We're supposed to be preparing a little each
week, ask you to read your Bibles, to pray, to
talk to the Lord as you're walking along, to
listen to what God might have to say to you,
ask you to relate that to Scripture if you're
able, and either way, whatever the Lord has said
to you, bring it to share with us collectively
on Sunday. This is not only a place where we
in fellowship can talk about what it is that
we've seen in the last seven days that God's
been doing, how we've experienced the Lord and
His Word, but on top of that, it's an opportunity.
for us to kind of refine each other. And so you
hear how others are hearing or seeing what God
is doing. And then you think, well, I can listen
that way. I can see that way as well. Or if someone
would bring something we know is not quite biblical,
not quite on the mark, then we can kind of help
redirect that, help refine each other so that
we can understand what it is that God is saying
or doing in our midst. And so that is a form
of fellowship. And I think in a way, If I could
say this, and I feel kind of led in the spirit
to do so, that this moment, which we have done
for many years, is probably the sincerest form
of fellowship in a very simple period of time
that we have. We do a lot together. We work together.
We eat together. We play together. We spend time
with one another. We run ministries together.
We have ministry meetings together. We talk and
plan and pray. All of those things are all good.
And when we're praying together, that is a very
simple and very powerful and poignant form of
fellowship, as long as everyone is actually praying.
I think a lot of times someone leads the prayer,
and everybody just kind of waits for it to be
over. And so that's why we say, remember, we're
praying along with that person to get that. So
right now, we're in this together. Whatever somebody
brings, we're thinking together and learning
together on how the Lord is speaking to us. And
so I would ask you today, what have you seen?
What have you heard? In this last seven days,
how has the Lord been speaking? Start with our
day. So, since we brought up the whole vision
casting with the church, it's got me thinking
about more places where that same thing can apply.
Like, for instance, just your own vision, where
you plan on seeing yourself. And on Friday, I
was talking to a youth group about why it's important
to have a vision and to make sure that vision
lines up with what God wants. Because if your
vision lines up with... your own values and your
own heart without God in it, it's possible you
might achieve that, but it's also very likely
that it's not going to be what you thought. Right.
Like one of the examples I used is Keyshawn.
He likes, one of his dreams is he wants to be
an NBA. He wants to be a professional basketball
player. And I told him if that's what God wants,
then that's good. But I was like, now if you
get there and it's not what God wants, it's not
going to be what you think. So I'm like, and
this is what we talked about on Friday, and how
we have to make sure our values line up with
God's values. Because if our values line up with
our own wants, our own desires, we might achieve
everything we want to achieve, but it's not going
to be... satisfying. It's not going to be what
you were expecting and it could very possibly
be a lot worse than what you were expecting.
You could be in a worse spot than you were from
the beginning if you never went down that road.
So one of the things that I brought up to him
was that's something I feel that as a family,
me and my wife, we need to try to do it with
all of our kids. We need to try to have a family
vision plan of where we want to see us and how
we want our walk to go because let's be real
we're all humans and we all have struggled we
all have issues but we need to be united and
not just as a family but we need to be united
as an entire church so and i think that's why
it's important that and one of the things i was
telling them on friday is that questionnaire
thing is something that it has to be taken seriously
because if you just you just pencil whip through
it you're not going to get anything out of it
all right not going to get the godly inspiration
if you just then this is nothing i don't need
to worry about it you have to actually take it
seriously put some thought into it because god
might show you something incredible yeah many
a quiz or chapter has been taken over the years
that nobody really cared and it's like well just
get the grade get on with the next thing great
way to lose the educational experience out of
it. Also, I go back to when I was a kid, this
happened to something you said, when I was a
kid, my parents used to tell me I could be anything
I wanted to be. My dad told me at least a dozen
times when I was growing up, I could be president
of the United States if I wanted to. He said,
I could be a lawyer, I could be a doctor, you
can be anything that you want to be. And on the
surface, I think, I always thought that was kind
of cool. It was an encouragement. He was telling
me, you know, you're an awesome kid, you can
do whatever you want. But he always tailed on
the end of that and said, you can be anything
you want to be if you just put your mind to it.
