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Somebody said that "life it too short to learn everything the hard way." I believe that. And fortunately we have many examples of how to do things and how not to do things in the recorded lives of people in scripture. For people who will be wise enough to learn their lessons, these serve as gems of avoiding struggles and mistakes that are painful and costly in the long run.

Because he was a positive example, we often teach from Abraham's life and so many of those themes are very familiar to us. From his life we learn the importance of separating yourself from idolatry and obeying the voice of God. As I've preached recently we learn the value and importance of building altars in our life. From Abraham's life we learn the importance of making and keeping a covenant with God. From Abraham's life we learn that God will be faithful to us even long after we are removed from this life. We learn that even if God promises things that seem outrageous and impossible to our human minds, that God is able and will do what He has promised if we will keep our end of the bargain. From Abraham's story we learn that God will test us throughout our life to see if we are still faithful to His covenant and that once we have convinced Him of our faithfulness and commitment that He will swear promises to us that will long outlive the vapor of our lifetime. We learn elsewhere that God is "no respector of persons." If He dealt with Abraham one on one and was faithful to him, then God will also be that way to you and I! It's an awesome promise when you think about it, the fact that the God of Glory would want to communicate and have this relationship with you and I.

When you preach about Abraham, you just about have to mention his nephew Lot. Abraham may have ended his journey alone, but he did not begin it alone. We tend to forget that until our text in Genesis 13 where Abraham and Lot parted ways for forever, that he and Lot were together. Just as Abraham is usually preached as a model for what you should do, Lot is usually preached as an example of what you should not do. But the end results were more related to the preceding events of their lives than we tend to realize. And so I want to preach to you about one of the most important lessons to remember from Abraham's life that we rarely hear preached because it is a lesson learned from one of his mistakes. I want to remind you of your influence of others and how the path that you choose affects those around you sometimes in ways that you can't obviously see. And I want to teach you through the story of Abraham and Lot that truly "nobody quits alone."

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The story of Abraham and Lot begins in Ur when God calls Abraham out of the idolatry of the region to follow Him, the one, True God. Many historians think that Abraham's father was an idol maker and that his family was securely connected with idol worship in ways beyond just living in the same city. Whatever the case, Abraham obeyed the voice of God and decided to quit the idol worship and to obey this call of God. Nobody quits alone, so when Abraham quit the pagan lifestyle, his decision influenced his nephew, Lot, to do the same thing. Lot was later called "a just man." Lot packed up his bags and family and left following the voice of God just as Abraham did. Lot left behind the idolatry and the pagan religion too!

I'm preaching to some people today who have been impacted by someone else's decision to live for God. You are here, yes, because God called you and you answered the call, but the decision to seek after God's voice came from seeing someone's else's decision to quit living for themselves and the world and to start living for God! You see, when someone genuinely quits living for the world and starts serving God, they will take someone with them! You can't quit sinning alone. You can't quit doing things your way by yourself. Somebody is going to notice. Somebody is going to want what you have also! That's why the devil so fights against you making a greater commitment and selling out further to God. That's why the devil so discourages you from quitting your sinful lifestyle. Because he knows that nobody quits alone and that if you make the change, then you are going to give someone else the courage to try to live for God too!

We must never forget that others are watching our example! It's no accident that the scripture records that we are made over comers by our testimony. Because whatever situation you came from, there is someone in the world in the same boat that needs deliverance from the same situation! That's why when you win a soul to God, it is absolutely the most powerful thing that you can accomplish because that soul will affect others around it. You can't help but affect someone when you quit sin. Because nobody quits alone!

And so we find Abraham and Lot setting off together to obey the voice of God. We find them traveling together from altar to altar in the Promised Land. We find them both men full of faith and wisdom and serving the one, true God in a time when few did. And yet the end of the two is so different. There came a day when these two men parted ways and from then on Lot's direction is toward hell while Abraham's is growing closer to God. The scriptures say that Abraham died "seeking a city whose maker and builder is God" and yet Lot died a drunk trying to soften the scars of the judgment of God.

