Are We Our Own Worst Enemy?

If you would open up your Bibles to Judges chapter 19, 20, and 21, it's on page 257 of your Pew Bible.

Judges 19 · chapter mention

Well, in February 2023, there was a train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, and it resulted

in a massive toxic waste spill.

It was quite a train wreck.

And the cause, it turns out, was a failed wheel bearing in the train itself.

This morning, we're going to look at the book of Judges, and the book of Judges ends in a train wreck.

You could say the whole book of Judges is a train wreck.

God's old covenant people, Israel, failing to dispossess the nations of the promised land,

and they failed to dispossess them because they failed to trust that their king was in their midst.

They failed to trust Yahweh.

It resulted in a train wreck with toxic waste all over the place.

Cycle after cycle, throughout the Judges, we see Israel denying and disobeying their king who was in their midst.

The tragedy is that Israel becomes like the Canaanite nations that they were to devote to destruction.

And at the end of the book of Judges, do you know who's devoted to destruction?

Judges 19, 20, and 21 is a smoldering wreckage of God's people.

Israel has been Canaanite.

Israel has been Canaanized.

They've become just like the nations they were to dispossess.

Israel's greatest enemy, it turns out, wasn't the surrounding nations.

It was themselves.

They were the cause to their own train wreck.

Now, if you were a railway inspector back in February 2023,

and you showed up to East Palestine,

you would have been given the responsibility to find out what was the cause of that train wreck.

And this morning, we get to see kind of the final kind of wreckage of this train wreck called Israel.

So, the cause of their Canaanization is what we're going after.

They were their own worst enemy.

And you know what?

It begs the question, church,

are we our own worst enemy?

Is there a train wreck for us just waiting to happen?

Four scenes.

Scene 1, chapter 19, 1 through 10,

we have an introduction,

and you're going to smell something off.

Scene 2, chapter 19, 10 through 28,

we have one of the most graphic, wicked acts in your Bible.

Scene 3, chapter 19, 29 through chapter 20, verse 48,

there is a holy war.

And there's deep, dark irony.

Scene 4, all of chapter 21, damage control,

according to what's right in your own eyes.

The book of Judges poses a warning for the Christian church today.

Are we our own worst enemy?

Let's look at scene 1.

We've got a marital spat.

Chapter 19, 1 through 10.

And before we get into something,

I just want you to notice verse 1.

In those days when there was no king in Israel,

that's the author being a little bit tongue-in-cheek.

There was not a human king in Israel.

But Yahweh, the king of all, was in Israel.

His people just weren't acknowledging him as king.

So we start off there.

And then we learn about this marital spat.

We are brought into, in verses 2 through 10,

this marital spat between an unnamed Levite and his concubine.

Now remember, a Levite was the clergy of Israel.

They were their own tribe.

They were like the pastors of Israel.

They were the spiritual leaders of Israel.

So they were the ones who were to be leading the nation spiritually.

And this Levite, turns out, he's got a concubine

who took to himself a concubine from Bethlehem, 19.

1.

A concubine was a second-class wife,

usually a servant or a slave,

and their primary responsibility was to generate babies.

It was demeaning.

And what should strike you out of the gate

is that a spiritual leader of Israel has a concubine.

Smells a little off.

Well, in verse 3, he goes from the hill country of Ephraim,

where he's sojourning,

and he goes to Bethlehem to where she went to be with her father

because she had committed some kind of unfaithfulness.

He gets there.

He speaks kindly to her.

She welcomes him in,

and it looks like things are getting patched up.

And then verses 4 through 9,

we are introduced to the concubine's dad

who is, like, aggressively hospitable.

So in verse 4, we read that

he made the Levite,

his concubine,

the daughter of the Bethlehemite,

and his servant stay three days.

Come stay.

Let's drink and be merry.

Next day, verse 5, day 4,

the Levite, his concubine,

their servant,

they get ready to go.

