Obadiah

Good morning church. Today we're going to be reading

in Obadiah and if you don't have a Bible, you can look under your

seat and we're going to be reading from page 724, starting

in verse one. The vision of Obadiah.

Thus says the Lord God concerning Edom.

We have heard a report from the Lord, and a messenger has been

sent among the nations. Rise up, let us rise against her

for battle. Behold, I will make you small

among the nations. You shall be utterly despised.

The pride of your heart has deceived you, and you live.

And you who live in the clefts of the rock in your lofty

dwelling, who say in your heart, who will bring me down to the

ground, though you soar aloft like the eagle, though your nest

is set among the stars? From there I will bring you

down, declares the Lord. If thieves came to you, if

plunderers came by night, how you have been destroyed?

Would they not steal only enough for themselves?

If grape gatherers came to you, would they not leave gleanings?

How Esau has been pillaged, his treasure sought out.

All your allies have driven you to your border.

Those at peace with you have deceived you.

They have prevailed against you. Those who eat your bread have

set a trap beneath you. You have no understanding, will

I not on that day, declares the Lord, Destroy the wise men out

of Edom, and understanding out of Mount Esau, and your mighty

men shall be dismayed of Timon, so that every man from Mount

Esau will be cut off by slaughter because of the

violence done to your brother Jacob.

Shame shall cover you, and you shall be cut off forever.

On the day that you stand aloof, On the day that strangers

carried off his wealth, and foreigners entered his gates and

cast lots for Jerusalem, you were like one of them.

But do not glow over the day of your brother in the day of his

misfortune. Do not rejoice over the people

of Judah in the day of their ruin.

Do not boast in the day of distress.

Do not enter the gate of my people in the day of their

calamity. Do not glow over his disaster in

the day of his calamity. Do not loot his wealth in the

day of his calamity. Do not stand at the crossroads

to cut off his fugitives. Do not hand over his survivors

in the day of distress, for the day of the Lord is near upon all

the nations. As you have done, it shall be

done to you. Your deed shall return on your

own head. For as you have drunk on my holy

mountain, so all the nations shall drink continually.

They shall drink and swallow, and shall be as though they had

never been. But in Mount Zion there shall be

those who escape, and it shall be holy.

And the House of Jacob shall possess their own possessions.

The House of Jacob shall be a fire, and the House of Joseph

aflame, and the House of Esau stubble.

They shall burn them and consume consume them, and there shall be

no survivor for the House of Esau.

For the Lord has spoken. Those of the Negeb shall possess

Mount Esau, and those of the Shephala shall possess the land

of the Philistines. They shall possess the land of

Ephraim, and the land of Samaria and Benjamin shall possess

Gilead. the Exiles of this, the Exiles of this host of the

people of Israel shall possess the land of the Canaanites as

far as Zarephath, and the Exiles of Jerusalem who are in

Sephoraid shall possess the land of the Negeb.

Savior shall go up to the Mount to Mount Zion to rule Mount

Esau, and the Kingdom shall be the Lord's.

This is the word of the Lord. What's going on with Poor City

family and friends? How we doing good.

My name is Tanner. I'm the lead pastor here.

It's a joy to be with you and y'all at Poor City.

We are on a mission to do 4 things.

Help people fall in love with God's book, the Bible.

We're trying to help people fall in love with God's people, the

church, with God's mission, which is just living life with

him on mission, and to fall in love with God's city, Norfolk.

OK, now here's the good news. You don't ever have to have read

all the way through your Bible. You don't ever have to have been

a member of a church. You don't have ever had to share

your faith with anybody or even live in the city of Norfolk to

join us. OK?

You just have to be real. You just have to be hungry.

You just have to want to grow and learn.

That's sort of the ingredients here at Port City that make us

tick is we we're just hungry to see a move of God amongst us.

We're hungry to learn His word. We believe He still speaks.

We believe He still saves. We believe that He wants us to

just be a messy group of people doing it together for the good,

the good of others. And that's what we're all about.

So if you have not gone to starting point yet, that is a

great next step for you on March 1st.

We want to invite you to that. It's a great way to just learn

more about who we are. If you have gone to starting

point and a good next step for you is just to to apply to

become a member or to just keep getting to know people in our

church. A lot of churches start with

activity. We start with relationship here

at Port City and we just love that.

We want to get to know y'all. And then lastly, I would love to

just just pray. I would love to pray before we

dive into Obadiah, which maybe you've never read before, but

it's an awesome book and I'm excited to to see what the Lord

has for us. OK, let's pray our father, we

love you. Thank you for your work.

I thank you that you are the type of God who who saves us and

then brings you into a family, the church and and living on

mission with you and just enjoying life with you and God.

You want to bless cities like Norfolk through it.