The scriptures say in our text that the moment of decision came as a result of the blessings of God. Abraham's and Lot's flocks had grown to the place that the water and green pasture of one area was not enough to service both. And so Abraham and Lot met and decided to part ways so that they could both continue to grow. Really, Lot should have preferred his elder, Abraham, and given the older man first choice of the area, but Abraham graciously gave Lot the first choice of where to go. The scriptures say that Lot chose to move his family into the "well-watered plains of Sodom." There was plenty of vegetation there. Life wouldn't be a struggle there. The down side was that it was near the twin cities of Sodom and Gomorrah which were the two most wicked cities on earth. And Lot moving his family nearby such a place, was the worst possible decision that he could have made. It didn't happen immediately, but eventually Sodom and sin engulfed Lot and his family. They started out with just an occasional visit to the city. Then they developed friends there. Then they moved closer to the city. Then eventually they moved inside the city. Then Lot's older daughters married natives to the city.

And eventually we come to the story of Genesis 19 of how that God wants to destroy the cities for their homosexuality and wickedness and yet is merciful enough to send an angel to get Lot out because of Abraham's prayers. The only problem is that the two older daughters and their husbands refuse to leave. Finally, the angels grab Lot and his wife and two younger daughters and drive them out of the city warning them not to hesitate or look back, but Lot's wife is so drawn to the city that she looks back and is turned into a pillar of salt. Lot and his two younger daughters flee to the caves in the hillside as God destroys the two cities with fire and brimstone and there the two daughters conspire to get Lot drunk and to have him father children for them. The two offspring of this incestuous relationship were named Moab and Ammon and became the father of the Moabites and the Ammonites two peoples that were to be a continual thorn in the side of the children of Abraham and eventually would be destroyed by God completely.

It is obvious that Lot made a horrible mistake in choosing to move his family near these sinful cities. And great sermons have been preached about the danger of "pitching your tents toward Sodom" and of what direction your house is leaning. Allow a little sin here and flirt with a little sin there, and before you know it you are in the very place that God is seeking to destroy. There's a lot of truth to all of that and those are grave lessons learned, but that's the end of the story and we tend to forget or overlook why Lot chose the plains of Sodom in the first place. We forget what it was that attracted him in that direction. Verse 10 of our text in Genesis 13 said:

Gen 13:10 And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where, before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar.

The scriptures say that Lot chose the plains of Sodom because it reminded him of "Egypt" particularly the part "as thou comest unto Zoar." The question that you should immediately ask is "how did Lot know what Egypt was like?" "Where did he learn about Egypt?" The answer is that Abraham -- yes Abraham -- took him there.

Flip back with me to the preceding chapter 12. The first few verses are when God speaks first to Abraham to leave the idolatry and to follow Him "to the land which I will show you." Verse 5 lets us know that Lot went with him. And for a while, Abraham was doing good, building altars and doing everything that God wanted him to do, but then we come to verse 10:

God did NOT ever command Abraham to go to Egypt. Abraham went there because there was a famine in the land of promise. Things got a little uncomfortable. He got a little restless waiting on the voice of God. Egypt was Abraham's own solution to his problems. It was taking matters in his own hands. For at least a little while, Abraham was quitting trusting in God and quitting walking by faith. He was tired of the struggle in living for God in a way that nobody around him was doing and so he just went to Egypt.

