Trying Harder Until A Hero Emerges Judges 21:9-24

We have been, we have been for now exactly half

the time, three months, a little over half the

time I should say, we've been dealing with the

spiritual discipline of fasting and I want to

talk to you about an aspect of fasting that people

don't necessarily realize. We've talked about

how there are side things that happen when you're

fasting, how devotion develops when you're fasting,

we've talked about how... You remember what's

really important when you're fasting. So you're

setting aside, like you say, well, I'm not eating

food. God is what's really important. God is

more important than the food. When it's fasting

from something like social media, for example,

that it's like you realize that's not really

important. And you get time to use the other

things that God wants you to do. We talked a

lot about different aspects of fasting. But I

want to share something with you that the Lord

laid on my heart today with regards to fasting.

So this comes from the story of Jesus and his

disciples travel through Samaria. A little bit

of background. First of all, so Samaria was a

place where the Jews would just never travel

through. Right. So the land of Samaria was a

place where people living there were basically

like half breeds. Right. So they were people

who in their in their lineage, they could not

trace their lineage back purely to Abraham or

Isaac or Jacob. So somewhere in their family,

their family had married in with other folks.

And the region was predominantly filled with

that. And so the Jews just said, we're just going

to avoid this region entirely. So they were basically

like blocking it out, boycotting it, whatever

you want to say. And they would literally travel

40 to 60 miles out of their way and go through

the desert to not pass through Samaria. When

Jesus and his disciples were traveling, Jesus

said, we're going into Samaria. So they went

into Samaria. When they got into Samaria, they

came to a well. They would need water. You need

water when you're traveling. One of the things

that's hardest to carry with you when you're

traveling is enough water, especially if you're

doing a lot of walking. But at the same time,

they needed food. So the disciples are going

to go into town, and they're going to purchase

food for them with the purse that Judas would

carry. And while Judas is waiting there at the

well, a Samaritan woman comes up and they have

a conversation. Now, you know this story a little

bit. If you don't, I would very strongly encourage

you to read it. It's in John chapter 4. We're

John 4 · chapter mention

not going to get into the conversation so much

that he has with her. But this is the conversation

that I want. So immediately following that, the

disciples come back with the food, right? And

in verse 31, the disciples have returned. It

says, meanwhile, the disciples were urging him,

saying, Rabbi, eat something. So Rabbi is teacher,

master, leader of our discipleship group, right?

Eat something. But he said to them, I have food

to eat that you do not know about. So the disciples

were saying to one another, No one brought him

anything to eat, did they? Jesus said to them,

My food is to do the will of him who sent me

and to accomplish his work. Do you not say there

are still four months and then come your harvest?

Behold, I told you, raise your eyes and observe

the fields, that they are white for harvest.

Already the one who reaps is receiving wages

and is gathering fruit for eternal life. so that

the one who sows and the one who reaps may rejoice

together. Before I go any further, let me make

sure I digest that for a second. So in other

words, he's saying, he says, there's work that

we can do, and this work is food to us, all right?

I understand that's kind of metaphorical language,

but also it's very literal, and I'll explain

why that's so in a second. He says, I told you,

raise your eyes and observe the fields that they

are ripe for harvest. You say, okay, he's talking

about souls. He's talking about people getting

saved. And so the kingdom is advancing. There's

people to hear the gospel. And somebody can ask

them to be saved and they'll get saved. And so

we take that verse out of context of what he's

talking about and say that's all about evangelism.

And it is to some degree about evangelism. Right.

But in context, he's talking about food and sustenance.

They're urging him to eat. And he's saying there

is work to be done that results in an eating

that is not shoving food in your face. OK, so

he says. Already the one who reaps is receiving

wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life

so that the one who sows and the one who reaps

may rejoice together. For in this case, the saying

is true. One sows and another reaps. I sent you

to reap that for which you have not labored.

Others have labored and you have come into their

labor. What Jesus was saying is that there was

work done by people before them that had already

prepared. Now, if you think and stretch your

minds a little bit, when the Israelites came

into the promised land, When they came into the

Promised Land, came out of Egypt, crossed the

Jordan River, Joshua led them in, and they started

taking over lands. In those lands were houses,

cities. And they forced the people that lived

there to flee or to kill them, which was God's

decree. And if the people fled, that's fine.

They took over their lands and their houses.

But if the people didn't flee, they killed them

because they were resisting, and that's what

God had said was going to happen. In fact, God

kept Israel under punishment in Egypt for 400

additional years to make sure that the sins of

the Canaanites had come to full measure before

God would call the Israelites out to defeat the

Canaanites and kick them out of their land. So

God showed them 400 years of grace when they

were living in this land of prosperity. Then

the Israelites come in and they take over cities,

they take over houses, and they take over fields.

And in the fields... Are crops ready to be harvested?

Then they harvest, store some of that seed to

plant for the next year, and then eat what they've

harvested. Who did the work? Who provided for

them? The answer is the people that were there

before, right? They were taking the food that

those people had planted. Now, you know, and

I know that ultimately it's God who really provided

for them. God made it work. God set it up. God

set this up that they could take it over. So

Jesus is using that same image from the Israelites.

Now, you have to understand, when you learn about

fasting, when you focus on God and you draw close

to the Lord, right, and receive his presence,

people went before you to make that possible.

Somebody shared the gospel with you. Somebody

preserved the Bible, wrote. perfect copies over

and over and over again until eventually the

printing press was invented and and so on and

so on someone bought you your first bible probably

wasn't even you right if it was good for you

but it probably wasn't and if it was you had

to pick out which bible and then there were people

who preserved the translation to make sure that

it was accurate to the original text and then

you sit under the teaching of a preacher and

somebody cleans this building and so you're here

today realizing a lot of people have provided

for you to be able to get this now jesus is saying

read where you have not sung. You didn't do that

work, but you can get it. So then today, as you

get the teaching about fasting, what he's saying

is, and I've witnessed this firsthand, okay?

So I've been fasting and going without food,

and when I'm busy serving the Lord during that

time, when I'm focused on God, I'm reading my

Bible, I'm praying, I'm talking about problems

that I have, I'm talking more with God, like,

God, how can I solve this? What am I going to

do? What am I supposed to do? What do you want

me to do? What are you going to do? Tell me what's

going on. And I'm talking with God, guess what?

I'm not hungry. But now, I stop reading my Bible,

stop praying, even when I'm tired. I've been

doing it all day. And I sit down in front of

the TV, pop down in front of the TV, turn the

remote on, picture comes up, guess what? I'm

ready for a snack. I want you to think about

the times that you find to eat. How many times

a day does a person need to eat? Three? Breakfast,

lunch, and dinner? No. One? There's a big variation

between. So there's people who have health concerns,

and I say, I want you to eat seven or eight small

meals, because that's what's good for your health.

small meals but seven or eight of them and then

you got somebody that's in the military like

actually serving they may get one meal and it's

a healthy nutritious meal but they get one meal

right and you got people in the world that are

living on one meal every three days and they're

not starving to death and they're eating nutritious

healthy foods the best they possibly can and

they only get one meal every three days so what

is the standard the fda will tell you get three

meals a variety of stuff every day that's the

best way to go that kind of thing and that is

healthy but is it necessary And the answer is

no, it's not necessary. What's necessary is that

you eat whatever your body needs to survive and

to serve the Lord. And if you've got Doritos

on your regular list, you're eating Doritos every

day, I'm here to tell you right now that you

are not eating Doritos to serve Jesus. I'm just

being blunt. Because Doritos do not fuel your

body to serve Jesus. They are a luxury. And if

you were on the mission field in darkest Africa

witnessing the people and sharing Jesus, there

would be nowhere to buy Doritos. Doritos would

not be on the menu. You couldn't get Doritos.

I'm not preaching against Doritos. I'm using

that as an illustration or example. The truth

is we need to put serving God, walking with God,

hearing from God, speaking to God, doing the

things of God first, and let that sustain us.

And then eat healthy and nutritious foods. And

then... If there is room in your diet, in your

life or whatever for additional snack foods,

sweets, whatever, then this is the end of the

train. And stopping eating certain foods or stopping

eating food for a while will help you get those

things prioritized. But let's say it is social

media. Social media is the same way. Which one

of us in this room can honestly say that you

need Facebook to serve Jesus? Nowhere. There's

none. Nobody. Not even me. And everything I do

on Facebook is Jesus, right? And I don't need

that. We're having trouble with the Facebook

stream today, so we're not streaming on live

on Facebook right now. It's kind of comical when

you think about the irony of that, right? It's

not happening right now. But we don't have to

do that. That's not necessary. We also don't

have to podcast our services, right? We don't

have to do that. We can say right now, we're

going to cancel service. We're going to form

into teams of three. We're going to go walking

in every direction from this church building

and tell every single person that we find about

Jesus, about the love of Jesus, the word of God,

and the fact that they can be saved. And God

will be glorified. This is for us to be edified.

