They wear people sit that they absorb the most of the teaching okay. I'm not picking on anybody or anything like that
but so if the if the pastor is the one doing the teaching and
This is the teaching tone
So it's about a 45 degree angle straight out on the right and on the left
Which means everybody in this little section over here is outside the teaching code and everybody's this little second here
Thanks to the outside
Come the brother Chris the teaching come goes right through your head. So half your head is in a teaching cone and half your head is out
All right, so that's the worldly concept of the teaching come you will hear more you will absorb more
You will remember more all that is true and that's actually
There's more to it than that okay, so in the words if you go to class, so this is what happened to me
I was going to
right next Christian college
for my Bible college degree and
And when I went there when I started going there, I bet you know who told me to go there
Who do you think was?
That's right. God told me to go there. I'm gonna real quick and just like 90 second 30 this story
Okay, so I'm driving home and on the side of the road. I see a huge bulletin board for greatly Christian college
I've been praying about where I can go to school at and as I'm right
I said all this great Christian college right and I and I started thinking about praying on some board
Am I supposed to do that and God told me just like
Oddly urged me audibly that to look into that's where I want you to school at so I get home and Sherry says to me
I want to talk to you about something really excited really important. I'm like, okay
Well, I'm really excited before I was gonna tell her was gonna go to Bob. I was that right and and I said well you go ahead
And she said so
Today I found out that she got fried. She was working in the feedback right that's how I'm fishing manager
I know as a restaurant manager restaurant manager in Lansing. She said today
I found out that our restaurant partners with great late Christian college
And I think you should look into that to find out whether or not God wants you to go there
And I said well, let me tell you what just happened to me. So that night I went out with my application in and I
Immediately the next day whatever I accepted into a pretty elite program for people who you had to be 30 years old and
You had to be changing careers and calls like on the preach and teach
So and then they would talk to you and talk to your wife and figure out whether or not God was really calling you
It's a pretty big deal
So I was accepted right away in that program
And I went sat down with the counselor and he said you don't look old enough to do this and I said well
I am 31. Thank you very much
And I get that a lot
But anyway the point is this God called me to go to Bible Cards
So now if God called me to go to Bible Cards, I'm gonna do this
Right. I'm gonna
Supposed to do everything you do a different one for God
But if you know what you're doing God called you to you gotta do that a little different
I mean you got a really so in every class I sat in the front row right in the middle and from the professor
Because I've heard the world teaching of the teaching cone
but
That is a world we keep
That's true on a psychological level on a social level and all of that is true that geographically in this room
When I stand up here teach everybody that's between this line. I'm sorry training here just outside the line baby
Okay, or over here to write about we're highly interested like that line if you're in that line
You're going to absorb us if you're a person who struggles to learn you want to be in there
Your person can't remember week to week what was said you want to be in there that's psychosocial true. That's true
But guess what the Christian teaching cone is?
It's not physical. Oh, it's not physical. It's spiritual. Okay, so really you need to come ready
You need to be so you should be praying you should be reading your Bible
You should be serving you should be given doing all those things and if you're doing all of those things
Then it's not really a geographical thing so much anymore
It's spiritual so people could be outside of line if you did the work before you came today. You'll be perfectly fine outside the line
Right, but if you didn't do the work
As you I get in the line because when you're in there, you'll hear more you'll see more you'll remember more
Okay, so sometimes like we have have a bunch of teenagers a kid over here and they're like what did he say?
What was the line?
What was the line whatever and and I might say and I'm just kind of warning you all they might not be here
So if you're a teenager you can warn this might happen right I might say get in the teaching cone move to the middle
Right, we're not gonna make a rule or anything
We say move to the middle because you ask that's the third time you asked me
What that was and I'm not saying I don't want that I do want you to ask
But I also realized if you're in here, you're gonna get more
psychole psychologically socially
analytically to that end I have an object lesson
Somewhere I'm sorry for this. I didn't tell I didn't give anybody warning somewhere inside the teaching cone
There's a five dollar Walmart gift card under somebody's chair
So if you're sitting inside the teaching cone Chris you can check you're sitting inside the teaching cone check under your chair
It's tucked up under your chair
Looking everybody only and only the chair you're in it's in another chair. You can't have it
Emily's you check under your chair
Check better check good. I think it's you're pretty close. You're right in the right area
It was randomly done
Right in this area somewhere
Okay, give it to Emily that was randomly placed so that might happen again sometime
Nothing negative is meant if you choose to sit outside
I'm not gonna pick on you or anything like that, but spiritually listen listen
spiritually you've got to prepare you got to come in at the case time to worship
It's time to learn time to grow and you might go like you know what my learning curve is not what somebody else
I might not pick up as much as somebody else does. It's okay, right? You get what you get out of it and if you get
40% of what's being dealt from the pulpit from the inspirational moment or whatever hold on bud
All right, if you get 40% you have grown a lot
Right and we have to give a lot more than the average person can get can pick up
Because some people can pick up more than other people right or some people might need something
That's not contained in there until we get to that 91st percent percent
Right, we might not say the thing that you really need to hear you might only you don't get when we do it like this
100% you don't just get the bottom 40% you get some here some here some here some here all the way
You can turn sideways if you want and make it a pie shape if you want whatever you get some all over and that's the stuff
That God really wants you to remember so come prepared come ready, and you'll be in the spiritual teaching tone
Yes, you have a question
Yep, there's a lot of Bible floating around because if somebody needs to borrow my way to read it they can
Okay, when you go to classroom, there's something in the class. We're pretty doing
All right, so we're gonna do one more song and then you're gonna go in there and there's finals in classroom so you can
Reload your classroom. Okay. Yeah, so you don't get to take them home with you today. That's another day
All right, you'll have one girl
All right, so we're gonna pray together and then we have one song and then the kids are going to the classroom
And they're gonna have a lot of fun learning more about Jesus
And we will eat candy. I don't know about that. We'll eat candy. All right, calm down. We're gonna pray and when we go to the classroom
We're gonna listen to our leaders and be well behaved, right?