So I just pray over this this people that you're building here

in our awesome hotel here in the great city of Norfolk.

God that you would you would continue to just just help us

stumble with you through this. So father, what we know not

right now, would you teach us what we have not would you give

us and who we are not? Would you please make us let the

words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be

acceptable in your sight And everybody who agree with that

said Amen, you all. We can learn a lot about God by

just thinking about the emotional experience of

parenting. There are a few things in life

where you can feel such a range of emotions in 5 minutes.

You can be proud of a kid, confused by your kid, hurt by

your kid, angry with your kid, patient with your kid.

And then from all of those feelings, as a parent, come

tactics. We plead with them, we beg them,

we warn them, we encourage them. We tell them we love them, we're

proud of them, and when we got to we disciplined them, right?

That's parenting. It's it's a range of emotions

and tactics, right. We all Lord the Lord our God is

like the perfect, non petty holy parent.

That's the good news. He does nothing because he's in

a bad mood. He doesn't need coffee to be on

God just is. But there's something about the

heart and tactics of a parent that I think is a helpful image

for us to grab on to, particularly as we think about

the minor prophet series we're in where we're going through a

minor prophet each week. OK, I'm going to show you a

graphic here in a minute. But what you got to understand

before I do is behind all parental tactics and emotions is

1 desire. Every parent just wants

fellowship with their kid. We're good, intimacy safe.

Now go be who you are out there. We're good.

Now go walk in that. It's intimacy and identity,

right? And it's the same for the Lord.

He has one goal, intimacy with his people and then for them to

walk in their identity out there.

Now the range of emotions and tactics he uses to get there

vary, just like it does for us as parents.

Are you all with me? Let me show you this chart.

What we're seeing in the Minor Prophets is God has one desire.

Turn back to me, turn back to me, be my people.

And when you do that you will showcase my goodness to the

nations and what's happening as we go through each book is the

way he's begging them to turn back shifts.

So in Hosea, it was please stop cheating on me.

And it was images of a idolatrous relationship and

asking them to tear their hearts up.

In the book of Joel, it was judgment and hell is coming in

the day of the Lord and the spirit's going to be poured out.

And then we get into Amos and he's talking about, man, I see

y'all's hypocrisy. Y'all need to let justice flow

like rivers and and one day I'm going to make all things right.

And then that brings us to today in the book of Obadiah.

Obadiah is a really unique book, but what you've got to

understand is that the Lord has been very direct with his people

for a long time about what's wrong with them and how he sees

their hypocrisy. And he's, he's kind of that

parent looking at the kid, just talking to them a lot and a lot

and a lot. And then in Obadiah, he does

something different. He's actually going to turn to

the bullies that he's been allowing to teach his kids a

lesson. He's going to talk to the

bullies in front of his kid. So imagine being before your

parent who's disappointed in you, has been coaching you,

disciplining you, talking to you.

And then he turns and says to the person who's been making

your life difficult, although they allowed it, they're going

to say you're going to get yours as that child a little bit.

Your heart is going to flicker, right?

This reminds you, he's not done with me.

He sees me. He cares about me, He loves me.

Even in the midst of these hard conversations we've been having,

and the evidence is that he just turned to this bully right here

and says, you're going to get yours.

Does that make sense? So my hope for us as the Lord

calls out the Edomites through the book of Obadiah, is that we

will learn a couple of things #1 let's not copy them in their

proud hearts, which he's going to call out.

So there's still some of that in us that we got to do some some

sanctifying surgery on. Amen.

And then the second piece is just taking comfort in God sees

all and we don't have to take vengeance on nobody.

This is what powers the New Testament church to love our

enemies and pray for those who persecute us and not to have to

get even because the Lord is going to sort them out.

And that just puts us at ease. Amen.

All right, to get there, we got two points #1 beware prides

deception, and #2 take courage in God's restoration.

If you are ready, let me hear you say I'm ready.

OK point #1 beware prides deception.

Verse one says the vision of Obadiah.

Thus says the Lord God concerning Edom.

OK the book of Obadiah is written around 500 BC.

It is a post exilic book if you've not been with us in this

series. OK 930 The Kingdom is united

under David and Solomon. It splits into Israel in the

north, Judah in the South. Israel falls to the Assyrians at

722 BC Judah falls to the Babylonians in 586 BC.

So Obadiah has written after those events have transpired.

OK, that's called a post exilic book because exile has already

happened. And now that leads us to the

question of who are the Edomites and why do we keep hearing Edom

and Esau all throughout this book?

If you don't know the Old Testament story, that's OK.

We'll dive into that more here this spring when we get back

into the life of Jacob in the book of Genesis.

But for now, what you need to know is God started his

redemption project through a man named Abraham, who had a son

named Isaac, who had two sons named Jacob and Esau.

