Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - What Defines How You Live? | Torah | Genesis 19:1-29

Episode Date: February 15, 2022

Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. What do you give power to in your life? The people around you? The shows you watch? The social media you scroll on? The God who created you? In today's episode, Tanya looks at Genesis 19:1-29 to show the danger of becoming like the culture and the importance of drawing near to God. Find out what you can learn from Lot in Sodom and Gomorrah. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Passages: Genesis 19:1-29 Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now.

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. I'm Tanya Wilmeth. Right now, we're going through the first book of the Bible, Genesis. It's winter in Missouri. If you're listening in real time, it's February. That means the days are still short. The sun has gone on vacation and flown south of Florida.

And the trees, well, they're not even thinking about putting on their leaves. Basically, everything here looks like a toddler's diet. Chicken nugget and nutter butter brown. That's probably why we celebrate Valentine's Day in February. It gives us a reason to buy flowers that have been imported from warmer, more tropical climates and pretend like spring is coming. February is when we look at your photos of the ocean at Big Sur and your coast in Tampa Bay and feel like you all have better decision-making skills than we do. Is it as good as it looks there? Maybe Lot was feeling a bit like this in Genesis, when he and Abram needed to part ways.

and he looked for a new place to live. Genesis 13 says, and Lot lifted up his eyes and saw that the Jordan Valley was well watered everywhere with the Garden of the Lord. So Lot chose for himself all the Jordan Valley,

and Lot journeyed east. Now the text tells us that Lot settled among the cities of the valley at first, but then he moved his tent closer and closer and finally ended up in Sodom. And Genesis 1313 goes on to describe,

now the men of Sodom were wicked, great sinners against the Lord. We get the word sodomy from what was happening in the city of Sodom. There's a clue about what was behind that lush rolling valley. Now that's the context I need you to know before we dive into a closer look at Genesis 19, where the Lord destroys Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot and his family had chosen a place where it looked like living would be a little easier, it would be more comfortable, but then they were completely surrounded by sin, by compromise, and outright injustice.

The people in Sodom were defiling one another sexually and morally. And as Abram pled with God, we saw that there weren't even ten righteous to be found within this city. In one of our first TMBT newsletters, Anna Lynn told me about it. So I started reading, or I guess I should say listening, I don't know what the right thing is when it's audible. Anyway, John Mark Comer's book, Live No Lies. I love what he says about growing up.

He says his mom had this saying, garbage in and garbage out, to describe books or TV shows or magazines or other things that they should avoid, so they would have a pure heart for God. He talks about how his church took this quite literally, but how it really does have truth. The more we take in things that are slanderous, harmful to women, unjust to the vulnerable, against God's commands for our sexuality, and our time, we become less sensitive to the effects they have on us.

Basically, we become more like who we spend time with and what we take in, for the better or the worse. Lott and his family were living among the ungodly. And in an act of mercy, God showed Lott how bad it had become. I'm not much for making things black and white when they're not black and white issues. So here what I'm getting ready to say, not as a task to do. but more of a method for knowing when it might be time to move on. Twitter.

I actually really like it. I like the brevity. I can spend less than 10 minutes catching up on current news, on the accomplishments of the other kids in my kids high school, on the evangelical buzz, the latest podcast episodes I want to hear, and what some of my friends are grilling or reading. But the bell at the bottom, here's the thing.

I don't really have that many followers, but still, if I post something, I realize that I opened Twitter throughout the day and my attention is immediately drawn down to that little bell. Is there a red number beside it? Do people like what I said? Do people like me? Now, maybe you are above the bell. Maybe it's little red numbers have zero effect on you. But do you know what does? Do you know what you give the power to enter your life and alter the way you think about yourself and others and God? Few of us are naive enough to think we don't have danger zones in our life that need to be addressed. But few of us actually recognize what they are.

