Critical Moments and How to Handle Them Part 1

[Speaker 1] Churches and fellowships cannot be more spiritual than the individuals and families that constitute them. God greatly desires a godly home. These are words of restoration and instruction in righteousness from Family Tent Ministry. May you be blessed as you listen. [Speaker 2] I will enter His gates with thanksgiving in my heart. I will enter His courts with praise. I would say this is the day that the Lord has made. I would rejoice for He has made me glad. He has made me glad. He has made me glad and I am so glad. I will rejoice for He has made me glad. He has made me glad. He has made me glad and I am so glad. I will rejoice for He has made me glad. I will enter, I will enter His gates with thanksgiving in my heart. I will enter His courts with praise. I would say this is the day that the Lord has made. Oh, I would rejoice for He has made me glad. Oh, He has made me glad. He has made me glad and I am so glad. I will rejoice for He has made me glad. Hallelujah. He has made me glad and I am so glad. I will rejoice for He has made me glad. Our Father, we are grateful again for today. We thank You for the privilege again of gathering together this first Saturday of the month of March. We thank You for preservation through January, February, keeping us since our last meeting in the first Saturday of the month of February, and You have brought us again to the first Saturday in the month of March. Lord, we are not taking Your mercies and preservation for granted. We say, be Thou exalted in the name of Jesus. Lord, as we all connect together again this morning—our young people, adults who are interested in joining the meeting, those of us who are here physically, our brethren who are on Mixlr, our brethren who are on Telegram—as we all connect again together this morning to look into this important topic, "Critical Moments," Lord, we pray, meet with us in the name of Jesus Christ. Our Father, individually and collectively, speak to our hearts. Let Your word, O Lord, empower and enrich our lives in the name of Jesus Christ. Thank You, eternal Father. Blessed be Your holy name, our God. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen. As we said in our invite that was sent out yesterday, the burden of today’s singles and adolescent club is "Critical Moments and How to Handle Them Part 1." In this Part 1 of the theme, we will be looking at what is a critical moment. What do we mean by critical moment? And we will use biblical examples of critical moments. So, today what we want to try to look at, in this Part 1, we want to ask ourselves: What exactly is a critical moment? What do we mean by critical moment? And like we said in the invite that was sent out yesterday—let me try to read what was sent out yesterday. The burden for the month of March 2023 singles club is "Critical Moments and How to Handle Them." It is a capacity-building series. It is a capacity-building series, and as we reflect on the matter from a scriptural point of view, may our generation receive light and understanding in Jesus' name. And lastly, I said, you shall not fail at your critical moment. You shall not fail, and I pray we all shall not fail at our critical moments in Jesus’ name. So, we are looking at critical moments, and like I said, we will be looking at two parts today. What do we mean by critical moment? And since we are looking at it from a scriptural point of view, there are different ways of looking at critical moments, but our concern today is to look at it from the point of the Bible. Not just from any other way of looking at it, but from scriptural point of view, from the point of the Bible. What is a critical moment? And then biblical examples of critical moments, using the Bible to define, to explain critical moment. Those are the two things we want to do today. And please, like we normally do, I encourage you at any point, brethren who are online, our young people online, please if you have a question at any point you have a question, please just send in the question on the platform. And those of us that are here, just write your question and bring it if there is a question. The technical people will bring it. Once it's 11:30, we'll start attending to whatever question you may have in respect of the topic today or maybe some other topic we took at one point or the other. We will respond to your question starting from 11:30. So, we move on this morning to look at the first aspect of it: What is critical moment? In doing that, I will be looking at the A aspect, which has three sub-points that we'll be looking at. Understanding critical moment. What is critical moment? In a bid to understand critical moment, I want to try to define what critical moment is. Under this, I want to first say every life, every life you see around, every person, every individual that you see—and as you are listening to me, I want you to know that as an individual, you carry a destiny or a divine mandate. Every life comes with a destiny, or what you may also call a mandate. There is a mandate for every life. Now, that mandate, or what you may