Okay, now Matthew chapter 16. Last week we started looking at the story of Lot and he made some choices. And the verse that we keyed off of last week was from Luke 17, 33. I'll read it to you. Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it. And whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it. Here in Matthew, 16, it adds a little phrase, and I want you to notice that phrase. In verse 25, for whosoever shall save his life shall lose it, and whosoever will lose his life, and here's the words, for my sake. shall find it, not just losing our lives, not just throwing our lives away, but dedicating, consecrating our lives to Jesus Christ and to his service. It's worth it because there is a coming judgment and there is a coming reward. This passage refers to the reward for the son of man shall come in the glory of his father with his angels. And then he shall reward every man according to his works. We're going to look at that in a moment. Let's pray. And then I have a true story to share with you. Father, thank you for bringing the folks out this morning. And again, we just ask for your Holy Spirit to meet with us. We welcome your presence. We want to not be distracted or busy. We want to be focused, focused on your word, focused on who you are, focused on the lessons you're teaching us. And even as we sing a final song today, focused on worshiping you and dedicating, consecrating our lives to you. It's right that we should do this because you gave your son, Jesus Christ, for us. So motivate us by our love for you this morning. Motivate us by your goodness to renew again or perhaps for the first time to dedicate our lives to you. We ask in the name of your son, Jesus Christ. Amen. I mentioned that these are cautionary tales. People think that something's a good idea at the time. The good idea that seemed like a good idea at the time, this one comes from 1876, when there was a gang in Chicago that decided they were going to steal the corpse of Abraham Lincoln. How many of you heard this story? Oh, good. This is a good one. Why would you steal a dead president's corpse? Well, what happened was they were counterfeiting money. And you say, what does counterfeiting have to do with corpses? Well, I'll get there. They were counterfeiting money. And one of their best engravers, if you're familiar with counterfeiting, there's a guy, he actually engraves on metal plates a copy of the bill. One of their best engravers, his name was Benjamin Boyd. Benjamin Boyd was arrested, and he was thrown in prison. And they thought, this is how we're going to get him out of prison. We're going to steal Abraham Lincoln's corpse, which was just out in a mausoleum. They thought, we'll steal this corpse. We'll take it out of Illinois. We're going to take it into Indiana. And we're going to hide it. We're going to bury it in the Indiana dunes. And we'll just wait for the uproar. And when the people get worried enough about where did his corpse go, then we're going to offer to give the corpse back if they will release Benjamin Boyd and give us $200,000. Now if that sounds like a good idea for you, please don't go into criminal gang activity. It's a terrible idea. When they, well, number one, they needed a couple of guys. And so they had a couple of guys in the gang join them. But the fourth man that they brought in, he claimed he was a professional grave robber. I didn't even know that profession existed. But he claimed he was a professional grave robber, was actually an informant. for the Secret Service. Of course, the Secret Service is trying to put counterfeiters in jail. So he was just telling the Secret Service exactly what their plan was. They got into the mausoleum, no problem, and then they realized that he had been put in a sarcophagus that weighed over 500 pounds. And how were they going to move this sarcophagus out? So they decided they were going to open the sarcophagus up, and take the casket out and take him that way. Well, they couldn't get the sarcophagus open. Well, while they were trying to force open the sarcophagus, one of the Secret Service agent's guns went off. Boom! Scared them. They all ran for their lives, except for, of course, the informant who told them exactly where they could be found, and they were arrested. Don't try to steal dead president's bodies. That's what I've learned from this. We all make choices, and some of our choices seem like a good idea at the time. And one of the good ideas that you may have heard about, it seems like a good idea, is get everything you can in this life. But this text right here tells us, what has a man profited? If he gained the whole world, and lose his own soul. There are some things that are more important than success in life. There are some things that are more important than success in life. That's what this passage is telling us. You can gain it all. You can become famous. You can have money. You can have power. You can be in positions of honor and held in esteem and get to talk on, name your favorite news program. But if you lose your own soul, is it worth it? The condition of our soul is more important than success in life. And let me say this too, your relationship to God is more important than success in this life. Now, I mean that in two ways. First of all, do you know that you are a child of God? We'll call that salvation. Do you know that you're a child of God? That's far more important than anything else you'll do in this