Genesis | Week 5 | Full Service

Okay, sit in that chair. All right, here's the deal. Marshmallow for you. You can either wait, and I'll give you another one if you wait, or you can eat it now. When I come back, I'll give you another one, so then you'll have two. All right, so it's up to you. You can have it now or you can wait. Okay?

I'll be back. Stay in the chair, okay? Okay.

How'd you do? Did you do good? You did? You wanted to eat it, didn't you? Yeah. So did I tell you I'd give you another one? K. Now you can have both. You need them.

We showed you that because that's what we do with your kids if you leave them in the children's program too long after we're done here.

No. Hey. That's cute, but but it's showing the video. But before we get in, I just wanna get a little disclaimer. I see a lot of kids in this room. We're gonna be talking about the story of Lot today in the Old Testament, and that's involves Sodom and Gomorrah.

We're gonna be reading scripture, but it's gonna it goes to some pretty dark themes.

So I just wanted to warn you that that in case if you're like, if if if you're a parent that's like, I don't really wanna get into a discussion with that with my kids. If you don't think you're ready or they're ready, then here's your chance. I think you should probably take the kids out of here. Okay.

So that's just just to let you know. I Haven't really had any problems with it so far, but just wanted to let you know I didn't want someone mad at me after the fact and and and trying to complain because I'm so good with that.

Anyways, the video is is is what I love about that is it shows these kids that they they offer and say, hey. We can give you a reward on the other end if you just don't touch this. And if you're not like see how all of them struggled so hard, so hard to to not want to, you know, like

and almost every one of them, some just say, forget it, I'm eating right away. But it's kinda hilarious how kids will do that. You put them there and say, don't do it, you'll guess something better on the other side. And they just if you put that right in front of them, it seems like at some point,

they're gonna take it. They're gonna grab the marshmallow. They're gonna eat it. And you think, oh, it's cute kids. It's so fun to watch them. Guess what? I don't think we ever grow out of that. Our marshmallows get more expensive and more dangerous,

but we still have the marshmallows that if you put it in front, if we move towards it, if it's if it's if we stay close to it, we're eventually gonna grab it. We're event even if we know that not provide something greater down the road Because we do we just can't help it. And that's what we're gonna talk about today. And and and we're gonna be talking about this big idea.

It's simply this, what we move towards today will make our tomorrow.

That's both positive or negative. Whatever you choose to move towards today is gonna make your joy. You're gonna make some move in some ways and make decisions today. And then you're gonna make some decisions, and then those decisions are gonna make you.

And what we're gonna see is that could be good or bad. And what we're gonna see from this example from a man named Lot, because we're at in Genesis, we're gonna be in Genesis 13, and we're gonna jump around a little bit. We're just gonna survey this guy's story. Because we're gonna see he gets himself into a lot of trouble.

And and the scary thing is he does this progression of moving towards something that the progression is I call the sin progression.

It's that progression of moving away from God wants as you move towards stuff. And the problem with that is the the first step moving away from God is always a small one. And a matter of fact, what we're gonna see in this progression

is that that that progression is so subtle that the some of the first two steps may even feel like you're doing something right. And it might seem successful.

And that's the problem with sin. It moves you down a road that seems like it's great until it's not. And when it's not, it's too late. The book of Proverbs says there's a way that seems right to man, but the end, it leads to death. And what that means is God's not being a godfather threatening, like threatening you, like, hey,

you keep moving this way. And you know if you keep doing it, you're gonna sleep with the fishes. But not like Jonah, there'll be no vomiting you up onto the beach.

No. It's it's he's saying is there's ways that seem right. And they go down, they might even feel right, they might even you might experience like this is working until you hit the dead end. Not gonna find what you're really looking for down there. And by the time you find that, there's destruction.

And we're gonna see that in the life a lot. But what I want you to hear is there's a lot of darkness here. There's a lot of dumbness. There's a lot of talking about the sin. But the real heart of the problem is it all comes back to that original lie that we saw in the first part of Genesis.

Where the devil came and tempted Adam. It was the same thing we fall for. Did God really say that? You can't trust the goodness of God. You can't trust his plan because he's holding out on you and you know you really need this. And you're gonna have to maybe bend the rules or go around him to get what you really want.

And that's the heart of it. That's the heart of it. So I wanna ask you guys to be contemplating as we walk through this sin progression, these four stages. Where are you at? Because I guarantee every one of us is in something in our life. There's something in our life where we're at one of these stages.

And where are you? Think about it. So here we go. We're gonna pick up. We're gonna be in Genesis, starting in chapter 12. It transitions from all about the human race and God's creating in our sin problem and the brokenness. And then he's come the rest of this bible is this story of 1,186

chapters of God's story of redeeming us and how it works, making it back to good. Well, chapter 12 transitions to the Hebrew race. He forms he calls out one man named Abraham who he renames him Abraham.

And he starts to put a blessing on him to form a people, which ultimately he's gonna bring the savior of the world, Jesus, through.

And and in that story, Abraham gets called out by God and he trusts him by faith. He says, hey, don't know where I'm going. I'm gonna believe you. And that's credited to him as righteousness. We're gonna look at Abraham next week. But right now, he when he goes,

his nephew Lot believes too. Believes him and he goes with him. So he goes with them on this journey, and God starts to bless them.

