WEBVTT 00:00:00.400 --> 00:00:04.379 Good morning. How are you all doing today? Praise 00:00:04.379 --> 00:00:09.300 God. I am doing fantastic. And I do always want 00:00:09.300 --> 00:00:12.099 to take the opportunity to welcome anybody. If 00:00:12.099 --> 00:00:13.599 you're joining us here in our sanctuary for the 00:00:13.599 --> 00:00:16.000 first time, or if you're watching us online for 00:00:16.000 --> 00:00:18.300 the first time, welcome. We're so glad you're 00:00:18.300 --> 00:00:21.429 here to worship with us. I am Pastor Nathan, 00:00:21.510 --> 00:00:23.809 and today we are going to be taking communion 00:00:23.809 --> 00:00:26.469 as a part of our service. And so in the room 00:00:26.469 --> 00:00:29.089 here, we will be passing out communion as a part 00:00:29.089 --> 00:00:30.850 of the close of our service. But if you are watching 00:00:30.850 --> 00:00:33.630 online, please get your communion emblems ready 00:00:33.630 --> 00:00:37.490 to be able to participate with us at the end 00:00:37.490 --> 00:00:40.390 of service. Today we're going to be finishing 00:00:40.390 --> 00:00:43.289 up Genesis chapter 19, looking at the effect 00:00:43.289 --> 00:00:47.570 of hypocritical living on the legacy that we 00:00:47.570 --> 00:00:49.689 leave with our children and the next generation. 00:00:50.310 --> 00:00:52.509 You see, as we've been studying the story in 00:00:52.509 --> 00:00:54.670 Genesis 19, we've been looking at the life of 00:00:54.670 --> 00:00:58.310 this man named Lot. And if we only had the Old 00:00:58.310 --> 00:01:00.670 Testament in Scripture, we didn't have the New 00:01:00.670 --> 00:01:02.549 Testament, I don't think any of us would have 00:01:02.549 --> 00:01:05.909 imagined from his story that Lot was considered 00:01:05.909 --> 00:01:09.700 a righteous man. a true believer saved by the 00:01:09.700 --> 00:01:12.500 grace of God. But as we've looked in a couple 00:01:12.500 --> 00:01:15.500 past studies in 2 Peter 2, it tells us there 00:01:15.500 --> 00:01:19.659 three times that this man Lot, this compromising, 00:01:19.659 --> 00:01:23.620 conflicted man, was considered righteous. And 00:01:23.620 --> 00:01:26.340 we know that word is referring to God looking 00:01:26.340 --> 00:01:28.799 at somebody through their faith and going, you 00:01:28.799 --> 00:01:31.040 are saved, you are clean, you are with me, you 00:01:31.040 --> 00:01:34.640 are righteous. Now, although he was distressed, 00:01:34.640 --> 00:01:37.560 it tells us, and tormented by what he had seen 00:01:37.560 --> 00:01:41.140 and heard while he was in Sodom, although he 00:01:41.140 --> 00:01:43.859 was revolted by everything that had taken place 00:01:43.859 --> 00:01:47.560 there, Sodom, the spirit of that place, had penetrated 00:01:47.560 --> 00:01:51.040 his soul enough to the point where his morals 00:01:51.040 --> 00:01:53.959 had been watered down, to the point where his 00:01:54.519 --> 00:01:58.200 passive acceptance of all of the sinful things 00:01:58.200 --> 00:02:00.819 that took place there came to characterize who 00:02:00.819 --> 00:02:04.920 he was, as he was a man who saw the evil, didn't 00:02:04.920 --> 00:02:07.260 like it, but didn't really engage to do anything 00:02:07.260 --> 00:02:11.180 about it or say anything about it. And Sodom 00:02:11.180 --> 00:02:13.979 itself is a picture of the world we live in today. 00:02:14.460 --> 00:02:16.360 You know, we live in this place where taking 00:02:16.360 --> 00:02:19.000 responsibility for how your own actions affect 00:02:19.000 --> 00:02:22.169 others is dismissed by many people. You know, 00:02:22.210 --> 00:02:23.770 our culture today is, you know, I'm going to 00:02:23.770 --> 00:02:25.849 live this way, I'm going to do this, and if you 00:02:25.849 --> 00:02:28.409 don't like it, it's your fault. If it affects 00:02:28.409 --> 00:02:31.650 you, it's your fault. In fact, even if it is 00:02:31.650 --> 00:02:34.409 hurting or harming you, you have to accept me 00:02:34.409 --> 00:02:36.629 because I've decided to do what I want to do. 00:02:37.389 --> 00:02:39.689 Mankind really has done that from the beginning 00:02:39.689 --> 00:02:42.870 where mankind puts what I want, what gratified... 00:02:43.120 --> 00:02:46.080 gratifies me the most, what sates my desires 00:02:46.080 --> 00:02:50.379 the most, is above any concern for how the pursuit 00:02:50.379 --> 00:02:55.599 of self harms those around us. Worse, there's 00:02:55.599 --> 00:02:58.620 many true believers in the world today who know 00:02:58.620 --> 00:03:02.860 better, who profess to have knowledge of the 00:03:02.860 --> 00:03:07.280 truth, belief in the truth, who know the harmful 00:03:07.280 --> 00:03:10.860 effects of sin and the ultimate result of sin. 00:03:11.879 --> 00:03:14.280 They still, however, put self -comfort and self 00:03:14.280 --> 00:03:17.659 -convenience above concern for the effect of 00:03:17.659 --> 00:03:20.379 sin in their own life, their family, and the 00:03:20.379 --> 00:03:23.659 world around them. And they do this, much like 00:03:23.659 --> 00:03:27.020 Lot, by being internally distressed, internally 00:03:27.020 --> 00:03:29.460 tormented by the sinful things they see in the 00:03:29.460 --> 00:03:32.539 world around them. But they say nothing in response. 00:03:32.900 --> 00:03:36.060 They really do nothing in response. Instead of 00:03:36.060 --> 00:03:38.340 challenging or confronting those things in love, 00:03:38.580 --> 00:03:40.780 they just kind of like, well, you do you. It's 00:03:40.780 --> 00:03:42.259 okay if you want to do it. I'm going to live 00:03:42.259 --> 00:03:46.039 a different way. Or even worse than that, some 00:03:46.039 --> 00:03:49.259 believers will secretly satisfy their flesh just 00:03:49.259 --> 00:03:51.360 a little bit by trying to live as close to Sodom 00:03:51.360 --> 00:03:54.139 as they can without participating in it. But 00:03:54.139 --> 00:03:55.979 when they do that, when we do that as the church, 00:03:56.240 --> 00:03:59.539 the warning that is in the gospel of Jesus Christ 00:03:59.539 --> 00:04:02.500 is weakened. The warning is watered down. Our 00:04:02.500 --> 00:04:05.800 witness is compromised. Now that is just looking 00:04:05.800 --> 00:04:08.340 at the man a lot and the effects in his own life 00:04:08.340 --> 00:04:10.419 and the world around him. But a significant tragedy 00:04:10.419 --> 00:04:14.979 takes place when a believing parent lives this 00:04:14.979 --> 00:04:18.939 way. When they live in such a way where they 00:04:18.939 --> 00:04:22.500 profess Christianity, they go to church on Sundays, 00:04:22.660 --> 00:04:25.459 they go to small groups, and yet in the home 00:04:25.459 --> 00:04:28.720 they live a compromised life. They live a life 00:04:28.720 --> 00:04:31.240 which looks way more like Sodom. than it does 00:04:31.240 --> 00:04:36.439 like heaven. And when they do that, that spiritual 00:04:36.439 --> 00:04:39.000 complacency that they are demonstrating gets 00:04:39.000 --> 00:04:42.279 passed to their children. The conclusion of Lot's 00:04:42.279 --> 00:04:45.540 story in our text today really highlights the 00:04:45.540 --> 00:04:49.220 very sad reality of not finishing well in our 00:04:49.220 --> 00:04:52.740 race of righteousness. And the result of really 00:04:52.740 --> 00:04:57.360 not doing or saying anything about the evil ways 00:04:57.360 --> 00:05:00.360 of the world around them Instead, just passively 00:05:00.360 --> 00:05:03.100 accepting that instead of following the example 00:05:03.100 --> 00:05:06.100 and living according to the example of Jesus 00:05:06.100 --> 00:05:09.000 Christ, our Lord and Savior. He is the one who 00:05:09.000 --> 00:05:11.199 is the perfect example we are to follow, not 00:05:11.199 --> 00:05:14.899 the world. And the example we leave to our kids, 00:05:15.120 --> 00:05:17.019 our families, the people around us have such 00:05:17.019 --> 00:05:20.060 a profound effect that we need to stop being 00:05:20.060 --> 00:05:22.600 people who live passively but live intentionally 00:05:22.600 --> 00:05:25.279 in righteousness. Amen? Well, we're gonna pray, 00:05:25.399 --> 00:05:27.639 we're gonna worship God, and we're gonna start 00:05:27.639 --> 00:05:30.500 with just loving him first before we get into 00:05:30.500 --> 00:05:32.980 the word today. This is a very strange piece 00:05:32.980 --> 00:05:35.959 of scripture to tie into communion, but God already 00:05:35.959 --> 00:05:37.620 showed me how to do it, so I'm excited about 00:05:37.620 --> 00:05:40.040 that. And I just pray today we would see the 00:05:40.040 --> 00:05:43.899 grace, the mercy, the love, the forgiveness of 00:05:43.899 --> 00:05:46.540 Jesus Christ, amen? Let's pray. Father, we love 00:05:46.540 --> 00:05:49.860 you so much. We're so grateful that you sent 00:05:49.860 --> 00:05:51.860 your son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross for 00:05:51.860 --> 00:05:57.600 us. Lord, it's because of that we have the possibility 00:05:57.600 --> 00:06:02.939 of being changed, of being different. Lord, we 00:06:02.939 --> 00:06:05.939 know that the way we live has such a profound 00:06:05.939 --> 00:06:08.060 effect on those around us. God, those that are 00:06:08.060 --> 00:06:12.180 parents, Christian parents, Lord, that will say 00:06:12.180 --> 00:06:14.160 things like we know our kids watch what we do, 00:06:14.220 --> 00:06:16.220 but we won't necessarily live like we believe 00:06:16.220 --> 00:06:20.199 that. And God, the bad decisions we make, the 00:06:20.199 --> 00:06:22.379 