Things didn't go well for him there. Abraham ended up lying about his wife being his sister and then his lying got him in trouble with the Pharaoh who was plagued by God. Abraham quickly learned that Egypt wasn't as fun as he had thought. He quickly learned that going through a famine in God's will was much better than a feast leaning on his own understanding and so the side road lasts for only ten verses of Abraham's life. And then in the beginning of chapter 13, we find this:

Abraham was on his way back to Bethel which means "house of God." He knew that doing things his own way was only going to end up in destruction and so he had to get back to the house of God. And so he left his place of "backsliding" if you will and decided that he wasn't going to give up after all. He found out that quitting was more costly than sticking it out waiting on God. And the scriptures say that he went out of Egypt; "Lot with him." Lot had been there the entire time. It was a moment of weakness. A moment of frustration. A moment of famine that caused Abraham to go into Egypt. But Abraham learned his lesson and returned, but unfortunately, when he had "quit" Lot had gone with him. And now Lot had a taste of Egypt. And before the chapter is over, Lot is going to have to decide his spiritual direction and he is going to choose the worst mistake of his life by choosing to move his family to the plains of Sodom, but he is going to choose to do so because it reminded him "of Egypt as you come up to Zoar."

And so I'm preaching to you today. There are going to be times when you are living for God and you are sold out to His promises that you are going to go through a time of "famine." There are going to be times that God is going to allow you to go through a dry time. A time of testing. A time where everything is not going quite like you wish. You are going to go through a time where living for God is a struggle and waiting patiently on the promises of God to work out your situations is not going to seem very exciting. You will have times of famine, even in the Promised Places of God. And in those times, it might cross your mind, to quit. Just give living sold out for God completely a break for a little while. To try doing things your own way. After all you are changed from what you used to be, so maybe you'll do a better job of life now. Maybe you don't need to wait on Him as patiently and as surely as everybody says that you should. And so it's tempting to just "quit" the struggle and "quit" standing up for what's right when nobody else around you seems to be living it and it seems so easy to "quit" being obedient to that and to "quit" going to church all the time. And to "quit" listening to your pastor. Just take a break.

And when this happens, the devil always makes sure that there is an "Egypt" nearby. He always makes sure that there is an easier way out than strict obedience. It always appeals to your flesh. After all you are tired of struggling to do what's right and over there it seems that the people are so happy and it seems that they have no problems. Church was worth it when you felt God so close, but you have been going through a growing time of a famine where you don't feel God quite like you once did and so now it seems so easy to "quit."

But let me remind you amid the lies of the devil and the pull of Egypt on your life that nobody ever quits alone! Like Abraham, you will find out that going back to working out your own situations and trusting in your own understanding will not be pleasant and will end up with you doing things you said that you'd never do. And like Abraham you will find that the best thing to do is to run back to Bethel -- the house of God -- and pour your life out on an altar and recommit to be faithful to God's will for your life and allowing those fleshly desires and that fleshly tiredness to die on an altar of His presence. And like Abraham, you might survive the trip to Egypt and make it back alright, but you will not quit alone! There will be someone quit with you. There will be someone with you in Egypt that will get a taste of Egypt that will eventually destroy them. There will be a Lot that will be forever affected adversely by your decision. And you may say "preacher I made it back" but you will find that in eternity there was somebody that didn't. That made a decision based upon an appetite that you led them to and that their family was destroyed!

It's not time to listen to the lies of the devil that "you're tired." Your flesh is tired because it's too much alive and needs to die out for His will! But it's not time to quit! It's not time to turn back! Because the cost is too high! You might not make it back! And even if you did, there is someone that will go along with you and who will be touched and hurt and scarred. Because you never quit alone. If you decide to quit being sold out to God, then someone will follow suit and you might make it back, but they might be a Lot whose life and walk with God is marred forever!

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Never in scripture did anyone -- after being changed by God -- ever go back to just being an ordinary sinner successfully. When God changes you, you are changed forever and you will never fit in where you once did.

In our other text, we read of Peter's decision to go fishing. God has nothing against fishing, but Peter had been a fisherman before Jesus called him. And when Jesus called him, Jesus had called Peter away from the nets and the boats to be "fishers of men." Peter had had to trade his fisherman's cloak for that of discipleship. He had had to make a commitment to the will of God in his life and not just continue on being what he had always been.

