Let's go to Genesis 18. Starting verse 16, it says, then the men rose up, that's the two angels from there, looked down towards Sodom and Abraham was walking with them to send them off. And the Lord said, shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do? Since Abraham will surely become a great and mighty nation, and in him all of the nations of the earth will be blessed, for I have chosen him in order that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice in order that the Lord may bring up upon Abraham what he has spoken about him. And the Lord said, the outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah is exceedingly great, and their sin is exceedingly grave. And I will go down and see if they have done entirely according to its outcry which has come before me. And if not, I will know. And when the men turned from there and went, and then the men turned from there and went towards Sodom, while Abraham was still standing before the Lord. And Abraham came near and said, Will thou indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there are 50 righteous within the city. Will you indeed sweep away and spare the place for the sake of 50 righteous who are in it? Far be it from thee to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike, far be it from thee, shall not the judge of all the earth deal justly? And so the Lord said, if I find in Sodom 50 righteous within the city, then I'll spare the whole place on their account. And Abram answered and said, well, now behold, I ventured to speak to the Lord. I always love this one. Every time I read this, I crack up. Now behold, I ventured to speak to the Lord, though I am just dust and ashes, suppose the 50, suppose the 50 righteous are lacking five. Would you destroy the whole city because of five? Isn't it interesting, he doesn't say because of 45, but because of the five that are not there. And he says, nah, he says, I wouldn't destroy it if I find 45 there. And he spoke to him yet again, and he said, well, suppose 40 are found there. And he said, no, I wouldn't do it on account of 40. And he said, well, may the Lord not be angry, and I shall speak, suppose 30 are found there. And he said, I wouldn't destroy it for 30. And he said, well, now behold, I have ventured to speak to the Lord, suppose 20 are found there. I wouldn't destroy it on account of 20. And he said, oh Lord, don't be angry, but suppose 10 are found there. And he says, I wouldn't destroy it on the count of 10. And as soon as they were finished speaking to Abraham, the Lord departed, and Abraham returned to his place. Very cool section of scripture, because we see some things in this scripture that we've never seen before. For example, this is the first time in scripture where we actually see someone actually interceding on behalf of other people. And it's a unique little episode because, you know, Abraham's talking to God like he would talk to somebody who he really respects, but he knows. Did you pick up on that? I mean, obviously he's, you know, he's, look, I'm just, yeah, I know I'm just, you know, I'm just this poor little idiot, you know, and so forth, but man, you know, would you, would you, would you wipe the city out? You know, and he's, and God's like, no, no. I think it's interesting that it didn't go beyond 10 because that was the size of Lott's family. Lott's family was in fact 10 people. It was Lott and his wife, and they had four children, and the son-in-laws and so forth. So you add it all up, it's 10 people. So we have all this going on, and you have to ask yourself, what's going on? What's... Why is Abraham so concerned for Sodom? Because that's really what you're hearing here. Well, it's a lot, isn't it? Well, it is. It's a lot. But I also think that he's concerned because it's like, I don't want to see a whole bunch of people die. I don't want to see this happen. One of the things he said in the book, which is something that I've always said about this particular section, is that for most Christians, the interpretation is really a little too blunt. I don't want to say literal, because that's not really the right word. This idea that he was wiping them out because of the homosexuality, is just ridiculous. I mean, that's just another sexual sin. I mean, that's just another issue that people have to deal with. So I don't see it. I mean, maybe I'm just naive or something, but I don't see where God goes down and wipes it out just because there was homosexuality going on in this area. Now, there was a whole lot of other stuff, and the biggest thing that was going on was they had rejected God. They had rejected everything about him. They had rejected everything about his word. And what God wanted to demonstrate, as we'll see next time when we get together, is that he will not allow people to reject him eternally. It just doesn't work that way. And that's the bottom line. So, you know, this is a very interesting section because obviously the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was a lot more than sodomy. It was a whole litany of different things that were grievous to the Lord. And I think that we see this evidence in this thing, but you know, they've been given so many testimonies. They were delivered from a cater, a lait-a-mer, I've always loved pronouncing that, you