Luke 17. Turn to Luke 17 with
me. Let's read verses. Now the Lord
is talking here to His disciples about His return. They asked
Him when He's coming back. And he said in verse 24, as the
lightning that lighteneth out of one part under heaven, shineth
under the other part under heaven, so shall also the Son of Man
be in his day, when he comes, the day of the Lord. But first
must he suffer many things and be rejected of this generation. And as it was in the days of
Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of Man. and
everything right before His coming. They did eat, they drank, they
married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that
Noah entered into the ark and the flood came. And the other
gospel says, and knew not, they knew not until the flood came,
destroyed them all. Likewise, also as it was in the
days of Lot, they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold,
they planted, they builded, The same day that Lot went out of
Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them
all. Now, these are sobering words
of our Lord, aren't they? Everything our Lord says is sobering
in Syria. I often think, maybe I should
lighten up a little bit. I tell you what, as I see the
day approaching, I should get more and more urgent. All of
us should be. That's what the Scripture says.
How much more as you see the day approaching, what manner
of people we ought to be. Seeing these things will be just
how. Noah. How do you think Noah preached?
A hundred years. Now he didn't know if his children
were going to be in that ark yet. And he had a burden for those
children being in that ark, didn't he? Lot had some family out there
inside of him that weren't in the house. He's serious about
it. And I'm serious about it. We've
got children. We've got sons. We've got daughters. They're
not in the ark yet. Scripture says we ought to give
them more earnest heed to the things we've heard, lest at any
time we let them slip. That's what the world does to
us. We let them slip. The world lets
these things slip. The thorns of life, the foul
of the air, steal it away. Don't let that happen. Ask the
Lord not to let that happen. I knew a man that said that after
every message he preached. Lord, don't let the fowls come
and pick the word away or the thorns choke it out. It's a good
prayer. Scripture says today is the day
of salvation. Today. Not tomorrow. There's no tomorrow. Our Lord
said, boast not thyself tomorrow. Scripture says, exhorting one
of those, so much more. It says, seeing that all these
things be dissolved, what we should be? Looking for it. Peter
said, hastening the coming of the Lord. Looking for and hastening. Can we hasten the coming of our
Lord? Can we make Him come any sooner than He's going to? No,
we can't. But what that means is, the more you think about
something, the more you talk about something, the nearer it
seems to you. Whereas, out of sight, out of
mind. Isn't that the way it is? You don't think about something.
It's like going on a vacation or something you're looking forward
to. The more you talk about it and prepare for it and think
about it, the nearer it feels. The more excited you get about
it. You'd be like men and women if
you said you're waiting on their Lord. Waiting on their Lord. Now remember, he told us about
the days of Noah, so shall it be in the days of the Son of
Man when Christ returned. They ate, they drank, they married
wives, they were given in marriage. As in the days of Noah, and then
he says, as in the days of Lot. And remember, days. He doesn't say the years of Noah. He lived a long time, but it
says days, doesn't it? Man that is born of woman is
a few what? Days. Days. Teach us to number
our days, that we might apply our hearts to wisdom. What's
wisdom? Christ, to know Him. If you don't
have the Son, you don't have life. We're dead and dying. So this
is vital. Teach us to number our days,
to apply our hearts to what? Wisdom, to know in Him. Old Paul
said that I might know Him, might win pride, and like Noah and
his family to be found in Him. Me and my family. Huh? Is that your desire? Is that
all your desire? Is it? If it is, you'll be found
in Him. Is that your greatest desire
for your family? You know, if you live 70 years,
you have 25,550 days. Does that sound like a lot? I've got 700 left. Boy, I'd put a perspective on it. Maybe. So what am I thinking about?
700. You're past time. Too many people
have run it over. This is not morbid, this is just
wisdom. I'm not trying to scare anybody
or discourage anyone, only that I'm trying to exhort us to seek
the Lord while He may be found. That today is a day, young and
old, seek the Lord while He may be found. The gospel is being
preached tonight. Tonight. All right, the last
day. Now the last days have been since
the Lord walked this earth. He said this generation will
not pass away till all these things will be fulfilled, right?
There are 2,000 years in a generation that he's speaking of. The world
was created in six days, and the Lord rested. This world is
6,000 years old. It's over. It's over. Any day now. Any day now. As
in the days of Noah. Remember all the... There's the
Moses, all the locusts, the darkness, the death, and they went out.