bad examples we leave, God, those things get 00:06:22.379 --> 00:06:25.720 passed on to the next generation. And then, Lord, 00:06:25.939 --> 00:06:28.100 in many cases, the next generation will then 00:06:28.100 --> 00:06:31.019 take what we've taught them and go even farther 00:06:31.019 --> 00:06:34.079 with it. Lord, when it's godliness and righteousness, 00:06:34.279 --> 00:06:38.689 we example and lead and teach, Lord. God, it's 00:06:38.689 --> 00:06:41.230 so amazing to see when the children we have influence 00:06:41.230 --> 00:06:43.569 on, Lord, take that and run with it. But the 00:06:43.569 --> 00:06:45.730 compromise and the conflict, Lord, just destroys 00:06:45.730 --> 00:06:48.610 lives. I pray, God, today you would remind us 00:06:48.610 --> 00:06:52.569 of the importance of our witness, the importance 00:06:52.569 --> 00:06:56.009 of teaching and training and exampling godliness 00:06:56.009 --> 00:06:59.610 in our families. Lord, that we would be people 00:06:59.610 --> 00:07:05.110 who would finish the race well. God, Lot's example 00:07:05.110 --> 00:07:08.060 is what happens when we don't. Lord, may we learn 00:07:08.060 --> 00:07:11.639 from this as we look at his example and then 00:07:11.639 --> 00:07:13.720 contrast that with the right example that you 00:07:13.720 --> 00:07:15.899 left for us, Lord. We love you so much. We worship 00:07:15.899 --> 00:07:18.459 you. We praise your holy name, God. Lord, we 00:07:18.459 --> 00:07:20.439 know you're here with us, God. We ask that your 00:07:20.439 --> 00:07:23.120 spirit would overflow out of us, God, and bless 00:07:23.120 --> 00:07:25.819 us today. Lord, we ask that you be blessed. In 00:07:25.819 --> 00:07:28.399 Jesus' name we pray, amen. Okay, guys, we are 00:07:28.399 --> 00:07:34.420 in Genesis chapter 19, and when you study through 00:07:34.420 --> 00:07:39.319 the Bible, The Bible gives us all kinds of different 00:07:39.319 --> 00:07:42.920 portraits of people, right? We see heroes, we 00:07:42.920 --> 00:07:45.500 see villains, we see good people, bad people. 00:07:46.060 --> 00:07:51.420 But one of the reasons that I believe... gives 00:07:51.420 --> 00:07:54.819 credibility to the Bible being true is how honest 00:07:54.819 --> 00:07:57.579 the Bible is about the failures of those people 00:07:57.579 --> 00:07:59.519 who would otherwise be called righteous people 00:07:59.519 --> 00:08:01.639 in the Bible. You see, if you were trying to 00:08:01.639 --> 00:08:05.620 make up a story about a God who, if you trust 00:08:05.620 --> 00:08:07.980 in him, he changes your life and everything's 00:08:07.980 --> 00:08:10.180 better, and you were trying to get the world 00:08:10.180 --> 00:08:13.180 to believe in that story, it reasons that you 00:08:13.180 --> 00:08:15.959 would only tell of the glowing victories of those 00:08:15.959 --> 00:08:19.240 who trusted in that God. You would tell a story 00:08:19.240 --> 00:08:20.800 about, look how bad this person was, and then 00:08:20.800 --> 00:08:22.959 they trusted in this God, and boom, their life 00:08:22.959 --> 00:08:26.699 was perfect after. That's how heroes and those 00:08:26.699 --> 00:08:28.920 that are positive and good are typically portrayed 00:08:28.920 --> 00:08:32.159 in stories, especially among the cults. But the 00:08:32.159 --> 00:08:35.639 Bible is very open about the failures about those 00:08:35.639 --> 00:08:38.940 who are considered God's people. Men like Lot, 00:08:39.100 --> 00:08:41.179 who the Bible tells us he's righteous, and yet 00:08:41.179 --> 00:08:43.220 we read stories as we've been reading in Genesis 00:08:43.220 --> 00:08:46.679 19 that really don't paint that picture, but 00:08:46.679 --> 00:08:49.500 yet he is considered a righteous person. And 00:08:49.500 --> 00:08:52.019 the transparency that the Bible has on the lives 00:08:52.019 --> 00:08:55.179 of godly people who make terrible, terrible mistakes 00:08:55.179 --> 00:08:57.799 really supports the case that the word of God 00:08:57.799 --> 00:09:01.580 is an honest work. That it's honest in what it's 00:09:01.580 --> 00:09:04.139 telling rather than dishonest. And again, Lot's 00:09:04.139 --> 00:09:07.240 story is a big example of that. And so just the 00:09:07.240 --> 00:09:08.919 brief recap for those that may have not been 00:09:08.919 --> 00:09:12.519 with us before. When Abraham, then named Abram, 00:09:12.519 --> 00:09:15.879 left his hometown of Ur with his family, Lot 00:09:15.879 --> 00:09:18.419 was one of them that was with them. Lot is the 00:09:18.419 --> 00:09:21.399 nephew to Abraham. And so they traveled 800 miles 00:09:21.399 --> 00:09:23.519 to the land of Canaan. And through the story 00:09:23.519 --> 00:09:26.779 that's primarily told about Abraham's life, we 00:09:26.779 --> 00:09:31.860 see Lot, this character, a slow progression away 00:09:31.860 --> 00:09:35.179 from godliness. A slow progression whereas he 00:09:35.179 --> 00:09:37.899 leaves the family, he leaves his uncle Abraham 00:09:37.899 --> 00:09:40.399 and the influence there and ends up getting close 00:09:40.399 --> 00:09:43.039 to this place called Sodom which is a very wicked 00:09:43.039 --> 00:09:47.019 and evil place. And so on the night that the 00:09:47.019 --> 00:09:50.419 Lord God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, we saw 00:09:50.419 --> 00:09:53.080 Lot who had moved closer and closer and closer 00:09:53.080 --> 00:09:55.679 to this city now as a leader of this terrible 00:09:55.679 --> 00:09:59.460 wicked city. This guy who was called godly and 00:09:59.460 --> 00:10:02.799 righteous in 2 Peter 2 tried to offer his two 00:10:02.799 --> 00:10:06.440 virgin daughters to this mob of all the men in 00:10:06.440 --> 00:10:09.159 the city that had surrounded his house who wanted 00:10:09.159 --> 00:10:12.700 to homosexually rape these two angels who had 00:10:12.700 --> 00:10:15.559 come to visit the city whom Lot had brought into 00:10:15.559 --> 00:10:18.909 his house for protection. So godly, righteous 00:10:18.909 --> 00:10:22.389 Lot thought it was preferable to hand his daughters 00:10:22.389 --> 00:10:25.769 over to the sexual violence of this mob rather 00:10:25.769 --> 00:10:28.529 than handing over these visitors in his house 00:10:28.529 --> 00:10:31.190 because if he handed over the visitors, it would 00:10:31.190 --> 00:10:33.230 tarnish his reputation, it would tarnish his 00:10:33.230 --> 00:10:37.669 honor. And we go, how can anybody make a decision 00:10:37.669 --> 00:10:41.029 like that? Yet Lot did. And really it's the picture 00:10:41.029 --> 00:10:44.169 of how far Lot had fallen. since his original 00:10:44.169 --> 00:10:46.409 arrival into the promised land, which was so 00:10:46.409 --> 00:10:50.309 far that in the middle of Genesis 19, we find 00:10:50.309 --> 00:10:52.769 that as the angels are telling Lot, God is gonna 00:10:52.769 --> 00:10:55.870 judge this place, God is gonna destroy this place, 00:10:55.990 --> 00:10:59.029 that the two angels literally had to drag Lot 00:10:59.029 --> 00:11:02.190 out of Sodom with his wife and his daughters 00:11:02.190 --> 00:11:05.509 before the destruction came. And then as they 00:11:05.509 --> 00:11:08.230 drug him outside, they said, flee to the mountains, 00:11:08.350 --> 00:11:12.430 and you'll be safe. Now, whimpering, fearful, 00:11:12.430 --> 00:11:15.549 faithless Lot begs them, please let me flee to 00:11:15.549 --> 00:11:18.149 the town of Zoar. It's closer than the mountains, 00:11:18.269 --> 00:11:22.090 and I'll live if I get there. Now, they allowed 00:11:22.090 --> 00:11:24.289 him to do that. They graciously granted that 00:11:24.289 --> 00:11:27.649 request and allowed him to go to Zoar. Now, I 00:11:27.649 --> 00:11:30.049 think Lot wanted to go to Zoar instead of the 00:11:30.049 --> 00:11:32.049 mountains, one, out of fear for his own life, 00:11:32.149 --> 00:11:35.950 but two, Zoar was like a mini Sodom. And Lot 00:11:35.950 --> 00:11:38.409 had been so ingrained into the culture of Sodom 00:11:38.409 --> 00:11:40.750 that he was a very materialistic man. He was 00:11:40.750 --> 00:11:43.789 big on his position and his power and his authority 00:11:43.789 --> 00:11:47.610 and his business and his stuff that he wanted 00:11:47.610 --> 00:11:49.769 to go there rather than flee up into the mountains. 00:11:50.610 --> 00:11:53.509 So they grant his request. He ends up in Zoar. 00:11:53.909 --> 00:11:56.490 Sodom and Gomorrah is wiped out along with the 00:11:56.490 --> 00:11:59.250 other towns that were there in the plain. And 00:11:59.250 --> 00:12:02.029 you can imagine the people in Zoar just a handful 00:12:02.029 --> 00:12:06.909 of miles away Firestorm, fall from the skies, 00:12:07.090 --> 00:12:09.169 whether it was a meteor shower or comets breaking 00:12:09.169 --> 00:12:11.649 up or whatever it might be, but then the impacts 00:12:11.649 --> 00:12:15.049 on the earth and the explosions and the screams 00:12:15.049 --> 00:12:17.309 and the rumbling of the ground as this whole 00:12:17.309 --> 00:12:20.789 plane was destroyed by God. Now we know that 00:12:20.789 --> 00:12:23.570 Lot's wife was turned into a pillar of salt as 00:12:23.570 --> 00:12:27.789 they fled because she looked back on Sodom, regretting 00:12:27.789 --> 00:12:30.639 that she's gonna lose out on her stuff. Her material 00:12:30.639 --> 00:12:33.019 things, her house, her goods, her riches, and 00:12:33.019 --> 00:12:35.440 even in the face of God's judgment, she was still 00:12:35.440 --> 00:12:38.139 longing for those things, and she ended up getting 00:12:38.139 --> 00:12:40.600 judged because of that. This is where we're picking 00:12:40.600 --> 00:12:43.820 up the story today in Genesis 19 .30, where now 00:12:43.820 --> 00:12:46.980 we have Lot, his two daughters living in Zoar. 00:12:47.419 --> 00:12:50.200 Everything in Sodom and Gomorrah is gone, destroyed. 