1 00:00:00,360 --> 00:00:03,000 I'm glad to be back. I hope you're glad we're back. 2 00:00:03,360 --> 00:00:05,200 It's good to be back with your worshiping with you. 3 00:00:05,200 --> 00:00:08,680 We've missed you all the past couple of weeks and very, very 4 00:00:08,680 --> 00:00:12,400 glad to be here. I'm picking up just where we 5 00:00:12,400 --> 00:00:14,640 left off before I went on vacation. 6 00:00:14,640 --> 00:00:19,600 And and I tell you what, I did a lot of resting and relaxing 7 00:00:19,600 --> 00:00:22,520 these past two weeks. So my brain might be a little 8 00:00:22,520 --> 00:00:25,480 off today. Just going to say that right up 9 00:00:25,480 --> 00:00:28,880 front, you probably noticed that when I used the term 10 00:00:28,880 --> 00:00:33,280 photoelectric cell with the four year olds that perhaps Blevins 11 00:00:33,280 --> 00:00:38,000 is not thinking straight. Today we're picking up back with 12 00:00:38,000 --> 00:00:40,120 the story of Sodom, Sodom and Gomorrah. 13 00:00:40,120 --> 00:00:44,640 But but short, just referencing Sodom to refer to that whole 14 00:00:44,640 --> 00:00:48,720 region. We looked a couple weeks ago and 15 00:00:48,760 --> 00:00:52,360 and we saw. Well, before I get into that, 16 00:00:52,480 --> 00:00:54,640 I'm getting out of order. See my brains off. 17 00:00:54,640 --> 00:00:57,160 Told you my brain is off. Does anyone mind? 18 00:00:57,360 --> 00:01:00,920 I've done math today? Poorly, but I've done math. 19 00:01:00,920 --> 00:01:03,600 Anyone mind if we do a little science today? 20 00:01:04,080 --> 00:01:05,680 Science. OK with everybody. 21 00:01:05,760 --> 00:01:06,920 Where is that? All right and all right. 22 00:01:07,200 --> 00:01:08,200 OK. All right. 23 00:01:08,360 --> 00:01:11,000 We'll wait and see. I understand the attitude there. 24 00:01:11,320 --> 00:01:13,960 Just give it a shot, Blevins. We'll let you know how it goes. 25 00:01:14,240 --> 00:01:17,200 Has anyone ever heard of the Tunguska event? 26 00:01:17,840 --> 00:01:24,000 Anyone ever heard of that? Yes, yes. 50 points for Steven 27 00:01:24,240 --> 00:01:27,120 upfront. You can redeem those later at 28 00:01:27,120 --> 00:01:32,280 the tree trail that allows you to clean up two extra tents at 29 00:01:32,280 --> 00:01:36,640 the end. Absolutely, absolutely. 30 00:01:36,960 --> 00:01:40,040 The Teguska event, for those of you who have not heard of that 31 00:01:40,040 --> 00:01:46,520 before, in 19 O 8, to be precise, at 7:17 AM local time 32 00:01:47,080 --> 00:01:52,760 on June 30th, 19 O 8, near the Tunguska River in Siberia, a 33 00:01:52,760 --> 00:01:59,320 meteor exploded 3 to 6 miles above the earth and it 34 00:01:59,320 --> 00:02:07,080 devastated an area roughly 770 square miles, wiped it out. 35 00:02:07,880 --> 00:02:11,840 By way of reference, Meigs County is about 350 square 36 00:02:11,840 --> 00:02:14,840 miles. So it's maybe. 37 00:02:14,840 --> 00:02:17,560 No, actually, I think Meigs County is about 450 square miles 38 00:02:17,560 --> 00:02:19,080 Because it was. Yeah. 39 00:02:19,080 --> 00:02:23,280 So anyway, bigger than Meigs County, just flattened. 40 00:02:24,240 --> 00:02:28,320 Flattened. Scientists speculate that the 41 00:02:28,320 --> 00:02:34,160 meteor was 100 to 200 feet wide. So big, but not like, you know, 42 00:02:34,920 --> 00:02:37,880 earth shatteringly big. Yeah, we've had some of those 43 00:02:37,880 --> 00:02:40,000 hit in the past, literally that did mass. 44 00:02:40,000 --> 00:02:41,360 And this one didn't even hit the earth. 45 00:02:41,560 --> 00:02:43,640 It exploded 3 to 600 miles above. 