And I do not take it lightly that you've made it out tonight. I thank you for your faithfulness. I know God sees it. And I know in today's age, with our families, our jobs, and just everything that we get, we get moving and get going. It can be difficult to get out, especially think of our older membership. And I thank you for your faithfulness. And I know there'll be, there are nights or there's times when you just like, man, I don't think I should get out. That is fine, you make that call for your safety and how God sees fit. But I thank you for your faithfulness. And I always say, hey, if you're not able to be here in person, be praying for the service and what is going on. If you're able to tune in, then tune in. If not, catch it a little bit later. But I do not take your faithfulness lightly. I teach and preach and believe in faithfulness, and I encourage that, but I also understand that not everybody can be here at every given service. I wish it could, you probably did too, but I do thankful for your faithfulness. I wanna give you something from God's word that'll be a blessing to you tonight. I wanna preach along the lines called when you choose to linger, when you choose to linger. In Genesis chapter 19, kind of a unique situation going on here. I need to probably ad-lib most of this as introduction, but in Genesis chapter 19 you have a setting here dealing with Lot. Now, Lot was related to Abraham, and there was quite a bit that went on in their relationship. One thing led to another, and they began to multiply their flocks and their herdsmen, and they begin to bicker back and forth who gets the grass, who gets the water, and they decided to split. And Abraham said, look, you choose where you wanna go, and whatever direction you choose, I'll choose the opposite, I'll go in the opposite direction. because we're so great and we need to separate. And so that's what they chose to do. And so from there, what happens is the Bible records, and I won't go back there for the sake of time, but Lot said he began to look at the well water plains of Sodom. And it was a beautiful place. I believe here is recorded that Lot was a cattleman, same with Abraham, and they had huge herds And that's their finances, their livelihood, that's what they did, especially at that time. And so Lot saw those plains, the well water, saw the grass, and it was good, and so he chose to go that way. The Bible records this, and it says this about Lot, that Lot began to pitch his tent towards Sodom. And so it was the grass and the well water plains, and then the next thing it records is that he begins to look at the the cattle distribution, if you please. Where do I make this exchange with the herds? I don't know what he's thinking. That's what I would have been thinking, but maybe not Sodom, but he chose to look to Sodom, and there was money to be had, things to be had down there, so he begins to move that way. He begins to make a series of choices. He begins to make these decisions, and they all begin to lead him to a place where we pick up here in chapter 19, and I want you to notice with me verse number 12, in verse number 12, The Bible says, and the men said unto Lot, and now Lot is already in Sodom. All right, there's a lot that's kind of recorded here, but what happens is, I need to give you a little bit more before we begin to read. The wickedness had come up before God. The wickedness of Sodom and some of these other cities around Sodom, but especially Sodom, had come up before God, and God said, look, this can't go on any longer. This has to be judged. This has to be dealt with. I got news for you. Any nation, there isn't a nation that is exempt from a judgment of God. And so you say, well, could it happen to America? I believe it, we're seeing it happen to America. We just, most Christians' eyes are blind to it. And we kind of, and listen to me now, most Christians, they'll put their head in the sand like an ostrich, and they choose to ignore a lot of the relative stuff around their lives. That's you and I, Christians. And so we kind of play dead for a while. But there's a lot of stuff that is abominable, wicked things against God and the ways of God that goes on every day around us. And it seems like when it gets to a point to where there is more wickedness, and it's a continual wickedness, and it's debauchery, and I'm not gonna get into the minute details here for the sake of our audience tonight, but you can read. and you can pick up what is going on here. Lot is inside this city, he has brought his family here, he's raised his family up in this environment, and so we see him, there's a problem. You have three men that come to Abraham and Sarah, and they come by way of just telling them that they're going to Sodom and they're gonna destroy Sodom. Abraham knew that Lot was down there, and so Abraham begins, he feeds the three, angels there. I believe one of them is probably Angel of the Lord, a manifestation of Jesus Christ. I'm getting into the weeds now theologically, but nonetheless those angels were headed to destroy Sodom. And Abraham began to deal, it says here, with the Lord, and he began to make this, if you please, this deal. He says, well, if there be 30 righteous, if there be 20 righteous, and then he gets all the way down to if there be 10 righteous, would you spare the city? And he says, if there is 10 righteous in Sodom, I'll spare the city, I won't destroy it. And lo and behold, there wasn't 10 righteous in the city. But there was lot. Just Lot, the Bible records. And so these