The sermon opens the third installment in a series on the life of Abraham, working through Genesis 13. The preacher begins with the television game show "Deal or No Deal" as a foil: some people imagine faith in God as a gamble, staking everything on an uncertain payoff and hoping for the best. This, the sermon insists, is not Abraham's faith and not Christian faith. Genuine faith does not rest on chance but on the sure and unfailing promise of God, even though following that promise still involves real hardship, struggle, and cost.

The sermon situates Genesis 13 right after Abraham's failure in Egypt in chapter 12, where his half-truth about Sarah nearly cost him his wife and put God's promise at risk, until Pharaoh himself rebuked him. Genesis 13 opens with Abraham leaving Egypt and retracing his steps back to Bethel and Ai, back to the altar he had built before. The sermon reads this literal retracing of steps as a picture of repentance: Abraham recognizes his wrong turn and returns to the place and posture of worship. This becomes the sermon's first major point — how a believer responds to failure is itself a test of faith. Some respond to failure by growing bitter toward God or by concealing sin and pretending it never happened; both responses reveal a heart trusting in itself rather than in grace. Genuine faith, resting on God's unearned grace rather than on one's own competence, brings the believer back to God in repentance rather than driving them away. The preacher illustrates this with a personal story from seminary in 1994: attending his brother's lavish wedding just months into a spartan, difficult season of theological training, he was tempted to question his calling, recalling the comfortable life and expensive possessions (an old Mont Blanc pen) he had given up. Wrestling in prayer, he recommitted his life to God's calling that same night, an experience he frames as paralleling Abraham's return.

The sermon's second movement turns to prosperity itself as a test. Both Abraham and Lot have grown very wealthy, and their combined flocks and herds strain the land, provoking conflict between their herdsmen. The sermon distinguishes between poverty or wealth themselves and the love of money, quoting 1 Timothy 6:10 against a popular saying attributed to Robert Kiyosaki that lack of money, not love of it, is the root of evil. Zacchaeus is offered as the counter-example: a wealthy tax collector whose encounter with Christ is evidenced by radical generosity, giving away half his goods and repaying those he defrauded fourfold. The sermon extends this into a brief teaching on giving: the New Testament nowhere commands a tithe explicitly, but its standard is higher, not lower, than the Old Testament's ten percent, since Romans 12:1 calls believers to present their whole bodies as a living sacrifice — the tithe is merely a starting benchmark for a life and possessions entirely surrendered to God.

Against this backdrop, Abraham's generosity toward Lot in offering him first choice of land is presented as evidence of restored faith. Lot's response is the sermon's negative example: he looks with his own eyes at the well-watered Jordan valley, resembling the garden of Eden, and chooses purely for his own advantage, pitching his tents toward Sodom — a city already noted as wicked. The sermon draws a direct parallel to Eve seeing that the fruit was good for food, both decisions made by sight and self-interest rather than by God's word. Using the illustration of a frog in slowly heating water, and Psalm 1's progression of walking, standing, and sitting among the wicked, the sermon traces Lot's gradual descent: camping near Sodom, then living in Sodom, then becoming a leader at its gate — a warning against small, incremental compromises, including a pointed caution to young people about placing themselves in tempting situations. Daniel's resolve not to defile himself, and Eric Liddell's refusal to run his Olympic heat on a Sunday even at the cost of the 100m gold medal (winning the 400m instead), are held up as contrasting examples of hearts fixed in advance against compromise.

After Lot departs, God renews and expands his promise to Abraham, telling him to look in every direction at land that will belong to his uncountable offspring. The sermon connects this to Hebrews' description of Abraham looking forward to a heavenly city, and ultimately to Christ, who refused Satan's offer of all the world's kingdoms without the cross and was given all authority through obedience unto death. Through Christ, the promise to Abraham is fulfilled in a multitude of nations gathered as his spiritual offspring. The sermon closes with Fanny Crosby's testimony that she would not choose to have her blindness healed in this life, preferring that the first face she ever sees be Christ's, and calls the congregation to walk by faith and not by sight, anticipating the upcoming communion service.

Bible Verses Used

• Genesis 13:1–18: The chapter's narrative — Abraham's return from Egypt, the conflict with Lot's herdsmen, Lot's choice of the Jordan valley near Sodom, and God's renewed promise of land and offspring to Abraham.

• Genesis 12: Referenced as the preceding failure — Abraham's deception in Egypt — that Genesis 13 shows him repenting from.

• 1 Timothy 6:10: Cited against the claim that lack of money is evil, affirming that the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.

• Luke 19 (Zacchaeus): Used as the model of a changed relationship to money as evidence of salvation and generosity.

• Romans 12:1: Cited to show the New Testament standard for giving exceeds the tithe — offering one's whole body as a living sacrifice.

• Genesis 3 (the Fall): Paralleled with Lot's decision, both made by sight and self-interest rather than by God's word.

• Psalm 1: Used for the pattern of walking, standing, and sitting among the wicked, mapped onto Lot's gradual move into Sodom.

• Daniel 1: Cited as Daniel's resolve not to defile himself, contrasted with Lot's compromise.

• Genesis 14:12 and 19:1: Cited to show Lot's progression from living near Sodom to living in it and becoming a leader there.

• Hebrews (Abraham looking for the city): Used to explain Abraham's forward-looking faith beyond the land promise itself.

• Matthew 4 (temptation of Christ): Paralleled with the promise to Abraham, showing Christ's refusal of the kingdoms of the world apart from the cross.

• Matthew 28:18 and the Great Commission: Cited for Christ's authority and the calling of all nations, fulfilling the promise to Abraham.