for being off. And I just can't lay it down, I can't quit it, and I don't want to quit it until the time comes. And I will be sure that I get everything the Lord wants me to have out of it. But I can sense that there's a lot more in it than just you and me. I was telling some of the men while I was here last night, saying about the Baptist truth. that one of these days, I believe the Lord's gonna let me preach either a baccalaureate sermon or a graduation somewhere, and let me use this for a sermon. This'll make an excellent sermon for young folks facing the responsibilities of life. Whatever it is the Lord's working in my heart, I want him to structure it so that I can relay it and build it in somebody else's heart on the leadership of the Holy Spirit. So if you'll take your Bible tonight and turn with me to the book of Genesis chapter 13, I'll keep you up to date. I'll just be a reporter tonight, all right? And we'll report to you what the Lord's reporting to me and see what we can do with it. We're speaking to you about Lot and Abram on facing the crossroads of life or creators of your own destiny. I spoke to you Sunday, two sermons, and tonight I wanna speak the third in this series. There will be several more connected to it, depending on what the Lord wants us to deal with in the next few weeks. But Genesis chapter 13, tonight we'll look, beginning at verse nine, this is Abram speaking to Lot after strife had developed between him and Lot, Abram's herdman and Lot's herdman. is not the whole land before thee. Separate thyself, I pray thee, from me. If thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right hand, then I will go to the right. Or if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to the left. And Lot lifted up his eyes and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere. Before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, as thou camest unto Zohar. Now let's pray together. Heavenly Father, I want to thank you tonight for the privilege that we have in the Lord Jesus to assemble in your name. I realize our inability and our insufficiency, but at the same time, we pray that the strength of the Lord that comes from within, so enable us with your almighty power to present the truth of this word. I ask you tonight to open our minds and our hearts. Teach us, Lord. We thank you for the wisdom that you grant us facing the crossroads of life. But Lord, so many of our young folks will face it again and again, as well as us as adults. Let us see Abram and Lot's story. Let us profit from Lot's mistakes. Let us be blessed by Abraham's obedience. Lord, show us at the crossroads how to acknowledge you, give you our hearts, call upon you, and have you instruct us in the pathways of righteousness. Our Father, I just believe that this evening you have something special for us. Thank you for the blessings that this series has already been to my own heart. And Lord, I pray that I'll have a better understanding of every person who comes to the crossroads of life, whether it be my own children, or the children of our folks, or the children of other parents. Just let us see this evening. There's not a person in the building but what faces the crossroads of life and is filled with frustration and fear until he sees your hand. Father, I pray that we'll seek your leadership as Abraham did. We'll not forget you as Lot. Direct our eye and let us look up before we look out, and I'll be very careful to praise you. In Jesus' blessed name, amen. Now I want to restate some of the things that I stated Sunday evening with you concerning the crossroads of life and the day that Lot reached them. I told you two or three things that I want to reiterate for our understanding. Number one was the whole world lay before him. Abram said to Lot, said the whole earth or the whole country or the whole nation, the whole region, A whole place lies out before you. I realize tonight not everybody can say that and not every person has that opportunity. It is a blessed thing to be born in the United States of America and to have the opportunities that our young people face today. There are those who have different circumstances and different opportunities from what we do. I thank the Lord that our young folks in this church have the background that they do or at least have access to the knowledge that is taught by this church. Here Lot has the opportunity to behold to his left hand and his right either the well-watered plains of the Jordan or the rest of the land. So Abram comes to the place to where he says, Lot, all of the land is out here before you. He uses the word whole, which means all of it, every piece of it, every bit of it is lying out before you. I told you second that he had two ways to go. He had the left hand or the right. To me, that illustrates God's way or Lot's way. He could submit himself and acknowledge God's authority and his claims to him, or he could yield to himself, acknowledge his authority and his claims to himself to make his own decisions. And then third, we saw he had the freedom to choose his own course. Abram gave that to him, and it was Lot's privilege to stand at the doorway of opportunity to choose his own direction. Now, I've used it over and over and over until it almost seems repetitious to me, but Lot stands at the doorway of opportunity facing his future. As he does, the time has come for him. to go out on his own. Heretofore, he has lived with godly parents in a sheltered, simple life, as I shared with you Sunday. Here's a man that his daddy had died, and he'd gone to live with his uncle, and he'd gone to worship. He'd been taught the Word of God and the promises of the Lord, and Lot grew up in a separated, selected family and an atmosphere of godliness. When you see Lot, You see him growing up. You find him possessing his possessions. You find him rich in wealth and we dealt with all these things. But now comes a time when he must go out on his own. So many questions are