This hospitable Bethlehemite says,

no, no, come on.

You don't want to go.

He's kind of full-course press, hospitality.

No, let's eat, drink.

Let's enjoy each other's company.

The day passes.

They stay another night.

Verses 8 through 10,

day 5 rolls around.

They get up.

They get ready to go.

The day passes.

The dad is putting full-court press hospitality on,

and you start kind of asking,

why is he being so hospitable?

Does he know something that we don't know?

But eventually in verse 10,

the man, the Levite,

would not spend the night.

So he rose and departs.

And so this is well into the day.

So here's the introduction.

We've got a Levite,

his concubine wife,

and this very hospitable dad.

And this is how this account,

this,

the end of the book of Judges,

this account starts.

And there's something that you need to know is off here.

First is this.

We don't know the nature of the concubine's unfaithfulness.

And so we learn that.

Verse 2,

and his concubine was unfaithful to him,

but we're not told how.

And then,

the second thing we notice that's kind of off

is this kind of aggressive,

over-the-top hospitality by the concubine's dad.

Like, what's that all about?

Does he know something we don't know?

But what should really get your attention

is that the spiritual leader,

one of the spiritual leaders of Israel,

has a concubine.

He is clearly ignoring Genesis 2, 24 and 25,

which is very clear in saying

God's design for marriage

is one man married to one woman

before him for life.

So we start with a bit of some compromise here.

Moral compromise.

Now, if you were inspecting a train wreck

in Judges 19, 20, and 21,

you're looking at a spiritual leader

who's compromised.

Despite his sweet talking,

something's off here.

But what we're going to see

is we're not looking at the cause

of the train wreck.

The failure of the train wreck

is something else.

So let's move on to scene two.

Scene two is in chapter 19, 10 through 28.

And just to remind you

that the Levite is concubine,

and the servant with their donkeys,

they have left Bethlehem,

and they're going to go back

up to the hill country of Ephraim.

And so that's basically

a 10 to 12 mile trek north.

They got a day started late in the day.

And so in verses 10 through 15,

what we see is

they need to make a decision

of where they're going to stay the night

because they got to stop somewhere

because it's too far to travel

to get back to the hill country of Ephraim.

And so what we notice right out of the gate

is that they get near to this place

called Jebus.

And we see the author chime in,

that is Jerusalem.

And so what that means is this.

This city, which is later to become Jerusalem,

is in control of Canaanites,

non-Israelites,

or what the Levite will say is foreigners.

Well, we see in verse 11

that the servant says,

hey, Master Levite,

hey, let's turn aside

to this city of the Jebusites, Jebus,

and we will just kind of bed down for the night.

To which the Levite said,

absolutely not, verse 12 and 13.

They're foreigners.

They don't belong to the people of Israel.

We're going to move past them

and go another four or five miles to Gibeah.

Let's go there

because that's our people.

And what he knows is

they're going to be hospitable.

The Jebusites,

they're not going to be hospitable to us Jews.

They're foreigners.

But when we get to Gibeah,

which is of the tribe of Benjamin,

they will treat us well.

So in verse 15,

we fast forward,

they show up in Gibeah.

They went into the square,

which a traveling Jew would go into,

and they would expect someone

to be hospitable to them.

And look what happens.

No one took them into his house

to spend the night, verse 15.

And what you need to know

is that is a red flag.

Their inhospitableness,

that is not good.

In verses 16 through 21,

the story continues.

There's this old man,

not from Gibeah,

but from the hill country of Ephraim.

He's a sojourner in Gibeah.

He's doing some work there.

And we learn in verse 16,

he's coming back from his work

in the field at evening,

and he comes into the town square,

and he sees the Levite,

the concubine,

and their servant in the square.

He engages them in conversation.

And then eventually,

he invites them into his home.

He says in verse 20,

peace be to you.

I will care for all your wants.

And here's what you need.