The days of Noah. Days. Last days. Days of our
Lord. He said they were eating and
drinking and marrying, and that's fine. Turn to Ecclesiastes 3
with me. All of you, young and old, Ecclesiastes. Right after Proverbs. I often
say that for my sake, so I can find it. But Ecclesiastes chapter
3. It was a popular song in the
70s that they made from this. A band, you know, paraphrased
it. It was very popular. You think
anybody was paying attention to it? I didn't. But anyway. It says there's a time. To everything there's a season.
There's a time to every purpose under heaven. There's a time
to be born and a time to die. And Psalm 90 says it's just that
quick. It's like a sleep. You wake up.
You're born, you wake up. I remember mother, we had her. She was in a hospital when she
was 80-something, had heart surgery. And was it Finley? Finley was
in there. She was just a child, maybe 8
months. There's an 8-month-old child
and an 80-year-old woman. Now, buddy, that 8-month-old
child, if the Lord doesn't come, is going to be 8 years old like
that. You don't think so? It's just so. So he says, down
in verse 11, he made everything beautiful in his time. The Lord
made everything beautiful, giving us all things richly to enjoy.
Verse 13, and I enjoy these things, don't you? You're lying if you
say you don't. And there's nothing wrong with
enjoying the things that God has made. And if you know the Lord, if
you know whose hand it came from, if you're thankful to Him and
realize you don't deserve this, you know you'll enjoy Him a whole
lot more. You'll enjoy things a whole lot more if you realize,
I don't deserve this. Look what all I have. Like the woman who
sat down to a piece of bread in her house. One piece of bread.
Poor little woman. She said, all this and Christ
too? It's just more than I can bear. So, I enjoy this thing. I enjoy my family. I enjoy eating
and drinking. I'm glad we're married. It just gets better, okay? But... Down in verse 13 he says, Every
man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor.
It's the gift of God. See that in this whole book?
It's about that, the young and old, about this life. But he
ends it by saying, I tried it all and enjoyed, but it's vanity. He begins and ends saying it's
vanity of vanity. No matter what it is, it's vanity.
Vanity means it will not fulfill. It will not fill you up with
whatever you're looking for. Peace, happiness, joy, it won't
last. In fact, the loss of it is greater
than the joy of it. These widows who've lost their
husband, they miss them after years. Years. All those years they spent together,
72 years, she said, I miss him every day. It's going to happen
to every one of us unless the Lord returns. So where should we seek our true
joy and not be taken from us, our true peace? So, he ends by
saying, here's the conclusion of the matter, fear God. Fear God. Go back to Luke 17. We consider the days of Noah,
and they're just like today, they're no different. It was
a prosperous time, Luke 17. It's a prosperous time and populated. Our Lord said, as in the days
of Noah, the whole earth was populated. And estimates have
it anywhere from ten to billions of people. All right? The whole earth was populated
and the whole earth was perverted. Is that not now? I mean, just
50 or 60 years ago, it wasn't close to being this bad. Was
it? Was it? You never heard and saw
some of the things you're hearing and seeing now that you did just
50 years ago. That's not long at all. 40. You
think it'll get any worse? Yes. right before the Lord returns. The whole earth, he said, has
corrupted his way before he's destroyed it with the flood.
Did he? Did he do what he said he was
going to do? Yes, he did. But Peter wrote
a book, a letter to the church, and he said, Beloved, the world
is scoffing and mocking and willingly ignorant. Science, falsely so-called,
covers it up. Evidence of the flood, they cover
it all up, don't they? Clear as evidence. You know they
found fish fossils on top of the Andes mountains? Fish! On some of the highest mountains
in the world. How in the world did they get there? Swim up the
mountain? Big upheaval of water. Everything's
covered with water. But they willingly are ignorant
of these two things, the Lord said. Creation? Oh, the heavens
declare your glory, the firmament showeth its handiwork, day unto
day others speak. Everybody is without excuse. This marvelous, glorious, amazing
creation. Everybody is without excuse.
Like Brother Chapman said, the most amazing animal or thing
on earth is a gnat. His brain has a circulatory system,
respiratory system, heart, a neck. this creation. And they said
they're willingly ignorant that the world overflowed with water,
that God destroyed this world, meaning that God was angry, that
God is holy, that God is just, that God of the Bible will punish
sin. And the only way you'll be saved
by him is to be in the ark. And the world scoffs and mocks,
it's just an old wives' fable, it's a Jewish fable, it's just
a cute little story. Okay? Just 400 years went by
after the flood, the days of Lot. 400 years. And the world began to be populated.