46 00:02:44,000 --> 00:02:50,960 It released the destructive force roughly to 500 to 1000 47 00:02:50,960 --> 00:02:54,760 times greater than the atomic bomb dropped on Nagas or on 48 00:02:54,760 --> 00:03:00,280 Hiroshima. People hundreds of miles away 49 00:03:00,280 --> 00:03:06,160 felt the ground shake. People 500 miles away saw the 50 00:03:06,160 --> 00:03:09,600 light flash in the sky. That's like an explosion 51 00:03:09,600 --> 00:03:13,120 happening above Atlanta. That's big enough for us to see 52 00:03:13,120 --> 00:03:16,960 here. Hundreds of miles away, people. 53 00:03:17,040 --> 00:03:20,400 The earth shook so badly, people were knocked off their feet. 54 00:03:21,560 --> 00:03:26,640 Now, because of the remoteness of the area then we don't know 55 00:03:26,640 --> 00:03:29,240 for sure. It wasn't for about another 20 56 00:03:29,240 --> 00:03:32,200 years before scientists actually went to investigate. 57 00:03:32,200 --> 00:03:34,400 There were other things happening in Russia at the time 58 00:03:34,640 --> 00:03:36,880 that people were giving more attention to. 59 00:03:36,880 --> 00:03:40,760 But when they finally did go investigate, what they found was 60 00:03:40,760 --> 00:03:44,800 that the trees in a circular area was all forested, very 61 00:03:44,800 --> 00:03:47,120 remote. They don't think any human lives 62 00:03:47,120 --> 00:03:48,840 were lost because it was so remote. 63 00:03:49,000 --> 00:03:53,480 However, reindeer were killed. So probably a bad year for 64 00:03:53,480 --> 00:03:58,120 Christmas that year. Just saying I thought that was 65 00:03:58,120 --> 00:04:01,120 funnier than that. But you know, been on vacation 66 00:04:01,120 --> 00:04:09,000 for a while. Trees were blown out in straight 67 00:04:09,000 --> 00:04:15,000 lines, like spokes from a wheel. Except for the area right above 68 00:04:15,000 --> 00:04:18,880 the explosion where the trees were still standing but they've 69 00:04:18,880 --> 00:04:21,079 been stripped of their bark and scorched. 70 00:04:23,040 --> 00:04:27,640 There's a massive explosion that wiped out a massive area of land 71 00:04:27,640 --> 00:04:31,440 only by the grace of God that no one was killed as far as we 72 00:04:31,440 --> 00:04:34,520 know. Now here's an interesting thing, 73 00:04:34,880 --> 00:04:37,520 and I've talked several times as we've been doing our walk 74 00:04:37,520 --> 00:04:41,160 through the Bible, starting with very back the creation story in 75 00:04:41,160 --> 00:04:45,560 Genesis one and two, that that sometimes in the Bible, it's OK. 76 00:04:45,680 --> 00:04:49,320 We don't know for sure what's what's history, what's what's 77 00:04:49,320 --> 00:04:53,960 story, what's parable and, and, and, and it's, we don't, it's 78 00:04:53,960 --> 00:04:56,120 not necessary to fight over those things. 79 00:04:56,680 --> 00:04:59,000 You know, if you want to believe things are literal, historical, 80 00:04:59,000 --> 00:05:02,000 if you want to see them more as a parable to teach us lessons 81 00:05:02,000 --> 00:05:04,960 about life, that's great. This story of Sodom and 82 00:05:04,960 --> 00:05:11,320 Gomorrah, interestingly or or maybe terrifyingly, as we think 83 00:05:11,320 --> 00:05:15,160 about the possibility of it being a historical reality and 84 00:05:15,160 --> 00:05:19,200 not simply a story, that there are some scientists, some 85 00:05:19,200 --> 00:05:23,480 archaeologists that believe a similar event may have been what 86 00:05:23,480 --> 00:05:27,680 God used to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah and that whole region. 