Between a Rock and a Hard Place Being a Tool to Destroy Hard Places Judges 4:17.24

Alright, could you stand with us if you're willing

and able for the next couple songs? With songs

of deliverance Whenever I am afraid I will trust

in you I will trust in you Let the weak stand

screen. Just a quick word, if you could, just

right now, lift up a prayer in your heart and

your minds for Michael Brister. They just left.

Michael tore his stomach muscle across the middle

of his stomach, I guess a little over two weeks

ago while on the job. And they are working toward

getting that mended. And he was here overcoming.

And the pain is very great right now at this

moment. And so we left. So we'll pray briefly

for him and then we'll go to the word. Let's

do that. Father in heaven, we just ask you to

be with Michael and his family right now. Lord,

we could use a miraculous healing. He definitely

needs to be able to overcome and do the things

that he wants to do and believes he should do

for you. Bless them and strengthen them. Heal

him from his pain. In Jesus' name, amen. So we

have begun a series working through the book

of Judges. I'm going to give you the story up

to this point so that we make sure we understand

the individuals involved. And basically we are

looking at the story of Deborah and Barak. And

then today, Sisera and Jael. Okay, those are

all names that may or may not mean anything to

you at this point in time. I'm going to give

you the background. Deborah was a sort of a prophet

for God and she was judging Israel. She sat under

the tree. People brought her legal cases and

they would say, well, this person did this against

me. This person stole that and so on. And she

would decide them. And then she called out, God

told her to call out Barak. Barak became a general

for God's people. She told him to summon up 10

,000 men, which he did, and to go up against

a much superior force, which was the force of

Sisera, who was the general of the enemy army.

Sisera had 900 iron chariots. In their day, that

was like a tank. And so we're talking infantry

versus a tank, and not nearly enough infantry.

He went up onto the mountain, where in theory

they were safe from the army of chariots, because

chariots don't do mountains real well. And then

Deborah told him she went with him to the mountain,

as he requested. She told him to go down and

face them in the lowlands, which would be much

more dangerous for them. Infantry would be destroyed

terribly in the lowlands versus chariots. And

yet he did. And then God miraculously intervened

on their behalf, as she said he would. And they

destroyed that army of Sisera, all 900 chariots.

And we left off in the story last week where

they had essentially destroyed the entire army.

And that's where we're picking it up today. There's

just two points that I want to point out that

we covered before, so make sure that you see.

The first one is in verse 11 of chapter 4 of

the book of Judges. So if you go with me now,

maybe give me a little who to holler amen as

we go to Judges chapter 4. Amen. Thank you. This

Judges 4 · chapter mention

is the word of God. Whether I get whatever I'm

about to say to you correct, I hope I will, but

whether I get it perfectly right or not, if you

listen to God's word and let it affect you today,

you will be changed. You will walk away from

it with a new perspective on something, I guarantee

it. Judges chapter 4 verse 11 said this, Now

Judges 4:11

Heber the Kenite, had separated himself from

the Kenites, from the son of Hobab, the father

-in -law of Moses, and had pitched his tent as

far away as the oak in Zananim, which is near

Kadesh. Now, Kadesh is the lowland where the

battle is going to take place that we're going

to look at, or really that we did look at already.

We're going to get the results of today, okay?

What's important, this was... back setting the

stage. Verse 11 was setting the stage for what's

going on because those people were allies to

the king and to Sisera the general. King Jabin

who had been persecuting God's people for 20

years and Sisera the general and their camp now

right on the edge of where the battle would take

place. Now they're not involved in the battle.

but they're camped there on the edge. So that

was set up. Then we see they told Sisera that

Barak had gone into the lowland, first to Mount

Tabor, and then to the lowland. Sisera goes out

after him. The big battle takes place. They put

the entire army to the edge of the sword, and

now we're down into verse 17. It says, Now Sisera,

remember he's the general who led the mighty

army that was just defeated by God. He fled away

on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber

the Kenite. Remember, that's the ally that was

camped near where the battle was taking place.

So he flees to her tent. Now, it's a little awkward

that he flees to her tent because, well, she's

a woman. He's a man. She's married. Her husband

is not there. So socially speaking, it's a little

odd that that happens, but it does. So he flees

there. And desiring to escape the massacre of

military force that's going on, all of his men

being destroyed, he takes the war to a place

of peace, into her tent. And immediately I want

you to see that he feels like he's between a

rock and a hard place. If he stays out there,

then they're going to kill him. They're killing

the entire army, right? The Israelites are destroying

the entire army, and he's going to go down if

he stays out there. If he goes in and hides there

with her, it besmirches his honor. It looks bad

for him because he's dependent upon her to survive.

Still a chance that he might get turned over.

He brings war to his ally, who is by no means

able to resist Israel at this point. So basically,

they're risking destruction of their entire people,

which is really just that one man's extended

family. that's moved away from the Kenites. So

it's not the entire people, but it's his entire

family could be destroyed. And so he's kind of

between a rock and a hard place himself. But

notice that Jael right away is between a rock

and a hard place. Here comes a wealthy, strong

man, well -known everywhere, leader of armies

to her tent seeking refuge. And so what happens

sometimes is that people from the battle take

the battle to a place of peace where the battle

really doesn't belong. Now they're just seeking

a port, seeking a place of safety themselves

perhaps, but all of a sudden now Jael is between

a rock and a hard place. Jael went out to meet

Sisera and said to him, this is verse 18, turn

aside my master, that's a term of respect, turn

aside to me, do not be afraid. And he turned

aside to her into the tent and she covered him

with a rug. Now we have a heavy blanket, probably

a rug, whatever, and she's going to hide him

there. Now this is not an unheard of thing to

hide under a rug or under a blanket in the tent,

especially if they're piled up there. It's pretty

common. We see that in a couple of other biblical

stories. But he's exhausted. It's said that in

the previous verse he's exhausted. And so now

he's going to hide under there. And so we can

imagine he's resting and he could possibly fall

asleep. So she's putting him to bed, if you will.