Huge countries, Chaldea, Egypt. Egypt was thriving, thriving. Sodom, big cities like Sodom,
100,000 or more people in it, big city. Okay, just 400 years. Now, our Lord said, as in the
days of Lot, verse 28, As it was in the days of Lot, they
did eat, they drank. Same thing as Noah. We got to
eat, we got to drink. Here it says they bought, they
sold, they planted, they built it. Okay? There's nothing wrong
with those things. You've got to buy. You have to
carry on commerce and buy food and this and that and the other,
or plant it, build. There's nothing wrong with those
things. It's all fine unless you choose to buy a house inside
them where there's no gospel. Unless you choose to build a
house and live in Sodom. Unless you choose to go to school
where there's no gospel. Unless you choose to marry someone
who's a Sodomite. And now you've got trouble. Right? And by Sodomite, I mean just
the person that didn't know the Lord. Genesis 12, Brother Bruce preached
a message on this, entitled Choices. And I urge you to listen to it. But I wanted to preach this to
you first. No, seriously, it means more
alive than it does in memorex. Seriously. A message in person,
a live voice, like those angels came to Sodom. They didn't come
on Mixler. They came in person and said,
Get out! If a man's looking you in the face or grabbing you by
the arm, Come on! That means a lot more than Brother Bruce brought these facts
out, you know, choices to be made, and thank God that salvation's
not our choice. Thank God it's all His choice
or none of us would be here. None of us would have chosen
him, but God. Brother John kept praying in
the study, thank you for choosing the people, thank you for choosing
the people. That's not doctrine. That's like Noah sitting in the
ark, me, it's me, he's talking about me. I'm here because he
chose me. Did he believe in election? No,
he believed God chose him. Election won't save you. If you're chosen of God, He will
save you. Aren't you glad, aren't you thankful
that our life and everything about it is not our choice? Everything
in it, our times are in His hands, the days we live. You better
be thankful you don't know the future. Have you ever thought
you'd like to know what the future holds? You know who your children,
if they're going to marry. No, you don't either, because
you don't know what's going to happen. And if you did, you might
couldn't live. But God does. Aren't you glad
that it's all His determinant will? His choice. But we are faced with choices
every day, aren't we? And we need to be wise. We need
to choose and follow Scripture says that which is good. God's will. You know God's will
can be known. God's revealed will. His written will. You have it
in your lap. The Lord doesn't leave us in
the dark about anything. Anything. You want to know His
will for you? You've got it in your hands.
Listen to me, people. You know what His determinate
will and purpose of salvation is in Christ, where the world
began. He chose to save a people and
put their names in the Lamb's Book of Life and gave them to
Christ, their covenant head, to come down here and live and
die and redeem them and rise and go back to glory. And they're
all going to go back to heaven with Him. That's the sum and
substance of this book, okay? That's what the chief reason
this book was written, to show us that will, that purpose, all
right? But, and, I should say, His will
for you in everything, in every area of your life is right in
this book right here, if you'll follow it. His will for our lives, lifestyles,
all here, from father to children, from the Heavenly Father to His
children, just like you parents, if you're a good parent, you're
going to talk to your children, you're going to instruct them,
you're going to lead them, you're going to guide them, and you're
not going to leave them to themselves, are you? Oh, they'll figure it
out. Oh no. Oh no. His will for us. He tells us how to worship. He
tells us where to worship. People say all the time, choose
a church of your choice. Worship at the church of your
choice. I want the church of God's choice. I want the church
of my choice. I'd choose a place with good
music. Poor woman. I talked to a woman
just the other day. I like her. I feel sorry for her. I asked
her where she went and asked her to come here and talk to
her a little bit. And I said, why do you go there? She said,
she hem-hawed around, she said, I just love their choir. That's
sad. I said, well, if you want to
know God, you want to know what God says, you want what the Word
of God says, the truth of Christ, you come here. This is all we
do. That's all we do, look in to see what God said, what His
Word said. The Lord tells us how to worship, where to worship.
He tells us how to walk. You need to know how to walk.
Oh my goodness gracious. Order my steps according to Thy
Word and let no iniquity have dominion over you. If He doesn't,
John, order our steps, we'll fall. Tells us how to walk, how
to talk. You need to know how to talk?