call destiny, defines the totality of that person's life. So, every life comes with a destiny, comes with a mandate. You have a mandate that your life carries. And very importantly about that mandate is that that mandate revolves on the wheel of decision. That mandate that you carry, it's on the wheel of decision-making. As you make decisions, you are either consolidating that mandate or you are marring that mandate as you are making decisions. So, every life carries a destiny. Every life carries a mandate. That mandate, that destiny, revolves on the wheel of decision. Now, critical moment is talking about a moment or moments in our lives that that decision you make at that moment, the decision you make at that moment—don't forget, divine mandate, divine destiny, the mandate your life carries that defines your totality, that defines your fulfillment, that defines your purpose, that defines all that you will become in life, revolves on the wheel of decision. Now, critical moment in your life is a moment when a decision to be taken is going to have serious consequence either to make or to mar that mandate. That decision is just a decision. It's not two or three decisions, but just one decision. That decision will either make that mandate or mar that mandate. So, critical moments—the reason why I did not say critical moment, but critical moments—is because at different junctions in your life, you will be making decisions. And that decision you make at that point, some of the decisions that you make where that decision is going to have serious consequence on your mandate—a very serious consequence on your mandate, or on your purpose, or on your destiny, whichever way you define it—it's going to be just one decision. You are going to make that decision at a particular time. That time is what I am calling moment. As you make it at that moment, things are decided that is either making your mandate, consolidating your destiny, building your purpose, or on the other hand is doing the reverse. It's marring, it's tearing down, it's scattering. And sometimes, some moments are so critical that when they mar or make, they are almost irreversible. Some moments are so critical that whether they make or they mar, that thing that was done at that time is irreversible. No matter how you want to turn it round again, you cannot turn it round. That is what I am calling critical moments. We have several moments in our life, but I must tell you that some moments are very, very critical. And the criticality of the moment, they are also in degrees. Some, when you mar it, you can still reverse. Some when you mar it, they are irreversible. And that is why they are critical in our lives. They are critical because once you frustrate your mandate, once you frustrate your purpose, you frustrate your destiny, then you are a wasted life. You are wasted as a young man. So, this topic is not a topic we are going to just do in my usual practice. I don't rush this, and that's why we are just going to look at what exactly it is, because what it is again, I am going to practically define it for you. But I've explained what it is. I'm still going to look at the nature of it, what it is, the nature of it. What it is, I have explained. Critical moments are those moments when decisions made either make or mar. These decisions, critical moments, they are in degrees. Some moments, when divine mandate or destiny or purpose, when it is marred, they are still reversible. Some, they remain irreversible. So, the criticality of the moment is in what we are discussing. We are talking of moments in your life that have a direct bearing on your mandate in life. Critical moment, I must tell you as a young man, critical moment, I want to plead with you, calls for soberness in life. It calls for soberness. Critical moment is telling you that, young man, be sober. By soberness, I don't mean that you carry morose faces everywhere you go. You don't laugh, you don't smile. That's not what I am talking about. I am saying that as a young man or young woman, you must learn to be thoughtful about life. You must learn to be thoughtful. Soberness means ability to think deeply on matters, to think well as you take decision, in taking decisions. That's what I mean by that. Critical moment calls for that. It’s calls for soberness in the life of the young man. And I’m encouraging you as a young man, if you are listening to me, understand that not every time in your life has the same consequence on your life. There are critical moments in your life. And my prayer, like I said yesterday, we shall not fail at our critical moments in the name of Jesus Christ. We shall not, in Jesus’ name. Now, having said that, the next thing I want to try to look at under understanding critical moment—I said the A part is understanding critical moment. Under the A part, I have what is critical moment? That’s what we have just looked at. Understanding critical moment, the B part now is the nature of critical moment. We’ve looked at what it is, because we are trying to understand moment. What is it? What’s the nature? That’s the next thing we want to look