The Pervasiveness of Sin Shows No Mercy - Genesis 19:1-38

Genesis 19 The pervasiveness of sin shows no mercy INTRO A word I purpose not to use often is the word hate. An appropriate word when rightly applied. (Psalm 119: verse 104). For instance….“Through your precepts I get understanding; therefore I….hate every false way.” Appropriate use of the word “hate”. Another one would be. “I hate poison oak!” I do and am unashamed to admit it. It represents strongly the curse God placed on His creation due to our sin. I hate it. IT is so pervasive in it’s assault on you. It shows no mercy. There could be one of the most beautiful, pristine trail system for biking or running and if it is overrun with poison oak,..I’m not going… I’ll pass, thank you. It’s not worth it to me. It don’t even have to touch the cursed plant….there could just be enough in the proximity,…that the oils are in the air or something because, inevitably, marks of the vile weed will pop up on my skin to torment me for the next couple weeks,…..though I know I didn’t touch any of it. Not to mention how sly the cursed plant is to bring affliction through oils adhering to your pet, your shoes, tools or anything of that sort where randomly the rash pops up on your skin during a time you know you haven’t yourself been around it. And God forbid there to be some burning in a fire pile and the smoke from it to drift your direction enabling the affliction to enter your lungs or get into your eyes. Certain misery awaits. “I hate poison oak!” It is just the worst. It is pervasive and shows no mercy. How similar that is to sin…amen? In much the same way,…sin is pervasive… meaning,…it can easily get in and once in…actively spread through the whole extent of a person. THIS is why Jesus described sin as leaven. (Luke 12:1, Gal 5:9) Once the leaven is in it grows and contaminates the whole lump. And speaking of your life…sin is the leaven…you are the lump. And sin…much like poison oak is pervasive…it easily gets in and spreads and it shows-no-mercy. The account of LOT’S life confronts us with the deadly reality of this and therefore it’s the main take home from our passage this morning. The pervasiveness of sin shows no mercy There are TWO aspects of this pervasiveness of sin that shows no mercy in which we will confront in LOT’S life in chapter 19 of Genesis this morning….to serve as a warning for us. The first, is Immersion. The last thing I would ever consciously do with poison oak is to immerse myself in it. “I dare you to make a snow angel in that bed of poison oak”. Is not a dare I would take…I don’t care what the stakes are. And for the well being of our souls, christian…you and I, WE should make every effort not to immerse ourselves in sin which is pervasive and shows no mercy. Sadly however, LOT did. And for our first point on the pervasiveness of sin that shows no mercy, as a dreadful warning, we see the deadly effects of one who immersed himself in sin in the opening (22 verses of this chapter) BODY 1) FIRST POINT - (Genesis 19:1-22). Danger of Immersion Danger of Immersion,….Remember Lot’s progression of compromise? FIRST we see in (Genesis 13:10) when he and his uncle Abram were separating due to the land not being able to support the both of them….Abram says to LOT… “You choose first.” “And Lot lifted up his eyes and saw that the Jordan Valley was well watered everywhere like the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt, in the direction of Zoar. (This was before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.)”. Which is important to get pictured in your mind. In the direction of ZOAR…a place we’ll hear of later in the sermon and that the valley was “like the garden of the Lord”. “Well watered everywhere.”…Beautiful, green and lush…FULL OF LIFE…prior to when the Lord destroyed it. Lot chooses this place “In the direction of Zoar” and…. (Genesis 13:12) when “Abram settled in the land of Canaan, ….Lot settled among the cities of the valley and moved his tent as far as Sodom.” (drawn in near Sodom now) ….Okay, what next after some time has passed? (Genesis chapter 14) which gives the account of Abram’s rescue of Lot who was taken captive along with Sodom and Gomorra and the surrounding cities….where do we find LOT then? (verse 12 of chpt 14). “….Lot, the son of Abram’s brother, was dwelling in Sodom, with possessions,……” Further progression…in a negative sense. LOT gives up the tent on the edge of Sodom and is now one of it’s residents dwelling in the city, with a dwelling…a ‘house’ as is plainly stated in the opening few verses of chapter 19 before us,….and what do we do when we are settled in a place? ….we acquire possessions. “Nothing new under the sun.” (Ecc 1:9) We do it now,…they did it back then. All this to emphasize… That LOT shows no indications of wanting to leave Sodom. In fact, where do we find him in chapter 19? ….(verse 1). “….sitting in the gate of Sodom.” Further progression of compromise.