And even fewer of us are willing to do something about it. Our lives leave clues about what these things are. Lott's life did. He sought comfort. He wanted to have the best. His very location was a clue. about his priorities. He wanted the ease of living in a place that was lusher, greener. Our lives leave clues about our compromising priorities of materialism, about our fascinations with divorce,

about our sexual appetites, about the way we tell lies to avoid consequences, our people-pleasing tendencies. There was a little red bell that was affecting Lot's life and the life of his family, but until there was an immediate threat, he was just kind of ignoring it. Now, Lot didn't start in Sodom. He started with an agreeable separation from Abram. Then he moved toward the Los Jordan Valley. Then he moved closer to the gates of Sodom. Then he moved into Sodom.

Then in Chapter 19, he was a prominent man in Sodom sitting at the city gates. But this wasn't the kind of city where you want to be considered an insider. it was a place of lust and greed and satisfying the sexual appetite. We get a picture of how bad it was when God sent two angels to Lot's house. Lot insisted they spent the night with him because he knew they wouldn't be safe to spend the night within the city, but they weren't even safe at Lot's house. An angry mob came to his door and tried to beat it down to kidnap the men. Listen to Genesis 19-6 through 8.

Lot went out to the men of the entrance, shut the, the door after him and said, I beg you, my brothers, by the way, he's talking to the mob here. 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. Now, Lott was trying to please the crowd and avert the crowd at the same time.

He called them brothers. He was appealing to his need for their approval and their acceptance of him. he was actually willing to sacrifice quite literally his own daughters to keep the crowd from harming his visitors and being upset with him. And then their response in verse nine, the mob said to Lot, stand back. This fellow came to sojourn and you have become the judge. Now we will deal worse with you than with them. Now this threat actually gave Lot the clarity he needed. Now he could see how far he had drug himself and his family into a terrible situation. The mob turned on him instantly.

They wanted to abuse him and everything he had. Lot had to have the people-pleasing acceptance-seeking identity, literally drug out of him to have his eyes open to the violence and horror of the place he'd chosen to live. Lot's complacency with corruption affected his family. When he went to warn his son-in-laws that, God was going to destroy the city. They thought it was a joke, and they didn't leave. We know later that his wife will ignore the messenger's warning. She'll turn back, look, and turn into a pillar of salt. His daughters, will they have their own story? Stay tuned to Jensen's

episode tomorrow to hear more about that. So much destruction, so much sin. But this is a story of God's mercy. In his mercy, God heard Abraham's plea. and saved Lot before destroying the city. In His mercy, God sent messengers to warn Lot and shine light on how bad the situation had become. John 1-5 tells us light and darkness cannot coexist. It says the light shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot overcome it. Where the Lord shines his light, darkness is diminished. Light in your thoughts, in your life, in your conscience, in the words of others, is God's mercy in your life.

God is merciful to give us people and situations that shine his light on the depravity we either don't recognize or choose to ignore. God calls us out of that place toward his greater story. In a letter to the Church of Philippi, Paul writes to people who are tempted to become more like the people they're living with. Instead, Paul calls them to live like who they are in Jesus and bring the people along with them on that journey. Philippians 1.27. Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ. So that whether I come and see you or I'm absent, I may hear of you that you're standing firm in one's spirit with one mind, striving side by side for the faith of the gospel. Side by side. It's not something we should do on our own, and it's not something our friends who aren't following Jesus can do for us. We have to partner with other Christians. We have to partner with other Christians. to stand firm in the faith and live like the citizens of heaven we are. We have to point things out to one another, speak truth to one another, seek discernment from

one another. Side by side means we need each other to live lives worthy of the gospel. Will you be someone for someone? I hear people say all the time that they wish someone would shepherd them or disciple them. But I rarely hear anyone say, I just wish I could find someone. someone I could mentor. Be someone who walks side by side with another as they start to figure out the voice of the enemy that wants to destroy them and the mercy of God who sent his son to save them. Help them put the clues their lives leave behind into the context of God's greater story. Put into action what you're learning in God's word, what you're hearing, what you're discovering, and share it with someone else.

This is the foundation of the gospel, and it's what we're called to do. Before you forget, sign up for the brand new TMBT newsletter. Hit the link in the show notes, and you'll get an email every Wednesday that will help you beat the midweek slump and go deeper in your walk with Jesus. Thanks for listening.