All right, are we live? That's good. It's good to be here. Turn in your Bibles to Genesis chapter 18. And didn't think I was gonna get here for a little while. I left with plenty of time. And the devil put those obstacles all the way up here. You know, red lights and crazy people and trains. left turns that are supposed to be here, but they're there and that kind of thing. And so I was just real, I'm real happy to get here. Honestly, I'm happy to be here. My wife's at home tonight watching our grandchildren, which means I'm even more happy to be here. And we've been caring for our grandkids or some of them for about the last 10 days. Some of our folks from the church are over in Scotland on a missions trip and we decided not to go. We decided it would be the noble thing to stay home and watch the grandkids. Just want you to know from now on, I'll be going. And somebody else will be watching the grandkids. No, I love my grandkids, I really do. Love to see them come, love to see them go. and they're going tonight. So when I get home, there'll be silence in the home. Genesis 18, I'm gonna read just a few verses, nothing that's new tonight, just some observations from the scripture and an application of these things into the life that we are called upon to live for the Lord. Genesis 18 begins as probably one of the most wonderful times in the life of Abraham. God comes and reaffirms the fact that they are going to have a child and that's theoretically impossible but boy what a wonderful thing it is God comes and Sarah laughs and the Lord catches her laughing and she said I didn't laugh and he said you did laugh and you know you get into an argument with the Lord it's always been ironic to me that when the child is born they name him Isaac which is Hebrew for giggles or laughter so God just has a way of reminding you again and again and again and again about those places where you and he disagreed and were obviously wrong and as this thing comes to a close though it takes a an unusual turn in an odd direction and the Lord says here in verse number 17 shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do. The Lord did not just come to visit Abraham he stops by in route to something else and he says I'm not gonna hide from Abraham what I'm doing and he pulls Abraham aside and he lets him know first of all that Abraham you are one that I'm going to bless but then he goes on and begins to talk about this place or places these places called Sodom and Gomorrah the Lord says in verse 20 The cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is very great, and because their sin is very grievous, and I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is coming to me, and if not, I'll know." The men turned their faces from thence and went towards Sodom. But Abram stood yet before the Lord, and Abram drew near and said, "'Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked?' peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city wilt thou also destroy and spare not the place for fifty righteous that are therein that be far from thee to do after this manner to slay the righteous with the wicked that the righteous should be as the wicked that be far from thee shall not the judge of all the earth do right now in case you are not aware of what's going on Abraham is negotiating with God He is bartering with God for the souls of those who dwell in Sodom and Gomorrah. You and I think about that for a little while. That's an unusual thing, the very thought that we could barter with God, that we could bargain with God. And yet we do so much of it in our life and God allows it. When this thing begins, God could have said, hey, Don't bother, save your breath. I've already made up my mind. But God enjoys this one-on-one with Abraham and allows himself, you understand Abraham is about to take him to the cleaners as far as negotiating is concerned. When Abraham walks away from this scenario, I believe he went back in the tent and said to Sarah, you're not gonna believe what kind of a bargain I just got from God. He was gonna wipe a whole city out and I got him down and we've just saved the whole town. I think he really believed he had won a great victory. And I think God was hoping that he had won a victory. I'm thankful we have a God who says, you know, call on me. I'll answer thee. I'll show you great and mighty things. I'm thankful we have a God who'll interact with us even though he's on a level way up here and we're on a level way down here. His ways are not our ways. We can't comprehend or understand where he is, what he's doing, where he's going or anything about it. But he says, you know, let's talk about it. And it's almost like we're smart at some point. and sometimes you walk away and you think, boy, I really showed God. Well, I think Abraham walked away going, I really got it right with God here, got it all straightened out. God was gonna make a tragic mistake, but I got him straightened out here. He barters with God and brings him down from the 50 all the way to the 10, and walks away, and I believe this, he could have kept going. There's no sign that God had somehow said, whoa, now that's just too much. God didn't say that. Every time Abraham said, well, you know, what about? God said, okay. Well, yeah, but what about? Okay. Yeah, but, okay. You'd think after a while you just keep going, but Abraham somehow shuts everything off down at the end of this passage when they get down to that idea of 10 righteous people. Then we move on to Genesis chapter 19. I just wanted to give you that as kind of a precursor to what we're going to deal with or what we deal with in Genesis 19, and that is when God comes, sends his angels and destroys the culture of the day, completely wipes it out. And they come into the town there in Genesis 19, they find Lot and you know the story, and I'm not gonna spend a lot of time with the story, but to say this, it is a story that should never have been written. Did you ever think about how many