at. What is the nature of critical moment? Now, I noted here, another critical issue is that critical moments of destiny and life mandate don’t always appear critical. Another important issue about critical moment for your life, for your mandate, for your destiny, another thing you must know looking at now the nature of critical moment, is that they don’t always appear critical. They don’t look like any critical thing is about to take place. They don’t look like what I decided was something critical. It just looked like I just took a decision. Leave me alone, I will just do what I want to do, there's no problem. And mind you, that junction was a critical one. You may not even know that something critical has taken place. You may not know. So, understanding the nature of critical moments is that critical moments of our life, they don't play out all the time as critical. In fact, they may play out as ordinary issues of everyday life. They may just play out as ordinary issues—the normal "good morning, good morning," the normal "good afternoon, good afternoon," the normal little things. I mean the ordinary issues of everyday life. They may just play out like that. And as they play out, it's very, very important that you understand that even though they may play out as ordinary things of life, it doesn't mean that their consequences are not serious. It doesn't mean that their consequences are not serious. And by the—like I said it's capacity building—it’s a capacity-building series. When we come to how do we handle critical moment, we’ll be looking at some of these things, how do we handle this kind of moment in our life? Now, but we have not gotten to the place of how today. We just have two assignments before us today: wanting to know what critical moment is and biblical example of critical moment. That’s the assignment before us today, and I trust the Lord that it will be a blessed time looking at just these two things that we are looking at. Now, I've said the first part of it: they may not play out as being critical. On the other hand, before I leave that, I noticed something here. That is why you will notice that fathers of faith, fathers of faith—if I am able to lay my hands on that I will do that this morning, if not, when I come next, when we come for the month of April, fathers of faith, you will see them, they will say that the work of faith, our life is a puzzle. You see them say that the puzzles of life, it's like a maze. Maze, something that you don't know how it just tied, tied, tied, the maze of life. Fathers of faith, heroes of faith, they call life a maze. They call it a puzzle. Sometimes what you think is meaningless is serious. Sometimes what you think is serious had no meaning. So, it look like a maze, it look like a puzzle because some very, very serious things can play out of ordinary things. And like John Calvin put it, he said, "The great events of life not tied to chance, they are tied to the ordinary things of life." That’s John Calvin. He said the great events of life, they are not tied to chance. You may call it just a chance, it's not a chance. They are tied to ordinary things, ordinary things of life. And what he meant by that is that ordinary things of life that has divine ordering. Ordinary things of life that has divine ordering. The person ordering that ordinary things of life is God. So, the great things of our life, they are sometimes tied to ordinary things of every day life. But those ordinary things, what make them critical is that they have divine orchestration. They have divine ordering. God is working through that thing. That is what made it that serious. That is what makes it critical. Then, still on the nature, nevertheless, nevertheless, at some other times, at some other times, critical moments for destiny and life mandate, they come with overwhelming obvious situation. You will know this is a critical moment. You will see it. In fact, you may be panting. "Hey, this will either make me or mar me. This will either make me or mar me. I must do the right thing." And if you have done the wrong thing, you already know. They come out very critical. That’s the nature of critical moment. Sometimes they play out as ordinary things of life, but sometimes they come with overwhelming circumstance that immediately after that moment, you are either weeping or you are rejoicing. You are saying, "Ah, thank You Jesus," or you are saying, "Ha, God, God, my life," because it will be clear to you that this is a critical moment of your life. So, critical moments, that’s the nature. Understanding the nature of critical moment, the nature of critical moment. We have said under the A part this morning, which is understanding critical moment, I have related it to things that have to do with decision. Every life carries a mandate and that mandate revolves on the wheel of decision. And critical moments are those moments that you either making or marring your mandate or purpose or destiny. And that critical moments may play out as ordinary things of life, and some other times they may play out as very overwhelming situation. Now, can we move on to look at biblical illustrations? Now we want to illustrate it now from the Bible. Biblical illustrations of these things that we are talking about. Biblical illustrations of critical moments. I want to begin with that of young Saul. It was young, the young man Saul that became King Saul. But Saul as a young man, let’s look at 1 Samuel 8, 9, and 10. The young Saul in his parent’s house. Young Saul in his parent's house. 