This is for us to be filled. This has a purpose,

right? We're doing this with a purpose in mind.

And if you bring a snack with you because you

can't get through worship without snacking, or

you're thinking about where you're going to lunch

immediately after worship, you might need to

think about fasting. Self -discipline, the spiritual

discipline of fasting and putting God first.

And the funny thing about it is you will find

that when you put God first, all of those other

things, they become debatably necessary. Right

now, am I saying to children in the room, listen

to me, you need to eat a healthy diet every day.

You don't fast unless you do that. with a parent

or somebody who's responsible watching over you,

right? Because this is not a discipline that

you should get into on your own because you're

a child, right? Adults in the room. God must

be first. You're past the age of innocence in

every single way. God must be first in your life.

And the way to get there is to realize that God

is more important than food. God is more important

than your entertainment. He's certainly more

important than your desserts or your snacks or

your treats or your vacations or your recreation.

He's more important than all of that. And we

can let any of that go for a time to remind ourselves

that he is the most important thing. And I submit

to you that if while you're letting it go, to

remind yourself that he is the most important

thing, you focus on him. you will find an amazing

source of sustenance that Jesus described when

he says, I have food to eat that you do not know

about. And he wasn't talking about a sandwich.

We're going to pray together at this time and

transition to the tithes and offerings and then

a little more worship. Tithes and offerings are

a form of worship. And that's why we have them

during our worship time. Let's bless the tithes

and offerings and proceed. Father in heaven,

bless these tithes and offerings. Bless our time

together. Help us to realize that you are most

important of all things. that you sustain us.

When we think about needing air and somebody

trapped in a room who has no air, you are our

air. Think about needing food and somebody who

doesn't get to eat but every few days, or maybe

they live on the streets of Toledo and they're

sleeping under an overpass somewhere and they're

lucky to have a can good and struggling to figure

out how to get it open. And we don't know that.

We don't feel that. We don't see that. We're

not there. But if we were, we would certainly

want you to sustain us. And we want you to sustain

them. And those who are hurting the most in the

world, who have the least spiritual food, who

have the least sustenance coming from you, we

ask you to intervene in their lives this morning.

Deliver the truth. It's possible. It's just possible.

And in some ways, we are one of those. Because

we've thought about, we think about, we desire

certain things of this world more than your presence,

more than your person. more than your will. So

teach us, Lord, to desire your presence, your

person, and your will above all things. And if

you can use the spiritual discipline of fasting

to do that, please do. And if you're going to

do it another way, Lord, sustain us through learning

that lesson, however it is. We ask you to help

us worship you today. In Jesus' name, amen. Okay.

One particular Friday night, after a football

game at the high school. I was an adult. I wasn't

in high school anymore. This was probably 10

years later. We were living at the house, and

it was after the football game, and I had walked

to the football game at the high school. One

of the girls, or maybe both, I don't know, was

playing in the marching band. I don't think it

was either. They were both in at the same time.

So one of the girls was playing in the marching

band, and I had walked to the football game,

and then I decided I was going to walk home from

the football game. There was a ride available.

I could have rode home, but I didn't really want

to. It was a beautiful night, and I decided I

was going to walk home from the football game.

And as I was walking home from the football game,

I got it in my bright idea, my big brain, if

you will, that I would cut cross country. So

instead of following the roads like I have always

done, I've done it probably by that time I had

probably walked home from the school 200 times.

Right. I went to Northwood schools and there

was a period of time when I was growing up where

buses were not provided for about six months.

And so we had to walk to school every day. In

high school, I walked to school a lot until I

started driving. And then if I couldn't drive

because something was wrong with my car or whatever,

I would walk to school. And I hardly ever rode

a bike. And by the time I got to high school,

I didn't ride a bike very much. I didn't really

keep one up from the time I was about like 15

to the time, probably 14, because I had a moped

when I was 14. So by the time I was 14 to the

time I was 18, I really didn't keep a bike operational.

So if I needed to, I'd just walk. So I'd walked

home from the school 200 times easily. And every

time I'd walk home from school, I always thought,

I'm going to follow the roads. It's quick. It's

really like a 15, 20 -minute walk. And this night,

for whatever reason, I decided I was going to

cut cross -country. I was going to go through

the woods. So coming down the back way from the

high school, there's the police station, Central

Park. There's a big satellite disc station back

there that's for cable TV and whatever. And then

back in there. There is a trail that you can

get started going in the right direction. So

it was my thought. I thought, well, all I got

to do is get through. I know the woods because

I played in them as a kid. Even though they had

got up, I would just get to a certain point.

I could just walk that way home and be a lot

faster if I pick my way through. So I get into

the woods. It's dark back in there. There's no

street lights. It's dark back in there. And I'm

doing pretty good at first going through the

woods. I know I'm going in. the geographical

correct direction i'm following the right direction

and then all of a sudden the woods is so thick

and you'd call it a thicket right so all the

trees are kind of woven together but there's

no way that i could proceed forward without you

know a chainsaw it would have been impossible

so i said well i'll go right so i go right and

sure enough there's a little opening there and

then i see there's some space and so i'm cutting

the space and i'm walking a little further and

then i run into the same thing your woods are

so thick there's no way that i can get through

And even I try to, like, kind of squeeze through

a little bit. And I'm going, now it's just getting

way too thick. There's no way I can get through.

So I said, well, if I go much further this way,

I'm hitting the back of the shopping center.

And for some reason, I'm determined I'm going

to try to go cross country. I'm going to go to

the back of the shopping center. And I have to

cross a little creek and whatever. And I don't

want to go to the back of the shopping center.

So I'm going to try to go back and go to the

left. I went the other way. And I found a place

where it looked like I was going to be able to

get through. It wasn't so thick. It was kind

of thinner or whatever. So I start walking. I

get another 20, 30 yards and I'm deep in the

woods now. Right. And I run to a place where

the woods are impassable. And so now I go all

the way around the left that way. I'm going to

be all the way out to Druid Road, have to cross

the creek, go all the way out to Druid Road or

go the back way along the creek on the outside.

And I'd be going like a mile out of my way to

get home. So basically, I said, well, I've got

to do one of those two things. And the shopping

center is closer. So I went to the back of the

shopping center and I followed the road home.

But in the middle there. There was a moment where

I went, oh, I'm going to make it through. And

as I did that and I went into deeper into the

woods and did not make it through, I thinking

I was going to make it through. I actually went

in deeper and that thinking I was going to take

a shortcut. I actually wound up walking a lot

like I probably walked that road home. the equivalent

of it, two to three times, right? In the time

going in and out of the woods and coming back

and going back over here and going back over

there. I had walked two to three times the distance

that I would have walked if I had just followed

the road. Sometimes we rely on human reasoning

to pick the next course. And even Christians

do this. You know how to pay your bills. You've

got a certain amount of money coming in and there's

a bill coming on the 15th. You know how to go,

well, if I spend this money now, well, then I'm

not going to have the money when the time comes

in on the 15th to pay the bill. You understand?

You know how to dress yourself. You've got to

make sure you have enough clean laundry. You

might not want to do laundry, but if you don't

do the laundry, you have enough clean laundry,

then when you come to dress yourself, you have

to wear clothes and spray them with Febreze or

something to get by for a few more days. You

know how to do the basic things in life. And

so sometimes we don't consult God about the basic

things in life because we're functioning on human

reasoning. And God kind of expects us to do it

right. And if you know to do it right and don't

do it right, that's sin, right? That's James

4. So sometimes when we rely on human reasoning

to justify our sin and we kind of make up our

own solutions, all we result in doing is drifting

even further away from God. Even further away

from what God wanted. That's where we're at in

the story of the Israelites. Now, we have today

and one more time next week that we'll be in

the book of Judges. And then as far as I know,

as far as the Lord has told me so far, we're

done with the book of Judges for a while. Unless

he brings back a certain sermon or a certain

text that we need to go back and look at or something

like that. So today we are finishing all but

the very last verse. If you know the very last

verse of the book of Judges, which you might

if you've been with us all this time, then you

know that it's sort of a summary verse of the

whole book. And it has occurred in many places

throughout the book as we look at that. And so

grab your Bibles, take a breath, hold it, hold

it for a second. Now give me a who to holler

amen as we go to Judges chapter 21. Thank you

Judges 21 · chapter mention

for those who participated. This is his book,

not my book. I didn't write this book. I didn't

write what these verses mean. That's not my job,

just to digest what it says. Remembering that

illustration that I gave you then, let's look

at Judges chapter 21. I'm going to begin reading

Judges 21 · chapter mention

in verse 9. I just turned off the page. I'm going

to begin reading. Okay, I'm in Joshua. Okay,

so Judges 21, begin reading in verse 9. Here

we go. For when the people were counted, behold,

not one of the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead was

there. So remember, this is part of what we talked

about last week. They're looking for a solution

to the problem of Benjamin being wiped out. They

realize that nobody came up from Jabesh Gilead

to participate, which means two things. One,

it means they're worthy of punishment. And two,

it means that they did not make a commitment

not to give their daughters to the Benjamites.

