Making The Wrong Choices

Life is a series of choices

Genesis 13: 5 - 13

· The choices you make today will determine where you will find yourself tomorrow.

· But most of the choices we are faced with in life are incidental.

· But the thought of this message is for the more serious decisions we face in life. Choices that may make a significant difference in our lives and those affected by the choices we make.

· The choices we make can alter our life forever and set us on a course that may last a lifetime.

· There are some choices that have serious consequences, and some, which do not really matter.

· Invariably, what you chose to sow today, you will reap tomorrow. Many people are reaping today the fruit of the seed they sowed in time past.

Nowhere in the Bible was Lot referred to as a righteous man who had any knowledge of God.

Genesis 11: 31 - Lot is the nephew of Abraham, part of a Chaldean a people who were not recorded to have had any knowledge of God.

Genesis 12 - God reveals Himself to Abraham but no record of relationship with Lot.

Genesis 12:4 - when Abraham was leaving Ur, we do not know why he took Lot, or why Lot followed him.

Genesis 13: 10-11 - Lot’s true character beginning to manifest. By right Abraham should have made the first choice. But Lot made a choice, which was to prove to be a terrible choice in the long run.

"Fools rush in where angels fear to tread"

"Look before you leap"

What were the choices that Lot made?

1. Genesis 13:10-11. He chose not to seek the will of God before making a choice.

He did not know God so you cannot really blame him.

He made that choice based solely on the lusts of the flesh. "You cannot judge a book by its cover", "not all that glitters is gold"

Matthew 23:27, Jesus was speaking about the Pharisees, hypocrites. White sepulchers. Beautiful outside, but inside full of dead men’s bones!

· choosing a life partner! Do not judge by the cover.

· choosing where to live. Do not relocate because of cost of living. Is God calling you there.

· In choosing a job? Some people choose any job because they are desperate. But even before making that choice, is God in there with you?

2. Lot chose to be driven by greed, selfishness, wanting the best for himself at the expense of his brother.

· A way to love is to love yourself and yourself alone!

· Another way to love is to love your brother as yourself.

· But the supreme way to love is to love your brother more at the expense of yourself! The ultimate love!

3. Genesis 13:13. Lot chose to live in Sodom

· He did not consider where he was going. Sodom, at this time in history was already famous for its immoralities.

· From all earthly standards the choice Lot made was a good one. But he did not consider the spiritual implication of his move.

· It is not the physical location that matters. It is the spiritual positioning.

· Locationally, Lot was going to the best land, but spiritually, his life was far from God. And he was going into a land without God going in there with him.

· There are many places where you may find yourself, which physically or spiritually may be a Sodom.

· We cannot because of sin run away from the world. Sin is all around us. The most important we need to know is that even though we are in the world we are not of the world.

· We cannot afford to live the life that people are living simply because it is the acceptable thing to do. It is acceptable to the world. Is it acceptable to God?

What are the consequences of the choice that Lot made?

Physically and spiritually, Lot was not well positioned, hence it was easy for him to make all the wrong decisions. And he suffered for it.

1. Genesis 19:8 Sin had been deeply absorbed into Lot’s life. Two wrongs never make a right. If you tell a lie, telling another lie will never it a right. In science, (negative X negative = positive). Not so with God.

· Lot had become hardened with the sin of the place were he was living in.

· The more you practice sin the easier it will be for you to live it.

· "It doesn’t matter". "Every one is doing it". "I cannot help myself".

2. Genesis 19: 8 the height of perversion on the part of Lot. How could a father give his two virgin daughters to a mob? That mob would have destroyed those girls.