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All right. Amen. Well, we're in second Peter chapter number two, and if you would look down at verse number seven. The Bible says, and delivered just lot vexed with a filthy conversation of the wicked. Now keep your place there because we're going to come back to it at the end of the sermon, but go to Genesis chapter number 11. Genesis chapter number 11. So the title of the sermon this evening is The Landslide of Lot. The Landslide of Lot. You know, basically what you're going to find this boils down to is the subject of decisions. There's a few subjects that I have written down that I like to go through at least, you know, four times a year, and this is one of them. You know, as you read and study through the Bible, you'll often see a lot of wisdom in regards to making better decisions and that's for a reason. It's because we can, you know, just get bogged down by everyday tasks in life and just kind of forget about these things. And so I think it's very helpful for all of us to study these things out and there's, you know, a lot of wisdom that you can learn by studying the life of Lot for sure. I was reading a book not too long ago and it was saying, and I don't know how they come up with these numbers, but they're like, you know, the average person makes 70 decisions a day and so that's like 25,000 a year and 2 million by the time you're 80. Who knows whether that's true? You know, I don't, anytime somebody starts getting into those high numbers, I'm like, there's no way you sat down and actually counted that, you know, just sound smart. But the point is we do make a lot of decisions. I mean, even down to what you think or how you think about a subject or a situation that happened to you. And so you're going to see a lot of good information on how to wrestle with that and get that stuff under control. But I think my favorite part about studying Lot is what we're going to end up learning in 2 Peter. This is basically how God, even though Lot, you know, made a lot of bad decisions, how God still took care of him, how God still rescued him and that's the comforting thing for all of us. So we're going to start off here in Genesis chapter number 11 with an introductory lesson about who Lot was. So Lot, who was this guy? Well, you're going to see that he was the son of Abraham's brother named Haran. So what does that make Abraham? Well, it makes him his uncle and then that would also make Isaac Lot's cousin. So we have that and as we study this thing out, remember in your minds that Lot was saved. It is crystal clear in the Bible Lot was saved. Now again, that brings us to subjects. It brings us a little bit of scariness because it lets us know that a saved person can make some crazy decisions but it also gives us comfort because God in the end does rescue him. I used to have a pastor that would say this a lot and it's always stuck with me and he would say, you know, better decisions, fewer regrets. You're going to hear me repeat that quite often tonight. Better decisions, fewer regrets. So let's start this off here. Look at verse number 27. You're in Genesis chapter number 11 verse 27. It says, now these are the generations of Terah. Terah begot Abram, Nahor and Haran and Haran begot Lot. Verse 28 and Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his nativity in Ur of the Chaldees. We've done studies on this before and kind of picked this apart and talked about how God called Abraham out of the nation that would eventually become Babylon, the first nation to become Babylon in the Bible and kind of went down that road here. But that's where these guys are from, the land of their nativity. And kind of a little bit of an interesting fact here is that Terah, so Lot's grandfather, Abraham's father, he actually died in a place named after his son. But for sake of time, jump down to verse number 31. The Bible says, And Terah took Abram his son and Lot, the son of Haran's, his son, or his son's son, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram's wife. And they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees to go into the land of Canaan. And they came unto Haran and dwelt there. And what I want to bring up right off the bat here is that Lot was not without what we'll call Christian love or a Christian household. So his father passes on and of course the family continues to take care of him and they take him with them and they guide him. And of course, remember that Lot was saved. So go over really quickly to Genesis chapter number 12 and we'll take a look at something. So in the process of time here, God calls Abram to depart from his father's house and from his kindred. And we've talked about this before. God is beginning to take for himself a group of people and again, he wants those people to come out of this place, out of the household or the kindred that Abraham was of. And he's going to make a people unto himself. So let's look at verse number four. I want to highlight something here. Verse four, it says, so Abram departed as the Lord had spoken unto him. And now look at this right here. And Lot went with him. So God calls Abram. God calls Abraham and says, you know, I've got this plan for you. I want you to leave this place, depart from your father's house. And then it just says, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran. So of course, notice that Lot chose to go with Abram. And that's a good testimony unto Abraham. Obviously Abram could have been like, you know what, I don't want you to go. I want you to just stay here, you know, do your own thing. But apparently, you know, Abram was the type of person that was