OK. The Lord chose Jacob, not Esau.

There was tension between Jacob and Esau, OK, a lot of tension,

a lot of animosity. And that animosity continued

through their lineage. It didn't stop with just them.

So imagine like their lineage goes on to fight with each other

the same way the brothers originally did.

Are you with me? You can write down if you are

studying this stuff later, which I hope you are.

Numbers 20. There's a famous scene when the

people of God have been delivered from Egypt and they're

on the way to the promised land. They need to pass through Edom.

And the people of Edom literally almost make a barrier guarding

their space to say, you ain't coming in.

And Moses pleads with them like, hey, we'll pay for everything.

We just want. We just want to cut through.

And it's a famous moment where they harden their heart and say,

you ain't coming in here. So that's some of the growing

animosity over time, but it actually goes to a new level

here in the Book of Obadiah. Look with me at verses 10

through 12. Because of the violence done to

your brother Jacob, shame shall cover you, and you shall be cut

off forever. On the day that you stood aloof,

on the day that strangers carried off his wealth and

foreigners entered his gates and cast lots for Jerusalem, you

were like one of them. But do not glow over the day of

your brother in the day of his misfortune.

Do not rejoice over the people of Judah in the day of their

ruin. Do not boast in the day of

distress. So I mentioned that Babylon took

over Jerusalem and Judah in 586 BC.

So imagine the Babylonians coming in, taking their stuff,

taking their money, pillaging them, taking their people back

to where they're from, and the people of Edom almost lining up

like they're watching a movie, gloating, maybe getting some

words in as they are carried off into slavery.

Or maybe they're taking some things.

And y'all, when pillaging is happening, it's not pretty, OK?

And the Edomites boast in that day, they gloat, they stand

aloof, they don't lift a finger to help their brother.

Are you with me? That is the backdrop here for

the book of Obadiah. But then something really

interesting happens in verse 15. This is all making sense to us

to eat them stuff. OK, I get it.

They stood aloof. God is not happy about that.

But look with me at verse 15. For the day of the Lord is near

upon all the nations. As you have done, it shall be

done to you. Your deed shall return on your

own head. For as you have drunk on my holy

mountain, so all the nations shall drink continually.

So they shall drink and swallow and shall be as though they had

never been. So isn't it interesting that the

the the warning shifts from just the people of Edom to all the

nations? Did you see that?

And it's almost like the very same things that were just

directed just to Edom get directed to all the nations who

stand opposed to God's people. Are you with me?

So something that's happening here is that the Edomites are

sort of a, an image of what's going to happen to everyone who

stands opposed to the Lord, right?

Which begs the question of what is underneath that both the

nations are doing and the Edomites are doing that God is

really against. Like, what's the real issue?

I get that they gloated historically in that moment, but

how could that be applied to all nations?

All nations didn't necessarily do that.

Well, let's look at verses 3 and four.

I think two of the most stunning verses I've read in all the

Bible to describe a particular sin.

Check this out. The pride of your heart has

deceived you, you who live in the clefts of the rock in your

lofty dwelling, who say in your heart, who will bring me down to

the ground, though you soar aloft like the eagle, though

your nest is set among the stars.

From there I will bring you down, declares the Lord.

Pride, y'all pride. So historically, the people of

Edom were proud. The people of Esau were proud.

Theologically, anybody, nations, Edom, anywhere, anytime, all of

history. Who shares in that pride is

opposed to the Lord because we are not high as we're about to

talk about. We're deceived when we operate

that way and practically for us here today, whether you follow

Jesus or not, we've got a lot to learn about how pride is

deceiving us. OK, so let's let's focus on this

phrase. Look with me at verse three one

more time. Just a shocking phrase to me.

The pride of your heart has deceived you.

The way the Bible thinks about the heart y'all is that the

heart Maybe you're you've not been around the Bible much.

The heart isn't just an organ in your physical body.

The heart represents you. It represents the center of your

will, your emotions, your thinking, your decisions.

Everything you do, the Bible says, flows from your heart.

So when it says the pride of your heart has deceived you by

saying the pride of your heart, it's saying that the center of

who you are is proud. Are you with me?

The pride of your heart, the, the place that is most you, that

directs all that you do, is filled with pride.

And what is pride? Well, I think the verses offer

us a great image. It says you who live in the

clefts of the rock in your lofty dwelling, who say in your heart,

who will bring me down to the ground?

Do you soar aloft like the eagle, though your nest is set

among the stars? From there I will bring you

down, says the Lord. Y'all.

Pride is the disposition of our heart, where we think we are

higher than we really are. Y'all, when you're high up, you

have the ultimate perspective, right?

The highest one is the safest one.

The highest one is the most powerful one.

That is why, by the way, the Lord our God is known as the

Most High because he actually is the one, right?

