A Lot of Trouble
Gen. 13:5-13; 18:17-32; 19:1-11, 24-28
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A. The Course of the man—Lot (Abraham’s nephew)
There came a time when they had to separate. (this place ain’t big enough for the both of us.)
Abraham did something very unselfish…gave him the best land…land which had been promised to him, rather.
Look at Lot’s course: The course of the man
13:10 lifted up his eyes toward Sodom
12 pitched his tent toward Sodom
19:1 sitting in the gate! Living there!
Ps. 1:1 Blessed is the man that walketh not…
Lot was:
1. Weak in his devotions
Abraham had an altar, Gen. 13:5 says Lot had flocks, herds, tents.
Abraham had devotions 19:27…He knew that the Bible would keep him from sin, and sin would keep him from the Bible!
Abraham knew to keep short accounts w/ God.
What you get here in 3 services a week is not enough. You can only ride on someone else’s spiritual coattail for so long. Sooner or later you have got to develop that personal, intimate, one on one, daily relationship w/ God.
Weak in his devotions…
2. Worldly in his desires
Gen. 13:10 says that Lot chose Sodom because it reminded him of the land of Egypt…that he had been saved from! (World)
Lot asked, is this a good place to raise cattle, but he should have asked if it was a good place to raise kids!
“Make money”, not “grow spiritually”… “feed me”, not “be fed”
“Serve myself”, not “I, myself, can serve God.”
He became worldly in his desires. It was a very worldly city of sexual promiscuity and homosexuality which quickly follows promiscuity!
Jesus said, “remember Lot’s wife”—she was worldly too, she looked back at what God had saved her from…longingly! There goes my home/possessions/friends/but also her lifestyle…even if she wasn’t practicing their ways, she was comfortable around it…her heart was still in Sodom, and even worse, Sodom was still in her heart.
And how about you? You’re straight, but are you comfortable being in sin-filled situations and places? What’s the difference between allowing it on our TV’s and allowing it in our bedrooms?
They were worldly Christians who vexed their righteous souls staying in that place.
3. Wrong in his decision
Gen. 13:11 3 key words… “then Lot chose”
God allows us to choose our own path…but He doesn’t allow us to choose what destination that path will lead to.
God will allow us to choose anything we want, except for the consequences, we can’t choose those! As a matter of fact, we have to live w/ the consequences of our choices.
Every decision we make, to at least some degree, affects the direction of our future.
For the most part, our decisions are determined by our desires.
Ill.—pastor/raised by mother not to go to movies/he didn’t…because it was against the rules/his friend was raised the same way/when they became teens, friend said, it’s Sunday night, let’s skip church, and go to the theatre/ “no, better not”/ “oh, come on!”/they decided to go their separate ways, the one to church, the other to the theatre/the one who went to church became a successful pastor/other moved to Hollywood and eventually became a successful producer
One day that Pastor was in L.A., preaching a mtg. He decided to call his old friend. They got together. His friend said, “you know, several years ago when we were teens, I skipped church to go to the movies” “I remember,” the pastor said.
“Little did I know that on that night, we were prophetically choosing our life’s work.”
Decisions may seem small at the time, but you never know where those roads will lead.
Our teens need to think twice before they attend that party. Because you never know when you’ll make a decision that will change the course of your life forever.
Dance/car alone together/rebel against parents
“then Lot chose…” and he lived forever w/ the consequences of that worldly-minded decision!
Lot was weak in his devotions/worldly in his desires/wrong in his decision…
4. Wrecked in his demise
Here’s a man that the NT says was saved, and yet in the end of ch. 19 we find a wrecked Lot getting drunk, committing incest w/ both of his daughters, and the result of those relations was his daughters each giving birth to leaders of enemy nations (ammonites/moabites) that would plague Israel for years to come…oh, the power of a single decision!
That was the course of the man…
2. The Curse of the society
We should try our best to be positive about the future of America…we should strive to be optimistic…but we need to be realistic. Nothing is more “real”istic than the Word of God, which makes it very clear that Sodom’s sins will reap Sodom’s doom.
We should be reminded of the fact that throughout history, God has never once failed to judge a nation that has accepted these practices.
I got a note from Bob Vandenburg, President of Concerned Christians for America and lobbyist in the IL Congress. [he’ll be speaking here this summer once again.] Allow me to read a portion…
Thank you to all of you who helped work so hard for the defeat of the gay rights bill in Illinois. In spite of all our efforts, during the last two days of the session, deals were made, and pressure was brought to bear by the political powers that be. When the legislation passed the Senate Monday evening, there were six legislators who had stated (earlier in the same day!!!!) that they would not support the gay rights bill when it came up for a vote, who voted for the legislation.
This is ONE OF THE MOST LIBERAL AND FAR REACHING PIECES OF LEGISLATION IN THE NATION. While there are 14 other states with gay rights legislation, there are only 4 other states that protect transgendered people.
IMPACT OF SB 3186
1) There is no religious exemption for churches, or personal religious convictions. This means churches which reject a gay applicant for a position on the church staff could be subject to a lawsuit.
2) Marriage laws can now be challenged (as in Massachusetts), since "sexual-orientation is now a protected status.
3) Illinois is only the 5th state in the nation to include "gender-related identity". In Minnesota, this was used by a cross-dressing male librarian to use the women’s washroom. When another teacher challenged this in the federal courts, the federal court upheld the right of the cross-dresser to use the women’s washroom in the St. Paul school district.
