You are listening to Pastor John Caskill's sermon, Faith Part 2, from the 6 p.m. service, recorded on November 9, 1986.

You know, it's like the masked man. You don't know when he's here or when he's not. He disappears on me. He came into my office the other day unannounced. He just came in and said, "Hi, you got a few moments for me?" Yeah, yeah. Where are you? Oh, I don't want to take up your time. I know you're busy.

Wait a minute here. Wait a minute, you know. And then he was gone. I don't know where he went. Novella told me he went home.

Ralph and Novella, our dear, precious friends and associates, worked with us ten years here on staff. And we enjoyed their partnering so much in the gospel. They are what the Bible calls yoke fellows in the Lord.

And Rex and Connie spent... About the same amount of time, wasn't it? Ten years. A very fruitful ministry in our midst helped us really establish our worship and our praise ministry. Much of the power of praise and worship that we have here today is directly related to their faithfulness in service to us here in the church.

So it's very good to have them with us today and to hear of their plans. We need to pray for them because they're toying with the notion of going overseas to serve the Lord in places that may be dangerous to their lives, but to serve Him is their calling.

So we'll lift them up before the Lord, won't we? Open your Bibles with me tonight for the remaining few moments we have. How many will give me 30 minutes? Okay, I was going to take 30 anyway, so that gives me an hour.

Remember Dick Joyce did that and you laughed, but anyway.

So with the other 30 that I was going to take, I have an hour. In this morning's message, I talk to you about or regarding Abraham, the places he lived in. In this search for understanding, God had come to him with a word.

The word was found in Genesis chapter 12, verse 1. The Lord had said to Abraham, "Leave your country, your people, and your father's household, and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you. I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you, I will curse.

And all peoples on earth will be blessed through you."

Verse 4 says, "So Abram left as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him." Let's pray. Father, we come to you in the name of Jesus. We ask that your word would come to us in power, that it would come into our hearts, into our spirits, into our minds and understandings, so that we can make the right kind of choices in these days that we live in.

In Jesus' precious name. Do you agree with me on that? Do you want that to happen? Amen.

If you'll remember from this morning, we spoke of the reasons that God had called Abram into Canaan. All of God's commands are reasonable. How many of you know that?

I was so interested in the word that... Dr. Hicks brought to us during conference when he told us Satan's main game plan is to interpret circumstances for us.

How many of you remember that message? Did you hear it? How that everything that happens, Satan tells you what that really means. Somebody looks at you and he says, "Now that really means." And you hear a word and the enemy tells you, "now that really means."

Don't be stupid. Now that really means.

And Satan interprets God's commands to us.

God calls Abraham in response to Abraham's searching. And he says to Abraham, "I want you to leave this country. I want you to leave your father's house. I want you to leave your people. And I will do these things for you. I will make you into a great nation. I'll bless you. I'll make your name great. You yourself will become a blessing.

I'll bless whoever blesses you, and I'll curse whoever curses you, and all peoples on the earth will be blessed through you."

And so this morning as we were talking about this blessing, it became apparent that the only way God could make this happen in Abram's life was for him to release his homeland, the environment he lived in.

Obviously, Abram was like you and I. He was probably not able to cope with the situations.

The strength of the situations.

But I'm sure that Satan interpreted that command to him as unfair, as unpleasant, as dangerous, as maybe foolish.

Has the enemy ever done that to you with God's commands before?

The Lord tells you to do something and you say, "and Satan comes along and he says, why? Now just think about this for a minute. That's not fair for God to ask that of you. It's the Lord."

Ever given you a command and you had Satan translate it in this manner? Well, that's his job.

He is called the accuser of the brethren, but he's the one that plants doubt in our heart in the Lord's motives.

So if you can remember that we went through these reasons and came to the conclusion that God's command really was reasonable.

But more than anything, the Lord revealed that the reason that Abram obeyed was because he trusted God. Through faith, the scripture says, "Abram obeyed."

Now these commands then of leaving his country, his people, and his father's household were foundational for the fulfillment of that promise that God had brought to him.

When Abraham tried to stay in Haran instead of going on into Canaan, when he left Ur and arrived in Haran, we don't know whether it was his father or his family that kept him there. God commanded him again to go to the place that he would show him.

So Abraham obeyed. Abraham continued to travel in Canaan. Living in tents all his days.

In Hebrews chapter 11 verse 9 through 10 says, "By faith he made his home in the promised land. And notice how he did this. Like a stranger in a foreign country. Even though God had called him to that place, and even though he was in the perfect will of God, being in Canaan, he made his home there as if he were a foreigner or a stranger.

