Before the Lord

If you have your Bible, we'll make your way to Genesis 18 as

we continue in our series titled Answering God's Call.

Genesis 18 we're going to pick up in verse 22.

We're going to make it through chapter 19, verse 29 today.

So we're going to cover a lot of texts.

This may not be a text that you would expect on Mother's Day,

and quite honestly, I really didn't either.

I wrestled with God about that a little bit, got a piece about

it, but I really feel like the Lord wants to use this text to

speak to us today. I also want to give you a heads

up that as we walk through it, I want you to be thinking about

the two different men we're going to meet because really

this text is a tale of two different men in two different

lives. But before we get there, I want

to admit to you that when I get to the get to the opportunity,

I'm going to stand before the Lord face to face.

I've got some questions that I want to ask.

I mean, it may not be right off, but whenever Jesus gives me a

chance to ask some questions, I want to ask, right?

So like God, how long were Adam and Eve in the garden before

they sinned? You know, was it 3 minutes or

was it like 30 years, right? I mean, how long did they make

it right? I want to ask that question,

God, what really happened to the dinosaurs or God maybe what's

the exact age of the earth or God, could you kind of tell me

how Cain's wife, how all that worked, how closely she was

related or not? All right, God, can we talk

about Genesis 6 like the sons of God, the daughters of men, the

Nephilim and God, what exactly happened right there?

All right, God, why mosquitoes? I could keep going.

I got I got a list right that I'm going to be ready for when

God gives me a chance. But praise God, we might have

all sorts of questions, many of them good ones, but praise God

that God has answered for us already.

The primary questions we need to know the answers to in order to

know him, live for him, and honor him as followers of his

Son Jesus. Praise God, God has answered for

us in his word those primary questions.

And in fact, when we're going to read this morning the beginning

part of this text, we're going to hear two of the most

important possible questions ever that God could be asked by

man. I want you listening for those.

And then I want you following along on the two men, Abraham

and Lot, and the tale of two lives that we're going to see

this morning. Let's pick up reading Genesis

18, beginning in verse 22. So the men turned from there and

went towards Sodom, but Abraham still stood before the Lord.

And then Abraham drew near and said, Will you?

Here's the question, number one. Will you indeed sweep away the

righteous with the wicked? Suppose there are 50 righteous

within the city. Will you then sweep away the

place, and not spare it for the 50 righteous who are in it?

Far be it from you to do such a thing, to put the righteous to

death with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the

wicked. Far be it, far be that from you

question #2 Shall not the judge of all the earth do what is

just? And the Lord said, If I find at

Sodom 50 righteous in the city, I will spare the whole place for

their sake. Abram answered and said, Behold,

I have undertaken to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and

ashes. Suppose five of the 50 are

lacking, will you destroy the whole city for lack of five?

And he said, I will not if, if it if I find 45 there again He

spoke to him and said, suppose 40 are found there.

He answered, for the sake of 40, I will not do it.

And then he said, Oh, let not the Lord be angry, then I will

speak. Suppose 30 are found there, He

answered, I will not do it if I find 30 there.

He said, Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord.

Suppose 20 are found there, He answered, For the sake of 20, I

will not destroy it. Then he said, Oh, let not the

Lord be angry, and I will speak again, but this once.

Suppose 10 are found there, he answered, For the sake of 10, I

will not destroy it. And the Lord went his way when

he had finished speaking to Abraham, and Abraham returned to

his place. Question number one that we

heard right out of the gate is will God sweep away the

righteous with the wicked? Remember the situation.

Three men have paid Abraham a visit.

These are no ordinary three men. Two of them are angels and one

of them is the Lord himself, the Son of God, the second person of

the Trinity who's been from everlasting eternity past.

