Most Sundays I have three points. Today I have two. My fear is having no point. And don’t think two is shorter than three, that is not how sermon math works.

But I would love to see you back here at 5 PM tonight.

ELECTIVES, what’s offered • when • Bonus with Nate Wilkerson

Grab a pen. And be prepared to underline two phrases: v. 10 “Lot lifted up his eyes” and v. 14 “Lift up now thine eyes.”

Bible Reading: Genesis 13:5–18

Pastoral Prayer

Open our eyes to see what Lot missed • Loosen our grip on what we’re clutching • Show us Christ • Alainey Wilkerson • Lydia Littlefied • Olivia Young and all those expecting • the lost in our community

Introduction

In a couple of weeks, some of us men head out on our annual retreat. We really rough it. Sometimes they don’t have seconds on the peach cobbler. It can take Will multiple minutes to get the fire started, with one of the five devices he brought. We don’t hear bears, but the cabin has plenty of scary noises at night.

We’re not exactly tent camping. It’s been a while since I have, but I know this: where you pitch the tent matters.

I love watching shows and YouTube videos about people surviving in the wild. The first big decision is always the same: where do I set up? High ground or low? Near water, or too near? Which way does it face? Where you set up decides how you survive.

This morning we read about two men pitching two tents. Read it like a survival show, watch where each man sets up. Because we’re all setting up for life.

So here’s the question: Which way is your tent facing?

Into the Text

Abram is back at the altar, and now blessing is the problem.

• 12:10–20, he ran to Egypt, lied about Sarai, was rebuked by Pharaoh.
• 13:3–4, he comes back to the altar and calls on the name of the LORD.

Egypt was not the end of Abram’s story. As your failure is not the end of yours.

Genesis 13:6, 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.

The pressure wasn’t poverty. It was prosperity. Literally the land could not “lift up” or “bear them”

Mo money, mo problems.

The land couldn’t carry it. Watch who tries to carry it next. Strife breaks out, and “the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled then in the land.” The world was watching.

Abram opens his hands.

Genesis 13:8–9, And Abram said unto Lot, 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 hand, then I will go to the left.

God promised Abram this land (12:7), and Abram hands Lot the pen. “Is not the whole land before thee?” The land is in front of both men.

Now everything turns on one question: Where will each man look, and which way will his life face?

The Big Idea

Let God set your eyes before you set your direction.

2 Corinthians 5:7, (For we walk by faith, not by sight:)

Two men. Two sets of eyes. Two tents. Two directions.

(1) When you lift your own eyes, you set up your life toward the world.

(2) When God lifts your eyes, you set up your life by an altar.

1. When you lift your own eyes, you set up your life toward the world.

UNDERLINE #1: “Lot lifted up his eyes”

a. Lot lifted his own eyes. (v. 10)

Genesis 13:10 “10 And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where, before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar.”

(1) No word from God. No altar. No prayer. No “the LORD said.” Lot is the one doing the lifting.

(2) Watch the progression: lifted up → beheld → chose → journeyed. Eyes → desire → will → direction.

(3) The garden all over again: “the woman saw … pleasant to the eyes … she took” (Genesis 3:6).

b. Lot saw what he wanted to see. (vv. 10–11)

Genesis 13:11 “11 Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan; and Lot journeyed east: and they separated themselves the one from the other.”

(1) “even as the garden of the LORD”, it looked like Eden.

I am a sucker for a picture at a drive-through. The burger on the menu board is tall, juicy, perfect. Then you open the bag … and it looks like somebody sat on it. I’ve ordered some questionable sandwiches from Hardee’s. Everybody else is pretending to be healthy, and Hardee’s is out here putting gravy on burgers. And I still pull in. Because of the picture.

We all order off the picture. It’s funny with a sandwich. It’s not funny with your life.

The bag never matches the picture. And neither did Sodom.

(2) “like the land of Egypt”, Egypt was watered by the river; Canaan “drinketh water of the rain of heaven” (Deuteronomy 11:10–11).

1. Egypt = you control the water.
2. Canaan = you depend on God.

(3) “Lot chose him”, he chose for himself, and “journeyed east,” the direction away from God in Genesis (3:24; 4:16).

Lot didn’t just choose water. He chose control.

Egypt was already in Lot’s heart, so that’s what his eyes found. We don’t see something and then want it. We see what we already want.

Genesis 13:12–13, Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent toward Sodom. But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the LORD exceedingly.

c. Lot pitched his tent toward Sodom. (vv. 12–13)

Genesis 13:12–13 “12 Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent toward Sodom. 13 But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the LORD exceedingly.”

(1) Moses won’t let you see Lot’s view without God’s view around it.

1. “before the LORD destroyed Sodom” (v. 10)
2. “sinners before the LORD exceedingly” (v. 13).
3. Lot saw the water. God saw the wickedness.

(2) “pitched his tent”, one Hebrew verb: “to tent.”

1. Circle it. You’ll see it again in verse 18. Not in Sodom, yet. Just “toward.”

Nobody moves to Sodom in one step; you just start facing it.

(3) The narrator knows the ending. “before the LORD destroyed Sodom.” Lot doesn’t. Hold that thought, next week we’ll see where that tent ends up.

2 Peter 2:7, And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked:

Lot was saved. The most dangerous decisions are the reasonable ones made without God.

What do you want so badly that you’d move your family toward it without asking God?

And what did Sodom look like on a normal day? Jesus tells us.

Luke 17:28-29 — Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all.

Notice what Jesus doesn’t say. He doesn’t list the worst sins of Sodom. He lists a normal Tuesday: eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, building. Nothing wrong with any of it, except God was nowhere in it.

Sodom didn’t look evil from the hilltop. It looked normal.

That’s the direction Lot was facing: a life full of good things with no room for God.

