Picking up in Genesis 13 with Abraham being sent away from Egypt and into the wilderness.

God calls us out of this scarcity living (there won’t be enough for me) and into abundant life (God provides you with everything you need)

“Faith makes choices looking at God’s abundance rather than our own scarcity.”

“God created us in His image so that through our very lives we would glorify him by reflecting him accurately to others. This broken image is the reason he sent his son into the world. Jesus redefined this image for us. When God became man and dwelt among us, he perfectly reflected the Father as a human being. In his time on earth, he called us out of the scarcity, and through faith, into the abundant love of the Father.”

“We have to remember here that Abram really has no idea what Lot is going to choose. He’s giving Lot first dibs on water and grazing rights. They’re not just competing for the best view, this is their mutual livelihood on the line. Which is why, when God earlier promises to give Abram a LAND, he’s basically telling him, I’m going to take care of this stuff for you. You can trust me to provide you with everything you need. It’s this promise that Abram now leans blindly into. When LAND seems scarce, and his needs are at their greatest, Abram leans all the harder into the abundance of God’s promise.”

“This is the gift of an abundant life, lived out when we act on what Christ says is true about us. Step by step, we can explore this promise.”

 

Genesis 13 (NIV)

Abram and Lot Separate

13 So Abram went up from Egypt to the Negev, with his wife and everything he had, and Lot went with him. ² Abram had become very wealthy in livestock and in silver and gold.

³ From the Negev he went from place to place until he came to Bethel, to the place between Bethel and Ai where his tent had been earlier ⁴ and where he had first built an altar. There Abram called on the name of the Lord.

⁵ Now Lot, who was moving about with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents. ⁶ But the land could not support them while they stayed together, for their possessions were so great that they were not able to stay together. ⁷ And quarreling arose between Abram’s herders and Lot’s. The Canaanites and Perizzites were also living in the land at that time.

⁸ So Abram said to Lot, “Let’s not have any quarreling between you and me, or between your herders and mine, for we are close relatives. ⁹ Is not the whole land before you? Let’s part company. If you go to the left, I’ll go to the right; if you go to the right, I’ll go to the left.”

¹⁰ Lot looked around and saw that the whole plain of the Jordan toward Zoar was well watered, like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt. (This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.) ¹¹ So Lot chose for himself the whole plain of the Jordan and set out toward the east. The two men parted company: ¹² Abram lived in the land of Canaan, while Lot lived among the cities of the plain and pitched his tents near Sodom. ¹³ Now the people of Sodom were wicked and were sinning greatly against the Lord.

¹⁴ The Lord said to Abram after Lot had parted from him, “Look around from where you are, to the north and south, to the east and west. ¹⁵ All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring^[a] forever. ¹⁶ I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring could be counted. ¹⁷ Go, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I am giving it to you.”

¹⁸ So Abram went to live near the great trees of Mamre at Hebron, where he pitched his tents. There he built an altar to the Lord.

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