Genesis 13 - Beginning To See It God’s Way

Main Idea: View your relationships, possessions, and troubles as gifts from God to show His character.

• God gives relationships so you can show His love.

• God gives possessions so you can show His generosity.

• God allows troubles so you can trust in His salvation.

Sermon Transcript (Auto-Transcribed by Apple Podcasts)

We are in the book of Genesis, looking at the life of Abraham. And we saw at the very beginning that God called Abraham out from where he was in the land of Babylon, Ur of the Chaldeans was the city. The city name Ur means like fire oven.

And so God called him out of, if you will, the fire of Babylon and that place where there was immense wealth, big old structures, lots of human accomplishments, but also just cruelty towards people.

And as you look back in world history at the Babylonian Empire and at the Assyrian Empire that preceded it, it was really, nowadays, we get shocked, and rightly so by war atrocities and things that happen in the Middle East and in different war

fronts across the world. It is nothing compared to what once was in our world, kind of pre-Christianity and its influence. And so God called Abraham and his family out of that area of the world.

And he told them, I want you to go to the land that we would know now as Israel. And at that time, it was inhabited by several different groups of people, Canaanites, Jebusites, Parasites, all of the that we would read about later in scripture.

And God told Abraham that, I want you to go there. I'm going to bless you.

I'm going to, even though him and his wife, Sarai, were childless, at that point, when God called them to go to the land, he said, I'm going to make you guys into an entire nation. You're going to have a massive family.

And so Abraham and his wife, Sarai, they went and they went over to the land. It took them a little bit of time. They stopped off first in a place called Haran, which was far to the north, maybe kind of over by more where Turkey is today.

And they were there for about 10 years before Abraham's father passed. And then God called them from there. He says, leave the land of your ancestors, leave your family and go to the land that I'm going to show you.

And Abraham went to the land, but he didn't do everything that God said. He had one little like slip up right at the beginning that we learned about. And he brought along his brother's son Lot.

And it's just a small little sentence in Chapter 12 as we begin this story. But God said, hey, leave your family behind and come down here. And Abraham left like 99.9% of his family behind and went down.

Then two weeks ago, we saw that Abraham not only didn't leave his family behind, but he also didn't just go to the land that God showed him. But when a famine came into the land, he went south to Egypt.

And in fear of what the mighty Egyptians might do to him and to his family, he told his wife, Sarai, I want you to tell everyone that you're just my sister. And that way they won't kill me, your husband, in order to get you.

And he was found out in his secret, and he was blessed by Pharaoh initially, for having given his sister's hand in marriage to Pharaoh.

But then when God struck Pharaoh and his household with plagues, as a result, and Pharaoh went, why did you do this to me? Like, why did you hate me that you told me this lie?

He sent Abraham and all of the stuff that he had given to Abraham as Sarai's dowry price. He sent all of it away back to the land of Canaan.

And we saw how Abraham, even though he was set apart by God to be a blessing, to have a great family and a great nation, and even though God said that Abraham would be a blessing to all the families, all the nations of the earth, he starts off not

being in the land, giving away the person that he was supposed to start a nation with, and being a curse to Pharaoh and the Egyptians, he wasn't a blessing yet. So we start off, the message two weeks ago was beginning with failure, and many of us

have been in that spot. We're like, okay, God, I know you've got great plans for me, and it seems like I am just destroying all of the plans that you have.

And we looked at the fact that through all of Genesis' stories, there's kind of a pattern of behavior.

You have this creation out of chaos, and we looked at the fact that Abraham and his family, they were coming out of the confusion and destruction of the Tower of Babylon in Genesis chapter 11. And so God creates this new family.

God establishes him and says, You're going to be blessed. You're going to have a great nation. All the families of the earth are going to be blessed through you.

And then there's sin and failure through generations, which when you start off the book of Genesis, that's of course the fall in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve, where they see the fruit that it's nice to look at, and they take it in defiance of

God. And we looked at how that happened with Abraham and Sarah and the Egyptians, that Abraham, much like the snake, tells a lie that results in Pharaoh and the rest of the Egyptians looking, seeing Sarah, that she is very beautiful, and they take

her into Pharaoh's household. So you have this sin there.

And if you're following through with the Genesis patterns, the next thing that you're expecting is a Genesis 4 Cain and Abel story, that after the fall in the Garden of Eden, there's going to be some tension.