They already started off with some money, but now they're they've really been blessed. Their flocks are growing. They have rich people problems. Where they're living now can't support all their herds, both of their herds together. Back then, herds was like your bank account. So basically, they were like, we got so much money. Our money can't fit together in one bank.

What a poor them. And so they're getting in fights, and so they realize we gotta spread out. We gotta split up. And so Abram looks at his nephew Lot and he goes, okay. You decide. They looked at the all the land before him. They said, you go right, I'll go left. You get to pick.

And so Lot looks out there and it says he makes a decision. He saw that the the plains of the the one direction had the best water, the best vegetation. It was actually the best land.

And and he goes, I'm gonna go there, which kinda subtly might say he's a little bit selfish, but you can kinda say Abraham did tell him to pick first, didn't he? But the problem is those planes also is where all the wicked cities were that they should have avoided. And it says it in the story.

And what we're gonna see here is in his decision, I just wanna read a couple verses, is the first stage of the progression of sin.

That that what the what I move towards is gonna make me later on. It's it's just gonna take me someplace that maybe I never dreamed of being. Because I think he honestly made this decision what's best for my family, what's best for the colt, what's best for the legacy, what's best for the herds,

except for these cities. And so here's what it says. In verse 12, it says, so Abram settled in the land of Canaan and Lot, get this, moved his tents to a place near Sodom and settled among the cities of the plains. But the people of this area were extremely wicked and constantly sinned against the Lord. They knew that.

So when he looked out, he's like he he made a decision. This place is the best place. Yeah. There's the wicked cities. So does he move into the cities? No. What does he decide to do? He just moves near them. It's almost like he makes this decision.

I want the best land. I want this. But I'm not gonna cross the line and be wicked. I'll just stay on the outskirts. I won't actually live in the city. I'll just be close. And that's what he's gonna do. It's very different. That's all it says. He just moved near those cities.

The last line of this chapter says what Abram did when he went into where his land was. God said, well, you see all this? I'm gonna bless you. This is gonna be all this for generations and generations.

And then the last thing it says is there he, meaning Abram, built another altar to the Lord. Another altar. Every time Abram once said, the first thing he did was worship the Lord.

So there's a little bit of a difference in the way these guys are approaching it. And Lot doesn't seem like he's made a bad decision. It's not like he's done anything wrong yet. Right? But he's flirting with it.

You know, when you flirt with something, it's like you you you get really close and you're intrigued, but you you don't touch. Like when I really started to get to know my wife, I flirted so hard with her. But she had a boyfriend, so no touching until I figure out how to break them up.

Wish after being married thirty years, I succeeded. Probably should use my wife as the example because that means she's evil or something bad. So forget that. A better example of what it means, flirting. What you've the flirtation.

Being drawn to something. Flirtation is how close can I get without actually doing something wrong? We flirt with what God's asked us. We flirt. We we say how the question we ask is how far away how far can I go before God says now I've sinned?

Like as a teenager, how far can I go physically with my girlfriend before it's considered sin? How far can I go? That's actually the wrong question. That's the wrong question. We instead of saying how far can I go or how, you know,

how close to the line can I get without crossing over, we should be asking ourselves how close to the Lord can I get in the way I act? And

that's the problem. We actually we treat our faith like and when you say how far away can I and we start debating on stuff? What does it really mean to serve? What does it really mean to give? What does it mean to trust God? What does it really mean to to honor my love my wife and respect my husband? What does that does it really say this? But what about this? We usually debate and what we're saying is how

close how much do I actually have to do to be considered doing it right? And how much of what I wanna do, the thing I wanna flirt with, how far, how close to what I really am attracted to can I go before God says, don't? And we get and that's where our faith gets stuck.

And and it's kinda like this. Well, you might have had this happen to you. You might have been the one that did it to your brother's sister. You have kids. They might be doing it. Do you ever notice kids start one starts touching the other?

And they're like, stop touching me. Stop touching me. Stop touching me. You know, and then you're like, stop touching me. Mom, dad, they keep touching me. And then you go, stop touching your brother. Stop touching your sister. And then you're alright. So then what do they do?

If that's the brother or sister, they're like.

I'm not touching you. I'm not touching you. Then they get worse. I'm not touching you. I'm not touching you. And

they just keep doing you ever you have kids doing that? Did you do that? Were you the one that did that? Here's the problem. You say, I'm okay. The words of mom or the words of my father were don't touch. So okay, I will honor the words, but I'll ignore the heart.

Because the heart of the words where I want you to love and honor and respect and don't be irritating and don't cause a problem. But you took the words and you look for the loophole and you manipulate it. Said, alright, I won't touch, but I'm gonna do this all day long.

And here's the problem, you do that long enough, you know what happens? Eventually, the stool is gonna punch you in the face. Eventually, there's gonna be a non spiritual laying on of the hands. And it's gonna just blow up on you. And that's the problem. And some of us, we're like, we take the words of God,

but we ignore the heart behind the words of God. And then we get argumentative and we say, I'm going to flirt with all the things I wanna do and do that. And he goes, it's it's gonna blow up on you. It's gonna cause a problem. So here, the question for this is simply this right now. What are you flirting with

that you need to be fleeing from? Right now in your life, start thinking about it. And guess what? It's easy to only wanna take what I'm saying right now and only think about the sin and bad thing that you need to flee. But the New Testament says, when God says the thing you know you ought to do,

like what does it mean to live as a disciple? When you know that and you don't do that, that is called sin.