It's a person not from Gibeah

showing hospitality

to these kind of sojourners

coming through.

It's a bit odd.

And then comes something

of an ominous warning.

Only, verse 20,

only do not spend the night

in the square.

He knows something.

He knows something

that the Levite,

the concubine,

and their servant,

does not know.

And so I think it was more like,

peace be to you.

I will care for you.

He's looking at his watch.

All right,

you don't want to be out here

in the square.

Let's get in my house.

And then it's in verse 22 through 28

that we will see

one of the most horrific scenes

in your Bible.

Now, I need to let you know up front,

it is graphic.

But I also need to let you know

that it's intended

to make you think

of another passage

in your Bible.

In Genesis 19,

Sodom,

God sends two angels

to rescue Lot

and then bring judgment

on Sodom and Gomorrah.

And then the men

of the city of Sodom

surround the house

and they demand

to know the two men

who are angels.

and we see something

very similar happen

in verses 22 through 28.

22, as they are making

their hearts merry,

this is happening in Israel.

This is happening

in a city of the Benjamites.

They have not gone to Jabez

in order to be

among their own.

The men of the city,

worthless fellows,

surrounded the house,

beating on the door,

and they said to the old man,

the master of the house,

bring out the man

who came into your house

that we may know him.

It's a demand.

And it's what's called

a euphemism.

Have you ever heard about,

you know,

you're somewhere

and you hear about

Tim and Georgina

hooking up?

That hookup language

is a euphemism

for having sex.

This phrase

that we may know him

is a euphemism

for this gang

of violent,

worthless fellows

having sex

with the Levite.

This is a threat

of homosexual gang rape.

Now typically,

we're not exposed

to homosexual gang rape

outside of context

of prison scenes.

What's being done here

is showing you

just how far

Israel has fallen.

these men

are Sodom-like men.

They are

Sodomite-like.

This is a wicked act.

In verses 23 and 24,

the old man,

he defends his guests.

He says,

no,

my brothers,

do not act so.

Look it,

wickedly

since this man

has come into my house.

Do not do this

vile thing

at the end of verse 24,

but against this man.

Do not do

this outrageous

thing.

There are some people

in the church

that claim to be Christians

who would say

what is vile

and wicked

and outrageous

is not the homosexual

nature of this.

It is the rape of it

because we don't have

consenting adults.

What's wrong here

is the lack of consent,

some people would say.

And that is wrong.

But what's clearly

being said

as wicked

and vile

and outrageous

is the homosexual

nature of this.

make no mistake,

the Bible is very clear

on homosexuality.

In Leviticus 18.22,

the people of Israel

are told

a man cannot lie

with a man

nor a woman

with a woman.

It goes on

in that same passage

to talk about

forbidding incest

and bestiality.

And then in 18.24,

do you know what

is written?

Don't do this.

Don't become like

the nations around you.

Romans 1

in your New Testament

18-32

clearly

forbid homosexuality

and it points

to homosexuality

as a sign

of forsaking God

and giving them up

and God handing people

over to their sinful desires.

These men of Gibeah,

these worthless fellows,

were more like

the men of Sodom.

But the big difference is

the men of Sodom

didn't claim

to be,

to have Yahweh

as their king.

men.

This is horrific.

And it gets worse.

Verse 24,

the old man

offers his virgin daughter

and then the Levite's

concubine

to try to somehow

satisfy the lust

of this mob of men.

You know what he's doing?

He's trying to protect

this one man's honor

by giving away

to women.

You know what that means?

He was messed up.

He's trying to do

what's right

in his own eyes,

that old man.

Not just these worthless

fellows in Gibeah,

but the old man too.

Women are not

of less value

than men.

And then it gets

just horrific.

The men in 25,

they don't listen.

Like, no.

Bang, bang, bang,

bang, bang.

And then the Levite,

verse 26,

the man

pushes out

his concubine.

Pushes her out.

Closes the door.

