt to the promised land, we'll see him retracing his former steps and returning to the altar, where he had formerly worshiped God.

We will see him displaying amazing trust in God in the midst of a situation of conflict. And instead of trying to exploit a situation of conflict for his own advantage, we will literally see Abraham handing away all of his advantages to someone who is his inferior and totally trusting God with the results. As one writer says, quote, hardly any other chapter in the Bible. Portrays the reality of faith so marvelously, unquote.

As Genesis chapter 13 does, and this is all the more so because we see such faith in Abraham on the other side of his earlier failure. In Egypt from chapter 12. If you learn nothing else today, learn this. Just listen to what I'm about to say.

If you wanna fall asleep after this, that's OK. Just get this, the true measure of a believer is not whether or not he falls, but by what he does on the other side of his failures. If Abraham had done what he did in Genesis 12 in the second half of that chapter, and then said, I guess this is who I am. I am a deceiving liar at heart, and this is all that I will ever be.

Then chapter 13 would have never happened. Chapter 13 will teach you that your failures are not your only measure. It's what you do on the other side of your failures that is your truest measure of who you really are. how I know that?

I know that because in Proverbs 24:16, Solomon says, the righteous man never falls. Is that what it says? No, he says the righteous man. Falls.

7 times and rises again. He gets back up again. That's exactly what we see Abraham doing in our passage today. We see Abraham rising again, returning to the Lord, and we see God blessing Abraham and lavishing fresh promises upon him, teaching us that there is such a thing as flourishing.

And faith after failure. The way we're gonna break the passage down today is we're gonna observe 10 developments, 10 developments in the story of Abraham's flourishing and faith after his failure in Egypt. And trust me, we will get through all of these this morning. 10 developments.

Development number 1, as we just work our way through the chapter, is this, Abraham becomes very rich in possessions. Abraham becomes very rich in possessions. In verse 2, the text says, now Abraham was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold. Abraham is a wealthy man on all counts, because God is blessing him just like God promised that he would do back in Genesis chapter 12 verse 2, when God said to Abraham, I will bless you and make your name great.

God is keeping his promise. To Abraham and no amount of failure on Abraham's part can keep God from keeping his promise to Abraham. In verse two, we see that as a result of God's blessing, Abraham, even after his failure, is, the text says, very rich in livestock, in silver and in gold. It's interesting here that the word that is translated rich is the Hebrew word that literally means heavy.

Literally, the text reads, now Abraham was very heavy in livestock, in silver and gold. This makes for an interesting contrast with Abraham's situation back in the second half of Genesis chapter 12, where we learn in Genesis 12:10 that the famine that was in the land that Abraham was found himself inside of, that the famine was heavy in the land and it's the same Hebrew word. That is used in chapter 12 verse 10 describing the famine. And commentators point out that the word choice is deliberate on Moses' part as he is telling both of these stories.

In chapter 12, Abraham experiences a heavy famine, and here in chapter 13, Abraham is heavy with prosperity. So we can say that in chapter 12, Abraham is tested by heavy famine. Here, we will actually see that he is tested by heavy prosperity. Clearly, Moses is wanting us to see these two stories together, to read them together.

So Abraham, according to the passage, returns to the Negev region, but we will observe that he doesn't want to settle in the Negev. Abraham actually wants to get back to Bethel, and this leads us to the second development in the story of Abraham's flourishing and faith after his failure in Egypt. And that is that Abraham returns to the place of the altar and calls on the name of the Lord. He returns to the place of the altar and calls on the name of Jehovah.

In verse 3, we read in the text these words, he went, Abraham went on his journeys from the Negev as far as Bethel to the place where his tent had been at the beginning between Bethel and AI. So that we saw that back in 12, chapter 12, where Abraham was in this very area and had built an altar there. And that's why the text, more specifically, goes on to say this in verse 4, Abraham was wanting to go to the place of the altar which he had made there formerly. In chapter 12, Abraham was between Bethel and AI, and he built an altar there and he called upon the name of the Lord there.

And here we're now being told that Abraham, after his failure in Egypt, specifically wants to return to this altar, to this location, where he had earlier called on the name of the Lord in prayer and in worship. Where are you heading? We would ask Abraham, and he would say, I'm heading back to the altar. Clearly Abraham is wanting to reconnect with God after his failure in Egypt and there's something sweet about his confidence in God's amazing grace as he is speeding back to this altar.

