"The Cost of Courage, The Folly of A Coward" - Mark 6:14-29

That's the cost of a loaf of bread now. I know. I felt bad about it.

It makes you feel better for not doing the extended editions.

But one of the things that, yeah, yeah, yeah. We paused it every time we knew

there was an extended edition.

We're like, you know, in the extended

edition, you know, he broke his foot whenever he kicked that helmet.

If you don't get that joke, watch Lord of the Rings, okay? Get into it.

But I'm always struck when I watch Lord of the Rings or read some of the books,

the evil that they come face to face with.

And of course, if you've seen the movies, if you haven't, generally speaking,

these hobbits, and they live in this town called Hobbit Town,

if you want to say it that. Is it Hobbiton?

Hobbiton. Thank you. I'm going to get fact-checked in here on this a lot.

Y'all are more concerned with this than the scripture, so I'm going to work

my best to get this right.

But they live in Hobbiton, and they're kind of shielded from a lot of the evil

of the world, right? They don't see a lot of the evil that's going on around them.

They live in this little place and they just kind of, this wizard shows up, Sam's Gandalf.

He does some fireworks shows. They smoke a peace pipe together.

They hang out, they drink. It's like, it's their own little world.

And outside of that world, all of these crazy things are going on.

All of these evil things are happening, but to them in their own little world,

they don't ever see that.

And I've always loved that because I think in a lot of ways,

that's what it's like to live in East Texas sometimes.

Now, obviously, we have the internet now. They did not, at least in Tolkien's

world, have the internet. They did not have social media.

So we're able to get on our phones or tablets or computers, whatever it is,

and we can see some of the evil, but most of the evil that we experience is out there, right?

We can read stories about what's going on overseas, what's happening,

what wars are going on, what things are going on in these inner city where things

are burning and people are getting shot every day.

But for the most part, and Tyler, if something like that happens or a White

House, if there's a murder or something like that, it's front page news.

It's a really big deal because we just don't see it very much.

Now, I'm not bemoaning that.

I'm not saying, don't you wish we had people get shot in the streets every day?

The news cycle would be a lot more exciting.

But the point I am making is we rarely come face to face with something that's

truly evil because we're insulated from a lot of those things.

Some of you have lived in other places And I've got a chance to talk to you

about, you know, what it looks like in other places. I lived in Duncanville for about two years,

And it was always fun that me and my also very white chubby roommate would go to these gas stations.

You walk in, they look at you like, what are you doing here?

They're like, man, we're just here for some Cheetos. They're like,

no, no, no. Why are you here? Like this is it's 11 o'clock in Duncanville. This is not safe.

We both grew up in White House and we're like, what do you mean it's not safe?

Everywhere's safe. Everybody's friends, right? Like we're just all going to

high five when we get out of here.

But I think especially in today's passage, really in today's story,

this is really a Mark's going to give us a look at, he's really giving you an

idea to say, hey, Jesus is here now.

John's going to walk off the scene. This is how John walks off the scene.

But we're put face to face with an evil. And John is put face to face with an

evil that we don't often see.

And what I want you to realize is that the evil that we see in the scriptures,

it's very honest about it, but also the evil that you see in the world is everywhere.

It's everywhere. Again, we're shielded from a lot of that.

We don't see a lot of that because of the culture we live in,

which is a blessing, but it is everywhere.

And a lot of times we look at the evil in the world and we think,

man, look how awful that is. Look how terrible that is. Aren't you glad we're not out there?

When the truth is the Bible's whole point is to make you look at it in yourself

and say, hey, a lot of that evil is in there. It's in you.

And you may not act on that evil. You may not have the same opportunities as

other people to act on that evil, but you do have that in you.

You are capable of those things.

And if you were placed in that exact situation, if you grew up in those exact

same places, if you had the kind of lives that those people's had,

you're just as capable of doing those things as they are.

I've used an example before, but if you talk to students or young kids enough,

they always say things like, well, I'll never do this.

You know, I'll never do that. All of us do this, right?

Most of us are old enough now to realize that's stupid to say,

because the second you say it out loud, you're like, I'm probably going to do that now.

But I'll never do this. I'll never commit that sin.

I'll never do those things. I can't believe they would do those things.

