Genesis - Part 37 | Pastor Paul McGee

Hallelujah, Hallelujah, not just at your conversion, but day by

day the changes, Hallelujah, that you made in my life.

Jesus, I love you Lord, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, someone

say thank God. Hallelujah, Amen.

Means by announcements here tonight, my family and I will be

leaving tomorrow and we will not be coming back home till the 9th

of August sometime. And so during that time, if you

have any emergencies or things of that matter particularly that

happened during the day, you can contact Bishop, a man during the

night you might be able to get Brother Mason, but Bishop would

probably be your primary spot, a man to search out first.

Amen. Again, you can call us and we'll

pray and things like that, but as far as being able to be,

there might not be able to be. Amen.

So just keep that in mind. That means it's coming Sunday.

Amen. They're having some other

speakers right around here. So the AM will have brother

Jerry Mason, the PM, they'll be Bishop, and then on Wednesday,

next Wednesday you'll have Brother Zach McGee.

And then on the 7th of August, don't forget Power Hour here at

the church. Still yet, I got my little print

out for everybody to sign. I won't be here again.

It's bumming me out and I'm going to miss my perfect

attendance and such so, but be here for that.

Also, there'll be Ladies Retreat or Women's Esprit Conference

coming up here in this district the 22nd, the 23rd of August.

And so that's exciting as well. The 5th Sunday of August will be

Pastor Anthony Wilkes here with us.

Amen. And that will be tremendous as

well too. However, just an an adjustment

from just last Wednesday and my wife showed me this and didn't

want to do any competition that we had scheduled.

Our Night of Worth. It happens to be on the same

night as a home football game, which football is big in Mount

Carmel just the way it is. And so I told us talk to our

leaders that we can either compete with it or we can just

not do that. And so we're the last time that

we did night of Worth, we actually did it in the spring.

And so things at that time is usually like other sports that

don't take place on Friday nights.

And so we're probably going to not probably we're going to be

shifting that. I've already talked to the

people involved and told them there's going to be a shift

there. And so that won't be happening

in September. That'll happen in the spring.

The date of that will be forthcoming and such.

So just try to make an adjustment, try to be mindful

because we like the community involved involvement, Amen.

But we might be hanging ourselves, so to speak.

It's just a figure of speech trying to attempt that

otherwise. So anyway, that's just a point

of information. Amen.

Let's turn to the book of Genesis.

Amen. Tonight, book of Genesis, I'm

wearing like the this suit and only one other suit I have in my

closet. All the rest are going with me.

That tells you how much church I'm going to be in, Amen.

They're outside of a few stray sports coach or something like

that. All complete suits are packed.

Amen. So Genesis chapter 19 and we're

Genesis 19 · chapter mention

going to do our best or my best. Maybe I should make you say,

well, I've tried to help you get through it soon and you have

it's all on you. So I'm going to try to do my

best to get through chapter 19 tonight.

We'll, we'll end here on a good spot.

Before I leave, I'm going to start reading verse #24 and I'm

going to read a few verses here this evening if I can get my

glasses out. And then I like to be seated.

And we'll catch the rest here in just a moment.

OK. The Bible states these words in

verse #24 It says, Then the Lord reigned upon Sodom, and upon

Gomorrah, brimstone and fire for the Lord out of heaven.

And he overthrew those cities, and all the plane, and all the

inhabitants of the cities, that which grew up on the ground.

But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a

pillar of salt. And Abraham got up early in the

morning to the place where he stood before the Lord and looked

towards Sodom, Gomorrah and toward all the land of the plane

and be held and load the smoke of the country went up as the

smoke of the furnace. And it came to pass when God

destroyed 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 the which Lot dwell for a little

while tonight. And I know it seems like it's

been a vein, you know, somewhat throughout chapter 19, but I

want to speak on this fighting the Sodom mindset, fighting the

Saddam mindset. Before I go in the Lord and

prayer tonight, I just want to give an update.

I went and seen Sister Brenda before church tonight as well.

And she is doing so good. Matter of fact, whenever she's

actually in Princeton at Deaconess Gibson General that it

now it's called Deaconess Gibson General.

So if anybody wants to go over there and see her, I know it her

spirits would just be thrilled. But I went over there tonight

and as I went in the room, she had just got back from walking

and riding a bicycle. And so there's color back in her

face, life in her eyes and her sugars.

