Sermon Tone Analysis
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There is a phrase that has been thrown around a bunch since the pandemic— “our new normal.”
Some might say there is no such thing as normal, but there are certain things that our culture just assumes.
Occasionally, an event happens that radically redefines normal for us.
In my lifetime, I can think of a couple.
The first was 9/11.
Things changed.
People became more suspicious of outsiders, security became a part of our everyday lives, friends from high school were going off to war.
Most recently, it’s been the pandemic.
Words like “supply chain issues” and isolation have become a common part of our everyday lives.
Here’s what I want to challenge you to think about this morning as we look at God’s Word: Be careful what you consider normal.
Turn with me to Genesis 18-19.
That’s a lot of ground to cover, and I am going to warn you in advance that today’s passage is a heavy one.
We have spent the last few Sundays looking at a faithful God and flawed people.
This morning, we are going to continue that study, and it will bring us face to face with the darkness that we are capable of.
Portions of this passage are beautiful and demonstrate the faithfulness of God in fantastic ways.
Others, however, show just how sinful we can be.
We are continuing the accounts of the lives of Abraham and Sarah, and we are picking back up with some folks we have been introduced before.
We are going to spend a lot of time talking about Lot this morning, and we are going to see what he was dealing with in the city of Sodom.
As we will see, both Abraham and Lot received special visitors.
However, they responded in different ways to the messengers and their messages.
From their lives this morning, I want to give us to consider this warning:
Be careful what you consider normal.
We aren’t going to have a lot of outline points for you on the screen this morning.
Instead, I want us to walk through this passage a piece at a time and draw lessons out along the way.
First, let’s see how these events begin.
Start in 18:1-5...
Abraham is sitting outside his tent one afternoon when he looks up and sees three visitors.
Scripture doesn’t tell us explicitly, but pulling together what we see in these chapters, it seems that two of these men are angels and one is God himself, similar to how he showed up to comfort Hagar.
We don’t know when he fully understood who these men were, but he is alert and responsive that he has some special guests who are traveling through.
He pulls out the stops and prepares a meal for them, and then it gets interesting.
Pick up in verse 9-15...
I love this part of the story.
You again see the humanity of these people.
Sarah has been in the tent, helping prepare the meal and all, but she is within earshot of the conversation.
God promises that, in about a year, she will have a son.
Abraham laughed in Genesis 17 when God told him a similar thing, and now Sarah laughs to herself.
It may be that it wasn’t even audible, but the Lord who knows our every thought, hears her.
He gives her an incredible reassurance in verse 14— “Is anything impossible for the Lord?”
Despite her doubt and her denial, God was able to do all of this.
Isn’t it beautiful to see how God was connecting some of his greatest promises?
Here, God is telling Sarah that she will have a son, Isaac, even though it is impossible.
Almost 2000 years later, an angel would remind another mom-to-be of the same thing about a promised child.
Mary, who had never been with a man, is told she would become pregnant.
In her conversation with the angel, he reminds her:
This doesn’t mean that you will always achieve every dream you want or that you will always be happy with how life works out.
However, as we see in both these instances, the Bible assures us that God is completely able to accomplish everything he has promised he will do.
Again, God has reiterated his promise.
Abraham welcomed the visitors, and God has again shown himself faithful in spite of Sarah’s doubts here.
Now, the scene begins to shift.
As the men prepare to leave, they shift their attention to the city of Sodom that is off in the distance a ways.
If you’ve been with us, you may remember that Abraham had a nephew, Lot, who had moved to Canaan with him.
When their herds became too big to keep together, Lot chose to head towards the fertile land and larger cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.
When that happened, the Bible already hinted at bad things that were coming:
We are going to see that in our account this morning.
After a discussion about whether or not to tell Abraham what his plan was, God reveals what is about to happen next.
Look at Gen 18:20-21.
We believe that God is omniscient, which means he knows everything that can be known.
There is nothing he does not know or understand.
Yet, in extraordinary times, God comes to earth to show his complete understanding of what is taking place.
He did this at the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11, and he is doing it again here.
He has heard about the wickedness of the city, and he is coming to see for himself.
The two men with the Lord, who chapter 19 identifies as angels, head towards Sodom while the Lord stays with Abraham.
Abraham begins to plead with God, calling on God’s justice to spare the righteous people who live in Sodom and not destroy them with the wicked.
He starts by asking God to spare the city on behalf of fifty righteous, then forty, then thirty, twenty, and finally ten.
The Lord agrees not to destroy the city if there are even ten righteous people living in it.
Before we pick up with what happens in Sodom, let’s stop and think for a minute about what we are seeing here.
Abraham has been growing in his faith for decades now, and we are seeing the fruit of that.
He is aware of the fact that this is God he is speaking with.
He is sensitive to what God is doing.
He knows God is just and can pray boldly based off what he knows of God’s character and nature.
He knows that the city is wicked, but he is interceding and praying for it to be spared on account of the righteous who might live there.
Of course, he knows Lot is there, so he has a personal interest in what is going on there.
He cares for his relative, but he also understands that God is a just and righteous God who can’t let sin go unpunished.
Compare Abraham’s reaction with what we find of Lot.
Pick up in 19:1-3...
This starts off very similarly to the encounter with Abraham.
Lot is sitting outside the gates like Abraham was his tent.
He sees the angels and calls them to come stay with him instead of just staying out in public.
However, from there, it changes dramatically.
Pick up in verses 4-11...
This scene is terrifying and horrific.
An angry mob of all the men in the city show up at Lot’s door.
They ask him to send the visitors out so they can rape them.
Did you see Lot’s suggestion?
“Don’t harm my guests—have my daughters instead.”
The wickedness of this moment should shock us.
The people of Sodom had taken the beautiful gift of sexual intimacy, which God designed for a man and a woman to enjoy within the confines of the covenant of marriage, and they had twisted it.
They were living out what Paul would later describe as happening throughout humanity:
They were not only pursuing same-sex relations, they were doing so by force.
And what about Lot? How could any father possibly suggest such a horrific alternative?
Why would he offer his daughters into the hands of this mob?
The rumors were true—this town was horrifically depraved.
The angels strike the men with blindness and told Lot what was going on.
They were there to destroy the city.
Lot went to his daughters’ fiances and told them what was going to happen, but they refused to come with him.
Pick up in verse 15-16...
After the events of the night before, wouldn’t you think you would get out of town as soon as you can?
You have come face to face with a wicked, angry mob.
You hosted angels who were able to strike people blind.
They have said they are going to destroy the city.
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