Behold this was the guilt of your sister Sodom:
she and her daughters had arrogance,
abundant food and careless ease,
but she did not help the poor and needy.
Ezekiel 16:49
Our new house has a garbage disposal. It is the first one I have had since I lived in an apartment for a little over a year almost 15 years ago. As I stood there at the sink washing dishes I looked down at this disposal and grief overtook me.
How on earth did we get to the point of such abundance that someone thought of a way to make a product that’s sole purpose was to aid us in the chore of the disposal of left-over food by grinding it up to the point that we could wash it down the drain? And it was a sought out invention to be commonly found in many American homes… even cheap run-down apartments.
As I have studied through Ezekiel and God’s message to His people… and as I have looked at our American church and at my own life it is the same message we need to hear and heed today.
The sin of Sodom was not homosexuality… it was arrogance, abundant food, and careless ease… these three led to the perversions and sexual sin of city.
Have you ever wondered why God sent Adam and Eve out to toil and eat by the sweat of his face?
Could it possibly be that this was a gift and not a punishment?
Could it possibly be that this was mercy, grace, and direction and not part of the curse?
The business of Adam was to care for the ground, to cultivate it, and to go forth and multiply… obviously Adam and Eve were not hard at work cultivating or multiplying or they would have been to “occupied” to have time for the deception of that serpent of old.
When man is busy about his Father’s business… living in purposeful obedience he doesn’t have time for lies.
However with careless ease, no worries of provision, in plenty… well man gets cocky, arrogant, and lazy. Man gets idle. Man thinks he no longer has to listen to guidance… man gets wide open for lies. How many lies of the serpent do we in the American church listen to daily sitting on our couches in our Christian homes watching a talking box?
How arrogant have we become…
How many professing believers think they “don’t have to go to church”?
How many think they don’t have to “obey the Word”?
How many think they don’t have to “give when someone needs”?
How many think they don’t “have to go work cause someone else will send them a check”?
Arrogance, abundance, and careless ease… the worst part of arrogance is pride and ungratefulness. The worst part of abundance is laziness and losing the sight of the need of others. The worst part of careless ease… I have never known careless ease not to lead to sexual sin in some form or fashion… I have never known sexual sin not to lead to the destruction of a heart, a soul, a marriage, a life…
Look at Sodom… look at Judah… look at Samson… look at David… look at Solomon… look at Herod… look at our nation… look at the church… look at yourself.
In Atlanta alone 129 girls are raped 10 to 15 times a day and on Thursday through Saturday every 54 seconds a girl is raped through forced prostitution. Atlanta is also one of the top 3 cities in the United States for child prostitution… and a couple of weekends ago Atlanta was packed full of believers who had the money and time to show up for Nascar, college football, concerts, etc… but how many times has Atlanta been stormed with believers who are choosing to use their time and money to rescue?
I have attended the Passion conference several times with our college students and every time we go we donate to the Do Something Now fundraisers they hold for many different ministries… and we always pat ourselves on the back and feel so good about ourselves because we “did” something… but then we walk away and are not doing anything but getting back to our daily mundane complaints of woe is me because my current careless ease, abundance, and arrogance is only enough to keep me from feeling guilty about my lack of “doing something” all the time so I need more abundance, more careless ease, and more arrogance so that I don’t even have enough consideration outside myself to have to address this oh so not comfortable feeling of guilt…
So are you busy about your Father’s business?
Are you cultivating the ground of His grace?
Are you working the soil of the hearts around you?
Are you going forth and multiplying the kingdom?
Are you spreading the Seed of the Father over the face of this earth?
Therefore be careful how you walk,
not as unwise men but as wise,
making the most of your time,
because the days are evil.
So then do not be foolish,
but understand what the will of the Lord is.
Ephesians 5:15-17
So perhaps the cultivating the ground by the sweat of his face… perhaps the pain in childbirth… perhaps the thorn and the thistles were all for the salvation of Adam and Eve and not their demise… perhaps it was to keep them looking up to their Father seeking His face and holding on to the hope of His eternal life instead of sitting at ease in their sin listening to the serpent’s lies all the way to eternal death…
No pain no gain.
That truth has never changed…