So what does the well-watered plain look like in 2026?

• Travel ball — where the tournament schedule becomes the family’s liturgy
• The promotion — more money, more travel, and a version of you your family doesn’t recognize
• The lake house — every weekend at the lake, and every Sunday “we’ll catch it online”

None of those are Sodom. All of them can face it.

Some of you have your life facing Sodom, and you’re calling it a career opportunity.

Let God set your eyes before you set your direction.

TRANSITION: Lot lifted up his own eyes. Now watch what happens when God lifts Abram’s.

2. When God lifts your eyes, you set up your life by an altar.

UNDERLINE #2 — “Lift up now thine eyes”

Same words. Opposite source. Lot lifted his own eyes. God lifts Abram’s.

a. God lifted Abram’s eyes. (v. 14)

Genesis 13:14 “14 And the LORD said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward:”

(1) A word from God. “And the LORD said unto Abram” — everything Lot’s choice was missing.

(2) God speaks after the surrender — “after that Lot was separated from him.”

(3) “from the place where thou art” — God meets you where you stand, not where you wish you were.

b. Abram saw what God promised. (vv. 15–17)

Genesis 13:15–17 “15 For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever. 16 And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered. 17 Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for I will give it unto thee.”

(1) Every direction — north, south, east, west. Lot grabbed east. God gave Abram east — and everything else.

(2) The promise grows: 12:7 “unto thy seed” → now “to thee … and to thy seed for ever.”

(3) A childless man told to count dust — and to walk the land before he owns it.

Genesis 13:16–17 — And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered. Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for I will give it unto thee.

Watch the movement: Lot “journeyed east” — by his own choice. Abram “Arise, walk” — by God’s command.

Lot saw a valley he could take. Abram saw a land God would give.

Genesis 13:18 — Then Abram removed his tent, and came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre, which is in Hebron, and built there an altar unto the LORD.

c. Abram pitched his tent by an altar. (v. 18)

(1) “Abram removed his tent” — the same Hebrew verb as verse 12.

1. Same verb, opposite direction: Lot tents toward Sodom. Abram tents by an altar.
2. Literally it’s “Abram tented” — the same word as verse 12.

(2) He settled by the oaks of Mamre, in Hebron — where he will live out the promise (18:1; 23:2).

(3) The tent is temporary. The altar is the anchor.

Your tent should always follow your altar.

Confession — slow down

I’ll be honest with you. I have wanted to give my kids more than I had. But if I’m not careful, I’ll give them less — if I don’t let them see me live by faith.

Dads — hear this

Abram’s household watched him build altar after altar. That’s what they inherited. Your kids won’t remember what you said about priorities. They’ll remember where you built the altar — and which way you pointed the tent.

Your kids will live in the direction your life faces.

Hear me: this is not “try harder to see better.” The same God who lifted Abram’s eyes forgives our Lot moments — and gives us new eyes. Every step below starts there.

• Altar first, then tent. Before the offer letter, the listing, or the travel schedule — pray, and ask your church family before you decide.

• Name one thing you’re clutching. Write it down today. Open your hand on it before tonight at 5.

• Walk the promise. Take one step of obedience this week — before you see the whole map.

TRANSITION: So here are two men, two sets of eyes, and two tents.

Conclusion

Look at your two underlines:

v. 10 — Lot lifted up his own eyes. He saw a garden. It was Sodom.

v. 14 — God lifted up Abram’s eyes. He gave up a valley. God gave him the land — for ever.

Let God set your eyes before you set your direction.

2 Corinthians 5:7 — (For we walk by faith, not by sight:)

Illustration: Picture of UCLA’s Jaylen Hands lifting Moses Brown’s chin (Jan. 2019)

UCLA is down by two with about two minutes left. Freshman center Moses Brown throws a bad pass. Turnover. As he runs back on defense, his head drops and his shoulders slump. Point guard Jaylen Hands jogs over, puts a hand under his chin, and lifts his head back up. UCLA comes back and wins, 87-84.

And yes, the guy who needed his head lifted was named Moses. Which is fair. Moses has needed help holding things up before. Aaron and Hur had to hold up his hands.

He had just made the mistake. Jalen Hands didn’t wait for him to fix it. He came alongside and lifted his head. That’s what God does.

Psalm 3:3 — But thou, O LORD, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head.

Who is lifting your eyes this week? What do you want so badly that you’d move your family toward it without asking God? Which way is your life facing?

TRANSITION: But some of you are here this morning, and you’re not drifting from God. Your whole life has been facing away from Him. This is for you.

The Good News: Let God Lift Your Eyes

One man looked at what he could grab; the other looked at what God had promised.

Genesis 13:14-15 — And the LORD said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward: For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever.

Abram saw past the land

Hebrews 11:10 — For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

Abram walked through Canaan looking past it. He was looking for a city nobody could see yet.

What you can see is passing away

2 Corinthians 4:18 — While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

Everything Lot chose went up in smoke. Abraham stood and watched it burn (Genesis 19:28). The well-watered plain doesn’t last. The city with foundations does.

The promise was always about a Person

Galatians 3:16 — Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.

The world to come has a King. He has a cross behind Him, an empty tomb, and a throne ahead of Him. When God lifts your eyes, this is who you see:

Hebrews 12:2 — Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Look and live

Isaiah 45:22 — Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.

Salvation isn’t something you grab. It’s a look: away from yourself and up to Christ, who was crucified for your sin and raised from the dead.

Salvation is turning your face from yourself to Christ.

Let’s pray: “Lord, lift my eyes.”

Believer: "Lord, I've been choosing by sight. Lift my eyes past this world. Make me a stranger here and a citizen of the city to come."

If you've never trusted Christ: "Lord, I've been looking at the plain my whole life. Today I look to Jesus. Save me."