You follow that? Okay. So that is a potential

solution to the problem that the Benjamites don't

have daughters, which means the Benjamites are

going to die out. There's only 600 men left alive

of the entire tribe. because they went and massacred

all the men, women, and children of every village,

even though that was not the mandate of God at

all. They did that all on their own after they

had defeated the Benjamites, okay? So they look

at Jabesh Gilead as a potential solution and

say, well, it makes sense. This could work. Verse

10, and the congregation sent 12 ,000 of the

valiant warriors there and commanded them saying,

go and strike the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead

with the edge of the sword. Along with the women

and children. So they're going to kill every

man, woman, and child. And this is the thing

that you shall do. You shall utterly destroy

every male and every woman who has slept with

a male. Okay, so now it's not every man, woman,

and child anymore. And they found among the inhabitants

of Jabesh Gilead 400 young virgins who had not

known a man by sleeping with him. And they brought

them to the camp at Shiloh, which is in the land

of Canaan. So back near the temple. So they killed

every man and every woman who had laid with...

A man and every child in Jabesh Gilead. Because

Jabesh Gilead had not shown up. That's one of

the primary reasons. So they had not sent. They

said everybody had to send. They had not sent.

So now they're being punished. But also because

Jabesh Gilead had not made a commitment to not

give their daughters to Benjamin. So when they

take Jabesh Gilead's virgin daughters, 400 of

them, those virgin daughters are eligible to

be given over. to sons of Benjamin, to 400 of

the 600 guys that are hiding in the hills that

are left alive of Benjamin. It sounds crazy,

I know, but this is the logic, okay, that they

can give them over and in that way then preserve

the tribe of Benjamin. And they bring them back

there near Shiloh. Remember Shiloh, Bethel, that's

where the temple is at, or the tabernacle is

at this time, now 13. Then the whole congregation

sent word and spoke to the sons of Benjamin who

were at the Rock of Ramon. Remember, there's

600 of them hiding out there. They're all that

remains of the tribe. And they proclaimed peace

to them. So they're now not, they're saying,

we're not going to hunt you down anymore. We're

not going to kill you. You don't have to hide.

And the tribe of Benjamin returned at that time.

And they gave them the women they had allowed

to live from the women of Jabesh Gilead. But

there was not enough for them. So those 400 women

now get paired with 400 of the 600 men. They

come down. The vendetta is over. They killed

every woman and child who had nothing to do with

the travesty, who did not resist the Israelites

at all. But now these 600 men are given amnesty.

They are not going to be punished anymore. And

400 of them are given wives that they did not

choose for themselves, that did not choose their

husbands, but they were just allowed to survive

from Jabesh Gilead. 15. And the people were sorry

for Benjamin because the Lord had created a gap

in the tribes of Israel. So everybody, everybody,

everywhere realized, hey, this tribe is in danger

of being wiped out. Now 16. Then the elders of

the congregation said, what are we to do for

wives for those who are left? Since the women

have been eliminated from Benjamin. So all the

women were gone. They've now got 400 virgin wives.

They're now betrothed to the 400 of the 600 men.

But there's still 200. And they want to make

sure they got wives too. Because 600 men with

wives could repopulate the tribe. And they said,

there must be an inheritance for the survivors

of Benjamin. So that a tribe will not be. But

we cannot give them wives from our daughters.

For the sons of Israel had sworn saying, cursed

is he who gives a wife to Benjamin. So they said,

so we can't do it. We can't break our oath to

God or ask anybody in the tribes to break their

oath, right? And it really wasn't even an oath

to God, but God certainly hears oaths, right?

19. So they said, Behold, there is a feast of

the Lord from year to year in Shiloh, which is

on the north side of Bethel, on the east side

of the road that goes up from Bethel to Shechem,

and on the south side of Livona. And they commanded

the sons of Benjamin, saying, Go and lie in wait

in the vineyards, and watch and behold. If the

daughters of Shiloh come out to take part in

the dances, then you shall come out of the vineyards,

and each of you shall seize his wife. from the

daughters of Shiloh and go to the land of Benjamin.

So these girls are going to come out as an act

of worship. Now, remember, it's syncretistic

worship. It's not just God. They might not be

worshiping God correctly. It could be worship

of God and also other gods. So it's not necessarily

holy worship, but it is an act of worship. It's

part of one of their festivals. They're going

to come out and they're going to dance. And when

they dance, it's a you 200 men come rushing out

and steal a wife for yourself. Pretty ungodly,

but that's a... solution. And it's a reasonable

solution, as we'll see, based on human logic.

These people have made a commitment that they

cannot give their daughters to Benjamin. They

can't do that. So stealing them is the only way

to make that work. And they're going to explain

that in a second. So 22 says, And when their

fathers or their brothers come to complain to

us, we shall say to them, Give them to us voluntarily,

because we did not take for each man of Benjamin

a wife in battle, nor did you give them nor did

you give them to them. Otherwise you would now

be guilty. So they basically said, so you committed

not to give your daughters to Benjamin and you

didn't. They stole them, right? So now don't

get upset about it. Don't go to war about it.

We stole 200 of your virgin daughters. Don't

go to war about it. Let's not make a big deal

out of this thing now. This solves our problem

because you didn't agree to it. So now you're

not subject to the effect of the curse. We didn't

do it. So we're not subject to the effects of

the curse. So what happened was only Benjamin

did it. which they've got to be within their

rights because we can't see them wiped out as

a tribe, right? Now, by the way, I don't know

if you know this or not, but there was a cultural

law that existed in the entire period of judges

where if a woman would go out in the field, not

a biblical law, it's not in the scripture, but

if a woman would go out in the field and a man

would take her and he would lie with her, that

if he would then provide for her and provide

her family a dowry, that he could take her against

her will. So if a woman was out, He took her

and as long as he would make her his wife, he

had not sinned in any way as far as the cultural

law said. So this fits the cultural law, but

it does not fit God's law. It is not what God

says. OK, just two more verses. The sons of Benjamin

did so and took wives according to their number

from those who danced, whom they seized. And

they went and returned to their inheritance and

rebuilt the cities and lived in them. And the

sons of Israel. Departed from there at that time,

every man to his tribe and family, and each one

departed from there to his inheritance. And we've

got just the one verse left, which we'll hammer

home next week. Okay? All right. So what we've

got going on here, obviously, we talked a little

bit about last week. We've got a terrible situation

where they're realizing the tribe of Benjamin

could be completely wiped out. The book has been

summarizing the state of Israel all throughout

with the final verse there, verse 25. In those

days, there was no king. Everyone did what was

right in his own eyes. And we'll look at that

more intently next week. But here we see the

tragic consequences of a people who are doing

what they want to do, what they think is right,

not what God has commanded. And that same problem

exists in the quote unquote church. It exists

in communities all over the world where people.

basically say that they are godly, but they do

what they think is right, using human logic and

self -justification. That follows a few lines.

We're going to look at those right now. The first

one is this, finding comfort in human reason.

In other words, if I get out of bed tomorrow,

And I reason I need to do laundry, I need to

do grocery shopping, I need to do cooking, I

need to clean my house, maybe I need to pay some

bills, whatever I reason I need to do. And if

I do those things, by the end of the day, I'm

going to receive some comfort. I'm going to go

like, oh, I made a list of things that I felt

like I needed to do, and I did them. In Judges

21, 9 through 12, we see the Israelites desperately

looking for some kind of pattern, some kind of

justification, some kind of way through. They

created the problem. They eradicated the tribe

of Benjamin completely outside anything that

God commanded or would even allow. Setting out

first to punish men who had done wickedness.

But then when the tribe of Benjamin inflicted

such heavy losses back on them those first couple

of days. We now have a motivation of vengeance,

right? So now we're going to make them all pay.