men, these two angels, went ahead. They had moved on and went into Sodom. And so we pick it up in verse 12. And it says, 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 we will destroy this place because the cry of them is waxen great before the face of the Lord and the Lord hath sent us to destroy it." And so these angels were what I'm going to call good angels because they were obedient to the Lord. and they were going to do what the Lord had commanded them to do, and it says in verse 14, now as we pick this up, and it says, 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, but he seemed as one that mocked unto his sons-in-law. Now in verse 15, it says, and when the morning arose, then the angels hastened Lot, saying, Arise, take thy wife and thy two daughters, which are here, lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city. Now verse 16 is where we're going to preach from. And it says, 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, the Lord being merciful unto him, and they brought him forth and set him without the city. And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth abroad, that he said, Escape for thy life, look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain. Escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed. And Lot said unto them, oh, not so, my lord. Behold, now thy servant hath found grace in thy sight. Thou hast magnified thy mercy, which thou hast showed unto me in saving my life, and I cannot escape to the mountain, lest some evil take me and I die. Verse 20, behold, now this city is near to flee unto, and it is a little one. Oh, let me escape. Is it not a little one? And my soul shall live. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we bow before you tonight. And Father, we thank you for this time. We thank you for the patience that you've had with us and the blessings that you have bestowed upon us today. I thank you for the faithfulness of your people that have come out. Father, I ask that you would bless them tonight. Bless their families. And Father, bless their heart, their heart and their souls. from your word tonight. Be with me, fill me with your Holy Spirit, and I pray that you would give me the option to preach your word tonight. Father, be with those that we've lifted up before you in our prayer petition, and I pray that you would answer these prayers. If it be your will, in accordance to as you see fit, answer these prayers. And Father, tonight, be with us, meet with us here tonight. And those that are watching, we ask all this in Jesus Christ's blessed name we pray, amen. Here, when we read about Lot and his situation, he found himself in here, in verse, all these verses that we're looking at, the Bible says, and while he lingered, in verse 16, Lot chose to linger, he did not want to make right decisions, or he, hesitated to make a right decision. We learn when we choose to linger in the world or in sin and in a backslidden condition, you will lose something. This is what takes place, and I want to show you three things that Lot lost, that he loses here, and it's mentioned. There's quite a bit here, but we just picked three. I just like three. We probably could have done five or six or whatever we could have pulled out of the text, We'll notice here something. I want you to dwell and look at just three things tonight. I want to say this by way of starting. Choosing to linger is dangerous and costly. Choosing to linger without making a decision, especially when God has already given you direction. He's already shown you mercy, and he's waiting on you to make a decision, the right decision, and you linger. and you linger, there'll be a number of reasons why you might linger. I believe there's a number of them here. And so I'm saying tonight, choosing to linger is a dangerous, it's dangerous and it's costly. So when we look here, look at verse 14, we'll see the first one. We'll see the first one in verse 14. Look at it, it says, and Lot went out and spake unto his son's-in-law, which married his daughters and set up, get you out of this place for the Lord will destroy this city, but he seemed as one that mocked unto his sons-in-law." I'm gonna say first of all, if you have making the choice of lingering, and it is a choice, your whole mind as you're not making a decision, the whole time you're choosing not to make a decision, and it could be sin, I believe here it was the vexation, in sin, and he was thinking that he was not in danger, that it was not imminent, and that this probably would not take place. Or he had a pool there, and I believe that his family noticed that in verse 14. That was the first thing that he did. He went to warn his family. And so if he did realize that it was gonna be destroyed, this city, Sodom, that his family was in jeopardy. And I'm gonna say, number one, when you choose to linger, we can even put Sodom, if you choose to linger in Sodom, away from God, backslidden on God, maybe with sin in your life, and you choose and you're lingering not to get it corrected, you're gonna lose relevance with others. you're going to lose that ability to actually sway somebody when you say, hey, there is a hell that's hot, there's people in that hell that are burning and gnashing their teeth, and they have chosen to not believe in God and they're in hell tonight. you begin to share that with maybe a family member, maybe somebody that means something to you, you're going to find if you've lived a life and you have been in a condition or in a state of not making decisions for God, you're