Who's the one who spoke all of creation into existence, The one

who would take on human flesh that we would call Jesus and

call Jesus now, who's eternally existed and is now appearing

even in human form in the Old Testament with two angels that

have come to visit. Now their primary destination

was not Abrahams address if you remember they visited him, but

their primary destination is the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Why? Because the sin of these cities

has risen so high. Because it's gotten so deep and

so bad and so broad, and the rampant wickedness has become so

unjust and so much unrighteousness is flowing

through their streets that the cries of the oppressed, the

cries of those suffering under the injustice, and the

unrighteousness of Sodom and Gomorrah has risen so high.

It's reached the ears of God Almighty.

And the Lord himself has decided to investigate and see for

himself. Don't miss Abraham's Abraham's

position in verse 22 like we read.

So the men turn from there. That is Abraham's tent and went

towards Sodom. But Abraham here it is stood.

Watch this before the Lord. Abram is positioned between the

Lord and the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, as he knows his nephew

Lot, and Lot's family lives there.

And so here before the Lord, Abraham is boldly chosen, if you

will, just like you read and and heard.

He's acting as a mediator. He's acting as a intercede, or

he's acting as an advocate. He's acting as a negotiator,

like a spiritual negotiator, if you will, before the Lord.

And before we answer the first question that we heard, we learn

a lesson from Abraham here. Who's before the Lord.

That's like this lesson #1 in your notes, God calls us to

intercede for the sake of others.

God calls you and me as followers of Christ to intercede

for the sake of others. You say, Kyle, what is it?

What does it mean to intercede? Well, just the general term, to

intercede means to engage or to act on behalf of someone else.

It's when you're seeking their good and you position them

yourself or act yourself on their behalf.

What we're talking about, to intercede is to intercede in

prayer. And So what we're talking about

is this going before God in prayer on behalf of others.

Why is this intercession, this intercessory prayer, so

important? Because of this truth.

The fact of the matter is that only God, and only God alone can

truly change the heart of a man or a woman or boy or girl from

the inside out. There's lots of things we can do

to serve someone, to show someone God's love, but the only

way a human being experiences, and it's the change of the power

of God for themselves, is for God to do it from the inside of.

This is why our intercessory prayer doing and asking for God

to do what only He can do is so critical.

It's a core part of Our Calling. In fact, I would say we cannot

fulfill Holy God's call on our lives without intercessory

prayer being a core part of what we do as followers of Christ.

I just want to talk to you about an example of that for a moment.

I've been reading a missionary biography that I just finished.

I'd encourage you, as I've told you before, if you read

different categories of books as a Christian, you ought to read

biographies of those who went to the mission field.

Let me give you 1. You ought to read Hudson Taylor

is his name. He was the establisher of the

China Inland Mission, they called it.

So he went to China in the early years, around the same years

that Lottie Moon would eventually go as a missionary

there. And intercession was part of the

DNA of this man's life before he was even born.

For example, his father prayed that God would give him a son

who would be a missionary to China before Hudson was ever

born, interceding on the son's behalf that he did not yet have.

And then furthermore, when Hudson was young, Hudson's

mother was about 70 to 80 miles away when her son was a

teenager. And all of a sudden, after

dinner, she had this overwhelming impression that she

needed to plead for the salvation of her son, who had

not yet come to accept Christ yet as his Savior.

And so after dinner, she goes to her room and she takes the key

and she said she locks the door. She said she was going to give

herself hour after hour to prayer until God responded

positively to her request. And so hour after hour passed as

she prayed, and eventually she said it was almost like God

overwhelmingly impressed upon her.

She needed to stop praying and start praising God that he had

answered her prayer. For at that very hour, Hudson

Taylor had been saved, unbeknownst to him that his

mother had been praying for hours until he'd accepted

Christ. Later on, Hudson picks up a a

journal, a diary in their home. He thought it was his he was

about to write. In it, he looks, he sees it's

his sister's, but immediate. Instead of immediately closing

it, God allowed him to see a line that he needed to read, for

she had written there an entry that was one month ago that said

on that day she had decided to give herself to intercessory

prayer for the salvation of her brother daily until he was

saved. Hudson Taylor was a man who

marked the world, but was marked beforehand because people

interceded for him in prayer. This man said these words

brought up, he says, in such a circle of people and saved under

such circumstances. It was natural that from the

commencement of my Christian life, I was led to feel that the

promises of God were very real and that prayer was in sober

matter of fact, transacting business with God, whether on

one's own behalf or on behalf of those those for whom one sought

His blessing. Lesson #1 is God calls us to

intercede for the sake of others.

