The Danger of Moral Erosion

Genesis chapter 19 this evening, Genesis 19. Recently, not too long ago, a tower in Italy collapsed, killing two people and during several others, and after some investigation was done as to why that occurred, it was discovered that over a period of time moisture had slowly eroded away the foundation till it was no longer strong enough to hold the structure. The picture you see is another example of erosion, this beach erosion. By the way, I didn't take this picture last week. I was in revival meetings, I was back here some, I never even got to see the beach last week. But anyway, this is a picture of beach erosion, you can see how this is more obvious, not quite a subtle, but erosion can be a disastrous process, it can be so slow, however, that it goes unnoticed until the damage is severe. The same thing is true with moral erosion. Moral erosion is just as damaging, but it is also just as subtle. There's no better example in the Bible of how the righteous and moral values of a life and of a family can be slowly eroded away than that of Lot and his family. In the story of Abraham, which we've been going through in the book of Genesis, we come to this story of Lot, kind of a break in the story of Abraham, but one which follows along the same Abraham story. And there's kind of a time out in the progression of dealing with Abraham to, in a sense, bring us up to date on what has happened with Lot. We've seen glimpses of Lot as we've gone through the life of Abraham. He went with Abraham to the land of Canaan, went with him down to Egypt. Eventually they had to part ways because both their flocks were growing so much. There was not enough pasture land to take care of both of them. And at that point, Lot looked toward the well-watered plains of the Jordan River down towards Sodom and began to set his heart in that direction. We've kind of lost track of him. We know that he was taken captive in a battle that took place back in chapter 14, and Abraham did rescue him. But since then we haven't heard much. This brings us up to date on the tragic story of Lot and his family. Now this is a long chapter. It's what, 38 verses. And so I'm not going to read the story for you this evening. We're not going to pick it apart, verse by verse. But what I would like to do is summarize the story and then draw some lessons from it this evening. There are three scenes of Sodom, three scenes of Lot in his relationship with Sodom that this chapter unfolds for us. The first is in the first 11 verses, Lot living in Sodom. Here's the way the story goes. We left Abraham in chapter 18 talking with the Lord. Remember that the Lord was one of three visitors from heaven who had come to visit with Abraham. And the Lord kind of hung behind and talked with Abraham while the other two who were angels made their way on down to Sodom. When they get to Sodom in chapter 19, they go into the city and they find Lot at the city gate, which by the way tells us a little something about Lot. The city gate was a place where all of judicial and legal business was taken care of, community activities, civic events and so forth took place at the city gate. It was not just an iron gate across an opening in the city wall as we would think of it. Most city gates in the ancient world were a series of rooms that were quite large and was really the gathering place of people in the city. So Lot sitting in the city gates, that is almost a technical term in the Old Testament for presiding over legal or civil affairs, which indicates that Lot had risen to quite an important position in the city of Sodom. But when Lot sees these visitors, he's well aware that these are not locals. Anybody would know that. And so Lot is aware these are not local people. They will be needing a place to stay overnight and there are no safe places in the city of Sodom. So if these people are going to be taken care of, Lot's going to have to do it. So Lot volunteers to take these men into his home. Sure enough, true to form, it's not long after nightfall before the men of the city show up at Lot's door, demanding that he produce these two visitors so that they can have sexual relations with them. Lot protests tries to persuade them not to do such a terrible thing and incredibly offers his own two daughters to the men of the city. Now we know enough about the ancient Near East to know that hospitality then, as it is today in that part of the world, hospitality for guests is a very, very important part of the culture of that region of the world. And it was in Old Testament times too. And so Lot no doubt felt a huge responsibility for the safety of his guests at the expense of his own life really, but even given that, it is almost impossible to imagine his offer of his own two daughters. Well, that proposal is rejected by the men of the city. They're not interested in women anyway. The situation quickly gets out of control and the angels move in and take over. They reach outside the door, pull Lot back into the house and strike the men outside with blindness. Interestingly enough, there's a brief note at the end of verse 11 that they could not find the door, which indicates they were still trying to get in even though they had been struck with blindness. Such was the perversion in their hearts. That is the scene, scene one, Lot living in Sodom. Scene two begins in verse 12 and goes through verse 26 and that is a lot fleeing Sodom. Lot is told by the angels to gather his family, get out because they are going to destroy the city. When Lot appeals to his sons-in-law, they think it's a big joke. And so they're not interested. They're not buying what Lot is saying. They don't understand, we'll not even listen