Several years ago before I was married I spent quite a bit of time in night clubs. I enjoyed the dancing, drinking and the music. On one Friday night, me and my girlfriend drove to a club in Longview because we were ready for a change from the clubs in Tyler. Right as we entered the club, my girlfriend went to the restroom and I went to the bar to order two drinks. I then went to the hallway to wait for her. As soon as she walked up to me and as I was handing her the drink I said, “I don’t belong here!” She looked at me and said, “What?” I said it again, I don’t belong here.” I momentarily dismissed the message and stayed longer than I should have; however, that next morning we drove our car that had been at a club the night before into a church parking lot where we found a new place to frequent. Looking back on that moment, I know today that was the Holy Spirit giving voice to how grieved He was of my life. I was blind to what God saw and felt about the way I was living. Let me say that again, I was blind to what God saw and felt about the way I was living. Lot lived with his family in a wicked city named Sodom, but he never said, “I don’t belong here!” God was so merciful to Lot by sending two angels to take his family out of that city before the fire and brimstone of God’s judgement fell on that place.
Genesis 19:15-16 When the morning dawned, the angels urged Lot to hurry, saying, “Arise, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the punishment of the city.” 16 And while he lingered, the men took hold of his hand, his wife’s hand, and the hands of his two daughters, the LORD being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city.
No doubt, Lot was totally blind to what God saw. As a child of God, anytime you are where you shouldn’t be, the Holy Spirit is grieved and begins to send you a message, “You don’t belong here.” The problem is that most people desperately want to belong so much in this world that the message is dismissed. We want to belong where we don’t belong. This world is becoming darker. It is as if the spiritual light has a dimmer switch that is slowly turning to the off position. Darkness surrounds us and evil and wickedness dance in our streets, waits in our pathways, streams into our homes, and fits nicely in the palm of our hands. I understand today the message received at that nightclub that night on a much larger scale. If you are a child of God, born of His Spirit, then you don’t belong here. We are in this world, but not of it. Are you lingering where you don’t belong? Have you become desensitized spiritually to what grieves God? Remember this, you don’t belong here!