Everything's doing good. And so about another week and

1/2 or so there and she'll be going to her daughter's Mindy's

in Oakland City. So a good time to then she'll be

there until she can they feel that she can come home by

herself. So if you want to see her, your

window is the next week and a half really in order to do that,

because I don't know how accepting Mindy will be of

intrusion of all the you, you know.

So if you want to see her, she's there.

If you'd like to know the room number, I can even let you know

that after service. I won't say that here publicly

online, but if you want to go see her, I know she would just

be thrilled. She'd probably talk to you

later. She's she's doing good.

She's doing good, She's feeling good.

Amen. All right, so this evening let

me pray and we'll get get going because I got some, we got some

path to go. Lord, I love you tonight.

Thank you Jesus for your many blessings.

Thank you Lord for your word. Thank you Lord Jesus for meeting

us here. God, each time we come, you

don't disappoint Lord. You show up Lord, and we have

witnesses, the Lord of your presence and spirit here.

I pray God help us in the next little while.

Lord, as we look at your word, y'all let us speak life into us

in the name of Jesus Christ and I pray Amen.

You may be seated tonight in Jesus name.

Just a cursory reading of of this chapter.

We might really miss something that takes place in verses 23

and 24. And what we might miss is really

what is one of the facets of God or essential aspect of God, and

that is what the book of Numbers.

And even we find the New Testament the same thing.

And that is this. The Bible tells us that God is a

man, that he cannot lie. And that is a great trait of

God, right? That's a great trait outside of

mankind that God has as his own. And the thing with that is this,

that means whenever God says something, God means what he

says, that God does not play games with His word.

Even whenever he spoke to Lot, you know about them needing to

get out and about them escaping. He wasn't using a bait and

switch on law to get Lot out or baiting Lot with his mercy and

then switch it up by punishing him with judgment.

That's just not God. But in verse #21 the Bible says

that whenever God accepts law in his plea to go to Zoar, remember

the little city, that in the very next verse he says, haste

thee, escape thither, for I cannot do anything till thou

become thither. In other words, get to Zohar

because I can't do anything as far as fire and brimstone and

destruction on all the other planes, the cities and the

planes and such, until you get there.

He says, I cannot, You need a pause.

Anytime God says that He cannot do something, I mean that's a

big thing for God to say I cannot do.

And matter of fact it almost seems a little weird to us and

maybe a little impossible that God would say such a thing as I

cannot. Others would probably try to

interpret that I will not do, but our English translation says

it as I cannot do. And the reason being is because

God had bound and limited himself by His own word.

He told lot. I will not, I cannot do that

until you get to Zoar Psalms 89 and verse 34.

The Bible says my covenant, the Psalm is speaking to the Lord,

the Lord saying My covenant. I will not break nor alter the

thing that has gone out of my lips.

And so when you pair verse 23 in Genesis 19 with verse 24 in

Genesis 19, this is what we come at.

This is what the verses of Scripture say, that when Lot was

entered into Zoar, that's the last part of verse 23 when Lot

was entered into Zoar, then the Lord reigned upon Sodom and upon

Gomorrah. That I know.

It don't seem like much, but you read right through it.

God kept His word. He said I cannot do it till you

get there, and God didn't do it till they got there.

God bound himself by his word and that's a trait, an aspect of

God that we should love, adore, cradle in our arms that God

keeps his word even as long as sometimes it seems like it for

to come to fruition. We should be happy that God

keeps his word. The Bible says in Matthew 26

Matthew 26:53

verses 53 and 54 and the setting of the Scripture.

This is Jesus speaking and the setting of the Scripture is

after Peter drew his sword in the Garden of Gethsemane cut off

Malchus ear. This is after all that.

This is what the Lord says. This is what Jesus says.

He says, Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father,

and He shall presently give me more than 12 legions of angels?

Of course, the rhetorical question and the answer is, of

course he could, He says, but how then shall the Scriptures be

fulfilled? That thus it must be.

You know what he's saying. I could, but I can't.

It's really what Jesus was saying.

He was saying I could, but I can't because I'm bound to

fulfill the written word that says that I'm going to have to

go through everything I'm going through and I'm bound by my word

for it. He said in another place in John

1035, there's a phrase there that I love, and it's this.

