I want to challenge you. I want to show you a man who made some bad decisions. And so I'm going to ask you to go to Genesis 19 and read verse 10 through 16. Genesis 19, verse 10 to 16. Brother Randy, you want to read that for us? and he decides, son-in-law of sons and daughters, whatsoever thou hast. All right, thank you. You may be seated. You all know the story of Lot. the nephew of Abraham. And what a privilege it would have been to be Abraham's nephew. And he had a lot of opportunities. He saw the hand of God in his life, Abraham's life. You find where, you know, answered prayer, miracles, you know, God defending Abraham and all these different things, and then see Abraham prospering. But Abraham prospered on biblical principles. He prospered on biblical principles. That's important to understand. You know, people prosper. You look like a guy like Donald Trump. I mean, and as a businessman, I don't think he had Christian principles, although he's proud of being a Christian. But anyway, he has a worldly philosophy. But that wasn't Abraham. And yet God prospered Abraham in a great way. And so he became a wealthy, wealthy man. And finally got to a place where You know, at one time, let me back up and say this, at one time, he had gone down into Egypt. And he did so to, you know, because of the famine and so on. And you know, you have this saying, what is it? You can take the man out of Egypt, but you can't take Egypt out of the man. And that's what happened with Lot. Lot was greatly affected by it. And so Abraham made a mistake. And some of his mistakes we're still paying for. His mistake was Hagar. Under his wife's leadership, he had slept with Hagar and thought that'd be the son of promise, which was not. That was Ishmael, and Ishmael is still among us. They're called ISIL now, ISIS. That was a major mistake in his life, but it also was a major mistake for him to go to Egypt. You never know how it's going to affect people. So let me say this in doing your quote here, and this will kind of set the stage for our lesson today. And the quote is this, the tragedy is not what is happening now. The tragedy is not what is happening now. The tragedy is what might have been. So let's think about that for a moment. Tragedy is not what is happening now. the tragedy of what might have been. Someone tell me what that means. Let's just talk. George? That's a very good thought. Very good thought. Someone else? Peter? Right. Yeah, very good, very good. So the tragedy is not what is happening now. The tragedy is what could have been. So I'm not blaming Abraham for Lot, because Lot made his own decisions. But Abraham had an effect on his life. And again, I'm not blaming Abraham. Abraham was a friend of God. He was a great man. But the thought is this, is that we have to be careful with our lives, even though we may be spiritual people, and we may not be affected in some things as others would. Lot was very impressionable. And when he got down to Egypt, it was the epitome of the world. It would be like Long Island or New York or America. It's the epitome of the world. It's Vanity Fair in a lot of ways. You find where some bad decisions were made. And so after they come out of Egypt, of course, Abraham's prospering, and finally he says to Lot, listen, let's divide our herds. Your herd, men go with you, I'll go another place. Wherever you go, I'll go the opposite. So you know the story, Abraham, Lot says, well, he pitches his tent towards Sodom. Now, anyone wanna tell me what Sodom was? It's a wicked and vile city. It was run by Sodomites, and those are men who like men. And so it was a lustful, a covetous, a fleshly, evil town, Sodom and Gomorrah. And everyone knew it. The name itself depicts what it is. So we find here that Lot pitches tent towards it. You scratch his head and say, why was that? Because Lot was a saved man. The Bible says that in the book of Peter. He was a righteous man who vexed his soul. He vexed his righteous soul. Well, the only thing I can think of would not be for the sin of the city, but the wealth of the city. and apparently Lot was a covetous man. So he made, and the first thought is this, I have two thoughts today, and the first thought is his decision. His decision was, I wanna provide for my family. Now, he saw Abraham prospering. Now, what town was Abraham associated with while he was prospering? None. He was just out in the fields. He came out of Ur of the Chaldees, came out of Babylon, but as far as his prospering goes, he was just out in the plains. He wasn't associated with a town. So what was making Abraham prosperous? It was God. It was God made him prosperous. He didn't have any entanglements with the world or with towns. And so, you think Lot would have thought this through and say, well, I'm gonna do what Uncle Abraham did, and I'm gonna go this way, and there's some good land here, or how about this novel idea? Uncle Abraham, I appreciate your offering this to me, but you choose first, and I'll go the opposite way. Wouldn't