Proof of Your Love

Today, the third secret that we're going to talk about from friends with God is the proof of your love.

And you can turn your Bible to Genesis 18 and 19 this morning.

And as we continue on, if you missed the last couple of weeks, the first secret to friendship with God is faith.

The second secret we saw is selflessness.

And this morning we're going to be looking at the proof of your love.

And so as you're opening there, I have to tell you about something that happened this week that God was trying to find the proof of my love and something.

So I had a group of children at my house, which isn't always the case, at lunchtime, and Heather had gone out with a lady to do some grocery shopping.

And so I said, Yeah, I'll take all the kids.

What's the worst that could happen?

And so they're all there.

I think there's six or seven of them.

And uh, it's bad you don't even know the number, the moms would.

Um, and they're kind of running back and forth, and I'm slightly studying in a chair that's central to all that's going on, and as that is going on, I hear uh something kind of faint, uh, a little voice from from somewhere in the house going, Rick, Rick, and then it gets louder.

I need Rick, I need Rick, it's bad, Rick, I need Rick.

And he comes in, and my natural inclination to anything, which can be calming for some folks, is that if anything's going on, I'm gonna make it as calm as possible.

I'm gonna, it's not gonna be blown up to me.

If anything, I'm gonna give the wrong reaction on the other side, like it's gonna be okay.

Whatever it is, it's okay.

If anybody's screaming, and so it gets louder and louder, and little Zane Randolph comes running in, and as he rushes into where I am, he says, It's bad! There's blood all over the place, and I'm like, okay.

So I'm still calm.

Um, and then the other kids come rushing and they're back and forth.

I can't even in my mind imagine really.

One's this way, one's that way, and they're running back and forth.

And finally, Weston's coming to me, my son, and uh he he comes in and there's just blood gushing from him, and I'm like, okay, then I'm a little bit not as calm.

Okay, so I'm watching it come profusely out of him, and I'm like, okay, assess and act.

That's my mind, okay?

And so calm, assess, and act.

And so I'm grabbing wet cloths and I'm putting them on, and I'm just trying, I'm trying to make sure this stops.

And so it's bleeding and one cloth, second cloth.

I don't know if you've ever dealt with a head injury, but man, it'll scare you.

It just keeps coming.

I'm like, and the kids are still kind of like here and there.

Oh my goodness.

And I'm like, just calm down, quit screaming.

You're gonna make him worse.

And me.

So anyway, Wyatt took over as like the director of things.

He's like, get out of here, daddy said calm, and he's pushing kids aside.

And so I finally get it to stop bleeding long enough that I just I just put a biggest band-aid we got, hair and everything.

And I put it on, and I'm like, this solves it.

Band-aid.

And I'm like watching him, and he's not crying, he's okay, he wants to play.

So I'm like, surely this thing will just scab over and it'll be fine.

I don't call the ladies, I do the man thing, I got it under control, everybody's happy and fine.

And so later on that evening, I'm watching the bandage, and it's like a little bit wet.

Okay, it's you know, blood is still, you could see a little bit.

So I'm like, I'm like, man, we gotta get this thing off.

And I'm looking at Heather and I'm like, how do you get a band-aid off a hair, you know, without a kid screaming?

Well, she figured that out.

She gets this olive oil and she's putting on.

We get the bandage, and I'm hoping to see a scab, and what I have done has fixed the problem.

No scab, open wounds.

So I'm texting Leslie, our doctor here, okay, and I'm like, What do we do?

And she's like, if I were you, I'd go.

And I'm like, if a doctor says if I were you, I'd go, we better go.

So I get him to the emergency care center, and it was smooth, easy, and except for him on the way.

He is freaked out and he is shook up, and he's like, Daddy, what are they gonna do to me?

And we have this whole talk, and I'm trying to calm him.

And so I had to resort to methods that dads here understand.

Okay, so we get in there, and the people come and see him, and he's re-shook up, and he's he's trying not to cry.

And um, he has a phone, which, man, technology.

When we were kids, you didn't have nothing to look at.

You just had to deal with the pain.

You had to see the instruments that were about to hurt you.

I'm like, just watch the phone and keep playing the game.

And he's still kind of shaky, and I said, Weston, if you just play the game when we're done, I'll take you to Walmart and I'll buy you anything you want to get.

And he's like, Okay.

So he's watching the phone, calm.

He doesn't even know it.

They stick a needle, I'm watching a little freaked out, and a needle right in his head to numb it, and they put some numbing gel, and then they stitch him up.

He doesn't even know what's happened.

He's just thinking about Walmart.

Happy.

So, so we get to Walmart.

I'm at Walmart at midnight.

If you saw me Tuesday at Walmart, okay, this is me.

Because I didn't go to the emergency room at noon.

So there I am, and I'm walking through, and he picks his thing out.

And normally with the kids, I'm like, you know, 10 bucks, something like that.

Um, so he gets his thing, he you know, wears me out, it's$22.

He loves these Pokemon cards.

Uh I don't even know if he knows how to do anything with them except spread them around his room and make a giant mess.

Okay.

But he gets his box with a bunch of them.

And when we get back in the car, his sweet little heart, he says, Daddy, those cards were$21.

He said, Do I need to give you the$12 that I have in my wallet?

Because that's more than you know we normally get.

And I said, Buddy, I said, No, you've had a really hard day.

I said, it just lets me show you that I love you.

So I got a chance to prove my love for my son through this crazy situation.

Let me read to you a note I came across this week.

Dearest Jim, no words could ever express the great unhappiness I felt since breaking our engagement.

Please, please say you'll take me back.

No one could ever take your place in my heart, Jim.

Please forgive me.

I love you, I love you, I love you.

Yours forever.

Marie.

P.S.

Congratulations on winning the state lottery.

