AdAgrA 2021: Hidden Treasure

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AdAgrA: Adventist Agriculture Association

Darryl Hosford

Morning Devotionals

Sodom

Alan Seiler

The Sabbath

Good morning friends. It's a beautiful morning and what a beautiful time of prayer to lead off this morning. I'd like to tell you about a place very far from here. In fact, it's on the other side of the world, but here's a little riddle. This place is also in your homes and it might be in your pocket. This location affirms our belief in the Bible and it relates to gardening and the second coming of Jesus. Let's pray. Father, I thank you for this beautiful morning and I pray that your message from the scripture can become plain regardless of me as the presenter teach us from your word. I pray this morning in Jesus' name. Amen. How many of you or have any of you ever traveled to the holy land? Lemme see your hands. Quite a few. How many of you have had the, of those of you who've visited the Holy Land, how many of you have visited the kingdom of Jordan? Not quite as many. In 2019 I was scouting the internet for locations to film for the light unshackled series two, and I came across a fascinating archeology dig under the direction of Dr. Stephen Collins. He's an archeology professor at Trinity Southwest University. It's located in Albuquerque, but he's digging there in the Middle East. And what caught my eye was that this archeology professor had claimed that he had found and was excavating the ancient city of Sodom In the Bible, there are clues to the location of Sodom and I started studying it and I thought he might be onto something. Most of the clues come from the biblical story of Genesis chapter 13, where Abraham and lot separate company when Abraham and lot separated, they were near Bethel and ai and from there lot looked toward the valley of Sodom. He chose that valley because it was green and fertile. So Dr. Collins said, you must be able to stand at Bethel and AI and see the valley of Sodom that precludes being able to see the area around the southern part of the Dead Sea. It's much too far to be able to visualize. The Bible says that from where Abraham and lot were located, lot traveled east, not south, and the valley of Sodom is called a fertile disc. In the Hebrew, it's called the kk. This is the same word that here in the south we would call the tortilla. It means a circular disc and it says the KK of the Jordan River is where Sodom was located. If you look at a map, the only place that looks like a circle is that area in the, in the delta of the Jordan River just before it enters the the Dead Sea. So putting these clues together, Dr. Collins started looking at any significant dig site representing a large city in the area just north of the Dead Sea. Well, I thought that was interesting, just imagines an archeologist opening the Bible and asking, well, where would this ancient city be located? It's kind of a refreshing idea, especially in this day and time of higher criticism and disbelief in the Bible As anything re representing truth. Well, our FI filming team was headed into Ahman Jordan. So I looked up how far is that dig from Ahman Jordan? And it turned out to be only 45 minutes away. Now you can guess we wanted to visit as we drove toward the dig site, and you can look it up yourself, it's called Tell El Hamam. We came to the rim of the mountains overlooking the Jordan Valley and there we stopped the car and looked down and you could see the entire circle that they're talking about and it was green. Anytime you see something green in the Middle East, you can be surprised. If you look today on Google Earth, you'll see a green pocket right there as the river Jordan is flowing into the Dead Sea. Right on the maps, you can see it. Take a look in Google Earth or your Bible atlas sometime and take a look at the river Jordan as it flows into the Dead Sea. You'll notice that on one side on the Israeli side is the ancient city of Jericho, and if you go exactly opposite to the other side of that disc, that fertile area, that is where Tell El Hamam is located and perhaps it's the ancient city of. So When we arrived at the dig site, we had to climb up on what looked like a large mountain of boulders. And as we got to the top, it came to our realization that this was not a mountain, it was a city that had been collapsed. There were potter pottery shards everywhere you could clearly see them. Some of the, the handles were visible, some parts of the side with glazing. It was so abundant that they had gathered them together and lined the walkways with these pottery shards, The mountain of stones, and I'm talking a literal mountain, was the walls and the buildings of this massive ancient city. It was fascinating to look down into the dig area where they had dug into the rubble of the mountain and you could see the foundations of the buildings. We were able to climb down into the excavation area and walked through the palace of the king of that city, perhaps the king of Sodom, and we saw a distinct and uniform burn layer of char running through the entire excavated area. There is an area of six inches to a foot thick of black charcoal and you can see it as they've dug down. It's consistent all across the entire excavation area. If this was the ancient city of sod, you could touch the char that destroyed the city. I scooped some of the char into the palm of my hand and as I looked at it, I considered the life of lot Dr. Collins reports finding jars full of grain in this char layer where the jar and the grain contents had been heated to thousands of degrees Fahrenheit. I've seen pictures from that jar and you can see distinct