…for this is where the elders of the city sat. Like seniors getting the coveted seats in the back of the bus…so the elders of the city would sit at the gate of the city. What does this tells us? LOT is accepted in the city as one of it’s elders. Greeter of new comers. “Hey!, … Welcome!,…Come on in. Let me show you around.” Can’t help get the sense that he was content where he was at. Which is striking for (2 Peter 2:6-9) depicts LOT “…, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he (Lot) he (himself) was tormenting his (his own) his (own) righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard);,…” I believe Scripture, that that was indeed the case…but boy how he seems desensitized to it. Could not he have left if Sodom? Scripture gives no indication that he was being held there against his own will. NO, He could have left. He didn’t want to. He remained Immersed in the sinfulness surrounding him day and night. The pervasiveness of sin shows no mercy in large part by….. blinding your eyes and making you desensitized to it…to your own — RUIN. What’s the ruin you say? Let’s begin first on a HIGH note. Some Kudos to throw LOT’S way here in the opening verses before we go there. The BIBLE is clear, by the grace of God, LOT is identified as a righteous man. (2 Peter 2:6-9) The same righteousness based on faith (Romans 10:6) that his uncle Abraham has. TRUE righteousness comes by no other means. And Righteous LOT demonstrates some acts of righteousness. (Verse 1). LOT is sitting in the evening time at the gate of the city and these two men come approaching which we know from the prior chapter to be the angels the Lord sent to destroy the city. NO indication is given that LOT knew what these men were about to do, if anything it makes clear that he didn’t. And notice. LOT recognizes something about them that sets them apart. For (verses 1-2) “…When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them and bowed himself with his face to the earth and said, “My lords, please turn aside to your servant’s house (there’s that piece…Lot has a house in the city completing his Immersion into sinful surroundings) 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.” NOTE: “go on your way” NOT after you destroy this place but…after breakfast. He had no idea what was about to go down. And we’ll stop there at the moment for I find LOT’S greeting of them intriguing. LOT recognized something about these men that set them apart. And we see him go out of his way insisting to show them great,…hospitality. The two men (we know to be angels) were not compliant to his offer at first but he persists to show them honor and great hospitality and wins them over. Not bad Lot….this is his shining moment and legitimately so. LOT shows christian character in his greeting of them, the persistent invitation to show them hospitality…and also protection for that matter from the men of the city, we’ll get there momentarily…. and then also his eagerness in doing so. He is all GUNG HO about it. Like… Thumbs up Lot. And for Bonus. LOT recognized something about these men that set-them-apart. And that is good instruction for us christian. For there ought to be recognized in us something that sets us apart. Virtuous qualities that set the follower of Christ apart from those who don’t love and obey Jesus. - And can those virtuous qualities be none other than the Fruits of the Spirit,…and all they encompass in your life day in and day out? (Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self Control.” (Galatians 5:20). It’s not clothing, personality or anything of that nature but it is the fruit of the Spirit….the Spirit of the life of Christ being manifested in you. Seek the Lord that these would be increasingly present in your life. That’s LOT’S shining moment. We’ll give him that. Moment of silence for it though,….because it goes no further. HE is hosting these two men in his home and after dinner, before they lay down for the night, the deadly reality of where he (LOT) has immersed himself….is just waking up you could say. LIKE the enemies of David spoken of in (Psalm 59) Wicked men who “Each evening they come back, howling like dogs and prowling about the city. They wander about for food and growl if they do not get their fill.” In this case, there fill is to have sexual relations with the two men Lot took into his home. They come in the evening like howling dogs to where these men are at,…insisting to feast on them with their sensual desire. And consider with me the wickedness of the city. It was staunch thick and unified. Just look at (verse 4). “the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man, surrounded the house.” ALL the men, young and old to the very last one of them. Wickedness permeated every generation within this city to every man. LOT saw virtuous men to show honor to, the eyes of the wicked saw unblemished prey to have their fill of. Notice in (verse 5) the quickness of their evil assault and the directness of their speech….just flat out unashamed intentions towards these innocent men, their unwavering bent on fulfilling the perversive act toward another. And all these men, young and old, unified….Surround LOT’S house ….Surround it…I’m mean…Can you picture