But in our hearts, what what sin is, is it's the inclination of

your heart, the default of your heart in my heart that makes us

think we're elevated. We're an eagle, we're among the

stars. We have an objective

perspective, but all the rest of you are subjective, right?

That's what pride does is everybody's walking around think

of they're the most high. Isn't that ironic?

The the great theologian Rick Ross once said, I'm self-made,

you just affiliated. I build it ground up.

You bought and renovated. Here's the idea that Ross was

getting across to my teenage mind years ago.

I am self-made. I built everything you see.

But you inherited what you got. You worked with something given

to you. I did it all from nothing.

And there's something of that in all of us.

Sometimes it comes in like victimhood type pride and

sometimes it comes in I'm the greatest, but they're not that

different from each other. Some of y'all know my my

favorite movie of all time is The Lion King.

I resonate with like every character in Lion King.

There's a lot you can learn from all of them.

But when it comes to pride, it's Scar y'all Scar is so proud.

He has a huge ego and he's also a huge victim because they're

not that different. Victimhood and ego are not that

different. Y'all?

Listen to some of his lyrics from our from Be prepared.

Check this out. So prepare for the chance of a

lifetime. Be prepared for sensational

news. A shining new era is tiptoeing

era. And where do we feature?

Just listen to teacher. I know it sounds sordid, but

you'll be rewarded when at last I'm giving my due.

An injustice deliciously squared.

Be prepared. And at the very end, as his song

is crescendoing, this is what he says.

Meticulous planning, tenacity spanning decades of denial is

simply while I'll be king, undisputed, respected, saluted

and seen for the wonder I am. Yes, my teeth and ambitions are

bared. Be prepared y'all, there's some

scar in all of us. What our pride does is it makes

us think we're not trying to kill Mufasa y'all.

To use the analogy, y'all, the person we want out the way.

The only thing keeping me from being as I really see myself is

actually God. The person keeping me from

running the show is sort of Him. So what we want is him out the

way. So I could be king and then all

y'all are just my hyenas. Does that make sense?

This is my show and you play a role in it.

That's what pride does is it makes you the center of

everything. So as we think about how this

applies to to the Bible story, This is why they put Jesus to

death because the idea was like, I need him out the way.

If his claims are true, he's got to go now.

Some people killed Jesus and played the stupid card of I, I

don't hate him or anything, but he does have to die.

You know, this is Pilate famously washing his hands and

saying I'm not guilty for what I'm about to do, but he's got to

die, am I right? But some of us are directly

opposed to the Lord and hate him.

But in either case, through stupidity and let's get him out

the way or through direct prideful hatred.

The the goal is the same, which is I need to run this show, not

him. That is what pride does.

It makes us think we are the one running the show.

But as the verse tells us, the pride of your heart has deceived

you. Somebody say deceived.

It's lied to you. It's tricked you because you are

not among the stars, you are not an eagle, you are not in the

rocks. OK.

And this idea of deception raises an interesting question,

which is, did God create you to be deceiving yourself?

If it's of your heart, where did that come from?

OK, which is why Genesis chapter 3 is so important to always keep

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

in the back of your mind. OK, I'll read it over you.

The first sin was introduced this way.

Genesis 3. I read verses one through 6 over

you. Now the serpent was more crafty

than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had

made. He said to the woman, Did God

actually say, You shall not eat of any tree in the garden?

And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat of the fruit

of the trees in the garden. But God said, You should not eat

of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden,

neither shall you touch it, lest you die.

But the serpent said to the woman, You will not surely die,

for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be open,

and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that

it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desired to

make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate.

And she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he

ate. Y'all Sin entered the world

through deception. Satan deceived them.

And when they ate the fruit, what started outside of them?

The first deception came from the outside.

But the moment we sin. Now deception flows naturally

from the inside. Does that make sense?

That's what it means to be fallen.

That's what it means to have original sin.

It means we're born into a default OK we're the pride of

our heart is deceiving us. Are you with me So no, you were

not created to deceive yourself, but you are fallen.

OK you are apart from the grace of God.

You need to be redeemed. This is this is the the gospel

story. Is this possible for our heart

to be made new and changed. But you all we just got to

wrestle with that. When I read Obadiah three about

I bout, I don't know if you ever have those reactions.

Do you ever read a verse? You're like, how have I never

read this? And you just want to like ask

somebody. Have you ever read Obadiah

three? It said the pride of your heart

has deceived you. If I could go all the way back

to 18 year old Tanner when I got saved.

I think that phrase captures what it felt like to start

reading the Bible with my friend.

It was this idea that I thought what was keeping me from being

happy in life was just that everybody wasn't getting in

line. And if I could just have a

little more control and if things just went my way a little

bit more, and behind all the anger and the anxiety and all

the pride was just, I'm close to getting my moment.