Miss Sherry, my wife and brother Tommy.
Okay, and that information is in the bulletin on Sundays if you're on Sunday
You can know who's teaching on Tuesday and all of our teaching parents are excellent. So let's pray
Father in heaven, I do thank you so much that you lay it on our hearts to want to hear from you
To learn everything we can from you. You know so much
You know everything, you know all the future pulls in store
You know what's going on in every state in the different states in every country in the world
You know every Christian that's aching right now
You know the number of the hair in our head scripture says you put this time together so that we might be early for you
That might desire to know me more. That's exactly what we want
And then as we go around for you find you never far away in the first place
You are always lingering near loving on us and wanting us to be in fellowship
Thank you for sending us on Jesus. Thank you for letting us be here
Thank you for the chairs and the carpet and the lights and the instruments and the heart of this people
To be together learning and growing in you if there is somebody in this place
Young or old who is not truly given their life over you and said I'm living for God through Jesus
I pray that they will do that before they leave the building today that they will not put it off
It is too important to delay and that they will live their entire lives thinking what does young look like today and doing exactly that
I pray Lord that we'll be able to find it because you give it to us and we'll be ready to hear it
This worksheet was one of the more challenging worksheets that I have made
Because I ran into something unexpected while I was doing it and hopefully I'll be able to help you see that
By the time we're done
So we are still looking at parables we will be looking at parables for a while
We're looking at a variety of different parables so that we we want to get fluent in the language of parables
We want to get used to this method of
Communication that God uses for us to understand as you'll recall
The parable serves a purpose it is to get to to elicit a response and a request from the hearer
And so when we hear the actuals
When we hear a parable we should go to God
And so we're going to hear a parable another one
Today from the Old Testament and it is used in a very kind of unique way
That even even more unique and it kind of caught me off guard a little bit as I was studying it in preparation for today
So if you look right at the top of your page right above the first arm of that there
That's a bramble that they're bramble bramble is like a low-lying foreign bush that kind of creeps along and grabs on to everything a bramble and
Right at the top there. It should say judges
The references chapter 9
Judges 9 beginning in verse 5 and we actually will go through verse 20. So it's 9 5 dash 20
It's what you have at the top that was pretty much the easy part and then if you'll go right down across the brambles
You'll see it says parables six
parables six and
Then under that it says the fable of the trees fable of the trees
And so what we have is a person in this story and I'll clue you in as to who he was why he was the occasion of all
We'll do all of that
That was a telling the fable of the trees and it is a parable and the things in the parable kind of represent something
So that people can learn what it is that he's trying to
Get them to learn they should theoretically respond and request more information, but you'll see they don't
And that's interesting and it goes very poorly for them because of that
And so that was really neat that I was able to kind of make that connection myself and hopefully I'll be able to help you see it
Okay, so this is judges chapter 9 beginning in verse 5 and we'll be reading it
You see it says read start I start reading there and we're working down the page and I'll clue you in
And then we have some things off to the side and those things are about that thing
so like it says location and then the arrow off the side is gonna talk about the location and
Then it says spoken by and those blanks on the right are gonna talk about the person who spoke it
And then the occasion is gonna be down and so on so we're just working down the page
You very much sir. Okay, so here we go. This is
Judges chapter 9 verse 5
Hold on one second
Okay, there's four five right
so
Then he the he is a bimalek, okay
So I'll go back and give you a little bit more about that in a minute
But the he is then he a bimalek went to his father's house at Ophrah and killed his brothers
The sons of Jerobal here's an interesting trivia question
Does anybody know who Jerobal is by a name that everyone would recognize or most people would recognize?
Who had the alternate name Jerobal does anybody remember?
Nope not Jeremiah. It's Gideon
Gideon okay, and he got the name Jerobal early on because he was basically warring against the prophets of ball and the false teachings of
Ball, okay, and so this guy Gideon you remember Gideon Gideon's the guy with the 300 right?
