We are continuing our series through the book
of Judges today, and so what I'm about to read
you really needs no further introduction, and
yet you'll get one. After I read it, we're going
to have to break it down a little bit because
it is one of those verses in the Bible that theologians
argue over a lot. There is a lot of debate. I'm
not going to give it to you today. If you care
enough to go digging into that and try to figure
it out, there is a lot there you can find. I
can even recommend some sources for you, that
kind of thing. But I will give you the synopsis
of the debate before we are through. So we are
in the book of Judges, chapter 3. Thank you for
those of you who are in the middle of the house
and have a little breath for Judges chapter 3.
It is verse 31. We ended in 30 and it said, So
Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel,
and the land was at rest for 80 years. And then
it says, Now after him came Shamgar, the son
of Anath, who struck and killed 600 Philistines
with an ox goad. And he also saved Israel. An
ox goad is basically a prod. That's meant to
keep the oxen moving when they're pulling the
plow or whatever heavy load. And Shamdar took
up an ox goad and used it probably like a sword
or a club or a rod and killed 600 Philistines
who had become the military oppressors along
the edge, at least in certain areas of Israel.
Now, here's where it gets sticky. Because this
is the only verse in the history recording where
Shamgar is mentioned. But if you'll fast forward
in your Bible a little bit to chapter 5, which
we'll get there eventually, but today we're just
going to read a couple of verses. In chapter
5, the judge Deborah, who is the first female
judge and really one of the first really powerful
females prominent in the kingdom in general.
In chapter 5, Deborah writes a song, or a poem,
or we would probably perceive it as a poem, but
it was really a song. And it says, in verse 6,
In the days of Shamgar, the son of Anath. Okay,
so now we're talking about that same guy. So
we're going to get a little bit more about that
guy that the writer of the book of Judges told
us nothing about. But he does tell us about Deborah's
song, which talks about the days in which Shamgar
lived. It says, In the days of Shamgar, the son
of Anath, in the days of Jael, the roads were
deserted, and travelers went by roundabout ways.
The peasantry came to an end. They came to an
end in Israel. And then it says, until I, Deborah,
arose, until I arose a mother in Israel. So in
other words, those days lead right up to when
Deborah comes on the scene as a judge. Now, this
is where the debate begins. So the debate begins
because at the end of verse 30, it says there
was 80 years of peace or rest for the land. And
then in verse 31, it says Shamgar, the son of
Anath, who struck and killed 600 Philistines
with an ox goad, he also saved Israel. Sounds
like not very peaceful, right? That doesn't sound
restful. So the whole thing of Shamgar seems
like it takes place after the 80 years. But then
when you read what Deborah writes in verse 6,
it says, in the days of Shamgar, the son of Anath,
in the days of Jael, the roads were deserted
and travelers went by roundabout ways. Also,
it does not really sound like days of peace and
rest. In fact, this terminology of the roads
being deserted and travels going about roundabout
ways reoccurs throughout history, not only here,
but in many places where essentially a land is
being constantly hit by raiders. So what they're
saying is the borders of Israel were not sound,
and people were coming from all over the place
to raid the land, so when people would travel
from place to place, they avoided the roads.
So I don't know if you know this about medieval
and previous roads, but they were built, and
it's like this in our area, by the way, it's
not a coincidence, they were built on high places.
So if you drive in the country, you'll notice
that the road sits up, like parallel with the
second floor, almost, of many of the houses.
If you're driving, you look over there, you're
not looking at porch level. The roads are built
up high. Why? Because this is a swamp. And it
brings us up to a level where the road can be
passable always. There are ditches on both sides.
And the dirt from those ditches was used to construct
the road. And if you knew how the construction
was done when they built these roads in this
area, there are logs laid side by side by side.
If you go along a road and all of a sudden the
road goes like that, it's because one of the
logs under the road decomposed. We have one of
those in my neighborhood for the first 20 years
of my life. And you go down the road, you go
25 mile an hour, and then there was a spot where
a log had decomposed underneath, and the road
literally dropped two feet and then came back
up again. And so when everybody got there, they'd
slow down, right? There was like a reverse speed
bump. Slow down. And go again, right? And now
it's gone because they fixed it. They patched
it, all right? So now everybody just speeds down
the road, 25, 35 mile an hour, whatever. The
point is, the roads are the high places in the
open area. And if you're on the high place, what
does that tell you? So from five miles away,
people can see you traveling on the high places.
So they're sitting in their living room or working
in the fields or whatever and they see people
traveling on the high places and they say, hey,
let's get Bob and Tom and Sal and let's get our
swords and let's go attack these people traveling
on the road and they take whatever, right? And
there were people traveling in the land, brigands
and bandits and whatever that came from Philistine
and wherever else, right? And they would see
people traveling on the high place from miles
and miles away. And you say, well, but they couldn't
get there in time, right? Except travel was very
slow. Even wagons moved at barely better than
walking pace. And so to go from one horizon to
the other, and you have to basically cross about
half the distance of the horizon to be really
out of view, right? So to go from one end of
the horizon to the other would take most of a
day or half a day. And so they would say, oh,
there's somebody crossing on the road up there.
