Hello.
Two minutes.
Two fifty.
Hello.
Good evening.
Welcome to Verity.
Page 250.
Five zero.
Burdens are lifted at Calvary.
Days are filled with sorrow and care.
Ready.
Sing.
Days are filled with sorrow and care.
Hearts are lonely and weary.
Burdens are lifted at Calvary.
Jesus is very near.
Burdens are lifted at Calvary.
Calvary.
Burdens are lifted at Calvary.
Jesus is very near.
Cast your care on Jesus today.
Live your worry and fear.
Burdens are lifted at Calvary.
Jesus is very near.
Burdens are lifted at Calvary.
Calvary.
Burdens are lifted at Calvary.
Jesus is very near.
On the last troubled soul the Savior can see.
Every heartache and tear.
Burdens are lifted at Calvary.
Jesus is very near.
Burdens are lifted at Calvary.
Calvary.
Burdens are lifted at Calvary.
Jesus is very near.
Heavenly Father,
In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Son of God, the Son of God, the Son of God, the Son of God, the Son of God, the Son of God, the Son of God, the Son of God, the Son of God, the Son of God, the Son of God, the Son of God, the Son of God, the Son of God, the Son of God, the Son of God, the Son of God, the Son of God, the Son of God, the Son of God, the Son of God, the Son of God, the Son of God, the Son of God, the Son of God, the Son of God, the Son of God, the Son of God, the Son of God, the Son of God, the Son of God, the Son of God, the Son of God, the Son of God, the Son of God, the Son of God, the Son of God, the Son of God, the Son of God, the Son of God, the Son of God, the Son of God
the Son of God, the Son of God,
the Son of God,
the Son of God, the Son of God,
the Son of God,
the Son of God
in grace is my sight and now us magnified thy mercy which thou showed on
to me in saving my life and I cannot escape to the mound unless some evil take
me and I die behold now this city is near to flee unto and it is a little one
oh let me escape there there is it not a little one and my soul shall live and he
said I don't see I have accepted me concerning this thing also that I will
not overthrow the city for the which thou has spoken
haste the escape there therefore I cannot do anything till value come
together therefore the name of the city was called Zoar the Sun was risen upon
on the earth when Lot entered into Zoar.
Then the Lord reigned upon Sodom and Gomorrah,
and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire
from the Lord out of heaven,
and he overthrew those cities and all the plain
and all the inhabitants of the cities,
and that which grew upon the ground.
But his wife looked back from behind him,
and she became a pillar of salt.
And Abraham got up early in the morning
to the place where he stood before the Lord,
and he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah
and toward all the land of the plain,
and beheld, and lo, the smoke of the country
went up as the smoke of a furnace.
And it came to pass when God destroyed
the cities of the plain,
that God remembered Abraham and sent Lot
out of the midst of the overthrow,
when he overthrew the cities in which Lot dwelt.
And Lot went up out of Zoar and dwelt in the mountain,
and his two daughters with him,
for he feared to dwell in Zoar,
and he dwelt in a cave, he and his two daughters.
And the firstborn said unto the younger,
Our father is old, and there is not a man in the earth
to come in unto us after the manner of all the earth.
Come, let us make our father drink wine,
and we will lie with him,
that we may preserve seed of our father.
And they made their father drink wine that night,
and the firstborn went in and lay with her father,
and he perceived not when she lay down,
nor when she arose.
And it came to pass on the morrow
that the firstborn said unto the younger,
Behold, I lay yesternight with my father,
let us make him drink wine this night also,
and go thou in, and lie with him,
that we may preserve seed of our father.
And they made their father drink wine that night also,
and the younger arose and lay with him,
and he perceived not when she lay down, nor when she arose.
Thus were both the daughters of Lot
with child by their father.
And the firstborn bare a son and called his name Moab,
the same is the father of the Moabites unto this day,
and the younger, she also bare a son
and called his name Benami,
the same is the father of the children of Ammon
unto this day.
Let's open in a word of prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father,
thank you for allowing us to be here in your house
and ask you right now to just fill me with your spirit.
Please give me boldness and clarity to deliver your message
and say the things you would have me to say
and help us to be attentive to your word here this evening.
And we just pray this in Jesus name, amen.
So we're here in Genesis chapter 19,
and we do have one more sermon next week
on Genesis chapter 19.
But the name of the sermon is the result of a bad testimony,
the result of a bad testimony.
Now, that word testimony has a lot of different meanings
depending on who you talk to.
So I want to just kind of clear things up
before we even get into this.
Go to John chapter three,
and let me show you this verse.
John chapter three.
Because sometimes people will say,
well, you know, let's hear your testimony of salvation,
and somebody will just kind of stand up and say,
well, you know, I used to drink and I don't drink now, right?
I used to not go to church,
and now I go to church and things like that.
But when it comes to receiving a testimony
or testimony in parts of salvation,
it has nothing to do with my personal life or what I do.
Notice what it says in John three, verse 33.
John three, verse 33.
It says, he that hath received his testimony
hath said to his seal that God is true.
I mean, the Bible speaks about
to be saved receiving Jesus Christ,
as many as received him.
And when saying receiving his testimony,
saying receiving the testimony of the Lord,
meaning what do you believe about the life of Jesus Christ?
Do you believe that he died for us,
was buried, and rose again?
When you receive that testimony, you receive salvation.
It's that simple.
And you said to your seal that God is true
because you're sealed with the Holy Spirit of truth.
So the moment you get saved,
you receive the testimony of the Lord,
you're sealed with the Holy Spirit of truth, right?
So when it comes to a testimony as part of salvation,
what do you believe about Jesus Christ?
That's all it comes down to.
My personal testimony of salvation is
I used to believe in a work salvation.
Somebody explained the gospel.
I believed on Jesus.
I called upon him to save me.
That's my testimony of salvation, right?
But when people talk about testimony,
oftentimes they'll talk about how,
well, you know, I used to live a bad life
and now I live a good life.
And look, in terms of living for God,
there's nothing wrong with that.
I'm preaching about how to have a good testimony tonight
and not have a bad testimony,
but realize that has nothing to do with salvation.
What I'm saying, you know, the result of a bad testimony,
it has nothing to do with salvation
because Lot's a saved person.
He's a saved person who has a bad testimony.
And what I mean is people, if they talk about Lot,
they wouldn't say he's a Bible reader.
They wouldn't say that he's a soul winner.
They wouldn't say that he's serving God
or anything like that.
He had a bad testimony in his life
because he wasn't living a godly life, okay?
Now go back to Genesis 19, Genesis 19, Genesis 19.
Don't worry, if I have to turn off the sound,
I can just scream, I'm used to it, okay?
It'll be all right.
Genesis 19, so the result of a bad testimony,
point number one, I wanna talk about this.
