In the sermon 'Pitching a Tent in the Shadow of Sodom' by Mike Davenport, the narrative of Lot from Genesis 19 is explored as a cautionary tale of self-destruction within a family. Lot, nephew of Abraham, is depicted as a righteous man tormented by the lawlessness of Sodom. The sermon outlines the gradual decline of Lot's family, emphasizing the dangers of isolating oneself from the spiritual community and succumbing to worldly desires. Lot's decision to dwell near Sodom is critiqued for its lack of spiritual consideration, highlighting the risks of carnal rationalization and constant dissatisfaction with worldly gains. The sermon urges listeners, particularly men as heads of households, to reflect on their spiritual duties and affections, warning against neglecting the spiritual nourishment and protection of their families. It stresses the importance of setting a godly example and maintaining a strong connection with the church. The sermon concludes by contrasting the divine visitations of Lot and Abraham, illustrating the divergent trajectories of their families, and calls for repentance and reliance on God's grace for those seeking to realign their family's spiritual path.

Genesis 19 beginning in verse 1. Now the two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them, and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground. And he said, Here now, my lords, please turn into your servant's house and spend the night and wash your feet. Then you may rise early and go on your way.

And they said, no, but we will spend the night in the open square. But he insisted strongly. So they turned into him and entered his house. Then he made them a feast and baked unleavened bread. And they ate.

And then these next verses we read of the wickedness of those men and what they sought to do. And they told lot that he was going to need to escape. And so we're going to skip down to verse 12 and pick up our reading there. Then the men said to Lot, have you anyone else here, son-in-law, your sons, your daughters, and whomever you have in the city, take them out of this place, for we will destroy this place because the outcry against them has grown great before the face of the Lord, and the Lord has sent us to destroy it." So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law who had married his daughters and said, get up, get out of this place for the Lord will destroy this city. But to his sons-in-law he seemed to be joking.

When the morning dawned, the angels urged Lot to hurry, saying, Arise, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the punishment of the city." And while he lingered, the men took hold of his hand, his wife's hand, in the hands of his two daughters, the Lord being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city. So it came to pass when they had brought them outside that he said, escape for your life. Do not look behind you nor stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains lest you be destroyed.' Then Lot said to them, Please, no my lords, indeed now your servant has found favor in your sight and you have increased your mercy which you have shown me by saving my life, but I cannot escape to the mountains lest some evil overtake me and I die. See now this this city is near enough to flee to and it is a little one.

Please let me escape there. Is it not a little one? And my soul shall live.' And he said to him, See, I have favored you concerning this thing also, in that I will not overthrow this city for which you have spoken. Hurry, escape there, for I cannot do anything until you arrive there. Therefore the name of the city was called Zohar.

The sun had risen upon the earth when Lot entered Zohar. Then the Lord rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah from the Lord out of the heavens. So he overthrew through those cities all the plain, all the inhabitants of the city and what grew on the ground. But his wife looked back behind him, and she became a pillar of salt. And then verse 30 and following, then Lot went up out of Zohar and dwelt in the mountains, and his two daughters were with him, for he was afraid to dwell in Zohar.

And he and his two daughters dwelt in a cave. Now the firstborn said to the younger, Our father is old, and there is no man on the earth to come into us as is the custom of all the earth. Come, let us make our Father drink wine and we will lie with him that we may preserve the lineage of our Father." So they made their Father drink wine that night and the firstborn went in and lay with her father and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose. It happened on the next day that the firstborn said to the younger, indeed I lay with my father last night, let us make him drink wine tonight also and you go in and lie with him that we may preserve the lineage of our father. Then they made their father drink wine that night also.

And the younger arose and lay with him and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose. Thus Both the daughters of Lot were with child by their father. Their firstborn bore a son and called his name Moab. He is the father of the Moabites to this day. And the younger, she also bore a son and called his name Ben-Ami.

He is the father of the people of Ammon to this day. Let's look to the Lord in prayer. Oh, gracious God, come write your word upon our heart. Oh, may we have deep humility. Give us eyes to see, and Lord, we ask that you would not leave us to ourselves, that you would come as you have promised to be in the presence where two or three are gathered.

And may your spirit move mightily among us. Help us to take seriously these words. We pray in Christ's name, amen. You may be seated. The name of this message, the title, is Pitching a Tent in the Shadow of Sodom.

