The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (1852) by John Martin
John Martin (1789 – 1854) was an English Romantic painter, engraver and illustrator. He was celebrated for his typically vast and melodramatic paintings of religious subjects and fantastic compositions, populated with minute figures placed in imposing landscapes.
Martin’s painting shows the biblical story of the destruction of the two cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, which was God’s punishment for the two cities for people’s immoral behavior. Only Lot and his daughters were saved. Lot’s wife disobeyed God’s instruction not to look back and was turned into a pillar of salt. The fiery red color is characteristic of John Martin’s dramatic scenes of destruction. The swirling storm in heaven was also a frequent feature of his paintings.
Call to Worship – Luke 17:20-33
20 Once, on being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, 21 nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is in your midst.”
22 Then he said to his disciples, “The time is coming when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it. 23 People will tell you, ‘There he is!’ or ‘Here he is!’ Do not go running off after them. 24 For the Son of Man in his day will be like the lightning, which flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other. 25 But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.
26 “Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. 27 People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all.
28 “It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. 29 But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all.
30 “It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed. 31 On that day no one who is on the housetop, with possessions inside, should go down to get them. Likewise, no one in the field should go back for anything.32 Remember Lot’s wife! 33 Whoever tries to keep their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life will preserve it.
Invocation
Lord, make us instruments of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let us sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is discord, union;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
Grant that we may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and
it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.
Attributed to St. Francis of Assisi
Amazing Grace (My Chains are Gone)
Amazing grace, How sweet the sound That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost, but now I’m found, Was blind, but now I see.
‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, And grace my fears relieved.
How precious did that grace appear The hour I first believed.
My chains are gone, I’ve been set free. My God, my Savior has ransomed me,
And like a flood His mercy reigns, Unending love, Amazing grace.
The Lord has promised good to me; His word my hope secures.
He will my shield and portion be As long as life endures.
My chains are gone, I’ve been set free. My God, my Savior has ransomed me,
And like a flood His mercy reigns, Unending love, Amazing grace.
My chains are gone, I’ve been set free. My God, my Savior has ransomed me,
And like a flood His mercy reigns, Unending love, Amazing grace.
The earth shall soon dissolve like snow, The sun forbear to shine,
But God, Who called me here below Will be forever mine,
Will be forever mine. You are forever mine.
Words: John Newton
Refrain: Chris Tomlin/Louie Giglio
© 2006 worshiptogether.com Songs/sixteps Music
CCLI # 2487144
Children’s Sermon
Prayer and Intercession
Almighty God, we confess our need of Your presence and Your guidance. We each have our hopes and expectations for what lies ahead, but only You can give us the strength and the wisdom we need. In life’s uncertainties, assure us of Your unchanging love. In disappointing moments, help us turn to You for stability. In temptation, give us courage to humbly place our hands into Yours. In daily preoccupations, open our eyes to the sorrows of our hurting world that we might respond with compassion.
Gracious God, our sins are too heavy to carry, too real to hide, and too deep to undo. Forgive what our lips tremble to name, what our hearts can no longer hear, and what has become for us a consuming fire of judgement. Set us free from a past that we cannot change; open to us a future in which we can be changed, and grant us grace to grow more and more in Your likeness and image, through Jesus Christ, the Light of the World.
Please take a few moments to pray for:
- 2020 Graduates
- Chelsea Mends-Cole
- Brady Adams
- The Paradee Family
- Kevin Fleming
- Donna Waguespack
- Healthcare workers
- Other personal concerns
Out of the Deep I Call
Out of the deep I call To Thee, O Lord, to Thee.
Before Thy throne of grace I fall; Be merciful to me, Be merciful to me.
Out of the deep I cry, The woeful deep of sin,
Of evil done in days gone by, Of evil now within, Of evil now within.
Out of the deep of fear And dread of coming shame;
All night ’til morning watch is near I plead the precious name, I plead the precious name.
Lord, there is mercy now, As ever was, with Thee.
Before Thy throne of grace I bow; Be merciful to me, Be merciful to me,
Be merciful to me.