that have been a better thing to do? Now, I know Abraham was gracious and so on, but wouldn't it have been better for Lot to return the favor and say, wherever you go, Uncle Abraham, I'm gonna go the opposite way, and so on. But he made the first choice, Sodom. Why? Because he knew it was a prosperous town. And he made a choice based on covetousness. And that's important to understand, that that is not how you want to make your decisions, based on covetousness. Where am I going to make the most money? That's not always the best decision, where I'm going to make the most money in a job. Now, there's nothing wrong with making money. It's not a sin to make money. It's a good thing, and if you can make lots of it, good for you. I mean that with all my heart. I don't think there's anything wrong with it at all. But if you're choosing a profession that's gonna hinder you spiritually, well, I get this job, why not make $50,000 more a year? But I gotta work Sundays. that would cancel out for me. I've been saved 39 years. I would never think of missing the house of God. I was in the military. I did miss some Sundays, but I tell you, God was so good to me, and I hardly missed a Sunday when I was in the military, and I worked rotating shifts. I always asked the Lord. Sometimes I would get the morning service and I'd have to leave in the afternoon to go to work. I missed the evening service. But most times I just didn't miss if God worked it out for me. I was on standby or something like that. So my point is this, is that he made a decision on covetousness. Now anyone who had any intelligence about towns knew that Sodom was not only an evil place because of the Sodomites. Our Lord said in Genesis 13, 13. Matter of fact, let's turn there real quickly. Genesis 13, 13. And someone read it for me. Nice and loud. Exceedingly. God didn't say that about any other group of people, any other sinners, but He said that about Sodom. They were exceedingly wicked because of what they practiced, what they believed, what they practiced. And along with that, it was a loose town. It was an immoral town. You saw things that were not maybe the norm in other towns because of what was being practiced there. So, Lott knew what was going on, but he made a bad decision. Now, gentlemen, it goes back to what I just said a little while ago, the tragedy of what might have been. You only get one shot at life. You only get one shot. And, you know, I'm not trying to tell you I'm an old man, but I've been around for a little bit. You know, I'd like to believe that, for the most part, I was in God's will every step of the way. I think of some things that got out of God's will. I remember buying a van. That was not God's will. It didn't last. I had more problems than that thing. But I wanted a van. My family wanted a van. But, you know, I think as far as the ministry goes, I've been very careful in my life, prayerful what to do, how to do it, and asking God for leadership, asking God for guidance. You know, I didn't want to get out of God's will. I remember when, some of you don't know this, but we had started work up in Port Jeff Station And we were called Bible Baptist Church. And to make a long story short, we were there about three years, and we were just starting to get into the 40s. And then all of a sudden, this family was going to leave, this family was going off to Bible college, all these different things. And we were whittling down to about 20. And then our rent doubled, or more than doubled. It was going to go from $350 a month to over $800 a month. And I'm thinking, Lord, what am I going to do? I mean, I had just got on, I shouldn't say full-time because I did work part-time jobs, but things were starting to really click. And then all of a sudden, First Baptist opened up. Well, let me tell you what I did, and I'm not just telling you what happened. When that opened up for me, they had some other preachers come through. Dino Padron was there and a few others came through, and they couldn't figure out who to have. They had about 11 people who voted. And so I was asked if I'd become the pastor. And we merged the two churches. Well, they were just a handful of people. And so were we. So I'm telling you, gentlemen, I sought the Lord every day, throughout the day, at night. I'd stay up, I remember the back property of First Baptist Church, I went down there into the little woods where we had our picnics. I remember sitting back there at night, two, three in the morning, just praying. Asking God for help, asking God for leadership. Lord, I don't want to get out of your will. I don't want to waste five years of my life getting out of your will and getting into a bad place and have to start all over. Time is precious. So I remember God guiding and directing my steps in that. I wanted to make good decisions, not only for myself, my marriage, my family, but for Long Island. I knew our church would be a very important church on the island. There weren't a lot of good churches. And so I was