Pitching a tent in the shadow of Sodom. And as we have seen from this text in Genesis 19, we have before us the sad account of the self-destruction of a family, the family of lot. It was self-destruction. They did not perish in the fire and brimstone that came down on Sodom and Gomorrah, but there was destruction in this family. This man Lot, he's the nephew of the patriarch Abraham, the nephew.

Lot is a man described as righteous by Peter in his second epistle, chapter two. A man whose very soul, we are told, was tormented by the lawlessness all around him. A man who was successful in the eyes of the world, sitting in the very gate of the city. The book of Genesis provides us a window into the life of this man through which we can witness how his family came to ruin. You see, ruin did not come to Lot's household overnight.

And ruin will most likely not come to your household overnight. It is usually slow and most often undetectable without much searching. In the early stages, it's almost like carbon monoxide. It's undetectable to the senses, slowly putting those in its presence under the power of the sleep of death. After all, do you really think that Lot expected to lose his family?

Did he expect it? Well, where did it all go wrong? How did they get to this point? Well, as we see this family walk down this path of self-destruction, we need to ask ourselves some serious, heart-searching questions. And you men, as leaders of your household, please understand that the responsibility rests squarely upon your shoulders.

Here are the questions that we will seek to consider in the time that is before us. First, where are you pitching your tent? Where are you pitching your tent? Second, who has the hearts of your family? Who has the hearts of your family?

Third, What duties are you neglecting? What duties are you neglecting? And fourth, what do you love most? What do you love most? So first of all, Where are you pitching your tent?

You see, we're quick to condemn Lot for dwelling in Sodom, but that's not where he started. In fact, Lot may have never intended to actually dwell in the city. After all, the Apostle Peter, as we saw, describes him as a righteous man. But in Sodom is where we find him here in chapter 19, right in the middle of Sodom. How did he wind up there?

Well, Genesis 13 sheds light on how that came to pass. Turn back a couple of pages to Genesis 13. If you remember, God had called Abraham out of the land of Ur of the Chaldees and told him to go to a land that he would give him. Along with Lot and his family and his servants, or along with Abraham, should I say, Lot came along, his nephew. But as they settle here, actually in the land that God's going to give them, We read this in verse 7, Genesis 13-7, and there was strife between the herdsmen of Abraham, or Abram's livestock, and the herdsmen of Lot's livestock.

The Canaanites and the Parasites then dwelt in the land. So Abraham said to Lot, please, let there be no strife between you and me and between my herdsmen and your herdsmen, for we are brethren. Is not the whole land before you? Please separate from me. If you take the left, then I will go to the right, or if you go to the right, then I will go to the left." And Lot lifted his eyes and saw all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt.

As you go toward Zor, then Lot chose for himself all the plain of Jordan. And Lot journeyed east, and they separated from each other. Abraham dwelt in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelt in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent even as far as Sodom. But the men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked and sinful against the Lord. Then Abram moved his tent and went and dwelt by the terribleth trees of Mamre, which are in Hebron, and built an altar there to the Lord." Well, as we consider to this question, where are you pitching your tent?

The first thing that I want you to note in this passage regarding the location of Lot's tent is the costly isolation. There was a costly isolation. You see, God's call was to Abraham. God's promise was to Abraham. God's blessing rested upon Abraham.

So when strife arose between the herdsmen of Abraham and the herdsmen of Lot, the outcome was to separate. And in this separation, Lot ends up isolating himself from the church of that time. Right? In the Greek, the word church is ekklesia, called out. Who's been called out?

Abraham. He's the called out ones. He is being separated from the world, sanctified to God. And so Lot ends up isolating himself from the church of that time. He walks away from the promised land and goes eastward.

Dear ones, the devil's desire is to isolate. He seeks to isolate people, sheep, from the shepherds and from the other sheep. He seeks to do that. Those who are isolated are easier prey for a lion or a wolf who seeks to devour them. Men, are you purposefully or maybe inadvertently isolating your family, separating them from the life of the church.

Are you becoming isolated? If you are, then be assured that you are teaching your family by your actions that one can be a part of the head, Jesus Christ, and yet not be attached to his body, the church. You are teaching them that the church is not needed. The cities of man, they're crucial to life, but the church is optional. That the church cannot meet the needs of this life.