How many of us are where we are because our mothers interceded

for us for maybe hours and days that we knew not, and yet God

heard a mother's cry for her son or for her daughter, just like

in Hudson Taylor's case. That's lesson #1 but don't

forget question number one. Will God sweep away the

righteous with the wicked? What's the answer?

Well, what is God's repeated answer to Abraham when he

negotiates God down from 50 to 10?

That's an interesting way. I don't know that I'd envision

myself negotiating with God like that.

But here Abraham is interceding and he's negotiating one number

at a time. What is God's answer?

Every time from 50 to 45 to 10? He says if he finds just 10

righteous in the city, God says he would spare it on their

behalf. Now, obviously to get a little

bit ahead of myself, God is not going to find 10 righteous in

the city as you know the story. In fact, I think you can

accurately say that God is only going to find one righteous in

the city and he will destroy the cities as we're going to see,

but not before He rescues the righteous.

Will God, Will God sweep away the righteous with the wicked?

The answer is never ever, which allows us also to immediately

answer question #2 Shall not the judge of the earth do what is

just? Verse 25?

The answer there is yes both now and forever.

Yes always, both now and forever.

So watch and see what God does. Beginning in chapter 19 verses

one through 11. The 2 angels came to Sodom in

the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom.

When Lott saw them, he rose to meet them and bowed himself with

his face to the earth. And he said, My Lords, please

turn aside to your servant's house and spend the night and

wash your feet. Then you may rise up early and

go on your way. They said no, we'll spend the

night in the town square. But he pressed them strongly.

So they turned aside to him and entered his house.

And he made a feast and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.

But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of

Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man,

surrounded the house, and they called to Lot.

Where are the men who came to you tonight?

Bring them out to us, that we may know them.

Lot went out to the men at the entrance, shut the door after

him, and said, I beg you, my brothers, do not act so

wickedly. Behold, I have two daughters who

have not known any man. Let me bring them out to you,

and you do to them as you please.

Only do nothing to these men, for they have come under the

shelter of my roof. But they said Stand back.

And they said this fellow came to Sojourn and he has become the

judge. Now we'll deal worse with you

than with them. Then they pressed hard against

the man lot and drew near to break down the door.

But the men reached out their hands and brought Lot into the

house with them and shut the door.

And they struck with blindness the men who were at the entrance

of the house, both small and great, so that they wore

themselves out groping for the door.

When the 2 angels arrive in Sodom, Lot is sitting at the

gate. Now that's biblical terminology

that Lot was a man of influence. Lot potentially and probably had

some sort of leadership position or place in this city.

Maybe he was a part of the Chamber of Commerce, or maybe he

sat on the the City Council, or maybe he was elected to the

school board or he Lot Lot did something that gave him a place

at the gate where the elders are leaders of the city would sit.

As soon as Lot sees these guests, he bows down to them.

He runs to the then he offers hospitality to them, but they

don't accept it at first. Why?

They say we're going to stay in the city square, out in public.

Why in the world would that be? Probably to get a full scouting

report of the city for which they've come.

Lot doesn't give up. He presses upon them.

No, stay with me, stay with me. Finally, they give give in.

Just before bedtime though, the city, every man to the last man,

turns into a mob, surrounds Lot's house like a pack of

wolves and demands that Lot give them the men.

Lot refuses to do so, seeks their protection, and then comes

up with an idea that quite honestly, I don't know if you

have times like this. There's times I read my Bible

and I read something I read and I think to myself, did I just

read what I thought I just read. Y'all been there before?

He does something that quite honestly, one could not imagine.

