Catch the Little Foxes - DJ Dickerson

This evening, I want us to turn our mind to the Old Testament book of Song of Solomon.

The Song of Solomon is one of the most unique and at times misunderstood books in all scripture.

Placed among wisdom, literature, it does not read like history or law or prophecy.

Instead, it speaks the language of poetry and imagery and need of emotion.

Well, at its surface, the Saga of Solomon is, you know, really a loveful.

It's celebrating the beauty of marriage, the action between husband and wife,

the joy of the covenant of love as God designed it.

And I would say in Scripture, it's not embarrassed by love or desire when they're

expressing God's boundaries for certain, But in fact, this book reminds us that

marriage is honored by God through an institute as such.

And if you've never, you know, taken the time to read the Song of Solomon, definitely do that.

But I would submit to you that the Song of Solomon actually,

it operates on a deeper level.

Throughout history, God's people have recognized, really, that this book illustrates more.

Really, it reflects the nature of covenant love, love that is exclusive,

love that is intentional, club that must be protected and and

i thought about this preparing this lesson

for this this evening that just

as marriage requires care communication vigilance all those things well sometimes

our relationship with god and a truth we'll find this lesson is that love with

a veritable or spiritual it it does not collapse all at once i want us to understand

that because what we find St.

Pierre's, that didn't arose slowly when they elected him.

And that's why the scripture that we're going to consider briefly together this

evening is from chapter two of Song of Solomon.

And what's standing in this verse is really been very interesting in studying

and preparation for this lesson.

But also what has derived in the lesson entitled, which people were asking,

like, what is tonight's lesson?

What is that about? Catch the little fontes, right?

The kids always get excited, especially when there's an animal involved with

lessons. Catch the little foxes.

Look at Psalm of Solomon's chapter 2 and verse 15. This is a text that we're working on.

It says, catch us the foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vines for our vines after your grapes.

And you're like, well, where are we taking from that verse? Well, you'll see.

It's interesting that in a poem celebrating

love at its best this verse introduces actually

a warning she doesn't i think we see the warning that even

in the presence of affection promise and growth

small threats can cause great damage if ignored the vineyard look at look think

about this from the standpoint of the vineyard the vineyard represents something

valuable The greats are described as being tender Young,

vulnerable even And the danger that stands out to me in this verse Is not dramatic destruction,

It's subtle corruption.

And this sets the stage for an important spiritual truth.

What we love most must be garnered most carefully.

So as we move into this lesson, the Song of Solomon will teach us that thriving relationships,

again, whether between husband and wife or between God and his people,

are not destroyed by one great failure, but by many small compromises, Let it unshed.

And that is why the call is not to admire the vineyard.

The call is to catch the little foxes before they spoil it.

Friends, I have found in my almost 44 years of life on this earth,

the truth that some of the greatest damage of life never announces itself loudly.

Do you ever think about that? Those that live longer than me,

you can attest to that. even more so.

The greatest danger of life never announces so loudly, but rather what we find

is it's switching quietly, it's unnoticed, and it's also unchallenged.

And what this verse is doing is this kind of a warning that's wrapped up in poetry.

And the vivid imagery that we are providing is that Vineyard is alive.

The vines are healthy. The grapes are tender. They're full of promise. But there's a threat.

Not from storms, not from enemies, but from little foxes.

Little foxes. But here's the key to it. These little foxes, they don't destroy

the vineyard overnight.

They weaken it slowly. And by the time the harvest should come,

well, the damage is already done. I love it.

The truth applies powerfully to our spiritual lives.

Now, I know we probably don't have a vineyard that we're tending to.

Y'all do. We'll talk later, right?

But I like to think of another illustration that we might be quite familiar

with, since we don't have a vineyard that we're tending to.

But what I was thinking about, I think it's a great illustration.

It's actually something that I have yet recently.

I'm putting one of the gifts together this past holiday season.

And that is a stripped screw.

Y'all have ever done that. You know how frustrating that is?

