Genesis 18:1-10

So we know the story. Sarah was barren, could not have children. And she and Abraham were really old. Really old! I believe Abraham is about 100 at this point, and they're old, and they could not have a child. And three people appeared to Abraham. Who is one of those people? The LORD. And who are the other two? Angels. So God took up human form and came to Abraham, and he went with two angels and they came to Abraham.

Genesis 18:16-19:38

A pretty graphic story! We're going to go through it, but let's pray.

Our Lord and our God, we thank you for your word, for it's truth for it's honesty. Lord, I ask that as we go into this, O Lord, that You'd touch our hearts and do a new work in us, and make this little brief time that we have producue in our hearts, in our lives that will last for eternity. May your power be over your word and over all of us who speak it and hear it, O Lord, that it will produce what you intended for it to produce in us O Lord: a deeper walk with you.

Now, who's Lot? Abraham's nephew. For background, real quick, how did he end up being in Sodom? Abraham and Lot were together with too much resources, so they parted ways, and Lot went to the place called Sodom that looked like greener pasture. So he went there, and this is how it turns out for him.

Now, back to chapter 18. Three men visit lot: God and two angels. Did they actually go to Abraham? No. The Bible says "He saw three men standing near by." God didn't come and say "Hey Abraham, I'll come into your house today, do you have food for me? Do you have accomodation for me?" God just came with his angels and he just stood there like someone who was just resting. Then Abraham hurried "When he saw them, he hurried from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed low to the ground." Abraham, a discerning man could notice that that was the Lord, and those were his angels, and he invited them to come in.

He said, "If I have found favor in your eyes, my lord, do not pass your servant by. Let a little water be brought, and then you may all wash your feet and rest under this tree. Let me get you something to eat, so you can be refreshed and then go on your way—now that you have come to your servant." "Very well," they answered, "do as you say." (Genesis 18:3-5)

God doesn't force Himself into people's lives. God comes and he just gives you a little bit of a sign that he wants to be near. The sign could be anything. It could just be a friend who started talking to you about God. And that's God coming near, and he's giving you a hint that he's nearby. Maybe it's just a pull on your heart. You don't know, but you feel that God is drawing you near. But what God will not do is come and invade your life. He does not do such violations of people's lives. Jesus says "I stand at the door and knock", he does not break in. He could do it if he wants to. But he stands at the door and he knocks. But then he said if any man hears my voice and opens the door, then I'll come in. God always wants people to seek him. He wants people to say Lord come, I want you. He gives us just enough of a sign for us to be able to tell him "Lord, please come, draw near." And he does this constantly through the whole Bible. Like I said yesterday, even when he appeared at the shore on the lake, he didn't make himself known. On the road to Emeas, he was walking with the disciples, and the Bible said he did as if he was going away. Then the Lord revealed to them who he was.

The Lord wants people to seek him. That's again, for the 101th time we've been saying, make time to seek the Lord. That's how you bring him in. Once he starts showing signs that he's around, you begin to give him time. Abraham brought him food and water to wash his feet. That's what you do when you pray. You're like "Lord, come into my house, sit down, let's talk. Let's have some time together." That's what Abraham did.

And what did God do next? He said, where's your wife Sarah? Now, I don't know what the theologians say about these things. I think God must have looked at that and said "Why is it you're the only one here to welcome me? Where is Sarah, where is she?" It seemed like somewhere his walk with God was a whole lot better than hers, from all accounts of Scripture. She wasn't a bad woman, but it seems from all indications that she didn't have the same relationship with God that Abraham did. God came to their compound. God was there, and she was in the tent! Can you believe that? If Jesus was in that lobby, I would excuse myself, cut my sermon short and go out there. It'd be the only time I'd stop the message to go walk out of the room and do something. She didn't go after him.

In this story, you have various kinds of people with various kinds of attitudes. What's Abraham's attitude towards God? He wants to worship, bow down, give God. He didn't ask for anything. That's Abraham's attitude, a true worshiper, a friend of God, as the Bible said. He is trying to woo God's friendship.

