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The Call for the Church to Leave the Plains of Sodom and Gomorrah
Steve Hill

Steve Hill (1954–2014). Born on January 17, 1954, in Ankara, Turkey, to a U.S. military family, Steve Hill grew up in Alabama and spiraled into drug addiction and crime by age nine, facing arrests and near-death from overdoses. Converted on October 28, 1975, at 21 after a Lutheran minister’s prayer, he entered Teen Challenge, mentored by David Wilkerson, and graduated from Wilkerson’s Twin Oaks Academy in Texas, studying under Leonard Ravenhill and Nicky Cruz. Ordained in the Assemblies of God, Hill and his wife, Jeri, whom he met at Twin Oaks, became missionaries in the 1980s, planting churches in Argentina, Spain, and Belarus, where they founded a Teen Challenge center. In 1995, after receiving prayer at Holy Trinity Brompton in London, he sparked the Brownsville Revival at Brownsville Assembly of God in Pensacola, Florida, on Father’s Day, preaching repentance and drawing over 4 million attendees through 2000, with 150,000 reported conversions. Relocating to Dallas in 2000, he resumed crusades and founded Heartland World Ministries Church in Irving, Texas, in 2003. Hill authored books like Spiritual Avalanche (2013) and Wanted: Extreme Christians (2000). Diagnosed with melanoma in 2007, he died on March 9, 2014, in Orange Beach, Alabama, survived by Jeri and three children, Ryan, Shelby, and Kelsey. He said, “If you’re not winning souls, you’re wasting your time.”
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This sermon delves into the story of Abram and Lot, focusing on the consequences of separating from godly influences and dwelling in sinful environments like Sodom and Gomorrah. It emphasizes the need to flee from sin, not hide or minimize it, and to seek refuge in God's presence away from worldly temptations.
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They 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. Verse 6, now the land was not able to support them that night 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 and I will go to the right or if you go to the right then I will go to the left. And Lot lifted his eyes, forgive me, but this message has never been preached except alone with Holy Spirit. And I have cried and cried and cried as revelation after revelation was downloaded into my spirit by the one who wrote these words. Lot lifted up his eyes and he saw the plain of Jordan that it was well watered everywhere before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. Like the gardens of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, as you go towards Zoar, then Lot chose for himself all the plains of Jordan. And Lot journeyed east and they separated from each other. Abraham dwelt in the land of Canaan and Lot dwelt in the cities of the plain and pitched his tent even as far as Sodom. Verse 13, but the men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked and sinful against the Lord. Now I've got several points and then we're going to be closing tonight. Listen up at home, this is for everyone no matter what language you speak. This is for everybody. But you know, this is not one of my points, but one of the first things I see here is Lot made a big mistake by separating himself from Abraham. And there's people that are looking at me right now, you've made a big mistake because you've separated yourself from holy people. You've separated yourself from holy family members. You've separated yourself from godly church people. You've separated yourself from men of God like Steve Hill, like John Kilpatrick, like Lyndal Cooley. You've separated yourself from people that will speak into your life. And I'm here to announce to everyone in this room and everyone around the world that many of you are living today in the large cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Now I'm going to illustrate each one of these points. The large city of Sodom and Gomorrah. I want to illustrate this with a ring so everyone around can see this is a light ring. I did this on purpose so it would show up against my black, my dark suit. This represents your life. This represents Sodom and Gomorrah. Many watching today, this is what you've chosen. You've chosen this group of cities that had great riches as with the other cities and the plains around them. The people of Sodom and Gomorrah possessed the finest foods, clothing, luxurious goods. They had all their wants. Their citizens were well satisfied and they were smug about their existence. They saw no need to seek after God. Now theologians believe that thousands of people lived in Sodom and Gomorrah. I don't know. No one can prove how many live there. But I can tell you this, many of you live there. You have chosen the big place, the glamour, the glory, the festivals, the parties. I know what I'm talking about because I've lived in Sodom and Gomorrah. I'm not speaking physically, I'm speaking spiritually. You're living in a large sinful place. Your life is surrounded with sinful people. Your mind is corrupt. It's full of sinful thoughts. You are consumed with evil. The Bible says in 2 Peter 2, 6 and 8 that Lot's soul was vexed with the conduct of the wicked. That means he was afflicted continually. Teen Challenge students, you know what I'm talking about. Your life is consumed with evil continually. You wake up in the morning with your mind full of alcohol and thinking of the next fix or thinking of the