So Gideon has a huge army guys that you got too many people if you do it now
It's not big enough to win
But if you do it now everybody'll think you did it because you had a big army so
We're gonna let all the men who are afraid to go home
They all bunch of them went home and now we're all gonna have them all down to the water
If they bend over to drink or if they keep looking around then that'll determine whether you get to stare
I got down to 300 men and then those 300 men went in with the pitchers and the torches
Right and they scared the camp and the camp got up and they all killed each other
Basically is what happened and God delivered them that day through the hands of Gideon that army was a Midianite army
So that's the background story for Gideon's an awesome dude, right? He's a judge. He's a judge for God
He's a leader for God, okay?
And now he's got all these sons and a bimalek who was his son the bimalek was his son
Goes and kills all of his brothers all the sons of Gideon you could put him there if you want
70 men on one stone so a bimalek
Takes a bunch of higher cretins basically and kills his 70 brothers all on one stone
All right now there that word there is not on your page but that word there where it says on one stone
It could be a sacrificial stone to the to the false God ball
And so what he may have sacrificed all of his brothers to ball at that time
But they don't know for sure if that word means that so they just say on a stone on one stone
But Jotham the youngest son of Jerbal was left for he hid himself
So there was one youngest son that survives so he is a brother
Kind of a half brother right because not same mother but a brother to a bimalek who just killed all 70 of their other brothers
in verse
6 says and all the men of Shechem and all Beth Milo
Assembled together now the word Beth Milo is a weird word and they have a hard time translating it
We don't really know for sure what it's referring to
but
It could have been a town it could have been a clan could because it could mean the house of Milo
Right, so they're not 100% Beth is house in
Hebrew and so it could be the house of Milo or it could have been a town called that or whatever
So they really don't know for sure, but all the men of Shechem that they do know and and Beth Milo assembled together
And they went and made a bimalek king
I
Did this by the oak of the pillar which was in Shechem?
so Shechem was a big city and
It was kind of between two or like a key point where a valley comes through and like all the merchants would come through
Okay
Now when they told Jotham he went and stood on the top of Mount Garazim and lifted his voice and called out
Okay, so I'm gonna stop there for a second. So the location is what?
Mount Garazim, okay now Garazim is spelled G-E-R-I-Z-I-M
There's two I's it sounds like there's an A in there, but there's not it's G-E-R-I-Z-I-M
So it looks like Garazim
Okay, so that's the location
So now we're gonna follow the arrow over for a second to the left follow your arrow over to the left big fat arrow there and
The first word starts with an M and it is
We're talking about the location M is what?
Mountain that's correct. So
Mount Garazim
Was a mountain
Okay, and it was one of two
Does anybody know what the other one was it was one or two and it's the W is with and the other one starts with an E
And it is Bible scholars
Anybody no clue
Nope, that is real
Okay, it's Ybal E-B-A-L
Okay
I'll give you a little bit more in a second
But right now just go with me as we get through the rest of these blanks. Okay, so it's a mountain one of two with Ybal
And then it is the M-O-B
I'm gonna take a stab at it. If you don't know the history you might have trouble with this part
How about if I fill in the history and then you'll see if you get it, okay?
So these two mountains Garazim and Ybal sit side by side and there's a pass that runs in between
Okay, and when the Israelites came into the promise line since I start telling the story
Oh, I kind of vaguely think I remember this when the Israelites came to the promise land and I think it's Deuteronomy 27
Moses told them that once they went in there
They were supposed to form all the men up on both mountains one on one side at one mountain and one on the other and
One side they were going to tell all the blessings that God was going to give them as they went into the land and the other
Mountain was going to tell all the curses that God was going to give if they didn't do it
I remember this whole story. Maybe maybe not if not it's in the book Joshua highly recommend you read
It's really good stuff. Okay, so they got up there and they cried out the blessings and they cried out the curses and
Mount Garazim then was the now look at the blanks Mount of blessings exactly
So Mount Garazim was the mount of blessings
So now realize that this is this story that we're reading is taking place a little over a hundred years
After that story. I just told you
When Joshua had them all go up on the mountain they actually did it right Moses look before that
You know almost 200 years really that they were told to do it
But then only a little over a hundred years later this
What event that we're studying today was taking place this parable is being told
Okay, and so they were up on this mountain a little over a hundred years ago
pronouncing blessings and
the Israelites stood here to
SL and we stab at it. I think it could be they stood on the mountain
They did follow the commands of Moses and they stood there to do to SL
Not that's really close a shout is right. So the S is shout. It's not literature. It was loud, but that's not the right L
loyalty
Okay, remember that they were given the blessings that they would get by God when they went into the land
They would the curses that they would get if they did not remain loyal to the Lord
So the blessings were all about loyalty there if you go back and read them
You'll see they were like yes, we're for God and God's for us and these things are awesome things are gonna happen
It's gonna be great the people over here are like well
We're for God too and these are the horrible things that are gonna happen if we don't follow God and we're for God too, right?