chapters there are in your Bible that should never have been written? I've always said to my church, if I had been God, the Bible would begin with Genesis chapter one, verse one. I think that's good. In the beginning, God. And then it would end in Genesis chapter three. When Adam and Eve sinned, wipe it out. That's as far as it would have gone. God puts them in the garden, says do this, don't do this, they did it, boom, end of story. The end, those two words would be at the end of Genesis chapter 3. All over with, done. I'd have started over again. I think God's a perfectionist in that sense and I know He can do a perfect job. And I gotta believe in Genesis chapter 3, He says, I can do better than this. You know, we haven't even run out of ink in the first fountain pen yet. And I can do better than this. But God has a broader picture. And somewhere in this passage, we get to Genesis 19, and it's a story that really should never have been written. Especially because of what takes place in Genesis chapter 18. I said before, I think Abraham went back into the tent and said, Sarah, you're not gonna believe it, boy. I just saved Lot's bacon. God was gonna wipe the whole town out, and I know they just bought a new home, they got a new car, he's a member of the country club, you know, Lot was an up-and-coming guy down there in Sodom and Gomorrah, and he said, boy, he's gonna be glad when I get a chance to tell him God was gonna burn the whole thing down, but I got the Lord down to 10 righteous people, and we're gonna call him tonight when the rates on long distance drop, and we're gonna tell him about it. Abraham was rejoicing. And then we get over to Genesis 19. and the story does not really pan out the way we would have thought it was going to pan out if we had just taken a pause at the end of Genesis chapter 18 because I think at the end of Genesis chapter 18 we make up our mind that's it God is good he's got mercy and he's just gonna let the thing go and but it didn't happen that way over in the book of 2nd Peter if you'll turn there we have a New Testament reference to this Old Testament event As Peter deals with things in the last day and the culture of the last day, he says some things to remind us. His job is to stir up our remembrance and to keep some things fixed in our mind. And in chapter 2, he's reminding us that there are going to be some false teachers, some false prophets bringing in damnable heresies. That's an earmark of the culture in the last days. But he goes on to tell us, don't worry about it because God, it's not gonna get out of control. Down in verse four, God didn't spare the angels that sinned. Verse five, he cast the angels down. Verse five, he didn't spare the old world. He saved Noah, the eighth person. Verse six, he turned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes. In other words, God's got it. It's all gonna work out the way God wants it to work out. But it says down here in verse number seven, it's kind of a reminder. He delivered just lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked for that righteous man dwelling among them in seeing and hearing vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds. I'm gonna speak to you this evening for a few minutes about the tragedy of a vexed soul. the tragedy of a vexed soul. The Bible tells us some things about Lot. We don't know all of his story. He shows up for the very first time back in Genesis chapter, oh, I believe it's back there about chapter 12. And in Genesis chapter 12, we find out that Lot is simply a fatherless boy. his father was a relative of Abraham Genesis 13 5 I knew it would come sooner or later when Lot shows up but his father is dead and for some reason probably because of the custom of the day Abraham his uncle has now stepped in and is going to care for this boy to see that he's raised right out of love and respect for his brother who for whatever reason is no longer around there's no such thing as an adoption agency no such thing as a foster home a relative steps in and now he becomes in one great sense a one cared for by Abraham and boy what a blessing that was Abraham takes care of him and as Abraham responds to the call of God and journeys from Ur of the Chaldees and begins to see the blessings of God multiplied again and again and again in his life Lot shares in that. There had to be a number of nights when Lot put his head upon his pillow and said, thank God I'm living with Abraham. Thank God I'm journeying with Abraham. The Bible tells us that Abraham becomes very wealthy and God gives him all these things and provides for him flocks and riches and all of those great things and we know that he does the same thing in the life of Lot for Abraham's sake. We have presented here in this passage Abraham representing the righteous individual who is living the life that God intended him to live. And then we have Lot who is living the kind of life God wanted to but not with the heart of Abraham. he's got his mind on some other things and his thoughts in some other places and before long there's a strife between the herdman of Lot and the herdman of Abraham and all at once the problem comes about and they can't dwell together any longer to make the story short they decide to part company wouldn't it be wonderful to be so prosperous you had to part company with other people who were so prosperous that there just wasn't enough room for all your stuff I think sometimes that happens with a husband and wife as they live together long enough. You know, sometimes people say, well, we need to downsize. No, no. If you're married to a woman, at some point, you're going to need to upsize because she's a collector. And of course, we men are never that way. We have two-car garage and I'm thinking about building another one because we'd like to be able to get our cars in. And so we're honestly thinking about going to another two-car garage just so we can keep the junk that's in the two-car garage and put the cars in the other