And in such isolation, our families are cut off from the means of grace. They are cut off from the gifts of the body. They are cut off from the fellowship of the saints. They are cut off from the watchfulness of the under shepherds. And they're cut off from the fellowship of Christ which he engages as the head with his body.

We read that verse at the beginning where two or three are gathered in my name there I am in the midst of them not where you are gathered by yourself on the mountainside enjoying maybe even reading your Bible, looking out across nature. So the first thing that we see here is a costly isolation. The second thing to note here regarding the location of Lot's tent is the carnal rationalization. The carnal rationalization. You see, Lot did not seem to take into consideration when Abraham said, choose this lands before us.

He did not seem to take into consideration the will of the Lord or the welfare of his family when making his decision. He simply lifted up his eyes upon the landscape, noted the abundance of the land towards the east, and made his choice accordingly. No prayer to Jehovah, No consideration of what was best for his uncle Abraham, who was older. No dear, no due fear of the influence of Sodom, which was nearby. No consideration of the impact of this move upon his family.

He chose the ease of life and the attractive prosperity over the less desired desert area. That was Lot. What was the response of Abraham? He took the less desirable place, set up his tent, but in that place he built an altar there to the Lord. Important words.

Men, your children are watching you as you make decisions in this life. And by watching you, they are being discipled to either lift their eyes to the planes around them, or they're being discipled to lift their eyes to Jehovah. Which is it? Walk about your house and identify all the goods, all the things you own in your house. Do those things draw your heart and the hearts of your family after Babylon, after Sodom, or do they draw their hearts after God?

Are we feeding on the best this world has to offer or are we feeding on the living Word of God? Is there, like Abraham, an altar to God in the midst of your home, a place and a time for family worship. That's the altar of today, not some stones stacked one upon another. It's where you as a family gather together and are able to put everything else aside for a few moments together and there worship and serve the Lord. You see, in our homes, by our words and by our conduct, by what we set up and what we allow, we are instructing and educating our families.

And we're declaring what's important to us. We are informing the minds of our children. We are solidifying in their consciences principles and habits. We are instructing and governing not only with our words but with our actions. And what we teach is shaping within their very hearts the means that they will employ in all of their decision-making throughout the rest of their lives.

There was carnal rationalization occurring in regard to where this tent was pitched. Now the third thing regarding the location of Lot's tent is the constant dissatisfaction. There was constant dissatisfaction. See, Lot dwelt in the cities of the plain, but that was not satisfactory. So he pitched his tent, the text says, even as far as Sodom.

There seemed to be a gradual moving. And by the time we arrive at chapter 19, we find Lot living in a house in the middle of Sodom. One has once said that sin will take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and it will cost you more than you want to pay. A lot lived this out. Sin took him maybe farther than he ever intended.

And dear ones, it cost him more than he ever would have wanted to pay. Are we teaching our children that the pleasures of sin last only for a season, That they, these sins, will not bring satisfaction are we by our words and actions proclaiming that in God's presence is fullness of joy, that at His right hand are pleasures forevermore. Do not fool yourselves. If you are giving your children even the smallest morsels of this world. You are creating a growing appetite for more because there's no satisfaction to be found in these things.

They're quickly consumed and we're hungrier than we were before. We want more and more. Today, Maybe they are next door to Abraham, as was Lot, dwelling in the plains. But it's only a matter of time before they are dwelling in Sodom. And don't shrug that off as too great an impossibility for your kids.

Remember, Lot was a righteous man. Where are you pitching your tent? Where you are pitching your tent is discipling your children to either love God or to love the world, to seek the kingdom of God, or to seek their own kingdoms, to desire to serve, or to desire a life of ease, to build altars to Jehovah, or build altars to their own pleasure. Well, the second question that arises from a consideration of the ruin of Lot's family is who has the hearts of your family? Who has the hearts of your family?

Solomon says in Proverbs 23, 26, my son give me your heart and let your eyes observe my ways. You see this is what a man of God does, a man who is serious about the discipling of his wife and children. He seeks after their hearts. He understands the importance of and desires therefore to win their hearts. And as Solomon says, let your eyes observe my ways, he wants his family to imitate him.

So Paul told the churches, imitate me as I imitate Christ. It's what a godly man wants for his family. He wants their hearts, and he wants to live a life that's worthy of imitation. You see, where the heart goes, the mind, the will, and the emotions follow. Christ made that clear in Matthew 5, where your heart is found, there in that same place, your treasure will be found.