But Mount Garzim was the mount of blessings and the people stood on the mountain to shout their loyalty
So this scene that we're studying there today
If you follow the arrow down a little bit
Actually, let's leave those blanks for a minute because you'll get a better idea as we actually look at what happens during the scene
So you can leave those there. We'll fill them in later. Okay, it's gonna be H
HD when the time comes but okay, so going back up to location
We just talked about Mount Garazim
So if anybody asked what Mount Garazim was it's one of the two mountains
It was the mount of blessings and the Israelites stood on that mountain to shout their loyalty to God now
He's standing there. Who's he help me? Correct. Very good Jotham. He Jotham is one standing there
Okay, and so if you'll see spoken by charge of the J Jotham, okay?
And I follow over to write we talk about Jotham for a minute
And this is a little tricky, but if you're listening closely, I can read it again if nobody gets it
Why s the youngest son? That's good. Somebody was listening very good. He's the youngest son
That's tough detail to pick out if you weren't paying close attention and he was also the OS very good only survivor
So he's the youngest son and the only survivor of the massacre because he hid yes, that's right
Which is what I would have done. I think at that point if your 70 brothers aren't good enough to hold it
You're the youngest hold up to it. You're the youngest son
I think hiding is about your only option unless you've got a good course to run away
Okay, and then so he's standing up there. This is a little trickier
It's not really in what we read but it's kind of you kind of see what's coming, right?
He stands up there in Mount Garazim and his purpose. Why is he doing it? Cs?
Okay, so let's go back into the text and you will get it. All right, that's how far we've gotten so far, okay?
So we're just gonna go back for one second to you verse
Seven at the top the very top judges nine five to twenty and I'm reading in verse seven right now
I'm sorry fuck yeah nine five to twenty and I'm reading in verse seven now when they told Jotham
He went and stood on the top of Mount Garazim. So what did they tell him now?
Be why he that's why he went there, but what did they tell him the verses right before right?
They made past tense actually abimilek king by the oak of the pillar which was in Shechem
Okay, so so Jotham heard that they made abimilek king. That's what he heard. Okay now listen
It says now when they told Jotham he went and stood on the top of Mount Garazim and lifted his voice and called out thus
He said to them we don't have to go very far
Listen to me. Oh men of Shechem that God may listen to you. Okay, so okay good enough
You could put called out technically called out his two words. I put confront Shechem
Okay, so he did this to confront Shechem
Notice he leaves out s H E C H E M or okay
Anyway, he leaves out that other group or city or whatever it was right the Beth Milo, which we don't really know for sure
What it was he leaves them out. He calls out. Oh men of Shechem right and he confronts them now
If you follow the arrow down for one second, you'll see that Shechem and we already talked about this a little bit
So you might be filled in is an emcee. What's Shechem? It's a major city. Shechem is a major city in fact
Almost no trade was being done in that region unless it went through Shechem
So if you needed something that was not made in your hometown, you couldn't get it unless it came through
Shechem
Very powerful city big lots of people and it so happens that a bimilek was from Shechem
Okay, and we'll get into that in a second here
So we're back in the middle. Let me let me recap
So we have the location Mount Garazim
Spoken by Jopham who was the youngest son the only survivor to confront Shechem, which was a major city and now we're on
occasion occasion so we have the big capital a which of course is a
Bimilek. Yep. It's a bimilek and then we have the big capital S which of course is
Shechem right and we have a little a you can put accepts
Anoints what's that?
Yeah, anoints and then we have an IK and we're gonna take a stab at that one. Okay, so King is correct
What kind of King is this a bimilek? He does turn out to be one and that is correct. He's not an idiot
In fact, he was a master craftsman politician at this point, but he's on the wrong side of the battle
You always lose when you go against God, right? So
He's illegitimate
He's illegitimate. He does not actually have any claim to be king
The only claim he has to be king is you will see it before we're done. Okay
All right, so a bimilek Shechem anointed an illegitimate King and now
MGS
I'm gonna give you the G is Gideon's
Gideon apostrophe s Gideon as in Gideon's possession. So the M is what?
Massacred Christ on Mount yep massacred Gideon's sons
Okay, so they the bimilek and Shechem go together they massacre his sons and he becomes an illegitimate King
So we're gonna take that arrow if you see where you wrote a bimilek right there
Take that arrow down to the left the arrow down to the left and it says judges 831
Judges 831 says
This talking about Gideon will go back up as far as 29 just so you get the run up to it
Then Jerobo the son of Joash went and lived in his own house now Gideon had 70 sons
Who were his direct descendants where he had many wives now 31 and his concubine who was in Shechem?
Also bore him a son and he named him a bimilek is not Shechem son of
So does anybody tell me what a concubine is compared to a wife? What's the difference?
Not married typically and what?