The angels, the men refuse. The angels have to get involved,

supernaturally shut the door, snatch, slot in to the house and

they strike the men groping at the door with blindness, who

continue to seek out the fulfillment of their desires

despite the fact that they can't see their face in front of them,

their hand in front of their face.

Now, there's a lot we could talk about here, but I want to

address the thing I brought up earlier.

You know, when you read something in your Bible and

maybe it caused you to scratch your head and just wonder what

in the world did I just read? Specifically this horrific

portion of the story? How in the world could Lot make

such a wicked offer regarding his daughters?

The idea is shocking. It flies in the face of

everything good, right and true, and just does it not?

How could Lot think of such a thing?

The reality is though, to be honest, that the thought or the

act from Lot should not catch us by surprise.

Why is that? Because Lot has been on the

wrong trajectory for quite a while now.

Lot's life in his life, He's been making unwise decisions for

years now. Lot's been living away from the

will of the Lord for a long time now.

Lesson #2 is this. If you love the world, you will

eventually live like it. If you love the world, you can't

be shocked. You can't be surprised if it

eventually starts creeping in your house, if it starts

creeping in your life, if you start looking like what you're

loving. Remember, Lot is not in Sodom

because God called him there. Now there is second Peter 27, I

believe, a little New Testament verse that describes Lot as

righteous. And you wonder, well, how in the

world was he a righteous man and how in the world did he do this?

But I think those things are completely compatible because

Lot, it says, was not living the lifestyle of every other man in

Sodom. He was not.

In fact, he it even says that such a lifestyle and wickedness

around him was tormenting his soul, but it obviously wasn't

tormenting his soul enough to leave.

All right, so Lot's not in the place of his address because

God's called him there. He chose the place because it

looked good to his eyes. It looked good according to the

ways of the world. It looked like a place he could

prosper physically and financially and have what he

wanted to have and do. What he wanted to do wasn't

according to God's call. Abraham, on the other hand, has

been living in answer to the call of God, and here's why.

I really want you to zoom in and begin to notice the different

trajectories of life between Abraham and Lot.

While Abram is answering God's call, Lot is living as if there

is no call of God. The way one preacher put it is

like this. Lot was in the worst of possible

places. I want you to listen to this

statement and see if you can identify Lot had too much of the

world to be happy in the Lord, and too much of the Lord to be

happy in the world. This is why you've heard the

statement. Christians can sometimes be the

most miserable of people. If you fall out of love with

Jesus because you get entranced with the world and start leaving

the route in the will of God for you, you got too much of the

Lord to be happy in the world. Too much of the world to be

happy in the Lord and you can't make up your mind and can be the

most miserable of men or women. This is where Lot is.

Let me be even more specific. Lot, I believe, shows us that

it's possible to have a saved soul and yet live a wasted life.

It's possible to be rescued ultimately, but for one's life

to accomplish nothing, for the Kingdom of God to be fruitless,

if you will. If Lot let me say it like this

when it comes to his daughters, I think this will help make it

make sense. If Lot had compromised his own

life with the world, what makes us think he wouldn't compromise

his own family? So this shouldn't shock.

Sin, as you've heard said, will take you farther than you want

to go, will cause you to stay longer than you want to stay,

and it will cost you more than you want to pay.

Let's pick up in Genesis 19, verse 12 through 14.

Genesis 19:12–14

Then the men said the Lot. Have you anyone else here?

Sons in law, sons, daughters or anyone you have in the city,

Bring them out of this place. We're about to destroy this

place because of the outcry against its people has become

great before the Lord, and the Lord has sent us to destroy it.

So Lot went out and said to his sons in law who were to marry

his daughters up, get out of this place.

For the Lord is about to destroy the city, but he seemed to his

sons in law to be jesting, that is to be joking.

God is about to annihilate the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Y'all and the angels asked the most gracious, merciful question

they could possibly ask. Have you anyone else here?

Now let me say what the question is not.

The question is not lot. Is anyone else here righteous?

That's not what they're asking. This is a more merciful question

than that. The question is not Lot.