The result of a bad testimony means you will have no impact
on the society that you live in.
No impact whatsoever if you have a bad testimony.
Genesis 19, verse five,
and they called on the Lot and said unto him,
where are the men which came into thee this night?
Bring them out unto us that we may know them.
Now we talked about last week, these are homosexuals,
they're sodomites saying, bring us these men
because we wanna be physically involved with them.
And Lot went out the door onto them
and shut the door after him and said,
I pray you brethren, and pray meaning basically to ask,
I'm asking you brethren.
He calls them brethren.
He calls the homosexuals his brethren.
Now I don't see myself calling vice-ponging my brother
anytime soon, right?
He said, I pray you brethren, do not so wickedly, right?
You know, please don't do this.
I mean, these are people that he knew,
he communicated with on a regular basis.
These are people that he liked, I mean, he got along with.
He's like, I'm asking you,
please don't do anything bad to them, right?
And behold now I have two daughters
which have not known man.
Let me I pray you bring them out onto you
and do you to them as is good in your eyes
only under these men do nothing
for therefore came they under the shadow of my roof.
So basically it says, you know what,
I'll just give you my daughters.
If you just need to be physically involved with someone,
I'll just throw my daughters out to the wolves so to speak.
Okay, this is a saved man.
This is why we can't look at somebody's personal actions
and their works to determine their salvation.
There are drunks that we will see in heaven.
There are drug addicts that we will see in heaven.
There's probably drug dealers we're gonna see in heaven.
I mean, there's people that live very sinful lives
that we're gonna see in heaven.
There are people that are doing a lot of really bad
and wicked things that we're gonna see in heaven.
Lot is by no means living a good life at all.
And they said, stand back and they said again,
this one fellow came into sojourn.
Now once again, to sojourn means
to live temporarily somewhere.
And so what these homosexuals are saying is,
hey, this guy came into sojourn.
He said he's just staying for six months or a year
or two years to just kind of save up money or whatever.
He came in for a time period and he will need to be a judge.
He thinks he can come to our town
and tell us what's right or wrong.
Look, all Lot said is don't molest these men, right?
I mean, it's not like he's saying, hey, you know what,
I think you should dress differently or anything like that
or listen to different types of music.
He's saying, hey, don't molest these men, right?
I mean, I think anybody can judge and say,
yeah, that's a pretty wicked thing to do, right?
Now we deal worse with thee than with them.
And they press sore upon the man even Lot
and came near to break the door.
So they're gonna do worse to Lot.
I mean, who knows what they're gonna do,
maybe murder him or whatever.
Now go to Matthew 11, Matthew 11, Matthew chapter 11.
Now, of course, it's obvious that Lot is a failure
when it comes to living a Christian life.
But one thing we need to remember about Sodom and Gomorrah
is it wasn't 100% filled with homosexuals.
I mean, obviously there were a lot
and the Bible speaks about that,
but not every single person was.
And of course, that's important
when we're looking at Matthew chapter 11,
because this is the main verse used to teach a false doctrine
and I'll show it to you here.
Matthew 11, verses 23 and 24.
And thou Capernaum, which art exalted onto heaven,
shall be brought down to hell,
for if the mighty works which have been done in thee
had been done in Sodom,
it would have remained until this day.
But I say in you that it should be more tolerable
for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for thee.
And so people turn to this passage and they say,
now, wait a minute, if all these good works
and mighty works were done in Sodom,
it would have never been destroyed.
And of course, that is what the Bible says.
And they use that passage and they say,
well, see, that proves homosexuals can get saved, right?
They use this to try to prove that.
No, hold on a second.
A couple of things to consider.
Number one, it's talking about a country at large.
It's not talking about an individual situation.
God himself said, if there's 10 saved people,
I'm not gonna destroy Sodom, right?
So, I mean, here's the thing.
I mean, it wouldn't matter if it was 90% homos.
I mean, if there was 10 saved people,
he wasn't destroying the city, right?
And I do believe that God had already made a decision,
it's so wicked I'm gonna destroy it,
but I'm just saying he had agreed with Abraham.
So here's the thing, even if there was a major sin,
if there was enough saved people,
God said, I'm not gonna destroy it,
even though there's this major sin, okay?
This is speaking to a country at large.
And here's the thing, if these mighty works were done,
there would have been people getting saved.
Not everybody was a reprobate.
There are people that were able to get saved.
Look, Lot was living in that town,
he could have gotten some people saved.
It wouldn't have been a big deal to have 10 people saved.
We don't know how long he lived there,
but I mean, it was for a long enough period of time
that he's respected in town.
I mean, if he gets one person saved every six months,
you're probably gonna get up to 10 pretty quickly, right?
And so this passage is used,
but this is not about an individual person,
it's about a country overall.
I mean, Nineveh was a wicked country,
but when they turned to God,
or at least some of the people did, I mean, what happens?
God didn't destroy it, okay?
Now go back to Genesis 18, Genesis 18, Genesis 18.
The other thing is this,
Genesis 19 is the end of how wicked they got.
Well, what about a hundred years before that, right?
Because when you look at countries,
I mean, look at our country.
I mean, a hundred years ago,
it's not like there were a lot of homos a hundred years ago.
So this statement from Matthew 11, it doesn't say,
well, in the time of Lot at that exact moment, right?
I mean, it could have been before that.
We're basically saying, hey,
here's a society that became very wicked, filled full of sin.
However, if the gospel had been really preached in that area,
it would have never gotten to that point, right?
That's the way, you know, when I read it,
I'm looking at Matthew chapter 11.
We're not looking at an individual case.
You certainly can't pull those verses out and say,
well, thus saith the Lord, because it's a country at whole.
It doesn't tell you the timeframe.
And what the Bible indicates is that
even in that wicked area,
some people would have gotten saved, right?
And there are just parts of this world
that are more receptive than other parts.
Look, if you look historically
at various countries of this world,
in some countries, the gospel just never caught on.
Never caught on.
Never caught on in Japan.
I mean, part of it's because the country banned Christianity
from Japan for quite a while,
but there's just certain countries that it never caught on.
I mean, traditionally, Asian countries,
not really the Philippines, but other Asian countries,
Christianity never really caught on
in a lot of Asian countries.
It never caught on in these Buddhist countries
and these Hindu countries.
I mean, it just didn't catch on
like it did to other parts of the world, right?
There are just certain parts of the world
because of the culture, because of the beliefs,
the false religions, or whatever the case, or the sin.
For whatever reason, it doesn't catch on as much.
However, the Bible is saying,
Sodom was an area that people would have actually gotten saved
if these mighty works were done.
And Jesus is using that to say,
hey, here is a very wicked area.
However, you're worse
because you had opportunities to hear the gospel.
You had opportunities for the truth
and you rejected it, right?