to the warning. And so Lot takes his wife and his two daughters incredibly. He hesitates and so the angels literally drag him out of town. The Bible says they grab his hand and take him out of the city of Sodom. They warn him, don't look back, don't hesitate, don't be drawn back to the city and flee to the mountains. Lot is afraid to flee to the mountains. He suggests a small town nearby called Zohar and the angels by this time I think they were getting a little frustrated with Lot and basically they tell him, go on, just get out of here. And so Lot scurries long and takes his wife and two daughters and they get out of the city. God supernaturally destroys the city of Sodom by raining, sulfur and brimstone down on that city. Fire from heaven consumes and destroys the city. I guess the only thing we can liken it to in our experience is a volcano that just explodes with lava shooting up into the air and flowing down. Something like that, God sent down from heaven and destroyed the city. Tragedically, Lot's wife hesitates, lingers behind, looks back. We don't know why, maybe it was more difficult for her to leave, maybe her heart was insatim, maybe she had a dress on layaway at Belks, I don't know, but for whatever reason, she looked back and did not want to leave. And so she was consumed covered by this burning sulfur and crusting blowing salt and was destroyed, was killed. That is Lot fleeing Sodom. The third scene of this tragic story is Lot experiencing the results of Sodom in verses 27 to 38. It's interesting that Lot does not stay in the town very long, evidently the people there did not welcome him. Maybe they saw him as the cause for the destruction of nearby cities and so they did not welcome him, he didn't feel safe there. So he ended up fleeing to the mountains and he and his two daughters are living in a cave when his two daughters concoct a plan to preserve their own family by getting their father drunk and cohabiting with him. The babies that are born become the fathers of the Moabites and the Ammonites. The shamelessness in the way these women acted toward their father and in their own view of sin, their shamelessness is seen in the way that they named their children. One was named Moab, which means literally the Hebrew means from the father. The other was named Ben Ami, which means son of my people, Ben son, Am people, me, my people, son of my people. The mother and father coming from the same family that kind of brazen naming of the children indicates the shamelessness of their sin. That is lot experiencing the results of Sodom. What are the lessons we can learn from this tragic story? I think there are several lessons. I want to point out four of them this evening. Lesson number one about moral erosion from the stained history of this family is this, the absence of moral erosion in God. Now this is an important lesson to learn. It's not a lesson about law yet, but it is the backdrop against which to evaluate law's life and his moral erosion. It is very important to see that there is no moral erosion in God. God is holy and He will judge sin. This is seen in God's attitude in this chapter toward homosexuality and toward the lawlessness and the perversion of this sin. Conversion of this city leading to the judgment on Sodom. Look if you will, back at chapter 18 and verse 20, where God evaluates the wickedness of the city of Sodom and Gomorrah and He says in verse 20 of 18, then the Lord said, the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous that I will go down and see if what they've done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. So this is an awful sin and an awful sinful place and in need of the judgment of God in chapter 19 and verse 13, the angels say, we are going to destroy this place. The outcry to the Lord against its people is so great that He has sent us to destroy it. There is a sense in which sin itself cries out to God. It leaves a dissonance in His ears when He sees this kind of sin on the part of creatures that He has made. And when He sees this level of perversion, it is as though this sin cries out to God for judgment and God judged the sin of homosexuality in the city of Sodom and Gomorrah. It is important to see that God is holy and will judge sin and He defines homosexuality as a sin worthy of His judgment. Now I don't have to tell you tonight that is certainly not the attitude of our day. In the last 30 to 40 years, attitudes toward homosexuality have moved from intolerance to tolerance to acceptance to an active promotion of that lifestyle as just an alternate lifestyle. What we are being told by a society today is that these folks have just chosen to live that way and nobody has a right to tell them otherwise. Nobody has a right to pass judgment on that kind of lifestyle. What we are being told today is that if you oppose in any way the behavior, the actions, the lifestyle of homosexuality, if you oppose that in any way, you are painted as one who discriminates in the same terms as racial prejudice. We are told today by the media that homosexuality is normal. There is tremendous sympathy toward the homosexual lifestyle and agenda on the part of our media today and the church is pictured as some kind of organization of unloving bigots with antiquated views that are no longer in touch with our culture. That's what we are being taught today. That's what we hear today. There's a tremendous change in how homosexuality is viewed by the media, by the legal profession, by the medical profession, by politicians and educators across the board, tremendous difference in the last 30 or 40 years as to how this is viewed. In fact, if you keep up with the news, you are probably aware that there is pending