life. It's more important than who you will marry or who you are married to, and that ranks right up there at number two. But more important than that is, are you a child of God? But there's a second aspect of this relationship with God, and that is, are you walking with him daily? In the last 24 hours, my time with God is in the morning, some of you may have it at night, so I say in the last 24 hours. In the last 24 hours, have you spent any time with God at all? Now, we always pray. I meet a lot of people who say, well, I pray. I pray too. The lights won't turn on. We started praying. In fact, Guillermo got down on his knees to pray for the lights to come on. And God said, no, we're not gonna have light on this side of the room today. Yeah, I understand that when things come up, we naturally go to God in prayer. And those are good prayers. In addition to that, there should be time we set aside every day to worship God and adore Him for who He is. To tell Him, thank you. Thank you for all the good things that He's done for us. To examine our own hearts. And I'll be candid, every time I examine my own heart, I find problems there. I find sin there. And you know what? God is faithful and just. When I confess my sin, he forgives me and cleanses me of all unrighteousness. So I don't look, oh, well, there's sin. Well, okay, so I guess I won't talk to God today. No, I say, God, here's all the problems. Here's the things I did wrong. Here's the things I shouldn't have said and I said it anyway. Things I should have said and I didn't say. Thoughts, actions, attitudes, and I confess those things and he forgives me. I'm talking about setting aside time with God, not just praying because you've got a test coming up and you've got to do well. Do you have a relationship with God? That's far more important than success in this life. This verse here talks about denying oneself. It talks about taking up a cross, talks about following God. When you deny yourself, you take up your cross and you follow Jesus, you will lose your life for Christ's sake. That's what it is to lose your life for Christ's sake. We're not talking about someone who commits suicide, who moves off the grid and never sees anyone again. When we talk about losing our life for Christ's sake, what we're talking about is denying ourselves every day, taking up our cross every day and following him. It means to lose our own life for Christ's sake means to be more satisfied, to see Christ exalted, than to see ourselves exalted. It means to be satisfied when he's lifted up, even if nobody notices me. Now that's hard for us, because as human beings, as sinful human beings, we want others to notice us. I do. I want other people to notice me. And when they don't notice me, hey, how come I don't get recognition? But to lose our life for Christ's sake means we don't care if we get recognition as long as Jesus is glorified. As long as people praise the Lord. Now we had a great week at Vacation Bible School. We had so much help. I really am grateful. And if we neglected to thank you, Let it be enough that Christ was exalted. Let it be enough that we presented truth to these children. Several of them made professions of faith. I'll talk more about that, talk more about that this evening. That's what's important, not being individually recognized for our contribution. Now the events of Lot's life illustrate the truth that righteousness is rewarded and wickedness is judged. Let's remind ourselves, first of all, though, about what we learned last week. And the first thing we learned in Lot's life is that everybody makes choices and that you too must make a choice, whether you're going to serve God or whether you're going to serve self. Joshua said it this way to the Israelites, choose you this day whom ye will serve. You have to choose. For a long time, Lot had just followed wherever Abraham went. And wherever Abraham went, he was content to go. And when Abraham built an altar, he probably worshipped at that altar. But now Abraham says to Lot, you pick and I'll pick and we're going to live in different places. And Lot looked down. You remember this. He looked down on that well-watered plain. And he thought, that's where I want to live. Well, the people of Sodom, they're so wicked there. Yeah, I know they're wicked, but that's where I can be successful. And so the first choice that he made, and frankly, where he began to go wrong, a lot began to go wrong, was when he chose to trust his own creativity, his own ability to provide for himself over trusting God to provide. You have to decide whether God can provide for you or not. I've known people in my circle of friends, people who were offered job promotions. If they would leave the city they were in and move to a new city, nothing wrong about moving to a new city for a job promotion, but they knew God wanted them to stay in this city. And so they said, no, thank you. I'm not interested in that promotion if I have to move. Now you say, how are you ever going to move up in your company if you're not willing to move? There are some things more important than success in life. And we have to decide, is God able to provide or do I have to provide for myself? It's a matter of provision. The second choice we saw, and then he pitched, Lot pitched his tent towards Sodom, the Bible told us. Then he had a second choice to make and that was a matter of acceptance. He wanted to be accepted by the people of