And I realized later that what he was saying
was that there were a lot of things that I didn't
put my mind to. And so he was saying that I was
kind of flawed in a way. I was failing to be
whatever it was that I wanted to be. And so it
became almost like a little bit of a curse. And
that's what happened to me when I became an adult
for the first, until I was 25 years old. I quit
everything. I wanted to be a French horn player,
and I got pretty good at the French horn private
lessons, and as soon as the teacher said, okay,
now you're ready, you need to be in a bigger
band, and I was playing full songs, I play all
the scales and everything on French horn, as
soon as he said, okay, now you're ready to be
in a bigger band without a private lessons, I
quit. Like the very same day, I quit. And it
was because I knew I could be great, or at least
according to what my dad said, I could be great,
if I would just apply myself, but the pressure
was too much. So I quit so many things. And so
I think it's important as... is to catch a vision
for what God has. I also know, and this will
be really realistic with this, we're probably
only going to get a picture of the vision. We're
going to get an idea, not the exact. I was not
going to give an outline. There's no tenfold
laws of Christianity. The Ten Commandments are
not the rules we follow to be saved. We are with
a person, Jesus Christ. We have a relationship
with him. And so it's not as easy as we cast
this vision and then we say, we're going to hit
that perfectly, that's who we're going to be,
because we may only get a picture of the vision.
We see now, as in a mirror, dimly. But then,
face to face, I know everything. So we don't
know, we're not going to know it all, but we
can be led by the Lord, as you said, to get a
picture of the vision that God wants for us.
And it comes back to the old illustration where
there's a man, and God told him to move this
giant boulder out of his front yard. And he said,
how am I going to ever move this boulder? It's
huge. I'm telling you how to do it. Just do it.
So he went out and he pushed against the boulder
and it wouldn't move. And he got his shovel and
he dug it out and dug really deep and it still
wouldn't move. And it just seemed to be really
bigger than he thought. It was so much bigger.
And he pushed on the boulder and pushed on the
boulder and pushed every day pushing on the boulder.
And he kept complaining to God and asking God
to let him quit. And at the end of that, he said,
God, I've done this for years pushing on this
boulder and I've never been able to move it.
I've dug it up the best I can but it's just too
heavy and I cannot move it. And God said, but
look at what you've become. And he looked at
himself and he was healthy and he was muscled
and he was strong and lean and intelligent and
all of those things that he had become in the
process of trying to move older. And so the vision
is better in understanding who God is making
us out to be. It is not necessarily an understanding
of what we will accomplish, but it is an understanding
of what we'll be trying to do. And that's the
goal. And so, yeah, I'm excited about it too.
And I think, I would encourage you, for your
family, think about the vision that God has for
your family. And look at what's in it and what
maybe could, maybe doesn't fit. Yes, sir. So
I would say, and I respond on everything, my
vision is more sporadic. And so the reason I
say that is because it's just at work. Not everybody
is supposed to do the same thing. If we did,
job wouldn't get done. We need people that are
super focused, you know, like to put a material
in a... Press, we've got people that just work
on the press. We've got people that just do 50%.
But the idea is when we all come together, we
do what we do. And there's a reason for that.
God has instilled us with all different goals
and maybe more focus than others and more talents
and more strengths. But it's so the job gets
done. And so the reason I say that is because,
you know, my vision for me is it's always been
sporadically. All right, God, what are we doing?
What are we doing? What are we doing? It's never
been like. I do this, I do this. For instance,
I recently reached out to a brother for almost
six months now. We have Bible study. I call him
on the phone and we'll read the Bible. And so,
one, it helps me read the Bible for myself, read
with another. And two, this is a brother that's
burned out. This is a person that is constantly
in his thoughts, can't get out of his thoughts.