But notice that something has already begun to

happen. Jael is beginning a process to deal with

herself being between a rock and a hard place.

She said to him, come, I'll keep you safe, right?

And then she puts him under a rug in the back

of her tent. Now, so if she gets found with him,

she's in trouble. If he gets found, he's in trouble.

If she refuses to hide him, she's in trouble,

right? So no matter what, she's in trouble. She

offers them a situation that looks safe. Now,

I want to say to you that not every situation

that looks safe is safe. Hiding there under the

rug, she could just go tell them, here he is,

and turn him over, right? Or something worse.

Bottom line is a person can offer safety with

no intention of actually providing safety. We

see that, unfortunately, in society somewhat

frequently today. We see it especially in the

case of people who molest children. They will

prepare the child and the child's caretakers,

offering a place of safety, showing them that

everything is okay, making them trust them. And

then everyone, after the fact, after they are

bad to the children, everyone will say, oh, we

never thought that person would do that. We thought

they were safe. We thought they were kind and

so on. This is what Jael is doing here. I'm giving

you a little forward insight. She's offering

him safety, but she's not really offering him

safety. In verse 19, he says to her, please give

me a little water to drink for I am thirsty.

So she opened a bottle of milk. and gave him

a drink, and then she covered him. So he asked

for water. but she gave him milk. Now, everybody

that's studied this passage says that's kind

of bizarre. Water would have been cheaper, easier,

right? It was what he asked for, but she doesn't.

She gives him milk. Now, he doesn't refuse the

milk. It's to drink. It makes him not thirsty.

He thinks he's getting safety, but you can see

that she's begun to enact a plan leading toward

her own getting out from between a rock and a

hard place. When a person has no intention of

providing safety, oftentimes there is a process

for pulling people deeper into their trap. Now,

he's exhausted laying under a rock. rug and he's

just drunk what was probably goat milk which

is well known in science that goat milk usually

most goat milk provides drowsiness so you can

imagine what's about to happen he said to her

stand in the doorway of the tent and it shall

be if anyone comes and inquires of you and says

is there anyone here that you shall say no So,

Sisera's asking her to lie for him. Now, he's

accepting her comfort and asking her to lie for

him. And if she does that, again, she's stuck

between a rock and a hard place. Because if he

is found, she is destroyed. And if he is not

found, she is enslaved to him indefinitely, right?

She is now going to be Sisera's servant, ongoing.

Notice that he was setting her up just as she

was setting him up. He was putting her in a position

where she was going to basically she could never

admit that she hid sisera on the day of the battle

she would be forever in his debt forever enslaved

he gave her directions to cover his presence

he was pretty specific, and he was used to people

following his orders. She was the lie for him

while he rested for his benefit. She was to take

a risk. She wasn't going to get any reward. An

enemy will entreat you to do the wrong thing.

Now, they may look like a friend or even a loved

one, but they will entreat you to do the wrong

thing. They'll ask you to follow certain direction.

An enemy will betray you whenever it's convenient

for them, but as long as they can continue to

have that relationship with you and move you

forward in the direction that they want, they'll

continue to look for your service. The wise move

here for her would be to eliminate one potential

enemy. Does that make sense? If she could get

out of this, either get the army of Israel off

her doorstep or get Sisera out of her house one

way or another permanently, that would be the

wise move. People think that she was setting

herself up to do that. She gave him the rug.

She hid it in the back of the tent. She gave

him the goat's milk. In theory, people should

be able to be seen, they should be able to see

when they are between a rock and a hard place.

You can look at, if I do this, this is a possible

outcome, and this is a possible outcome. And

one of these really sucks, and the other one

is pretty bad too. And so you know when you're

stuck. Anybody know where the saying between

a rock and a hard place comes from? We use it

pretty frequently. Originally, it comes from

Greek mythology, okay? In Greek mythology, there

were two individuals, one called, really not

an individual, I guess, but it was sort of an

animate giant whirlpool called Charybdis. And

Charybdis would swallow whole ships. If you went

near, it would suck your ship in and destroy

the ship and everybody on board. And then Skyla

was a six -headed... Hydra -like dragon with

big stalk legs and long necks, and it would pluck

sailors off the ship. And in Homer's Odyssey,

which is an ancient Greek story, if you've never

read it, I'd recommend you do so or at least

watch the movie, a hero named Odysseus has to

take his ship, as many had to do, between those

two places, between a rock and a hard place.

Or they didn't call it that. They said between...

Charybdis and Skyla. That saying lasts today

in Greece, but around 1900 or so, the concept

invaded the United States of America, especially

the West, and miners were known to be between

a rock and a hard place. So the rock was their

mine. So they would be in the mine and they'd

be toiling away. And they'd come out, and they

were in danger of someone jumping their claim,

stealing their gold, killing them, a lot of other

problems, right? And so they were between a rock

and a hard place. If they fled into the mine,

they were pretty safe, but they couldn't stay

there forever. They had to have food. They had

to have water, sustenance, safety, whatever.