very careful in that decision. I made the decision on spiritual needs, on spiritual needs. Lot made his decision on carnal needs. It was covetous. There's a lot of money there in Sodom. And so he made the decision to go to Sodom. And I want you to see what happens here. If you notice here in Genesis 19, let's turn there, we find where Lot, goes and sees his son-in-laws. And the Bible tells us here, and if you see the verse, I have to tell you what I did last night, I was using my other Bible to study with, and everything was underlined and notes on the side, and I grabbed my preaching Bible, not thinking that was the same thing. So where is it where he goes to see his son-in-laws? 14, thank you. And Lot went out and spakened his son's-in-law, which married his daughter's 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. So do you remember the story of Abraham before the judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah? The Lord and a couple of angels go visit his tent. Abraham makes some refreshments, and he starts bargaining with God. God tells him, he said, we're going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. Remember how he started off? What did he say? Well, he started off with 50. Yeah. What if there's 50 righteous people? Well, he said, no, not for 50. And he works his way down, as Calvin said, 10. Now, who do you think the 10 were? Martin, his wife, his two daughters, his three daughters that are married, and his three son-in-laws. That's 10. And he's hoping that the city would be spared for the 10 righteous people. Now, do you think his sons-in-law were righteous? I don't think so. They were products of Sodom, most likely, and they probably had a very worldly, carnal side to them. So he goes to see him, and they think he's joking around. Now, why would you think they were thinking that he was joking around? Someone tell me. Talk to me. Marcus? All right, so explain that. that they would take him seriously. So explain that a little bit further. What do you think he was doing? Speculate. I envision them, and I think you're right, Marcus, I envision them as a young family heading to Santa Gomorra. He's got maybe three or four of his girls, maybe five, and he heads in the city. But as they're watching his life, they see him, he's one of the heads of the town. He winds up being there sitting at the gate, and the heads of the city were always at the gate. Why? They wanted first dibs on business. And so there he's sitting, and he's sitting with Sodomites. He's sitting with ungodly men, and his soul is being vexed. Why? Because of their conversation, what they were involved with, what they spoke about, what they laughed about. I mean, he knew what was right. And a lot of people go to a lot and say, oh, a lot was worldly. But we don't read anything about his sin as far as he was a sodomite, or he was immoral, or he was doing things that were wrong outside of his compromise. Let me tell you something about compromise. Compromise is nothing good about it. And I know in the business world, there may be compromise. In government dealings, there may be compromise. And within families, there may be a place of compromise. I'll give you $1,000 for the car, and I'll give you $900, and you may compromise on that. But when it comes down to truth, you never compromise. Never. you never compromise. Because once you compromise the truth, it's almost impossible to get it back. I'm not saying it's impossible, but it's very difficult. And it won't make it difficult for someone who has compromised to get back to where they were. Excuse me? A little bit. I'm sorry. Trust? All right. What else? Trust? credibility, all right? But what about that individual who has to get back to compromise? So a lot compromised. He pitched his tent towards Sodom. He's in a bad place. He's in a bad city. What should he have done? Bernie? Yeah, he should have pitched his tent elsewhere. Should have got up and left. But it was hard. because there were things that were very alluring to the family. There were things there that fed the five senses, the sight, the smell, the taste, the touch, the hearing. The music was different. The people were different. There were a lot of winks and, hey, how you doing, flirting. It was a loose town. It was an immoral town. And now all of a sudden Lot's there, he's doing business, and maybe it was the business dealings. Then all of a sudden he said, I'm tied into this schmuck over here and I can't get out of it. I've got this business deal. If I leave, I'll lose my shirt, I'll lose my sheep, I'll lose my whatever the thing was. So when you compromise, it takes a man, a spiritual man to say, I'm done with this, I'm cutting ties, I'm getting out. And that's so important – so important – to make good decisions, to make that change. And Lott made a bad decision. He pitched his tent towards Sodom. He had the wrong motives. He was out of covetousness. So, gentlemen, I want to say this to you today, that we can make mistakes. I've