The Danger of Worldliness and the Duty of Prayer

Today on Summit Life with J.D.

Greer. The question is what do you love? Where are you pitching your tense, metaphorically speaking? And what does that say about what your heart really desires? Are you trying to get as close to the world as you can without becoming it? Just like with Lot, there is a progression of sin in your life that starts with loving the world and ends up with total destruction. Welcome to Summit Life with Pastor and Author J.D.

Greer. I'm your host, Molly Vidovitch. Today's a special day as we are beginning a brand new teaching series never before aired on the program. You know, Jesus said that we should pray like children. And the truth is children don't think about how they ask, whether they're using the right words, when they ask, or whether their parents are pleased with them or not.

They just ask. And believe it or not, that's really the beginning of learning to pray. Today, Pastor J.D. kicks off a very short new study on prayer called The Role and Challenge of Talking to God. It's time to get started with a message Pastor J.D.

titled The Danger of Worldliness and the Duty of Prayer. I want to begin off this weekend with a little quiz, okay? A little quiz, it'll make more sense a little later. Here it is, okay?

I'm gonna get you to vote. The question is which Avenger series is the best, okay? You have the options A, WandaVision. You have B, Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Or you have C, Loki.

You can vote by uplifted hand. And if you are very passionate about your answer, then you can do spirit fingers and that will let me know, okay? So if you think that WandaVision is the best of the Avenger series, would you raise your hand? All right, that's A. If you think it is the Falcon and the Winter Soldier, you can raise your hand. Anybody brave enough for that one?

Or if you think it is Loki, you can raise your hand, okay? All right, the correct answer was A, WandaVision. Which team, here's number two, has brought the most honor to the triangle? Is it A, Duke? Is it B, UNC? Or is it 3, North Carolina State University? All right, if it's A, would you raise your hand right now?

Try not to yell. If it is B, UNC, raise your hand. All right, if it is C, all UNC students never follow in instructions right there, just like I saw.

If it's C, North Carolina State University, if you would raise your hand. And I know you can't help but doing this right there, so that's okay. All right, question number three. You are on a road trip and you have to stop for a meal. You choose A, Wendy's, B, Hardee's or C, Panera, okay? If your vote is Wendy's, raise your hand, okay? If your vote is B, Hardee's, raise your hand. All right, you have to choose one. If it's C, Panera, you can raise your hand. The correct answer was D, Waffle House.

Though, I will say judges will give half credit for B, Hardee's. The Frisco burger is a vastly underrated sandwich. The Nicolas Cage of burgers, I call it, okay? All right, here's the next one. Who is the real Spider-Man? Is it A, Tobey Maguire? Is it B, Andrew Garfield? Or is it C, Tom Holland? If you think it's A, Tobey Maguire, put your hand up.

All right? If you think it is B, Andrew Garfield, you put your hand up. If you think it is C, Tom Holland, now put your hand up.

The correct answer is A, he is the only real actor out of all of them. Now, some of you are like, I didn't know there's a right and wrong answers to these questions. There always is in my book, just so you know. Some of you are like, I cannot believe that there wasn't a Nicolas Cage question out of these.

That's a great point. So here it is. Who is the greatest actor of all time? All right? Is it A, Nicolas Cage? Is it B, Nick Cage?

Or is it C, Cage, Nicolas? Okay? All right? So, well, we know all of the above. D, all right?

All right. Well, those are the five questions that I opened my message at student camp with this year. And I shared them because I'm going to preach a version of that same message to us as a church today because I think it is a word for us also. So Genesis 19, if you have your Bibles, Genesis 19, if you'll take them and open them, the students did about as well as you did.

You've raised your sons and daughters wisely in how they vote because that was pretty similar, okay? At any rate, this passage, Genesis 19 touches on our responsibility as a church to pray for our students, for each other, for our community. And I believe it is what the Holy Spirit is saying to our church right now. So Genesis 19, this is the story of Abraham and his young nephew Lot. Abraham's nephew Lot.