next girl you're going to jump in the sack with or the next time you're going to click on internet porn. You're consumed with evil. It's a large place. Listen to what Ezekiel says and I'm just giving you the address. Ezekiel 16, 49 says, look, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom. She and her daughter had pride, fullness of food, abundance of idleness. Neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and the needy. They were haughty and committed abomination before me. Look this way. I know you're viewing from all over the world and you're saying, but brother Steve, this doesn't have anything to do with me. I beg your pardon, sir. I've lived all over the world and I've traveled all over the world. I remember walking into Amsterdam and the people saying, don't go past that road right there. And I said, well, what is there? They said, it's the district. And I remember David Wilkerson, who was my spiritual father, he said when he went there to the red light district, to the big circle, to the place where everything goes, anything goes, eat, drink and be merry, said when he went to the gates of that area, he started to vomit and he ran as fast as he could the other direction. America, could I speak to you for a minute? Full of pride, lust, stuck on yourself. This is America. And I've been on my knees before and I've said, Jesus, when is judgment coming? I remember going to a homosexual rally. Oh, by the way, this is Sodom and Gomorrah. Sodomy. I remember going to a rally and I went there just to view. There must have been a half a million homosexuals. And if you're a homosexual here, I love you. I love everybody. Your sin is an abomination to God. And I remember looking at men sodomizing one another in the grass at the Washington Mall. And then I walked a little bit further and two women were embracing one another totally new. And I went up to the police who are on horseback and I said, sir, that is against the law. And this is what he said, I can't stand it either, but we're just gonna leave them alone and we know they'll go away. I'm not talking about Thailand or Taiwan or another Asian area of the world. I'm talking about America. Abominations. You know what abominations are? Those things that are morally disgusting to God. Sir, let me tell you something. When you lock lips with your gay lover, you are committing an abomination before the Lord. Oh, by the way, I don't need any friends. I asked the pastor the other day, I said, how's it going? He said, fine. I said, what? He said, fine. I said, you mean everything's going great? He said, yeah. I said, what are you preaching? I'm saying that to you, sir, ma'am. What's coming out of your mouth? Jesus said if they hated him, they would hate you. And don't talk to me about crowds. I've seen crowds. I've been in crowds. I've preached in stadiums and arenas. It means nothing. Jesus had the crowds and he said, hey, drink my blood. Eat my flesh. And they said, this is too difficult for us. They basically did this. Stay out of our lives. We enjoy where we're at and what we're doing. By the way, a lot sat at the city gate, which is a city, that was an area of prominence that was like an official when you sit at the city gates. But it doesn't make any difference to me what position you have in the community. What matters to God and to me is what position you have with Christ. Well, I'm gonna flip a lot of pages here. If you're in Sodom and Gomorrah, tonight, tonight, you get out. You run for your life. Then there's another group of people. You've chosen to live your lives outside of Sodom and Gomorrah. You've planted yourself in the plains. I call this plain living, just the ring, just the one ring. You've planted yourself in the plains. You're not in Sodom and Gomorrah. You're not gonna live in the big city. Why? When you're in the big city and you're around all, you're not gonna live in the red light district of Amsterdam. You're gonna live right outside it. You're gonna live to where you can see the city lights. Plain living, p-l-a-i-n, plain living, spiritually speaking. You sit in the darkness and you admire the thousands of flickering lights in the city. They're alluring and enticing. Every light represents some type of activity. Your curiosity is often overwhelmed. Your feet want to head to the party, but your spirit says, stay back. You're attracted to the city of Sodom and Gomorrah, but you've chosen to live at a distance. Oh, look at me, everybody. America is full of people like this. They're never gonna be that bad. They're gonna live in the plains, the fertile plains outside the city. You want to know what the privilege is there? You can hop into town anytime you want to. Oh, Teen Challenge guys and gals, you know what I'm talking about. You got your safe place, then you got your crack house. Oh, you're not gonna live in the crack house, you're gonna live at mom's house. You're gonna live in the plains. You want to be close enough to dabble in big-city sin, but you want to be able to return to the safety of the countryside. You physically left Egypt, but you find yourself desiring that old lifestyle. You're double-minded, you're unstable in all your ways, says James 1.8. I'm gonna go ahead and do it. I've had it beyond here with drinking Christians. There is a philosophy of freedom that's spreading around the world right now that is hammering the nails of Calvary further into his hands and his feet. If you log on and watch my tweeters the other day, God