wheat berries, but they're pure charcoal, they're completely blocked. And on the outside of these jars that have been heated to incredible temperatures is a glass glossy layer that has formed it actually started to melt the pottery into a new kind of of glass. He's not suggesting it has anything to do with nuclear reactions, but the only other place we see this kind of glass is at ground zero of a nuclear bomb. That's the kind of temperature that it takes to have pottery turn into this kind of glass. The buildings of this city all collapsed in one direction and the contents of the room were smashed against the internal walls in that same direction. We were able to see this as we visited the Dick site. So it's not just a an earthquake which is common in the area of the Middle East. It's not just an earthquake, but something that flattened the entire city in one direction as if there was a cosmic blast that leveled the city and toppled everything in one in one way. Now I don't claim to know more about tell El Hamam than what I saw as a visitor for a few hours, but I thought it was fascinating. What if it was the city of Sodom? But for my devotional this morning, I'm going to talk about the idea of Sodom itself, whether I was there or not, I can't prove whether that was the actual location. I can't, I'm not sure, but we do know that spiritual Sodom is something we can gain lessons from today. First, I think it interesting that archeology is more and more proving the truth of the Bible. I believe that we can trust the Bible as God's inspired word. Second, I want you to think about the location from the Bible's description of Sodom. The Bible says that it was like the garden of the Lord. This was a place in Abraham's time. There was like the Garden of Eden, those of you who have your Bible, let's open to Genesis chapter 13, verses 10 through 13. It says verse 10 and lot lifted up his eyes and behold the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Goor even as the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt as you come to zoar. Then lot chose him, the plane of Jordan and lot Journeyed east and separated themselves one from the other. Abraham dwelt in the landed of Canaan and lot D dwelled in the cities of the plane pitched his tent towards Sodom, but the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly here we read that Sodom was inhabited by people who were called wicked. And there was a time before the flood that we have a similar description in Genesis six verse five. And God saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of his thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. My challenge for you this morning is to consider how could a perfect location, a beautiful garden, promote such wickedness as the city of Sodom? And I think the key here is how we appropriate the blessings from God. If we share the abundance and goodness from our gardens with others, it can be called the garden of the Lord. And if we have a selfish spirit, our gardens could be the garden of wickedness. In Ezekiel 16, I'll let you look at this yourself again. Ezekiel 1649 and 50 verse 49. Look, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom. She and her daughter had pride, fullness of food and abundance of idleness. Neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and the needy and they were hotty and committed abomination before me. Therefore I took them away as I saw fit. So here we see that living in a perfect location, the best frost climate, the most ideal soil nutrients with an abundant water supply may not always be the best plan for your family. It also is important to ask what cities are around you and what influence your family will be subjected to. I did a search on eg white writings.com and found that Sister white references the word Sodom in 2,700 paragraphs. I encourage you to do that search and look through the search results on the first page of those results you'll find Adventist home, page 1 39. Let it be your study to select and make your homes as far as Sodom and gomorra as you can. Keep out the lar, keep out of the large cities if possible. Make your homes in the quiet retirement of the country even if you can never become wealthy by doing so, locate where there is the best influence. So here we have this dual idea of Sodom, don't we? Ellen White's not talking about this place in Jordan. She's talking about the sodo that can be around us, the Sodom that we might bring into our own homes. So let's just take a moment and review these three sins of Sodom pride, fullness of bread and idleness. First pride. It's a trait that permeates all human existence, but it's not the way of Christ. The more successful you are, the more you need to consider how to bless others around you. We take pride in our things and our belongings. It's our natural way to have pride perhaps looking what we have done in the garden and how nice it is. Let us always remember that it is God that has given the increase. How much did the farmer really do to make that plant grow? We tended it. We cared for it, but it is God that deserves the credit. And what about when we have a bumper crop and an abundance of bread? Do you want to hoard it or store more than you need for the season or as your first impulse to share it with others and bless them? And third, I've seen idleness as a temptation in my life and for some I see it's not being slothful, but it's where you can work hard and play hard, but never have time to serve others. We're more interested in our leisure than in helping the poor and the disadvantaged. I find it interesting that the Bible is not glossing over the detestable sexual sins of Sodom, But if you