It matters where you pitch your tent! - Genesis 13:1-18 - Episode #008

Episode #008 It Matters where you pitch your tent! 

1. The POINT of SEPARATION. 

2. The PLACEMENT of SHELTER.

3. The PRODUCT of SODOM. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Good morning, and welcome back to the Keep on the Firing Line Preaching Podcast. This is your host, Max Tidwell. Today I'm thankful to be back on the podcast, and today we'll be digging into the book of Genesis, chapter number 13. The book of Genesis, chapter number 13. I certainly appreciate your support of the podcast and you listening today. If you missed the last episode, we went over what it means to be a good soldier of the Lord Jesus Christ and the attributes of a good soldier. So if you missed that episode, go back and listen to it. If you missed any other episode, we're on episode number eight right now. So if you missed any other episode, please go back and listen to those, and please do share this podcast and share this episode with someone today. But we'll find our place today in the book of Genesis, chapter number 13. The Bible says, And Abraham went up out of Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had, and Lot went with him unto the south. And Abraham was very rich in cattle and silver and in gold, and went on his journeys from the south even to Bethel, unto the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and High. Unto the place of the altar which he had made there at the first, and there Abraham called on the name of the Lord. And Lot also, which went with Abraham, had flocks and herds and tents, and the land was not able to bear them, that they might dwell together, for their substance was great, so that they could not dwell together. And there was a strife between the herdmen of Abraham's cattle and the herdmen of Lot's cattle, and the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled then in the land. And Abraham said unto Lot, There, let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herdmen and thy herdmen, for we be brethren. Is not the whole land before thee? Separate thyself, I pray thee, from me. If thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right, or if thou depart to the right, then I will go to the left. And Lot lifted up his eyes, here's our text, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere, before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar. Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan, and Lot journeyed east, and they separated themselves the one from the other. Abraham dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent towards Sodom. But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, I'm certainly thankful to be back on the podcast this morning. I'm thankful to open your word. God, I pray right now that you'd anoint me from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet, God, as I sit behind my desk this morning. Pray that you'd preach me, Lord. I pray that you'd use me in a way that you never have before. God, I pray that you'd convict the listeners. Lord, convict my heart as I preach. God, I pray as I preach on this thought, it matters where you pitch your tent. God, I pray that you'd help us to pitch our tent in the proper place. Lord, we sure do love you. If there's somebody lost, I pray that you'd save them before it's everlasting too late. Lord, I'll be sure to give you all the praise, the honor, and the glory, for it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So as I mentioned, the thought upon my heart this morning is, It matters where you pitch your tent. By way of introduction, just a little backstory, we see Abraham, he's called in chapter number 12, and the Lord tells him what he needs to do and reveals the plan for his life. Abraham later having his name changed to Abraham was a man of faith. We also see him mentioned in the hall of faith in Hebrews chapter number 11, verse number 8 through verse number 16. The Bible says, by faith, Abraham, when he was called to go into a place which he could should after receive for an inheritance aid, and he went out, not knowing whether he went. We see Abraham, he's told to leave, but he's not told exactly where to go until he gets up and starts moving. And sometimes God does that. Sometimes God just puts on your heart that you've got to get up and go, but he doesn't tell you where. And you've got to have the courage to pack your bags and get up and start moving before God even shows you where to go. But Abraham had that much faith that God had told him to move, had yet to tell him where he was going to go. And so Abraham just stood up and started going, and then God showed him where to go. Verse number nine, it says, The heirs with him of the same promise, for he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker was God. And I'll stop right there just for time's sake. Abraham was referenced as a friend of God through through later on in that text, and as one of the most faithful men to the Lord we see in our Bible. Then there's Lot. Lot is Abraham's nephew. We see that later on in scripture, and we see that Abraham was very rich in silver and gold, but also in cattle. Lot also had a good-sized herd of cattle, and they were both traveling to the land of Canaan, which is the promised land that God told Abraham he would have. Look with me in verse number 13. Look with me in Genesis chapter number 13, verse number 13. Bible says, But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly. Actually, this morning, I see the point of separation. We see that Abraham and Lot come together and they're both journeying to the land of Canaan. They're both