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a poet's work.

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I'd like you to open your Bible with me please to the book of Genesis once more tonight.

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We discussed last week the sad example of Abram found in Genesis chapter 12 over into

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chapter 13 in his backsliding, his lack of belief and trust in God, which led to a real

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tragedy in his life.

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But he recovered himself.

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God faithfully brought him back to the altar and there he called upon the name of the Lord

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once more.

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The time in Egypt, however, left an impression on Lot, Abram's nephew.

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You see Abram got over his backsliding.

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Lot didn't get over Abram's backsliding.

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After returning from Egypt, Lot had a new desire summarized in one word, and that word

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is Sodom.

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I wonder if we realize the impact of our backsliding.

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We recover ourselves.

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God graciously calls us back to himself.

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We repent.

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But what about the example that we've left to others?

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A parent, for example, backslides.

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Perhaps even for a time deserts the home, eventually comes back.

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Bless God, praise the Lord, the home is reestablished.

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But what has that example done for the children?

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I think we can say that our example has twice the impact that our advice does.

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That's true negatively and thank God it's true positively as well.

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I remember hearing about one primary age child that said in a prayer, Dear God, make me as

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much like Jesus as my Sunday school teacher.

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Our example has twice the impact that our words have.

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It was not long before Abram realized, after returning from Egypt to Canaan, that he had

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to separate from his nephew Lot because Lot was backslidden.

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Read with me the words beginning with verse 5 of Genesis 13.

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Now Lot, who went with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents.

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And the land could not sustain them while dwelling together, for their possessions were

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so great that they were not able to remain together.

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And there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram's livestock and the herdsmen of

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Lot's livestock.

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Now the Canaanite and the Perizzite were dwelling then in the land.

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But then Abram said to Lot, Please let there be no strife between you and me, nor between

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my herdsmen and your herdsmen, for we are brothers.

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Is not the whole land before you?

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Please separate from me.

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If to the left, then I will go to the right, and if to the right, then I will go to the

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left.

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And Lot lifted up his eyes and saw all the valley of the Jordan, that it was well watered

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everywhere.

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This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.

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Like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt as you go to Zor.

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So Lot chose for himself all the valley of the Jordan.

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And Lot journeyed eastward, thus they separated from each other.

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Abram settled in the land of Canaan, while Lot settled in the cities of the valley and

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moved his tents as far as Sodom.

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Now the men of Sodom were wicked exceedingly and sinners against the Lord.

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Let's pray together.

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Our Heavenly Father, we ask that the Spirit would be our teacher as we come to the word

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tonight.

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As we talk about Lot, I pray that our eyes will be open to his example so that we might

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learn from him and avoid his tragic mistakes.

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In Jesus' name, amen.

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Abram soon realized that he had to separate from Lot because of the difference between

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them.

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Abram was a man who recovered himself from his backsliding and worshipped the Lord.

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Lot, however, was a carnal man.

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He was a believer in the God of Abram.

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We'll see that in a few moments in the New Testament.

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But Lot was a man who was thoroughly worldly, and his worldliness was evidenced in his love

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of money and things and of the lifestyle of Sodom.

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It is a sad day when a growing Christian realizes that he must get away from his previous Christian

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friends and acquaintances and make new ones, lest he himself might be caught up in their

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backslidden lifestyle.

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But sometimes that happens.

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Indeed, I think that Paul warns the Church about that in 1 Corinthians 5.

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He writes regarding the man who was accepted in their church but who was an immoral man,

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openly so, well known in the community for his immorality.

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Paul does not commend them for their embracing of this man who was called a Christian and

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lived in immorality.

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Indeed, he rebukes them.

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Now, he says as he continues writing about that subject in verse 9, I wrote you in my

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letter not to associate with immoral people.

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The word associate means to get mixed up intimately with them.

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I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world or with the covetous or swindlers

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or with idolaters, for then you would have to go out of the world.

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In other words, he says, when I wrote that to you, I did not mean that you should separate

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yourselves from everyone who is immoral, every swindler, every idolater, every covetous person.

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That is the unsaved.

