Living In Sodom

Just remember you were here on, what's today, August the 20th, 1997. You've been here one day, one service. We've been here since Father's Day of 95. Every service is different because the Holy Spirit knows everyone who is here for that particular service.

How many are here for the very first time? Lift your hand up high. Put your hand down. The other day, last Saturday night, last Saturday night, I asked the people, how many were there for the first time last Saturday night, thinking that most of the people had been there all week, and it looked just like what happened just then.

Most of the people were there for the first time, and every single night is different. The Lord knows who you are. He knows why you're here. Some of you fought hell to get here. Some of you, and I'm talking about not just financially, the devil tried to stop you from getting here.

Some of you that are here, you fought to keep from getting here. You didn't wanna get here. Some of you made a deal with somebody else, and finally it came time for you to make good on your deal. You told them a long time ago you would go to Brownsville if they did so-and-so, and they did so-and-so, and now it was your time to make good on your part, and so you're here.

You don't wanna be here. You're a Brownsville hater. You're a God hater. You hate me. You hate Lindell. You hate the music. You hate this church. You can't stand anything about this place, but you're here.

Divine Appointment and the Seriousness of Revival

I wanna tell you, your friend did not bring you. God brought you to this place. Everyone is here under divine appointment. That means you're supposed to be here. You're supposed to be in this place, friend, and God's got a message for you.

We're gonna pray a prayer, the same prayer we've been praying since Father's Day of 95. I wanna let you know how I look at revival as the evangelist, and pastor looks at it the same way as the pastor of Brownsville.

We don't take any service lightly. Every service, I crawl into this building and I say, Jesus, would you just come down one more time? We don't ever take for granted the presence of God, and you shouldn't either.

I don't ever take for granted preaching the Word of God. I know tonight's message could be the very last message that I preach. I could drop dead of a heart attack. I could be killed on the way home. This could be the very last message, and every morning when I get up to prepare a message, I know that this could be the very last one, and nothing is frivolous.

You don't take anything for granted. Every point has got to be crucial. Everything that's said has got to be from the Holy Ghost. I don't want anything. I don't wanna taint the pure message that comes from God tonight, and that's why we pray over these times, and we spend time before the Lord, and you should be the very same way.

This is not a frivolous time. You're in the presence of God. We're gonna ask the Lord to speak to our hearts and to change our lives. Those of you at home that are watching this haphazardly, maybe you just flipped on the television, and here we are, and here you are, and you got a miller in your hand and a cigarette in your mouth, and you'd rather watch something else.

I want you to sit down, sir, and I want you to pay attention to what the Holy, as a matter of fact, I want you to stand up with everybody else, and I want you to pray this prayer with us. We've been praying this since Father's Day.

It's a very simple prayer. Even if you don't know how to pray, you can pray this prayer. Everyone out loud with me right now. Dear Jesus. Dear Jesus. Speak to my heart. Speak to my heart. Change my life.

Change my life. In your precious name. In your precious name. Amen. You may be seated. I've been sharing off and on. Don't be distracted by people moving around on the platform, please, and ushers, please fill these seats quickly.

If you've got a seat next to you, would you lift up your hand if you've got a seat that can be filled? Okay, because we have hundreds of people that are all over the place that need seats. Ushers, please help me with that.

I'm not going to preach until those seats are filled. But I've been sharing with this congregation, the people that come to this revival, we've had a million, 700 ,000, you can put your hand down, they'll find it.

We've had a million, 700 ,000 people come here from all over the world. How many are here from outside the United States of America? Lift up your hand. Stand up if you're from here, from outside the United States of America.

God bless you. You may be seated. God bless you. This won't pertain to those outside of America, that what I'm about to share, but it will for those that live in the U .S. of A. I believe we're going to experience over the next few years a major change in government policy.

We're going to live through changes in the law. It's going to come to pass, friend, over the next few years where you'll be able to pray in school. It's going to, listen up. It's going to come to pass in America.

It's going to come to pass where if a child brings his Bible to school, he'll be able to have, open up his Bible and not only open it up, but during a break in class, he'll be able to talk, read the Bible out loud, be able to talk about it.

These things are coming to pass, friend. I want to tell you why. We've done some research. We were on the phone with George Gallup the other day of the Gallup poll people. 84 of North American adults, 84 believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

84%. Now, mind you, mind you that most of them don't live for God, but they still believe that. 94 of American households have Bibles. That means only 6 of American households, if you randomly walked into a hundred homes, you'd only find six nationwide.