journeying to the promised land. And as they're journeying, the herdsmen begin to argue because they don't have enough room for both of the herds. They both have very large herds and very large cattle. So the herdsmen begin to argue over who's gonna eat what, whose grass is theirs, who's green, who's green, who's gonna eat the green grass, who's gonna eat the brown grass. We can just look at it and see it in our perspective, right? Who's gonna drink the water today? Who's not gonna drink the water? There just was not enough land for the two. And so, firstly, we see that there is a point of separation. There was a need for separation in Genesis chapter 13, verse number six through verse number eight. The Bible says, and the land was not able to bear them that they might dwell together, for their substance was great so that they could not dwell together. And there was a strife between the herdmen of Abraham's cattle and the herdmen of Lot's cattle, and the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled then in the land. And Abraham said unto Lot, let there be no strife, I pray thee, before me and thee, and between my herdmen and thy herdmen, for we be brethren. Sometimes separation is definitely necessary. In this instance, there's not enough room for them, and Abraham raises that question and says, Hey, you can go to one side, I'll go to the other. We see the choice of departing in Genesis chapter number 13, verse number nine, is not the whole land before thee. Separate thyself, I pray thee, from me. If thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right, or if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to the left. We see Abraham gives Lot the choice. He's saying, Lot, I'm gonna go wherever the Lord leads. Lot, you just pick a spot, and whenever you pick, I'll go the other way. And then we see the choosing of the plain in verse number 10 through verse number 11. The Bible says, and Lot lifted up his eyes and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoah. And so we see as Lot lifted up his eyes. I imagine as Lot lifting up his head, opening up his eyes, and he's beholding the plain of Jordan. He saw that it was well watered, there was green grass everywhere. Something caught Lot's eye down in the plain of Jordan. And as Lot decided where he was gonna go, he chose the plain of Jordan based off what he saw. Never in scripture do I see Lot consult the Lord on where he's supposed to go. Abraham knows he's going with the Lord. He knows that the Lord has told him, hey, it's time to pack your bags and get up and go into the land that I show you. And so Abraham's gotten up and he's just following the Lord. Lot never consults the Lord. He's just like, okay, you're giving me the right or the left. I'm just gonna lift up my eyes. I see this nice, beautiful grass, I see this well-watered area, I'm gonna head down there with my cattle. And so, number one this morning, we see that there's a point of separation. But number two, we notice with me this morning the placement of Lot's shelter. In verse number 11, it separated themselves, the one from the other. Abraham dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain. And notice this, and pitched his tent toward Sodom. Notice where he pitched his tent. It says he pitched his tent toward Sodom. This morning, let me remind you, you better be careful where you pitch your tent, where you drive your stakes down and where you spend your time. This morning, where you pitch your tent certainly matters. The title of the message this morning is It Matters Where You Pitch Your Tent. And that is one of the most important decisions you will make is where you pitch your tent. It doesn't say that Lot got into Sodom immediately. It doesn't say that he went and pitched his tent inside Sodom. No. It just means that he pitched, says that he pitched his tent towards Sodom. You say, Brother Max, well, what does that mean? I'm thinking, I know tents weren't the same way they are today, but I'm thinking those, I call them flex poles. I hate those things. I hate those things. And so those flex poles, they take those poles and they bend them over and they put them in the ground. But when they do that, there's those mesh windows that you can see, and there's also the door that opens and it can also be mesh, and you can see. And I believe if he pitched his tent towards Sodom, it looks something like this that maybe the tent was a well away from Sodom. The Bible doesn't describe how far it is, but it says that he pinched his tent towards it. And so I believe that Lot was sitting there in the door of the tent, and the window of the tent was facing Sodom. And so Lotus, he's laying there every night, he's looking out, and he can see Sodom off in the distance. The devil wants you to lift up your eyes and see the green grass. He wants you to not consult the Lord and end up pitching your tent towards Sodom. That is the biggest mistake that most Christians make, is not that they pitch their tent in Sodom to begin with, it is that they pitched their tent close to Sodom, and that's what makes them end up in Sodom. If we stay completely away from Sodom, we'll never end up in Sodom, but far too often we see people, time after time after time, where they were going on the right path, they were going good, and they decided to just get a little close. They decided to just pitch their tent rather close to Sodom, and then ultimately what happens is they end up living in Sodom, and we'll see that here in just a little bit. The devil's gonna let you, he's not gonna make you put your tent in Sodom the very first time you get out of the will of God. He's not gonna