They'd go get their friends together. They had
plenty of time to rally. They'd get on horseback
or run. And they would catch up to them before
nightfall, and they would raid them. And so it
became normal for the people to stay off the
roads. And this has happened many times throughout
history. And so when people want to travel from
town to town, whatever, they would go off the
roads, through the backwoods, in the ditches,
etc., and make it safely to the other town. So
this is a historical... This is not rest in the
land. So then they begin to debate when she is
talking about... Shamgar, the son of Anak, is
she talking about a judge that rose up after
Gideon? I'm sorry, after Ehud. But then it says,
now after him came. So it sounds like it's after,
right? So the bottom line is there is some debate.
People even think that Jael, the name Jael, is
not referred to the famous Jael that we'll encounter
next chapter in the book of Judges. And even
though it says it's Jael the wife of, which is
the same person from that account, you say, no,
that's a different name. So Jael might have been
the knightly name taken by another judge, either
Ehud or Shamgar. And so we're talking about Shamgar
and Jael in this, and it's somebody that existed
in that period of time. And then there's even
debate that he was a judge of Israel, even though
it says that he was the savior. But here it says
he saved Israel, and not in every case do we
get that formula for the judges. So the bottom
line is just one verse, major debate around it.
Who was he? Was he a knight called Jael? Was
he just Shamgar? Did he arise during the time
of Ehud while Ehud was ruling and along the border?
They didn't wipe out the Philistines, so did
he rise? And they had skirmishes and stuff, and
he managed to pull an ox goat and kill 600. So
you pick which theory you like the best. But
here's what's fact. This is what we know. Shamgar
existed. May have gone by another name. We don't
know. But he existed. He killed 600 men with
Philistines with an ox goad. We know that. He
came on the scene after Ehud came on the scene.
Maybe Ehud was still alive. Maybe he wasn't.
We don't know. But he was still alive after Ehud
was alive. So either during those 80 years or
after he was fighting the Philistines. And then
we know that while he was living, the roads were
deserted and travelers went by roundabout ways.
So whether Ehud was still reigning at that time
or not, we know that while Shamgar was there,
and even though he had defeated 600 Philistines
with an ox code and was a very powerful man in
the Lord, even though that was true, we know
that the travelers were going by roundabout ways.
We know further that the peasantry came to an
end. Now, the word there is just a little tricky
the way it's worded, but it basically means they
stopped being what they were supposed to be.
They stopped doing what they were supposed to
do. That's it. They didn't cease to exist. It's
not like everybody came middle class and above,
because then you just shipped it all down, and
the middle class would be the peasantry, right?
So it wasn't that he made everybody wealthy.
It was that they ceased to have the effect they
were supposed to have. And then it says, until
I, Deborah, arose. So it lasted all the way from
whenever Shamgar came on the scene, possibly
during Ehud, all the way to when Deborah comes
on the scene. You follow? That's what we actually
know. So in there, then, is something that God
can teach us a really big deal. The first thing
I want you to see is that minor things often
frame or illustrate larger things. I'm going
to give you a couple of examples from poetry.
Is there a poet in the house? Does somebody like
poetry? I love poetry. I wouldn't say I'm good
at writing poetry. Raise your hand if you love
poetry. Okay, we've got a few. Okay, all right.
I'm glad. I'm not the only one. But I'm not really
a poet, although some have said so. I can make
word rhyme, but it doesn't really sound like
poetry. Okay? So these are examples from poetry.
So here's an example from a poem by Walt Whitman,
a famous poet. It's called, Oh Me, Oh Life. He
says, That you are here, that life exists and
identity, that the powerful play goes on and
you may contribute a verse. The metaphor is a
verse, right? It's a verse in a poem. That's
what he's talking about. It's a small thing,
a verse, a single verse in a poem. But with the
bigger idea, he's talking about a person's contribution
to the vast narrative of human existence. Someday
you're going to be gone. But in your lifetime,
you may have the opportunity to communicate a
number of verses, Walt Whitman would say. You
could make a difference. You could be remembered
for something you did and certainly remembered
in someone's life. I remember people who have
gone to be with the Lord now and saying things
that they said and did that affected me. So he's
saying a small thing for a big thing. Then, by
Emily Dickinson, Hope is the thing with feathers.
Hope is the thing with feathers that perches
in the soul. So the thing with feathers is just
a bird, right? It's a robin, a chickadee, a sparrow,
something like that. But it's symbolic of hope.
A delicate, uplifting, and persistent, despite
hardship, hope. So a small thing representing
a very large thing. The road not taken, one of
my favorite poems by Robert Frost. He says, two
roads diverged in a yellow wood. The metaphor
he's using is two roads. And we've all seen intersections,
right? And usually three, four roads. Not a big
deal. A fork in the wood doesn't seem outside
our understanding. It's just two roads diverging
in a wood. Diverging means moving in separate
directions. He uses this to represent life choices
and their consequences, which is what the poem
is largely about. One more. To the virgins to
make much of time by Robert Herrick. Gather ye
rosebuds while you may. The metaphor is rosebuds,
flowers, right? What's it representing? Youth
and opportunity. Brief and fading. Just a little
bit. If you're young in this room, you understand
you have youth and opportunity. Some of us are
going like, yeah, that was a while ago. But still,
even where you are now, to a 90 -year -old, you
have youth and opportunity. So small things often
represent big things. And that's what's going
on here in this story. The staying home or traveling
in secret. Even the unwillingness to plant and
harvest. They weren't even growing crops. The
peasantry had ceased to do what the peasantry
does. So they were no longer planting and harvesting
crops. These things make a statement about the
predicament of God's people in that day. They
were defeated. They were enduring a period of
struggle until a savior would arise. They had
become too poor and defeated to do their own
work. The work that God had given them to do.
