Each of us will one day finish our race in one of three ways. We'll finish well, finish so-so, or finish poorly.

It's an enlightening exercise to look at the various characters in His Story and try to determine how they finished. The Apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the church in Corinth.

Abraham's nephew Lot was a memorable example of someone who finished his race poorly. It's a pretty sad story, but it does serve as a warning to us as to how the devil tries to allure us off the track on which God has set us.

Lot's name means "concealed or hidden". Maybe his name was an indicator of the way he lived his life. There was more going on, on the inside, than someone might have seen on the on the outside.

He was born to Abraham's youngest brother, Haran. Because Abraham and Sarah had no kids of their own, when Lot's dad died, they adopted him into their family. Maybe Lot was a teenager when Abraham invited him to join him and Auntie Sarah on the long journey on which they were embarking. God had personally called Uncle Abraham to travel about 1200 miles to a place he called Canaan. He promised that he would give the beautiful land to Abraham and his descendants to set up a model righteous nation for all the world to see, and hopefully emulate.

I would imagine Lot was pretty excited as he set out on the four month journey along the edges of the Euphrates River, from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea. After all, Abraham was not only a multimillionaire, but he could teach his young protege how to be a successful entrepreneur. Their business partnership specialized in ranching. They raised sheep, goats, donkeys and camels ... by the thousands. Abraham, and eventually Lot too, had several hundred employees working in their businesses.

Money doesn't really have spiritual value. It can be good or bad for us, depending on how we use it. What matters most is the value we place on money in the hidden place of our heart. Jesus said, the values in our hearts will be revealed, by how we spend our money.

And that's where we see the difference between Abraham and his nephew Lot. Abraham was Kingdom minded. He saw himself and his money as belonging to God. He was God's servant. Lot, in contrast, saw his life and his money as belonging to himself. He believed in God, as his uncle did, but he saw God as his servant. He would wake up in the morning and ask "God, what will you do for me today?" Rather than asking, "God what can I do for you today?"

Lot's "hidden" motives were revealed on the day when His Uncle gave him a choice. Because they were so successful in their animal business, they had to separate. Their employees were starting to squabble over who had the rights to what pastures. Abraham gave Lot the choice between the rich, well-watered land in the Jordan Valley or the hill country on the west.

Sadly, Lot didn't answer, "Oh Uncle Abraham, you take the first pick. I owe everything I have to you. I have no right to choose anything for myself. Please, you take the best land for yourself and I'll be thankful for whatever is left!"

No, he didn't say that. He said, "I'll take the best land for myself ... The Jordan Valley looks like it will multiply my personal wealth. That will be my choice!"

Unfortunately for Lot, that decision began a downward spiral in his life. It wasn't that he didn't fulfil his personal desires to be rich and famous. He actually fared very well financially, but the path he chose, had a steep price tag. The Jordan River flowed into the Dead Sea, where the city of Sodom was situated. Maybe the fact that the Dead Sea has no outlet, was a picture of Lot's heart. There was no desire to give away God's blessing ... It was all for himself and his family. There was no outflow.

Lot first moved near the sin-filled city of Sodom. Then a few years later, as his two daughters grew older, he moved into the center of town. Wicked Sodom became home for him.

A boat is made to float in the water. That's OK, but when the water gets into the boat, that's not OK. It was not a bad thing for Lot to live in Sodom. Maybe he and his family wanted to be lights in that dark place. But the sad part was that Sodom began to infiltrate Lot's family. The allure of the city seduced them, and pretty soon it was impossible to tell the difference between his home and their lascivious neighbors' homes.

By the time his girls were old enough to be married, Lot had become the Mayor of Sodom. I'm sure the local paper would have headlined the news. "Immigrant from Iraq finds success!" Righteous Lot had made a name for himself in Sodom--his dreams were finally fulfilled. He was rich and famous!

But that was also when God's anger over the sin of Sodom reached it's peak.
It was judgement time. Deep within the tar and sulphur pits around Sodom a volcano was about to erupt. God sent an angel to warn Lot and his family before the catastrophe, but his sons-in-law laughed at him. They were not leaving their luxurious good life for anything.

As the fire storm exploded, Lot grabbed his wife and daughters, and ran for his life.
His wife, who'd been captivated by their opulent life style, was torn - her heart belonged to the stuff they'd accumulated, and she hesitated too long. The raining sulphur engulfed her, and she died looking back at what they were leaving behind.

The last words we see written about Lot, were that he and his two girls were living in a cave, with nothing but the clothes on their backs. His daughters had been so tainted by the lifestyle that Lot had chosen for his family, that they did something unthinkable. They became pregnant with their father's children. The two sons born to their ungodly unions, Ammon and Moab, became the malevolent legacy of the man who had started his life with so much.

Lot finished very poorly.

Jesus had something to say about the example Lot's family left in their wake;