made them. No doubt others have made them. But if you make a mistake and you compromise in some area, you've got to make a change yesterday. You're going to make a change yesterday. Remember that the statement is the tragedy is not what is happening now. The tragedy, what might have been. What might have been. Look, there are challenges in the family. You know, I want to say this. I'm not saying anything I haven't said to Liz, and she knows this. She's a strong woman. You may think, you know, Liz is not, but she's a very strong woman. She's not a bossy woman. But she has a resolve to her. She gets things done. She's a worker. She's smart. And I needed her for this reason not to leave my family. I'm the leader. But I needed a child. I couldn't marry a wallflower. I need someone with some gumption, some fire. And Liz has it. Liz is great. But I make the decision, I ask my wife, well, what do you think? I've asked Tim and the girls, you know, what do you think we should do? What do you think about this? What would you do? And I think that's important to have good counsel. I've asked church men about things, you know, what do you think about this? But I have to make the decision for my family. And my decision maker ultimately is, what does the Bible say? What does the Bible say? Now give me some verses on separation. What are some verses? Bernie? Someone else? How about can two walk together except to be agreed? Right? Amos, was it 2-2 or 3-3? So there has to be agreement. Now, that doesn't mean you have to agree upon everything where you live. I don't agree with everything in Holtzville, or in our society, in our culture. But the idea is that if you're going to fellowship with someone, You need to be agreed. You need to be on the same page. You need to work in the same belief. That's why I stress in our church, unity. So important to have unity. But unity in the marriage, unity in the family. And that's very important. Families need spiritual leaders. And so what I'm saying to you is that he made a bad decision, but he could have come out of it. He could have said, look, I'd rather lose all my shekels here in the Sodom and Gomorrah and keep my family, then have all my shekels and lose my family. But he lost his shekels anyway. Because the angel of the Lord said, hey, rise, we've got to leave. And he left his three son-in-laws, his three daughters, perished. And the fire and brimstone came upon the city. And Lot left everything. All his riches were gone. and then he loses his life, his wife rather, because she looked back, turned to a pill of salt. So compromise never has a good ending, never, never has a good ending. You say, well, you don't understand the business I'm in, you don't understand what I'm tied up into, you don't understand my responsibilities. Look, I wanna say this in all due kindness, you don't understand the scriptures. The goal is we live happily ever after, amen? I know you see that, you know, when you grow up with cartoons, you know, the sun going down and everyone's bliss. But that's where you want to end. You want to end with everyone on the other side. You want to end it with everyone being saved. You want to end it with hearing, well done, now good and faithful servant. That's the bottom line. This life is passing. You win, you lose. But you compromise, you lose. There's nothing that comes out of it that's good. Nothing. I could sit here the rest of the hour, the next 20 minutes or so, whatever we have left, and tell you a story after story after story after story of people who compromised in train wrecks. They wrecked their lives, they wrecked their marriage, they wrecked their children, they wrecked their grandchildren. It continues on. Posterity. So, you know, my concern is not only for my son Timothy and his wife Alexis, the two boys. I pray for Jack and Bear. I pray for these parents. Why? They're going to grow up one day and they're going to need to be saved. I pray for Maddie and Molly. I pray for John and Carter. I pray for the parents, that God help them. It's not easy raising children. I understand that. I had four. I understand the challenges, the wisdom that's needed, the discernment, the time to speak, the time not to speak, all these different things, I understand it all. But I'm telling you that compromise never works. It may work for the moment, but it doesn't work long term. Ask Abraham. Ask Israel if Abraham's compromise made sense. They're surrounded by Ishmael. And Ishmael, the Bible says, is a wild man. Surprise, wild man. That's the culture. That's the culture. And so what I'm saying is that compromise never works. It may for a moment, it may seem like I got that off my back, but it's gonna come around, there's a boomerang effect. You may get rid of the compromise, that thing's gonna whip around and it's gonna come back to your doorstep. So you say, well, Preacher, I've compromised, what do I do? Well, talk to me, gentlemen. What do you think a person who has compromised, made a bad decision in life, what