very humble, very meek and probably just a great person overall to be around. And so Lot's like, I don't want to give this up at this point in my life. I want to stay with you and continue on. Look at verse number five. It says, and Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother's son and all their substance that they had gathered and the souls that they had gotten in Haran. And they went forth to go into the land of Canaan and into the land of Canaan they came. Now, we're going to go to Genesis 13 here in a moment, but first go to Proverbs chapter number 22. Proverbs chapter number 22. And so all of that to basically say this, okay, we're going to put it like this. We're going to say that Lot basically grew up in a Christian household. You say, well, they weren't Christians back then. Well, yeah, they were, okay? They were Christians. If you're going to call Abraham a Jew when there was no Jews, then we're going to call him a Christian. Abraham was the first Hebrew and of course the first Hebrew was a Gentile, okay? So I'm going to say that Lot grew up in a Christian household. Why is this important for making decisions? Well, I want to tell you it's because of this. Just growing up in a Christian household or just being around Christian people does not guarantee success, okay? I want to show you this. It does not guarantee success. Think about Jacob and Esau, okay? Twin brothers. They had the same mom, same dad, but yet led completely different lives as they grew up and got older, okay? But here's the key. Here's, you know, when you look at different people in your life, people that you know, like how did this person turn out like Lot? How did this person just go nuts? Why can't they see truth? They grew up in a Christian household. Their parents love God. What in the world is going on? I have a theory about this and I want to show you what I think it is, okay? Look down Proverbs chapter 22 at verse number six and I want you to really think about these first two words right here, okay? Look at this. Proverbs 22 verse six. Train up. You see those two words there? Train up. So it says train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it. Very, very important. Train up, okay? When you think about training, okay, what comes to mind? Well, what came to my mind is the fact that training, okay, if you're going to train up a child, you say, well, I don't have any kids. That's cool. Maybe you're going to train up a brother or sister in Christ. You're going to, you know, disciple somebody. This still applies, okay? When you're training somebody, what does that mean? That means you have to spend time with that person. You have to give that person attention. You have to give that person devotion, conversations, thought, planning, evaluation, and there forms this connection, okay? And when that takes place, I believe that that separates kids who do not depart for a season when they get older versus those who do. Now, I'm not trying to bash my family here, but I'll tell you a story that's kind of funny. My parents, especially my dad, had come from a long line of people that viewed that it was the government's job to raise your children, okay? And I was told, and I've seen the records, we may even still have them floating around the house, I'm not sure, but my great grandfather, yeah, my great grandfather, I had one day gotten, this is in San Francisco, California, had gotten called to the local school to deal with my grandfather. And when my great grandfather had gotten to the school, the principal's like, oh, he's doing this, this, and this. My great grandfather threw him out of a window, and this is documented. He got arrested for it. It's a big deal. And basically, the reason why he did that was because it was their philosophy that the school is to raise up the child, okay? He's like, well, when he's with me, it's my problem. When he's with you, it's your problem. I don't ever want you to call me down here again. Of course, the principal didn't like that. Boom, out the window he went. Well, you fast forward to my grandfather gets a call about my dad, okay? And same thing, hey, you know, Wesley's misbehaving and so on and so forth. Well, my grandfather throws this individual down two flights of stairs, puts the guy in the hospital, gets arrested, and would eventually run for mayor as a Democrat and lost. I have the articles to support that as well. Crazy, right? You know, as the saying goes, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. And if you're wondering what I did, I changed everything. I stopped all of that. I stopped the cycle of terror against public school figures, okay? Well, my dad did have an issue with my fifth grade teacher. It was a woman. And he did threaten her, but then he apologized and it was kind of a mess. But as far as I know, he didn't throw anybody out a window or down a set of stairs because, of course, as, you know, time progressed and, you know, time goes along, you know, the jail sentences are getting longer. And as people started figuring out, you know, between the 60s and 70s that they can make a lot of money off of locking people up for extended periods of time, people started changing their behavior when it came down to that sort of thing. So, again, all of that just to basically say this, that's the philosophy of the world, okay? And I think that what happens is a lot of times we get complacent and we think, well, you know, just because I'm going here or I'm going there, then automatically, you know, by osmosis, I'm just going to be that much better, okay? And like I always say, that doesn't necessarily guarantee you anything without applying