asked. What will he do with his opportunity? Just like when my children reach the age when they must go out on their own, what will they do with their opportunities? I didn't think much about that when it came time to go out upon my own. Many choices and decisions were mine and I had unlimited opportunities. But you can limit your opportunities by limiting your preparedness for those opportunities. But here Lot stands and questions such as who or what will guide him rise to the surface? Which way will he go? What will he do? Where will he go? Will he be able to properly evaluate at the time of his opportunity? I want you to see second tonight, which brings us really to our point for the evening. That is that Lot's opportunity was given to him by another. It was given to him by Abram. He had not come this far by himself. Now I got a special blessing out of this little truth. He was not standing at the crossroads by himself. Abram was standing there with him. And young folks do not come to the crossroads of life unless someone aided them and brought them to that place. And Abram had brought him to this place. Many had lived before him, loved him, and provided for him, sheltered him, and taught him, and trained him with the finest that life had to offer. I realize that when I look back upon my childhood and yours, as I look at Lot in his, if we really appreciated those who brought us to face life on our own, years before I was ever conscious of any opportunity. Someone else had loved me and protected me and cared for me. You young folks, and most of our young folks are not here tonight, but even you young folks that are here and all of us older folks, I want to thank God tonight for those who helped bring me to my crossroads in life and helped me face my opportunities and responsibilities. if it had not been for my parents. And my parents were far from perfect. My daddy was a drunkard in the eyes of the world and in his own eyes and in mine. My mother was a factory worker with an eighth grade education. But I assure you one thing, They didn't know much about rearing children, but they loved and protected and sheltered and brought Charles Shipman up with a simple way of life and were determined that I would face opportunities and crossroads better than what they had. My mother used to tell me, son, I never had the opportunity to go beyond the eighth grade, but said, I will work my fingers to the bone to see that you have an education, at least a high school education. She said, I don't know what I'll be able. to provide you with college or not, but said, I want you to have the finest there is to have, and I want you to have it better than what I had it. And my mother and daddy helped bring me to the crossroads of life, at least so that I could face my opportunities. And had it not been for them, I might never have had the opportunities that I had. Lot looked at his crossroads, and as he did, he could see Abram standing there beside him. I wonder how he saw himself. The scripture says that Lot lifted up his eyes and beheld all the well-watered plains of the Jordan. Before he lifted up his eyes and looked at the plains of the Jordan, I wonder if Lot ever looked up to see God. I wonder if Lot looked around to see Abraham and considered the teachings, the experiences, I wonder if he considered his rearing and his upbringing. I wonder how Lot saw himself. I realize most of us don't like to look at ourselves. I don't like to look at myself. There are some who avoid self-reflections in the mirror of discernment. I never like to look in the mirror of discernment and try to discern myself. I am a complexity. I believe every young person at one time or another is a complexity. I believe he's a frustration to himself. I know young folks are frustration to parrots. I really don't want to do it over again. I thank the Lord for the three we have had. I wouldn't trade anything for them, but I don't want to do it again. Do you understand what I'm saying? That's not belittling them. It has been an educational process of their learning and our learning how to train them. We faced a crossroads when they came. Abram is to face a crossroad when Lot leaves. Abram's crossroad comes as a result of Lot leaving. Well, the truth is we faced a crossroads when our first one was born. We stood at a crossroads on how do you do it? Now we face three of them and still trying to figure out how to do it. and will learn and will learn again when they leave other crossroads. There'll be other crossroads. There'll be other decisions to make and other frustration points. So I begin to think today how Lot must have seen himself. I wonder if he faced his crossroads in fearlessness or if he faced it in fearfulness. I wonder if Lot stood at his crossroad looking back on his life and the struggle that he had had under normal growth for independency. When a little one is born into the world, he is born totally dependent on another. Now remember, Lot stands at the crossroads independent to make his own choice and decision. But in his independency, he must go contrary to his upbringing. He must go contrary to a nature to which he was born and in which he was born and which developed to a point of independency. From the time a little one is born into the family, the mother cuddles it and so does the dad. But what do the parents do? They begin to teach it independency. They begin to teach it how to hold on to its fingers. First thing you know, they teach it how to eat. They teach it how to walk. They desire that little one to do it on their own. They say to the little one, try it again. They look to the day when they can take their hands off the little one's hands and the little one can take its first hand. I remember when Cindy took her first steps. We were elated. We were thrilled. We were excited that day at Rachel's mother's when Rachel's mother took her hands off. Rachel didn't touch her and I didn't touch her. She could walk on her own. We taught a dependent