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But he says in verse 11, actually I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called

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brother, a professing Christian, if he should be an immoral person.

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That is one who is sexually loose and does not adhere to God's standard of purity.

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Or one who is covetous, that is a greedy person, a money lover, or an idolater, or a reviler,

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that is one who is abusive and slanderous of tongue, or a drunkard, or a swindler.

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He says not even to eat was such a one.

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Those seem like strange words in this day when we hear so much about Christian love.

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It makes one wonder if we haven't defined Christian love in broader terms than God may.

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Because he says here, if there is a person who is practicing these kinds of things as

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a lifestyle openly, is known for these things, and he claims to be a believer, that we are

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not to associate with those people, not even to eat with them.

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May well refer to the Lord's Supper, could have the broader context of even a meal in

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a home with them.

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He says, what have I to do with judging outsiders?

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Do you not judge those who are within the church, but those who are outside God judges,

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remove the wicked man from among yourselves?

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It so seems to me there is a certain principle laid down in the New Testament that even Abraham

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was following.

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Abraham recognized that his nephew, though he was a believer in the same God as Abraham

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believed in, was a man who had a completely different standard for living.

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He was a worldly man, a self-centered individual, and so he recognized that they were going

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to have to separate.

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Lot is the second example of a Bible backslider, as we are calling this series.

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Let's notice the root of Lot's backsliding.

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As I've already suggested, Lot's backsliding really began after his return from Egypt with

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the greatly increased wealth that he got there along with Abraham.

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Lot had left Ur of the Chaldees with Abraham, and it seems as though his trip into Egypt,

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however long it may have been, rekindled a desire for worldly things, for worldly enticements.

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He gained financially in Egypt, and apparently he wanted more of the same thing.

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Therefore, when he was given the opportunity to choose first, he chose the well-watered

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plain of the Jordan, where he saw what he thought he wanted.

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We see that in verse 10.

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Lot could get more in the plains of that which he wanted in terms of a living standard, in

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terms apparently of friendships, as well as entertainment.

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He was a man who returned from Egypt with a real taste for what money could do for him

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and all that money could buy.

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So it is with many believers today.

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God warns us about the danger of the love of money.

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Perhaps the greatest problem facing the Western Church today is its own affluence.

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I think all of us are recognized that the Bible does not teach that money is the root

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of all evil, but it does warn us about the love of money, which is the root of all evil,

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or every kind of evil.

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Jesus warned us that we cannot serve at the same time God and mammon, that is, money.

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And then again, as the New Testament closes in Revelation 13, there is a warning to the

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church, the Laodicean Church of the last days, of its affluence, coupled with its complacency.

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How easily those two words and how well they describe the end-time professing church.

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Rich, self-centered.

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Man said to his pastor, when I had $50,000 I was happy, but now that I have $500,000

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I am miserable.

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So his pastor said to him, well, the answer is easy.

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Give away $450,000.

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And the man replied, I can't.

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Having money, he said, is like grabbing an electrical wire.

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The more juice, the tighter its hold.

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You see, that man experienced what Lot experienced.

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I suppose money has ruined far more Christians than poverty, because you see, people tend

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to begin to worship money.

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I know of no one who worships poverty, but money can become a god.

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We don't consider ourselves to be in that category of facing that temptation perhaps,

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but we do.

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It does not depend upon the balance in one's bank account as to whether he is temptable

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in that area.

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The richest to the poorest among us face the same problem, the same temptation, and that

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is to love money and what it can do for us, what it can buy.

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It does not depend upon how many material things we have or how great our material needs

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are.

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The same temptation is there.

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Someone says money doesn't mean that much to me.

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We have to examine our hearts to see what we will do for it, indeed what we have done

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for it.

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There are people who gladly miss church on Sunday in order to have money, young people

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who take jobs on Sunday on a regular basis in order to improve the bank account, and

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parents who even allow that or encourage it.

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There are those who are willing to neglect their families, indeed ship their families

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off to others to take care of so that they can accumulate.

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There are some who compromise morals in order to have money.

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I tell you that money has ruined far more many people than has poverty.