Abraham is confident in coming back to this altar because apparently he knows that God will accept him. Even after his very public failure in Egypt. Apparently, Abraham knows that he knows Jehovah well enough to know that he is a God who receives failures, who receives and accepts sinners. I love what J Vernon McGee says on this very point.

Listen to what he says. Although he, Abraham, May stumble and fall, this man comes back to God. There is always a way back to the altar for Abraham, the prodigal son, and any man or woman who wants to come back to God. The arms of the Father are open.

To receive them. Do you believe that? Evidently, Abraham believes this. He knows that God is a God who receives sinners.

At the altar Remember that the word altar literally means place of slaughter. Place of sacrifice. Abraham is wanting to get back to this altar in order to offer sacrifice to God. He knows that if he wants to succeed in reconnecting with God, he must do so through blood sacrifice.

But he knows That through blood sacrifice, God will receive him. What does Abraham do once he arrives at this altar? The text tells us at the end of verse 4, and there he called on the name of the Lord. This is what saved people do.

He calls on Jehovah's name in prayer, and he worships God. Keep in mind that Sarah is with him. Everyone else that went down to Egypt is with him. They were all with him, they saw him fail.

And here they see him after his failure, kneeling in prayer. Before this altar of blood sacrifice and calling on the name of the Lord on the other side of his failure. You men who are dads or husbands, you may have failed and your wife and your children. May have seen you fail.

But do they see you returning to the altar? And calling upon the name of the Lord in humility and in prayer and worship through the blood sacrifice of Jesus. Abraham was not a perfect husband. He was not a perfect man, but he was a man who returned to the altar of blood sacrifice after his sins, after his failures, and he never ever stopped calling on the name of the Lord.

This is a beautiful scene of repentance and restoration and humility. On the other side of Abraham's failure, from the little we know so far in the text, this is a beautiful, wonderful scene, a wonderful moment, but all is not well. There's a problem that is brewing between Abraham and Lot, and it is because of all the prosperity that they were experiencing. This brings us to the 3rd development in the story of Abraham's faith and flourishing on the other side of his failure in Egypt.

And that is this, Abraham experiences strife with Lot because their possessions were so many. He experiences strife with Lot because their possessions were so many. Maybe, I'm not gonna ask for a raise of hands, maybe some of you, like you're here worshiping the Lord and it's all great, but you may have even got in an argument at the house this morning. Or on the car, or in the car.

I hope you're not on the car as you're coming to church, but in the car on your way to church this morning, there may be strife in the car or in your house when you go home. And sometimes you may experience that and just go, man, what's so wrong with my life? I wish I could be like these saints of old. Well, Abraham is having this incredible scene of worship and connection with God.

And we will see that there's strife. That shows up, family strife. That shows up. This is so real and true to our experience.

Abraham experienced a strife with Lot because their possessions were so many. Notice the problems that are identified here. First of all, we already know that Abraham was rich or heavy with livestock and silver and gold, but here in verse 5, we read the following. Now Lot, who went with Abraham also had flocks and herds and tents.

And the land could not sustain them while dwelling together, for their possessions were so great. That they were not able to remain together. There was so much livestock that needed to graze that the land itself was not able to provide. Sufficient feeding for all of them to be together in one place.

And as a result of the insufficiency of the land to sustain them while they were together, the inevitable happens. Verse 7 tells us the following. Look at this, verse 7, and there was strife between the herdsmen of Abraham's livestock and the herdsmen of Lot's livestock. The word strife speaks of fighting.

And bickering involving formal complaints and counter-complaints which are left unresolved and keep getting worse. Obviously they're fighting over grazing rights and watering holes. To make matters stickier, Verse 7 also says now the Canaanite and the Parasite were dwelling in the land. This means that it was not just Abraham's men and Lot's men fighting for land and water for their livestock to feed at, but there were other people who were living there too, who also lived off the land, making the choices of fields and water available.

to Abraham and Lot more limited because they had to share it with people who actually lived there. In addition, these pagan Canaanites and Parasites had a front row seat to observe the strife between Abraham's men and Lot's men. Abraham and Lot and their people were Jehovah worshippers, and yet here they are bickering with each other over grazing rights and access to water. As one writer says, it was bad enough for brethren to disagree, but to fall out, especially over material things in the presence of the ungodly.

was worse I am sure the Canaanites and the Parasites were unimpressed by the religion of these Jehovah worshippers as they fought. With one another. And the same is true today, is it not? I love what Jay Vernon McGee says about this.