know, and they were delivered from or received the testimony of Melchizedek, and we've looked at that. And of course, they had the testimony of Lot and so forth. But what I think is fascinating about this section more than any other thing was it's obvious that God wanted Abraham now to know. He wanted him to know. And of all the chapters in Stedman's book that I thought he really just nailed it, this might be the one that I think he just totally nailed it. And so I'm going to do most of what I want to talk today and what I like our discussion to go right out of the book, because I think he really nailed it. This beginning section here where he talks about the ancient city of Sodom being discovered in 1976, I had just come to the Lord a couple years prior to 1976 when I heard about this. And I remember Ray Cohen was just Like he wanted to just teach about this. I mean, he did so much research on this whole thing because he thought that this Ebla thing was unbelievable. So interesting. And the reason for that is because for years there had been no real evidence of any of this being real. Sodom and Gomorrah, all the different cities in the plains and so forth. And right after the 73 war is when this was able to happen because they had occupied this area and then that allowed them to be able to do the excavations and so forth. And that's when they found all of this stuff. And what I found interesting was that the cities in the Bible are listed in the exact same order as they were listed in the manifest that they found in the ground. Not only did they have the complete list, but they had it in the same order, which indicates to me that there was some kind of a hierarchy or some kind of a tiering here of them and so forth. But the very first one was, in fact, Sodom, and the second one was Gomorrah, and both the stuff that they found and, of course, in the Bible. So this was the primary, and these other ones were kind of like the ones that went under. Does everybody understand where I'm coming from? And that was always the teaching, but it was hard to teach that without any kind of real evidence. And I remember Ray was just beyond giddy about this. I mean, it was really interesting. And I think that's when, for me, that's why this is such a personal thing for me, that was for me the first time, because I was a really young guy at that point, I was 23 or 24, 23 I guess. And no, I was only 20. What am I saying? I was only 20. I was 20 years old. And so this was when I first got an inkling of what it feels like to love the scriptures so much that when you find something out that kind of confirms it, that has nothing to do with the scriptures, how it can make you just feel incredible. There's something very bizarre about it. I can't even really explain it to you unless you've actually experienced it. It's kind of hard to even explain, but it really got me. And I think that's the reason why I've always been such such a person that likes to dig into so many of these extra biblical sources and resources and so forth. But the word that he said here in the book that I thought was really interesting, he said, this incident reveals a crucial and often ignored truth about prayer. Authentic prayer is always initiated by God, not by humanity. And one of the things I said last Sunday, which is kind of interesting, was pretty much, this is the misunderstanding about Jesus, that I think is the primary misunderstanding in Christianity, is that Jesus is not your personal genie. He's not up there, rub the bottle, and you'll get your three wishes. That's not what it's about. And it's funny because he uses those exact words here in that, which I found very, very amazing. But he says this, he says, we tend to think of prayer as a process whereby we go to God and talk to him to bless our plans, but it is not so. God always proposes genuine prayer. Have you ever felt that urging? That urging, you know, like, you know, man, I need to pray for this. You know, something has happened here. I gotta lift this up for you. I have no idea even why, but I just, you know, well, that's God urging you. God, true prayer is not where we ask God to become a partner in our plans. We shouldn't expect God to answer any prayer that is not initiated by Him. Man, that was about as well said as anything I've ever read about prayer. An authentic prayer of faith acts on previous knowledge of what God wants. It is always founded upon God's promise. It begins with a proposal God makes or a conviction He gives or a warning He utters, but the prayer of presumption is a self-willed prayer. It is a prayer that seeks God's blessing upon human conceived plans, and such prayers are doomed at the outset." Sure flips the script, doesn't it? Doesn't it? So I guess what I'm trying to say is, this is something I've always believed, I just never heard it quite articulated this way. And I was like, this is so well written. Because it really expresses something that I've always believed, but I never really could explain. Romans chapter eight, it says that sometimes you're praying and you literally don't know, you don't have the words to pray, but you still know that. And that's when the spirit of God starts to pray on your behalf. Well, that's what he's talking about. It's God's plan, not your plan. It's God's idea, not