Victory is in the preparation and application
of the tactics that God has given us, not getting
better at avoiding conflict. Jesus said, I have
not come to bring peace on the earth, but to
bring a sword. So, as we look at this story,
I want you to realize that there were God's people
in the promised land in every city. In every
city that God's people had already conquered
in just the previous couple of generations. And
yet, God's people, the peasantry, and really
at every level, were failing to do what it was
that God had called them to do. Instead, they
were languishing in sin and wickedness and following
false gods, and many of them were not. Not everyone
was following false gods. Some of them were still
following God. They were waiting for a savior.
I want to share with you an illustration from
the War of the Roses. Anybody know this? It's
from England, 1400s. A civil war began between
the House of Lancaster, which was called the
Red Rose, and the House of York, which was called
the White Rose. For control of the English...
throne. It lasted from 1455 to 1487. Born January
28, 1457, Henry Tudor lived. He was born in Pembroke
Castle in Wales. His lineage was he was the son
of Edmund Tudor and Lady Marriott Margaret Beaufort,
making him a Lancaster heir through the Beaufort
line, the descendants of John of Gaunt, son of
Edward III. After the Lancastrians lost power,
Henry and his uncle, Jasper Tudor, fled England
in 1471. So the family was being wiped out. All
their family members were being killed. And he
and his uncle fled England in 1471. He was 14
years old. The Yorkist, Edward IV, regained his
throne. They spent most of the next 14 years
in exile in Brittany under protection of Duke
Francis II. But in 1483, King Edward IV died,
and his young son, Edward V, disappeared, likely
murdered, allowing Richard III, Edward's fourth
brother, to take the throne. Richard III's rule
was deeply unpopular. Rumors of murder and usurpation
stirred public support for Henry. So now Henry's
in exile, right? He can't become king. And rumors
start to circulate that the king, a savior, might
return. But he's been in exile for 14 years.
So Henry sailed from France and landed in Wales
in August of 1485 with a small force around 2
,000 troops, nowhere near enough to take the
throne. He gathered support as he marched through
Wales and England, and on August 22, 1485, Henry
met Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field.
Richard was killed in battle. Henry was declared
King Henry VII on the battlefield. crowned king
October 30th, 1485. In January 1486, Henry married
Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV, uniting
the feuding houses of Lancaster and York. This
is the end of the War of the Roses. The marriage
symbolically ended the War of the Roses and began
the Tudor dynasty, which ruled until 1603. Some
people, and you may be one of them, I might be
one of them, act as if we are kings in hiding.
I'm asking you today, and the Lord is asking
all of us today, to figure out our status. There
is a worldly time for guerrilla warfare, a time
when boldly facing the enemy only increases casualties.
Think about the Vietnam War. Think about the
French and Indian War. There is a time when going
out to boldly face the enemy only increases casualties.
But martyrs of the Christian faith know that
the time has come and gone for heirs of Jesus.
Our enemies are not flesh and blood, but demons,
evil spirits, the world system, and our only
fleshly desires and ultimate victories over these
things cannot be accomplished by hiding from
them or their effects in others. You must come
out. You must step out. Rather, our victory is
an accomplishment... I'm sorry. Is it in... becoming
impenetrable by so wielding the sword of the
Spirit, which is the word of God, and sharing
the gospel of peace between man and God that
humans may come to Christ. You've got to do the
work. We must not disappear from the world even
for a time. Drug dealers come to Christ. Sex
addicts come to Christ. Dark and vile humans
in which there is seemingly no renewable trait
come to Christ. They come and become sons of
light. And it seems that the more they have known
their own wickedness, the more they relish the
proffered salvation and even are willing to share
it despite threats of the enemy toward their
well -being. Why is it that only the truly wicked
who come to Christ seem to stay the course? Why
is it that the drug dealers who come to Christ
will go and tell everybody about the fact that
they are saved? Was your sin not bad enough to
put you in hell? It sure was. And being saved
from that sin that would have put you in hell
is not bad enough that now you can live in the
light and tell everyone about the Savior that
saved you? We are not kings hiding behind the
scenes waiting to come on the scene. We have
a king and he is already on the scene. The war
between Jesus and Satan in some sense is already
ended. The victory is determined. And yet, Christians
act as kings who are in hiding. Some people act
as defeated peasants. They've ceased kingdom
work. And if they need to travel, go on vacation,
go to the store, whatever, they do so incognito.
So no one can know. They don't wear Christian
t -shirts. They don't talk about Jesus. They
don't wear crosses openly. Right? They travel
incognito. Figure out your status. People praise
God for prosperity. We come to church and we
thank God for money. We thank God for cars. We
thank God for health. We thank God for all kinds
of blessing. Pretty much everyone who believes
that God is real praises God when they get gifts
from God. But God's gifts are his lordship. That
means he tells you what to do and you do it.
His presence. That means he is with you through
his Holy Spirit all day long, every day. His
spiritual gifts. That means He empowers you to
do things that you could not previously have
done in the kingdom, in the church, for the church,
for God's people, and for the future kingdom.