Sodom. We know this because in the next chapter, he doesn't just have his tent pitched towards Sodom. He's actually living in Sodom. In fact, when the kings come to loot the city, he, most of the people run off to the mountain, the Bible told us, but he stayed there and he was captured with his goods. He just couldn't give up the stuff that he had. Let me remind you that if you're a Christian and you choose to live like a Christian, the world will never accept you. This is what Jesus said to his disciples in John 15. If the world hate you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love his own, but because you're not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Now, again, candidly, I don't like to be hated. I don't like it when people say, you're so this, you're so that, you don't ever do, you don't think any, you think the Bible's right about everything. I say, yeah, that's true. The world will not accept us as long as we are Christians and we live as a Christian. Now, if we give up, the principles that we find in God's Word, then maybe we can find acceptance. And that's why you hear, if you pay attention to Christianity and what's going on in churches in the United States, you hear of churches that seem to be abandoning biblical principle to chart some new course that's only going to lead them to the rocks. Let's go back now to Genesis chapter 19, and we're going to pick up the story of Lot and notice some other choices that he makes. Let me remind you that in chapter 13, he had pitched his tent towards Sodom. And in chapter 13, he had pitched his tent towards Sodom. In chapter 14, he's now living in Sodom. And now we've come to Genesis chapter 19. Let me read to you the first verse. And there came two angels, this is Genesis 19, one, there came two angels to Sodom and even, and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom. He had been pitched, his tent towards Sodom. He moved into Sodom. Now he is sitting in the gate. Those of you with some Bible background, what does it mean for someone, and rhetorical question here, I don't need you to answer out loud. What does it mean for someone to sit in the gate? They'd become a judge. He'd become a judge there in Sodom. In my thinking, what this represents is, first of all, it was a matter of provision. Can God provide? Then it was a matter of acceptance. Can I be accepted by these wicked people, even though I'm trying to do what's right? And now he says, you know what? Maybe I can change them. Maybe I can convince them that they're doing the wrong thing if I get to be the judge. Now we know they didn't accept that. If you'll look with me, Genesis 19 in verse nine, and they said, this is the men of Sodom said to Lot, stand back. And they said again, this one fellow came into sojourn and he will needs be a judge. They said, who does this guy think he is to tell us that we're wrong? Who is this guy to judge us? So even though they'd accepted him as a judge and said, hey, will you sit here in the gate of the city? You can make decisions for us. They really still did not accept him. And they still didn't accept his judgment. And let me remind us, as Christians, we're not seeking the acceptance of the world. Now, if God offers you a position as a judge in the US judicial system, in one of the California Superior Courts, by all means, take it if God leads you to do that. But just because you're a judge doesn't mean that people are going to listen to you. And that's what Lot found out. I can imagine one day the elders of Lot, the respected men of the city, they came to Lot. They said, hey, wouldn't you like to sit in the gate with us? Wouldn't you like to be one of us? I mean, he didn't make this decision on his own. Wouldn't you like to be one of us? And maybe Lot thought, you know, if I'm sitting in the gate with these other men, now I know they're wicked men, I know this whole city is wicked, but maybe I can change their mind. But even though he sat in the gate, they still weren't listening to him. And let me remind you that a worldly Christian convinces himself that he can influence, he can impact the world best if he joins the culture, but that's not true. As a Christian, we impact our world the most when we don't worry about what the culture is doing, and we fashion our lives according to what God's word tells us to do. So Lot is sitting in the gate of Sodom. He thinks, if I can, if I can be here as a judge, I can make a difference, I can make an impact. Well, we're going to see in a minute how much impact he made. One preacher, Martin Lloyd-Jones said this, the glory of the gospel is that when the church is absolutely different from the world, she invariably attracts it. It's not in being the same as our culture that has the impact. It's in being different from our culture. And again, I don't like to be different. I don't like to stand out. I don't like to say what God's word says. A friend of mine, some of you have met him. He spoke to our men's meeting. He makes it a point to go to the California Capitol there in Sacramento. He goes once a week during the session. And recently he was asked to speak at an event about this issue of abortion. And so he went to the event and he had Bible verses. One of the things that he pretty consistently hears, he hears other political people saying to him, why aren't there more pastors in politics? And he said, well, I'm here. So here he was at this meeting, and he was asked to