And what we're really saying is, I've not had the opportunity to do those things,

and therefore I won't do those things.

Right. I'm not put in the position to go to parties at this point.

So I'm just going to say, well, I would never go to parties in during.

Well, it's like, yeah, you're 12. You have no idea what you will or will not

do. You have no idea what you're capable of.

Right. I would never talk like

that to somebody. That's because nobody's been mean enough to you yet.

OK, wait till they're mean enough to you. You may very well talk to somebody

like that. You don't know what's inside of you.

And so let me, again, just get started by reading this. So again,

this is a bit of a transition spot for Mark.

He's trying to set the stage. He started with John.

You remember John's the voice of the wilderness to make the way for Christ.

Christ comes, is baptized by John. And as we get into Jesus' ministry,

there's the, John's ministry is also going on in the background here.

In a lot of ways, John's gonna get moved off of the scene, mainly because Jesus is now on the scene.

Jesus has his disciples. He sent them out two by two.

And Mark's going to kind of say like, hey, I really built up this John guy in

chapter one, and I want to give you an update on what's happened to him,

right? Why am I not still talking about John?

Well, he's going to say, this is why I'm not still talking about John.

So this is Mark chapter six.

We're going to start in verse 14. We're going to cover a lot of ground,

but again, I think a lot of this is narrative. So we'll make some remarks as we go.

Verse 14 says, King Herod heard of it. Now, real quick, this is not the King

Herod of chapter one. This is not the King Herod that tried to kill Jesus. This is his son.

That Herod had four sons. This is one of those sons, Herod Antipas.

We'll get in the family tree in a minute. It's wild and honestly pretty disgusting.

But King Herod heard of it. What's the it? Well, the it is Jesus and his ministry.

Namely, he's sending out 12 disciples now.

His ministry is starting to get some renown. People know who he is.

So much so, again, that he's sending out emissaries of himself to go and tell

people about the gospel.

So he heard of it for Jesus' name had become known. Some said,

John the Baptist has been raised from the dead.

That is why these miraculous powers are at work in him. Now,

again, if you're reading this for the first time, you're going,

when did John die, right?

Time out. We didn't hear how John died. He's going to get into that.

That is why these miraculous powers are at work in him. But others said he is Elijah.

And others said he is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old.

But when Herod heard of it, he said, John, whom I beheaded, foreshadowing, has been raised.

For it was Herod who had sent him and seized John and bound him in prison for

the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, because he had married her.

For John had been saying to Herod, it is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife.

And Herodias had a grudge against him and wanted to put him to death, but she could not.

For Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he kept him safe.

When he heard him, he was greatly perplexed, and yet he heard him gladly.

So the first thing Mark does is he gives us a picture of this scene.

Right? This is just that he's painting the picture of this scene.

And so what's going on? Well, there's Herod again, one of Herod the Great's four sons.

And he's really not a king the way we would think of a king. He's a tetriarch.

Tetriarch from the Greek word meaning ruler. He's a ruler of one quarter of

Herod the Great's kingdom. Herod the Great dies, and he divides this kingdom

up into his four sons, and all of these sons are despicable.

That's the nicest thing I could say about them.

And so what goes on here is Philip, one of the sons, marries Herodias, his niece, right?

And then Herod Antipas decides he would like to marry Herodias,

so he's going to divorce his wife and marry his niece, Herodias,

who's also his brother's wife. Does that make sense?

I thought about trying to put a family tree up here, but that felt like that

would get pretty convoluted.

But what I wanted to do is just help you understand that even before we get

into the story, there's a certain level of evil that's taking place here.

There's a certain level of disregard for God's rule and design for humanity

that's already happened.

And oftentimes, again, when we see this, our natural reaction in a lot of ways

is kind of how we react to politics sometimes, where we see that and we go,

how could any of this ever be used by God? How could this ever be redeemed?

How could this ever be something that God is okay with?

Obviously, he's not okay with it. But what I want us to see is God's at work

here just as much as he is anywhere else.

So that's the background. That's the story. Let me get into verse 21.

We're going to spend most of our time from 21 to 29.

21 says, but an opportunity came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for

his nobles and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee.