87 00:05:29,000 --> 00:05:30,280 And there's some evidence for that. 88 00:05:30,440 --> 00:05:34,280 It's by no means conclusive and it's by no means true that all 89 00:05:34,280 --> 00:05:38,560 or even most biblical scholars believe it, that this is how it 90 00:05:38,560 --> 00:05:43,280 happened. But the Tal Al Haman air burst 91 00:05:43,880 --> 00:05:47,720 there was a region we should. I should also say that nobody 92 00:05:47,720 --> 00:05:49,760 knows for sure where Sodom and Gomorrah were. 93 00:05:49,880 --> 00:05:53,760 There is no conclusive evidence as to exactly where they were. 94 00:05:54,000 --> 00:05:58,240 But there is a place in the Jordan Valley near the Dead Sea 95 00:05:58,480 --> 00:06:06,200 called Tal Al Haman and around 16150 BC there was apparently a 96 00:06:06,200 --> 00:06:09,800 high temperature air burst from a meteor that exploded above 97 00:06:09,800 --> 00:06:12,640 that area. Some of the evidence that exists 98 00:06:12,640 --> 00:06:16,280 is shocked quartz and melted pottery that were indicate 99 00:06:16,280 --> 00:06:18,800 extreme heat. High levels of platinum and 100 00:06:18,800 --> 00:06:21,640 Iridium elements commonly found in meteorites. 101 00:06:21,880 --> 00:06:25,120 A sudden layer of destruction across the wide area. 102 00:06:25,120 --> 00:06:29,320 Mud brick walls blown outward, buildings leveled, high salinity 103 00:06:29,520 --> 00:06:32,720 and chemical changes in the soil, possibly explaining the 104 00:06:32,720 --> 00:06:38,160 barren area near the Dead Sea. An explosion which may have 105 00:06:38,280 --> 00:06:41,600 reached temperatures over 2000°C. 106 00:06:41,840 --> 00:06:44,120 For those of you who are like me, and that doesn't mean 107 00:06:44,120 --> 00:06:50,360 anything, 3600°F. That's a lot of heat. 108 00:06:51,720 --> 00:06:57,920 A city sized firestorm. A region sized firestorm that 109 00:06:57,920 --> 00:07:02,920 people observing from afterwards might legitimately describe as 110 00:07:02,920 --> 00:07:05,000 fire and brimstone raining from heaven. 111 00:07:08,720 --> 00:07:13,640 Massive death, massive destruction, all in an instant. 112 00:07:14,880 --> 00:07:21,120 And whether you know, God did that as some sort of miraculous 113 00:07:21,120 --> 00:07:25,080 thing in terms of just creating fire and brimstone out of thin 114 00:07:25,080 --> 00:07:29,440 air like Jesus turned water into wine, or or or multiplied loaves 115 00:07:29,440 --> 00:07:31,960 and fishes. Or whether God directed a meteor 116 00:07:32,320 --> 00:07:34,960 of just the right size to that time and place. 117 00:07:35,320 --> 00:07:41,760 Massive destruction, changing the landscape, obliterating life 118 00:07:41,760 --> 00:07:45,760 so thoroughly that no one even knows for sure where the city of 119 00:07:45,760 --> 00:07:51,520 Sodom and Gomorrah was. This is what was coming. 120 00:07:52,320 --> 00:07:55,880 And this is what God told Abraham was coming to Sodom. 121 00:07:55,880 --> 00:07:58,000 He said, I'm going to tell Abraham. 122 00:07:59,280 --> 00:08:02,640 Abraham's descendants are going to be a great nation, and 123 00:08:02,640 --> 00:08:05,440 through them all the earth will be blessed. 124 00:08:05,680 --> 00:08:09,320 But God wanted Abraham to know and God was, was pretty clear in 125 00:08:09,320 --> 00:08:15,920 that statement that that Abraham and his descendants will be a 126 00:08:15,920 --> 00:08:18,480 great nation through whom all the world is blessed to the 127 00:08:18,480 --> 00:08:20,920 extent that they are following God's way. 128 00:08:23,520 --> 00:08:26,240 And God was giving them a picture of what can happen when 129 00:08:26,400 --> 00:08:29,360 we don't follow God's way. Now, let's be clear. 