Is there anyone else here that deserves to be saved?

The question is more merciful than that.

The question is Lot, does anyone in this city belong to you so

that we can rescue them on your behalf?

And of course, Lot has a wife and two daughters and two sons

in law, to which his daughters were about to be married.

No, Again, I may be wrong when I get to heaven about this, but I

think this is probably the case. His wife, never mentioned until

now, was probably from Sodom. His two daughters had obviously

been born and raised in Sodom. Where were his two sons in law

from Sodom? Lot immediately warns his sons

in law, but they think he's only joking.

Kind of have to read between the lines right there, but I think

it's a pretty obvious reading. Why in the world, in a 911

spiritual nuclear situation, would they think he's only

joking? Well, no doubt, because I'm

sure, as is obvious, they've never heard Lot talk like this

in his life. They may have never heard Lot

bring up the Lord, talk about salvation, share with them how

to be saved, talk about faith, talk about the call of God on

his life. They've never heard this man

speak of these things. All the sudden he's screaming

and shouting at the top of his lungs because it's 911.

And they're like, who is that? They think he's joking.

They don't take him serious because he's never been serious

about his faith before. Potentially in front of them,

right? So lesson #3 is y'all Lost

people don't take save people seriously until they see we're

serious about what we believe. Lost people don't take save

people seriously unless they see we're serious about what we

believe. Let's go back to Hudson Taylor.

As a young man, he was skeptical of Christianity before he was

saved, and so were his friends. Here's what he says.

Here's what was to blame, he says the inconsistencies of

Christian people who, while professing to believe the Bible,

yet were content to live as if there were no such book.

These had been one of the strongest arguments of my

skeptical companions and myself, and I frequently felt at that

time that if I ever got to the day that I pretended even to

believe the Bible, I would at least attempt to live by it.

Friends, here's just a good place That sometimes there are

realities that are so real and carry such gravity that are

difficult to speak of. The realities of heaven and the

realities of hell. The realities of life and the

realities of death. The realities of salvation and

the realities of judgement. This is a moment in time and a

place in Scripture where we need to remember that so often we as

believers can live our lives so casually that those who are lost

around us don't know when to take us seriously.

Part of Our Calling as Christians is to witness and

warn of the salvation and judgement to come.

I came across some words by the famous preacher Jonathan Edwards

that again, these are convicting for me and this is I.

I don't think you can say it more straight than this.

Listen to his words. He says.

How can you call someone your friend if you believe there is a

coming judgement but you've never warned them?

What will your friends say to you at the judgement if you

never told them? The greatest hypocrisy, he says,

is this is saying you believe in hell and not doing everything

you can to keep those you care about from going there.

I'm going to pick up reading in verse 15 of chapter 19.

As morning dawned, the angels urged lot saying up, take your

wife and two daughters who are here, lest you be swept away in

the punishment of the city. But he lingered.

So the men seized him and his wife and his two daughters by

the hand. And the Lord being merciful,

look at God, the Lord being merciful to him.

And they brought him out and set him outside the city.

And as they brought him out, one said, escape for your life.

Do not look back or stop anywhere in the valley, escape

to the hills, lest you be swept away.

And Lot said to them, Oh no, my Lord, behold, your servant has

found favor in your sight, and you've shown me great kindness

and saving my life, but I cannot escape to the hills lest the

disaster overtake me and I die. Behold, this city is near enough

to flee to, and it is a little one.

Let me escape there, is it not a little one?

And my life will be saved. And he said to him, Behold, I

grant you this favor also, that I will not overthrow the city of

which you've spoken. Escape there quickly, for I can

do nothing to you. Arrive there, there.

For the name of the city was called Zoar.

The angels told Lot to leave, but he lingered.

You know the feeling, right? In the mornings early.

Maybe it's going to happen tomorrow morning.

Your alarm goes off and you what?

You linger there in bed, hit the snooze.

Why? Because you're so comfortable,

right? You just don't want to move yet,

you know? I don't know why.