The Bible says this, that the Scripture cannot be broken.

I love that. I love that phrase in the Bible.

The Scripture cannot be broken. That tells me from Genesis to

Revelation and all the prophecies that are contained in

there, the promises that are written in there, the Scripture

cannot be broken. What does that mean?

They cannot fail. You're not going to find a

promise that will not come to pass, and you're not going to

find a prophecy that's never fulfilled because Scripture,

God's word, cannot be broken. And that's because God limits

and binds himself by his own word.

It will come to pass just as He said it would.

And that is a spoken fact even in Lot's life.

God had bound him by his own spoken word to Lot and in his

life. And so that gives me great hope

because I don't have to wonder as I walk in this earth below

that if God really meant what God meant.

He said you can doubt people, you can doubt institutions, but

you don't have to worry about doubting God.

He'll keep what he said he'll keep.

He'll do what he said he'll do. Now we look, I mean, the Sogmar,

you know, fire and brimstone and the destruction of these cities,

sometimes people got very creative in how these cities

were destroyed. But I'm just going to tell you,

I'm going to take the Bible exactly for what it says.

Brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven.

I don't, I don't need another explanation.

That phrase alone is sufficient for Pastor McGee.

And so we have this destruction, this total decimation of the

plains. Note now it's the plains, it's

the cities. You look in the verse of

Scripture, there it tells us it's the inhabitants in verse

25, even the ground of those areas, all of them except Zohar.

Now remember that whenever Lot separated from Abram due to the

greatness of each of them having substance and livestock,

remember the quarreling between the the the shepherds of 1, the

herdsmen of the other, the quarreling that took place.

It was at that point that the separation happened and Lot had

an opportunity to choose what he wanted to choose.

And I kind of head this section. This might help someone to know

where I'm going. I kind of head this section and

my notes tonight looked like Eden but ended like hell.

So whenever he goes here, he chooses the influence, if you

will, of the Jordan Valley, that well watered Jordan Valley, the

plains that look like Eden, that had that Egyptian feel or touch

to it. Regarding materialism and

commercialism, there are many experts that believe that the

ruins found beneath the waters of the Dead Sea are the

submerged remains of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, as well

as the villages that's located in that southern portion of the

Dead Sea plains. And it is quite the picture

because you look at the shore of the Dead Sea and it's quite

lifeless. All right, I've not been there,

but I've read brackish wasteland, so to speak.

It's the lowest or the most desolate spot on earth.

It's 1300 feet below sea level. You listen to the lapping of the

waves there on the beach. Maybe, I don't know, but it's

just speaking death. Nothing grows there, nothing

lives, nothing moves in that vicinity.

And so Lot is separated from Abraham, of course, due to this

wealth that they both have. And the last time though, that

we see Lot, he's lost his home, his possessions, his wife, and

he can fit all that he has, according to verse 30, in a

cave. And even at that, he's then at

the mercy. He's being manipulated by his

own daughters. So Lot's journey and Pat really

is a very sobering reminder that no matter how rich the land

appeared, if God's not in it, if God's not in it, it's not going

to last. That smoke that rose from Sodom,

it just wasn't judgement on the city, but it was really a

warning for every generation that would ever choose to decide

to pursue something apart from God.

It'll eventually be consumed. It's the fact of the matter.

And so when we look at this and then we start to turn a little

bit, we looked at this just a little bit last week and

concerning Lot's wife and verse 26, how she looked back from

behind a lot. You know, Lot's wife is one of

those those rare characters in Scripture because we don't know

a whole lot about her, but we know enough about her.

As a matter of fact, whenever I went back through and looked

outside of a mentioning of her New Testament Scripture, she

only has three verses that even include her in the story.

The one where she looked back from behind her husband.

All right, And we get the image we looked at that last week from

behind him, maybe trailing behind, left behind.

We don't know. She had that look, that longing,

that gazing, all those things we spoke of last week and we have a

New Testament mentioned of her in Luke 1732 where Jesus said

remember Lot's wife, which outside of Jesus wept, which we

say is the shortest verse. Remember Lot's wife is the

second shortest. This is the only person that's

recorded in Scripture that Jesus ever told anyone to remember.

Not that we take upon our I know there's several that we take

upon ourselves to remember, but it's the only one that came a

mandate from Christ that we should remember.