I tell you what we need to know is how to talk less. Swift to
hear. Slow to speak. He that keepeth
his mouth keepeth his soul from troubles. Boy, that's serious,
isn't it? How many times do you have to
say that? He says it a lot. How to walk, how to talk, how
to think. We're not sufficient to think
that anything of our self. Paul said that. Let this mind
be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Think not on things
of others, I mean on yourself, but things of others. This is
all we have. How to act, how to dress. He
even told Timothy, Paul told Timothy how to behave in the
house of God. Didn't, if you've read your Bible. How to be a
father. Oh, my. It's not over for me. I'm still a father. Grandfather.
I've got a lot to learn. I want to leave. Mother, how
to be a husband and wife. When do you learn to be a good
husband? I'm not going to ask your wives that. But how to be
a good wife, a son or a daughter. How to be a good friend. This book tells us how to be
a good friend. What does it use as an example?
Christ. There is a friend that sticketh
closer than a brother. You know, a friend is born for
adversity. Born for adversity. I want to
be that way. Right? Church member. Every preacher I know says, I'd
like to just go back to being a church member. I could be the
best one there was. Where to live? You know, scriptures
tells us where to live. Scriptures tells us who to marry.
Scriptures tells us who to have friends with, who to associate
with, who not to associate with. Very plainly, very clearly. And somebody says, I'm seeking
the Lord's will. Oh, are you? If you are, you'll
find it. You'll find it. This is the way
our Lord says, walk in it. Didn't He? This is His will,
even your sanctification. What does that mean? Set apart. We just sang that. Consecrate
me now to thy service, Lord. That's what that means. You're
married to another. You're not your own. You're bought
with a bride. You don't belong to yourself.
You belong to somebody else. Married to Him. Devoted to Him.
A life lived with Him. In Him. Noah walked with God.
Enoch walked with God. Abraham was a friend of God.
That's my aspiration. Isn't it? Scripture tells us who to associate
with, His people, like a flock. Genesis 12, look at this. Abram,
before his name was changed, verse 1, the Lord said, Get out. Get out of thy country and from
thy kindred and from thy father's house unto the land that I will
show thee. And I'll make of thee a great nation, I'll bless thee,
and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing. And
I'll bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curses thee,
and in thee shall all the families of the earth be bled." What a
promise. Now you know, he said in the
New Testament, talking about Christ, that all people will
be blessed in Him, right? Well, Paul said, follow them,
follow me as I follow them that follow him. Abraham was a godly
man. Abraham was God's man. Abraham
was a blessed man. His whole family was blessed.
Seventy-two descendants. From seventy-two went to two
million. From one man, Abraham. Right? That'd be a good man to
hang around with. Abraham. Well, Lot did. Lot did. He was his nephew. What
an advantage. Abraham departed, verse 4, as
the Lord had spoken unto him, and Lot went with him. Apparently
Lot's parents died. Abraham was 75 years old. He
departed. And he took Sarah, his wife,
and Lot, his brother's son. Okay? He took him with him. Where
did he go? Well, look at verse 8. He moved from Thinsen and came
to a mountain east of Bethel. What's Bethel mean? What's Bethel
mean? House of God. Look at it. Verse 8. He pitched his tent
in Bethel. Lot didn't. And he built an altar
of the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord, Bethel. That's where we need to be in
the house of God, with God's people, people that are friends
of God, like Abraham. That's where we need to be, worshiping
the Lord, calling on the Lord, the house of God. That's where
God is. God's in his house. That's where
his people are. Like Ruth. Remember? Ruth was given a choice. Am I
making sense? What did God say about Moses? Moses did what? Chose. He chose, rather, to suffer affliction
with the people of God, and the pleasure is his choice to be
mad. Ruth was asked, told by her mother-in-law,
you stay here with your sister in Moab, and with your gods,
and with you stay here. She said, she didn't have to
stop and think about it. I'm leaving. I'm leaving. I'm going where God's people
are. I'm going to Bethlehem. I'm going where there's bread,
where there's a flock of people, where there's God's people. There's
no God here. There's no gospel here. There's
no people of God here. I'm leaving. Noah, being warned
of God, did what? Moved with fear. Moved with fear. Ask Rahab. Are you glad to get out of Jericho?