1 Samuel 8, 9, and 10. Let's go to that scripture. In chapter 8, we have a background. I want to show you why I am beginning from chapter 8 so that we can have a better picture of what we are discussing. In chapter 8, we will not be reading all the verses in all of the chapters we just mentioned, but we'll just be tracing something. We are trying to trace something out. We just want to trace the story around the life of young Saul in his father’s house. In 1 Samuel 8, the Bible says, "It came to pass, when Samuel was old, that he made his sons judges over Israel. The name of the firstborn was Joel, the name of the second Abijah; they were judges in Beersheba. But his sons did not walk in his ways; they turned aside after dishonest gain, took bribes, and perverted justice. Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah, and said to him, 'Look, you are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now make us a king to judge us like other nations.' But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, 'Give us a king to judge us.' So Samuel prayed to the Lord. And the Lord said to Samuel, 'Heed the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them. According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt, even to this day—with which they have forsaken Me and served other gods—so they are doing to you.'" So, we saw what happened in that place. Then, however, in verse 9, it says, "Now therefore, heed their voice. However, you shall solemnly forewarn them, and show them the behavior of the king who will reign over them." So Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who asked for a king. And he said, "This is the behavior of the king who will reign over you." Of course, he will need officers, he will need to make tasks to run the government and all of that. He will appoint captain, all of that, all of that. But at the end of the day, verse 21, "And Samuel heard all the words of the people, and he repeated them in the hearing of the Lord. So the Lord said to Samuel, 'Heed their voice, and make them a king.' And Samuel said to the men of Israel, 'Every man go to his city.'" So what happened in 1 Samuel 8? What are we trying to bring out in 1 Samuel 8? Who can bring out—who can make a sentence from there? What are we trying to bring out in 1 Samuel 8? Israel wanted a king, and God was going to make an arrangement for them to have a king. That’s what chapter 8 tells us. Chapter 9, what is chapter 9 telling us? Now, to make—I read chapter 8 so that you can see that chapter 9 is not in isolation. It said every man should go to their house. In 1 Samuel 9:1, "There was a man of Benjamin whose name was Kish the son of Abiel, the son of Zeror, the son of Bechorath, the son of Aphiah, a Benjamite, a mighty man of power. And he had a choice and handsome son whose name was Saul. There was not a more handsome person than he among the children of Israel. From his shoulders upward he was taller than any of the people. Now the donkeys of Kish, Saul’s father, were lost. And Kish said to Saul, 'Please, take one of the servants with you, arise, go, look for the donkeys.'" So he passed through the mountains of Ephraim and came through all the land of Shalisha, but they did not find them. Then they passed through the land of Shaalim, and they were not there. Then they passed through the land of the Benjamites, but they did not find them. When they had come to the land of Zuph, Saul said to the servant who was with him, "Come, let us return, lest my father cease caring about the donkeys and begin to worry about us." And he said to him, "Look now, there is in this city a man of God, and he is an honorable man; all that he says surely comes to pass. So let us go there; perhaps he will show us the way that we should go." Then Saul said to his servant, "But look, if we go, what shall we bring the man? For the bread in our vessels is already gone, and there is no present to bring to the man of God. What do we have?" The servant answered Saul again and said, "Look, I have at my hand one-fourth of a shekel of silver. I will give that to the man, to tell us our way." (Formerly in Israel, when a man went to inquire of God, he spoke thus: "Come, let us go to the seer"; for he who is now called a prophet was formerly called a seer.) Then Saul said to his servant, "Well said; come, let us go." So they went to the city where the man of God was. As they went up the hill to the city, they met some young women going out to draw water, and said to them, "Is the seer here?" And they answered them and said, "Yes, there he is, just ahead of you. Hurry now; for today he came to this city, because there is a sacrifice of the people today on the high place. As soon