It is His granted armor, His adoption as sons
and daughters, His imputed righteousness. That
means it's His righteousness put on us. Every
good gift comes from God, James says. But, but,
be aware that gifts you think are worth a lot
in the world may only serve to distract you from
the kingdom. If you like your cell phone, if
you like your electronics, if you like your job,
if you like your friends and family, your boyfriend,
your girlfriend, even if you like the way we
worship, or even if you like your Bible, realize
that all of those things are of this world to
some extent. I understand that the Bible is the
inspired word of God and I'm not detracting anything
from that. But your limited knowledge of the
Bible is not the living Word of God. Jesus is
the living Word of God. And He is the one that
we walk with day in and day out. If you are waiting
for wealth or health or a promotion or a position
or an education or a relationship or a solution
to begin to serve the Lord, to begin to get busy
and really pour yourself into that which God
is doing. then you have no understanding of what
wealth really is. There was a young lady who
came to our youth group, Madhouse, back when
we were doing Madhouse on Friday nights in 2018
or so. She was 16. She was just about to get
her driver's license. And at Madhouse, we shared
the gospel, told her about Jesus, and she accepted
Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior and openly
admitted so. She said, I believe. She raised
her hand. She told me afterwards she believed.
But she lived real far away. She lived too far
away to pick her up at the church band because
it was about a 25 minute drive out in the country.
And so I couldn't do that. I was picking up 10,
sometimes 20, sometimes 30 kids from that house
on a Friday night. And I couldn't drive to get
one student. I couldn't drive 25, 30 minutes
out of the way. But I told her, I said, we will
get you there. We will get you there somehow,
some way. Someone will come and pick you up.
And she asked her parents, and her parents told
her no. They didn't want her to just ride with
anybody. They didn't want her riding with me,
really. They didn't want her coming in all the
way up into town, East Toledo, 25, 30 minutes
to come to Madhouse. And that's all it really
was about. I was trying to get her to come to
church, begin to worship to the Lord, and her
parents told her no. And for two months, she
babysat, made money, slaved away. She got her...
driver's license, and then she bought a car,
a used car, a nice one, in fact. I think she
got a loan, like co -signed with her parents
or whatever, like 17 or whatever, and bought
the car. Maybe her parents just took it out.
Anyway, I was texting back and forth with her
trying to get her to come to church, and she
didn't come. And she had gotten her car, and
she had it for about two days. I think it was
the first time that she'd ever gone anywhere.
She was driving to Walmart, coming from out in
the country, driving into Walmart. She stopped
at a four -way stop, proceeded on into the intersection
after the four -way stop, a pickup truck coming
at a 90 -degree angle, T -boned her car and killed
her instead. Now I guarantee you that she's in
heaven saying, either A, I'm so glad I spent
that last two and a half months of my life serving
the Lord Jesus Christ, or B, I wish I had. one
or the other. Now, we don't have any regrets
in heaven. God wipes away our tears. He's going
to take care of our sorrow, etc. But the point
is, on the way in, you're going to be asking
yourself, did I serve the Lord? And you don't
want to be saying, no, but I got a good education.
No, but I got a good job. No, but I got a good
relationship. No, but I raised some good kids.
You don't want to say that. You want to be understanding
your status, working hard to accumulate worldly
trappings and finer fare, could be turning your
nose up. at the greatest blessings of God that
you have been offered, you have one moment today.
But if you have one moment today, and that moment
is washed over, missed out on, because instead
of doing what you're supposed to be doing for
the Lord in that one moment, you are watching
your phone, watching TV, playing, romanticizing
about your significant other, whatever. Now I'm
not saying all of those things we know, Galatians
says all of those things are given to us to enjoy.
What I am saying is it's very easy to come into
a place where we turn our nose up at the good
thing that God is offering us and instead desire
the things that the world is saying make us successful.
Don't choose the bitter rations that became the
undoing of Satan himself. To have much and be
nothing leads to unbridled desire to be that
which you cannot be. You cannot be king in the
kingdom of the enemy. You can't do it. Nor can
you be king in the kingdom of God. You cannot
be king in the kingdom of the enemy or in the
kingdom of God. And if you want it, you want
another promotion, you want a little bit more
of this or that or the other, you will fall short.
And you'll wind up trading everything that God
truly values and has blessed you with for everything
that you cannot have. Historically, this leads
to a vacuous nothingness that sucks up resources
and can swallow even light. without being itself
enlightened. And the gospel is preached, and
sermons are preached and taught. And the Bible
is available to us day in, day out, but just
gathers a slight layer of dust on the shelf.