Why does the bed not feel that comfortable when you first get

in it as when you're about to get out of it?

Y'all ever wondered that? Oh my God, you could have

reversed this. Made life a whole lot easier.

Anyway, that's a different set of story.

So you know what this is like. Lot's been lying in bed and

Sodom for years now. This is where he's comfortable,

This is what he knows. This is where he wants to be.

And Lot lingers so long the angels have to physically seize

him, his wife and two daughters. By the hands, maybe by the

collar. It sounds like they literally

have to pick them up and take them out by force.

And yet they do. Out of the mercy of God, Not

because they deserved it, but because of God's mercy.

They bring them outside the city.

You heard the instructions they gave.

Escape for your life. Don't look back.

Don't stop anywhere along the valley.

Get to the hills. Run for your life.

Judgment is coming, but Lot still doesn't want to run.

Lot still really doesn't want to leave.

Lot's life is so compromised he can't take God seriously.

Lot asked to go to a nearby city.

They grant him his request, and once they arrived safely, God

did in his complete and perfect justice what he said he was

going to do. He rained down judgement for the

sin of these cities, the entire valley and its inhabitants.

Look at verse 26 again, it says. But Lot's wife behind him looked

back and she became a pillar of salt.

Now #1 that's just weird right there.

That's bad. That's just weird.

You know, it's interesting that the Dead Sea is also called the

Salt Sea. Archaeologists believe that

these cities may be buried underneath that very place to

this day. It was once a very beautiful,

fertile, incredible geographic area.

Let me, let me, let me try to make clear what happened with

Lot's wife. She had left physically, but she

had not left spiritually. She was taken out of Sodom, but

Sodom had not been taken out of. She had heard the warning, but

she didn't heed it because she really didn't 100% believe it.

And maybe this more than all, she wanted Sodom more than she

wanted her own salvation. Luke 17, verse 27 through 33.

Luke 17:27–33

Here's some words of the New Testament on this.

They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in

marriage until the day when Noah entered the ark and the flood

came and destroyed them all. Likewise, just as it was in the

days of Lot, they were eating and drinking, buying and

selling, planting and building. But on the day when Lot went out

of Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed

them all. So it will be on the day when

the Son of Man is revealed. On that day, let the one who is

on the housetop with his goods in his house not come down to

take them away. And likewise the one who was in

the field not turned back. Remember Lot's wife, whoever

seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his

life will keep it. In other words, the New

Testament goes out of its way to warn us as followers of Christ,

as we approach the return of Christ, that the final judgment

at hand. Let no Christian have a heart

like Lot's wife. You know what they say on an

airplane in case of emergency, as you approach the exits or

find the nearest exit. You know the other instruction

they give you? Let me see if I can start it for

you. Leave all carry on baggage

behind. Escape with yourself.

Don't look back. Don't try to hang on to anything

you had in the life before the plane crash.

Just embrace the future you have without that.

Leave it behind. Proceed to the nearest exit.

Lot wanted Lot's wife wanted her bags.

She wanted the life she had left behind more than she wanted the

life God had in store for her. Which life do you want more?

Which life are you living for? Lesson #4 Is this.

If you're not ready to leave now, you probably won't be ready

to leave then. If you're not ready to leave

now, you're not ready to leave now.

You probably won't be ready to leave then.

Let's finish the last set of verses 27 to 29.

And Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he

had stood before the Lord. And he looked down towards Sodom

and Gomorrah and toward all the land of the valley.

And he looked, and behold, the smoke of the land went up like

the smoke of a furnace. So it was that when God

destroyed the cities of the valley, God remembered Abraham

and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when he overthrew

the cities in which Lot had lived.

Why did God rescue Lot? Let me put it like this.

Did God rescue Lot because of Lot, or did God rescue Lot

because of Abraham? Specifically, the Bible says

because God remembered Abraham. Who stood where?

