This is a message I prepared for our church. I am able to remember a lot of it as I'm writing it out so I'm not just standing there and reading it. I am able to deliver it. I thought that, possibly, it may be able to help somebody outside of my church circle. So here it is. I have gone through and made some changes because some of the stuff in here would be nonsense outside of the framework of being in the church to hear it. May you be edified and God be glorified.
As we open our study of Genesis 19, we see Lot “sitting in the gate of Sodom”. What in the world is he doing “sitting in the gate of Sodom”? We know from the Scripture that Lot is a righteous man. 2nd Peter 2:7 tells us that God rescued “righteous Lot”. If Lot is righteous, then why is a righteous man sitting in the gate of this incredibly vile city? I believe that the answer lies in what I’m going to call, for the sake of a title for this message, “The Slippery Slope of Sin in the Life of a Saint”.
The “slippery slope” doesn’t just appear out of thin air. It’s not something that is not there and then, in an instant, materializes and a person finds themselves sliding down it. It is a slope that appears over time. It is a slope that is built, whether knowingly or not, through careless disregard for what is taken into the heart and soul. And before a person even realizes the danger they are in, they are careening down this slippery slope at the speed of light.
How does this slide begin? As absurd as this may sound to some people, I believe that it begins with “a look”. The Word of God is replete with examples demonstrating that what the eye sees will cause an emotional reaction within the heart…whether that reaction is toward good OR evil.
What does Jesus tell His disciples in John 4:35?
Do you not say, "There are yet four months and then the harvest?" Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes and see that the fields are white for harvest.
He told them to look and see that the fields were white for harvest. He knew that the seeing of the people would generate a genuine heart desire to see these people saved through their message.
In Mark Chapter 2, we see the heart of Jesus moved to compassion because of great faith. Mark 2:1-5:
And when he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. And many were gathered together, so that there was no room, not even at the door. And he was preaching the word to them. And they came, bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him, and when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven."
The text does not say it specifically but I would assume that these are either good friends or family members of the paralytic man…because they obviously care enough about him to climb up on a house, rip a hole in the roof and lower this man down in front of Jesus. What does the text say happened? Mark 2:5:
And when Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven".
Now, obviously, Jesus did not “see” their invisible faith. What He DID see was the fact that they brought the man to Him in expectation of something happening. And Jesus was moved to act.
One last example of the eyes moving the heart to compassion. In Matthew 9:35-38, we read this:
And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion of them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.
He saw and had compassion because they were helpless and harassed. They were leaderless.
But the eye is also a tool that Satan can use to elicit sinful desire within the corrupt human heart and cause temptation to turn into transgression. Let’s start at the start. Genesis 3:1-6:
Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God actually say, 'You shall not eat of any tree in the garden'?" And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, 'You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.'" But the serpent said, "You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.
What do we learn from this reading? The point of the text is this: Satan, through the serpent, planted doubt in Eve’s mind and heart concerning what God had said about the tree in the middle of the garden. And how does it all come together for Satan? We just read it in verse 6. It was through the seeing of the fruit, that it was good for food and that it was…..please do not miss this…..a delight to the eyes. Satan is always going to make what is sinful look delightful to you….to us. I’m not pointing fingers this morning. I fall squarely into what I’m talking about here. Why? Because my heart is deceitful and wicked and I cannot understand it. That’s the Dave paraphrase of Jeremiah 17:9. What a person looks at will invariably influence their heart toward evil….if what your eyes are seeing is something your eyes ought not be seeing. GUARD YOU HEART!
2nd Samuel 11 recounts the story of David and Bathsheba. Let’s ready the first couple of verses.
In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel. And they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem. It happened late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king's house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful.
This is a very familiar story. How did all of this mess start? With a look. David saw Bathsheba. The look incited the lust. The lust ignited the flame of sin and the flame of sin created an incredible ash heap of deceit, adultery and murder. It is simply impossible to overstate the importance of what passes through the gate of your eyes. GUARD YOUR HEART!