130 00:08:29,600 --> 00:08:32,280 And I got to say this again, said this three weeks ago. 131 00:08:32,280 --> 00:08:34,880 I'm just going to say it today. I'm not going to spend the whole 132 00:08:34,880 --> 00:08:38,120 sermon on it like I did then. What exactly the sin of Sodom 133 00:08:38,120 --> 00:08:42,120 was how they got off track to such a degree that God LED them 134 00:08:42,120 --> 00:08:44,800 to be destroyed. The Bible says very clearly and 135 00:08:44,800 --> 00:08:48,680 very explicitly in the book of Ezekiel, this was the guilt of 136 00:08:48,680 --> 00:08:51,840 your sister Sodom. She and her daughters had pride, 137 00:08:52,280 --> 00:08:57,080 excessive food and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor 138 00:08:57,080 --> 00:08:59,400 and the needy. They were haughty and did 139 00:08:59,400 --> 00:09:03,560 abominable things before me. Therefore I removed them when I 140 00:09:03,560 --> 00:09:07,240 saw it. The real sin of Sodom was that 141 00:09:07,240 --> 00:09:10,440 they were prosperous and arrogantly cold hearted. 142 00:09:10,840 --> 00:09:15,520 They had drifted out of God's way of love and compassion and 143 00:09:15,520 --> 00:09:19,160 justice and concern for the poor and the vulnerable in the world 144 00:09:19,160 --> 00:09:21,800 around them so thoroughly that God wiped them out. 145 00:09:22,360 --> 00:09:24,560 What was Abraham's response to this? 146 00:09:25,160 --> 00:09:28,360 God told Abraham in advance, this is what going down, going 147 00:09:28,360 --> 00:09:31,360 to look for my for myself, going to check things out on the 148 00:09:31,360 --> 00:09:35,920 ground before before issuing the final judgment and the final 149 00:09:35,920 --> 00:09:39,920 punishment. And and Abraham's response I 150 00:09:39,920 --> 00:09:45,240 find fascinating. It it is perfect. 151 00:09:45,240 --> 00:09:48,600 We don't know for sure, but it's perfectly reasonable to assume 152 00:09:48,840 --> 00:09:52,560 that Abraham knew what life was like in Sodom and in that region 153 00:09:52,560 --> 00:09:56,320 down there. If you remember, his nephew Lot 154 00:09:56,320 --> 00:10:01,400 had moved down there and and Sodom and a few other kingdoms 155 00:10:01,400 --> 00:10:05,440 in the area had rebelled against a larger king that ruled over 156 00:10:05,440 --> 00:10:07,640 them. And the larger king crushed the 157 00:10:07,640 --> 00:10:10,920 rebellion and took a lot and all of the other people and the 158 00:10:10,920 --> 00:10:13,120 wealth of Sodom and Gomorrah away. 159 00:10:13,400 --> 00:10:17,320 And Abram went and defeated that other king and brought back the 160 00:10:17,320 --> 00:10:19,920 people and the wealth. And when the king of Sodom tried 161 00:10:19,920 --> 00:10:22,800 to give that wealth to Abraham, or a portion of it, Abraham 162 00:10:22,800 --> 00:10:25,280 said, no one's ever going to say that you made me rich. 163 00:10:27,120 --> 00:10:30,800 Abraham knew what they were. Abraham knew what was happening 164 00:10:30,800 --> 00:10:33,680 down there. And Abraham did not want to be 165 00:10:33,680 --> 00:10:40,840 in debt to Sodom. It's reasonable to know, a 166 00:10:40,840 --> 00:10:44,680 reasonable to believe that Abraham knew what life was like 167 00:10:44,680 --> 00:10:49,400 down there, of how bad things were and how bad things had 168 00:10:49,400 --> 00:10:52,800 gotten. Almost certainly he had ongoing 169 00:10:52,800 --> 00:10:55,760 contact with his nephew, Lot and their family. 