00:12:50.840 --> 00:12:54.000 Lot's wife is gone, their mother is gone, and 00:12:54.000 --> 00:12:56.500 all of it being an example of God's judgment 00:12:56.500 --> 00:12:59.960 on sin and disobedience. So now we read verse 00:12:59.960 --> 00:13:03.919 30. Lot departed from Zoar and lived in the mountains 00:13:03.919 --> 00:13:06.179 along with his two daughters because he was afraid 00:13:06.179 --> 00:13:09.460 to live in Zoar. Instead, he and his two daughters 00:13:09.460 --> 00:13:14.379 lived in a cave. Now we're not told what he was 00:13:14.379 --> 00:13:17.399 afraid of when he got to this place, Zoar, but 00:13:17.399 --> 00:13:19.580 something made him afraid enough to leave the 00:13:19.580 --> 00:13:23.320 city and to go live in a cave. Now speculatively, 00:13:23.399 --> 00:13:25.899 we could say maybe he was afraid of the people. 00:13:26.480 --> 00:13:29.379 Because again, Zoar was like a mini -Sodom, and 00:13:29.379 --> 00:13:32.580 so maybe he got there and then went, wait a second, 00:13:32.779 --> 00:13:35.879 I know what my town did to strangers when they 00:13:35.879 --> 00:13:38.419 showed up in the town. They wanted to do these 00:13:38.419 --> 00:13:41.179 horrible things to them. Oh no, people here are 00:13:41.179 --> 00:13:44.440 looking at me very weird, right? Maybe he was 00:13:44.440 --> 00:13:47.940 afraid that the place was gonna be judged, right? 00:13:48.019 --> 00:13:49.960 Because he had a very weak faith. He didn't walk 00:13:49.960 --> 00:13:51.899 close with God, so even though the angel said, 00:13:52.080 --> 00:13:55.679 it'll be spared for your sake, Lot may have been 00:13:55.679 --> 00:13:57.840 thinking, oh, this place is just as bad as where 00:13:57.840 --> 00:14:00.120 I was from. They're going to judge it. I better 00:14:00.120 --> 00:14:03.340 get out of here. Maybe he was afraid of the people 00:14:03.340 --> 00:14:05.220 because the people were like, hey, I had some 00:14:05.220 --> 00:14:06.820 friends in Sodom. Why did you get out alive? 00:14:08.179 --> 00:14:11.019 We don't know what it is ultimately, but what 00:14:11.019 --> 00:14:13.700 I do find interesting is that when the angels 00:14:13.700 --> 00:14:17.519 took him out of Sodom and told him to flee, that 00:14:17.519 --> 00:14:22.320 he didn't return to his uncle Abraham. I firmly 00:14:22.320 --> 00:14:25.360 believe that if he returned to his uncle Abraham, 00:14:25.620 --> 00:14:27.759 Abraham would have welcomed him right in, right? 00:14:28.139 --> 00:14:31.039 Kind of like the prodigal son, if you will. Welcome 00:14:31.039 --> 00:14:33.860 home. I'm so glad you're out of that place. Matter 00:14:33.860 --> 00:14:37.379 of fact, you know, I saw the meteor shower destroyed 00:14:37.379 --> 00:14:40.169 as well. I'm so glad you're home. You see, there's 00:14:40.169 --> 00:14:42.070 a picture that Abraham might have been concerned 00:14:42.070 --> 00:14:44.889 about his nephew Lot earlier when God had told 00:14:44.889 --> 00:14:46.649 Abraham, I'm going to destroy this place. And 00:14:46.649 --> 00:14:49.070 Abraham's like, whoa, whoa, whoa. Hey, like, 00:14:49.090 --> 00:14:51.470 you're just and you're holy. And, you know, if 00:14:51.470 --> 00:14:52.950 there's someone righteous there, you're not going 00:14:52.950 --> 00:14:55.210 to destroy the place with the righteous there 00:14:55.210 --> 00:14:58.370 as well, will you? And speculatively, we think 00:14:58.370 --> 00:15:00.649 that, you know, Abraham knew that his Lot nephew 00:15:00.649 --> 00:15:04.830 was there. Probably knew that his nephew Lot 00:15:04.830 --> 00:15:07.129 had made a profession of faith in God, and so 00:15:07.129 --> 00:15:09.049 he was thinking, you know, I don't want him to 00:15:09.049 --> 00:15:11.250 get killed. That's speculative as well, but it's 00:15:11.250 --> 00:15:14.950 likely. Now, instead of going home to Abraham 00:15:14.950 --> 00:15:16.730 where he knew he would be welcomed, he instead 00:15:16.730 --> 00:15:20.570 goes to this place, Zoar, and now he's afraid 00:15:20.570 --> 00:15:23.090 of Zoar. Now, Donald Barnhouse said, when a man 00:15:23.090 --> 00:15:25.830 is out of the will of God, he is haunted by the 00:15:25.830 --> 00:15:28.870 boogies of his own imagination. We call that 00:15:28.870 --> 00:15:32.629 paranoia. Right? I can't go home. They're going 00:15:32.629 --> 00:15:36.029 to reject me. Go to Zoar. Oh, I can't stay here. 00:15:36.190 --> 00:15:38.529 They're going to do terrible things to me. And 00:15:38.529 --> 00:15:41.049 everywhere he looks, he's seeing things that 00:15:41.049 --> 00:15:43.889 he's afraid of. He's being driven by fear. His 00:15:43.889 --> 00:15:46.769 decisions are being driven by fear. And so whether 00:15:46.769 --> 00:15:49.990 it was guilt or shame or pride or a combination 00:15:49.990 --> 00:15:52.809 of all those things, he had become a fearful 00:15:52.809 --> 00:15:57.950 man. And not knowing God very well, Not for any 00:15:57.950 --> 00:16:01.210 other reason that he chose not to be close to 00:16:01.210 --> 00:16:05.049 God. The reality of his own sinful compromise 00:16:05.049 --> 00:16:07.389 and the reality of what happened, he was scared 00:16:07.389 --> 00:16:10.850 of what could happen. So his metaphorical descent 00:16:10.850 --> 00:16:14.610 into sinfulness and then that leading to fear 00:16:14.610 --> 00:16:18.570 and possibly depression and isolation and compromise, 00:16:18.669 --> 00:16:20.970 just how he was isolated from his family, we 00:16:20.970 --> 00:16:23.710 now see the physical reality representing that 00:16:23.710 --> 00:16:27.259 where he's now living in a cave. Now you have 00:16:27.259 --> 00:16:30.580 to understand, this is Lot who had wealth and 00:16:30.580 --> 00:16:34.580 riches and a position of power and reputation 00:16:34.580 --> 00:16:37.139 and all of these things that he said, you know 00:16:37.139 --> 00:16:38.679 what, these are so valuable to me, I'm going 00:16:38.679 --> 00:16:41.139 to kind of put my godliness on the back burner. 00:16:41.320 --> 00:16:45.419 Now it's all gone. He's lost everything. And 00:16:45.419 --> 00:16:47.360 he's sitting in this cave. Now scripturally, 00:16:47.580 --> 00:16:52.820 caves are often connected to or seen as tombs, 00:16:52.820 --> 00:16:56.620 right? Abraham ends up buying a cave in Machpelah 00:16:56.620 --> 00:17:00.639 to serve as the tomb for his wife. It ends up 00:17:00.639 --> 00:17:04.319 being the tomb where he is buried. And, you know, 00:17:04.319 --> 00:17:07.279 caves we see in other places that represent the 00:17:07.279 --> 00:17:11.460 place of finality or the place of death or the 00:17:11.460 --> 00:17:14.440 place of separation, right? We ultimately know 00:17:14.440 --> 00:17:17.160 that it was a cave that Jesus Christ was buried 00:17:17.160 --> 00:17:20.500 in after his crucifixion. Now, we'll get to later 00:17:20.500 --> 00:17:25.619 that as Lot... His story ends in a cave. Jesus 00:17:25.619 --> 00:17:28.319 Christ walked out of that cave, walked out of 00:17:28.319 --> 00:17:29.720 that tomb, and we're going to be celebrating 00:17:29.720 --> 00:17:32.660 that in a few weeks here at Easter. But here 00:17:32.660 --> 00:17:35.319 in Lot's story, we see that after all these riches 00:17:35.319 --> 00:17:37.380 and all this wonderful stuff that he thought 00:17:37.380 --> 00:17:39.079 was the most valuable thing in the world, now 00:17:39.079 --> 00:17:42.839 he's spiritually entombed. Not that he's lost 00:17:42.839 --> 00:17:45.619 his faith, but he's in this place that represents 00:17:45.619 --> 00:17:48.809 his spiritual degradation. That he has fallen 00:17:48.809 --> 00:17:51.569 so far from the Lord at this point that he's 00:17:51.569 --> 00:17:57.069 just living a death -like existence. Now, Lot's 00:17:57.069 --> 00:18:00.829 compromise and Lot's corruption didn't just have 00:18:00.829 --> 00:18:03.589 consequences on him. It had major consequences 00:18:03.589 --> 00:18:06.759 on his family as well. As I mentioned earlier, 00:18:07.000 --> 00:18:10.119 that as he was fleeing, his wife longed for the 00:18:10.119 --> 00:18:12.680 worldly material things of Sodom so much that 00:18:12.680 --> 00:18:14.720 she looked back, even though the angel said not 00:18:14.720 --> 00:18:17.279 to, and she was turned into a pillar of salt. 00:18:18.240 --> 00:18:21.279 But this last part of the story, verses 30 through 00:18:21.279 --> 00:18:23.400 the end of the chapter, we're going to see the 00:18:23.400 --> 00:18:25.660 effect of his compromise. We're going to see 00:18:25.660 --> 00:18:27.920 the effect of his corruption on his daughters. 