Kind of yeah, typically they were of lower station a slave woman
Okay, so she was a slave woman a
Bimilek was the son of a slave woman now as a slave woman who became
Intimate with Gideon and so she is the mother of a bimilek. Okay, then we're gonna go down the arrow down and it says
And this is judge. This is judges 823 now that I'm reading judge 823
It says 22 says then the men of Israel said to Gideon rule over us both you and your son
Also your son's son or you have delivered us from the hand of Midian, but Gideon said to them
I will not rule over you nor shall my son rule over you the Lord shall rule over you
So Gideon the G is Gideon what?
Refused he refused to rule he would not be king. He said I will not be your king. He refused
Yep Gideon refused or refuses
but and this is where it gets the kind of soap opera sloppy, okay
But I'm just gonna fill in the blank. So go with me here. He named
Son and you know what the capital A is a Bimilek, but do you know what the translation is?
You can look at the letters on the bottom line M F I K M F I K
Exactly
The word of Bimilek means my father is king interesting, isn't it?
So if you had a slave one if you were Gideon you had a slave woman who lived in another city away from you
And you had a son with her. Why would you name him a Bimilek? Especially if you're not king
Why do you think you would do that as a slave woman? She had nothing
She had a son that belonged to Gideon that they he did not move her and her son to come live with him
You follow he left them and check them. What do they have going for them? Not a whole lot
He probably sent them some money, right?
So they were taken care of but what was their social status very low
But if you name your son a Bimilek you elevate his social status. He gave him a gift, right?
Remember the old I may or may not remember this old song by Johnny Cash boy named Sue, right?
And the whole song is about a name my dad named me Sue and I never met him
And I was I grew up hating him and fighting and in all this trouble and in the end he runs into a bar
There's a knife they they knife fight each other and they come up and they
They finally come to peace over it
He said I had to name you Sue because I had to make you tough, right?
Because I knew you were gonna be there without me
I had to make you tough and at the end of the song Johnny Cash says and if I ever have a boy
I'm gonna name him Bill or George or John or Paul anything but Sue, right?
So the whole point of naming him my father as king was to give him something
Because he couldn't give him his father. That makes sense. He couldn't give him his dad
He wasn't gonna go there let me check him and he wasn't gonna bring him to live with him
So that being said this problem that we're having in this story
Starts a little bit with Gideon having a concubine and so many wives
How many kings do you think it has been throughout Israel's history and he Gideon was not a king?
He was a judge, but how many kings had too many wives and got into trouble?
All of them, right? They all of them all the kings they all had too many wives
They all got in trouble as far as I mean
We don't know for sure that that was some of the trouble for some of them
But we know that they most of them had multiple wives and it always didn't work out well
And so that was not the and you know by the way that is not the way God set it up
One man one woman for life is the way God set it up
So there God hates divorce not getting on that topic, but it literally says that God hates divorce
Right, that is not what God prefers
But we do it what there is a reality of it because the hardness a hard betrayal things like that
There's a reality of divorce. So God does not hate divorcees
Right if you were divorced, but he hates that divorce even exists
That being said Gideon had a concubine had a son and gave him the name my father is king
King and it did indeed elevate his position in Shechem didn't it
Because now he's able to rally all the people in Shechem around him
And then what did they use that power for they went and killed Gideon's 70 other sons. That is terrible
That is tragic
Okay, all right. So that being said then we've gotten all the way to the bottom except for my little note there
So you're going to go back up. So you're back up under occasion a bimilek Shechem
A illegitimate king anointed an illegitimate king massacred Gideon's sons
Bram, okay, and then we're you got to be there, but you haven't heard the parable yet all of that and you've not heard the
Parable yet. So now we're gonna hear the parable. Okay, so here we go
So he stands up and he's going to tell the fable of the trees and we are in chapter nine of the book of judges
And we are in however again in eight
And this is the actual parable once the trees went forth to anointed king over them and they said to the olive tree
Rain over us, but the olive trees said to them shall I leave my fatness with which God and men are honored
And go to wave over the trees. Okay, so and if you'll look straight down on your page right in the middle of the bottom
You see that thing that looks like a twisted
Has a twisted
Trunk and goes up into a kind of very oddly shaped tree head that is an olive tree
Okay, and so the blank says olive tree and right after there's a little blank and what did the olive tree say?
