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Most of you have heard or read the story of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah found in Genesis chapter 19. In the time of Abraham, Sodom and Gomorrah were twin cities in a valley of the Jordan river that were well known for their sinfulness and ungodliness. The tragic story of Abraham’s nephew Lot has been retold over and over again because there are many people today that make his mistake. Lot was with Abraham and thus was sharing in the blessings of God and yet chose to move his family close to the sinful city of Sodom. Unfortunately, you cannot stay close to sin for very long without becoming sinful and before long, Lot and his family had moved into the city of Sodom and decided to live their lives.

Can I just stop and say that because of the mercy of God, Lot lost everything that was dear to him. His wife and older daughters were destroyed with the city. His two younger virgin daughters lost their purity when they resorted to incest and Lot eventually unknowingly fathered his own grandchildren. The scary part of the story was that Lot was a righteous man. He had obeyed everything that was required of him for salvation in his time. He loved God and he had enjoyed the blessings of God. But he thought that he was stronger than he was. He thought that he could live on the line of sin and still serve God.

The word for “vexed” in the Greek refers to someone in a boat on a stormy sea trying to travel against the strong headwind. Peter said that Lot had every intention of going the right direction, but because of where he chose to draw the line of sin, his relationship with God was an uphill battle; it was like trying to sail against the wind in a stormy sea.

I’ve seen some Christians who were baptized in Jesus’ name and filled with the Holy Ghost. They had done everything that was required of them for initial salvation. They loved God and they had enjoyed the blessings of God. But their walk with God in the Spirit seemed to always be an uphill struggle. They seemed to struggle with yielding to the Spirit. They seemed oblivious and unaware of the deep currents of the Holy Ghost in a service. Every now and then they would feel God in a powerful way and have a “mini breakthrough” but it seemed that they were never the leaders in responding to the Spirit! They do not see the benefits of applied prayer or fasting. Church attendance has become a duty rather than a spiritual experience.

If you feel this way, then I want to diagnose your problem. If you feel like your walk in the Spirit of God is like trying to sail into a strong wind, if you feel like your walk with God and being sensitive to God’s Spirit is an uphill battle, if you feel like you cannot pray and fast until you see and feel spiritual results, then you are like Lot: You are choosing to live your life too close to the line of sin! You think that you can live for God and still enjoy the pleasure of the world at the same time, but let me tell you that you are not as strong as you think you are. Lot had the attitude that he could make it and he could live close to worldliness at the same time, and he did make it in the end, but when he escaped he had nothing but the clothes on his back and he had lost his family. The rest of his life was permanently scarred because of the result of living to close to Sodom.

You see, Lot chose to live by Sodom because it was a more convenient lifestyle. It did not require as much sacrifice as living on the side of the mountain. The plains around Sodom were well-watered, and Lot had the benefits of the city to depend upon. So many Christians get baptized in Jesus’ name and filled with the Holy Ghost and yet still lose their family to the world and, if they do end their life saved, it is because of the grace of God and yet they still lose their family, either permanently to sin or to having to live their lives bound and hampered by the damaging effects of sin. Why? Because they choose to live their life too close to the world. They do not see the need to be separated and a holy people. They do not understand why the church takes so many stands against so many vices and lifestyles. And so they let their family live next to the line. They think that they are strong enough to handle the sinfulness and the worldliness but in reality they are “vexed” with the lifestyles of the wicked. Their relationship with God and being sensitive to the Spirit of God forever remains an uphill battle.

The church must be separated far from the world. If people cannot tell a difference in our lifestyle from those who are not baptized in Jesus’ name and filled with the Holy Ghost, then we are living too close to the line. We are “pitching our tents toward Sodom.” And this is why we must be separated: just like Sodom and Gomorrah was destroyed by fire falling from heaven because of it’s ungodliness, God is not going to put up with the sinfulness of this world’s lifestyle much longer. It too will be destroyed by the judgment fire from God. It may be more convenient to live like the world. It may be easier to spend your life just “doing what everybody else is doing.” But that does not make it pleasing to God! We cannot afford to justify sin simply because the masses do: God is going to destroy this world, and when he does we do not want to be anywhere near the line of sin or flirting with the world. Simply put: if the world cannot tell the difference between us and them, can God?