And they went village to village and all the

soldiers had come out to fight. So they went

village to village and killed every man, woman,

and child. That had nothing to do with anything.

They never even knew about the sin at Gibeah,

right? They never knew about that at all. And

they're one day Israelites right into their town

and destroy them. And that was never meant to

be. They created the problem. And frankly, they

are exhausted by the consequences of their civil

war. They have fought for days. They have lived

away from home. They have not seen their wives

and children. They have lived on sparse rations,

not sparse to the point that they're starving

by any means, but 10 % of the men were tasked

with providing for the other 90%. So they've

lived not glamorously, not, you know, they've

washed their feet less often than they've wanted.

They've not had sex with their wives. They've

not patted their children on their heads or played

jacks on the floor, right? They've not sat in

the cool shade of a tree and meditated on the

word of God. They've been at war for all this

time. Yes, against the wrong people. But they've

been doing this. They're exhausted. They want

it solved. And they are now going to seek comfort

in their own strategic planning. They're going

to say, well, we all made a commitment. We said

cursed are. Therefore, that commitment has to

hold. Right. But we also said that it would be

punished if you didn't come out to fight against

the Benjamins. Oh, look, we have a people who

are. didn't come out to fight against the Benjamites,

and they have virgin daughters, and they actually

didn't make a commitment to not give their daughters,

so this all works. We can weave through this

and get away with it. And getting away with it

is not the goal, right? That was never the goal.

The result of finding, in your human comfort

or in your human reason, finding a way through

that you can do it. For example, like you may

say to a Christian, well, I'm supposed to read

my Bible. And you say, well, I don't really like

reading the Bible. It's not entertaining like

most books. So I'll read some Christian fiction

that has a little bit of Bible in it and that'll

count, right? Or I'll watch some Christian movies

that'll have a little bit of Bible in it. That'll

count. I'll go to church and listen to the pastor

preach. He reads the scripture. That's enough.

That'll count. That's you getting through. That's

you weaving through and finding your way through

past the commands of God to do what in your own

human reason is sufficient. So you find some

comfort. Well, I probably read the Bible more

than anybody else. So I'm good. I have read the

whole Bible through a couple of times over the

last 40 years, so I'm good. I don't really need

to read it anymore. The Word does not say that

if you read it a little or even a lot that it

eventually becomes enough. It just says read

it, right? And so the trap of subjectivity is

the first trap. We start thinking we submit to

the law of God, but really what we're submitting

to is our impression of the law, right? And so

now you have churches out there in the world

who take the certain key passages that speak

against things like murder or speak against things

like homosexual relationships or speak against

things like victimizing other people around you

in various ways, like seeking promotion or saving

all your money for yourself or looking down on

the poor or the sick or the hurting, right? Those

kinds of things. And they reinterpret those verses

just enough. to leave room for them to, by collective

consensus, we as a group say, that people over

there is wrong, so we're going to not have anything

to do with them, or we're going to victimize

them, we're going to talk bad about them, right?

And that is not the goal. If I mention to you,

for example, that I don't agree with homosexual

relationships and the Bible teaches against it,

I'm not saying that because I hate homosexuals,

or that I hate that lifestyle, or that I have

anything against them. I have happily shared

the gospel on any... several occasions probably

six or ten at least with a person who was professing

that lifestyle trying to lead them to christ

and they're like well you but what you're saying

would cause me to not be able to live the way

i live and i want to live the way i live and

i And to which I would say, and we all have been

obviously right. We all have to make that decision

at some point in time. And if you don't make

it today, it's okay. God loves you. I love you.

God is patient. But at some point in time, you're

going to have to make a decision. You're going

to have to draw a line in the sand. Is it what

God says or what I say? And then they say back

to me, yeah, but other people say that that's

not what God says. And I say, well, it says this.

What does this mean to you? Well, I don't think

it means what you're saying it means. Okay. So

at that point in time, then you're not ready

to adjust based on what the scripture is saying.

I completely understand that. If I couldn't accept

what it says about being saved, I wouldn't be

saved either. And for six months, I didn't. Even

though I heard the gospel preached faithfully

month after month, or I'm sorry, week after week,

every week, I didn't get saved for six months

because I didn't agree with what was being said

yet. But then when I realized that that's what

it says and there's nothing I can do about it,

then I had to make a decision. And they're making

a decision. And the decision... that some folks

are making, is not to accept what Jesus teaches.

What I'm saying to you is that's not a decision

that you can make. It's not a decision that I

can make. We cannot be that kind of people of

God that we go by collective census. If we decide

in our membership meeting next week, or two weeks,

that we reinterpret and say, a person's not saved

unless they're baptized, and we reinterpret scripture

that way, then we will be wrong for as long as

we hold that opinion. And the only way to get

past being wrong like that would be to... Repent,

turn back to God, and go by what God says. It's

the only way. There is no other solution. But

as long as we held that and said, okay, well,

then they come to church, we've got to be 100

% sure that they're making some kind of a profession.

But really, if they'll just be baptized, they're

saved. And we start thinking, anybody that will

be baptized will be saved. So we're going to

baptize folks even that don't profess the name

of Jesus. Because they have to be baptized as

part of their salvation. They can profess the

name of Jesus later. We'll get around to that.

See, you start reasoning past. When I was at

my early church in the early days, they said,

When we baptize somebody, they go on the rolls

of the church. They become a member of the church.

And so they had rolls of church with 1 ,100 people,

with 100 people in attendance on a Sunday, 115,

120 people. So 1 ,100 people on the rolls of

the church because that was everybody that they

had baptized for the preceding 40 years. Some

of them were dead. There were members of the

church that were dead, but they put them on the

rolls when they got baptized. So one of my good

friends, Brother in Christ, who was on the staff

of the church, he said, well, here's what we're

going to do. We're going to make them complete

the 13 -week Bible study before we'll baptize

them. So they have to have 13 weeks of Bible

study. Then they can be baptized because then

we're going to put them on the rolls and we're

just going to reverse the order. He reasoned

it out. That made perfect sense to him. And there

were others that agreed. But it didn't make any

sense to me because there's nothing in Scripture

about 13 weeks of study before you get baptized.

In fact, there were people who accepted Jesus

Christ as Lord and Savior and were baptized 15

minutes later. That's not 15 weeks of Bible study

or even one minute of Bible study. There was

no time. OK, you're accepting Christ. Come over

here. Strip off your outer garments. We're going

to baptize you. Right. And so we had that conversation.

We hashed out and we realized that there was

a biblical pattern that we had to follow. Reason

did not allow us to step away from what God had

called us to. And so that did not become the

policy. And our church needs to be a church like

that. We cannot fall into the trap of subjectivity.

We cannot go by collective consensus. It must

be what God wants. We are the priesthood of believers.

There's got to be somebody that comes together

in the membership meeting that is actually listening

to what God is saying. Just one of us has to

get it right. And then everybody else has to

listen to what that person is saying. And FYI,

it's not going to be me. So if you're thinking,

well, we're just going to let the pastor be in

charge. It's not going to be me. This morning

at 10 o 'clock, I had decided in my heart to

do something that God did not want me to do.

And at 10 .15, God was telling me, no, no. And

his voice was getting louder and louder. And

by 10 .30, I had repented, turned back to the

Lord, and he had ruled it out. But what if that's

1 .15 on a membership Sunday and I'm doing that?

We need more than one person who's going to be

the person. Look at the God. You've got to do

it. We all have to do it. Otherwise, we will

fall into the fact that comfort is found in human

reason. We can go, well, this makes sense to

us. We're going to do this because it makes sense.

And I will not be good enough. It will not be

godly. We'll fall into the trap of subjectivity.

We're all going, oh, it all makes sense to us,

right? I remember a time where we were driving

home from the associational meeting, and we had

been there, and there had been like three or

four really important votes. And my pastor mentor

had spoke up at that time and spoke against some

of those votes and things like that. And then

when the time came, he voted against like two

of them, and he was the only person in the room,

and one of them I also voted against, I think,

and there was maybe one or two other people,

but one of them, he was the only person in the

room that voted against it. And everything else

that he didn't vote against passed unanimously.

And they got mad. They were upset because he

voted against it and everybody else voted for

it. And I'm like, first of all, why would you

do that? Right. I had somebody just say to me

recently, there's usually a naysayer in any given

congregation or somebody who's saying, oh, hold

up. Right. And they may be right or they may

be wrong. But if you go months and everybody

votes unanimously for everything, something is

probably wrong because it's pretty unlikely that

everybody in the room is voting based on what

God wants them to vote. It's pretty unlikely

that we're of 100 % the same mind about what

God is doing all the time. There should be somebody

saying, hey, let's think about this. Let's ask

these questions. I'm not ready yet. Or I'm ready

to vote, but I'm going to vote against it because

God is leading me to vote against it, even though

it's probably going to pass if I don't vote against

it. Collective consensus is not what we're doing.