little one how to be independent on its own. But that's good. Wouldn't it have been a tragedy if she had not learned to walk on her own? So in the very early stages, we began to teach a dependent cleaning vine how to let loose of the trunk. Oh no, we weren't really pushing it off. We were saying, take your own steps. And then finally at the breakfast table when they wanted to take the oatmeal and the cereal and feed themselves and take that little spoon and cram it into the hair and poke themselves in the eye and stick it up their nostrils in the bigger hole. We watched the stages of development and how dependent they were but inside there was a nature in that little one that wanted to do it himself. Oh, you start to them out with a spoon, and they reach to grab the spoon. Now, they may not make it, they get it, but they're after that thing, and they want to get it. What is it? That's the nature, one developing. That's the nature coming along, and it's a complicated process. But as the process develops, that little one is dependent on others, but there's something inside that wants to be independent. There's something that keeps saying, I couldn't do it myself. I don't need to be told what to do. I don't need any help. I can do it all by myself. So after a while, you finally give them the spoon. And they take it and it goes past the head and out into the floor. But you keep struggling with it until that little one begins to walk on its own, begins to feed itself, Then you begin to teach it how to talk. Then you teach it how to dress until it can button its own buttons and tie its own shoes. First thing you know, you see all this independence beginning to come. And mama and daddy stands back and says, oh, I'm thrilled. My little one can walk. I want you to know there's nothing wrong with my little one. There's nothing wrong with my child. better than any other child. I want you to know it can walk on its own, it can talk on its own, and it can do everything on its own. But what does mom and daddy think when he becomes a teenager and wants to do the same things? Oh now, I wonder how Lot began to see himself. I wonder if he even is conscious. of developments of his own. I didn't have any consciousness of development. I reached the stages I was in and my mama and daddy didn't know anything about the stages I was in and I didn't know I was in stages. I thought I was on the stage, not anymore. Boy, you know most of us are hams, pretenders. I didn't know anything about stages. I didn't know anything about 13 years. being the most difficult year. I didn't know anything about 16 being the most difficult year for a boy. Nobody ever told me that. I didn't think it was difficult for me. I do what I want to do, when I want to, how I want to do it. Even Mom and Dad didn't know it. I still do what I want to do. Nobody told me of the natural struggle. I didn't know that a young boy, once he starts beginning in his teenage years and middle teenage years and there on, starts a natural process of growth. I didn't know anything about him maturing to the place that he's going to take over a party. I didn't know anything about the struggles that he has within himself of natural growth, of taking on responsibility and facing life himself. I didn't know anything about that. I wonder how Lot saw his life as he began to look back on this day and began to go through the stages. I didn't know anything about restlessness. I didn't know anything about some of the feelings I was feeling of wanting to do my own thing and go my own place. I knew nothing about the struggles with authority. I didn't know they were natural. Nobody ever taught me anything of it. I never had any psychology courses and sure didn't know any psychiatrists. Wouldn't go to them anyhow. What I'm saying to you, Isn't it amazing that there is a dependency from the early childhood that we begin to take that child and develop that child and as that child grows, all we're doing is trying to get it to face the crossroads to where it can do it on its own. You watch over it, you protect it and you care for it. You teach it and you train it. He tell it where to go, he tell it what to do, but the real reason is so that they can do it on their own when the time comes. When they do not see that, problems develop between the parents and the young folks. It's very difficult for a parent to back off and see the person of the child rather than the problem of the child. And there's a difference between a person and a problem. If we got to the place to where we tried to understand the person rather than understand the problem, we'd be a lot better off. I wonder if Lott was able to see himself when he came to the crossroads. I wonder if he understood himself. I wonder if he had the competence to make the decision that he was going to make. I wonder if Lot had taken advantage of his opportunities. I wonder if he had learned his lessons properly and applied himself adequately. What I'm saying to you is like taking a test. When a young person comes to the classroom to take a test, and he has learned his lessons and applied himself adequately, when he faces the test, he's competent enough to pass it. That's the way it is with the crossroads of life. I wonder if when Lot came, if he appreciated what had been invested in him, I wonder if he really looked at himself and saw that what he was up to this point came as a direct result of what others had invested in him. He did not come to this place on his own. God had brought him there. Abram had brought him there. Sarai had brought him there, Abram's wife. Many had gone together to bring him to this place. And I wonder if he understood his own capabilities. I wonder if Lot knew how to make decisions. I wonder if he had understood what Abram and Sarah were doing when they made decisions for Lot. I wonder if Locke understood they were trying to teach him how to think. Not just what to think, but how to think. How to reason. Was he capable or incapable