Empowered

Life Lessons Devotional Series Friday April 21, 2023

Scripture: Genesis 19: ⁴ Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom—both young and old—surrounded the house. ⁵ They called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them.” ⁶ Lot went outside to meet them and shut the door behind him ⁷ and said, “No, my friends. Don’t do this wicked thing. ⁸ Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do what you like with them. But don’t do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof.” ⁹ “Get out of our way,” they replied. “This fellow came here as a foreigner, and now he wants to play the judge! We’ll treat you worse than them.” They kept bringing pressure on Lot and moved forward to break down the door. ¹⁰ But the men inside reached out and pulled Lot back into the house and shut the door. ¹¹ Then they struck the men who were at the door of the house, young and old, with blindness so that they could not find the door.

Life Lesson: The same demonic influence that possessed the people of Sodom and Gomorrah is at work in our culture today.  It is a relentless and demanding evil spirit.  Men and women of God must determine to stand firm in the faith and to be even more relentless to proclaim the Truth and to protect the innocent under our care!

– Lot lived in the midst of the wickedness and corruption of Sodom, yet he was not given over entirely to the moral rot and decay all around him, 2 Pet. 2: ⁷ and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the depraved conduct of the lawless ⁸ (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard).”  However, Lot was affected by the culture in which he lived as is demonstrated in the incestuous relationship that inevitably occurred between him and his daughters later on when Lot failed to obtain husbands for his daughters after they fled the condemned city.   

– Christian, I believe the same evil spirit that compelled the men of Sodom to hammer on Lot’s door demanding he send out the visitors he was housing is alive and well in the midst of our culture today.  If men can put on women’s makeup and then identify as women, if those same men can be given permission to walk into women’s bathrooms and change rooms, if the people of our society today can stand up and say that men can have babies and that ridiculous statement is considered virtuous by many, then the spirit of Sodom is among us today!

– Lot said “no” to the depraved rapists of his day and we too must stand up and say “No!”  No!  You cannot have our children!  No!  You cannot abuse true womanhood in this way!  Yes, all sin is sin and is under judgement, however the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah were so insidious, so morally depraved that God’s wrath was poured out on all the inhabitants of the land and mark it, no one survived who remained among them.  

– Church, it is time to stand for righteousness!  Romans 1:18-32 is being played out in our midst today and we need to intercede in prayer, stand with God and His holy angels, and speak the truth in love while there is still time!