woke me up early in the morning, I began to tweet one after another, and I said, somebody paint me a picture of two men French-kissing at the base of Calvary as the blood dripped on top of them. Somebody paint me a picture. Somebody paint me a picture of a man sticking a needle in his arm, standing at the base of Calvary. You know what the base of Calvary is? Religion. See, Christianity. Religion is hanging around the cross. Christianity is getting on the cross. Somebody paint me a picture of all these freedom seekers. They want a little bit of Jesus and a little bit of alcohol. They want a little bit of Calvary, a little bit of fornication over here, a little bit of adultery over here. Man, if I could just get that worship singer in bed. Oh, don't look at me like that. Look what the nation's putting up with right now. Pedophiles. One of the major ministries that I love dearly, just murder. They have sexual intercourse with this girl and then they kill her. Well, I'm not pointing fingers at any ministry. It's happening all over the nation. Anybody listening? I don't preach down at things, folks. I preach up. See, if Jesus be lifted up, he will draw all men unto him. But let me tell you something. The world will never get saved if they don't hear about sin. Here's John the Baptist. Behold the Lamb of God that pads your church with soft, cushy pews. Behold the Lamb of God that allows you to tip the bottle. Behold the Lamb of God, all this basura. That's garbage in Spanish. And you wonder why America's not getting saved. Anybody here tonight? Oh, listen, you know what it is? I don't know when you're watching this. It could be any time of the year because God TV does that. God bless you, Roy and Wendy. You keep playing this stuff night after night. It's awesome. But it's Friday night in Mobile, Alabama. You want to know what's going on within a five-mile radius of this building right here? There's church kids that are in bed. Wait a minute. Nah, it's 930. Give them a couple more hours. Let's get her good and drunk first. Then we'll jump in the sack with her. Church kids, how do you know this theme? I've been in the ministry 37 years, folks. The Brownsville Revival, night after night, they'd stand in the baptismal pool and say things like this. I've been in church all my life, but God's convicted me of my pornography problem. All in the same sentence. Living in the plains. I remember I would drive down the road with my wife or a staff member. We'd be driving through the countryside, and I'd see a couple houses, and this is what I'd say. I'd say, Jimmy, or I'd say, Jerry, see those houses over there? There's as much sin going on in those houses as there in the big city we just came out of. Plain living. People living in the plains. Go into the city, get your fix, go back out in the plains, live your life. I'm telling you, friend, something's about to happen. Church members, one foot in, one foot out. The other day I was talking to a man, Pastor John, and he said this to me. He said, I love you, Brother Steve, but I really have a problem with some of the things that you say. And I said, well, I love you too. Very professional, man. Very professional. I said, well, talk to me, man. He said, I don't know if I can. And I said, is it my stand on theological issues? He said, no. I said, because I'm pretty hard on that stuff. I'll die for what I believe, and I may. I've had threats on my life. Then after about 10 minutes, this is what he said. He said, I go to this church. He named the church. And he said, I just can't stop sinning. I just can't stop. And I said to him, I said, if you'll hang around me, you'll stop sinning. He was living in the plains. Went to church. Sang at the church. Did things. But living in the plains. And outside of the big stuff, the plain living. Some of you are getting this. Some of you aren't. I think most of you are. But many of you tonight, you've refused to live in Sodom and Gomorrah. It's too large. It's too hideous. Habitual sin is not the thing for you. And you don't want to live in the plains either. It's too close to the big city. So you've conveniently moved, spiritually speaking, away from Sodom and Gomorrah, away from the plains. And you've decided to live in the small towns outside. You've decided to live in Adma or Zibbon. Two smaller towns. Little places. Little sin. Little stuff. Spiritualize this with me, friend, because I'm about to bring this all home. Theologians believe they were like 25 miles away from Sodom and Gomorrah. I got news for you. If they were 10, 15, 20, 25 miles away, you can still see the lights of the flickering city. You can still see the lights flickering in that city. Sodom and Gomorrah were on the edge of the Dead Sea. We've been there, and they say they've already found Sodom. Archaeologists have. They say Gomorrah's probably under the Dead Sea. They're pretty accurate on some of their deductions. But here's these two small towns. Here's the problem. You're not out of range yet. You're still too close. The Bible says that God rained down fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah, the plains and the surrounding cities. You don't want to live in the surrounding cities, do you? This is for those of you, listen up, around the world. You're not that bad. But you're also not that good. I've got news. God still sees the evil. Perhaps you never visit Sodom and Gomorrah, but your thoughts and your affections have still separated you from God. I'm here to say to