your dime, okay? That's just a simple fact, okay? We have got to be a people that are willing to train up. We need to train up our children, spend time with them, help them, engage them. And that goes for physical children, obviously, but it also goes for anybody really that you want to disciple, mentor, or the like. So, go to Genesis chapter number 13. Let's take a look here at Genesis chapter number 13. Look down at verse number 7. So, the Bible says in verse number 7, so we're fast forwarding here, so remember Lot went with Abram, saying, you know, I don't want to depart. Well, during the process of that, they both begin to grow wealthy in cattle, and that causes an issue here. So, Genesis 13, verse 7, the Bible says, and there was a strife between the herdman of Abram's cattle and the herdman of Lot's cattle, and the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled in the land. So, literally, you could say here that there's beef between Abram and Lot, okay? That's really what you have going on here. But seriously, now, there arises this issue, okay, where a decision needs to be made, okay? Now, look at how Abraham here responds to this conflict. Look at verse number 8. It says, and Abram said unto Lot, let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herdman and thy herdman. Now look at these last few words, these last four words, for we be brethren. Okay, this, you want to know why God chose Abram? It's because this was his heart's desire. He cared about the people of God because he viewed them as being made in the image of God, and so he's got the right frame of mind here. And of course, did Abraham make every right decision in his life? No, absolutely not, and we can take a look at that another time. But look at how he responds to this conflict here, okay? He's very humble, he's very meek, he's putting Lot above himself, okay? And he cares about how this is going to make God look. Now look at verse number 9. Is not the whole land before thee? Separate thyself, I pray thee, from me. If thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right, or if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to the left. Now, obviously, I want you to keep your place here in Genesis, but go to Proverbs chapter number 16. So what we can see here is that there was a wise, selfless choice made by Abraham. And he said, you know what? I do not want this conflict to go on any longer. I don't want it to get any worse. And so he brings up the obvious. Hey, we've got to split, okay? This land, this place literally is not big enough for the both of us. But what does he do? He prefers Lot over himself. So the question is, how should Lot handle this? And furthermore, how do we handle situations like this? And for the second point, I'm going to say you want to watch the ease. Anytime you have a decision to make, watch the two E's, and that is your emotions and your eyes, okay? Your emotions and your eyes. You're going to see that in verse number 10. We're all familiar with the story, but look down at verse number 32 of Proverbs chapter number 16, okay? He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty. Now, let's stop right there. What does the world say today? Well, the world's trying to say, well, if you're getting anger for any reason, you know, a lot of times, well, that's toxic masculinity, okay? And the Bible says that, you know, as a Christian, you should be literally a pacifist and you should never be angry at all. That should never happen, okay? That is baloney. That is not true, okay? The Bible says he that is slow to anger is better than the mighty, okay? If you can train yourself to be slow to anger, the Bible says you have reached a point of maturity into the witch. You are better than the mighty. You're better than a person, let's say, that may have been selected for special forces or something of that nature. Why? Because it's 10 times harder to rule the spirit than to rule the weights or, you know, these physical challenges that are in life. And if you're slow to anger, that means you're making choices, you're analyzing, you're looking at all sides and you're thinking and you're not reacting as we're going to see here in a minute, okay? So verse 32, he that is slow to anger is better than the mighty. So again, controlling the emotions, controlling the eyes. Then he says this, and he that ruleth his spirit, then he that taketh a city. Look, people that can reach this level are few and very far in between, I'm telling you. But this is how we want to be. This is a level that we all need to strive to get to, okay? Now you're going to wind up getting here, having some setbacks. It happens to us all, but really we need to understand it's okay to be angry, okay? It's okay to be angry, but you don't want to be quick to anger and be that guy that just hops off on every little issue that comes up and flies off the handle, okay? That cannot control himself, okay? That is how we do not want to be. Now go back, let's see into Genesis, go back to Genesis chapter number 13. And again, I used to have a pastor who would always say this, he'd say, you know what? We need to be a people that act instead of react, okay? But here's the thing, I agree with that, I believe that, okay? But there are times when you need to act very, very quickly and decisively, right? It wouldn't be fair for me to stand up here before you guys today and be like, you know, you never want to act too swiftly. Look, there are definitely times where harsh, immediate action is required and we don't want to let people, oh, you know, you shouldn't have reacted that way. Look, if somebody comes in here right now, let's say