that? What a scene. It sounds, unthinkable, right? Every man in the city gathered and surrounding Lot’s house to have sexual relations with the two men…the two angels sent by God to destroy the place. The picture of this scene seems unthinkable. Has anything unthinkable happened this past year or these past two or 5 years. I can think of a few. The depravity of man has no limit and there is “Nothing new under the sun.” (Ecc 1:9) Given enough time, without God’s intervention…this is the destination sinful man will reach every time. LOT has a flickering moment here now….flickering moment with hints of nobility in going out to defend the two men….but Oy vey …..The pervasiveness of sin shows no mercy to LOT’S ruin,….for he refers to them as brothers. And as he would as an elder of the city…right? (Verse 7). “I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly.” (I can see God up in heaven doing one of these numbers - xxxx). “Lot,….brothers?…really?” Now JESUS was called the friend of sinners and no doubt he spent time with and dined with sinners….but he never referred to them as brothers. In fact, even when his siblings and mother were calling for him HE made this distinction in (Matthew 12:48-50). “……Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Now listen…For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.” So there is a biiig difference to spending time with, having relationships with / friendships with those who don’t know Christ as Lord and Savior than to consider them in the same unique-relationship-category you would one whom worships the same Lord as you do. Who reads and gladly submits to the same Word of God as you do, who share the same hope in God through Jesus Christ as you do. And what is important to note and not to be missed is how JESUS lived the same and taught the same regardless of whom he was with. JESUS was constant in who He was and we likewise should demonstrate constancy in our lives. PEOPLE whom you interact with outside the church, and inside the church for that matter,….ought to reach the same conclusion over not-so-longa time that you are a follower of JESUS. LIGHT cannot be hid, the SALTINESS of salt has effect. (During my family’s 3 month stay at the Sponhouer's home while we were in the process of purchasing a home of our own. I recall distinctly that moment my dad, who was visiting at the time, lifting his coffee cup to his mouth for that first….Oh so yummy sip of Joe right after he added his teaspoon of sugar from the sugar dish. Though it wasn’t sugar. If I wasn’t standing so close to him at the time my dad would likely not held it in,….but rather spewed it out all over me. The reaction on his face was so comically sharp and clear. I new in a moment….that his coffee was severely tainted. The salt had a definitive effect.) LIGHT cannot be hid, the SALTINESS of salt has effect.…We, as christians, are to be salt and light…and to be so with,…constancy. People whom you interact with outside and inside the CHURCH ought to reach the same conclusion over not-so-long-a time that you are a follower of JESUS. THAT IS, if there is light and salt in your life. LOT’S relation with the men of the city did not indicate he was being salt and light among them “day after day, as he (LOT) tormented his (OWN) righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); And the moment he does act in opposition to thwart their evil intent, he does so in a manner that reflects his ruined character that has NO salt or light. And how could it? JESUS says in (Luke 11:34-36) “Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness. Therefore be careful lest the light in you be darkness. If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly bright, as when a lamp with its rays gives you light.” And not only were LOT’S eyes (the lamp of his body) seeing their lawless deeds day after day but his ears were taking it in as well. Severely detrimental to his spiritual health. It ruined his character. He had NO light or salt in his life. AND it’s no different with us FRIEND. Access to your mind and heart is through your eyes and ears. Guard that Saints!… Guard it with your life and for your life. (Psalm 101:2-4) “I will ponder the way that is blameless. Oh when will you come to me? I will walk with integrity of heart within my house; I will not set be-fore - my - eyes anything,…that is worthless. I hate the work of those who fall away; it shall not cling to me. A perverse heart shall be far from me; I will know nothing of evil.” Memorize that Saints. Guard your heart and your mind for your good. Be mindful of what you willfully expose-your-self-to. With all you are able, remove yourself from such exposure. Being Immersed in the physical place and culture of Sodom, LOT only took in that which tormented his righteous soul to his own ruin. Self inflicted ruin. Instead of being salt and light, his actions reveal the deadly reality of just how engulfed he is in the wickedness he has placed himself in….and therefore how pervasive sin is. Revealing more of his ruined character,….LOT’S solution to the situation is