But to hear what sin really is is that the pride of your heart

has deceived you, which means you're not miserable because

you're not getting your way. You're miserable because you

think to be happy would be to get your way.

Like you've been deceived. Then once you realize you've

been deceived, you're like, I don't want to be deceived no

more. How do I get out of that?

And that's the idea of rescue. That's what the Bible is all

about is you can't sober yourself up.

You can't undeceive yourself. You need somebody from the

outside to rescue you. So I want to talk to non

Christians and Christians before we move on.

If you're not a Christian here today, I just want you to start

because by the end, at the end, I'm going to give you the

biggest reason you should humble yourself and get out of the

stars, y'all, to come to faith in crisis, to get off your high

horse. And that's where it comes from.

Is this verse right here. So stop thinking you an eagle.

But for now, what I just want you processing is, is it

possible that God's right that the pride of your heart is

deceiving you? Is that possible?

Is it possible that you're wrong?

And y'all, that deception comes in many ways.

You could be proud of how open minded you are.

You could be proud of how good of a person you think you are.

It comes in a myriad of forms. But behind it all is deception.

You are not God. You are not among the stars.

And that's hard. But if you weren't created to

live among the stars, it's actually kindness to tell you

you've been deceived. So is it possible that that's

true, that the Bible's right in assessing you that way?

Would you begin to agree with God about that?

And to the believers in the room, here's what I want to say

to you is write down James 4. Write down first Peter 5.

Those two texts are huge on humbling ourselves that God

opposes the proud. He gives grace to the humble.

And what's really interesting, when you go read those texts, it

gives you 3 things to do. Humble yourself, submit to God,

resist Satan. All three of those are in both

those texts. Humble yourself, submit to God,

resist Satan. I found that I tend to just

focus on one of those, like when I'm trying to humble myself, I'm

just very focused on how sinful I am.

And I get you can actually get a little stuck in yourself and in

your feelings through the humbling of yourself, but then

you need to focus on submitting to God.

Like what is God calling me to do?

How can I just focus on him instead of just trying to get

myself out of the stars? How do I actually submit to God?

Who is in the stars? Are you with me?

And then lastly, resist Satan, yo.

Anytime deception is going on, anytime we're proud, Satan is

still at work because that's his frequency, that's his

wavelength. He doesn't live in reality.

He lives in rebellion. OK, so we've got to resist him.

We do have to take authority over our thought life and and

there are just patterns and ways that we just get stuck and they

feel so natural to us that many times are his his strategy to to

get us get us proud once again. So humble yourself, submit to

God and resist Satan. Now let's shift to how after

focusing on the pride of Edom, of how God is encouraging his

child by by by talking to Edom this way, let's take courage in

God's restoration. Don't just imagine being that

kid standing there. God is through the minor

prophets been telling you hard things for hundreds of years.

We've been showing you the map throughout the series.

I'm not going to right now, but prophets are all over Israel and

Judah and they're saying hard things to the people of God year

over year over year. You're going into exile and so

you it could get to where you think man is God just like done

with us? Is he against us?

And then Obadiah 15 through 21 and he's just like just

encouraging them like you're going to possess land again and

you're going to you're going to, you're going to be back in your

spot and, and it's going to be OK.

And the, the Kingdom will belong to the Lord and the Edomites are

going to get handled. And you've got to just be

lighting up on the inside as God's kid in that moment, you

know? So here are three ways I think

hearing Obadiah should encourage or us to take courage.

OK, first one, take courage. God is not done with us.

God is not done with us, Y'all? They were in exile.

They were in Babylon. So to hear this text and to hear

that we're going to be back, to hear that God is not done with

us for them, that just that just would have put something in them

of like God's not done. Even exile is part of how he's

coming after us in love. Does that make sense?

Like God is purposeful even in the ways he disciplines us.

Hebrews 13 talks about this, that God is the ultimate loving

parent. Everything he does is

purposeful. He is never done with you.

If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, there is nothing in your

life that is punitive. All of it is purposeful.

Now what's hard for us to understand is we don't know.

We don't have the the calculus, the gospel calculus within

ourselves yet to know what is purposefully like discipline

from the Lord, what is just this is hardship of life.

It's just a broken place. I don't know, but I know his

purpose in all of it is your reformation not your punishment.

Are you with me? Like what God wants for you is

to become like his Son and we don't these promises to them

about going back to the land we see ultimately in Jesus.

Y'all where we're going is with the Lord in full rest forever.

There is a final Sabbath day of rest the book of Hebrews talk

about that we're aiming for. So no matter what you're going

through in your life right now, that is coming.

Ephesians 2 talks about he's going to show you kindness for

ages. That's his plan for you.

He wants to keep showing you kindness forever.