Let me just catch you up on the story as we get into Genesis 19, okay? Abraham and his nephew Lot are having a problem. And that problem is they're trying to coexist in an area that's just too small. And their shepherds were fighting. There was just not enough space for them to all live comfortably together. They were fighting over the best watering holes and the best pasture lands kind of like if you and your sibling tried to share a room when you were growing up.

How many of you did that growing up or are doing that now, right? Your little brother was always leaving his stuff on your side of the room. He was always in the bathroom when you needed it.

He never flushed. He left his dirty socks on your side of the closet. It was like that, and it was clear that Abraham and Lot needed some space. So Abraham takes Lot up high on this mountain overlook, and he says, Lot, God has promised to give our family all of this land.

So you go one direction and I'll go the other. He let Lot choose first. Now all the land was good, but the land to the east of where they were standing was incredible. Genesis 13, 10 says, in fact, that it looked like the Garden of Eden itself. The pastures were green and fertile.

There were lots of places of water and shade. The problem was that it stretched out toward two notorious cities, cities notorious for their wickedness, Sodom and Gomorrah. Listen to how the writer of Genesis describes these cities. He says, and the people of this area were extremely wicked and constantly sinned against the Lord.

Right? So these were bad news, but that was not very concerning to Lot. Lot just liked the vibe, in fact, of these cities. There was just so much money and culture and activity that he wanted to be a part of. So Lot chose the land toward Sodom. And verse 12, Abram lived in the land of Canaan, while Lot lived among the cities of the plain and pitched his tents near Sodom.

Turned out to be a bad choice for Lot. In fact, shortly after he got there, raiders from Sodom came and stole all of his stuff and took him and his family captive. Abraham then mounts, chapter 14, a Kevin Costner style vigilante posse to go and rescue him. And you might think that after that, Lot would have learned his lesson, but Lot just loved Sodom. So he moved back there, pitching his tents even closer this time to Sodom. In fact, soon enough, Lot moved into the city itself so that when chapter 19 opens, we find that Lot was, chapter 19, verse 1, sitting in the gateway of the city. Sitting in the gateway is an Old Testament way of saying that Lot had become a leader. He'd become a leader because that's where the leaders of the city sat. So as chapter 19 opens, Lot is not only living near Sodom, he is a leader in Sodom.

He is popular there. Look at verse 7. Speaking to the men of Sodom, he says, I beg you, my brothers. He calls the men of Sodom his brothers.

They are his people now. Sodom is where he feels most at home. You know, you have to wonder what compromises Lot made in order to be accepted in Sodom, right? I mean, to be fair, it seems that Lot never went along with the worst wickedness in Sodom. In fact, it seems like he kept most of his major morals intact.

But it's also clear that he made a bunch of small compromises. And if you read chapter 19 in more detail, you'll see a lot of them. Maybe most tragically, he kept his mouth completely shut about his identity as God's servant and his faith in God. Chapter 18 opens, telling us that Sodom and Gomorrah, their wickedness had gotten so bad that God decided to destroy these cities with fire. But as a favor to Abraham, God sent a couple of angels down to warn Abraham before he did it. As the angels are telling Abraham about the coming judgment, Abraham immediately begins to think about Lot. By the way, God had taken on the human body and was actually there with those angels.

There were three of them. And so God is telling Abraham what he's about to do. And Abraham doesn't want to see the city destroyed.

And so that triggers this conversation. Chapter 18, verse 23, Abraham stepped forward and said, God, are you really going to sweep away the righteous with the wicked? What if there are 50 righteous people in the city?

You could not possibly do such a thing. To kill the righteous with the wicked, will not the judge of all the earth do what is just? And God says, yes, Abraham, if you could find 50 righteous, then I would spare the entire city. Abraham thinks about it for a second. He says, well, suppose the 50 righteous lack five.

Just like five. Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five? Now, Abraham seems to be a pretty shrewd negotiator, for what it's worth.

God, surely we're not going to kill this deal over five people, right? So God says, okay, Abraham, if you can find 45, I will spare the city. Abraham says, how about 30? God says, I'll spare it for the sake of 30. Verse 31, Abraham says, how about 20? Abraham's starting to sound like an auctioneer. Give me 40, give me 30, give me 20.

