We pray. We're going to continue today in our
series in the book of Judges. Before we go there,
we have a couple of illustrations, a couple of
things I want to share with you to make sure
that we're kind of thinking along the same lines
as we read the text. It's not a very long text
today. In fact, in my practice, in my preparations
of being here, it's really not a very long sermon
overall. I hope that remains true for you and
it remains still the power of God to work in
our lives. So that is what the gospel contains
and I pray that this sermon will be in line with
it. So the word dynamic. has a noun. And the
noun means a force or system of forces that causes
change or movement or the ways in which people
or things interact. So a dynamic is a thing that
impacts other things or people. It changes the
way we interconnect with each other. It causes
change or movement in our environment. And so,
for example, if I say... A dynamic might be I'm
walking down off the stage and I push the chair
back toward Caitlin. Caitlin touches the chair.
So the dynamic is every time probably I walk
down off the stage and push the chair toward
Caitlin, she's going to respond in a certain
way. So the dynamic would be the fact that my
pushing the chair toward her causes her to respond
in a certain way. That's the dynamic. So as we
look at the text today, That's what we're going
to look for. We're going to look for some dynamics,
some things that exist in the text that change
our understanding or that affect the way we relate
to other people and the way we respond to life
in general. It impacts us toward a certain movement.
Let me give you a couple of illustrations. So
Ariana, who is 11 years old and has been able
to tell time for probably about eight years,
picked up Zoe's watch this morning, which Zoe
had forgot to look at and left at our house.
And she picked it up and she said, there's something
wrong with this watch. She said, I don't think
it's set correctly. It says the time is 9501.
There's no way. I mean, there's no such thing
as 9501, she said. And she was really struggling.
She had a look on her face like she was absolutely
baffled and amazed that any watch actually could
show the time 9501. So Sherry's like, what are
you talking about? She walked up and she grabbed
the watch and she held it upright. And she said,
it's 1056. You're looking at it upside down.
And it was indeed 1056, and that's what Time
the Watch said, but Ariana was looking at it
upside down. So as we look at the text today,
it would be possible to come through to the text
with your own perceptions, thinking of it the
way you might like to think of it because of
your current situation, thinking of it the way
you might like to think of it because of things
that have happened to you in the past. Thinking
of it the way you might like to think of it in
light of the fact the person sitting next to
you is distracting you, the person sitting next
to you is tempted, or the person sitting next
to you thinks differently than you do and you're
wondering what they'll think. Thinking of it
in a way, I wish so -and -so were here because
they really need to hear this today. All of those
kinds of things. And I submit to you that all
of those kinds of things will not allow you then
to see the dynamics that we're going to point
out in the text. So I need you to commit to come
to it. Open bare. Open your heart and just say,
okay, God, work in me however you want to today.
I know I may or may not have the best understanding
of the universe, the best understanding of who
you are. Even if I'm saved, even if I have Christ
in me, I am willing today to be influenced by
this text and by God's working in me. Also, another
illustration of the dynamic, if you will, that
can happen is I have a dear friend of mine who
is a chemical engineer. I didn't ask him if I
could share this illustration, but I have shared
it in the past, and we joked about it, and so
it's not really a problem. His name is James.
Some of you know him, James Lynch. He's been
around. He served as the judge for Grand Prix
a couple of years. He's involved in the Christian
Games Ministry through New Heights and like that.
James is an extremely intelligent individual.
He's been a chemical engineer for... over 20
years, approaching 30 years. I don't actually
know how long it's been now. He was going to
retire about five years ago and just decided
not to because that seemed boring and he wasn't
really ready to live on what he could make in
retirement or whatever, so he decided to stick
with it. James went to the University of Toledo
in the chemical engineering program. He completed
his degree in five and a half years, which is
about how long it takes to complete a chemical
engineering degree, so that was actually pretty
impressive. went into chemical engineering, has
been there for a long time. So he was sitting
in my house, we were playing a game, and he picked
up a calculator and he wanted to calculate, divide
a large number by a smaller number to figure
out what it was, and it was a little too big
of numbers for him to do it in his head. And
so he picked the calculator up and he put in
the numbers, about seven digits long, and he
pushed a button, and then he tried to put in
the second number, and he said, something's wrong
with this calculator. And he did it like five
times. He put in the number, and he pushed a
button, and he put in the next number. He said,
every time I push the divide key, It gives me
an answer. You can't do that. You can't have
a divide. You can't say it was like 95 ,750 or
something. You can't push the divide key and
get an answer. I haven't told it what to divide
it by yet. And he goes, oh, wait, that's not
the divide key. That's the square root button.
So he was pushing the divide key. It looks a
little bit like a long division sign. For those
of us who remember what a long division sign
looks like, kids don't even use that anymore,
really. But it looks a little bit like it. And
he was pushing the square root button, not the
divide key. Now, he would have thought that he
could never make that mistake. James had done,
by that point in time in his life, more math
than probably you or I will ever do, unless you
also go into a career like accounting or chemical
engineering, and then even then, more and complex
trigonometry and so on, many variables, all kinds
of complicated things. But it took him five times
to realize that he was pushing the square root
button. So what I'm saying to you with regards
to this text is, as much as you think you know,
as educated as you have become, whatever your
IQ may be. We could have somebody in this room
whose IQ is over 160. Whatever it may be, I'm
asking you to come simply. Come to the text that
we're going to look at simply today. Look for
the things that are in the text that, specifically,
this is the nature of our sermon, that are designed
to change the way we interact with other people
and the way we respond to God. All right, here
we go. Beginning in Judges chapter 5, we're beginning
in verse 24. Could you give me an amen? Somebody
say amen. Somebody say hallelujah. All right,
Judges chapter 5. This is the word of God. Whatever
I get wrong or right from here on out, God will
change your heart and your life if you allow
him to. Judges chapter 5 verse 24 says, Most
blessed of women is Jael, the wife of Heber,
the Kenite. Most blessed is she of women in the
tent. And so we know who Jael is. For those of
us who have been looking at this past for a while,
for the rest of us, I'm going to fill it in.