Living in a foreign country. He lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise.

And now verse 10 tells us why. For he was looking forward to the city.

With foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

The reason that when Abraham finally got to Canaan, he didn't find him a nice shade tree and a well and build his house and take roots in Canaan is because as he was obeying the Lord in this natural move, God revealed to him a greater home.

And so Abraham, like us, walked in the will of God, in the promise of God, but looked for a city.

Whose maker and builder was God.

The first step of faith in obeying and really leaving all to follow the Lord led him to a more perfect vision. A vision he could not have received in Ur of the Chaldees.

Many times the reason God does not reveal the future to us is because we're not ready to hear or understand the fullness of blessing.

That God will reveal. It takes those first steps of obedience for us to be able to handle what God really wants to tell us.

That's why it's so important for us to make those first steps and why it's so important for us to know those steps.

It is that complete surrender to the will of God, that complete surrender of loving Jesus first, that complete giving of your life to the Lord, no matter where it may lead you, no matter what it may cost you, that will prepare your heart to receive the eternal vision.

Abram sought a spiritual city. And so we find all of his life, even though he was enriched in cattle, lands, manservants, menservants, camels, donkeys, silver and gold.

The Bible talks about Abram's wealth and historians write of Abram as if he was a king without a country. Subjects, people, land and wealth. Extremely rich.

But all of his life, he never invested in this land. His only building programs were altars.

The only thing permanent, the only roots he left in the land, were the altars by which he put the stones together, in which he had communion with God.

And the altars that Abraham built were places that he returned to often in his life, places where God had met him.

He lived as a pilgrim and a stranger, even though the natural blessing was also his. He did it in making a statement that what he really wanted was God and not things.

But notice the story of Lot. Right along with Abraham, right along with this story of Abram, is the story of Lot.

He was also heir of all that Abram had. Surely he would also value the promise. He had been with him in Ur of the Chaldees. He had been with him in the trek from there several hundred miles to the town of Haran. He had been with him as he entered Canaan. He had been with him step by step and with Abram had become enriched by the blessing of the Lord in cattle and in... things and an influence and in the blessing of the Lord.

He'd walk side by side with his uncle. His uncle had taken him in as his own son. And now he began to multiply.

Let's look at this story. It's an amazing story. Abraham's is the story of faith that falters and then becomes strong until Abraham is called the father of the faith.

Abraham has the faith of God. He has a faith in the invisible. He has faith that believes in resurrection. He has faith that is willing to lay his own life down. He becomes like God. He receives the gift of righteousness because of the way he believes. He is transformed and changed by his faith.

Lot, on the other hand, enjoying the same relationship of blessing, his story goes from extreme... blessing, living under the coattails of a mighty man of God, he begins to make decisions that leave him at the end barren and destitute and destroyed. And he becomes the father of two of Israel's greatest enemies.

The cost for making this slow descent, this turn, the cost was everything to Lot. Everything that he tried to save, he lost.

Let's look a little closer at the story because they're put in the scripture almost like a jeweler places a diamond ring upon a black velvet so that we can contrast the two decisions. We can see them both and make the right choice.

It's not a negative story. It's a positive story because it reveals things that are and allows us to see what happens when we begin to walk in the flesh.

And begin to enjoy the borders of the will of God rather than the center of the will of God.

That's the story. A man who would rather live on the border than in the center.

Turn with me to Genesis chapter 13. And that's where the story begins.

I hope every young person that's here will listen to this story tonight. I know it's a lot of fun to sit together and to do things in church. I was expert at it.

But there are times that you ought to listen to your pastor. Because sometimes when we live with men and women of faith like Lot did, it becomes so humdrum to us because we've never seen anything else that our life becomes, as we think it, kind of boring.

And so we make bad decisions.

Verse 5 of chapter 13 begins the story. And I'm going to be reading an awful lot from the Scripture, so I hope you brought your Bible.

I find that the story is best told by the Bible and doesn't need all of that much from me. But let's read it together in verse 5. Now Lot, who was moving about with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents.

Where do you think he got these from? I believe he got them from Abram's blessing.

But the land could not support them while they stayed together, for their possessions were so great that they were not able to stay together.

This is an amazing thing. God had blessed them so much that whenever they went into an area, their cattle were too many to handle the water supply and the food supply that was there in Canaan.

An amazing thing happened in quarreling, verse 7 says, arose between Abram's herdsmen and the herdsmen of Lot.