were to list the, if you and I were to list the problems of Sodom, some of those might it come in on the list, but here the Lord goes to the root and those roots can live in your and my life today. But it was these root issues that led to the acceptance of the unbiblical behavior of Sodom. And if you and I continue in these roots, pride, Abundance of bread and idleness, we also will be destroyed just like those massive walls of Sodom First John two, verse 16 and 17. For all that is in the world, the lust of this flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away and the lust of it. But he who does the will of God abides forever. We need to do all in our power to reach the lost, but in the process not become assimilated into the surrounding popular culture. We need our interactions to be thoughtful, purposeful, and we need to pray that the Holy Spirit leads us in our interactions. You know, you and I don't have to fly around the other side of the world to visit. Sadly, our media is dripping with the themes of Sodom today with the internet, TV and movies. We can pump the sewage of Sodom right into our living rooms or as I mentioned in the beginning of the talk, perhaps it's even in our pocket with our devices, but even as the story of Sodom, even in this story, there is hope. Remember Abraham, he lived within eyesight of the valley of Sodom. I can just imagine him praying daily for his, for for lot his relative. Do you remember the time when Sodom was attacked and the enemy forces carried off the women and children Abraham with God's help and blessing rescued them and Abraham did not take any of the spoil for himself. Abraham was generous and I'm sure the people have Sodom had to scratch their heads about why Abraham, a man who lived in a tent was able to attack the conquerors of the massive city of Sodom and win. But there came a time when probation for Sodom was complete, their sins had filled the cup and the Lord cut them off. But even in that fearful time of judgment, angels came by the house of Abraham and discussed this great city with with him. And I believe it's because of his prayers that lot was specifically rescued from that wicked city. Now where was lot at this time? Did he have his tents pitched towards soham? By the time the angels come lot was sitting in the gate and his house was inside the city, this represents the possible progression that you and I may face. But because of the prayers of Abraham, the angels went to lot. He compelled them to come and stay in his house. And because of that law was rescued. The second coming is as sure as the destruction of Sodom. Again, judgment will come and the great cities of the earth will be flattened and it is our privilege to pray for them. A week ago I was in visiting in California and a man there in a church that I fellowshiped in had divided every city in a in the world with over 1 million population. And he took it his goal for 2021 to every day pray for that portion of that list so that throughout the year 2021, every city representing over a million people he would've prayed for comes out to 10 or 12 a day. Brothers and sisters, we need to have a, a heart for the lost. Not to live wi with Sodom, not to live inside som, but a heart to pray and intercede for these great cities. I challenge you this morning, be an Abraham and if you and I are the lot, then take this opportunity to flee Sodom as soon as possible. It may be that we have a heart for these great cities of the earth. Pray for them. Pray for God's work to advance in them. Pray for opportunities to minister and pray for the soon coming of Jesus. This morning I'd like to have a a closing prayer and I'm going to leave a moment that you could pray for a city near your home, that the spirit of God may touch it, that the spirit of God may save the searching souls that are in that city. Bow your heads with me, father God, first, we want to commit our lives to you this morning. I pray that we will determine in our hearts to reject the roots of the city of Sodom, that you remove pride from us, that you'll help us have a heart for others, that we won't trust in the abundance of our own supplies, that we won't try to store those up for the end, that we will truly rely on you. And I pray that you'll take our idle moments and turn them into spiritual exercises, that we become stronger in sharing our faith and studying the word. And in this Father, I pray that we could be like Abraham and pray for the great cities around us. Take this time, Lord, and I pray that you will answer these prayers. Thank you Jesus. Thank you. When we think of the great cities of this earth, we don't even know how to start. But we love the individuals there. We love your people who are going to be called out before the final destruction. And I pray that you'll continue to build a people ready to proclaim your soon coming to proclaim and be ready to see you face to face. I pray that will be our experience. And Jesus, give us the determination to take Sodom and remove it from our homes that we may guard what we bring into our minds. We ask your protection for our young people. May we realize that no longer is it a matter of how close we live to Sodom, but that we could bring it right into our own homes. Give us the hope of Abraham Father there and give us your encouragement this morning, I pray in Jesus name. Amen. This media was brought to you by Audio verse, a website dedicated to spreading God's word through free sermon, audio, and much more. If you would like to know more about audio verse or if you would like to listen to more sermons, please visit www.audio verse.org.

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