speak, and he spoke from the Bible. He told him what the Bible had to say about life. And one of them came up to him after, sort of put his arm around him and said, you know, brother, we wanted you to speak, but we didn't want you to bring the Bible in. He said, well, listen, if you want pastors to be involved, we're going to use the Bible. I mean, this is the Word of God. Other people may not recognize it. That's okay. We're gonna stand on the Word of God. Other people may say, well, you're crazy to talk about scripture. What are they talking about? The latest scientific study? Some man's ideas? I remember one guy was trying to share the gospel with him, and he said, well, you know, I watched on YouTube, and I thought, now that's a place to stake your life on, YouTube. Listen, we all choose a foundation for truth. We've chosen the Word of God. Let's stand there boldly. Lot said, no, I don't need to stand there. I can mingle with these people. I can be among these people. I can judge these people and I'll change their minds. Now you remember the story and there's several things I could point out here, but let me remind you when the angels came to Lot here in chapter 19, they had just come from being at Abraham's house. And you remember in between the story of that meal at Abraham's house and the angels, coming, chapter 19, verse one, to Lot. Abraham had interceded for this city of Sodom. He started out by asking God, God, if there are 50, five, zero, 50 righteous people in this city. Would you spare it? God said, if there's 50 righteous people, I'll spare it. Abraham prayed down and tell her, how many? 10. God, if you can find 10 righteous people in this city, will you spare it? All Lot had to do was find nine other righteous people in the city. And God had promised to save it, and I know God is faithful. God keeps His word. We have Lot, he's the first one. You have his wife, Shirley, right? He has two daughters, the Bible tells us. And he also has sons-in-law. Sons-in-law would be plural. So let's say he has two daughters that are married, in addition to the two that are unmarried, and he has two sons-in-laws. He only has to find two righteous people. He's lived in the city for years. He's lived in the city long enough. He's become respected enough that he's now sitting in the gate as a judge. Surely he can find two people. But guess what? He goes to his sons-in-law and he says, God is going to judge the city. We've got to get out of here. And you know what his sons-in-law did? They laughed. So we're not going anywhere. Judgment isn't coming. What are you talking about, dad? You gotta be crazy. You can read for yourself, Lot himself, he lingered, he loitered, he just sort of hung around, just sort of waiting. Finally, the angels, one angel took him by the hand and his wife by the hand. The other angel took his two daughters, each by one hand, and they forced them out of the city. Lot failed to impact his family. because he wasn't standing on truth. Let me say that again. Lot failed to impact his family because he wasn't standing on truth. Now, I know, parents, sometimes you can stand on truth, you can pray for your kids, and they'll still make poor decisions. I understand that. I get that. but you don't help your children by not standing on truth. You don't help your children by not praying. You don't help your children by not living a principled life, focusing on giving glory to God, focusing on denying yourself and taking up your cross and following him. Now before we get to the very end, and I know I'm a little bit ahead of myself, let me just remind you where Lot was. For the last X number of years, whatever it was, 10 years, 15 years, 20 years, I don't know how long exactly Lot lived in Sodom. Lot had been living there in luxury. There in the plain, the well-watered plain, it was like the garden of God, the Bible says. It was like the land of Egypt. He had been living in that plain. He'd become richer and richer, wealthier and wealthier, more and more successful, so successful that when we find Lot in Genesis 19, 1, he's sitting in the gate. He's reached the pinnacle of success for his community, for his culture. He's right there at the top. Meanwhile, what had Abraham been doing? Abraham's still up in the hills, isn't he? It's not well watered up there. It's a hard life up there. There's times of drought. Drought means famine. There's times he's got to move because there's not enough water in one place. He's got to go to a new place. Does Lot ever have to move? No, he's there in the well-watered plain. Lot's marrying daughters off. He had sons-in-laws, again, sons-in-law. Again, he married daughters off. How many sons, when Genesis 19, one arrives, how many sons does Abraham have? One, and it's by Hagar, not by Sarah. It's not the child of promise. Can you imagine Abraham? He's sitting up there in those hills, looking down on the well-watered plain, thinking, boy, Lot seems to have it all. He doesn't ever have to move around because he runs out of water. He's successful. He gets to sit in the gate. He gets to help make decisions. He has plenty of children, at least four daughters. He's got plenty of children. Not only does he have children, but they're marrying people. He's marrying children off. And I'm still waiting. I'm still waiting for God. Have you ever waited for God? If you've been a Christian any length of time, then you've waited for God. There's been something in