should they do? What would be the first thing, think about the first thing that they should do? Kelvin? Excellent. You got to admit it. What's the next thing? Tim? Very good. You've got to admit it. You've got to admit it to the ones you've compromised with or the ones who are being affected by it. The next one is very important, and that has to do with God. Repent. I don't know who said that, but that's it. You've got to repent. See, that's where the struggle comes in. Well, preacher, if I make this change, my wife's going to be upset. If you were a woman here, I'd say my husband's going to be upset. My children will be upset. Here's what I'm gonna ask you is, I gotta ask you something. If you admit that you are wrong, does it matter, in one sense of the word, who's upset? I mean, if you're wrong, you have to admit it. You've gotta make the change. You've got to. You say, my kids be upset. How many have ever had upset kids before? Wow, every hand went up. Isn't that amazing? That's part of life, it's part of the deal. You know, and why would they be upset? Because of ignorance of the scriptures, because of selfishness, a lack of wisdom, whatever the thing is. And I'm not saying ignorance in intelligence, I'm just saying ignorance of the scriptures, understanding what's going on. You know, you read that book of Proverbs, how many times you see a young man void of understanding. So just because they're ignorant doesn't mean that you don't make that decision. Amen? You've gotta make that decision. What's best in the long run? What's best for their end goal? You know this. This is ridiculous, but I'm going to say it anyway. So here you have Junior Esmeralda. They're about to graduate. And let's just say Jonathan, which I know this wouldn't happen. Jonathan says, Dad, I'm going to take off for 10 years. I just want to experience my youth. And I'm not going to school for 10 years. And I think around when I'm about 28, 29, I think I'm going to, that fall, I'm going to start into school and get my education. Now, once Peter returns from the orbit, he's going to land and say, Jonathan, that's not going to work around here. You've got responsibilities, and so you're not going to sit around the house for 10 years blowing the trumpet. We've got work to do. There's a plan, right? There's something to do. And of course, the main goal is God's will. That's what I've always told my kids growing up. They said, what should I do? Do God's will, whatever God's will is. If you're not saved, be saved. If you're saved and find God's will, he'll show it to you. He's not gonna play hide and seek with you. And so there's gotta be a plan of action. We just don't drop out of life and put everything on hold. Now there are times for us to stop and reconsider things, but you don't do it for 10 years, amen? And so it's important to understand that I've got, I made a bad choice. I'm gonna turn this around. I'm gonna admit it. I'm gonna apologize for it. I'm gonna get right with God. I'm gonna repent. And then what's the next thing after you repent? You've admitted to yourself, admitted to your family, admitted to God, you've repented, what's the next step? Make the change, exactly. You've got to make the change. You've got to say, all right, now how do I get back to where I was? How do I return to the place of blessing? And that has to be done, but I'm telling you, gentlemen, to some it would be monumental. But let me ask you this, what is the end result if you continue down the path you're going? What's the end result? And ultimately, the bottom line is, are you willing to trust God, period, regardless of the circumstances, regardless of the situation? But let me tell you what happened, we'll finish this up here. We see his decision, and help me find it, I think it's 16, where he tells him, the angel speaks to him, let me see, verse 15. And when the morning arose, then the angel hastened. Lot, saying, Arise, take thy wife and the two daughters which are here, lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the day. Now, was this something new that was sprung on Lot, or did Lot know before he went to bed what was going on? Sorry? He knew. Well, notice verse 14. Lot went out and spanked, you know, he talks to his son-in-laws. The Bible says, up and get you out of this place. He knew that the Lord will destroy this city, but he's seen as one that mocked unto his sons-in-law. All right, so he messed up. He messed up. He didn't have any credibility. There was no trust there. There was no belief system in, I can trust Lot. He's a godly man. He practices what he preaches. He didn't. He practiced one thing, but he lived another in his compromise. So he knew judgment was coming, but notice what he says in verse 15. And when the morning arose, then the angel hastened. The angel knew what was coming. He didn't question God. He knew God was going to judge. He knew judge was coming. He knew that city would be destroyed. You know why he knew that? Because God said it. Simple as that. God