We're talking about each individual prayerfully

seeking God and voting, which is what you should

be doing at the election polls, right? And so

on. Also, there is an illusion of security where

you think our plans work, so we don't have to

depend on the promise of God anymore. God says

if you do these things, he will reward those

things with certain results. That's in scripture.

Test me in this and see if I will not, he says,

when it comes to tithing, for example, in Malachi.

Or show yourself to be a workman who needeth

not be ashamed. Approved, right? Tested by the

events. And those events show up, they test you,

and you are doing the right thing, and you make

it through. When we feel the weight of life's

prices, we often turn to common sense, social

trends, whatever people think we should do. But

if we do not anchor our lives in the word of

God, then we will begin to find comfort somewhere

else. And that eventually leads to our destruction.

You don't need to be comfortable. That's not

even a thing. FYI, comfort is the one thing that

has caused you the most damage since you were

born. Think about it. Comfort. Few extra bites.

Comfort. Got money in the bank, feeling confident

that I'll be okay because I got money in the

bank. Comfort. People are encouraging me. I want

to be comforted. I want to hear what they have

to say. I want them to say positive things about

me. So I'm going to do what they want me to do,

not what God wants me to do. Comfort. I don't

want people looking at me. I'm shy, bashful,

upset about the way people think about me. So

that's going to drive me to behave a certain

way, which is not what God called me to do. And

onward and onward it goes. Comfort is not even

a thing that you need to survive. You know that

being born is uncomfortable. Living on this earth

is uncomfortable. We don't belong here. If you

moved tomorrow to the middle of the Sahara Desert

where you do not belong, do you think you would

be comfortable? You don't belong here. This is

not your home. If you're spending your resources

and your reason to provide comfort for yourself,

you're blowing it. That's not what they're for

because you don't belong here. You belong in

heaven with God as a believer and you're not

meant to be comfortable. That's not the goal.

Comfort, finding comfort through reason. finding

comfort through the illusion of security and

the trap of subjectivity, which is usually found

in collective consensus, those things, finding

that kind of comfort will lead you to your destruction.

Destruction of your family, your family values,

the kingdom, the gospel in your life, the effects

of God in your life, etc. The second thing to

see in the text then is that people make an argument

for why sin seems perfectly reasonable. In verses

13 to 18, there is a dangerous dynamic revealed

where they start thinking about Oh, well, they

made a commitment. Who didn't make that commitment?

By the way, it's super comical if you think about

it at a certain angle. Put Jabesh Gilead in the

promise, right? Cursed is Jabesh Gilead if they

would give their wives to the Benjamites, or

give their daughters to the Benjamites as wives.

So they won't be cursed because they didn't make

that commitment. So let's go kill them all and

take any virgin wives they have and give them

to the Benjamites. It doesn't make any sense.

But things start to make sense when you say,

well, but they didn't make a commitment. We won't

be forcing them to do something that they committed

that they would not do. And they deserve to be

punished because they did not come up and fight

with us. And we said anyone who didn't come up

and fight with us would be punished. So we'll

kill them. That fulfills the... the commitment

that we made to punish anybody who didn't come

up, and then we'll take their virgin daughters

and give them, because they didn't make a commitment

not to give them, we'll give them to the Benjamites.

It's super ironic, but if you look at every logic

that is being used in the world today to justify

evil or wicked behavior, things that God says

are evil, not what I say is evil or wicked, but

God says evil or wicked, you will find the same

kind of circular logic in every situation. They

rationalize evil. They convince themselves that

because their intent was good, preserving the

tribe of benjamin their sinful methods are okay

it's okay to go there kill them all spare their

virgin daughters and give them the benjamites

because we've got to find a way to save the benjamites

also they replaced the absolute command of god

with their own pragmatic calculations this will

work they didn't make the commitment we can we

can let their daughters can go to the benjamites

oh and also they didn't come up and fight so

we can kill them like we killed everybody else

it makes sense pragmatic it works in my head

Like that old saying, it makes a lot of sense

if you don't think about it. And that's what's

going on in the world. People don't want you

to think. They just want you to do what they

want you to do. And if you think, you're going

to go, oh, that doesn't quite make sense. Like

the $30 ,000 car commercials. And they say, go

spend $30 ,000 on a car for the average middle

-aged American because everyone is doing it.

Or middle -class American. But everyone isn't

doing it. Anybody in this room spending $30 ,000

on a new car? So then when you watch every one

of those commercials and they say, go spend $30

,000 on a new car, you get 0 % financing. And

you can pay it back over 10 years, whatever,

and it makes perfect sense. You think no one

is believing it makes perfect sense? If no one

was believing that it makes perfect sense to

do that, why are they spending millions or tens

of millions of dollars a year putting those commercials

on TV? Someone's believing it and buying those

cars at that cost and doing that. And I'm not

saying you can't do that if the Lord leads you

to do that, fine. I'm not saying you can't. What

I'm saying is the world is, and I'm just using

that as an illustration, pushing you all the

time to get you to rationalize the behavior.

To think that it's normal, right? That's why

all the shows that you watch or popular TV, especially

following certain lines, now have certain kinds

of relationships, teaching, right? So most mainline

shows teach that you cannot spank your children

anymore. There's no spanking. And you can't.

And it's completely unacceptable to do that.

Except the Bible teaches that if you never spank

a child, you've got a problem, right? Now, I'm

not saying that you should, right? But you have

to use good judgment of when to and if it's necessary,

then you do, right? And so... All that stuff

is in mainline every TV show that you're watching.

And guess what? You're still watching it. You're

watching it and they're making money off you

watching it. And then they're using that money

to further propagate the agenda elsewhere. And

so the bottom line is the world is pushing us

in a certain way and we start thinking sin is

reasonable. Much like modern culture argues that

love, quote unquote, justifies behavior that

explicitly contradicts God's design for marriage.

So we watch a show, Chicago Fire. Pretty good

show. We like it. The plots are good. The dialogue

is good, etc. But in almost every episode up

until a certain point, they show the beginning,

which we never see it. So I don't actually know

for sure how much they show, but they show the

beginning of an intercourse scene. And for the

first 10 seasons, that's unmarried people, right?

And so we don't watch any of that. We cut it

out. But the fact is that we're, I'm being transparent

here, the fact that we're watching it still provides

money to the people who are producing materials

where they're showing people having sex on TV

or at least beginning to have sex on TV. And

probably, realistically, we should not be watching

it. God has not convicted us specifically not

to watch it. But that's the kind of thing that

we're doing. The world is arguing, says that

love equals sex. That's not true. There is no

place for sex outside marriage or pornography

or soft porn or lusting after the girl who wears

the two tight shorts in the band now to Meyers

on Saturday, right? Or Walmart or whatever. There's

no place for that in the world as a Christian,

but it's happening everywhere. And so now we're

arguing that it's okay. We're thinking, well,

it's okay. It's really not a sin to dress like

that. It's really not a sin to look at people

when they dress like that. If she didn't want

you to look at her, she wouldn't dress like that

and things like that. What's happening is the

world exchanging the holiness of God for the

convenience of man, and we cannot. We cannot.

We cannot fall to what seems reasonable. We must

nonetheless say God's word is inerrant, and it

says no, and therefore we'll have nothing to

do with it. The third thing in there to see is

acting heroically to overcome a problem. Now,

the blessing of this is in our church, as I look

around this room, I see a whole bunch of people

who know how to act heroically to overcome a

problem. You know how to draw a line in the sand.

You know how to say, beyond this point, we will

not tolerate this behavior anymore. We are going

to focus on what it is that God wants us to do

here today. You know how to cancel things in

your schedule to go and do what it is that God

has called you to do. You know how to be in church

on a Sunday morning to worship God, to hear from

his word. And it's sometimes a heroic effort.