It's simpler than that. No, no
He said no the olive tree said no, I will not be your king. Okay. All right
Continuing on then the trees said to the fig tree you come rain over us
But the fig tree said to them shall I leave my sweetness and my good fruit and go to wave over the trees
Okay, if you're looking the upper right hand side
You'll see a tree that has a straight shoot and then it has a like a branch off
You can see the branches and you can see kind of round things hanging by the way figs don't look anything like you think they look
By the way, they look almost more like oblong pomegranates is what figs look like unless you've seen them before
Okay, and then
It's so that is a fig tree f t is fig tree
And there is a blank there at its roots and the fig tree said no
Okay, so he's telling them their first choice for king the trees first choice for a king over them would decline
Their second choice for a king over them decline now. We're in verse 12
Then the trees said to the vine you come rain over us
But the vine said to them shall I leave my new wine which cheers God and men and go to wave over the trees
Okay, and if you look down on the bottom right, you'll see in the bottom right corner
You'll see a grape vine and the word in the blank is vine
and the and the vine said
No
All right, so they tried now they tried three times to get a king if somebody tries three times to get a king
What does that say about them? Yeah, probably not but they want a king
All right, they are at the point where they really want a king
They didn't settle for the one big one that they thought would be perfect
That one wouldn't do it and went on to a second one
They didn't settle for the second one because that'll the second one wouldn't do it
They go for the third one the third one is now said no finally all the trees said to the bramble
That's your bramble that goes all across the page up top. So just we got thorny useless
Good for making fires basically
Finally all the trees said to the bramble you come rain over us and 15 it says and the bramble said to the trees
If in truth you are anointing me as king over you, you know, do you really mean this?
If this is for real
Come and take refuge in my shade now. It's a comical thing. Isn't it because how much shade do you get from a bramble?
None brambles don't give shade the the thickest they ever get is like
Like that thick and they're hard right and the sun just goes right past them
And even if they overlap and overlap and overlap you still don't get any shade from it
I'd have to really grow densely and they don't because they're always spreading out. So that's the joke
He says come and take refuge in my shade
But if not in other words, if you're not really anointing me as king if this is some kind of dirty joke, right
May fire come out from the bramble and consume the cedars of lebanon which were like the kings of trees
They were the great trees of lebanon right that everybody desired for wood
And so he's saying like destroy the whole kingdom of trees if I cannot be king
If you're not really earnest and asking me to be king then let the whole kingdom of trees be destroyed
See that okay
16 now therefore so now he's going to give them a little bit. So by what should they have done at this point?
Response
Request there is no response. There is no request
Okay, now therefore if you have dealt in truth and in integrity in making abimilek king
Which of course we already know they did not right?
and it
And if you have dealt with jerobal and his house and have dealt with him as he deserved
Which they did not right. So we already know his two checks are
Definitely not the case and then he goes on to explain kind of parenthetically says for my father
fought for you and risked his life and delivered you from the hand of midian
But you have risen against my father's house today and have killed his sons
70 men on one stone and have made abimilek the son of his maid servant
King over the men of shekham shekham because he is your relative which is true. He was
He came from shekham. So he had a lot of cousins there and all that kind of thing
First 19, if then you have dealt in truth and integrity with jerobal remember that skidion and his house this day
Rejoice in abimilek and let him also rejoice in you
But if not let fire come out from abimilek and consume the men of shekham and beth millow
And let fire come out from the men of shekham and from beth millow and consume abimilek
Then jotham escaped and fled and went to bethir and remained there because of abimilek his brother
Okay, so now we're on the right hand side
under
Massacre gidian sons we have bdngs and we take a stab at it
That's right brambles do not give shade so one of the primary takeaways is their fourth choice for king
Is not going to give them any rest. It's not going to give them any protection any provision
They really if if this story holds true if the parable holds true. They've really blown it rather what they've actually done is our ag
What do you think?
in choosing a king
After gidian told her I will not be your king my sons will not be your king rather god will be your king what they've actually done is
Revealed against god so what they've actually done is rebelled against god and they may think that this
Bramble which is abimilek can provide them some kind of protection, but actually he cannot
Okay, and then it says ca which is just chose abimilek
So they rebelled against god they chose abimilek
And then here is the lesson
Of the parable for them that they probably didn't get okay
and it is
Say it again
Our ag rebelled against god then chose abimilek
Okay
And I'll give you the first f is false
And the k is
Kings false kings the a is and ff
It's poetic kind of sort of say it again
False followers
False followers, that's right
False kings and false followers
CEO remember the parable
Nope
What do they do consume each other?
And so the lesson of the parable is false kings and false followers consume each other
So what you go after that's not god it will chew you up in the long run you'll probably chew it up too
That's the way it works false kings and false followers consume each other
Now it's interesting because we have a reference there
And I'll give you the results and watch this
9 23 to 26
Then god sent an evil spirit
Who sent the evil spirit god did
God sent an evil spirit between abimilek and the men of shechem
And the men of shechem dealt treacherously with abimilek
In order that the violence done to the 70 sons of jairabal might come
And their blood might be laid on abimilek their brother who killed them and on the men of shechem who straightened
strengthened his hands to kill his brothers
And the men of shechem set men in ambush against him on the tops of the mountains
And they robbed all who might pass by them along the road and it was told to abimilek
Now gael the son of ebed came with his relatives and crossed over into shechem and the men of shechem put their trust in him
so god sent an evil spirit between
Job between abimilek there we go between abimilek and shechem and then now shechem is betraying him
And they've actually chosen another
I've never heard this or not, but if you're there's a married man for example, and he cheats on his wife with a woman
And then she manages to talk him in to leave in his wife for her
Then they get married and then what happens?