your idea. It's God doing this, not you doing this. And when we pray out of presumption, which is God, you got to do this. Like, I sort of sense that God would be up there going, I gotta do what? And why? Exactly, okay. You know, it's really, you know, some incredible things. So he goes on, he says, every believer in Jesus Christ stands in exactly the same relationship with God that Abraham experienced. Like Abraham, we have been given a favored position before God. We have received this position by His grace, not through our own merit or effort, and we have been called into the family of God and have become children of the living God by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Perhaps the reason some people get more out of the Bible than others is that they have learned this two-way relationship. God truly loves to reveal His secrets to people that are obedient. And I was like, wow, this is just incredible. Because it's a very important thing that most people just never get their arms around. They don't understand, and I think this is why prayer is perplexing to most people. It really is. It may be the reason why so few people actually pray. I don't know if you ever really thought about that before, but very few people really pray. I mean, they say they pray. I always love that, you know. Oh, I'm gonna pray about that. I love that. I love it when people say, I need to pray about that. I was talking to somebody the other day, and this is really funny. And we're talking about, it was Tuesday, and we were talking about the election. And so I said to this person, I said, well, did you vote? She said, oh yeah, I'm going to vote. I said, great. Do you know who you're going to vote for? I'm still praying about it. I said, well, you do realize it's 5 o'clock and the polls close at 7? Express prayer. How far into this prayer have you gotten, OK? It's conceptual. I'm sorry. I was just like. I think it's become Christian lingo. I'm going to pray about that, or I'll pray about that, or I'm praying for you, brother. Are you really? Are you really praying for that person? I mean, I've done it. I've said it. I've said, oh, I'm praying for you, when I'm really not. But we need to understand that when God asks you to pray, that's true prayer. when he motivates that prayer, when he gets it going, and when we spend time. So, how does he do that? Well, I can tell you how he does it to a lot of people, including me. Usually, he wakes me up. And I don't mean necessarily out of a three o'clock in the morning sleep. I mean like, you know, I'm just sort of going along and then all of a sudden it's like, whoa, I didn't realize. Or, you know, he just reminds, you know, something happens. He wakes me up. It's like I was asleep, but now I'm awake. And I'm aware of what's going on. That's how God does it with me. Well, it becomes a two-way conversation then. Oh, indeed. Instead of a one-way conversation. I think that's where most people Me included. I mean, that's, that's my concept of prayer was my concept of prayer. Yeah. I'm, I'm asking, I'm praying for instead of, you know, praying with. Yeah. And it, and it's funny because years ago I was taught this expression, you know, uh, to, to, to ask God to, to break your heart with the things that break God's heart. Uh, you know, Lord, you know, just let my heart break with the things that break with break the heart of God. And it's funny because he actually quotes that in this section as well. But that was an expression that I was taught when I first became a believer. And so, 40, 50, 50 years ago now, right? And I think about that expression, you know, God, let my heart break with the things that break your heart. That's really what we're talking about. is that we understand what God wants, not what we want. So that's why I came up with this expression, don't use Jesus as your personal genie, because he's not. He's not there to just take care of every one of your little four or five wishes that you're gonna get from rubbing the bottle. He's there to be a part of what God is doing. And I remember when, years ago, I read a book called Experiencing God, and one of the things that the author says in that is that you always wanna be where God is at work. Because if you're where God is at work, then you're gonna be at work for God. But the problem, of course, is that too often, God's over here and we're over there. God's doing something over here and we ain't part of that. And we want to be part of this thing over here, but God is not even involved in that. And then we wonder why it's so frustrating. God's involved over here. Be where God's at work. And, and it really is, you know, just, just, just an exciting kind of, kind of thing. So this prayer that he, that he does though is, is so interesting because It's kind of like bargaining. You know, hey, would you take 50 for that? No, yeah. It's like buyer's remorse. Yeah, yeah, wait, wait, wait. How about 45? Yeah, I'll take 45. It's like, at what point is he going to say no? It's kind of like where he's going here. He just keeps working it down until finally he's going to say no. It's kind of like reverse bargaining, actually. But we always start really low and then it goes up. But what was he doing? in doing all of that? Was he just bargaining, do you think? What