For when Herodias' daughter, and remember Herodias is Philip's ex-wife,

Herod Antipas' gonna be wife, and also both of their nieces, okay?

She has a daughter from Philip.

Her daughter came in and danced.

She pleased Herod and his guests. And the king said to the girl,

ask me for whatever you wish and I will give it to you.

And he vowed to her, whatever you ask of me, I will give you up to half of my kingdom.

And she went out and said to her mother, for what should I ask?

And Herodias said, the head of John the Baptist.

And she came in immediately with haste to the king and asked saying,

I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter.

And the king was exceedingly sorry.

But because of his oaths and his guests, he did not want to break his word to her.

And immediately the king sent an executioner with orders to bring John's head.

He went and beheaded him in the prison and brought his head on a platter and

gave it to the girl. The girl gave it to her mother.

When his disciples heard of it, they came and took his body and laid it in the tomb.

Incredibly evil scene, incredibly evil scene. This is just a pit of demonic forces at work.

This is exactly what the world looks like without Christ.

This is exactly what the world looks like if Christ would ever take his hand off any one of us.

That's the one theme I want to make sure that we understand is that the picture

that's being painted here is not that these are just bad people doing bad things.

These are evil people who do not know the Lord.

And therefore, as Charlie talked about this morning, therefore their evil is

able to expand in a way because there is no crushing it. There's nothing keeping it at bay.

What happens when that takes place? Well, this kind of thing happens.

This kind of thing happens.

We see kind of the picture of who Herod is. He's a superstitious guy.

He thinks that Jesus is maybe indwelt by the spirit of John the Baptist,

and now he's getting a little nervous. He's like, hey, I had that guy killed.

And other people are like, well, maybe they've got the spirit of a prophet.

Maybe he's this guy. Maybe he's that guy.

So he is a spiritual person, just like every person of the day.

He believes that these spirits are doing whatever they want to do,

and they're going to come back and haunt him because of what he did.

He feels guilt, but not repentance for what he did.

In a lot of ways, is Herod is simply a power-hungry, people-pleasing bully.

A power-hungry, people-pleasing bully. And these are the cruelest people in the world.

Why are they cruel? Because they're cowards. They're cowards.

When you think of who a coward is, a coward is not someone who fails,

simply fails to do something. That's not a coward.

A coward is more than that. A coward is someone who not only simply fails to

do something, but does everything in their power to keep everybody happy, right?

That's a really important point that you need to hear because we often think

of cowardly things as just, well, that guy was supposed to do that and he didn't.

That person was supposed to do that and they didn't. They said they would do

that or they didn't. We've all been in a situation where we have a conversation with someone.

We're in a tough situation in our lives, maybe even at a church.

You have conversations with people and they go, yeah, this is what we need to do.

This is how this needs to go. That's an evil thing. We need to fight that until

the time for action actually takes place.

And they have to stand up in front of people. They have to stand up in front

of the meeting. And what do they do? Well, I don't want to ruffle feathers.

I don't want to start a fight.

It seems like people really want to do this, so I'm not going to say anything.

That's a cowardly thing to do.

And Herod just wants to try and keep people happy. That's what he wants.

And when you frame it that way, I often find it helps me to realize like,

oh, I may not be as different from him as I think.

Because it's certainly easier to just try and keep people happy in my life.

Think about how this works.

Herod sees John and he's pretty intrigued by John, right? He doesn't not like

John. The people love John.

The problem is Herod's wife hates John. Now, what does he do?

Well, the question should be, what's the right thing to do?

The right thing to do is to do nothing. John hasn't broken any laws.

He hasn't done anything wrong.

He spoke out against this marriage. but even though he spoke out against this

evil marriage, Herod is still seemingly going, hey, this guy has a lot of good

stuff to say, but he doesn't do that.

He goes, okay, well, I don't mind John.

The people really like John. My wife hates John.

And he puts this all in his equation. He goes, well, how do I make this right?

How do I make this right? Well, to keep my wife happy, I'm gonna arrest John.

To keep the people happy, I'm not going to kill John. And to keep me happy,

I'm gonna bring him into a prison that's actually a part of my palace so that

I can maybe go and talk to him and get to know him a little bit myself.

And you've got to know that when Herod came up with this plan,

he leaned back in his chair and thought, I am a genius.