And we become vacuous, desiring that which the
kingdom desires, desiring that which Satan himself
fought for and lost. Understand, you can be a
peasant in the enemy kingdom if you want. That
role is open and available to you. You can be
a peasant in Satan's kingdom today. But there
are no peasants in God's kingdom. There are only
heirs and joint heirs. In being born again, you
are no longer a peasant, but rather a child of
God. A lot of people think that Christianity
is about quiet suffering and struggling while
awaiting a Savior. Remember the verses that we
read in Judges. Remember that in the War of the
Roses, there were allies all throughout England
awaiting his arrival, hoping to partner with
him, hoping to join his army. There were women
hoping their husbands and their sons and their
brothers would join the army of the rightful
king. They were all awaiting a savior, but couldn't
do anything about that wicked king that sat on
the throne. And that's what it's like in the
enemy kingdom. If you are willing to be a peasant
in the enemy kingdom, then you will forever be
hoping that a savior will come and overthrow
the evil and wicked king you suffer under. But
that is not where we are. We are not struggling
while awaiting a savior. Some people think they
are quietly engaged in this struggle, like fighting
their own spiritual battle while awaiting the
savior. I need you to figure out your status
today. The Bible says we are to stand and stand
publicly. Are you familiar at all with Ephesians
6 .12? That's where it says we wrestle not with
flesh and blood. And he goes into giving us a
list of that which we wrestle. I was doing a
devotional discipline, whatever you want to call
it, a lesson, a plan in the Bible app, and I
discovered where they were talking about Ephesians
6 .12, and he says that the word there is pros,
and it means up close and personal. So he's talking
about wrestling, talking about being caught in
the fight, like the guy's got his arms all over
you, right? He's got his bicep on your crotch
and his hand on your face. I mean, this is what
it means, wrestling. And people have this idea
that that's a quiet, private struggle, and it's
not like that. The Bible says that we are to
stand, but it also says that we are to stand
publicly. People have the idea that wrestling
with this enemy is a thing done privately, like
you're the only one who knows about your secret
sins. It's just not like that. Listen, about
your secret sins, God knows them. The Holy Spirit
knows them. He's trying to live in you while
you're doing them, and that's really hard for
him. Jesus knows them. Demons and evil spirits
know them because they just pop in and out of
the room. In fact, they come every time you're
involved in your secret sin to see because that's
like a nice warm bath to them or inviting them
over for a beer. And they pop in to see, and
then they come and they go. And they know, the
enemy kingdom all knows about your secret sin.
And you know about it, and you know that it's
not honoring the Lord. You think this is a thing
done privately? It is exposed to the entire spiritual
kingdom. So people have the idea that wrestling
with the enemy is a thing done privately, only
out of necessity, or in your own backyard, or
in your living room. No, Acts 1 .8, Matthew 28,
19 -20, and it just goes on and on. All send
us out. Baptism as an ordinance where we say
in front of everybody, I'm now living for the
Lord. This is no longer my private struggle.
I am putting away the old me and walking in the
strength of Christ in the new me. That's why
he gave us baptism, to testify to our changed
self. The word church in the original language
being called out assembly of God's people. We
are the church. If you've become the church,
you are called out. That means you're no longer
in there, no longer private, no longer in the
dark, no longer part of the crowd, but called
out assembly of believers. The difference between
the betrayal of Peter and Judas. Peter betrayed
Jesus. Judas betrayed Jesus. Peter repented,
came back to Christ, and became the leader in
the New Testament church. Jesus went away in
sorrow, realized how stupid he was, hung himself,
and fell down in a field so that his guts poured
out. Are you like Peter? A bold, saved, former
betrayer of Jesus? Or are you like Judas, a depressed,
anxious, self -loathing disciple of Jesus according
to the world? But maybe you're just a so -called
disciple of Jesus. You say you're a disciple
of Jesus, but Jesus actually knows differently.
And you say that your weaknesses as a Christian,
the times that you're failing God, are because...
You have this private struggle. You have issues
that nobody else has ever had that you're going
through. A lot of people have had them, but they're
really what's stopping you, etc. But the Bible
says that you are in wrestling boldly, openly,
publicly in wrestling. Greek athletes in the
Olympics competed in the nude. In a place called,
in a practice called gymnas, which is where we
now get our word gymnasium from. They would strip
buck naked, oil their bodies down, and the wrestlers,
at least, would coat themselves in a fine layer
of sand for grip so the other wrestler could
grip them and also to protect themselves from
injury. Wrestling, which was called Palais, was
one of the oldest Olympic forms introduced in
708 BCE as part of the Pentathlon. Matches took
place in a sand -covered arena called the palaestra.
Wrestlers were oiled, sometimes dusted, with
fine sand to improve grip and reduce injury.
Consider that the demons you will encounter do
not care how you are dressed. They do not care
about the balance of your checkbook. If you had
a good weekend vacation or a tough time on the
job or at class, they would strip you bare and
drag you into the sand. It is he that is in you,
if Jesus is indeed in you, that is completely
mightier than they. It is Jesus that makes a
man or a woman a mighty warrior in the spiritual
realms. Man was created with the ability to conquer
over spiritual enemies. Read Psalm 8. But surrendered
it to live a life of a king in hiding. Think
about the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve were given
the job to rule the garden and ultimately to
subdue how far? The province, right? The peninsula?
The continent? No, to subdue the whole earth.
They were born kings. And then they took for
themselves what it was that they thought that
they wanted. They were tempted. They took for
themselves what it was that they thought that
they wanted. They distrusted God and became kings
in hiding. Then God came into the garden. They
were naked, but they weren't wrestling. They
were naked, but they weren't public. They were
hiding in the bushes. And ever since then, people
instead of boldly publicly wrestling for what
God wants, have been hiding like kings in hiding.
Have been quitting the work like peasants when
they are actually adopted sons and daughters.
Not now. Not today. Not 2025. Not July 6th and
no day going forward. Figure out your status.