He's just moving through it. Verse 32, how about 10? How about 10? And God answered, I would not destroy it on a count of 10. But Abraham could not find even 10 righteous in the city. You've got Lot and his wife and his two daughters, that would be four, but they don't seem to have persuaded anybody else there inside of them to turn away from their wickedness, so the negotiation ends. Nevertheless, in response to Abraham's prayer for Lot, God sends angels to warn Lot.

The whole negotiation had been about preserving Lot. So in verse 15, the angels show up at Lot's house, just two of them now, God's gone back to heaven, assumedly, show up in Lot's house in Sodom and they say, Lot, hurry, take your wife and your two daughters who are here or you will be swept away when the city is punished. Yet even then, it says, after hearing about this coming judgment, that is just moments away, verse 16 says that Lot hesitated. Even when he's heard that everybody is about to be destroyed by fire from heaven, he is so in love with the world that he can't leave it. These are his people.

These are his brothers. Finally, verse 16 says that one of the angels seized his hand and the hands of his wife and his two daughters and rushed them to safety outside the city because the Lord was merciful. Lot literally, that's verse 16, Lot literally had to be dragged from the city. That's how much he loves it.

That's how much he has made it his home. As they're leaving, the angels warn Lot and his family not to look back on the city as God rains down fire upon it. But Lot's wife, we don't know her name, but Lot's wife was just so enraptured with the city, so in love with the city that she could not keep her eyes off of it. And when she turned to look back, verse 26, God turned her immediately into a pillar of salt. Salt here serves as a symbol. Salt dries things out, right? What happens when you eat too much salt?

It makes you thirsty. Turning Lot's wife into a pillar of salt is a symbol of what's happened to her and Lot and their family spiritually. They may still technically be believers, but they're so dried out spiritually they have no life or joy left in them at all. And so in the end, Lot is saved by the skin of his teeth, but he loses everything, including his wife. What does this have to do with us? Let me give you four life-saving lessons that you can learn from Lot. Four life-saving lessons to learn from Lot.

Number one. Number one, there is a progression of sin in your life. There is a progression of sin in your life. Most Christians do not intend to become Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot certainly didn't.

He never intended to make it his home, and he certainly did not intend to be included in its judgment. But many Christians, like Lot, are so attracted to the world that they make their home as close to it as possible. And if they're honest, they end up identifying as much with the world as they do with the people of God.

So be honest. Whom do you think of most instinctively as my brothers? Who do you feel the closest kinship with? It's kind of an easy question to answer. Who do you hang out with most easily?

Who do you spend most of your time with? The lesson from Lot's life is that you have to make up your mind from the beginning. Who do you really want to be? Where do you really want to belong? If it's with the world, go there a hundred percent. If it's with God, go with him a hundred percent. This is Summit Life with Pastor J.D.

Greer. We'll get right back to today's teaching in just a moment. But first, let me tell you about our latest featured resource. Our cities are full of people, full of needs and bursting with opportunity. If we want to see God work in our communities and through our churches, we need to pray. That's where the book Five Things to Pray for Your City is designed to help. It's one of three books that we're sending out this month as our gift to those who support Summit Life. It will enlarge your vision and equip you to pray passionately and powerfully for the salvation and renewal of your city. Each of the 21 chapters takes a passage of scripture and it suggests five things to pray for an aspect of life in your community.

Because when we pray in line with God's priorities as found in his word, our prayers are powerful and effective and that's a truly thrilling prospect. We encourage you to reserve your copy of the bundle today by calling 866-335-5220 or visit us online at jdgreer.com. Thanks for being with us today. Now let's get back to the final moments of today's message. Here's Pastor J.D. I've said this many times, the most miserable person in the world is the half-committed Christian who is just enough in the world to be miserable in God and just enough into God that they're miserable in the world.

That's what you're seeing with light. Your heart is filled with salt, so to speak, and it's not in a good way. You feel dry and lifeless everywhere.