your life, God had given you complete confidence that he was gonna work it all out. But he didn't work it out in that moment, and you had to wait for it. Don't be weary in well-doing. for in due season we shall reap if we faint not. But here's Abraham, he's up there in the hills. And you know what's most interesting to me about Abraham in this whole bigger story, and you can read about it, the end of chapter 18, when God says to Abraham, I'm going to destroy the city of Sodom and Gomorrah. I'm gonna destroy that well-watered plain. Abraham did not say, good, it's about time. Those people down there, they are so wicked. I wish he'd just burn them all up. Abraham interceded for a wicked city. One of the Sunday school teachers just this morning, I happened to be wandering about, one of the Sunday school teachers this morning, asking, encouraging his class to pray for those who are in positions of authority in our government. I know sometimes we just wanna pray God's fire down on Washington. Why don't we pray for their salvation? Why don't we pray for a change of heart? Lot to be said there, but here Abraham, instead of praying down judgment and fire and brimstone, he begs God to spare the city. God, if you can just find 10 righteous people. So there's Lot, again, there's his wife, couple of daughters, couple of married daughters, couple of sons-in-law. He just needs to find two people and he can't find them. We're gonna pick up the story at its end now in Genesis chapter 19. and verse 20, 27, 23, excuse me. No, 27, that's where I wanna be. Genesis 19, 27, same chapter, just go down to verse 27. And Abraham got up early in the morning to the place where he stood before the Lord. Notice what it says there. The place where he stood before the Lord. What does that suggest to us? Regular presence at that place. That was the place where he stood before the Lord. You see, Abraham walked with God. So he had a place where each day he would go and he'd start his day with God. Now, Abraham is a herdsman. He's a rancher. We might call him here in Calvary, a rancher. He's got crops. He's got herds to take care of. He's got a wife. He's got servants to take care of. And the most important thing he does every morning when he starts is what? He stands before the Lord. Does Lot seem to have a place where he stands before the Lord? Doesn't appear to be. Appears to be he gets to get up in the morning and get dressed and put on his finest clothes and he gets to go sit in the gate. And Lot, excuse me, Abraham has to go up there in the rocky mountains and stand before the Lord. But this morning when he stands before the Lord, verse 27, Abraham got up early in the morning to the place where he stood before the Lord and he looked towards Sodom and Gomorrah And toward all the land of the plain, and beheld, and lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace. And it came to pass, this is verse 29, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in the which Lot dwelt. Abraham gets up in the morning, he's standing there, in that place where he stands before the Lord, and wherever that is, gives him a view of the cities of the plain, gives him a view of that Sodom and Gomorrah area, that well-watered plain, and it's not well-watered anymore. It's a cauldron. It's fire. It's smoke. It's stench. And I don't know how many people died. But we do know that Lot's wife didn't even make it, did she? Because the angels had given them specific instructions. Listen, you've got to leave the city and you've just got to run for your life. Don't look back. And Lot's wife looked back and the Bible says she turned into a pillar of salt. I know that's hard to believe. I don't know exactly what that means. I didn't see it, but I know the Bible's true. It says she turned into a pillar of salt. She didn't make it out. The two daughters, they made it out. But even though they got out of Sodom, Sodom didn't get out of them. And I don't have time to tell you the whole story. Just go to verse 36 with me. Thus were both the daughters of Lot with child by their father. Sad, sad, tragic story. Now let me ask you again. Would you rather be Lot sitting in the gate of Sodom today Or would you rather be Abraham standing, getting up early in the morning to stand in his place before the Lord? We started out with the passage from Matthew because there is a reward for the righteous. There is a reward for the righteous. And there's also judgment for the wicked. Now, God, in his mercy, got Lot out of there. He literally, the angels had to grab Lot's hand and force him to leave. And it still didn't turn out well for him. Sad, tragic story. Because he made choices, Lot consistently made choices that focused on his own success, as other people would measure it. As you or I would measure it, just as human beings would measure it. And you know what Abraham focused on? Abraham focused on his walk with God. It cost Abraham something. He didn't get to live in the well-watered plain. He didn't get to marry daughters off, did he? But in the grand scheme of history, would you rather be Lot or would you rather be Abraham? Let me give you some applications. And these are similar to the applications I gave last week, but young people. I'm thinking young people, you can define that for yourself. Let me ask you this question, young people, have you made your choice whether you're going to serve the Lord or you're going to serve self? By the way, the