some guy comes in here right now wearing a dress and sits down right there, okay? Do you think I should be like, well, you know, let me think about this for a second. You know, I'm just going to deal with it after the service. Who thinks that's okay? No, nobody in here thinks that's okay. They're getting a one-way flight right out the door immediately, like no thought, okay? And you say, oh, I can't believe, the world would say, I can't believe how that pastor reacted. That is so evil and wrong. No, that is a righteous action because that is blasphemy for somebody to do that. Now, I get that's pretty extreme, but it does happen, okay? In that type of situation, we need action, okay? But of course, getting to that level, you know, is a process. It's learning the Bible, it's understanding things, it's applying the wisdom and the things that we always talk about. The point is we don't want to be like the hothead, right? Just flying off the handle at every little issue that comes up. We want to be slow to anger because the Bible says that's how you really become mighty, okay? If we're going to call ourselves mighty, okay? And we really are, you know, we're really doing a lot of work around here if you haven't noticed. I mean, we bought like 4,000 invites not too long ago and we had, you know, a challenge and they're all gone. But I have a feeling they would have all been gone even if we didn't do that long, what was it, like a 10-hour soul-winning deal, you knock till you drop. So, you know, keep in mind, but we want to keep that up, right? And we want to make that attractive to other people. We want people to see what we're doing and that we're doing these things for the right reasons, but part of maintaining that is definitely learning how to be slow to anger and always keeping in mind that we got to be the people that are going to rule our spirits because we don't want to be like the world, okay? So let's take a look at verse number 10 now, look at what it says. So here's the second E, remember? You want to control our emotions when it's decision time, okay? You're going to have these emotions bubble up. It's just going to happen. This is what I tell a lot of people when they call or they come to me for counseling, they're like, man, you know, somebody said this and I just get so mad. It's going to happen. You will never get rid of that, okay? You need to expect the emotions to flood in, okay? Expect it. Don't ever think or fool yourself that you're going to get to a spot to where, oh, I never feel any emotions, okay? You will feel them and they will come and they will build up, okay? If you can understand that and just realize that, it becomes much easier to put the cap on them and to suppress them, okay? Now, here's where it starts to get really bad for a lot and where the Bible really shows us how he made error in his decision. Verse 10, it says, and Lot lifted up his eyes. See that? Lot lifted up his eyes and beheld all the plan of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the Lord. And then the Bible gives us a cue here. It says, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zor. I'm sure everybody in here has heard the phrase, you know, don't eat with your eyes. It was a big thing with my mom. Don't eat with your eyes. Looks like you took more than your eyes could or your stomach could handle, huh? Don't eat with your eyes. Well, you know, it turns out that's actually pretty good wisdom, okay? Don't eat with your eyes. Don't make decisions necessarily with your eyes, okay? Anytime you have big time decision, you get a big check in the mail, you get a bonus at work, okay? Here's what your flesh is going to do. The first thing your flesh is going to do, and I know this because this happens to me all the time. Oh, man, is there a sale at this store? At that store, you start my Amazon cart. Look, all these things, you know, the nice lifted truck down the street. That's what gets me like, man, you think I can maybe swing that one of these days, you know? All these different tools, and I always need tools. That's my excuse, you know? And I know I'm not alone in that, but, okay, and I'm not saying, you know, oh, don't ever buy anything like that. Just slow down for a second. That's it. Just slow down for a second. Think about this, okay? And just for a quick minute, you know, just analyze how am I feeling right now? Why am I feeling this? Why am I thinking this? Am I just making this decision with my eyes like Lot is doing here? He lifted up his eyes. What did he focus on? The world, okay? Wow, this area here would be perfect for my cattle, for this, but more so what he thought and what the Bible tells us was going through his mind. So that's like the land of Egypt. That's just like the world, okay? We don't want to be like that. We have, look, all of us have this in. Remember, Lot was saved. Lot is a saved man. That means that any one of us can get to this point and probably will, okay? Now, what should he have done here? It'd be a different story if he was like, that's like the land of Egypt, but, you know, Abraham was gracious enough to take me with him. Maybe I ought to offer back to him and say, hey, you know, what would work better for you? And they could have just worked it out a different way, okay? Maybe he should have took some time and said, you know what? Why don't we just both pray and ask God to show us the right thing to do? You don't think God would have helped him? Of course he would have. God would have definitely given them the wisdom that they needed. But look at verse number 11. Lot chose him, all the plain of Jordan and Lot journeyed east and they separated