was he doing? This is not a rhetorical question. What was he doing? Was he... I'll let somebody else talk. No, you can talk. No, I know I can, but I just wanted to hear something about the people's perspective. Yeah, that's fine. Come on. Was he actually bargaining? What's he thinking? Was he trying to actually understand God a little better by just asking those questions thought it was a good question. I mean, yeah, because sometimes we as people, we think, well, gotta to save the ship from sinking. You have to do this, this, this and this. You know what I'm saying? And so we think that way, but God's like, well, no, I'll, I'll, I won't sacrifice anybody. Yeah. Randy, what do you think? In my plain reading of this, I I could imagine myself doing something similar. I think he is questioning God, myself, in a reverent way. But I do think he's questioning God and his nature, and exactly who are you. I think I would do something similar if I had family members, and I don't, personally, I don't think his focus was on Sodom as a whole. I really don't think he was like, oh man, don't wipe all them out. They're a heinous nation, right? They've let depravity sink fully in, right? That's why they share the sins that are taking place. And I think he has got his heart set on why he's concerned. He doesn't want to see a lot white. No doubt about it. That is his primary concern. And I think that's where he's coming at God, and he's doing it in a very trepid way, you know? They're just coming out saying, Sure. And I would tell you, I initiate all that. Now, we can get into the free will versus election concept of just how far do we do what we do of our own volition. But I believe that when I read David in the Psalms, and his kinds of anguish or fear his enemies are pursuing him, or whatever it may be, that he cries out before the Lord. You know, and I've done that a lot myself. So I didn't know that I grasped all that he said as wholesale across the board, this is how it is. I think often God initiates. Yeah. And again, if you believe that God is in control, then he either is in control or he's not in control. So if he's in control, then he's even controlling, you know, how you pray. I agree. then God initiates everything, period, into the subject. But in the sense of me living my life every day, and we talk about, and I don't usually use the term free will, I use the term free choice. I think our wills are corrupted and fallen, and we actually can't willpower our way through hardly anything that's righteous. So I see it as me communicating with God. So what I found fascinating, I've always found fascinating about this particular section is that God is standing before Abraham and he doesn't have to tell Abraham anything. Doesn't have to tell him anything. He doesn't have to tell him why he's there. He doesn't have to tell him what the two angels are fixing to do. He doesn't have to do any of that. But he says, Abraham, I want you to know. I want you to know. And what I think is fascinating is that this shows the character of God towards the people he loves, towards believers. It just does. God wants you to know. That's why God gave us the word of God, because God wants us to know. That's why God gives us fellowship, because God wants us to know. That's why God gave us prayer, because God wants you to know. He wants you to know what he's doing. He wants you to know why he's doing it. He wants you to know when he's doing it. You know, there are certain things he doesn't, he's not gonna tell you necessarily. He's not gonna tell you like, for example, when he's coming back, but he's telling you he's coming back. He's not, you know, and I've always believed that the picture of Sodom and Gomorrah is a picture that we see actually play out in the book of the Revelation. where God takes out his believers and then executes judgment. We can talk more about that next week, but what's fascinating to me here is that before he does that, God wants us to know. And that to me is an important message. God wants us to know. So that's why we come to Bible study. That's why we come to prayer meetings. That's why we go to church. That's why we read the scriptures. That's why we spend time with other believers. It's because we are being given the opportunity to know what God wants us to know. And he's given us these things over and over and over. I believe that's why Jesus is called the Word, above all other things. I believe that that's why he's called the Logos. He's called that because he is the express image of the Lord, and he wants us to know. Go ahead. The scripture says, Jesus was talking, and something he said in the book of John, he said, it has given you to know what is the mysteries of the kingdom. That's what he said. Yeah, it's given. And when you say this about Abraham, that God wanted him to know God have always had a desire since the beginning of man, having a relationship with The initial reason he went down to Saul is because sin spoke to God, in the same sense that Abel, blood, spoke to God and said, the blood of thy brother cries out unto me. That's what it's, Abel was dead, but he said the blood of thy brother, and God heard that. And it's the same principle in this regard, but as you just said, God want us to know. The problem with us is that, do we want