Savior Complex – Sermon

Genesis 18 and 19

According to the blog PeopleSkillsDecoded.com, a savior complex is defined as “A psychological construct which makes a person feel the need to save other people. This person has a strong tendency to seek people who desperately need help and to assist them, often sacrificing their own needs for these people.”

 I’m an older sibling so I’ve gone through my life being the 3rd parent. I can see things my sister can’t and I process things differently because I’ve always had to. Older siblings can often see clearly that things aren’t always gonna work out the way they’re planned. We can see the pitfalls, mishaps, and, mistakes coming from a mile away.

If you’re an older sibling I know you’re used to dealing with hard-headed people! No matter what you say, others will do whatever they want. You’re on the outside looking in, you can plainly see living a hardheaded life doesn’t make any sense. But you love your little hardheaded brother or sister. No matter how badly they go against your better judgment you still want to see them succeed and you want the best for them. That’s an example of loving people according to their potential and not according to their pitfalls.

That’s what we see in Lot and Abraham’s story. Sodom and Gomorrah were set to be destroyed. Angles who appeared as men had come to the city. Abraham bargained with the Lord because he didn’t want the land and its people to be destroyed. Abraham started off by asking the Lord to find 50 good people in the city and working his way all the way down to 10 people. The Lord promised that if there were 10 good people in Sodom and Gomorrah that he would spare the entire city. But when Lot met the two angels at the city gates they quickly learned there weren’t even 10 good people to be found. The angles knew what they came to do and they warned Lot:

1. Whoever you got here… get ‘em and go! But Lot didn’t listen…

2.  Again they warned him Hurry up! Forget everybody else.. take your wife and 2 kids and go! But the Bible says he lingered.

3. Then they grabbed Lot and his family by the hand and took Lot, his wife, and, his two daughters out of the city and told them to run and don’t look back or else they would be consumed.

Then the angels told Lot “Hurry, escape there, for I cannot do anything until you arrive there.” Therefore the town was named Zoar.”

Genesis 19:22 NASB

That’s interesting… the angels didn’t say they wouldn’t destroy the city with Lot there… they said they couldn’t. Their hands were tied. What was so special about one person that would stop angels from carrying out the Lord’s work? When we skip forward to Genesis 18 verse 29 we find out exactly why Lot is alive, the Bible says:

“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.”

Gen 19:29 NIV

Side note: This reveals the importance of praying for people, start asking him “God if you dont remember me, remember my husband, if you dont remember me remember my wife, if you dont remember me remember what’s attached to me.

Lot lived because God remembered Abraham. Abraham wasn’t even supposed to bring Lot with him but even in Abraham’s disobedience, God said “For your sake” I will save him. How many lives has God spared because he remembered you? Dont underestimate God’s love for you. Just because who you want to be there isn’t there, doesn’t mean that God hasn’t sustained and purposed the ones who hung around. Thank him because he’s a “for your sake” kind of God!

Hear me, there are people on this earth who only draw breath because they are involved in God getting his glory out of you!

He saved them to show his favor on your life, he save them to show he can work even when you’re messy, he saved them to show there is nothing that can stop God from having his glory… It kinda seems like God’s got a savior complex huh?

If there are people in your life and you know their broke, busted, and disgusted the best thing you can do is seek Jesus. Because like Abraham and Lot, when death is near and the Lord’s presence shows up he might just spare them on your behalf. God’s favor on your life is so strong that people are alive today because they are attached to your purpose in Christ!

God brings you to a place where he empowers you to cultivate an on-fire relationship with Christ, one that preserves the lives of those around you purely because he favors you and he knows you won’t let the rocks cry out!! You WILL give God his glory!

We ALWAYS have to lean on Christ for his plan, his grace, his mercy, and his favor, and to trust him to BE the God that He says he is…

I’m so glad Jesus has a savior complex because he’s the only one who met death and kept walking!