said it. He said, hey, Lott, wake up. We got to get out of here. I don't know if he said it like a New Yorker would. Get out of here. But he was stirring him up. He said, we don't have time to waste. And he said, God's gonna destroy this city. Get your wife, get your two daughters. He didn't say you can go get your son-in-laws, your daughters. They made the decision, we're staying. God's gonna destroy the city? Oh, did you see what the stock market was? Did you see how well the city, did you see the new business going up over here? They're building new apartments over there. How could anything be wrong? I'm telling you guys, look. I'm not trying to be a fatalist. I just know the prophecy. What's happening in Europe is all biblical. It had to happen. And you're gonna find Israel and the Muslim escalating like never before. You're gonna see that happening. And then all of a sudden you're gonna see the Antichrist step on the scene. He's out of Europe, he's a Jew, he's a homosexual. He's gonna step on the scene and he's gonna bring peace between Islam and Judaism and the world. He's going to stop ISIS. And that'd be for about three and a half years. And then the last three, God's going to pour out his wrath, a tribulation like the world's never seen. But once he steps on the scene and brings peace to the world, the rapture takes place. I'm telling you, beloved, we are close. I know I've said this for years. I've said this since I got in ministry. But, you know, a thousand days is like one day with the Lord. So I've been saying it for, what, 40 years? It's nothing. Moses, Noah preached it for 120 years. What I'm saying is we are close. It's not the time to say, you know, I'm afraid what will happen, I'm gonna lose this, I may gain. You know, this is the time to make things right. Right for yourself, right for your marriage, and right for your family. Now notice his delay here. He lingers. He's sleeping in that day. If I was told, I'm just telling you me, if I was told tomorrow the rapture's taking place, I mean, well, let me ask you, what would you be doing? If you knew the rapture was gonna take place Monday in the afternoon, what would you do? You have to talk a little bit louder. Exactly, warn other people. But see what a compromise does to you? It was like as much as he knew, as much as he was burdened for his son-in-law's daughter, he asked them to consider him a fool. He went home, went to bed that night, and he slept in. If I knew tomorrow that the rapture's taking place, let me tell you what I'd do. I would talk to Liz. I would talk to my Three kids, I talked to their spouses. If the children were old enough, I'd speak to them to make sure that everyone is in the fold. Do you know that you know that you know? Because rapture's taking place. It's gonna be here tomorrow afternoon at two o'clock. Do you know? Are you sure? Because you don't want to miss the rapture. I'd go through the church by phone or by visiting. Or I'd call the congregation. I'd go through everyone. Are you ready? Are you ready? Are you sure? Do you know? Do you have any doubts? Because the rapture's taking place at 2 o'clock, I would work endlessly. I'd contact Nadim, Nathaniel. I'd have Brother Randy go in the city with the Chinese and warn everyone again. I would do anything I could, knowing the rapture's taking place tomorrow at 2 o'clock. He goes to bed, and he sleeps in. You know why? Compromise. Compromise saying, I know this is not the best thing to do, it's not the right thing to do, but I'm going to do it because I've got to make the situation happy. But it affects your soul to the place you can't discern things. You can't see things like you should. And because of that, it hinders so many people. It hinders not only ourselves, our marriages, our family, the church, the community, and so on, compromise. There's nothing good that comes out of it. And here's Lott, he lost his family, let's face it, lost his three daughters, their husbands, his wife, because of compromise. She said, she's walking away from the city, and they're running, and the angel's leading them, and there's two girls holding on to daddy's hand, and the wife is gone, but she says this. He said, don't look back. Whatever you do, don't look back. You'll be turned to a pill of salt. But maybe they didn't turn their mind. Well, Lot did it plenty of times. Lot didn't always obey God. I'll just take a peek, turn into a pill of salt. You see, compromise affects so many things. It affects so many people. And I'm going to tell you, as we go into this month, gentlemen, I know that our God is a merciful, forgiving, loving, gracious God. I know He is. I know he is. And if you find, you look in the Bible, you find all sorts of people and all sorts of sin, yet they get saved. They get saved. Because God is a gracious God, merciful God. And when you find people who compromise, who did seek to get things right, God always honors that and blesses it, always. Always, at the end of Abraham's life, God had called