Now, a couple of things to keep in mind,
and I'm not preaching a whole sermon
on the reprobate doctrine,
but when I'm preaching a sermon like this,
it's important to kind of lay the foundation.
When you read throughout the Bible
and you're looking at people
that are children of the devil or reprobates,
the vast majority are not homosexuals.
There's no indication that Balaam was a homosexual.
There's no indication that Cain was a homosexual.
And Balaam represents the false prophet
that's after covetousness, like all about money.
And what you need to realize
is that just because somebody's a reprobate,
that doesn't mean that they're a homo, okay?
People try to make them the exact same
and then you'll show somebody
doing all of these wicked works.
They did this and this and this.
Well, they can't be a reprobate
because they're not a homo.
Well, that's not the same thing though, right?
There are people that choose to reject God
because of their hatred for the violence
that was done to them as a child.
And then they go down that same road oftentimes
of being a homo.
But there's other people that just grow up
in a false religion, like Islam or Mormonism.
And they just decide, I believe this with all my heart.
I reject what the Bible says.
And they become a reprobate by a different means.
It's very likely they're never gonna go down that road
of that sort of sexual perversion, right?
And so I want you to realize this,
that in the book of Genesis 19, it's a unique case
because it is a society filled with this specific sin.
It's obviously become an infestation,
but not every reprobate in the Bible is a homo, okay?
And sometimes people get confused on that
because we preach so hard against the vice pangnits
that people think that we're saying they're one and the same
but that's actually not what I'm saying.
What the Bible says is that a person when they reject God,
however the method is that they reject God,
whatever hatred they have, serial killer like Ted Bundy
only attacked women, only attacked women.
Obviously something was done to him as a kid
because of women, which what I've heard is his mom said
that she was his sister and then he was very angry
towards women about that.
But basically that shows he had hatred
toward that group of people because of things that happened
and then that's kind of the direction he went down.
But no matter what way you become a reprobate
or why you reject God or what happened
to influence that decision,
once you do that, your conscience is seared.
Now, depending on what road you went down,
you're probably not gonna get into various things
that others might get into,
but your mind is completely seared.
Your conscience is seared.
You have no guilt about doing wrong
and you're fully just, you know,
whatever it is that you're into,
just fully gonna go down the road.
If it's a false prophet,
you're gonna fight to the bitter end with your doctrine
or whatever that is.
But in Genesis chapter 19, as I said, it's a unique case.
Okay, now go to Genesis 18 actually, Genesis 18.
Genesis 18.
But here's what we do teach though.
If somebody starts just basically diving into unnatural sins
and that is the lust of their heart
and that's what their desire.
And you know what, the easy way to look at it
is with sexual perversion,
simply because you know what, that's something,
especially in our society today,
you see this all the time and everything.
But look, it would be an unnatural desire
for someone to wanna kill people like serial killers, right?
That's a weird thing to take enjoyment,
to torture other people and things like that.
That shows that their mind and conscience
is just seared, okay?
What we do teach though is that if someone
just is a full blown homosexual,
they said, you know, I'm a homo.
I'm not saying somebody who got molested as a kid
and got confused for a little while or whatever.
Obviously there can be some gray area situations.
But if someone says, you know what, I am a homo.
I lust after people from the same gender.
I'm not interested in those of the other gender
and everything.
What we teach is that shows an unnatural desire,
which shows it's a byproduct, a cause and effect
that they've been rejected by God.
They have that unnatural desire.
What you're seeing in Genesis 19
is people that have that unnatural desire.
What we're not saying though is that every single person
that's a reprobate is a homo.
And what we're also not saying is that the blood of Jesus
doesn't cover that sin because the Bible says
he died for the sins of the whole world.
Jesus died for every single sin in the world
and paid for every single sin.
What we're saying though is those people
have already been rejected.
They're never gonna change their mind and believe on Jesus.
To get saved you must change your mind and believe on Jesus.
But when your conscience is seared,
you're never gonna feel guilty.
And if you never feel guilty,
you're never gonna say that you need a savior, right?
And so once somebody's conscience is seared,
they can never get saved.
There's no return.
That's the way it is, okay?
In Genesis 19, a large group of this society
had already gone down that direction
and you can see it with this desire
to just harm these innocent men
that have done nothing to them.
Genesis 18 verse 32.
And I know we read this before, let's just be reminded.
Genesis 18 verse 32.
And he said, oh let not the Lord be angry
and I will speak yet but this once.
Peradventure 10 shall be found there.
And he said, I will not destroy for 10 sakes.
So there's God saying to Abraham,
if 10 saved people are in all of Sodom,
I'm not gonna destroy it.
That's a really low number.
We have more than 10 people saved in this room, right?
I mean, 10's a really, really low number
of requirement for people to be saved.
And the Lord went his way
as soon as he had left communion with Abraham
and Abraham returned onto his place.
Now, go to 1 Corinthians 9.
1 Corinthians 9 in your New Testament.
So how is it that there were not 10 saved people?
Well, because Abraham, or I mean, not Abraham,
but Lot had no impact on his society that he lived in.
See, there's this idea from people
that if you wanna reach really sinful people,
you gotta kinda meet them halfway, right?
You can't criticize them for their beliefs.
You can't say anything bad.
If you wanna reach the world,
you gotta be like the world, right?
You wanna reach people that listen to rock music,
you better listen to Christian rock.
I mean, meet them halfway.
Isn't that what they say?
I mean, a church like ours could never survive in 2022.
That's what they say.
This sort of preaching,
I mean, you're never gonna reach the next generation.
You're never gonna reach the people that are young.
This sort of preaching just doesn't work in 2022
because society is too far gone.
I would say the opposite.
I would say there's a lot of people that look at this world
and in the same lame preaching from every church,
and they're like, this is nothing.
This doesn't make sense.
And then they hear this kind of preaching.
It's like, man, this sounds like the truth.
This seems right.
Now look, this kind of preaching, when you first hear it,
there might be a few things where it's like,
man, I don't know about that.
That seems a little bit overboard,
seems a little bit extreme,
but then you hear it, you're like, well,
this is certainly makes a lot more sense
than what I'm hearing in the world.
And then you start hearing it,
you realize this is actually not strange at all.
And you start reading the Bible
and your eyes are just opened up
I mean, you've read the Bible,
but then all of a sudden you start hearing this preaching
and it's like, the veil comes off your eyes
and you realize, man, I mean, this is what Christianity is.
This is what the Old Testament was believing
in the true God, this kind of preaching.
This is why they tried to kill all the prophets.
The message they preach, they preach hard against sin.
It's like, man, this makes sense.
If you wanna reach the world,
you don't have to be like the world.
Be different than the world.
In fact, what we see is that Lot is just like the world.
He doesn't reach the world.
Genesis, or not Genesis, but 1 Corinthians 9, verse 20.