They had to come out of the mine. So they were

stuck between a rock and a hard place. That's

where the saying comes from. It means neither...

outcome looks good. But Jael, being not only

prophesied, but also kind of understanding what

was happening, sees that she's between a rock

and a hard place, and she has already enacted

a plan to deal with it. In verse 21, it says,

but Jael... Heber's wife took a tent peg, and

she seized a hammer in her hand, and she went

secretly to him and drove the peg into his temple.

And it went through into the ground, for he was

sound asleep and exhausted. So he died. Now,

interestingly enough, as I was preparing the

sermon, I had it over half done. Ariana and I

listen to Bible stories every night when she

goes to sleep, and then she continues to listen

while she's falling asleep. And this story came

up. And she said to me, she didn't know I was

preparing the sermon for this Sunday. She said

to me, Dad, do you think God forgave Jael for

murdering Sisera? And she mispronounced both

names, by the way, but that's okay. She's 11.

And I said, what makes you think that Jael murdered

Sisera? And she said, he said, well, he wasn't

doing anything to her, and she killed him. And

I said, he wasn't doing anything to her? No.

And I said, well, what do you think happens if

he's found in her tent? What do you think happens

after if he's not found in her tent? And we talked

through it. This was not murder. The Bible describes

murder as when you kill somebody with anger in

your heart. When a soldier fights for his country

and is required to kill enemy soldiers, that's

not murder. That's killing. And she was in a

place where she was stuck. Her life ended the

moment that Sisera approached her tent and asked

her for safety. Not only hers, but her kids,

her husband, everybody in the tent complex, their

lives ended the moment that he came there and

asked her for safety because they had two options

at that point in time. They would forever be

under Sisera's reign, which was ending. by the

way, the thousands in the army were all being

destroyed. And later, just not long after this,

we'll read that Jabin's whole nation is destroyed

after 20 years of persecuting the Israelites.

And so if they wind up part of his group, part

of Sisera's group, they wind up destroyed. And

if she sides with the Israelites and she says

no, then either he kills her right then, right?

Or she is in danger of any surviving members

of his army, et cetera. So the bottom line is,

her life ended, as she knew it, the moment he

came to her tent. There he lay, asleep, exhausted,

and there he died. She killed him with a familiar

tool, something that she knew well, a spike and

a hammer. Now, this group of Kenites were nomadic.

Know what that means? They moved around. They

found their sustenance in various places. So

they raised their animals off land here, and

then they would move here and raise their animals

off land here, and then they'd move here and

raise their animals off land here. They weren't

farmers. If they planted crops, they were short

growth crops. They planted them, harvested them

very shortly thereafter. They were nomadic. So

she had set up a lot of tents. And so she used

a familiar tool, her experience. It was something

that she was good at. She had aptitude. Apparently,

she had quite a bit of aptitude because with

pretty clean precision, she was able to drive

the stripe with the hammer and put the spike

through his temple, probably into the other,

but in any case, into the ground. She found the

one potential way out of the trap that she was

in. That's heart. That's not giving up when you're

between a rock and a hard place. That's figuring

out the way to go. She did it well. She did it

completely. She didn't stop until it was for

sure done. Now, she could have drove it into

the side of his head, and that probably would

have killed him, but she didn't. She drove it

all the way into the ground, right? So here's

a sure way to get in the kingdom history books.

This is that. That's what we're reading, right?

We're reading the history of the kingdom of God.

Get stuck. Enemies of God as your allies is stuck

because God's going to put them down eventually.

So get stuck. She was stuck. Then get unstuck.

Choose God's side. Be invited onto God's side

and then go for it. Choose that and then kill

the enemy. Put it away once and for all. Be done

with it once and for all. The Bible calls that.

in Christianity being born again. Don't just

put him to sleep. She could have just put him

to sleep, right? And then she could have maybe

turned him over and said whatever. And I submit

to you, if she put him to sleep in the back of

the tent, went to the Israelites and said, he's

asleep in the back of my tent, they would have

taken him. But she couldn't know that they would

kill him. And she couldn't know what the outcome

of that road is. Odds are she was still going

to have problems. They were going to say, why

did you provide him with comfort? Were you planning

on hiding him? Let's say that they didn't. They

didn't question that. They took him into captivity

and then later traded him back to King Jabin

for prisoners or whatever. Now she has an eternal

enemy in Sisera who will always be coming for

her or his men always coming for her because

she did not provide him the safety on the day

that he asked for it. So no matter what, She's

toast. Don't just put him to sleep and turn him

over and say, it's up to God how it turns out.

Rather, she acted decisively, ensuring that he

would never be back. Then, use a familiar tool,

but don't stop until the enemy is dead. In Christianity,

we call that spiritual discipline. Just a couple

verses left. Verse 22. And behold, as Barak pursued

Sisera, JL, Barak, remember, was the... God -ordained

leader of the Israelite army, the one that Deborah

sent, and they are hunting down every last member

of Sisera's army, and they're pursuing Sisera.

And Jael came out to meet him and said to him,

Come, and I will show you the man whom you are

seeking. And he entered in with her, and behold,

Sisera was laying dead with the tent peg through

his temple. So now she informed his pursuers

of the location of the enemy. He wasn't asleep.

He was clearly dead. Barak had a sword. Barack

was killing people, but maybe he couldn't honorably

do that to a captive king, a captive general.

So in other words, if he'd have gone in there

and if he was hiding under the rug, she turned

him over, maybe he couldn't just kill him laying

there. There would be a question of honor for

him to kill this man asleep on the floor or wake

him up and kill him, right? So basically she

said, come get this dead man out of my tent.