And that is certainly what we find in the very beginning of this passage. I forgot to do the scripture reading, and so we're going to do that. It says this, Abram went up from Egypt to the Negev, he, his wife, and all he had, and Lot with him.

We haven't heard about Lot for about a chapter, but the author wants to remind us, here's what's coming up. Abram was very rich in livestock, silver, and gold. The Hebrew word for this would literally be like, heavy.

He was, he was weighed down with all of this stuff that he got for Sarah, his wife. He went by stages from the Negev to Bethel, to the place between Bethel and Ai, where his tent had formerly been. Bethel is the word bet or house, and then el, God.

So he's between the house of God, and then Ai is a word that means ruin. So he's literally between the house of God and ruin. And it's a very picturesque moment of where Abram is.

This is the place where he was before he went down to Egypt the first time.

So now he is backtracked, and if you will, he went the way of ruin down to Egypt, and then now he's standing at that exact same crossroads again, to the site where he had built the altar, and Abram called on the name of the Lord there.

And I love that finally Abram's beginning to realize, oh yeah, I gotta talk to God before I make decisions.

There's no mention of him talking to the Lord when he went down to Egypt, no mention of talking to the Lord about his lie with Sarai, no mention of talking to the Lord when he gave away Sarah and got all this stuff from Pharaoh.

Now he's finally talking with God again. And we'll see in today's message that he is beginning to see it God's way. Don't you just love when something actually starts to click when you begin to see it in the right way?

My daughter had a phrase that she started saying maybe two or three weeks ago, and I did not for the longest time understand what she was saying. It would always be accompanied with tears and go, mama know me. And I was like, mama know me?

And I finally got it after hearing first Samantha say something, and then Evelyn coming and complaining to me. It's toddler speak for mama said no to me. And when that clicked, I went, oh, yeah, mama know you.

Yeah, daddy will know you too. And today in Genesis 13, we see Abraham begin to see it God's way, and it's finally going to start clicking for him. So, let's read through the passage.

We're going to learn what God has for us today, and then we're going to see three specific ways that we can begin to see our life in God's way, just as Abraham learned in the passage. So, Abraham goes up from Egypt, from the Negev.

He's got he, his wife, wonderful. She's no longer one of Pharaoh's wives or in Pharaoh's harem. Now, it's his wife again.

And Lot comes with him. He's laden, he's heavy, weighed down with livestock, silver and gold. I know some of you are like, I wish I was heavy with gold.

I'm heavy in other ways, but I wish I was heavy with gold. Says he went by stages from the Negev to Bethel, to the place between Bethel and Ai, where his tent had formerly been, to the site where he had built the altar.

And Abraham called on the name of Yahweh there. We're expecting a Cain and Abel moment. Fighting brothers, in that story, it's Cain kills Abel.

Now Lot, who is traveling with Abram, also had flocks, herds, and tents. But the land was unable to support them as long as they stayed together, for they had so many possessions that they could not stay together.

Sometimes our affluence can be a problem. We tend not to think in that way. We think, man, if I had more money, everything would be fine.

All my friends would love me. All of my family members would love me. And that is certainly not the case here for Abram or for Lot.

They've got all these flocks and there's not enough grazing territory. Verse seven tells us what that particular problem was. Says there was quarreling between the herdsmen of Abram's livestock and the herdsmen of Lot's livestock.

At that time, the Canaanites and the Parasites were living in the land. Here the author lets us know what this kind of source of contention was. It was the people that worked for Abram.

They wanted this particular grazing area for Abram's flocks. Lot, well, his men, they wanted it for his flocks. And I love that the narrator here puts in just this little whisper, so you can see what the problem is.

It's not just, we need more grazing area. It's they are giving a bad name about Abram and Lot and the god that they serve to the nations around them. It says, at that time, the Canaanites and the Parasites were living in the land.

He's saying, your interactions, your fighting with other people that you should be family with, that you should be loving one another because you belong together, your fighting affects how other people see you and how they see your relationship with

God. Think of Psalm 133 that tells us how good and how pleasant it is when brothers and sisters dwell together in unity. Jesus' prayer in John 18 was, God, I want them to be one just like you and I are one.