That was not a proof of love.

In the early 90s, there's a contemporary music Christian group, Point of Grace, who wrote a song and the lines in it said this: God loves people more than anything.

More than anything, he wants them to know he'd rather die than let them go, because God loves people more than anything.

And I want to submit to you this morning as we open the church, there's something wrong when the people of God don't love what God created as his crowning jewel.

There's something wrong when we love all kinds of activity and invest in all types of matters and don't invest our lives into people.

There's something wrong, church, when we give the cold shoulder to God's creation.

Something wrong in 2019 when we're divided in our churches, divided in our homes, divided in our schools.

When in 2019 we still have skin issues, when 2019 there's political affiliations that keep us from one another.

James says that we bless God and curse man with the same tongue.

So I'm here to submit to you this morning that the third secret that we'll see in Abraham of friendship with God is the proof of his love for people.

So if you take your Bibles in Genesis chapter 18, let me pray, Father.

Genesis 18 · chapter mention

I pray that your word would speak, get me far, removed.

Lord, I pray that your Holy Spirit would move in the hearts of people.

God, all that matters today is what you have to say.

Speak to us, change us.

Lord, help us to have a love different from anything in society for people.

We love you in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Genesis chapter 18, verse 1 says, Then the Lord appeared to him by the Terebinth trees of Mamre as he was sitting in the tent door in the heat of the day.

Genesis 18:1

So he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing by him.

And when he saw them, he ran from the tent door.

He met them and bowed himself to the ground and said, My Lord, if I have now found favor in your sight, do not pass by your servant.

So the first thing we see this morning, the secret of friendship with God, loving people, is God's confidence.

Number one, God's confidence in Abraham.

What we see happening in verses 1 through 5, letter A is a covert communion with God.

Abraham is sitting back in Mamry.

The word Mamry means fatness.

He's sitting back, kind of living it up in his tent, enjoying the life that God has brought to him.

He's a wealthy man by now, owns a lot of things, and he's just sitting back in Mamory.

And his tent is a picture, it's interesting, of his pilgrim life.

He's chosen this sojourn, he's chosen this pilgrimage.

He's a wealthy person without a home.

He's a wealthy person who has decided to live in this tent, and all of a sudden there's three surprise guests.

If you didn't read the background and understand, it says, Lord, but this was a common greeting.

He does not know yet that he's in the presence of the Lord.

And so we see this communion with God that's happening, and God gives Abraham a hospitality test.

He shows up and he wants to see what's going to happen as he does.

And so we will see the proof of his love for people.

We'll see what he does.

Okay?

Look down, continue, verse 4 and 5.

He says, Please let a little water be brought and wash your feet and rest yourselves under the tree, and I'll bring you a morsel of bread that you may refresh your hearts.

After that, you may pass by.

Inasmuch as you have come to your servant.

They said, Do as you have said.

So Abraham goes out, he greets them, he invites them into his home.

He says, Come in, clean up.

Are you hungry?

Do you want food?

We've got food.

You can have any that you want.

And then let's just commune.

Let's spend some time together.

Let me give you a statistic, church, that's a little disheartening.

On hospitality in the last 25 years, full sit-down restaurants being created, being made, going up, are down 25% in 25 years.

Fast food restaurants are up way over 100%.

People love to eat by themselves or on the run.

Family dinner is down in 25 years, one generation by 33%.

Family sitting down around the table eating.

Friends coming over for dinner is down 45% in one generation.

We have all in all become a lot less hospitable.

And so as you look through the scripture, I'm going to read verse 6 through 8, but I want you to just picture it as I do.

So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah and said, Quickly, make ready three measures of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes.

And Abraham ran to the herd, took a tender and good calf, gave it to a young man, and he hastened to prepare it.

So he took butter and milk and the calf which he had prepared and set it before them.

And he stood by them under the tree as they ate.

So Abraham invites them in, he greets them, he runs to them as he sees guests, and he says, Come in, come clean up.

Do you want something to eat?

Come in and eat.

And then the next thing it cracks me up that he says, Okay, you're gonna join us?

Let me find my wife.

And so he runs and it says, even quickly, Sarah, quickly make some cake.

We have guests.

I'm in over my head.

And Sarah's like, What?

What are you talking about?

There's guests coming for dinner.

You gotta make something, baby.

And y'all are like this, you know, you probably feel this way, and I've heard this being said, man, I really don't like to entertain because entertaining is like a lot of work.

Right?

If I asked you to raise your hand, who would say that?

A lot of people might say that.

And Sarah here is needing bread.

Talk about work.

She's on her knees and she's making the equivalent of two gallons of bread for these guests and bringing out this lavish feast, and Abraham goes back and butchers.

He doesn't go get some meat out of the fridge, he goes and butchers some of the finest calf, slices it up, gets it prepared, he's manning the grill, and they're making a feast for guests.

Can you imagine?

I think this is the secret, Christians, we need to capture back for the church.

That we would be a place where everyone feels our hospitality.

We try to live this out in our home.

We should stick out in a corrupt world by being overwhelmingly hospitable.

Are you ready at a moment's notice for somebody to knock on your door?

We still do visitation here at this church, and I know some people see the pastors come and they're like, oh.

Most people before we leave are glad we came, but some people upon the entrance are not very happy.

We should be overwhelmingly hospital.

Abraham runs out.

There's guests coming, there's people.

And he goes out and says, Clean up, come in, be refreshed, come and see us.

As a church, do we rush to the door to see our guests?

We should.

Do we look for somebody in the lobby and say, I've got a seat?

Will you sit next to me?

Do we make people feel hospitable?

I'll give you a church statistic that it's just made up for me, but I've seen it.

Unless people leave here with a friend, they're probably not gonna stay.