Just as much as doing the bad thing. So when we think about this, most of us we analyze our, okay, I probably shouldn't have treated that person that way. Probably. We only think of the negative problem. But the thing you're flirting with that you wanna go towards the bad

always means you're walking away from the good thing you should be doing. You know, when you eat bad, I need to walk away from bad eating. Right? But walking away from bad eating is not stop eating. If you're gonna walk away from bad eating, you gotta eat. It means you need to walk towards healthy eating.

And it's the same way, you can't walk away flirting with something wrong is sometimes the thing we're flirting with. The thing that we're flirting with is wrong, is we're flirting with the idea of ignoring what God calls us to be as the church.

And you just ignore it because you think, okay, I know I'm not supposed to, you know, drink, smoke, or chew, or go with girls who do. You know, I know that rule, and I know all the bad things I'm not supposed to do. But you think about the idea of serving, using your gifts,

using your time to honor the Lord, using your testimony to reach out and try to invite people to know Jesus,

taking your money and investing it in your church, being a part of the body of Christ. You think of those, those are good things I should do, but you don't think of them as much as sin when you don't, as you do the bad thing you do. And that's the problem. Because that I think is a worse sin.

Because guess who Jesus flipped tables over on? It wasn't the person that was lost in sin and knew it. He flipped tables on the people that knew him and knew his word and wanted to manipulate it and not do what he actually said to do.

That's the ones that he may go, I don't think so. I hope that didn't break. Did it break? That wasn't planned. And the guy who made this for me would get very upset with me.

What are you flirting with that you need to be fleeing from? Because if you flirt long enough, contact will happen. If you flirt with the stool long enough, you're eventually gonna sit down. And that's what happens next. That's the second phase. The second step is rationalization,

rationalization. What am I talking about here? Well, you go into chapter 14 and what happens is a war breaks out with some kingdoms and Sodom and Gomorrah is on one side and their side loses.

And so when they lose, the enemies come in and what they'll do is they'll ransack your cities and take people and things. They take whatever they want. That's what we want, we get what we want. And if you look down on in speak English, Bill. Verse 11,

it says this, the victorious invaders then plundered Sodom and Gomorrah and headed for home, taking with them all the spoils of war and food supplies. Now watch this. Remember the first thing he settled near Sodom? This says, they also captured Lot, Abram's nephew who lived in Sodom and carried off everything he owned.

So somewhere along the line, he went from, I'm gonna camp near because this is the better land for me and my family, and it's the better. So he had that right idea. There was a good thing in that.

But he camped close and went near the wicked. Now he's living in the city. And that's what'll happen next. You get close and you flirt long enough, eventually you're gonna move in. Eventually you're gonna sit down. Eventually you're gonna cross that line. And here's the problem. You are gonna think that that's a good idea too.

That's the problem. It subtly drags you in. You're gonna have you're gonna rationalize. And you know what rationalizing mean? It means you believe rational lies.

You take something that's kind of rational, kind of makes sense, and you add it to a lie. That's exactly what the devil did in the Garden of Eden. He takes a little bit of truth and then takes you to a lie. It's a rational

lie. So it sounds good up front. It's a way that seems right to man, but at the end, it leads to death. And you attach something that seems right. And you know what? The Bible wants us to read this and see this progression. Doesn't bother telling you all the details.

I don't know what he rationalized, but there's a reason why it became easier and made sense for him to move his family in. It could have been because there was a war. There might have been the beating of the drums and say, right, you know what? It'll be safer for us to go live in the city walls.

That could have been one of the reasons. Or it could have been they have better coffee shops and a Costco. I don't know. It might have been the school was better. Like I want my dick kids to go to that charter school. You know, s g l a, Sodom and Gomorrah Leadership Academy. Maybe they thought it was better.

There was something that made sense for him to now live in the city.

This is the dangerous part because this is where we have crossed the line and we don't even know it.

Like when I come back to the things that have been challenging us to be the church. One of the most rationalized I hear, especially young people. And a lot of young people will sit here and they'll go, well, I can be a really strong Christian and I don't need to be in a church.

See, the rational part is you're reacting to churches that have abused what they're supposed to be. You've reacted to leaders that have failed the position they've been given.

And you're throwing that. So there is a rational reason why you feel and you see all the nonsense that churches get tied into that aren't scriptural. That's true.

But the lie is so the answer is you disconnect and you don't need a church. If you don't think you need to be part of the church, you don't understand what the bible says. Because you can't. Because here's the thing. Yeah. We're we're not supposed to be a business. We're not supposed to be that, but we are an organism.

And organisms have organization, and and and we are actually called a body, the body of Christ. And when you become a Christian, you are to be a part of the body. And a body has a role, and you have a body part, and you need the other body parts, and the other body parts need you. I mean, if you come across

severed body parts, which by the way, side note, my wife has the unrealistic you know those unreasonable fears, those weird fears that you guys have a fear for no reason? Like, her fear is to severed heads.

I found this out because we were hiking once. I looked over something. There was some like a dead bird or something. Oh, that's gross. And she goes, what is it a severed head? And she wasn't joking.

I'm like, what what how dark are you? What what neighborhood did you grow up in? Did this happen all the time? When you were a kid, did you walk to school? Oh, another severed head. No. She goes, no. I just that creeps me out. Always afraid I'm gonna see a severed head.

