MY FRIENDS, HAVE WE LOST FOCUS AND LINGERED TO LONG?

Sep. 10, 2015

MY FRIENDS, HAVE WE LOST FOCUS AND LINGERED TO LONG?

My friends It is very hard to take our focus off of the things of this world and give our life totally over to Christ, as we say with a passion “not my will, but thy will be done.” Paul says it best in Romans 7:19 (ESV) “For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.”

“When the morning dawned, the angels urged Lot to hurry, saying, “Arise, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the punishment of the city.” And while he lingered, the men took hold of his hand, his wife’s hand, and the hands of his two daughters….and set him outside the city.” Gen 19:15-16 (NKJV)

Oh the love grace and mercy of God, “who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” 1 Tim. 2:4 (NASB) “Escape for your life! Do not look behind you…lest you be destroyed.” “Then the Lord rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, out of the heavens……..

But his wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt” Gen 19:23-26 (NKJV Paraphrased). My friends, the obvious tragedy is, Lot’s wife did not focus on where God was trying to take her, while disobeying His command and allowing her heart to return to that sinful and despicable place.

A place where sin had abounded to such an extent that God had to destroy it. But I need you to focus on four words today and those words are, “and while he lingered,” and that my friends is the real tragedy of this story.

Lot, who had to be literally carried out, before he would leave from the clutches and influence of the forces of evil. This was the patriarch of the family, the provider, who was not able to come to terms with the fact that he had already lingered in sin to long, only to be saved because of the grace and mercy of a loving God.

And as we focus today, on those four words, let’s make it personal. “And while we lingered,” meaning you and I to long. Remember Satan is a master strategist at manipulating and captivating our undivided attention as far as what we see, and what we hear, and where we go, and what we put into our bodies, that is detrimental to our salvation.

As God’s chosen generation we “cannot linger any longer”, Christ will be hear soon to take His faithful who have endured to our new home, so we must give it all to the Master and put on the full armor of God while taking up our cross and becoming His disciples.

As heirs to God’s kingdom and joint heirs with Christ, we must not linger any longer, but we must present a vision to others that takes them to places they never thought possible through Christ who is “the way, the truth, and the life” as you allow them to walk down those streets of gold with you in God’s Kingdom.

In others words, make Salvation real. God is asking us to Give the world a shared vision as we inspire and motivate others by the way we live our lives. And as the world sees us they will also see Christ and Men, and women, who realized they had stayed in sin to long but now their focus is to only serve as they wait on Christ soon return.

My Friends, where there is no vision, the people perish…..Proverbs 29:18 (KJV)

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