His wife, her servant comes and says someone there, she is like "There's someone there? Ah that's nice, Ah, that's great...". She is not against it. She is not an evil woman. If she gets invited, she will come. It actually says that she could overhear the conversation that Abraham was having with God and the angels, but she did not come in to join them.

Later in the story, God gave Abraham what he needed, Abraham didn't welcome God and then start pleading with him for a son because he wanted one and had been waiting for a long time. When he saw the Lord, the first thing he said was "please, can you stay here, can I help you with your needs?" Seek after God, and God will give you what you need. Seek after God, woo his friendship! When you have God, you have everything else.

Alright, let me move on. Now God came down to meet Abraham, but he also came down to deal with a certain situation some miles away in Sodom and Gomorrah. Now God himself doesn't go there, he sends angels to go there. God was interested in meeting with his friend Abraham. He sent angels to destroy Sodom. The angels went, and as they were going, God stayed with Abraham. And Abraham was trying to cling to the Lord. And God wants to hide what will happen in Sodom and Gomorrah

Then the LORD said, "The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know. Genesis 18:20-21

Now of course, we know that God knows everything, but he is trying to show us what his heart is like, how he functions. He doesn't just go out and destroy people. When God is about to go and destroy something like, in this passage, Sodom and Gomorrah, it is because there is really reason for him to do so, and he has exhausted all of his other options. When God is going to send someone to hell, it will be because God has exhausted all other options with those people.

Now, what's God's attitude towards what's about to happen in Sodom and Gomorrah? First of all, what's his attitude towards the sin that's going on there? What do you get from his conversation from Abraham? What's his attitude like? Is he like "Yeah, these human beings, I've been waiting to send down fire on them for a while now, and finally they've given me the excuse to do so." That wasn't his attitude. His attitude was not "Oh, they just broke a rule. Ha ha, I saw it!" He said their sin was so grievious. God was grieved by their sin! It wasn't like God was unaffected and he was looking at his book and he said, who are the latest transgressors? Ah, Sodom and Gomorrah, they're having a lot of sin there. Ok, send two angels and let them check. If it's true wipe them off, and if it's not, then leave them alone." It wasn't like that. An outcry came from Sodom and Gomorrah. It reached God's heart. And God was grieved, and he was like "This is not what I created these human beings to do." This is not what I meant for the world to be like. God was grieved. As God saw the greed, the immorality, the violence, the pride, the homosexuality that was going on in that place, God was grieved! And he said that it was like an outcry. God sits there and he is hearing it!

Now let me tell you this. There is an outcry against this nation. There is a cry that goes up to God against this country. There have been about forty million babies aborted. Forty Million! A country that kill forty million of its own children is in trouble. It's a river of blood. When Cain killed his brother Abel, what did God say? Your brother's blood is crying out for vengance to me from the ground! There is a cry from these babies' blood. They are crying out to God, saying "God, this is a wicked nation, they've killed us! Won't you do anything about it?" Now, what do you really think God does when he watches down and sees every day thousands of babies who can't defend themselves?

I remember when I was still in high school, and the president at the time, during his last term, signed a bill for partial birth abortion, where the baby is pretty much full term. They partially bring him out, crush his head, and then pull him out. And then we go to other countries and try to teach them how to be civilized people. And tell them it's bad to kill your own people. It's hypocrisy! Utter hypocrisy! You kill your own children, and then you go across the ocean to the other lands, and you tell the people, this is how you better behave and treat your citizens. Only a hypocritical nation does that. And people say it's God's country. It's not. It used to be. There'll be a cry against the government on judgement day.

And this is something I need to repent about for not preaching enough about this. On judgement day, these babies will rise and they will condemn! There will be a judgement against the supreme court that allowed it, the people that brought it forward, the congress that has supported it, every president, every law maker, every state legislator that has upheld it, every doctor who has performed it, every woman who has gone to have an abortion, the nurses that helped out, the anesthesiologists. There is a judgement waiting for them. And people wonder why the country seems like it's heading to chaos. It's not strange, it's not suprising.