I am so smart. My wife is not going to be completely happy, but she'll be happy

enough to leave me alone.

The people are not going to be completely happy, but they'll be happy enough

to not revolt because I'm not going to kill them.

And I'll be happy because my wife's not as mad as me as she could be and the

people aren't revolting and I can get what I want to.

Man, what a plan. And the Bible goes, listen, that is a cowardly way of living your life.

It's a cowardly way of living your life.

We don't think of cowardly as being the worst thing in the world,

but I think the Bible makes it pretty clear that it's one of the worst things

that you can ever be is a coward.

Because there's no such thing as a cowardly Christian, not a faithful one.

There's no such thing as a cowardly faithful Christian.

There's also, let me just again, couch this in terms. It's easier for,

I think for us to understand, there's no such thing as a faithful Christian

that will make everyone happy.

It does not exist. If you are a natural people pleaser, if you want everyone

to get along, you will find Christianity to be almost impossible or,

which is more common, you'll find a version of it that allows you to do that.

We see this version of Christianity everywhere.

Listen, I don't agree with what you're doing, but you do your thing and I'll

do my thing. Who am I to say that you shouldn't live that way or think that way or do those things?

Who am I to say like, there's no way that I could be the one that calls you

out on that. There's no way that I could say that.

These are cowardly things. It's interesting. If you read Revelation 21.

Cowardly is the first thing in the list that's mentioned of the people to get

thrown in the lake of fire.

Now he goes on to name sexually immoral and prideful and all of those things.

But it's interesting that the first thing he names is cowardly.

It's if to say, listen, cowardly people are very prone to these kinds of things

because cowardly people don't stand for anything.

Right? Cowardly people are natural negotiators.

Cowardly people are natural negotiators. And they negotiate with sin and evil,

and that's where they lose.

This is what Herod's doing. Herod's trying to negotiate with his sin.

He's trying to negotiate with the evil that's around him.

And anytime you try and negotiate with sin and evil, death is sure to follow

because because sin and evil are never okay with negotiating.

They want to conquer you.

This is one of the first things we see God say about sin in the Bible when he

talks to Cain. You remember what he says? Be careful.

Sin's crouching at the door like a lion. You don't negotiate with lions.

You can try. It's like all those National Geographic things where this guy's

like, oh, I just live with lions. It's like my favorite thing.

And then five years later, the headline is, some guy gets eaten by a lion and

you find out, oh, well, he was living with them and he was trying to hang out

with them. I don't know whose fault this was.

Eventually, a lion is a lion. Sin is a lion that will kill you.

And if you try and negotiate with it, you end up acting like and looking like

Herod, which is, I'm just going to try and keep everybody happy.

This is evil. That's evil. This is sinful. I know this is wrong.

I know what I'm about to do is wrong. I know these things are wrong,

but i'm just trying to keep everybody happy and Keep myself fulfilled Let's

keep everybody happy and everyone feel that is the way a coward thinks.

Again, the encouragement here is do not try and negotiate with sin and evil.

Do not try and do that. Don't try and meet it halfway.

Don't try and just keep people happy. You do what is right. You say what is

right. Now, I'm not asking you to be a jerk.

I'm not asking you to stand up in every meeting when you slightly disagree with something.

I'm saying when you see sin and when you see evil explicitly,

it is not only your right, but it is your Christian ethic to stand up and say,

that is wrong. That is wrong.

And you let the chips fall where they may, even if it ends up with your head on a platter.

Because it's better to be bold for Christ and have your head put on a platter

than to be a coward heading towards the lake of fire and keep everyone happy.

Again, I think the picture that we get in our heads of somebody who does this

is the guy out on the street corner that's pointing at everybody,

telling them they're all going to hell.

Or the person that we've all gone to church with that's mad at everybody all the time for something.

They painted the wall gray and he wanted it to be blue. And so now everyone's

going to hell because how could you ever paint a wall gray and not blue?

They picked Folgers instead of Maxwell House, and Maxwell House is God's coffee,

so for whatever reason, I don't know.

That's not, again, at all what I'm talking about. John's not nitpicking Herod over little things.

He's not nitpicking Herod on how he governs, how he dresses, how he's talking.