And we read

that this gang

of violent men

rape her

all night long.

A daybreak.

She manages

the strength

to get back

to the old man's house.

She cannot get in.

She doesn't have

the strength.

She's been

horrifically abused.

Horrifically abused.

And then

the next day

rolls around.

Verse 27.

And her master,

notice the language change,

her master,

he slept

that night.

What?

He got up,

made coffee,

shaved,

grabbed his briefcase,

made sure he's got

his day pack,

and he's leaving

the house

to go on his way

to the hill country

of Ephraim,

and he just happens

to stumble across

his concubine

who's at the doorway.

And notice,

verse 27,

with her hands

on the threshold,

that should get

into your brain.

So close.

And literally,

this Levite

walks over her.

Now,

start looking back

on that whole little

line in verse 2

about she was unfaithful

to her husband,

you start to wonder,

hmm,

callous,

uncaring,

treating her

like some kind

of meat,

demeaning,

and you know what?

We don't know

if she's dead or not.

Look what he does.

28,

get up,

let's go!

We gotta beat

the morning traffic.

Talk about vile.

He picks her up,

puts her on her donkey,

and they go

all the way back

to the hill country

of Ephraim.

This is a horrific scene.

Gruesome in many ways.

It's gonna get

even more gruesome.

Now,

if you were inspecting

this train wreck

and you see this

toxic waste

all over the place,

you're gonna notice

a couple things.

There's a lack

of hospitality.

You notice

the men of Gibeah

who are

Sodom-like,

but they're Israelites,

Canaanized.

And you can't help

but notice

how this Levite,

so callous,

how he treats

his concubine,

he demeans her.

Do you know what, gang?

When we leave

our first love,

brothers,

when we leave

our first love,

when we leave

King Jesus,

do you know

who will suffer?

The women

in our lives.

Man, don't you wish

they just stopped

at Jabez,

the foreign town?

But we're not seeing

the cause

of this train wreck.

Scene three,

holy war.

this is 1929

through 2048.

We pick up

where we left off.

The Levite

has put this woman,

we're not sure

she's dead or not.

He brings her back

to his house

in the hill country

of Ephraim

and he takes out

a knife

and he dismembers her

and he sends

the members

of her body

all throughout Israel.

Gruesome.

Even in her death,

he demeans her.

You know what it is?

It's a call to war.

He goes out

to all the tribes

and all the tribes

see this

and they've never

seen anything

like this before.

And then in chapter 20,

1 through 7,

there's this

holy gathering

of God's people.

We have not seen this

in the book of Judges.

Not one judge

was able to do this.

We have

the tribes

of Israel

in a holy convocation

coming together

in Mitzpah,

which is right

in between

the tribe

of Benjamin,

the land of Benjamin

and the land of Ephraim.

they gather

as one people,

one man,

verse 1.

Well,

almost one man

because in verse 3,

the Benjamites

hear about this

and they don't go.

So this is like

11 of the 12 tribes

in almost

unified Israel.

The leaders

of all these

tribes

that have gathered

in verses 4 through 7,

they want an explanation

from the Levite.

What's behind all this?

And he tells them.

In verses 4 through 7,

he gives an explanation.

What I want you to see

is in verse 5.

And he says,

and the leaders

of Gibeah

rose against me.

This is the Levite.

And the leaders

of Gibeah

rose against me

and surrounded

the house against me

by night.

They meant to kill me

and they violated

my concubine

and she's dead.

Do you know

what that is?

That's keeping people

from incriminating him

language.

language.

He doesn't say

how she died.

And it leaves us,

the readers,

thinking,

uh,

Mr. Levite,

it looks like

you're leaving out

something pretty

significant here,

which means

this whole thing

is under suspicion

of false pretense.

in verses 8 through 11,

he presents,

well,

he presents his case

in the verses 8 through 11.

It gets its effect.

One man responds.

The whole peoples

are like,

yes,

we're going to do this.