to know? That's the challenge in each and every one of them. Do we want to know? Because it's no secret. When he said, my name is Emmanuel, which is interpret God with us, it's telling you, I want to be with. I mean, what you're saying is actually true, but I kind of disagree with you in the sense of the initiated prayer, because when I read in Luke 18 is talking about man not always to pray and not faint, and he gave a prayer but to that extent. But the fact of the matter is, God wants us to know him in such a way, and that's what he also revealed to Abraham. He revealed his character. And that's so, what you're saying is, I agree with, that is so important. What's that verse in John again, where is it? He said, there's a given to you, I think in John 15 or 17, it is given for you to know what is the mysteries of the kingdom. and he was talking to his disciples. It's given for you to know. Other words, the purpose of him coming is for you to know God because as you said before, I think you said this Sunday, never in the history of the Bible where we can identify God as father, but Jesus let us know. You know what I'm saying? That's such a relationship because you don't get that in the Old Testament. But in the New Testament, he said, when you pray praise it, Abba. So here's the, here's the, yeah, go ahead. Yeah, absolutely. When I read this passage, I think for me, it also is setting up the fact that God is our, is daddy. And I look at, I look at Abraham in this case, kind of like pulling on God's robe and saying, dad, are you going to, Is this going to happen? And yeah, I like that. I'm going to I'm going to do this. And then it's like, because this is what a kid would do, you know, they're going to ask the same question slightly different. But what if it's 45? Oh, well, son, it's going to be like this. So I think I'm not sure, but I think for the first time in scripture, we begin to see that personal relationship. And I'm reading this, and it's like, I can't believe Abram's saying this. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Or, you know, don't get angry. I want to ask the question again. There may have been a material motive, like you said, with the 10. But anyway, that's my kind of something else I got out of it just now in the classroom. And that's the thing that I think that I struggled with the prayer statement that Stedman made too, right? That true prayer is only initiated by God. And I think that it... I would actually go further and say all prayer. Well, so my take on it, to Sal's point, is thinking of it like children, right? Like that's the framework that I have to be able to have an understanding of God at this point. And I think that, hey, the kids are going to call out to me and say, Hey, I want. Hey, I want. Hey, I want. That's conversation. That's prayer, right? That doesn't mean I'm getting that for them. It has nothing to do with that, right? But when I start off the conversation with them, what I want is what's going to happen. Right, and I'm hoping that they're aligned with me and my conversation is to have them to have that conversation get aligned with me It's like you know the the statement in scripture I've always really really struggled with it is if God is for us who can stand against us right right and I really struggled with that in the sense that What if what I want isn't really what God wants, right? And that's what, so then I'm saying if God is for me, then who can stand against me? But I think the important thing for us to really know about that statement is if I want If I'm a Christian, if I'm a believer, I want what God wants, so of course you can stand against me. That's not what I want. If God's for what I want, it's because I want what God wants, of course we can stand against him. So, to dovetail on Orlando's statement, that was said in the context of the comforter. It was John 15, by the way. And because in John 15, actually 14, 15, 16, 17, or 16, 14, 15, 16, Jesus is talking to them at the Passover, and he's advising them of why he has to go away. And he says, the reason that I have to go away is because if I don't go away, you don't get the comforter. which is a really incredible statement, because the word comforter there is the word paraclete, and paraclete is one of those words in scripture in the New Testament that's extremely important. That's he who comes alongside and advises. That's what a paraclete, actually even in English, that's what it means. So we have this incredible experience of getting the Spirit of God, but we only get that because he left. So Abraham doesn't have that opportunity just yet. So what God is doing is he is giving to Abraham an experience that you and I can experience now because of the Spirit of God every single day. He could only do it when God showed up. But now that God is with us, Emmanuel, that's the whole idea. Now that he is with us, he is in us, he has made us who we are, he's given us the Spirit of God. And so hence, Paul starts to bring that into all of his teaching. So when he teaches the Book of Romans, for example, he says, this only happens, everything that I just gave you is all about getting the Spirit of God. and of course Romans chapter 8 is really what that's all about because in the beginning he talks about how everybody's all corrupt