170 00:10:55,760 --> 00:10:58,720 He knew, he knew what was going on. 171 00:11:01,560 --> 00:11:06,920 But his response to what was happening, his response was not 172 00:11:06,920 --> 00:11:11,560 to gloat, was not to celebrate, was not to sit all those dirty, 173 00:11:11,560 --> 00:11:13,760 rotten, awful people. They're finally going to get 174 00:11:13,760 --> 00:11:19,520 their comeuppance. His response was to plead for 175 00:11:19,520 --> 00:11:24,720 the people of Sodom not to celebrate their destruction, but 176 00:11:24,720 --> 00:11:29,320 to plead for them. I have heard it said, and it was 177 00:11:29,320 --> 00:11:32,000 said not unkindly. I think it was said to me by a 178 00:11:32,000 --> 00:11:34,720 Jewish rabbi. It's been a long time since I 179 00:11:34,720 --> 00:11:36,600 heard it, so I could be misremembering it, but this 180 00:11:36,800 --> 00:11:40,840 whole passage of Abraham bargaining with God is, is the 181 00:11:40,960 --> 00:11:45,480 the, the cultural seed from which the, the reputation of 182 00:11:45,480 --> 00:11:48,040 Jewish folks being hard bargainers comes. 183 00:11:48,400 --> 00:11:50,960 That if you're going to bargain with God this hard, then you're 184 00:11:50,960 --> 00:11:53,240 going to bargain with other people this hard as well. 185 00:11:54,120 --> 00:11:59,920 And here's Abraham bargaining with God, bargaining with God 186 00:11:59,920 --> 00:12:07,720 for the lives of a city that he knows is far from God, pleading 187 00:12:07,720 --> 00:12:12,480 for God to have mercy on them. And the strategy that he takes 188 00:12:12,720 --> 00:12:15,880 is to say, well, there's got to be a few righteous people there. 189 00:12:16,120 --> 00:12:19,120 And he starts with 50, and he works it all the way down to 10. 190 00:12:19,120 --> 00:12:21,720 And finally God says, all right, we're done having this 191 00:12:21,720 --> 00:12:24,160 conversation. We'll leave it at 10. 192 00:12:24,160 --> 00:12:26,600 And God leaves and Abraham goes home. 193 00:12:29,040 --> 00:12:34,840 But Abraham, I mean, and again, not just asking once polite over 194 00:12:34,840 --> 00:12:37,440 and over again, God, Abraham, God, you know, if it's, if it's 195 00:12:37,440 --> 00:12:39,480 fifty, Well, if it's what if it's only 45? 196 00:12:39,480 --> 00:12:40,840 I mean, it's five people really make it. 197 00:12:40,960 --> 00:12:43,680 What if it's only 40? What if it's only, what if it's 198 00:12:43,680 --> 00:12:47,880 only 10? God spare these people, spare 199 00:12:47,880 --> 00:12:50,880 these people. Why Abraham stopped at 10, we 200 00:12:50,880 --> 00:12:56,920 don't know for sure, but that's where Abraham stopped. 201 00:12:58,760 --> 00:13:02,240 And we know it was so bad. We talked about that last week 202 00:13:03,320 --> 00:13:08,920 or 2-3 weeks ago. It was so bad that visitors, 203 00:13:08,920 --> 00:13:12,040 given the shelter and protection of an authority figure in the 204 00:13:12,040 --> 00:13:17,560 city, could not escape violent assault from every man who lived 205 00:13:17,560 --> 00:13:23,320 in the city. The city had become an awful 206 00:13:23,320 --> 00:13:28,080 place to live, an awful place to visit, and Abraham was not 207 00:13:28,080 --> 00:13:31,920 celebrating their destruction. Abraham was pleading with God to 208 00:13:31,920 --> 00:13:35,560 have mercy on them, and he got it down to 10. 209 00:13:37,400 --> 00:13:41,720 Are 10 righteous people really enough not to destroy a corrupt 210 00:13:41,720 --> 00:13:45,640 civilization? I mean, when you think about it 211 00:13:45,640 --> 00:13:49,640 from that side, if it's as bad as that, if so much evil is 212 00:13:49,640 --> 00:13:52,680 being done, if so much corruption is there, if it's so 213 00:13:52,680 --> 00:13:56,920 pervasive, covering every man, every woman, every child in the 214 00:13:56,920 --> 00:14:01,400 city, even if you can find 10 righteous people and that entire 215 00:14:01,400 --> 00:14:06,120 civilization, is that really enough reason to spare an entire 216 00:14:06,120 --> 00:14:14,640 civilization? I hope so, and I believe so for 217 00:14:14,640 --> 00:14:20,600 this reason. For this reason, it came a time 218 00:14:21,400 --> 00:14:26,640 when God looked down upon the earth and said there's no one, 219 00:14:26,640 --> 00:14:33,440 no one righteous, not even 1, not even 1. 