1 Corinthians 9, verse 20.
And unto the Jews I became as a Jew
that I might gain the Jews.
To them that are under the law is under the law
that I might gain them that are under the law.
To them that are without the law is without law
being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,
that I might gain them that are without law.
To the weak became I as weak that I might gain the weak.
I made all things to all men
that I might by all means save some.
And this I do for the gospel's sake
that I might be partaker thereof with you.
Now people will look at this passage,
and they'll say, well see,
Paul said I became a Jew to the Jews.
Therefore, I wanna get my friends saved.
They go out and drink.
I'm just gonna go to the bar with them,
because I gotta be like them to reach them.
Where in this passage does Paul ever say
to the sinner, I just started sinning?
To the drunk, I became as a drunk.
When he's saying to the Jew, I became as,
he's just saying he tried to fit in
with the culture that he lived in.
He didn't try to stand out and be strange.
He tried to fit in.
It's not justifying or advocating living a sinful life.
And like how far are you gonna take that sort of belief?
Because people say, well, I'll go to a bar
and just hang out with people getting drunk.
I just won't drink because I wanna reach them.
How are you gonna reach them when they're drunk?
How are you gonna preach the gospel
to your friend at the bar when he's drunk?
I mean, when I go soul winning
and I run into someone who's drunk,
I just politely say, hey,
we'd love to have you come to church
because they're not gonna get saved if they're drunk.
I mean, this happened to me just on Sunday
when I was going soul winning.
And sometimes you're going soul winning
and we went to, what is it?
Iskennita, is that what you call it?
And Iskennita, so it's like, it's super magolo.
We had a bunch of people and we're all splitting up
and talking to people.
And then I ran into this guy
that was just a little bit too friendly in the street.
And he's like, yeah, come talk to me and my friends.
We work at call center.
And he asked me over and over again,
are you an American or are you British?
And I told him many times American,
but he didn't remember, right?
And so then all of a sudden he's like,
oh, come talk to my friends.
So then I was like, well,
I don't know if this is a good idea.
So I'm kind of going outside the Iskennita
to go up to the house.
And then all of a sudden there's three of them there.
And then, you know, I could see like red horse
and like they're drinking and everything.
And I just said, la sing bakayo.
And they're like, he's like, oh.
I was like, all right, well, have a nice day.
You say, why?
I'm not gonna reach the drunk when he's drunk.
No, I'm gonna try to reach that guy when he's not drunk.
If he wasn't drunk, I'd try to preach the gospel.
And in fact, with that guy,
I knew there was something wrong with him.
I mean, actually I thought he was crazy.
It turns out he was just drunk, I guess.
But you know, if his friends hadn't been drunk,
I'd try to preach the gospel
because there'd be somebody who was sober.
But what I'm saying is how are you gonna reach people
that are doing that while they're doing it?
Instead, act different and your light can actually shine.
So you know what, they'll at least be like,
why don't you do this?
I'm not saying they're gonna come towards you
and just say, okay, well, I wanna quit drinking too.
What I'm saying is they'll realize that you're different.
But if you're acting just like them
and then you try to bring up the Bible,
why would I listen to you
when you do the same thing as me, right?
Whereas if you actually stand out and you're different,
then they might actually listen to you
because they might actually respect you and say,
well, hey, you know, you actually follow what you,
you know, you practice what you preach.
It's different.
And I remember, you know, when I was newly saved
and I'd hear a lot of people say this
and there's truth to it.
And obviously real Bible Christianity
is different than what people think it is, you know,
but they'd say, well, you know what?
You Christians do the exact same things that we do.
People that were in college that were getting drunk
and doing all this stuff.
Anyway, a lot of that was true.
I was in these Christian groups when I first got saved
and many of them are going out and doing the same things
that everybody else is doing, right?
And unfortunately that gives a bad light to all of us,
even when they're not Christian at all
and they have nothing to do with us, right?
What I'm saying is this, if you wanna reach the world,
actually just stand up for what God says.
We reach them as we go soul winning
and the people in your personal life,
even if they disagree with you and whatever,
and they don't wanna listen to you,
here's what's gonna happen.
When they fall on rough times
because the alcohol destroys their life,
you might actually be the person that they turn to
because they're thinking, man,
maybe I've been lied to about all this.
Maybe what I'm doing is wrong.
They might actually listen to you.
But you know what?
If you're just a drunk like them,
they're not gonna listen to you.
The personal experience proves everything I'm saying,
but the Bible does too, because they reach these people.
They reach groups of people,
not by living the same sinful life as them,
but by actually being different.
I'm pretty sure the 12 apostles
lived pretty separated lives and reached a lot of people.
I'm pretty sure a lot didn't live a separated life at all
and reached nobody.
Go to Genesis 18, Genesis 18, Genesis 18.
I mean, if Abraham had gone to Sodom and Gomorrah,
you know what?
Sodom probably would have lasted.
You say, why?
He probably would have gotten some people saved.
I mean, if mighty works were done there,
if Abraham had gone in
and just started setting up a soul winning plan,
I'm gonna go every single week
and just started getting people saved,
you know what?
I think that it would have lasted.
I think there are people ready to get saved.
And look, when you live in a society
that is really sinful like that,
a lot of people look,
and there was a lot of people I'm sure
that lived in Sodom and thought,
you know what, there's something wrong with us.
Because people in today's world,
there's plenty of people here in the Philippines
that look at what's going on
and we're like, what is wrong with the world?
Unsaved people feel that way, right?
It's not just us that are Bible-leading Christians.
Many just normal people look at the things going on,
they think it's disgusting and filthy.
Hey, it's not like it was when I was a kid.
That's what a lot of people think.
Genesis 18, verse 20.
Genesis 18, verse 20, and this is what the Lord said.
And the Lord said,
because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great
and because their sin is very grievous,
I will go down now and see whether they have done
all together according to the cry of it,
which has come unto me.
And if not, I will know.
Now look, when Abraham's hearing this,
I kind of wonder if Abraham surprised himself
because it's like, is it really that bad?
Because I mean, obviously he knows his nephew's there.
I don't know that Abraham and Lot
were really staying in communication with each other.
I think it's kind of hard to tell.
Obviously there's no cell phones, internet,
things like that.
What I'm saying is this,
like I think Abraham was kind of surprised
like it's being destroyed,
because his reaction is just like,
you're going to destroy the righteous with the wicked?
You shouldn't do that, God, it's too harsh.
But he doesn't realize how bad it actually is.
Now turn to Ezekiel 22, Ezekiel 22, Ezekiel 22.
Ezekiel 22.
Ezekiel 22 verse 30.
And I saw for a man among them
that should make up the hedge
and stand in the gap before me for the land
that I should not destroy it, but I found none.