It's really frustrating.

So there I was tightening a screw that upon initial turn after turn after turn,

it just worked just fine.

However, what I did realize as I was continually making that one turn after

another, that after, here's the key for this, okay, after repeated misuse,

wrong pressure, wrong angle, and for a long time,

we especially as men might ignore resistance, right?

That head became damaged. And then I almost tightened the screw that had already been stripped.

And it didn't matter if I pushed hard or if I tried again. It's just not what I tightened.

And what the Song of Solomon is telling us It's just really,

as in this illustration here as well, is that the screw didn't just strip all at once.

It happened one careless turn at a time.

So maybe when you put it this is, because I like to use the exact illustrations

that we might deal with on a daily or sometimes weekly basis where you're finding

yourself maybe we're getting a screw so fine.

Wherever you might think of this illustration and connect it back to Psalm 12, verse 15.

That spiritually many Christians are still turning to screwdriver.

Still attending, still serving, still trying, but broken and stalled.

And the problem really isn't effort. The problem is damage caused long before the moment of crisis.

And that's really what you're seeing in this guard, in this warning that's given

in Solomon 2 and verse 15 with the low votos, right? Because there's a danger here.

As we go back and forth with the illustrations here, keep this in your mind

that Solomon is warning us about little foxes.

He's not warning us about lions or bears.

Right? That's what I'm doing. We might be a little scared at some of those things,

right? But foxes, what are the foxes willing to do?

Think about this. Why is he talking about the little foxes?

Well, little sins, we classify them like that in our society. What a little sin.

Who's defining that?

Little compromises. Little indulgences. Little havocs we refuse to confront.

And a little bitterness we refuse to address. A little neglect of prayer.

A little compromise in moral boundaries.

A little resentment toward brethren. A little tolerance of false thinking.

A little inconsistency between belief and behavior. You see,

that list can go on and on and on.

And those are easy things.

The little things.

And we remain day after day, while that which lurks in the background,

slipping in quietly unnoticed, unchallenged,

wherein we have minimized them because they seem manageable. They seem manageable.

But Scripture never treats sin as harmless.

Us well look what james says in james chapter

James 1 · chapter mention

1 and verses 14 and 15

james 1 14 and 15 but each

one is tempted when he is thrown away by his own desires and enticed then when

desire has conceived it gives birth to sin and sin when it is full grown brings

forward that see that's a progression here what james is saying and reminding

us is that sin you know begins it's like something It was a big thing,

small, in the fact that desire can see before it matures into destruction.

And the point is quite profound in that what we allow to live quietly in our

hearts will eventually speak loudly in our life.

There's a great example of this in the Bible, and there's actually many,

but the one that stood out to me, and again, as I was preparing this and just

dwelling on that passage and many other passages in my mind, I thought about David.

Did y'all think about David? David is one who, yes, he's a giant slayer who fell to desire.

This is what's very interesting about David. Consider his life.

David defeated Goliath, a giant that no one else would face. Remember that?

And with faith in God, he conquered what armies feared.

Goliath, though, How did he fall? He fell publicly He fell decisively And he fell completely,

But later in David's life He was defeated Not by the lion He was defeated by Bathsheba.

The one stone and sword that struck down a giant was powerless against unbathed

desire. Think about this.

I think this is a sobering lesson. David defeated Goliath, but he lost to Bathsheba.

And that speaks volumes to us in that our real giants are the desires we have killed yet.

Goliath heals an external threat.

The desire was internal. Goliath stood in a valley, desired, lived in David's heart.

See, little foxes are rarely external enemies.

They are inward appetites that we tolerate, that we justify,

and that we postpone dealing with.

What does that passage talk about tender grapes? And the thought of unwarded desires.

Solomon says the vines have tender grapes. Interesting the way that's described.

Young, fragile, again, as I mentioned earlier, full of promise.

And that phrase matters. That phrase says a lot.

For our vines have tender grapes.

Because those tender grapes, again, that are new, they're fragile and full potential,

you know what they are? They're also easily damaged.