And sometimes when we're suffering or we're feeling like

we're getting squeezed by life, we start thinking God must be

done with us because I'm getting squeezed.

Believer, God is not done with you.

He's not. He is using this in your life.

Even when we don't understand it #2 take courage.

God is stronger than the bad guys.

God is stronger than the bad guys.

Verse 4 though you soar aloft like the eagle, though your nest

is set among the stars. From there I will bring you

down, declares the Lord. Y'all.

The Lord brings down the people who think they're in the stars.

He just boop. God could just pull them down at

just a heartbeat, which to the people of God historically is

comforting because they felt like the bad guys had all the

power. We're getting beat down.

They laughed at us all along the way.

Lord, they stood there while we got pillaged.

We were in a quip last week and and one of our members who knows

their Bible like crazy, pointed out something that I never

thought about before, but articulated so well I wanted to

share it with you. They were talking about with Old

Testament stories. We do a couple of things, but

there's a third thing I want to add to it.

One is we moralize them. You know, like think like Daniel

on the lion's den. Be courageous like Daniel, OK.

And hopefully you've been around enough gospel centered teaching

over time, you know, not to moralize things.

OK. But then even with the gospel

centered thing, which we're going to end our sermon with

here today, what we can do is we can still just focus on, oh,

those cool Old Testament stories are just to point to how Jesus

would eventually do that, which is true.

But the third thing they're also doing is they're supposed to

actually in real time for real people in real history that

lived in those places, give them courage that God's in control

when it looks like he isn't. Does that make sense?

That's that's a big purpose why Daniel and the lion's den is

there. It's the same purpose of

Obadiah, which is if God is in control in the moment, the bad

guys have the most power are standing aloof gloating over us.

If we genuinely believe God is in control right now, how would

it change how we live? Does that make sense?

So we we don't need to moralize that or even just Gospel center

that and jump to Jesus, which we will because he's the power for

the change. But it's also supposed to make

us take courage that even in the worst moment, even in captivity,

God is stronger than them. God is in charge.

God will sort them out. God is handling even the

craziest moment where it looks like everybody but God has

power. He has it third way.

This leads us to take courage. Become like him, not like them.

Become like him, not like them. Remember, they're in Babylon,

y'all. The temptation was to conform to

their environment. The temptation.

Have you ever noticed maybe you've been on a sports team or

something when your season feels like it's over but there's still

halfway left? Like if you're O and eight,

there's somebody on your team that embodies the attitude of

what's the point? Have you ever noticed that when

you're losing, it begins to feel like, what's the point?

Maybe you're in a workplace where people don't care, so why

should you? Like it can become like, what's

the point? And once you get there, you tend

to conform to your environment. Have you noticed that once your

mind gives up like that, once it doesn't feel purposeful, you

conform to whatever it is going on around you.

Have you ever noticed that it's very contagious?

And so I think what we need to to hear is that because God is

stronger than them and God's not done, God's using this for us,

it changes how we live now. Are you with me?

So I want to give you 3 parallels of how I think Obadiah

by the people in the time period would have known.

That means they need to live that I think the New Testament

church needs. Are you with me?

Here are the three ways. Number one, stop conforming.

Stop conforming, y'all? They were tempted to conform to

the Babylonian practices. They had the power.

Let me take on their technology. Let me take on their all their

ways, their methods, their things.

There's no point anyways. We're losing, we're in exile.

God don't care. So let's just let's figure out

how they do things. But y'all, what the New

Testament teaches us is in light of Christ's resurrection,

everything you do matters. Whether you eat or drink or

whatever you do do all to the glory of God.

Every second matters. Everything matters.

Every part of your day matters. So y'all, you are a Christ

follower before you're an American.

You are. We've got to be thinking about

who we are in our identity and light of who Christ calls us to

be and what the New Testament church calls us to be, and not

just comparing ourselves to other Americans.

Does that make sense? We tend to conform to the

patterns around us, and we're not conforming ourselves to who

Christ is in his ways. So let's renew our mind in that

way. I don't know what you're

conforming patterns have looked like for me.

A lot of them start with technology.

They do like that. That's just one of the easiest

ways for me to think. Am I just slowly just accepting

that this is normal? This is not normal.

Every week I feel that when I get the reminder of how much

time I average per day on my screen last week, I'm like, God,

did I really average 2 hours a day on this device last week?

That means for 14 hours, I 14 hours.

Father, help me so stop conforming #2 love the city,

love this city. So this is what's really

interesting about Obadiah. Obadiah is highly similar to

Jeremiah 49 verses 7 to 22, which leads to hundreds of books

Jeremiah 49:7–22

by scholars of was one of them written first?

Was one of them copying the other?

Was there another thing they were both copying from?