He says when people outside the church see Christians fighting with each other, Their thought is, if that's Christianity, I don't want any part of it. I can get a fight outside. I don't need to join a church to get a fight. Clearly this is a problem that needs to be addressed.

So how does Abraham address this problem? Does he ignore it and hope that it will go away? Does he try to solve it in a conniving way that guarantees his own advantage like he did down in Egypt at the end of chapter 12? This brings us to the next development in the story of Abraham's faith and flourishing after his failure in Egypt.

Let's word it this way, trusting Jehovah, Abraham sacrificially proposes a solution to Lot. Trusting. Jehovah, Abraham sacrificially proposes a solution to Lot. Look at verse 8.

So Abraham said to Lot, please, let there be no strife between you and me, nor between my herdsmen and your herdsmen, for we are Brothers. Might want to underline the word please and brothers. Notice that he says please. His use of the word please denotes urgency but also tenderness.

Why does Abraham not want strife? Look what he says, for we are brothers. Which is interesting that he would say this, Abraham is actually Lot's uncle. But here he calls them brothers thereby treating his orphaned nephew Lot as an equal.

This shows remarkable humility on Abraham's part. Notice Abraham's proposed solution to Lot verse 9. He says, Is not the whole land before you? Please separate from me.

If to the left, then I will go to the right or if to the right, Then I will go to the left. This is a stunning. Offer of a solution. Abraham is deferring to Lot and giving him essentially first choice here.

Pick what you want, Lot, pick the direction that you want to go, pick the land that you want to live in, and I'll go in the other direction. I'll take whatever you don't pick. What's stunning about this is that Abraham actually has 4 advantages. You might want to jot these down over a lot in this situation, and he doesn't use any of the advantages.

Number 1, Abraham is the older of the two, so you can write down the word age. He's the older of the two, so he outranks Lot in age. A second advantage, you can write the word wealth. Abraham is the more wealthy of the two, so he outranks Lot in wealth and in power.

Number 3, He is Lot's uncle. So he outranks Lot in his position in the family. And a 4th advantage is Abraham is the one God actually made the promise of land to. Not Lot.

Given these four advantages, Abraham has every right to pull rank on Lot and say, there's conflict, there's strife, I'm gonna solve this. Here's my solution. I am choosing this land over here, and you will take the land I don't choose. God Promised me this whole land anyway, Lot, so I am entitled to lay claim to what I want first and then you take what I don't choose.

If Abraham had done this, no one would have ever found fault with him for this. And yet in spite of Abraham's fourfold advantage position, he refuses to assert these advantages. Instead, he literally sets all of them aside and he treats Lot as a brother. And actually lowers himself beneath Lot and gives away the advantage to Lot.

Giving Lot the right to choose the land that he wanted first. As one writer says, this is a case where the social superior humbles himself before the inferior to preserve peace, thereby proving himself the spiritually superior. You measure the greatness of a person's soul. By how they handle conflict?

And do they assert their rights and advantages? Or are they willing to lay them aside for the sake of peace? Clearly Abraham cares enough about Lot to be willing To sacrifice all of these advantages in order to make peace. And clearly, Abraham is totally trusting God with whatever the outcome might be as a result of Lot's choice.

It seems that Abraham has learned a lot from his time in Egypt, right? And he seems totally confident that, hey, God's gonna take care of me. No matter what happens, no matter what Lo chooses, God, Jehovah is going to take care of me. Looking at how different Abraham is in this chapter, chapter 13, from the way he was in the second half of chapter 12 down in Egypt.

One writer says, what a change. From the calculating, self-serving schemer that he was in Egypt. You guys see the difference? You might hear this and read this and say, man, I would never lower myself and give away such advantages in a conflict situation like this.

It might cause me to lose out on getting what's coming to me. Well, if you think that way, it's because you have a small view of God, and it may just be why your conflicts don't ever get resolved. Learn from Abraham's example here. Abraham trusted God and humbled himself in this conflict situation.

His faith operated in the midst of conflict. And God took care of them pretty well, right? And he will do the same for you. If you do the same.

Anyway, so what happens? How does this play out? This brings us to the next development in the story of Abraham's flourishing and faith after his failure in Egypt, and that is Lot chooses for himself the lush valley. Of the Jordan.