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When a Christian begins to make a major decision in his life based upon money, above what God

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wants, then I would have to say that he is in Lot's trouble, because that is what Lot

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did.

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Money has a part in our decision making, but when money is the final determining factor

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in our decisions, then we are in trouble.

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I talked to an individual recently who was given a promotion and a raise if he would

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uproot his family and move several thousand miles.

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But because his family is at a critical age, he feels he cannot do that without damaging

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them.

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He has turned down both the money and the promotion, and probably has been shipped into

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the Never-Never Land of his corporation because of his unwillingness to move at this particular

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time.

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But he felt that that was a small sacrifice for the sake of his family.

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There are many who need to follow his example.

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The root of Lot's backsliding appears to have been his love of things and his love

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of the kind of lifestyle that could be found in the affluent city of Sodom, and then its

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surrounding cities as well.

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Having examined the root of his backsliding, let us look at the fruit of Lot's backsliding.

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In the first place, as a result of his backsliding and making the wrong choice out of the love

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of money and things, Lot left Abram's fellowship.

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Now we need to point out that that was at Abram's initiation.

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In other words, it was Abram who said, you and I are going to have to separate.

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But the bottom line is the same.

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It was a terrible loss for Lot.

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He needed his uncle.

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He needed the example.

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He needed the fellowship.

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He needed the input of his uncle Abram.

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But he forsook that as a step in his backsliding.

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How often that happens with backslidden people.

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Whatever the root of it may be, one of the initial fruits of the backsliding is a dropping

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away from fellowship with God's people who are spiritual.

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Sometimes the backslidden person will find a group of Christians even within the church

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which is also backslidden and will fellowship with them.

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But one of the first fruits of backsliding is that one drops away from those people who

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are spiritual and seeking to walk with God because there is an incompatibility that is

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there.

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It may involve leaving a class or leaving a Bible study or leaving the church's fellowship,

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but there is a dropping away and it is a fruit of backsliding.

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A second fruit that I see in Lot is found in chapter 14, a chapter we don't have time

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to read in its fullness.

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If you do take time to read it later on, you will find that Lot was caught up in a military

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maneuver involving those cities where he chose to live.

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He along with many other citizens from those cities in the plain were taken captive by

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some kings who attacked there.

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The result was that he was losing everything that he had lived for, including his own freedom

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and his own selfish ends.

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I would like to suggest to you that that also is a fruit of backsliding.

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For whatever it is that one is living for during that time, ultimately he will lose

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it.

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The things, the money, which were important to Lot were all being carried away by four

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kings who came from Mesopotamia and attacked those cities in the plain.

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Except for his spiritual uncle, Abram, Lot would have died a slave in Mesopotamia.

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But Abram loved his nephew and when he heard about what had happened, he took some of his

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own men.

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They tracked down those who had attacked the cities of the plain and they rescued the people.

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Thus, Lot was saved by the intervention of his uncle.

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But unfortunately, Lot did not learn anything from that experience.

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He went right back to the cities in the plain, to Sodom and Gomorrah.

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He lived there, accumulated wealth, and ultimately, again, he lost everything that he lived for.

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The second time, by the judgment of God, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, he

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lost it all.

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You can read about it in chapter 19.

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I believe that Lot in his tragic life gives us a third fruit of one who is backslidden,

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and that is the compromise of his conscience.

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Turn with me into the New Testament to 2 Peter and the second chapter, where we have a reference

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to Lot from Peter's pen.

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Look in verse 7 of the second chapter.

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Peter is here illustrating the fact that God knows how to deliver the godly from temptation

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and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment.

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He uses Lot as one of his examples.

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He says in verse 7, and if God rescued righteous Lot.

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There is the only reference in the Bible that gives us assurance that Lot was a saved man.

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That is, that he had believed on the Lord, the God of Abram.

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He was a righteous man in the sense that he had believed in God and was justified in that

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positional sense.

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He was righteous Lot, but he was oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men.

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That is, the people that he lived around were unprincipled.

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They did not have morals, and Lot was oppressed by their sensual conduct.