Where are you going? I'm going where Joshua is. Where
did she end up? Bethlehem. The house of bread. Chapter 13. Look
at chapter 13. Verse 1. Abram went out of Egypt,
he and his wife and all he had, and a lot with him to the south.
Abram was very rich. Cattle, silver and gold. Went
from his journey from the south even to Bethel, the place where
his tent had been. He got sidetracked, went down
to Egypt because of famine, but he came back to Bethel, didn't
he? And that's where he was, the place of the altar. And it's
there, verse 4, Abram called on the name of the Lord. And
Lot also, he was with him. Now, Lot is a grown man. And
he went with him, and they had flocks and herds and tents, and
the land was not able to bear them. They had so much stuff. That's all it is, isn't it? Stuff. Substance. It was great, and
they couldn't dwell together peacefully. Their strife between
the herdsmen of Abram's cattle and the herdsmen of Lot's cattle,
and Canaanite pairs out-dwelled in the land. Abram set under
Lot. Here's the man that wants peace. Let there be no strife, I pray
thee, between me and thee, and between thy herdmen and thy herdmen.
We be brethren. Why is there this strife? Why
is there all this trouble? Too much stuff. Now he said in
verse 9, It is not the whole land before thee. Separate thyself,
I pray thee, from me. If thou choose the left hand,
I'll go to the right. If you choose the right hand,
I'll go to the left. You see that? Make a choice, Lot. I'll
take whatever's left. Now, does he want Lot to leave
him? Did Naomi want Ruth to leave
her? She's testing her. God's testing
her. And Ruth, by the grace of God,
made the right choice. And Lot didn't. Look at it. Lot lifted up his eyes. He lusted
to the eye. He lifted up his eyes and beheld
all the plain of Jordan. Oh, this looks nice. Well watered
everywhere before the Lord's destroying Sodom and Gomorrah.
It's like the Garden of Eden. Beautiful place. Big city. Land
of opportunity. jobs, stores, recreation, entertainment,
full of people, a land of opportunity, plenty for me, plenty for my
family, a city with everything, has everything, but one thing, no gospel. No gospel. There's no flock there. There's no people of God there.
No. The Lord found one righteous
man. Later, when Lot went there, one
of God's elect, he said, only one. Only one. What did God say about
this place? Now in verse 13, the men of Sodom
were wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly. Scripture talks about that, declaring
their sin like Sodom, raising their fist in God's faith, without
a conscience, no sin, no wrong, anything goes, anything but God's
Word. They said to Lot, don't you be
our judge. That's where Lot chose him. What
happened? If we go where there's no gospel,
if we go someplace where there's no gospel, there's no promise
that you won't be destroyed with that blade. Right? You know what happened to Lot
and his family? And Lot was miserable all the days of his life. And
he was an old man, an old man when the Lord laid hold of him.
When was he saved? When was Lot saved? Well, you
know, Lot was saved two or three times. Chedule Omar, the king, in the
battle of the king, they came and they got Sodom and all the
people and the goods and they took them captive and Lot was
amongst them. And Abraham came and saved him. I believe maybe
that was starting to work on Lot's mind. Well, you know what
he did? He went right back to Sodom. went right back to Sodom and
got right back in that bed. His daughters were lost, his
sons-in-law were lost, two daughters were still there unmarried. Decadent
place like Jericho. No gospel, no people of God. And all his life was miserable.
And in the end, the Lord, being merciful, laid hold of him and
brought him out of Sodom. Brought him out of Sodom. Look
at that chapter 18. Go over there now. Chapter 18.
Chapter 18. We looked at this. The Lord said
of Sodom, verse 20, the cry of his grave, the sin is very grievous. Okay? And then I told you about
Isaiah 3. It says the people declare their
sin as Sodom. But you know what? It says also
in the Scripture that Israel and even Judah became so bad
in their idolatry, they left the truth. There was lots of
truth, and then there was a falling away, and then Israel and even
Judah became so perverted, the truth was so perverted, that
God called that Sodom. Isaiah 1, didn't it? He called
Israel, that is religion, was so perverted. Is that not today
or what? Religion is so perverted. Our Lord said it's going to be
easier for the harlots in the judgment than for religious people. Easier for Sodom, He said, more
tolerable in the judgment for Sodom than in false religion.