Get him out of here. Doubtful she could readily

move him herself. A big man in heavy armor with

his head spiked to the ground. So then she had

to let God's people, let Barak do what she couldn't

do. All right, verse 23. So God subdued on that

day Jabin, the king of Canaan, before the sons

of Israel. Here, God gets the credit for destroying

Sisera and eventually King Jabin. This is not

the general, but it's the king and everyone under

the general. That's over now, and God has put

it to an end. God freezes people because they

cried out to him. Not because they turned to

righteousness, but because they cried out to

him. That's a part of his character. This is

grace and compassion, and he bestows it, displays

it time and again. Verse 24, our last verse for

the day. The hand of the sons of Israel pressed

heavier and heavier upon Jabin the king of Canaan

until they had destroyed Jabin the king of Canaan,

which shows us that it was a progressive cleanup,

a progressive overall victory. It wasn't suddenly

done. It was decided when she destroyed Sisera.

when they destroyed the army and all the iron

chariots. But it was a progressive victory from

then on. This may be where people begin to get

the idea that the victory over the enemy is one

of a long, drawn -out fight with much suffering

along the way. But that's not accurate. Certainly

not in the case of Sisera and Jael. All right,

there's three things I want you to see in this

text and then a conclusion. The first one is

this, the state of the enemy. If you are a follower

of the Lord Jesus Christ and you are here, you

need to understand the state of the enemy. If

I could share it with you in kind of a joking

manner for a second. There is an old movie, been

around for a long time. It's called Monty Python's

Search for the Holy Grail. There are some parts

in it that are a hint of risqueity, right? Kind

of weird, kind of maybe over the edge, but it's

nothing too terrible. And there is a scene where

one of the knights is traveling and he runs into

the black knight. And the black... knight challenges

him to a battle now if you know the story of

king arthur the actual arthurian tales the arthurian

knight was undefeatable he could no one could

defeat him right but then arthur defeats him

with um excalibur okay and so the point is the

in the monty python search for holy grail he

fights him he cuts his arm off and he says i'm

not done yet and then he cuts his other arm off

you think he's done i'm not done yet and then

he cuts one leg off and he's like oh I'll still

kick you. I'll still kick you. Now he's both

arms and both legs are gone, and he's sitting

on the ground, but he's still alive. The Black

Knight is still alive. He says, I'll bite you.

I'll bite you. Right? Say it again. I'll bite

your legs off. Yes, I'll bite your legs off.

Yes. Okay? And so... That is a good picture of

the enemy that we're dealing with. Let's be realistic.

The state of the enemy is also pictured herein.

The enemy is weak from his struggle with God.

People think Satan has power. He has nothing.

He is virtually nothing, okay? The enemy is weak

from his struggle with God. He comes to you or

me for comfort. He comes looking for a hiding

place. He needs you more than you need him. In

fact, His presence, his very presence there is

a danger. Right now he'll sleep and he just wants

you to lie for him, but later he'll want more.

Friendship with the world, the Bible says, is

enmity with God. If you are giving the enemy

shelter as a non -believer or as a believer,

the path to finishing him is simple. Repent.

Turn to God and God alone. Now, I understand

that that feels like that puts you between a

rock and a hard place because we live still in

the world. I was talking with Ariana another

night this week, a different night. We did a

devotional together. We always do a devotional

first and then the Bible stories. And she was

telling me about how there were some kids in

her class at school last year, some kids that

just would not let her talk to them about God

or Jesus. Or if she brought up God or Jesus at

all, then they just didn't want to hear it. And

they would just say, I don't want to hear it.

And she said, and that hurt a little, but...

I kind of figured, that's their right. If they

don't want to hear it, they don't have to hear

it. But then there were other kids that would,

she didn't use this term, but it's the truth,

bait her into talking about God or Jesus and

then persecute her for doing so. They mock her,

say nasty things, cuss at her, take the Lord's

name in vain on purpose in her presence because

they knew that she felt uncomfortable about it.

And that saddened my heart. And because we live

in the world, we think we live somewhere between

a God who is powerful and the enemy who is powerful.

But the reality is, that's not true. The enemy

is exhausted and weak from fighting with God

all the time. People in the world who do not

know God, care about God, don't know anything

about Jesus, also are exhausted and weak. I cannot

tell you the number of times I've shared a simple

gospel presentation with people and their response

was, I needed this so badly. I get this. This

is the answer or whatever, right? I went to visit

one lady one night and she said, We've been waiting

for you to come. And I said, what do you mean?

I didn't call ahead and make an appointment.

She said, we were sitting here for two hours

in silence because we were fighting. We were

desperate. We have no idea what to do. Our family

is a wreck. We all hate each other. And that's

not the way a family is supposed to be. Will

you tell us what to do? Three minutes, I'm in

the door. She says, will you tell us what to

do? And I said, well, the first thing you do.

is turn your house over to Jesus. Turn yourselves

over to Jesus. And if everybody is willing to

do that, then we will have peace. Not because

we have peace with each other, because the reality

is, we always have friction, right? Personalities

always clash. We always struggle with the way

we think, the way we act, our culture, our background.

You're doing things, you don't even know why.

Nobody knows why we do certain things, right?

Psychologists will try to say, well, you have

a trigger in your past, and counselors will say,

we need to defeat that trigger, and you won't

do it anymore, or at least be aware of it so

you don't do it anymore. But the reality is,

you could be looking at the wrong trigger. A

lot of things we don't even know why we do them.