one. It's a wonderful thing. But that's the nature of life, isn't it? It's wonderful. It's wonderful to see God bless. And it's wonderful to have stuff. But then you get stuff and your stuff needs stuff. And then you gotta have stuff to go with the stuff that you got so it can complement the stuff. And before long, you just got a lot of stuff. And that's where Abraham and Lot are. They come to an agreement that says, you know, we just can't, we eat up the whole pasture in a day. And it's time for us to part company. And you know the story, they part company and Abraham says, Lot, you choose. You make the choice. You're the young man, I love you, I care for you, you make the choice. And how does Lot come to the place we find him in Genesis 19? There's not anybody here that wouldn't wanna trade places with Lot. prior to his departure from Abraham. There's not one person, if we thought about it for a few minutes and said, well, okay, do I really wanna be like Lot, you know, and he's got all the herds and the flocks, yeah, I'm in. We'd all agree. But for some reason, his life becomes an absolute disaster because we've got that picture of Abraham, the man who loves God and wants to serve God, and then we've got Lot, the man who loves God, but he's just got his own ideas. Did you ever hear somebody say this, you know, Well, you know, that person says they're a Christian, but I'm as good as they are. No, you're not. I've had lost people say that. Well, they're just a hypocrite. I'm as good as... No, no, no. See, because even the hypocrites that are saved get heaven. And lost people that are good get nothing. So when you say, well, I know a Christian and they're a hypocrite and I'm just as good as they are. Just keep in mind if you're unsaved tonight. No, you're not. You're in a world of trouble. Because saved people who don't live right go to heaven when they die. Lost people who live wonderful lives bust hell wide open. Because it's not about the life you live in this determination of where heaven or hell is going to be your abode. But for the believer, there's that option. See, I'm talking about a believer's option tonight. I run into so many believers that are saved, but you never know it. You know, the Bible, the song we learned said, if you're saved and you know what, your life will surely short. Theirs doesn't. There's no testimony at all. They're just kind of caught up in the culture. And that's exactly where Lot is. Abraham stays true and walks the walk and lives the life and follows God. He hungers and thirsts after the things of the Lord. And then there's Lot. And he loves God, don't get me wrong. He's righteous, the Bible says here in 2 Peter, but a righteous man that has a lousy testimony, a lousy life. How do you get there? And better yet, how do you keep from getting there? Because we are living in the last days and God did use Peter to tell us about the last days and he used Lot as an example for us to keep in mind and you kinda get the impression in 2nd Peter chapter 2 that the angels are just dragging Lot screaming and kicking out of Sodom and Gomorrah at least that's the picture I get with his hands stretched out back toward where the fire is about to fall what is it that brings him to that place he had such a great beginning he had so many possessions he had such a wonderful thing he's just a botherless boy and Abraham cares for him as Abraham cares for him He prospers. They part company. May I say to you the first problem I think that shows up in Lot's life was a lack of faith or at least a faith that's not growing. I think faith grows. I don't think you need very much faith to get to heaven. Now let me explain. The Bible says God has dealt to every man the measure of faith. So everybody living on planet earth has enough faith to get to heaven. But if you contrast that with the passage that said if you had faith the size of a grain of mustard seed you could move mountains. Anybody know anybody moves mountains? So then we don't have faith that's very big at all. It's almost immeasurable it's so small. But it's enough to get us to heaven. That's all it takes to get you to heaven. Putting that faith in the death, burial and resurrection of our Savior will get us that new life. Thank the Lord we don't have to have much. But the Bible says as a believer our faith is supposed to grow, it's supposed to multiply, we're supposed to be of great faith that on and on and on it goes. We're to add to our faith. There are things, it all is a life that is supposed to be an ever-increasing life. I think Lot got into trouble because he just didn't want to go any further. Did you ever see a Christian who got saved and they did well for a while and then they just like hit a brick wall? you know what happened you see they just came to a point and they said you know what I'm not going any further and their thought was I'm gonna stay where I am but that's the impossibility in the Christian life you're either progressing or you're falling apart there is no standing still in the life God's given us to live and Lot determined you know Abraham's alright but you know He's just traveling around and around and around, going here and there. And I'll tell you what, I just don't want to be part of all that travel. I want to settle down. Well, you don't settle down. You go forward, you go backwards. That's the way that it works. And so Lot, all at once, thinking he's just going to settle down a little bit, begins that arduous trek away from the things of the Lord. And it ends, not just in Genesis 19, but it ends here in 2 Peter 2 with the angels dragging him out of the city. But it explains to us the plight. What happened to him was called vexation. He vexed his righteous soul. Righteousness is not holiness. Holiness is a disposition to being perfect in the sense of God, holy. no sin, no blot, no blight, everything absolute clean and pure. He said be ye holy for I am holy so he has high expectations that we at least endeavor. But righteousness is