This is the poll. It's plus or minus 3%. You'd only find six homes that did not have a Bible. That's interesting. 93 of all North American teenagers do not believe in evolution. They believe we were created.

93, that means 7 out there believe in evolution. 93 believe that God breathed. He made us. He touched us, made us out of dirt. This is interesting, isn't it? But let me tell you what's happening here in the government.

This is why. The government's waking up to the fact that America wants to get back with God. Now, this was just, this is from, this is an API article. This is from Washington. Federal employees will be free to express their faith at work in ways that include wearing religious jewelry and discussing their beliefs under guidelines issued by President Clinton on Thursday.

This is last Thursday. Listen, religious freedom is at the heart of what it means to be an American, Clinton told the gathering of religious leaders. These guidelines will ensure that federal employees and employers will respect the rights of those who engage in religious speech as well as those who do not.

But listen to what you can do. Clinton ordered it requires federal agencies to allow workers to engage in personal religious expression and reasonably accommodate holy days even if that creates some hardship for the agency.

They also prohibit agencies from discriminating on the basis of religion and bar federal workers from using their official positions to campaign for or against religion. Listen to this. A Christian employee can keep a Bible on his desk and read it during break.

Workers will be able to discuss freely their faith, even proselytize. Is anybody listening? This came from the top in America. And it says, workers will be able to share their faith, even proselytize.

That means during work, you can turn to the person working on the computer next to you and legally in America, is anybody listening? Legally in America, no fear of losing your job because you can't lose your job.

Why? Because it's been put into law. You can turn to your neighbor and say, listen, I know you're going through a hard time. I'd like to let you know how Jesus can help you. Listen, he goes on to say, as long as the one you're speaking to doesn't object and will listen, you can go on and on.

Friend, keep it up. What's happening is there in America, we've already shared this. I've been sharing it for the last two years. But at the beginning of this year, I talked to you about there's a religious fervor sweeping this nation right now.

Politicians are waking up. People are waking up and understanding that Christians who are in the millions upon millions in America are rising up and they're beginning to speak. I was on the phone and this is a prelude to the message tonight.

The message may be a little bit difficult for some of us in this room, but everyone needs to listen. I was on the phone today with the New York Times. They did an awesome article on the revival, gave us front page coverage.

And since then, we've had every major media come through here from Time Magazine. Time is doing a cover story on it, 20, 20, 48 hours. And the media can come and go. We're not here after the media. We've never invited anybody.

But the New York Times told me today, he said, Steve, what's being preached from that pulpit needs to be in every home in America. And this is not, we're talking about hellfire. We're talking about the cross, the blood, get right with God, get the sin out.

We're not talking about a lukewarm, cushiony, sweet, powdery, puffy, ear-tickling message. We're talking about the truth. And he said, America's ready to hear it. This was today, he shared that with me.

This is the number one reporter for the New York Times, by the way, the one who won the, what's that award? The Pulitzer Prize for the New York Times. And basically, anytime he does a story, he gets to pick the stories he does, because he's that good.

He said, Steve, the nation is ready for what you're preaching. If we're ready, then turn to Genesis 13. This is entitled Living in Sodom. We had a major magazine come, a secular magazine. Many of you know which one it is.

I'm not gonna say it out loud tonight in this message. But the young man that came and did the article, it was a phenomenal article. It's a major, major magazine owned by a, it's really, it's owned by a, a pornographic magazine company in the United States that is one of the most well-known.

And this magazine is a music magazine that is the number one magazine among the kids. Enough said, it sells millions. They came and did 12 pages on the revival, full pages, full pictures, unbelievable story on the revival.

And the man throughout the meetings, he was here for five days, sat right in this section over here, was seriously under conviction all the way through. Seriously, as a matter of fact, all through the story, he's being tugged upon and pulled upon by the Holy Ghost.

He meets other punk rockers that have been saved and sees the change in their lives. He sits under the preaching, under the music night after night. He hears charity sing, run to the mercy seat. He calls, he calls the shots the way he sees them.

He's writing, he's a secular reporter. And he puts in the article a statement about where he's at in his own spirit. He says this, after years of living in Sodom, I had forgotten about America's hatred for Sodomites.