Jael was a Kenite, a woman who was a nomadic
woman. They moved their tents around and lived
in different places. And it so happened that
they had set up their little community near the
battle. And they were in the vicinity. And when
Sisera, the general who was in charge of the
enemy forces, fled the battle, he left his chariots
behind and he was on his own, he fled to the
tent of Jael. Long story short, Jael... kind
of lulled him into a sense of false security,
and then killed him with the tent peg. And now
she's said to be most blessed. If you remember
last week, we talked about the word blessed and
how it kind of has two meanings in the Hebrew.
And the first is that a person blesses God, right?
So we do the things that will honor the Lord.
We praise him. So the worship that we just sang,
when you praised God, I hope you did. in your
heart, in your mind, with your mouth out loud,
that kind of thing, you're focused on God, that
blesses the Lord. That is giving the things that
the Lord would have us to give to him if your
heart is in the right place. When God blesses
us, it is that we receive either resources, status,
whatever. So our great blessing, we receive the
Holy Spirit, his presence, his promise of eternal
redemption. But you can be blessed financially,
you can be blessed in your health, you can be
blessed relationally, you can be blessed in your
situation, you can be blessed with courage, and
so on. So now we have Jael, who is this woman
living in a tent. I want to say to you that she
felt cursed, not blessed, when Sisera showed
up on her doorstep. But now she is most blessed
of women who live in the tent. That's a pretty
awesome thing to say. But notice that it's not
all women. The Israelites were not nomadic anymore.
They predominantly lived in the promised land.
They lived in houses that were blessed to them
by God. They weren't built by them. The crops
weren't initially grown by them. The seed is
not theirs. It was the Canaanites, and they were
all taken from them. They were blessed with their
houses. But Jael is a woman who lives in a tent,
and now it is said that she is most blessed of
women who live in tents. Verse 25. He asked for
water. Talking about Sisera the general, he asked
for water. She gave him milk in a magnificent
bowl. She brought him curds, excuse me. The magnificent
bull, that word magnificent there means fit for
a king. It's a Hebrew word that means fit for
a king. So she brought him milk that was fit
for a king. I think that's interesting because
that means that Sisera was getting something
that was bigger, better, fancier than what he
was worthy of. Even though Sisera was an awesome
dude, he was a general over an army that could
have, should, by all rights, should have ruled
that region for decades more to come, as long
as he lived at least. But he received his milk
in a bowl fit for a king, not fit for a general.
And that happens to people sometimes. It is the
kind of thing that people want sometimes. They
want to be elevated. They want to be lifted up
beyond what they are capable of. They want to
be praised beyond what they are worthy of. He
received milk in a bowl fit for a king. She reached
out her hand for the tent peg and her right hand
for the workman's hammer. Then she struck Sisera.
She smashed his head, and she shattered and pierced
his temple. And so this is all about how blessed
Jael is. And I submit to you, there is a conflict
taking place between two types of people. We
talked about that a little bit last week. We're
not going to go heavily into it, but you'll see
it a little bit when we talk about the dynamics
that are occurring in the text. She shattered
and pierced his temple, verse 27. Between her
feet he bowed, he fell, he lay. Between her feet
he bowed, he fell. Where he bowed, there he fell,
dead. Now this is poetic. It's not the telling
of the history exactly the way it went. But you
can see, in fact, this is actually one of the
greatest Old Testament examples of parallelism,
or what we call step -up parallelism. So in other
words, when it says, between her feet he bowed,
he fell, he lay, that's a statement. And then
you see it repeated, essentially. Between her
feet he bowed, he fell. Between, or where he
bowed, there he fell, dead. And so it is escalated
to the point he fell, and now he fell not just
down, but out. And then 28. Out of the window
she looked and lamented. Now this is a different
person, because tents don't have windows. In
that day, anyway, they didn't have windows. Out
of the window she looked and lamented. To lament
is to be sad. Oh, woe is me, woe is us. This
is a difficult situation. The mother of Sisera
threw the lattice. And so now we see that she
is in the fine. building somewhere, probably
where he would be coming home to or near where
he lived, looking out, lamenting. She is sorrowful.
She's looking through the lattice in her fine
palace. Now, she's got more initially than anything
that Dale has, right? She's got a big, beautiful
house. She's got windows to look out. She's got
a lattice. She has a son who is a general. Dale
did not have that. They are wealthy from all
the spoil that they've taken for decades. Dale
did not have that. But now today, even though
she has everything she has, she is sorrowful.
She is lamenting. She is weeping visibly. Why,
she says, why does his chariot delay in coming?
Why do the hoofbeats of his chariots tarry? In
other words, she's begun to realize something
terrible has happened to Sisera even before any
news has reached her. And she is lamenting, why?
Why is his chariot not coming? Why? Why are the
hoofbeats not heard? Her wise princesses would
answer her. Indeed, she repeats her words to
herself. Are they not finding? Are they not dividing
the spoil? In other words, so good is the spoil,
so good is the riches that they've taken. That's
why he's delayed because they're still dividing
out how awesome all the riches that they've stolen.
That's their suggestion is why it's true. Are
they not finding? Are they not dividing the spoil?