Jesus wants you to be unified with other believers in the same way that he is united with the Father in the Trinity. For some of us, we're not like, we're barely united with each other at all. We're united like a civil war.

US was united. And God wants us to realize how you live, how you interact, how you talk about other believers, how you talk about your family members, how you talk about your spouse, reflects something about your walk with God.

If you will, there's Canaanites and Parasites, there's those that do not know God in your life.

And God wants the way that you interact with other people to show these unbelievers how great and how good and how forgiving and how loving and how patient God is. He does not want you to feud with one another.

So, this is the moment you're expecting brothers fighting, the herdsmen are fighting, and you might expect that Abram is going to do the same thing. But Abram has been talking to God, and so something is finally different.

Verse number eight, So Abram said to Lot, Please, let's not have quarreling between you and me, or between your herdsmen and my herdsmen, since we are relatives. Isn't the whole land before you? Separate from me.

If you go to the left, I will go to the right. If you go to the right, I will go to the left. This isn't the same Abram that was just looking out for his own interests one chapter previous.

This wasn't someone that was saying, okay, how can I get enriched? I stay alive, and it doesn't really matter what happens to Sarai as long as I come out on top. Now he's saying Lot, whatever you want, you can have.

This is the spirit of generosity. This is like God, well, we'll get there at the very end of the chapter and we'll see how Abram got to this frame of mind.

So Genesis 13 and verse 10, Lot looked out and saw that the entire plain of the Jordan, as far as Zohar, was well watered everywhere, like Yahweh's garden in the land of Egypt. This was before Yahweh destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.

So Lot chose the entire plain of the Jordan, for himself, then Lot journeyed eastward and they separated from each other. So it's not directly stated, but the author gives us a few clues for how we are to think about Lot's choice in this matter.

If you remember Genesis 3, Genesis 6, and then Genesis 12, all of these full accounts, these sin accounts, it always happens when people look, they see something beautiful, and they take what they shouldn't.

Happened with Adam and Eve and the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It happened with the sons of God and the daughters of men in Genesis 6. It happened with Pharaoh and his household and Sarah in Genesis chapter 12.

And Lot looks, he sees everything is watered great. There's plenty of grass for the flocks. And the author puts in there, it looks like Yahweh's garden.

It looks like the Garden of Eden with how good it is. And the land of Egypt was, sorry, was Abram going down to Egypt? Was that a good choice or a bad choice?

Bad choice. He was not supposed to go there. That wasn't where God told him to go.

And so here Lot is saying, this looks good to me, and so I'm going to make this choice.

And just in case it wasn't clear enough from saying, this is a Garden of Eden and an Egypt type choice that Lot is making, also says, this was before Yahweh destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.

Now we're going to get there in, I think it's like four or five weeks, and we'll hear more about everything that was happening with those cities.

But here the author is saying Lot is not operating out of kindness, out of generosity, out of goodness, out of seeking the Lord. Instead, he is operating based off of what is good for him.

He chose the entire plane of the Jordan for himself, and then he journeyed eastward, which also happens to be the direction that when Adam and Eve were leaving the Garden of Eden after they were kicked out, they journeyed eastward.

Same direction that Cain went after he murdered Abel. He went eastward. So the author is letting us know how we're supposed to think about this particular transaction.

So now we arrive at the fact that Abram, he's been generous, and all of the best stuff in the land has now been taken by Lot. So what's his response going to be? Is he going to be angry?

Is he going to be resentful? Is he going to, you know, really pray for some fire and brimstone to come down on Lot? No, it says Abram lived in the land of Canaan, but Lot lived in the cities on the plain and set up his tent near Sodom.

That here, now the whole reason that they separated was that they were nomadic herdsmen. And so Abram is living in the land. He's going to all of these places, setting up his tent.

And Lot, it says, is living in the cities that are on the plain. And he's starting to go towards this hub of culture and influence and affluence and powerful individuals. We'll see more of that in the coming weeks.

The author, again, here in parentheses in the Christian Standard Bible, now, the men of Sodom were evil, sinning immensely against Yahweh. He just wants to make crystal clear that you understand that these are not good choices by Lot.

And after Lot had separated from him, Yahweh said to Abram, look from the place where you are. Look north and south, east and west, for I will give you and your offspring forever all the land that you see.