and got all these problems and you know if you want to believe God you got to do it by the way Abraham did it and you know and the fact that we're justified by faith but you know there's still this problem of our sin going back and forth and so forth but praise be to God he's given us the Spirit of God and he says in that section that even the Spirit of God even will pray on our behalf because we don't even know how to pray and so He goes on, and so when he teaches the Corinthians, the very first thing he says to the Corinthians in the very first book that he's doing after he does the introduction in the first chapter, he gets into this second chapter, and what he does in this second chapter, he talks about the fact that we need, now as believers, we need to be completely reliant upon the Spirit of God. Which, by the way, is what I think this is really all about at the end of the day. we need to be completely reliant upon the Spirit of God. And he says, starting in verse 10 of chapter 2, if you want to read it with me, it's fine, or just listen, for to us God revealed through the Spirit. Revealed what? Revealed everything. That's why Paul doesn't say what he revealed. It's just all revelation, basically is what he's saying, all revelation comes through the spirit of God. There is no revelation that comes outside of the spirit of God that's God's. If you think about it, that makes perfect sense, right? I mean, there would be no revelation that God would give outside of his own spirit. Does that make sense to everybody? I think that... But no man know the spirit of God except the spirit of God that be. Exactly, and that's what we're going to talk about here. So the Spirit, he says, because the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. So he searches not only us, but he can even search the things of God. So everything basically is wrapped up in the spirit of God, is basically what Paul's saying. He says, for who among you knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Which is a pretty obvious thing. I don't know what's going on in your head. I can't read your mind. My wife thinks I can read her mind. She's been thinking I can do that forever, but I can't read her mind. She's the only one that can read her mind, and I'm not even sure she can read her mind, okay? Because that's the way we are as people. We think of stuff all the time. It's like this big old thing. We don't even remember half the things that we do think about, right? I mean, I'm not being critical of my wife. I'm just saying, just everyone. We've got hundreds and billions of things. But what it says here is that even so, the thoughts of God, no one knows except by the Spirit of God. So this, again, is a foreshadowing. Remember what the Old Testament is all about. The Old Testament is to give us a foreshadowing of what we're going to experience in Christ. That's what the Old Testament's there for. So listen to what he says. He says, now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God. Actually, it literally says the spirit of God. the Spirit of God, that we might know the things freely given to us. Actually, the word there is char, so it just, you know, means by grace. And he says, He says, we might know the things which are freely given by Charles to us by God. Which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. See where he's headed here? You've got to let the Spirit of God work in your life, not you work in your life. Because if you work in your life, well, you're going to get the limit of your own thinking. That's the point. If your thinking is at a high level, it's not at the level of God. I don't care how much you think it is. I don't care how high a level you think you're at. You're never high enough. And so he's saying, look, But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, because they are foolishness to him. Does everybody see what's, it's like this whole conversation with Abram, you know, or Abraham. I mean, it's, the average person looks at that and goes, what? And it's just, what's that all about? You know, I mean, who cares? Like, okay, whatever, you know? And by the way, this is what a lot of people do when they approach things in the spirit of God. He says, he says, because they're foolishness. He can't understand them because, and here's what I love, they are spiritually discerned, appraised, examined, whatever word you want to use to explain, that word, but it's the word that Jesus uses when it says, judge not lest you be judged. So it's that same idea. And he says, but he who is in the spirit appraises all things, yet he himself is not judged by any man or praised or examined by any man. Why? Because he's got a bigger examiner than men. That examiner is the Spirit of God, who of course is God. He's the third part of the Godhead. So when we look at this experience with Abraham, Abraham is basically just minding his own business and these three guys show up. And when they show up, they got a message for him because God wants him to know. And I believe God does this with every single one of us. And now as believers in Christ, because we have the spirit of God, God does it constantly. And that's why I believe that all prayer is initiated by the spirit of God. I just do. Because at the end of the day, it's the only brain that