nothing short of atrocious…and worse yet he speaks so cavalier about his disturbing attempt to deter the men. (Verse 8). “I have two daughters who have not known any man. Let me bring them out to you, and do to them as you please. Only do nothing to these men, for they have come under the shelter of my roof.” Aren’t his daughter’s also under the protection of his roof? It’s SICK to think he would suggest such a thing,….but without flinching, he does. And does so with a similar callousness of speech the men of the city have when speaking of horrible things. He sounds just like them. And I state again…. This is all self inflicted. Nowhere does scripture say LOT was called by God to live in Sodom. NOWHERE. He had plenty of options. He could of just stayed in the valley and not moved closer and closer and eventually into the midst of,…Sodom. But compromise after compromise leads to this outcome. Birds of the same feather…flock together. Lot entrenched himself in the midst of wicked men whom Lot referenced as brothers…meaning, LOT spent time with them on a regular basis…and therefore they…the men of Sodom…had influence upon him whether he wanted it or not. Which is a distinction to make clear,…for one may think “Oh, I just enjoy hanging out with them often, ….their filthy jokes, their topics of discussion, their way of thinking…what they engage in…..it’s not having an effect on me. I’m holding strong.” That is Dangerous thinking,… for God’s Word cautions otherwise. (1 Corinthians 15:33). “Do-not-be deceived: “Bad company…ruins good morals.” Can we have a better example of this truth than in the life of LOT? I don’t believe so. And I repeat. This does not mean you don’t invite nonbelievers over for dinner and interact with them relationally to various degrees. On the other hand…do all those things. Cultivate caring relationships with them that you may have a place to be a voice they listen to. This is important, BUT LIKE Jesus, have fellow God fearing people as the primary with whom you do life with that mutual influence to Christlikeness would be the formative direction you bring to one another. LISTEN TO THIS TRUTH, heed this example as a warning for the sake of your soul….choose friends…choose companions…wisely. Do the men of the city listen to him? Course not. In (verse 9) They instantly turn on him with a rapid wave that begins with mockery, swells to threat and then finally,…crashes into a physical assault. IF the angels at this point, …in (verses 10 & 11) …had not intervened,…..in all likelihood,…I believe LOT would have been killed or severely injured at best. But the two men…(the angels sent by the Lord to destroy the cities) they rescue LOT and prevent the men from entering by causing them to go blind. It’s at this moment in (verses 12 - 22) when the angels reveal to Lot who they are and why they’ve come,…..and we see continuation of the pervasiveness of sin that shows no mercy to the ruin of LOT’S character who Immersed himself in the thick of it all…..carry on through this whole scene. In (verse 14) his “sons in law who were to marry his daughters”…are not taking him seriously. LOT was like Chicken Little to them “The sky is falling! The sky is falling!” “Ha!, good one Lot. that’s funny…” Warning about judgment coming from a man who had NO moral compass,…had NO pattern of righteous resolve. What reason did LOT give them to take him seriously? None And then (verse 15 & 16). It reminds me of a teenage boy getting ready for school in the morning. The angels are like. “Come on Lot…get moving. You are going to miss the bus. Get your stuff, get your wife and daughters…grab your lunch, your school work…brush your teeth…comb your hair….C’mon!” LOT like a teenager…still lingering…still walking around in circles…getting nothing accomplished. The men had to physically take hold of each of them, Lot, his wife and two daughters…by hand to lead them out of the city. Crazy scene. The concluding portion of their escape in (verse 17 - 22) really for me,..depicts an aspect of his ruined character of being a fretful man. (Psalm 37:8). “…Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil.” LOT portrays this. When one of the angels, in the rush of the pending destruction to come,..says “Escape for your life. Do not look back or stop anywhere in the valley. Escape to the hills, lest you be swept away.” LOT frets “Oh, no, my lords”, and he pleads for the permission to flee to this little city in the valley. Like….