The Tragedy of Lingering, by Dr. Lynwood Davis, Sr.

"And there came two angels to Sodom at even; and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom: and Lot seeing them rose up to meet them; and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground. And he said, Behold now, my lords, turn in, I pray you, into your servant's house, and tarry all night, and wash your feet, and ye shall rise up early, and go on your ways. And they say, Nay; but we will abide in the street all night. And he pressed upon them greatly; and they turned in unto him, and entered into his house; and he made them a feast, and did bake unleavened bread, and they did eat. But before they lay down, the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter: And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this night? Bring them out unto us, that we may know them. And Lot went out at the door unto them, and shut the door after him, And said, I pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly. Behold now I have two daughters which have not known man; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do ye to them as is good in your eyes: only unto these men do nothing; for therefore came they under the shadow of my roof. And they said, stand back. And they said again, This one fellow  came in to sojourn, and he will needs be a judge: now will we deal worse with thee, than with them. And they pressed sore upon the man, even Lot, and came near to break the door. But the men put forth their hand, and pulled Lot into the house to them, and shut to the  door.  And  they  smote  the men that were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great: so that they wearied themselves to find the door. And the men said unto Lot, Hast thou here any besides?  Son in law and thy sons, and thy daughters, and whatsoever thou hast in the city, bring them out of this place. For we will destroy this place, because the cry of them is waxen great before the face of the Lord; and the Lord hath sent us to destroy it. And Lot went out and spake unto his sons in law, which married his daughters, and said, Up, get you out of this place; for the Lord will destroy this city. But he seemed as one that mocked unto his sons in law. And when the morning arose, then the angels hastened Lot, saying, Arise, take thy wife, and thy two daughters which are here; lest thou  be consumed in the iniquity of the city. And while he lingered, the men laid hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters; the Lord being merciful unto him: and they brought them forth, and set him without the city. And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth abroad, that he said, Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed."

--Genesis 19: 1-17

The wickedness of Sodom was beyond measure. It was the most wicked town that part of the world had ever seen. And it was a town where homosexuality was outrageous. Wickedness and sin increased until it finally got to the point where God couldn't take it anymore. So God went down to his friend Abraham and He told Abraham exactly what He was going to do. He said, Abraham, I can't take the sin of that city anymore. And I'm going there to destroy that place. Abraham, being a righteous man, agreed. But then he thought about it. He said, wait a minute! My nephew and his family live down there. 

Now folks, let me show you some real intercessory prayer. This man, Abraham, stood before God Almighty -- God, the one who made the universe; God, the one who said, "Let there be light," and there was light. The God who said let stars appear, and twinkle, twinkle! There were stars. The God who said, Hey, give me a sun, and there was a sun -- no question asked. This same God is the one who told Abraham I'm going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. And to this same God, Abraham, an ex-heathen (for he had not been a Hebrew long), had the nerve to say, no, you're not! Abraham said, wait a minute God. If there are fifty people there who are righteous, will you, being the just God that you are, destroy the righteous with the unrighteous? God said, I tell you what Abe, you find me fifty folk down there who are saved, and I'll spare that city.

And then Abraham started thinking -- Lot...I don't know. Lot is a worldly person. He said, wait a minute God, suppose I can't find fifty, but forty-five, will you then spare the city for the sake of forty-five? God said, yes, you find me forty-five righteous people and I'll spare the city. (Now keep in mind, this is the same God that could snap his finger and Abraham would be history.) And then Abraham said, Wait a minute God, suppose I can't find forty-five. Suppose I can only find thirty, will you spare the city for thirty's sake? God said, alright Abraham, I'll spare the city for thirty's sake. Then Abraham said, Now Lord, don't get mad with me, but let me speak one more time. Suppose I can only find ten. And the Lord said, "I will not destroy it for ten's sake."

Now look, Abraham had the nerve to tell God -- NO. If you recall, Moses did the same thing. God said, Moses, I'm going to kill all of the Jews and start all over with you. Moses said, Oh, no You're not. Now you're not supposed to say those kinds of things to God.  But Abraham sure did.  Abraham talked God down to ten people. And folks, I believe that if Abraham would have pushed the issue, he would have talked God into sparing Sodom altogether. This just goes to show what the power of prayer can do. If we would only pray for Atlanta, D.C., New York City, black America, like Abraham prayed for Sodom, God will give it to us. But we must pray for it.

The angels went down to see Lot and Lot was sitting in the gate. (Lot's sitting in the gate of the city indicated that he was chummy with the people of the city and did not oppose their sin.) As the story goes on, Lot asked the angels to come into his house to spend the night, but the angels said, Brother, we'd rather stay out here in the street. But Lot begged them, and they went on inside. Later, the homosexuals came and said, open up the door, we want to come inside and make love to those boys. The angels told Lot, we're going to destroy this city, so get your family and all of your belongings. We're leaving here. And in verse fifteen, we see the angels telling Lot, come on Lot! Speed up! Get a move on Lot! Hurry up! And the angels said, Look Lot, if you don't move it, you're going to be destroyed with this city.