When I became a young Christian, I was attending
East Little Baptist Church. Within weeks, my
wife joined. She got saved. She joined the new
membership class and they mentioned in that class
that they needed a 5th and 6th grade Sunday school
teacher. I was like, oh no. Not me. I'm not teaching
Sunday school. I can't teach anybody anything.
I don't even know anything. I can't teach anybody
anything. I'm not doing that. And she said, I'll
take care of it. I'll do all the teaching. You
just be there in case I need you to back me up
or something, you know? And I said, no, no, I
don't think that's a good idea. We could pray
about it. I said, we could pray about it. So
come the invitation, she grabbed me by my elbow.
Sometimes now my elbow still hurts in the same
spot where she grabbed me, I kid you not. She
grabbed me by my elbow and she said, let's go
tell them that we'll teach that class. And I
said, first of all, I said, no, I don't want
to teach that class. Secondly, I said, we'll
pray about it, not we'll go tell them at the
invitation that we're going to teach the class.
And so she pulled right here, and it was like
I had a choice. Either I was going to go forward
with her to say that we'll teach the class, or
I could lose the lower part of my arm from my
elbow down. It was like that. And so I went forward,
and we said, okay, we'll teach the class. And
I was so petrified. She stood there, and I stood
kind of just a little bit back. My left shoulder
was behind her right shoulder, so that I had
some protection from the crowd of people who
loved me and wanted to see me serving Jesus and
teaching the Sunday school class. So a few weeks
later was going to be our time to first teach
a Sunday school class. And I'm like, this will
be great. She'll teach a class. I'm going to
stand in the corner and pretend I'm not in the
room. But that morning at 9 a .m., Bob O 'Hara
called the house. The house phone rang back in
the day. Pick up the house phone. He said, I
just wanted to touch base with you guys. I know
you're supposed to start teaching a Sunday school
class today. And Sherry's talking to him on the
phone. And he said, you know, you can't teach
the Sunday school class today. She prepared.
She'd read the book or whatever, I think, or
at least got the book anyway. I don't think we
read it very much back then. And he said, he's
saying, I can't teach Sunday school class today.
And right away I got mad. I'm like, don't tell
my wife she can't teach Sunday school class today.
Church said she could teach Sunday school. You
can't tell my wife what she can't do. And I'm
getting my crow up and I'm going to get up there
and I'll fix it. I'll get on the phone and I'll
tell him. And she said, he said, I have to finish
the new membership class before I can start teaching.
And so then I'm thinking, okay, well, that'll
be all right. A couple more weeks, you'll be
in the new membership class, then we'll start
teaching the Sunday school class in a few weeks.
And then he said, well, Dan will have to teach
the Sunday school class for the first couple
of weeks, and then you can join him, and you
guys can teach together after that. And my heart
liked to explode in my chest. No, no, no, I'm
just the guy standing in the corner. I'm not
the guy teaching the class. And she said, okay,
he'll take care of it, and hung up the phone.
And I'm like, call him back, call him back. No,
that's not right. That's not the way this is
supposed to go. And from that moment on, I went
into the class. I taught the class. Yes, I was
terrified. Yes, I taught what was in the book.
Half the time, I didn't know what it meant. I
mean, like, I had to process it as I was teaching
it, and I did it. And they listened, and everybody
in the class knew the Bible better than me. It
was five kids, all church kids. They'd all been
in church since they were in nursery, except
for one. And she'd been there a good five, six
years by now. And so they all knew it better
than I did. And I'm teaching a class and finally
Sherry joined me. And then, thank God, I was
able to kind of retreat back into the shadows
a little bit. But by then I'd been teaching and
they were looking to me. So they would ask a
question. Instead of asking her, they would ask
me. And so then I would have to answer. And so
I'm getting pushed into the light. I'm out on
the road. I'm being seen, right? I'm being attacked
at every turn because I don't want to do it anyway.
And we proceeded to teach that Sunday school
class for two years. Now, we taught it a lot
longer than that, but two years later, something
happened that marked a change, and we're moving
into the conclusion here. So in the Sunday school
class, occasionally they would have the gospel.
Now, most of the time they would have the gospel.
We didn't teach the gospel in the Sunday school
class because all those kids knew it better than
we did, and they'd been in there since they were
in diapers. So we didn't ever really teach the
gospel in Sunday school class. And I would go
around all the time thinking I was a Christian,
and I was praying for God to have his will in
my life. And I would go places and have the opportunity
to talk to people about things that I thought
were important and never mention Jesus. Ever.
I never preached Jesus, Jesus talked about Jesus,
never went out and said Jesus. I never said the
name of Jesus outside either the church, building,
or my home. Ever. Not to my parents, not to my
friends. Not on my job. I didn't tell the people
at my job that I'd become a Christian. For two
years I was teaching Sunday school class and
I would never mention the name of Jesus outside
either the Sunday school class or at my home.
And Sherry and I talked about it frequently as
we were trying to figure out because before we
got saved we were a horrible husband and wife.
We were not good to each other. The truth is
if she didn't kill me or I didn't kill her we'd
have probably ended in divorce which is more
likely because we were pretty docile in that
regard. Two years. And then there was a block
party coming up at the church. And they wanted
us to help flyer and promote and ask for people
to come. Well, I fancied myself a Christian.
So we went out and asked a lot of people to come
to the block party. And a lot of people came.
It was on the parking lot. We set up the snow
cone, the cotton candy, the popcorn, the moon
bounce. It was on the parking lot. And there
was probably 150, 200 people on the parking lot.