Last week I heard in Virginia where my family lives, they tried to ban--at least just ban late term abortions. And they struck down the ban. They said no, it doesn't matter how old the baby is. Just kill it! And people say it's their right. I heard two of the the most powerful pro-abortion group deciding which candidate to endorse, and the candidate that got the endorsement was happy, and the other one was bitter because she wasn't endorsed by the pro-abortion group! I was amazed to see that they were fighting to get the endorsement of the people who kill other people!

Now God is not neutral in this. He does have a position. And abortion is not the only problem. These people in Sodom and Gomorrah were not practicing abortion as far as we know. We have done worse than they have! And as one preacher said, if God does not judge America, he will have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah. And he will not! There is an outcry against us and the worst thing is that the church doesn't preach against these things. We give people a happy time and a pat on the back, and tell them grace and love abounds and God is love. For every verse about the love of God in the Bible, there are ten verses about his holiness. This charicature of God, where God is this nice grandpa who just pats you on the back and puts you on his lap and says "it's all right son, it's all right son... you just go play and hurt yourself some more" is an American modern idol that's been exported elsewhere in the world. It's not the God of the Bible. Yes, the God of the Bible is grieved by sin as we just said. Clearly, it was not his intent to destroy these people. Abraham kept saying, Lord please don't do it! If you find just fifty righteous people would you destroy them? He said no, I won't. God was willing to have somebody give him excuses not to strike these people down. That's God's attitude. If he could find any reason not to strike them down, he would have. But he did not find any and so Abraham gives up at some point and Abraham could see that (theologians have said all sorts of things about this, but...) Abraham must have seen the situation as he was going down in numbers and at some point he could see that God is right. He must have looked at it and agreed, and said "It's right if he judges them."

And this is how it will be on judgement day when these things happen. When you and I are called. If the sentance is that we are going to hell, everybody will look at it. And when God says "throw him into the lake of fire, the whole world will agree and say Amen," because it will be clear to me, it will be clear to you, it will be clear to God, and it will be clear to everybody else that that is the judgement we deserve. If this was the way that we lived. Now some people say "God doesn't judge nations anymore. That was an old testatment thing." They say that God only deals with individuals. And those are not bad people, there are some very good men who believe this. But Jesus says in the new testament "It will be worse for that town than for Sodom and Gomorrah." Therefore, in the new covenant, on judgement day, there will be judgement for countries and for nations as well. And for towns, and for families, and for individuals. Now I don't have all the details. I haven't been there yet. But I know that that's how it's going to be.

Now, the angels go there and they get to Sodom and Gomorrah. When the two angels got there, they stayed at the square. And then Lot saw them. He said in chapter 19, verse 2 "please turn aside to your servant's house. You can wash your feet and spend the night and then go on your way early in the morning." What did the angels say? They said "No, we want to stay outside." Now, when Abraham had gone to the Lord and said please, stop at your servant's feet, what was the answer? "Very well! Do as you've said." Why didn't these angels tell Lot "Very well we'll come into your house?" Who knows? What's your guess? Because there's a difference between Abraham and Lot. What's Lot's attitude? What's his spiritual state? This was a man who wanted Jesus and he wanted the comforts of life. He wanted Jesus, he wanted God, he wanted Sodom. He wanted God, he wanted Gomorrah. He wanted Jesus, he wanted the green land. Abraham just wanted God. According to this passage, it seems that he had even gotten over the whole son issue, because he doesn't bring it up. He just said "Lord, can I serve you?" And Lot knew that God had called Abraham to go to Canaan, the promised land, which is now Israel, and he had heard God give Abraham the promise "I will give that land to you." He was aware of all this. Till then, he was just following his uncles. The real story is that Lot's father died early, so Abraham adopted him as one of his sons so he was really under his care. But, the day that Abraham called Lot and said today I am giving you the option of going where ever you want, the guy chose to go to Sodom and settle there.