It could be Billy Graham in this pulpit.

If they don't get a friend in this church, they're gonna go.

In youth ministry, I have 300 visitor forms for the time I've been here as a youth pastor.

300 visitors that have come.

They're not staying for me, but if I can get Callie to be their friend, they will come back every time.

They expect for the 37-year-old weird guy to sit down and have some small talk because that's what he does.

But if you, church, will look for a guest, if we stick out in hospitality, and I'll say this as a church, it's one of the ways we do stick out.

It's one of the things that this church, I feel, does great.

But Abraham saw that, and so he has this test.

I want you to say something.

Okay?

I want you to look around at the people around you, see who's near you, and I want you to say this out loud.

Do you have dinner plans this week?

Go ahead.

My house.

After church, take this opportunity.

Say when.

Now here's the thing.

Do you love people?

What's the proof of our love?

So Abraham passes that test.

Now look down at verses 9 and 10.

It's okay if you pull in takeout.

It's okay if you can't cook.

It's okay if you ask them to bring the food.

But get together, play a board game, do something.

Love each other.

Hey, y'all want to come over, please bring some food.

That's alright.

They'll love it, I promise.

Then they said to him, listen to the guest, okay?

So up to this point, they do not know who they're, Abraham doesn't know who he's in the presence of.

Then they said to him, Where is Sarah your wife?

So he said, Here in the tent.

So here's the clever revealing.

They're communing, they're out by the tent, and God says, Where's Sarah?

And from this point on, as we go in the story, it's important that you knew that God reveals his presence.

And so he goes on, and and in a couple of weeks, we're going to go back over.

This is the passage where Sarah laughs about the idea that her as a hundred-year-old woman is going to have a baby, which would be funny to most.

Okay, and so we're going to look at that next week, but I want you to know that's what happens next.

We're going to jump into this conversation that Abraham has with God.

Look at verse 10.

And he said, I will certainly return to you according to the time of life, and behold, Sarah, your wife, shall have a son.

Sarah was listening at the tent door.

Jump down to verse 17.

So the topic, as they begin this conversation, this letter B, he has a conversation with God.

The topic, in one year I'll be back for lunch and you'll have a son.

Interesting, this conversation he has with a friend.

Don't you want church to be more than a fan or follower of God, but to have this friendship where you can say to your friends, I had a conversation with God this week.

I prayed with God and God communed back with me.

I heard from the voice of God, and that's where Abraham was.

Verse 17 through 21, we alluded to it in week one, but we'll read through it.

And the Lord said, Shall he's speaking to himself, Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing?

Since Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed in him, for I have known him, in order that he may command his children, his household, that they can keep the way of the Lord.

Verse 20, and the Lord said, Because of the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because of their sin being very grave, I will go down now and see whether they have done according to the outcry against it that has come to me.

If not, I will know.

And so God tells Abraham, we see in this conversation, secrets.

We talked about that in week one.

When you know that it's more than just a casual thing, God speaking to himself, should I tell this thing to Abraham?

Is telling Abraham secrets.

God's telling something intimate to Abraham.

And notice in verse 22, then the men turned away from there and went towards Sodom, but Abraham still stood before the Lord.

So Abraham sees God and these guests, and the guests that are with him are angels.

There's a whole lot of messages in here.

That's another thing, another story.

But as he sees this, God sends the angels ahead.

He says, You go and look for me what's going on in Sodom, so that he can converse with his friend.

It appears, though, that God does not even want to be near Sodom.

He wants to stay here with his friend Abraham.

And so then we continue on.

He has this conversation with God.

And I want you to see in Psalms chapter 25 a condition, this is letter C for closeness to God.

Psalms 25 · chapter mention

Turn to Psalms 25.

We'll see a few things that I think parallel what we're looking at.

Psalms 25, verse 9 through 14 says, The humble he guides in justice, and the humble he teaches his way.

Psalms 25:9–14

All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth to such as keep his covenant and his testimonies.

For your name's sake, O Lord, pardon my iniquity, for it is great.

Who is the man that fears the Lord?

Him shall he teach in the way he chooses.

He himself shall dwell in prosperity, and his descendants shall inherit the earth.

The secret of the Lord is with those who fear him.

So we almost see here what seems like a psalm that talks about the life of Abraham.

And it says some secrets to this closeness to God here are humility, obedience, respectfulness, and the fear of the Lord.

And so understanding how is it that Abraham can have this friendship with God, these conditions.

Are we humble?

Are we obedient?

Are we respectful?

Dietrich Bonhoeffer said this: Your closeness to God, church, hear this.

Your closeness to God as a Christian should make non-believers question their disbelief in God.

How close are you to God?

Are other people taking a look at you and saying, maybe I need what they have.

Maybe I need a little bit of what's going on in their life.

That leads us to number two, we see, and we'll spend a lot of time here.

We're gonna see Abraham's continual concern for Lot.

We'll see his concern for Lot.

Go back to Genesis chapter 18.

Genesis 18 · chapter mention

And we'll see how this relationship with his nephew continues to play out in the story of his friendship with God.

Letter A, underneath his concern, is we'll see a pleading for justice.

Look at verses 22 through 25.

There's a lot of scripture.

I know I have to unpack a lot and then we'll apply.

Then the man turned away from there and went toward Sodom, but Abraham stood still before the Lord.

And Abraham came near and said, Would you also destroy the righteous?

With the wicked?

Suppose there were fifty righteous within the city, would you also destroy the place and not spare it for 50 righteous that were in it?

And so we see this beginning of a pleading for justice.

And in the beginning line here, we see that Abraham acknowledges God is merciful and just as a judge.

So he's coming to God and say, Would you judge the sinful with the righteous?

Would you do that?

I know that you're a just judge.

And we have to understand mercy and justice, okay?