Hardly anything is shared. I mean, you want to remember

somebody whose life is summed up in about 3 verses in the Old

Testament Scripture. We we know, for instance, in the

Old Testament, in the same story context, we know who Abraham's

wife is. We know her by name.

We know who Nahor, which was Abraham's brother.

We know who his wife is. We know her by name.

But Lot's wife never identified, never even given a name.

All we know, according to Genesis 19, is that Lot, her

husband, was urged by angels to verse 15.

Take thy wife. We know according to verse 16,

then, that the men, the angels themselves, laid hold upon of

his wife, being merciful, and got her outside of the city.

And finally we know his wife looked back from behind him, and

she became a pillar of salt. That's what we know about Lot's

wife. We don't know anything about her

parents. We don't know anything about her

habits. We don't know anything about her

friends per SE, or her background, but were admonished

to remember her for what we do know.

Which I would just boil down to this.

What we do know is that Mercy saved her, but a second look

killed her. Before, before we just take this

at face value, let's just dig in a little bit deeper in the New

Testament where Christ gave us this, this admonition of

remember Lot's wife. And let's read what was going on

because I think it's important to understand what caused Jesus

to say remember Lot's wife. In the book of Luke, where the

setting takes place, Jesus is in a discourse, Amen.

He's speaking to his disciples and those that would hear, and

he's saying such things as as it.

Was in the days of no or Noah and as it was likewise in the

days of Lot, and he's making this comparison, so shall it be

in the days of the Son or the revealing of the Son of man.

Look, if you will, Luke 17 and verse 26.

I'm going to read from scripture.

I got a lot of scripture tonight.

Bless God, Amen. The Bible says and as it was in

this is Jesus, as it was in the days of Noah or no, which is

Noah, so shall it all be also in the days of the Son of man they

did he's describing now the days of Noah.

They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given

in marriage until the day that no or Noah entered into the ark

and the flood came and destroyed them all.

Likewise, Verse 28 also, as it was in the days of lot, they did

eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they

build it. But the same the day that Lot

went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven,

and destroyed them all. Verse 30 Even thus shall it be

in the day when the Son of Man is revealed.

In that day he which shall be up on the housetop and his stuff in

the house, let him not come down to take it away.

And he that is in the field, let him likewise not return back.

And then the phrase, remember Lot's wife Jesus is saying this

in the context of two times in history of Noah's day and Lot's

day when people were just living their lives, eating, drinking,

marrying, building, buying, selling.

They were just doing their life their way without any

consciousness about what was taking place, without any

consciousness that the flood waters were about ready to break

forth from the sky without any consciousness, Amen, That there

was fire and brimstone that was on the brink of being released

from the heavens. They were going about with their

things, their ways. And so Jesus says the way that

they operate then is the way that they'll operate at the

revelation of the Son of Man. They're just going to be going

on with life as usual. They're not going to be given

ear that maybe something is about ready to happen or

something's about ready to change.

And he says, I don't want you to fall prey like they did and fall

into a similar sense of false security with all of your things

and your life and self indulgence of everything that's

going around you. Like the people on Noah's day,

like the people in Lot's day. He says he was trying to remind

them. He said there's going to be a

season, Amen. Just like there was a season for

the flood and a season for the foreign brimstone, there's going

to be a season for the return of the Son of Man.

And you can't be indulging in frivolous things, living just as

living as usual, business as usual.

And you for sure cannot afford in that hour to look back with

the longingly let me help me Holy Ghost, 10 years from the

coming of Christ before it happens.

You might get by with looking back, but in the season of his

coming, you don't have time for looking back.

No, no, no, no. What do you say?

I'm saying 20 years removed from whenever God's going to come.

You might be able to play games, but there is no time available

for playing games when you're living in the hour of the Son of

Man being revealed. What does that mean?

We don't need to be playing games now.

We got to supposed to be teaching.

Supposed to be teaching. Calm down.

Come on. Come on.

Said you got to remember you must escape Hebrews 1037 says

for yet a little while, and he that shall come, will come, will

not tarry now the just shall live by faith.

But if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in

him. But we are not of them who draw

back unto perdition, but of them that believe to the saving of

the soul. What's he saying?

There's an hour when he that shall come will come, and that's

not the hour to look back, draw back, let up, cool down.