He cheats again, right?
That's the way it works
And so what what shechem did was they went on and they chose another king
They already know they can do that they have the authority there a big city lots of money lots of manpower
Right, they already know they can choose a king
So when they start to think well gosh, we don't want to be lumped in with abimilek
Which happened why because god sent an evil spirit
Right, they've rebelled against god. He sent an evil spirit now
They say well, we don't want to be lumped in with him. So they choose another man gael to stand up against
Abimilek, okay, and then if you go 953
I'm not reading the whole story
I've got a certain woman through an upper millstone on abimilek's head crushing his skull
So they were sieging the city of the bez
And he got too close and all that was left was the tower
And they were going to tear the tower down burn it like he did with shechem
And she threw a stone down possibly a millstone and crushed his head
And now he's dying
And he says I don't I can't die to a woman
And he has his sword bearer killing
And then in verse 57 it says also god returned all the wickedness of the men of shechem on their own heads
And the curse of jotham the son of jeribal came upon them. Yes, ma'am
I judge the aetheryms son of a slave woman
Oh to the left of that we have to do that yet. Okay. That's the only thing we have left to fill out
So you didn't miss it. You're with me. Okay, so the point is
The parable
Comes true
It becomes a curse against the people who heard it and what was their failing now they already sinned
Right, but the the parable becomes a curse when they
fail to
Respond
Yep, so at that moment time if they had repented let me think about men of that think about others who received a
Letter of destruction god's going to destroy you right they could have repented turn back to god and said, okay
No, wait, we don't want to anoint king a bimalic king, right? We don't want to do this
Well, we shouldn't have done that right they could have made sacrifices
They could have done all it could have been just for the rest of their lives
But we're hoping that god would forgive them they could have done anything
But what did they respond? No, did they make a request? No, they didn't do anything
In fact, they continued for a little while until god sent an evil spirit amongst them and then they sought out to kill
a bimalic
So they just kept being the same evil people that they were all the way through the entire story searching for a king
All right, so that bring that brings us back over to
This scene where jotham is giving that parable
Right the occasion is what a bimalic and shechem have done
Masked her and getting his sons naming him. He tells the parable brambles did not give shade
Rebellion against god they keep searching for a king. So what do you think the hd is? What is this scene teaching?
What is god's point?
What have they done?
I guess gave you the first word. I apologize have
They have what?
Do you what?
Kind of but this is the process by which they get to death in this case
They have denied god
That's what they've done. They disobeyed they denied nobody. They've walked away from the king
Who is the lord and they're choosing a king for themselves?
All right, now if you look all the way down in the bottom left hand corner
There's a kind of a lesson to take away
Right it says everything we do is provision for one kingdom or another
You ever hear that old pair that old story? It's kind of a parable basically it says that inside every person
There are two wolves or two two wolves struggling which one it basically is which one are you going to feed?
Right well everything we do is provision for one kingdom or another
Are you going to be a blessing to god's kingdom? Are you going to be a blessing to the enemy kingdom?
Right, so if everything we do is prevent provision for one kingdom or another
Then we must not devalue
our
impact
You can't forget so you go have sex with a concubine and make a baby don't name him
My father is king when his father is not king
Wait, don't go have sex with a concubine and make a baby
Wait, don't take 20 wives, right?
So he was he started out this guy who was afraid to work on behalf of god
On behalf of god and then he saw god. He finally said okay god. It's really you
I'll really do what you say and then he embraced god so fully in the war
And following him like that that he was doing everything
On the battle side that he was supposed to do and meanwhile his house was kind of a mess
Right so out here. He's doing great, but he forgot that what goes on here
Still fuels one kingdom or another so all this while he's saving god's people. He's defeating the midianites
He's bringing it home, right? He did everything that that they needed done and even refused to become king
Refused to name somebody king. He refused to do that. That was all the right thing
But the whole time he was doing that his house was a mess
And that was pouring into the kingdom of the enemy so much so that they
Chose a bimalek king and murdered his 70 other sons to do it
Be aware that the choices that you're making on a daily basis you are like well that doesn't seem to affect anything
That's not bothering anybody. That's not making any real impact or difference
Your choices are making an impact. You're feeding one kingdom or another
Every time you don't pick up your bible feeds the wrong kingdom
Every time you don't pray when you think you should feeds the wrong kingdom
Every time you eat too much sweets and you go, oh, I think I had enough
And you keep going anyway feeds the wrong kingdom. Every time you are snippy to somebody say something nasty feeds the wrong kingdom
And you say well, I made it through that no apparent negative effect
Nothing really bad happened
But if you're feeding the wrong kingdom
Ultimately it will come out right all things that are hidden will eventually reveal and I don't just mean
When it comes in front of Jesus and he'll reveal right but in this case
Kidian's 70 sons
all because he had to have one more