not exact. Righteousness is a disposition to doing the right thing. Righteousness is more of an inward thing and holiness is more of an outward thing. Righteousness is a disposition that says, wait a minute, there's three choices here. I'm gonna do the right thing. I wanna always do the right thing. Whatever God says is right, whatever's in God's word is right. So it doesn't matter how I feel, doesn't matter what, I'm gonna do the right thing. We ought to be more and more righteous in our approach to life. Simply doing the right thing. Did you ever do the wrong thing when you knew what the right thing was? I was real good at that, still am. I hate to admit it, but my disposition I still think is toward being unrighteous. I have to struggle with that righteous. But I want to be righteous. The Bible says Lot had a righteous soul. We've got a righteous soul, but he vexed that righteous soul. Well I think the first problem was his lack of faith. He had the prosperity of God. He had the companionship of Abraham. He had a journey of hope. They were headed to a place that God had promised them. But somehow that wasn't enough. Why? The Bible tells us over there he lift up his eyes toward the well-watered plains of Jordan. At some point he stopped looking at what God had given him and started looking at what God had not given him. You know what gets us in trouble? These things right here. Boy, oh boy, oh boy, do these things get us in a lot of trouble. Did you ever see someone say, I want? I want, with no really reason why. I just, it's pretty, it's a nice color. You know, it's a nice shade of mauve, a woman would probably say. I have no idea what mauve is, but we get in a lot of trouble with these things, right? He lift up his eyes toward the well-watered plains of Jordan. You know what? Well-watered plains sounds good if you got cattle. But the problem was somewhere along there in the blessings, instead of looking at what God was giving him and what God was blessing him and Abraham with, he began to look over here. Did you ever find the propensity we have to quit looking here and start looking there? I've been teaching some financial principles to my people on Wednesday nights. We live in an atrocious age. People just digging a hole that if we're not careful, we're just gonna be in a mess in 10 years. Somebody said, well, you know, our country, I'm not worried about our country. I'm worried about the people in my church that haven't got good sense. You know, God owns it all. That's what we gotta come to realize. God owns it all and I'd rather have Him than anything that there is here. As a matter of fact, if I've got Him and He owns it all, I don't need anything because He owns it all and I've got Him. It's the exact opposite of the way we live our lives. Our culture is at odds with God. And if we're not careful, it'll drag us right along with it to the point of oblivion, just like it does a lot. used to be when folks got saved years ago and and forgive me I got saved when I was just knee high to a grasshopper whatever that is but I was five and I grew up and my dad was a drunkard and my dad got saved in a great revival meeting when 50 grown men walked an aisle and trusted Christ as their Savior. I'm from the old days when revivals were still a thing that was real and I watched that stuff and I watched my dad's life change and it never went back that way again. I just came up believing that's the way a Christian's life ought to be There ought to be a change and a continuing movement toward the things that are right and the things that are better and a deeper love for Christ and a greater devotion for the Lord. I just happen to believe that's the way life is. You say, well, you know, I'm just going to give God so much. Well, what have you got? What do you keep? What's that worth? You understand everything you give to God is the thing that has value. Why not give it all to Him? He got in problem with his faith. You understand discontentment usually leads us down that pathway. And it usually occurs because I see what I don't have, or even more appropriately, I see what someone else has that I don't have. And somehow God doesn't love me like he loves everybody else. I don't know why God wouldn't care for me. That's how we get discontented. We stop walking by faith. You say, well, why would God give it to them and not give it to me? Because God's good. And God's been good to you. I mentioned last night, I don't want to own a boat. Somebody says, do you like to fish? I love to fish. I love going fishing. I like going on those boats, go way out there in the water. But I don't want to own a boat, because it costs money. Amen. What I want is I want the Lord to give one of my close friends a boat. I learned to fly 10 or 15 years ago. I got my private pilot's license. And the more you get into it, the more money you spend. And I finally said, Lord, this is just not going to work. And you know what happened? One of my friends bought an airplane and gave me the keys. Best experience I've ever had in my life. I didn't have to change the oil. I didn't have to get it serviced. I didn't have to get it annulled. I just got it in and flew. He gave me a set of keys and we went. You don't have to have it all if you know somebody that's got it. Well, I happen to know somebody that has it all, and that's the Lord. But the problem is I get caught up by looking, my eyes begin to wander. Do you know how many billboards there are alongside the road? Do you ever see how much time on your television is nothing but commercials? It's trying to get your eye. That's what happened a lot. He lift up his eyes. You lift up your eyes, you'll see something you don't have, you'll get mad at God. A lack of faith. He became discontent. But then I think the problem is as he begins to move here becomes a lack of fortitude. Once you lose your faith, you lose your strength. Your strength to stand. You take somebody that just got saved, and some of you, some of you were Roman