We have people who are in this room right now

that find it hard to get out of bed on Sunday

morning and prepare themselves to be here. And

yet they're here. You know how to act. heroically

to do that which God has called you to do. They're

doing nothing less. The army is going in there,

wiping out Jabesh Gilead and taking these wives

because they are trying to solve the problem

that the tribe of Benjamin is going to disappear

from their midst. And that is an intolerable

outcome. And they're right. It is an intolerable

outcome. But the problem of the intolerable outcome

was created by the fact that the men of Israel

went village to village and killed every man,

woman, and child without a mandate of God to

do so. That's an intolerable outcome. They've

created an intolerable outcome. And now they're

going to behave heroically to overcome it. And

when you behave heroically and your solution

is human centered, you manufacture a world in

which God has no place. And that is not a world

that God created. Right. So now when someone

is doing something that you don't like and you

have to get them to stop no matter what, it has

to stop. They have to stop doing that. Right.

And so then you blow up or you behave. badly

or you abuse or you throw a fit so that they'll

be afraid and then they'll stop doing the bad

behavior, right? Or you say, I've got to pay

my bills. My bills have got to be paid. I'm going

to have to heroically step up and pay my bills.

So now I'm going to have to work every Sunday

and not go to worship because it takes a heroic

effort. I've got to heroically do what it is

that I'm called to do in this one area of my

life. But you are equally called to be the called

out assembly of believers. So you cannot take

a job. that requires you to work on Sunday. Hear

me. You would be better off to starve to death

than to take a job that requires you to work

and keeps you out of worship. You're like, I

don't agree with that. We'll get there before

we're done. The bottom line is we are commanded

by the Lord not to put anything in the way of

our faithfully serving the Lord, devoted to him.

They believe that they could manufacture a fresh

start. You believe sometimes that you can manufacture

a person. I was struggling with this. I was doing

this thing. I'm just not going to do it anymore.

That's done. I see how that's not helping me

anymore. And you think you can get out of bed

one morning and just say, well, I'm putting that

out of my life. Sometimes it's a person. Sometimes

it's a job. Sometimes it's a question, a nagging

thing that was bothering you, a purchase that

you used to make. I'm not going to use that product

anymore because I don't like the way it makes

my hair feel. You believe that you are the kind

of person that can draw a line in the sand and

make a fresh start. And in Christ, that's true.

And outside of Christ, it really isn't true.

People just move from one line in the sand to

another. I'm not going to talk to Joe anymore

because Joe talks wrong. Joe says things I don't

like. Joe hurts me. Joe's said bad things about

my wife or my kids or my school or whatever.

So I'm going to just write him off. And then

you go on a little longer and you write off somebody

else. I'm going to write off somebody else. I'm

going to write off somebody else. Pretty soon

you isolate yourself. And that is not what we

are commanded to do or to be as a Christian.

Human -centered solutions always result. in blood,

sweat, and tears spent on something other than

glorifying God. And believe me that blood, sweat,

and tears spent on something other than glorifying

God is not only a sin against the Lord, it's

wickedness in God's eyes. It must be repented

of. And all your blood, sweat, and tears must

get back oriented around the one who spent his

blood, sweat, and tears to save your soul. Stop

working for the benefits of heroically moving

past problems. Instead, Realize that your heroic

efforts, much like the Israelites, should have

all been about glorifying God. You understand

that all the while, they go wipe out Jabesh Gilead,

steal 400 virgin women, turn them over to Benjamin.

All of that. And all the while, their women and

children are at home with their false idols.

And all the while, they're thinking about all

of these other gods that are at best demons and

otherwise don't even exist. They are not focused

on God. They're not doing this for God. They're

heroically intervening in a terrible situation.

Which is awesome, except that they wind up doing

it in an absolute terrible way that just totally

writes God off. And you and I could do the same

thing. You know how to knuckle down. Do not knuckle

down to do what you think is right. Do not knuckle

down to solve a problem by whatever means presents

itself. Knuckle down to focus on God and God's

way and God alone. We are a fallen people, incapable

of saving ourselves or solving the fundamental

problem of our sin, or our heroic efforts would

actually be useful. But they're not. Our greatest

works are insufficient to bridge the gap between

our fallen nature and a holy God. The tragedy

in this text is that the people were searching

for a solution, but they were searching... in

the dark they acted of their own authority because

they had rejected the authority of god we are

all by nature by human nature we are like the

israelites desperate sinful prone to doing what

is right in our own eyes that's what we are outside

christ in christ born again given a new nature

imputed with righteousness and now able to walk

choosing to do the right thing free jesus said

come follow me and then you shall know the truth

and the truth will set you free but do not In

knowing the truth and the truth setting you free,

Paul would write, use that for an excuse for

bad behavior. Rather, instead of solving the

problems in human reasoning, instead of making

an argument for why sin is reasonable or finding

comfort in human reason or acting heroically

to move on from the problem and overcome, instead

of doing that, commit yourself to Christ and

say, if the problem will not be solved with Jesus

at the center, then the problem will just not

be solved. How does that end? If the problem

is significant enough. And it goes unsolved.

Enough. You will die. Well, how does life end?

If Jesus doesn't come again first, you will die.

This is a matter of time. And after your death,

you will be judged based on what you have done

with the Son of God. The question is, was he

at the center of your life or not? Was he your

Lord? Was he your boss? Was he the one in charge

of you? And so if you choose, by human reason,

to stretch out your days on the earth, then you're

more successful financially. You have better

health, better relationships, a prettier spouse

or boyfriend or girlfriend, more kids, kids that

get degrees, kids that get good jobs, kids that

succeed, kids that make you feel good, kids that

show up on holidays and call you and stuff like

that. If you get all of that, all the trappings

of this life and succeed in all that and live

to be 100, and then immediately thereafter, go

to the throne of judgment. And he says, well,

what did you do with my son? He said, well, I

had good kids. Some of them accepted Christ.

But what did you do with my son? Well, I had

a good job. I paid my bills. I was always faithful.

I gave at the church. I mean, I was putting money

in there like that, man. I gave more than most

people I know. But what did you do with my son?

Well, while I was doing all of that, I found

it completely reasonable to solve the ongoing

problems. I really didn't need Jesus to do that

for me. A somber note plays and God in his kind

of challenging voice says, but what did you do

with my son? And in that moment, you realize.

That in all your hard work, in all your education,

all your finances, all your family, all your

problem solving, all your reasonable excuses,

all your finding comfort in your reason, you

completed the task, it succeeded, God must be

blessing me because I'm doing okay. All your

making an argument for why certain things that

you were doing that you actually knew were wrong

were still okay to do even though you knew that

they were wrong. All your acting heroically to

solve problems and the successes that you had

as you found your way through to deal with what

was facing you, all of that. In all that, you

forgot to have a king who transcends all of that

and supplies you with your utmost need, which

is salvation, which is eternity in heaven with

God. If you're trying to fix your life today

through your own reasoning or your own works,

stop. Draw a line in the sand. We already know

you can knuckle down. We know you can be determined.

Stop. Stop today. Stop living in that relationship

that is ungodly. Stop making that choice that

is ungodly. Stop putting other things first.

If it's a dollar, if it's a job, if it's a problem

solution, if it's a reason, whatever, stop putting

other things first and put Jesus alone first.

You cannot manufacture your own righteousness.

Come to Christ today by grace through faith alone.

And just say, right now, today, I will follow

Jesus and Jesus alone. Not a buck, not a reason,

not a challenge, not an overcoming, not my knuckling

down, not the getting it done. I will follow

Jesus and Jesus alone. Christ is our king and

sufficient. He is enough. He is our only hope.

And I have a handout, okay? Before I give you

the handout, I'm going to walk through it briefly,

okay? But everything, I'll take notes on this.

I see not very many, only a couple people taking

notes, all right? But I'm going to give you this

to take home, all right? The page is entitled,

marks of a devout christian life so you know

what the word devout means i'm gonna give you

a little literal definition but what it means

in this context is that jesus is at the center

that jesus is leading jesus is the boss that's

what a devout christian life means and if you

have a devout christian life then here's a list

it's 10 but actually it's 11 so i made 10 and

it came out to be 11 so there you go all right

so the devout christian prays scripture says

continual, persistent communication with God.

It is an ongoing conversation. You don't stop.

You don't start again. If you sit down to pray

for your dinner and like you go, hello God, and

that's an addressing God for the first time that

day, you have sinned in being a Christian. You

are not devout if your prayers start at mealtime.

If you wake up in the morning and you first talk

to God, and that's the first time you talk to

God in 24 hours, you didn't talk to Him all day

yesterday, you have sinned against the God of

heaven who created you, who created me, who created

the universe. Pray. Talk to God. Bring persistent

requests with thanksgiving. Have private and

sincere prayer. Not prayer, not for show, not

so that people think you're praying, but because

you're talking to God. Pray. Scripture engagement,

meditating on God's word, being a doer of the

word, not just a hearer, and rightly handling

and teaching the word of truth. You must use

the Bible as your manual for life. For the men

in the room, it's the big joke, right? We don't

like to use the owner's manual when it comes

in. We don't like to follow the instructions.