pretty girl
One more son and then couldn't bring him to live with him couldn't govern him couldn't teach him grow him upright
So he had to give him a name like
My father is king
And maybe maybe Gideon meant God
When he gave him that name maybe he was a king
When he gave him that name maybe he meant my father meaning God the father is king and will always be king
But that's not how a bimalek used it
And it's not how the people of shechem used it and so you just be careful
Sometimes you think you're feeding one kingdom and actually you're feeding the other
Right, that's what happens. For example, when you take a young christian or a non christian and tell them to stop sinning
Instead of telling them to draw close to Christ you pick somebody's sin. I say that's a sin
You've got to stop you've got to stop you guys out and they're not ready to stop
That's really hard for them that really puts them in a difficult situation
So
they really wanted a king and as you know, they eventually get one and
It doesn't go very well for quite a while and then they do get king david who will get the promise to be in the line of Jesus
And be on the throne forever. So praise god for that
Gideon's not there got it not in there. He's not in the line. He doesn't make it through unfortunately
All right questions are concerns
We got it. All right, we're gonna go fast on this here
so
All right, so we're gonna do a little differently today
Starting out
teenagers only
I'm going to
Give you the question and then if you know the answer you raise your hand
If the person I call on gets the answer correct then every teenager that has their hand raised will get candy
Got it or something
Because I might throw chips
Depends on the hands there are but if the person I call on gets it wrong
Nobody gets candy
Okay, you got it. So don't raise your hand if you don't know the answer
But if you do know the answer definitely raise your hand because it's the only way to get candy. So you'll get here. All right. So here we go
Ah, ah, see if we got it. See we do candy first. All right
A benelux mother was a
I see one two three four five Natalie. What's the answer? That's correct. Okay, here we go
Okay, pretty good pretty good pretty good. I was like I said that was kind of an easy one. Okay
All right. So this one is on the page, but you have to pay close attention
Uh, Jotham was standing on Mount Gerazine. The other mountain next door was called
See one hand
One two three four
Okay, give it to me. That is correct. Good job
Please okay
All right, do you want more this way? Let's see
Okay name
In 30 seconds or less
All four types of trees who might have been came I see one hand
two three four five Hannah go
Go
One you're going you got 25 seconds left. See you
Yep
Everybody anybody had a hand up that I didn't get okay. All right. Here we go
This is for the pup one person
You for this question only you may shout it out
First person to shout it out gets it if you don't catch it you have to throw it back. Okay
Only teenagers please. All right. Here we go
Jotham Jotham was the youngest son and also
He's rocking one more pup today one more pup. Here we go
Oh, this is an interesting one page. I hope you paid close attention
Gideon had this number of sons
Still waiting
Still waiting still waiting
You did not get it correct
That is not correct
Now you're guessing. Okay. We're gonna it's 72. Are you killed 70 sons Jotham survived?
Obimalak makes 72
You were guessing
I told you you were guessing it was over gotta have the answer. You can't be just like like they were up here like
It's chapter one two three four five six seven eight nine time
Now to be faster than that
Yeah, it was 72. I didn't say actually I said 70 and then there's Jotham and I've been like oh no, he said 71. Yeah, he said
Okay
Trying to find another tough one here
O'darn
Okay
Uh the problem with the final king chosen in the parable of the trees is what?
It is not in pride shape
Okay
Is that okay? All right. We got three cans of chips and then we're going to eat fruit
What?
Yeah, brown is sticky
I guess if you drop the chips you must give them back. I'm throwing pretty well today. So
Well, then don't drop it
All right
This is the period of time between
Mount Garazim mount of blessings and this parable
100 years
Go ahead 100 years is actually incorrect. You're on the right track
Go ahead
Nice try Jason was over 100 years
Greater than sign not equal than sign equal sign. All right
I guess chips can be for anybody so adults are on the table if you want to win chips
You got competition now
This is what false kings and false followers do to each other
Okay last one for today
Okay, what did Gideon say you can paraphrase when they asked him to be king
No, and also not my son, but you're not that yet
Okay, that's it. He said no, I will not be king my son will not be king. God is the only king
All right, let's pray together. I did bring fruit because we are fighting off this cold season
So we've got a couple different times of fruit whatever in there
And all food stays in the cafeteria including water. All right, let's pray
God and Evan, thank you for letting us do this. I
For me, I was blessed. I was blessed to see that you've been working such a powerful way
And it came to people who live so long ago. I just can't fathom
I feel it I really do but it baffles my mind that in just over 100 years
They he did so much. I mean that means like the walls of Jericho fell
And probably just over 100 years later. They chose a false king
Unbelievable and yet completely
I pray we will not be like that and we'll be busy feeding the right king and making the choices and we won't say
Oh, this one doesn't really matter because the truth is it could be the one that really matters and they all matter
We matter as I said not this week, but last week in the sermon you care about us and you care about this moment
When you put us in this moment together, you have expectations. I pray that we will live
by faith in Christ
strong
Persevere overcome and feed the right kingdom. I pray it all in Jesus name. Amen