220 00:14:36,760 --> 00:14:44,720 But for the sake of a single righteous man, and we know is 221 00:14:44,720 --> 00:14:52,320 Jesus, God, spare the world, not just a city, not just a 222 00:14:52,320 --> 00:14:56,440 civilization, but an entire world for the sake of 1 223 00:14:56,440 --> 00:14:59,400 righteous man. Paul says it this way in Romans. 224 00:15:00,080 --> 00:15:02,520 What shall we conclude then? Do we have any advantage? 225 00:15:02,520 --> 00:15:05,840 Not at all, if we have already made the charge that Jews and 226 00:15:05,840 --> 00:15:09,680 Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin. 227 00:15:10,240 --> 00:15:14,760 As it is written, there is no one righteous, not even one. 228 00:15:16,120 --> 00:15:20,200 For the sake of 1 righteous person, God spared a world. 229 00:15:20,560 --> 00:15:23,640 Listen to that whole passage, though that that single verse. 230 00:15:23,640 --> 00:15:26,880 There's none righteous. No, not one gets quoted a lot. 231 00:15:26,920 --> 00:15:29,160 You've probably heard it before, maybe maybe not. 232 00:15:29,160 --> 00:15:32,000 Let me read it's it's the passage itself is a little 233 00:15:32,000 --> 00:15:35,760 longer and it goes on like this. As it is written. 234 00:15:35,960 --> 00:15:38,040 There is no one righteous, not even one. 235 00:15:38,560 --> 00:15:42,520 There is no one who understands. There is no one who seeks God. 236 00:15:43,200 --> 00:15:46,480 All have turned away. They have together become 237 00:15:46,480 --> 00:15:49,200 worthless. There is no one who does good, 238 00:15:49,200 --> 00:15:52,840 not even one. Their throats are open graves. 239 00:15:52,840 --> 00:15:56,960 Their tongues practice deceit. The poison of Vipers is on their 240 00:15:56,960 --> 00:15:59,320 lips. Their mouths are full of cursing 241 00:15:59,320 --> 00:16:01,960 and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed 242 00:16:01,960 --> 00:16:04,960 blood. Ruin and misery mark their ways. 243 00:16:04,960 --> 00:16:07,800 The way of peace they do not know. 244 00:16:08,040 --> 00:16:11,520 There is No Fear of God before their eyes. 245 00:16:13,160 --> 00:16:16,600 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who 246 00:16:16,600 --> 00:16:20,040 are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the 247 00:16:20,040 --> 00:16:22,440 whole world held accountable to God. 248 00:16:22,640 --> 00:16:25,640 Therefore, no one will be declared righteous in God's 249 00:16:25,640 --> 00:16:30,600 sight by works of the law. Rather, through the law we 250 00:16:30,600 --> 00:16:35,360 become conscious of sin. This was Paul's indictment on 251 00:16:35,360 --> 00:16:40,480 the entire world. Paul, inspired by the Holy 252 00:16:40,480 --> 00:16:43,680 Spirit indictment on the entire world. 253 00:16:44,840 --> 00:16:52,440 Nobody, nobody. They can stand before God and 254 00:16:52,440 --> 00:16:57,920 claim I'm good enough, I'm righteous enough, I'm holy 255 00:16:57,920 --> 00:17:01,000 enough. God destroy the wet rest of the 256 00:17:01,000 --> 00:17:03,760 world. But you owe it to me to save me. 257 00:17:03,960 --> 00:17:07,560 Not a single person. The only person who could do 258 00:17:07,560 --> 00:17:17,920 that was Jesus. And yet Jesus said, God, take my 259 00:17:17,920 --> 00:17:26,240 life and spare them. As Abraham pleaded for the 260 00:17:26,240 --> 00:17:32,480 people of Sodom, Jesus, even hanging on the cross, pleaded 261 00:17:32,480 --> 00:17:36,760 for the people of this world. Forgive them, Father, Jesus 262 00:17:36,760 --> 00:17:38,520 said. They don't know what they're 263 