everybody around the world, and raise your right hand if you want to see revival. You want to see revival. I'm going to tell you how to get there. Get out of Sodom and Gomorrah. Get out of the plains. Get out of the small towns. These are all levels and places of sin. See, the Bible says God looked down and said, kill them all! That means these people died just like those people. I've got news for you. There's judgment coming to America. David Ravenhill just called me up and he said this. He said, I just left Australia. Listen up, Australia! He said there's a teaching sweeping the nation that there is no judgment to come. No judgment seat of Christ and no great white throne judgment. The judgment seat is for the believers. The great white throne for the unbelievers. It's Bible. It's going to happen. I'm going to close. What did God say? What did God say for Lot to do? I'm going to leave my notes for a minute. What has God told you to do? He said this, flee to the mountains. Get out of range. Why? Because I am about to kill. David Ravenhill also says you need to hear my message. This is Leonard Ravenhill's son entitled When God Goes on a Killing Spree. What has he told you to do? He's told me to leave Sodom, leave the plains, leave the small towns. That means little sins, little things, little stuff. Get it all out of your life! And Lot stopped in a town called Zoar, which means little, and he realized in Zoar this is not what God told him to do. So fear and trepidation filled his heart. Now he had already lost his wife. Everybody knows that story. She flipped around and her affections, her feet were going to the mountains. Her affections were back in Sodom and Gomorrah. Many of you, your feet are in church, but your affections are in the world. If I was a heathen in America, I wouldn't want to get saved. Why? Trying to find somebody that set you. Trying to find a true Christian. While we have these other false religions growing like weeds, who pray five to seven times a day, and fast, and go after their God, and commit themselves to martyrdom, and tie bombs around themselves for their God, Christians can't be true. Christians can't put the wine glass down. Christians can't put the beer down. Christians can't turn the computer off. So, sorry Charlie, this is where you end up. You know what this is? That safe place. This is that place. This is the shelter of his wings. This is the cave. This is the place that he said, Lot, go there, take your daughters. His sons-in-law, by the way, you know what they said to Lot? They thought he was crazy. He was joking. Look at me. There's people watching me right now. They think I'm crazy. They think I'm joking. Well come with us to Israel, okay? Let me show you where the fire came down. This is where the fire came down. They thought they were crazy too. The man building the big boat, they thought he was crazy too. The man that called fire down from heaven, they thought he was crazy too, until the prophets of Bel's heads were chopped off, and they thought, you know, I sort of like his God better. People ask me all the time, why has God blessed you for so many years? Oh, by the way, sickness? Let me tell you something about sickness. If you get sick, it's probably because you got sick. Alright? Okay? And if you get better, it's probably because you got better. Maybe the Lord healed you. Maybe you quit eating Twinkies. And Hostess is like closing down right now anyhow, so a shock is sweeping through the nation. Is it Twinkies and Dum Dums? Huh? You know the name? Did you hear that? He got it. I say Twinkies, he says, and I go, Dum Dums? He goes, no, he says Ding Dongs. A man after my heart, lady, right there. I'll take four Ding Dongs, two deep fried Twinkies, and a Whataburger hamburger. Those of you in other nations, just forget everything I just said. Chances are there will never be a Whataburger in your town. We got to post all these scriptures online because there's not time to share them all. But I would encourage you to seek the scriptures, seek His Word, go after it, and read things like, He shall set me high upon a rock, Psalm 27.5. Read Psalm 31.2, says, deliver me speedily, God. Be my rock of refuge, a fortress of defense, to save me. You are my rock and my fortress, Psalm 71.3. Hebrews 11, 37 and 38 talks about the great men and women of faith who hid themselves in the mountains and the dens and the caves of the earth. I love this stuff. Well, been talking about plain living. Now, I'm closing with plain leaving. Plain living, plain leaving. I'm keeping this ring because this is where I live. I live in that secret place. Leonard Ravenhill used to say to me, he would be sitting there like Lyndal, and I'd be sitting right here. Leonard Ravenhill, why Revival Terry should be required reading for everyone listening. It's in languages all over the world. And I'd be sitting in a chair right here. He'd say, Stevie, always call me Stevie. He's 81. He ministered to me for three years, poured his life into me. He said, Stevie, come here. And I'd move my chair like this. And he'd say, come here. It'd be just Leonard and myself in an office. He'd say, closer, son. That's my chair closer. He'd say, come closer. I'd get closer. He'd say, Stevie. Stevie. Closer. Closer. Closer. Closer. And I'd get right next to his lips. And his lips would be right next to my ear. And he would say this, and this was right before the revival broke out. Right before he died, he died just before the revival broke out. He