So for us as Americans and living the lives we live, we view justice on a scale mostly skewed by me.

Justice for me really revolves around me.

I want what's just and right for those that are hurt.

I want mercy for me when I do wrong.

I want grace and I want mercy.

But it's all wrapped up in the justice based upon God who is righteous.

And so I've had conversations with atheists who said, How can God be just and loving?

And we see through scripture where he has allowed people groups to be killed.

And I take them to the scripture and I say, you're looking past the context and looking at a verse.

If you look at the whole of a context, God is not willing that any should perish, but all come to repentance in faith.

If you look at it, God gives a time frame for all of them to repent.

God gives them opportunities to repent.

But if we say, but on the justice side, I want justice for those that have been wrong.

My mom came home one evening, had a black eye, and you know, it turns everything.

I'm like, what's happened?

What's happened to my mom?

I'm like 16 years old, and she's kind of crying and and and has this black eye.

She's like, I was in the parking lot at Cole's, and I don't even know what happened.

Somebody came up, she got punched in the face, and somebody stole her purse.

Well, my 16-year-old, like, I'm like, you know, every piece of you know manhood that I have comes to the surface, and I'm like, that's it.

And I got in my car and I rode to Kohl's as if he was gonna be standing lurking around, ready for his butt whooping.

I rode around the parking lot.

I didn't know what I was gonna do, who I was gonna see, but if I saw somebody that looked shady, they were gonna get, I might have run them over.

I don't know what I would have done.

But in that moment, I wanted justice because my mom had been wronged.

And for us, when something goes wrong in our life, do we not want justice?

Somebody in your family gets hurt, somebody gets mishandled, abused, we say, I want justice.

But when we do wrong, we say, I deserve mercy.

And so Abraham acknowledges God's mercy is based on God's righteousness and his justice.

It can't be pulled apart.

His mercy and his justice are tied together.

And so Abraham acknowledges that he is a merciful, just judge.

And he asks this question that we'll go on to see is a bold question.

Verse 27, you can see that he acknowledges, Abraham himself acknowledged his own unworthiness.

He asks if there would be any righteousness.

And after that, he acknowledges that his self, he says, I don't even know if I am one righteous.

He says, he acknowledges God Himself.

And understand, this is reverence when you come before God.

Teenagers today, a little bit of reverence goes a long way.

Yes, sir.

Yes, ma'am.

When you approach a situation, may I ask you a question about if you disagree, tactfulness.

And so he comes to God in this reverential, this respectful way, then he brings a request as a child to a father.

He comes respectfully, but then he comes with belief.

Does any child not believe their daddy can do anything?

And so he comes as a child to a father with trust, believing that God can answer.

And then he comes not just with trust, but with a bold request.

Boldly asking for justice.

And Hebrews 4.16 tells us to do this, that we should come, therefore, boldly to the throne of grace.

But don't come boldly if you're not believing that the bold request can be answered by the strength of the God you're asking.

And so he comes boldly in this request.

And we see letter B, after he had a after he pled for the justice, it's a persistent intercession.

He comes and he keeps coming, and you're gonna see it in a moment.

But John 5.16 tells us it's about prayer church.

It says, Don't quit.

It says the effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

Don't quit in prayer.

Continue.

There's a story we don't have time for the Bible, the persistent widow who comes before the judge and he says, just keep coming in prayer.

Don't give up in prayer, you just keep coming day after day in prayer, because we're gonna see that the persistence of prayer does something to the heart of God.

So Abraham comes effectually, he comes in reverence, respect, he believes God can do it, and then he does the unthinkable in this scripture.

Something that's never been done before in Scripture, in fact.

He intercedes for the lost.

This is the secret moment of this text, church.

Don't miss this.

He goes a step further than anyone that we have seen go before.

He doesn't just say, Will you save the righteous?

Which we would expect God to give mercy.

Will you save the righteous?

Because the righteous should be saved.

He says, For the few righteous will you save the wicked.

For the few will you save the many.

What a bold request he comes before God.

He says, Will you save the wicked many for the righteous few?

Abraham asked the unthinkable, and when he does, church, I would submit to you that he gets to the heart of God.

This is the first time in history anyone has ever asked God anything like this.

He boldly asked God to do something that nobody has seen, because up to this point, sin has always had a punishment.

And if you look in Hebrews, it says, it is a fearful thing to be a sinner in the hands of a living God.

And so sin has always had a punishment up to this point.

Adam and Eve, they sinned, they were punishment.

Noah builds an ark because the flood is coming that's going to punish sin and sinfulness.

And the Tower of Babel was judged for its sin.

And Abraham comes on the scene and he asks an unbelievable bold request.

He says, God, will you for a righteous few not punish the sins of many?

God, will you not punish sinners?

That is bold.

Typically, God, what we know up to this point, you have enacted guilt transference, which says in Romans, Paul wrote it this way, as by one man sin entered into all the world and death by sin.

And so Abraham says, Will you enact righteousness transference?

God, would you consider saving the many because of few?

Now, Scripture says this in our prayer.

It says that in our prayers, in Ephesians, it says, God can do exceedingly abundantly above all you ask or think.

He can do way more than we can really humanly imagine.

And Abraham, for the first time, I think, hits one of these exceeding abundant human moments.

He says, God, will you not punish sinfulness?

Abraham hits God's heartstrings because this, listen, church, don't miss this, would become the crowning glory of God's grace.

The main takeaway from this text, people look at this text and they define Sodom and Gomorrah as a text where God annihilates this evil people group.

But the main takeaway of this text is that God is actually not willing to punish sinners if, it's a foreshadowing prayer, if there is one.

This is a big fancy seminary word.

You don't even have to pay anything for this this morning.

Called substitutionary atonement.