default choice is not to serve the Lord. If you've not made the choice yet, then you've chosen to just serve self. You've just chosen, well, you're gonna do whatever feels good in the moment. I like that verse in Daniel 1, it's Daniel 1.8, Daniel purposed in his heart. And I'm so glad, when I was a young man, I was at churches where they preached, you need to decide now. And I was 16, 17 years old. What do you mean decide now? I'm not even out of high school. I don't get any choices. How many of you, your parents said, do you want to go to high school or not? Nobody, okay. I didn't get any choices. I like to tease my dad. He would say to me, well, he actually said it to my brother, Tim. My brother, Tim, do we have to go to church? Nope, you don't have to go to church if you don't want to. Tim would say, okay, I'm not going. Dad said, get in the car. have a choice but I'm glad when I didn't have a choice seemingly didn't have a choice that I said you know what God is worth serving God is worth serving and I don't regret that decision now I've said this before and I'll say it again I've met a lot of people as they come toward the end of their life they've served the Lord all their life and I've met a lot of them and they've said if I had to do it all over again I would Yes, I've sinned, I've failed my Savior at times, but I have no regrets about giving my life to the Savior. And I met people who were at the end of their life, and they didn't serve the Savior. And by God's grace, He saved them at the last moment, and I'm so glad He did. But you know what they tell me? I wish I would have been saved sooner. I wish I would have given my life to God sooner. Why did I have to waste so much time? Young people, have you made the decision that no matter what happens, No matter what happens to the US government, whatever happens to our economy, whatever happens to the people around you, whatever happens to your school, whatever happens to your city, you are going to serve the Lord. As for me and my house, we are going to serve the Lord. You don't have to wait till you're an adult to make that decision. If you're sitting here this morning, you're old enough to make that decision. Now, again, as I said last week, you make the decision in a moment and then you have to live it out every day. I get that. Maybe some of you made that decision some time ago in circumstances, right? Things happen and you've been drifting. You've just been drifting. You're like a fish, just wherever the current carries you in the river, you're just flowing down river. Listen, living the Christian life always means that we're gonna be swimming upstream, but it's God's grace that gives us the energy. It's God's help that makes it possible. And maybe you've been floating down the stream again, just going wherever life takes you. Listen, decide that starting today, I'm going to keep swimming upstream. I gave my life to the Lord back there, and I mean it, I'm gonna keep going in that direction. I have an application here for people, I'll call them middle-aged people. Again, you can decide who that is. But I'll admit, as a middle-aged person, living in Sodom, quote unquote, living in Sodom, giving into the world, agreeing with the world, doing the things the world is asking me to do. That has its perks, doesn't it? You get to be accepted. People like you. Maybe you get to keep your job. There's increasing pressure on some of you at work to compromise with truth. And I don't know all the answers, but I know God has all the answers. And you would rather lose your job and stand for righteousness then keep your job and give in to sin. Let me say that again. You'd rather lose your job and stand for righteousness than be a lot and be successful, but lose your soul. All of us, faith leads us to obedience. If we say we have faith in God, we will obey him. If we say we have faith in God, we must obey him. Now, if you would have asked Lot, Lot, do you believe in God? Yeah, I believe in God. But he didn't have enough faith to actually obey him. Now you say, well, why do you think that Lot believed in God? Well, there's two reasons. One is in the passage here, Genesis 19.1. When those two angels showed up, what did he say? Hey, come to my home. Now, whether he recognized them immediately as angels or not, it isn't extremely clear, but it's pretty clear that it didn't take him long to realize these were God's messengers. The other people of Sodom didn't see that. But there's a second and more direct reason, more clear reason that I believe Lot to be a Bible, excuse me, to be a God-believer. I was gonna say Bible-believer, there's no Bible there. A God-believer. In 2 Peter chapter two in verse nine, it says, just Lot, J-U-S-T, just Lot. That word is translated, that same Greek word in other places is translated righteous. Righteous Lot. I think Lot was a saved man. I think you're gonna meet Lot in heaven, actually. I do think that, based on that verse in 2 Peter. But I can guarantee you, Lot's gonna say, you know, I wish I would've done things differently. All the way back to that first choice when Abraham said, you pick your spot and I'll pick my spot. I wish I would've went somewhere else. I wish I would've never moved into Sodom. I wish I'd never taken that spot on the gate. I read this quote last week from A. W. Tozer. He said, I refuse to be discouraged about anything, but it gives me heavy heart to walk among Christians who have wandered