as you come into the city, you will surely find him before he goes up to the high place to eat; for the people will not eat until he comes, because he must bless the sacrifice; afterward those who are invited will eat. Now therefore, go up, for about this time you will find him." Please be noting something. About this time, the time they got to that city, you will find him. So they went up, and as they were coming into the city, there was Samuel, coming out toward them on his way up to the high place. Now look at what the Bible says, verse 15: "Now the Lord had told Samuel in his ear the day before Saul came, saying, 'Tomorrow about this time I will send you a man from the land of Benjamin, and you shall anoint him commander over My people Israel, that he may save My people from the hand of the Philistines; for I have looked upon My people, because their cry has come to Me.' So when Samuel saw Saul, the Lord said to him, 'There he is, the man of whom I spoke to you. This one shall reign over My people.'" Beloved, I am showing you critical moments. For Saul, it was just in the ordinary things of everyday life. The father just said, "Ah Saul, donkeys are missing." He could have called anybody. He could have called Simon. He could have called Peter. He could have called John. But he called Saul. "Hey Saul, donkeys are missing oh. Please pick one servant, go and look for the donkey." And Saul just got up to go and look for the donkey. Please, sending children on errand, can it be connected to divine purpose, to divine mandate? You can see the answer is yes. Another day he can just say, "Oh, I don't have time," "Daddy leave me alone," and mind you, that junction was a critical one. You may not even know that something critical has taken place. You may not know. There was no angel. There was no Gabriel or Michael. You know for that of Mary, Mary knew it was critical from the very beginning. She just saw [sound effect]. What happened? An angel just came in. "Oh, fear not, thou favored one. I am Gabriel. I came from below." So from the beginning, it was critical. But for Saul, how is it playing out? Was it looking critical? No. It was just looking like an ordinary thing. There was no particular sign. There was nothing to show that God was at work. But I want to ask you, was God at work? Was God at work? Was He seriously at work? Seriously at work. And yet playing out for a young man in an errand. "Saul," and he just said, "Okay Dad, we will go and look for it. Okay S, you follow me. Oya you come, let's go, let's go, let's go and look for the thing." And then they began to go, they check and check and check and check and check. And when they didn't find the thing, they say, "Oh, it's already getting dark oh before Daddy will begin to say, 'Where are we now? I hope we too we are not already missing like the donkey we are looking for. Let us start going back home.'" And see, Saul said that where? In the very city where Samuel was coming. They have gone round several cities, he didn't say that. It was now where Samuel was. And as he said that, again, how was he able to pick—it looks like chance. The servant that followed him had something to give a prophet. He had something to give a prophet. And then listen, that servant also knew that there is a prophet in that city. They looked like they were chance happening, but were they chance happening? No. They were divine orchestration. They were divine ordering. But they were coming as ordinary things of everyday life. You can see how critical this moment is for who? For Saul. And yet it was coming ordinarily. Can I just imagine? Can I just imagine a situation where Saul just said, "Dad, I will go tomorrow"? Will it have made a lot of difference? Serious or small difference? A very serious, critical, serious difference. Because what God told Samuel is that by around this time tomorrow. So it can't be next tomorrow. It must be tomorrow. And yet, Saul was entering that divine ordering by just "Hello boy, go and look for this thing for me." And he just said, "Okay Dad, on my way I will be back." And as he was going, I don't know what's the name of that servant. Maybe Benson. "Benson, join me, let’s go." And Benson just joined. And I just guess maybe Benson just felt, "Ah, we may want to buy something on the road oh. Let me just pick money in my pocket." I don't know why I put that money because even the person who is not a servant, who is a son, doesn't have money in his hand. So we wonder how the servant now can have money in his own hand. And the servant also said, "Let us just go." And mind you, it was just around the time that Samuel was entering that it occurred to Saul to say that "we are going back home." And it was at the same time that the servant said, "Let's go and check the man of God." What am I trying to bring out? Look at how a critical moment—what mandate was Saul carrying? What was the mandate on his life? To be the king. What was the mandate on his life? To save people from their—to save the people from the hand of the Philistines. Look at the mandate, look at the destiny where God was projecting him into. But look