So people cause frustrations with each other,

but people who come to peace with God have peace

with each other because we all have peace with

God through Jesus Christ. And so what I'm saying

is, you have an enemy, he looks like he has some

power, but the truth is, it's all illusion. It's

all smoke and mirrors. He's exhausted from his

fight with God. Decisively deny him and his sinful

requests and his presence and risk his wrath

if necessary. who has something great, I'm sorry,

he who was something great has become nothing.

If you believe the legends that say that he was

the greatest of all angels and the leader of

the choir in heaven and fell from all of that,

and there is some biblical support for that,

but it's not real strong. But if you believe

that is the way it unfolded exactly, then you

realize he was great in heaven. We know that

he walked in God's presence. That's pretty great

and challenged Job. That's pretty arrogant, right?

And so we know he was something, really something.

And now he's nothing. He's lost everything. He's

exhausted. He's coming. He wants to sleep in

your tent for a while and let you lie for him

so that he can have a respite. Don't do it. That's

the state of the enemy. Secondly, a rock in a

hard place. I submit to you, it's often just

impending. We're talking about decisions or things

that we make that we go like, well, this is going

to be bad and this is going to be bad also, right?

We get caught in the middle. like it or not.

Adam and Eve and the serpent were like that.

The moment that they sinned against God, right?

And Eve was kind of caught in her own mind between

a rock and a hard place. She could have just

waited for God and asked, but she saw something

that was good. We might even argue that she said,

well, this looks good and I want it. And God's

not going to deny it to me. He's a good God.

He loves me. He's going to give me everything

I want so I can just take it, right? Even though

she had the command that told her she couldn't

and so on. Pick God's side every time because

he is the one who's going to last. If the enemy

finds some ounces of strength, some good scheme,

and I think there's some pretty good ones going

in the world today, frankly, and he gets something

going like that, understand God is still going

to bring it to an end eventually. He's going

to put it all away. There will be no child molestation.

There will be no rape. There will be no lying.

There will be no pornography. There will be no

stealing. There will be no ducking service or

pretending that you don't know. In heaven, none

of that will be there. Pick the enemy of God.

Remember I said that she used her experience,

her aptitude, her passion, her heart, all of

that. And she used it decisively and thoroughly.

And every one of us is bestowed with those things.

You have something you're good at. You have things

that you've done. You've seen things that maybe

nobody else saw, right? Or you've seen things

that only 3 % of the people in the world have

ever seen. Because you were present. You were

there. You had experiences. And yet... Combined

all told, you and I are pretty ordinary people.

We all have aptitude, passion, experience, and

heart. All of us have that. And we should act

in that decisively and thoroughly. That's why

Psalm 8 says that from the womb we have the power

to put down the enemy. To make the enemy cease

is what it actually says. Because he's tired.

And he's weak. And we can do it. Even without

Jesus. Even without God. We had that inherent

in us. That aptitude, that passion, experience,

and heart. And decisively and thoroughly we can

use that. But notice then that God bestows spirit.

And we don't take... the enemy out in our hate,

heart, aptitude, passion, and experience. We

take enemy out in our shape, spirit, heart, aptitude,

passion, and experience. God bestows the Holy

Spirit on us and his presence in us is what then

makes us mightily the victor. That's what makes

us able to overcome everything and ultimately

to go to heaven when we die and ultimately to

come into the throne room of God, to lift our

prayers up to God personally and to be heard

because the Holy Spirit is in us because of the

sacrifice of Jesus. That brings us to our third

point. Having received spiritual gifting proceed

to destroy him the enemy from the land and free

God's people the kingdom effort continues and

God will use your choices to empower others as

word spread you know how many people heard about

JL and your tent spike and hammer all the way

to thousands of years later because we heard

about it today. And your testimony of being able

to share how you got through dark times, of being

able to speak up in our inspirational moment

in church and say, and those things make it to

our podcast eventually, and your testimony goes

out potentially across the world because God

can use the ordinary, the weak, those who are

ignorant and don't know. He can use all of that.

to bring the world into recognition of himself.

The kingdom effort continues, and God will use

your choices to empower others as his word spreads.

That brings us to our conclusion already. He's

going to come when you're alone. Now, there were

some social things that happened here. Jael should

never have invited a man into her tent when her

husband wasn't home. That was socially unacceptable.

nor served him, gave him milk or even water.

She was a married woman. She was overcoming social

barriers that she should not have even been participating

in. Now, they're not necessarily things that

are in the Bible. It doesn't say that, right?

It doesn't say a married woman cannot give hospitality

to a man, right? It doesn't say that anywhere

in the Bible. But she had to overcome those social

barriers. And when you're alone in your bedroom,

in your car, when you're the only one watching

what you're watching on your phone or on your

computer, when you're alone with your thoughts

thinking about what somebody said to you or how

they said it or the way things went, the enemy's

going to come. He's going to ask you to do things

that do not honor God or serve God's people.

He's going to ask you to be mad at the person

who said what you didn't like, which we don't

do that. The Bible says when you're mad at somebody,

angry at them, that's basically murder. That's

what Jesus said. He's going to ask you to have

feelings of covetous nature, to want what the

world wants. You watch a few too many commercials

that tell you if you can have this, you can be

strong. You can have this, you can be thin. You

can have this, you can be pretty. You have this,

it'll prove you're wealthy. You'll be in more

comfort in your car if you buy this particular

version, right? The truth is that most of the

things that we're told that we need are, we're

told that we need them to lead us to covetousness

and lust. He's going to ask. ask you to do things

that do not honor God or serve God's people,

suddenly, softly, he's on your doorstep. He wants

to traffic on your prior allegiance. You used

to have a friendship with him and the people

of his kingdom. I had a young man who was in

my high school. He knew me back then pretty well.