He brings to God this word, substitutionary atonement.

It means God will not give us what we deserve if there can be one righteous found.

Abraham, before he knows anything, listen, don't miss this.

God gave me this this week.

Abraham, before he knows anything of Jesus coming to this earth, presents to God, who God already knew it.

God had it, but he presents to God the idea of Jesus.

Talk about his heartstrings with his friends being connected.

How closely he must be connected to God.

He doesn't ask for Jesus, he doesn't say Jesus, but he says, Is there a way that you will not punish the sin of the wicked because of the righteousness of a few?

And so he brings to him this idea.

Abraham, before he knows anything of Jesus, like a half-defense lawyer, Dave, half auctioneer, he begins pleading the case of the accused before a judge.

If you're wondering if auctions were biblical, dig in here.

Abraham says before God, look at the text.

Suppose there were fifty righteous within the city, would you also destroy the place and not spare it?

Far be it from you to do such a thing as this to slay the righteous with the wicked, he says.

Verse 26.

So the Lord said, If I find in Sodom 50 within their city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes.

Then Abraham says, I'm unworthy.

Verse 20.

Suppose there were five less, he says, than the 50.

Would you destroy all the city for a lack of five?

So God says, If there's 45, this is good.

We find out that God knows how to subtract.

That's a good thing.

And so God says, 45, and so we continue, it goes back and forth, and Abraham says, uh, 40, do I hear 40?

40, do I hear 30, God?

For 30, will you give me 30 for 20?

Do you hear 20?

Do I have 20?

Oh, God, I can't even believe I'm gonna send this.

For 10, will you give us 10?

Do I hear 10?

And listen, even though Abraham's heart is beautiful, and his idea, honestly, is revolutionary, there is one big, gigantic problem.

There's one huge problem.

Romans 3.10 says it this way there is none righteous.

No, not one.

That's a problem.

There's good news.

It seems as though God is willing not to punish sinners.

Now don't get that twisted.

Sinners, he will punish sin.

God is willing not to punish sinners if there is one righteous.

So for us, there's like two options here.

We can look at this and say, well, then I really gotta live righteous, Harry.

I gotta live righteous, I gotta live, you know, everything I do, I gotta watch all of my stuff, but the Bible says in Galatians, no one is justified by their works.

So I really can't do that.

Isaiah said, My righteousness is like filthy rags.

The best I can do, my motives are sinful.

When I do something good, I do it because I want a pat on the back.

And so even the good that I do, and so he says, that's out.

So our only hope, church, is this that God will send to us one who is righteous.

And God has done that very thing.

He sent Jesus, he sent a pardon.

And listen, not because we are worth it.

He didn't send a pardon because he looked at the people and said, Well, those ones are worth it.

He sent a pardon because he is worthy.

He is a worthy atonement.

Let me take you to 2 Corinthians for a second.

Turn over there, 2 Corinthians chapter 5.

2 Corinthians 5 · chapter mention

I want you to see what kind of births out of this idea.

2 Corinthians chapter 5.

2 Corinthians 5 · chapter mention

Look with me.

It says this.

Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ as though God were pleading.

Listen to this.

As though God were pleading through us.

We implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God.

For he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become that righteousness of God.

It says there in verse 20, listen, we are an ambassador of Christ.

Through us, we can help reconcile to people because Jesus did what he did on the cross.

The blood of Christ that covers our sin can come through us and go to others so that they can be a part of this righteousness.

God wants to use us, and he wanted to use Abraham.

And so we are allotted this position.

I don't understand how.

We have this problem.

And Abraham gets to the heart of God.

He is so in tune with God.

Can you imagine?

You're so in tune with God that the very thing that he's getting ready to bring to the world is his crowning glory.

Stedman said this about our prayer.

He said, It's the conversation that God has with us.

The creator of the university hardly needs any of our help, but he loves people and he rejoices in partnership.

1 Corinthians 3 says he calls us fellow laborers.

Abraham was God's friend and he was a laborer with him.

So we see this persistent intercession that gets to the heart of God.

Oh, that we would pray persistently and get to the heart of God, church.

I believe you'll see changes in your life and our community and a revival of God if we would pray persistently to the heart of God and be in tune with the things of His will.

You see, the next thing about prayer is this that it focuses the power of God.

So I got my magnifying glass here.

Thank you, Deedra.

She bought me this on the way to church this morning at Dollar General.

It's literally a good visual.

You'll get that later.

So, um, but if you use a magnifying glass and you focus a magnifying glass, I don't know how many of you have done this, and you allow the sun to hit that at just the right place, and you have kindling near it, you can see the power and the strength of the sun reflecting through an object to produce fire.

Prayer focuses the power of God, church.

It focuses, it zeroes it in.

I don't know how, I don't know why, but he uses this and he uses you, and he allows through prayer the power of God to come through you two things and demonstrate his self to the world.

Prayer focuses the power of God.

How's your prayer life?

Prayer also impacts God's timing.

And so we see this auctioneering that Abraham is doing, trying to get to the heart of God and trying to save people.

And we see through scripture different things where we see Jonah going to Nineveh.

God has a plan and a purpose, and he's going to destroy a city of people.

But he gives a reprieve for a time because a message is preached, and the people come to God, and they in sackcloth and ashes and they fast and they begin to pray and they repent of their sin and God gives a reprieve for a time.

Now they get back to wickedness and God destroys them ultimately.

But for a time, God's timing is focused to the power of prayer.

In 2 Kings 20, we see the story of Hezekiah.

And Hezekiah goes before the Lord, he finds out that he's on his death sentence, he's getting ready to be killed, he's getting ready to die, and he goes to God and says, Will you prolong my life?

And through the power of prayer, God answers that request and gives him 15 more years of life.