legislation which I think I may have seen an email and caught up with them all yet, but I think I saw one that said the act that was in the House of Representatives did pass this week about hiring, no discrimination in hiring, and there are legal maneuvers and actions in our day to try to force people to accept and endorse homosexuality. I want to say this very clearly tonight, God's view has not changed. One bit. God's view has not changed one bit. The Bible makes it very clear, and as long as we have this book and believe this book, we must continue to resist the push of our culture to get us to accept homosexuality as just an alternate lifestyle that should not be judged or condemned. Now certainly we should not condemn homosexuals, people who are trapped in this sin or have chosen this sinful lifestyle. We should love people no matter what kind of sin they're involved in or sinful lifestyle they've chosen. We should love them with the hope they will come to Christ, but homosexuality as a lifestyle or as a chosen act is sinful. And the Bible makes that very, very plain. It's the reason why Sodom was judged by God. Leviticus chapter 18 groups homosexuality with incest and bestiality as sins that are an abomination to God. Romans chapter 1 shows that homosexuality is the lowest form of perversion where God finally says, I will give you up. I'll give you over to the perversion of your own sin and first Corinthians 6 and 1 Timothy 1 list homosexuality as worthy of God's harshest judgment. The Bible is very clear. And so if the Bible is very clear, we must remain very clear in our thinking and in our teaching as to what the Bible says about homosexuality today. Again, let me say that anyone involved in this lifestyle should be loved to Christ and given the gospel with no difference made between any sin at all, but sin it is. The Bible makes it very clear. And in this chapter we see that against lots sinful lifestyle and particularly the lifestyle of sin in the community of Sodom, the backdrop against which that sin is played out on a human stage is the backdrop of God's absolute holiness. There is no moral erosion or slippage in God's character or standards whatsoever. Principle number 2 that we must learn from this story is the danger of a materialistic outlook. Where did lots problem begin? I would suggest to you that lots of problems started long before this night that's described in Genesis 19. I would suggest to you that lots problem started long before his daughters started seeing the men of Sodom. And we're going to see a little bit later how polluted their lifestyle and mindset had become. I would suggest to you went back beyond that. I would suggest it went back before lot became successful and important in Sodom. I would suggest that it goes back before lot even moved into the town of Sodom. I think we can trace the beginnings of lots moral erosion back to chapter 13 and verse 10. This is when Abram and lot are deciding to go their separate ways and Abram graciously gives a lot the first choice of land. Verse 10 of chapter 13 says lot looked up and saw that the whole plain of the Jordan was well-watered like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt towards Zor. Verse 11 says, lot chose for himself the whole plain of the Jordan and set out toward the east. Maybe this verse even takes us back a step further and that is back to Egypt where lot began to see the most glorious kingdom known on earth at that time. The most wealthy kingdom on earth at that time, the kingdom of Egypt. And quite possibly got his heart set on measuring success by material things. That's where it started. And so when lot has a choice what he chooses is that which will benefit him the most, that which will promote his opportunity for financial and material gain the best. Now please understand it is not wrong to have material possessions. That's not wrong at all. But what's where the problem begins is when we get our hearts set on material things. When we begin to have a materialistic outlook, when we begin to measure success by the abundance of material things and thus our ambition and our heart begins to be set in that direction. That appears to be what's happening when lot chooses the well-watered plane and makes his decision based on what will prosper him the most. He seems to be gaining maybe already cultivating a materialistic outlook. The Bible makes this very clear. Look at these verses, 1 Timothy chapter 6 verse 9, it's on the screen for you. People who want to get rich, the word wants a very strong word in the Greek, it means to have a desire, have an ambition to get rich, fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people eager for money have wondered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. Now, you notice in those two verses, it never says, as some people think the Bible says, it never says, money is the root of all evil. Money is not the root of all evil. It is the love of money that is the root of all evil. So it is not only people with wealth and riches that end up destroying themselves because of riches. It is people who want that, who live for that, who set their heart on that, who love that and may never obtain it, but because their heart has bent in that direction and their ambitions begin to flow that direction. Their lives are consumed and eventually destroyed. What happens is when we set our heart on material things and get a materialistic outlook, it begins to set off a series of compromises and rationalizations as to how we might get that, how we might become more prosperous. You can just imagine that happening with a lot, can't you? He will rationalize his move towards Sodom because it provides better