And whatever it is that you treasure, it will demand the totality of your mind, of your will, of your emotions, and of your affections. It will demand it because your heart's been set on it. We should desire, men, the hearts of our wife and our children in order to set them heavenward, pointing them to Christ. Yet far too often fathers end up losing the hearts of their family. Or if they do gain their hearts, they inadvertently set them on the things of this world.

In Genesis 19, we see the hearts of Lot's family set on everything earthly and nothing heavenward. Their affections were devoid of anything good, anything wholesome. Men, are you aware of the battle for the heart of your wife and the hearts of your children? It's a battle. It's a battle.

Stephen McElpine, a pastor and church planter in Perth, Australia, posted the following on his blog back in May 2015. Quote, If we assume neutral culture, then we assume we can get involved in and play with culture without getting infected by it. That we can remain distinct from it, undrawn to its more sickly parts and more than capable of knowing when to say no to culture's soft focus, slow motion, beckoning, and degenerate join us, join us plea. Simply put, we assume that we can have more impact on culture than it can have on us. That is dangerously naive thinking.

Jesus never said the culture will misunderstand you. He said the world will hate you." End quote. You see, our culture is not neutral. We just spent a week talking about how to navigate the cultural chaos at this conference. It's not neutral.

It is aggressive and this culture is seeking the hearts of everyone in our family. Everyone. The world is constantly at the gate of our home with various Trojan horses full of all sorts of mischief. It is seeking to infiltrate our homes in order to steal the hearts of our family. And it's often doing so right under our noses without the slightest response from us.

This is the way it's been since the beginning of the world. You see, Satan sought to bring mankind down. And what did he do? He went after Eve. He went after Eve.

And if you read the text, if you read the verse, the fact that she ate and then turned to her husband and gave him to eat, tells you the proximity most likely of Adam. She ate and she turned to him and gave him to eat and Adam stood by and did absolutely Nothing. Nothing. Men, are you preoccupied with your own affairs? It can happen.

It happens to me. I get preoccupied. We must not be standing by while Satan infiltrates our house. Paul declared that we are not ignorant of Satan's devices. But he was writing to a church in that generation.

Would he be able to say that of you, my brother, my sister, that you're not ignorant of Satan's devices? Men were in a battle, and there is more at stake than just our souls. As this sad narrative declares fully and so vividly that the soul of each and every family member is at stake. All the souls under our watch care. Dad, who has the hearts of your family?

Third question that we are forced to deal with is this. What duties are you neglecting? What duties are you neglecting?" Lot was a successful man. He had so much of this world's goods that he could not even dwell together with Abraham. The land was not able to support them both.

Lot was an important man. Not only was he successful, he was an important man. He sat in the gate of the city, most likely as a judge or some city official. But we discover in this text that his family was in ruins, heading down a path of destruction. You see men, we can be considered successful, we can be considered important, and yet be neglecting our duties as fathers.

How is it that you measure your success? Is it possible that you are successful in the eyes of this world, among those on the job site, and yet at the same time failing, failing in the things God has called you to do. In the last day, we will give an account to God. So here are a few questions under the question, what duties are you neglecting? Here are a few questions in light of these duties seen in our passage.

First, Are you providing your wife and children spiritual sustenance? Are you providing them spiritual sustenance? Lot's dwelling place was highlighted, What we read about, it was highlighted by its proximity to Sodom, even as far as Sodom. And then we find him in the city. It was highlighted by that.

Abraham's dwelling place, On the other hand, was highlighted by his proximity to Jehovah. He built an altar there. He built an altar there. Everywhere we see Abraham go, one of the first things he does is he builds an altar to his God. Men, we are to be discipling our children in the fear and admonition of the Lord and teaching them the law of our God when we sit in our homes, when we walk by the way, when we lie down and when we rise up.

Christ said that man shall not live by bread alone. You've heard the phrase, I bring home the bacon, Right? I'm the bread winner in the family. Well, Jesus said, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Are you providing your families with something more than bread on the table?

Or is your family spiritually malnourished? Is there an altar in your house, a place, a time, a pattern of worshipping Jehovah? Let me state it clearly, if there is no family altar or if it is extremely and extremely inconsistent, note the word extremely. I know we can have sensitivity in our conscience to thing, but if it's extremely inconsistent or not there at all, my suspicions are that your tent is moving ever closer to Sodom. Another question under this heading of duties, Are you providing your wife and children spiritual protection?