of making decisions? Would he make this one rashly? Would he discern properly? Would he handle life? Could he handle living? Was he able to face it on his own and understand? It took a lot to get him to that place. The thing I was saying about, talking about a few minutes ago, you've never seen a happier person in your life than my mother or dad back there in the hospital. You've never seen a lady be any more thrilled. She was much more thrilled than I was. And the reason being, She knew what it took on her part to get me where I was. I do not believe young folks realize the opportunities that they will have in this life or what it takes to get there. But I thank God for every person that God ever used to get me to my opportunities in life. I thank the Lord tonight for every preacher and every saint of God that it took to get me to the crossroads of salvation so I could get saved. If it hadn't been for some, I wouldn't be saved tonight. I want to thank God for the opportunity I had one day to get saved. Somebody else brought me there. Somebody else prayed for me. Somebody else cared for me. Somebody else nourished me. Somebody else shared, sheltered me. Somebody else protected me. I thank God tonight for those who invested their time and their talents and their energies in Charles Shipman to give him a chance of a lifetime so he could get saved. That's the way Lot stood, but I wonder if he really knew what he had. I wonder in all of what he was going through and what he saw, I wonder what he felt. I think he should have thought, thank God, thank the Lord, but he didn't. He should have turned and said, thank you, Abraham, for everything you've done for me. Thank you for every blessing I've received from you, and I want to thank you special for allowing me to come to this moment. To me, special thanks should have been given that flowed from a heart filled with gratitude. And it should have been given to God and to relatives and to friends just for the chance to make the choice. There are times when I have been in meetings, city of Chicago, St. Louis, New Orleans, walked up and down the streets and seen dirty little kids running around, kids wanting to go to school, and parents who were drunkards and drug addicts and never had a chance to make a choice. Lot should have thanked God for those who gave him a chance to have a choice. I thank God for those that enabled me just to have a chance. Lot should have had a heart full of thanks for having the chance to come to the moment, having had the opportunities that lay behind him. As I said, he's fixing to look out before But if he didn't appreciate what lay behind him and the opportunities he had behind him, he will not be able, competent, and capable of evaluating properly the future. If he looked back and was conscious, been brought up in a godly family, he'd heard the promises of God. He'd learned from Abram how to worship. He learned from Abram how to become the Lord God. That he came to the opportunity with thanks in his heart, saying, oh, thank God for the chances I've had to bring me to this moment. But if he forgot those, or if he was unconscious of those, if he ignored those, which he did, if he just went along, as we dealt with this the other day, with Abram and his family and what they were doing, did not become involved in it, to where it was his heartbeat. He just went along with it. He would come and look upon the opportunity with self-evaluation, seeking self-satisfaction, to gratify only the desires of his fleshly nature, and look upon the opportunity and assume, well, everybody comes to this place. Everybody comes to the crossroads of life, but all things are not equal. and all opportunities are not had by the same people. If Locke had the gratitude in his heart, he should have thanked God for those who enabled him to make a choice. Whether the choice was right or wrong, somebody else had brought him to this time and enabled him to have this opportunity. Therefore, what I say is thanks for having the chance to come to this moment, having the opportunities that lay before him. So that Locke Cubs, he should have been thankful for those that had been behind, and now thankful for those that are going to lie before him. That's what I see here at our place. We're not a perfect church. We're not a perfect group of people. But I believe I reside is to teach and to train and to give our young folks the finest that there is to have. I really believe that. We may not be able to give the young folks the finest in the way of material possessions. We may not be able, like Locke, I want to thank God we can provide the spiritual heritage for them. We can provide a spiritual place for them to where when they do come to face life itself, they can look back. Will or not they'll be faithful? That's left up to them according to how they learned their lessons by what they went through in this place. But someday, every one of our young folks will face making it on his own. This is Locke. This is where Locke stands. And if he stood complaining because of his past, no matter what it really was, According to how he saw it, if he complained and fretted and was upset and bothered, and all he did was gripe and been contradictory in his attitude against authority and decisions, and belittling, that's all he'll do in his future, because that's all he has seen it, whether that was the way it was or not. So here Locke stands at the very crossroads, fixing to make a decision. Now listen to this. Thanks to the Lord should have been given. Now we thank Abraham, we thank the friends, we thank the relatives, we thank everybody else who went together to make him what he was and to bring him to this occasion. But thanks, special thanks, should have been given to the Lord for the reasonable exercise of the mind that enables him to make such a choice, whether it be good or bad. The further I go, the more I realize we have in Lewisville, New York. I feel for these folks who say, well, I can