00:18:28.890 --> 00:18:32.210 and really learn that how spiritual shallowness 00:18:32.210 --> 00:18:36.250 in parents is often duplicated and even amplified 00:18:36.250 --> 00:18:40.549 in their children. Look at verse 31. Then the 00:18:40.549 --> 00:18:43.170 firstborn said to the younger, our father is 00:18:43.170 --> 00:18:45.869 old, and there is no man in the land to sleep 00:18:45.869 --> 00:18:48.630 with us as is the custom of all the land. Come, 00:18:48.829 --> 00:18:51.769 let us get our father to drink wine so that we 00:18:51.769 --> 00:18:54.150 can sleep with him and preserve our father's 00:18:54.150 --> 00:18:58.730 line. Now, I think in the Hebrew, there's a bracket 00:18:58.730 --> 00:19:01.430 there right after this that says, ew, gross, 00:19:01.750 --> 00:19:07.390 right? I mean, Lot's story, right? Just when 00:19:07.390 --> 00:19:09.529 you think his story has gotten worse, it gets 00:19:09.529 --> 00:19:13.269 worse. But this is a godly, righteous man according 00:19:13.269 --> 00:19:17.109 to the Bible, right? So what we see here is the 00:19:17.109 --> 00:19:20.269 daughters. Going, hey, let's sleep with our dad 00:19:20.269 --> 00:19:22.349 because dad doesn't have a son and there's going 00:19:22.349 --> 00:19:24.150 to be no one to carry the family line here and 00:19:24.150 --> 00:19:26.150 the family name. And so, you know, the custom 00:19:26.150 --> 00:19:29.529 is that we would go off and get married to other 00:19:29.529 --> 00:19:32.769 families. But, you know, all of this is there's 00:19:32.769 --> 00:19:35.250 no mom. Dad can't have any more kids. And so 00:19:35.250 --> 00:19:37.769 what this is is incest, right? Sexual intimacy 00:19:37.769 --> 00:19:40.289 between family members. Now, it's interesting. 00:19:40.349 --> 00:19:42.349 You look into the ancient cultures, the Near 00:19:42.349 --> 00:19:44.430 Eastern cultures like the Mesopotamian cultures 00:19:44.430 --> 00:19:48.879 and the Hittite cultures predominantly. Incest 00:19:48.879 --> 00:19:52.099 wasn't widely accepted. There were some cultures 00:19:52.099 --> 00:19:55.200 that were known for it, but in a lot of the Mesopotamian 00:19:55.200 --> 00:19:57.460 and specifically the Hittite cultures, it was 00:19:57.460 --> 00:19:59.559 forbidden. Like they even knew it was a bad thing 00:19:59.559 --> 00:20:02.880 back then. The Code of Hammurabi, which is the 00:20:02.880 --> 00:20:06.079 laws of the Mesopotamian Valley, in those laws 00:20:06.079 --> 00:20:08.480 that have been discovered, incest is completely 00:20:08.480 --> 00:20:11.559 forbidden. In the Hittite culture, not only was 00:20:11.559 --> 00:20:13.839 it forbidden, but it was punishable by death. 00:20:15.019 --> 00:20:18.160 And so there was this sense that this type of 00:20:18.160 --> 00:20:21.299 thing was not okay, right? Like it needs to be 00:20:21.299 --> 00:20:22.799 written in the law, but it was written in the 00:20:22.799 --> 00:20:26.180 law so that they knew it was not okay. The Hebrew 00:20:26.180 --> 00:20:29.319 culture we read in the Bible goes on to explicitly 00:20:29.319 --> 00:20:32.519 forbade any of this type of relationship between 00:20:32.519 --> 00:20:34.380 fathers and daughters or fathers and daughters 00:20:34.380 --> 00:20:36.619 -in -law. And you read all about that in Leviticus 00:20:36.619 --> 00:20:39.160 18 and Leviticus 20, where it tells us that in 00:20:39.160 --> 00:20:41.559 the Hebrew culture, incest was punishable by 00:20:41.559 --> 00:20:45.559 death as well. along with adultery was punishable 00:20:45.559 --> 00:20:48.799 by death, homosexuality was punishable by death, 00:20:49.720 --> 00:20:53.460 bestiality, which is sex with animals, punishable 00:20:53.460 --> 00:20:57.220 by death. Why? Because these things were an aberrant 00:20:57.220 --> 00:21:01.039 perversion of God's intent for human sexuality. 00:21:02.099 --> 00:21:06.420 Now, whether or not the culture in Sodom believed 00:21:06.420 --> 00:21:09.369 it was wrong or not, it doesn't tell us. But 00:21:09.369 --> 00:21:11.829 we can imagine with how Sodom is described to 00:21:11.829 --> 00:21:14.390 us as so evil and so wicked, and then the picture 00:21:14.390 --> 00:21:17.150 of all the men of the city coming to rape these 00:21:17.150 --> 00:21:19.809 visitors, we can imagine that there wasn't a 00:21:19.809 --> 00:21:23.029 lot in Sodom that they considered wrong. Now, 00:21:23.049 --> 00:21:25.630 what we do see here, and it's very interesting, 00:21:25.750 --> 00:21:29.990 is that Lot's daughter's motivation is not sexual 00:21:29.990 --> 00:21:34.789 in nature. It's economic in nature. And what 00:21:34.789 --> 00:21:37.609 do I mean by that? Their idea here is to preserve 00:21:37.609 --> 00:21:41.430 their father's line. You see, in ancient times, 00:21:41.509 --> 00:21:46.170 ownership of land, ownership of goods, ownership 00:21:46.170 --> 00:21:50.369 in general was tied to the father's name. The 00:21:50.369 --> 00:21:52.890 women in those times, they didn't have rights 00:21:52.890 --> 00:21:56.269 that women have today. They were considered... 00:21:57.099 --> 00:21:59.980 deeply loved family, but as far as legal rights 00:21:59.980 --> 00:22:02.480 were concerned, women were kind of treated like 00:22:02.480 --> 00:22:05.039 property, right? And sold off into other families 00:22:05.039 --> 00:22:07.539 and to make deals. And so the only way that ownership 00:22:07.539 --> 00:22:10.140 of family assets could travel was through sons, 00:22:10.319 --> 00:22:12.359 because it went from the name of the father to 00:22:12.359 --> 00:22:14.799 the name of the son and so on and so forth. Now 00:22:14.799 --> 00:22:18.299 that could indicate that these girls coming up 00:22:18.299 --> 00:22:21.720 with this idea are somehow motivated by the idea 00:22:21.720 --> 00:22:25.200 of possibly maintaining and recovering all of 00:22:25.200 --> 00:22:28.819 their materialistic stuff. We know the mom was 00:22:28.819 --> 00:22:30.940 so materialistic that she looked back and was 00:22:30.940 --> 00:22:33.000 turned to a pillar of salt. And so the idea of, 00:22:33.079 --> 00:22:35.779 like, we need to preserve father's line because, 00:22:36.000 --> 00:22:38.579 you know, then we could get our stuff back. Maybe 00:22:38.579 --> 00:22:40.160 we could, you know, go somewhere else and say, 00:22:40.220 --> 00:22:42.759 I'm Lot of Sodom and get position and fame and 00:22:42.759 --> 00:22:44.960 power back. We're not sure about that. Again, 00:22:45.059 --> 00:22:48.470 that's speculative, but. Jewish tradition says 00:22:48.470 --> 00:22:51.869 this, that the girls, these two girls thought 00:22:51.869 --> 00:22:55.549 that the whole world was destroyed. Jewish tradition 00:22:55.549 --> 00:22:57.609 says that these girls thought that them and their 00:22:57.609 --> 00:23:00.410 father were the last people on earth. And so 00:23:00.410 --> 00:23:03.769 the daughters were going, well, we got to repopulate 00:23:03.769 --> 00:23:06.869 the earth and dad is the only male. And so let's 00:23:06.869 --> 00:23:09.069 come up with this really, really foul thing to 00:23:09.069 --> 00:23:12.750 do. But I reject that because of the fact that 00:23:12.750 --> 00:23:15.750 they were just in Zohar. Full of people, right? 00:23:16.150 --> 00:23:18.470 So they couldn't have thought they were the last 00:23:18.470 --> 00:23:20.349 people on the planet unless something else happened 00:23:20.349 --> 00:23:22.210 that's not recorded, but it's not recorded, so 00:23:22.210 --> 00:23:26.210 likely not. But did the daughters believe that 00:23:26.210 --> 00:23:27.789 what they were doing, even though it was economic 00:23:27.789 --> 00:23:29.549 in nature and all that, did they believe it was 00:23:29.549 --> 00:23:32.609 wrong? Did they believe it was not the right 00:23:32.609 --> 00:23:35.390 thing to do? Well, the fact that they had to 00:23:35.390 --> 00:23:39.589 get their father drunk to do it indicates to 00:23:39.589 --> 00:23:42.069 me that they had an understanding that it was 00:23:42.069 --> 00:23:46.180 wrong. That father, if he was sober, would have 00:23:46.180 --> 00:23:49.980 otherwise said, no way. And yet they were like, 00:23:50.019 --> 00:23:51.940 we have to get him drunk to do this. And so what 00:23:51.940 --> 00:23:53.680 that tells me is they knew what they were doing 00:23:53.680 --> 00:23:57.759 was wrong. And I'm sure with the idea of Abraham 00:23:57.759 --> 00:24:00.660 and the other side of the family, that they understood. 00:24:01.079 --> 00:24:03.440 And I believe it's within the heart of humans 00:24:03.440 --> 00:24:07.339 to just go, ew, that's not right. And so they 00:24:07.339 --> 00:24:09.700 sinned intentionally. Regardless of their motivations 00:24:09.700 --> 00:24:12.259 or reason of doing so, this was sinful for them 00:24:12.259 --> 00:24:16.599 to do. Let's read on. Verse 33. So they got their 00:24:16.599 --> 00:24:18.740 father to drink wine that night, and the firstborn 00:24:18.740 --> 00:24:20.980 came and slept with their father. He did not 00:24:20.980 --> 00:24:23.980 know when she lay down or when she got up. The 00:24:23.980 --> 00:24:25.680 next day, the firstborn said to the younger, 00:24:25.819 --> 00:24:29.039 look, I slept with my father last night. Let's 00:24:29.039 --> 00:24:31.039 get him to drink wine again tonight so you can 00:24:31.039 --> 00:24:33.200 go sleep with him and we can preserve our father's 00:24:33.200 --> 00:24:36.039 line. That night they again got their father 00:24:36.039 --> 00:24:38.299 to drink wine, and the younger went and slept 00:24:38.299 --> 00:24:40.339 with him, and he did not know when she lay down 00:24:40.339 --> 00:24:49.779 or when she got up. This is a dark, wrong, perverse 00:24:49.779 --> 00:24:55.940 incident. Ironically taking place in a dark cave. 00:24:57.299 --> 00:25:02.099 The context of Lot's life as a father. is a very 00:25:02.099 --> 00:25:05.859 dark context. And that is what all this is set 00:25:05.859 --> 00:25:08.660 in, because even though we've postulated maybe 00:25:08.660 --> 00:25:10.700 they were thinking this or thinking that, we 00:25:10.700 --> 00:25:12.180 still have to come back to and go, how could 00:25:12.180 --> 00:25:15.700 Lot's daughters, knowing this was wrong, still 00:25:15.700 --> 00:25:20.359 think this was a good idea? Right? I mean, maybe 00:25:20.359 --> 00:25:22.660 we could go back to Zoar. Let's go back there 00:25:22.660 --> 00:25:26.680 and just start a life and rebuild. I mean, there 00:25:26.680 --> 00:25:29.119 were options, but for some reason, they came 00:25:29.119 --> 00:25:33.079 to this option. That this is the way to rebuild 00:25:33.079 --> 00:25:35.579 our father's life, our father's family, and then 00:25:35.579 --> 00:25:39.079 by extension, our family. Well, we have to understand 00:25:39.079 --> 00:25:42.140 that this story, this whole story of this man, 00:25:42.180 --> 00:25:46.700 Lot, is about the fall of a righteous person. 