God loves all people, including homosexuals. And thus, like Christ, Christians (forgiven sinners) should love all other sinners and seek to help them. The religious community, however, should not be required to endorse sin, and neither should the government.
America has become a nation for homosexuals. And homosexuals from other nations that feel unwelcome have found a home here. It has been said that if America doesn’t get right w/ God, then God will have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah. Brazenly, unashamedly, they flaunt their sin…in your face! It’s not enough for them to just say they’re ok w/ it, they want your endorsement as well! And they won’t be happy until the government officially endorses their sin/gay marriage/military endorsement…getting closer/public school endorsement/church endorsement…here already, in large part/every week you hear about another church that has ordained a homosexual, or performed a so-called homosexual union.
What I’m saying is not hate speech…our constitution refers to it as “free speech”!
Remember, God loves sinners/homosexuals. And in love, our God, which knows what sin will do to us…ruin our life…drag us to hell, He calls upon all sinners, inc. homosexuals, to repent! And our God, who loves these sinners, hates their sin, and Jesus died for those sins, just like ours…as if He had committed them!
Our culture today whitewashes sin.
Drunkard/alcoholic…now it’s a disease, releasing them from personal responsibility.
Thief/cleptomaniac adultery/affair…sounds so sophisticated!
Sodomite/gay, glad…we’ve taken good words from the English language, that used to mean happy and carefree, and now used to describe perverts and deviants.
God doesn’t think that sodomy is gay…He calls it repulsive, abominable, and abhorrent.
If the Bible is clear on anything, it teaches that the sin for which Sodom and Gomorrah was destroyed was the sin of homosexuality.
Many people deny that today…homosexuals take the scripture and twist it…they do all kinds of mental gymnastics to try to teach otherwise…even claiming that Jesus and His disciples were gay, because they lived in a commune together!
God’s Word strips away the veneer!
I Cor. 6
9Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, 10Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
They can be saved…I’ve led them to the Lord before! And the next verse continues…
11And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
Lev. 18
22Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.
Lev. 20
13If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death…
Rom. 1
24Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: 25Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. 26For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: 27And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet. (AIDS?)
Look at this: Other sins which are grouped w/ it:
28And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; 29Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, 30Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: 32Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
Eph. 5
11And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. 12For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret.
Is. 3
9The show of their countenance doth witness against them; and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not. Woe unto their soul! for they have rewarded evil unto themselves.
It is not natural…God our creator has spoken! (That settles it, whether you believe it or not!)
The animals understand, but man cannot!
Homosexuals cannot reproduce, only recruit!
True medical science can only support that homosexuality is a behavioral choice!
Homosexuals claim there is a “gay gene” which they inherit. Medical science disagrees.
Ill.—identical twins cases where one “turns” gay and the other not.
I agree to a certain extent!: I believe we all inherit a gene…a gene called the sin nature. And any of us are capable of choosing that sinful lifestyle, as so many have!
The trends today toward homosexuality are scary. The end of the road our society is on is frightening!
Homosexuals want more than just equal status, they want preferred status. Not only do they want an employer to have to consider them equally w/ another applicant, regardless of his personal beliefs, but they want him to feel pressure to choose them over another, to keep him out of trouble and help fill the quota!
Lawmakers have taken our discrimination laws, which are a relatively good thing protecting people regardless of race, color, creed, and have added the phrase “or sexual orientation”. And lawmakers like Barney Frank, an openly homosexual Senator, stand on a platform of discrimination that is very shaky.
He said, “we shouldn’t be discriminated against any more than the blacks or the Jews.”
If I were black, or Jewish, I’d be offended at that statement. For you cannot choose your race, but you can choose your lifestyle!
Pres. Clinton appointed at least 25 openly homosexual men and lesbian women to key positions in his administration, including his cabinet. When the homosexuals are moved from the closet--to the cabinet…we’ve got major problems!
State Universities now teach what they call, “sensitivity training” to all incoming freshmen. And students caught speaking out against this “alternate lifestyle”, can be the subjects of discipline for “hate speech”…whatever happened to free speech! And at the same time, the homosexual crowd is allowed to speak against people like us, labeling us with all kinds of names, and that’s not hate speech?
And now it’s official in our state, and they will try to silence preachers like myself. Even though I don’t recommend gay bashing/trashing (physical/verbal abuse of them)…I do recommend gay evangelization! Homosexuals don’t need reformation, they need transformation…a new heart! Only the blood of Jesus can free a person from such shackles. And we shouldn’t try to just keep our distance from them…or from this subject in our pulpits! I have the right to preach the Bible, and against sin!
the course of the man/curse of society…
3. The Cure that could have been
Abraham negotiated w/ God, and God said to Abraham, if there’s just 10 believers there, I’ll spare the whole city for just those ten!
Lot and his wife…that’s 2…he had 2 married daughters, they and their husbands make 6, and he had 2 unmarried daughters…there’s 8 right there. If Lot had only reached his own family, and just 2 more, the whole city would have been spared.
But even his family laughed at him, because he was backslidden. He had already lost his testimony…the NT says in
II Pet. 2:8
Lot dwelling among them, seeing them, “vexed his righteous soul from day to day” because of just being in their presence!
Any of us can start down that slippery slope toward sin, not just homosexuality, but any sin.
God may spare our nation, but if so, it will be because of an uprising…and uprising of the righteous…will you be one of them? Even if you have to stand alone…take your stand!
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