themselves, the one from the other. Verse number 12, Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain. And here it is, we've seen this a thousand times, and pitched his tent toward Sodom. Now go to chapter number 14. So again, if we can learn to make better decisions, we will have fewer regrets. It's just the way that it goes. Better decisions, fewer regrets. Well, unfortunately for Lot here, this begins his landslide. This was not a good decision for him to do this, and the Bible is going to demonstrate that for us right now. Chapter 14, look at verse number 12. So basically what has gone on is you see in chapter 13 that Lot has pitched his tent toward Sodom, and now what you're going to see is that, or I'm sorry, chapter 13 he pitches his tent, yeah, toward Sodom. Chapter 14 he's pitched his tent in Sodom. So he's actually in there now, okay? And isn't that how it always goes? You start looking over here, and the next thing you know, you end up there. You start thinking about this, and you just can't get it out of your mind, and as they say in wrestling, and I have to use these analogies because I understand it, the body follows the head. If I can grab your head and move it into a certain direction, your body's going to follow. Well, it's the same thing spiritually, okay? If my head is in the gutter, then my body is also going to go to the gutter. Well, guess what? Lot's head was focused toward Sodom, and that is where his body and his household eventually wound up. Genesis 14, so what happens eventually is Sodom and Gomorrah are put under oppression like any Sodomite nation would be and will be, and they decide, well, you know, we're sick and tired of these toxic oppressors, and so we're going to rebel, okay? And so these kings, as you all know, decide, you know what? We're not going to take you rebelling from us, and they go and actually kidnap these people, but the unfortunate part is Lot gets caught up in this kidnapping, so let's look at verse number 12. For sake of time, the Bible says this, and they took Lot, Abram's brother's son, who dwelt, and there it is, dwelt in Sodom and his goods and departed. So again, chapter 13, he's pitched toward Sodom. Chapter 14, he is pitched inside Sodom. Verse 13, and there came one that had escaped and told Abram the Hebrew, for he dwelt in the plan of Mamre, the Amorite brother of Eschol and brother of Einor, and these were confederate with Abram. Verse 14, and when Abram heard, now look at this, this is interesting here, and when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants, born in his house, 318, and pursued them unto Dan. And so here, the Bible actually just describes Lot as Abram's brother, Abraham's brother, and not his blood brother, not his, you know, physical brother, but a brother in the Lord, okay? And so that, again, confirming that saved people can do some pretty crazy things and make some pretty bad decisions. Now fast forward to Genesis chapter number 19. So we can see from Lot's decision, where did it take him? Well, took him into Sodom and wound up getting him kidnapped with their rebellion. You go into the world, you will experience the world's problems. When God punishes them, they make bad decisions. Unfortunately, you're gonna get caught up in the mix. So, as the story goes, and again, I wish I had time to really go through it all. We don't. We're gonna come back and break some of these other things down later, and those will probably definitely go to rumble, but basically Abraham, he rescues Lot, gets everything back, has an interesting conversation with Bearer the Sodomite, which we'll break down here in the next couple weeks, and you would think that maybe, okay, hey Lot, probably not a good idea what you did. You know, maybe you should move out of Sodom unless something like this happens to you again, but no, he goes back and dwells there and thinks all is well. So Genesis 19, I'm very familiar with this. Look at verse 5. So, Sodomites doing what they do best, trying to rape people, and verse number 5 says, and they called unto Lot and said unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this night? Bring them out unto us that we may know them. Verse 6, And Lot went out at the door unto them, and shut the door after him. Now look at this, because we're just focusing on his decisions and his actions, okay? Look at verse 7. And said, I pray you, and this is hard for us to stomach. This is hard for us to read here, this next word, brethren. That's hard, okay? That is hard for us in our circles to read. And said, I pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly So this saved man finds himself in a position to where he's literally begging the broke back. I mean, that's literally what he's doing. He's begging the Sodomites to not do what Sodomites do, okay? And we all know that doesn't work. Verse number 8, Behold now. Okay, so it gets worse. So he's calling them brethren, begging them not to do what they do, and then this is like the chief thing right here. Verse 8, Behold now, I have two daughters, which have not known men. 