business opportunities for him. He needs to get to know people at town pretty soon. He is rationalized to move into Sodom. And then who else is there to see for his daughters, but the men of Sodom? And you can just see one rationalization after another, each time lowering his standards to blend in, to fit into the community, to be able to gain more prosperity. We get our heart set on things and we will begin to make compromises to obtain more of them. And there will be more and more compromises. Pretty soon it will be our godly values, biblical principles that will begin to slip and that will begin to sacrifice away. So I think all of us need to ask ourselves, let's take a good hard look at what we are giving up to join the rat race of a materialistic outlook. What are we giving up? To become successful in the world's eyes. Time with our family. Time with God. Fellowship with other believers. Ability to be in church. Attitudes towards sin. Are we beginning to slip in some of those areas and we could trace it back if we really were honest to the time when we set our heart on getting more and becoming successful. And that is so difficult to measure because we live in such a materialistic age. I mean all of us face the pull and the lure and the challenge of that in our lives. But those who have children know very well the pull of this. Because as hard as you might try to keep your children focused on the right things, there is that lure of having what all their friends have. And so you got to get the $500 PlayStation with all the $60 cartridges to put in it. And you've got to have the newest, best and biggest and fastest computer in the sleekest cell phone. And everybody else gets a new car when they're 16. Why shouldn't I? And that pressure that we face to immerse our children into materialism is huge and it's so difficult for us to resist. And quite often it is those choices that plunge us into the rat race of materialistic possessions and we began to make rationalizations about our lifestyles that plunge us further and further away from a godly mindset and the biblical outlook on life, the dangers of a materialistic outlook. But there's a third lesson to be learned I think from lot and his tragedy. And that is the disastrous effects of evil influences, the disastrous effects of evil influences like lot. If we surround ourselves with evil influences, it will need to moral erosion. Mark it down. It is so clear example after example, precept after precept in the word of God. If we continually surround ourselves with evil influences, it will gradually chip away at our values till our lifestyle will be infected. Our sensitivity to sin will be decreased. Our moral ability to sense right from wrong and to choose what is godly and biblical will be gradually deadened. When Ruth was about, our daughter Ruth was about, oh I don't know six or seven years old, we discovered that she had a lot of allergies. We knew she was having trouble and so we took her to a pediatrician that specialized in that up in Indiana and they decided to do those tests. You know where they do the pin pricks on the back and lay out a little grid and poke them full of holes. And so they did that with Ruth and they did different kinds. I don't know if they still do this the same way they're not but they did foods one time and then they did other objects. And then they did one time when we took her back they did trees and grasses. Pretty much that were native to Indiana. And they laid out a little grid on her back and they did poke about, I don't know, maybe 12 places and every one of them she responded to with that large welp on her back. In fact they all started running together and pretty soon her whole back was one large blister like thing, reaction to those pin pricks. And the doctor said that is off the charts. I mean she is allergic to every tree and grass in this state. And they put her on a series of shots. And those allergy shots as in my layman's way of understanding them and explaining them basically started out with just a tiny bit of some of those things she was allergic to and injected that into her system so that she would produce antibodies and fight against that. And then gradually over a period of time they would increase the actual amount of the things she was allergic to that they were putting into her system. And the word for that is desensitization, trying to desensitize her to the very things she's allergic to. By building up her exposure to those things that she's allergic to so her body learns to fight them off. And the very same thing happens morally to us. And ethically many believers are becoming desensitized to all forms of sin because we are gradually more and more allowing these things to enter our system, to enter our minds. Let me just be very plain. This is the way pornography works. But even beyond that it's possible for someone who's not involved in full-blown pornography and has allowed more and more of that to become a part of their lifestyle. It is possible for those of us who know and love the Lord to allow ourselves to be exposed to more and more sin in the media that we allow to become a part of our minds. The kinds of television programs we watch, the kinds of movies we allow ourselves to see, the kinds of music that we constantly listen to, and more and more commonly we allow ourselves to get things into our minds that begin to desensitize us to sin. And we get a little dose of what's bad for us. Maybe that first program you watched on that cable channel or that first movie you rented that was rated R and showed some nudity and you kind of flew by that scene and just maybe the first time that ever happened you felt a little guilty about that. But