Catholic, my wife was Roman Catholic, she's got relatives that were priests and nuns, and family went to church every day, similar background. You get saved, and you know what? You get saved, and you think, man, my family's gotta hear this, and so you wade right into a pack of wolves, and you witness to them, and you tell them they need to get saved. But at some point, if you're not careful, you just kinda lose that fortitude and you just kind of slink back into the corners. That's what happens, I think, to Lot when he gets down here into this town called Sodom. You know, he ends up there and Abraham comes in in Genesis chapter 13, chapter 14 when all the kings of the nations gather together. They go on a rampage there. They're killing and pillaging and all that kind of stuff that they did back then. And they went in and they conquered the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and they took captives and Lot happened to be... You know the story. Abraham goes out with the lone rangers and they go out and they set him free and they bring Lot back. Do you realize at that point Lot should have said, you know what? Fool me once, but not again. Abraham, I'm coming back to live with you. But he doesn't. He goes back to Sodom. I think at some point we lose our strength to take a stand. We just come to that place where, you know, we get kind of diluted. Here's what I hear Christians say. Well, you know, those people are not so bad. They're lost, but you know, they're not so bad. and it's you know they do some good things and and you know they're not just saying you know they drink but they don't get drunk you know they take dope but they don't take it every day and we begin to become diluted in that sense the Bible talked about the Israelites over believe it is in the book of Isaiah so they couldn't even blush you just kind of get diluted with it you know you watch TV you understand what your kids are watching that you never saw growing up It doesn't even have to be on television. It's just out and out in the mall now. Everywhere you go. I think Lot somehow had a lack of faith and then a lack of fortitude and his life got diluted. And as soon as your life gets diluted, you can write it down. He became dysfunctional as a parent and as a husband. You got to believe somewhere there, there was a day when one of his kids came home from school and he said, where did you get that? Where did you hear that word? But he didn't have any... How do you preach to your kids when your life's going the wrong way too? He, one day I'm sure his wife came home from the mall and he said, you're gonna wear that? But how do you preach to somebody when your life's a mess too? You see you get diluted, you become dysfunctional. You don't have any real authority because you have become a first class hypocrite in that sense. Once you become dysfunctional then there is a division because you have to allow people to go their way while you go your way and all at once there's no cohesion at all in a family or cohesion in a church or cohesion in a community. It's just everybody does that which is right in their own eyes because there's no king in Israel. And so you can't say that, you know, that's wrong because you do things that other people think are, it's just a mess. It's just a mess, just division. Now, the last result though there when he lost his fortitude, the end result is he's just despised. You remember the angels that come into Sodom in the night there and the men of the city come around and they, we won't go through all the process there, but they represent one of the most vile, wicked sins in all of the scripture. And Lot puts forth his hand and says, do not so wickedly and they said, who made you a judge? He's just despised. You know, I think he went into Sodom for the first time because he thought, man, this is what I really want to do. I want to live in a nice community. I want to be in a nice town. I want to make friends. I want to know people. I want to interact with people. And now I want you to know what the end result is when a Christian vexes themselves and vex their rights. They end up despised and hated and miserable right where they are. You don't ever get what you think you're going to get. So wait a minute. I don't even know what vexed means. That's unintentional. I want you to hang on for a minute. We'll talk about it in a minute. He lost his lack of fortitude. Then he lost his lack of focus. Life begins to swirl at some point and it moves so fast. Did you ever wonder what if somebody knocked on your door tonight and said look I'm an angel here representing the Lord. Lord sent me to tell you he's gonna burn your house down tonight. Wouldn't you think you'd pray at some point? Oh, he must have forgot about that. You find him almost, it's almost a cacophony as he goes from place to place, trying to gather his kids together, going, oh, we gotta go, and they won't listen to him, and he's frustrated, and you see this thing swirling around and around. He can't really get a grasp on anything. The Bible said, while he lingered, the angels laid hold on, they're dragging him, screaming and kicking out of town. Somebody said, who's that? Well, that's Lot. That's that guy that loved God, lived with Abraham for a long time. Just, you know, had great peace and kind of weird. Kind of weird. He needs to get a grip. He lost his focus. He doesn't know what's worth keeping and what's worth losing. I've got an idea. If the angels hadn't laid hands on him and dragged him out of the city, he'd have burned in the city. Lost his focus. And then his life just becomes a tragedy. Now, let me talk to you about this idea of being vexed. To be vexed, simply put, is to know you should do something but be powerless to do it. We would compare it in common terms to an addict. ever dealt with someone who's dealt with an addiction you'll find that they time and time again say that's it I'm through I quit I'm finished and then they go right back again I've had