A maiden, two maidens for every warrior. So they're
going to take women. From the fallen Israelites,
they're going to take their wives, their young
women, right? And men are going to bring home
one, maybe two even, maybe two women, a maiden,
two maidens for every warrior. To Sisera, a spoil
of dyed work. So in other words, cloth that's
been made very fine, that's going to go to Sisera
the general. Dyed work of double embroidery on
the neck of the spoiler. So the idea is that
he'll take it on his neck. He'll be decorated
by the great things that he has taken. Verse
31. Thus let all thine enemies perish, O Lord.
And I submit to you that that's a big statement,
let all the enemies of the Lord perish. But the
thus packs a lot of power in that statement.
Thus is saying in this way, just like this, let
all thine enemies perish, O Lord. But let those
who love him, the him is capitalized because
it's God, but let those who love him be like
the rising of the sun in its might. And the land
was undisturbed for 40 years. And so the end
of the chapter is the great success that the
Israelites needed. A land undisturbed so that
they could prosper themselves for 40 years. That's
longer than any period of peace they have thus
far had in the book of Judges. Thus let all thine
enemies perish, O Lord, but let those who love
him be like the rising of the sun in its might.
Okay, there's a couple of things I want you to
see in here. Remember, we're looking for dynamics
that will change the way we interact with other
people and the way we respond as a people. The
first one that I see in the text is when the
author says, let all the enemies perish thus.
In this way, just like this. Not just to perish,
but to perish in a certain way. To his mom, Sisera's
mom, And their country, Sisera, just faded away.
They weren't there in the tent. They weren't
there at the moment of his destruction. They
don't know about the spike or the hammer or Jael
at all. They don't know about his flight. They
don't know about him leaving behind the chariots.
They don't know about the God -empowered destruction
of the army. They don't know about any of that.
They just know that Sisera no longer comes. Sisera
has come so many times before with much spoil.
He has taken many men's wives. He has taken many
women from the people that he has defeated and
dyed cloth and riches and paid for many more
chariots, perhaps. Their question is, why this
great loss after so many victories? The people
in his kingdom in his realm, that have prospered
by his previous victories, are asking themselves,
why, how could he lose? Why has he lost after
so much time? They thought Sisera was not able
to be defeated. To God's people, we know what
caused it. We look now back historically after
thousands of years, and we see that he is destroyed,
he is defeated. By God's intervention. It's akin
to asking God to forever be clear. To forever
divide clearly. Those who have gone into destruction.
Those who are refusing to receive God's grace.
Those who are refusing to receive God's love.
Those who refuse to love Him back, though He
loves them immensely. Those who seek for other
definitions of what it means to be a good person.
What it means to love. What it means to be kind.
What it means to be gracious. And rather, define
for themselves a method by which they will live.
And the writer of this song, calls out that God
would always be very clear. He can do so because
God is clear. He can do so because God is making
it clear that God will side with His people and
ultimately He will stand against those who are
against Him. We too were once objects of wrath.
Which means if you're here today and you are
a saved believer, if you know Christ personally,
if you know God personally, then you recall what
it was like when the things of your life were
sort of working against you because they were
under the auspices of God. You recall how you
had to get out of bed each day and ramp up your
decisions. Think more clearly or profoundly.
Think more intentionally about certain things
in your life. Redefining certain words in your
life in order to resist the wrath of God. In
order to resist the teachings of the Lord. In
order to resist God's definitions of certain
words. God's definitions of certain actions.
In order to resist God's declarations of certain
sin. You had to have a process by which you continually
redefined in order to make God unclear. But the
writer of this song is saying, let all the enemies
perish thus. Clearly for God's people, clearly
that we might see it. Why is this necessary?
Because God's people have a tendency to look
at the things that they're going through and
say, well, if God is clearly putting it into
his enemies and he's clearly blessing his people,
where are the blessings of God? How is it that
my situation is what it is and I have a hard
time? fathoming how I got here. I don't understand
why exactly things are going the way they are
if God is so clearly putting an end, putting
an end thusly to his enemies. God's people even
start to ask, have I been found faithful? Have
I been given access to this success that God
says will be available to his people? Am I in
competition? with the Lord for the throne of
my life. See, but godly sorrow then brings about
repentance. So when you discover that indeed
you are in competition with God, when you discover
that indeed you are trying to mar the image,
you are trying to make it unclear that God has
proposed and will bring about a victory for His
people and an ultimate defeat for those who stand
against Him, then you indeed are in competition
with the Lord and you will repent. And you will
say, no. I will not run my life the way the world
runs their life. I will instead submit my whole
life to God and allow God to run it the way God
wants to run it. God allows a certain economy
to persist where his unfaithful are punished
by outsiders. Now ultimately, they will be defeated
just thus. They will fade away. In my lifetime,
I have been attacked verbally. in relationships,
a number of times by people that I was helping.
I have been physically injured, but I've also
been psychologically, emotionally attacked verbally.
There was a man that we helped in the church
who we were helping him, and basically he was
a recovering addict, and we were holding some
money for him so that he wouldn't spend it on
drugs. And then when his bills would come due,
we would make sure that the money made it to
his bills. And he would come and he would put
more money there. and his wife, and she would
put more money there when they needed to, and
we kept track of how much money was there, and
then we would dole out from that money. So at
one point in time, they visited our house. We
had them over for a number of meals. We don't
refuse to fellowship with addicts or with folks
that are living lifestyles that we don't approve
of or whatever. We love them nonetheless. So
we had them over to our house on a number of
occasions, and one of the times they were there,
they found out where we were storing the money
and stole it. Then they proceeded to go to all
of our family and friends, In the church, some
of you know because you were there and they told
you. And tell you, tell all of our family and
friends that we stole the money. They told all
their family and friends. People that I have
known only just a little bit. And they said that
we had stolen the money. And so my character
was assassinated across the spectrum. Probably
a thousand people. Social media. Wherever they
could. Wherever they could find an audience.