00:17:38,520 --> 00:17:44,400 doing. And God listened to that prayer, 264 00:17:44,960 --> 00:17:50,720 and God has shown his mercy, and God has spared and made for us a 265 00:17:50,720 --> 00:17:54,240 way of salvation. God looked upon us from His 266 00:17:54,240 --> 00:17:59,880 Kingdom, the messes that we had made, and said what he said of 267 00:17:59,880 --> 00:18:03,600 Sodom and Gomorrah. There is no one righteous, not 268 00:18:03,600 --> 00:18:06,880 even one. But instead of destroying us, He 269 00:18:06,880 --> 00:18:10,920 came himself as one of us to save us. 270 00:18:12,640 --> 00:18:16,240 And for the sake of that one righteous person, God has spared 271 00:18:16,240 --> 00:18:24,180 the world. Our hope is not in our own 272 00:18:24,180 --> 00:18:27,340 righteousness. Our hope is in Jesus. 273 00:18:28,780 --> 00:18:30,500 None of us can ever be good enough. 274 00:18:32,140 --> 00:18:39,260 None of us on our own can ever be good enough to avoid the fate 275 00:18:39,460 --> 00:18:43,980 of Sodom and Gomorrah. Not a single one of us. 276 00:18:46,280 --> 00:18:52,960 Our hope is entirely in Jesus Himself and His pleading with 277 00:18:52,960 --> 00:19:01,240 God to have mercy on us. I left a slide in here. 278 00:19:01,240 --> 00:19:03,480 I'm just now realizing that was old, so I'm going to have to 279 00:19:03,480 --> 00:19:11,210 skip over it. Our lives are fragile. 280 00:19:14,730 --> 00:19:16,610 Our righteousness is not our own. 281 00:19:18,440 --> 00:19:20,640 So we have this choice in front of us. 282 00:19:21,560 --> 00:19:24,880 We have this choice in front of us to strive, to choose, to 283 00:19:24,880 --> 00:19:29,200 strive, to follow Jesus faithfully and to plead for 284 00:19:29,200 --> 00:19:32,800 God's mercy for the world because that's what Jesus did 285 00:19:33,360 --> 00:19:38,000 and that's what Abraham did. So our first response as the 286 00:19:38,000 --> 00:19:42,400 church, when we encounter evil in the world, should not be to 287 00:19:42,400 --> 00:19:46,920 call upon God's destruction, not to be to plead with God to bring 288 00:19:46,920 --> 00:19:50,920 fire and brimstone down upon our enemies like his disciples did 289 00:19:51,040 --> 00:19:53,640 when they asked Jesus, hey, you know that city over there 290 00:19:53,640 --> 00:19:56,560 rejected you, wouldn't even let you in. 291 00:19:56,680 --> 00:19:59,280 Should we call down fire and brimstone and Jesus? 292 00:19:59,680 --> 00:20:03,560 Jesus was so ticked he didn't even respond to him, other than 293 00:20:03,560 --> 00:20:05,600 we know that he rebuked them. We don't know what he said. 294 00:20:05,800 --> 00:20:16,120 Maybe it was unprintable. The response of God's people 295 00:20:16,120 --> 00:20:20,200 when we encounter sin in the world is not to call for 296 00:20:20,200 --> 00:20:23,920 judgment, not to call for condemnation, not to call for 297 00:20:23,920 --> 00:20:28,040 God's righteous, angry vengeance, but to plead for 298 00:20:28,040 --> 00:20:33,920 God's mercy. This was the call that God put 299 00:20:33,920 --> 00:20:38,280 out through his prophet Jeremiah as well, when God's own people 300 00:20:38,720 --> 00:20:42,040 had to descended to the point of being as bad as Sodom. 301 00:20:43,640 --> 00:20:48,440 And so God sent destruction into Jerusalem, sent destruction into 302 00:20:48,440 --> 00:20:50,600 Israel. And before he did that, God 303 00:20:50,600 --> 00:20:54,160 through his prophet Jeremiah, he said, he said, is there anyone 304 00:20:54,160 --> 00:20:58,440 who will stand in the gap? The walls of your city are 305 00:20:58,440 --> 00:21:01,720 broken. Evil comes and goes at its 306 00:21:01,720 --> 00:21:06,320 pleasure, but now God is outside your walls and ready to bring in 307 00:21:06,640 --> 00:21:10,520 righteous wrath. Is there anyone who will stand 308 00:21:10,520 --> 00:21:16,240 in the gap and plead for God's people before God himself? 