Why is that? Because it's all pretense. It's
all in the name of God. It's all pretending to be Christians
and all that when they're just as corrupt. Just as corrupt. Worse. Worse. Are we in the days of Lot or
what? Are we in the days of Noah or what? It's clear. It's clear. So Lot was in Sodom. And I like this. Verse 1 of chapter
19. I'm closing. It came two angels
to Sodom. We live in Sodom. We do. But let me tell you this, this
little town is kind of like Bethlehem. It is in it. The Lord's restraining
grace is on towns where the gospel is. Isn't it, Steve? It's a fact. It's just a fact. But when the Lord is taking his
hand off the place, don't go there. And it's clear, this place is,
there's no gospel there, and the Lord, it's no restraining
hand of God on that place. Like Romans 1, it says they're
filled with it, and make no apology for it. But this is, the Lord
has had mercy upon this little town like Capernaum and Bethsaida,
hasn't He? But the Lord warned them too,
didn't He? Not to leave the gospel. If you
do, it will be woe unto you. But chapter 19, the Lord sent
two angels to Sodom. Lot sat in the gate of Sodom.
I've heard so many men deal with this, and I'm just certain of
this, because it says that the Lord, He called Sodom, He called
Lot a just man and a righteous man. Now how's that? He believed
God. He believed God. When did he
start believing God? Well, he heard the truth from
Abraham. Didn't he? all his life. Well, when did
it happen? Well, maybe the first time Abraham saved his life. And then when he went back, he
had a family to take care of and all. He should have got his
family and got out of there quick. Go back to where Abraham was.
Go back to Bethel. No, he stayed there. But the Lord is so merciful. And he sent these two men, and
I think Lot was sitting in the gate because he's vexed with
the conversation of the wicked. He's full of regrets. He's just
sick of Sodom, and he wants out. He's sitting in the gate. He's
not at home. He's sitting in the gate like,
man, I'd like to get out of here. Do you reckon he's calling on
the Lord? You know he is. He's a just man. He's a righteous
man. He's calling on the Lord. Lord, please come get me and
my family out of Sidon. Here, come to me. He rose up to meet him and he
bowed down. Oh my, look at verse 15. And he, the angels hastened Lot,
said, get up, rise, take your wife, your two daughters. Hurry,
hasten. In verse 16, is this you? While he lingered. While he lingered. You know, this world has a lingering
effect upon it. It still does. It has a pull
on us, doesn't it? But we need to ask the Lord to lay hold upon
us, don't we? While he lingered, the Lord laid
hold upon his hand, upon the hand of his wife and the hand
of his two daughters, the Lord being merciful unto him. If he
doesn't lay hold of us, we won't lay hold of him. If he doesn't
lay hold of us, we won't come out. Well, he did. And what he did was he brought
him out. Lot made a choice, and he went
in, and he stayed there, and the Lord let him stay there,
and he was miserable all his life. But in the end, finally,
the Lord brought him out. Out. So, in our text, our Lord
says, go back to Luke 17. Let's dare not leave what our
Lord said. Our Lord's the one that started
this. He's the one that said all that. The same day that Lot
went out of Sodom, verse 29, it rained fire and brimstone
from heaven, destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be of the
day when the Son of Man is revealed. And that day he which shall be
upon the housetop and his stuff... I told you, it's stuff. It's
not worth losing our soul over stuff, is it? Let's go into this,
let's live here. Why? There's lots of stuff. Let's live here. This is not stuff. This is joy unspeakable. This
is substance. The body and blood of our Lord
Jesus Christ, where the gospel is prayed. Verse 32, Remember
Lot's wife. She appeared to be coming out. she appeared to be being brought
out. And in the very end, Sodom was still in her heart.
And the Lord said, don't look back. Let your eyes look straight
forward. Don't look to the right hand.
Don't look with the eyes. Look with the eye of faith. Don't
look at things seen. They're temporal. Look at things
unseen. If riches increase, set not your
heart upon them. My son, give me that heart. Set
your affection on things above. And she tried. She missed it. She missed that. She didn't want to leave. Look at her. Remember Lot's wife. Oh, my. May the Lord impress
these things upon us. He said, He that saveth his life,
that is, makes a life for himself in this world, apart from the
gospel, will lose it. But he that looseth his life
for my sake, and what? The gospel. I've got to go where
the gospel is. I've got to live where the gospel
is. I've got to live where God's people are. Lord, don't let me
make any other choice but that. Okay? Stand with me.