at how it is revolving. Please, look at how it is revolving. What was it revolving on? On the wheel of decisions. Decisions. Decisions. What am I trying to make you see? It's that that thing you call decision, you just decide, you just decide, you just decide. You can begin to appreciate that decisions have so much with our divine mandate in life. Decisions, they are so connected with our divine mandate. They are so related, they are so interwoven. Our divine mandate, our destiny, is revolving on the wheel of what? Decision. It's revolving on it. Look at how it plays in that place. And of course, that was how in chapter 10, by the time you go to chapter 10 of that scripture, in chapter 10 of that scripture, you will see that what happened in chapter 10 was that Samuel anointed Saul. Samuel anointed Saul. In 1 Samuel 10:1—I’ll not be reading all the verses again, just to save time. It says, "Then Samuel took a flask of oil and poured it on his head, and kissed him and said: 'Is it not because the Lord has anointed you commander over His inheritance?'" Now, beloved, if Saul were to now look back, what will Saul now say at this point? What will Saul say at this point? "Wow! What? So you mean, you mean that it is so that I can be anointed king?" Saul will be saying, "Eh, Jesus! Ha, Jesus! So you mean these things are tied together like this?" It is at this point when they begin to pour everything on his head, and he was being consecrated to become the king, and they given him sign to become another man, that Saul will now know that, "What if I have not listened to my father? What if I have said, 'Leave me alone, I don't have time.' What if I—although I listened to him, but I just said, 'Don't worry Dad, we will not go now, let's just go later.' What if?" You can see what if, what if, what if, so many what if. Critical moments. Biblical perspective of critical moment. And then, I want to take another example again of critical moment as ordinary issues of everyday life. This place, we saw that it was making. You get it? It was the critical moment that was making someone. It came like an ordinary event, but somebody was being made. A destiny was made. Something was made. Critical moment, something was made. Now, let's look at another critical moment where something was marred. Critical moment where something was marred that also appeared again like an ordinary thing of everyday life. Ordinary thing of everyday life. Genesis. Let's see Genesis. Genesis chapter 13. Genesis 13. I'm reading from verse 1. This time it is the story of Lot and Abraham. It says, "Then Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had, and Lot with him, to the South. Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold. And he went on his journey from the South as far as Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai, to the place of the altar which he had made there at first. And there Abram called on the name of the Lord. Lot also, who went with Abram, had flocks and herds and tents. And the land was not able to support them, that they might dwell together, for their possessions were so great that they could not dwell together. And there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram’s livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock. The Canaanites and the Perizzites then dwelt in the land. So Abram said to Lot, 'Please let there be no strife between you and me, and between my herdsmen and your herdsmen; for we are brethren. Is not the whole land before you? Please separate from me. If you take the left, then I will go to the right; or if you go to the right, then I will go to the left.' And Lot lifted up his eyes and saw all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere (before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah) like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt as you go toward Zoar. Then Lot chose for himself all the plain of Jordan, and Lot journeyed east. And they separated from each other. Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelt in the cities of the plain and pitched his tent even as far as Sodom. But the men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked and sinful against the Lord. And the Lord said to Abram..." We skip that now. We quickly move to chapter 14. "And it came to pass in the days of Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of nations, that they made war with Bera king of Sodom, Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, Shemeber king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar). All these joined together in the Valley of Siddim (that is, the Salt Sea). Twelve years they served Chedorlaomer, and in the thirteenth year they rebelled. In the fourteenth year he came..." of course, to fight them. The war started and then they fought and fought and fought. I'm just going somewhere. Verse 11: "Then they took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all their provisions, and went their way. They also took Lot, Abram’s brother’s son who dwelt in Sodom, and his goods, and departed." That is a first problem. The next problem you will find, I