“That’s a big mountain..that’s too difficult…I’m not going to make it in time. How about this little city here?” Habitual patterns of compromise…always going the path of least resistance. He is graciously granted his request to escape to and live in the “little” city….ZOAR by it’s name (verse 22),…but we see,…looking ahead at (verse 30), jumping over for the time being (verses 23-29),…we see in this verse (verse 30) LOT fretting once again. And over what? Over nothing,..it seems. JUST fretting to fret. “Lot went up out of Zoar (isn’t that where he begged to go?) Lot went up out of Zoar and lived in the hills with his two daughters, for he was afraid to live in Zoar. So he lived in a cave with his two daughters.” LOT, ruined in character by his self driven heavy immersion into sinful surroundings by which he tormented his own righteous soul,…..soon finds himself in just,… if not worse of deadly circumstances,…in that he puts himself in,….Isolation. We’ll return to (verses 23-29) in our conclusion, but before we go there, another danger of the pervasiveness of sin that shows no mercy is the danger of…..Isolation. Seen in (verses 30-38) 2) SECOND POINT - (Genesis 19:30-38). Danger of Isolation Danger of Isolation. It’s one of those passages that I’d rather not read out loud again,..for it’s content is filthy. And so I won’t. Being in Isolation has a danger all it’s own. In this cave now, LOT has NO accountability, NO godly input NOR any godly influence in his life. Just retreat to Isolation now that he has escaped the judgement of Sodom and Gomorra. The pervasiveness of sin that remains within him and his daughters shows no mercy. His daughters desire something that wasn’t wrong….OKAY… “to preserve offspring in the line of their father Lot”….that is not a bad desire…but that desire leads them to go about fulfilling it in a most ungodly way. And their devised plan implies another sinful habit of LOT’S. His daughters seem pretty well acquainted with the fact that their father will easily get so drunk on wine that he blacks out to have no recollection over a lapse of time. Their plan is dependent upon this….and succeeds in back to back nights. Which results in two nations from the children born. The Moabites and the Ammonites,…NATIONS who were a constant trouble to the nation Israel mind you. The danger of Isolation is very real. CHRISTIAN, heed God’s Word. (Hebrews 10:24-25). “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” Take this command seriously. A christian not in regular fellowship is a christian prey to the pervasiveness of sin that shows no mercy. Sin shows no mercy. It’s hellbent on destroying you. (Genesis 4:7) “….sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you,..…”. SIN will never show you mercy……..but “God is rich in mercy” (Ephesians 2:4). And this is abundantly on display for us in the heart of the passage,…returning to (verses 23-29) in our concluding point,…where we see the intensity of God’s judgement with mercy being present. Intensity with mercy….our concluding point. 3) CONCLUSION. - (Genesis 19:23-29) Intensity with mercy Do you recall earlier in the sermon in ….(verse 12 & 13) when the angels ask LOT “….Have you anyone else here? Sons-in-law, sons, daughters, or anyone you have in the city, bring them out of the place. For we are about to destroy this place, because the outcry against its people has become great before the LORD, and the LORD has sent us to destroy it.” Why are they asking LOT this question? Could it be that hours beforehand,.. in chapter 18,….when these men were coming to the cities of Sodom and Gomorra, Abraham’s plea to the Lord not to destroy the place for the sake of ten righteous who are in it? The Lord answered Abraham’s plea…. “For the sake of ten I will not destroy it.” (Gen 18:32) Could it be the two angels, here with Lot now,…are acting in accordance to the Lord’s response to Abraham? I believe so. “Lot, who is with you man, for we are about to destroy this place?” And we have our orders from the Lord to not do so till every righteous one is out. So let’s get everyone out.” Much like the outcry of the oppressed because of the wickedness of Sodom and Gomorra moved God in compassion for them to destroy the place, after careful inspection. SO ALSO, (James 5:16) “The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.” AND to the benefit of Lot, Abraham fervently intervenes with prayer to the Lord on his behalf which had great power as it is working to rescue LOT, and any other righteous soul from Sodom and Gomorra before GOD destroyed the place. Is this not what (verse 29) says plainly? “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.” GOD showed tremendous mercy to LOT and Abraham’s interceding prayer was involved in it. Which is a mystery to me but nevertheless true according to God’s Word. For supportive emphasis consider (Jude 1:20-23) “But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. And (now watch this)…And have mercy on those who doubt; save others by….snatching them out-of-the-fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.” I believe that aligns with what Abraham did here on behalf of his nephew LOT. Follow the example of Abraham…don’t give up praying for one to receive mercy from God….to not remain under the intensity of HIS wrath. Let’s picture this sobering scene now…that Abraham himself takes in as we read through these 7 verses… (23-29) in closing….. read Lot’s wife turning back….disobeyed the angels warning “Don’t look back!” who was holding her hand rescuing them from the city about to be destroyed. She looks back and ‘Poof!’