Okay, well, this is the first time since God told Abram to leave his homeland that it records in the scripture that he's talking to Abram. And he reiterates his promises.

He says, the land I'm going to give to you, the nation, the offspring, the descendants, I'm going to give to you. And he says, I'm going to give you everything that you see.

Verse 16, I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth so that if anyone could count the dust of the earth, then your offspring could be counted. Get up and walk around the land through its length and width, for I will give it to you.

And I notice here that God says, hey, lift up your eyes. Like look around everything you see, it's yours. This kind of reminds me a little bit of what Abram told Law.

He says, look around. You want to go that way? You can have it.

You want to go that way? You can have it. Whatever you want, it's yours.

Abram is now starting to see things God's way. Instead of saying, I've only got so many resources and I need to hoard the best and greatest for myself. Now he's beginning to say, God blesses me.

He's given so much to me. I can give away because I know God is the one who provides. So this is what God tells Abram.

So Abram moved his tent and went to live near the oaks of Mamre at Hebron where he built an altar to Yahweh.

And we mentioned at the very beginning of the series, these oaks of Mamre, the word is very similar to the word for knowledge or for seeing that he is now here in this place of seeing, of knowing God.

And Hebron was one of the cities of refuge later in Israel. This was a place where when you were in trouble, you could go to Hebron and you could find safety and justice in that place.

And this is where Abram finds himself, finds himself in a place of refuge with knowing and experiencing God and experiencing his promises. Because finally, he's beginning to see it God's way.

So today, if you guys leave the building, I'm not going to tell you, look around and everything that you can see, all of Bennett Street, it's all yours. Not how it works. So, what do we learn from this?

What has God given us that we need to begin to see in God's way?

Today, I want us to see that just like God showed Lot his love and generosity, and eventually his salvation through how Abram treated him, we need to view our relationships, our possessions, and our troubles as gifts from God to show his character.

We need to view our relationships, possessions, and troubles as gifts from God to show his character. First, I want us to see that God gives relationships so you can show his love.

Now, I want to start off by saying, you can't know God's love for you without knowing the story of Jesus. You see, God loved us. He made us in his own image.

We blew it. We embraced sin and death and everything that goes against his character and his way. But he did not leave us in that state of sin and destruction and the path that we were headed straight to hell.

Instead, he came to save us in the person of Jesus Christ. He lived a perfect, sinless life. He died in our place that we deserved punishment for the crimes that we committed against the Holy God and he took the punishment for our sins.

He was buried. He rose again three days later, ascended into heaven. Today invites you into a personal relationship with him and he is returning one day to judge all evil and to live with us forever, even as we sang about this morning.

So God gives relationships so you can show the love of Jesus to others. If you're married today, God wants your marriage to show how Jesus loves the church. Husbands, your goal is not to be a taskmaster.

Your job is not to receive love from your wife. Your job is to self-sacrificially give and love and care for and provide for your wife. Ladies, your job is not merely to get things from your husband.

Your job is to love him as the church is to love Jesus. That just as Christ tells us in Ephesians chapter 5, that husbands are to love their wives as Christ loves the church.

So the church is to submit to Christ and to love to be on the same mission that Christ is.

For our marriages, what would it look like today if we stopped looking like a sitcom episode and in our fights and our arguments and our tricks employees with each other and started looking like Jesus in the church.

God gave you your marriage so that you can show his love. If you're a parent today, God gave you your kids to show them how God loves his children.

And kids and teens, God gave you your parents so that you can show your friends, you can show your parents, you can show others around you how Jesus interacted with his parents, how Jesus obeyed the voice of the father.

Can I tell you, that puts a little bit more like stress on me as a dad, as a husband, that I'm not just in it to like live my good life and see what I can get out of relationships.

But God has given me these relationships so that I can show the other person and I can show everyone around the Canaanites and the Perizzites how God has loved me.

If God's given you friends, it's because God wants you to show how Jesus loved his disciples. He included them, he spent time with them, he challenged them, he told them when they were wrong. And God wants you to do that in your friendships.

If you've got enemies or people that you think are your enemy, God has given those to you so that you can show them how God has loved and treated you. We were all enemies of God in our own natural state.

And yet God loved us, forgave us, and made us into his children, made us his friends. And so we are called to do with others. What a signal we send to others when we proclaim a forgiving, loving, patient, holy God while being completely unlike him.

If God's given us these relationships, let's show others his love. What's one relationship that you can intentionally work on this week to show the other person what God is like?

It will likely take some baby steps that as you start walking, you say, well, I don't know if I can rework everything in my life that I'm showing Jesus' love.

What's something you can do over the next couple of days in just one relationship to show how Jesus has loved you? But not only is God given relationships, God gives possessions so you can show his generosity.

Unlike the trouble that came from Abram getting wealth through lies and through trickery, Proverbs 10 22 says that Yahweh's blessing enriches and he adds no sorrow with it.

In today's world, money is viewed as innately good if you have it and innately bad if someone else has it. However, scripture tells us that the love of money, greed, is a root of all kinds of evil.

Because this is what Abram was interacting with, I wanted to take just a moment to kind of show this is what greed does in our heart. Greed can result in theft, in taking from others what we want, that we want others' wealth.

We take things that are not ours. If you're Al Capone, you're withholding from the government what belongs to the government. Jesus, give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, all of those types of things.

Greed can result in theft. It results in hoarding, that instead of being generous with others, we just stockpile it more and more and more for ourselves.

Greed results in wasteful spending, that we don't care what happens to the money, as long as it's our money to spend. Greed doesn't value God.

A greedy person would say, I don't want to perhaps be involved in church, that takes time away from when I could be either making or spending money. But greed, we ought to value God. Greed does not value God.

Greed sparks pride and wealth of, I make seven figures, I make, you know, 12 figures, and I'm so great in what I have. If only other people worked as hard as I did, they might be as great and as fabulously wealthy as me.

And greed results in wicked spending, that we buy things that are addictive substances. You can think of people that spend money on immorality or in sponsoring other people to do crimes. You can think of even hitmen.

These are all things that come out of greed. This is the types of things that are all kinds of evil that Paul warns Timothy, a love of money, greed results in these types of things.

However, the flip side generosity, what Abram expressed was, I don't need to, I don't need to steal, I don't need to take from others. I can give to others. I can give to Lot freely.

Instead of hoarding everything, Abram shared with others. And so we can, when we are generous, we can not hoard our funds, but share them with others. Instead of wasting our money, we can intentionally spend it because we want to benefit others.

We want to bless others. We want to be careful with what we have because we know that everything that we have comes from God. Whereas greed doesn't value God, generosity gives to God into his work.

We can think of what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount when he says, where your treasure is, that is where your heart will be also. Instead of greed, where there is pride in one's wealth, generosity says, I'm going to have humility.

You can think of Barnabas in the beginning of the Book of Acts, when there were people that were in need, people that had lost homes, people that were in need of food.

And Barnabas sold a plot of land and took the money, and he brought it to the elders there at the church in Jerusalem. So that they would be able to take care of those that had needs.

And certainly today, in first century America, 21st century America, that sounds like totally off the wall to us. We're like, I can't believe someone would ever do that.

But that's what humility says, that Barnabas there said, it doesn't matter about me, there are people that need, and so I'm going to give so that they can be helped.

And you can think, instead of wicked spending, you're spending on things that would be evil or wrong to spend money on, generosity says, I'm going to do some heavenly investing.

Even as Jesus would say, don't lay up your treasure here on earth where moth and rust corrupt and where thieves break through and steal. He says, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven.

And when we are generous, we do some heavenly investing, that when you bless someone else, when you are caring for others' needs, when you are investing in gospel work, those are all ways in which, if you will, you send your money on ahead that it

makes eternal dividends. Like I mentioned last week, the only two things that will last into eternity are the word of God and the souls of mankind. Is what you spend your money on, is it helping to send your treasure on ahead, if you will.

So God gives possessions so you can show his generosity. Just by way of transparency. So I grew up in a church culture that said, you need to give at least 10% of your income to the Lord every single week.

You get a paycheck before you even pay taxes or anything. You need to give 10% of that money to a church.

And there were always like additional things that were added on to that, of like, oh, and also there's a building fund, and you need to give to that. And there's also some missions things, and you need to give to that.

So really, you should never be given any less than like 15, 20, 30% of your income to the church. And there is taken from many of the things in the Old Testament and the tithe and things that would be mentioned for the children of Israel.

That was kind of their governmental structure. They didn't have like government and all of God's stuff. It was all combined.