Charles Spurgeon used to say, if you're going to be saved, be saved a hundred percent. Because the worst thing to do is to try to straddle two opinions. You can't keep trying to walk along with your feet in both worlds. It's kind of like when you're standing on a dock. You're standing on dock with one foot in a boat and the boat starts to drift away. You ever been in that moment? There's this like split second decision where you got to make up your mind. Am I in the boat or am I on the dock?

Because you're kind of standing there in both and you got to go one way or the other because if you try to stand there and straddle in both, you're going to end up tearing yourself apart or quote the old Chinese proverb, him who tried to walk down both sides of road will split his pants. You've got to choose one or the other. First John 2 15 makes it clear, love not the world. Don't love the world.

Neither of the things that are in the world. If any person loves the world, the love of the father is not in him. In other words, it's not just about your behavior, it's about your heart.

Don't just evaluate your behavior, congratulating yourself that you're not doing all the bad things that other Sodom people do. The question is, what do you love? Where are you pitching your tents, metaphorically speaking? And what does that say about what your heart really desires? The worst place to be is to try to be in both.

Are you trying to get as close to the world as you can without becoming it? Just like with lot, there is a progression of sin in your life that starts with loving the world and ends up with total destruction. And you likely never see it coming. Be honest with yourself, has this happened to you? High school, middle school students, I know some of you were at camp, but let me just ask you again, at first you were alarmed at the things that unsaved friends around you said. And it made you feel uncomfortable, or it made you feel dirty when you saw sin depicted in movies or you heard it in music, but eventually you got okay with it.

Then you started hanging out with people who were doing those things, then you started to do those things. Or at first you were more concerned, you were genuinely concerned with your friends who did not know Jesus. You prayed for them, you prayed for them, but eventually it just got weird trying to tell them that they needed to be saved.

I mean, who says that when they're in high school? And so you just stopped bringing it up and now you don't even pray for them. Instead of being somebody who warns them about coming judgment on Sodom or the world and calls them to escape it, you've made your home there with them and your life now is virtually indistinguishable from theirs. They never feel the slightest bit of discomfort around you because you never warned them about it.

And one day you look up and you've never really told them about Jesus or explained to them in any meaningful way that they need to be saved. Years ago, I read the disturbing account of how they kill wolves out on the tundras of Siberia. The people that live up there, if there's a wolf that is harassing their settlement or killing a lot of the seals up there, it's one of the things that they raise and grow. They'll take a knife, a very sharp, two-edged knife, and they will dip it in seal's blood. And because it's so cold, it just immediately freezes. And so they do it again and again until it's several layers thick, so it's become, just think of it like a blood popsicle stick. And then they bury that knife so that it's just the handle that's under the ground and just the two-edged blade that's sticking up but coated now with all this blood. And so the wolf comes along and he gets the scent of seal's blood.

He just loves that smell. And so he goes over to it and he begins to lick this blade of a knife. Of course, not realizing it's a blade of a knife, just thinking it's seal's blood. And as he begins to lick this blood off of this knife blade, it numbs his tongue so that when the blade begins to be exposed, his tongue now numb from all that cold is just cutting itself into ribbons. And he doesn't realize that the blood now all over the ground is not the seal's blood, it's his blood. And so he lacerates his tongue to the point that he bleeds out to death and he goes away and he dies.

That's how they kill a wolf there. There's a picture there of how Satan destroys us. He gives us just a little taste of it and you think this is not that bad and it gradually just numbs your soul. Gradually just numbs your soul until you get to a point where you cannot feel or sense it any longer. You can't feel it or sense it any longer. And so it's where you choose to make your home.

It's where you choose to pitch your tents. That is what you become like. Now you might ask, you say, well pastor, are you saying we shouldn't have any non-Christian friends? I mean, are you saying we should separate ourselves from the world?

I'm not even sure how that's possible in my job or how it's possible at my school. I mean, I'm surrounded by unbelievers and God calls us to be in the world but not to make our home there. There's a difference in living in the world and making your home there.