…she turns into a Pillar of salt…similar to what Sodom and Gomorra would soon become. That’s INTENSE. Somber moment when Abraham is looking over the smoke rising from the place that maybe 12 hours earlier was a beautiful valley, lush and full of life….like the garden of the Lord and now ashes. What a somber moment….What was Abraham thinking right there? NOT knowing the fate of Lot at this moment. Woe is me…the wrath of God. God Most High who promises to bless me and multiply my descendants like the stars in the sky is a WRATHFUL GOD. A severe punisher of unrighteousness. Karen’s thought about his interceding prayer the evening before in chapter 18 I find insightful. And that is,….After seeing this, if he were to do it over would there have been in there… “YOU ARE A DREADFUL GOD….AN ALL CONSUMING FIRE.” Something of that magnitude having seen first hand the Intensity of God’s righteous judgement against wickedness. What was he thinking? You know you can visit this place today. (Genesis 13:10) This place in the direction of Zoar that was well watered everywhere like the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt,. You can go there today, to the very place south of the dead sea and see the visible reminder to us of the Intensity of Gods wrath for sin. To this day….absolutely no-life-present. Ash-like composite,..barren of any presence of life. There is kindness in that even. GOD “…by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example (note that) making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly;” An example we could see with our own eyes today whether in person or online. In kindness, God the Righteous Judge shows man by visible reminder here on earth of the intensity of God’s punishment for sin in Hell. I LEAVE YOU WITH THIS. Lest you are thinking…. “this is how much of sin I can be immersed in and still be saved.” Or,…as expressed in (Deuteronomy 29:19) by one who “blesses himself in his heart, saying, ‘I shall be safe, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart.” Woe is me,…if that is your thinking. I fear for your soul dear friend. For such thinking can assure you of damnation. I leave you with a two fold warning I pray you heed if any here are tempted to entertain such thoughts. FIRST BEING - if by sliver of a chance of God’s mercy you do fall into the category of righteous Lot…consider once again the fact that he tormented his own righteous soul by what he saw and heard day after day. Tormented… meaning…he was miserable. He had NO peace in his life, there was NO blessed assurance of salvation in his life, NO joy in the Lord in his life,…and clearly, as depicted here…NO true friends to speak of, his family life is a wreck. IS THAT WHAT YOU WANT IN LIFE? Not to mention the legacy his name leaves. - No one names their son LOT. I’ve never heard that name personally in all my life. Maybe you have, but I must say, if a father introduced his son to me saying, “And this is my son Lot.” I’d have to restrain the puppy dog tilted head expression. For within myself, upon hearing those words, I’d be like… “Really?” Thinking… “Do you know the story of Lot?” Lot’s legacy is not one to aspire to. It’s shameful to the end. Is that how you want to be remembered? And then I remind you of our Lord Jesus’s warning which I believe ought to bear the greater wait. For when one asked HIM in (Luke 13:23-28) “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” JESUS said to them, “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.” And then JESUS,…as if saying “let me put it this way” by sharing a short story to emphasize his point that many upright, moral,… thought-to-be-christian men and women (thought-to-be-christians) will come to him (Jesus) and say ‘Lord, open to us,’ (let us come into your kingdom) then he will answer them, ‘I do not know where you come from.’ They will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’ But he will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil!’ In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth,…”. “I don’t know you” says JESUS. “You are not welcomed in my Kingdom…you belong in hell.” Many will have that be there end. Don’t let that be you friend. Hate sin. Knowing how pervasive it is…showing no mercy at all to the ruin of your soul. Hate sin. Do not willfully immerse yourself in it NOR flee away in dangerous isolation but rather, along with brothers and sisters in Christ…seek to know Jesus personally as your Lord and Savior that you may have BLESSED assurance that you are. - PRAY COMMUNION Ephesians 2:1-5. Says…. “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—..” And if these words fill you with hope and joy it is because you see the sacrificial death of Jesus on the cross as payment for your debt of sin and his resurrection as your assurance of eternal life. This morning, for those who call upon the name of Jesus as Lord and Savior, the elements representing his body broken and his blood shed as a sacrifice to atone for our sins are made available for the partaking of together. As the music team leads us in song during a time of response to Gods Word, as prompted by Him, I welcome you forward to partake of the bread and the cup. BENEDICTION (Psalm 101)