I thought about different categories we could consider, like new Christians

and converts. They had tender grapes.

Young marriages, tender grapes. Growing congregations, that still would be tender

grapes. Children growing, guess what? Tender grapes.

A lot of categories. And when you think about tender things,

you know what those require? quieter, they require guarding.

Because the devil doesn't need us to abandon our faith, just abandon all up and out.

He only needs us to loosen. That's what he needs.

He needs us to let our guard down.

And that's why scripture, you see it over and over again, repeatedly urging

vigilance. 1 Peter 5 and verse 8 is one that we know I believe pretty well.

Be sober. Be vigilant because your adversary never walks about like a roaring

lion sitting here in the faith of our.

Think about Jesus. Remember in Matthew 26, he himself was warning the disciples.

And what was something he said while they were there?

Watch and what? Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation.

See, all these warnings we find from the scripture about how we stand,

take heed, lest you fall.

First Corinthians 10 to 12. Well, you see, neglect is never neutral. It's never neutral.

It always favors decay. Always.

Because again, going back to David, David's heart was once tendered toward God.

He was a man after God's own heart. Acts 13, verse 22 speaks of that.

Acts 13:22

But again, a lot of times we think about David, our first thought comes about the Goliath.

You know, that's one that sticks in our mind. I remind you of some other ones.

But here's the part about him is unguarded moments, unrestrained desire,

unchecked habits, weakened the mind long before the fall became visible.

And that's a truth we come to realize in Scripture, Pete, so clearly only is

that no one falls into sin. Suddenly they drift there slowly.

Isn't that when a Hebrew writer speaks about why we have to be cautious?

The warnings that we're given, beware, lest we fall from our own, what, steadfastness?

That's why all these warnings are here for us to remember. Because when desire

is not confronted earlier, it grows stronger than discipline.

When sin is not killed young, it matures in the consequences that we never intended.

And that costs us more than we're willing to pay, as one song said.

And remember that what we dismiss as small or minute or little today may determine

whether fruit exists or not.

So, Meteor, let's talk about this from the screw no longer tightness.

What does that look like? It looks like that picture.

Spiritually, a strip screw looks like something like this. We hear sermons, but we don't respond.

That could be a strip screw.

Spiritually we read scripture but we don't plan we pray but without forgiveness

we serve but without actual surrender,

that's what spiritual scripture looks like and Paul warned Timothy about look

at the language of it being used here 2 Timothy 3 and verse 5 of those having a form of godliness,

but denying its power and from such people turn away don't notice the words

there they have the form of God they still turn the spear driver,

but there's how substance there's nothing changed and the tragedy is not that

that effort is absent the tragedy is that effort comes to lay knowledge without

obedience worship without repentance service, without holiness,

faith, without transformation, all of those things.

You see, friends, David didn't stop believing in God.

But his desire stripped the effectiveness of his walk for a season.

The damage actually extended beyond himself into his family and into a whole nation.

And far-reaching effects. Because unshakenness doesn't just hurt us,

it changes everything connecting to us.

We can teach something to our kids at a very early age. It's this lesson right.

We don't just need to hear, catch the little foxes. We got to teach our children.

Catch the little foxes. They need to know the dangers.

We live in a society that I think you would agree, a society in a world that

a little different moral boundaries, right?

And that has, that line, that bill post, whatever, whatever wing or describe

it has moved quite a bit just in my almost 44 years of life on this earth and it's still moving.

So let's talk about catching the foxes and let's talk about killing the desires.

Solomon says, you see, here's the thing about words,

you know, focusing on in this very sentence he doesn't say observe

the foxes right and i

like foxes i mean you know they're we had my center they'd come up as during

a drought and i was there in the house and that fox i looked over kings was

making supper and i looked over and there was a fox and it had both his paws

on the window twilight and raymond was looking at you're not playing well it's full the foxes.

Not sure what he was up to, right? But he snout some cooking.

Country life. Love it.