Look, this is a sad verse in the Bible
where God states he's looking for a person
to just stand up for the truth, preach the truth,
do the right thing, and I couldn't find anybody.
And if God spoke about Genesis 19 and Sodom and Gomorrah,
he'd say, you know what?
I'm looking at Sodom and Gomorrah,
I got a man who saved over here a lot,
but I can't find a single person to stand in the hedge
and make up the gap and do what's right.
None, right?
Look, people move and live in different areas
all around the world.
Wherever you live, you should decide,
you know what, I want to have an impact on that society.
I'm gonna be the person, the man or the woman,
who just stands up and does right.
If nobody else is doing the truth, I'm going to.
If nobody else is going soul winning,
I'm gonna go soul winning.
If the whole world becomes sinful and is worldly,
I am not going to because I'm gonna stand in the gap.
But that was not a lot.
He's a man who lived just like the world
and he had no impact, no impact on Sodom and Gomorrah,
none whatsoever.
Go to John four, John four, John four.
John chapter four is a famous story where
basically Jesus gets this woman saved
who had lived a pretty bad life
and she had done a lot of wrong things.
And basically she's shocked when he knows
all this information, but notice what it says
in John four, verse 28, John four, verse 28.
The woman left her water pot and went away into the city
and saith to the men, come see a man
which told me all things that ever I did.
Is not this the Christ?
I mean, she gets saved and then she just goes up to people
and says, hey, you know what?
He told me everything I ever did.
Now, people knew who this woman was.
She was kind of known in society.
But he's saying, you know what?
He realized that I was guilty and I did all of these things.
Listen to this man, this is the Christ, right?
And she's just saying, hey, I just got saved
and then she's trying to reach her society.
Go to verse 39, verse 39, verse 39.
And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him
for the saying of the woman was testified,
he told me all that ever I did.
So when the Samaritans would come on to him,
they just sought him that he would tarry with him
and he abode there for two days.
And many more believed because of his own word.
And said unto the woman, now we believe not
because of thy saying, for we have heard him ourselves
and know that this is indeed the Christ,
the Savior of the world.
Say, what's the difference between this woman and Lot?
Here's the difference.
They knew for a long time what Lot believed
or the God that he believed in.
And they knew Lot to be a man who believed in his God
but didn't really follow anything that God said.
This woman on the other hand,
she's done a lot of bad things,
but then all of a sudden she gets saved
and it's kind of a surprise to them because,
whoa, we've never heard her talk like this before.
Completely different.
Lot on the other hand, they know who he believes in,
which God he believes, and they know where he came from,
his ethnicity and things like that.
So I'm sure they knew that he believes
in the Hebrew God and everything.
But here's Lot who's just living a sinful life
and then they don't want to hear anything from him.
And here's the thing, what Christians do
when they're too afraid to just stand up and do what's right
they'll still say, well, I'm a Baptist if people ask them.
But they just kind of do it in a shy way and everything.
Well, a couple of years later,
when you've been working there for two years as a Baptist
and never doing anything different.
Laughing at the same dirty jokes everyone else does.
Saying nothing when people use the Lord's name in vain
and everything, they're going to think
that you don't really take your Christianity that seriously.
Because for two years they've been around you
and you haven't taken it seriously.
So why would they expect,
and then if you start taking it seriously now,
it's just like, you know, come on, right?
You've been a Christian for years
and you're living just like us.
You know, I'm not going to listen to you.
Now what's different is this woman,
she just gets saved and she's excited
and they're like, whoa, right?
Now turn in your Bible to Genesis 19, Genesis 19.
Why couldn't Lot reach this society?
Well, I mean, he's sitting in the gate of Sodom.
I mean, he's obviously, you know, mingled with the people.
I mean, he's willing to pass over their sin.
I mean, he offers his daughters to them.
That's the sort of testimony that Lot has.
Now, of course, this is the worst that we see of Lot.
What I'm saying is his whole life,
when he's living in Sodom and Gomorrah,
he's not doing anything right,
so why would they listen to him about the Bible?
Now, of course, the homos
aren't going to listen to him anyway,
but I'm saying the rest of the society,
because there's plenty of people in Sodom
that he could have reached with the gospel, but he didn't.
You say, why?
Because he, like everybody else,
just approved of the sin that was there,
said nothing about it,
and so nobody wanted to listen to him, right?
No impact on the society.
Point number one, Lot had no impact on the society,
and the second point, actually our final point, is this.
He had no impact on his family
and the people that were close to him.
Not only did he not reach society,
he didn't reach his actual family that was close to him,
and this is important because people have this sort of idea,
well, I want to reach my Catholic relatives,
so I'm going to go to the graves on All Saints Day
and just basically approve of this pagan thing
that they're doing, which is wrong,
because I want to reach my Catholic relatives.
Well, I mean, does Lot do a good job reaching his family
with this sort of technique of approving
of the things that they're doing that are wrong?
Look at what it says in Genesis 19, verse three.
And he pressed upon them greatly,
and they turned in onto him and entered into his house,
and he made them a feast and did bake unleavened bread,
and they did eat.
Now, the first thing I've mentioned before,
the first thing we see in Genesis 19,
is that Lot's wife is just pretty much gone from the picture.
This is not a very functional family.
I mean, late at night, she's not around and everything,
and it just kind of shows that their marriage
and everything is just a mess.
Look, if you're living in Sodom and Gomorrah
and living like Sodom and Gomorrah and living in sin,
you're not going to have a good marriage.
You're not going to have a good family.
Everything's going to be a failure, right?
And we see this as we develop this chapter,
and as I preach, Lot's wife has no respect for him at all.
None whatsoever, right?
Verse eight.
Behold now I have two daughters which have not known man.
Let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you,
and do ye to them as is good in your eyes,
only unto these men do nothing,
for therefore came they under the shadow of my roof.
Well, I mean, it's pretty hard for a wife
to respect her husband when he offers their daughters
to these rabid homos that want to molest, right?
I mean, just think if your wife and your husband
just allowed your kids to just whatever happened,
I mean, you wouldn't have any respect for them.
Now, of course, this is an extreme example,
but I'm sure that Lot's done many things
that are not exactly godly if he goes to this extreme.
Because I read this in Genesis 19, verse eight,
and it shocks me every time I read it.
How could a father offer his daughters, right?
I mean, that's crazy.
I mean, I could see Lot offering himself,
but I can't imagine a parent offering their kids.
You say, why would Lot, I mean,
obviously Lot is just a very selfish person
at this point in his life.
He only cares about himself.
He wanted to go to Sodom and Gomorrah
because it was beautiful, lots of money and everything.
No love, no care at all for his family.
I mean, just offers his daughters.
Of course your wife's not gonna respect you
if that's the sort of person you are.
I mean, if that's the sort of leader you are for your home,
why would your wife respect you, right?