What does all of this have to do with Lot “sitting in the gate of Sodom”? I contend that it started with a look. What do I mean? I know that the main text is chapter 19 of Genesis today but let’s go back a few chapters to Genesis 12, 13 and 14 and hopefully I can make my point. In chapter 12, we see the call of the LORD to Abram. In verse 4, we see that Abram went as the LORD told him and “Lot was with him”. So we see that Lot was with Abram from the beginning, going on the journey to the land the LORD was going to show Abram. This fact makes what happens in the middle and end of chapter 12 and beginning of chapter 13 relevant. In chapter 12, we learn that there is a famine in the land so Abram leads his family to Egypt because of the famine. Now, the text does not explicitly say that Lot went with him. But, when we get to verse 1 of chapter 13, we read this:
So Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife and all he had, and Lot with him, into the Negeb.
The Bible says that Abram went up from Egypt with his wife and all that he had and “Lot with him”. Logically, this sentence means that Lot was with Abram in Egypt. Why is this relevant? I believe that Lot SAW the riches of Egypt while he was there. The luxuries of the world. The sensual nature of the world. The plenty of the world, for lack of a better term. He SAW all of these things….and it affected his heart. Why do I say this? In chapter 13, we see Abram and Lot split up because the land could not support them if they stayed together. Abram suggested they split up. Abram, being the man he was, gave Lot the first choice. This is what we read in chapter 13 and verse 10:
And Lot lifted up his eyes and saw that the Jordan Valley was well watered everywhere like the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt, in the direction of Zoar. (This was before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.)
Did you notice what the Bible said? It said Lot SAW that the Jordan Valley was well watered “like the land of Egypt”. I’m sure Lot remembered his time in Egypt and he longed for it. So, with his heart influenced by what he SAW, the Bible says in verse 12 of chapter 13:
Abram settled in the land of Canaan, while Lot settled among the cities of the valley and moved his tent as far as Sodom.
He moved his tent as far as Sodom. Keep in mind, a tent is a dwelling that is mobile. It’s designed to be moved. Why is that important? Let’s go to chapter 14….bear with me….we are going somewhere with this. In chapter 14, there is a battle between a bunch of pagan kings. We learn that the city of Sodom fell in the battle. Why is this significant? Because we read in chapter 14 verse 11 and 12:
So the enemy took all the possessions of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all their provisions, and went their way. They also took Lot, the son of Abram's brother, who was dwelling in Sodom, and his possessions, and went their way.
Lot was dwelling in Sodom. He went from pitching his tent close to Sodom to dwelling in Sodom. He went from "standing" and flirting with sin to dwelling right in the middle of it.
That brings us full circle back to Genesis 19…”sitting in the gate of Sodom”. I believe there is a biblical example of the trajectory a person can embark on if they are not careful. Psalm 1…Let’s go to Psalm 1:1-2:
Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.
Notice the progression…”walk, stand, sit”. I believe Lot started to “walk” to Sodom when he first beheld the Jordan Valley and SAW that it was well watered “like the land of Egypt”. The “walk” started in the heart. Lot took the "counsel" of his heart. And what do we know about the heart? It is deceitful and wicked. Lot had a longing created by listening to the "counsel" of his wicked heart. I believe Lot was “standing” when he pitched his tent near the city of Sodom. He was “standing” on the edge of sin, flirting with it. And now, we see him end up “sitting in the gate of Sodom”. Please hear what I’m saying…you cannot….we cannot, I’m including myself in what I’m saying…we cannot dance a circle around the fire of sin and not expect to get burned in the long run. It’s just not possible. The odds are not in our favor that we can flirt with disaster and not end up there. I will expand on that a little later.
Lot has not moved to this vile city to win it for the Lord. He has moved there for the same reason as everyone else…financial gain…worldly pleasure…political favor. The fact that he is sitting in the gate can mean one of two things…possibly both. He is either conducting some kind of business there because the city gate is where business was conducted. Or, he is some kind of powerful authority sitting in judgment over the people of Sodom. That means he has achieved some sort of elevated status within the city. The point being, he is comfortable there. Even though he was a man called “righteous” by the Holy Spirit, he was a man that was comfortable in very wicked surroundings because his emphasis was not on the Lord but on the pleasures of the world. That can happen to any of us if we are not careful.
Notice what happens in verse 2. When the angels refuse his offer to stay in his house, he “pressed them strongly”. He didn’t say, “OK, I reckon I’ll see you in the morning”. No, no, no, no…..he “pressed them strongly”. “Come to my house, please. I really need you to come to my house. I’ve got nice beds. I’ve got good food. I really want you to come with me”. Now, I’m pretty sure it didn’t sound like that. BUT, the fact he did that was because HE KNEW what the men in town would do to them if they stayed outside. That shows the absolutely incredible state into which Lot had fallen. Even though he was considered “righteous”, he was content to live in a wicked, vile city full of sodomites to satisfy his carnal desires for riches and prominence. The slippery slope. He did not GUARD HIS HEART!