Someone say Amen. So with Lot's wife.

It's a short story, but it's an eternal lesson.

Bible tells us in verse 27, it's interesting, someone that hasn't

been in the picture for a while now comes into the picture.

Abraham, we haven't been, we haven't even been talking about

her. You know, the father of the

faithful. He's just kind of been over here

on the back burner, you know, for a while.

Oh, Abraham. But Abraham comes back into the

picture in verse 27, and it's interesting because it contrasts

a lot just a little bit. Lot's wife, that is, in

particular, she's looking back. And in verse 27 we have Abraham

going back, though, to the place where he stood before the Lord.

He's going back to the place that he stood before.

The Lord had interceded before the Lord had conversation about

Sodom. Amen to the Lord.

And so that's where Abraham returns back to.

If I could say it like this, whenever all this came down and

out and the smoke's in the air, Abraham didn't go and take a

trip to Sodom. He went back to where he stood

in the presence of God before. Let me just put in layman's

terms. He went back to his prayer room,

whether he had a guarantee of God being there or not.

He went back to that place where he had stood before the Lord.

And it's from there. The Bible says he saw the smoke

of destruction that was lingering in the air.

But what again, is all times interesting to me.

We got to remember as a reader, brother, as a reader, brother

Trout, we know things that the characters don't know.

Abraham doesn't know if Lot and his family were destroyed or

not. Evidently from what he sees, he

knows there must not have been 10 righteous.

You must know that there not been 10 righteous found.

But here's something else that Abraham doesn't know that God

went beyond Abraham's request because though he did not spare

the planes, he, God, the angelics themselves, pulled Lot

and his family out before it was destroyed.

The Bible tells us this in those few verses of 27 and 28 and 29.

As a matter of fact, verse 28 tells us clearly, I think it's

28. No, Maybe It's 29 tells us that

God remembered Abraham. The amplified classic version

says he earnestly remembered Abraham, imprinted and fixed him

indelibly on his mind. New English translation says God

honored him, but again noting that this means more than just a

mental recollection of Abraham. God brought Lot out because

Abraham had interceded. Abraham didn't know it this

moment, but the time he had spent talking to God before all

of this. Guess what, Abraham, that wasn't

in vain. He didn't know it yet, but that

wasn't in vain. He had, in essence, move the

heart of God. Did not James say it concerning

Elisha or Elijah that the effectual fervent prayer of a

righteous man availeth much? Keep praying the prayers because

here's the fact of the matter, you may not even know this day

what the outcome of a past prayer you've already prayed

where God didn't answer but even went beyond what you asked.

So you know what we need to do? Be Abraham and go back to the

place where we last stood before God.

Say here I am again, God, I don't know if I'll meet you here

today or not, but I'm going to be faithful to this place.

Hey man, Hallelujah. Now look at verse #30 we

tracking. All right, Brother Mason gave me

extra time tonight. He's about 10.

He he felt in his spirit, he's moving in the Holy Ghost.

Look at verse 30. What went up out of Zohar?

Hey, wait a minute. And dwelt in the mountain.

Hey, he negotiated for Zohar. Now he's leaving Zohar, going to

where God told him where to go and to begin with, and his two

daughters with him, for he feared to dwell in Zohar.

That's not necessarily a negative thing, kind of a

positive thing. It was something about when the

fire and stuff all fell that he realized, you know what, Being

close to the place of destruction isn't all that in a

cup of tea. I lost my wife.

I'm not trying to be funny with that.

But maybe that's going through his mind.

Maybe, maybe he's starting to think after being at Zohar.

You know what, This place is a lot like Sodom.

These people have a lot of the same characterization and antics

going on like them. What if God decides to change

his mind somewhere soon? Not for me.

So he he, he leaves Zoar, who no doubt has a same spiritual

condition because they were going to be met with the same

judgement and he goes to the mountain.

That's OK, it's all right. And I think I think it's

important that the Bible says for he feared to dwell in Zoa.

It's proper to have a fear or a reverence or an awareness of the

potential threats of places that we may be or environments that

be be be fearful in, in a respectful, reverent way of the

environments that we find ourselves in that could have

impact upon us as a person. We need to have that type of

healthy fear about the Zohars. The little ones Remember Me

talking about just a little. The little ones in our life too

close, too much like Sodom. Don't want to subject myself to

that. Don't want to subject my family

to that. I'm going to go further.