And they call together

hundreds of thousands

of men to battle,

400,000.

notice,

nobody's calling

on the Lord.

Nobody.

In verses 12

and through 13,

there's a delegate

sent from these

11 tribes

to Benjamin.

They say,

hey,

would you please

hand over

these worthless

fellows

that did this

terrible deed

so that we can

put them to death?

And you know

what Benjamin does?

Verse 13,

he says,

they say,

no.

They're not going

to give him up.

Verse 14,

then the people

of Benjamin

came together

out of the cities

of Gibeah

to go out to battle

against the people

of Israel.

They would not listen

to the voice

of their brothers.

There's something

wrong here.

Terribly wrong.

And so,

in verses 14 through 17,

the battle lines

are formed.

You have just over

26,000 Benjamites

squaring off

against 400,000

Israelites.

This, my friends,

is a holy war

and it is a highly

ironic civil war

because the Benjamins,

Benjaminites,

are acting

like Canaanites.

Israel's greatest enemy

is itself.

There's a three-day war

that follows.

Day one,

19 through 23,

Israel seeks God.

They go out

to face

the Benjamites

and 22,000

Israelites

are killed.

Day two,

verses 24 through 28,

after seeking God,

Israel

goes to battle again.

The Benjamites

again defeat

Israel,

killing 18,000

Israelites.

And then they respond

by seeking the Lord,

by weeping

and fasting

and they're presenting

offerings

and it's what

they should have been

doing all along

at the beginning

of the book.

When they couldn't

push out

the Canaanite nations,

this is what they

should have been doing.

Day three,

Israel engages

Benjamin again.

This is 29 through 48.

They change their tactics.

They set up an ambush.

The Benjamites

think they're winning

again

and then

the whole thing

turns.

And that day,

Benjamin was decimated.

In verse 44,

18,000 killed.

Verse 45,

5,000 Benjamites killed.

At the end of verse 45,

2,000 Benjamites fall.

And so what you have left

are 600 Benjamites left.

Complete and utter decimation.

We learn that it's

verse 35,

the Lord

defeated Benjamin.

In verse 48,

and the men of Israel

turned back against

the people of Benjamin

and struck them

with the edge

of the sword,

the city,

the men,

beasts,

all that they found,

and all the towns

that they found,

they set on fire.

Devoted to destruction.

Holy war

on itself

because they've been

Ganonized.

Israel has become

its own worst enemy.

The destruction

of this

tribe of

Benjamin

is an outworking

of God's

justice.

And you can't help

but notice,

if you're an inspector

on this train wreck,

a couple things,

Benjamin refuses

to listen to her brothers

just as the men

of Gibeah

refuse to listen

to the old man.

We got a tribe

kind of characteristic

there.

It's not good.

And you can't help

but think,

this whole thing

started with a big

question mark.

Was that Levite

honest?

Is this whole thing

under false pretense,

and yet God,

God did what

he wanted to do.

And yet here,

with civil war,

we're not seeing

the cause.

What got him there?

What's behind

all this?

Scene four

is the aftermath.

600 wives

for 600 Benjamites.

There's a change

of heart

among the Israelites

in two through four.

We learn in verse

one of chapter 21

that they made a vow

that when they had

all gathered

in Mitzpah,

they said,

we're not going back

to our homes

until this is all done.

And by the way,

vow number two

is that we're not

going to give our wives,

any of our daughters,

to these Benjamites

for their wives,

ensuring that they

would be totally destroyed

from the face

of the earth.

But they have a change

of kind of heart.

In verses two through four,

six and seven,

they start having compassion

on Benjamin.

They start asking,

wait,

we don't want to see them

wiped off the face

of the planet.

So now they start

asking the question,

wait,

how can we provide

wives

for these Benjamites,

600,

who escaped

to the wilderness,

and yet preserve

our word?

that we don't have

to break our vow?

That we don't go back

on what we say?