I promise you, there's no wives in this room
that are gonna respect their husbands
if they're gonna do something so wicked and so vile.
So of course his wife doesn't respect him.
Now, this is not to say that Lot's wife's a great person
because we see what happens during this chapter.
I'm just saying, well, you're gonna be the leader
in your home, Lot, and you're doing this.
No impact on his family.
Why?
Because of the way you're living.
You can't get your wife to follow you
because of the way you live.
You live in a sinful life.
Verse 12, and the men said unto Lot,
hast thou here any besides,
son-in-law and thy sons and thy daughters,
and whatsoever thou hast in the city?
Bring them out of this place,
for they will destroy this place
because the cry of them was waxing great
before the face of the Lord,
and the Lord hath sent us to destroy it.
So Lot is basically told, hey, it's gonna be destroyed.
You just do everything you can this night.
Get as many people saved as you can.
Get them to come with you.
Get them to leave the city with you, right?
Basically, he's being told, hey, you know what?
You got less than 24 hours.
You better get the job done.
I mean, imagine if God told you
that this place will be destroyed in 12 hours.
Basically, when you wake up the next day, you gotta go.
Right now, obviously, it's already nighttime now,
but I'm saying, let's say you get this message
during the day.
You're gonna do everything you can
to get your family to come
and just frantically try to tell them,
hey, you must believe this.
You know, this is what God said.
Well, that's what Lot does.
He's desperate.
Verse 14, and Lot went out and spake unto his sons-in-law,
which married his daughters.
Now, let me just say this.
I do not believe these daughters are the same daughters
as were earlier in the chapter,
because the daughters earlier, he said,
have not known a man.
Whether he actually believes they're virgins or not,
because I don't believe they're virgins
based on what they do at the end of Genesis 19, personally.
But here's the thing.
I mean, he wouldn't say, hey, they've not known a man
if they're married, because they'd say,
what are you talking about?
They're married, right?
These are different daughters.
So Lot has at least four daughters, perhaps more.
There were specifically two daughters later in Genesis 19,
but here what it talks about is his sons-in-law.
So at least two sons-in-law, at least two daughters,
outside of the other two.
So at least four daughters overall.
And Lot went out and spake unto his sons-in-law,
which married his daughters, and said,
up, get you out of this place,
for the Lord will destroy this city.
So he says, we need to go.
God's gonna destroy this city.
But he seemed as one that mocked unto his sons-in-law.
I mean, his sons-in-law are like, yeah,
I know you believe in that religion thing,
but you do the same thing we do.
You drink just like we do.
And now you're gonna talk about the Lord?
I mean, come on, we know you're not real spiritual.
Why are you pretending to be spiritual?
Why are we gonna trust what you say?
Of course he has no impact on his family
because he's living just like them.
I mean, he gets drunk just like they get drunk.
He's worldly just like they're worldly.
He approves of sin.
So I mean, why would they listen to him?
They don't listen to him.
And they think like he's making a big joke.
They don't take him seriously.
It's like, ha ha, that's funny, law.
I mean, they literally think he's just telling them a joke.
It's like just like an April Fool's joke
or something like that.
He seemed as one that mocked.
It's like, come on, you expect us to believe that?
We know that you don't really believe in this.
We know that you're not like your uncle Abraham.
Come on, law, we know who you are.
We've been around you.
It's just like, you know what?
We've been around you for years.
You've never been spiritual before.
And it's just like, you know what?
Why would I trust your opinion on spiritual things
when you're not spiritual yourself?
And look, it's just common sense.
If you're not spiritual,
why would people wanna listen to you about spiritual things?
Right?
Verse number 15.
And when the morning arose,
then the angels hastened Lot saying,
Arise, take thy wife.
Now hasten means to basically try to hurry up Lot.
They're like, take thy wife
and thy two daughters which are here,
lest they'll be consumed in the iniquity of the city.
Look, if I was told that, you know what?
This place is being destroyed the next day,
I would leave bright and early, right?
Wake up early and get out of there.
But Lot's just kind of lingering.
His family's just kind of lingering.
And while he lingered, the men laid hold upon his hand
and upon the hand of his wife
and upon the hand of his two daughters.
So basically, the angels just take him
and get him to leave
because otherwise he's just hanging there.
It's being destroyed.
And then it says, the Lord being merciful unto him.
Now, why are they merciful unto him?
Well, because of Abraham.
We saw that before.
We see that later on in this chapter.
And they brought him forth and set him without the city.
Without the city means away from the city
as it's gonna be destroyed.
Basically, far away from the destruction
that's gonna take place, okay?
He's outside the city now.
And it came to pass when they had brought them forth abroad
that he said, escape for thy life.
Look not behind me.
Neither stay thou in all the plain.
Escape to the mountain lest thou be consumed.
And Lot said unto them, O not so, my Lord.
Behold now thy servant hath found grace in thy sight
and thou hast magnified thy mercy
which thou has showed unto me and saved my life.
And I cannot escape to the mountain
lest some evil take me and I die.
I mean, God specifically told you
and these angels specifically tell you what to do
and now you're trying to say no, right?
I don't wanna go to that mountain.
It's like, who are you to try to talk to God
and try to change his mind?
I mean, the Bible says, you know, none can stay his hand.
That's what Nebuchadnezzar says in Daniel chapter four.
It's like, God's already determined this is taking place
and then you're saying, well, you know,
we don't wanna go to that mountain.
Behold now this city is near to flee unto
and it is a little one.
Oh, let me escape thither.
Is it not a little one?
And my soul shall live.
And he said unto him,
see, I've accepted thee concerning this thing also
that I will not overthrow this city
for the which thou has spoken.
And God allows him to do this,
but we see just a few verses later,
a lot has to flee that area
because it's not actually a good area, right?
I mean, God allows him to do this,
but honestly, you know what?
When you're living a sinful life,
sometimes God just gives you what you want.
That's the truth.
If you're living a sinful life,
sometimes God just gives you what you deserve.
Well, I'm not gonna go to that city.
I'm not gonna do what you said.
God, it's too far.
I can't listen to your instruction.
Well, then just do whatever you want then.
It's all right.
I've accepted thee.
Just do what you want.
We'll see what happens, right?
I mean, sometimes God gives you what you deserve.
Now, here's the thing.
When you're serving God and doing right,
God helps you not make mistakes
if you make bad choices, right?
If you're not sure what direction to go in life,
I believe God's gonna guide you
and lead you on that path.
But with people like God, it's just like,
okay, you wanna make a bad decision?
Go for it.
It's not like you ever listened to me
or cared about what I said anyway.
I mean, I'm just fulfilling what Abraham wanted.
You're not gonna be killed, okay?
But I'll just give you what you want
and it's not gonna be good for you.
Haste thee, escape thither,
for I cannot do anything till thou become thither.