Now we replaced the money. Not because it was
true that we had stolen it, but because they
needed it. We also then said, well, we'll not
hold money for you anymore. You're going to be
on your own. Now, some months later, they were
scrapping, earned a bunch of money, scrapping
about $450. And they were in their truck, and
they drove to their old neighborhood and spent
that $450 and all of their savings, and they
went right back into drugs. In the space of about
three months, they spent about probably $4 ,000
in drugs. Then they got evicted. Started sleeping
on couches and not in the same place anymore.
And they asked themselves, how is it that I was
living for the Lord, or seemed to be, and I was
doing the things I was supposed to be doing,
as far as anybody could know, and now all of
a sudden my life is a shambles. I have no place
to live. I have nothing. And they realized it
was because that they had taken over the throne
of their own life. They had begun to do the things
that they wanted to do. And they had marred the
clear definition of what was right by God. So
they repented. He called me up and he said, I'm
so sorry. And I said, that's fine. He said, I'm
hurt because it hurt my reputation. It hurt people
that I love to hear that about me, even if they
didn't believe it and so on. And he said, I know.
And he was crying and tears. And I prayed, God,
forgive him. And God, forgive any wrongdoing
that we might, either one of us had. And he came
back to the Lord by his own profession. And they
got away from drugs again. And they, ultimately,
he stood in front of the church several months
later. I didn't prompt him to do so. But he stood
in front of the church in our worship time. He
responded to the invitation. And he stood up
there and he told the tale, essentially, as I
have just told it to you. Tears streaming down
his face, begging God for forgiveness. I submit
to you that it happens that in that period of
time, people will come into your life and you
will face suffering. You will face difficulty.
You will wonder, how is this person doing this
to me? How is it that they are prospering? For
two decades and more, Sisera punished Israel.
They took their wives, they took their riches,
they took their wealth, and they thought, how
is it that we are God's people? But they were
refusing to repent of their falseness. They were
refusing to repent of their idol worship. They
were involved with Baal while all that was going
on. They continued to sacrifice their sons in
the fire to Molech, and their daughters, firstborns,
in the fire to Molech, burning their babies alive.
They continued to mar what was right, to redefine
what was right. But we have to understand that
it is true. that God's enemies will thusly perish.
They will go away from you and they will fade
into their own wrongdoing and they will suffer
in their own wrongdoing and they will pay a price
that they are not willing to pay. And ultimately,
if they do not accept Christ before they die,
they will spend eternity away from God by their
own choice because they have redefined God and
they have said, I want nothing to do with God
the way God actually is, the real God. This is
part of why good things which come to people
cannot automatically be assumed to be an answer
to righteousness. This is part of what's wrong
with the prosperity gospel. Because it doesn't
always work out perfectly. Sometimes crashes
happen. It says the righteous man falls seven
times but gets up seven times, which means the
righteous man falls seven times. And does he
want that he would never fall? Sure. But he falls.
Bad things happen. Suffering's come to people.
And then we say, well, that person over there
is doing real good. Their bills are all paid
up. Their money's in good shape. Their relations
are in good shape. They're intelligent. Their
eyes are bright and wide. And they're not down
in the dumps with addiction or whatever. But
the reality is, those good things do not come
to people because they are righteous. Now, Malachi
says that the sun, S -U -N, of righteousness
rises with healing. In its wings, which means
when you live in righteousness, you will get
good things, right? If you are a person of integrity,
people will recognize that and they will want
to pay for that. They'll want to reward you for
your integrity. If you're hardworking, they want
to reward you for your hardworking nature. But
the dynamic that's in this text is we must now
respond to one another and we must now respond
to the God of the universe and we must find this
truth in ourselves that how we live Make us either
a friend or an enemy to God. And God's enemies
will perish thusly. They will just fade away.
The second thing to see in the text then is that
we are part of the whole. We're part of the mass,
if you will, of humanity. Every person has to
make his or her own decision inside his or her
own tent. inside his or her own household, etc.
But the decisions made there inside their own
tent will then cumulatively determine the outcome
for all. Others are affected in the short term,
in the long term, and the decisions that they
make there inside their own tent create an impact
in the lives of everyone around them. Now maybe
if you don't know them very well or know them
at all, that the impact on you may be small.
If it's your brother or your sister or your mother,
your father, your husband or your wife, then
the impact on you will be greater because you're
closer to them. I submit to you that no addict
overdosed ever that someone who was close to
them did not receive a broken heart. That no
person strayed into immorality and stayed there
and faded away without someone who loved them
receiving a broken heart. Now I think a lot of
times we think that we're in those situations
and we're doing that. Nobody loves us. Nobody
cares. Nobody's going to be impacted. But the
fact is that sin spreads. It doesn't just spread.
I do something, like if I would lie, then that
lie impacts the people that I lied to. It's far
worse than that. Because sin makes a person unclean,
makes them unusable by God. And then an unclean
thing makes other things that it touches unclean.
If you try to wash your face with a dirty old
dish rag that's been used for 40 sinks of dishes
and now is full of grease and growing mold, your
face is not going to get clean. There is no way.
And it's not that we have to sin a whole bunch
of times in order to be made unclean. It's just
once. And you can make a dishrag very dirty by
cleaning just once. Clean the road grime off
of your car with a dishrag and you'll no longer
want to clean your dishes with it until it is
at least properly laundered. In fact, I've thrown
several away. It just takes one act of sin, one
thing that is not right in God's eyes, to make
us unclean. And God will not use you while you
are doing that for a positive thing, for a godly
work. And so therefore, that uncleanness spreads
to those who are close to us, and it spreads
in lesser dimension to those who are further
away. So we have to realize that we are part
of a whole. And yes, you have every right to
make the decision that you're making. You have
freedom. You can choose to lie, to cheat, to
steal, to be immoral. You can choose to murder
or be angry in your heart at others. You can
choose to lust in an ungodly way toward a member
of the unmarried or toward somebody who is married.