Are you providing them spiritual protection? You see, the angels charged Lot with the warning and safekeeping of all who he had in the city, sons-in-law, sons, daughters. The angels commanded Lot, take them out of this place. You see, from heaven's perspective, it was Lot's duty as a father. The angel didn't say, gather them all here so I can deliver this message.

Lot, Lot, who do you have here? It's your duty, man. Get them out of this place. It was his duty to spare his family from the judgment of God that was coming. If we had been able to read all of Genesis 19, You will recall what happened there at Lot's house when the men of the city gathered round.

Lot had failed to provide physical protection to his daughters, offering them as an exchange for the well-being of the angelic guests who had come under his roof. And does not your fatherly love and care bristle at the fact that Lot was so ready to place his daughters in such an awful predicament. And yet I propose to you that his sin of leaving them spiritually unprotected was far greater. Far greater. How is that not the greater sin when we fail to protect our children all the time knowing that Satan desires their destruction, that he is trying to allure them away from any godly influences, that he is trying to increase their appetites for the things of this world.

How is it not the greater sin to leave them more spiritually unprotected than physically when it involves more than the brevity of this fleeting life? It involves eternity when it involves not simply the body, but it involves the soul. If what Lot had proposed had been carried out, His daughters may have lost their lives, but dear ones, I'm afraid they lost their souls. They lost their souls. Men, our families need the gospel of Christ to prepare them for the life to come.

We also need to provide spiritual protection from the press of the world that is seeking to mold our families into the systems of Babylon and Sodom. How are you? How are you? Maybe I need to ask, are you? But I'm hoping that you are, and I can ask the question, how are you protecting your children in the areas of literature, TV and video, recreation, companionships, relationships, social media, music, internet.

Let me put it bluntly, but with loving concern. If you don't have a clue or are not being deliberate in each of these areas to provide protection, you're not protecting your children. You're not protecting them. The failure of Lot to provide this spiritual protection to his daughters caused the depraved planning at the end of chapter 19 that led to such immoral perversion. He left them unprotected.

The next question as we consider these duties, are we neglecting any duties? Are you taking the Word of God seriously? Are you taking the Word of God seriously? We are told that it was the sheer mercy of God that the angels he sent took Lot and his family by their hands and brought them out of the city and told them again to escape for their lives. You see, Lot had been commanded to take them out.

Lot had been the one who was told to tell them to escape. But what do we find? The angels having to take his family out by hand. The angels having to deliver the message to them. Because what did he do?

He lingered. He lingered. Are you neglecting the duties God has given you? Are you failing to respond or maybe intending to respond, but dragging your feet? Are you lingering?

Are you lingering? This message comes to you as a plea to remove your families away from the shadows of present-day Sodom. But my fear is that though impressed with the necessity of maybe what's being preached this morning, my fear is that you may linger, that I may linger. That I may linger. And please note, we see what the angels did and how it's described here that it was the mercy of God.

But there's no promise that the Lord will be as merciful with us as he was with life. Fathers, if we fail here, we can't assume God's going to send angels to grab our families and bring them to safety. In fact, Genesis 19, 29 makes it evident that it was the intercession of righteous Abraham that moved God to rescue Lot from the judgment coming upon Sodom. It was intercessory prayer on his behalf that moved God to act as he did. Are you taking the Word of God seriously?

If you are, you will be men of action. You won't be mere hearers of the word. You'll be doers of the word. And you will not simply draw near to God with the lips, but your hearts will draw near to him. What duties are you neglecting, men?

What duties? We come now to the fourth and final question. What do you love most? What do you love most? John MacArthur in his book, Being a Dad Who Leads, states the following, quote, parenting is first and foremost a spiritual task, one in which, speaking of the dad, personal righteousness, personal self-control, and personal mortification of our own flesh are all necessary prerequisites to proper discipline and instruction of our children.

In short, he says, the only way to be a dad who leads well is to be a dad who lives well, end quote. So how is it with you dads? Are you living well? Where is your heart? What do you love?

Because if you're not living well, you won't lead well. If your heart is not set on Christ, how can you guide the hearts of your children there? Our children are most likely not going to love something that we don't love. You see, when Lot approached his sons-in-law with the Word of God, they did not take him seriously. They thought he was joking.