I can just do it without. That's the big joke.

Sometimes we know enough to know better, right?

It comes with 4 ,000 parts. We're like, oh, I'm

going to follow it exactly the way it is, right?

But then if something comes in, it's only got

like four or five directions. I'm like, I think

I can just do it. This is it. This is how we

live. This is what we, it's not the sermons.

The sermons is this, right? The sermons is pointing

to this, talking about this. You need to handle

the word of God on a regular basis. If you would

sit down under a shade tree later today and want

to think about the word of God and no verse jumps

into mind, there's no verse that you can meditate

on and say, what does it mean? How am I supposed

to live on it, live by it? How am I supposed

to act that out in my life? You've got work to

do. You should have a body of verses that you

know by memorization. You don't need a Bible.

You can sit and meditate on the word of God.

And then you can do the things that it commands

you to do. And you don't need to make excuses

or twist it so it supports what you're doing.

Worship and corporate gathering. The church comes

together. This is what we do. Jason, Jason, wake

him up. Ace, wake him up. The church comes together.

on Sunday morning, and the church goes to bed

on Saturday night so the church can come together

on Sunday morning. And you don't fall asleep

when God's word is being preached. You don't

fall asleep during the worship. If you're falling

asleep, you get up and stand up. If you're having

back pain, you get up and stand up. The men in

the room, that is an absolute necessity. If you

are not 100 % engaged during the sermon, during

the worship, during the preaching, stand up.

And if your wife or your girlfriend needs help

to stand up, you hold her up. And if your child

needs help to stand up, you hold them up. This

is us coming together. The Bible says do not

neglect the meeting. The Bible says we are singing.

This is Christian 101. We sing, give thanks,

and corporate praise. Colossians 3 .16 and Psalm

100 and a dozen other places. Observing the Lord's

Supper. We do that together on a regular basis

so as not to forget what Jesus has done for us.

It's worship and the corporate gathering. I fully

understand that there are Christians out there

that will tell you. I'm about to get myself in

some trouble if this makes it online, to tell

you that they can be a Christian without going

to church on Sundays or once a week. And I'm

here to tell you that's a lie. That's a lie.

It isn't true. He said, but I know Christians

that don't go to church and they act godly. I

had an atheist friend for the first 30 years

of my life who acted more godly than any Christian

I know who goes to church. Don't tell me they

act godly. They profess the name of Jesus. I'm

also saying if they profess the name of Jesus

and say they don't have to go to church, I'm

also saying you don't get to judge them and say

they must not be saved. But I'm telling you that

the Word of God says Christians are in church

on Sunday, on the Lord's Day. James, the brother

of Jesus, who called Jesus nuts while Jesus was

alive, they came to collect him because he'd

gone crazy. They wanted to go home and see if

they could help him somehow. Immediately after

Jesus is resurrected, switches his worship from

the Jewish Sabbath day, which is Saturday, to

Sunday, the resurrection day. A devout Jew. And

they stopped working on Sunday and they stopped

doing everything else on Sunday that they had

to do to give God first place on Sunday. We worship

together on Sunday. Christians do. Love and service

toward others. Love your neighbor as yourself,

bearing one another's burdens, serving using

one's gifts, practical care for the poor, widows

and orphans. I've given you scripture reference

for all of those things. We look for any need

that we can meet and we try to meet it. I recently

had a brother. I was talking with him. He's having

a vehicle difficulty. We have two men in our

church who have probably four, actually, all

have vehicle difficulties at the same time. And

the one brother was like, well, I have some resources.

I'm able to solve this problem. And he's like,

you know what? I'm able to solve the problem

for me. And at the same time, I might be able

to solve this problem for one of these other

guys who's having a vehicle problem without getting

paid back, without asking for a payment, because

I might want to do that. That's the kind of person

I want to do that. Now, I'm not naming that person

because I didn't ask for permission in advance,

and it might make them feel a little, you know.

Out of sorts if I shared their life story. But

bottom line, it's a good story. They're going

to like, well, I have this much money. It solved

my problem. But I can use part of this money.

I'm able to solve somebody else's problem too.

If I can get two vehicles for this money, I'll

just give one of them to this other guy who's

having a problem. That's the Christian attitude.

That's what it means to be a follower of the

Lord Jesus Christ. And if your love and your

service are to get you ahead financially, you're

not doing it. You don't got it. Jesus Christ

came and died on the cross as the supreme act

of love. And before he did that, he got up, wait

for it, and washed Judas Iscariot, who would

be the guy who would turn him over so he'd be

crucified, washed his feet. He washed Judas'

feet, and then Judas turned him over, and he

was crucified. Love and service toward others.

Evangelism and discipleship. I hit this one a

lot because I know as Christians, we let it go.

The Great Commission is Jesus' last words on

earth. Go ye therefore and make disciples. You're

supposed to tell people about Jesus. You're supposed

to tell them about his word and lead them to

follow him. We have the Great Commission, being

ready to give a reason for one's hope, 1 Peter.

We have making disciples, teaching others, 2

Timothy. A bunch of others. The pursuit of holiness.

Transformed. Not conformed to the world. Romans

12. Putting off the old self and putting on the

new. Ephesians 4. Fleeing sin and pursuing righteousness.

2 Timothy. Producing the fruit of the spirit.

Galatians 5. And I could have done more. We are

new people now. Live like a new person. Crying

out loud. If what you're doing feels like...

you're pushing the envelope of God's grace, then

you probably are pushing the envelope of God's

grace. Stop it and live like a new person in

the pursuit of holiness. Fasting, we've been

talking about for three months and yet practice

privately, not for show. So we have some folks

who say, well, I did this. I've asked for 30

days and this was the effect and give some good

testimony. And it's been great. We've had a dozen

people now in our fellowship that include myself,

who've had a powerful experience of fasting.

But this is not the first time. that we did a

focus on the spiritual discipline of fasting.

And when it ends, the need to fast will not end.

It is a commanded spiritual discipline. You should

be fasting. Whatever that looks like for you,

led by Jesus, you should be doing it. Stewardship

and generosity, cheerful, sacrificial giving,

tithing, honoring God with your resources, faithful

use of time, talents, and resources. And I could

have done a dozen more. The bottom line is whatever

God has given you, you should be using it for

his glory, starting with the tithe and the offering.

And otherwise, if you're taking that money, then

don't expect God to multiply your resources because

that's not how it works. Confession and repentance.

People need to be open. We'll have an invitation

at the end of this service. We have it at the

end of almost every service. And weeks will go

by, week after week after week, and nobody's

confessing. You're making decisions in your heart,

but nobody's saying, hey, so you know, that was

me even up to last week. I was doing this thing.

It's ungodly. I'm repenting now. Please pray

for me. Sometimes people do respond. Or they

wait until the invitation's over and then they

want to respond and we start to pray. And just

mention it as a prayer request. The Bible says,

confessing sin to God and one another and ongoing

repentance, turning from sin. That is what we

are called to as Christians. No one here is going

to judge you if you say, hey, I was lying and

I need to stop and I'm trying. I'm begging God.

And I ask you to beg God with me. No, and if

you do, if they have a problem with you, then

they have a different problem with God. And God

will take care of them. Two more. trials and

perseverance. We should be counting our trials

like you get ticked off when things go wrong.

I get ticked off when things go wrong, right?

But the bottom line is we should be counting

our trials as opportunities for growth. It says

consider it pure joy. The next time you have

a difficulty, don't reason your way to being

stupid about it because that's just doing what

they were doing. Instead, go, this difficulty

is going to make me a better person by the time

I'm done. It can make me more godly. I don't

know how yet. I'm asked to believe that. And

rejoice. In fact, I give you this hat. The next

time you start to get ticked off because things

are going wrong, I want you to sing the happy

birthday song. It was not my birthday. Yeah,

I don't care. You got a better song? Rejoice

in the Lord always that you happen to have in

your memory. Sing that one. The next time things

are going crappy and you're getting upset because

they're going crappy, I want you to say, God

is allowing things to go crappy right now. Praise

God. Because that's exactly what's happening.