00:25:47.240 --> 00:25:50.319 The effects of a righteous person getting closer 00:25:50.319 --> 00:25:53.079 to sin than they are to God, and how that corrupts 00:25:53.079 --> 00:25:56.660 their morals. Now, this particular part of the 00:25:56.660 --> 00:25:59.339 story, this is after the destruction of Sodom 00:25:59.339 --> 00:26:01.759 and Gomorrah, this is after Lot lost everything, 00:26:02.019 --> 00:26:06.019 and then this is the conclusion of Lot's narrative. 00:26:06.500 --> 00:26:09.559 This is the end of his story. No more in the 00:26:09.559 --> 00:26:11.660 Old Testament about him. This story is gonna 00:26:11.660 --> 00:26:14.240 end on a very dark note, and this is his legacy 00:26:14.240 --> 00:26:18.079 that he has left behind for us. Now, as I said, 00:26:18.119 --> 00:26:20.519 Lot's an example of what happens when a righteous 00:26:20.519 --> 00:26:24.140 person compromises. They end up losing everything, 00:26:24.380 --> 00:26:27.539 whether it's here or in the big picture, they 00:26:27.539 --> 00:26:29.859 lose everything. The Bible tells us that those 00:26:29.859 --> 00:26:31.660 who trust in riches, well, when you die, the 00:26:31.660 --> 00:26:33.920 riches don't matter, do they? Your gold doesn't 00:26:33.920 --> 00:26:35.160 go with you. Your house doesn't go with you. 00:26:35.220 --> 00:26:38.720 Your bank account doesn't go with you. Your retirement 00:26:38.720 --> 00:26:40.460 and your investments, those are meant to be left 00:26:40.460 --> 00:26:42.700 behind to take care of your family that hasn't 00:26:42.700 --> 00:26:45.980 moved on yet. But Lot, he was putting his trust 00:26:45.980 --> 00:26:51.490 in all those things. But worse beyond that, is 00:26:51.490 --> 00:26:54.690 his example of living led his daughters to follow 00:26:54.690 --> 00:27:00.049 the same path into sinful compromise. His example 00:27:00.049 --> 00:27:04.869 taught his children to sacrifice what is right 00:27:04.869 --> 00:27:09.730 for what is most beneficial. You see, their moral 00:27:09.730 --> 00:27:12.440 compass was completely corrupted as well. And 00:27:12.440 --> 00:27:15.180 this is the result of their dad's example. Life 00:27:15.180 --> 00:27:18.359 in Sodom, I believe, had repeatedly demonstrated 00:27:18.359 --> 00:27:24.380 the reality to Lot's little girls of how wine 00:27:24.380 --> 00:27:28.819 and sensuality work together. You see, Sodom 00:27:28.819 --> 00:27:32.599 was a place of deception and manipulation and 00:27:32.599 --> 00:27:36.059 taking advantage. Sodom was a place where my 00:27:36.059 --> 00:27:38.680 pleasure, what I want, was first above all things. 00:27:38.779 --> 00:27:41.319 I don't care how it affects anybody else. I'm 00:27:41.319 --> 00:27:44.119 going to go after that. And so it's very likely, 00:27:44.279 --> 00:27:48.940 very likely that wine and getting people drunk 00:27:48.940 --> 00:27:50.960 as a means of getting them to do what you wanted 00:27:50.960 --> 00:27:53.619 them to do was something they saw all the time. 00:27:54.559 --> 00:27:56.720 Lot not only was a rich man there, but he was 00:27:56.720 --> 00:27:59.160 a leader in the city. So it's likely he had business 00:27:59.160 --> 00:28:02.259 dealings with people all the time. And so it's 00:28:02.259 --> 00:28:04.960 just the likelihood that they were exposed to 00:28:04.960 --> 00:28:10.460 this type of thing is very high. Now, not only 00:28:10.460 --> 00:28:13.839 did they see this stuff, but then their dad, 00:28:13.859 --> 00:28:15.859 who may be in the home, was like, hey, girls, 00:28:15.940 --> 00:28:20.569 we don't do that. This is terrible, sinful stuff, 00:28:20.750 --> 00:28:23.730 right? It says he was tormented. He was distressed 00:28:23.730 --> 00:28:26.829 by what he saw and heard. But every day, he still 00:28:26.829 --> 00:28:29.789 went out and did business with these people and 00:28:29.789 --> 00:28:32.589 still went out and participated in their government. 00:28:33.650 --> 00:28:36.089 And there's a real possibility that the kids 00:28:36.089 --> 00:28:38.309 are like, Dad, if this is so terrible, why are 00:28:38.309 --> 00:28:43.150 we still here? Dad, if this is so bad, why are 00:28:43.150 --> 00:28:46.130 you in partnership? Why is your business partner 00:28:46.130 --> 00:28:51.099 one of these horrible people? And yet, he was 00:28:51.099 --> 00:28:53.539 a type of man that was like, I don't participate. 00:28:54.880 --> 00:28:58.299 I don't do the sins that they're doing, but he 00:28:58.299 --> 00:29:01.380 said little enough about it where he became a 00:29:01.380 --> 00:29:06.279 leader in the city. That tells us that, sure, 00:29:06.359 --> 00:29:09.240 he might have believed sin was sin in his own 00:29:09.240 --> 00:29:13.019 heart, but he couldn't jeopardize his position 00:29:13.019 --> 00:29:16.680 by standing against righteousness. No, no. He 00:29:16.680 --> 00:29:20.000 couldn't jeopardize the success of his business 00:29:20.000 --> 00:29:23.720 by standing against unrighteousness and wickedness. 00:29:23.779 --> 00:29:25.880 He couldn't do that. He couldn't give up his 00:29:25.880 --> 00:29:28.759 reputation by being one of those Christians, 00:29:28.940 --> 00:29:30.599 right, that's just always telling people they're 00:29:30.599 --> 00:29:35.119 in sin. He couldn't affect his bottom line by 00:29:35.119 --> 00:29:38.619 standing up for righteousness. And so we don't 00:29:38.619 --> 00:29:40.019 do that, but we're not going to say anything 00:29:40.019 --> 00:29:46.700 else to the culture we live in. That's incidentally, 00:29:46.700 --> 00:29:48.779 as Mari was sharing, is one of the issues with 00:29:48.779 --> 00:29:51.859 abortion in our culture. There's so many leaders 00:29:51.859 --> 00:29:53.720 in the church and churches that are like, oh 00:29:53.720 --> 00:29:55.599 no, that's wrong, but we're not gonna engage 00:29:55.599 --> 00:29:59.299 in that. We're not gonna talk about that because 00:29:59.299 --> 00:30:03.920 it might affect our church attendance. I'll tell 00:30:03.920 --> 00:30:07.400 you right now, and if this offends somebody, 00:30:07.599 --> 00:30:11.539 then I'm sorry, but if standing on the word of 00:30:11.539 --> 00:30:13.720 God causes you to not wanna come to church here, 00:30:15.519 --> 00:30:19.319 I'm sorry. See you later. I will always stand 00:30:19.319 --> 00:30:26.440 on the word of God, no matter what. If... Well, 00:30:26.500 --> 00:30:27.660 this isn't in the notes, so I know I'm going 00:30:27.660 --> 00:30:30.500 to go off on that soapbox. The word of God is 00:30:30.500 --> 00:30:32.579 everything. Standing for what the word of God 00:30:32.579 --> 00:30:35.140 stands for is everything. And Lot being an example 00:30:35.140 --> 00:30:36.900 of a man who was like, I'm saved, but I'm not 00:30:36.900 --> 00:30:39.900 really gonna rock the boat, if you will, it ended 00:30:39.900 --> 00:30:42.240 up affecting his daughters. His lack of a backbone 00:30:42.240 --> 00:30:45.259 in regard to righteousness, his deaf ear and 00:30:45.259 --> 00:30:48.039 his blind eye to the social abuses and the sexual 00:30:48.039 --> 00:30:50.640 abuses of this place taught his daughters that 00:30:50.640 --> 00:30:53.319 righteousness wasn't really important enough 00:30:53.319 --> 00:30:56.500 to take a stand for. Taught his daughters that 00:30:56.500 --> 00:30:59.420 what was of personal benefit, what was enriching 00:30:59.420 --> 00:31:03.299 to me, my family, us, was more important than 00:31:03.299 --> 00:31:06.519 doing what was right and godly or standing against 00:31:06.519 --> 00:31:09.059 wickedness. It taught his daughters that what 00:31:09.059 --> 00:31:12.819 God wanted in regards to how we live, how we 00:31:12.819 --> 00:31:15.359 do business, it was merely a suggestion, not 00:31:15.359 --> 00:31:18.640 a command. And then really what they ultimately 00:31:18.640 --> 00:31:21.980 learned from their dad is, well, if such depravity 00:31:21.980 --> 00:31:26.259 is to be tolerated, then the practice of it can't 00:31:26.259 --> 00:31:30.160 be that bad, right? And this is what we see them 00:31:30.160 --> 00:31:34.440 doing. On top of all of that, Lot's daughters 00:31:34.440 --> 00:31:38.859 had witnessed his life of sacrificing what is 00:31:38.859 --> 00:31:42.380 right if it means survival. I mean, think about 00:31:42.380 --> 00:31:45.920 it. Just assuming they got to Zor and left the 00:31:45.920 --> 00:31:49.519 same day, the night before, they couldn't forget. 