309 00:21:21,980 --> 00:21:24,300 Well, is there anyone who will be like Abraham? 310 00:21:24,980 --> 00:21:28,700 Is there anyone who will be like Jesus himself hanging on the 311 00:21:28,700 --> 00:21:32,340 cross? We can't be as good as Jesus. 312 00:21:32,900 --> 00:21:36,460 We, you know, we can't. We can't. 313 00:21:37,500 --> 00:21:39,180 But we can pray like Jesus. Pray. 314 00:21:40,780 --> 00:21:44,620 We can do that. We can plead for God's mercy. 315 00:21:45,920 --> 00:21:48,360 We can plead for God's salvation. 316 00:21:48,600 --> 00:21:53,440 We can plead for God's compassion upon not just our 317 00:21:53,440 --> 00:21:57,400 family, not just our friends, not just our allies, but even 318 00:21:57,400 --> 00:22:05,240 those who are our enemies. Plead for God's mercy, plead for 319 00:22:05,240 --> 00:22:11,440 God's compassion on our enemies around the world and our enemies 320 00:22:11,440 --> 00:22:16,280 close to home. And by definition, these are 321 00:22:16,280 --> 00:22:21,920 people, these are cultures, these are civilizations that are 322 00:22:21,920 --> 00:22:26,280 at odds with and even at times at war with our own. 323 00:22:28,560 --> 00:22:30,960 But will we plead like Jesus pleads? 324 00:22:31,720 --> 00:22:36,280 Will we plead like Abraham pled for the people of Sodom? 325 00:22:36,600 --> 00:22:42,960 Our lives are fragile. One rock hurtling through space, 326 00:22:43,880 --> 00:22:47,640 exploding in the right place, could wipe out gallium eggs. 327 00:22:48,800 --> 00:22:52,120 Athens, Mason County, we could all be gone. 328 00:22:54,640 --> 00:22:56,880 It happened so fast we wouldn't even know. 329 00:22:58,080 --> 00:23:00,160 People in Atlanta would see the flash. 330 00:23:01,040 --> 00:23:03,760 People in Charleston will go. What would made the ground shake 331 00:23:03,760 --> 00:23:06,080 like that? Columbus, too. 332 00:23:08,920 --> 00:23:16,360 Our lives are so fragile and our hope is not in our strength, 333 00:23:16,600 --> 00:23:20,160 whether it's the strength of arms or the strength of legs and 334 00:23:20,160 --> 00:23:23,240 backs, the strength of our mind to the strength of our will. 335 00:23:23,400 --> 00:23:26,200 Our hope is not in the strength of our righteousness, the 336 00:23:26,200 --> 00:23:28,920 strength of our morality, the strength of our political 337 00:23:28,920 --> 00:23:35,920 philosophies and ideologies. Our only hope is in Jesus, the 338 00:23:35,920 --> 00:23:41,480 one who pled for us as He died on the cross, and the One who 339 00:23:41,480 --> 00:23:46,320 calls for us to plead for others that God would be merciful for 340 00:23:46,320 --> 00:23:50,480 them as well. Pleading for Sodom. 341 00:23:52,640 --> 00:23:55,600 I have heard too much. I'm not saying it about this 342 00:23:55,600 --> 00:24:00,280 church, but in the course of my 50 plus years of life and 30 343 00:24:00,280 --> 00:24:05,520 plus years of pastoring, I have had heard too much of churches 344 00:24:05,520 --> 00:24:09,920 calling for God's wrath and celebrating God's destruction, 345 00:24:12,120 --> 00:24:16,080 and not nearly enough of the people of God calling for God's 346 00:24:16,080 --> 00:24:19,360 mercy for their enemies as well as their friends. 347 00:24:20,880 --> 00:24:23,280 Let's choose to follow Abraham's example. 348 00:24:24,360 --> 00:24:28,360 Let's especially choose to follow Jesus's lead and plead 349 00:24:28,360 --> 00:24:30,600 for Sodom wherever we may find it. 350 00:24:30,880 --> 00:24:33,960 In Jesus name, Amen. Amen.