I'm going to go to the mountain where God told me to go when he

first wanted me to go. And he does, which is, I mean,

if I was God, I would probably smirk at this moment.

I mean, think over your own life.

Have you ever found you yourself in your own life, found yourself

right where God wanted you from the beginning, but you had to

take the wrong the long way, maybe the wrong way around to

get there and the trip. You had to learn some things

along the way and we think the back of mine how much heartache

we could have been spared if we just obeyed the first time when

he said mountain and we were trying to negotiate Zohar.

So a healthy fear drove lot to the mountains, but it was an

unhealthy fear then that resorted had him resort to

living in a cave in verse 30 because from the point of go of

conversation with God, God had called him to the mountain, not

to living in a cave. Old Testament scripture is

littered with God calling men and families to mountains,

spectacular things happening on mountains, good positive

connotations with the idea of meeting God on a mountain.

But whenever you read in scripture concerning caves,

that's different. There's typically negative

connotations that go along with the dwelling in caves.

Caves were all times the places that people would resort to and

hide in during times of national crisis or fear or some type of

military defeat. The Bible tells us in Judges 6.

These words because of the Midianites, the children of

Israel made them the dens which are in the mountains and caves

and the strongholds. In other words, Israel didn't

seek God's protection, but they would hide from their enemies

due to their disobedience, oppression, finding themselves

in niches and in caves. The Bible says in First Samuel,

throw that up brother Alex. First Samuel 13 and verse #6

When the men of Israel saw that they were in a straight for the

people were distressed. Then the people did hide

themselves in caves and in thickets and in rocks and in

high places and in pits. Fear had drove them to

isolation, much like it drove Elijah in his ministry of being

a prophet whenever he had that deep depression.

And that fear there overcome him.

After a conversation with Jezebel, If you look at his

story, he fled by degrees. First he went to the wilderness,

then he went to the mount of God, Horeb.

But he didn't stop there. He resorted then finally and

ultimately to a cave, the Bible says in first Kings 1919.

And he came thither unto The Cave, Speaking of Elijah, and

lodge there. And behold, the word of the Lord

came to him, and he said to him, What doest thou here, Elijah?

God asked him, what, what? What are you doing here in The

Cave? And yet there's another side of

that that's encouraging to me, that the word of the Lord found

him there because there's nowhere you can go to absolutely

escape God. As a matter of fact, in

Scripture, caves were often used as tombs.

They were associated with endings, not beginnings.

They were places for refugees. Some people's caves.

You can read of it in Scripture that there were 5 kings that

went to a cave as refuge and that cave ended up becoming

their grave. It was their tomb.

And Joshua 10 says, cast them into The Cave wherein they had

be hid, had been hid, and that was now their grave.

In the Revelation, caves were the instinctive places that the

Bible says that people fled from the presence of God during a

time of judgement. And it was there in a cave that

they would go. It's where the unrepentant tried

to escape the unavoidable. So for our dear lot, his cave

now place home dwelling. It's really matching the

brokenness of the man. Fear brought him to the

mountain. Unhealthy fear caused him to go

into a cave to isolate. And it was in that arena that

shameful things in a tragic episode unfolded with his two

daughters. In the end, that cave was more

than a hiding place. It really became Lot's finish

line. What do you mean, Brother McGee?

Because it's after this matter in The Cave.

You don't read anything else about Lot.

You don't read about his death. You don't read about any

success. You don't read anything else in

his. It is silent about Lot.

There's nothing beyond the dark episode that happened in The

Cave. He fades from the narrative of

scripture, isolation, fear, moral failure.

So what started with angels ends with a man and a deranged

scenario within his own family in a cave for the Masons.

Sometimes there is a short trip from the angelic to cave, like

episodes of our lives predicated upon choices and decisions.

Jesus 19 verse 31. Let's do this, the Bible says in

verse 31. So they're in The Cave.

He and his two daughters. Verse 31 and the first born said

unto the younger. Almost feel like one of those

podcasts that parents there could be some explicit material

if you need to cover the ears of your children.

OK, our father is old and there is not a man in the earth to

come in unto us after the manner of all the earth.

Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with

him, that we may preserve the seat of our father.

And they made their father drink wine.