make you put it there, he'll let you put it right outside because he knows eventually he'll get you in. The Bible says in verse number 13, but the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly. Here's the problem, I tell you, we're not scared of Sodom anymore. As Christians, we are not scared of Sodom anymore. There's too many lukewarm Christians, there's too many people who don't have any sort of backbone, and they think, oh, this world's a joke, oh, I can handle the devil, oh, I have the Holy Spirit of God living inside of me. Nothing could ever touch me, the devil can never hurt me, sin could never tempt me, the devil can never tempt me, I'll never fall into sin. They have this entitled attitude. But friend, let me tell you, you get too close to Sodom, you pitch your tent too close, and eventually you'll end up living. We pitch our tent towards Sodom and put ourselves around sin, then one day we're gonna fail. But guess what? Oftentimes I find that when parents pitch their tent toward Sodom and their kid ends up there, then they get there, they're all surprised. Why'd their kid end up in Sodom? Parent, let me tell you this: where you place yourself and the people that you surround your family with matters most. The church you place yourself in, the friends that you have, the people that you have come into your home, all of that matters more than absolutely any other decisions that you make after salvation, obviously. That matters so much. Because if you're not careful, parents, you live outside of Sodom and want let your kids watch Sodom as you live outside, they'll live in it if we're not careful. This morning I heard a story by brother Cody Zorn way back. This man by the name of Eric Russell, he was a University of Georgia defensive coordinator. His team was struggling, his football team was struggling with drugs and alcohol and things, and he was seeing them be late to practice and not performing the way that he'd like them to. And as time went on, he began to kind of get sick of it. This man by the name of Eric Russell went and got a live rattlesnake and had it in a box, and he let it loose in a team meeting, and all the men started running all over the place. I mean, they ran out the doors and they were scared, and obviously everybody's scared. I mean, if a rattlesnake got released in my office right here where I'm sitting this morning, if a rattlesnake got released right now, I promise you I'd bust out the window and I'd be gone. Like I'd be out of here. And so these men they're running around and he gets the snake and puts it back in. And as time goes on, he begins to tell them if you were half as scared of the drugs and alcohol as you are that snake, you know, we'd be in a lot better place. It's the same thing for Christians. I'd say 90% of people are scared of snakes andor spiders. And if you're not, if you say, oh, I ain't scared of either of them, then either you're lying or you're weird. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. But this morning, if you like snakes and spiders, there's something wrong with you this morning, okay? But this morning, if we'd say, okay, just say you are scared. If you are, you're not scared of snakes and spiders, think of something that you are scared of. I don't believe there's one person on this earth that's not scared of absolutely anything. So say, whatever, take something and I'm scared of something, and you put that in front of you, and you run away or you get fearful or you get scared. If we were half as scared of that as we are sin, we'd be a lot better Christians today. If we were half as scared of Sodom as we should be, ooh, man, we'd be a lot better Christians than we are today. We ought to be careful where we pitch our tent. You know, pitching our tent, it requires some effort. It's not just something that happens. I mean, it's not just something where we wake up one day, man, I'm in Sodom today. What happened? Did I get blown away in a tornado and ended up here? Like this isn't the Wizard of Oz. That's not what happened. What takes place is when you pitch your tent towards Sodom, you've taken your tent, you've unpacked it out of the bag, you've put put it up, you've put those flees up, you've driven your stakes into the ground, and you intend to stay there for a little while. And what begins to happen is those wicked men that the Bible talks about in verse number 13, and that sin says they were sinners before the Lord exceedingly, that sin that you see begins to draw you in because you cannot resist temptation over and over. When you're putting yourself into temptation like that, you cannot resist it over and over. And so, therefore, eventually you're gonna end up in Sodom. Who your friends are, we can talk about that, that matters. I'm a youth pastor and I've seen multiple, multiple times. I've been a youth pastor for almost two years now. And in two years, I've seen countless teenagers. They get a new friend, they get a new boyfriend, they get a new girlfriend, they get a new acquaintance. And what happens? They begin to pull them out of church, they get farther and farther from the things of God. And as time goes on, I've got some that I've had that I don't even know what's going on with them. All I can do is pray for them. Because this is what happened. They got too close to Sodom, and Sodom sucked them right in. This morning, that breaks my heart to think about as a youth pastor. It breaks my heart to think about my kids. If I live close to Sodom, my kids could end up in Sodom. It's not a guarantee that they will, but it's a pretty pretty good shot that they might end up in Sodom. This morning, all we can do to