He's a Sodomite. After years of living in Sodom, now he puts this in a nationwide magazine, openly confessing that he was on his way to a gay bar. And this is no secret, it's public knowledge. And I read that, after years of living in Sodom, and after sitting under the gospel message for days and days and days, and hearing the gospel being preached in a way he had never heard it, and watching drug addicts, alcoholics, prostitutes, millionaires, junkies, you name it, come running to the altar, weeping and wailing, and burning with a passion to get right with God.

He makes a statement after years of living in Sodom. And friend, I can't get that off me. I love this man. He needs Jesus so bad. I got a call into his office. We're begging him to call us back. I want to follow up.

I want to thank him for the awesome article that he wrote. Genesis 13. We're going to read a few verses, stay with me. So Abram went up from Egypt to the Negev, he and his wife and all that belonged to him and lot with him.

Genesis 13. Now Abram was very rich in livestock and silver and in gold. And he went on his journeys from the Negev as far as Bethel to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai, to the place of the altar which he had made there formerly.

And there Abram called on the name of the Lord. Now Lot who went with Abram also had flocks and herds and tents. And the land could not sustain them while dwelling together for their possessions were so great that they were not able to remain together.

And there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram's livestock and the herdsmen of Lot's livestock. Now the Canaanite and the Perizzite were dwelling then in the land. Then Abram said to Lot, please let there be no strife between you and me, nor between my herdsmen and your herdsmen, for we are brothers.

Is not the whole land before you? Please separate from me. If to the left, then I will go to the right, or to the right, then I will go to the left. And Lot lifted up his eyes. I want to stop just a minute.

Everyone look this way. Some of you have never heard the Bible before, okay? You're here. We have people that come to the revival that have never, ever opened up a Bible. They don't have a Bible tonight.

Let me just share with you what I'm reading, friend, before we go any further. The Bible is full of stories, true stories. From which we can glean. We can pull it, we can reach into these stories and pull out principles for our own lives.

And this is a story, and whether they had 2 ,000 cattle or 200 cattle makes no difference. So don't get lost in all the little details of Lot and Abraham. Just listen to the story, especially if you've never heard it before.

Just listen to the story, and I'm going to give you the parts that I believe are important tonight. And Lot lifted up his eyes, verse 10, and saw all the valley of the Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere.

This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt as you go to Zohar. So Lot chose for himself all the valley of the Jordan, and Lot journeyed eastward.

Thus they separated from each other. Abraham settled in the land of Canaan, while Lot settled in the cities of the valley and moved his tents as far as Sodom. Now the men of Sodom were wicked exceedingly and sinners against the Lord.

Now turn with me to chapter 18, if you would. Just a few pages to your right. Chapter 18, verse 20. By this time we have found out that Sodom is a wicked place. Chapter 18, verse 20,. And the Lord said, The outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah is indeed great, and their sin is exceedingly grave.

I will go down now and see if they have done and have entered entirely according to its outcry, which has come to me. And if not, I will know. Then the men turned away from there and went towards Sodom, while Abraham was still standing before the Lord.

Verse 23,. And Abraham came near and said, Wilt thou indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? For those of you that don't understand this, Abraham is talking with God. Suppose there are 50 righteous within the city.

Will you, O God, indeed sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the 50 righteous who are in it? Far be it from thee to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike.

Far be it from thee shall not the judge of all the earth deal justly. So the Lord said, If I find in Sodom 50 righteous within the city, then I will spare the whole place on their account. Verse 27,. And Abraham answered and said, Now behold, I have ventured to speak to the Lord, although I am but dust and ashes.

Suppose the 50 righteous are lacking five. Wilt thou destroy the whole city because of five? And he said, I will not destroy it if I find 45 there. And he spoke to him yet again, And suppose 40 are found there.

And he said, I will not do it on account of 40. Verse 30,. Then he said, O may the Lord not be angry, and I shall speak. Suppose 30 are found there. And he said, I will not do it if I find 30 there. And he said, Now behold, I have ventured to speak to the Lord.

Suppose 20 are found there. And he said, I will not destroy it on account of the 20. Then he said, O may the Lord not be angry, and I shall speak only this once. Suppose 10 are found there. And he said, I will not destroy it on account of the 10.

And as soon as he had finished speaking to Abraham, the Lord departed, and Abraham returned to his place. Now chapter 19, verse 24, and this is our last portion of Scripture tonight. By the way, I just read you about a man who was praying for somebody else.

Everyone look this way. Abraham didn't want to see Sodom destroyed. He didn't want to see the cities destroyed. He didn't want to see the righteous die. And there's people out there, friend, that are praying for you.