matters. My brain is great, fantastic, works beautiful, does its thing and so forth, but I gotta tell you, it's limited. Dude, I can't hardly remember my wife's name anymore. I mean, it's crazy. Who are you? Who are you? Yeah, yeah, right. Yeah, I mean, it is insane how limited and how short our mind is. It just is. I'm sorry. And I wish it wasn't. If you don't think your mind is short, think about all the stuff you forget. Yeah, I mean really. Think about how many things you forget. I mean, I'll give you a really great example. I'm watching the golf tournament the other day and How many times have these guys had these shots? Thousands, millions, I don't know, whatever. And the guy looks at his caddy and he goes, I don't know what to do. I heard him say it, he's like, I don't know what to do. And I'm thinking to myself, what do you mean you don't know what to do? If you don't know, who else would know what to do? You're at the top of the food chain here, buddy. But he was telling the truth. He didn't know what to do. Because his mind is limited. I don't care how much you know about it. It's limited. And at the end of the day, we are not the internet in our brain thinking that it knows everything. Even the internet doesn't know everything. The Spirit of God is beyond all that. It's bigger than that. It's bigger than all of this. And at the end, when I look at this, I go, wow, I've got the Spirit of God sitting inside of me, that God has put inside of me, and I don't take advantage of it. I just don't take advantage of it. I think I can do it. I think I'm capable. You know, I can do this shot. I can make this shot. I don't need the Lord to do this. I mean, we don't say those words, but our actions are much stronger than what we say. So we see this picture of Abraham and God just wants him to know And that's the picture that we get for us. God just wants us to know. He wants us to know. Good. Okay. That's good. That's good. But at the end of the day, all of it's in Luke 8. Really? Interesting. Okay. Cause that's right in the middle of the parable. it is given for you to know. He's talking to the apostles, the disciples, and he's saying it is given for you to know what is the mysteries of the kingdom. Right, okay, that would make sense. It's funny because I'm teaching Luke 8 Sunday. I was just finishing it. I think it's interesting that Abraham is trying to understand God's character. Where do you draw the line? Do you spare anyone who's righteous, or if they're just in the wrong place, if they're wrong, he doesn't come out and just ask what he wants to know. When you destroy this, when you take away the righteous people that are mixed in, that's what he wants to know. He's trying to figure out, where do you, how do you, so for us, when we read this story, it tells us that we don't have to worry about being in a world of the city of sin. If we're righteous, he's not going to wipe out the whole place, right? He's going to take you out before he does. But on the flip side of that, is what I think justice is what justice really is, right? He just wants to know God's character. But on the flip side of that, from a different perspective, it could have been that 10 people can influence the whole city. God only needs one person. to change things. And if 10 people was in that city that was trying to live right, that would have been enough to influence the whole city. So from my perspective, I could have looked at it that way. Because if Abraham could have found 10 righteous people, that's enough to change Sodom and Gomorrah. And it's the same way with us. If we live in a godly life, our godly life can influence the reigns around us. It can influence our children. It can influence three or four. Thank you, Don. I say it again, I love your teaching. Because in the beginning of this conversation, he said, why would I hire this from Abraham? I know Abraham gonna teach his children, children. That's the influence he saw Abraham have. So in the same sense, that's the influence he see us when we walking in the spirit. Because we can influence, by our relationship, bringing people to God. So your children, if you're a righteous and godly man, that can influence your son. You could be dead and gone and your son would be influenced by what you did. Tony Evans changed his whole perspective and his whole family. So from my perspective, that's another way that God, Abraham negotiated it. Would you destroy him for 10? If you find 10, is that enough? It's really Tony Evans' father. But that's the point I'm making. So if God would have found 10, that could have changed the whole city. So Abraham wasn't going to reduce it to the ridiculous. Just one man. He already knew what God was going to do. But on the other side of that, look at Lot. Lot had ten fillers. Lot did not have the influence. He was influenced by them instead of him. But he, Lot, where was he at? He was at the same place Abraham. When the strangers come, he was at the gate. When the three angels came, they came, Abraham saw them, he ran down there to them. Abraham influenced a lot. And I guess that expectation, not gonna carry it on because he saw it examined through Abraham. And so because he did not do it, that's where I agree. Well, that's just another perspective. So, go ahead. But does Abraham care