That's not part of the sermon. Just thought it was weird. But if you think about it, if you're walking and you come across a bunch of a body that's all its body parts have been severed, what what did you just walk into? A crime scene. Or there is a man eating animal on the loose

and a monster, or you you you you told a wookie it cheated. Star Wars reference, arms got ripped off. There you go. I don't usually explain it, you guys seemed lost.

So that's irrational. You took some truth and you let the enemy take you all the way to disconnect you from the thing you need to be connected to. You don't go to church. We are the church. And and and the issue is

and if you think I'm saying this to beat you over the head and guilt you and then you're missing the whole point.

Because the whole point is Jesus died so we can live that life. He knows the best way to live. He knows where our contentment really comes from. He knows where your fulfillment will come from. And so he knows how you should spend your time, how you should spend your money, how you should spend your relational time. He knows how it should work. So if you resist it, it's because you're either flirting hard

or already sitting in something that is a great distraction from that. And you're doing it because you somehow are afraid of what God's asked you to do because you just think it won't work.

You're afraid that if I hit on him with the money, how is that gonna affect me? I can't and usually we get sucked into what's going on culturally.

Culture we we buy into cultural values and and they might be good cultural values. They might be okay culturally, But we believe that this is more important than God's word. This is more important than the life he died to give me. And so we actually try to flirt with and then sit in.

And that's really kinda what happened. And if you do that long enough, when you sit in that long enough, you'll finally come to the third the third thing, which I call transformation.

Meaning if you sit in the stool long enough, it will change you and you won't even realize how badly it's changed you. You will still think you're doing something right when you are so twisted you don't even see it. And and and and if you jump forward to chapter 19 in the story of loss, chapter 19.

I'll try the story of lots of Lot. He was lost, but Lot's story. What's happening now is in the meantime, an angel God has went to Abraham and said, I'm gonna destroy those cities. Sodom and Gomorrah, they're so wicked. I'm wiping them out, which is where Lot is now living. And and so

so Abraham pleads on behalf of of Lot and his family and all that. So God says, alright, I'll send messengers to tell him. They try to tell him and then he's gonna send him in. And in '19, finally, time's up. These angels are gonna show up and tell him he's gotta get out of there.

And which is interesting because they resisted at first. And just a little thought before we go into this transformation, like, sitting there. They say Bible scholars believe he's been living there at least thirteen years now.

He's been living there now for thirteen, fifteen years. So his life has gone pretty it's like hasn't fallen apart yet. And that's the danger. Some of you are sitting here and the things I'm telling you about, well, know, I've only kinda been half in with God and half doing what I want and life's been good to me so far. That's the danger of this path.

It's great until it kills you. It's awesome till it destroys you.

And so you think arrogantly you're fine. But here's what's funny. If you look at the story, you know one of the ways why Lot hasn't totally imploded yet is look at all along the story. How did he get blessed with the wealthy at in the first place? Because of Abraham.

How did he get rescued when he got carried off? That's not the part of the story we read. Go read it. Abraham raised up an army and went and got them. Saved them because he loves them.

So over and over. And now this time, God's gonna destroy the whole city that he's living in. He's about to get rescued by God because of Abraham's prayers. See here's And you know what, I see this over and over. I especially see it in marriages and sadly enough, guys, you might be reversed, awesome. But 90% of the time,

it's the guy that wants to flirt with and sit in. And won't go all in, but you think life's working. And the only reason your life hasn't totally imploded is because of the godly woman sitting next to you right now. You are living on borrowed grace. And you are arrogant enough to think you know better than God's word.

And you think your wife is a nag. Just warning you, just kinda keep it real. And that's what's happening. So all of sudden, here's what happens in chapter 19.

This point on, it gets pretty dark. Just last warning here. But it is God's word. It's kinda weird when you have to warn people that you're about to read God's word to them in church. Anyways, it says that evening, two angels came to the entrance of the city of Gadam Lot and Sodom.

Lot was sitting there. See this interview right there. This tells you something else. Remember, he started off moving towards.

The last passage he's living in. Now he's sitting at the gates. What you have to understand, there's something powerful in that that you might not have picked up. And that is you understand what's going on here in their culture now cities were laid out. In our cities today, you work at the city, you live in the suburbs.

In their days, you lived in the city and you worked in the suburbs because the city was behind the walls. It was the safer place, so you fell back there. But during the day, you went outside the gates because that's where the roads were and the travelers would come and you conducted business.

The other thing is at the gates, the if it says you're sitting at the gate, the only people that sat at the gate were the city leaders, the city fathers, the respected leaders of the city. Where is Lot sitting? So he went from moving near to living in to now he's sitting as a leading citizen, a leader in the city.

Something's changed. And I think I honestly think this starts because you're gonna see part of the story. I think he still thinks he's being a good guy. He's still but he's been so inundated in this culture that now the cultural values and the cultural values inundated, we're gonna see here in a sec, is not a bad value.

But the level at which he puts it to be seen culturally like a good man, a great leader, a strong guy, completely ends up taking to a place that is so dark when you think about what God would want him to do. So he's sitting there, he sees these guys.