them sit in my office and cry and weep and say I just gotta kick this I gotta get a preacher I'm gonna do this by the grace of God by the power of God I'm gonna read his word and they give me all the right things to say They just couldn't kick it. You say, well, anybody can kick it. Well, I invite you to come because I've known a couple that never did. I watched them pull a young man out of a stall in a McDonald's bathroom. He was visiting and witnessing and bringing people to church. You say, well, the devil got him. He just never got free. You say, what was that? He was vexed. He wanted to be free. He wanted to get away. He just couldn't. He couldn't find the path. That's what a vexation is, the oppression of depression. Nobody wants to be depressed. But there are people in this world that don't know how to get away from it. They're vexed. Let me ask you a question. How many times do you think that Lot sat in his living room, on a Saturday night and listened to the music and the gunfire down the street, heard the sirens going up and down the street, and didn't know where his teenage daughters were. How many times do you think he said, man, we got to get out of here? We got to get out of here. He just never did. How many times you think in the course of his life he looked and said, man I gotta set my kids down. You know they weren't all born when we were out there and we were wandering around with Abraham out there in the world. I gotta set him down one of these days and tell him how good it was to serve. He just never could. It was as though his addiction held him and wouldn't allow him to be what he really wanted. I think there are people in this world, maybe in this church, certainly in mine, that want to serve God with their whole heart. And they can't. They're vexed. They're vexed. You say, well, is there hope? Well, there is. But hope is in the Lord and your hope is to make a backtrack. To go back to the path of faith. To get back to those influences there. To isolate yourself from those things that have dragged you into this. To get out of Sodom and Gomorrah is a good step. but you see we've become accustomed to living in Sodom and Gomorrah and we've got so many friends and you know they're good schools and boy they have tremendous holidays and you know some good things about and it's the good things about the bad things that hold you in check and won't let you be what God wants you to be. There's some good things to be said about drugs. Amen? You say, I'm a drug addict. I just don't take drugs. What's the cause of that? My dad was an alcoholic, so I don't drink because of that. I preached a meeting not long ago. I had a kidney stone. I was on my way to the airport up here. I pulled in the driveway. I said to my wife, I got to go to the hospital. I'm dying. I never had a kidney stone before, but now that I have had one, that's about as close to dying as you can get. You wish you were dead. I went into the hospital and they said, you know, they got me all stretched out and I figured out if they ever take you into an emergency room and there's people in the waiting room and you don't want to wait, just tell them, you know, my heart feels funny. Don't tell them I told you that, but it'll work every time, I'll guarantee you. Because they said, she said, you look a little pale. She said, is your heart all right? I said, well, it was really beating pretty fast last night. Boy, I kind of wheeled past all them people in the waiting room and went. Preachers manipulate the system too sometimes. But they gave me some stuff. I said, I got to travel. I can't. I got a meeting. I'm supposed to preach tomorrow. I got to go. I said, as soon as you let me go, I got to go get on an airplane. That's just the way it's got to work. I got to be there. And so we got out, and she said, well, I'm going to give you eight of these pills and something with cotton. But there wasn't no cotton in it. It was the best meeting I had in a long time. I mean, you say, I didn't feel a thing. I remember taking one in the morning and went to a morning session and I told my wife I didn't have to preach the morning session, but really I had two or three pages full of notes. Nobody can make out what they were. They're kind of in hieroglyphics, but pages of notes. And I told her that night, I said, I've got to preach tonight. Maybe I should take another one just in case. She said, go look in the mirror. She said, your pupils are about the size of the point of a needle. You do not need any more medication. And I didn't. She was right. There's an addiction that comes there if you're not careful. Don't mess with it. Stay away from it. Being vexed is not just only like an addiction, it's like being in prison. You know how many guys there are in prison that did something stupid, something insane when they were 19 or 20, and now they're 60? And they're still in prison. You know how much they'd like to get out of prison? vexations like that. It's like living in the shadow of stupid things you've done a long time ago, wishing you could go back and do them all over again and straighten them out. But you can't. You see, Lot's life was one like an addict. He wanted, I think he probably wept and cried and said, I gotta move. I gotta get my family out of here. But see, he lost his fortitude and he lost his faith. And those are the things that get you out of those circumstances. You say, preacher, don't you believe the Lord can deliver? Yes, I do, but I'm gonna tell you something, you've come to a point where you don't get much more opportunity to straighten things out. It is what it is. I find myself telling people that in counseling more now than probably ever before in my ministry. They come and they knock on the door and the tears flow and they say, preacher, we gotta get this fixed and we gotta straighten it out and how can we fix it? And I say, listen, I hate to say this, but in Jesus' name, it is what it is. You say, well, can't God deliver you? Yeah, but you know, you