Now that's like a lot of college students. When they were home, they followed mom and dad to church, just like Lot followed Abraham. The day that they were free to go and start living their lives under no one's watch, they decided to go off this way. Now they haven't become "bad" people, I'm sure Lot wasn't committing any homosexuality as these people were, but he became a compromising Christian, choosing Jesus now, choosing the world later. And it's clear that he wasn't happy. The new testament says the things he saw were bothering him. The things he saw in Sodom and Gomorrah troubled him. But he decided to say there. Now not to pick on anyone here in particular, but I have heard this many times. I'll sit down with someone and say "Don't go to this thing, it's not good for you." You'll go there, and it's not going to be nice. And most people say "Well it's not bad," and they bring up issues. In the past I used to argue a lot. Now a days, I maybe send an email and forward an article and I leave it at that. But then usually people go and they come back to me and I say "How was it?" and they say "Yeah, there were things there that grossed me out and that were bad." But then they stayed there!

There is this thing called guilt by association, and according to our legal system, that is not really supposed to happen. In the spiritual it's not true. This guy escaped narrowly. The angel told him he was about to suffer the same fate as the other people in the town. In the new testament, Jesus writes a letter to one of the Churches. And he says I am coming, and he uses very graphic language in that one letter. I am about to commit that woman Jezebel among you who is committing adultury, and all those who partake in it. Not just them, but all those who associated with them. So, in any case, Lot represents the Christian who says "I'm not going to be with Abraham just following God. God tells him to go left, he goes left... God tells him to go right, he goes right. That's too strict for me!" And I can't live like that with the future not known, saying we're going to trust the Lord and his promises." He doesn't quite want that. On the other hand also, he says "I don't want to be like the people of Sodom who are comitting all kinds of awful things. But, I'm going to try to have it both ways. I'll remain a Christian in my heart, but then then I'll be there and I'll be watching all these things happening and enjoying as much of it as I can legally enjoy."

Now, I was a Christian of that kind for a long time. And let me tell you, you'll never be happy. The reason many Christians look as miserable as they do is they don't know God at all. It's because they're trying to play that game--they're being here, and they're being there. They're being here, and they're being there. They're trying to hold on to Jesus here and they're trying to hold on to the world here, and you can never do that. You'll not enjoy either and you'll be very frustrated.

Now these guys went there, and finally he insisted and they went into his house, but only after he had insisted a lot. With Abraham, they said "Very well, we'll come in." But with Lot, they said no. God knew that he wasn't totally like them, but he wasn't like Abraham either. He wasn't totally like the people in Sodom, and he wasn't totally like Abraham either. So for him, God behaved with him differently.

But he insisted so strongly that they did go with him and entered his house. He prepared a meal for them, baking bread without yeast, and they ate. Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom—both young and old—surrounded the house. They called to Lot, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them." Lot went outside... Genesis 19:3-6

Now everybody went out. From the oldest to the youngest. It tells you something. How did these people get like this? We don't know, it probably started with one person. That person said "Well, I don't care, this is the way I am. You guys can say I'm wrong, but hey I'm sinning and that's fine." And then somebody else said "Ah, he seems to be sinning like this and he doesn't think it's bad. He's comfortable. Let me join him too." And the next person started doing that until it became accepted in the society. And it consumed them all.

In the Bible, rampant widespread homosexuality is always a sign that the judgement of God is very close to come to a nation. Rampant widespread homosexuality in the Bible is always a sign that God is about to bring judgement to a nation. You find that in Romans chapter 1 and 2, but we will not read that today, and you find that in this story too of course.

Now, Lot goes outside and says "No, my friends. Don't do this wicked thing. Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do what you like with them."

Now, he wasn't too far behind them in his own depravity. They were trying to go and sleep with these men. He said "No, don't do that, just sleep with these girls, and I'll give them to you." His mind got messed up. From having stayed in Sodom for all this time and watching these things.