Or could God be giving the same message from different

geographical locations because he's God through different

people at the same time? I think so, but y'all what's

interesting about it quoting highly from Jeremiah is you

might know this Jeremiah was also written to the Exiles and

it was written for the purpose of getting them to live a

certain way while in Babylon. Jeremiah 29 is all about y'all

need to love Babylon, stop whining that you're not in the

promised land and become who I made you to be where you are.

So when I bring you back, it'll be blessed be Jerusalem in

Babylon. So when you come back to

Jerusalem, Jerusalem will be Jerusalem.

Are you with me? But if you keep whining and

focus on what you don't got while you're in Babylon, that's

not what I'm after. I'm after the Reformation of the

place in which you live. I want you to change where you

are, not just get you out of where you are.

So for us, y'all love the city you live in, love where you are,

seek its welfare in a city like Norfolk.

It's similar to many other big cities, some of the the big

ones. It's so easy to think about the

next place you're going to live. And what we do is we think I'll

be intentional in this way or this way, or I'll be this type

of person once I get there. And we just want to say, hey,

the Lord's got you here. Norfolk needs you.

We need you like the people of God here need you.

There's an interdependence you were created to be a part of in

a seeking the good of the city where the Lord has you.

And once he brings you where you're going, guess you're going

to be, you're going to be who you're being here.

Because I've had those times in my life where I'm like, I'll be

intentional when I get that next job or when I'll do that next

thing or when we have that. And guess who I end up being

when I get there? But it was when I said, when I

get there, you know what I mean? So just seek the welfare now

while you're here. Learn God's ways.

Learn how to live out Jeremiah 29 with us.

And then when you go wherever the Lord, I hope he gets you

there. God bless you.

Or some of y'all ended up here for a long time.

I hope and I pray that hard. That's something y'all be

surprised by how long the Lord keeps you in Norfolk.

And #3 the way I think that Obadiah would change the people

of God is love your enemies. Love your enemies again.

They're in Babylon, y'all. They're in Babylon.

The New Testament church changed the world.

And one of the main ways they did that was through love of

enemy. Jesus said love your enemies and

pray for those who persecute you.

Y'all? They were facing martyrdom in

the early church. I think one of the things we do

with enemy stuff, I don't know if you do this, we think it

means it has to be somebody who just hates you or wants you to

die for being a Christian, for them to be an enemy.

That's not what that means. We make enemies out of stuff all

the time. Little ways.

Anytime you were about to gossip about somebody, you feel

threatened, right? I wouldn't slander somebody

else's character if I didn't feel threatened by them.

That sounds like an enemy to me. You don't slander friends, you

know. Well, sometimes we do, because

even our friends become our enemies, right?

You're not operating like a hyena right now.

I need you. I need you in orbit of what I'm

trying to do here. So the point is, what if we

zoomed out from just thinking of an enemy as somebody just

oppositely opposed to your good? But y'all, it's just basic

things like forgiveness, bitterness, resentment.

Anytime those things are festering in our souls, there's

enemy dynamics at play. This is why the Lord's Prayer is

a daily prayer. Forgive us our debts as we

forgive those who have trespassed against us.

Help us let go of stuff so we're not carrying it.

Does that make sense, y'all? I believe if we genuinely

believe Romans 12 that vengeance is mine, I will repay, declares

the Lord. Your life will change because

what you begin to believe is nobody's getting away with

anything. God will sort it out.

Either that sin will be put on Christ or it's going to be put

in hell, period. And what that does is it makes

me stop having to be the judge, jury, and executioner.

I can give it to the Lord, and then you're calling me to love

my enemies. But I'm only going to do that if

I really believe He's going to do that.

Does that make sense? So many times we take control of

the situation. We do the gossip, we do the

slander, we do all the little subtle ways of hate on our

enemies because we don't believe God's going to handle it.

I got to handle it. That makes sense.

I got to. This image just come to mind.

I was a teacher. I was 22 years old.

I remember like day 5 this one class I had no control.

Shout out to teachers, pray for him.

It was already over y'all. Like it was like I was like I

need a new semester because this is getting bad.

My man Tyreek, he wrote me a note.

He said in it, man, he was like, Mr. T, you need to get that

little girl in the 2nd row. She messing with me, you need to

handle it. And this was the last line of

the letter. I'll never forget.

He went dot, dot, dot or I will. And I remember just like Tyreek,

he ain't going to do nothing, man.

But it was like he was trying to control me, to control her.

You know what I mean? Like, and I was like, we're all

Tyreek, you know, we scar. We Tyreek.

That's the point of the sermon. But through the Spirit, you have

the opportunity to trust God's going to handle it.

To Tyreek's credit, he was trying to get me to handle it.