You can look at models online and people who
have shrunk themselves down to earn their millions
and shrunk their clothes all the more. And in
doing that, nobody is there with you. It's just
your mind. It's just your heart. Right? And you're
the one that's making that decision, and you
have the freedom to make that decision. Until
you don't have the freedom to not make that decision.
Because the Bible says, the one who sins is slave
to sin, Jesus speaking. But the fact that you
become slave to sin, you might go, that's fine,
that's me, I get to do that, right? I can choose
to do that, I can choose to be whoever I want,
you can't tell me who I can be. And that's a
reality. That is exactly right. Because you were
made in the image of the God of the universe
who created everything. And you can willfully
choose to be whatever you choose to be. Now,
once you get started, the effects on it are going
to be... I apologize. That's me. The effects
on you are going to be transmitted to others
whether you like it or not. So if you are doing
things that do not honor what you were created
to be, then the impact of those things will change
people around you. Dads who lie to get ahead
at work, and then they go home and raise their
children, and they would never lie to their child.
Never lie to their wife, or so they say. But
they lie to get ahead at work. And they bring
their uncleanness home to their household. And
that child will never know. They'll never know
what it is that dad does at work that's causing
something to be wrong in the house. It doesn't
line up. They just know that when dad comes home
from work, sometimes... he feels a little different.
He seems a little different. It doesn't quite
work. So what I'm saying to you is there is a
dynamic in this passage of Scripture that reminds
us that we are part of a whole. That the enemy
will come knocking. Many a household has suffered
for the choices of one man or woman or child.
A man who does something in secret that he'll
never tell his wife about or his kids about.
But they suffer nonetheless. A man who won't
step up and be the man for his wife that he is
supposed to be, to submit to the Lord, to be
that example, to govern, to guide, to lead religiously,
faithfully forward. And she's left languishing.
Not fertilized, not nurtured, not cared for,
not watered, not given the opportunity to be
everything that she could be for the Lord because
he refuses to be who. He's supposed to be Lord.
A woman who refuses to submit to her husband
or she just can't lift him up. He's too much
for her to bear. And so she gives up on him until
God can do something more. And she fails him
and her children from the moment that she gave
up in trying to lift him up to the Lord. A child
who is in rebellion. A child who is malty. A
child who refuses to accept the truth once they've
heard it and old enough to understand. A child
who walks a certain road that they've chosen
for themselves, thinking, well, it's my right.
I'm allowed. And they're right. Except they have
not realized that it will put them in slavery
and affect everyone in their life. And the family
goes through needless turmoil and the enemies
keep telling you that The time in which you did
your secret thing that was your right to choose
in your tent, in your house, away from everybody
else, it's not theoretically going to impact
anybody else. And the struggles that you're having
in your relationships, the struggles that you're
having in your ministry, the struggles that you're
having in serving, the struggles that you're
having in choosing, that those are unrelated.
When I was a young Christian, and even as really
hasn't been all that long ago, that I was tempted
to do something that was wrong, and I knew it
was wrong. And I actually heard a voice in my
head say, if you do this, it's not going to have
any impact on this, this, and this. It's not
going to affect your wife. It's not going to
affect your children. It's not going to affect
your finances. It's not going to affect your
home. Nothing will be affected. And you want
to do it. So why not just do it? I submit to
you that that voice was lying to me. Because
we are part of a whole. And God will let. his
enemies perish thusly. They will fade away. And
so we must choose to be part of the whole that
chooses to do things God's way so that that uncleanness
does not settle on us and then by extension on
others whom we love or care about. Or even that
you may never meet. This is the thing. The uncleanness
that you put on somebody, then they go and they
meet a perfect stranger. You have no idea who
they are. They go to the store, they go to work,
they work alongside them. Whatever. And that
person receives the effect of your uncleanness
because you put it on. If you don't think it'll
work, just watch when you sin, how it impacts
the people around you and wonder to yourself,
doesn't that then go on impact the people that
they impact? Well, sure it does. We are part
of a whole. Notice then there is another dynamic
in the text that is that some are waiting and
some of those who are waiting are waiting in
vain. The question is, will they be waiting for
you? Will you fade off, burn out, and they'll
be waiting for you to return? They'll say, well,
he did so well for so long, I thought everything
was fine. Yeah, he made some choices, she made
some choices that didn't seem to be right by
me, but they were doing great. They were healthy,
they were strong, they were having success. Got
plunder, got finances, got education, got relationships,
everything seemed fine. And now they're just...
Fell out. They're gone. Will they be waiting
for you? Longing for you? Trying to think the
best of you? As long as your track record speaks
or they have hope beyond hope, then yes, they'll
be waiting. The people who love you will be waiting
for you to turn into something that will last.
But if and when you fade to black, their hopes
will be dashed down and out. The righteous man
falls seven times and gets up seven times, but
the less than righteous man falls. and does not
rise eventually. An aside, if you will, if you'll
give me this liberty. If you were born to be
strong, if you're born to be decisive, then your
task is even greater. If you were born into a
wealthy family, your task is even greater. If
you were born into a family that by nature loves
God or is very intelligent, for example, and
they trained you to love God, to be a discerning
thinker, to be intelligent, then your task is
even greater. The task becomes not simply to
prosper, because you were literally made for
that. You come from a background of that, right?