So he doesn't say the German foxes. He says the ketchup. That's it.

This is what Paul says in this thought we're using here in Colossians chapter

Colossians 3 · chapter mention

3 and verse 5. Colossians chapter 3 and verse 5.

Colossians 3 · chapter mention

Therefore, put to death your members which are on the earth,

for the occasion of the cleanest passion he was hired, the disciples just idolatry.

See, the wording matters.

Desiders are not managed. he's not saying manage you don't see that he's saying mortify,

mortify kill him and that's something a requirement that we all have to do and

this is a day to day type thing,

if you're going to catch the little foxes it's going to require some effort,

it's going to require are first of all, some honest self-examination.

It's easy to examine other people's lives. Sometimes I always think about it

from the standpoint that we typically like to use the Bible as a microscope

for other people's lives.

We do want to use it as a mirror for my own.

See, that takes on a whole other tone, doesn't it?

But when you're being honest about examining oneself, as said,

reading in 1305 says, It says, it doesn't say examine the person next to you or examine.

It says examine yourselves first.

It says examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith.

Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves and Jesus Christ is in you unless

indeed you are disqualified?

Let's do some honest self-examination. Number two, what about immediate repentance, not delaying rewards?

You know, Acts 8, verse 22, is the verse that always stood out to me,

Acts 8:22

but repent therefore of this your wickedness and pray God, and perhaps of all

of you, right, may he be forgiven you.

And then we understand that there's a difference between, you know,

worldly sorrow, which leads to what?

That versus that of godly sorrow, which leads to repentance.

Paul talks about that in Corinthians, doesn't it?

And again, I always use that example that I thought about the other day.

I was talking just to some folks.

And I said, you know, that one, I didn't have real repentance in my heart and in remorse for it.

My mom told me to tell my brother, you're sorry. I said, you're sorry.

And that caused me, I was so many feet. I know it's hard to believe, right?

So I wasn't really sorry at all. I wasn't penitent about what I had done. I didn't do it.

Let's be honest. Self-examination.

So we have to see how this plays here because otherwise we're going to little

foxes just take over and get a little bit at the vineyard and it's going to destroy it.

What about this one? I mentioned Hebrews chapter 3 a moment ago.

Hebrews 3 · chapter mention

Accountability before failure, not after exposure. How about that one?

Accountability. That's a word that's missing out of society. Do you agree?

It must be accountable of anything. It's always someone else's fault or whatever. You can blame it.

No, they try to do that in the norm, right?

Adam, this woman that you gave me. What did he say? this serpent, the seed.

See, it's passing it all down, the blame game.

Accountability that we need to have for ourselves and even for each other.

Because Hebrews chapter 3, verses 12 and 13 says, Beware, brethren,

Hebrews 3:12

lest there be any of you an evil heart of belief in departing from the living God.

The reason he says that, he says, because it's a true danger.

It exists and it happens today.

When he goes on in verse 13, he says, but exhort one another daily while it

is called to say let's interview me as hard as to the singleness of sin he said be a terrible,

before that failure and not after exposure there is preparedness that we have

to do and I would also give you this one about catching the faucets also require

humility to admit upon your,

see Pride is a serious issue.

Obadiah is a really interesting Old Testament book. Really, when I labeled that

one, I just put pride all over it.

That is a major issue of pride that you see in Obadiah.

But Proverbs 16 verse 18 gives this truth. Pride goes before what?

Proverbs 16:18

Destruction. Haughty spirit before fault.

These are all things that we have to consider in our lives if we really want

to catch the little foxes.

If we want to prevent destruction.

Because thinking about David, Goliath's fall in dramatic moments.

I have played that scene over and over in my mind, even this past week.

That was a big thing. I completely agree.

That's one that we would talk about, you know, David, he's the one who slugged Goliath.

You know what? He's also the one who lost the message.

Here's the thing. All those Goliaths, all of those dramatic moments,

his desires that must be killed in David, it's not one's big swoon.

