Trust the Lord

2026-01-18 Trust the Lord

Scripture reading: Genesis 13:1-18

The first Sunday in January, Jan. 4, we introduced and began a Bible reading plan with the website and app called “Bible Study Together.” There are printed versions at the entrances, and if you have our normal church center app and hit the “Worship online” button, you can then click on the link that will take you to their website and help you get the app if you want it. Just remember when you set up the app to put the start date as the first Sun. in 2026, Jan. 4, and choose the 1 reading per day finish in two years option. Today’s reading includes what was just read!

It’s going to take me about 15 minutes to set up everything to really understand that passage, so to start with let’s start with ants. Can ants communicate with each other? Yes.

Can I communicate back and forth with an ? No. I can stomp on them, and they would just be like, “Some huge thing from the sky just eliminated those ants over there.” Ants could never understand me naturally, so if they were to ever understand me, I’d need to reveal to them in a special way, in their own ant language, truths about me that they could understand and maybe say in their own way, “Move over there or you’re gonna die!” SPECIAL REVELATION is needed.

When we’re reading the Bible, we’re looking for special revelation from a God we can’t understand. We can’t understand that God without God coming down to our level and giving us SPECIAL REVELATION. Consider our limitations:

Limits of human ability to know some things: From what I’ve read, in physics there’s the understanding that once we study something really really small like an electron, we can’t know both its position AND its momentum because just by observing and measuring it we’re CHANGING it! Once we get to a small enough thing, we’ll never FULLY understand it. And from what I’ve read in astronomy, SPACE is stretching out faster than the speed of light — which means there’s likely stuff out there we will never be able to see or measure…never, ever.

On top of THAT, we all will be dead before the age of 130. No one’s come close to breaking that barrier. We’re boxed in, limited, like ants on the sidewalk alongside of a giant creator God that’s unknowable and a universe that’s not fully understandable UNLESS we get from that great creator God SPECIAL REVELATION.

Has God given us SPECIAL of who God is and how we SHOULD live? YES, and here’s an example of how we know that is so: Why is murder , if it protects resources for you and your kids? If there were no God at all behind the design of the universe, NO ONE would ever say the murder of someone that’s not your biological offspring is bad, because you just showed that YOU are the fittest and YOUR kids should get all the food and water!

But since the fourth chapter in Genesis story of Cain murdering Abel, we’ve got this deep down sense that this is wrong: unprovoked murder, done out of selfishness, is BAD. It’s wrong. Where did THAT idea come from? It has to be SPECIAL REVELATION because in just materialistic, humanistic terms it’s actually a great idea that would never be questioned.

God’s SPECIAL REVELATION through the years was compiled by in the Bible – such as Genesis 1 and 2. God creates humans NOT to struggle with survival of the fittest, but in a peaceful state of goodness – in the likeness and image of God – with harmony among all including between men and women.

BUT, that is NOT the only option God gives humans. Adam and Eve have the option, as described in Genesis 3, of going against God toward their own desires, their own morality. God warned them, “If you do you’ll die” – but they gave in to temptation.

Then in chapter 4 what does God say to Cain, their son?

GENESIS 4:7 “ is crouching at your door and its desire is for you”

Special revelation – there is evil temptation and sin, and it WANTS YOU! Does that apply to today? YES. It’s there at your door, and if you let it in, it will devour your mind and body!

SO – in Genesis chapters 3-11 we get special revelation: Adam, Eve, Cain, Abel, Noah, Babel all show that a “Very Good” creation includes freedom to obey & receive God’s blessing OR to disobey & receive punishment.

I’m sorry that this is so, on one hand. The freedom to obey OR disobey that is rooted in God’s creation and a part of the image and likeness we bear, means we are capable of great good AND horrible evil…and in general, God will let people do as they please. Eve sins, God doesn’t stop her; Adam sins, God doesn’t stop her; Cain sins, and God allows a murder and doesn’t stop it; all the people around Noah, all the people in the ancient town of Babel, the fathers of the Nephillim, they ALL choose disobedience and God allows it….and people suffer because of it.

BUT NOAH found favor in the eyes of the Lord, as did Abel and Enoch and a minority of others.

Which will YOU choose?

When we study the Bible, here are the questions to always keep in mind:

BIBLE STUDY QUESTIONS: What’s this tell us about ? What’s this tell us about ? What’s God telling ?

This shows us that God’s goodness demands that God allows us freedom to choose to obey or disobey. God loves us and is good and gives us also the option to come to him – we see this most powerfully in the NEW Testament Bible readings our plan is incorporating, but we see it too in the Old Testament passages. God is patient and merciful and will forgive and help us live rightly BUT ALSO will judge us for wrongdoing as well.

This shows us that we are capable of great good AND evil – and will succumb to evil if we don’t trust in the Lord.

SO – TRUST IN THE LORD!

Consider Abram, in Genesis 12:2 – to whom God says: “I will bless you …and you will be a blessing…through you all nations will be blessed” * if you *

It’s a sturdy promise – but requires obedience!

Therefore: THE LORD!

What’s Abram challenged to do? Leave his security, his tribe, and go to a new land…and it’s a difficult road, and he never fully gets to see all these descendants of his live in the promised land. He just has to trust in the Lord each day. Sometimes he gets it right, sometimes not – but overall, gets the most important parts right and God continues to be with him.

He even TRIES to take along his nephew Lot to help raise him up and bless him too, even though he’s not his son. As he leaves with his wife Sarai, they go, and then have to go all the way to Egypt during a famine, and when they get back they have been blessed by God because of Abram’s obedience and turning back to the Lord.

They are too numerous though, so Abram let’s Lot choose where he wants to God.

Genesis 13: How does Lot decide where to go? Does he pray? No. Does he respect his elder, his uncle, who is the whole reason Lot is now rich? NO. He selfishly chooses with his eyes the best land, and leaves the old man to the badlands.

What’s that lead to for Abram? Continued blessing – because he trusts the Lord!

What’s that lead to for Lot? DISASTER! He lives in the Sodom and Gomorrah region that gets more and more wicked!

Ok – so you know what to do with this! Ask the BIBLE STUDY QUESTIONS: What’s this tell us about God? What’s this tell us about us? What’s God telling me?

Consider, pray, and commit to do what God says! AMEN!

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

• What can we learn from Abram’s way of dealing with conflict from this WEEK’S readings (both good and bad!)?
• In what ways did Abram trust God in dealing with Lot?
• Why did Lot choose the Jordan Valley? What other factors should he have considered?
• How can you trust God when facing conflict?
• How is God revealed in today’s reading, and what does this mean for you life?