He is calling out Herod for the evil, not only of marrying his niece,

but marrying his brother's wife.

He does what is right. John is not a coward. John does not care who he makes mad.

John is not concerned with those things. John is concerned with doing what is

right. That's the first thing. That's who Herod is. What about Herodias?

Herodias is a woman who, though she has no inherent authority, is married into it.

So certainly at this juncture in time and history, a woman, no matter who she's

married to, doesn't have any inherent power.

She's a woman, but she's given inherent power because of who she's married into.

She was Philip's ex-wife and now she's Herod Antipas' wife, right?

She has this inherent authority.

She's been given something. And what does she want?

Well, she wants John killed, but her husband won't do it.

Stupid husbands. Just murder this person for me, right?

Think Herod maybe has a little more temperament for people calling him out for

things. If you're in leadership, you get used to that.

That's why Herod doesn't immediately want to kill John.

He's okay with who John is, interested by him. But Herodias goes,

who is this guy to tell me that I can't marry who I want to marry,

that I can't do what I want to do?

Who is he to tell me that I'm not in charge? Who is he to tell me what's going

on? She wants control and she wants power.

And so what does she do? She waits for an opportunity. We see this in verse 20.

Sorry, verse 21 says, but an opportunity came when Herod on his birthday gave

a banquet for his nobles and military. She's waiting on an opportunity.

This is what evil and sin is always waiting on, is opportunity.

Again, we said this at the beginning. For many people, the reason they aren't

doing certain evil things is that they don't want to, but they don't have opportunity to.

You may not have committed adultery, but that also may not be something that's been offered to you.

You may not have stolen a bunch of money, but you may not have opportunity to do that.

Again, this is a lot easier when you talk about children because they don't

have opportunity to do much, but what you allow them to do.

You say, if I walked up to you and I said, well, listen, my kids have never robbed a bank.

And they'd go, okay.

Well, no, no, I don't think you understand. Like I have great kids.

They've never robbed a bank.

Now, why would you think that's dumb? Well, it's because your kids can't drive,

right? They don't have access to things that can help them rob a bank.

Even if they think they could rob a bank, they don't have the opportunity to

do it. But here, the reason that evil is so prevalent in this scene specifically

is because there is opportunity upon opportunity upon opportunity.

Herod is in control. He can do whatever he wants.

So his evil is allowed to run free. He has as much money at his disposal as he wants.

He has as much power at his disposal as he wants to do. He has all of these things.

This is what James says about this idea, James 1, 14 through 15.

He says, but each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by what? His own desire.

His own desire. It is your desires that sit inside of you.

And then when the opportunity arises, when you are tempted, you don't act because

something happened to you that's outside of you and then respond and go,

man, I would have never done that if that opportunity wouldn't have come.

That's a bad way to think.

Right way to think is, man, I had some evil inside of me that took that opportunity to express itself.

Verse 15 says, then desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin,

and sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death.

James uses a pregnancy analogy to say, listen, this is like getting pregnant,

right? When each person is tempted, right?

Then desire, when it is conceived, right? When that baby's conceived,

what happens when it's finally conceived, it gives birth to sin.

And what does sin give birth to? Death.

What's the takeaway? Real simple. Deal with your sin now before it deals with you.

Deal with your sin now before it deals with you. The things that you know you

struggle with, the desires and inclinations of your heart that you see,

and maybe you just kind of wash away because you go, you know, I'm a little envious.

I'm a little jealous. I got a little anger problem, but it's really not that

big of a deal. It's really not that big of an issue.

Yeah. I mean, I've got some hatred. I've got some lust. I mean,

I could see myself being a little prideful, a little selfish,

a little bitter, but I'm not as bad as other people, right? I'm not cutting

off John's head and putting it on a platter bad.

I'm not doing drugs in the parking lot bad.

I'm not committing adultery every weekend bad. Like I'm not doing those things.

And so really my sin is just not that big of a deal. No, your sin is waiting

on opportunity to kill you.

If given that opportunity and

your sins are not dealt with, it will take it. It is a tiger at the door.

I mean, again, how many sins have you committed or you walk away going,

you know, I just never meant for that to happen. That wasn't my intention.

I wish I wouldn't have said that. I wish I wouldn't have acted that way.