00:31:50.460 --> 00:31:53.339 Sitting there at home, seeing dad bringing these 00:31:53.339 --> 00:31:55.579 guests, oh, hi, guests, let's make a meal for 00:31:55.579 --> 00:31:59.920 you. Mob on the door. And hearing dad go, take 00:31:59.920 --> 00:32:03.859 my daughters. Do whatever you want to them. Can 00:32:03.859 --> 00:32:09.839 you imagine those girls? What? What'd you just 00:32:09.839 --> 00:32:15.220 say, dad? Just terrible. But they had just witnessed 00:32:15.220 --> 00:32:17.500 this. They had witnessed their dad willing to 00:32:17.500 --> 00:32:19.920 send them out to this horrible, horrible situation 00:32:19.920 --> 00:32:22.980 if it meant survival, if it meant protecting 00:32:22.980 --> 00:32:28.259 his house or his honor or his reputation. Well, 00:32:28.299 --> 00:32:31.019 his daughters are now simply employing the same 00:32:31.019 --> 00:32:35.500 morally deficient survival mode decisions as 00:32:35.500 --> 00:32:37.420 they've watched their dad do his whole life. 00:32:40.380 --> 00:32:43.480 So even though they had to get him drunk to do 00:32:43.480 --> 00:32:46.500 it. And even though they knew what they were 00:32:46.500 --> 00:32:50.279 doing was wrong, well, it's going to be beneficial 00:32:50.279 --> 00:32:52.339 for our family. So it's really not an issue of 00:32:52.339 --> 00:32:54.619 right or wrong, is it? It's an issue of, is it 00:32:54.619 --> 00:32:59.920 good for us? Now, to address Lot, he may have 00:32:59.920 --> 00:33:03.099 been drunk, but he's still culpable for what 00:33:03.099 --> 00:33:07.240 he did. You see, he wasn't apparently drunk to 00:33:07.240 --> 00:33:10.539 the point of being unconscious and being forced 00:33:10.539 --> 00:33:13.680 by his daughters. He He was drunk enough to not 00:33:13.680 --> 00:33:16.279 remember what he did, but he was still able to 00:33:16.279 --> 00:33:18.119 function. He was still able to perform in the 00:33:18.119 --> 00:33:20.400 task. And, you know, for those of you that have 00:33:20.400 --> 00:33:24.700 had a history, right, I have a lot of history 00:33:24.700 --> 00:33:27.039 of partying and drinking and all this stuff. 00:33:27.519 --> 00:33:29.460 And when I read this story, I was like, oh, yeah, 00:33:29.559 --> 00:33:31.859 I know the difference between being blackout 00:33:31.859 --> 00:33:35.119 drunk and you're passed out to drunk enough to 00:33:35.119 --> 00:33:37.079 not remember what happened last night, but you 00:33:37.079 --> 00:33:40.319 still were able to function, right? It's not 00:33:40.319 --> 00:33:42.880 something I'm glad I know, but still. I know 00:33:42.880 --> 00:33:45.359 it from my experience. And so he was able to 00:33:45.359 --> 00:33:48.259 do the deed. He was able to function. But he's 00:33:48.259 --> 00:33:50.339 still guilty. Even though he doesn't remember 00:33:50.339 --> 00:33:54.200 it, he's still guilty, right? Just as any father 00:33:54.200 --> 00:33:58.359 today in the same situation wouldn't be like, 00:33:58.480 --> 00:34:00.259 well, you know, my daughters gave me a beer last 00:34:00.259 --> 00:34:04.059 night. Nope, shucky darn. You'd be like, no way. 00:34:05.240 --> 00:34:10.059 It's sinful. It's wrong. As we've come to the 00:34:10.059 --> 00:34:12.079 end of Lot's story, as I said, this is the last 00:34:12.079 --> 00:34:16.199 mention of Lot in the Old Testament. He's of 00:34:16.199 --> 00:34:18.659 no further importance to the history of salvation. 00:34:19.960 --> 00:34:25.400 And this is the legacy he leaves behind. There's 00:34:25.400 --> 00:34:28.260 no record of his death. There's no record of 00:34:28.260 --> 00:34:31.260 a moral turnaround, right? A big moment where 00:34:31.260 --> 00:34:34.260 he recommitted his life. There's none of that. 00:34:34.320 --> 00:34:36.920 There's just a sad story of a righteous man. 00:34:37.800 --> 00:34:42.079 saved by grace, saved by faith, pulled into the 00:34:42.079 --> 00:34:45.619 world because the things of the world were of 00:34:45.619 --> 00:34:47.420 greater priority to him than the things of the 00:34:47.420 --> 00:34:51.760 Lord and him finishing his race very, very badly. 00:34:53.199 --> 00:34:57.039 And so verse 36 is the epilogue to the story. 00:34:57.820 --> 00:35:00.239 So both of Lot's daughters became pregnant by 00:35:00.239 --> 00:35:03.719 their father. The firstborn gave birth to a son 00:35:03.719 --> 00:35:06.380 and named him Moab. He is the father of the Moabites 00:35:06.380 --> 00:35:09.619 of today. The younger also gave birth to a son, 00:35:09.679 --> 00:35:12.199 and she named him Ben -Ami. He is the father 00:35:12.199 --> 00:35:18.440 of the Ammonites today. Now, today to a degree, 00:35:18.480 --> 00:35:20.840 but far more so in ancient cultures, the naming 00:35:20.840 --> 00:35:23.920 of children was an incredible honor. Incredible 00:35:23.920 --> 00:35:26.980 honor. It was usually the honor and the responsibility 00:35:26.980 --> 00:35:30.039 of the father of the children to name their kids, 00:35:30.199 --> 00:35:33.880 typically. But Lot's abandonment of responsibility, 00:35:34.039 --> 00:35:38.429 especially as a parent, that we've seen through 00:35:38.429 --> 00:35:41.909 his whole life, now as a parent again in a weird, 00:35:41.949 --> 00:35:45.650 grotesque way, his irresponsibility, his abandonment 00:35:45.650 --> 00:35:47.869 of that is highlighted as the daughters are the 00:35:47.869 --> 00:35:51.449 ones who name their sons. And the names just 00:35:51.449 --> 00:35:56.190 forever immortalize his legacy. Moab, guess what 00:35:56.190 --> 00:36:01.949 Moab means? From my father. For the rest of his 00:36:01.949 --> 00:36:05.409 life and the life of his daughters, my grandchild 00:36:05.409 --> 00:36:11.309 is named Moab. Dad did it. How disgusting, right? 00:36:12.230 --> 00:36:15.050 That was his legacy. Guess what Ben Ami means? 00:36:16.250 --> 00:36:22.309 Son of my paternal kinsman. Son of my male family 00:36:22.309 --> 00:36:28.010 member who is a father. And he was reminded of 00:36:28.010 --> 00:36:31.530 that for the rest of his life. He was reminded 00:36:31.530 --> 00:36:34.210 that his daughters made this decision. He was 00:36:34.210 --> 00:36:36.949 reminded. that his daughters got those morals 00:36:36.949 --> 00:36:41.309 from him as their father. Now, Moab's people, 00:36:41.449 --> 00:36:43.769 if you picture the map of Israel, right, here's 00:36:43.769 --> 00:36:46.510 Israel, here's the Dead Sea. The Moabites were 00:36:46.510 --> 00:36:48.690 down here to the southeast. The Ammonites were 00:36:48.690 --> 00:36:52.489 up here to the northeast of the Dead Sea. And 00:36:52.489 --> 00:36:54.670 it's just really interesting. Like, the Ammonites, 00:36:54.670 --> 00:36:57.030 they're populating the area, or populated the 00:36:57.030 --> 00:36:59.210 area that today is now known as Jordan, right? 00:36:59.510 --> 00:37:05.219 The capital city is Amman. Just after Ammonites. 00:37:05.380 --> 00:37:08.199 Really interesting. But these two nations, they 00:37:08.199 --> 00:37:11.599 became great enemies of Israel, both when Israel 00:37:11.599 --> 00:37:13.699 was just wandering before they got into the promised 00:37:13.699 --> 00:37:16.440 land and after. You know, we read stories in 00:37:16.440 --> 00:37:19.679 the Bible like where the king of Moab hired a 00:37:19.679 --> 00:37:22.619 guy named Balaam to curse the Israelites, right? 00:37:22.739 --> 00:37:25.920 The king of Moab, these people that came from 00:37:25.920 --> 00:37:29.280 Lot's daughter trying to curse Israel as Israel's 00:37:29.280 --> 00:37:30.960 just wandering through to the promised land. 00:37:31.139 --> 00:37:33.440 Now, you guys all remember the story. Balaam 00:37:33.440 --> 00:37:37.019 was called to curse, was said, hey, the king 00:37:37.019 --> 00:37:38.340 of Moab said, I'll give you tons and tons of 00:37:38.340 --> 00:37:41.039 money, go curse Israel. Balaam's like, sweet, 00:37:41.280 --> 00:37:44.380 money. What's interesting is tradition says that 00:37:44.380 --> 00:37:48.929 Balaam was a non -Jewish prophet of God. I didn't 00:37:48.929 --> 00:37:50.349 know that. That's really interesting. I was like, 00:37:50.389 --> 00:37:53.789 non -Jewish prophet of God? Well, yeah, God talked 00:37:53.789 --> 00:37:57.690 to people that weren't Jewish. Job was one of 00:37:57.690 --> 00:38:02.909 them. Job's three friends, right? But he goes 00:38:02.909 --> 00:38:05.550 in and he opens his mouth and he blesses Israel. 00:38:05.670 --> 00:38:08.550 The king of Moab's like, dude, that's not what 00:38:08.550 --> 00:38:12.440 I asked you to do. Do it again. So they do it 00:38:12.440 --> 00:38:14.880 again, sacrifice 14 animals on seven altars. 00:38:15.199 --> 00:38:17.800 Balaam goes, bless Israel. King of Moab's like, 00:38:17.960 --> 00:38:21.500 bro, like you're not doing what I asked you to 00:38:21.500 --> 00:38:24.260 do. Get out of here. I'm not paying you any money. 00:38:24.760 --> 00:38:27.880 So Balaam goes home and then Balaam goes, oh, 00:38:27.960 --> 00:38:31.079 I got an idea to get my money. I'll get Israel 00:38:31.079 --> 00:38:34.860 to curse themselves. So he goes back, and he's 00:38:34.860 --> 00:38:36.980 going to tell the king all about this, and that's 00:38:36.980 --> 00:38:38.820 where we read the story that he's riding his 00:38:38.820 --> 00:38:41.300 donkey, and his donkey's on the road, and then 00:38:41.300 --> 00:38:43.000 the donkey stops and wants to go this way, and 00:38:43.000 --> 00:38:46.260 he goes, stupid donkey, stay on the road. Then 00:38:46.260 --> 00:38:48.460 the donkey goes this way, hits him again, stupid 00:38:48.460 --> 00:38:51.219 donkey, stay on the road. Now that's when God 00:38:51.219 --> 00:38:53.179 opened up the mouth of the donkey, and the donkey's 00:38:53.179 --> 00:38:59.989 like, bro, stop hitting me. It hurts. But then 00:38:59.989 --> 00:39:01.949 it tells us that that's when God opened up Balaam's 00:39:01.949 --> 00:39:03.590 eyes too and he saw the angel of the Lord standing 00:39:03.590 --> 00:39:05.289 in the middle of the road. And the angel says, 00:39:05.409 --> 00:39:09.349 look, your dumb donkey saved your life. And so 00:39:09.349 --> 00:39:12.349 that's all tied into these people, these Moabites 00:39:12.349 --> 00:39:15.869 that came from this. Now, I saw a really interesting, 00:39:15.989 --> 00:39:19.510 beautiful picture of like a redemption of Lot's 00:39:19.510 --> 00:39:22.829 line in this because guess who else came from 00:39:22.829 --> 00:39:29.980 the Moabites? Ruth. She was a Moabite. Ruth is 00:39:29.980 --> 00:39:33.699 the line that King David came from. Ultimately, 00:39:33.699 --> 00:39:35.480 all the way down to our Savior, Jesus Christ. 