He's like, I know what I'm going to do if you want to do

something. And then the ironic thing was

his mom called me the next day and said, Tyreek told me he

wrote you a note. And that was a that was a fun

conversation. That was a fun conversation.

We all, we seek revenge so subtly in so many ways.

We defame people's character. We slander them, we throw jabs

at them. But Oh yeah, I guess he's kind

of good. You know, we just jab, we jab,

we poke we. But if we really believe God's

got it, we could seek the good of others.

We could pray for them and ask God to give us new hearts when

we don't want to. I do want to close by sharing

the story of Daniel on the Lion's den.

So I think it's very similar to the impact that Obadiah would

have, and it's the ultimate reason we should humble

ourselves. Y'all, y'all.

Daniel on the Lion's Den is a pretty dope story from the book

of Daniel. Where Daniel loved Yahweh, OK,

he was taken captive and put into the Babylonian context and

forced to learn their customs and their ways, but he still

loved God. So God's favor was on his life

and Daniel was just rising in political power and the the the

Babylonians were like, Daniel's got it.

We got to give him everything. This dude is the man.

Well, he developed some enemies. Some Babylonian political

officials hated him and how much favor he had and how everything

went his way. So because they hated him, they

devised the scheme. OK.

And their scheme was to go to the king and say, O king, you

are so great. O king, you are awesome.

And notice how to get them in on his scheme.

They appealed to his pride. Hello.

They said, you're the greatest. No one should worship anyone but

you, right, O King? And he's like, why, yes, that

sounds great. And they're like, OK, king, so

if anybody worships anybody other than you because you're

the greatest king, they should get killed, right?

They should get thrown in the lion's den.

Sounds great. See that it's done.

So they go out and they write the edict and they send it all

out. And then they're like, ready

with the cameras out for when Daniel is praying three times a

day, just like he always does to the Lord and not to the king.

And they're like, oh, king, you said, because you're the

greatest, right? That if anybody did that, that

they would have to die. Well, Daniel, I don't know what

to tell you, but he he been praying to to that other guy.

I see what you did. You tricked me.

I guess we got to throw him in the lion's den.

So the king throws Daniel in the lion's den.

The king goes to sleep. He's stressed.

He wakes up and he rushes to the lion's den.

And what happens? Daniel is chilling.

Lions didn't touch him. And the king is so just like

what? Blown away?

God must be with you. This is incredible.

Whoever devised that plan, let's throw them in, right, y'all?

Here is the the gospel kind of kind of turn of that story.

OK, y'all, what ultimately humbles us, what gets you to get

off your high horse? The story of the Bible is not

that you are a Daniel, y'all in that story, the scar figure, the

hyenas figure is the officials who plotted to get Daniel out

the way. That's who you are.

That's who I am. That's what our pride does,

y'all. The good news of the Bible is

there was one who was perfect and sinless and actually humble

and didn't live like he was the greatest of all time and amongst

the stars, though He made the stars right.

This is Jesus. Jesus created all things, full

of all power, full of all goodness, and he did not walk

around demanding that we worship him, which is crazy.

At the end of his life, he gets thrown into the lion's den,

which is the cross, and dies in the place of those who are

actually proud. Though he was humble, Jesus is

the one humble man who ever lived.

The Bible does not give you the path for you to be humble enough

to get yourself to earn salvation.

The Bible teaches that the path to you actually becoming who God

made you to be is first admitting that you are not that

and you need salvation. You need a rescue.

You need somebody who is sinless, thrown into the fire

for you, thrown into the lion's den for you.

And that's what Jesus has done for you.

The ultimate reason you should come down from those stars, the

ultimate reason you can admit that you've been deceived, is

because there was one who was not deceived.

There is one who lived perfectly.

There is one who is so humble so that your proud self could go

free. That's the gospel.

The one humble person dying for all the proud people.

The church isn't really the humble people as much as we're

the ones who've been set free by Christ and now by the Spirit.

We can walk in these things. So if you don't know Jesus, he

took the cross knowing how proud you are.

That's the good news. The pride of your heart has

deceived you, but it doesn't have to be that way anymore.

You have heard the good news and you can trust Him.

You can repent, you can believe. Let's pray together.

Our Father, you're so grateful for your word.

Or I pray for any of my friends who don't know you, God, just

that right now as they hear that the pride of their heart has

deceived them, they would agree with that for the first time,

God, they would turn, they would see that you are the the sinless

one who died in their place so they could be set free.

You got to pray for your church. I pray you will build us up.

We will learn to love the city in which we dwell.

We will learn to love our enemies.

I pray God that that we would just trust that you're going to

sort it out. God that you are not punitive.

You are always purposeful. God, that just in your purposes,

God, you would you would teach us to trust you and it shapes

how we live here and now. Lord, have your hand upon this

time. We pray in Jesus name, Amen.