I wish I wouldn't have looked at that.

Listen, the reason that those things happen is because you have sin in you that

is undealt with. And when given opportunity, sin strikes, evil takes over.

Famously, John Owen says, be killing sin or it will be killing you.

That's incredibly true.

Sin, meaning you're actively every day working towards killing the sin in your life.

You're not looking at the world and going, well, I'm not as bad as I could be.

You're looking at Christ and going, I'm not Christ yet, and I'll never be Christ

yet, which means I've got work to do.

The takeaway from a story like this is not to look at Herod and Herodias and

Philip and all of these people in this room and not to look at them and go,

oh, how awful, how gross. I'm so glad that I don't have to deal with that.

I'm so glad that that's not me.

God, thank you that I'm not like those people. The takeaway is,

man, I've got some sin that I better take care of, or I could end up like those people.

I could end up devoured by evil and sin.

Again, Herodias, this woman, cares not to be delivered from her sin,

and Herod cares not to be troubled by his.

Herodias does not want to be delivered from her sin. She revels in it.

I can get this guy killed. I don't like this guy, and I'm going to use this

opportunity to get him murdered.

And Herod, though he has some few redeeming qualities, it seems,

about wanting to keep John alive and not listening to his wife all the way,

he just doesn't care to be troubled with it. He just appeases it.

And so that leads us to the evil scene. Herodias' young daughter is flaunted

in front of this party of men.

It's exactly what you think it is. I won't go into details, but I think you

understand the premise of what's happening here.

And Herod likes what he sees and he's, man, this is working out great for me.

John's in prison. The people haven't revolted. My wife is off my case and I

get to sit at my birthday party and watch this girl dance for me. How great is my life?

He likes what he sees so much and gets taken up in the moment.

He makes this vow, I'll give you half of my kingdom and anything you want, anything you want,

Then Herod sits in a room full of men that he's trying to impress,

a room of men who all want the attention of this young girl.

And so he does what none of them can do. He offers them what none of them can offer her.

And he's trying to say, listen, I'm better than all of these people.

Wouldn't you rather be with me?

Mom was married to my brother, Philip. He's a nerd. Nobody likes that guy.

Look what I can do. Look what I'm capable of.

Again, let us not be too quick to judge Herod here before we look at our own

lives, because while none of us are guilty of this specific thing,

I think I would probably know if someone had somebody's head cut off in here,

at least I would hope we know each other well enough to know those things.

All of us have certain things dance in front of our eyes that if we're not careful,

we would stand up and say, I will do anything to have that.

Money, power, success, comfort, the affection and respect of your peers,

all of these things dance in front of our eyes every single day.

And we are tempted every single day, if we're honest, to stand up and say,

I'll do whatever it takes to have you.

I'll do whatever it takes to have you, right?

If it brings me pleasure and comfort, if it brings me the things that I think

I want, I'll stand up and I'll say, whatever, you can have half my kingdom,

you can have half my stuff.

You can have half my stuff. You can take whatever you want.

You can take all my time, all my efforts, all my energy. You can have whatever you want.

But I just want you. I want this thing that dances in front of me.

The world, again, is constantly berating your eyes and your mind and your heart

with these things, whatever it takes, whatever the cost.

Christians are not exempt from this. You are not exempt from this.

We talk about it a lot, but I think the one that we don't talk about enough is just comfort.

It's just wanting things to be easy. I just want my life to be easy.

And when easy dances across my face, I'm very tempted to go,

whatever it takes for me to have that, I'll take it.

I'll take it. Because this to live

is Christ, to die is gain thing is very uncomfortable most of the time.

It's a lot harder than I wish it was.

What does Herod do? Well, it says verse 26 or 29 in there, first thing,

he was exceedingly sorry.

What does that mean? He knew it was wrong. He knew it was wrong.

How many times have you been in a situation where maybe you have or someone

else has acted cowardly and then after it's all over and the dust has settled,

they come to you and said, man, I'm really sorry how that went down.

I really wish it wouldn't have gone that way.

I really should have said something. I really should have done something.

Again, they're not looking to repent. They're not saying they were wrong.