him my friend. Abraham's my friend. I'd like to hear that. God saying one of my friends is John Graff. I'd love to hear something like that. But you don't become a friend of God without being saved, and number two, without living an exemplary life. But there's failures in life at times. Abraham failed God a few times. Worldwide impact. But God still said, because Abraham made things right. And I'm telling you, you're gonna have to count the cost, but here's how you count the cost. Not as what is happening now, but what could have been. It's all right, I messed up here, but you know what? I'm gonna admit it. I'm gonna admit it to my family. I'm gonna make it right with God. And I'm gonna make the changes I need to make, period. And don't worry about the people being upset on they're not taught, that just shows you their heart. how against God they are. Bottom line is you take your stand, you take it in a Christ-like way, and you move on. Make the changes you have to make. Don't say, you know, somewhere down the road I'm going to make this change. You make it now. You sit everyone down and say, look, we're not going to do this anymore. We're not watching this. We're not listening to this. We're not going there. We're not going to have this in our home anymore. We're not going to participate in this. It doesn't matter what the relatives say, and so on and so forth. You take your stand and do it for the glory of God. Now, at the end of it, who would you rather be, Lot or Abraham? Abraham was a great man. God answered his prayer at the age of 100. He was having a kid, which when God said it was impossible. So Abraham was blessed to the Lord. He prospered financially, but he prospered spiritually. He's called the father of faith. So when you think about that, you know, follow Abraham's faith. Yeah, he messed up a few times, but he made it right. He made it right. God honored him and blessed him. All right. Any questions at all? None? All right. I love you, men, and I look forward for the rest of the month. If I can say anything, as far as advice goes, is whatever God speaks, prompts your heart about, just do it. Just do it. Don't worry about the circumstances. Just do it. Rob? Well, it was It was probably part of the Babylonian Empire, to be honest with you. I think so. I don't know who owned the property, but he was a sojourner, so he's constantly moving on. He was a, you know, he was a tent man, you know. He lived in tents, and they just grazed off the grass. You know, if it was in America, they'd be free grazers, you know. They just moved around, and then they ate off the, they lived in tents. They lived on the plains. So, but anyway, any other questions? Peter? You know, the first thing is be saved. That's the first thing. And then, you know, the Bible says in Proverbs 3, 5, and 6, you've heard me quote this many times, trust in the Lord with all thine heart, lean not unto thine own understanding. In other words, this is not about what I want to do, it's about God's will. So, trust in the Lord with all thine heart, lean not unto thine own understanding, in all thy ways acknowledge Him. and He shall direct that path. So look, I don't know God's will for each individual young man, but I know this much, if they're not saved, they need to be saved. If they are saved, if they trust God, brother, and they don't lean on their own, what I want to do, but rather, Lord, I'm going to trust You to guide and direct me. The Bible says, He shall direct thy paths. And we find God's will by doing God's will. So if a young man is seeking God's will, what would be God's will right now in high school? You know, finish up on a good note, do your work, get it done. Be obedient to his parents, her parents, you know, be spiritual, read your Bible, pray, participate in the services, go calling when you can, witness for Christ. These are just general things that the Bible tells us is the will of God. And as far as that specific will, God will show, no doubt about it. You surrender and you say, I'm going to do God's little Romans 12, 1 and 2, God will direct that path. That's a promise from God. God. Anyone else? I'm sorry? Oh, thank you. Van? Well, I think the Christian life is a life of repentance. That's what you're asking. It's initial to come to Christ, you know, accept your repentance, your law, likewise perish, Luke 13, 3 and 5, Acts 3, 19, repent, be converted, and have your sins bled out. because I have, I've been repenting all my life. God shows me different things in my life and inwardly, outwardly, whatever, I turn from things. I think because you have repented, you will repent. I think because you exercise faith in Christ, you continue to exercise faith in Christ. So, you know, you may have another situation where you may compromise, you make that right. Does that answer your question? Yeah. All right, we're gonna have to break right here. Let's close with a prayer and we'll be dismissed. And Marcus, would you please pray? I love you guys. Thank you for your time.