Lot chooses for himself the lush valley of the Jordan. You notice in the passage that Lot does not hear Abraham say what he says and then say, no, Abraham, I'm not gonna let you do this. You're my uncle, you choose first and then I'll choose second. No, Lot basically says, wow, I like your plan, Abraham.

And so verse 10 reads, and Lot lifted up his eyes and saw all the valley of the Jordan. Obviously they were at some elevated spot and Lot was able to look upon all of the valley of the Jordan, which is likely, the likely area he's looking at is the area just north of the Dead Sea. You see the red circle on the map? you see the yellow?

Can you guys see that? That's about where Abraham and Lot are standing and Lot is looking down and seeing this round shaped valley just north. Of the Dead Sea. And he likes what he sees as Lot looks over the Jordan Valley.

It says in verse 10, he saw that it was well watered everywhere. This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom. And Gomorrah, which was in the area, was like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt as you go to Zohar. Moses is reminding us that this well watered, beautiful condition was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah in this area.

This is Moses assuring his readers that if you go there and look, At this valley today, it doesn't look anything like it did in this moment as Lot was looking down from the heights upon this lush valley in his day. At this point in time, In Lot's day, Moses is telling us that this valley was like the garden of the Lord. In other words, it was like the Garden of Eden. That's pretty high praise.

The text also says that it was like the land of Egypt, which was also lush and fertile due to the Nile River. This area was beautiful and lush like this as you go to Zohar, the passage says, which was a city somewhere near this area of the Jordan Valley. So look at what Lot does. He sees the beauty of this area.

Verse 11, so Lot chose for himself all the valley of the Jordan and Lot journeyed eastward. The extra words for himself, he chose for himself denotes a touch of selfishness here. Lot is saying, this land that I choose will be mine, Abraham, and you can live anywhere but here. Having made this choice, the text tells us that Lot took off and he journeyed eastward toward this valley of the Jordan.

Some commentators Criticize Lot for his choice here. Some commentators defend him, at least to some degree, reminding us that Lot probably had little idea of the wickedness of this area and certainly he had no guess that this area would receive the judgment of God that will be falling upon it, I believe in Genesis 19. But either way, what is clear is that Lot is being led by his eyes only. Instead of asking the Lord to guide him, he is totally trusting his eyeballs to guide him.

He's choosing what his eyes are telling him is the most attractive option. He is only in this moment thinking of the best place to raise cattle, not the best place to raise kids. Little does he know that he will eventually be fleeing Sodom for his life with his wife and his kids. What happens to Lot should serve as a lesson to all of us, and the lesson is you cannot trust your eyes, so do not walk by sight, walk by faith.

Now I know you, some of you may hear that and say, man, walking by sight sounds smart. Going by what we see, that's solid, rather than walking by faith. But the problem is if you walk by sight, here's the hang up with that, you can't see everything. You just can't.

You can't see the future, you can only see the present. And even as you look at things as they are in the present, you don't see everything. So you can either walk by your own limited sight, or you can walk by faith in the God who sees everything. And who can tend to your happiness far better than you can.

Anyway, look at the outcome of this transaction between Abraham and Lot, and this brings us to the 6th development in the story of Abraham's faith and flourishing. On the other side of his failure in Egypt, and that is Abraham settles in Canaan. And Lot settles as far as Sodom. The first outcome is stated in verse 11, it says, thus they separated from each other, and the second outcome is in verse 12, which tells us that Abraham settled in the land of Canaan, that's the promised land, while Lot settled in the cities of the valley and moved his tents as far as Sodom.

Notice that verse 12 is making a distinction between the cities of the valley where Lot is moving to, and the land of Canaan. Which is the promised land, implying that where Lot was settling was outside in all likelihood the promised land. In fact, somewhat ominously, the text tells us that Lot moved his tents as far as Sodom. Keep in mind that Lot's, he's got a lot of people, a huge camp that's with him and livestock and His settlement is a huge settlement of many tents, and the point here is that the scope of Lot's encampment extended as far as Sodom.

It's here that we are given some information about the men of Sodom. In verse 13, the text says, now the men of Sodom were wicked exceedingly and sinners against Jehovah. The language here is about as strong as you'll find anywhere in scripture. To be a sinner is something that every human being is on this side of the fall.

But to be wicked, just the word wicked alone, indicates a special sinfulness, which demonstrates a fierce, rebellious resolve in evil. But then to be described as wicked exceedingly is about as bad as any human being could ever be described and is ever described on the pages of scripture. As one writer says, this is a rare phrase that suggests that they, the men of Sodom, were living at a level lower than normal sinners. Moses' point in giving us this information right now in the text is to let us know that Lot has chosen a very bad area to live in.