It's completely ridiculous.

It's like the rash vow

of Jephthah.

These men have vowed

not to give their daughters

as wives

to these Benjamites,

and now they're going

to protect their vow

at all costs.

It would have been

far better

if they would just

have confessed

the foolishness

of their vow

and given their daughters

as wives.

But they don't.

And what they do

instead

is awful.

In verses eight through twelve,

they completely destroy

another Israelite city,

Jebesh Gilead,

devoting it to destruction.

And of all,

the only ones

that survived

Jebesh Gilead

were four hundred

virgin girls.

And they bring

those four hundred

virgin girls,

which they essentially

kidnapped as a result

of murder,

and they bring them

to the Benjamites,

the 600 in the wilderness.

But there's 600

in the wilderness.

There's just 400

young ladies.

They're short 200.

And so,

they bring up

this other plan

where they

say,

and this is

verses 16 through 24,

they tell

this Benjamite,

hey, you know what?

There is this feast

in Shiloh.

The daughters of Shiloh

always come out

and do the dance.

You guys wait

and ambush

and then grab them

for yourselves.

And when the men

of Shiloh come to us,

say,

what's going on?

We'll say,

hey,

we needed to do this.

We kept you

in the dark,

men of Shiloh.

We want to preserve

our word.

It's ridiculous.

200 women kidnapped.

400 women kidnapped.

Hundreds of people

killed

so they can keep

their word.

They don't have to

break their vow.

They were doing

what's right

in their own eyes.

They're not consulting

the Lord at any point.

They're more concerned

about preserving

their honor

than the honor

of King Yahweh.

If you're inspecting

this train wreck,

seeing the pride,

doing it,

making sure you are

keeping your honor,

being right at all costs,

the killing,

the kidnapping,

you're seeing Israel

as a smoldering wreck

of a people,

and the question is,

why would they do this?

How does this get

to be this?

Scene one,

we have a sketchy Levite.

Scene two,

we have these

Sodom-like men.

Scene three,

we have this

holy civil war

of Benjamin

being devoted

to destruction.

Scene four is this

trying to figure out

how to damage control

according to what's

right in your own eyes.

What's happened?

It's the last verse

of the entire book.

In those days,

there was no king

in Israel.

Everyone did what was

right in his own eyes.

this last verse

points to

the very heart

of this train wreck.

It's apostasy.

It's the people of Israel

rejecting Yahweh

as their king.

And they deny him,

they disobey him.

There may not be

a human king

in Israel,

but there is

a divine king

in Israel

and they have

totally rejected him.

They give him

lip service,

but that's about it.

You know,

when you start

looking at this

toxic waste

all over

1920 and 21,

this compromised

spiritual leader,

the sexual abomination

of homosexual rape

and then heterosexual rape,

you see the inhospitality,

you see the peddling

of false pretense,

rash vows,

men protecting their honor

at all costs,

the needless loss of life,

and throughout this story

is the demeaning of women

time and time again.

It's the way of the world.

It's doing what's right

in your own eyes

and it's the result

of leaving your first love,

King Yahweh.

The train wreck

was caused

by Israel's unfaithfulness.

And the big question is,

if Israel

became its own

worst enemy

through apostasy,

can the church,

is there a train wreck

waiting to happen

for us?

Are we going to

deny and disobey

King Jesus

and have the same

kind of toxic waste

strewn about?

It's already happening.

Spiritual leaders

experiencing,

committing sexual immorality,

every three months

it seems like we hear

of another pastor

who's committed

sexual immorality.

Not to mention

the plague

of pastors

succumbing to

pornography.

There's the waffling

on sexual issues

in the church.

Claiming that

homosexuality

is an acceptable

lifestyle

instead of grievous

in God's sight.

It's not good.

The men of Gibeah

and Benjamin

who wouldn't listen

to their brothers,

they don't want

to be corrected.