These reprobate men storm his house, demanding that he turn those men over to them that they may do unspeakable things to them. What does Lot do? Genesis 19:6-8:
Lot went out to the men at the entrance, shut the door after him, and said, "I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly. Behold, I have two daughters who have not known any man. Let me bring them out to you, and do to them as you please. Only do nothing to these men, for they have come under the shelter of my roof.
Did you notice that? He called these disgusting men “my bothers”. He had become so comfortable in this den of sin that he identified himself as a “brother” to these degenerates. Heartbreaking. But then it gets worse because, in an attempt to keep this mob from violating the angels who had come under the protection of his roof, he offers up his daughters as a replacement. How cowardly and reprehensible. He begs them to “do not act so wickedly”. But what does he do? He acts just as wickedly as the mob. He attempts to block one egregious, wicked and sinful act by offering the opportunity to commit an even more egregious, wicked and sinful act. Now, this is not in the text but I believe Lot knew that these men would not call his bluff. He knew these men were not interested in his daughters but wanted to commit indecent acts with these angels. With that being said, this is quite possibly the most disgusting thing I have ever had the displeasure of rolling around in my mind…to think that a man would even consider offering up his little girls…and, fathers, you and I know that they were still his little girls in his eyes, right? My “little girl” is 30, has a husband, a son, and 2 daughters…but she will forever be my “little girl”…..to think that a man would even consider offering up his “little girls” to a depraved, lust filled mob of deviant men is incomprehensible. And, again, remember…….Lot is called “righteous”. He’s saved. This sad tale shows the depths to which the human heart can plunge…even a heart that has been regenerated… when it’s on the slippery slope of sin. GUARD YOUR HEART!
Then we see the angels ask Lot if he has anyone else in the city, to bring them out of this place because they were getting ready to destroy it. So Lot goes to his two sons-in-law and warns them. Genesis 19:14:
So Lot went out and said to his sons-in-law, who were to marry his daughters, "Up! Get out of this place, for the LORD is about to destroy the city." But he seemed to his sons-in-law to be jesting.
They thought he was joking. Why? He was a hypocrite. He’d lost any influence he may have had over his family and the people of this city because he was a friend of the world. He was immersed in the vile culture of that town, rendering empty any words he may have spoken regarding righteousness . He had no respect from anyone because he did not GUARD HIS HEART and was completely engulfed by this wretched culture.
The next morning came and the angels told him to get his family together and get out. But watch what happens. Genesis 19:15-16:
As morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, "Up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be swept away in the punishment of the city. But he lingered. So the men seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand, the LORD being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city.
Lot was so entangled in sin and wickedness that he hesitated to leave. He did not want to give up his worldly lifestyle even in the face of impending doom. HE DID NOT WANT TO LEAVE HIS OLD LIFE BEHIND. Let that sink in for a minute. Even in the face of imminent destruction, Lot him-hawed around long enough that the angels had to forcibly drag him, his wife and their two daughters out of the city. REMEMBER…..Lot is saved. He is called “righteous”, yet behaves in this manner. It is a place that any one of us can wind up if we do not GUARD OUR HEART!
As amazing as this sounds, Lot’s rebellion has not yet come to completion. After having been drug to safety outside the city, because we are told in those verses that the LORD was being merciful to him, Lot is commanded by the angels in Genesis 19:17:
And as they brought them out, one said, "Escape for your life. Do not look back or stop anywhere in the valley. Escape to the hills, lest you be swept away.
Could the command be any more clear? Escape! Don’t look back or stop anywhere in the valley! Escape to the hills lest you be swept away! Even this redneck from southern Indiana can understand that. A Ph.D in astrophysics is not required to determine the meaning of those words. How does Lot react? Genesis 19:18-20:
And Lot said to them, "Oh, no, my lords. Behold, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have shown me great kindness in saving my life. But I cannot escape to the hills, lest the disaster overtake me and I die. Behold, this city is near enough to flee to, and it is a little one. Let me escape there--is it not a little one?--and my life will be saved!"
