Are You Living in the Inflow or Are You Living in the Overflow?

I. Lingering with the Lord — (18:16-23)

Vs. 19 — “For I know him” — means "I have chosen him, and he is My intimate friend".

I know who Abraham is on the inside. I know his character. I know his thoughts. I know his heart. I know his desire to serve me. I know his desire to know more about me. I know what kind of man this is standing before me and I consider him an intimate friend!

Therefore, I know he will lead his family in my ways. I know he will teach them my statutes. I know he will always strive to live a righteous life and I know that he will always be just in his dealings.

And because I know him and have chosen him, I am going to share with him what I am about to do these wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah!

What does the Lord know about you this morning? Is He an intimate friend of yours? Or does He even know you?

Let me say this one thing before we move on…If He doesn’t know you, it’s only because you haven’t taken the time to get to know Him, Amen!

Vs. 20 — “Cry” — What did the Lord mean here by the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah? What He meant was the sin that was taking place within these cities gates was so great that the cry of those being oppressed and victimized was reaching heaven!

These cities were soaked in sin and the cries thereof were so great that it stood out, of all the other areas in all the world, the cries of the sins being committed in Sodom and Gomorrah were reaching up to heaven!

I’m here to tell you this morning, if this country we’re living in today doesn’t do some changing and pretty quickly might I add, it will be our cries reaching above all others, to the heavens.

But the Lord says I’m going to check it out and see if these cries are warranted.

And then look what happens next.

Vs. 22 — “but Abraham stood yet before the Lord” — While the two other men with the Lord made their way toward Sodom, the Bible tells us that Abraham “lingered before the Lord”

Where are you mostly found lingering this morning?

I hope these words will be said of me when I am dead and gone....Bobby Lee Hale....he lingered before the Lord!

Let me tell you something this morning friend, there are many places a body can be found lingering in this world, some are found lingering in strip clubs, some are found lingering in bars, some are found lingering in front of their TV’s, some are found lingering at work, some are found lingering at the lake but praise be to God, if you want a relationship like ole Abraham had, you’d better be found lingering before the Lord, Amen!

There’s no better place in this ole world a person can be found lingering than lingering before the Lord!

And there was a good reason he was lingering. Look what the Bible says next here.

Vs. 23 — “And Abraham drew near” — Warren Wiersbe says the Hebrew word used here means "to come to court to argue a case” which would make perfect sense.

Abraham’s nephew Lot resided in Sodom and he knew that and no doubt Abraham knew what the Lord would see and that He would not be happy with it and undoubtedly would pass judgement upon the place.

Therefore, Abraham drew near to the Lord to plead for his nephew and his family.

He interceded on behalf of Lot! Who are you interceding on behalf of this morning?

Warren Wiersbe — We are never more like our Lord than when we are interceding for others.

The Lord Jesus Christ right now at this very moment is setting at the right hand of the Father interceding on behalf of those who belong to Him.

But for those who don’t know Him, those who have never put their trust in Him, the only people interceding on their behalf is us!

And that was exactly what Abraham was doing here for his nephew Lot! Interceding that the Lord would be merciful and spare him!

And as we will see here in just a second the Lord did spare Lot, not for Lot’s sake but for Abraham’s sake!

So, we see how Abraham lingered before the Lord. Next, let’s look at how Lot did right the opposite.

II. Lingering in Sin — (19:1-29)

Vs. 1-3 — “Lot sat in the gate of Sodom” — This phrase means that Lot had risen to some sort of authority. Some say it could have been a political position others that he may have even been a judge but either way he had settled himself and his family in this sinful land of Sodom and become of some high ranking position.

One thing to note about Lot’s position here before moving on is where he came from and where he is now. If you will remember, last week we talked about how when he and Abraham split, that Lot took his family and his goods and moved to the plain of Jordan and the Bible records that Lot pitched his tent toward Sodom.

And then in Chapter 14:12 it tells us that Lot was dwelling in Sodom when he was kidnapped.

The allure of the flesh and the lust of the eyes had led Lot directly into the belly of the beast, one of the most of wicked places in all the world and when you allow the lust of the flesh, the lust of eyes and the pride of life do the leading friend, instead of God, it’s sure to never end well for you!

1 John 2:15–17 — 15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. 17 And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.

The sad part of all this though from the way I read it is that Lot knew how wicked the city was but was so entrenched in his new lifestyle that he turned a blind eye to it!

And that is evidenced in the way that he implores his guests to stay in his house instead of in the streets.

The Bible says he “pressed upon them greatly” to stay in his house!

He’d been around long enough to know what would happen if they stayed in the streets all night!

Isn’t this a testament to how sin desensitizes us?

When your are around it all day, every day, day in and day out, you begin to get accustomed to it and even though you know it’s not right, we get to the point that we just simply overlook it!

Can I tell you that’s what’s happened to this country!

We have allowed sin to go on for so long that we are desensitized to it!

People used to hide homosexuality but now it’s flaunted all over the place.

Abortion was never spoken of and now it’s an annual topic in the House & Senate as to how much funding their going to get!

Men and Women used to have a decency about them and nowadays they strive to see how indecent they can be!

This country has been on a downward spiral for so long that we, like Lot, have gotten accustomed to sin all around us and the majority of people just simply turn a blind eye to it!

Unless we want the same fate that befell Sodom and Gomorrah to befall us, the children of God need to stand up and call sin for what it is!

I don’t care if you like it or not, if the Bible calls it a sin it’s a sin!

But preacher that’s harsh! Take it up with God! I didn’t make the rules He did! I’m just trying to do the best job that I can of abiding by them!

The problem is for far too long we’ve worried more about hurting someone’s feelings than hurting God’s feelings and we need to stop and start doing the opposite!

If not, there is going to be a dark gloom of doom fall upon this country like it’s never seen before and when it happens the only people to blame shall be ourselves!

So, we see how Lot’s illustrious desires led him into a den of sin but that’s only the half of it! Look what happens next!

Vs. 4-11

Vs.12-23

Vs.24-29

III. Living in the Inflow vs. Living in the Overflow