make it on my own. All God would have to do is snap his fingers, and your mind would be blown. You could stand at every crossroads and have every opportunity, and you could not discern if God would give you the reasonable exercise of your time. Lot stood at the crossroads of life and he faced his future and he had a good mind. Had a good mind. But I wonder if he had used it properly. I wonder if he had applied himself and reasonably understood the blessings of God. I wonder if he had just used that mind or if it was a All of this lay out before Lot. And to me, the privilege of it is invaluable. Just the privilege to face it on your own. And then the potential of it and the possibility of it. Just think, young folks, one day you'll have the same opportunity I did, as far as a door. you'll have the opportunity to see what you can do with it. You remember when your children used to say or make certain statements like, you don't have to tell me what to do. I'll make up my own mind. You don't have to tell me where to go. I decide that all that's gonna become a reality someday. You're gonna have all those opportunities. You don't have all that privilege, but you'll find it in truth. It's gonna be a little story. Let me write on your own. Lot stood and he looked out, but he forgot two things. Number one, he forgot to look up and forgot about the blessings of God and God brought him that far. Number two, he forgot to look back over all the opportunities he had and profit from them. And when you stand there all by yourself, thinking this world owes me something, at last I can be free. If Lot's attitude had been really one of independence, to where he said, I am now independent, I am free, free at last. If he had the attitude, I have been in bondage. Now, I am free to go my own way. He would have forgotten about God, forgotten about Abraham, and forgotten about the blessings and gone his way on his own. And you know that's exactly what he did. He went his way on his own, incapable of making the right decisions that there was to make. But I wonder how mature he was. I'm not gonna get to the first point, but that's all right. I'll get there and I'm gonna take all the time I want on this thing. But let me just say this to you. A truth that broke in my soul. If he arrived here in immaturity, then immaturity dresses responsibility in the play clothes of fun and games. Which is just to say, Immaturity stands at the crossroads and sees the future and takes it on just like a little child does his fun and games. When I was a young person, I played at working because I thought work was plenty. I won't forget one of the first jobs I ever had as a teenage boy helping one of the contractors in Tupelo dig foundations before they had backhoes. He hired about four of us kids, teenagers. He hired us to dig the foundation. Of course, he was a member of a church where I was, and he was trying to help us out. None of us had had a job like that, and we thought it sounded like fun. I won't forget. And we thought, uh-huh, boy, this is going to be a ball. We're going to really have ourselves a time. We looked at it through the eyes of inexperience and immaturity. He handed us a shovel. We went to the first foundation. And we looked at it in immaturity. We looked at responsibility. And we dressed it in the play clothes of fun and games. We just saw it as playing games. but in just about 30 minutes, when my hands already had blisters on them, and I was worn to a frazzle, I found my capabilities and competence was a lot less than what I had rationalized. Then the shocking reality of what we were doing settled in on me. Do you know what I wanted to do, and do you know what I did? I did just what I wanted to do, I quit. That's alright when you're an immature kid and there's a home to go back to and a place that'll put the food on the table, clothes on your back. They said you didn't have to work anyhow. There's a lot of difference in that than standing at the crossroads in immaturity. taking on reality and responsibility and dressing it in the clothes of fun and games. When you bubble burst that time, your daydreams become realities. Then you look back and say, I sure wish I'd learned my lessons. Thank God for his grace and his mercy. But what I'm saying to you tonight is, and to you young folks and all young folks, we'll do our best. to do whatever it takes to bring you to a place to where you can do what you always want to do. Go out on your own. And be independent. Just like we had to be. Finally came a place where I had to be a man. And now I took the place not of my daddy. My daddy, but I became a daddy of my own. I'm the husband of Rachel. And I went out on my own. But don't forget what I said the other day. Don't ever get so independent to where you're independent of those you left behind. Because you might need them. Locke's going to need Abram later to get him out of bondage. Don't you ever cut off those who've left behind. Don't you ever get so independent you say, well, I don't need those. You better have good relationships when you leave the house. Because you may need them on down the road. Amen? Father, I pray you'll take the message. Use it for your glory. Pray the things that have been said tonight will be realized by all of us. There's not a parent in this building of what would say, I'll do my best to enable my child to face the crossroads of life and the opportunity of the future with the best that I have, the finest, the finest teaching and training in spiritual truth, the best that we can materially, the best that we can that's right. I pray you'd help us to see that we need each other. Thank you for all the development and all the stages that we went through, but thank you for every person who brought us to the place to give us the opportunity and the chance that we've had to make the choice. And I praise you for that in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, all the ladies, meet Rachel right over there, please.