And so prayer focuses and impacts God.

I don't know how.

But God cares, church, about what you say to him.

Abraham prayed an audacious prayer of mercy for sinners.

Thomas Aquinas said this about mercy.

Mercy without justice is the mother of dissolution.

The financial guru Dave Ramsey said this about it.

If you bring mercy to the table without justice, that's called enabling.

The Bible says, seek justice, love mercy, walk humbly.

So that takes us to number three.

I know that we have to get through this.

What ultimately then happens to Sodom?

Number three.

We'll see Sodom's catastrophic judgment.

We're gonna see what happens to Sodom.

Abraham brings a bold request, and it seems that God is willing to not punish sin for the sake of righteousness, but sinners.

But God will still judge sin.

Verse 1.

Now the two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom.

When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them, and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground.

So we catch up to Lot, letter A, and Sodom, Lot became distracted.

Lot is in Sodom, and Lot is basically the epitome of what Matthew 13, 22 says.

Okay, it's the parable of the sower, and what it says is Matthew 13, 23, as for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves to be unfruitful.

Lot is a Christian, we looked at text.

Lot follows Abraham.

He understands, he makes his choice and goes towards Sodom, which scripture defines as exceedingly wicked.

He made his choice, and I challenged us last week.

Pray about our big choices in life.

If you're moving to a church, if you're moving to a new job, if you're moving for some reason in life, if God moves you, you pray about where you're going and what you're doing.

You pray for those big decisions.

Is God in it?

It's not, well, I'm gonna make this amount more of money, so it must be God.

Is God in it?

And so Lot goes and he became distracted, he became unfruitful.

We know that because we find him at the city gate where Lot is sitting comfortably.

The city gate is a picture here of the very center of all things that are going on.

And there sits Lot, probably, you know, head of the city council.

He's sitting back with the guys, he's talking about the city things.

He's living in the midst of all things, Sodom.

The scripture says this, church, that you and I cannot serve two masters.

It's either God or it's not.

It's the world or it's not.

We don't get to straddle that fence and call on God when grandma gets cancer and then live for the world the rest of the month.

We don't get that choice.

It says you're for me or you're not, you're against me.

So we see this judgment.

We catch up with Lot.

He's comfortable, he's in the middle of all things, Sodom.

Interestingly, Abraham stops at number 10.

I know some of you that are the mathematical in this are wondering, how did we get to one?

Pastor Rick, we were at 10.

Abraham asked God for 10.

If you look up the scripture and reference Lot and his family, Lot's family would come to eight.

So how do we know that Lot has become distracted?

Because if Lot were living in any way for God, if he would have just won two people to God, the whole city would have been spared.

If there would have been two people through his family, if he'd have been having a church service, if he'd had one altar call and two people, two people, the city would have spared.

When is the last time, church, you won someone to Christ?

Why don't we treat inviting people to church and winning the loss like it is our job?

Because let me tell you something, if you believe this book, it really is.

Me and Deidre have been working on people all week.

We've been working on people.

We've been working with people at the pharmacy, we've been working with people outside of church.

Okay, I'm glad when she's home because she's a missionary outside, but she, when she's here, we've been getting after people.

It is our job.

It's the Great Commission.

And we treat our job like it's the paycheck at the end of the week.

And I'm telling you, we don't miss a lot of work and we won't miss a paycheck, but we sure do miss opportunities.

I know that hurts.

It hurts me.

The Great Commission is our purpose.

Lot had his eyes on the house, he had his eyes on the job, he had his eyes on the hedges and the bushes and the pool in the back and all the things in the city, and I don't even want to go into what else because there's a lot else, and it's nasty, and it's a perverted society.

His sheep and his oxen and his sin.

What about you?

Are you loving people to Jesus?

I'd ask you next week, the fourth week of this sermon series, can I give you a challenge?

Would you invite someone this week?

Just invite somebody, just send them a text.

That's the great commission.

It's not hard with technology today.

We can do it in all kinds of ways, but would you be an inviter?

Because that is really your purpose.

That you would someday go to heaven and maybe drag some people with you.

It's not to be the best plumber, it's not to be the best carpenter, it's not to be the best mechanic.

Those are things that God's gifted you so that.

You would be the best at the Great Commission.

That's our purpose.

Do we love people enough to do it?

I think sometimes, listen, we don't get caught up in bad things.

We get caught up in good things that aren't the great things.

My family, my vacation, my time, my okay.

Do these things, but love God and love people.

In Sodom, we see that Lot got distracted.

He became unfruitful.

He was being choked out by the world, that picture.

He couldn't grow anymore.

The world was suffocating his growth.

And so, letter B, we see in Sodom, delayed obedience became dangerous.

I want you to look at verses 14 through 22, chapter 19.

So the men had come up to this point and they had warned him of what's going to happen to Sodom.

So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law who had married his daughters and said, Get up, get out of this place, for the Lord will destroy this city.

But to his sons-in-law, he seemed to be joking.

When the morning dawned, the angels urged Lot to hurry, saying, Arise, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the punishment of the city.

And while, listen to this word, and while he lingered, the men took hold of his hand, his wife's hands, and the hands of his two daughters, the Lord being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him.

They grabbed him and drug him out.

So it came to pass when they had brought them outside that he said, Escape for your life.

Don't look behind, nor stay anywhere in the plain.

Escape to the mountains, lest you be destroyed.

And so in Sodom, we see delayed obedience becomes dangerous.

Verse 16 says, He lingered there.

He lingered in it.

And in my Bible, 1 Corinthians 10, 13 says, There hath no temptation, church, taking you, but such as is common to man.

But God will always make a way of escape.

The world is all around lot, and he's looking around at all of it, and he's being told, This is going to be judged.

This sin is going to be punished.

You've got to get out.