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He chose to live there, but he was oppressed by that.

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Verse 8 talks more about that.

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It says, For by what he saw and heard, that righteous man while living among them felt

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his righteous soul tormented day after day with their lawless deeds.

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So Lot knew what was right.

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He knew inside him what was right, but he chose to live among those worldly people because

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they offered what he wanted to live for.

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Consequently, he compromised his own conscience.

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He lived in absolute misery in Sodom.

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Yet he loved the affluence of the place so much that he decided to remain there.

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Someone has said, Your conscience doesn't keep you from doing anything.

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It just keeps you from enjoying it.

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Well, so it was with Lot.

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While he was living for what he thought he wanted, he was a man who was steeped in misery

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inwardly.

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It seems as though Lot was living a life of spiritual schizophrenia.

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On the one hand, righteous Lot, the man who knew what was right and what was wrong.

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On the other hand, worldly Lot, backslider Lot, who was living in such a way as to destroy

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himself, a pitiful man.

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I believe that we can find back in the book of Genesis and the nineteenth chapter yet

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another sad fruit of his backsliding.

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In chapter nineteen of Genesis, we will look at verse twelve.

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The men said to Lot, these are the angels that the Lord sent to Sodom and Gomorrah.

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They said to Lot, Whom else have you here, a son-in-law and your sons and your daughters

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and whomever you have in the city?

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Bring them out of the place, for we are about to destroy this place, because their outcry

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has become so great before the Lord that the Lord sent us to destroy it.

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Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law who were to marry his daughters and said,

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Up, get out of this place, for the Lord will destroy the city.

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But he appeared to his sons-in-law to be jesting.

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When morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, Up, take your wife and your two daughters

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who are here, lest you be swept away in the punishment of the city.

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He hesitated.

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So the men seized his hand.

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Notice how he hangs on.

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They seized his hand and the hand of his wife and the hands of his daughters, for the compassion

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of the Lord was upon him.

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They brought him out and put him outside the city.

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It came about when they had brought them outside that one said, Escape from your life.

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Do not look behind you, and do not stay anywhere in the valley.

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Escape to the mountains, lest you be swept away.

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Lot said to them, Oh, no, my lords.

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Now behold, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have magnified your loving

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kindness, which you have shown me by saving my life.

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But I cannot escape from the mountains, lest the disaster overtake me and I die.

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Now behold, this town is near enough to flee to.

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It is small.

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Please let me escape there.

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Is it not small that my life may be saved?

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And he said to him, Behold, I grant you this request also, not to overthrow the town which

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you have spoken.

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Hurry, escape there, for I cannot do anything until you arrive there.

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Therefore the name of the town was called Zor.

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The sun had risen over the earth when Lot came to Zor.

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Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven.

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And he overthrew those cities and all the valley and all the inhabitants of the cities

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and what grew on the ground.

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But his wife from behind him looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.

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In other words, that burning pitch landed on her, and she was dead immediately.

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Well, what do we see here?

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Well, we see in the first place that his sons-in-law, those who were about to be married to his

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daughters, refused to leave the cities.

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Perhaps they were involved in some of the sin of the cities.

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But for whatever reason, they thought he was jesting.

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They were obviously unsaved men.

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The worldly man never has a testimony with unsaved people.

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Indeed, when he tries to get serious about the things of God, they will laugh him to

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scorn, as did these two young men.

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And he lost them.

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You know, he lost his sons-in-law.

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He may have lost sons in the conflagration that fell on the place.

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There's no word about them except the suggestion in verse 12 that he may have had sons.

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They're only left to speculate and wonder regarding them.

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His wife is mentioned specifically.

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She was a native of that area.

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She turned back, apparently her heart longing and aching for what was happening to the people

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there, and she died in judgment, verse 26.

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That left Lot and two daughters.

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You see, he is progressively losing his family as he moves along.

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His two daughters went with him, but his two daughters were corrupted by the morals of

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Sodom.

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And as the chapter concludes, they both commit incest with their father.