lingering, if you please, in Sodom, you're going to lose and you're not going to have relevance in other people's lives. You see why? It's because You don't know how or don't exhibit how to make good godly decisions. Why would they think you'd be telling them something right now? I hear a lot, his family was in Sodom. His daughters had married men in this city and he had taken them there and had raised them there. And now he's telling them, look, you need to get out of this city. God's gonna destroy this city. He said, look, you've been living here, we've been living here, we're married here. It's like, he said here, he's like, you're mocked. You mocked? unto his son." It's like they were mocking. He said, that's one that mocked in verse 14, unto his son's-in-law. And so we see here that Lot did not have relevance with his family. He said, well, I don't have a lot of relevance or weight, if you please, with my family members. It's hard as is. You know, there's a lot of people that you can talk to and deal with and maybe have an input into their life, maybe the ministry, but one of the areas that's very difficult is your own family, is your own family. And if you're like Lot, listen to me, if you've been like Lot, if you've lived like Lot and you're lingering and you have chosen not to make decisions for God, you're going to lack or lose relevance with others. Maybe it's in your witnessing. I'm just not a very good witness, a witness for God. You should be, you don't have to be an expert, everybody, but willing heart is where it starts, and a willing heart will take you a long way in witnessing to somebody. Here's the thing. We get in this mindset of witnessing that it's a duty, and I believe it's a command and a commission, but we look at it, why don't we ask God to bring that person that we can deal with, that we can witness to across our path. Imagine trying to witness to somebody that doesn't want nothing to do. You might have one of those. I've had a couple of them. But here's the thing, if you pray and ask God, God, bring that person who I can be a blessing to, that I will have relevance in. It might be a family member. It might be somebody that God has placed on your heart. And begin to pray, bathe it in prayer, and then God opens those doors and he'll make a way, he'll give you the words, he'll give you the thoughts, he'll give you the direction of the conversation or the witness to reach that person. But if you are a Christian who is more prone to linger, more prone to be more involved with what looks good or maybe a lifestyle or where you're at, that's more important than maybe doing something for God. When you choose to linger, you're going to not have a lot of relevance in some people's lives. Your testimony will not have relevance. It won't have substance behind it. People will mock and make fun of your testimony. And I'll tell you the first ones that tell on you is your family. You know, you can fool a lot of people, but when you ask the family, family pretty much know you in and out. They know you're up and downs. You want to know something about me? Ask my parents. My mom, she'll be flat on us with you. You know, just be ready. Mom will tell you, don't ask mom, maybe ask dad. But mom will tell you. So mom will tell you. And there's had some moments in my life all the way through it. I like using some of that on her now, like tough apples or some other things that she was always good at saying. I learned that kind of stuff. But I'm telling you, your parents or your family know you better than anybody else. You say, well, my family lie. Well, I understand that. But they also know you very well. And so here, Lot was trying to reach his family, his family members. And look at verse 14 again. I'm going to show it again here, read again. He says, but he seemed as one that mocked unto his son-in-law or sons-in-law. And so here we see that Lot didn't have any standing any stand or any state in these people's lives, these young people's life, his family. Well, there's something else that you can lose when you are choosing to linger in Sodom. There's a lot here. We're just looking at three now tonight. Look at verse 15. It says, and when the morning arose, then the angels hastened Lot, saying, Arise, arise. Take thy wife and thy two daughters, which are here, lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city." You see in verse 15 what happens is he says, look, okay, just take your wife and the angels grab a hold of them, these two men, it's described as two men, and they take his wife and they take his two daughters and take Lot. You look at verse 16, 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, and the Lord being merciful unto him. And they brought him forth and set him without the city. Listen, secondly, we see that if you're choosing to linger in Sodom, you're going to lose those you love. Lot lost his daughters, his sons-in-laws, and probably his sons. I believe his sons were mentioned here. Could it be the sons-in-law? And then ultimately, we haven't read far enough, Ed, he loses his wife. And that's another message in itself. But Lot, he loses those he loves in this. I'm gonna say something else. It's dangerous and it's costly if you choose to linger in Sodom. And I liken that, just that phrase, as somebody who is lingering maybe in backslidden state with God. Maybe you're a child of God. You've saved, but your relationship with God is not healthy. It's not right. It's because of sin, or it's because you've let things go in your Christian walk with