And I submit to you that it must have been partly due to what they had seen in Lot's life, or maybe, better put, what they did not see in Lot's life. It's my fear that we are not worshiping God or may not be worshiping God in our families because our hearts, dads, are preoccupied with a love for something other than our Savior. And that love for that idol strangles any attempt at leading our families. You see our consciences scream out at us and we either draw back from a lack of love to Christ or we Just go through the motions with little or no heart, and our families sense the hypocrisy. Man, does your life promote the gospel as loud as your words?

Are you discipling your wife and children heavenward? You see, we cannot change their hearts. We can't do that. Only Christ can change their hearts. But what is within the scope of our abilities and duty is to promote the gospel of our Savior in word and in deed.

To command our children in the ways of the Lord as Abraham did, that they may keep his ways in order to do what is righteous and just, to instruct them out of his word. But if you remember, Christ urged his disciples to remember Lot's wife. Well, I urge you today to also remember his daughters, remember his sons-in-law. And for the sake of our children and before a watching world and a watching church, We must be willing to be thought radical or extreme for our God. In the eyes of our God, it's not that radical.

It's simply what He asks us to do. But are we willing to seem radical, even in a church? We must be radical in our commitment to Christ. We must be radical in our view of His law. We must be radical in our worship, radical in our marriage, radical in our labor for Christ's kingdom.

Well in closing, I would like to draw your attention to the stark contrasts of divine visitations. Of divine visitations. In chapter 18 of Genesis, we read of Christ along with two angels visiting the home of Abraham. You remember that story, don't you children? Christ and these two angels visiting Abraham.

Sarah's making the meal in the tent for these visitors, and God's giving a promise to Abraham. What's that promise? That Sarah would have a child, a baby. That's right. What a visitation.

What a message from the mouth of Christ, Christ himself giving him such words as this. Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you according to the time of life and Sarah shall have a son." Christ also said this, Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing? He's talking about getting ready to send the angels to Sodom. Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing?

Since Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him, For I have known him in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they may keep the way of the Lord, to do righteousness and justice, that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has spoken to him." What a visitation! We know the blessedness of that visitation today. Any of us who know and believe the Lord Jesus Christ, We know the blessedness of that visitation today. Any of us who know and believe the Lord Jesus Christ, we know the blessedness of that visitation. But how about the divine visitation to Lot that occurred next?

The first thing to note is that Christ does not join these two angelic beings. Christ remains with Abraham. Lot is simply visited by the angels, but Christ, he's conspicuously absent. You see, God's promise of an heir for Abraham is given in the context of the pregnancy of Sarah, whose body is almost 90 when this promise is made, past the age of bearing children. But how about for Lot?

No such promise. The visitation is not for the purpose of promise, It's for the rescue of their very own persons. Devoid of any hope, Lot's daughters devise a plan for bringing about the continuance of the family line. You see in this contrast. Springing from these visitations came forth heirs to both.

There were heirs to both based on these visitations. For Abraham, an heir according to the promise, for Lot, heirs born out of incestuous acts. Springing from these two visitations came forth incredible providence in the lives of their wives. To Abraham, a wife who became a pillar in the lineage of the Messiah. To Lot's wife, she became a pillar of salt.

Springing from these two visitations came forth a trajectory of two families to Abraham, a family that would prove a blessing to all nations. It's a lot. A family that would prove to be a thorn in the side of God's people for generations to come. Men, what sort of visitation from Christ are you desirous of receiving? What's the trajectory of your family?

If you have been convicted on some level as I have been, I have good news. There's grace. There's grace. There's forgiveness. There is cleansing for all who will confess their sins.

You are not without hope. Do not, do not wallow in dismay and doubt. Go to Christ. God can restore the days, the weeks, the months, the years at the Locust of Eden. May God give us grace to raise up families that will prove to be a blessing to the church and to the world.

May God make us faithful. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your goodness to us. We thank you, O Lord, for your word. Lord, help us to learn from this sad example of lot.

Lord, spare us from in any way setting an atmosphere that will be to the destruction of our families. Lord, may we follow Your Word in doing all that we can for our families and leave the results in your hands. Or that you would establish the work of our hands. And may your grace, your mercy, your promise come down to our children. May they know your power, your strength in saving.

We pray in Christ's name, amen.