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. And of course, the Sodomites reject this bargaining deal here, because they're only concerned with filth and wickedness, okay? They're so wicked at this point, they don't even want to take this offer, which is horrible, horrifying in and of itself. And so, of course, all of that to just highlight the fact, better decisions, fewer regrets, you know, remember the ease, okay? Emotions. When it's decision time, remember your emotions and your eyeballs, okay? That's what Lot did not do, okay? He allowed his emotions to get wrapped up in the moment and said, you know, who knows what he was thinking? I mean, he might have been thinking like, man, maybe I could really show off to the herdman over there and really stick it to him, and I could go over here and just become this multi-billionaire cattle farmer, and you know, who knows, right? Maybe he was thinking like, I'm gonna really rise up and show these guys who is boss. It doesn't say that, but you know how the flesh works. It could have been something like that. But the bottom line, and what we definitely know, is that the world was appealing to him, and he allowed that to control his decision, and his eyes led him to the point to where even after being kidnapped, he went back, and even as these guys are trying to unknowingly rape angels, okay, he's like offering his pure daughters to stop this wickedness. I mean, look, if you were to hear this today, my first thought would be like, is that guy even saved? But there's no doubt, there's no doubt that Lot was saved. So again, all that to say that people that are saved can make some bad decisions in life. I'm just saying. It's a thing. It really is. Go back to where we started now, 2 Peter chapter number 2. And we're almost done. 2 Peter chapter number 2. This is basically a warm-up to a series that we're gonna get into here starting next week. So 2 Peter chapter number 2, and let's take a look at a couple of things here. And look down at verse number 4. So the Bible says, For if God spared not the angels that sin, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment, and spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly. So Peter's point here is saying, hey, do not forget the fact that God will punish the unjust. He's done it in the past. He will do it again in the future. And of course this is in context of the false teachers and prophets that are gonna be among us as well. Verse 6, the Bible says, And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly. And so there are people there's an individual named Ron Wyatt who claims to have found the site. I think he might be telling the truth on that one. It seems pretty convincing. But apparently Peter and then back then knew where that was and knew that that site was around as an example to the world. So, you know, definitely I could get behind that one. Okay, verse 7. And here it is again, right where we first started. Now look at this, and delivered. So you're getting towards the end of the Bible here, right? And delivered just Lot. And so again, you know, this is the great part of the story. Yes, Lot made bad decisions, horrible decisions, which just led to more bad decisions and they just compounded and grew and grew and grew. And we're back here looking like, thank God this verse is in the Bible because I would be doubting this guy is even saved. But it tells us that he was just. Well, we definitely know he wasn't just of his own accord, right? We know that he was just because he believed in God just like Abraham did, just like he learned growing up with that family. Delivered just Lot. Now look at what it says, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked. And so what does that tell us about going into the world or siding with sodomites or thinking that we're strong enough to be around them and be tolerant of them? It proves that you're not. It proves that it does vex you. It does torment you. I don't care how tolerant somebody thinks they are. I was listening or I was watching this thread blow up on Facebook and you know, these people were attacking Pastor Anderson like, oh, you know, he accused us of this and that. And Paul preached to the sodomites or Paul preached to the homosexuals. I wrote back like, where was that? And I don't remember reading that in the Bible. But the point is, you know, this, this guy apparently, and I've seen this, you know, they have this ministry where they send people out into sodomite communities to preach the gospel. It's foolishness. It's absolutely bonkers. There's no biblical justification for it at all. Look, you're going to accidentally wind up giving them the gospel in the community eventually anyways, and then you're going to learn what the Bible says is true because you're going to get to the end and they're going to be like, oh no, it's by works. It's by works. Okay. Because they can't understand the gospel. It's happened. It happens all the time. Okay. So again, what they can do is this. They convex your soul. That's it. You know, I still eat with them at lunch because I want to shine Christ unto them. And God's looking at you like, hey, you should try reading the Bible and applying it in your life. You just understand there's a certain way to handle it. Maybe you need to go eat lunch at the other table and keep these people at arm's length at best. You know, I mean, at minimum is what I mean. So more on that later. Verse number eight, look at what it says. For that righteous, for that righteous man dwelling among them. So again, the Bible's triple confirming this. Okay. The Bible tells us in Genesis that he was the brother of Abraham. Okay. Obviously in the family of God, we see that he's just in verse seven, verse number eight for that righteous man. Obviously he was saved for that righteous man dwelling among them in seeing and hearing. Okay. These are the things that he saw, the things that he heard on a daily basis. Vex, meaning tormented, bothered, hurt his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds. Their deeds are unlawful. Okay. They might be lawful according to the United States of America, but they are unlawful to God and they will always be like that. They were unlawful in the Old