But when we read John chapter 21, we find that a lot has happened. Jesus has been crucified, and while He is resurrected, He is not hanging out with the disciples everyday in flesh as He had done the last three years. Furthermore, Peter has denied the Lord three times to his face and it looks as if the persecution might eventually cost Peter his life. Nobody is sure what to do next. We tend to forget that there were fifty days between the crucifixion and the Day of Pentecost. The disciples' whole world had been shattered. They didn't understand their purpose and for a month or so, they were just having to trust God that He knew what He was doing.

Have you ever had a time like that in your life? Maybe a month or two where things just didn't make sense? It didn't seem as if you had any clear direction in your life or if anything was really happening as to the promises of God? Where God was doing things that hurt and caused you to feel lonely and you had to just have blind faith in the promises of God?

Peter didn't respond well. He made up in his mind to quit this whole discipleship mess. He said "I'll go back to what I used to do before all of this stuff." It didn't quite turn out like I expected, and it's costing way too much sacrifice than I bargained for, so I'll just go back to what I used to be."

I'm amazed at how quickly people will give up on God. Never mind Peter that you saw the blind eyes opened and the deaf ears unstopped. Never mind that you saw five thousand men plus women and children and then four thousand fed from just a few fish and bread. Never mind that you walked on water and saw Jesus calm the angry sea. Never mind that you have seen an empty tomb. A little month of trouble and a time where you don't understand what God is doing, and you are ready to throw in the towel. Despite all of this, Peter's ready to quit after just a month and a half of trial.

What I don't have time to go into in the detail that it deserves is why Jesus allowed this trial to come in Peter's life. This chapter ends with Jesus asking Peter specific questions of "do you love me?" You can't serve God for the loaves and the fishes, because there will be a famine of miracles sooner or later. You can't serve God for the good sermons, because eventually there will be one that you don't like. You can't serve God for the blessings only because there will come a time when a trial that you don't understand will seem to dampen any blessing that you have received. But Jesus allows such things to come into your life -- even a famine in the Promised Land -- to see if you are serving Him because you love Him! To someone who is serving Him for the wrong reasons, then a little trial will cause them to quit, but to someone who is serving Jesus because you love Him, there is nothing that can separate us from that!

We tend to quote the scripture of Paul without really realizing what he is saying when he wrote:

And then he goes on to say "for I am persuaded that neither . . . . . can separate us from the love of God." We always view it as "nothing can separate us from Christ loving us" and that we can never get away from "Him loving us." But that's not only what that passage is saying. It's also saying that if we truly love Christ, nothing will be able to separate us from Him! Our love for Jesus will keep us through anything. Too many Christians are loved by God but haven't truly fallen in love with Jesus! Yes, He first loved us, but if you are going to make it without tribulation and distress and persecution and famine and peril separating you and causing you to quit, then like Peter, you are going to have to fall in love with Jesus more than anything in this world! True love will not let you quit!

Peter had been serving Jesus, and he knew who Jesus was, but he had not truly fallen in love with Jesus. So when things didn't work out like he thought they should, he decided to quit. He decided to go back to his old lifestyle. He said in our text:

When Peter decided to go back to his old lifestyle, six other disciples immediately said "we'll go with you." Nobody quits alone! And look at what happened to these "skilled" fishermen..

They caught nothing. They fished all night long, but didn't catch a thing. What they had been good at before they met Jesus and yet had given up because of the call of God ended up being a failure when they went back to it in a moment of quitting!

When you choose to quit, what used to be your strength will become your biggest frustration. God will make sure of that. Because you truly have been changed. You'll never fit back in among your friends because you've been changed. You've tasted of things that they don't even know exists. You'll never be just "one of the good ol' boys" again. You'll never fit in the in crowd again. Because you are marked. Not only will God make sure that your efforts come to naught, but the devil wants to destroy you because of the mark of the name of Jesus that is still on your life. You'll never be happy. Even if you think you will. You'll find yourself hanging around other people who quit and nothing will work out right because you never quit alone!