The people that you live around. What they say influences you. Maybe stealing was something you would never do, right? Take that as an example. Then you met people who talk about how they steal millions of dollars and they're fine with it and they joke about it. If you stay with them long enough, and those are the people you hang out with, soon you'll start thinking to your self "Well, stealing ten dollars is not so bad. Stealing a million, that's bad!" And if you keep listening to these people, at some point, you'll start saying "Well, stealing a hundred dollars is okay... Stealing ten million is bad." By then, they are maybe now stealing billions of dollars. And then some day soon, you won't be too far from where they were. The friends you have, the people that you know, the people you hang out with--what they talk about will influence you. If people that you're with are always talking about how they're having sex with their girlfriends or their boyfriends and that's what they talk about all the time, you might not go ahead and do exactly what they're talking about, but then some day, some guy will come and touch you and grab your body, and you won't think that's bad. Because you're not going as far as they are going. So you think you're okay. But the truth is, no you're not. That in itself is bad. We said that it cheapens a person's body. If anybody just comes and touches you however they want and grabs you and things like that, it cheapens your body. But if you are around people who always are saying these other things, then the touching and the other things will become not bad to you. And after you're there for long enough, you'll go to the next step and soon you won't be too far behind them. And that's what happened to lot, a righteous man who decided to compromise one day and go live in Sodom, rather than follow God in Canaan.

Let me say this. Green pasture without God is hell. Better to be in a desert with God than to be in a garden with the devil. Better to be in a desert with God than in a garden with the devil. Better to be in a hole and in a ditch with the Holy Spirit still hovering over you than your being in the palace, on the couch with the devil hanging around you, and Sodom-type people.

Now, these people weren't even interested in the offer that Lot gave them, they didn't want his daughters. That's not what they were after. They said "Now you just came here and you're trying to talk to us? We'll treat you worse than them."

Now, lastly, what's the attitude of these people in Sodom and Gomorrah? They don't care. When you tell them what they're doing is wrong, they tell say "What? We're going to do it anyway. We're going to do it in your face, and we're going to do it worse than what you're saying to us." That's what they told Lot "We'll treat you worse than them." And that's the attitude that I've heard in those gay parades (I haven't seen one, and I hope not to, but I've heard...) the attitude that I've heard people had sounds very similar to this. "We're in your face and you don't like it and we're going to do it in your face."

Now there's a preacher who got in to a lot of trouble for reminding peopel that the Monday when the hurricane Katrina came, there was a gay parade that was scheduled to take place in New Orleans. And it was reported in the newspaper that it was happening and the article said that they were planning for it to reach a level of lewdness and in-your-faceness never seen before. Now that preacher has gotten in to a lot of trouble, but let me tell you. Now, many people died. Some of them innocent people. But he is right. God controls the winds. I didn't write the Bible. He says in Amos, "Does disaster come to any city which the Lord has not sent? No!" Now, you may say, "are the people in New Orleans worse sinners than us?" No, they're not! That's why you should be thankful that we haven't had a hurricane yet. When Jesus came and people asked if the people Herod had killed were sinners, Jesus said don't think that they are more sinful than you are, rather ask the question why you haven't gone yet. Why hasn't it yet happened to you? When 9/11 happened, many people were asking why did this happen to New York City? That's not the question to ask. The question is why has it not yet happened to Boston? Why has it not yet happened to you and to me? And the answer is because of God's mercy.

That's these people's attitudes. God says that these angels were able to miraculously take lot from the front of the house, bring him inside, and then it says something that I also don't know how theologians think about these things, but they struck them with blindness, so they couldn't see the door anymore. When people reach this state when they are like "don't tell us what we're doing is wrong. If you tell us, we'll do it worse than what you're saying," at some point, God gives up on such people, and he strikes them with spiritual blindness. There comes a point when God confirms you into what you have chosen to be. If after a while when God has spoken to you, spoken to you, spoken to you, you resist and resist and resist, and you get to the point when God knows you'll never hear again, you'll never change. At that point, God actually gives you what you want, and he strikes you with blindness. And they couldn't find the door. That door is Jesus. There are some people who get so far into their spiritual blindness, they can't be saved anymore, and Paul also talks about that in Romans, chapter 1. And he does mention this same homosexuality issue. He says that having become so blind, God has given them over to a reprobate mind.