Now folks, my text tonight is found in verse 16: "And while he lingered..." The angels had to literally pull Lot out of the city. I mean look at this man! Lot was a born-again Christian. His uncle is the great Father Abraham. Lot had seen more miracles than you and I will ever see. He knew the promises of God to Abraham. When God first called Abraham, Lot was there. So Lot knew that what God had said was sure to happen, yet he lingered. When I look at this folks, I see Lot as a picture of many of us. 

Listen, there are people on our jobs going to hell and what are we doing? Lingering. There are people in our families going to hell and what are we doing? We're lingering. There are folk in our neighborhoods, and even in our churches who are going to hell! And we're lingering.

Let's look at some of the things Brother Lot lingered in.   First of all, 

Look at verse one. We see that there was no separation from the wickedness of Sodom. Verse one says, "Lot sat in the gate of Sodom." Now Lot knew God's principle of separation. He knew that from when God called Abraham away from his family. God wanted His people to be different from those of the world. But Lot wasn't separated.

Let me tell you something, people, there are churches today, where the man who plays the piano is just as sweet as a Hershey candy bar. There is no sense of separation in many of our churches today. God told Lot, if you don't leave this city, the same thing that  I'm going to bring upon them, I'll bring upon you. Listen! Don't linger with that kind of mess! Get away from it. Now, you may ask, are you against homosexuals? No, I love them, but I hate the sin that they are in. And we need to separate ourselves from such. Second, 

Verse two indicates that Lot had no imagination of the fact that there was going to be no tomorrow for Sodom. He was totally unaware that there was no future for Sodom. God was telling Lot that this is Sodom's last night, and while Sodom was about to go to hell, Lot was lingering. Listen, there is a city out there, and that city is on its way to hell, and unless we do something quick that city won't last. There is a country out there, and it's on its way to hell, and unless we start caring about it soon, it's not going to last too long.

We talk about reaching black America but look at what we are doing with our children. Are we teaching our children about the LORD? Are we sending our young people to schools that will teach them how to serve the Lord? I've been preaching for a long time now, and I have not seen one black missionary go to a foreign land. Why? Because we teach our children that they should get an education so that they can get a nice house and a car. Now we have the nice houses and cars, but where are our children? Now friend, the rooster has come home to roost; due to the fact that we didn't teach our children to go and get a decent education to serve the Lord. And as a result of that, many of our kids are gone. Many of us don't teach our young girls to get a Christian education and prepare her to marry a preacher or a missionary. We don't tell them that, and because of that many of our young girls have gotten pregnant early, and many of them run away from home. Look around you, where are they? My friend, we have lingered.

Listen, if Jesus Christ is first in our lives, we need to teach that to our children. We need to stop trying to send our kids to Morehouse and send them somewhere where they can learn about the Lord so they can come back and evangelize our city! The hope of America is in our children! And if we don't teach them something, we're going to suffer the consequences.

Just like Lot, many of us have no imagination as to the danger ahead. We must stop lingering! Third, 

Look at the worldliness of Lot. The homosexuals came to Lot's door and said, Yoo, hoo, Lot... You see, if Lot was a straight Christian, they would've never come to Lot like that. They would have said something like, there's no use in going to that crazy Christian. He's only going to push us away. But they came and said, Yoo, Hoo, Lot darling, give us those men that are in your house.  Now, my mama didn't raise any fools, and if she did, her oldest boy wasn't it. I believe that if you get that close to them, you're probably doing something with them. You might ask, do you think Lot was mixing with them? No, I don't think Lot was mixing with them but I think Lot was powsy-wowsy with them. I think Lot went by every now and then and said, how are you doing, honey? You see Lot was a worldly Christian. He didn't have any convictions or any principles whatsoever.

The homosexuals said, Lot, those men that you have in your house, can we have them? Listen to what Lot says, "Brethren, do not so wickedly." Lot did not call them brethren because they were related, he called them brethren in the sense that he was one of them. In essence Lot said, hey my friend, I'm just like you are. Man, don't do this.

Lot lingered because of sin. Are you lingering because of sin, Christian friend? Fourth, 

Look at what Lot did. He said in verse eight, now wait a minute fellows, you can't touch these men. Let me give you my daughters. They're virgins which have not known men. You can do to them what is good in your sight. Now folks, I have two daughters. And I don't care if the angel Gabriel was in my house, those guys wouldn't get my daughters. Gabriel would have to take care of himself. Before I got saved, I had a pretty good right hand, and now that I'm saved, I have an even better right.

Lot said, let's make a deal. If you would stop this nonsense, I'll give you my daughters. But you say, Oh! We don't do that today. Yes we do. Many of us are doing the same cotton-pickin' thing because we're lingering in our standards. In my own church, I hear people singing, "O How I Love Jesus" and they tell me how much the Lord is working in their lives, and I ask them, "Where are your kids?" "Oh, they're home watching T.V."  Like Lot, many of us are giving our kids over to the Sodomites.