you rationalized it away. You know, movie as a whole was pretty good. That sitcom on television really is funny. And so you pass it by. The next time doesn't bother you quite as much. And the third and fourth and tenth and twelfth time you're watching something just a little race here. You see what's happening? We are desensitizing ourselves to all forms of moral perversion. The same thing could be true of all kinds of vulgarity and excessive violence and language or disrespect for authority figures. Society's absorbed those values to such a degree that it doesn't matter to them and we look kind of weird if we're different. But aren't we supposed to be different? I don't want to become legalistic with this. I don't want to say okay. Here's the rating of movies you should or should not watch and you should stop it. That's a matter for moral discernment on the part of each individual believer. Church has become legalistic when they start setting up all kinds of standards that they impose on the congregation say if you can't be a member here if you watch a PG-13 movie or something like that. So we're not going to do that. But I would urge you. I would urge all of us to exercise moral discernment and make sure that we are not allowing ourselves to be so surrounded by Sodom like Lot did, gradually and gradually getting closer to it, more involved in the city to where now his whole family is immersed in the culture and it is affecting him radically. I just would warn us to be careful that we do not erode our sense of right and wrong. You know, that's why the Old Testament forbade any intermarriage of Israelites with pagans. Deuteronomy 7 makes it very clear. Don't marry people from other nations. It was not a racial thing, not at all. It was a religious thing. He makes it very clear. Don't marry people from other nations as Israelites because you will accept their gods. You will be pressured to take their gods. And so the Bible teaches very plainly that who we associate with on a deep level, what we allow ourselves to be exposed to a lot will eventually encroach on our moral discernment. That's why it's so important. The Bible makes that so clear. The book of Proverbs says, don't associate with a gossip. Don't be best friends with a hot tempered man or you will learn his ways. Look at this verse in 1 Corinthians 1533, do not be misled. Bad company corrupts good character. Pretty straightforward, isn't it? The more we allow ourselves to be influenced by sinful influences in our lives, the more we erode corrupt good character. So the world may tell you and even some Christians may tell you, well, that what you watch on television, movies, you watch it, doesn't affect you spiritually, you can make sure you still know what's right and what's wrong, doesn't affect you. Yes, it does. But you see, it's like that shot. The first shot, you don't realize it. You don't discern any movement. It's not till way down the road. You don't realize that you're like somewhere that you realize you've shifted. You're accepting and tolerating a lot more than what you used to in your life. The disastrous effects of evil influences in our lives. And then quickly one last principle from this sorted story of lot. But before we get to that, let me just say this. You say, John, I can't get away from this. I hear it at work, people joke about what they've watched and tell crude stories and I hear it at school and so forth. And certainly we cannot disassociate ourselves from every evil influence. That's just not possible to do. Some of it we can control. Learn how to use the remote. Okay, learn how to flip channels. Go to the weather channel. It's pretty harmless. You know, when something bad gets, go to the weather channel. You know, something like that. Or, well, I was going to say that some of that, you know, is kind of racy as well. But switch channels. Get away. But some of it you can't get away from. What do you do? You make sure that you are committing in your heart and mind to moral purity so that when somebody else laughs about that joke or somebody else tells that kind of a story, you will not enter into it. It doesn't matter how weird you look. Immorality will not be a part of the way you live. Make that commitment. Fight against the trend of the culture every day that you live. Okay, fourth principle. The tragic subtlety of moral erosion. And this kind of follows up on the one we just talked about. We tend to think that evil influences are not affecting us. The very thing we've just talked about. We tend to think that really doesn't affect me. I know right from wrong. I can watch that and it doesn't bother me because I still know what's right and wrong. You know, I believe that lot really felt like he could handle Sodom. In fact, look at these verses from 2 Peter which describe how lots own heart was grieved at what he saw and heard every day. The Bible says if he rescued a lot, a righteous man who was distressed by the filthy lives of lawless men for that righteous man living among them day after day was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard. It sounds like lot really reacted strongly in his own righteous soul against what he was seeing and hearing and you'd say, well, I can do that too. Well, maybe for a while and maybe to some degree, but the real tragedy was what it did to lots family. Because if you look at the chapter, you'd find back in verse 12, I believe it is, that the angels mentioned some sons that lot may have had. Certainly he had two daughters. He had two sons-in-law who were betrothed engaged to be married to his daughters. He had a wife and every one of them was infected with the spirit of Sodom. Every one of them. Now, maybe till the