Prioritize Me and Multiply (Genesis 13)

I’ve mentioned before that I previously worked at CFA, which is most famous for its chicken sandwich. Where I’m from, people call it God’s chicken. I’m not saying that’s true, but I’m also not saying it’s not true. 

CFA’s also known for their hospitality. Good food + quick service makes for good business. I’m talking multi-million ringgit operation. As business grows, it’s good to check in every once in a while to make sure everyone’s aligned on what’s most important.  

Our owner knew that, which is why he called a storewide staff meeting to ask us, “What’s the #1 reason why people keep coming back to our store?” Such a good question. So many blank stares. And out of the nervous silence, the HR director says, “because of our culture of excellence and superior hospitality.”  

The owner said, “No. People come to CFA because we make a really good chicken sandwich.” The point he was trying to make was a matter of priorities. Good culture and amazing service are great, but without a great product, nothing else matters. 

See, success is great, but if we’re not focused on keeping first things first, it doesn’t matter how well we do second things. If you put second things first, you lose everything else.  

And there’s a lesson for us in that. What would you say comes first in your life? What gets priority above everything else? You can’t put first things first if you don’t know what’s most important.  

Over the past several weeks, we’ve been following the life of Abraham and asking ourselves why God has given us such incredible blessings here at Garden City. And what does God want us to do with those blessings? Well, it’s not so that we can sit back, relax, and do nothing. He wants our lives to be a living sacrifice we offer up to him.  

If you have a Bible, turn with me to Genesis 13. This morning, we’re going to compare the different priorities of Lot and Abram and see how those priorities shaped not just their decisions, but their lives.  

[Genesis 13:1] – So Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had, and Lot with him, into the Negeb.

The Negeb was part of the land of promise. After the famine and time in Egypt [Gen. 12], Abram returns to the same place he had been before. It was like the start of a new chapter in his life.  

That might be how some of you feel after CNY. It’s a time to reset. But more than a fresh start, what we really need is to return to God. Or maybe to come to God for the first time.   

See, if you remember, Abram’s time in Egypt was a major failure. But his failure wasn’t that he made bad career choices or was irresponsible with his money. His failure was that he didn’t trust God would do all that he promised.  

The funny thing is, despite Abram’s failure, God blessed him… 

[v. 2] – Now Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold. 3 And he journeyed on from the Negeb as far as Bethel to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai, 4 to the place where he had made an altar at the first. And there Abram called upon the name of the Lord.  

Names and places in the Bible can be hard for us because we don’t have a connection to them. But Abram did. Abram went down into Egypt, but now he’s come back up, and one of the first things he does is go back to the place where his journey with God started.  

This is an important lesson to learn for anyone who wants a life with God. What do you do when you fail God?  

Martin Luther famously said the entire Christian life should be a life of repentance, which is probably why he also said “progress in the

Christian life is always to begin again.”  

That’s what Abram did. He went back to the last place where he his faith was strongest and called upon the name of the Lord.  

Now if we back up for a second, the first sin that pushed Adam and Eve out of the Garden was grasping to control what they should have left in God’s hands. And Abram’s got the same problem going on inside him.  

So what does he do? He calls upon the name of the Lord. He brings his confession. He rededicates his life to God. He tells God, my life is yours. All that I have is because of you. You tell me where to go, and I’ll go. He begins again.

[v. 5] – And Lot, who went with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents, 6 so that the land could not support both of them dwelling together; for their possessions were so great that they could not dwell together, 7 and there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram’s livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock. At that time the Canaanites and the Perizzites were dwelling in the land.

8 Then Abram said to Lot, “Let there be no strife between you and me, and between your herdsmen and my herdsmen, for we are kinsmen. 9 Is not the whole land before you? Separate yourself from me. If you take the left hand, then I will go to the right, or if you take the right hand, then I will go to the left.” 

Abram and Lot are both ambitious men, and so far, things in life have generally worked out for them. They have an abundance of resources, a ton of land, which means incredible opportunity.  

