Abraham - LOOKING AFTER LOT

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1 Supporting Cast (The Bible is the story of God. It was written by God through the inspiration of His Holy Spirit. It reveals who God is so that people might repent and put their faith in the One true God. There are many other characters in Scripture that God uses in amazing ways but their role in God s story is to bring glory to God by trusting in Him, walking with Him and obeying His commands.) Abraham - LOOKING AFTER LOT Lot s Coming Too Genesis 12:4-5 4 So Abram went, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran. 5 He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Harran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there. Abraham Physically Intervenes You Gotta Keep em Separated Abram and Lot Separate Genesis 13:1-18 o Too much for the land Genesis 13:1-6 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. o (Quarrelling, Solution is to split Let s not quarrel, let s part ways, you choose. - Abram Lot chose the plain of Jordan near Sodom Genesis 13:13-13 Now the people of Sodom were wicked and were sinning greatly against the LORD. Abram lived in Canaan) o Promised Land and Lineage Genesis 13: 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.

2 Not On My Watch Abram Rescues Lot Genesis 14:1-24 o (A war between many kings) o (Sodom & Gomorrah are seized: food, goods, including Lot & possessions) o (a man escapes & reports to Abram) o (Abram responds to report: Call on 318 trained men born in his household At night, divides men, attacks and routes Recovers goods, Lot & his possessions, women and others) o Abram & Melchizedek Genesis 14: Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High, 19 and he blessed Abram, saying, Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth. 20 And praise be to God Most High, who delivered your enemies into your hand. Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything. Hebrews 7:1-3 - This Melchizedek was king of Salem and priest of God Most High. He met Abraham returning from the defeat of the kings and blessed him, 2 and Abraham gave him a tenth of everything. First, the name Melchizedek means king of righteousness ; then also, king of Salem means king of peace. 3 Without father or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life, resembling the Son of God, he remains a priest forever. o (Abram & the King of Sodom) Abraham Prayerfully Intercedes Interceding Auctioneer Abraham Pleads for Sodom Genesis 18:16-33 o (The 3 Visitors 18:1-15) o (visitors get up to leave towards Sodom)

3 o Should I tell him? I ll tell him. Genesis 18: Then the LORD said, Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do? 18 Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him. [c] 19 For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing what is right and just, so that the LORD will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him. 20 Then the LORD said, The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous 21 that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know. o ( men leave toward Sodom, Abraham remains before the Lord) o Would you spare it for.? Genesis 18: Then Abraham approached him and said: Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? 24 What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare [e] the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it? 25 Far be it from you to do such a thing to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right? 26 The LORD said, If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake. 27 Then Abraham spoke up again: Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes, 28 what if the number of the righteous is five less than fifty? Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five people? If I find forty-five there, he said, I will not destroy it. 29 Once again he spoke to him, What if only forty are found there? He said, For the sake of forty, I will not do it. 30 Then he said, May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak. What if only thirty can be found there? He answered, I will not do it if I find thirty there. 31 Abraham said, Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, what if only twenty can be found there? He said, For the sake of twenty, I will not destroy it. 32 Then he said, May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more. What if only ten can be found there? He answered, For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it. 33 When the LORD had finished speaking with Abraham, he left, and Abraham returned home.

4 It s Go Time! Sodom and Gomorrah Destroyed Genesis 19:1-29 o (The 2 angels arrive in Sodom, Lot sees them, bows down and invites them over. The decline but he insists and they go with him.) o (After dinner and before bed, all the men of the city surround the house and demand that Lot give them the men so they can have sex with them.) o (Lot goes outside to plead with them and offers his daughters instead) o (They rebuke and threaten Lot, moving closer to break down the door) o (The men inside pull Lot into the house and strike the men outside with blindness so they can t find the door.) o Get Your Stuff & Get Out Genesis 19: The two men said to Lot, Do you have anyone else here sons-in-law, sons or daughters, or anyone else in the city who belongs to you? Get them out of here, 13 because we are going to destroy this place. The outcry to the LORD against its people is so great that he has sent us to destroy it. Sodom s Sin & Punishment Ezekiel 16: Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. 50 They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen. Jude 1:7 7 In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire. o (Lot pleads with son-in-laws but they don t take him seriously.) o (Angels show urgency, Lot hesitates, the men grab their hands and lead them out to safety, for the Lord was merciful to them. ) o Hurry Up! Genesis 19:17 17 As soon as they had brought them out, one of them said, Flee for your lives! Don t look back, and don t stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away! o (Lot lobbies for a closer small town / his request is granted but again he is told to go quickly)

5 o (The Lord rained down burning sulfur, destroying everything / Lot s wife looks back and became a pillar of salt. ) o (Abraham sees the smoke.) o God remembered Abraham and saved Lot Genesis 19:29 29 So when God destroyed the cities of the plain, he remembered Abraham, and he brought Lot out of the catastrophe that overthrew the cities where Lot had lived. Jesus Intervened & Intercedes o Romans 5: You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God s wrath through him! 10 For if, while we were God s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! 11 Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. o Romans 8:34 34 Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died more than that, who was raised to life is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. o Hebrews 7: Now there have been many of those priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office; 24 but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. 25 Therefore he is able to save completely [c] those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them. 26 Such a high priest truly meets our need one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. 27 Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself.