These Kids Are Going to be the Death of Me Part 1: Lot (Abraham's Nephew) - Pastor Andy Deane

Lot’s story shows how small compromises can lead to big consequences, and how God’s mercy still reaches into our mess.

Episode Transcript

Host (00:00):
You're listening to the weekly teaching podcast of
Cornerstone Community Church inWildomar, California, where we
exist to reach people, makedisciples, and build
relationships. If you'd like toconnect with us even further,
visit our website atcornerstone.org.

Andy Deane (00:16):
I mean, come on. I picked the title for this series
in November. I didn't know itwas gonna be a child dedication
day. But I'll tell you what, allthese parents probably agree
with me. My my goodness.
We're actually continuing ourstudy of the book of Genesis.
And we're moving to a portion ofGenesis where, a lot of the

(00:37):
lessons are gonna come from theyounger generation. From
Abraham's children, Today, fromAbraham's nephew Lot. Now, if I
were a corny dad, I'd make thedad joke saying the Bible has a
lot to say about Lot. But I'm acool dad.
So I'm not going to make thatjoke. Even though my kids think
I am corny. So if you'll openyour Bibles to Genesis chapter
13, or if you open our churchapp, you can follow along with

(01:00):
us there. Just a warning, thelast ten minutes of this sermon
were designed for adults.Alright?
There's some intense stuff thatwe're going to be studying. And
so, you you know your kids andyou know your kids age. And so
we've got great kids ministriesthat you're able to use as well,
but just wanted to put that outthere. Abraham is called by God

(01:21):
to leave everything he'sfamiliar with and to go to a
place where God would show him.And he must have had some
influence because his nephew Lotsaid, can I go with you?
And that's a good thing. And sowe pick up in Genesis chapter 13
where it says in verse five, nowLot also had flocks and herds
and quarreling arose betweenAbram's herders and Lot's. And

(01:45):
Abram said, let us not have anyquarreling. We are close
relatives. Let's part company.
If you go to the left, I'll goto the right. If you go to the
right, I'll go to the left. Likeyou choose first. So you can you
can feel like you're beinghonored here. Verse 10.
Lot looked around and saw thatthe whole plain of the Jordan
was well watered. So Lot chosefor himself the whole plain and

(02:08):
pitched his tents near Sodom andthe people of Sodom were wicked.
Verse 14. The Lord said to Abramafter Lot had departed, all the
land that you see, I will giveto you and your offspring
forever. I will make youroffspring like the dust of the
earth.
Abraham here is teaching us, Ithink, way where we can reduce
about 50% of the fights and roadrage and quarreling that we have

(02:33):
with one another. And it's justto not sweat the small stuff. I
mean, when when you are full offaith, you don't have to fight
for the best stuff, for the bestplace, for the best spot because
you trust that God is yourprovider. And if God is the one
that is blessing you, nobody canmess that up. God isn't weak.

(02:55):
It's not that God says, I wasgoing to bless you and they
stole it. They cut ahead of youin line. So that's all I got.
Sorry. No.
God isn't weak. God is powerful.His blessings are secure. So
Abraham was able to say, youchoose first Lot. I'm not
worried about it.
And the blessing that came fromGod is shown at the end of this

(03:15):
chapter that we read, where Godlooks at Abraham as Lot's
walking away thinking, oh boy, Ireally got one over my my uncle.
Look at this great land thatI've got. And and God tells
Abraham, look around ateverything. Even where Lot is
walking, all of it is going tobe yours. It's going to be your
descendants.
And God made good on thatpromise because nobody can stop

(03:36):
the promises of God. We neverlose by living generously. We
can live graciously. I'm nottalking about giving up all your
rights and getting steamrolled,but Abram gave up his rights. He
was the elder and Lot was theyounger one in a culture where
the elder received all thehonor.
And yet Abram said, well, themore important thing is that we

(03:58):
have peace, we're family, and soyou choose first. This is
possible because we trust in thegoodness of God. Think of Psalm
23 verse one that simply says,the Lord is my shepherd. I lack
nothing. Like what am I gonnawant for when when if if God is
my shepherd and he knows what'sbest for me and he can lead me

(04:19):
and guide me to the the stillwaters, to the grassy area.
I mean, if he can do that, whatam I worrying? Sometimes you
just sweat things. You're like,I remember for me it's like when
you're buying a house orsomething, I always think every
house we see we have to buyquickly. I'm like, oh, we saw
the house. Look, we got to buyit.
We got to we got to give themmore than asking price or else
someone else is going to snatchit up. I'm always in panic mode

(04:41):
buying a house. And it's justnot true. Thank God he shut the
door on our first house. We'rereally happy where we live now,
but I never feel that way.
I feel like I gotta get this. Igotta get it. God's God's
sleeping. I need to do this.It's just not true.
We can trust him to provide.Here's a question for you. Is
there a situation in life whereyou are grasping for control

(05:04):
rather than trusting God andhaving peace that God is going
to take care of it? Probably,like me, probably there's a
situation where you're trying tomake it happen through through,
you know, your yourintentionality, your aggression,
your intimidation, yourwhatever. And we can just relax
and say, you know what?
If it's going to be, then Idon't have to stress over this.

(05:26):
The Lord is going to give it tome. We see by negative example
with Lot that we need to walk byfaith and not by sight. And if
we do that, we can avoid a lotof unforeseen problems. And we
may actually discover someunseen blessings.
You see Lot, we read, lookedaround with his eyes and he saw,

(05:46):
well, this is a well wateredplane. I'll take all of it. Most
people would say, let's splitthe good part down the middle
and each take half. Lot says,I'm just gonna take it all. What
Lot didn't do was pray.
Right? He just said, this feelsgood. It looks good. I'm going
to take it for myself. Why wouldwe wanna miss out on prayer,

(06:07):
which is one of the greatestadvantages that we have?
We're told in second Corinthiansfive seven, walk by faith not by
sight. If we ever lack wisdom,we're told in James that we can
ask God who will give it to usgenerously. If we can't see the
future, we should ask the Godwho sees over the obstacle and

(06:27):
into the future years and say,well, where do you want me?
What's really best for me? Imean, why would we miss out on
this impossibly amazingadvantage of praying to a God
who knows the future.
There should be times in ourlives where we pray, sense the
leading of the Holy Spirit in acertain direction that kind of

(06:49):
goes against what we would havedone in our flesh or naturally.
And I would rather take the riskof trying to learn the voice of
God and say, I think the Lord'sleading us in this direction and
be wrong than make all mydecisions by myself. I mean, if
if you make a decision saying,think the Lord's moving us here
and it ends up being a disaster.Just own it. Say, don't think

(07:12):
this was the Lord.
But I tried. I'm trying tofollow the Lord and just be
humble about it. But don't missout on this by not praying at
all. We want to walk by faith.Lot here is is compromising.
Right? He says, this is this isa great area. Only downside is
I'm next to the most wicked cityon the planet, but I'm not in
the city. It's just a smallcompromise. Well, as we read,

(07:35):
Lot does go into the city.
And then he becomes a leader inthe city. He experiences early
destruction of the city, and hadall kinds of warning signs
realizing this isn't a gooddecision, but he didn't change
his mind at all. And so here's aquestion. Are you making any
decisions right now based onwhat just looks good, like looks

(07:56):
pleasing, but you haven't askedGod if it's pleasing to him?
What he wants to do?
I'm not saying when you prayit's going to be obvious, the
leading of the Lord. But youshould pray and not miss out on
this advantage of seeking Godand letting him lead you. The
result of Lot's decision to getso close to wickedness is

(08:17):
devastating from the start. Justa few years later, a coalition
of kings were mad at Sodom andGomorrah and came and invaded
Sodom. They took Lot, hisfamily, and everybody in the
city captive along with alltheir stuff.
And after they raided, they wereleaving. And we pick up in
chapter 14 verse 14. It says,when Abram heard that his

(08:38):
relative had been taken captive,he called out the 318 trained
men born in his household andwent in pursuit. And he
recovered all the goods andbrought back his relative Lot
and everybody. And then Abramhas a unique encounter with a
mysterious person.
In verse 18, Melchizedek, kingof Salem brought out bread and
wine. He was priest of God mosthigh and he blessed Abram

(09:02):
saying, blessed be Abraham byGod most high, creator of heaven
and earth and praise be to Godmost high who delivered your
enemies into your hand. AndAbram gave him a tenth of
everything. You see, if we'reliving a life of faith, we will
be willing to take a risk torescue somebody else. And that's
what Abraham did.
Even if they got themselves intothe mess with their poor

(09:24):
choices. There's times wherepeople need to hit rock bottom.
And you don't want to rescuethem in the sense of enabling
them to not hit rock bottom.Right? There's times where
people need to feel theconsequences of their sins.
But if we are prayerful, thereare also lots of times where we
should repeatedly extend mercy.Like God has done to us so many
times. Right? Abraham didn'tsay, well Lot got what he

(09:47):
deserved. Little punk.
You literally took all the nicearea and left me over here in
the desert. You deserve it. Hedidn't say that. Right? Instead,
immediately love intervenes andhe goes after Lot even though
Lot did this to himself.
Christians should be similar. Ithink of Galatians six one that
says, if we see a brother orsister caught in sin, we should

(10:09):
gently restore them. Beingcareful of the temptation that
they're caught in. We are calledto be rescuers. Yes.
God can rescue all by himself,but he rarely does that. What he
likes to do instead is to leadhis people to have compassionate
hearts to rescue others. Heinvites us to be a part of his
mission and discipleship ingoing after the lost and the

(10:33):
broken. Abraham's sacrificialdecision to leave the comfort
and safety of where he wasliving and his good decision to
go and rescue Lot at risk of hisown life, it reminds me of Jesus
doing the same thing. Right?
Jesus was in heaven andperfection and entered into our
suffering to come and rescue usbecause of our poor decisions

(10:54):
that we made in sin as well. Sohere's a question. Who in your
life needs you to take a step offaith to boldly go after them
and rescue them? Is theresomeone there God is giving you
a heart to be the initiator andsay, I'm gonna reconcile this
friendship, this relationship.They didn't apologize perfectly.
They may never apologize. And Icould I could stand here and

(11:17):
say, I'll never speak to themever again. Or I could say, you
know what? They're not evencapable of it because they're
not close to the Lord. Andthere's and there's brokenness
and pain in their life.
And so, I'm gonna be so rightwith the Lord that I can still
reestablish relationship. I'mnot talking about being around
toxic people forever and havingno boundaries. I'm I'm not
saying that. I'm saying you prayabout being a part of God's

(11:38):
merciful rescue plan. Genuinefaith recognizes like Abraham
that his victory didn't comefrom having 318 trained men for
war.
His victory came from Godhimself. And so, he acknowledges
God. He gives a tenth ofeverything he had to God to say,
all good things come from you. Iwas able to bring back my nephew

(12:01):
this whole city because of yourgoodness. This should have been
a wake up call to Sodom.
Right? Can you imagine Sodom andtheir wickedness having their
entire city taken captive andeverybody's restored alive?
That's a moment for you to say,has have I displeased you?
Right? Should should I worshipyou?
They had their chance atrepentance here and they chose

(12:23):
to double down on their sininstead. But Abram gives God
glory. Now Melchizedek iseither, it's either the second
person of the trinity beforeJesus permanently became the God
man, our savior. I don't thinkhe was just sitting on the
sidelines for thousands of yearssaying, put me in coach. So now
wait till the New Testament.
Wait till the New Testament. Ithink there were a lot of times

(12:45):
where he jumped in in the OldTestament to be a part of the
rescue plan. Sometimes he'scalled the angel of the Lord.
Other times when you see it saysthat somebody saw the Lord in
the Old Testament, not theFather that they saw. Because
John one eighteen says, nobodyhas seen the Father.
And the Holy Spirit doesn't havehuman form. It's the second
person of the Trinity. So thiscould be Jesus, or it could be

(13:09):
just a a person who isforeshadowing the work of Jesus.
Melchizedek means righteousness.So Melchizedek is king of
righteousness.
It says he's king of Salem.Salem is what will eventually be
Jerusalem. Salem means peace. Sohe's king of righteousness, king
of peace. Right?
He he is one that gives breadand wine just like Jesus

(13:30):
established at the last supperfor for communion. He's both
king and priest. The only othertime we see that in the old
testament, that person ispunished because those were
supposed supposed to be separateoffices. But for Jesus, he is
our eternal king and yet ourpriest as well. And so, this is
a beautiful typology of Jesuswho is to come.

(13:51):
If you wanna learn more aboutthat, you gotta read Hebrews
chapter seven. Hebrews chapterseven is a whole chapter about
Melchizedek, this mysteriousperson in the Old Testament. And
it says, Jesus is a priestaccording to the order of
Melchizedek quoting Psalm 110.Very interesting to read. But
here's a question.
What victories or opportunitiesor provisions in your life are

(14:13):
you tempted to take credit forrather than using them to give
God glory? One of the reasonswhy Shannon and I tie the tenth
of of whatever we make isbecause we acknowledge that
every good thing in our life isfrom God. And so we want to give
back to him and fuel theministry here at Cornerstone. We
we know that God is the generousfirst giver and has given us so

(14:34):
much by creating us and bygiving us his son Jesus. And
giving a tenth like Abraham didis is one way what we show that.
Or just pausing and praying andbeing grateful in the good
seasons, not forgetting aboutGod, but glorifying God. My my
personal rule is when anythingawesome happens, I thank the
Lord. And when anything horriblehappens, I'm like, Lord, I

(14:54):
messed this up, didn't I? Right?I blame me for the bad and and
him for the good.
And that's usually the way it isin my life. Now, Abram doesn't
just meet Melchizedek, thisunique character. He has other
visitors a few years later inGenesis chapter 18. And one of
them is the Lord himself. Verseone, the Lord appeared to

(15:15):
Abraham.
Abraham looked up and saw threemen standing. He hurried to meet
them and bowed low. He said, ifI found favor, don't pass by.
Let a little water be brought.You can wash your feet.
You can eat and be refreshed.And they said, very well. Verse
six, so Abraham hurried to Sarahand said the best thing you
could ever say to your spouse,bake some bread. And she's like,

(15:35):
gluten or gluten free? I justmake both.
I didn't ask. It was awkward.Right? And so he just she starts
making the bread there. Hebrought some some some cheese,
some milk, and and the calf thatthey had roasted and set these
before them.
And one of them said, I willsurely return to you about this
time next year. And Sarah, yourwife will have a son. This is a
promise that they'd received inthe past that they gave up on

(15:56):
because they were so old now.Sarah's thinking like that's
literally impossible. Like thatseason of my life is over.
It must not be a literalpromise. It must be figurative.
And so verse 12, she laughed toherself and she thought, after I
am worn out and my Lord is old,am I going to really have this
pleasure? And the Lord said toAbraham, why did Sarah laugh? Is

(16:17):
anything too hard for the Lord?
Sarah was afraid so she lied.She's like, I don't laugh. I
want to talk about it. Didn'tlaugh. And he said, you did like
you did laugh.
Verse 20. The outcry againstSodom and Gomorrah is so great
and their sin so grievous thatI'm going to go down and see if
they deserve judgment. Abrahamsaid in verse 24, well, what if
there are 50 righteous? Will youreally sweep it away and not

(16:39):
spare the place for the sake ofthe 50 righteous? Far be it from
you to do such a thing, treatingthe righteous and the wicked
alike.
Will not the judge of all theearth do right? The Lord said,
alright. If I find 50 righteouspeople in the city of Sodom, I
will spare the whole place fortheir sake. And then Abraham
boldly negotiates with Godhimself. And Abraham, he's about

(17:03):
to pee his pants doing this.
He apologizes every time. He'slike, I'm so sorry. One more
thing. He's like, what ifthere's 45 righteous people? He
goes, alright.
Yeah. What if there's forty,thirty, 20, 10? And he gets God
to agree, okay. If there's 10righteous people in the whole
city, I won't destroy it. AndAbraham's like, alright.
I mean, Abraham is used by Godto intercede for this city, for

(17:25):
his family that's there. And allSodom has to do is have 10
righteous people in the wholecity. But as we as we see,
that's not going to be somethingthat happens. You see, faith
sees the the flow, the theblessing that flows from
hospitality and overcomes allinconveniences to make it
happen. Three people show upunannounced.

(17:48):
Abraham could be like, sorry,you should have called. You
should have called in advance.We would have been ready for
you. But no, Abrahaminconveniences himself and his
whole family to make it happenfor them. Right?
He's like, whatever it takes,he's going to be a blessing to
them. I got to tell you thathospitality is something that
our family has found greatblessing in. Like it's a it's

(18:10):
the greatest blessing that Ithink we we receive is is in
hospitality. We have threefamilies or singles coming over
a couple times a month today.We've got some coming over right
after this service.
I'll go see who they are andthey're gonna dessert at my
house. We've been doing this foryears. We've had like 700
something people fromCornerstone over our house. We
are the ones that have receivedthe blessing. Right?

(18:30):
We've we've met people thatwe've hired on staff. We've met
people that have encouraged usand and prayed for us. Our kids
have met their friends becauseof people coming over our house.
I hope to be at Cornerstone,Lord willing, for the next
twenty two years. And I honestlythink that the greatest work
that I will accomplish will bethrough hospitality, through
being available, through beingjust just like us.

(18:52):
Right? Just being normal aroundaround each other, even more so
than the preaching of God'sword. I I believe that that's
going to be the case. It'simportant. But it's not easy.
Like it does involve cleaningand no one likes cleaning. Like
I it means that sometimes on aSaturday, it's like we got to
start picking up. We got to makethe downstairs look presentable.
Let's take everything and pushit into the playroom and pretend

(19:13):
like it's clean in all of ourhouse. Let's beg the kids, can
you please just just fake it?
And they're like, fake it tillfake it till we make it? Like by
being nice to each other? We'relike, you're not going to make
it. Just fake it. Just justpretend to be a Christian for
eight minutes.
Right? When people are here.Right? It causes stress. Right?
Our our our walls havehandprints all over them and I

(19:35):
we scrub them and the handprintsare still there and that's
embarrassing. But we let you seethem because this is our life
and we experience such blessing.Here's the problem. In America,
like we love independence. I'mall for July 4, but like I want
more fireworks too inCalifornia, but no fires.
I love I love independence. Andwe should read our Bible by
ourselves and pray by ourselves,but not at the expense of doing

(20:00):
that with each other. Maybe youthink like, I'll do that
privately. My faith is private.You gotta join a life group.
You gotta join a discipleshipgroup. I mean, for for much of
Christianity, it was the onlyway. In the middle ages when
people couldn't read, they wouldgather together and the pastors
would read the scripture to themand they'd pray with each other
and memorize prayers becausethat's all they could do.

(20:21):
There's so much blessing and joyin hospitality as we minister
one to another and have mutualencouragement. Right?
God shows up when people makeroom for him. In Abram's case,
he showed up visibly. It's notgonna happen as you do
hospitality, but God will showup meaningfully through the

(20:42):
lives of the people that arearound you. You will be
encouraged. So here's aquestion.
How are you intentionallycreating space in your life for
God's presence and God's people?Yeah. Carve out time that you're
in the word and praying byyourself, but then do that with
other people. Do that with yourfamily. Do that with friends.
Do that with groups here and youwill be blessed. Sarah laughed.

(21:04):
Right? She's like, it'simpossible. Like, it's
impossible that I'm gonna have akid.
And she reminds me of us when wedoubt the promises of God.
Right? Faith should know thatnothing is too hard for God. And
so we should stop laughing andstart believing, but we're just
like her. That's why I'm soencouraged about how God
responded to her laugh.

(21:24):
Because he could have said, areyou kidding me? I'm God
Almighty, creator of heaven andearth. And I told you I was
going to do something, but youknow what? You offended me. You
didn't believe.
No baby for you. I'll give it tothese other people. He could
have done that. And we wouldread that and preach on that and
be fine with it. It makes sense.
But God is actually reallygenerous and kind and
compassionate. He'sunderstanding. He's empathetic.

(21:48):
Right? Our savior has beentempted just like us but without
sin.
And so God, he doesn't rebukeher harshly. He rebukes her
gently. He's like, hey, youlaughed. She's like, I didn't.
He's like, you did.
And then he says, but isanything too hard for the Lord?
It's him recognizing that we'rejust dust. That we're gonna have
moments of skepticism and doubt.But he calls us back to faith.

(22:10):
He doesn't want us to stopbelieving.
He wants us to pray boldprayers. So here's a question.
What promise from God have youstopped believing? Because it's
just too hard, too long, it'sjust not doesn't really seem
like it's possible. The time haspassed.
Maybe you need to start prayingabout that again. That the
limitation isn't in God'sability. If it's something that

(22:33):
God wants to happen, it willhappen. Pray for those people
that you want to seek the Lord.Pray for that that work.
Pray for the healing that you'vebeen waiting on the Lord for.
Pray boldly. Look at how boldAbraham was talking to God
himself saying, you're gonna berighteous. Right? Like, you'll
save if the city has at least 10people.

(22:54):
God invites bold prayers tohimself and he he honors them.
It it shows it shows how awesomewe think God is when we pray big
prayers. Don't just pray, Lord,save my one neighbor. Say, Lord,
can you save California? Like,say, do pray for a nation.
Right? There have beenmissionaries over time that have
prayed for nations and God havehas answered those prayers. Pray

(23:16):
big bold prayers to honor God.The problem we see in Genesis
chapter 19, I mean, this is oneof the most disturbing chapters
in the entire Bible. And we seethe small compromise that Lot
was making ended in adevastating way for his family.
Verse one, it says, the twoangels, the Lord stayed away,
but the two angels arrived atSodom in the evening. And Lot

(23:39):
was sitting in the gateway tothe city. He insisted that they
go with him and entered hishouse. And all the men from
every part of the citysurrounded the house and said,
where are the men you brought?Bring them out to us so that we
can have sex with them.
Lot went outside. No, myfriends. Don't do this wicked
thing. And then Lot has likeliterally the biggest parenting

(24:01):
fail in the Bible. Like it it'she says the most horrendous
thing you could ever imagine.
In verse eight, he says, look, Ihave I have two daughters who
have never slept with a man.Like, take them instead. Like,
what in the world are youtalking about? Like like a a
father is supposed to protecthis children. Men are supposed
to protect the vulnerable.
He should have gone outside andhe should have said, over my

(24:22):
dead body, gonna have to kill mebut I'm not giving up anyone in
the house. Like that's that'swhat would be normal. What is
going on? In that culture, theyhad such a high view of
hospitality. The guideline waskind of, if people came to your
house, they were under yourprotection and you had to
protect them even more than yourfamily.
I'm not making excuses for alot. I think the sin of Sodom

(24:44):
influenced his morality. And andhe just made a wicked scared
fearful decision there where heshould have been the man who
died for his family. Instead, hedoes this. And we read this
today and and we look at Lot, wejudge him and say, like, how
dare you?
You're literally supposed toprotect the vulnerable. You
protect vulnerable women.Perhaps the hardest thing I'll

(25:10):
have to say this year atCornerstone is when I was
reading this passage and I feellike the Holy Spirit wanted me
to say this about this, that youare not allowed to judge Lot in
not protecting vulnerable womenif you're looking at
pornography. You're not. It'sjust me.
It's just private. Are youkidding me? All the statistics

(25:31):
say that your consumption ofpornography encourages that the
trafficking of these women. It'sthe exact opposite of protecting
a vulnerable woman to look atpornography, but the enemy of
your soul has said it's fun.We'd love to help you with that.

(25:52):
I had to battle that in college.Almost every man and many women
have had to battle this as well.We'd love to help you with that.
Verse 10, it says, but the meninside, these angels reached out
and pulled Lot back into thehouse. Then they struck the men
with blindness.
The two men said to Lot, do youhave anyone else here? Get them
out of here because we're goingto destroy this place. Lot went

(26:15):
out and spoke to his sons inlaw. They they were engaged to
his daughters. And they thoughthe was joking.
And the angels urged Lot, hurry,take your wife and your two
daughters. And when hehesitated, the men grasped his
hand for the Lord was mercifulto them. Flee, don't look back.
Then the Lord rained downburning sulfur on Sodom and
Gomorrah. But Lot's wife lookedback and she became a pillar of

(26:38):
salt.
From a distance, verse 28,Abraham looked and saw smoke
rising. So when God destroyedthe cities, he remembered
Abraham and brought Lot out. Andthe chapter ends just as bad as
the whole thing's going. Lot'sdaughters think the whole
world's over and they commitsexual immorality in a way where
two of the greatest enemies ofIsrael are born, the Ammonites

(26:59):
and the Moabites. And you thinkit's just a bad chapter.
It's just a nightmare, butcompromise always costs more
than you think. We think likeLot. Well, this is reasonable. I
get this benefit and the onlydownside is I'm really close to
sin. I mean, realize how bad sinis.
We need to distance ourselvesfrom it. Lot was in Sodom, but

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Sodom was in Lot. It was in hisheart. It compromised his
morals. The the obvious sin whenyou read Genesis 19 is the sin
of homosexuality and rape.
But Ezekiel tells us there's alot more going on that this city
was judged for. We're we're allsinners. Tell me if you haven't
committed any of these sins.Ezekiel sixteen forty nine. Now

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this was the sin of your sisterSodom.
Sister, God is actually speakingagainst Jerusalem Years Years
later in the future saying, youguys are so bad it's like your
sister city of Sodom. Imaginehow offended they were. So she
and her daughters were arrogant,overfed. Right when I said
overfed, sucked my gut in alittle bit. I honestly did.
I really did. That's reallyfunny. I probably did the other

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services but I wasn't. I was andnow I'm so tired I'm being
honest with you. Arrogant,overfed, unconcerned.
They did not help the poor andneedy. They were haughty. They
did detestable things before me.Therefore, I did away with them
as you have seen. Jude one sevenspeaks about the immorality as

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well.
Compromise always costs morethan we think. Lot's wife, she
had a love of worldliness, ofthis sinful city. So at some
point, she she turned back.Maybe she turned back with a
longing heart and God did theliteral miracle and she became a
pillar of salt. Maybe she turnedback as they were fleeing away
and said, no, I've got to goback.
And for whatever reason, maybeshe got caught up in the fire

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and brimstone and it justappeared that she looked like
salt, but she was caught caughtup in the destruction. I don't
know. I know that a love ofworldliness and sin will cost
us. Here's a question. Wherehave you grown comfortable with
compromise?
I hope we can see how it hurtsour lives so much, how it ruins
our witness. The son in laws ofLot thought he was laughing. He

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had no influence over them.Maybe he started by saying, want
to be in Sodom to influencethese people towards
righteousness. But but he hedidn't really bring them out of
Sodom.
They they pulled him down whenyou think about it. But God's
mercy reaches so much fartherthan we can expect. Lot did not
deserve God's mercy. Worst dadin the Bible. He didn't deserve

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the rescue.
He lingered. He he delayed hisleaving. He compromised, but
we're all lot. We all delay ourrepentance of sin at times. Our
only hope is the mercy of God.
Mercy grabs us by the hand. Thispassage shows us that God's
judgment is certain against sin,and Jesus is our only shelter

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from that. God will not ignoresin and evil forever. He came
once to rescue us by dying onthe cross and he is patient
every day since so that we couldrepent and put our trust in
Jesus. But he's coming back oneday to judge the wicked.
And we're told about Sodom insecond Peter chapter two verse

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six. Says, if God condemned thecities of Sodom and Gomorrah by
burning them to ashes and madethem an example of what is going
to happen to the ungodly. Andthen we have an odd description
of Lot that's a new from througha New Testament lens. We must
have caught Lot on a really badday, but apparently he was a
true follower of God just havingthe worst day ever as it was
written about. But verse sevensays, if God rescued Lot, a

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righteous man who was distressedby the depraved conduct of the
lawless, for that righteous manliving among them day after day
was tormented in his righteoussoul by the lawless deeds he saw
and heard.
If this is so, then listen, Thenthe Lord knows how to rescue the
godly from trials. And he knowshow to hold the unrighteous for

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punishment on the day ofjudgment. You may think this is
a this is an old story. Youknow, that that's so far a a
long time ago. Listen.
This story is going to happenagain. There will come a time in
the future when God is going tojudge the wicked. Why delay your
repentance anymore? That's anold story. It's an old story.

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How do we know it's even true?Let me let me show you something
I found. Let me put you on onthe slide here, Josephus.
Josephus is a a first century ADRoman Jewish historian. I didn't
show this the last threeservices.
We'll see if they can find itListen to what he said two
thousand years ago. Adjacent tothe Dead Sea is the land of
Sodom, in the days of an oldcountry blessed in its produce

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and in the wealth of its variouscities. But now all burnt up. It
is said that owing to theimpiety of its inhabitants, it
was consumed by thunderbolts,and in fact vestiges of the
divine fire and faint traces ofthe five cities are still
visible. You may say like, wellI don't see any Sodom today, but
two thousand years ago, I'm I'mnot even saying Josephus was a

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Christian.
He was a Jewish Roman historian.But he's saying in his time, you
could see the burnt five cities.That wreckage was still there
even though it's buried now.This did happen. And this is an
example to us that it's going tohappen again.
And Jesus, this is like, you'relike, this is intense. Jesus,

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the most loving and graciousperson that we know pointed to
Sodom to say this warning inLuke 17. It was the same in the
days of Lot. People were eatingand drinking, buying and
selling, planting and building.But the day Lot left Sodom, fire
and sulfur rained down fromheaven and destroyed them all.

(32:49):
It will be just like this on theday the son of man is revealed.
Jesus pleads with us and warnsus and says, that really
happened. I I was there withwith Abraham and two angels
before it all happened to goinvestigate this. It really
happened. They reallyexperienced judgment.
Every person that has diedbefore us knows the truth of the

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afterlife, that there isjudgment awaiting everybody. And
Jesus is the only shelter. Weneed to admit that we are
sinners and hide ourselves inJesus who already took the wrath
of God for us. We don't have toexperience the judgment of Sodom
and Gomorrah. Although wedeserve it.
No, I'm not as bad as that. Wedeserve it. Our sin against a

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holy God does deserve judgment.But we don't have to experience
it. And Jesus is pleading withyou, pleading with you to say,
why not just repent?
He doesn't say, repent and ifyou're perfect your whole life,
then I'll let you in. No. Justrepent. Just have a heart that
humbly says, I'm the sinner. I'mthe one deserving of the
judgment.
I'm the one that needs rescue.And don't be like the sons in

(33:57):
law who thought the whole thingwas a joke. Say, no, I believe.
And most people in this room dobelieve. But if you're here and
and you've never made thatdecision, you're or you're
delaying it until the end ofyour life or something, I wanna
give you a chance to get rightwith the Lord.
The single best motivatingfactor to repent of your sins
and put your faith in Jesus isthe love of God. It's that God

(34:20):
actually loves you so much thathe created you. He gave you this
life. He wants to bless you,adopt you into his family.
That's the greatest motivatingfactor.
But judgment's a good motivatingfactor too. And I and you can't
scam God. You can't say, alrightfine. I'll pray. I I want my get
out of hell free card, and thenI'm gonna live my life exactly

(34:41):
how I lived before.
You can't do it. Sarah couldn'tlaugh quietly and get away with
it. You can't rework everythingand say, alright, I'm gonna
apologize to God now and thensin tomorrow. No. It's gotta be
all or nothing.
But if you go all in with Jesus,like I said, you won't be
perfect, but you will be lovedby God and covered from all of
this. And so if everyone justclosed their eyes and have an

(35:02):
attitude of prayer. If you'rehere today, I know this is
intense, but it's real. Right?And when we read in the
scriptures this intense stuff,we've got to talk about it.
And if today's the day that youwant to repent of your sins and
put your faith in Jesus, ifyou'll just slip up your hand,
I'll lead you in a simple prayerthat many people today have
prayed. Awesome. In the balconytoo. Great. Probably a hundred

(35:27):
or so people today have madethis decision.
You're not alone. We all aresinners needing the salvation of
God. You can pray a prayer likethis in the quietness of your
your own heart, or you can prayit out loud because we're just
gonna celebrate with you anyway.You could say, father in heaven,
I'm the sinner. Please forgiveme for my sins.

(35:50):
I believe Jesus is the son ofGod. I believe he died on the
cross in my place and rose againthree days later. Make me a new
creation. Fill me with the HolySpirit and give me the strength,
the grace to follow King Jesusevery day of my life. And when I

(36:15):
fail, help me to get back up andfollow him again.
In Jesus name I pray. Amen. Oh,we just wanna rejoice with those
that made this decision today.Listen, this is this is the
least casual decision you'veever made in your life. So would
you please just text the wordjourney so we can support you?
We we wanna send you someresources about your journey

(36:38):
with the Lord. You can ask usquestions through text or we can
meet with you in person. Butplease let us support you.
Listen, I can guarantee you thatnext week will include some more
humor, but I needed to honor thescriptures that we were reading
today. And I know that Jesusdidn't want me to take this
lightly at all.
And that's how we are alwaysgonna do it at Cornerstone.
We're gonna we're gonna preachthe word of God faithfully even

(37:00):
when it offends us because itwill lead to the best life that
we could imagine followingJesus. God bless you guys. We'll
see you next week.

Host (37:09):
We hope you are blessed by this week's message. If you're a
first time listener, text theword new to [phone]. If
you'd like to give to ourministry, please visit
cornerstone.org/give. Thank youfor listening and have a great
week.