So yes, Sodom and the surrounding area were incredibly lush and beautiful. Yet there was wickedness in this place of tremendous beauty. As John Calvin says, Lot when he fancied he was living in paradise, was nearly plunged into the depths of hell. Teaching again that you cannot trust your eyeballs, you cannot walk by sight.

You must walk by faith in the God who sees everything. We'll learn more about Lot and his involvement with Sodom and later chapters. But for now, the focus is on Abraham and Abraham's point of view. So at this point, Lot has left Abraham.

And now Lot and all of his herdsmen are gone. Abraham is left alone and probably feeling the sting of this separation, the breaking or at least the distancing of this relationship that he had grown accustomed to having in his life. And so what happens next? This brings us to the next development in the story of Abraham's faith and flourishing after his failure in Egypt, and that is that Jehovah shows up.

And promises to give the land of Canaan to Abraham and to his descendants. Notice in verse 14, when God speaks to Abraham. The text says now the Lord said to Abraham, after Lot had separated from him. Abraham, no doubt was feeling sadness over the sting of Lot's departure, and the loss of Lot's presence in his life.

But in this moment of painful separation, God shows up and God speaks to Abraham. And in addition to whatever specific things God will say to Abraham, The mere fact that God shows up and speaks to Abraham in this exact moment is God's way of saying to Abraham, Abraham, you lost your nephew, but you still have me. You lost your nephew, but you still have me. We have 4 children and when our 4 children leave, Donna and me to go get married or go away to college or move away or whenever we're back in Indiana and we're saying goodbye to our family in Indiana.

My wife will always get a certain look on her face and then begin to cry. During those goodbyes. It hurts me to see that. And more times than not in such moments I will move towards her, I will wrap my arms around her and say, You still got me.

You still got me, honey. And she never seems comforted by that thought. But guys, I think that's exactly the vibe here in verse 14. Lot and all of his people have left Abraham.

And right in the moments after Lot's departure, God shows up. And makes his presence felt and speaks to Abraham. And his speaking to Abraham right now is a reminder to Abraham. That he still has Jehovah.

Sometimes Christians are afraid to break off a relationship. That maybe they know is wrong or unhealthy. They can't imagine life on the other side of that relationship being over. But this departure happens and God's right there for Abraham, right there, speaking to him, loving him with loving words.

Look what God tells Abraham to do, verse 14. He says, now, lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward. Earlier we saw that Lot. had lifted up his eyes and took what he wanted.

Here God is telling Abraham, you lift up your eyes and look in every direction from the place where you are standing. The word that is translated now, this is beautiful, underline the word now. at least in the new American standard. The word that is translated now is the Hebrew word for please.

You would think that God, the God of the universe, should never need to say please to anybody. But here, he says please to Abraham in a beautifully tender way. There are actually only 4 times in the Old Testament where God ever says please to anybody. And interestingly, 3 out of those 4 times our God saying please to Abraham.

And here, God is saying to Abraham, please, please lift up your head, look up, lift up your eyes, look in every direction. And then God says, for all the land which you see. I will give it to you and to your descendants forever. This is now the 3rd time that God has made promises to Abraham in the text of Genesis, and it won't be his last.

And one of the things you'll notice is that every time that God comes to Abraham making promises to him, there's always overlap with things that God's already promised, but there's always something new that is inserted where the promise is being expanded, at least in Abraham's understanding. And here, God's adding two nuances to what he's promised before. First of all, God is saying to Abraham, I will give it, the land to you. And to your descendants.

Back in Genesis 12:7, God promised that he would give the land to Abraham's descendants, but here God's emphasizing to Abraham, it's also the land I'm giving to you, not just your descendants. This is yours too. Secondly, in this promise, God is promising that he will give the land to Abraham and his descendants forever. That's new.

The land will not just be Abraham's descendants for a time, but forever. And so God is speaking freshly to Abraham. And expanding on his promises to Abraham in this moment of Abraham experiencing the loss of Lot. And I love how the story is evolving as one writer says what started as a situation of discontent and quarreling and friction has now turned into one of divine promise and blessing.

And the same can be true for us if we handle our conflicts in a way that is humble and demonstrates trust in the Lord. The story continues. God has not finished promising. This brings us to the 8th development in the story of Abraham's faith and flourishing after his failure in Egypt.