God is being merciful to you.

He don't even know why yet, but God is being merciful to you.

Get out.

We're letting you have a reprieve, and he's looking around saying, I don't know.

I kind of like it.

I kind of like my laid-back style here.

I like my wickedness.

I like my sin.

And church today, I think the problem with a lot of people living that way, they don't want to admit it.

The reason they can't come to an altar and get it right is because they like it.

We like where we're at.

And I've heard people say, listen to me, I'm not down on this.

This is one of many, but I've heard people addicted to things saying, I don't want to give this up because I like it.

I like the feeling.

I like it.

I like my sin.

And Lot lingers.

And I'm telling you, church, lingering is dangerous.

When Potiphar's wife came to Joseph trying to seduce him, you know what the Bible says he did?

He got up and he got on his running shoes and he took off and got out of it.

It says he fled.

He ran.

And that's what Scripture tells us to flee from sin.

When God says go, listen, this is another side to it, church.

When God says to you in your heart, go, we learned that in week one, the faith of Abraham.

God said go, and he said, I'm going.

I don't know where I'm going, but I'm going.

God said go.

And he says, go to you with his will and his plan for your life.

But you linger, it's dangerous.

When God says go.

When the Holy Spirit speaks to you and you linger.

Let me explain it this way.

I tell my kids the importance of listening to my words.

I say, when I tell you to do menial tasks like clean your room, it's very important that you listen the very first time.

And, you know, like any other kids, they struggle with this.

I say, listen to my words.

Go to bed.

When you do that the first time, I'll know that you have arrived to being obedient and listening.

Listen to my words.

And I explain to them, it's very important that you listen to me the first time that I speak to you.

Why?

What if you're outside and you're walking in the road and a car's coming and I say, stop, turn around now, and they don't listen the first time, church.

Are you with me?

When God says something, it's vitally important that we listen to Him.

It's dangerous if we linger around in sin.

It's dangerous to linger with wickedness.

It's dangerous to delay our obedience, church.

And so in Sodom, he says, Get out.

And the angels literally grab their hands and usher them out because they want to linger in it.

And because of God's mercy, seeing past it, and I'm going to explain in a minute why, he gets them out.

But he also says, and I want you to see verse 26, he says, Don't look back.

Don't look back at it.

He says, get out, escape, go to the mountains, don't look back.

In verse 26, I know that you know this.

He says, But Lot's wife, his wife, looked back behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.

Looking back signifies some things before our God.

So when we're processing things before God, and we're unloading to him, and we're coming to a point of repentance to him, and we look back, it signifies regret and remorse.

Jesus said in Luke 17, 32, he said these words.

He said, Remember Lot's wife.

And when he said that, it followed with whoever will seek to save their life will lose it.

But whoever loses their life for my sake, the same, shall find it.

He references this story.

He said, You want to live, then lose your life for me.

He said, Remember Lot's wife?

She looked back.

She was trying to look back at what she thought she had that wasn't life.

And the world around us says, this is life.

If you'll get this and amass this and you'll have this success, and we look at a magazine and we look at somebody's wealth, we say, that's everything.

And God says, Don't look back.

That's not everything.

That is not life.

That life is death.

And that's temporary.

What I have for you is an eternal situation.

That's satisfaction for a season.

That's the Bible says, sin is fun for a minute.

It's fun for a season, but empty on the long term.

He says, Don't look back.

Don't look back.

If you're driving a car 70 miles per hour on the interstate, you must look ahead and be alert and be focused on what's ahead of you to get where you're going.

You cannot focus on the rear view mirror and get where you're going.

Church, let me ask you a question.

Is there something that you're holding on to?

That's holding you back?

Is there something in the rear view that you're holding on to?

Is there something that you've got to let go today?

Is there somebody here that's bitter about some brother or sister?

Man, can you get in Matthew 18 for a minute?

It says, go to them.

If you got odd or they got odd, go to them.

Fix it.

Before you come and worship, it says, fix it.

It says, don't worship me when you have something out with your brother or your sister.

Fix it.

If you got a problem in your family, fix it.

If you've got a problem with somebody else in the church, the only way we're going to be unified is if we fix it.

It does not go away by just ignoring the problem.

Is there something in the rear view?

He wants you to move forward.

Well, look at Lot here.

It is literally unbelievable.

Verse 18.

I know we went to 26, but I want you to go back a second.

So he says, escape to the mountains, and then verse 18.

Then Lot said to them, Please, no, my lords, indeed, now your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have increased your mercy, which you have shown by saving my life.

But I cannot escape to the mountains, lest some evil overtake me and I die.

See now, this city is near enough to flee to, and this is a little one.

Please let me escape there, and my soul shall live.

And he said to him, See, I have favored you concerning this thing also, in that I will not overthrow this city for which you have spoken.

They said, Hurry, escape there.

So Lot is unbelievable.

The city's about to be burned.

They drag him out, and he says, Let me just downsize my depravity.

Can I just go to another?

I'm a city boy now.

You don't understand.

I can't go to the mountains.

That is below me.

I know that sounds crazy and you're saving my life, but can I just go to the city Zoar, which is nearby, and live there?

Unbelievable.

It's like he's at an altar call and he's bargaining with God.

Well, Lord, I don't want to do this, but can you give me just a little?

I'm gonna give you this addiction, but can I have something smaller?

God, I'll give you this home and this job, and it's like, but I'm gonna need something else on the side.

It's unbelievable.

Letter C.

That leads us to letter C.

In Sodom, debauchery becomes devastation.

Look at verses 24 and 25.

Says this.

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

So he overthrew through those cities all the plains, all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground.

And so we see God sent the fire and the brimstone.

When people talk about Sodom and Gomorrah, the big sin that they look at, if you've been in church for any time, what's the big sin that people talk about?