The Canaanites and Perizzites were also living in the land at that time. So Abram said to Lot, "Let's not have any quarreling between you and me or between your herdsmen and mine, for we are brothers. Is not the whole land before you? Let's part company. If you go to the left, I'll go to the right. If you go to the right, I'll go to the left.

Now here's where... The beginning of Lot's problems began. Lot looked up and saw that the whole plain of the Jordan was well watered. Like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt towards Zoar, this was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.

Now I want you to get with me in your mind what's going on.

If you'll remember, we talked about the land of Ur of the Chaldees, how that it was, Ur was a place built right on the Euphrates River in the fertile crescent in what is now called Iraq.

It was between the Tigris and the Euphrates River that the rivers ran along together and provided such a tremendous irrigated valley that it was like the Garden of the Lord. And many people feel, because when you read the book of Genesis chapter 1 and God making the garden, he names two of those rivers as flowing out from the Garden of Eden.

So many people think that that area was where the Garden of Eden was actually planted.

It was like the Garden of the Lord. When we talk about Zoar,

We're talking about an area of five cities on the southern part of the Dead Sea.

Now I want you in your mind to picture with me the borders of Israel being the Jordan Valley, the River Jordan, coming down to the salt or the Dead Sea at its farthest end.

And then from there on, it goes out into a kind of like a wadi or a wash of land that is well watered until it reaches the Gulf and goes on towards Egypt.

Zoar was not in Canaan. The Jordan Valley, the river was the border of Canaan.

When we had the privilege of going to Israel, in fact, Rex and Connie and Marguerite and I went together. I believe your son was there, but not yet born, right?

We had the privilege of coming down from Jerusalem and down from the hill country that was the center of Canaan, down into the river valley.

And there it was amazing because Jericho, down on the lower end of the sea, was just flourishing and beautiful.

Tropical and filled with all kinds of things like mangoes and papayas and oranges and all of these wonderful tropical fruits.

It was just lush. And the palm trees and the green. It was just a lush place.

But see, you could see this from up above towards Jerusalem in the hill country. You could look out and you could see this gorgeous, lush, tropical valley.

And so Abraham...

Abram says to Lot, "Let's not have any quarreling between you and me or between your herdsmen and mine, for we are brothers. Is not the whole land before you? Let's part company. If you go to the left, I'll go to the right. If you go to the right, I'll go to the left.

Now here's where... The beginning of Lot's problems began. Lot looked up and saw that the whole plain of the Jordan was well watered. Like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt towards Zoar.

And I want you to remember now that Zoar was not in the Jordan Valley. You had to go clear around the Dead Sea to get to Zoar, where Sodom and Gomorrah was.

But notice what the Bible says. So Lot chose for himself the whole plain of the Jordan and set out towards the east.

The two men parted company. Abraham lived in the land of Canaan while Lot lived among the cities of the plain and pitched his tents near Sodom.

Now the men of Sodom were wicked and were sinning greatly against the Lord.

And now an amazing thing happens to Abraham. There's a choice been made by Lot. And I'm trying to picture this.

They must have been on the hill country to be able to see. And Abraham was stuck with his own word, trying to be charitable to his son or to his nephew. He says, you make the choice and I'll go the other way, whichever it is.

And Lot chose the most wealthy, the most... It was just like Ur, only it bordered on Canaan. Can you sense what I'm sensing in that? Can you sense the danger of that?

I want to stay in Canaan, but I want what I lost.

When I began to walk with God. I've got another opportunity to have all of the blessings that we left in Ur and in Haran by a simple choice. And my uncle has given it to me. I'll take it. I'll take this plane in the Jordan Valley.

But somehow God mentions that that plane was much like Zor. But after he had begun that direction.

We don't find him anymore in the Jordan Valley. But we find him miles from the Jordan Valley with his tent pitched in Sodom.

The same type of wickedness that they had left. The same type of thing that God had brought them out of.

Once that direction is made, once the decision is made for our own good and not seeking the Lord in the decision, once the decisions start to be made in a selfish manner, in a self-satisfying manner,

It's so easy to get around that dead sea and into Zoar and into Sodom.

An amazing thing happened to Abram at this time. Can you imagine how hurt Abram was with this?

After he'd loved Lot. Have you ever had this kind of thing happen to you? Where you bless somebody for a long period of time. And when push comes to shove, they leave you out of the blessings.

No doubt Satan was translating that to Abram too. Satan was probably telling Abram, see what all your godliness gets you. Okay, you've just sealed your fate. You can't even go down there. You promised you won't even go into this lush tropical country. You're going to be stuck up here on this mountainside.