God. All right? And so we call that your state. That's your relationship side. Amen? You're a child of God. Your standing is right, but your state. I liken it as we're getting ready to look at a lot of this stuff. You've probably already been looking at it on news, but you got the lower 48 states and you got many different states. Your standing is correct. You're in the United States in any one of those. That's your standing with Christ. That's your salvation. But your state deals with what state you're in. You might be all the way in California. You might be in Florida, but that state will change. Where's your state at tonight with God? And I'm saying if you're lingering in Sodom, if you find yourself in Sodom and lingering to make a choice, there is a cost to pay for that, and it's dangerous. We already looked at the relevance that we lack, we lose with our family. and those close, those that we love. And we also lose those we love. You're going to lose. And you say, why? Well, your family is the first most important thing. When you get saved, one of the first things you think about is your family and your family members. Here, those that have gotten saved here recently, the first thing, not even those, anybody that we've ministered to in salvation has always said, my family. I got a family member that needs to be saved. and you care and you love and you have a burden for your family. That's natural. That's as the Bible, it's recorded that way all the way through the New Testament, people getting saved and their whole house and their families. And so if you're lingering in Sodom, you're choosing to linger, amen tonight, you could stand the loss of losing a loved one because you're lingering and you shouldn't linger. Your families, how about your friends? That could take place. You ever try to talk or witness to a friend when your relationship with God's not good? You've got a poor testimony. It doesn't go far. It doesn't go far. They kind of just like, mm-hmm, yeah. And they don't want to hear anything you have to say. Here, Lot was in this position. And it picks up in verse 16. We're going to look at verse 19 here and look at the last one. But in verse 16, it says, and while he lingered, Look at verse 17 with me, and I'm gonna read down to verse 19. It says, and it came to pass when they had brought them forth abroad, that he said, escape for thy life, look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain. Escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed. And Lot said unto them, oh, not so, my lord. And now verse 18 goes with verse 19, and it's my third point here tonight. Look at verse 19. Behold now, thy servant hath found grace in thy sight, and thou hast magnified thy mercy. Sounds like a salesman to me. And he says, which thou hast showed unto me in saving my life, and I cannot escape to the mountain, lest some evil take me. and I die. It's like, man, where did you just come from? What is happening to you? Thirdly, I want to say if you choose to linger, you'll lose godly sense. You'll lose godly sense and godly discernment. Lot didn't have any here, and you can tell by how it is worded and how he's looking at this. He's disagreeing with the men that just saved his life. And I don't want to go into the mountain because I'm afraid of dying. Something's going to kill me up in the mountain. It's like, you're missing here, you're missing this here. And so here, I wanna say thirdly, you'll lose godly sense. I wanna talk about tonight, your spiritual sense. I said godly sense, how about your spiritual sense? People think or act like they have good spiritual sense, but you can tell real quick sometimes how they view the Bible, how they'll pray, how they interact with other Christians, what they talk about, what they spend their time doing. And they lack good spiritual sense. They got good sense when it comes to business moves. They got good sense when it comes to giving somebody else advice. But when it comes down to spiritual sense, they're seriously lacking. There's something else. How about your moral sense? As just a Christian tonight, what about your moral sense, your moral compass? The Bible has a lot to say. Look at Proverbs. I think some of these verses were shared. and I jotted them down in the back that go along with what we're looking at tonight about lingering. When you choose to linger, Proverbs chapter 4, if you would, go with me to Proverbs chapter 4. We're talking about your moral sense. Look at this, Proverbs chapter 4. We tend to want to rub shoulders with an evil person or an immoral person quicker than we will, staying away from them. We'd rather spend time with them rather than spending time with a godly people. Now watch this, this moral sense. Proverbs chapter four, look at verse 14, what the Bible says here. I believe Brother Greg read these earlier. He says, enter not into the path of the wicked. Speaking of wisdom that's being produced here and meted out. And he says here, enter not into the path of the wicked and go not in the way of evil men. Avoid it. Why do I have to avoid it? It's good wisdom, it's good advice, it's good moral sense. And I'm saying when you linger in Sodom, when you choose to linger, you're gonna lose good godly sense. The Bible's advising us here, avoid it, pass not by it. I don't have a problem passing by it, don't bother me. The Bible said it'll eventually affect you. It won't affect me. Well, let's just take a look at Lot just for a little bit and step back. It says that Lot was vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked, and