We used to game together and we played two, three

days a week. And I used to go to his house. In

fact, we just drove by his old house. They don't

own it anymore. He passed on. He's gone to be

with the Lord now, but his family doesn't own

it either. And we drove by there and I told Arianna,

I said, we used to play games in that house right

there, right there in that front room. I said,

we were so poor. We were poor. They were even

more poor. We played games. So one night in the

middle of the night, 3 a .m., we all got up with

towels and snapped and killed the flies off the

ceiling because there were tens of thousands.

of lies on the ceiling because the garbage had

festered. And that's what life was like back

then. He came to know me back then. We spent

a lot of time together. And then when he heard

that I was a Christian, that I had given my life

to the Lord, he said, I had to come seek myself

because I was like, no. Dan? Never. No way he

ever came to be a Christian. Because he knew

who I was. First of all, I was a pretty bad guy

as far as doing a lot of things. It wasn't terrible.

I got drunk a few times, but I didn't do that

really long term or anything like that. And I

didn't get involved with marijuana or any other

drugs. Alcohol was my drug of choice. I fought

a lot. Mostly lost. I paid the price for that

in my hands up until I was probably about 40,

45. And it finally went away. I was very skeptical

about everything. Wouldn't believe anybody. had

told me anything. And he knew I was that. And

we used to argue, logical arguments, philosophical

arguments, and we'd argue to the end. I'm telling

you right now, if you can think of a reason not

to come to Jesus, I've already thought of it

and used it. And after months and months and

months of doing that, I realized that these teachings

about Jesus, they are real. He died for our sins.

He came for us. No other God can even claim that.

And even if they could, He rose again on the

third day. A historical event recorded not only

by Christians, but by people who hated Jesus.

They said, yeah, they crucified him. There came

a prophet talking, preaching, healing, doing

things. They crucified him, and three days later,

he came back to life. They saw him again. They

didn't say he came back to life. They said they

saw him again teaching after they crucified him.

Three days later, they saw him again. That's

what historians recorded. The truth is true.

Jesus is real. And whatever skepticism you have

or questions, I already had it. And he knew that.

And he came and he said, I couldn't believe it.

And he came and he stayed in our church. In fact,

he was still coming to our church when he passed

away and went to be with the Lord. As far as

I understand, I don't judge anybody's salvation.

What I'm saying to you is. The enemy wants your

hospitality, your shelter, your protection for

a time. He wants to traffic on your prior allegiance

with him, your cynical character, your sinful

nature, your desires, etc. Many who have a hate

have made their own way. They have heart, attitude,

passion, experience, and they've made their own

way. They are capable of siding with him and

making the wrong decision, winding up in a long

-term detrimental relationship with the enemy.

And let's be serious, it's... Satan, demons,

evil spirits, and the world system. That's the

enemy that we're talking about. And so they've

done that. Long -term detrimental relationship.

Still more emphasize their hate and reconnect

with one enemy or another time and again. Widely

ignorant of what these compromises are costing

them. His people possess not just a hate, but

a shape. And they have seen and cannot deny that

God will have the victory. So they should destroy

the enemy of God who comes into their tent looking

for solace, hospitality, and sinful protection.

There are a lot of people that think they're

doing pretty well. We think we can add to our

lives. So now I'm a professing Christian, so

now I can sample the things of the world. I can

get involved. I can do the things that the world

does. But then there comes a time where you're

between a rock and a hard place and you have

to choose between truly faithfully following

the Lord and the sampling that you've been doing.

Well, based on what we just saw in JL's life,

we now know what we're supposed to do with that,

right? You either got to kill God. or kill the

sampling. Those are your options. It's going

to come down to a time where you can't play sports

anymore, can't play games anymore, can't spend

your money anymore. You're laying on your deathbed

and all you can do is breathe. You're on an IV

or a ventilator or whatever. When it comes down

to that, will it be you'll kill God or you'll

kill the enemy? And we know what to do. We should

choose God and we should do it before we get

to the point where it's all we have left to do.

Having a hard time saying no? We try to do both,

and we wind up slighting our devotion to God.

We choose our own entertainment over making money

or hoarding money, but are unwilling to choose

devotion to God over money. So we take vacations

to get off work, and we make less money that

week, or we take a day off with no pay, for example,

to go do what we want to do. But instead of doing

that, walking away from money to truly follow

God, we follow the money. Let's be careful. Let's

be realistic. Are we between a rock and a hard

place? We teach devotion to God and then even

say it's one of the most important things to

us, but when we have an opportunity to partake

of a blessing in this lifetime that will short

our devotion to God, we say, God knows we are

devoted, and that's enough. We do godly things

in worldly ways and think that's sufficient.

We try to do worldly things in godly ways and

think that's sufficient. We embrace our house

guest who is an evil spirit or an antichrist

teaching or a scheme of the devil and we leave

them at home while we come to worship because

we don't want people to know that we are in an

allegiance with him. So you come in here all

cleaned up or go to church wherever all cleaned

up and tell the truth and honor and sing praises

or think about the words of the song or play

the instruments or preach the sermons all the

world over. While waiting for you at home is

that exhausted enemy who needs your comfort.