There's a grandmama out there, brother, that doesn't want to see you die. She doesn't want to see you die in your sins. She doesn't want to see you go under. And she's pleading to God. She's praying. Some of you have made serious mistakes in your life, and you're living those mistakes right now.

And there's a grandma, there's a grandfather, there's a young child, there's a mommy, there's a daddy somewhere praying, just like Abraham was seeking God. There's a grandma somewhere going, God, don't let it happen to my son.

Father, get him out of that bar. Get him out of that drinking establishment, Jesus. Deliver him. I remember one night when my mama came home, I was downstairs in my room, and I was a drug addict at this time, and a mainliner used to pump needles in my arms.

And we'd just robbed a pharmacy and had all these morphine vials, class A narcotics. And about 25 of us were stoned out of our minds. We'd stuck the needles in our arms and then pinned the needles in the ceiling like darts.

My mom walked in and we were all taking more than we could possibly handle. We were all passed out. My mom walked into the room and it was a downstairs basement room that I had moved into. And she looked at the ceiling of the room and she looked at all the corpses on the ground.

It was about 12 o 'clock at night. And she said, oh my God. My mama, I'd already lost my father when I was 16. By this time I was like 28 years of age and heavily on drugs. And I remember that she started going up the stairway fast up to the first floor of the house.

And I thought for sure that she was gonna call the cops. So I made my way up to my feet and I stumbled up the stairway and I passed the telephone and she wasn't at the phone. And I went back to the back room in the hallway and the door was shut to her room.

And I listened up by the door and she was doing this. Jesus, save my boy. Jesus, don't let him die down there. Don't let my boy overdose, Jesus. Save my son. Friend, I wanna tell you, somebody's praying for you.

Somebody's praying for you. My mama comes to this revival all the time and she sees it different than anybody else. She sees it different. She knows the answer to prayer. She knows no matter how bad off somebody is, God can save them.

Sin, Sodom, and the Choice of Where to Pitch Your Tent

And I'm not gonna get into the history of Sodom. I might do this later on. But that's where we get our word, sodomy. With sodomy as a filthy word, you can go look it up yourself. To sodomize is a sexual act.

It's happening all over America even right now. Some man is sodomizing some little boy, even in this city as I speak. Gays are lining up at the bars trying to find a fresh piece of meat for the nights.

It's party, sodomy. Why would they call it sodomy? Because Sodom was a wicked city, friend. And when it came to naming a wicked sin, what else could you call it but sodomy? The town that was notorious for sin.

I wanna give you a few points tonight. Some of you can already feel this coming. I can tell you're not even looking at me no more. I came to get blessed, see? Believe, God's gonna bless you, friend, but you're gonna get to sin out first.

That's the greatest blessing. You know, the letters we get, we get letters from all over the world of the power coming down. But the greatest letters we get, and the ones my secretary lays on my desk, are the ones where the sin came out.

And those are the happiest letters. The happiest letters we get are the ones that came here and the sin was eradicated, dealt with here at this altar. And now they're just, they're in heaven. And once you get the sin out, friend, without holiness, no man will see the Lord, but with holiness, friend, you're gonna attract God.

You'll attract him. And then the power starts coming down. Let me give you a few points. Number one, basic, fundamental in this story. Everyone has a choice of where to pitch his tent. Everyone has a choice of where to pitch his tent.

Lot chose to pitch his tent towards Sodom. Now those of you that have preached on this, I have never preached on Sodom in 22 years, ever. I prepared this this morning. So if you're a preacher here and you've got 46 different points than I got, keep them to yourself.

Everyone has a choice of where to pitch his tent. We read in the Word of God that Lot made his choice. Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan and Lot journeyed east and they separated themselves the one from the other.

He chose the well-watered plains of Jordan. It was a wonderful reward for any man. Face this way, folks, don't be distracted. It was a well-watered, luscious green place, vegetation for his cattle, abounding with fertile crop-producing soil.

Even as the garden of the Lord, the Bible says. Everyone has a choice of where they're going to pitch their tent. This is going to hit home in just a second, friend. But you better be careful when you're making that choice because there could be some drawbacks.

There could be some repercussions to the choice that you're making. The Bible says in verse 13 here, but the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly. It's one thing to be a sinner and wicked.