The Lord came to him.

Verse 14, the Lord said to Abram after Lot had parted from him, "Lift up your eyes from where you are and look north and south and east and west. All the land you see I will give to you and your offspring forever."

All of a sudden we get now not into a natural choice. But God just says, Abram, how far can you see? Oh, can you

Cleaned-up version

Here is the cleaned-up version of the sermon transcription:

Hear that in the Spirit? You see the promise of God to Abraham. Who left everything to follow the Lord, was to give him back now not only whatever he wanted to walk on, but his promise was, how far can you see? And I believe that the promise of God to his people that will surrender is they can have whatever they can see in God. It's theirs.

Look to the north, he says. Look to the south. Look to the east. Look to the west. They were in the same place that Lot was when he saw and claimed it and wanted it and lusted. And now God said it's going to be yours. All of it. As much as you can see.

That verse has thrilled me over and over because I happen to be one of Abraham's kids. Hallelujah. And when he says, you can have you and your descendants, I believe that God today can let me stand up on Mount Lemmon and believe God for the state of Arizona because I'm a descendant of Abraham. And I believe I can have whatever I can see. Might have to live in a tent, but it's mine.

Verse 18, so Abraham moved his tents. And went to live near the great tree of Mamre at Hebron, where he built an altar to the Lord.

Now, in chapter 14, we find an amazing story. I mean, they no sooner made the choice, and it's like magnetic force immediately Lot is drawn into Sodom. I mean, it doesn't take any time at all for a lot to be down in the same condition that they left when they left Ur of the Chaldees, because that condition was there in the plains of Zor, in the five cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.

And their people. But many times before God does any destruction. Okay. He warns. Immediately the Assyrians came. And they brought their kings. And they began to do battle with Sodom and Gomorrah.

You'd think that Lot would know. That when he was living there. And the war was happening. And he became a servant to these kings. You'd think that he would hear. But he didn't. Blinded by his own selfishness, Lot can't even tell that God is beginning to pour judgment upon this land.

In chapter 14 we find how these kings came. And how that the kings lost the battle, the Sodomites, the king of Sodom, the king of Gomorrah. I'm reading from verse 8 of 14. The king of Adma, the king of Zeboim, and the king of Bila, that is Zoar, marched out and drew up their battle lines in the valley of Siddam against Kedarleomer, king of Elam, Tidal, king of Goim, Amraphel, king of Shinar, and Ariok, king of Elassar. Four kings against five.

And he tells how they lost it in the slime pits. Oh, can you hear what God is saying? I mean, even losing the battle in the slime pits ought to tell us something.

And so, when they lost the battle, these kings went back to Sodom and Gomorrah and they took everybody captive, including Lot and his family and all their possessions. A runner came and he told Abram, He said to Abram, did you know that they've taken your countrymen and your fellow, your nephew Lot captive?

Abram begins to call out on God and he decides to go. And so he goes up against them. And with his 318 trained servants and three friends that brought their little small armies, Abram goes in and he begins to deal with the Assyrians till finally they're delivered into his hand and he brings back hundreds and thousands of those prisoners back to Sodom.

And here he's met by Melchizedek, king of Salem. Melchizedek brings out bread and wine. It sounds like Jesus, doesn't it? And he begins to say, Blessed is Abraham of the God Most High.

And Abraham pays tithes to this man of all that he had. And then comes the king of Sodom. We'll be talking about this in days to come. But Abram frees Lot. And he frees them. And he returns the possessions. And all they lost because of Abraham's power with God.

Was the tent that he gave and whatever the men ate as they fought in battle? It's amazing to me, Lot still didn't leave Sodom. You'd think that a man who'd walked close to the Lord would have taken a hint from God. I mean, he was captive. He was somebody's servant. He was somebody's slave. His family was lost.

And good old Uncle Abraham met him and delivered him. You'd think that he'd be talking to Abram and saying, Abram, hey uncle, you think I could go back with you into the plains around Jerusalem and Bethel? You think we could live together around Hebron? You know, I'd be willing to sell off some cattle if we could just be together again. But that wasn't what happened.

Instead, we find him back. In chapter 18, 13 years had gone by between the time that They came down and were defeated by those five kings or four kings. And by the time that Abraham came and delivered them, 13 years. I mean, this wasn't an overnight thing. The being in Sodom was overnight, but God gave years and years of time to think.