00:39:36.260 --> 00:39:39.480 Just such a neat picture of God just doing this 00:39:39.480 --> 00:39:41.440 little redeeming thing there. And really, that's 00:39:41.440 --> 00:39:44.039 just a picture that throughout the history of 00:39:44.039 --> 00:39:46.260 salvation, it was always God's intent that every 00:39:46.260 --> 00:39:49.059 Jew and every Gentile can become a true son or 00:39:49.059 --> 00:39:51.679 daughter of Abraham through Jesus Christ. But 00:39:51.679 --> 00:39:54.900 closing up here, you know, Lot's ultimate mistake 00:39:54.900 --> 00:39:57.789 was this. Although the sinful worldliness of 00:39:57.789 --> 00:40:01.110 Sodom tormented his soul, he still chose to live 00:40:01.110 --> 00:40:04.050 as close to it as he could. He even hesitated 00:40:04.050 --> 00:40:07.070 when it was time to leave at the very end. The 00:40:07.070 --> 00:40:10.210 result? Well, God judged that place, judged that 00:40:10.210 --> 00:40:14.110 sin, and destroyed the whole plane. It was gone, 00:40:14.230 --> 00:40:16.909 but the spirit of Sodom still lived in the hearts 00:40:16.909 --> 00:40:20.070 of his daughters. And it lived there because 00:40:20.070 --> 00:40:24.250 of his example. You see, the family is the... 00:40:24.429 --> 00:40:26.949 first and most fundamental of all human institutions 00:40:26.949 --> 00:40:31.010 that have been ordained by God. The family, that's 00:40:31.010 --> 00:40:32.570 why it's under attack. That's why the devil attacks 00:40:32.570 --> 00:40:36.769 it. That's why it's always being assaulted from 00:40:36.769 --> 00:40:39.190 one point or the other because the family is 00:40:39.190 --> 00:40:42.949 the primary educational medium through which 00:40:42.949 --> 00:40:46.469 godliness is supposed to be taught and God himself 00:40:46.469 --> 00:40:48.449 is supposed to be transferred. It's the parents 00:40:48.449 --> 00:40:49.989 who are supposed to be teaching their kids who 00:40:49.989 --> 00:40:51.889 then teach their kids who then teach their kids. 00:40:55.019 --> 00:40:56.980 This is one of the most important aspects of 00:40:56.980 --> 00:40:59.239 marriage. We find it in Malachi chapter 2, 15. 00:40:59.380 --> 00:41:03.820 God says, didn't God make them one and give them 00:41:03.820 --> 00:41:05.880 a portion of spirit? Speaking of couples coming 00:41:05.880 --> 00:41:09.260 together. And what is the one seeking? Godly 00:41:09.260 --> 00:41:15.099 offspring. It's a mandate of the Lord. There's 00:41:15.099 --> 00:41:17.900 been a lot of studies of two -parent Christian 00:41:17.900 --> 00:41:21.860 families. Two -parent Christian families. And 00:41:21.860 --> 00:41:27.159 in a majority of these studies, the prayer and 00:41:27.159 --> 00:41:31.400 the spiritual training is by far done by the 00:41:31.400 --> 00:41:33.599 mothers in these two parent Christian families. 00:41:34.360 --> 00:41:37.760 Now, moms, thank you. God bless you. Keep doing 00:41:37.760 --> 00:41:43.059 what you're doing. We need it. But dads are supposed 00:41:43.059 --> 00:41:46.000 to be leading the charge in this. Fathers are 00:41:46.000 --> 00:41:48.579 supposed to be leading the charge. If you're 00:41:48.579 --> 00:41:51.789 a dad in this room today, you... are the priest 00:41:51.789 --> 00:41:56.769 of your home. Isaiah 38, 19 says, a father will 00:41:56.769 --> 00:41:58.909 make your faithfulness known to the children. 00:42:00.210 --> 00:42:02.670 Ephesians 6, 4 says, fathers, don't stir up anger 00:42:02.670 --> 00:42:04.909 in your children, but bring them up in the training 00:42:04.909 --> 00:42:08.989 and the instruction of the Lord. That is your 00:42:08.989 --> 00:42:14.900 job. Psalm 78, we don't have time to go through 00:42:14.900 --> 00:42:16.639 that. Read it on your own. But the whole psalm 00:42:16.639 --> 00:42:19.280 says over and over and over again, fathers, teach 00:42:19.280 --> 00:42:21.300 your kids so that they won't forget to teach 00:42:21.300 --> 00:42:23.940 their kids. And in the middle of it, it says 00:42:23.940 --> 00:42:26.079 that they would not forget the works of God but 00:42:26.079 --> 00:42:29.420 to keep his commandments. You know what else 00:42:29.420 --> 00:42:33.260 Psalm 78 tells us? That Israel forgot the works 00:42:33.260 --> 00:42:36.159 of God because the fathers didn't teach their 00:42:36.159 --> 00:42:46.369 children. It's huge. The example you leave, the 00:42:46.369 --> 00:42:50.110 example you teach, or the example you example, 00:42:50.389 --> 00:42:56.610 all has effect on your kids. And one of the greatest 00:42:56.610 --> 00:42:58.750 things we could do is say, oh, we're going to 00:42:58.750 --> 00:43:00.909 come to church on Sunday, and we're a Christian 00:43:00.909 --> 00:43:03.170 family, and we believe in God, and then to go 00:43:03.170 --> 00:43:04.929 home and say, instead of a biblical worldview 00:43:04.929 --> 00:43:07.369 in my family, you know, we're going to, I'm going 00:43:07.369 --> 00:43:09.510 to have a secular worldview in how I do business. 00:43:10.480 --> 00:43:13.420 How I talk, right? One of the things that just 00:43:13.420 --> 00:43:17.079 cracks me up in a sad way every time is when 00:43:17.079 --> 00:43:23.679 I hear a Christian parent go, why is my two -and 00:43:23.679 --> 00:43:25.519 -a -half -year -old saying all these bad words? 00:43:27.659 --> 00:43:30.280 I looked at my kid and I go, why are you blankety 00:43:30.280 --> 00:43:33.139 -blanket saying all these blankety words? And 00:43:33.139 --> 00:43:37.699 I'm like, are you kidding me? You cuss around 00:43:37.699 --> 00:43:39.320 them all the time. You think your kids aren't 00:43:39.320 --> 00:43:44.000 going to pick up on that? The kids are watching. 00:43:44.739 --> 00:43:47.599 They're watching. Now, you may not have kids 00:43:47.599 --> 00:43:50.119 in the house anymore, but there's still children 00:43:50.119 --> 00:43:52.099 around you that you have an influence on, especially 00:43:52.099 --> 00:43:55.340 if you're here at church. Our servants in the 00:43:55.340 --> 00:43:56.980 children's ministry, I was just encouraging them 00:43:56.980 --> 00:44:00.239 this morning. I'm like, you get an influence 00:44:00.239 --> 00:44:02.519 in these kids' lives. Now, it's only an hour 00:44:02.519 --> 00:44:05.650 and a half once a week. But still, make sure 00:44:05.650 --> 00:44:09.210 it's a godly influence. Make sure your example 00:44:09.210 --> 00:44:11.050 is one where they will watch and go, oh, that's 00:44:11.050 --> 00:44:14.469 how to be a godly person. But it's more than 00:44:14.469 --> 00:44:16.250 just having Bible study and devotion time. Like 00:44:16.250 --> 00:44:18.630 I said, it's sharing and exampling that Christian 00:44:18.630 --> 00:44:22.130 worldview about everything all the time. It's 00:44:22.130 --> 00:44:26.260 in the way you live. It's in how you talk, how 00:44:26.260 --> 00:44:28.880 you behave. And if you don't do that at home, 00:44:29.000 --> 00:44:32.159 then do not be surprised when your presentation 00:44:32.159 --> 00:44:34.980 of a secular worldview in the home causes your 00:44:34.980 --> 00:44:39.739 kids to reject a biblical one, period. And then, 00:44:39.780 --> 00:44:42.019 in many cases, go even farther than you ever 00:44:42.019 --> 00:44:44.719 did. Here's Lot going, I didn't participate. 00:44:45.940 --> 00:44:48.219 And now his daughters are going, yeah, well, 00:44:48.320 --> 00:44:50.559 but then it's not so bad to actually do a terrible 00:44:50.559 --> 00:44:55.079 thing. This is all about example, right? Following 00:44:55.079 --> 00:44:57.579 the example, setting an example, and the example 00:44:57.579 --> 00:44:59.659 for all of our life, we know, is Jesus Christ. 00:44:59.780 --> 00:45:01.699 He's the pattern. He's the one we're to be following, 00:45:01.860 --> 00:45:04.940 right? Jesus came into this world. He sanctified 00:45:04.940 --> 00:45:07.420 himself, and unlike Lot, that sanctification 00:45:07.420 --> 00:45:10.860 set him apart from the world. The Bible tells 00:45:10.860 --> 00:45:13.800 us that we're in the world, but not to be of 00:45:13.800 --> 00:45:16.710 the world, right? Lot could have been over here 00:45:16.710 --> 00:45:18.929 with his uncle Abraham in the promised land, 00:45:19.110 --> 00:45:22.090 in the world, but not of it. But instead, he 00:45:22.090 --> 00:45:24.769 chose to get as close to Sodom as possible, and 00:45:24.769 --> 00:45:27.949 he became part of that world. And parents, I 00:45:27.949 --> 00:45:29.570 will acknowledge this and say this, that yes, 00:45:29.650 --> 00:45:31.809 ultimately, your children will make their own 00:45:31.809 --> 00:45:34.829 decisions. But if they make the wrong decisions, 00:45:35.210 --> 00:45:37.670 please don't let it be because they learned it 00:45:37.670 --> 00:45:44.599 from you. Where do we learn the right example 00:45:44.599 --> 00:45:48.719 to set? Jesus. He's the perfect example. He's 00:45:48.719 --> 00:45:50.719 the one that we see in his life. He set aside 00:45:50.719 --> 00:45:55.659 convenience. He set aside comfort, materialism. 