Homosexuality.

And it is true, homosexuality is prevalent in Sodom.

And it was really bad.

But I'm gonna tell you something.

I've heard ignorant people say that if America doesn't repent of homosexuality, God will have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah.

First, God has no need to make apologies, so please don't repeat that ignorance.

I'm not afraid to say here that homosexuality is sin.

It's crystal clear, it's black and white in the Bible.

God says it, it falls short of what God wants.

He says it's wrong.

I'm sticking with God.

God hates sin.

But there's a lot of sins, and sin has different consequences, and culturally, they bring different types of human judgment.

But this we know, God can't abide with sin.

He hates it because it separates us from him.

I want you to look at a small, it would be an obscure passage to a lot, but in Ezekiel chapter 16, okay?

Ezekiel 16 · chapter mention

Anytime you bring up Sodom and Gomorrah, it's always, it was the homosexuality.

I want you to see something.

Ezekiel is talking about uh Jerusalem's sinfulness, and he's comparing Samaria and Sodom.

And Ezekiel chapter 16, verse 49 and 50.

Ezekiel 16:49

See this?

Because we're so quick to just make it about one thing, but it's not just about one thing.

That they were perverted, they were a bad society, and there was a lot going on that you don't even want to get into.

But look at this verse.

It says, look, verse 49, 50.

This was the iniquity of your sister Sodom.

She and her daughter had pride.

They had fullness of food and abundance of idleness, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and the needy.

Come on.

Y'all hearing that?

They had a lot, they had barns filled, and they weren't helping nobody with it that was broke.

That's what that says.

And they were prideful and fooled themselves.

Verse 50, and they were haughty and committed abomination before me.

Therefore I took them as I saw fit.

Okay.

The sin that Ezekiel says is they were prideful.

They had a lot of prosperity and ease, and they wouldn't help nobody.

Here's the point.

Psalms 14, 3 says, They are all gone aside.

They are all together become filthy.

There is none that doeth good.

We read it earlier in Romans.

It says, There is none righteous, no, not one.

Because there is sinfulness, all of us deserve the same punishment as Sodom.

All of us.

We have pride, we have abundance and don't help the needy enough.

We have sin issues, and so there's none righteous.

So we, like Abraham, pleading to God, trying to bring him to the idea of Jesus, need Jesus too.

But we look at somebody else's sin and say, Well, they're a bigger sinner than me.

They're a great big sinner.

I'm just a little small sinner.

I'm a little white lie sinner.

God hates sin.

And so because of sin, verse 24, God brings, that's where we get that hellfire and brimstone preaching that we say.

Oh, they preach like hellfire and brimstone.

Like I'm going to knock on your door tomorrow and say, Bless God, you're going to hell.

Let me tell you how to get to heaven.

That's where we get that hellfire and brimstone because God rains down hellfire and he brimstone.

Here's the point, though, God will bring judgment for sin.

But here's the greater point.

But God, Romans 6.23, the last part, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ.

But God loves you so much that He sent a way for a sinner not to be punished.

He sent a way for us not to be punished.

Judgment is coming.

And I want to read you Revelations 20.

It's coming, church.

And we kind of live our way, and I don't know that we always live literal to the Bible, that we always believe that hell is real and judgment is coming.

Because I had a guy talking to me about it one time.

He's like, the Lord's going to return any day now, Brother Rick.

And he would say it a lot.

And finally, one day I said, Well, bless God, brother.

Why ain't you out there telling the neighbor?

Why don't you go tell the lost people?

Because, man, I know he's coming.

But do something about it.

Don't just talk about his coming to me.

Let's go do something about it, because this is what it says in Revelation 20.

Verse 10.

Then the devil who deceived them was cast into the lake of fire in brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are, and they will be tormented day and night.

Go down to verse 12.

And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and the books were opened.

And another book was opened, which is the book of life, and the dead were judged according to their works by the things which were written in the books.

Go down to 14.

Then death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire.

This is the second death.

And anyone not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

So I want you to understand something.

There is a coming judgment for sin.

But God, in his mercy and justice, will withhold punishment for sinners through Jesus.

But Sodom and Gomorrah were devastated.

Everything was burned up.

And at daybreak, look at verse 27 through 29.

Don't miss the friendship of Abraham and God.

And Abraham went out early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the Lord.

Then he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the land of the plain.

And he saw and behold the smoke of the land which went up like the smoke of a furnace.

And it came to pass when God destroys the cities of the plain that God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow when he overthrew the cities in which Lot dwelt.

Don't miss the tenderness of this moment.

At daybreak, God delighted in Abraham.

God saved Lot because God loved Lot's uncle.

God saved Lot because he loved his friend Abraham.

Imagine Abraham choked up in this moment as he comes out and sees a city completely dismantled, like the worst movie that you've seen where something is disrupted.

And probably Abraham standing there looking into the city, not knowing Lot was saved.

Maybe he had tears coming down his cheeks, saying, I wish my nephew would have chosen differently.

I wish I could have just gotten to him one more time.

I wish I would have gone for that visit to see nephew Lot and checked on his family.

I wish he would have just lived for God like I taught him.

I wish he would have been righteous.

And God, in all of his righteousness and his holy justice, touched by the proof of Abraham's love, sends Lot running out mercifully, not because there was any righteous in that city, because he is the one righteous and he loved the heart's cry of Abraham, church.

Who needs you to love them?

Abraham proved his love, and because of it, God spared his nephew.

Church, Jesus paid the ultimate price and proved his love.

He is the righteous.

He is the John 14 6th.

He's the way, the truth, and the life.

His blood did what not ten people and Sodom could do.

His blood did what you can't do.

The best person you know couldn't do.

It's the ultimate proof of