protect our family and protect our children is to live as far away from Sodom as we possibly can. It matters where you pitch your tent. First reason why it matters where we pitch our tent, there's a point of separation. Secondly, there's the placement of the shelter. But thirdly, this morning, there's a product of Sodom. There's a product of Sodom. Genesis chapter number 14, verse number 12, the Bible says and they took Lot and Abraham's brother's son, who dwelt in Sodom. So now he's gone from pitching his tent towards Sodom. Now he's dwelling in Sodom. Once was living outside, now he's a resident. He dwelt in Sodom. Then let's go over to Genesis chapter number 19. Genesis chapter number 19, verse number 24 through verse number 29. The Bible says, Then the Lord reigned upon Sodom and Gomorrah, and upon Gomorrah, brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven. And he overthrew those cities and all the plain and all the inhabitants of the cities and that which grew upon the ground. But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt. We see in the verses before, we see that the angel came and warned Lot, woke Lot up out of his sleep and warned him that this was about to happen. And the angel told him, Get as many as you possibly can. Get as many as you possibly can. And they were telling him, Hey, it's time to hurry up. It says in verse number 15, and when the morning arose, then the angels hastened Lot, saying, Arise, take thy wife and thy two daughters, which are here, lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city. Says that as he lived outside of Sodom, now he's moved in, and now he's being told, Hey, it's time to get out of here because we're about to burn this place up with fire. The Lord's about to burn this place up with fire and brimstone. You take as many people as you can. He runs to his wives, his wife, he runs to his daughters, he runs to his daughter's husbands, his daughters' husbands think he's crazy. I'm sure his daughters may have thought he was crazy. I don't know, maybe his wife thought he was crazy, but he grabs his wife, he grabs his daughters and he runs them out of the city. And as they run out, the angel tells Lot one thing do not look back. Do not look back. One one mistake of where Lot pitched his tent. And now he's seen the destruction of his son-in-law's, but next of his wife. We see later in scripture in verse number 26, but his wife looked back from behind him and she became a pillar of salt. You know, the angel told Lot, hey, just run, get out, and don't look back, and you'll be fine. And what did his wife do? Look back. So often what we do in our Christian life is we get close to Sodom and then we get into Sodom and then God gets us out of Sodom. And he says, Son, daughter, get out of Sodom, run as far away as you can, and don't look back. And so often what we do is we tend to look back. We turn around and we look back, and then we get engulfed into the same sin and we start to begin to beg God again, God, get me out of Sodom again, get me out, get me out, get me out. And it becomes this never-ending cycle of, oh, God gets me out of Sodom, I look back, and I get drawn right back in. Friend, God did not have to let Lot out of Sodom and He does not have to let you out of Sodom. He can let you die in Sodom. If you're saved, he's done an even if you're not, he's done enough for you by sending his son to die on the cross of Calvary. He's done far more than enough. If he never did anything else other than save us, that's enough for all eternity. But friend, he's gracious enough to let you get you completely out of Sodom, to pull you out of Sodom after you've gotten yourself back in. Don't look back like Lot's wife. There's no reason to. One mistake of where he pitched his tent has led to engwelling in Sodom, and now it leads to the destruction of his family. Sin always takes you farther than you want to go, keeps you longer than you want to stay, and makes you give more than you've got. This morning, where you pitch your tent matters. We see later on in the book of Genesis where Lot's escaped into a cave with his daughters, and his daughters begin to get locked drunk. And they go and they sleep with him. If that doesn't tell you how Lot's life was messed up just by where he pitched his tent, I don't know what to tell you this morning. This morning, if you're a parent where you pitch your tent matters, your kids could end up insult. This morning, if you're single and you're listening to this, where you pitch your tent matters because your future family could end up inside. This morning, if you're single and you say, Well, I'm never gonna have a family where you pitch your tent matters because you can end up in solar. The devil's really good at what he does. Sodom, you say, Oh, I'll never go. But you get too close, the devil will start to draw you in. This morning, I want to ask you this question: Where is your tent pitched? If it's in the wrong place this morning, it's today. Today is the day to take the stakes up and to move out. If you're living in Sodom right now, it's the time to get out. Right now, God, if He's given you the opportunity, the window of opportunity, it is time to get out of Sodom and to not look back. Friend, today if you got your tent pitched towards Sodom, today is the day to pick up your stakes and start moving back to the promised land. We see one grave mistake ruined his entire family. And then Abraham ended up in the promised land. I'm thankful today for what the Lord showed me through this text, and I pray it can be a blessing to you. It does truly matter where you pitch your tent. Until next week, I'll see you later.