It's one thing to be a sinner and wicked before the Lord. It's another thing to be wicked and sinner before the Lord exceedingly. These folks irritated God. They were sitting on a volcano. Spiritually speaking, friend, God's wrath was rising as he looked towards Sodom.

It was constantly rising. And as Jonathan Edwards would say, he was holding back the dam. God was holding back the dam of the wrath on Sodom. But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly.

But Lot chose. Everyone's got a choice of where they're going to pitch their tent. It can be a great neighborhood, friend, but bad neighbors. Is anybody listening? It can have material blessings, but be morally cursed.

God did what so many of us do today. We make our decisions without a full understanding of the details. And oftentimes choose to remain oblivious to the possible consequences. Stay with me just a second, friend.

This is going to make sense. Some of you are thinking, well, when he's going to preach Jesus? Before this service is up, friend, we preach the cross, the blood. We preach the crucifixion here. We preach if Jesus be lifted up, he will draw all men.

But right now, I'm going to touch on something that Jesus would touch on. Matter of fact, he spoke about this city. Jesus came, why? To take away the sin of the world. Behold, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.

John the Baptist does not point to the man walking up to the river saying, behold, the Lamb of God who will provide you all the things you need on the face of this earth. Behold, the Lamb of God, which will give you a nice home in Akron, Ohio.

Behold, the Lamb of God, who will clothe you and feed you. He said, behold, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. And that's what we're talking about right now. This is gospel. We're going to talk about sin for a few minutes, friend.

But people make decisions and they choose to remain oblivious to possible consequences. Some of you are like the man when your radiator light or when your oil light came on and just kept staying red, you put a piece of duct tape over it, hoping it'll go away.

Before you buy a car, how many want to know the truth about the car? Is the odometer correct? Has it had Bondo work? Has the chassis been hammered and welded back into shape? Before buying a house, don't you want to know the truth?

Are the neighbors hoodlums? Look this way, friend. Hello. Before you sink $265 ,000 in a house, find out who lives next door. Why are they selling the house? You can't understand why it is such a bargain.

Something's up somewhere. Maybe the folks are not just moving. Maybe there's a reason they're moving. They know something you don't know. Investigate, talk to the neighbors. You might find out that the mafia live next door or a child molester moved in across the street.

Before investing in mutual funds or buying certificates of deposits, before you find out what kind of return, you ought to find out is the bank about to close? Do they care about their customers? Friend, I'm saying this, but some of you don't even pay attention to details.

You blindly walk into everything. It's your choice where you pitch your tent. Young people, you better listen because school just started back and some of you have already taken your tent and I can hear the poles clattering and I can hear the stakes coming out of the bag and you're pitching your tent in the wrong direction.

Already in the chapel, listen up to me, you're pitching your tent in the wrong direction. Two, three days of school and you're already going after the wrong crowd. I can feel it. I can see the little girls pitching their tent towards Sodom.

Go to school, where do you go to school? Where do you dress the first day of school? You ought to dress all covered up, but no, some of you young ladies visiting went half naked. Why? You want to be noticed.

You're pitching your tent towards Sodom. You want to be noticed. If you didn't get noticed the first day, you're sure going to get noticed the second day. Lower goes the cut, higher goes the hem. Whatever it takes, I'm going to be noticed.

You're pitching your tent towards Sodom, friend. Many of you make choices using your natural senses. Without ever requesting counsel from your spiritual man, you use your natural senses. Seeing, it looks right.

Hearing, sounds right. That's Sodom, friend. When Lot looked that way, it was luscious, it was green, it was perfect, but it was wrong. It smelled right, it touched right, it tasted right. Sensual choices are sinful choices.

You can write that down and live by it. Sensual choices are sinful choices. Let me give you an example. Bring that out for me, Charlie. This is what you might call an up-to-date illustration. Last week, the largest food recall in U .S. history occurred.

As 1 .2 million pounds, that's a lot of burgers, of frozen beef patties were pulled from the store shelves and Frigidaires all across America. You know what that is? That's a hamburger. That is a round hamburger.

That's a quarter pounder, man, on your stove. It looks good. Sounds good. It's frozen, just like they're supposed to be. It's got the right color, doesn't smell rotten, smells good, looks right. Everything's perfect.

I'm telling you, some of you, this is exactly how you make choices. He looks right. He even lifts his hands in church. She smells like Chanel. Everything's perfect about her. Friend, you're heading down Sodom's road.

You're going the wrong way. That's not how you live life. There's more to it than that. There's something called prayer. There's something called direction. There's something about what should I do, Jesus, in this situation.