But all of a sudden, a certain day came. And Jesus talked about this suddenness like the day of the Lord in Luke 17. All of a sudden, one day in chapter 18, verse 1, the Lord appeared to Abraham near the great trees of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day.

Now, Abraham was now called, not Abram, but Abraham, and he was just sitting in the shade. I mean, he wasn't being spiritual. He wasn't praying. Nothing was going on. He was just relaxing in the afternoon, enjoying the day under the oak tree of Mamre.

This was a huge tree, took up almost a city block in shade. And here was Abram in joy in this great place, sitting in the shade, when all of a sudden the Lord comes walking up, just saunters up to him. The Bible says there were three of them, and we understand two of them to be angels, and one of them was the Lord.

Now, I don't know how he recognized the Lord, but Abraham must have known him because he fell on his face. And he says, just a minute, wait a minute, let's have a meal together. So Sarah is told to, you know the story, Sarah is told to make some... get a kid slaughtered and get it all underway.

And they're out working and Sarah's in the tent and the Lord says, Sarah's going to have a baby. And Sarah laughed. You know the story. Sarah said, I did not. And God confirms his promise to Sarah.

And that's such a beautiful story. But it gets very interesting in verse 16. When the men got up to leave, they looked down towards Sodom and Abraham walked along with them to see them on their way.

Then the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham what I'm about to do? Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him. For I have chosen him so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just, so that the Lord will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him.

Then the Lord said, We're just talking, see? And God literally is saying, You know, Abraham's my friend. Should I not tell my friend what I'm doing?

The Lord just said to Abram, The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sins so grievous that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me.

If not, I will know. The men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abram remained standing before the Lord.

Then Abram approached him and said, Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? What if there are 50 righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the 50 righteous within it?

Far be it from you to do such a thing, to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you, will not the judge of all the earth do right?

The Lord said, if I find 50 righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake.

Now, you didn't know what kind of power you had with God, did you? What do you think God hasn't wiped Tucson out for? I mean, when he sees all the garbage that's going on in this city, I mean, he sees more than you and I do when we drive down Speedway.

Okay. He sees it all and it cries out to him, but he says, for the 50 I will not destroy it. It's quite a lesson, isn't it?

Abraham spoke to him again. Now that I've been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes, what if the number of the righteous is less than 50? It's five less than 50. Will you destroy the whole city because of five people?

God answers, if I find 45 there, he said, I will not destroy it. Once again he spoke to him. What if only 40 are found there? He said, for the 40 sake, I will not do it.

Then he said, may the Lord not be angry, but let me speak. What if only 30 can be found there? He answered, I will not do it if I find 30 there.

Abraham said, now that I've been so bold as to speak to the Lord, what if only 20 can be found there? He said, for the sake of 20, I will not destroy it. Then he said, may the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more.

Do you ever talk to the Lord that way? I have never been quite that bold. But Abraham knew the Lord well enough that he was going to find a limit, he thought. But God found Abraham's limit of faith. Abraham didn't find God's limit. God found Abraham's.

He said, what if only ten can be found there? He answered, for the sake of ten I will not destroy it. Isn't it interesting that Abraham didn't ask him nine, eight, seven?

Isn't it interesting that Abram left it with 10? I've thought about this, and my daddy came up with a conclusion I think is right.

It's good to learn from your dad. And he said, you know, John, he said, I think that the reason he stopped with 10 is because Abram knew how many righteous had gone into Sodom with Lot. And he knew that it was going backwards.

And he knew it was about time God intervened so that no one else would be lost. That's conjecture, but I think it's right.

When the Lord had finished speaking with Abram, he left and Abram returned home.

Chapter 19 is an amazing story of the conditions of Sodom. It's interesting to note that the Bible says of Lot that his righteous soul was vexed with the behavior of Sodom.

But what in the world did he stay there with his righteous soul being so vexed for? Intoxicating about Sodom that a righteous man would remain to live there.

He even had the audacity to think that his ministry would save the place. I've had a lot of believers, especially young people, come to me and tell me that they're witnessing in the bars.

Okay? That they're going to the bars to witness. It's amazing how consistently I find them drinking and carousing and into sin not too long after that.

This is the whole line that Lot fell for. You see, there's a difference in being in the world and not part of it and participating, saying that you're doing it for reasons that are not really true.

Well, the two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening and Lot was sitting in the gateway of the city.

When he saw them, he got up to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground. My lords, he said, please turn aside to your servant's house. You can wash your feet and spend the night and then go on your way early in the morning.