last day was tormented in his own soul about what he was seeing and hearing, but it got into the soul and heart of all of his family members. And it's very easy for us to think. I can handle this, I can handle this, and to some degree you might, although I believe it will affect you as well, but it can destroy your family. Obviously, and what we read in the latter part of the chapter with his daughters, they had absolutely no divine perspective on standards of holiness whatsoever. They had no moral discernment whatsoever. Their thoughts were ungodly and they had no moral discernment whatsoever. Their thoughts were ungodly to the core. They did not even flinch as they hatched their wicked plan against their father. Total disrespect for their own father. He has treated just like any other man and like any man of Sodom for that matter. There's essential toughness about them that they have built up. There's no modesty, no doubt. It has impacted his own family. And that's the way Moral Erosion works. We think we're handling it pretty well. All the while it's eating away at the foundation. We may not even realize it, but it is affecting us and others more drastically than we realize. I was driving back one afternoon this week to South Carolina. I was going through the area of North Carolina, C Grove area where we live back in the 70s. It was kind of warmed that afternoon. It was really warm down there every afternoon this week. But anyway, it's another story. It was kind of warm. So I had the windows rolled down in the car and I began to smell this distinct odor. And it brought back such memories. It took me a while to remember what that odor was. And I looked out and I saw, ah, those are corn fields. This is the time of year when chicken droppings are spread on the corn fields. You know what chicken droppings are, don't you? It's not food they drop out of their beak. That's not the other end. Chicken droppings are put on the field for fertilizer. And when we first moved to North Carolina and began pastoring there in 1973, I can remember very well the experience of that time of year and those warm, gentle breezes, wafting over the fields right at our house. And what a terrible, horrible smell that was. You have not lived until you have had your nasal passages cleaned out by that smell. But you know the second year it wasn't quite as bad. And pretty soon we would come out of church on Sunday evenings. And the front of our church, a little porch on the front of our church, was directly across the road from dock garners corn field. Every time at this time of year he would clean out his chicken houses and spread fertilizer and you'd come out of church and that on a warm evening with that aroma would just hit you right in the face. But after a few years we would come out of church on Sunday evenings. Maybe we had a missionary speaker and we'd come out on the front porch and the missionary would look at us and say, what is that smell? And Jeannie and I would look at him and say, what smell? Honestly, we weren't teasing, we weren't kidding, we had gotten used to it. So used to it, we never even noticed it anymore. And that which is a stench in the nostrils of God, we can become so accustomed to that after a few years we can look around and say, what smell? I don't smell anything bad. I don't see anything wrong with that. You see that's a way moral erosion works. So I want us to take a good look as we close at our lives. Do you see any evidence of moral erosion in your life? I'm not talking about doctrinal change. I'm not talking about you have slipped and started denying the deed of Christ. I'm not talking about that because you can believe all the right things and be deteriorating spiritually on the inside. So let me ask you, do you find yourself drifting from the holy standards of a holy God? Do you detect a shift to a more materialistic outlook on life? Your goals and desires have kind of shifted toward more material things and now your life is centered around that? Do you find that you are allowing more evil influences into your life than you used to? Things that you wouldn't have thought about or tolerated a few years ago? Do you find yourself thinking that, well, that's okay because I can handle that. I'm spiritually strong. I know right from wrong. Do you find yourself rationalizing that way, thinking that way? Again, you know me well enough to know I'm not legalistic about stuff like this. We're not going to impose external standards on people but we must all take a good, hard look at what we're allowing into our lives, how close to Sodom we're getting because it will influence us. Moral erosion will set in and there must be a point where we reverse that and we say we will not allow that to erode away the foundations of our moral lives any longer. There must be a point when we say I am not going to see how close I can get to the edge before I fall off the moral precipice like Lot did. We've got to call it quits at some point on moral erosion. What do you bow with me in prayer? Other help us in this age that is so charged with rampant influences and images and impact on our lives of an immoral nature, of a damaging nature, of an ungodly nature, Lord help us to be able to stem the tide of that from our culture in our own lives, help us to build up defenses in our minds and hearts that will keep us close to you and far away from the moral edge of falling off the cliff. Father protect us, protect our families, protect our fellow believers, our family members in Christ. Lord I pray that you would help us to really keep a close check on our lives so that we are not allowing the kinds of influences that will lead us towards Sodom. We ask in Jesus' name Amen.