And that is number 8, Jehovah promises to give Abraham many descendants, many descendants. Verse 16, God says, I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth, so that if anyone can number the dust of the earth, then your descendants can also be numbered. There's a real emphasis on descendants here. We see the word descendants in verse 15 and then twice here in verse 16.

All 3 times, it's the Hebrew word for seed. God saying, I will give the land to your seed, Abraham, and I will make your seed, your descendants as the dust of the earth. Remember, Abraham is childless right now. He's married to a woman who is barren in her womb.

And she, Sarah, is about 68 to 70 years old right now, has never had a child and her womb is barren. Abraham himself is anywhere from 78 to 80 years old right now. And guys, it'll be another 20 years. Before they have their first child.

Or their child, Isaac through Sarah. But here in this passage, God is promising, it's a crazy promise to Abraham, you will have biological descendants, and your descendants will be as impossible to count. As is the grains of sand on earth. That's a new aspect of God's promise to Abraham.

This leads us to the 9th development in the story of Abraham's faith and flourishing after his failure in Egypt. And that is this, Jehovah calls Abraham to walk through the land that he is giving to him. Walk through the land. God doesn't just want Abraham to look in every direction and see the land and give mental assent to the land that God is giving to him.

God actually tells Abraham in verse 17, arise, walk about the land through its length and breadth, for I will give it to you. God wants Abraham to personally experience the fullness of what God is giving to him and to his descendants here. And God does the same with us. He does not just give us gospel blessings and tell us to look at them and to know what they are.

He actually commands us to arise and to walk around and through the full length. And breadth of his loving provision for us and to walk in a manner worthy of the calling. that he has called us with. God literally is speaking to Abraham as royalty here and he's telling Abraham, I want you starting right now to walk as such.

Back in this day, it was a custom for a king to walk around the territory. To demonstrate his sovereignty and possession of that territory. In ancient Egypt, when a new pharaoh would come to power, he would walk around the fortified walls of the capital city as a demonstration symbolically of his sovereignty over that city and that nation. And this is what God is calling Abraham to do.

God is saying to Abraham, this land is yours. Now walk through this land like the royalty that you are. And God speaks the same way to us with regard to the gospel blessings that He has given to us in Christ. Ancient Jewish tradition tells us that Abraham took this walk.

Among the Dead Sea scrolls was found a document. It's not inspired scripture. But there was found a document that literally details the particular path of Abraham's walk and what he saw. The text of Genesis does not detail this walk for us, but it does tell us what Abraham did after he made this walk.

And this brings us to the final development in the story of Abraham's flourishing and faith after his failure in Egypt. He doesn't just walk throughout the length and breadth of the land, he settles in it. Abraham settles in the land and builds an altar to Jehovah. Verse 18 says then Abraham moved his tent and came and dwelt by the oaks of Mamra, which are in Hebron, and there he built an altar to the Lord and with those words, the chapter comes to an end with Abram building an altar.

Abraham must have done a lot of traveling when it was all said and done. He ended up by the oaks of Mamra which is just north of Hebron. Once he got there, the text tells us that he built an altar to the Lord. Let other people build their walls and their fortified cities.

Abraham, he built altars. Again, the word altar means place of sacrifice, so he's clearly building an altar where he can offer sacrifices to the Lord and worship God and to call upon his name. As one writer says, Abraham here builds another altar. This was to be his home for some time now, and Abraham wanted a place where his family and his servants would meet for the formal worship of God.

And as the curtains close on chapter 13, Abraham is settling down in the land of Promise, and he's building an altar. And he's worshiping God. This is now actually the 3rd time in Genesis 12 and 13 that Abraham is said to build an altar and it's the 4th altar scene that we see in these two chapters. In chapter 12 verse 7, he builds an altar in Shechem.

In chapter 12 verse 8, he builds an altar between Bethel and AI. And then here in chapter 13, And verse 4, Abraham comes back to that altar between Bethel and AI, and he calls on the name of the Lord. And now here in verse 18, Abraham is building another altar, a place of sacrifice to worship God. One writer says the aroma of worship has enveloped this whole passage, Genesis 12:13.

With the obvious exception of Abraham's sojourn in Egypt. There's a lot for us to ponder here and we've pondered some things as we've gone along this morning. Let me make just a few quick Observations. We learned here in the story clearly that there is such a thing as flourishing in faith after failure.