But I’ve decided that I’m going to do more than just make it to heaven by the skin of my teeth! I’m not going to go in the Rapture with the burn marks of hell and the damages of sin on my spiritual body. I’m do not want to make heaven and yet lose my wife and my family. But learn the lesson of Lot: it depends on where you choose to live! You need to make up your mind that as for you and your family, you will draw the line and choose to live far from the line of sin and worldliness! You need to make up in your mind that when God comes back for you, whether it be in the Rapture or in death, that you will walk victoriously into heaven having lived a full life in God and happily spent your days on earth! You can do that by choosing to camp your family far away from the convenient but sinful ways of the world! I’ll never reach my lost family by living like them, but will only be able to save them by them seeing a tremendous difference between my lifestyle and theirs! I cannot afford to camp toward Sodom!

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You are probably wondering what Sodom and Gomorrah have to do with our text. You can still visit the sites of Sodom and Gomorrah today in Israel but it looks quite a bit different from the well-watered, pleasant plain that it was before God destroyed it. When God caused the fire to fall down from heaven, He also caused a great earthquake to shake the valley. It caused the great salt deposits to mix with the sulphur pits and produced a violent explosion that threw brimstone and flaming sulphur into the air and rained down on the cities. It not only destroyed the cities but covered everything near the cities, including Lot’s wife who had lagged behind in her love for sin. When God brings judgment upon the world, He will not only destroy the sinful but also those who are camped too close to sin! You cannot afford to live near Sodom!

Something else happened as well. The earthquake caused the valley to sink until it became the lowest point on earth. The Jordan river which had flowed into the plain and produced so much fertile land and ample life, now flowed into a dead-end depression. The water flowed into the valley and evaporated out leaving a high mineral composition in the water so much that absolutely no life can live there. That’s right: today we call this lake the Dead Sea. When you stand on the shores of the Dead Sea, you are not only standing at the lowest possible land point on the earth, but you are also beside the only place on earth where there is no life able to live. The Dead Sea is the remains and reminder of what God did in Lot’s day. The floor of the Dead Sea is where the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah used to be.

It is no coincidence that the Dead Sea is the lowest part of the earth and is also the only place on earth where no life lives. That is the result of sin: it takes you lower than you ever wanted to go and chokes out every bit of life in your relationship with God. Jesus said that he came to bring life and that more abundantly. It is possible to be living and not be “alive” in the Spirit of God. That’s what sin does. The world is full of walking “dead men” who are destitute of a relationship with God. That’s why you better thank God for when your pastor or a preacher draws some spiritual lines and says “we just do not live here.” You’d better be thankful for a man of God who will point out things in your life that are on the line of sin. Don’t be offended, but repent and be thankful: God loves you enough to send someone to you to warn you that you are too close to the line of judgment! Repentance is more than just saying words of “I‘m sorry“: You can say the words but not truly repent. True repentance is moving farther away from the line of God’s judgment.

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In the last part of the book, God gave the prophet Ezekiel a series of visions that showed how that God wanted the earth to be in the future. Ezekiel was shown a series of plans of a great temple that would be unlike any temple that has ever been built. Ezekiel was then shown a new way of worship that far passed the Mosaic Law. In our text, we read about the third vision which showed the way God wanted the land of Israel to be and described a great river that would flow.

In the vision, the river began flowing from under the door of the temple. It flowed past the altar and east out of the gate of Jerusalem. After the waters got past Jerusalem, they began to get deeper. The angel measured about a mile past the city and the waters were ankle deep. He measured another mile, and the waters were knee deep. Another mile farther, and Ezekiel was in water up to waist deep. In verse 5, they went on another mile and the river became waters that were deep enough to swim in, and a river that could not easily waded through.

The amazing thing was that the river flowed to the Dead Sea! Verse 8 says that the waters were healed! And that every kind of living thing was able to produce in what had formerly been the Dead Sea. That desolate valley of Sodom’s destruction would one day have trees freely growing and bearing fruit! Fishermen would be able to come to the sea and cast their nets and catch every kind of fish in the sea!

There are many meanings and lessons that we can learn from this vision. I believe that it will really happen. Revelation chapter 22 describes a river of life in the New Jerusalem flowing from the throne of God and flowing down the streets of the city. The description matches the vision of Ezekiel exactly even down to the trees of healing and life along the banks.