First, I’ll give a little credit where a little credit is due. He WAS shown great kindness and favor in the saving of his life. Remember, the LORD was merciful to him. Not because of him but in spite of him. It wasn’t his faithfulness but the LORD’s faithfulness. And, as is shown later in this chapter, the LORD remembered Abraham and his intercession on behalf of Lot…from chapter 18. So, Lot was right in acknowledging that. But that’s where the good stops. What follows is an absolutely spineless, wimpy bartering session with the angels.
In verse 18, in responding to the command given to him, Lot says “Oh, no, my lords”. God has commanded him, through the angels, to escape to the mountains. This is the LORD’s plan for saving Lot…get to the mountains. But Lot says no. He immediately pushes back on what he has been told to do. This reaction makes the thankfulness he expressed in verse 19 null and void. Why? Because his heart intent is revealed in verse 20. In verse 19, when he says “I cannot escape to the hills”, he might as well have said “I will not escape to the hills”. Because immediately after saying “I cannot escape to the hills, lest the disaster overtake me and I die”, he says, “Behold, this city is near enough to flee to, and it is a little one”. He’s making excuses. “Oh, please don’t make me flee to the mountains. It’s too far. I’ll never make it. I’m too slow. I’ll get tired. My wife and kids are gonna slow me down. I’ll not be able to beat the destruction and I’ll die. BUT, this city is near enough……”. He COULD NOT leave his life behind. He still wanted a little bit of Sodom to be left over so he whined and cried to go to this city. He justified what he wanted by saying “It’s a little one”. The city he was referring to is Zoar. It was a mini version of Sodom. It was slated for destruction along with the other cities in the valley because we read in verse 21 that this request was granted to him by the angel “not to overthrow the town of which you have spoken”. Lot is basically pleading with the LORD to spare that city by allowing him to go there instead of the mountains. And the LORD gives him what he asked for. Have you ever heard the saying “Be careful what you ask for…you just might get it”? I believe that we can take away from this exchange some teaching here. When you are a believer caught in the net of sin, God will give you enough rope to hang yourself. If you, as a believer, are tangled in a web of sin and wickedness and self deceit, God will let you continue down that road until you have lost everything and become a detestable creature that you would never have imagined you could become…BEFORE he sends someone your way to convict you and bring you back to your senses. Make no mistake, my friends, if you are His, He will bring you back but it may be after you have lost it all in pursuit of your sin. That is just true. Remember when I said I was going to expand on some stuff a little later? I’ll expand on this a little later.
Lot’s argument that the city is smaller in size therefore it must not be very sinful shows how much influence a worldly mindset can have over the ability of a human being to think and act clearly, responsibly and biblically. What an incredibly distorted point of view. Sin had so taken over his life that he had NO UNDERSTANDING WHATSOEVER of the hold it had on him. He was completely clueless to the fact that he was enslaved. What a sad trajectory his life had taken. WE ARE NOT IMMUNE TO THIS IF WE DO NOT GUARD OUR HEARTS!
But the egregious, heart rending, diabolical sin-stained ending to Lot’s plight was yet to come. I have debated on whether or not to speak about this because it is such a heartbreaking end to the story. Who knows where I’m going from here? But it is extremely relevant to this topic so we will proceed with a very selective vocabulary considering the presence of smaller children. Is that OK?
If you are not familiar with the story at the end of Genesis 19, I will attempt to summarize it as best I can tactfully. Lot went to Zoar as he had asked the LORD to let him do but something happened in the city, causing him to be afraid to live in Zoar, so Lot ended up in the caves in the hills that he was told to go to in the first place. His daughters were with him. He had lost his wife because she did not obey the command to not look back on Sodom as they were fleeing. She couldn’t resist looking back longingly at her previous lifestyle and she paid the price with her life. God turned her into a pillar of salt.
Now, while they were here in these caves, his daughters despaired of ever having husbands because they were all alone in these caves in the hills. Very isolated location. Possibly Lot was trying to protect them because he had lost everything else. I have no idea. I’m just spitballing with that…maybe, maybe not. At any rate, let’s think about that for a second. Those girls had just left a city that, I assume, was full of men that could have been their husband. Maybe not. Maybe the men of Zoar were the same as the men of Sodom, inflamed with lust one to another. I don’t know. Possible I suppose. Whatever the reasoning, they were afraid they would never have husbands so, therefore, they would never have children and they take matters into their own hands. Notice this please….this is the reason why I have chosen to include this section of Scripture. They were just like their father. There was no reliance in the LORD. Lot had gotten on the slippery slope of sin as far back as the sojourning in to Egypt with Abram and now the slide had reached it’s tragic end…..He had passed this legacy on to his girls. He didn’t trust in the LORD….they didn’t either. His reliance was in his own strength and wisdom, chasing after the riches and pleasures of sin in Sodom and he passed that on to his daughters. There was no reliance on the LORD in their situation so they drafted a plan to alleviate their problem through carnal, sinful wicked means.