And we endure those things with hope and we run

the race with endurance. And the last one is

submission to God and Godly leadership. And is

that not today's sermon? This is what they did

not do. When you should be submitting to God,

James 4, 7, you should be respecting and following

God's leaders, Hebrews 13, and accountability

within the body, Matthew 18. So you see where

this is going, except you kind of don't, because

this is where I'm actually going. This is what

a devout Christian looks like. And if I took

my life and I measured it by this standard, we

wouldn't hold up. Because some days I do all

11. Some days I only do half of them. Some days

I do all 11, but I'm doing them for the wrong

reasons. And I'm guessing if that's the way it

is with me, it's probably the way it is with

all of you too. And nonetheless, this is the

standard of what a devout Christian is. So if

you're doing it for God, you can take this paper

and you can say, I'm going to do all of these

things from now on and make that the standard

because that is the standard. That's what a standard

means. That's what I'm going to do. I'm going

to do all of this from now on. And then when

you run into things in your life that you've

been justifying, you can say, no more. They don't

fit. It doesn't fit anymore because I have to

do all of these 11 things. So I've got to cut

that out and say, but maybe I'm still only getting

eight. So if you're only getting eight, does

that mean you stop trying to get 11? No. If you're

only getting one, does that mean you stop trying

to get 11? No. This is the standard of a devout

Christian that Jesus laid out and Paul laid out

in the New Testament. So you take the 11 and

you live it the best you possibly can, the best

that Jesus will let you. And in the meantime,

Jesus is going to count you as if you were living

them all. Which means, like I hammered home that

people are supposed to be in church on Sunday,

and if people out there think that they're being

Christians, that they're not in church on Sunday,

that means that we cannot say to them that they're

not Christians. That's not our job. But one day,

one day they will stand before Jesus and you

will ask them, what did you do with the truth

about Jesus? Was Jesus center of your life? Now

you tell me, how many would you have to be getting

right in order for Jesus to be the center of

your life? Well, it ain't zero. It also isn't

probably 11. Will you maybe think about the fact

that You're reasoning why you don't have to do

certain things. Why I don't have to read the

Bible. Why I don't have to tell people about

Jesus. Why sometimes I go to church and sometimes

I don't. Or Bible study and sometimes I don't.

Why I don't read my Bible sometimes for three

or five or ten days at a time. Or a month. Or

maybe not four months. What human reasoning is

going to hold up when you stand before the God

of the universe and he says, Was Jesus at the

center of your life? And you say, well, yeah,

he was, but I just never quite gotten around

to praying. Yeah, he was, but I just never quite

gotten around engaging with the word. Jesus says

that this is like what men live on. Man lives

not by food, but by every word that comes out

of the mouth of God. It's time. It's time for

you to draw a line in the sand, knuckle down

and say, God first, Jesus first in everything.

And I'm asking you if it's the first time you

ever did it to be saved. That's literally what

I'm asking for. And say, no, I have done it,

but I also have used human reason to find comfort.

I got into the trap of subjectivity and I'm done.

Then I'm asking you to repent and turn back to

Jesus and renew your commitment to have him and

him alone as Lord. You stop being Lord. Trust

me, that does not go where you want it to go.

I was watching, I don't know that I'll be able

to continue to watch, but I was watching a Spider

-Man series that came out and I just thought

it'd be kind of cool because it's set like in

a old black and white kind of 50s genre kind

of thing. It's Spider -Man Noir, it's called,

I think that's how it's pronounced. And there's

a guy on there and he's a flame dude. And the

detective, who is Spider -Man, his alter ego,

was following me. He said, if you keep following

me, this is not going to end the way you think

it's going to end. It's not going to end the

way you want it to end. And if you're following

me, I can say that to you. Don't do it. Follow

Jesus. If you're following somebody else in your

family, I can say, don't do that. That's not

going to end the way you want it to end. If you're

following Satan or a demon or your own reason

or yourself, stop it. It's not going to end the

way you want it to end. But if you follow Jesus

and Jesus alone, That'll end the way you want

it to end. That's the praise team to come forward

at this time. We have our closing hymn. If the

Lord is speaking to your heart in some way, you've

been reasoning your way to that behavior, what

God would call that behavior, then you repent

right now. And as we sing today, rather than

responding, coming forward to the front of the

room, I'm just going to ask you to raise your

hand. If that's you, just raise your hand. I'm

not going to call on everybody. We don't have

time to do confession across the room. There's

going to be a whole bunch of people. If you really,

really, really need to name it, then you just

name it. Stand where you are and say, that's

me. I've been doing this and I'm done. whatever

that is, just need. And then anybody that raised

their hands, we're going to voice a prayer to

the Lord and let the Lord work in us to put to

bed whatever that thing is. And we're going to

walk from here on out, we're going to walk with

Jesus as leader, with Jesus at the center of

our lives, the best we can as devoted Christians.

devoted not to ourselves or to our church, but

to our Lord. Would you stand with me as we sing

this song? And if the Lord has pressed it upon

your heart to do so today, then anytime there

is a song, you raise your hand right where you're

at, and I'll recognize it. You don't have to

hold it up the whole time. You won't be called

on to speak. But that raising of your hand will

be your public confession that there are things,

and you're turning them over to the Lord. I'm

raising my hand this morning, so now you're praying

for me. I see another hand. Anybody raise their

hand in your mind. You're praying for them. You're

praying for us. See that hand. You're praying

for every one of us. You're praying for us. You're

praying for us. You're praying for us. Human

reason. Our best ideas. Jesus at the center.

Jesus in charge. Anyone else? Father in heaven,

bless us. Fill us with your Holy Spirit. Let

every meal taken, let every task undertaken,

let every little penny, every dollar earned be

yours. I see that hand. Father God, as these

who have their hands raised, even now, those

who just put their hands up now, realize that

things are going to walk with you, Lord. You're

praying today, Lord, that we be a holy people,

that we be a people following you. Not following

our family, not following our finances, not following

our best reason, our best thought processes to

get where we're trying to get. Lord, we sure

have made a mess of things already. You can see

where we made a mess. We don't want to make a

mess of our future. We want our future to be

built upon that rock. We're going to dig deep.

We're going to dig deep and build on a firm foundation

that is our Lord Jesus Christ and your word every

day that each day we give out to you. Last chance

for a good man and a good nation out to see you.

Put your hands down. Sing this song like you

mean it. Never let me go. Fall down again. Hear

you say that I'm your friend. Let this be true,

Lord. My desire. What else will do? Nothing else

could take the blame. Feel the warmth of your

embrace. Help me find the way. Bring me back

to you. Help me know you are. Okay, we're going

to close in prayer. All right, we're going to

close in prayer. I'm sorry, you can have this

one and I'll get one. We're going to close in

prayer at this time and then we're going to go

out there and there's another one coming. Every

person gets one, not every family. I made 40,

so I think we should have enough. Also, you can

take one for your spouse if they're teaching

with the kids, and we'll try to make sure everybody

gets access to it. Those are the extras? Yep.

You got one for yourself, right? I'll take those.

You got one? Okay, there we go. All right, we're

going to close the prayer at this time. Now we're

going to go out. And those of us who raised our

hand, at least it's a new day. We draw a line

in the sand and say, OK, what's in my life that

God is going to bring in line with him? And I'm

going to let him do that. OK. And those of you

made a decision in your heart, but didn't raise

your hand. It's the same thing. You make a commitment

to God. You keep it. Look how stupid they were

about keeping commitments that God would never

even have wanted them to keep. Right. It is not.

I'm not saying you're going to just grit your

teeth and force yourself to do the things that

God wants you to do. Love the Lord. Love those

things. Love the things that God has called us

to and let God empower you to do them. They are

really incredible things. There's nothing like,

and you've probably experienced, I'm preaching

to the choir on this one, but you know what it's

like when you talk to God and you know he's listening

and he speaks back to you and you feel him move

and feel he's changing something, feel he's doing

something. It's like that with every one of these

things. And there's probably more. I could have

gone beyond 11. The bottom line is the most important

one is Jesus first in all things. And some things

just don't belong when it's Jesus first in all

things, and they've got to go. And other things

have to be added. That's what it means to be

a follower. All right, we're going to pray together

in closing. Let's see. Brother Tim, would you

close us in prayer? I'm willing to pray along

with you. Dear Lord, thank you so much that we

have one more day to learn about you here. Yes,

Lord. That we can serve you. Give us one more

day. And forgive us where we've failed you, Lord.

Yes, Lord. Help us to... recognize your only

failure, your only sin, that you make tons of

proper sins, and show us the right path, that

we should bring glory and honor to your name,

and all things that we do, that others may see

it, that we may tell them in whatever way that

we can tell them, that you are the Lord, and

that they need you. It's much more worth speaking

out the message of sin and destruction of humanity,

and instead they talk about fixing and repairing

our lives. Amen. Thank you very much. Go use

it for and be the church.