about the people of the city or is it self-interest and he cares about his family that is in the city? I think in this particular context, it's about he cares about a lot, but I'm not sure that that's even really that big a deal, one way or the other. Well, he's basically toying with God again because he's not coming out and saying he really cares about his family, not whether it's 10 or 20 or... No, I think what he's trying to discover here is how does God work? I believe that's what the essence of this whole thing is about, Steve. There is no doubt that he cares more about Lott than he cares about the guy that wants to rape Lott's little son or something. What's in Lott's heart? Does he really care about the people of the city or does he only care about his own family that's in the city? It doesn't tell us. And again, I think it doesn't tell us because it doesn't matter. And at the end of the day, there is something that's really important here. And I want to end on this. God gives Abraham an opportunity to talk to him. And I love how Abraham treats that. He doesn't talk to God. He asks God. He asks God. So Jesus said, if you want to have a relationship with me, this is in the Sermon on the Mount, if you want to have a relationship with God, you've got to learn that it all begins with asking, seeking, and knocking. I want you to think about those three things. Asking, you don't know the information, that's why you want to get it. Seeking, you don't know the information, that's why you seek it. Knock, you don't know who's behind the door, that's why you knock. It's all about you don't know, but you want to know. And that's what this is really all about. God says, I want you to know. So Abraham does the right thing. Abraham asked some questions because he wants to know, because he knows he doesn't have the information. Yes, but his children are not. I'm sorry? Two of them. Well, that's true. At the end of the day, they're given the opportunity. Let's put it that way. They're given the opportunity. Justice is done. Well, whatever's done. I mean, God finishes the job. When we get into chapter 19 next week, I think it's gonna blow your mind, some of the things that, some of the parallels that can be drawn to the book of the revelations, really amazing. But it's, to me, all of this is about relationship. You want a relationship with God, it begins with asking God. It begins by seeking out what God has. That's why I love people that dig into the Word. It begins with knocking on the door and saying, hey, God, can you let me in here? Can I come in? Can I be part of this? I can say from my own experience, when I get to the point of my prayer where I stop telling God all about my concerns and my needs and things going on in my life, and I stop and I say, Lord, what do you have to say about all this? What do you want me to do? And that's when the magic happens for me. I stop talking and I start asking. What do you want? What do you want? I trust you. Here's what I'm thinking. I literally, Lord, this is what I'm going to do. I don't know if it's in your will or not, and I don't want to do it unless this is part of your plan. So I'm going to take steps towards this, but I am in an agile position. I will move. Just show me. Show me if this is wrong, push me in a different direction. And that's when the magic starts happening. I guess the word is submit. When you get to that point of submitting, for me anyway, when I get to that point of submitting, submitting is when I experience Him. I experience His presence. So let's end this on a red letter. Listen to what Jesus said. He said, ask and it shall be given to you. Seek and you shall find. knock and it shall be opened to you for everyone who asks receives and he who seeks finds and to him who knocks it shall be opened or what man is there among you when his son shall ask him for a loaf would give him a stone It's all about asking. It's all about having a conversation with the Lord. And it's not about asking like he's your personal genie. It's asking because you want to know what God wants. That's what the whole point of that is. You want to know how God works. That's all Abraham was doing. He just, God, how do you work? But how's this work? What, what's involved? What, you know, how can I, and, and then the other thing that I think is really cool about this is the way it ends. It says, and Abraham went to his place. He didn't go and try to execute the judgment of God. He went back to his own tent, let God do what God is going to do. And I think too often, we don't realize that that's our, go back to your place, be where you're supposed to be, be in the place that God wants you. Because if you're in that place, then everything else is gonna take care of it. God's gonna do what God's gonna do. You don't have to be the one that has to jump up and change the world. And it's kind of an interesting way. So anyhow, that's it for today. Good conversation, I appreciate you guys, it was good. And we'll, We'll finish, we'll keep on going next week. And we'll get into chapter 19. Father, thank you so much for your word. Bless your name. We just ask that you watch over our time in this weekend. And Lord, just allow us to come back on Sunday and worship you again. And we thank you so much for Jesus. We pray in his name.