Could be old family money, or a spiritual background,
or whatever. But you must know that that prosperity
comes not from your own strength. You must continually
attribute it to the God of heaven denying yourself.
Jesus said, deny yourself, take up your cross
daily and follow after me. He also said that
it is harder for a rich man to come into the
kingdom of God than for a camel to go through
the eye of a needle. And they said, well, then
how can come into the kingdom of God? And he
said, with God, all things are possible. You
see, so if you're that intelligent or that rich
or that capable or that decisive or that creative,
you have a greater responsibility. If you're
that strong, that healthy, that fast, then you
have a greater responsibility to submit because
denying yourself means looking at how awesome
you are and realizing that no matter how awesome
you are, God is more awesome than that. In fact,
God is the one who instilled the awesomeness
in you. The text kind of wraps up or ends out
with the final dynamic. And it says, let those
who love him. be like the rising of the sun in
its might. And I thought, and I kind of meditated
on, prayed about what that means to rise like
that, to be faithful. See, the sun keeps coming
up every day, right? So it's to be faithful,
so we stay the course. We are indeed unstoppable
in its course. Nothing that mankind has ever
been able to create would touch the sun. We have
enough nuclear weapons to destroy the earth,
but if we launched all of our nuclear weapons
into one exact pinpoint on the sun, it wouldn't
make a blip. There wouldn't be a bit of static,
no electromagnetic wave that would someday reach
Earth. Because if you take the Earth and make
it as big as you possibly can, think about how
large it is, and then you compare it in reference
to the sun, the Earth would be like that tiny
pinprick, that tiny little dot, and the sun would
be a thousand times bigger than the Earth. It's
so big. And so it's unstoppable in its course
by anything that man has ever done. And that's
what we're said to be. That's what we're supposed
to be, unstoppable in our course. Continuing
this day as God made it, we are supposed to continue
as God made us. The sun is life -giving. In fact,
if you think about it just so, and that's what
I've asked you to do today, all life on the earth
is empowered and impacted by the sun. We eat
animals. Animals eat trees. Trees grow because
the sun shines. Coal. Coal is packed full of
energy that initially came from where? Ultimately,
the sun. The sun to animals, animals to the ground,
the ground to coal, and so on. Life -giving.
That's what we're supposed to be. Life -giving.
And if this dynamic is ignored, then it is ignored
at the peril of the ignorant. We are supposed
to be like that. We think a lot of times about
being light. Jesus says, you are the light of
the world. We sang, we're the light on a hill,
right? Just, we think how it shines and dazzles
when focused on. If you take a potted plant and
put it in the closet and shine a spotlight so
bright, that you can't see, it blinds you, you
don't dare look at it, and you shine that spotlight
at that plant, it'll not grow. Because spotlights
don't produce what the sun produces. If that
plant gets sunlight from the sun, it'll grow.
We think about light that shines or dazzles when
focused on, but this is more than that. This
is sunlight. This is people, family, friends,
coworkers, followers. They should all prosper
under your shining. If you're not going around
making people's lives better, then you've missed
this dynamic. If something in your life needs
to be dealt with in order that anyone that you
would bump into, you could make their lives better,
then you need to learn to deny yourself and get
to making people's lives better. Jesus literally
begged God and cried the night before. He wept
tears and sweat blood over the fact that he had
to go to the cross. But he knew for the joy set
before him, he must submit to a death, even death
on a cross. So shall we be. Your people in your
life, whomever God has brought you into contact,
your family, your friends, your co -workers,
your followers, whoever they might be, they should
prosper under our shining. You should say daily,
I'm going to get up. I'm going to be a blessing
to others. I am unstoppable. I am life -bringing.
For those who stand against me, God has made
me victorious in His time. To stand against me
is to stand against God as long as I stand with
God. To stand against me is to stand against
God as long as I stand with God, and I will leave
the outcome to Him. In the morning, I will still
be rising. When God once and for all drives the
enemy to his knees at my feet, the enemy shall
never rise again. I will not forget that man
shall never be my real enemy. Knowing the outcome
means I don't have to increase my efforts to
bring about the outcome. Are you hearing me now?
If you are a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ
and God has promised you heaven, If the God of
heaven has installed in you the Holy Spirit,
and if you hear Him in you now saying, you belong
to me and I'm taking you where you cannot possibly
imagine how good it will be. I'm taking you to
a place where I want you to be. And if you hear
that promise of the Holy Spirit in you now, then
you need to understand there is nothing that
you can do to make that outcome more likely.
Knowing the outcome means I don't have to increase
my efforts to bring about the outcome, but rather
I repulse the enemy by knowing this end and proceeding
in faithfulness until the end is forthcoming.
This is the exact opposite of the dynamic for
those who will fade away, because in their hearts
they know. That they do not have a relationship
with God. In fact, they don't want it. They probably
hate God. It's ironic how many people who believe
that God does not exist actually hate God. That's
pretty ironic. And then they will redouble and
triple and quadruple and even a hundredfold their
efforts to get good outcomes. And in many cases,
they will get good outcomes until they eventually
fade away and they will go away from us and we
will never see them again. For all our wanting,
we cannot make the outcome different. Those who
love the Lord should be rising with strength
like the sun now. That brings us to our conclusion.