What they're saying is, man, I really try to do everything I can to make everybody

happy and you're not happy with me. And so I'm sorry about that. I'm sorry about that.

Again, Herod is not repenting. He just feels bad. And the difference between

feeling bad and repenting is the difference between receiving forgiveness and

just feeling bad on your way to condemnation.

And there are thousands upon thousands upon thousands of people who have felt

bad for their sin, but never repented of it.

We joke often, but one of the things they train you to do, whether they're trying

to or not in Bible college is to just get people to come down front and say a prayer.

And y'all have never seen that side of me, but Kareth has. And I was pretty

good at it, right? If I wanted to get some kids crying, if I wanted to get some

people down the aisles, if I wanted to get them to come pray a prayer and to

get, I could do it, right? You find the right song.

You do the right things. You say the right things. You bring out the right emotions.

You do everything you can. You can get people to come down front.

I mean, let's be honest. Sometimes it's just, if I keep going up there and I

keep saying, there's one more person, there's one more person.

There's one more person.

Eventually, I'm going to have a pretty good crowd of people because there's

people in the crowd going, well, listen, if I can get up there and he'll shut

up, I will do it. I will go.

It's like, I will volunteer as tribute, guys. I will get saved for the fifth

time because this guy won't stop and I can't do another verse just as I am. I got to go.

I'm not berating that. There's certainly pluses and minuses to everything.

What I am saying is in the culture that we live in, that is an incredibly popular

way of thinking about coming to Christ, is I feel really bad for this sin.

I feel really bad for what I did. I'm very sorry that that happened,

and I want Christ to forgive me.

That is not the same thing as saying, I'm repenting of this sin,

and I'm turning from it, and I'm following Christ.

I'm walking towards Christ. I'm dying to myself every day.

Not only do I feel bad for sinning like this, I'm not going to just stop sinning like this.

I'm going to actively pursue the person of Jesus Christ.

I'm going to believe, as we talked about this morning in Bible study,

I'm going to believe in his name. And I'm not just going to say, I believe it.

I'm going to live my life as if someone believes that Jesus Christ is the son

of God. I'm going to do those things.

The difference between I feel bad for what I did and I'm going to follow Christ

is incredibly different and incredibly important.

It does not matter if you feel bad. I know that sounds mean, but it doesn't.

Now, if that's God working on your conscience, praise God for that.

But if that's God working on your conscience, what God will point you to is Christ.

And oftentimes what people are pointed to is themselves.

What do I mean by that? Come down front, pray this prayer, and then you go live

a better life. Go do better.

Don't sin that way anymore. Don't talk to your parents that way.

Don't use that language. Don't watch those shows. Don't listen to that music.

Get rid of that hobby. Don't treat people that way. Get rid of your anger. Get rid of your lust.

We're constantly berating people to change. What's really needing to happen

is you need to run towards Christ and whatever he tells you to do,

whatever commands he gives you,

whatever sin that he reveals in your life through the spirit,

get rid of it, get rid of it, but do it in pursuit of Christ,

not just because you feel bad.

Ever says to you when you talk to them about that, well, I don't really think

that's true. Go, well, Herod felt bad. Herod felt bad.

He didn't want it to happen. Herod did not love Christ.

He was sad that he couldn't keep everybody happy because he was a coward,

but he didn't love Christ.

So again, in closing, consider this scene.

You've got all of this evil taking place. This evil family, this evil man and

his evil wife, this daughter who's being taken advantage of at the very best,

but has also been raised to be just as evil as they are.

A room full of people who are implicitly saying that this is okay.

And what gets dropped into the middle of that? Well, John does.

John gets dropped into the middle of this evil.

Now, who is John? Well, Jesus says this of John, I tell you,

among those born of women, none is greater than John.

He goes on to say that the least in the kingdom is greater than John.

But his point is mankind in its natural state, its natural sinful state,

the best you could ever do was John.

The best you could ever do was John. And what happens to the best that you could

ever do? he is again dropped into this pit of evil and is not given a chance

to say a word, is not given a chance to say his peace.

No, John has his head cut off because why? He's not a coward.

A coward. He's a public figure that calls out another public figure and says

to the people of the region, listen, this marriage between Herod and Herodias

is evil. It's an evil thing.