That night the first born went in and laid with her father.

And he perceived not when she laid down, nor when she arose.

And it came to pass on the Morrow that the first born said,

And to the younger, Behold, I lay yesterday night with my

father, let us make him drink wine this night also, and go

thou in and lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our

father. And they made their father drink

wine that night also. And the younger rose and lay

with him. And he perceived not when she

lay down or when she arose. Thus were both the daughters of

lot with child by their father, and the first born bearer son,

and called his name Moab, and the same as the father of the

Moabites into this day. And the younger she also bear a

son and called his name Ben Emmy.

The same is the father of the children of Ammon unto this day.

I simply had this little last portion of scripture.

This when Sodom falls you into The Cave.

This whole scenario, I'll get myself in big trouble here.

Like not being politically correct for a normal person is

going to seem a little odd. Not so much that Lot's daughters

wanted to preserve the seed of their family, but how they went

about doing it. I mean, as a natural person, I'm

screaming in my head, what are you thinking?

That influences of Sodom, surely they are living out and living

according to the moral standards they grew up with.

They were planning to marry men from Sodom.

So number one, you can't have very high scruples when that's

your marriageable material for life.

Plus, let's think back, I don't want to get too heavy, but I

don't think of course, Dad's not fault at without fault in all

this. Because if you'll remember when

the when the men of Sodom circled around his house and he

had the angelic beans inside his house, you remember his solution

to the whole dilemma of that time.

He says, well, I have two daughters that are virgins.

Well, why don't I just send them out to you and do with them as

you will? What type of standard of worth

do you have? After your father's been willing

to give you up to the pleasure of whosoever will, then what

keeps them? Just the pleasure of their

father off limits? But Lot lost his wife, and so

his daughters now have lost their potential husbands, the

ones they were betrothed to. You don't have a wife.

We don't have no husbands. What's a girl to do?

And I'll tell you this, here's something else we need to look

at concerning this whole scenario.

Sister Grace, I don't know if the 2 girls would attempted this

if mom was still alive, but let's remember why Mom's not

there. And for that matter, and I I

preached the host sermon and you go back and listen to it someday

between now and when I started preaching, I preached A sermon

called intoxication all on this passage right here.

Another aspect is this. They said we we're going to get

dad drunk. He may not as as low as the

standard that he kept. He may have not even have done

this had he not been intoxicated first.

With that being said, let's pause for a moment. 2019

chapters into Genesis and we have two major stories of

drunkenness, one being Noah and the other one being Lot, and

they both spelled disaster. Noah's drunk in his tent off a

vineyard that he planted after he came off the ark.

His son Ham comes in, sees it, does it covered up.

There's even a lot of speculation of what happened.

I don't have the answer. Scripture doesn't say, but I

know that his son Canaan then was cursed as a result of it.

Lords drunk, his two daughters come in, they lay with their

father, gives birth to two nations.

We'll look at here just a little later.

That caused all kinds of havoc and disaster for Israel and

both. Both of these scenarios stem

from two men who didn't keep sober.

I've said before, I say that the danger of intoxication or not

keeping sober is that you will do things that you wouldn't

normally do when you are sober. When you're intoxicated, the

Bible says a lot. Didn't know when they laid down

or when they got up. He didn't perceive it.

He didn't perceive verse 33 and 35 when they lay down or when

they can. I echo the application for us.

Reese is then what first Peter tells us verse five and eight

that strong verse a lot of people remember it says and it

leads with this. Be sober.

Someone say be sober, don't be intoxicated, be sober, be

diligent, vigilant because your adversary the devil as a roaring

lion walk of about seeking whom he may devour.

Notice though the primary thing first is soberness because the

word vigilant yes means to be alert and it is not possible for

you to be completely alert and intoxicated.

And so this affair, this whole affair that takes place here in

The Cave, it also proves to me that Sodom is more than a place.

And we've already talked about this in recent weeks.

It's a mindset. The place was destroyed, but the

Sodom mentality remained. And it showed its head.

It it, it showed its hand in The Cave.

Bible teaches us the Bible teaches us in like Titus chapter

Titus 2 · chapter mention

2 and and we're tracking pretty good.

Thank God. I was kind of worried about this

really what so was in Titus chapter 2 and verse 11.