says, Stevie, God's got secrets. And he wants to share them with you. But he doesn't shout his secrets. Get closer. Get closer. Get closer. A few months later, I was mowing my yard. And the Spirit of the Lord said this, I'm about to pour out my spirit on dry land. And I began to cry. Three days later, I was at Brownsville Assembly of God. And the power of God came down and flooded us. And for five years, all I did was live in a secret place. I'd get up early in the morning and seek the Lord. Jesus, speak to me. There's thousands of people that want to hear a word from you, Lord God. And I'm tired. I'm hoarse. I've preached for two and a half years, Jesus. Speak to me, Lord. Speak. Five o'clock in the morning. Six o'clock in the morning. And I got home at two o'clock. Stand. Plane leaving. Here's how you get out of the planes. Here's how to yield out of Sodom and Gomorrah. Here's how you get out of the cities. First of all, when it comes to sin, sin is anything Jesus wouldn't do. Jesus shed his blood on Calvary on a rugged cross two thousand years ago for you. Listen up, Bowen. On what language you speak, he shed precious blood for you. Your God never died for you. But Jesus dripped his blood. The only thing he left on planet Earth was his blood. Every drop of his blood paid for every one of your sins. Every one of my sins. If you want to get out of the planes, if you want to get out of Sodom and Gomorrah, don't hide it. Don't hide your sin. Read when you get home. Oh my goodness, I wish we had ten hours. Read Psalm 32, 1-5. 2 Samuel 12, 11-13. Psalm 38, 2-9. I'm just giving you the addresses. Read these. What happens when you hide your sin? David said, my bones waxed old and dried up. I remember the sinful lifestyle. My conscience was a wasteland. And don't minimize your sin. Don't hide it and don't minimize it. The Bible says that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. If you're into internet porn, then you're into internet porn. Don't hide it. Don't minimize it. Don't say I'm not as bad as those in Sodom and Gomorrah. Say, Father, I live too close to Sodom and Gomorrah. My thoughts are too close to the planes. My thoughts are too close to the cities. I need to be hidden in you, Father. The Bible says, don't you know that the unrighteous will never inherit the kingdom of God? Don't be deceived. Fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, homosexuals, Sodomites, thieves, covenants, semitists, drunkards, extortioners will never inherit the kingdom. Read Revelation 21.8 if you want the shock of your life. Don't minimize your sin. Don't add to it. Oh, by the way, put up the screen. On the screen, sinners in the hands of an angry God. I carry this everywhere I go. What you're looking there is a sermon that was preached by Jonathan and others. Scroll up if you can. That's not the whole slide. Maybe that's all you got. But look this way. This is a 200-year-old copy. It's a message of a man who preached here in America, and he preached. If you think this message is hard, this message is soft compared to what's in these little pages right here. You can log on to sinners in the hands of an angry God. Just log on to sinners in the hands. Just log on to in the hands. Log on to angry God. It's the most famous sermon outside of the Sermon on the Mount ever preached. But churchgoers and heathen were screaming and moaning and groaning because they thought the floor was going to open up and swallow them. And he was saying some of the same things that this evangelist is saying to you tonight or today, whenever you're listening to it. So don't add to it like David did. You know what David did? David committed adultery. And then what does he do? He kills the woman's husband. He's adding to it because he's going to get caught. So don't add to your sin. Stop sinning. Wow, pastor, too many notes. And flee. Flee from all the appearance of sin. This message is like run for your life, guys. If there's ever a time to live holy, it's right now.
The Call for the Church to Leave the Plains of Sodom and Gomorrah
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Steve Hill (1954–2014). Born on January 17, 1954, in Ankara, Turkey, to a U.S. military family, Steve Hill grew up in Alabama and spiraled into drug addiction and crime by age nine, facing arrests and near-death from overdoses. Converted on October 28, 1975, at 21 after a Lutheran minister’s prayer, he entered Teen Challenge, mentored by David Wilkerson, and graduated from Wilkerson’s Twin Oaks Academy in Texas, studying under Leonard Ravenhill and Nicky Cruz. Ordained in the Assemblies of God, Hill and his wife, Jeri, whom he met at Twin Oaks, became missionaries in the 1980s, planting churches in Argentina, Spain, and Belarus, where they founded a Teen Challenge center. In 1995, after receiving prayer at Holy Trinity Brompton in London, he sparked the Brownsville Revival at Brownsville Assembly of God in Pensacola, Florida, on Father’s Day, preaching repentance and drawing over 4 million attendees through 2000, with 150,000 reported conversions. Relocating to Dallas in 2000, he resumed crusades and founded Heartland World Ministries Church in Irving, Texas, in 2003. Hill authored books like Spiritual Avalanche (2013) and Wanted: Extreme Christians (2000). Diagnosed with melanoma in 2007, he died on March 9, 2014, in Orange Beach, Alabama, survived by Jeri and three children, Ryan, Shelby, and Kelsey. He said, “If you’re not winning souls, you’re wasting your time.”