lay down on the railroad tracks in a drunken stupor and the train cuts both your legs off. God will restore you, but He won't give your legs back. And sometimes people do stupid things and they spend their time in vexation, in prison, wishing they could get out, wishing they could go back and undo the wrong they've done. I'll bet Lot probably sat night after night and say, man, I wish I'd never left Abraham. Did you ever notice you never hear of his cattle again? He had his cattle, he had his herds. I mean, who wouldn't think about just sleeping under the stars and boy, that's the life everybody wants to retire to and lost all of that to get what he never wanted to keep. And then he couldn't get rid of that. It's very much like, not just an addiction, Not just being in prison, but being paralyzed. Being paralyzed. We have a young man in our church that's quadriplegic. He has just two or 3% use of one of his arms, but he has some use. But ever since he's been 16, I've seen the tears roll down his face and he didn't tell me what he's thinking. I don't know what he's thinking. He's sat in my office and we've talked about doing something for the Lord and I've seen the tears well up in his eyes and just roll down his face. You know what he'd love to do? He'd love to get up and walk. I believe with all my heart if he could walk he'd be on visitation every day. He'd be telling somebody about the Lord. He would just be a non-stop servant of the Lord. But he can't. But he can't. That's what a vexation is. The Bible said that Lot seeing and hearing and being part of that culture. He wanted to move out. He wanted to go back and straighten it out. He wanted to change it. He just was powerless after a certain point to get out. Why are you saying that? Because I want you to understand. I'm not saying you're there yet, but I'm saying you can get there. You say, well, don't you believe you can always get right with God? Yes, you can always get right with God, but you don't always get your cattle back. And you don't always get to live with Abraham. As a matter of fact, you don't always get out with your family. I'm glad to tell you there's mercy and grace that flows from Calvary for whosoever will and whenever it's needed. It's there and it's available. But boy, the longer you wait, you may leave some kids behind. You may lose your wife or your husband in the process. Your life may never get back to where you wish it could go. He vexed his righteous soul. He sat there in that house. He went down to the workplace. I'll guarantee you there was time after time when he came home and said to his wife, we're getting out of here somehow. But you see now they had the new car and they had the boat and they had the payments and you got, well, we've got to pay that off and you just can't go now and it just never happened. You know how many people in America that summarizes the life they're going to live till they drop dead? Chasing the carrot. vexed because they just, it's just, I'm gonna get it, I'm gonna get it! And they never find it. The real tragedy though is none of those. Those are tragedies, no doubt. But his vexation had a price tag on it because as he leaves town, he leaves without his family. You say, well he took his two daughters, he might as well left them. because he didn't take them with him. He lost his wife, he lost his kids. Do you realize if you do the numbers there, when Abraham's negotiating with God out there, he said, for 10, would you? 10, 10. And after that, he just kind of dropped the whole thing. Because you got Lot and Mrs. Lot, he's got two sons, he's got two daughters that are married with two sons-in-laws, and then he's got two virgin daughters. You know why Abraham negotiated with God? He thought I got a sure thing. What he didn't know is that Lot had vexed his righteous soul day after day after day after day, and he had lost that great amount of faith he once had, and he'd lost his fortitude. He just was a basket case. He didn't really know what was going on. I've met those Christians, but here's the real tragedy. I've heard people say, well, you know, God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah because they were wicked Sodomites. No, that's not true. That is not true. They were exceeding sinful and wicked before the Lord. There's no doubt about that. And sodomy is a wicked sin exceedingly. It hasn't changed. I know we change. Our culture. Watch out for your culture. That's what happened in Sodom and Gomorrah. When our Founding Fathers put our Constitution in the United States together, they put three crimes in it for which a man could be put to death. Only three. Only three. Now they're over 3,000. Three crimes, capital crimes, for which a man could be put to death. Go check them out. Find out what one of them is. And you'll find out until 1962, it was still a federal crime in 1962, punishable by death. But now it is a protected right. Woe be unto them that call evil good and good evil. It's an earmark of the age in which we live. Somebody said, well, boy, our nation's falling apart. No, we're just beginning to see Sodom and Gomorrah. It's been here the whole time. The reason it's become where it is is because of you and I losing our faith and losing our fortitude and fitting in. Here's the real tragedy. You know why God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah? Because he couldn't find 10 people. You see, he negotiated for 10 people. He may have been angry because of the sin and the wickedness and the vileness of the cities, but he negotiated. And he said, I will not destroy it for 10. So don't sit back and talk about what a wicked and vile place was. Sodom was so wicked, God burned it to the ground. No, sir, it was wicked and vile, but he didn't burn it to the ground because it was wicked and vile. He burned it to ground because there wasn't 10 people in there that loved him enough to live for him and serve him. Because if he could have found them, Sodom might have been still standing