On consecutive nights, those girls caused their father to have too much to drink and they exploited that fact….do we understand what I’m saying…trying to be discreet here.
From those two encounters came the Moabites and the Ammonites…people who proved to be a thorn in the flesh of the people of God for years and years and years. Demonic false gods and false religion sprang from these people groups. The primary god of the Ammonites was Molech. The worship of Molech involved the sacrificing…..I’m going to try to be as vague as possible here with young children present…..involved the sacrificing “of your seed” by passing it through the fire….a burnt offering in other words. Diabolical.
My friends, as far as I can tell, this is the last mention of Lot in the Scripture except for what Peter said about him in Second Peter…that God “rescued righteous Lot”. What a tragic end to his life. The slippery slope of sin in the life of a saint. Do you realize that we are not told that Lot’s wife or his daughters were “righteous” as Lot was described? Lot was eternally saved by the LORD because the Scripture tells us that. God saved Lot because God is faithful to save His own, even if it is a snatching out of the fire as Lot was. But we have no record that his wife or daughters were. How incredibly sad. Because of Lot’s slide into sin, his wife and daughters were eternally affected by that course of action. Do not think that this cannot happen to any one of us…that we are too intelligent, too civilized and too advanced to allow such deception to overtake us. That we are too pious, too holy, too spiritual, too GOOD to act so wickedly. “I could never act like that. There is no way I could be as evil as what this guy is talking about. He doesn’t know me. He doesn’t know my heart. He hasn’t got a clue what he’s talking about.” First of all, you’re right. I don’t know you. Second of all, you’re right. I do not know your heart. But God does and He says that the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can know it? If what I have just said is a description of you, it’s entirely possible that you are on the slippery slope already. It can happen, and it will, if you do not GUARD YOUR HEART!
This entire, disastrous sequence of events started with “a look” at the pleasures of Egypt in Genesis 12, culminating in the loss of everything by the end of Genesis 19. I can tell that what I said just a few seconds ago has struck a nerve. That’s ok. That was the point…to get you all to think and seriously consider what I am saying. But, before you all jump to the conclusion that I’m pointing my finger and being “holier than thou”, it’s time for me to expand on what I said I was going to expand on earlier.
I hesitate to do this because I do not want to end up making this message about me…because what I’ve preached today isn’t about me. However, I have been on that slippery slope of sin in the life of a saint and it is not pleasant. So, therefore, I’m going to proceed because I’m hoping that if there is someone within the sound of my voice either in this building right now, or someone who will hear this after it’s put up on the website, that can benefit from this and avert a catastrophe then it is worth it.
I’m not going to go into a whole lot of detail because this is not the setting for a lot of detail. Most of you are familiar with my background and where I’m going with this so detail is not needed. But, if you have no idea what I’m talking about from here until the end, ask me…or Debbie. We are not afraid to talk about it. We don’t necessarily like to talk about it….I don’t like to talk about it for sure…but I’m willing to if it can help somebody in the same situation as I was. I know that there are people who do wicked things like I have done and they want to forget about it. I do not wish to forget. It’s not that I want to hold on to the memory of my sin…..no, no, no no. I do not want to forget the absolute devastation I caused to my family because the memory serves as a guardrail. It keeps me in line. I NEVER want to do to my family, especially my precious wife, what I did and the memory of the hurt I caused helps to that end. With that being said, let’s go.
I was ready to leave my wife, my daughter, my future son-in-law, my cat….everything that I held dear….over what I have preached today….”a look”. That’s how it started. Noticing someone looking at me at my job. Just two years prior, I had lost my son to suicide and right then and there, at that time, my father was dying of a massive brain tumor. My relationship with Debbie was OK but it was not the best. Now, I allowed the enemy to play on my emotions at this time. “Debbie doesn’t care about you. She doesn’t care that your dad has a brain tumor”….nevermind the fact that she was with me every step of the way while my dad died in front of our eyes…. “She’s not interested in what you want or need. All she wants to do is hang out with Holly. You deserve better.” I should've known better than that. But I didn’t. Why? Because I let self pity and selfishness control me. Nevermind the fact that my son was dead and my wife was still mourning him…no, no, no, no….I wasn’t getting what I thought I needed and deserved and the enemy played on that. Then “the look” happened and I was on the slippery slope, going for a ride.