He welcomed them, bowed to his face to the ground. My lords, he said, come to my home to wash your feet and be my guest for the night. You may then get up early in the morning and be your way again. That's kinda thing. When you see a guest,

you invite it. And the cultural thing was if you're gonna be this guy, you invite someone in, you totally honor them, you bless them, you take care of them, and you protect them at all cost.

That's not a bad cultural value. It really isn't. Take care of the people that are your guests. Well, he goes out of his way to invite them, and we're gonna see in a minute. Because he's still trying to be a good guy. He knows what his city is like.

Because then they said they say, oh, no. They replied, we'll just spend the night out here in the city square. They're gonna sleep outside in the middle of town. And he doesn't want anything to do with that. Says, but Lot insisted.

So at last they went home with me, insisting. No. You have to come home. You have to come home with me. And I think it's because he knew what's gonna happen. Lot prepared a feast for them complete with fresh bread made without yeast and they were like, had celiacs so they couldn't eat it. No, they ate it.

But before they retired for the night, all the men of Sodom, young and old came from all over the city and surrounded the house. They shouted a lot where are the men who came to spend the night with you? Bring them out to us so we can have sex with them. Gross. It's pretty dark.

This guy sitting at the gates is a leader of a city that and he knew that's what was gonna happen if they slept in this car. He knows that's the city he's a leader in. But I think this is the part where he's been transformed and and and and has actually, you know, rationalized for so long.

Do you know the other danger of rationalization? Here's how you know you're rationalizing, is when you have to make excuses for why you're doing something.

When you always have to say, know but I did that and blah blah. It was a great always was that. Oh, you know, I was just talking to him. Oh, I just ran in. I there's always an excuse.

Here's why I can't serve. Here's why I can't do what God said. But I am trying to do this. I do give this way or I do serve like or I do you make an excuse. You're rationalizing. And I think he knew his city was bad, but he's like, okay. I'll still try to I think he rationalized that I'll try to make it better.

Now we should do that in our cities. We really should. I'm not knocking that.

What I'm knocking is look at how much he changed. He sits there and when they do that, he steps outside in verse six. He shuts the door behind him and he says, please my brothers, don't do such a wicked thing. So he does admit that what this whole city wants to do is wrong. But look at what his better solution is.

He goes, look, I have two virgin daughters. Let me bring them out to you and you can do with them as you wish. But please leave these men alone. Why? For they are my guests and under my protection. Your daughters aren't under your protection? Your

family? The reason you moved towards was to have a better family legacy, to offer better dowries, be able to marry your kids and build a a a family legacy.

Now this this cultural thing that said what a real man leader of his own will do will protect his guests at all costs. That's now more important than your own daughters. You mean you're gonna throw your family under the bus for the sake of how your community sees you now, How you're seen from the outside.

Now when you hear that, that's a dark story. Somebody's like, I would never do that. And every dad hear that's the most disgusting he ever heard. But I guess what?

There's a lot of us in here that that's what you're doing right now to be seen as a man, to seen as successful, to seen as this. You have thrown your family under the bus. You've thrown them out there to the wolves. You're not present with them. And a lot of the rationalization

is I provide. I'm working so hard that I'm never at home because we gotta have a better house. Well, our kids gotta go to better school. We gotta drive nicer cars. Gotta be in 19 sports, all of them which they're terrible at. Because they might get a scholarship.

Come on. I'll just tell you right now. I'll be the one that won't say it. They're not getting a scholarship. For every Brock Purdy, there's the rest of your kids and mine.

You're doing it to be perceived. You're doing it because I want my kids to look a certain way, because I wanna look a certain way. You know, and none of that is good. None of that is the godly thing. It might look good and it might it's not that it's terrible stuff. And if you can do that in balance, it's fine. It's when you start replacing what God's asked you to do with that,

that it's a problem. And and that's what we do. We do this all the time. This is us. And the reason it's so dark is because we refuse to see that our ways of doing this is just as disgusting as this. It's just as useless as this. It's just a waste of time as this. But men wanna be seen as as successful.

I don't wanna be the poorest guy at the party.

So I actually go after a thing that I say is to make my family's life better. And they don't need that stuff, they need you. And you know what, moms are doing the same thing now too.

Half the stuff we do for our kids, we're really doing it for ourselves. Half the stuff we do is to make us feel good. And that's what's happening here. Where have you sat so long that the thing you're ignoring God on and the thing you're doing actually makes sense to you and you think you're still the good guy?

He thought he was still the good guy in doing this. And if you get to this point of the sin progression, you still think you're the good guy. But we're not. We're not. Look at this statement. This is the problem with this path of sin.

It works till it doesn't. Sin will always take more from you than you ever wanted to give it, keep you longer than you ever wanted to stay, and will cost you more than you ever wanted to pay. Those things you're flirting with, this is where it ends. And the thing is it ends so slowly and then suddenly

that that's where so many will sit here and you'll get up, walk out of here and completely ignore everything this message challenged us to do with our lives.

We will keep rationalizing.

An example of that is in my own life. Whenever I get up to preach, I feel very strongly that the message needs to preach to me before I preach it to you. And I thought I was pretty good on this, but then something kept eating at me that I've dealt with before. I dealt with voices gnawing at me And I had great rational eyes because the thing I felt like I needed to do, there was a great value in what I was doing. There was really good ministerial things. There was powerful things. But there's also a mix of other stuff. And I finally had to realize the good

is totally outweighed by the bad. And that is I just yesterday finally was convicted enough that I deleted my social media accounts. My Facebook and my my Instagram. So some of y'all just asked to be my friend yesterday. Sorry.