Their problem is that they have so many resources at their disposal they can’t all fit in one place. They need to expand. 

Now, if you think about it, Abram’s already made some weird life choices. And let’s face it, some decisions don’t make much sense outside of God at work in your life. Abram left his family and inheritance behind to follow God to a place he didn’t know where to raise a child he didn’t have.  

I remember when I first told my family we might move to Malaysia, they were excited for us. You’re going on an adventure. Then, when it was clear we were actually moving, the conversation changed.  

My last Christmas in the States, one of my family members asked what we wanted them to get the kids for Christmas—told him luggage. That’s when the real questions came: I don’t get it…Why are you doing this?  

And I understood I was going to be far from home. I needed to think about my family. Was this a good career choice? But sometimes God makes our path so clear that it would be disobedience not to do it, and I would much rather have the value system of heaven than do what makes the most earthly sense. 

Abram was learning that too, so when conflict arises, he makes another crazy decision. See, Abram’s older and richer; he’s the recipient of God’s promises. He has every right to tell Lot to leave. But instead, he says there’s more than enough for both of us. Lot, why don’t you take the first choice?  

Now, in some cultures, a generous offer like this would be made with the expectation that the other person reciprocate. As if Lot should say, “No, I could never do that. Uncle, you choose.” And they go back and forth. But that’s not what Lot does.  

[v. 10] – And Lot lifted up his eyes and saw that the Jordan Valley was well watered everywhere like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, in the direction of Zoar. (This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.) [11] So Lot chose for himself all the Jordan Valley, and Lot journeyed east. Thus they separated from each other. 12 Abram settled in the land of Canaan, while Lot settled among the cities of the valley and moved his tent as far as Sodom. 13 Now the men of Sodom were wicked, great sinners against the Lord.  

[PAUSE]: What we see happening here is two different sets of priorities that lead to radically different lives. And while, at face value, both Abram and Lot seem to have a lot going for them, in the long run:  

• Abram’s priorities lead to multiplication and blessing 
• while Lot’s choices seem good at first, but ultimately lead to a life that becomes morally and materially bankrupt.  

We’re going to spend the rest of our time comparing the different priorities of Abram and Lot. And I want you to pay attention to what’s downstream from a life of worship and from a life built on anything other than God’s promises.  

We don’t see it in this story, but Abram actually has to come to Lot’s rescue on multiple occasions. The first time, I mentioned a couple of weeks ago in chapter 14. Abram saves Lot from warring kingdoms. The second time comes in chapter 18 when God tells Abram he’s going to wipe out Sodom and Gomorrah, which Ps. Peter will preach on next week.  

Let’s start with the priorities of LOT:  

1. Lot prioritized…the riches he could see (over the promises still to come).   

When Lot looked at the options before him, he was driven by one factor: Which portion of land was best suited to multiply his wealth?  

But the passage is filled with reminders that keep pointing to the truth that there’s more to life than what we can see. It’s easy to feel like a prisoner of the moment and stuck in our circumstances. And some situations feel like they’ll never change. 

Here’s one from my life – [picture]. My youngest son passed away last October. Here’s a circumstance that will never go away in this life. You can look at this and say, wow, that’s too bad. There’s nothing else to do. But this has become a monument for me. It’s an continual reminder that there is life after death. There’s hope in the resurrection, and this 1 life we have is best stewarded in the hands of the Lord.  

There’s always more going on than what you can see. 

Think back to the beginning of the chapter. Abram calls upon the name of the Lord, but Lot never consults God. BTW—did you notice that Lot basically has everything Abram has? Flocks, herdsmen, tents, land. The biggest difference between them isn’t that Abram had silver and gold and Lot didn’t. It’s that Abram has an altar to the Lord, and Lot has none.  

See, Lot’s biggest issue is that God bears no weight in his life. He’s spiritually blind, which is twice the problem because he can’t really see what’s going on around him and he’s also unaware of what’s happening inside him.  

