Sermon Tone Analysis

*Title: Are you a Abraham or are you a Lot?*

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*Good evening, I need to start off by Praising God, When I start to think of all the things I have done in my past and then think of what God has me doing now I am so humbled and it even brings tears to my eyes to know that my Lord and Savior can take a undeserving wretch like me, sit down with me and teach me.

And Give me the opportunity to teach and preach to others.

All I can do is cry and say thank you Lord for what you are doing in my life.*

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* I am thrilled to be bringing you this message tonight it’s my last one and to me the best one yet.

But we will see.

Take your Bibles and turn with me to Genesis 18 and 19.*

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*   Not that long ago, I was standing in line at Wal-mart waiting to pay for my stuff and standing in line next to me was a little old man, If I had to guess I would say he was in his late 80’s and standing behind him was an even smaller older lady.

The problem was this little old lady was just reading this poor man the riot act, she never took a breath.

She was going off about the prices of everything, how crowded the parking lot was, the long lines and so on she never shut up.

But I couldn’t help but notice that he had the biggest smile on his face even through all this blasting he was taking.

I said to myself –I said wow this man has it down pat, he has the patience of Job.

Then she dropped a can of peas from out of the buggy, so I knelt down to pick it up and so did he.

She was still griping and complaining.

Well we kind of met down there as I handed him the can of peas and he looked at me and said “young man do you see this hearing aid?

I said yes sir, he says I haven’t turned it on since I left the house.

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*  I couldn’t help myself as I just laughed and laughed.

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* I thought about that incident and thought about how we choose not to listen; we pick and choose what we want to hear and shut out the rest.

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 Hopefully you are in Genesis 18 So please read alone with me:

*   **Chapter 18*

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*  1     Now the Lord appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, while he was sitting at the tent door in the heat of the day.

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*2  **When he lifted up his eyes and looked, behold, three men were standing opposite him; and when he saw /them, /he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the earth*

Let us pray

 

 *Tonight our message comes from chapter 18 v1 and chapter 19 , Which I have titled  “ARE YOU AN ABRAHAM OR ARE YOU A LOT”.

With God’s help I’m going to show how God’s word speaks to us today, even if it did happen in Genesis 5000 to 6000 years ago.*

*But before we put our study hats on we need to know what led up to this.

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*If you listen and read along, each one of you will see your life unfold in the 1st book of the Bible.

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* Historical background: **Abraham’s name before God changed it was Abram, which means: the father exalted----his parents probably named him this because they were probably part of the moon cult in the city of Ur.

The father exalted could have referred to the moon god or another pagan deity.

So God changed his name to Abraham meaning father of multitudes, no doubt to show a clear-cut separation from his pagan roots.

–Also one of Gods promises.

Now Abram lived in the city of UR of Mesopotamia:(means land between 2 rivers), which not only was an important and prosperous place but also stood in the general area where civilization began.

Abram lived in the commerce and industry Mecca of it’s time.*

*  Cyrus Gordon of Brandeis University among other scholars claim’s Abram was a powerful merchant prince.

So really Abram had no reason to leave.

After having a divine encounter with God he chose to be obedient and leave his comfort zone of Ur. *

*Abraham’s father was named Terah, who had 3 sons:*

*1.Abram 2.Nahor 3. Haren—father of Lot*

*When Terah’s son Haren died, Terah took in Lot to raise.

Even so Abram and Lot were nephews they called each other brothers: ch 13 v8*

* **Now that we have learned a little about Abraham’s background we can start to understand what is going on in ch18*

*  Now Abraham had 3 visitors, now back then people did not receive a lot of visitors.

That’s why the people of that day thought that all visitors were from God.

In the early days before people had the written word, before the incarnation and before the Holy Spirit had come to make His home in human hearts.

God sometimes appeared and talked with people.

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*How awesome would that be?

But Hospitality was one of the most highly regarded virtues in the ancient world.

Abraham sat out by his tent waiting for people to come by to do good deeds; So Abraham called for a meal with God and His 2 angels.

See God came by to let Abraham know His plans to show him His Grace and mercy.

God told Abraham that he was going to destroy Sodom.

Now Abraham found himself interceding for the wicked city.(

Just like Jesus does for the world) hmmmmmm!*

*  They ended up agreeing that the Lord would spare the wicked city of Sodom for 10 righteous people.

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* Now let’s look at some things here; When Abraham met God he was at his tent door and  there were 3  God +2 angels*

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*The 1st thing was Abraham was sitting at the tent.

Why?

Is a tent such an important word here?*

* Tents are usually associated with people who move about with their herds*

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*    Tent: noun; moveable house or temporary shelter, tent speaks of a pilgrim life*

* Get the picture Abraham could uproot, move or leave at any time.

He was a stranger to the world.

He is just passing through.

Church I want you to write down this question Look at your life, what are you doing?

We will come back to that question later.*

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*Now we also see it says there were 3 men God + 2 angels*

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* God came to fellowship and eat with Him He felt close with Abraham because he was obedient and loved God.

He was waiting at the tent door for strangers to come by so he could do good deeds and show Gods love through himself.*

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* We do not here a lot about Abraham faults and weaknesses, but he failed all the time just like you and me.

He showed many of the weaknesses that we show today.

We need to learn from Abraham’s one great strength (faith) and also learn from his many faults.*

* We all need to learn that faith is the 1 principle that lifts any person beyond his inadequacies, The 1 quality that wins Gods approval.*

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*God calls Abraham a friend *

*James 2:23*

* 23     and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness,” and he was called the friend of God.** *

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* God knew Abraham was a man after Gods own heart*

* He had built a alter to God In the land of Mamre which means fatness, we see he is enjoying the fullness of Gods blessing, and the fact that they came in the heat of the day suggest that Abraham was walking in the light.*

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*So Gods message to Abraham was a joyful one, he would have a son in a year.

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*As we look back on Abraham we see that God wanted him to learn about His wrath and His grace, which is the same with us today.

Which part are you seeing?---write this down.

You should be able answer these at the end *

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*So now that we understand Abraham better let’s turn our attention Lot.  *

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*Give God all the Glory!

It’s all about Him not you!*

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*Chapter 19*

*/The Doom of Sodom/*

*17       **When they had brought them outside, one said, “Escape for your life!

Do not look behind you, and do not stay anywhere in the valley; escape to  the mountains, or you will be swept away *

*So for time sake I will sum up a lot of this chapter.*

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*V1 says 2 angels came to Sodom – what happened to God? *

* We do know Lot was a believer but the 2 came to him in the evening which suggest he was walking in the darkness.*

* So God could not fellowship with him.

Lot was sitting at the gate.

He also lived by the gate which tells us the he was an important person in the city because all of the business was done in the square by the gate.

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   So Lot made his home in Sodom.

Or look at this just like a lot of us he set up residence in the world.

*When the 2 angels told Lot they were going to destroy the city, to get all his family out of there, v15 says because Lot was not a spiritual leader like he should have been, His family did not believe him..*

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*V15 The angels told him to leave now!!!!!!!! *

*V16  he hesitated so the angels grabbed there hands and brought them out.*

*  He waited, he hesitated, he lingered, why?*

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* Just like so many of us Christians today we have set residence in the world and don’t really want to leave.