I began my “walk” by looking back at this person. I started to “stand” by making friends with this person and then I was “sitting” in full blown sin. I was doing the dance around the fire of sin, thinking to my pious, arrogant self that I was not going to get burned. That ain’t how it works, folks. Don’t forget this…If you dance to the music, you’re gonna have to pay the piper eventually. Remember what I said about turning into a detestable creature that you would never think you could turn into? That was me.
How I wish I could go back and unsay some of the most heinous, wicked things I have ever said...and I said these words to my wife….hurtful things that I am so grieved over that it is almost unbearable to think about. But that was what I was…a heinous, wicked sin twisted creature that could not think clearly at all. Sin had so entangled me in a web of selfishness that I couldn’t see what I was. And Debbie knew this. I am so incredibly grateful to God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ for my wife. I would be absolutely lost without her. In the face of everyone in her family calling for her to kick me to the curb, she held on because she knew I was not myself. And she prayed for me.
Enter Don Green, pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati. Even while I was knee deep in this heinous sin, we drove to Cincinnati every Sunday to this church because we could not find a church in Columbus that preached what we wanted to hear preached….the gospel. Now, we did not know about Sovereign Christ at the time or we would not have been driving to Ohio. We’d have been driving here. But God had us driving to Cincinnati at that time because we had a divine appointment with Pastor Don Green. The very first Sunday we were there, we met Don Green and were talking with him and Debbie just absolutely unloaded on him what was happening in our marriage. I’m sure the man was taken off guard a little bit by a couple of people he had just met 43 seconds earlier but he was gracious and listened to the plea of a wounded, beaten down wife in desperate need of help. And that is exactly what this man did. Because of Don Green and his forthrightness….is that a word? Because of Don Green and his willingness to speak truth to me, even though I did not want to hear it, I was brought back from the brink of destruction and here I stand before you…..a sinner who has been forgiven and restored through the power of God because a man that did not know me from Adam was willing to be used of God to rebuke and reprove and exhort through the word of God.
My wife and I were talking about this message and she reminded me of the 23rd Psalm. Psalm 23:4 says this:
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
Now, I'm not so sure that the first part of this verse applies to my situation. But I believe that the last part of it does. What does a shepherd do with the rod and staff? They are instruments of protection and direction. The rod is used to get their attention...thump them on the rear end, so to speak. Alert them to trouble. Or maybe to discipline them when they are going down the wrong path and then the crook is used to draw them back onto the right path or drag them away from trouble. Don Green was the rod and staff God used to discipline me and bring me back from the precipice of destruction. There is no there way to say.
I stand amazed at the mercy and graciousness of God to pull me off of that slippery slope before I made a total ruination of my life. He did not have to do that but he chose to do that. And because of that, I am forever grateful to the Lord Jesus and to Don Green. May God richly bless that man of God and his ministry in Cincinnati.
That’s it my friends. This is not a gospel message. The gospel can be found in here, for sure, but the presentation of the gospel is not the purpose of this message today. This is a clarion call to those who are already saved to GUARD YOUR HEART! This is a prophetic call…not in the sense of I’m predicting future events here, not that kind of prophecy…but a telling forth, from God’s word, what can happen in the life of a believer if they do not GUARD THEIR HEART! Why do I have the authority to do this and what right do I have to speak so boldly to my brothers and my sisters? Because it happened to me and I’m warning you away from the fire. What kind of a friend would I be if I DID NOT WARN YOU? If it can happen to me, it can happen to you and don’t think that it cannot. Satan disguises himself as an angel of light and will do to you what he did to Eve and to me….seeing that the tree was “a delight to the eyes”….he will seduce you and ensnare you and set you on a slippery slope that you won’t want to be on. Please heed my words today, my friends. If what I have said today describes you, please come to me or Debbie or both. We would love to assist you in any way, shape or form we can….beginning with prayer.
I love you guys and I speak these truths out of love…and experience. GUARD YOUR HEART! Please….do not travel down this road that leads to destruction…..Let’s pray.