And as soon as you get back home, that's what

you'll be doing, comforting them. So you'll be

watching the shows that you shouldn't watch and

doing the things you shouldn't do and thinking

about how you can get away with not serving the

way you should. We'll all be deciding to avoid

martyrdom. And we don't really want a tough teaching

from the word when what we're actually called

to is martyrdom and a tough teaching from the

word. We think, how will anybody know? You know

how I know this is what some Christians are doing

or some professing Christians are doing? Because

the Bible says so. And it says it will get that

much more common as we get closer to Jesus coming.

And I'm telling you, we're getting closer. Every

minute, whether he comes in our lifetime or not,

we're getting closer. We think, I'm saved and

so I should. Do this one. I'm a Christian. I'm

a follower of Jesus and so I should. I should

go to church, I should give, I should serve,

I should be kind, whatever. If you're living

the I shoulds of life, you are not living for

Jesus. The moment you say, I'm saved and so I

should, you've already missed the boat. Because

Jesus came to make you new so that it becomes

part of your personality, part of your shape.

The Spirit is in your heart, cleansing your heart,

and guiding you to do, and you shouldn't have

to say, I should be nice to them, I should ask

for forgiveness, I should do better, I should

try harder. You shouldn't have to say that, because

this is who you are now. But the reason we do

that is because we have not killed the enemy

that's in our life that is ours to kill. Instead

of, we should say, I love God, and I want to

show how much I love God by exercising my shape,

my whole shape, not just my heart, attitude,

passion, and experience, but my spiritual gifting

in the kingdom of God. You can deal with the

evil with your hate. You don't even need the

S to do that. You don't need the Spirit of God.

You were built to do that. And that's why people

can go get in the 12 Steps program. and pick

some other higher power other than God and still

have great victory and actually get away from

alcohol for a long time or whatever else because

your hate can do it, but your shape can do it

and make it eternal. You can only kill him permanently

with your shape. Greater is he that is in me,

it says in the Bible, greater is he that is in

me than he that is in the world. It means if

I am between a rock and a hard place, I choose

the rock and we destroy the hard place. That's

what it means. God deserves and demands your

undying allegiance. He calls you out of any past

allegiance and he commands you to choose him

over any other future allegiance. Commit to do

that today. A couple of quick illustrations and

we're done. There are a few passages in the Bible

that I just kind of like get chills when I think

of the story and the events that are happening.

One of those is Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego

in front of the fiery furnace. So there's a story

about these three guys. They're captured. They're

taken into an enemy kingdom. And then while they're

there, they're told that whenever the music should

play, they have to worship. They have to worship

this false god. They have to bow down to the

king, to the false gods of this kingdom. And

they won't do it. They know they're between a

rock and a hard place. Like J .L., for example,

if they choose to bow down, they offend God and

God's people and God's law and the spiritual

strength that God offers, etc. And if they choose

not to bow down, they can be put to death. Sure

enough, they get arrested. They're drugged before

the fiery furnace. Not quite there yet, but they're

getting there. And the king says, you didn't

do it. You didn't bow down. You seem like a good

man. You're trying hard. What's your problem?

And they said, you know what? If you cast us

into the fiery furnace, this is where I always

get the chills. If you cast us into the fiery

furnace, our God is mighty enough to save us.

See, they could see the rock and they could see

the hard place. The rock was God and the hard

place was the fiery furnace. And they said, if

you cast us into the fiery furnace, our God is

mighty enough to save us. But hear us now, even

if he does not save us, we will not bow down

to your false gods. In the book of Job, the devil

who's coming for God is accusing Job, and ultimately

God gives the devil permission to strike Job's

life, destroy all of his property, all of his

kids are gone, they're all dead, all of his in

-laws are dead. Only one left is his wife. And

Job is sitting in a pile of ashes, which is a

way of mourning. He was mourning as deeply as

anybody can mourn. And as he sat in the pile

of ashes, he had sores all over his skin because

the devil was allowed to strike his skin. And

God had allowed him to do that because the devil

had said he wouldn't stay faithful. And Job is

sitting there and he's scraping the sores on

his skin with broken pieces of clay pot because

it's the only way he can get just a little bit

of... relief from the itching. And so he's scraping

the sores and trying to get the infection out

and trying to just survive. He was mourning so

deeply and just trying to survive. That's all

he was trying to do. And his wife comes to him

and he says, Job, why don't you just curse God

and die? So that's why the devil didn't take

her away so that right there in that moment she

could come and make his campaign pitch. See,

Job was between a rock and a hard place. And

he said, no, no. God gives everything. If God

giveth, then God has the right to take it away.

So he gave me everything, and he has the right

to take everything away. Who am I to curse God?

And he would not do it. Between a rock and a

hard place, he chose God, and God and Job destroyed

the hard place. And very shortly, you see, he's

out of the pile of ashes. The sores are all healed

up. He's got a bunch more family, a bunch more

houses, a bunch more wealth. And then God himself

comes to talk to Job. And he corrects Job because

Job was a little prideful throughout it. But

he never truly sinned against him. But he did

kind of challenge God and say, I want to make

my case. He asked God if he could make his case.

But the men who had been plaguing God that had

come into Job's house and said, you need to understand

that you must have sinned against God. You're

getting all this because you're wrong. You sinned

somehow. And Job said, no, it's not because I

sinned. I don't know why it's happening, but

it's not because I sinned. God told them if they

wanted to be forgiven, they could go and ask

Job, and Job would pray for them, and they would

be forgiven. You see, when he was between a rock

and a hard place, he chose God the rock, God

empowered him spiritually, and he overcame and

destroyed the hard place. Jesus is on the earth.

You might have heard John 3 .16, for God so loved

the world. John 3 .17 is a little less well -known.

