Genesis 13 “Worshiping & Waiting”
Intro: Weekly Sunday worship gathering: nachos; cheers; couches; excitement; delight; focus on ball up & down (NFL)
-We’re all worshippers: sports; money; sex; fitness; fame; success; children’s programs; vacation homes; yards.
-WHAT are you worshipping? What are you most eager and interested in? What most thrills your heart?
-If we looked at your life, would it reflect that you value GOD above all?
CONTEXT: Genesis—book of the beginnings
-Gen 1-11: Creation, Fall, Flood, Tower of Babel (2000 years)
-Gen 12-50: Focus on family of Abraham
–Last week: Promise given to Abram (12:1-3); and Abram’s mixed response—faith and fear.
–Today: Abram and family return to the Land; Abram worships God and learns to wait upon His promise.
-This the Christian life: worshipping God and waiting upon His promises.
-WHO are you WORSHIPPING? WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?
- A Worshipping Life: WHO ARE YOU WORSHIPPING? (1-13)
We’re ALL worshippers, but will only by God’s grace will worship the one true God.
-Abram is a mix of faithful obedience and terrible sinful decisions.
-Abram Worships the One True God (1-4)
-Returns to Cannan as a VERY RICH man (1-2)
-Returns to where he first built an altar (3-4a)
-History of worshipping God already in the land (Gen 12:4-9)
-“Calls upon the name of the LORD” (4b)
-This signifies WORSHIP: Probably involves sacrifices; prayer; singing
*IMPLICATION: The Christian life is a worshipping life!
-God calls us to worship Him alone
-1st Commandment: ‘You shall have no others gods besides me’
-GOODNESS of worshipping God: GOD’S design: ‘God-shaped hole in every human heart’ (Pascal)
OBJECTION: Why would God command us to worship Him? Is he insecure? Is he arrogant and proud?
ANSWER: God commands us to worship because it is right and it is for our God.
-There is no in all of existence more deserving of our trust, love, worship, submission, than GOD
-Nothing else can make us as happy, holy, and joyful than the one true GOD***QUESTION: Who are you worshipping? What is first in your life? It is GOD?
–Idolatry: “Trusting in created things rather than the Creator for our hope and happiness, significance and security” (NCC)
-MY TESTIMONY: As a teenager I lived for the idols of relationships w/girls, music and friends
-Crushed when those taken away, angry when they were threatened
-Became a Christian at 18: GOSPEL message: God, Sin, Christ, Response
-‘I don’t know if I’m a Christian, but I want to be one’
-‘God, be 1ST in my life’
-Process of leaning to enjoy the good things of this life, but see they are not ultimate!
-Consider: Am I valuing something else more than GOD?
-“Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life” (Prov 4:23)
-How do I respond when the thing I enjoy is taken away or threatened? Anger? Self-Pity?
-What do you daydream about? (Tim Keller)
-Repent: If something has become more important than GOD, confess that to God today.
-God actually is more important than our money, hobbies, fitness, sports, success.
-In the gospel, you’ve been saved to worship God! (Rom 12:1-2)
-INTENTIONALLY:
Sunday mornings in corporate worship; everyday by yourself (Bible and prayer); family worship
–ALL OF LIFE: Protestant Reformation insight—getting rid of divide between sacred and secular
-Our work and recreation can be done in worship of God!
-ENJOY the good things of this life (sports, fitness, music) for the GLORY of God!
-A DIVISION: Lot and Abram Divide (5-13)
-Strife between Abram and Lot (5-7)
-Quarreling between the herdsmen
-Abram’s gracious response to nephew Lot (8-9)
-Lot Chooses the land of Sodom (10-13)
-It was a REALLY nice place to live, BUT also a very dangerous place to live SPIRITUALLY (13)
OBSERVE: Lot choose the path of worldliness & worldly wisdom: choosing what is nice, but not wise/godly.
-We learn later that this was a very unwise decision—destruction of Sodom and corruption of children
**APPLICATION: We too are tempted with what looks like nice, but is not pleasing to God
-We’re tempted with what is pragmatic and ‘right in our own eyes,’ but on the path of spiritual destruction.
–Examples: Sex before marriage; Lying on taxes; Choosing sports over church; adulterous relationships
Alex Duke: “The point of Genesis 13 is quite clear: though the prospects of the world can be enticing to the eyes, they’re never better
than the promises of the Lord. The world is full of fake Edens that resemble paradise but in reality lead us toward hell. Lot didn’t
realize this. He thought he was walking toward a wellspring of water, but actually he was walking toward destruction.” (74)
SUMMARY: In the gospel we’re saved to worship God above all, and the Christian life is a worshipping life—intentionally worshipping God, but also guarding our hearts from worshipping other things.
-WHO ARE YOU WORSHIPPING?
- A Waiting Life: What are you waiting for? (14-17)
So much of life we are waiting for something: Change in our circumstances; job; health; person.
-We often set our heart on promises—made or not—of something better.
-Abram was a given a promise and called to wait upon God: Gen 12:1-3 (had to wait 25 years for Isaac!)
-Today, we see God reaffirm and fill in that promise!
-God reaffirms the land promise to Abram (14-15)
-This promises was implied in original promise of 12:1-3, and stated in 12:7
-Abram’s people were promised a land!
-God promises Abram more descendants than ‘dust of the Earth’ (16-17)
-More descendants that Abram can imagine.
JESUS: 2 Cor 1:20 ‘In him [Christ], all the promises of God find their yes and Amen’
-Promised Snake Crusher
-True Israel, saving a people (Jew and Gentiles) who are descendants of Abram
Wenham: “The NT sees believing Gentiles as well as faithful Jews as being counted as Abram’s descendants (Rom 4:16-18; Gal 3:29), so that in heaven there will be “a great multitude which no man can number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and tongues” (Rev 7:9)”
APP: The Christian life is a waiting life, waiting on the promises of God: Romans 8:18-30
-Let this ground you in the midst of hardships, perplexities, trials
-Let this lead you set your gaze on Christ and wait upon him.
BELIEVER: Actively and intentionally fill your mind afresh with the precious promises of God
-Return of Jesus; new heavens and new earth;
-‘I go to prepare a place for you.’ (John 14:2)
III. Worshipping while we Wait (18)
The passage ends with another example of Abram worshipping (18): there he built an altar to the LORD.
OBSERVE: RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN WORSHIP AND WAITING
-We WORSHIP GOD–WAIT ON HIS PROMISES–WORSHIP GOD
-Through the gospel, we’ve been saved to WAIT on God and Worship while we wait.
-Instead of empty promises or self-exalting hopes, we wait on GOD!
END: By the power of the Holy Spirit, and by God’s grace alone, let’s worship God while we wait on His promises.
-We’ve been saved to do this, lets do this together on Sundays and throughout the week!