Text: Henry Baker
Music: Brian Murphy
© 2001 Brian T. Murphy Music
CCLI #2487144
Scripture Reading – Genesis 19:1-29
Sodom and Gomorrah Destroyed
19 The two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gateway of the city. When he saw them, he got up to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground. 2 “My lords,” he said, “please turn aside to your servant’s house. You can wash your feet and spend the night and then go on your way early in the morning.”
“No,” they answered, “we will spend the night in the square.”
3 But he insisted so strongly that they did go with him and entered his house. He prepared a meal for them, baking bread without yeast, and they ate. 4 Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom—both young and old—surrounded the house. 5 They called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them.”
6 Lot went outside to meet them and shut the door behind him 7 and said, “No, my friends. Don’t do this wicked thing. 8 Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do what you like with them. But don’t do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof.”
9 “Get out of our way,” they replied. “This fellow came here as a foreigner, and now he wants to play the judge! We’ll treat you worse than them.” They kept bringing pressure on Lot and moved forward to break down the door.
10 But the men inside reached out and pulled Lot back into the house and shut the door. 11 Then they struck the men who were at the door of the house, young and old, with blindness so that they could not find the door.
12 The two men said to Lot, “Do you have anyone else here—sons-in-law, sons or daughters, or anyone else in the city who belongs to you? Get them out of here, 13 because we are going to destroy this place. The outcry to the Lord against its people is so great that he has sent us to destroy it.”
14 So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were pledged to marry his daughters. He said, “Hurry and get out of this place, because the Lord is about to destroy the city!” But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.
15 With the coming of dawn, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Hurry! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away when the city is punished.”
16 When he hesitated, the men grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters and led them safely out of the city, for the Lord was merciful to them. 17 As soon as they had brought them out, one of them said, “Flee for your lives! Don’t look back, and don’t stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!”
18 But Lot said to them, “No, my lords, please! 19 Your servant has found favor in your eyes, and you have shown great kindness to me in sparing my life. But I can’t flee to the mountains; this disaster will overtake me, and I’ll die. 20 Look, here is a town near enough to run to, and it is small. Let me flee to it—it is very small, isn’t it? Then my life will be spared.”
21 He said to him, “Very well, I will grant this request too; I will not overthrow the town you speak of. 22 But flee there quickly, because I cannot do anything until you reach it.” (That is why the town was called Zoar.)
23 By the time Lot reached Zoar, the sun had risen over the land. 24 Then the Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the Lord out of the heavens. 25 Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, destroying all those living in the cities—and also the vegetation in the land.26 But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.
27 Early the next morning Abraham got up and returned to the place where he had stood before the Lord. 28 He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, toward all the land of the plain, and he saw dense smoke rising from the land, like smoke from a furnace.
29 So when God destroyed the cities of the plain, he remembered Abraham, and he brought Lot out of the catastrophe that overthrew the cities where Lot had lived.
Sermon
Sin City, O What a Pity! – Rev. Jason R. McConnell
O Come to the Altar
Are you hurting and broken within?
Overwhelmed by the weight of your sin? Jesus is calling.
Have you come to the end of yourself?
Do you thirst for a drink from the well? Jesus is calling.
O come to the altar, the Father’s arms are open wide.
Forgiveness was bought with the precious blood of Jesus Christ.
Leave behind your regrets and mistakes;
Come today there’s no reason to wait, Jesus is calling.
Bring your sorrows and trade them for joy;
From the ashes a new life is born, Jesus is calling.
O come to the altar, the Father’s arms are open wide.
Forgiveness was bought with the precious blood of Jesus Christ.
O come to the altar, the Father’s arms are open wide.
Forgiveness was bought with the precious blood of Jesus Christ.
Oh what a Savior, Isn’t He wonderful, Sing alleluia, Christ is risen;
Bow down before Him for He is Lord of all, Sing alleluia, Christ is risen.
Oh what a Savior, Isn’t He wonderful, Sing alleluia, Christ is risen;
Bow down before Him for He is Lord of all, Sing alleluia, Christ is risen.
O come to the altar, the Father’s arms are open wide.
Forgiveness was bought with the precious blood of Jesus Christ.
Bear your cross as you wait for the crown;
Tell the world of the treasure you’ve found.
By Chris Brown, Mack Brock, Steven Furtick, Wade Joye
© 2015 Music by Elevation Publishing
CCLI # 2487144