He says, the Son of Man did not come to condemn

the world, but the world is condemned already

by what they have done with the Son of Man. So

Jesus said, I didn't come to condemn. I'm not

here to tell anybody they've got to go to hell.

I'm not here to tell anybody they're wrong or

bad or anything. That's not who Jesus is. Now

the reality is, if you compare yourself to what

Jesus said you have to be in order to get into

heaven, you've got a problem. But Jesus knew

that problem existed and he came to make that

problem no longer a problem. The rock came to

destroy the hard place and to make people into

the shape that they have so that when the rock

moved to destroy the hard place, they are molded

into the rock. They become part of the rock and

the hard place is destroyed. Destroyed. whisked

away like it never existed. And that's what heaven

will one day be like. The new heaven and the

new earth will be like that, like hell never

existed. Earth never existed. Yes, we'll answer

for everything we've done in this lifetime, but

all sorrow, all sadness, all pain, all death,

all disease. And are those things all not a common

existence in almost every day of life? Is there

anybody in here who hasn't been sick or had a

loved one who was sick? I've got a loved one

who's sick right now. We had Michael, I had to

leave here because he was in so much pain. They're

suffering every single day. But if there's suffering

like that every single day and there's nothing

like that in heaven, you need to choose the rock.

One last one. Jesus said to a bunch of people

that were following him, probably thousands,

he said, unless you eat of my flesh and drink

of my blood, you have no part with me. Now that's

a tough teaching because there were people who

ate people like cannibals, that's bad, or cultists

who drank each other's blood and stuff. That's

gross. That's never what he was talking about.

We know what he was talking about. He was talking

about the Lord's Supper, right? He had enacted

a process, a covenant with them for the Lord's

Supper so they would never forget his sacrifice

until he came again. Well, when he said that,

Hundreds, maybe thousands of people left him.

Later that day, the disciples are sitting around

with him and they said, we need to talk to you.

And he said, yeah, so what is it? Are you going

to leave me too? Jesus said, are you going to

leave me too? To his disciples. And Peter said

back, he said, no, Lord, you have the words of

life. Where would we go? You see, Jesus Christ

is the rock and he's going to deal with the hard

place. And yes, you are caught in between. You

live on the earth between God's heaven and the

earth system. But we are not part of that system.

We choose the rock. He destroys the hard place.

But notice, it was Jael that destroyed Sisera.

You see, he fills us up with his spirit and our

shape, our hape of which, H -A -P -E, heart,

absolute passion, experience, are already capable

of dealing with, become spirit empowered. And

now... We're fighting not just to survive, not

just to make ends meet, not just to overcome,

but our victories are in the spiritual realm.

And demons and evil spirits can no longer stand

against you. And if Satan himself came and you

said, get out of here in the name of Jesus, he

would be forced to flee. So it's up to you. Do

you want to choose to embrace that weak, kind

of sickly, sorry for himself, enemy of God? who's

barely hanging on with a thin thread and knows

that one day he'll be destroyed eternally away

from God, not eliminated, not like not existing,

but in eternal damnation away from God forever?

Do you want to choose that? Or do you want to

choose God now? Now I'm going to tell you the

bad side. If you choose God now, you could die.

If you choose God now. If you choose God now,

someday your heart's going to stop beating, your

brain's going to stop waving, somebody may put

a bullet in you, you might even be crucified,

you might be flayed, drawn and cornered, you

might be hit by a car, you might be persecuted.

Bad things happen to good people. It can happen.

But if it happens to you, if you choose the rock,

the next moment after it happens to you, the

next instant, you'll be in heaven for an eternity.

We're absent from this life present with the

Lord. I'm asking you today to do either A, repent

and turn to the Lord for the first time ever

and accept Jesus Christ who was the one who paid

for your sins as leader of your life. And he'll

see you through. Whatever comes, he'll see you

through. Or if you're already a Christian, you

already are, and you know that you've been kind

of dallying, you've been playing, you've been

allowing hospitality toward enemies of God. Or

maybe you've even, you know, it's been so long

that you've let certain things kind of like bleed

into your life and take up a place that belongs

only to God. Then you repent today. Pick up your

tent stake and your hammer. Use the heart, skill,

aptitude, experience that you have and drive

that stake home and say, no more. I'm not going

to lie for you anymore. I'm not going to protect

you anymore. I'm going to live for God the way

God made me able, through His Holy Spirit, by

virtue of the sacrifice of His Son. Jesus didn't

come to condemn, and I'm not coming to condemn

you either. But we all were condemned already

by what we did with the Son of God. Caught between

a rock and a hard place. We were okay with facing

the hard place for as long as it lasted. Remember

the Odyssey? You know what he chose? He sailed

between and he sailed closer to the monster.

And six of his soldiers were plucked off the

deck and destroyed. But he made it through. He

made sacrifices to make it through the rock and

the hard place. That's how most people are doing

it. They're making sacrifices to make it through.

That's not the way. Choose a rock. Choose Jesus

Christ. And stand firm to the end. Think about

what's in your life that's trying to lure you

away and cut it out and be victorious. From the

moment the enemy came to your house, you were

in trouble. It's time to defeat him. It's time

to destroy him in the name of Jesus Christ. It's

not a person. It's a temptation. It's an evil

spirit. It's a distraction. It's a demon. It

could be a personality trait. It's time. I ask

the praise team to come forward at this time

and lead us in our closing hymn. As we sing together

or as you focus on the words, I ask you if the

Lord is speaking to your heart today and you

need to repent in some way or give your life

over to the Lord first time ever.