It was God and government stuff in a relatively more healthy way. And so the tithe was basically your tax.

So as I've been reading through the word of God over the years and saw the tithe, particularly lacking that 10% plus giving not mentioned in the New Testament and all the letters to the churches and the pastors and things like that.

In my mind, I was like, OK, well, I don't see that as being something that is carried over, restated for the New Testament.

But having grown up in that way, there's always like a little bird in my ear that's like, hey, like, you know, give give at least this amount to the Lord.

And it's been crazy to see over the past five years that every time that I've given to the Lord, he has met our needs in incredible ways. This this past week. So I think it was some point late last week I had given.

I give on line some of you guys give an offering box back there. Great, wonderful, amazing. I'd give it on line.

And then the following, like, Monday, I went, Oh, man, my oil in my car. I'm like a thousand miles overdue for an oil change. 1500 miles overdue for an oil change.

So, okay, I got to do that. And I need to get the tires rotated. And there's this one, you know, symbol thing on my car that I don't know what it means, but it doesn't look very friendly.

And so I was like, okay, I got to do that this week. And then Thursday, I got a call from a funeral home that was like, Hey, can you come and do this funeral for this gentleman? And I was happy to do it.

And they gave me an honorarium for having done the funeral on Wednesday. And it more than covered all of the cost of everything that I needed.

And I don't say that in this sense, like, hey, whatever you give to God, you will definitely get bonus checks and big giant tax break, you know, this and that. What I can tell you is this, when we are generous, God takes care of us.

Sometimes it's financially, sometimes it's in our relationships. Sometimes it's just like in peace of mind and the grace that God gives to us.

I want to challenge you for the month of February, whether it's, you know, for some people, you've never given a church before.

I would encourage you, because the Bible says it, like, lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven and where your treasure is, that's where your heart will be also. Maybe if for the very first time you're like, I'll consider giving a church.

Wonderful. Amazing. I'm not going to be like, you know, marking.

OK, make sure. All right. Is everyone giving?

I don't care about that. If you give a penny to the church. Wonderful.

There's no amount thing with the Lord, especially not in the New Testament. For if you're the widow that's just got two mites and you throw that in wonderful. Praise the Lord.

That's great. For for some of you that maybe do give to the Lord's work, maybe in February, you would take some time to be intentionally generous with other people.

That maybe you might know that there's a struggling family and you might, you know, give them a gift card to pizza or to John's or something, and you go, listen, I know this is a big expense thing, but I want to help you guys have a great time.

In the month of February, it's, you know, Valentine's, there's love. Have a love and a generosity, whether it's if you've never given to God's work, challenge it in February, do it, try it, see if God won't provide for all of your needs and more.

But maybe it might be that you're giving to help someone else, to benefit someone else and see if God doesn't bless that as well. Then lastly, God allows troubles so you can trust in his salvation.

There as God allowed this contention, this fight to happen between Abram's servants and Lot's servants, and it resulted in the fact that then Abram, through generosity, through losing part of the land, now God reiterates his promises to him and says,

hey, your offspring, they're going to be forever. So for you, God allows troubles into your life so that you can trust his salvation. We would never appreciate the sunrise if it weren't for the darkness of night.

Think of what Charles Spurgeon said in the 1800s, God is too wise to be mistaken. He is too good to be unkind. And when you cannot trace his hand, trust his heart.

Think of Job and everything that he went through, loss of family, loss of possessions, loss of health.

But then after his encounter with God, after everything that he went through in Job 42.5, he says, I had heard reports about you, but now my eyes have seen you. If you want to grow, to be better, to know God, then you must undergo hardship.

2nd Timothy 2 says, if we suffer with him, we will also reign with him. God wants you to truly know and experience him no matter what it takes. So be willing to encounter the troubles, the struggles, the relationship fights.

Be willing to undergo the financial difficulties, knowing that God is drawing you closer to himself so that you can know him experientially. Will you choose to call out to God in your hardships and heartaches and troubles instead of ignoring him?

Bring your complaints, your anger, but bring them to God and see what he will do to save and transform as you bring everything to him. We're going to begin to see it God's way. We need to see our relationships as an opportunity to show his love.

We need to see our possessions as opportunities to show his generosity. And we need to see our troubles as an opportunity to trust in his salvation.