Be encouraged by this. Your failures are not the end of the story. If you repent and run back to the altar. And call upon the name of the Lord.

There is flourishing and there is faith. After failure. We also learned in the story that there's a huge difference that trusting God makes in our lives. Your trust of God shapes the person you are.

In different circumstances. We learn in this story, trust God, He can love you better than you can love yourself. Abraham is learning here that God can take better care of him than he can obviously take care of himself. Abraham tried to take care of himself when he was down in Egypt and that didn't work out real well for him.

But here, Abraham is letting God take care of him, and God takes amazing care of him. Far better than Abraham could take care of himself. My wife and I this week were reading a prayer from the Valley of Vision. And in that prayer, one of the lines that the speaker is saying to God are these words, thou hast attended to our happiness more than we can do.

That's what Abraham is learning. He's learning that he doesn't have to manipulate and deceive and disobey God in order to gain some advantage or some blessing. In fact, he can freely give up his advantages and trust God and know that God will take care. Of him Far better than Abraham could through his own devices.

Our world today, is really into self-love, right? But to us who know Jehovah, self-love is like humdrum. And passe. Because we have a God.

Who we know can love us far better than we could ever love ourselves. Abraham is learning that. We see the difference here that trusting God makes in the person that Abraham is in these various circumstances. In the second half of chapter 12, Abraham fails to trust God and his lack of trust turns Abraham into a small minded and greedy man.

In chapter 13, today he's trusting God and his trust turns him into a big hearted and generous man. As one writer says, Abraham in Egypt descended to a small shriveled heart. But Abraham back in Canaan elevated to a great magnanimous heart. And the heart difference, listen to this guy, the heart difference in this man of faith depended on whether he trusted or distrusted God's word.

The same is true for us. There are two versions of you and me. There's the version of us when we're trusting God. And there's the version of us when we are not trusting God.

Mark those differences. And trust God. When you don't trust God, you are a danger to yourself and to everyone around you. When you're trusting God.

Your heart is expanded by that trust. And you are far more generous and willing to sacrifice and surrender, like we see with Abraham. Finally, we learned here in this story, the value of coming to the altar after you fail. We learn in this story that after we fail, we need to make a beeline to the altar of sacrifice like Abraham did.

Sometimes after we fail, we think that God doesn't really wanna see us at the altar. Sometimes we think, well, I, I should only come to the altar after I've improved my performance for a few days. Then God will be happy to see me. Sometimes we think, I dare not go to the altar now because I should only come to the altar with my best.

But did that you actually honor God when you come to his altar with your worst? When you come to him with your sins. Did that God delights in those who come to his altar with their sins and cry out to Him in repentance and cling to his mercy? Remember that altar means place of slaughter, place of sacrifice, which means that our altar today is the cross of Jesus Christ, who died and shed his blood so that we can have our sins forgiven on the other side of our failures.

Please know, dear believer, no matter how badly you have failed, You can always come back to that place of sacrifice, the cross of Christ, and experience God's grace, God's forgiveness. And God's healing at the foot of the cross. If you're here today and you've never come to Jesus Christ and cried out to him for salvation and believed in Him as your Lord and Savior and as your atonement through his shed blood, I urge you to come to this altar, the cross of Christ today and believe in Him.

And if you are a believer in Jesus, and you have sinned and failed royally, make a beeline.

To the foot of the cross and do this beautiful thing called repentance. Repent, confess your sins, cling to God's mercy and experience His grace there. There is flourishing. And there is faith on the other side, a failure.

Let's pray together. Lord, you, you're good to give us narratives like this. What we see in Genesis 13. To give us heroes like this who are of like passions as we are and who in one moment they're trusting in another moment they're not.

In one moment they're soaring in another moment they're stumbling. And yet, probably the greatest example in all of the life of Abraham that we gleaned from him was he was a man of faith, not just a faith that always kept him from failing, but a faith That brought him back to the altar every time he failed. And may we do the same, Lord, knowing that you are a God who receives sinners. You are delighted to receive us into your presence.

When we have nothing to bring you but our sins, you happily forgive. Because you came into the world to save sinners. We thank you, Lord, for the God that you are and for the truths that you have put before us this morning. We thank you for the opportunity to give of our offerings to you.

We ask that you would receive these funds and do much with every penny that is given to you in this offering this morning. For the spread of the glory and the fame of Jesus Christ here in this community and around the world. And we ask these things in the name of Jesus and all God's people said, Amen.