Just hours later, you're like, and it was you. That's why I did it. I just I can't handle you. You made me so no. Now don't hear what I'm not saying. Many of you my wife still has her social media because she can do this imbalance. It doesn't affect her like it does me.

And so it's it's a personal thing. I'm not and it's it's not that it's evil. It just leads me to bad matter of fact, there's a lot of greatness. Somebody came up today and goes, thank you. Remember I messaged you all back and you ended up praying for me and that went so well. There's so many awesome things

that have happened through it, and that's what made it so hard. The rational part is, I can't get rid of this. There's too many ministry that can happen this way. But it but I've been in ministry for over thirty years.

Most of my ministry was before we had this stuff. It was before email. I was a youth pastor, and I didn't even have a cell phone. I I remember being a pastor when unless you were in an office where someone could call that office and find you, you were not found. And we still helped people find Jesus.

We still led people to the Lord. So I knew that, yes, it's a great tool, but for me, it was also something that was always putting me in battles I didn't need to be in. I would battle with discouragement. When I'd see a friend's church get something that someone just gave them $10,000,000,

I go, none of these people will give me $10,000,000.

No. I mean, you see something. And instead of celebrating with friend, feel kinda competitive. It forced me to feel competitive.

I I would I would I would people, I would see something that would discourage me. I would see something that would make me angry. I would see something that would cause I would see something inappropriate that would make me on my brain wanna go down the wrong road. I I I would also get reached, like I said, people could get ahold of me. And and some of the people that want the dumbest things with the meanest criticisms

will direct message you and you can't stop that on the social media. So it's like at 09:00 at night, I'm basking and being tired after preaching something. You know, you you about sex and Sodom and Gomorrah, and that really offended me. How dare you read God's word to me and tell me what it says? I added that part, but

and here's the problem, I could have a 100 people tell me that changed my life, and guess what I'm stuck not being able to fall asleep to.

See, of the weak things my dad told me once, his son, you're never gonna make it at ministry if you don't understand that if people don't like your peaches, don't gotta shake your tree. And what he meant was, don't be a jerk. You need to love and you need to do it for the right reason. But you,

one of the things that helps you in ministry is you care about what people think. But you can't let that control what you do. And that's a temptation for me.

So when you hear all this stuff and you say, I'm tempted to not say what I need to say. Now you could apparently even by what I'm saying here today, I win that battle. I say what needs to be said. The problem is it is a battle when I'm on social media.

And my dad also taught me never never ever get in a fight you don't need to be in. I fight all the time when I'm on there in my heart, my head.

And I believe most, almost every time I've won the fight. But every time you're in a fight, you shed some blood, you have emotional energy, you have spiritual energy, you're tired. And I win those fights but it cost me. And those are fights I put myself in when I don't need to be in them. So yeah,

I stopped. The rational part was real and good. But the lie was I have to have this or I can't be an influencer as a pastor. And that's not true. So for my health, basically, it wasn't social media. And in the words of the great theologian Taylor Swift, it's me. It's me. I'm the problem. It's me.

So I'm not always saying it's these great immense things. It's these subtle little things and things that for other people is really good.

Like our church, we still have a social media account because it's great for getting stuff out. But there's no rock point rocky. Some person just sits there and trolls through it all the time and it affects them. How about you? Where have you been changed?

Because if you sit there and don't realize that long enough, end up at stage four destruction.

And what happens next is pretty powerful. You jump to so so he these angels,

they they they get Lot. They go, no, we're gonna destroy the city. They don't let him do that with the daughters. And then he says, get your kid, get your extended family. He goes to extended family. They all laugh at him and won't go. So these angels finally forcibly take Lot, his wife, and his two daughters that he was gonna throw out to the crowd. And they're the only four that these angels drag out of. They say you gotta go head to those hills and go up into the caves and the hills. Lot pleads and begs and says, no, I can't do that. I'll never live up there. I have no money. I'm gonna die. So let us go to that little village over there. And go, alright. We won't destroy the little village. You can go there. But he goes, but you can't look back. And the reason I say can't look back is not because cool guys don't look at explosions.

What he meant was, you realize if you turn back, it's because you're longing for what you're losing. And the problem is when you look back, you're tempted to go back. Matter of fact, I just told you about my social media. Guess what? They made it so hard to get rid of.

I tried to do Facebook. Like, well, gotta you gotta sign back in again. I'm like, I haven't signed in since I signed up. I don't even know what my code is.

I'm guessing and then it locked me out. So then I had to send an email that I got this. So I I was so tempted to go, I'll do it later. And the second I do it later, it'll be another two years.

And so I was like, nope. I'm sticking to it. I get it. I finally get it done. I'm like, oh, good. Well, then I go do Instagram, and Instagram was really quick, boop, boop, boop, you're done. I'm like, oh, finally, it was easy. And then about an hour later, I get an email from, hey, just remember in case you really change your mind, you have till the end of March.

They're like, if we could get you to look back, you'll come back to us. You'll be drawn to the lure of I wanna see all the pictures of what everybody ate for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

So that's what's going on. So he says, don't look back. Well, they go and his wife looks back. She dies. So now he's lost all of his family except for the two daughters, which that original move was probably this would be better for my family. And then he goes to the city and look what happens next, that little village.