All strangers, pretty much. It was probably 30
of us from the church serving, and everybody
else was a stranger. And I'm assisting in every
way I can, Pastor Don Black. I'm assisting him
in every way I can. And then he takes the microphone,
and he begins to share the gospel, the ABCs of
salvation, which say, admit that you are a sinner.
Understand that you need a savior. B, believe
that Jesus Christ died on the cross for your
sins, and that God rose him from the dead. C,
commit yourself to follow him for the rest of
your life. It's very simple, ABCs of salvation.
And as he spoke into the microphone, and he said,
A. It's like that. Nothing fantastic. Nothing
glamorous. Not flashy. Not loud. Just A. A is
for admit. And as he spoke, my head of its own
volition went down. Now as I'm sitting there,
I'm talking with Christ in my heart. I'm saying
to God, Why is my head down? And God said, because
you're ashamed of the gospel. Because you do
not understand your status in the kingdom of
God. That you are a child of the king. That this
message that is being delivered could make any
one of these perfect strangers, some of whom
may be the wickedest people that you have ever
met in your life, and they could turn into a
child of the king right now, and you're ashamed
of the message. And then there was a little voice
off the side that said, it's okay. Everyone will
just think you're praying. Don't lift your head
up now, because if you lift your head up now,
they'll think you're done praying. And I didn't
know which voice to listen to. Was I a king in
hiding waiting for a savior? Was I a peasant
who had ceased from the labors of the kingdom
of God? I didn't even know who I was in Christ.
And I said, God, I don't want to be like this.
I don't want the gospel to be this thing that
I just try to drag out every time I'm naked and
alone with the enemy and he sees right through
me and I'm being ripped to shreds. I want to
be as a child of the king. And so I said that
day, I said, I am a child of the king. Jesus
is my Lord. I want you to think that and maybe
say that right where you're sitting today. I
am a child of the king. Jesus is my Lord. My
true wealth is stored up in heaven. My blessings
are meant for the kingdom advance. I am not waiting
or working for the wealth or status of this world,
but walking as an heir and storing up treasures
in heaven. When this life is done, Jesus will
bring me home to relish the great victory already
prepared for those who are following him now.
I will show up now. I will live boldly now. I
will rebuke the enemy, trusting he is already
defeated, and I will do it now. I will share
the gospel with any who will listen, and I will
not prejudge. Who those people might be. And
that's probably our worst weakness. Because we
think, oh, they don't want to hear it. And that's
why I didn't share it in my Sunday school class
for two years. Because they don't want to hear
it. Because by their profession, they were already
saved. I later found out that a minimum of one
of them, not only that two years, but for another
four years, would slave away and finally give
his life to Christ as an 18 -year -old young
man. After I had taught him in Sunday school
for six years, because he moved up into youth
and I moved up into youth. For six years I had
taught him what the Bible says. And at 18 he
would finally say, I never gave my life to the
Lord and now I want to. And his Sunday school
teacher never taught it to him for the first
two years plus. What I'm saying to you is you
are a child of the king and you have a message
that turns people into a child of the king. And
Paul says, for I am not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ, for it is the power of salvation unto
all that believe, the Jew first and then the
Gentile. And that's us, baby. Say, I will be
seen and I will be seen as a child, a loyal child
of the king. One from popular culture. There's
a show called Star Trek. Most of us know it.
You may or may not have watched it. Then there
was a role -playing game called Star Trek. I
played it a little bit back in the day. There
was a card game called Star Trek. Famous. The
mission of the Starship Enterprise, the five
-year mission, was to boldly go. Where no one
has ever gone before. And that was the mission
in the card game. And that was the mission in
the role -playing game, was to boldly go where
no one has ever gone before. But in the role
-playing game, there was this little paragraph
hearkening back to the movie. And it said that
the five -year mission was five years of boredom
and five years of excitement. I'm sorry, five
minutes of excitement. Five years of boredom.
And five minutes of excitement. Boldly going
where no one has ever gone before. Day after
day after day after day. And then one minute
facing an alien race. Facing off with the Klingons.
Whatever. Turns into five minutes. Turns into
ten minutes. And maybe it's the end of your ship.
Five years traveling. Nothing's happening. I
get up. Take my quick shower. Whatever their
fancy showers were. Eat some breakfast. Pair
it in the food replicator or whatever in the
cafeteria if it's an older Star Trek. And then
go to work at my station. Push the right buttons.
Work for eight, ten hours, whatever. Occasionally
get replaced. Got to do training to keep my skills
up. Day in, day out, nothing's happening. Day
in, day out, nothing's happening. And then suddenly
there's a Klingon vessel. What is it called?
A bird of prey on the big screen. And we could
all die right now. Or the captain has just triggered
the self -destruct and we're going to blow up
the Enterprise to take with us these horrible
enemies that are out there. See? Five years of
boredom for five minutes of excitement. But that's
not the life that we've been called to. In fact,
if you will go where Jesus is taking you to,
you may know conflict daily. You will wrestle
naked in one sense, but you will wrestle with
the enemy daily. Notice our lightning point.
It says that safe from view is not safe for you.
Jesus said it this way, and I'm finishing up.