believe we are familiar with that, was the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Chapter 19. "Now two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting at the gate." Of course, they told Lot what was to happen, that they have come to destroy the city, that there is a need for them to run. They struck the men with blindness. I'm saving time, but you can please read that story up. I'm just going to what is important to me, so that we can gain some more time to look at some other things. So it came to pass, verse 17: "So it came to pass, when they had brought them outside, that he said (that is the angel), 'Escape for your life! Do not look behind you nor stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest you be destroyed.' Then Lot said to them, 'Please, no, my lords! Indeed now, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have increased your mercy which you have shown me by saving my life; but I cannot escape to the mountains, lest some evil overtake me and I die. See now, this city is near enough to flee to, and it is a little one; please let me escape there (is it not a little one?) and my soul shall live.' And he said to him, 'See, I have favored you concerning this thing also, in that I will not overthrow this city for which you have spoken. Hurry, escape there. For I cannot do anything until you arrive there.' Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar. The sun had risen upon the earth when Lot entered Zoar. Then the Lord rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, from the Lord out of the heavens. So He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt. Abraham looked, of course, Abraham looked... verse 27: And Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the Lord. Then he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain; and he saw, and behold, the smoke of the land which went up like the smoke of a furnace. And it came to pass, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when He overthrew the cities in which Lot had dwelt. Then Lot went up out of Zoar and dwelt in the mountains, and his two daughters were with him; for he was afraid to dwell in Zoar. And he and his two daughters dwelt in a cave. Now the firstborn said to the younger, 'Our father is old, and there is no man on earth to come in to us as is the custom of all the earth. Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve the lineage of our father.' So they made their father drink wine that night. And the firstborn went in and lay with her father, and he did not know when he lay down or when she arose. It happened on the next day that the firstborn said to the younger, 'Indeed I lay with my father last night; let us make him drink wine tonight also, and you go in and lie with him, that we may preserve the lineage of our father.' Then they made their father drink wine that night also. And the younger arose and lay with him, and he did not know when he lay down or when she arose. Thus both the daughters of Lot were with child by their father." That is what I want to read. Did you get that story? I believe you got that story. It was not a good ending. Was it? Was it a good ending? It was not a good ending. How many camel came out of Sodom with Lot? How many properties? How many? Nothing. All the horses, all the servants, everything that went with him went down the drain. Was just flushed down into the pit. What of his wife? Pillar of salt. What happened to the family stability? Shattered and scattered. The children became pregnant through their father. That was the end story. But what led to the whole of this? How many decisions? How many decisions? Just one. Just one. What led to the decision? Ordinary things of everyday life. Herdsmen were fighting, the space was small. "Ah, this place cannot contain us oh. I need to move on. Ah Abram, it's like I should move on." Abram said, "Yes oh. It's like we have become so big now." Abram said, "Look, let’s do it like this so it won't look as if I want to cheat you. I don't want to cheat anybody. If you go to the left, I will go to the right. If you go to the right, then I will go to the left. You just choose anyone. The one that remained, I am going to choose." What did the Bible say? Then Lot looked towards one side of the two choices. One side was what? Well watered with grasses, looking great, looking good. The other side was the Canaan that was not good enough. And he was to make a choice. Ordinarily, where should you choose from? He looked around and he chose all the plain—he did not leave any plain for Abraham. He chose all the plain. Everything. Nothing was left. But you know Abraham had said that if you go this way, I will go this way. That was how Abraham escaped. You know Abraham too could have gone to the plain if he had chosen this side, Abraham would have gone that side. But he chose towards that side and Abraham went the other way. "No problem." That was why—look at that verse 19. Look at that chapter 13, I want to show you something there. Can I—Chapter 13, verse 14: "And the Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him: 'Lift up your eyes now