Remember before the before the Lord who had placed himself in

intercessory prayer before the Lord, because Abraham stood

before the Lord on his behalf and interceded, Lot was saved,

y'all because Abraham prayed, the angels physically snatched

Lot up. Because Abraham prayed,

Abraham's intercession saved Lot's life.

Lesson #5 is this. Our prayers impact eternity.

Our intercession impacts eternity.

Only God can change the heart. When we partner with God in

prayer, God promises to hear what we lay before Him, and our

prayers impact eternity. Writing of the impact of prayer

warriors in his Life in ministry, Hudson Taylor said.

As I think of those prayer warriors in my life in ministry,

I'm reminded how much the cause of missions is indebted to many

who are never themselves able to physically go on the mission

field and who never were able to largely give up their means even

to missions. And yet will not be a little

surprised, but greatly surprised in the great day to see how much

their work has been advanced by their love, their sympathy in

their prayers. Our prayers impact eternity.

I'm going to ask John and praise team to come out.

And before we observe the supper in just a moment, I'm going to

I'm going to ask you to respond to what you've heard this

morning like this. I asked you earlier on which man

you might most identify with Abraham or Lot.

And my question for you is this, in our time of response, are you

answering the call of God on your life and can identify as

Abraham because you've said yes, you've realized you've been made

with a purpose. You've said yes to Jesus who

lived a sinless life for you, died on the cross for you, paid

your sin debt, rose from the dead for you, and you've said

yes to him. And you're living as far as it

says depended on you to answer God's call and will for your

life. If so, can I ask you, are you

interceding? Are you interceding for the lots

in your life? Here's what I'm going to ask you

to do. If you identify with Abraham

this morning, I'm going to ask you during the invitation to

come and intercede for the lots in your life.

You know the people. You know where you live, work

and play, your family, your friends, classmates, teammates,

Co workers that God's put you in their path.

God's called you to intercede on their behalf.

We ought to take every opportunity to do that, knowing

our prayers impact eternity. I'm going to ask you when we

sing in just a moment, if you know a lot in your life, you'd

come out and just maybe kneel, heal, or stand here, and we just

have a time of responding to intercede for the lots in our

lives. Maybe it's your own.

Maybe it's a child or a grandchild who's far from God.

But I also want to ask you this. What if you don't identify with

Abraham? What if in all honesty, you

identify more with lot? Maybe you know the Lord.

Maybe you just know the Lord. You know you're not saying yes

to his will for your life. Maybe you know that you're

living as if God doesn't have a call on your life, when actually

He does, and you know it. You've just been ignoring it,

maybe rejecting it. And maybe you've been hearing

God's call and you continue to linger.

What if, what if, what if, what if you just said Gordon.

Lord, I, I don't want to linger any any longer.

Lord, I'm ready to leave. God, I don't want you.

I have to snatch me up. I'm ready to go.

I'm, I'm ready to follow. I want what you want.

I want the life you want from me more than the life I've been

living. God, I want what you have in

store more than the bags of the world that I'm carrying that I

think are my life and are worth more than what you have to

offer. And so maybe even as those who

identify with Abraham come down, maybe you'd be willing to

identify as a lot and come down. And you don't have to tell

anybody the difference. You can just lay before the Lord

the fact you're willing and ready to leave and say, God have

me. I'm saying yes today.

And if that's you, I want you to come too.

So I'm going to pray and then I'm going to ask you to stand

and we're going to respond. If you need to talk with me, I'm

going to be here. If you need to trust Jesus, you

come tell me that you come do business with God in prayer,

whichever way you identify today.

All right, Heavenly Father, I want to ask that wherever each

one of us stands right now, Lord, that we'd rightly respond

by faith to you that God either we would in faith intercede the

God, we would either in faith leave.

But God, whatever it needs to be, help us say yes to you and

have your way. I pray in Jesus name and all

God's people said, would you stand with me?

Would you come? We're going to have encouragers

that'll be closed. This altar is open.

Abraham or Lot, whichever it may be, or somewhere in between, you

come. Let God have his way in your

life as we sing and worship.