for 40 long years in the wilderness, not going back, but not going forward into the Christian life. Wandering in an aimless circle, sometimes a little warmer, sometimes a little colder, sometimes a little holier, and sometimes very unholy, but never going on. To me, this is a terrible thing. That's the quote from Tozer. He's expressing these Christians, they know they're saved, they know they're a child of God, but they don't have a place where they go to meet with God every day. They're busy. They've got jobs, they've got kids, and boy, you've got a job and you've got a kid. In fact, you mothers, you have kids, you're busy. I get that. That's why we've got to carve time out of our day to spend with Him. Christians that are more concerned about what direction the culture is going, Christians that are more concerned about who wins some award, entertainment award, than what the Bible says, Christians that are more interested about the next streaming episodes are going to binge than reading their Bible. And they're not making progress. And you're living in consistent defeat. God doesn't intend for us to live in defeat. God intends for us to live in victory. But it comes down to faith, and faith leading us to obedience. Not obedience to me. Not obedience to some list that I've got for you. Obedience to God's Word. I'm calling all of us today to step up, to swim a little bit harder upstream. Or maybe if you've just been floating as a Christian, you've just been floating downstream, to turn around and swim upstream. You say, that's a lot of work. It's worth it. When Jesus comes back with his angels, he's going to reward the righteous. It's going to be worth it. And guess what? Those rewards last for eternity. Whatever people give to me in this life, they're only going to last for as long as I live. And don't believe the transhumanists who tell you they're going to find a way to live forever. Those rewards only last for as long as I live. The rewards God gives me last for eternity. Don't be lot. Don't make choices that lead you further and further into the culture. Be Abraham. Stay on the mountaintop. Work harder. Move more often. Have less herds and flocks. Don't sit in the gate of the city. Have to wait 25 years for your son to be born. You're better off as Abraham than to be Lot. Father, thank you for the help you gave us this week. It's been a busy week. ministering to children. We're glad to do it. Our hearts are full of excitement and joy and even peace having done your will this week and ministering to these children. And I also recognize that many of us are tired. We just, it's been a busy week. Many of these people working all day, 10, eight, 10 hours a day, and then coming at night. Many mothers taking care of their children all day and then coming out at night and then going back late to put their kids down. Father, have mercy on us. Give us grace for today and for this coming week. And I pray that in these final few moments, instead of our minds going here or there, that we could focus on our own condition? Are we that fish that's just floating downstream? It seems like a good idea to try for as much as we can get in this life, but what does it profit us if we gain the whole world and we lose our own soul? What does it profit us if we get to sit in the gate of the city, we get recognition as a judge, but we lose our own children, we lose our possessions, we lose our spouse? Father, what are we gaining there? We lose our own soul. So Father, impress upon our young people the need to decide today that they're going to serve God, regardless of the consequences. Impress upon us today that faith leads to obedience. We can't say we love you. We can't say we trust you and then do whatever we want. Impress upon us today that the most important thing is not success, but walking with you. Do we have that place where we come and we stand before you? Father, for Christians that have given up that, daily time with you. It's been crowded out. And I understand they're busy. Some of these men were up at work at four in the morning this week. Some of these mothers were up in the middle of the night taking care of children. And things get crowded out. Father, remind us and press upon us again how important it is that time with you. Show us where we can carve out time in our morning or afternoon or evening to spend time in your word and in focused prayer. May we experience your manifest presence as we spend that time with you this week. May we understand that you've met with us. Lord, we love you. You've been so good to us. Just living here in the United States, you've been so good to us. Here in California, we have stuff and beyond, things we don't even need, things we've packed away in our garage or our storage unit we haven't touched for years. You've been so good to us. We have families, we have this church, thank you. Now, because of your goodness for us. May we recommit to swimming upstream for your sake, losing our lives for your sake, denying ourselves, taking up our cross and following you for your sake and the gospels and leave the rewards to you. We believe you, Lord, that there is coming a day when we will be rewarded. We ask for your grace upon us for this day. We ask for your help to know how to engage our culture, how to talk to them, how to live before them so that you are honored and glorified, so that you're exalted. We ask for that in the name of your son, Jesus Christ. Amen.