And this gets extremely dark. I'm just warning you.

Afterward, Lot left Zorba because he was afraid. So now he's afraid because he's afraid of the people there. So he realized he went there and he's like, oh, these people are scary. They're gonna it's wicked. It's terrible. I'm just here with my daughters. I don't know what to do. So he went to live in a cave in the mountains with his two daughters. So now he's living in a cave in the mountain with none of his wealth, none of the stuff. Everywhere he lived is destroyed. His family's gone except for these two daughters.

One day, the older daughter said to her sister, there are no men left anywhere in this entire area, so we can't get married like everyone else. And our father will soon be too old to have children. What they're saying is, we need to get married and have kids to carry on the legacy and it needs to be in our father's line, so we can then have a legacy and have land and survive. That's a cultural thing. There's no way we can live

unless we do have kids. So they're so stuck on, this is the way you have to live. We gotta do something about that. And that wanting to have kids and have laid, that's not the problem. It's the that's the rational part. The lie part is what they realize they need to do to live. They say in verse 32,

come, let's get him drunk with wine, and then we will have sex with him. That way we will preserve our family line through our father.

So that night, they got drunk with him with wine. They got him drunk with wine and the older daughter went in and had intercourse with her father. He was unaware of her lying down or getting up. Next morning, the older daughter said to her younger sister, I had sex with our father last night. Let's get him drunk with wine again tonight and you can go and have sex with him. That way we'll preserve our family line through our father. So that night, they got him drunk with wine again and the younger daughter went in and had intercourse with him.

And then it ends in verse 36, as a result, both of Lot's daughters became pregnant by their own father.

Wow. Do you think when he stood there and said, that lands a better financial decision. I think I can provide better. I think we can live nicer. I think it'll be better for us. We'll have a better legacy. Yeah, there's that wicked city that God said don't be near, don't go around that, but we can handle that.

Do you think when he made that one simple choice that it would end with him drunk in a cave having impregnated his two daughters and that's all that's left of his wealth, of his family, of everything?

None of us, none of us thinks that one step away from God and towards that will ever end that extreme. But if you've been in ministry or you work in a field where you have talked to a lot of people that have completely destroyed imploded lives, everyone will start, well,

I just decided I was gonna go to that party. What could it hurt me? I decided to stay a little later with that coworker. I just decided I was gonna do this. I decided I didn't need to be injured. I decided it's always a simple thing that you have a rationalized reason on why you can do this and not do what God said.

And if you stay on that path, it'll end with you in a cave somewhere with your life destroyed. And you will have gone so much further and done things that you never ever, ever, ever would have thought you would have done. Because you've been distorted into each step of the way thinking you're still the good guy.

We don't wanna end up there. God doesn't wanna end up us up there. That's why God challenged us to go and be the church, to go live in his love. Live from his love, not for it, but live from it and live in it because he loves us. The real problem is you have something

in you. There is a rational lie you are believing that you can't believe and trust God's goodness. Therefore, you will refuse to trust his plan Because his plan often starts harder and then gets amazing. The way of the sin starts easy and feels amazing and then destroys you. And it destroys the people around you. Now

what do we do about it? Because the God of our God, the whole rest of the story is, even if you have blown up your life and you're symbolically stuck in a cave, God can restore that.

God is the God of rescue. He's the God of grace. Like even in this story, all along, you know how many times through Abraham that represented God's grace and God's love and he sent the angels and he sent this. God still can restore it. But you gotta do two things really quick. You have to you have to confess and you have to come close. Confess and you come close.

What does that mean? First, you need to confess to God and to others. In the book of in John one nine, he talks about if we are willing to confess to God.

And what that means is look at our life like this. Like, yo, that's so gross. I've never done it. You gotta realize when we go away from God and stuff, our sin looks just as disturbing to God as this story. That's why he left it in there. Because it is the story of us.

And so what we have to do is we have to admit that the way we're living life is disgusting. It's wrong. It'll never get us real life. And we gotta own that. And what we gotta say is, God, I am so sorry, and I don't want to keep going down this path. Confession always involves repentance.

It means I'm gonna turn away from this. And you can't turn away from something bad without, like I said earlier, turning towards something good. So it implies, God, I confess. I'm gonna turn back towards your plan for my life.

You can't just stop doing something bad. You gotta start doing the thing you should have been doing with all that time and resource that you were doing the bad thing with. Tell the truth, tell the truth. That's right. I'm telling the truth. Amen. Preach it.

But it also in the book of James says we need to confess to one another.

Now sometimes that means go to the person you've hurt and confess. Of course, you should do that. But this isn't talking about it means you need a group of community around you that you could share. You could truly be known, that you share the darkest things you're struggling with. You could share that. You know what? I wanna move towards this. And you'll listen. They'll give you truth. No. I wouldn't move towards that. Or if you've already done it. Alright. Let us pray for you. And in book of James five verse 16, it says, and the prayer of the righteous can can do powerful things. And what the prayer it's talking about is they will pray for you. That's why we say get in community. People, I don't have time for community. So you have time to try to deal with all this pain. And you know what it says? Confessing to God gives us forgiveness.

It says there when we confess to one another's, we find healing. So God's plan a to get us pastored. So you're like, I confess to God, I've confessed to God, but I'm still stuck in this pain. I'm still stuck. Because you won't get into community. You won't it's like you're trying to move a piano by yourself.