Therefore, the name of the city was called Zoar.
In saying, I can't do anything,
I can't fully destroy this
because you need to just get out of here.
The sun was risen upon the earth
when Lot entered into Zoar.
Then the Lord rained upon Sodom
and upon Gomorrah,
brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven.
Now, on a side point,
verse 24 actually gives us a peek at the Trinity
because the Lord rained upon Sodom
and upon Gomorrah, brimstone and fire from the Lord.
So the Lord rains from the Lord,
indicating, of course, there's three persons in the Godhead.
And so the person who actually makes
this actual destruction,
I guess could be the Son of God or whatever,
but basically the Lord rains from the Lord, right?
So you see many times in Genesis,
we'll mention basically multiple persons in the Godhead.
So that's kind of a side point.
You can look at that in your free time.
But verse 25,
and he overthrew those cities and all the plain
and all the inhabitants of the cities
and that which grew upon the ground.
But his wife looked back from behind him
and she became a pillar of salt.
Well, I mean, here's the thing.
Maybe if he had just done what God said
and just gotten way away from the areas being destroyed,
your wife wouldn't have looked back.
But when you're staying close to Sodom,
your heart can kind of just kind of look,
and you know, and then she gets destroyed.
Why didn't you just do what God said, right?
Now, what I believe about her becoming a pillar of salt,
and I'm not going to go there for sake of time.
I have before is, and talked about it,
is the fact that we are the salt of the earth.
I mean, there's a reason why she became a pillar of salt.
She doesn't become a pillar of, you know,
pepper or Toyo or whatever, right?
She becomes a pillar of salt
and it's because we are the salt of the earth.
And it's kind of like a reminder,
hey, Lot, your job was to,
because salt is a preservative.
It's used to preserve food.
When they go on ships, they'd put salt on meat
and it would last for a very long time.
We preserve the earth based on how we live our lives.
And if there was 10 people saved in Sodom and Gomorrah,
it would have been preserved.
So it's kind of like a reminder there about,
hey, you know what?
We're supposed to preserve the earth, right?
And his wife becomes a pillar of salt.
This is how she dies.
She looks back behind him.
And look, we need to be reminded of Lot's wife
because the New Testament even says,
remember Lot's wife.
It's something that's important to God that we remember.
And the analogy we can have is this,
that you can't go back and look at your life
of worldliness and sin and just say,
well, you know, my heart is kind of this direction
to serve God and it's kind of this direction,
you know, of the sins of my past or whatever.
You got to just decide to flee your sin
and go without the city, as God said, right?
You can't just look back.
And look, we've all made mistakes.
We've all done things that are wrong.
We've all had things in the past that took our attention
away from the right things.
We can't just focus on those things in life.
We need to move on, go without the city.
Verse 27, and Abraham got up early in the morning
to the place where he stood before the Lord.
And he looked towards Sodom and Gomorrah
and toward all the land of the plain and be held.
And lo, the smoke of that country went up
as the smoke of a furnace.
And it came to pass when God destroyed the cities
of the plain, that God remembered Abraham
and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow
when he overthrew the cities in which Lot dwelt.
The only reason why Lot is spared
and the only reason why God allows Lot to be obnoxious,
just complaining the whole time,
is because he cares about Abraham.
And Abraham basically spares Lot because Abraham is godly.
Now look, it's interesting to me
that Abraham cares more about the society being saved
than Lot does.
Abraham doesn't even live there.
And you know, sometimes, you know, I've seen this,
you know, when you're at a church like ours,
we do a lot of soul-winning and everything,
and we have a desire to get churches started, you know,
all over Luzon, right, to get, send people out,
to start churches and everything.
And you know, what's interesting is,
sometimes people like us,
we have more of a burden for those areas
than people that are saved that live in those areas.
I mean, I've always told people this,
if you wanna get a like-minded church started in your area,
step number one, have a group of people
that just go soul-winning every week together.
Step number one, because here's the thing,
if there's a need, God's gonna fill it.
We started a church recently in Bekul,
and we started it because there was a need.
I mean, we just kind of sponsored a few soul-winning events.
We just kind of paid for their lunch
and everything like that,
but a lot of people going soul-winning,
and then just faithfully all the time going soul-winning,
it's like, well, there's a need.
It's just like, all right, we'll start the church.
It's not like I had this personal desire.
I just can't wait to get a church started in Bekul.
I've never been to Bekul.
I like to visit.
I've heard it's nice and everything, but I've never been.
Starting a new church just means more work.
I mean, it's not like it makes life easier
or anything like that, but why do we do it?
There's a need.
Why do we start the church here?
There is a need.
There are families ready for it.
That's the template for how we're gonna start
other churches in the future.
Hey, if there's a group of people,
if there's families and people ready,
then hey, that could be an area to start a church.
But sometimes, people that don't live in the areas
care more about it than people that do live in the areas.
I mean, it's amazing to me,
whenever new churches like ours get started,
you know, there's all these like-minded, new IFB people,
and then many times, the church gets started in the area,
and these people that have been praying for a church,
it's like-minded, they listen to all the sermons online,
the church gets started, they stop coming after a month.
It's like, you've been listening online for years.
And then the church gets started,
because they're not actually looking for a church.
It's a lot easier just to look online at YouTube, right?
I mean, this always happens.
Every single church, you know, we started our church,
and our first day, our first service, we had 40 people,
which was a bit of an artificial high
because of the fact there was people
that were just visiting from out of the country,
that wanted to support the first day and everything.
But we would have like in the high 20s
for our services around 30 or low 30,
somewhere around there for the first, you know,
several months of our church and everything like that.
And it's just like, but you know, here's the thing,
there's some people that were just really excited
for the church, and then they're just kind of gone
after a couple of weeks and everything.
Right, I mean, I can think of many families, you know,
where it's just like, man,
because I was thinking in my head kind of naively,
like, man, we're going to have a really strong attendance.
And then all of a sudden, it's just all these people just.
It's like, you've been listening online for years
and praying for this church,
and then it starts, and then you just give up on it
after a couple of weeks.
It doesn't make sense to me.
But what I've found is that oftentimes people
are more excited for the church and the great work
to be done that don't live in the area.
And the people that are saved that live in the area,
they don't care that much, right?
That's what we see with Abraham and Lot.
Verse 30, and Lot went up out of Zoar
and dwelt in the mountain and his two daughters with him,
for he feared to dwell in Zoar,
and he dwelt in the cave, he and his two daughters.
And the firstborn said unto the younger,
our father is old, and there is not a man in the earth
to come in unto us after the manner of all the earth.
Now, here's the thing.
According to his daughters,
they believe that the whole world's been destroyed
because they say there's not a man in the earth.
I mean, Lot, you didn't even tell your family
what was going on.
You're just running.
You didn't stop to tell them, hey, you know what?