In [v. 10] Lot saw that the land was well watered, which is something you should consider in husbandry. You’re not going to build your family estate in the desert. But then Lot pitched his family’s tent next to Sodom, which is a spiritual wasteland filled with great sinners against the Lord.  

Lot decided he was willing to sacrifice his family’s spiritual health for the sake of their material wealth—Sodom’s where the money is. And I’m sure he justified that by saying financial success is the highest good because it will bring the most blessings to his family.  

Listen, it should come as no surprise to us that financial problems end up being one of the leading causes of family conflict today…some studies estimate upwards of 40%. 

But that’s just what’s happening around him. What about the spiritual problems going on inside him?  

One commentator says [v. 10] gives us a window into Lot’s heart. The land to the east was “like the garden of the Lord.” Lot saw what he wanted, and he took it. 

This is how the power of sin works. At first, sin looks good to us. And if you were with Lot in his moment of choice, you’d have no idea the war taking place in his heart. But this same battle wages war in all of us. 

What’s so important about the garden of the Lord? It’s where life with God is. The garden of the Lord is where we find love, value, and purpose. There’s a void in all of us that can only be filled by a right relationship with God. Lot didn’t have that, so he sought fulfillment through financial gain and was willing to sacrifice anything at the altar of success to get it. 

What’s downstream from a life devoid of God? We can map this out for Lot.  

• In chapter 13, Lot moves his tent as far as Sodom.  
• In chapter 14, we find Lot dwelling in Sodom (v. 12).  
• And then the next time we see Lot, in chapter 19, he’s no longer in tents, but he’s sitting at the gate of Sodom. He’s become one of the city leaders.  

Lot got everything he wanted. He got the land, the wealth, the titles. But what did it cost him? His family and his future. When God comes to bring judgment on the city, Lot starts running around trying to get his family to leave…they think it’s all a joke. But even Lot can’t take his warning to heart.  

Lot told his family they need to leave now. [Genesis 19:16] says, But [Lot] lingered. So the men seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand, the Lord being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city.

Lot knows what to do, but he’s so enslaved by his lifestyle, he can’t bring himself to leave.  

The practice of giving without restraint isn’t just some discipline Christians practice. We all have things we’d be willing to sacrifice everything for.  

I had a friend who was an essential leader in the business he worked at. One time, he was literally in the hospital room with his wife in labor, and he’s getting calls from work saying there were issues at the store and they needed his help. In the moment, he felt conflicted, but his wife was furious. After the fact, he recognized that it wasn’t a healthy situation. 

What are the promises this world is whispering in your ear to lead you to value all the riches you can see above life with God?  

I know kids’ activities can be a big thing that sets the family schedule. My son’s recently gotten into basketball, and I love bonding with him over it. He’s learning about Victor Wembanyama, Steph Curry, Ant Edwards. We’ll keep having fun with it.  

But parents, let me say this to you: We can’t be so consumed with our kids’ education and extracurriculars that we neglect their spiritual health. By-in-large: the primary battles you have with your kids are spiritual in nature. Don’t ignore your child’s heart.  

I am resolved: I will continue to prioritize the message of the gospel as THE most important priority in their lives. If my kids end up in the Sodoms of this world, I want it to be because the Lord called them there to be salt and light and not because they’re ensnared by the lust of the flesh or worldly riches.  

And I’ll continue to remind them there’s an even greater glory that’s been given to us in Jesus. And there’s nothing we did to earn it and nothing we could do to lose it. What about you? 

When you look at all the things in your possession—your time, talent, and treasure—do you see yourself primarily as an owner or a steward? And of those resources, what priorities are shaping how you’ll spend them? 

2. Lot prioritized…personal gain (over generosity).  

Think about what had to happen for Lot to get the prime real estate. He was the lesser man, yet he got first choice. And in his choice, he demonstrated exactly why he was the lesser man.  