Even the men

of Benjamin

kind of closing

ranks around

rapists

to protect

their own.

And then there's

civil war

in the church

allowing politics

to demonize

fellow believers.

Quick to judge,

quick to spread

false rumors,

speculations,

false pretenses.

And then there's

the demeaning

of women

in the church.

We believe

the Bible

is very clear

about male

headship

in the home

and in the church

but that's not

chauvinism.

No,

we believe

male headship

is exercised

in a way

that causes

the ladies

in our life

to thrive.

Is the church

a train wreck

waiting to happen?

Yes,

we are.

If

we leave

our first love,

it's going to happen.

how do we not

become a train wreck?

The failure

of Israel

is that

they forgot

that their God

was in their midst.

There was

no king

in Israel.

In the book

of Revelation,

Revelation 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1,

we have

this incredible

vision

of the risen,

radiant,

and reigning Christ

from 12

through 16.

And

John tells us

in verse 12,

then I turned

to see the voice

that was speaking

to me

and on turning

I saw seven

golden lampstands

which we know

in verse 20

are the seven churches.

And in the midst

of the lampstands,

one like a son of man.

in the midst

of the lampstands,

in the midst

of the churches,

one standing

like the son of man.

Do you know

who's in our midst?

The risen,

radiant,

and reigning

King Jesus.

Do you know

how we not

become a train wreck?

Do you know

how we keep ourselves

from becoming

our own worst enemy?

By keeping Jesus

as our first love.

This same Jesus

wrote seven letters

to seven churches,

chapters 2 and 3.

And to the first church,

Ephesus,

he said,

I have this against you,

that you have lost

your first love.

They're doing

everything right,

but they wandered

away from Jesus.

How do we become

our own worst enemy?

We will become

our own worst enemy.

We will become

a train wreck

if we leave Jesus.

If we forget about him.

If we let secondary things

become primary things.

So do you know

how to keep Jesus

as our first love?

We cry out to him.

We confess him

as our first love.

We ask him

to show us his glory.

And then we open up

the Bible

and we take big,

long looks

at our king.

When was the last time

you read

Revelation chapter 1?

Revelation 1 · chapter mention

Revelation chapter 2 and 3?

Revelation 2 · chapter mention

Revelation chapter 19?

Revelation 19 · chapter mention

Take long, deep looks

at your king.

We got to keep him

central.

And when we keep him

central, do you know

what's going to happen?

Pastors will become

examples of sexual

faithfulness.

Churches will speak

courageously

on issues of

sexuality

and the sifting

sands of our culture.

We will welcome

rebuke.

We will

not

despise

women

brothers.

We won't

demean them.

We will

help them

thrive in

all areas.

We won't

fan the flames

of civil war

within ourselves

but pursue

peace,

unity,

maintaining the

bond of the

spirit and the

bond of peace.

King Jesus

is our answer.

He's in our

midst

and he will

keep us

from becoming

our own

worst enemy,

from keep us

becoming a

train wreck.

We've come to

the end of

Judges.

It's been one

long train wreck

of God's

old covenant

people and the

cause is apostasy.

They left

their first love.

And Judges,

it's a sober

warning.

what will

happen

if we

forget our

God.

But it

also points

us to

our perfect

king who

accomplished a

forever salvation.

He's our

first love.

He's worthy

of it.

Let's not be a

train wreck,

church.

Let's

be a

bright and

beautiful

bride

of Christ.

let's pray

together.

God in

heaven,

we thank you

for the

book of

Judges.

We thank

you that

you have

given it

to us

for our

good,

that we

can learn.

God,

would you

help us

to take

this lesson

to heart

from Israel

so that we

can remain

faithful to

you.

Lord Jesus,

you are our

king.

And you

are the same

today,

yesterday,

and forever.

Lord,

would you

not just

keep us

from becoming

a train wreck,

but God,

would you

cause us

to shine

bright in

this dark

city for

the glory

of your

name.

Amen.