No, they answered, we will spend the night in the square. But he insisted so strongly that they did go with him and entered his house.

He prepared a meal for them, baking bread with yeast, and they ate.

Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom, both young and old, surrounded the house.

They called to Lot, Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them. Now you know why we call homosexuality biblically sodomy.

This was Sodom's condition. They had grown so immoral that they wanted to have sex with the angels that were visiting Lot.

Lot, verse 6 says, went outside to meet them and shut the door behind him and said, No, my friends, don't do this wicked thing. Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them out to you and you can do what you like with them, but don't do anything to these men for they have come under the protection of my roof.

Get out of our way, they replied, and they said, This fellow came here as an alien and now he wants to play the judge. We'll treat you worse than them.

They kept bringing pressure on Lot and moved forward to break down the door. But the men inside reached out and pulled Lot back into the house and shut the door.

Then they struck the men who were at the door of the house, young and old, with blindness so that they could not find the door.

The two men said to Lot, Do you have anyone else here, sons-in-laws, sons or daughters, or anyone else in the city who belongs to you? Get them out of here, because we're going to destroy this place.

The outcry to the Lord against His people is so great that He has sent us to destroy it. So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were pledged to marry his daughters.

He said, Hurry and get out of this place, because the Lord is about to destroy the city. But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.

With the coming of dawn, the angels urged Lot, saying, Hurry, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away when the city is punished.

When he hesitated, the men grasped his hands and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters and led them safely out of the city, for the Lord was merciful to them.

As soon as they had brought them out, one of them said, Flee for your lives. Don't look back and don't stop anywhere in the plain. Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away.

Why the mountains? That's where God called him to in the first place. Notice Lot's response.

But Lot said to them, No, my lords, please. Your servant has found favor in your eyes and you've shown great kindness to me in sparing my life, but I can't flee to the mountains.

This disaster will overtake me and I'll die. Look, here's a town near enough to run to, and it is small. Let me flee to it. It's very small, isn't it?

Then my life will be spared.

Now what you're seeing here is what happens to hearts through the darkening process of sin. When people choose not to live in the center of God's will, but would prefer the border so they can play the game.

Still have the promise. But live. Why do you think God would take three chapters of the Bible for this story? Why would he, when there isn't that much space in the Bible, would he give three full chapters to this story?

It's because he wants every boy and girl, every man and woman, every nation on earth to know this story. And Jesus calls our attention to this story and tells us very clearly to his disciples, I want you to remember Lot's wife.

Remember her.

The angel said, verse 21, Very well, I will grant this request too. I will not overthrow the town you speak of, but flee there quickly because I cannot do anything until you reach it. That is why the town was called Zoar.

By the time Lot reached Zoar, the sun had risen over the land. Then the Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah from the Lord out of the heavens. Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, including all those living in the cities and also the vegetations in the land.

But Lot's wife looked back and she became a pillar of salt. Can you see the strain, the desire, the way sin takes over?

This week, just in the last few days, I talked to a young woman who went through three years of discipling here at Grace Chapel. And because God did not provide her all her expectation in the following year after she left the discipling program, She decided to pitch her tent towards Sodom.

Came to me and explained that she had an eight-month relationship, homosexual, and could not leave it for Jesus. This is happening all around us. This is not an isolated incident. This is not somewhere off in the distance.

The Bible talks in Romans chapter 1 about the darkness that enters people's hearts when they make a choice. To serve the created or the creature rather than the creator.

He talks about Esau who for a morsel sold his birthright. He lets us know that the prodigal wasted his father's living and was not returned to him even though relationship was.

He lets us know clearly by the story of Lot that when it comes to the blessing of the Lord when you choose the borders when Zoar looks so good to you. When it reminds you of the garden of the Lord, you walk right out of the blessing of Abraham and into the blessing of Satan.

It's not something that we should take lightly. It's something that is there for us to look at.

Verse 27 says, Early the next morning, Abraham got up and returned to the place where he had stood before the Lord.

He looked down towards Sodom and Gomorrah, toward all the land of the plain, and he saw dense smoke rising from the land like smoke from a furnace.

So when God destroyed the cities of the plain, He remembered Abraham and he brought Lot out of the catastrophe that overthrew the cities where Lot had lived.

Why did God save Lot? Because of Abraham. The intercession of a man of God saved him.

Now Lot, in fear, runs for his life. The tragedy of this story is that he goes clear back up into the hill country and he hides in a cave.

And there with just his two daughters, lost his wife, his family, his goods, his herds, his cattle. Everything that he fought to protect and he fought to gain