and look from the place where you are—northward, southward, eastward, and westward; for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever. And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if a man could number the dust of the earth, then your descendants also could be numbered. Arise, walk in the land through its length and its width, for I give it to you.'" Do you get what is happening here? Do you get what is happening here? What was God doing to Abraham? He was encouraging him. You know what was left with him? You don't understand what was happening. God say, "Arise, no need to be discouraged. You know that person have—you are dealing with cattle and the person chose all where there is green grass, everything and said all of this one is my own. You are now left with... a place where there are no grasses. You would not even take your own there to go and eat. Only his own can only eat there. So your own... you understand the point? So God told him, 'Get up, get up now. Don't be discouraged. Arise, arise, walk through the land. Don't let that discourage you.'" We'll talk about all of these two things later. But the point I am making is just that what? That point where they had to decide. They want to take a decision on how best to manage their property. Was that looking like anything so serious? Was it looking like anything that's going to completely reverse the order of that life? No. And Lot took the decision. He decided. Ordinarily, ordinary things of life, that of Lot. "Let us decide over this," marred the life in a way that it could not be reversed. Critical things of life. "Ah, yeah, I just must act. Ah, look, disobey God and get it." He disobeyed, and it became overwhelmingly critical that it could not be reversed. The kingdom was given to somebody else. Critical moment. So today, we have succeeded in looking at critical moments, understanding of critical moments, how to handle them. But today, under our Part 1, we have been able to look at what is critical moment, nature of critical moment, and biblical example of critical moment. My prayer is that at our critical moment we will not fail. In the name of Jesus Christ. I will not fail, you will not fail, in the name of Jesus Christ. When we come in the month of April, God keeping us beyond then, we will take the matter beyond this point. We'll move to the Part 2. The conclusion of the matter will be when we are looking at how do we handle critical moments, because it is very, very important. How do we handle critical moments? I believe it's something that every young generation need to listen to. Every young man, every young person need to listen to how do we handle it. But our prayer for today as we close for today is that we will not fail at our critical moment. I will not fail, you will not fail, in the name of Jesus Christ. Is there any question? Any question technical? Okay, those of us here, do you have any question as we close? Okay, no question. So let us close for today. Let's just talk to the Lord. Critical moment. Critical moment and how to handle them. Let's talk to the Lord. [Speaker 1 prays in tongues] Thank You, our Father. Thank You, our Jesus. Blessed be Your holy name, our God. Blessed be Your holy name. Thank You, Lord God. Thank You. Let me ask someone to close the meeting. Our brother, please come and close the meeting for us. [Speaker 3] Father, in Jesus’ name. Lord we pray that everything we’ve learnt today, You will help us to identify our critical moments in Jesus’ name. The grace to always pay attention to instructions, daily instructions that could lead us to important points of our life, You give us grace to do that in Jesus’ name. The grace to be wise at our critical moments, You give it unto us in Jesus’ name. And we pray that as we continue this series, You continue to speak to our hearts and give us wisdom and grace in Jesus’ name. In Jesus’ name we have prayed. [Speaker 1] The grace. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us now and forevermore. Amen. Surely, God's goodness and mercy shall follow us all the days of our lives, and we shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever and ever. Amen. [Speaker 2] This message is coming to you from Family Tent Ministry, a Christian ministry involved in enriching the lives of singles and married through preaching and teaching of God's word, discipleship, family life enrichment, social and community development, and mission hit. Our regular activities are discipleship class every Monday 5:00 PM, Adolescent and Singles Club every first Saturday of every month at 10:00 AM, Marriage Forum second Saturday of every month at 10:00 AM, family life seminars, regular school outreaches, and everyday counseling. For further counseling, you can reach us at our location: Life Camp by the first bridge, Ilere community, opposite Petrojoy filling station along Igbatoro Road, Akure, Ondo State, Nigeria. You can also reach us through our social media handles: familytent@yahoo.co.uk, familytentministry01@gmail.com, www.familytentministry.org. Our phone numbers are 080-33-86-11-36, 070-33-61-38-48. God bless you all.