00:45:55.699 --> 00:45:59.119 He set aside all of that for what? His children. 00:45:59.820 --> 00:46:03.260 We are his children. He said, I'm going to do 00:46:03.260 --> 00:46:07.579 what's best for them, even if it costs me. I'm 00:46:07.579 --> 00:46:09.780 going to do what's best for them. And the idea 00:46:09.780 --> 00:46:12.800 is, especially parents, but all those who have 00:46:12.800 --> 00:46:16.059 influence, don't let personal gain, what benefits 00:46:16.059 --> 00:46:20.940 most, supersede what is right. Do a business. 00:46:21.000 --> 00:46:22.360 There's nothing wrong with having a business. 00:46:22.440 --> 00:46:23.980 There's nothing wrong with making profit. There's 00:46:23.980 --> 00:46:27.039 nothing wrong with being sickeningly wealthy 00:46:27.039 --> 00:46:30.260 if that's what God gives to you in your life. 00:46:31.059 --> 00:46:34.400 But if you come to worship those things, and 00:46:34.400 --> 00:46:37.719 those are your God, Things are going to be bad. 00:46:37.820 --> 00:46:39.880 Things are going to be terrible. So don't put 00:46:39.880 --> 00:46:41.960 the personal game before what is right because 00:46:41.960 --> 00:46:46.159 your kids and the kids are watching. The best 00:46:46.159 --> 00:46:47.880 possible thing we could do for the children, 00:46:47.980 --> 00:46:51.579 and the idea is to leave a lesson, the best possible 00:46:51.579 --> 00:46:53.659 thing is to teach them that all this world has 00:46:53.659 --> 00:46:58.030 is nothing compared to knowing Christ. It's knowing 00:46:58.030 --> 00:47:00.670 his word, it's worshiping him, and then show 00:47:00.670 --> 00:47:04.250 them what being sanctified looks like, even if 00:47:04.250 --> 00:47:07.349 it's hard, even if it's less convenient, even 00:47:07.349 --> 00:47:12.389 if it costs you, even if it's a sacrifice. You 00:47:12.389 --> 00:47:15.150 see, Jesus himself was tempted in the same way 00:47:15.150 --> 00:47:17.789 that we are, to go, you know what, the hard thing 00:47:17.789 --> 00:47:19.750 is in front of me, that's gonna be what's best 00:47:19.750 --> 00:47:25.150 for my kids, but if there's another way, I'd 00:47:25.150 --> 00:47:27.340 like to take that one. We saw that in the Garden 00:47:27.340 --> 00:47:30.380 of Gethsemane, right? Father, if there's any 00:47:30.380 --> 00:47:33.860 way you could take this cup, any way, I vote 00:47:33.860 --> 00:47:37.320 for that. But he said, but nonetheless, your 00:47:37.320 --> 00:47:41.559 will be done, not mine. And that is the example 00:47:41.559 --> 00:47:43.460 we're to follow. And because he made the hard 00:47:43.460 --> 00:47:45.159 choice to do what was best for his kids, we all 00:47:45.159 --> 00:47:47.320 have the opportunity to be saved. We all have 00:47:47.320 --> 00:47:49.019 the opportunity to have the hope of heaven. And 00:47:49.019 --> 00:47:52.440 so that's what this is all about. When I first 00:47:52.440 --> 00:47:55.559 started studying this passage, I was like, Lord, 00:47:56.300 --> 00:47:58.420 Why is this the passage following on communion 00:47:58.420 --> 00:48:01.340 day? I have no idea how to tie this into communion. 00:48:02.159 --> 00:48:05.860 And then as we went through it, I saw what it 00:48:05.860 --> 00:48:10.340 is. Our kids will remember the life we lived. 00:48:12.019 --> 00:48:17.079 And they will model after it in many ways. But 00:48:17.079 --> 00:48:20.480 if they remember a life of godliness, there's 00:48:20.480 --> 00:48:22.079 a greater chance that they're going to follow 00:48:22.079 --> 00:48:26.610 a pattern of godliness. Or at least you will 00:48:26.610 --> 00:48:30.190 not be responsible for them following a pattern 00:48:30.190 --> 00:48:33.769 of worldliness. Jesus set an example for us in 00:48:33.769 --> 00:48:36.349 the cross where he said, I want you to know that 00:48:36.349 --> 00:48:38.809 no greater love has man than this, to lay down 00:48:38.809 --> 00:48:42.510 his life for those he cares about, those that 00:48:42.510 --> 00:48:45.550 are his friends, those he loves. That Jesus said, 00:48:45.610 --> 00:48:49.050 look at my example. This is the sacrifice that 00:48:49.050 --> 00:48:52.789 I want you to have parent. You may lose the big, 00:48:52.789 --> 00:48:57.269 expensive, profitable business deal, but do the 00:48:57.269 --> 00:49:00.590 right thing so that your kids don't learn how 00:49:00.590 --> 00:49:02.230 to compromise the right thing for the business 00:49:02.230 --> 00:49:06.150 deal in their life. Jesus said, I set aside my 00:49:06.150 --> 00:49:10.349 divinity, still God, but I set it aside to come 00:49:10.349 --> 00:49:11.849 and live like you so that you would be able to 00:49:11.849 --> 00:49:14.190 identify with me, that you would know I identify 00:49:14.190 --> 00:49:16.769 with you in all the struggles. And then when 00:49:16.769 --> 00:49:19.289 he went to the cross to die for us, that was 00:49:19.289 --> 00:49:23.219 the greatest expression of love. That was the 00:49:23.219 --> 00:49:25.139 greatest expression of sacrifice, and that's 00:49:25.139 --> 00:49:28.860 what we celebrate in communion. So we're gonna 00:49:28.860 --> 00:49:31.800 take communion now as we close our service because 00:49:31.800 --> 00:49:36.059 it is because of him and through him that we 00:49:36.059 --> 00:49:39.159 are able to live. It is because of his sacrifice 00:49:39.159 --> 00:49:41.579 on the cross that we're able to put faith in 00:49:41.579 --> 00:49:43.059 that, and then it says that when we put faith 00:49:43.059 --> 00:49:44.679 in him, the Holy Spirit comes to dwell within 00:49:44.679 --> 00:49:48.099 us and empowers us to live a life of honor to 00:49:48.099 --> 00:49:51.960 God. I'm so excited as we're coming forward because, 00:49:52.079 --> 00:49:55.059 you know, as Lot, his story ends in a dark cave, 00:49:55.280 --> 00:50:01.000 seemingly like hopeless. He was redeemed and 00:50:01.000 --> 00:50:04.000 we were all redeemed because Jesus didn't stay 00:50:04.000 --> 00:50:08.280 in a dark cave. That as he died for our sins, 00:50:08.360 --> 00:50:10.559 took all the wrath, all the punishment for everything 00:50:10.559 --> 00:50:14.860 we were going to do and ever will do, that then 00:50:14.860 --> 00:50:16.860 he walked out of there, defeating the power of 00:50:16.860 --> 00:50:20.440 sin and death. setting us free forever. That's 00:50:20.440 --> 00:50:23.239 what we remember in communion. And so in a moment, 00:50:23.260 --> 00:50:24.639 I'm gonna invite the men of the communion board 00:50:24.639 --> 00:50:27.480 to come forward and we're going to worship while 00:50:27.480 --> 00:50:29.980 we pass out the communion. I will ask everybody 00:50:29.980 --> 00:50:32.260 that as we pass out the first emblem, the crackers, 00:50:32.380 --> 00:50:34.380 that you hang on to them until the men of the 00:50:34.380 --> 00:50:36.360 communion board are back up front and then we 00:50:36.360 --> 00:50:38.199 will all partake together and we'll do the same 00:50:38.199 --> 00:50:41.019 thing with the juice after. So I just pray that 00:50:41.019 --> 00:50:44.380 God blesses your life. I pray that God speaks 00:50:44.380 --> 00:50:47.219 into your life, and I pray that all of us, especially 00:50:47.219 --> 00:50:50.179 those that have kids in the home right now, that 00:50:50.179 --> 00:50:54.480 we take very, very seriously the legacy of the 00:50:54.480 --> 00:50:58.099 example we live, that we understand the great 00:50:58.099 --> 00:51:01.300 effect it can have, and so leave a good one. 00:51:01.460 --> 00:51:05.320 Amen? Father, we thank you so much, Lord. Just 00:51:05.320 --> 00:51:07.260 bless this time of communion, God, as we're coming 00:51:07.260 --> 00:51:09.739 before you to remember what you did for us, the 00:51:09.739 --> 00:51:14.079 example you set. Lord, I'm so thankful that you 00:51:14.079 --> 00:51:15.679 include these things in the Bible, Lord, where 00:51:15.679 --> 00:51:19.139 we see these terrible decisions and these really 00:51:19.139 --> 00:51:22.860 grotesque perversions of what is meant to be. 00:51:25.039 --> 00:51:26.800 But God, they're all a picture of who we are. 00:51:27.059 --> 00:51:30.500 We're all sinners. And those that have put their 00:51:30.500 --> 00:51:34.519 faith in you, Lord, we are saved by grace. And 00:51:34.519 --> 00:51:38.739 Lord, we know that as we cling to you more, godliness 00:51:38.739 --> 00:51:40.820 is going to increase in our life. But the closer 00:51:40.820 --> 00:51:43.119 we get to Sodom, Lord, the less we know you and 00:51:43.119 --> 00:51:46.780 the less our righteousness that is granted to 00:51:46.780 --> 00:51:49.480 us through you will be exampled in our life. 00:51:50.380 --> 00:51:53.980 Lord, we want to be good examples. We want to 00:51:53.980 --> 00:51:55.960 be good parents. We want to be good influences. 00:51:56.579 --> 00:51:59.900 But we can't do it without you. And so, Lord, 00:51:59.940 --> 00:52:03.940 we remember today through communion the life 00:52:03.940 --> 00:52:08.079 you lived, the death you died for us that we 00:52:08.079 --> 00:52:12.090 would be set free. We love you so much. We thank 00:52:12.090 --> 00:52:13.329 you in Jesus' name. Amen.