There are many spiritual reasons why God has chosen to do this. You see, Jesus referred to Himself as the “door.” He also told the woman at the well that He had come to give living water. John 1:14 says that “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” The word for “dwelt” in the Greek means “to live in a tabernacle.” Jesus was God come in flesh. He was God come to dwell among men in a fleshly tabernacle. When Jesus was on Calvary, and the soldier pierced His side with the spear, blood and water flowed! But it was more than just a physical stream of water. It symbolized a great river of the Spirit of God that had begun to flow! Jesus had referred to this stream right before His death:

The waters represented the Spirit of God! When Jesus was killed and resurrected, the stream of the Spirit began to flow from the door of the tabernacle of God in flesh. The flow of the Holy Ghost reached the streets of Jerusalem when the Day of Pentecost came, and the 120 of the upper room staggered out into the streets! I want you to notice that it kept getting bigger and bigger! It started with 120 and then when it hit the streets of the city, it grew to several thousands and many people received the Spirit of God. As it left Jerusalem, it got wider and wider and reached out to the Samaritans. When Paul’s ministry began the stream of the Spirit became wider and wider and thousands and thousands of Gentiles began to wade out into it’s flow! And today it is still flowing! It is so wide that it has reached to Castroville, Texas in 2003! The stream of living water that started at Calvary is still flowing! The vision of Ezekiel has come true!

I do not believe that is has flowed this far to stop! It has not flowed throughout time and persecution and gotten wider and wider to stop! Many men have tried to dam up the flow of the Spirit but it is too wide and strong to be stopped by false doctrine and the efforts of men. The purpose of Jesus’ coming and the purpose of Calvary was for a river of the Holy Ghost to begin flowing! The wider and bigger a river becomes, the stronger it becomes! This stream of living water has not and will not be stopped no matter what the devil says! People can still receive the Holy Ghost today! And everywhere the waters reach, they bring life and healing! What was left desolate and empty by sin, is restored by the life giving waters of the Spirit! The desolation and death of sin can be healed by the powerful waters of the Spirit of God! The healing of your scars and hurts will not be found in a program of man or even a religion, but in the flowing and healing power of the stream of the Spirit!

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Not only did the stream get wider the further you got, but it also got deeper! The farther away from Jerusalem that it got, the deeper that it became! It went from being ankle deep outside the city to waters that you could swim in! We must as a church body become dependent upon the moving of the Holy Spirit! We cannot be a religion for a religion depends upon ritual for it’s existence. We cannot be a social club for a social gathering depends upon fellowship for it’s existence. We must become totally dependent upon the Holy Spirit! Being sensitive to God’s Spirit and moving along with the Spirit must become priority in our lives! We must be willing to wade out into the flow of the Spirit of God! Receiving the Holy Ghost just got the stream started in your life. It was just a shallow taste of what God has for you! There are greater depths in God’s Spirit that you have never experienced! The moving of God’s Spirit is the purpose of everything! The reason that we come together and sing songs is to produce an environment where God’s Spirit can move! The reason that we have bible studies and sermons is so that we can better understand God’s plans and methods and change our way of thinking to match His! Why? So that we can better yield to God’s Spirit! Why should we develop a disciplined life of prayer and fasting? So we can be more sensitive to the moving of God’s Spirit!

God’s Spirit is where we find our being, our strength, and our direction! It is the life giving force that heals the scars of sin and wounds of the past! But if it got deeper the farther it got from Jerusalem, then that tells me that the river of the Spirit of God is deeper than it has ever been! There are depths and anointings that God has reserved for this time in history! And God has chosen for you and I to live in this time! I’m crazy enough to stand here and state that I believe that there is no situation too far gone that the Spirit cannot bring healing and life! There is no life that has gone too far in sin that cannot be healed by the moving of the Holy Spirit! A person can be the lowest that it is possible to be on earth, and be the deadest and least sensitive to the things of God that a person can be, and if they will be willing to wade out into the living water, they can be healed! Don’t tell me that you cannot move with the Spirit of God! Don’t tell me that the Holy Ghost cannot reach your family or situation! Don’t tell me that the scars of the past are too much to be able to live for God! The mighty stream of the Holy Ghost is wider and deeper than it has ever been before! The world might be more evil, but the Holy Ghost is that much more stronger! If you’ve got the Holy Ghost, you can say with conviction “Greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world!”