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The result is the birth of two children, Moab and Ammon, the descendants of whom became

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lifelong rivals and enemies of Abram's ancestors, the Jews.

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My point is this.

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The one who chooses to backslide, as did Lot, may reap the awful fruit of losing his family.

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Step by step, Lot lost his family, including the two daughters who did live.

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It is a tragedy beyond words.

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Lot may have chosen those cities with the plain thinking that by choosing this lifestyle

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and going that direction, he could even give his family more.

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Because he put the love of things and of money before God, he lost not only the things, but

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he lost the family that he perhaps hoped to benefit.

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That is the last mention of Lot in the book of Genesis, chapter 19.

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Abram goes on the history of his life, but Lot is over at this point.

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He died an unhappy man.

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He died a broken man.

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He died a wasted man.

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He died a defeated man.

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Dr. Henry Morris, who has written a helpful commentary on the book of Genesis, has this

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probing statement.

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He says, this is a deeply sobering example of the deadly results that a father's compromise

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with the world system may have on his own children.

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So as we examine the backsliding of Lot, it behooves every one of us here tonight, whether

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rich or poor, whether one who has many things or one who has nothing, to examine our hearts

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to see that we are not in the danger that Lot was in, that we are not in Lot's trouble,

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where we are yielding to the temptation of the love of money, greed, and covetousness,

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which the Bible terms as basic idolatry.

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The song that we love to sing says, I'd rather have Jesus than silver or gold.

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I'd rather have him than treasures untold.

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I hope tonight that that in truth is the attitude of our hearts.

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And that rather than following Lot in the direction that he took in his backsliding,

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you would follow Abram in the direction of faith and obedience to the living God.

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Dear friend of mine, he was very successful early in life.

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He got involved in a business that gave him a lot of money quickly.

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The result was that he and his wife and two children had that home that everyone dreams

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about with a swimming pool in the backyard.

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He had two fancy cars and a boat in the driveway.

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He had a job where he bossed lots of people.

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He was a Christian.

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But he himself has testified to me that those things got a hold of him so that they possessed

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him instead of him possessing them.

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The result was a breakdown in his spiritual walk with God.

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And as he began more and more to live for the things that he could accumulate, he began

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to lose what he was living for.

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It was not long before he and his wife split up and got a divorce.

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So he lost his wife and she took the two kids.

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It was not long after that until he got in trouble in the job that he had.

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In fact, he was even in so much trouble there that he was rubbing shoulders with the underworld

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and a contract was put out on his life.

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He began to lose money instead of make money.

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Lost his house, lost his cars, lost his boat, lost everything.

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And I guess sort of like the prodigal son, it was then that he came to himself.

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He turned to God in repentance.

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He could not recover all that he had lost.

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His wife in the meantime had gone off and married somebody else.

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He couldn't regain his family.

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He could never be the same again.

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But because his heart was to walk with God once more, God began to restore him and to

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trust with him material things once more.

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And little by little, God has entrusted to him a great deal of influence in the city

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where he lives.

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Today, several years after these tragic events, he is a man whose life is scarred because

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of backsliding exactly like Lot took.

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But he has learned an important lesson.

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And today seeks to use the things that God has entrusted to him for the glory of God

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rather than allowing those things to dictate his lifestyle, his decisions to him.

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Be warned by my friend's example.

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Be warned by the example of Lot.

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And follow the example of Abram.

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Live the life of obedience before God, the life of faith, the life that seeks to use

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whatever blessings God may give for the glory of God.

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Let's pray together.

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Our Heavenly Father, tonight as we have studied the life of Lot, we find ourselves alarmed.

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Alarmed because we could see ourselves moving in that direction so easily, every one of

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us.

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We are temptable in this area because of the pressures of the society in which we live.

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Our Heavenly Father, we ask you to deliver us from that temptation.

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Deliver us from this snare of Satan and teach us to use whatever you choose to bless us

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with for your service and for your glory.

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These things I pray in Jesus' name.

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Amen.

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I'd like us to close by singing a verse of the song that I referred to earlier as 446.

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First verse in chorus.

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I'd rather have Jesus.

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Stand together as we sing.