today. What does that mean, preacher? That means if you can keep your righteous soul from being vexed, you can make a difference. When you stand before the Lord, is your life ever going to account for anything? Is the Lord gonna say, well, you know, you messed up here, you messed up here, and this is my epitaph, my life story. You didn't do that, you didn't do this. Boy, you really made a mess there. And somewhere in that place where God evaluates the life that I've lived, I hope he finds something where my life made a difference. Wouldn't it be wonderful if the Lord said, you know, you pretty much washed out as a Christian, didn't you? Yeah, Lord. Yeah, but you know this guy standing right over there? You remember that you carried the water to him, and he didn't even listen, called you a funny name and walked away. He's over there. Your life made a difference. I didn't destroy him. I didn't destroy him. And boy, there's another one back there, and another one back there, and here's one over here. Maybe not many. but your life can't. You understand the wrath was gonna fall on them, but your life made a difference. You know, I think probably basic Christianity 101 should be this, I need to win someone to Christ. And I'm not talking about the fast prayer, you know, gunslinger type salvation. I'm talking about sowing in tears, and begging God, and getting out the gospel, and preaching it, and telling it, and going from house to house, and person to person, and giving them the good news, and getting it on the mission field, and spreading it here, and spreading it there, until there comes a point in time where you can at least say, thank God, I got one! I don't think you have to lead 500 people a week to the Lord. I think that's just hype. But it's a hype we like to use to hide behind. Well, you know, I'm not getting people over there that, you know, win 300 people to the Lord, you know, sure, yeah. Have you ever won one? Just one. Have you got one? You see, we hide behind the hype. because it makes it real convenient. I got saved when I was five years old. I was one of the little kids. They said, it doesn't work. You can't get saved at five years old. That's what they say. I'm sad, but I hate to tell them. It worked. I still to this day remember what I did after I trusted Christ as my Savior. I went to school. because I was going to school. And I still remember talking to a little boy who was a little classmate of mine and telling him I got saved. Now, I don't remember my teacher's name, but I remember talking to that little boy. May I be bold? I remember his name. And I told him, you need to get saved. And he said, I don't know what that is. And I told him to the best five-year-old boy could convey it. I said, Ben, this is what it is. And he said, well, how do you do it? I didn't know. I said, well, when you say your prayers tonight, because I thought everybody said their prayers at night. I said, if you just ask Jesus to come into your heart, he'll say. That's why I didn't know a verse of scripture. I remember the next day, he came to me in line on the playground. And he said, I did what you told me to do last night. You say, did he get saved? I don't know. But you don't have any stories like that. You ought to at least have one story. Young men, you're looking for finding a wife, and getting a job, and a career, and getting for whatever good things the world can provide. And I think that's wonderful. Hey, God's created all things for us richly to enjoy. Have at it. But you ought to win one. You ought to win one. Ladies, you know, you got a good husband and you're a godly woman and, you know, I don't... But, you know, there are ladies that need to get saved too. My mom now has Alzheimer's and doesn't even know who I am half the time. But my mom's the greatest soul winner I ever met. I can think of things growing up as a little boy where we'd be somewhere and mom would disappear. Usually, the kids disappear, my mom would disappear. I remember at my brother's wedding rehearsal dinner, people sitting down around the table and they're getting ready to pray over the meal. They said, well, where's Ms. South? She's not in her seat. Somebody said, I don't know. My dad finally said, look, just go on without her, she's doing something. I went and looked for her and she had a little Korean waitress back here in the corner in a booth with an open Bible leading her to Jesus Christ. I'm not asking you, do you get 500 a week? Here's what I'm asking you. Has your life made a difference anywhere? You see, God's not impressed with the big. He was willing to settle for 10. Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities of the plain burned to ash. because he couldn't find 10 people, not holy, but 10 people with a disposition toward doing the right thing. Righteous people. He found Lot. I suppose that's the only one he found. What about the 10 that should have been? That's what Abraham thought. Gotta be 10. Lot's down there. Save the day. The 10 that should have been. How about this? What about the 10 that could have been? What if God's got his eye on South Lion and says, listen, it's going to be an earthquake, a flood, a disaster, because it's exceeding wicked. Are there 10 here? You say, well, it's a whole building full. Lot had his whole family, but that didn't measure in the count. The sadness, the tragedy of a vexed soul was that that's not the way Lot ever intended his life to end up. If you'd ask him the day his daddy died, if you'd ask him the day Abraham took him in, if you'd ask him the day Abraham gave him his first steer, if you'd ask him the day he finally counted and his flock was huge, if you'd ask him any point in there how his life was going to end, he would never in a thousand years said that it was going to end in the tragedy that it ended in because he allowed himself to be vexed. Let me ask you a question tonight while we bow our heads just for a few minutes. Is there something in your life that's just vexed you?