Pastor David Wilkerson talks of how he went somewhere to a countery, I think it was in Italy. He said this pastor had a large church there. In one of his ministers conferences. The pastor had a large church. And he said to him, "Pastor Dave, I've never had an immoral thought. I was married with children, and I was happy and I had a good church, and I never had any kind of bad thoughts and any of those things. But then some day, a voice came to me and started telling me that I had to start to find out what was it about this homosexuality that was so strong that it seems to lay hold of people's minds? He said "I've got to find out." Just out of curiosity, he said he decided to go to a movie theatre where they were showing a gay film. And he said he went there, and he just watched one movie, and then he said "Pastor, something... came over me, and I stayed for a second movie, and he watched the second one." He said "after that, it was as if something came over me, and I couldn't resist but to tell myself "I will go and experience this." And that's how he started. And at some point along those lines, he lost his family, lost his children, lost his church, and came to that David Wilkerson conference as his last resort, and said "Pastor Dave, it is as if I have been given over to a reprobate mind." He told him he had read every book that David Wilkerson had written (about forty books in all.) He told David Wilkerson every book you've written. Nothing touches me anymore. David Wilkerson asked him, "Don't you read the Bible?" He said "No, there's nothing for me there anymore." Now that's a story that David Wilkerson has retold many times in his ministers conferences. And I ask myself how do you help a man like that? One thing that he hasn't shared is what he actually said to the man. How do you help a person in that kind of a state? Now, this is a pastor, a good man.

Now, this is not just homosexuality, it is every sin. When I used to Lowell for prayer meetings, I got into a taxi cab one time and I started talking to the taxi driver about his faith, and he told me... "Well God you know... I used to have a wife and children and then I got into gambling." And he said the gambling just got out of control. Then he said "I started getting into all sorts of other things, and eventually lost my wife, lost my children..." He had a respectable job, too. And he said "Everybody hates me. It's kind of sad. My wife now hates me, and I don't really hate hear." And you could see that the man really wanted, if he could, to just change and go back. It starts with small things. You just gamble a little bit today maybe a one dollar gamble. Then tomorrow, you start making higher bets. And you start taking your wife's money and your family's money and then you're in trouble. In any sin, it always starts small.

So these angels took Lot. and there's one other category of people--the category of people in Lot's house. His daughters that were married, and his son-in-law. He told them "Look, this city is going to be destroyed." They didn't seem like they were the kind of people were outside of Lot's house. But what does the Bible say? Verse 14: "But his sons-in-law thought he was joking." So they stayed there with Lot's married daughter, and Lot eventually just escaped with himself, his wife, and their two daughters that were not married. (Whom he had suggested to give over to those people.)

We talk alot about hell and the fact that it's real. And this whole thing of God and sin. Many people think we're joking. But it's true. They woke up one day, and they thought it was going to be a day like any other day. But listen, there might be a day that comes. That looks just like any other day. And that day is going to perhaps be your last day on earth. Or it's going to be the day that Jesus comes. People argue about when exactly Jesus is going to come. We don't know, but one thing we know for sure that I read the other day that Jesus said: He will come at the hour that you do not expect. So you're not going to be thinking "Hmm. I wonder Jesus is going to come," and then at that point he appears. No. At the hour in the world, of however many billion people there are on that day, not a single one will be thinking about Jesus' coming back. At that hour, he'll come. And those who thought we were joking about all these things, that'll be it. And even if Jesus doesn't come and you leave the world earlier, it might just be a day like any other day, and then suddenly it's no more joke. You face the Lord.

It's worth thinking about.

Now, narrowly, he made it out with his family but then he was told don't look back. His wife looked back. And she became a pillar of salt. She was looking back because they had all their wealth and their possession there. They escaped as they were, with their clothes, and whatever else they might have taken. In fact, at some point, the angels dragged them out. They didn't quite want to leave either. All the cattle and all the wealth that he had was now gone.