he sat in the gates of Sodom. That was after he chose to pitch his tent towards Sodom. And then that, after that, he saw the well-water plains of Sodom and Jordan. He thought that was great. Here, he's not taking this advice. Tonight, we get advice, and it says, avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away. There's been many a times a younger man driving with my father, working construction. There are certain places we don't go, drive around. Why didn't we go down there? Because that's not a good place to be. That person on the job site might be a reprobate in the house. Don't be around him. Stay away from him. He's not right. Don't trust him. Why? You being given advice. We get grown up as adults and we let our kids go wherever, do whatever. We don't have a problem with it. Listen, you need to give them good Bible advice. And here it is right here. Verse 15, avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it and pass away. The Bible says don't make provision for the flesh. It's okay, they'll have to figure out some other time. That's what you let your kids do. Not mine. And I don't advise you to do yours that way. And what you do is you end up throwing your children and those you're trying to advise to the devil, to the lion, and he'll devour them. I'm saying you have lost your spiritual sense and you've lost your moral sense. I like what was said tonight in the back. You can't walk with God and hold hands with the devil. So while I'm not holding hands with the devil, let's see what the fruit looks like. What is it produced? Here, Lot lost godly sense. He was thinking only of himself at this time, thinking that They had saved his life, spared his life. He didn't want to go to the man. He disobeyed. He didn't want to do that. He ended up going to another city there, Zor. That ends up getting wiped out, I believe, if I'm not mistaken. But it reminds me of a verse in Proverbs chapter 13 and verse 20. He that walketh with wise men shall be wise, but a companion of fools shall be destroyed. Lot was very close to losing his life. Ends up getting worse if you read on about Lot. Tonight, listen, when you choose to linger, it's going to be dangerous and it's going to be costly. And you'll lose relevance with others. You'll lose those you love around you, won't be able to reach them because of the lingering that you've chosen in your life. And thirdly, you'll lose godly sense. You'll argue against godly ways, and moral ways, and spiritual ways, more than you'll defend them. I have a lot of respect for saying to somebody, I might not agree with it, but it comes from the Bible, and it's spiritual, and I'm gonna stand behind it. Didn't live my life like that, didn't teach that in my home, and I miss that, but I stand for it, that's truth. I'll give that person a lot of respect. But you got a person who wants to argue and debate about something that is ungodly, doesn't have good spiritual sense, or has maybe a moral, not a good moral compass, especially with the Word of God, you got problems. You see what it is. You're choosing and you've chosen to linger in Sodom and it shows. And I'm asking you and challenge you tonight, don't linger. Don't linger. Don't linger in Sodom. Tonight, are you lingering? God has been speaking to your heart, telling you, you need to be doing this, or you need to stop doing that. Are you lingering in obeying God? You see, God's not saying, well, I think they're going to get away with it. God's already told us from the Word of God what will happen if we choose to linger. We choose not to decide to follow Him and obey Him. Maybe tonight, this is an era of your spiritual growth where you are lingering in your spiritual growth. I don't need to grow no more. I already know it all. The cups, as we say in the martial art, the cups are already too full. Can't put anything in it. You already got enough knowledge. When you choose to linger, it's dangerous and it's costly. Let's all stand up tonight, ask Brother Jeff to come forward. We have our heads bowed. You might be saying tonight, I don't want to make changes in my life, in my schedule, in my family, in my relationship with God. And I'll remind you tonight, choosing to linger is dangerous and costly. You say, well, I might be too far back. I can't make the right decision. I don't know if I can go back. God is there. You just start making right decisions. You're still breathing, you're still here. It hasn't called you home. There's still work to be done, there's a purpose and there's a plan. God's saying, look, just start making right decisions. Maybe you can stop, just stop lingering. We call it soaking, setting and soaking and souring. Maybe we've done enough soaking tonight and it's time to get to work. Maybe you're on the part or the brink of being sour because you really haven't been doing anything. Generally complacency breeds this type of complaining or this ain't right or that ain't right. And you'll find that person isn't doing anything. And if they are, they're doing it for self and not for God. You say, why? It's because they're choosing to linger rather than make the right decision. You want relevance when you speak the truth of God, maybe in your family and your witness. You want that relevance in your testimony tonight. Maybe you say, well, I'd like to have some influence and I don't wanna lose lost loved ones. I don't wanna lose any more family to Satan. I don't wanna lose any more of my friends. It's a choice tonight. Brother Jeff, sing that verse for us. 288.