Titus 2 · chapter mention

The Bible says this, everybody say for but for the grace, for

the grace of God that bring us salvation hath appeared to all

men teaching us which is that's excellent.

Grace teaches us some things teaching us that denying

ungodliness and worldly lust, or if you will, worldliness, we

should live. What's the first word you see

there soberly? That we should live soberly,

righteously, and godly in this present world.

I know we could speak in literal terms, but I'm speaking in

spiritual terms today. For us, sobriety is your weapon.

Caution what you allow yourself to be intoxicated to or with

outside of His Spirit, His presence, His precepts, His and

if you will live soberly, the righteously godly follows it

will be. I don't know if I'd say it's

not. It's not possible to live

righteously and not be sober. It's not.

It's not possible to be godly and not be sober.

There's reason why Titus is telling us here.

You got to live merely mostly soberly.

Now here's the legacy of The Cave.

I'm getting there. We're getting there.

Chapter 19 folks, clothes I know tears go down faces the first

born daughter son, the Bible says was Moab.

That name literally means of father or from father tells the

story, don't it? The youngest daughter's son, bin

AMI or Ammon, son of my people. The CEV says it like this, son

of my relative. These two nations, Moabites,

Ammonites became thorns in the side of Israel.

Let me just go through this quickly in Numbers 25.

The Moabites are the ones that tried to spiritually and

sexually seduce Israel and Numbers 25 Moab's king Balak is

the one that hired the prophet Balaam to curse Israel.

It's during the time of the Judges and the Kings that we

read that Moab was a steady opposition against Israel

concerning the Ammonites. The Ammonites and Judges 11

disputed land claims with Israel that rightly belonged to them.

They were disputing it. They oppressed Israel during the

time of the Judges. Also, they worship the God of

Molech. That involved sacrificing their

children, which happened to be a practice that eventually

infected Israel. And during David's reign, they

hired Syrian mercenaries against King David.

This both stems from Moab and Avon, born from a very

desperate, tragic event in a cave.

But their legacy is a cross didn't just stay contained to a

cave. It went across generations.

Adultery, hostility, all these things.

It was done in the secret moment, Mom, but it left public

conflict for years. What are you saying, Pastor?

I'm saying this sometimes all the time.

In one way or another, our present day actions, especially

negative ones, can foster future trouble.

Staying with me tonight. I know we need clothes.

You guys got places to go? Oh Jesus, folks, there's a lot

in chapter 19. Four lessons on it.

There's a lot right there. There's a lot to consider.

There's a lot to apply. There's a lot to do different.

Don't be like lot, remember lot's why.

I mean, there's all these things that we could come up with, but

in essence, the legacies we leave is by the choices we make.

So my urging to us is then then let's live soberly.

Let's live faithfully. Let's hope fast to God's word

because it's going to be kept. He's bound by it.

And help me, Lord, to escape the Sodom mindset.

Help me to go to the mountain, but not to kind of step over

into some type of unhealthy fear that will drive me into a cave

of my undoing. I want to escape the mindset,

Amen of Sodom. Can we raise our hands one last

time tonight as we talk to the Lord in this place?

Father, I'm asking tonight, Lord, you able to help us.

God, we walk, Lord Jesus here below, But God, we walk not

alone or by ourselves. God, give us the fortitude.

Give us, O Lord Jesus, God, the wherewithal, God to stand in

this day. God, there's so many things,

God, that could influence God, there's turmoil.

God, there's different things. God, help us to know the

difference between a healthy reverence, Lord, and fear and an

unhealthy one. Help us, God, to know your Word

and stand upon Your word and the promises of Your Word that it's

applicable to us. I pray, O God, help us, Jesus

God, every day, God, to live, Lord, not intoxicated with the

things of this world, not intoxicated with, Lord, our

environment and our surroundings, but Lord, as this

but the apostle Paul said in the Ephesians, help us to be filled

or controlled by the Spirit. Let us be intoxicated in that

way. I pray, O Lord Jesus God, that

you're able to help us, Lord, in this life, God, and we give you

the honor and the glory and the praise for everything in the

name of Jesus Christ that I pray Hallelujah in the church, say

Amen, Amen. God bless you all in Jesus name.

Come back Sunday, Amen, for services Wednesday the following

week, Power hour on Thursday of next week, Amen.

God bless you Have a great, great, great, great, great.