See, getting first choice doesn’t mean you prioritize yourself at the expense of everyone else. Now, sometimes you do need to prioritize yourself. If you’re on an airplane that’s going down, when the oxygen masks drop, they say get the mask on yourself first. But why do they say to do that? To put yourself in a better position to help others.  

What Lot did was at Abram’s expense. Lot probably should’ve said, “Uncle, this land is a gift from the Lord, and it’s not mine to take. Let’s do what seems right to him.” But instead, he takes what he wants. It’s probably the furthest you could be from a heart of generosity.  

At this stage in my life, I think about this a lot. This world will dangle so many opportunities in front of you. Sometimes it’s hard to tell if this is what the Lord has for me or not. But the way of the Cross is not to acquire more, but to give more and watch God do the multiplying. 

That doesn’t mean ambition is bad. Both men are ambitious. The biggest difference we see between Lot and Abram’s priorities is that Lot’s ambition is bent toward selfish gain, while Abram’s ambition is motivated by kingdom impact.  

FOR ABRAM: 

1. Abram prioritized…God’s promises (over the riches he could see).

If you remember back at the beginning, this was a new start for Abram. He was fresh off his failure in Egypt, but what got Abram’s life back on track wasn’t anything he did, but who he turned to for help. He went to the Lord to address the heart problem he couldn’t fix himself. That’s called humility.  

So many bad decisions come from making good things God-things. But when your worship is anchored in Jesus, everything else starts to stabilize.  

So when conflict comes in [v. 8], it sounds like Abram’s giving Lot first choice. But really Abram’s trusting whatever God decides.  

See, God promised Abram a great land, name, nation, and blessing to all people. So what difference does it make which portion of land he gets now? God promised him all of it, and whatever good comes from his life will be because God did it.  

Abram is demonstrating what a life dedicated to the Lord looks like. It reminds me of my wife’s parents. Several years ago, a tree fell on their house during a hurricane. Normally, storms like that just pass through, but this one lingered along the coast for days, which is not ideal when you have a hole in your roof. The whole town got flooded. 

There was so much damage all around that it took years for their house to get repaired. Well, before construction was finished, my in-laws called friends/family/church members to come write Bible verses all over the floors and walls of the house, and to pray over it. Why? Because that house represented their greatest financial investment and they wanted it to be rededicated to the Lord.  

When we live according to the promises of God, we can hold out anything to the Lord to say use this as you will. That’s what Sarah’s parents were doing. They were saying: This home is legally in our name, but it belongs to the Lord and we want to be ready to use it, not for our comfort, but for whatever purposes he plans.  

That’s what prioritizing God and walking in faith looks like. You take God at his Word, you entrust everything to him, and you take your next step.  

2. Abram prioritized…generosity (over personal gain).  

One common push-back I often hear on generosity is that we need to prioritize taking care of ourselves first and everyone else second. But that’s not what Abram does. If you think about it, Abram thought about God first, others second, and himself last.  

We’re not called to give more than what we have, and our giving shouldn’t put us in a deficit. But Abram doesn’t give from the excess of his leftovers. His generosity starts with his first and best. And what does that say about Abram? Do you think he was irresponsible in the way he gave to Lot? Should he have waited until after he got what he wanted first?  

Giving God our first and best is one way we show that we trust him with our lives. When was the last time you honestly checked your heart on that? If giving to God feels risky or uncomfortable, that may reveal where your trust really is. 

Or let me ask it another way: Do your spending habits show that you’re living for eternity or just for what this world has to offer? 

This is something that’s been heavy on my heart this week. I can make dropping ringgit in the offering box a regular habit. I can scan the QR codes and move money around. We all know we can turn good things into empty religion, but God desires the heart. So I’ve been asking myself, am I really giving my first and best to God in faith? Or am I just checking off a box? 

Abram’s heart of generosity is sacrificial and premeditated. Sacrificial because he willingly took the lesser land. Generosity is a willingness to disadvantage yourself for the benefit of others. In one sense, generosity means you get less. But you give to God, believing he desires to multiply that offering according to his purposes.  