Testament. They're unlawful in the New Testament. They will always be unlawful. Verse number nine, and this is the great comforting part. The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations. Okay. We talked about this word recently. We're talking about trials here. Okay. It's not like God's tempting you to do evil. Okay. That's not what he's talking about. The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished. Okay. So the last thing I want to talk about is be thankful for God's deliverance. Understand that, but don't abuse it. Don't be like, Oh, okay. I'm going to make this crazy decision here and you know, maybe God will bail me out. He might not. He might let you suffer in that chastisement for a lot longer than you want to be chastised for. And so we don't want to do that, but we do want to remain thankful that even though, Hey, we make bad decisions. I could get up here and preach how to make good decisions, every service for every day of the year. And you know what? We would all still at some point probably make some bad decisions. Okay. So the point being is that, you know, don't beat yourself too much over these bad decisions that you may have made in your life because God is able to save you out of them. Think about this. Lot lifted up his eyes. Lot looked over at Sodom and said, ah, that's my place. When wound up dwelling there, he lived there, got kidnapped. Abraham said, Hey, you know, you're free. He's like, Oh cool. I'm going to go back over there then. Okay. And then almost gets destroyed with the city and God still rescued him. God sent two angels to rescue him and his family. Okay. This is comforting. This is the comforting thing about this. So decisions that you may, you know, wrestle within your mind. If you're like me and I think about bad decisions I've made even back in elementary school, you know, maybe it's because I drive around town too much and it's just like, you know, just things to think about. And I'm just like, man, you know, fifth grade, I wish I would have hit. No, I'm just kidding. I wish I wouldn't have hit that person. You know, maybe life would have been better today, but you get the point. Okay. Sometimes I just really, I go back and I just start putting myself back in the past and I'm like, Oh man, I wish I wouldn't have done that. And then I start getting myself worked up. You know, when, if you ever get like that, and you probably do, cause if I do, we all do. You know what? Think about this story and it's going to bring you some comfort because look, none of us, Hey, at least we didn't move to San Francisco and be like, this is great. We want to stay here, you know, and have to have God send angels to physically rescue rescue us and get us out of Dodge. Okay. Not that we're better than a lot, you know, not saying that at all, but what I am saying is that we can definitely learn a lot from his decision making process. And last but not least, definitely be thankful for the fact that God does deliver us. Okay. And of course, you know, we're going to talk about this later on next week, but God also knows how to reserve the unjust. Okay. What does that mean? Many of you already know, but that fact is also very comforting to us that God does reserve some people to be punished because, you know, on a daily basis, our souls get vexed from the news and different things that we hear. And we're just like, man, how long are you going to allow these people to continue? But when we read verses like this, it is so comforting because we know that he is going to deal with it. Why? Well, one reason the Bible says he will, and he's already demonstrated that he has in the past. So we have that to fall back on. So real quickly. Okay. Three things that we talked about. We talked about the fact that Lot, and I say just for teaching purposes, he grew up in a Christian home. We could say that. Okay. Grew up around godly people so much so that when Abram was called by God, he said, I'm with you. I'm going with you. Okay. But through the process of life, you know, he started to make some bad decisions. And we talked about how just because you go to church, just because you're, you know, you, you watch the sermon or just because you got a great insight from reading the Bible does not guarantee your success. You have to apply these things. And one of the best things you could do, especially with your children, with other people is to train, invest, spend time. Okay. Actually applying, getting involved. And number two, we talked about when it's decision time, remember the two E's, your emotions and your eyes. What are they looking at? Okay. What are they focusing on? It's always a good idea to just give it some time, pray and slow down before you wind up making a bad decision. Because as you know, one decision that's bad could lead to another one. The next thing you know, you're offering up the innocent to cover up for your own mistakes. And number three, be thankful for God's deliverance, but don't abuse it. Okay. Use that to comfort because we all make bad decisions from time to time. So we're going to stop right there for tonight and let's go ahead and bow our heads and have a word of prayer before the final song. Thank you so much Lord for everything that you do for us and that you continue to bless our church. We just thank you so much for that Lord. Thank you for these teachings in the Bible Lord and for the fact that you would deliver somebody like Lot and that you care about your children and we cannot thank you enough for that Lord. I just pray that you bless the fellowship after the service and bring us back again safely this weekend in Jesus' name I pray. Amen.