God's going to destroy this area
because this area is really wicked.
But actually around the world,
it's not filled with all these homeless.
It's just here in Sodom and Gomorrah.
He doesn't even stop to tell his daughters.
No wonder you have no impact on your daughters.
No wonder everything else happens in Genesis 19.
You didn't even stop to tell them what was going on.
They have no idea, right?
I mean, his daughters have no idea.
They say there's not a man in the earth.
I mean, God was very clear.
He's just destroying this area, but they have no idea.
They think the world's been destroyed.
They think it's like Noah's Ark part two.
Like we're the most righteous people in the world.
I mean, that's what they think.
It's like, man, do you ever even have a conversation
with your daughters?
You haven't even told them what's going on?
Or you just offer your daughters to the wolves, right?
It's like, it's crazy.
He didn't even tell them.
They say there's not a man in the earth.
Verse 32, we'll end at this verse.
I wanted to show you one other thing.
Come let us make our father drink wine
and we will lie with him
that we may preserve the seed of our father.
Well, let me ask you a question.
Where did he get the wine from?
Did he stop at a 7-Eleven?
Did he stop at a grocery store?
I don't think there's any grocery stores along the way.
I mean, a couple of possibilities.
One, you either brought wine with you
or you quickly made it.
Probably you just brought it with you.
We're talking about holding onto your sin.
What a shock he has no impact on society or his family.
You don't even tell your daughters what's going on.
I don't think his wife fully knew what was going on.
And it's just like your sons-in-law laugh at you
because they know the sort of person that you are.
And then he brings wine with him,
which next week we'll talk about the dangers of alcohol.
We'll see everything that takes place.
But just realize, I mean,
wine doesn't appear out of thin air.
He obviously brought it with him or made it.
And I don't think he had enough time to make it,
so he probably brought it with him.
And it's just like, wow, you never even,
I mean, you would think if God says,
this area is so wicked, I'm gonna destroy it,
that he would have made sure not to bring any alcohol.
Or if it's his daughters that brought the alcohol
or whatever, it's like, well,
shame on you for being a bad father
and having no impact on your daughters.
Shame on you for not making sure that,
I mean, this is just a crazy story.
And you know what, here's the thing.
This is not the most pleasant story to read.
When we get to Genesis 19 in our Bible reading,
it's an entertaining story.
I mean, a lot of big events are taking place,
but I try to put myself in the place of these situations.
Cause you know, when you read the Bible,
sometimes you kind of read over it
and you miss a lot of stuff.
I try to just kind of stop
and kind of put myself in the place of Lot or Abraham
to see how they were feeling and what's going on.
This is not the most pleasant one.
It's like, man, what a messed up chapter.
Everything that goes on in this chapter.
But what we're seeing is that Lot was a man,
but a terrible testimony.
He was known as a person
who didn't really care about spiritual things,
didn't care about the things of God.
And then when finally out of desperation,
he decides to try to get right with God
or try to save people from the area.
He doesn't go the whole way.
They bring wine with them.
He doesn't even tell his kids what are going on.
His whole life's messed up.
And we see he has no impact on society,
no impact on his family.
And you know what?
This is where you get the Moabites and the Ammonites from
because of his daughters and the kids that he has with them,
which we're gonna see next week is very disturbing.
That's where they come from.
These wicked and heathen nations come
as a result of what his daughters do to him.
And we'll talk about that next week.
But look, you know, as a reminder just to all of us,
we need to make sure we have a good testimony.
You wanna reach your unsafe family?
And look, all of us have unsafe family
that we wanna reach probably.
If you wanna reach your unsafe family,
you need to have the best testimony you possibly can.
Meaning, you know what?
You need to be above reproach.
You can't just give them things where they can criticize you.
They need to be able to look at your life
and even if they disagree, say, you know what?
They take that very seriously.
They're doing a good job as a family.
They're conservative.
They're obeying God's rules.
And it's gonna give you more of an opportunity
to reach them with the gospel.
But if you act just like them
and do everything they do and just say,
well, you know what?
On all saints day, we'll just go out to the graves
just because we wanna get along with them.
And you just approve of everything they do wrong.
No, look, I'm not telling you to,
I'm not saying that you should tell them
that what they're doing is super sinful or whatever.
I think you ought to try to be as respectful as possible.
For example, in that sort of situation,
I'd say, I'm sorry, that's not something we can do
or whatever, it's against our beliefs.
But not be super rude to them.
Although sometimes they might take offense
because it is what it is when you take a stand.
What I'm saying is if you wanna reach your family,
you wanna reach your friends,
you wanna reach people around here,
you wanna reach your acquaintances,
you wanna reach your boss, your coworkers
and things like that, you need to have a good testimony.
When we go soul winning door to door,
they don't know how sinful our lives are or not sinful.
They don't know who we are.
So if they're interested in the gospel, they'll listen.
But here's the thing, your family does know
to some degree.
Your coworkers do know to some degree.
And if you wanna reach them, don't act like them,
be different than them.
Let's close in a word of prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father,
thank you for allowing us to be here today
and I ask you to help us to apply this to our lives,
help us not to be like Lock God,
help us to have good testimonies,
help us to strive to just obey your rules and do right
and just always try to strive to reach higher and better
each and every passing day.
We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.
Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah.
We'll be putting it on the windows, page 208, 208, 208.
Grace greater than our soul.
208, grace greater than our soul.
Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah.
Marvelous praise of our loving Lord.
Ready, sing.
Marvelous grace of our loving Lord.
Grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt.
Yonder on Calvary's mount, outpoured.
There with the blood of the Lamb was spilt.
Grace, grace, God's grace.
Grace that will pardon and cleanse within.
Grace, grace, God's grace.
Grace that is greater than all our sins.
Sin and despair like the sea waves cold.
Threaten the soul with infinite loss.
Grace that is greater, yes, grace untold.
The mighty cross.
Grace, grace, God's grace.
Grace that will pardon and cleanse within.
Grace, grace, God's grace.
Grace that is greater than all our sin.
Dark is the stain that we cannot hide.
What can avail to wash it away?
Let this blaring of crimson tide.
Wider than snow you may be today.
Grace, grace, God's grace.
Grace that is forgiven and cleansed within.
Grace, grace, God's grace.
Grace that is greater than all our sin.
Marvelous, infinite, matchless grace.
Freely bestowed on all who believe.
You that are longing to see His face.
Now yield His moment, His grace receive.
Grace, grace, God's grace.
Grace that will pardon and cleanse within.
Grace, grace, God's grace.
Grace that will strengthen all our sins.
All our sin.
We're praying, we're praying.
Mommy?
Daddy?
Mommy?
I want.
If you can, I don't know what day you're cleaning the church, but if you can try to test all this and see, I just turned it off during the service.
Okay.