Its also premeditated. Abram didn’t wait until he got the job he wanted to start giving to God. He didn’t wait until he was reaping the fruit of the land.  

There was a girl in my student ministry years ago who started giving to the church when she was still a high school student. Every month, she’d give different dollar amounts, and if your value system matches the way of the world, you’d think her gift was relatively insignificant because it didn’t do much for our bottom line. What was she doing?  

She was making money babysitting, which would vary from month to month, and so she took the time to factor out a percentage of all that she earned to give to the church.  

Now here’s a teenager who gave to God when she had little, what’s she going to do when she has much? But even more important, what’s God doing in her heart? 

Giving your first and best to God can be uncomfortable because trusting him feels so unnatural. But think about how God grew the faith of Abram. God says, give up what you love most to me, and he gets up and goes. Doesn’t question it. Why? Because he’s learned that God will provide everything he’s promised.  

That’s why, at the end of the chapter, God takes Abram up to look out at all the land and reaffirms his promise. 

[v. 14] – The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward, 15 for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever. 16 I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted. 17 Arise, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you.” 18 So Abram moved his tent and came and settled by the oaks of Mamre, which are at Hebron, and there he built an altar to the Lord.  

Think about this: Lot pitches his tent near Sodom and ends up being gripped by Sodom. Abraham pitches his tent by the altar of the Lord and ends up being gripped by the Lord.  

Now, which set of values is closer to your own? Abram’s or Lot’s? 

Worshipping God becomes the anchor of Abram’s life, and God multiplied him. What’s downstream from a life that prioritizes God?  

Well, by faith, Abram got everything God promised. But if we keep following the storyline of the Bible, we learn that the true child of promise isn’t Isaac but Jesus.  

Centuries later, in Matthew 4, Satan would take Jesus up on the mountain to look over all the land. Satan would offer Jesus all the kingdoms of the world and all their glory. All Jesus has to do is fall down and worship him.  

Right there, we see the Enemy runs the same play over and over. One of the lies he keeps telling us is that he can give you everything your heart desires without following God’s ways. And when God’s not first in your life, that offer sounds really good.  

But Hebrews 4:15 tells us that in every respect, Jesus has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. 

See, Jesus was being offered all the riches of the world if he’d just deny 

God. But Jesus knew the promises. Satan couldn’t offer Jesus anything 

that wasn’t already his. And he didn’t come to gain the whole world. He came to give everything away.   

Abram gave Lot a portion of the land, but Jesus came to give us all that he has for us to experience life with God again. He gave the better portion to the lesser men and women. Because he put God first, we gained everything.  

Until you understand that our generosity is in proportion to what we’ve first received in the gospel, you’ll continue to hold firmly to all that you have. But when you see that all that you have stems from all that Jesus gave up for you, you begin to trust God with everything. Because you know what’s yours, but even more important, you know that your his.  

Invite you to bow your heads…(call band up) 

One question for you: How will you respond to the generosity of God in Jesus?  

We’re all in different places spiritually…maybe some of you are down on life. You’re coming back out of Egypt feeling like a failure. But it’s not too late to come back to God. You can confess—whatever it is that’s stood in God’s place in your life. Whatever sin that’s gripped you, that leads you to think there’s no way forward. You can’t fix it yourself, but you can surrender it to Jesus and he can do it for you.  

Go cast your tent where Jesus is. Build your life on the promises of God and receive what he’s generously given to you in the gospel.  

And for those of us who have already set up camp with Jesus. Don’t sit on the blessings God’s given you, but give them back to God and ask him to multiply them. Let your life become a living sacrifice that’s poured out in service to him.  

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^[1] Works Consulted:  

Genesis-Exodus commentary – Ross, Oswalt, et. al; Genesis (commentary) – Longman; “Prioritize Me & Multiply” from Multiply series, TSC – Greear; “Real Riches and the Ambitious Man” – Keller; “Choices We Make by Faith” – Mercer