Verse 9 says that “everything shall live whither the river cometh!” No matter what the situation, if you can get to the river of life, it can become better! New life comes from the flowing of the Spirit of God! We live in the most exciting time in the history of the church! There is not just a trickle from the throne but the waters of the Spirit are deep and mighty! They are “WATERS TO SWIM IN!” But you can never experience the depths of the Spirit of God unless you are willing to jump in! Don’t be afraid! There is waters to swim in: I want to get in over my head!

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When the angels of the Lord came to get Lot out of the city, he did not want to follow the leading of the Lord. He did not want to leave his comfort zone! He had gotten comfortable in living close to sin and it hampered his ability to follow the leading of the Spirit of God! You see, living too close to the line of sin still has that same effect today: it causes people to not want to follow the leading of the Spirit of God. It causes them to rather stay in their comfort zone than obey the leading of God! When I see people uncomfortable in the moving of the Spirit and I see people sit through move of God after move of God, and anointed preaching after anointed preaching unstirred and unbroken; unable to yield and tarry and linger in the presence of God, then I realize that they are choosing to live too close to the line of sin! Their lifestyle is too close to the worlds, they are too comfortable in the convenience of sin! They are like Lot not wanting to follow the leading of the Spirit of God!

But when I see someone overcome their fears and allow themselves to be broken by the Spirit of God, it tells me that they have the faith and determination of Abraham! They are choosing to live far away from Sodom! They are telling me that they are willing to jump into the river of the Spirit of God! They are willing to forsake everything to diving in the Holy Ghost! God help us to willingly be consumed and saturated with the life, giving flow of the Spirit!

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If you were to visit the Dead Sea, and try to swim, you would be surprised. The mineral content of the water is about 25% making it impossible for life to live and also making it impossible for a human being to sink! In fact, as you waded into the sea, and tried to push your arms and legs deep enough in the water to swim, you would find it is impossible to get your limbs that far under the water! It is impossible to swim in the Dead Sea! Even now, the site of Sodom is resistant to moving in the water!

You will never be able to wade out into the waters of the Spirit by staying near Sodom! You will never be able to “have waters to swim in” in the Spirit by camping too close to this world! You will never be able to be sensitive to the Spirit of God like you should until you are willing to change your lifestyle dramatically from the style of the world’s!

What I’m preaching to you is very important! You need the moving of the Holy Ghost in your life! You cannot make it without the life giving flow of God’s Spirit! You cannot make it without being broken to the moving of the Spirit of God! God is looking for someone to wade in and swim in the Spirit! Let your direction and existence be completely dependent upon the moving of the currents of the Spirit of God!

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In closing, I want you to look at verses 10 and 11:

When the waters that flowed from Jerusalem healed the waters of the Dead Sea, fishermen were able to catch many multitudes of fish! Is it any wonder that Jesus told His disciples that if they would follow Him, He would make them fishers of men?! How do we see Jesus today? Is Jesus in this place? Yes. What form is He in? How do we feel Him? By the presence and leading of His Spirit! What Jesus was saying was that if they would follow the leading of God’s Spirit that they would see many people come to God!

If you make up in your mind that you are going to devote your life to flowing with the Holy Ghost and not camp too close to the line of sin, you WILL see people won to God as a result of your life and witness! You WILL see your family come to this truth! You WILL become a fishers of men! But it is dependent upon whether or not you will yield yourself to the waters of the Spirit! Their are waters to swim in! Their are people in your family that you do not even realize can be won to God that will dive in with you! Do not underestimate the depth of these waters!

The saddest part of the entire scripture is that there will be some places that do not hook up with the Spirit of God. The “miry places” are places that do not have contact with the Spirit of God and will not yield to it’s flow! Those places will not be healed and shall forever be like the Dead Sea: lifeless and impossible to swim in!

I do not know about you, but I have decided that I want to dive off into the depths of the Spirit of God! There are waters to swim in here today! The Spirit of God is here and it has the ability to heal anything in your life that needs a miracle! Do not underestimate the flowing of the Spirit of God! Do not underestimate the depths of the Spirit of God! You have not reached the top of your walk with God! There are so many more blessings that you do not even know about! There is nothing too hard for God!

Let’s jump into the “waters to swim in!”