You ever tried to move a piano by yourself? How much easier it is with eight people? A lot easier. And and and the truth is you need those people. It's never gonna work. It's why we say get into a small group. Get get rid of some of your schedule and do that because we desperately need that.

You need help moving the piano of sin and brokenness in your life, and it's only gonna work. A lot of us, well, it's never worked. I've been home. Have you ever got the level of truly being known? And having people around you that accept you and support you and pray for you and help help you? That's community.

Confess to God, but also confess to others. Get into real community. And then the other thing is you need to come close to the Lord, not the line. It goes back to my original thing.

Is you gotta decide in your heart, how am I really viewing my my life and my walk with God? Is it how do I play a game so I can get as close to what I want to with God or God giving me what I want? Is this a game

that I mess around with? Or is the commitment of my heart is go, I'm gonna try to come close to the Lord, not the line. Because the further you draw close to the Lord, you just you're naturally not near the line. Lean in to the Lord. Quit trying to flirt with the lines.

It's that simple because in end, bottom line, final thing.

At any given moment in anything all of us could be doing and we're doing exactly what my grandson Phoenix did at Christmas time.

We were at the in laws, so there's Christmas cookies everywhere and that's all he wanted to eat. And his mother was trying to get him to to eat

his healthy food. He didn't want to because he wanted to keep eating cookies which is what we often do. I can't do what God wants me to do and be the church because I'm too busy eating the cookies.

And so he kept saying, I want a cookie, I want a cookie. And she's like, no, you can't have a cookie. So his first answer was, where's Lolly? Lolly is my wife's grandma. She's Lolly. I'm pop. Aren't we adorable? Lolly pop. Although someone pointed out last night, you know that makes you suckers. Right?

And it's true. Especially my wife. She'll admit it. She went full grandma.

Because the reason he says, where's Lolly? Is he knows Lolly gives in and gives him stuff. So she's like, where's Lolly? I'll get in my and my wife's like, I love that he wants me in those moments. I go, know that makes you Satan in this story. Right?

Because what you're gonna come and say, did your mother really say you can't have a cookie? No. If you eat it of the cookie, you will you will know right from wrong, and you will be just like your mother.

You know, it's like it seems like forget that part. That has nothing to with the story. But anyways, where's Lolly? And she finally goes, no. That's not gonna work. And she goes, Phoenix, no one in this house is gonna tell you you can have a cookie. And he goes, hey, can I have a cookie? Yeah Phoenix, you can have a cookie.

And then he stared his mom in the face. Did I tell you he's three years old? Three years old. My daughter wouldn't give in but she did say inside she felt like, dang, I think I need to give him a cookie. I just got well played good sir. Well played.

He was only at three. He had already figured out, I'm gonna manipulate and rationalize my mother's words while ignoring my mother's heart. I'm gonna rationalize her words to get the cookie

in order to ignore her heart, which is you need to be healthy. I love you. You need to eat good food. You need to put this in your life. You need to do that. But he didn't want a cookie. So what he did is he took her very words. He said, alright. What I hear you saying is

all I need is someone to say I can have a cookie, and then I get a cookie. Ignored her heart, ignored the meaning, and just said, okay. So that's the loophole. So if all I need is someone to say I can have a cookie, guess what? I'm a someone. I'm a somebody, so I can say, hey, Phoenix, I can have a cookie. Therefore,

he just became like his mom. And that's the lie from the pit of hell that says you can ignore God, you can manipulate his words, be and ignore his heart because what you really want is you want your gosh darn cookie.

And you don't want what he wants, and you're gonna eat unhealthy. And what you don't realize is that cookie tastes good. But if you don't learn how to eat healthy, at some point, you're having a heart attack, and you are dying.

And that's because God loves you, and his mother was not being a mean jerk by not letting him have a cookie. God is not being a jerk when he asks you to eat your vegetables.

God is not being a jerk when he says, make disciples. God is not being a jerk when he says if you are a believer, you need to be a part of a church where you're in community, where you serve, and you use your giftedness, and you share of your finances to move the movement, to be able to help churches like Christ's culture. That's what we give for because we reach people. And God said, that's what I died to give you a life to do. And that's where you're gonna find life. And quit complaining about the cookie. Quit manipulating my words. Quit rationalizing.

Quit trying to get your cookie because then you're not gonna be in my love. And I love you too much to let you do that. And I say the same thing as God. I am loving you too much to not tell you that.

Look to go towards the Lord. Quit flirting with the lines. Because what you move towards today is going to make your tomorrow. What tomorrow do you want to have? Real contentment, peace, joy?

To hear someday the Lord himself say, well done, good and faithful servant?

What are you gonna do? Father God, I thank you, Lord. I thank you that you do love us enough to point us to the right way, that you died to give us a life. And that even when we resist, even when we go the way of lot, we start moving down this road where we think we're right, but we're not. You still love us.

So what I just pray a simple prayer for myself, everyone in this room, anyone watching, that we would see your goodness. We would surrender to your love. And then we would move towards you, not the lines. That we would confess and we would come close. Speak to each one of us about what that looks like

from today moving forward. I pray it in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen. Thanks for joining us online this weekend. Let us know if we can help you in any way. Make sure to follow us on social media and connect with us on the We Are Rock Point app for prayer and everything happening here at Rock Point.