In many of our homes today, we allow our children to watch garbage like M-TV. What are we doing? We're turning our children over to the world. Twenty years from now, we'll be asking, Where are our black preachers? Where are our Sunday school teachers? Listen, we don't even have decent Christian schools for our children to go to. We're turning them over to the dogs. We don't have these things and we criticize those who do. And some of the most selfish and jealous people you will ever want to meet are preachers. There are many pastors who are jealous of other pastors. What some of the pastors say is, "If I can't have it, I'm not going to join in it." That's for the birds. There comes a time when that kind of garbage must stop. We've got to unite and start helping one another and start fighting the devil.

The angels told Lot, we've got to leave this city. But Lot was lingering. Christians, if God can get us out of the world then maybe He can destroy the world. If God can get us out of wickedness, then maybe He can put wickedness down. If God can get you and I to live right, maybe He can get the world to follow our example.

Lot lingered in separation. He lingered because of sin and then he lingered in his standards. Fifth, 

The angels were telling Lot to hurry up and leave, but Lot continued to linger. He was slow in surrendering to God's will. Many times God tells us things to do, and we don't do it. How many people come to your  church  every  Sunday  and don't get saved? They're lingering in their salvation. How many folks are in your area who are born again but they have never been baptized? They need to be baptized. They're lingering in obeying God about the ordinance of baptism. How about people regarding church membership? Do you know why churches don't grow? Because we play musical churches. I know a lady who came to our church one time, and she said, "I want to join your church, but first I want to know if you and your choir get down? Because I want to hear a man and a choir that can get down."

     I said, "Lady, I've been down all my life, and I'm trying to get up now.  No ma'am, we don't have that  kind of choir."

     "Why?"

     "Because sometimes folks get too carried away and don't think about what they're singing."

     "Well, how do you raise money?"

     "No, we don't sell anything either, lady. We don't sell cakes and pies, and we don't have raffles. If God doesn't provide, we just don't get it."

     "Well, you all are not going to make it," she said.

     "We haven't been making it, lady. We've just been surviving."

Let me ask you a question -- Did you build your church on selling chittlings and potato salad? No. You built this church upon the Word of God. But so many churches today are built on cabbage and collard greens. We need to do things God's way and according to God's will. Lot didn't want to do this. He lingered in surrendering to God. Sixth, 

Even though I don't agree with Jesse Jackson on some things, I do admire him for getting out there and registering all those people to vote. He knew he was going to run for president, but he also knew that there were not enough black people out there registered to vote, so what did he do? He started evangelizing. How did he and his coalition do it? By knocking on doors. And from their efforts they helped register some two million voters for the Democratic Party. You might say, Brother Davis, why isn't your church growing in Washington, D.C.? Well, because we don't have too many door knockers. Listen, the world knows how to reach the world. No wonder Jesus Christ said, "That the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light." It seems like it takes a team of mules and all the angels in heaven to get some of our people to serve God and to knock on doors.

Not only have we lingered in our soul-winning, but many of us have lingered in our giving to the Lord's work as well. You would be surprised at how many of us love the Lord until it's time to pass the offering plate. And then we say, well pastor, how come we can't have fifty buses like some of these other churches? How come we can't have silk drapes like everybody else? Instead of lying and telling them we just can't afford it, we should ask them to show us their tithing record.  For therein we might find the answer. We need to stop lingering in our soul-winning. We need to stop lingering in our giving. Last,

Look at verse seventeen. The angels told Lot and his family, "Escape for thy life, look not behind thee..." They said, run! Keep running for the Lord! Don't look behind you. 

Before I got saved, one of the biggest problems I had was gambling. I used to keep all of my money in a little metal box, and I used to keep that box underneath the head of my bed. One night I had done so well, I left the poker game and went to a car dealer and paid cash for a brand new Cadillac. I used to keep money. But after I got saved, my money seemed to disappear. (Somehow salvation and crooked money don't mix.) My money got lost, but I kept that box. And every now and then, when we would get broke, I would look at that box. But that box only gave me memories of how it used to be. So, one day, my wife came to me and said, "Look sweetheart, if we don't get rid of that box, we'll never face the future." In other words, she was saying, we've got to stop looking behind us.

We need to stop looking behind to see what the devil gave us, and start looking forward to see what God will give us.

I  dare  say  that  if  we would  stop looking  behind and start looking at the promises of God, we can do far more  than what we're doing now. We need to start reaching out to the lost. You see, Lot and his wife didn't do that. As they started running out of the city, she started to remember the good things she was leaving behind in Sodom. She remembered her lovely home and nice car, and she thought she would just take one last look. And she turned around for a little peek and she was turned into a pillar of salt. Lot and his wife lingered in running away from the world. 

Dear Christian, are you lingering in your service to God? Are you lingering when it comes to separation? Are you lingering because of sin? Are you lingering when it comes down to your standards? Are you lingering in running from the world? If so, please repent and stop lingering.

In closing, I want to ask those who might not be saved, are you lingering in your salvation? If so, don't linger any longer. Don't slow dance with God. You need to run. You need to run to Jesus and say, "Lord, my sins are ever before me, and I confess them to you. Lord come into my heart and save my soul. I believe with all of my heart that you died for me, was buried and rose again." Do it today. DON'T LINGER!