Those who have their thirst satiated now, outside
loving the Lord, will eventually experience a
moment in time when they will pay back many fold
what they have stewarded poorly. We have a tendency
to believe that things will go on just as they
are. Like, it's okay I'm doing what I'm doing
because it's still working. In fact, I like it
better. I like it better the way I feel. I like
it better the way it's working out for me. So
it's okay that I continue to do these things
even though God has said it is not okay. We think
that the results that others have achieved by
their track record of choices are available to
us as well. We say, well, it seems like it's
working for them. So we go after it. This is
what's super ironic. We go after the way other
people are behaving because it seems like they're
working for them. Then they fade away and they're
out of the picture now and we're still following
that method thinking that's going to be good
for us in the long run. That doesn't make any
sense. Because they faded away. The method for
them, how did it work? Well, they fell away.
And maybe you can have it if you want it, but
I'd suggest you be very certain in your understanding
of where the road of destruction that you're
on, that is actually littered with low -hanging
fruit, stuff that you can enjoy all the while,
leads. The low -hanging fruit will begin to make
you think that you are on a different sort of
road. See, I'm prospering. See, God is rewarding
my righteousness. See, God is being good to me.
Or you take God out of the picture of completeness.
See, I'm doing well. This is what I want. But
the Lord determines how long that road runs and
its destination has already been set. Your only
choice is to get off that road and get onto one
that goes where you actually want to go. The
road that goes where we want to go. is also plagued
with landmines of suffering as it was for Jesus.
In fact, the word says if we will suffer as he
suffered and suffer with him as he suffered,
that we will ultimately receive a crown. And
it's also filled with new occurrences of his
mercies morning by morning rather than low -hanging
fruit or the trappings of this life. You may
not get everything that your flesh wants. You
may not get all the money or all the desserts
or all the relationships. But the road that you
will be on that is not littered with those low
-hanging fruits will take you to where you want
to go. Perhaps this is why it's a wide road accommodating
many people. The correct road is a narrow road,
refusing the trappings of this life, even the
ones that you're completely allowed to have.
So I'm on the road following Jesus, and something
comes along, and I can take it or not. It's easy,
and it's not even sin for me to take it. But
the word says deny yourself, take up your cross
daily and follow after him. So you deny yourself
and you do it to honor the Lord and you receive
the blessings that God really desires for you.
The correct road is a narrow road, refusing the
trappings of this life, disciplining oneself
in submission to the Lord, being willing to suffer
as opportunity permits and following a true king
into eternity. In this effort, the Lord will
make us. The might of the rising sun. I want
you to hear the prayers of the righteous. Understand,
this was a prayer. Thus let all thine enemies
perish, O Lord, but let those who love him be
like the rising of the sun in its might. That's
a prayer to God, that it would be so. This is
praying the will of the Lord, and we pray every
day, do we not? Or at least prayers like this.
Thy will be done. It's how God set it up. It's
how creation works. It's how the kingdoms work.
Thy will be done. This is the will of the Lord.
This is the economy of the kingdom. I'm not here
to argue today that we can choose a different
result. A false gospel often says, if you'll
choose Jesus today, you can be saved. And I'm
here to tell you that that's not really true.
Did you hear that? That's not really true. You
don't get saved by choosing Jesus. So if you're
cynical, if you're skeptical, if you're debating,
if you have questions, if you're in doubt, self
-doubt, God -doubt, path -doubt, faith -doubt,
doubt, realize that choosing Jesus is not enough.
Jesus said, you have not chosen me. I chose you.
If, on the other hand, you realize that he has
chosen you and desires to put you on a road that
honors him and use you for something greater
than you can ever imagine, ultimately, including
an eternity with him in heaven. If you realize
that's true, if you believe it, then he will
do what he has promised to do. We are saved by
grace and that through faith. We believe and
God shows up and he chooses us. He does what
he wants to do and then we are saved. It's not
by works. You can't get there by works. So I'm
not here today to argue that we can choose a
different result. Rather, having a certain result,
we can choose to rise with the might of the sun.
A loyal soldier is prepared to follow an order
that leads to his apparent death, even one that
he doesn't understand. In Luke chapter 5 and
verse 1, they've been out fishing all night long
and caught nothing. A boat full of ten professional
fishermen. They've been out fishing all night
long and caught nothing. They start to come back
into shore and Jesus sees them and he's standing
on the shore and he says, put out into the deep
water and cast your net one more time. Now it's
the heat of the day. Fish don't come to the surface
in the heat of the day. You don't net fish in
the heat of the day. These are professional fishermen.
They know that. All they had to do was decide
to do what they were told. And the great blessing
was in store for them. And there are two men
in that boat. Really, there are how many ever
men? Two men in each body in that boat. Two types
of men. One is to say, no, we've already tried
all night long. We're professional fishermen.
We know what we're doing. All logic, all reason,
all decision making says, we're done. We're coming
in. We'll try again tomorrow. How many times
in the past have they said, we're done. We're
coming in. We'll try again tomorrow. I don't
know. It doesn't say. But there's another man
in the boat. A man who understands the dynamics
that we've been talking about. Men, two men in
each body. One of them, Peter embraces. He says,
I understand the dynamic. And he says, okay.
And they put the boat back out into the deep
water and they drop the net one time. One more
time. As commanded. And the net is filled to
bursting. And they get a greater haul than they've
ever gotten. Do you know that the rebel against
God lives in you? The lust of the flesh, the
lust of the eyes, and the pride of life doesn't
go away even if you get saved. It's still your
human condition. You're going to have to get
close to God and realize that God wants to be
close to you. And then in so doing, follow the
commands even when they don't seem to make sense,
even when they're hard. You can do whatever you
want in your own tent. There's nobody there.
Now, in the church building, if you do it, others
or believers around, somebody might hold you
accountable and say, hey, why are you doing that?
That's sin against God. Somebody might do that.