It's daily visible I looked at stripped screws numerous times in my building

projects and sometimes the stripped screw you know what you have to do you have

to remove it sometimes you have to replace it sometimes the surrounding material

you know it's got to be repaired,

and as I have looked at those damaged screws physically but even as Solomon

does looking deeper at the spiritual lessons and applications restoration is possible,

but it is never casual.

And I say that because David was forgetting. Psalm 51 is a, you want to read

a psalm that just, whoa, really just plug your heartstrings.

It's putting that in perspective of how David truly felt. That was true penitence.

And you could hear the hurt as he cried out for forgiveness.

David was forgiven,

but he no man the consequences,

and we see what Solomon is emphasizing and certainly solidified throughout the

scriptures that the Lord restores what we live,

but he never ever ignores the falsehoods that cause the day,

matter of fact, there's interesting parallels as to how awful foxes are used to describe them.

Herrick is one of those people that was described as being a fox,

and there's reason for that.

Understanding grace forgives sin.

It certainly does. But as Rothman's chapter 6 makes it bluntly clear as well,

it never excuses. Never excuses.

So friends, as we've concluded the lesson, just about to say,

I wanted to share with you tonight,

a choice we are given.

We can focus on visible jobs,

while ignoring hidden desires.

Or we can deal with the small things we're not considering before they actually ruin the harvest.

Because the greatest strengths to our faith are often the desires we refuse to kill.

And what I'm submitting to you in this lesson is we don't wait until the screw won't turn.

We don't wait until the vine won't bear fruit. And we don't wait until faith is installed or snuck.

It's not a very interesting topic in and of itself.

We only have a limited amount.

And over time, what ends up happening all too often is we let things slip away. We're full of fossils.

As my kids grow and as they see, as they learn,

what will hold the most value is that they are able to identify the little forces

themselves and that they haven't talked.

Because I don't want them to wait until consequences teach what conviction could have prevented.

Listen to that one more time. I don't want them to wait until consequences teach,

what conviction could have prevented.

And that is not just for them.

The young, tender grace is for me as well.

Oh, friends, catch the foxes. The little foxes, that's for violence.

For our violence, God's in the greatest.

If sin, desire, or compromises is weakening your walk, this invitation being

given this evening is open for you.

That God still restores But you know what wisdom is saying? Wisdom is saying, deal with it now.

Because restoration begins by admitting first that the little foxes exist.

And friends, I want to tell you, the little foxes are there.

They're there. And how often have I read, saw anyone and David think about the

little foxes in England go.

And lucky boy, it cost them so much.

Great Walsh often begins with small and low.

And may we recognize that the vineyard is of great value and is certainly worth protecting.

Please don't forget that.

The Bible has so much to say on this very topic, and I only gave you just a

sliver of what time would allow tonight to talk about.

But the encouragement, the exhortation that has been given is the external foxes.

The little fox of pride may be in the way.

And the invitation song is being given. What is it holding us back from you?

Maybe it has never been away. We're not producing fruit.

Where we have let that seed fall by the wayside. Remember that in the parable of Solomon.

Let's think about what we have heard tonight and if you truly believe that Jesus Christ is on God,

put that pride put that little fossil get rid of it guard that repent of your

sins confess Jesus is on God and be baptized for the admission of your sins,

is the most important thing most important that you can do,

absolutely with it.

To rise from that water and grow back to the walk and use of life as Romans 6, 3, and 4 says.

If you want to study more about God and find salvation and get with me,

I would love to do that with you.

Disciple of Christ made little functions.

They've been nibbling. They've been out there in those tender greens.

And they've been doing some damage.

Little compromises, all those

things I listed earlier, just to name And a few of those compromises.

You can get it back to guarding that space and again fruitfulness

that's people who are required of us if you

need prayers on their behalf for penance and humility this temptation is for

you as well we would love to help you in any way that we can in the relationship

with the Lord and we're walking with him whatever your spiritual name won't

you come so you stand and sing this song that's just a select one.