Now the Lord rained down fire and sulfer on Sodom and Gomorrah. That place where Sodom and Gomorrah was is deep. It's below sea level. It's the area where the dead sea now is. I was reading on the internet the other day that they believe they found the site where the actual towns of Sodom and Gomorrah were, and you can find sulfer of the kind that you find on volcanos-type mountains. The more time passes and the more they make archaelogical findings, the more Bible becomes accurate. People shoulud just believe it, rather than wait.

I was hearing about people who did a research about where you can implant a chip in a human being in order to identify them. And they saw that the best place to put it was underneath your skin on your hand or underneath your skin on the forehead. They didn't need to do research, they should have just read the Bible and published the results.

Now, ending on a happier note. I don't even feel like talking about the part with Lot and his daughters. That's kind of... [laughs]. But a man went from being so rich he couldn't stay with Abraham anymore in the same place to a man who lives in a cave and sleeps with his two daughters. And he became a drunken man, too! That's probably something that happened to him while he was in Sodom. His daughters knew that his father was a guy who drinks till he gets drunks. And so they give him wine. God's judgement came and he lost everything, so instead of crying out to God, he's now withdrawing into alcohol and that's how his finding his comfort. Kind of very disturbing... Now, the angels told him to escape to the mountains. There is the mountain where people can escape. That mountain is the Bible. There is a mountain in the Bible that is very significant. It is the mountain where Jesus died. It is the mountain where Jesus was crucified, called Golgotha. There sinners can escape and find mercy. As we can see here, God came down and went to Abraham, and God came down to send angels to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. There is another time when God came down in the form of a human being, and that's in Jesus Christ. God came in the form of a man, Jesus Christ, and he went on the cross and he died for our sins. On the mountain called Golgotha. There we can escape. And it says in Hosea. That on the valley of destruction, the valley of Achor, there will be a door of hope. You can find that door of hope, that's Jesus Christ. Hand your life over to him.

Let me end this in an honest note. We've spoken about four or five kinds of people. There's the Abraham type of people, there's the Lot type of people, there's the Sarah type of people, there is these people in the city type of people. There is the people in Lot's house who thought this whole thing was a joke. And really, there is these two daughters too. But I really don't want to talk about them... [laughs] They were teenagers brought up in Sodom, like teenagers who are brought up with too much TV. Let me ask you honestly, which kind are you? Who here knows which kind they are? If you know which type you are, raise your hand.

Who's of the Abraham type? Well, who is genuinely trying to be of the Abraham type? Who's of the Sarah type? Who's of the Lot type? Hopefully no one is like the people in the city. I'll take that for granted. Who is like these people in the house who think this whole thing might just be a big joke? And you see, a sad thing, this man Lot, he lost a lot of credibility towards the people in his own household. They couldn't believe him. That means that they knew that he was a compromising man. People can read you. They know when you are being a hypocrite. When you go tell them about God, they look at you and they say "well, we know you're not either on that end, and you're not on that end either." And they're less likely to listen.

Alright. Let's pray. The best way to gaurantee that you actually will be spending time with God and seeking him is to set up a regular time. If you don't, then your day will go by and you will be hoping, "Well I'll do it at some point," then you won't. Pick a time when people won't come and disturb you, a time when you're free, and just carve out that half hour or one hour to spend time with the Lord in reading the Bible, reading Christian books (of which we have a lot), and praying. So let's just all pray together, and we'll close like that, by just saying to the Lord that this is the way I am, and this is the way I want to become. Let's pray:

Father, I pray O Lord and confess that many times, O Lord, I've lost site of the fact that I ought to be seeking just you and not the other things. That I must be rushing to serve you, to woo your friendship, Father, I pray O Lord, that I will focus on you throughout this summer. That Lord, when I say to you come in to my life, spend time with me, you'll say "very well, do as you've said." Father, I pray that I will grow in my friendship with you throughout this summer. Help me to set up a time, Lord, early in the morning every day, O Lord, to gaurantee that at that time I am there, O Lord, that at that time I am there seeking you and spending time with you.

In Jesus name, Amen.