But on your own, all alone, it's just you. You're
going to have to decide to rise in the might
of the Lord and do what it is that you're supposed
to do. In the book of Genesis in chapter 50,
we see the story of Joseph, boiling it down to
one point when Joseph has now met his brothers
again. They're the ones who threw him in a pit,
sold him into slavery, lied to his father and
told him he was dead. Now he's been exposed to
them again and they think, oh, he's probably
going to kill us, he's going to hurt us, whatever.
And Joseph says, you meant evil against me, but
God meant it for good in order to bring about
this present result to preserve many people alive.
See, in the moment when he could have exacted
his revenge, he realized, no, God was doing something.
He rose with the might of the Son. I submit to
you, he'd been kind of doing that all the time.
If you look back at his history, he had quite
a few opportunities, and he did it over and over
again. Now hear me. This is your key with the
dynamics. As long as your might, as long as your
might, as long as your might, Might. It also
might not. You understand? As long as your might
might, it might carry the day. I might do what
I'm supposed to. I might make a change in my
life. I might show up for church. I might show
up for Bible study. I might schedule God in 168
hours a week and schedule everything else out.
I might find time to read my Bible. I might find
time to pray. I might find time to serve. I might
encourage, I might walk around with the actual
intent of bringing life and happiness to anyone
and everyone that I possibly can. I might share
the gospel. As long as your might might, it also
might not. And if it might not, then it is not
the might of the Lord. I'm asking you to be decisive,
creative, intelligent, faithful. Whatever it
is that God has made in you to understand that
as long as your might might, It also might not.
And if it might not, then it is not the might
of the Lord. If you want to read your Bibles,
go through every single story and look for this
dynamic. When God is the one who determines the
outcome, what happens? God always gets the glory.
The kingdom always advances. Souls get saved.
People get healed. Evil gets overcome and fades
away. That is the end of the story. Jesus is
going to come again. And every single person
is going to answer. For how they use. Now, Jesus
didn't come to judge people. He didn't come to
condemn you. Neither do I. But we are condemned
already by what we do with the Son of God. Who
died on a cross for us. Who lived a sinless life.
Died, buried, rose again. And he can save your
soul. The question is, have you been too endeared?
Have you become too entrapped by the things that
you believe in? The things that you want in this
lifetime? By the teachings that someone else
gave you? Your education, your wealth, your personality,
your culture, your background, your track record.
But just remember, we don't live alone. There
is a greater investment. I had a woman that I
was witnessing to, and I'd been witnessing to
her for a long time. She was a professing Christian,
and she kind of didn't want to live in it, but
I don't judge people's salvation. That's not
my job. That's God's job. But I continued to
witness to her because her lifestyle was such
that it didn't line up with what Jesus was teaching.
And so I said to her one day, I said, you do
realize that these choices that you're making
do not line up with what Jesus is teaching, what
the Bible teaches. And she said, yeah, she said,
I figure ultimately God will just kill me. I
was like, whoa. She said, he'll probably just
take my life. Ultimately, he'll just take me
out. I do believe in him. I also believe the
Bible says there is a sin unto death. That's
a sermon for a different day. And she said, I
think God will just take me out. And I said,
I hear you. I understand what you're saying.
You want what you want. You're going to do what
you're going to do. You have every right to do
that. And you say you'd be okay if God just taken
you out. And then I asked her a question and
it stopped her in her tracks. I asked her a question
and she had a look on her face like she'd seen
death himself. I said, what if he doesn't? What
if he doesn't take you out? What if he allows
you to walk this road that you're on for as long
as you want, picking that low -hanging fruit,
always thinking in ignorance that you're getting
away with it? Always continuing, always staying
in the course, thinking you're getting away with
it, with no realization of how awesome it could
be if you were walking with him instead. What
if he puts you in a wheelchair? Or puts you on
dialysis? What if he takes away... Family members.
Relationships. What if he doesn't kill you? And
she said, I hadn't thought about that. About
a year later, that woman called me up and she
was in an absolute dark. She was in an ignorant,
hurting place. And she said, I need to accept
Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. I know I
do. I can no longer stand against God. So she
was professing that she had never been saved.
I said, how can it be that you've never been
saved? I've shared it so many times. I've talked
to you. I know people, you were a church member,
all these kinds of things. And she said, you
know, nobody really ever asked me. And I said,
I asked you during every sermon. I submit to
you, she was pushing the square root button thinking
she was pushing the divide sign. I submit to
you, she was holding the watch upside down. I've
asked you not to do that. I've asked you not
to do that. I've asked you not to do that today.
I've asked you not to do that. Have you heard
the dynamics of the Lord in this message? You're
not alone. You're part of a whole. You're meant
to rise with the might of the sun and change
everyone's life around you for the good. Refusing
to do so, you will at least create a vacuum of
your presence if not spread uncleanness to everyone
around you. Repent, turn to the Lord, and let
Jesus lead your life. Let him sit on the throne.
And let it change how you interact with other
people and how you respond to God. I ask the
praise team to come forward at this time and
lead us in our closing song. As we do that, If
the Lord has touched your heart and you want
to give your life to the Lord in earnest today,
that would mean you're going to repent from your
sin. It means I'm turning away from the things
that I'm doing that I should not do. I'm turning
to God. I realize that he's chosen me to be saved.
And if that's you, then as we sing this song,
you walk forward, take my hand, we'll pray together.
We'll share with the rest of the group what it
is that decision that you're making today. Whatever
it might be. Maybe God's calling you to a very
specific thing. Say, I think I'm already saved,
but God's calling me to do something specific.
And you're willing to say, okay, I'm going to
do what God's calling me to do today. Maybe God
opened your eyes. This is something you haven't
seen before. And you say, I just want to dwell
on that. I want to think on that. I want to grow
from that thing I learned today that I didn't
previously know. Whatever it might be. And as
we sing.