It is not God honoring. They don't get to do whatever they want just because they're in power.

It's as if Herodias looks at John and says, I don't get to do whatever I want. Watch me. Watch me.

John never shies away from calling evil, evil, and good, good.

No matter how much evil is put on him, no matter what this evil does to him,

evil men and women, evil intentions, evil desires, right?

These people hate John, not because of who he is, but because of who he serves

and because he does not serve them.

He does not serve them. This is why the world hates Christians,

not because of who you are, because of who you serve and you don't serve them,

right? You don't serve people.

You serve the Lord. You serve Christ.

Ephesians 5, 15 through 17, Paul says this, look carefully then how you walk,

not as unwise, but as wise.

It's the first thing he says, careful how you walk.

Careful how you walk. Take heed of the sins you see in yourself before those sins take you.

Careful how you walk. Don't look at this story again and simply go,

look how evil Herod was. Look how awful Herodias was. Can you believe how evil these people are?

Or the same way we look at other cities and other situations,

other countries and go, man, can you believe how awful they are, how evil they are? No.

Paul rightly says, look carefully then at how you walk. Not as how they walk.

They don't know the Lord. Look how you walk.

Take heed of your sins. He says in verse 16, making the best use of the time. Why?

Because the days are evil.

Careful how you walk first. Number two, live boldly.

John stand in the place of evil because he knows the Lord and he knows the Lord's

control does not have boundaries.

So when Paul says, making the best use of your time, John would say,

yeah, like calling out evil, calling what is evil, evil, calling what is good, good.

He finishes in verse 17, says, therefore, do not be foolish,

but understand what the will of the Lord is.

Do not be foolish. I would say one way to think about that, one application,

do not be foolish. Do not think that because you are a Christian,

you're incapable of doing evil things.

Do not think that because you show up to church, because you know theology,

because you read your Bible, because you pray, because you do something,

that you are not capable of doing evil things.

That's why Paul says multiple times, specifically here in Ephesians 5, don't be foolish.

Don't waste your time on stupid things.

Don't waste your time trying to figure out the world around you.

Don't figure out how you can fix everything.

Time wisely. The days are evil, so be careful how you walk and live boldly. Don't be a coward.

Don't try and make everybody happy. You'll never do it. You will never do it.

I would say just as an aside real quick, because I think it's important.

For some of you, your temperament is just naturally more inclined to want to make people happy.

All right. And that's not inherently a bad thing.

For some of us, our temperaments is, I don't care if you like me or not.

And that can be a bad thing.

That can lead you into some pretty rough places. I know I'm certainly of the

thought, like the people that like me, I will try and make them a little happy.

The people that don't like me, you don't like me anyway. I don't care.

Just do whatever you want to do. And that's probably not the best attitude either.

I think the way you find a good middle ground there, and I would say the right

place to be is to say, you speak boldly, but you speak in love.

In other words, if you speak in such a way like John would have,

where if Herod would have repented, how would have John received him?

That's my litmus test. These people that I don't like, these people that I don't

care if they like me, if they were to come to me and truly repent and seek reconciliation,

would I receive that repentance?

Because if I wouldn't, now I'm being evil.

Now I'm the one that's in the wrong.

Now I am the coward because now I won't do what God's asking me to do.

Because it's easier for me to keep them at arm's length and to keep them at

bay just to know they're idiots. I don't like them. I think they're stupid.

And as long as they're over there, I can think that way. But the very second

that one of them might come and try and reconcile and truly repent and mend

the relationship, if I'm not willing to say, I'll hear you out.

I'll listen. I could be wrong.

Right that that is how you know now again

if your national inclination is a bit more to try

and make everybody like you just be careful i'm not

saying it's the worst thing in the world it's certainly nice to

have some kind people around that actually do care at times but if you're not

careful it will get you into a lot of trouble trying to make everybody happy

trying to worry about what do they think of me and what are they going to say

and what what do they think of me when they leave what do you think they're

talking about the restaurant how do you think they received that.

Do you think I sounded weird? Do you think I sounded awkward?

Yes, you probably did. It's fine. You're okay.

Not everyone's going to like you. That's okay.

Be courageous. So again, the days are evil. Be careful how you walk.

Live boldly and courageously because the Lord is in control.