Maybe this experience and lesson is why Peter could write later to the church:

The backslider's end is worse than the beginning! And "it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness . . . than to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them." Why? Because it's not going to work out like you want it to. And the worst thing is that when you decide to quit, you'll influence someone else also to do the same. Because nobody ever quits alone!

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Nobody quits alone. Let me give you one more example of scripture of that fact. In the first chapter of the book of Ruth, we find the story of a man named Elimelech and his wife, Naomi, and their two sons, Mahlon and Chilion. They were from Bethlehem and were Jewish people that worshipped only the one, true God of Jehovah. They lived in the Promised Land of God and they knew why it was so important.

But verse 1 of the first chapter of Ruth tells us that there was a famine in the land. And rather than fighting against the idolatry that had brought the famine upon them, Elimelech decided to quit serving God in the Promised Place and to move to the cursed nation of Moab. He didn't intend to stay gone long, just long enough to avoid the famine. The KJV says that he went to "sojourn" literally "to live for a little while." He was just taking a break. He was just quitting living for God for a short time.

But things didn't turn out quite like he expected. They hadn't been there too long before Elimelech died. He never made it back to the Promised Places of God. His two sons married Moabite women. After about ten years, both sons died. Abraham was the one that took a break and he made it back but it was his nephew that was forever scarred. In Elimelech's case, it was his decision to leave and he did not make it back! But not only did his decision cause him to lose out with God, but it also caused his sons to die in idolatry also! Nobody quits alone! Your children are watching you and the course of their life will forever be affected by the path that you choose to take.

But thank God that the story doesn't end there in verse 5 of the first chapter! It didn't end there because somebody made up their mind to quit this idolatry stuff and finally Naomi had enough of living outside of God's promises. She had heard that Israel was blessed and she decided that even if she had to live her life as a widow, she would go back home and live in the promises of God. She told her two daughters-in-law to go back and remarry in Moab and one, Orpah, took her up on it. But the other, Ruth, had seen something in the faith of her mother-in-law and in the stories of their God that caused her to desire to go to Israel with her.

Naomi tried to make her see that she didn't have anything to offer her as far as luxuries or blessings. She said "I'm just going home to die." When she did get back, the people of Bethlehem were shocked at how different she acted and looked from when she went. Naomi told them "do not call me Naomi, but rather Mara for the Lord has dealt with me bitterly." "Naomi" means "pleasant" but "Mara" means "bitter." And Naomi had this to say about the time spent in Moab:

She had reaped what her husband had sown in his time of "sojourning." But she had also decided to quit the idolatry and the life in Moab and come back to where God wanted her to be! And what is true in the negative is also true in the positive: nobody quits alone. And so Naomi may have come back to Israel empty but she had not come alone because a young Moab woman named Ruth had come with her.

The end of the story of Ruth is a real-life version of what fairy tales are made of. She ends up marrying Boaz who just happened to be of the tribe of Judah and a native of Bethlehem and the richest man in the city. Not only did she find love and comfort, but God gave her a son, the grandson of Naomi, that brought comfort and blessing and whom they named Obed. The book of Ruth ends with us finding out that Obed grew up to have a son named Jesse, and Jesse grew up to have a son named David that would be called from the fields one day by the prophet Samuel and anointed as king over all of Israel. David would have a son who would have a son who would have a son who eventually would lead to another Son that was born, the savior, Jesus Christ! And so what could have turned out a long lineage of heartache and disappointment ended up with God in flesh, but it all happened because one Hebrew lady made up in her mind to "quit" doing things her own way and get up and get back into the perfect will of God and when she quit Moab, she found that nobody quits alone! Not only did Ruth come with her, but God worked it out for the best!

Now is not the time to quit or to back up from being completely sold out to this thing! Your family and children and others cannot afford you to hesitate even in the least bit. But if you have been easing up and feel as if you've been living in the Moab/Egypt/Fishing boat of your life. Whatever you do, don't stay there! But quit quitting! If you do you will find that God will once again bless your life. And more importantly, you will find that someone will take the step back with you. Because truly, nobody quits alone!