Matthew 10, 34 -38 says, Do not think that I
came to bring peace on the earth. I did not come
to bring peace but a sword. came to set a man
against his father and a daughter against her
mother and a daughter -in -law against her mother
-in -law and a man's enemies will be the members
of his household. He who loves father or mother
more than me is not worthy of me and he who loves
son or daughter more than me is not worthy of
me and he who does not take his cross and follow
after me is not worthy of me. You cannot... be
a peasant in the kingdom of God. You cannot go
home and struggle in your own living room or
backyard or privately to wrestle demons and evil
spirits or wicked flesh or the world system.
That is not Christianity. You must boldly stand.
You have to go where God is taking you to and
be who God is making you to be for Christ or
realize that you are living like a peasant. who's
given up his labor, or a king in hiding awaiting
a savior. The problem is that savior has already
come. Who is the savior that you are waiting
for? If Jesus has already come, and you're waiting
for somebody to save you from your depression,
your anxiety, your poverty, your own wickedness,
your lust, your anger, your hatred, your lies,
if you're waiting for somebody to save you from
that, who is going to do it? Who is it? If not
Jesus, then who? And Jesus said, and he who does
not take his cross and follow after me is not
worthy of me. And if you're not worthy of Jesus,
you can have the enemy kingdom. You can even
be a peasant therein, but you cannot be a child
of the king. And he was saying to them all, this
is from Luke 9, he was saying to them all, if
anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny
himself and take up his cross daily and follow
me. Whoever wishes to be saved, I'm sorry, for
whoever wishes to save his life will lose it.
But whoever loses his life for my sake, he is
the one who will save it. For what is a man profited
if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits
himself? For whoever is ashamed of me and my
words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him
when he comes in his glory and the glory of the
Father and the holy angels. Know your status.
If you are ashamed to live boldly for Jesus Christ,
In front of everybody. In front of anybody who
would say, oh, I don't believe that. I think
you're a fool. I think you're not learned enough.
You didn't read this book or that book. You just
don't know. You can't do what you say you can
do. See how you didn't do what you were supposed
to do. They call out your weaknesses or your
faults. If you cannot live boldly for Jesus in
front of anybody who is looking, then how do
you expect Jesus when he comes to say, that one
is mine? Know your status. The byways, the sneaky
ways, the hiding out, the going around way, those
ways are no longer safe for you. We are children
of the king. We do not hide our face. We do not
cower from conflict or fail to stand publicly
for what the Lord has ordained. In fact, it is
not safe for us. It's not safe for us to fancy
ourselves kings in hiding, defeated peasants,
or private wrestlers. To bring the power of the
King to bear on your life, you must live in the
light and become a public figure, identifying
with Jesus in all environments, at all opportunities,
and live or die completely by His preference.
And so we shall. We could see yet in the lifetime
of many people in this room a great persecution
break out against the church. And you may be
sitting in your living room. Holding your car
keys in your hand, thinking about whether you
will walk out the door, start your car, and drive
to church knowing that out there in the world,
Christians are being killed for their faith.
You may have to decide whether to come and play
your instrument, sing your song, listen to the
preacher preach, when you don't feel fully safe
that the security guards at the door of the church
building that are meant to keep away that persecution
will stop it before it enters. We are living
in a day where such things occur, but only occur
randomly, it seems, in the U .S. But the time
may come when you will need to be able to serve
Jesus in the way that God has called you to serve
Jesus, despite threats against your life, against
your family, against your finances, against your
prosperity. If you cannot rightfully say right
now that you desire in that day to serve, Nonetheless,
then I question whether you believe in a Christianity
that is a king waiting for a savior or a peasant
willing not to do the work of the kingdom or
a private wrestler who thinks that, yeah, they're
struggling away following Jesus, but they don't
want it to be a public faith. They've seen you
naked. They've seen you at your worst. Now let
them see you at your best. Boldly living for
Jesus. The byways are no longer safe ways. It's
no longer in Christ safe to sneak around and
avoid people knowing you are who you really say
you are. You are who Jesus has made you. Be born
again and never look back. For as an heir, To
the king, this fallen world does not compare
with what he has in store. No matter how much
you want it, how much you want the things that
you can't have, all wanting them is going to
do is turn you into a vacuous hole in which light
cannot even shine. Decide today and say, no,
no. There are many good things in this world
and if they come my way by the grace of God,
if he delivers them to me by the grace of God,
I will use them all. for the Lord. But if I never
have them, if I never receive one of those things
or one or more of those things that I think I
would like to have, it's okay. Because the lust
of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride
of life, they will not rule me. I have just one
ruler who is the Lord. I ask the praise team
to come forward at this time and lead us in our
final song. If you have realized that you have
become a person who is either a king in hiding
awaiting a savior, Or a peasant not doing the
work of the kingdom when there are no peasants
in God's kingdom. Or struggling privately rather
than openly boldly speaking out for Jesus and
living accordingly. You realize, you think back
how Christianity can go. I'm telling you today,
it cannot go that way. Your private struggles,
they will never avail you because Jesus is not
just in you. He's in every Christian. He's in
the church. And the church body is his body.
And when the church steps up to do something
in your life, it'll get done. And if you do it
as part of the church, it'll get done. And if
you do it wrestling privately alone, it'll never
get done. You'll be wrestling privately alone
until you go home. Is that what you want? Just
stand with me and sing this song and let's commit
all that we are that we will only serve you wherever
you go.