I'm gonna go ahead and, I'm going ahead and warning some of you right now. There's some people in this room, you are shocked that we're preaching this. You have been stripped naked spiritually in the last five minutes.

You know something's up in your life. You know that you have turned and you can see Sodom right in front of you and you're moving towards it. You got your backpack, your tent, you're moving towards Sodom and God has sent somebody along, friend, to warn you.

I'm warning you, friend. These frozen patties, and I'm not gonna name the company, came out of Arkansas. They were shipped all over the nation on June and July. But something happened. 16 consumers in Colorado got sick.

Many of them were hospitalized. Some of them could have died by something called E. coli O157H7, a bacteria that can be fatal. Just a hamburger. It looked right. It was round. It was red. It was in my grocer's shelves.

But then something happened over the airwaves, on the television, on the radio, in USA Today, Time Magazine. You name the paper, it came out. Warning, warning, warning, warning. Stay away from that frozen food.

It was called the USDA, the U .S. Department of Agriculture. They've got a department called the Food Safety Inspection Service Division. I thank God for that division. This is your tax dollars at work, friend.

The Food Safety Inspection Service said this, they are the public health agency responsible for ensuring that the nation's commercial supply of meat, poultry, and egg products is safe, wholesome, and correctly labeled and packaged.

Somebody's watching over your soul. In America, somebody's watching over your body, man. There's some people out there that work day in and day out so you don't die. And as soon as they felt, as soon as someone got sick, some type of poisoning in their stomach, they were on the case.

Two people got sick. Three, they were there in a heartbeat, and it didn't take them long. They all bought the same hamburger meat, and then it swept the nation in a matter of seconds, and everything was pulled.

And many of us didn't even know it happened. Didn't even know it happened, but the government was out there protecting us, man, watching over us. Well, the same spiritually, friend. There's somebody watching over your soul.

There's somebody caring about you. You're oblivious to it, but there's somebody seeing. He looks out there, and he sees the bacteria. He sees the suffering. He sees the disease, and I see possible death, friend.

And I'm warning you right now, up front, get this hamburger out of here. Thank you, Charlie. Did that make sense? I hope so, friend. That's poison. That's what it is. That's poison in hamburger form. Some of you little ladies and some of you men, you go strutting towards the wrong person.

I'm telling you, I see poison. I see red lights. I see danger. You're fixing to walk into a cavern. You're gonna die in that position, friend. You're heading the wrong direction. We're trying to warn you.

Matthew Henry wrote years ago, those who in choosing relations or callings or homes or areas to live are guided and governed by, who are guided by the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, or the pride of life, and consult not the interests of their souls.

And Christianity cannot expect God's presence nor his blessing upon them. I want everyone to pay attention, friend. Some of you are like animals in this place. Like animals. Your sexual organs drive you, control you.

Everything you do, they control you. You see a woman, you turn towards her. You see a man, you turn towards him. Lust, can't go to the beach without lusting over everybody there. Can't do this, can't do that, why?

You're like an animal. You haven't learned how to turn your head. You haven't learned how to close your eyes. You haven't learned how to control yourself. You can't turn on the television without watching something with a little lust in it.

Something with a little meat to it. I'm dealing with this tonight, friend, and we don't, every night's different, remember. But this is God-ordained. Number two, I have 263 points, I'm moving quickly.

The Consequences of Pitching One’s Tent Toward Sodom

Number two, take your time. Yeah, pastor told me to tell you to settle down, quit moving around, and I mean that. Distractions, let me tell you something when you have to get up and move out, unless it's absolutely necessary, you distract no less than 50 people.

And there could be a man this close to getting saved, and you had to get up and walk out and get a drink of water. There's too much happening tonight, friend. This is too serious. Number two, once you've chosen to live in Sodom, once you've chosen to pitch your tent towards Sodom, anything evil is free to come crawling around.

How many have been camping? How many have been camping before? They're scared to raise their hands, they're going, I don't know. I've been camping, friend, and I've seen some crawly stuff at night. But once you've chosen to plant your tent towards Sodom, anything evil is free to come crawling around.

Chapter 19, look at this just for a minute. Now the two angels came to Sodom in the evening as Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground.

And he said, now behold, my lords, please turn aside into your servant's house and spend the night and wash your feet. Then you may rise early and go on your way. They said, however, no, but we shall spend the night in the square.