You say, well how can I be around Sodom but not commit the mistake of life? It's got to do with whom you choose to make your close friends. Whom you choose to make your community. The ones that you make your inner circle are where you pitch your tents. You see scripture says that whom you hang around with is who you become like. Proverbs 13 20, he who walks with wise men will be wise but a companion of fools will be destroyed. A friend of mine says it this way, you show me your friends and I'll show you your future because if you hang out with wise people you become wise but if you're a companion of fools then you become like them and you will be destroyed. He says you will become the average of your five closest friends. Take your five closest friends right now, average them together and that's what you will be in the next few years. You show me your friends and I'll show you your future. You say, but pastor are you saying we shouldn't have any non-Christian friends?

No, I'm not saying that. But there's a difference between core community and those that you're trying to reach. In fact, I've heard it explained like this. You think of your friendship in three circles. The first circle right around you is what we call your circle of intimacy and that's going to be like people that speak into your life, people you're very close to, a best friend.

If you're dating it's the person you're dating, it's the person that you're married to, you're going to marry. That's that circle of intimacy. Then you've got a layer of friends around that and we'll call that your circle of influence. Those are people that you're doing life with them.

These would be people in your small group, people that you work with, people you hang out with. You're influencing them and they're influencing you. You've got a circle around that that we call the circle of concern. Those are people that you're trying to reach out to and you're trying to share the gospel with. The point of the circle of concern is to reach out to them and to warn them.

You're actively reaching out to them. That inner circle, what it's saying, that inner circle, that's where your Jesus loving friends are. In fact, they make up all of the people in that middle, that central circle and then the ones on the layer outside of those, the majority of those end up being believers because that's who you become like. That's who influences you. The point of that outer circle is that you are building bridges with them and sharing Christ with them. The point of that circle of concern, that's where those who are not believers, that's where you have them. You're trying to warn them.

You're trying to influence them. At the summit, we encourage you to have a one. We say, who's your one? One person outside the faith that you're building a relationship with and praying for.

That's that circle. You got to decide. The point is you got to decide who you want to be. You got to decide where you want to go and then you have to pitch your tents there. You have to surround yourself with that community. Where do you want to belong and is your choice of community going to lead you there? How long are you going to go back and forth between two worlds?

I'll say it again. The most miserable person in the world is the half-committed Christian. Just enough in the world that they're miserable in God and just enough into God that they're miserable in the world. Their soul is salty. Their soul is salty, dry, famished, miserable.

You got to choose the side of the road. And Jesus, by the way, does not look very kindly and favorably on the half-committed either. He says in Revelation, I wish you were cold or hot, lukewarm, tempted. It makes me want to spit you out of my mouth.

Listen, He loves you, but He wants you to be one way or the other. You're listening to Summit Life with pastor, author, and theologian J.D. Greer. If you like this teaching and want to hear more like it, you can find us online at jdgreer.com or in your favorite podcast app. So J.D., we're offering a bundle of three books right now called Five Things to Pray that cover three very different topics.

What's the best way to use this bundle of resources? Yeah, Molly, these are three books that I use and that I'm happy to commend to our Summit Life listeners. Each of these guides will give you instruction and biblical promises about how to pray for an aspect of your life, your kids, your parents, or your community.

There's also a little space on each page for you to write in the names of specific situations. Every prayer suggestion is maybe what I appreciate most about this series. Every prayer suggestion, every prompt is based on a passage of the Bible. The prayers that start in heaven are the ones that are heard by heaven.

And it's a way of you praying God's words and His promises back to Him to engage and enact His promises in your life. Take a look at this bundle of resources right now at J.D. Greer.com. It's something I'm happily and enthusiastically committing to you because I think it'll make a difference in your prayer life.

J.D. Greer.com. Don't forget to check out the Gospel Partner page as well to learn more about what it looks like to be a part of our monthly giving family.

I'm Molly Vitovich. Be sure to join us next week as we continue this powerful study on prayer on Summit Life with J.D. Greer. Today's program was produced and sponsored by J.D. Greer Ministries.