He deals with kind of like what I kind of deal
with, like autism, where there's something wrong
with us that doesn't click. So we can't, I'm
not saying move forward, but it's just like it
stops us where people are already. Two steps
ahead, we're half a step ahead, but we still
can keep going. And so the reason I say that
is, one, I've grown in what I used to thought
I was a good listener, who said, man, I could
really listen good, because what I used to do
back in the day is I used to be quiet and listen
to the person. And then, you know, they would
get their stuff out, but that would be it. Or
I thought back in the day, well, I know so much,
I could expound on my knowledge, and they could
listen to it, and they could learn from it. One
of the reasons none of those work is because
what they need is not me to critique them, tell
them what to think, just listen to them. I just
need to be there for them. And so on the phone,
when I'm a great listener, and by the grace of
God, I'm a great listener now, I carry this conversation.
For instance, my friend was trying to say something.
I was like, no, man, I want to hear what you
got to say. And I was like, everything we're
saying, I guarantee you, God will speak to us
through it. And so he said this one little line.
It might not mean nothing, but it does. He goes,
man, it's crazy that it's said like that. And
I started to think about that. And then, boom,
this is where this inspirational moment comes
from that moment. Something sparks in me. I'm
like, you're right. This is a crazy moment. We're
in James chapter 4. And we pretty much remember
it says, come near to God. God will come near
to you. Wash your hands clean, you sinners. Like
serious stuff. And I'm like, but if you look
in 1 Peter, it doesn't say that. If you look
in 2 Peter, it doesn't say that. If you look
in Isaiah and Jeremiah, you'll get some kind
of comparison. The authenticity of the Bible
is that's how cool it is. No verse expounds the
other verse. It's like James is really serious,
and Peter's really serious too, but in his own
way he's serious. And so Peter will not say what
James says. James will not say what Peter says.
I think you all understand. If we all had something
to say today, everybody would have something
different to say. It could be the same topic,
but in their own words. And so one thing I thank
God for is the authenticity, the originality
of every book being different. I can go into
James chapter 4 and go, well, that's not 1 Peter
chapter 1. Because I love this part about 1 Peter
or this about Colossians 1. And so the reason
I shared it is, one, to be a great listener.
I'm talking to myself, too. It's not just to
listen to people, but to help people get to where
they're at. Help people slowly, fast, whatever
it looks like. Because the thing is, one thing
that he understands now is I'm genuine. And I
thank God for that because we're brothers. And
he knows my brothership is genuine. And when
I call, he'll be like, you say sorry all the
time, like 5 ,000 times. And I didn't say it
as much. Because he realizes he doesn't have
to be sorry all the time. That he does make mistakes.
And that God is the one that is the author of
a perfect of our faith. And these little steps.
And I thank God. I thank God for anybody that
helps someone grow. Because it's not us. I mean,
we are being obedient. But it's by God's strength
in us. Amen. That's a good word. That's a very
good word. And I hear you saying. In the church,
we have these different voices, and we are involved
in that conversation. We have never been on the
phone with somebody to talk with that guy, but
we are, all of us, speaking into that conversation.
And that's what it means to be a church. And
when you're witnessing out there, you realize
you're not witnessing just with your own authority.
Obviously, you're witnessing with the authority
of the Lord. But then with that, you have God's
people around you. You are the church, and the
church is something. The church is the being,
if you will. the bride of Christ, for whom God
has given the keys to the kingdom. And we are
able where individually we would not be. And
we can stay the course. And yes, I heard you
say, we do different things. We each have a different
piece that we do. But also, I would add this,
realize that once you have your piece, you do
that thing, and you don't bounce around and find
everybody else's piece all the time. You do your
thing. and you do it for God, and you do it in
God's strength, and you allow other people to
come alongside you to do it, and practice your
way of being in Christ's fellowship. Alright,
we're going to pray together at this time, and
then tithes and offerings, and a little more
worship. So I realize you have done the vision
casting survey already. There's a question on
there that says something to the effect of how
often do you worship with your heart? Do you
offer your heart during worship? And I read that
question and I was like, oh, sometimes my heart's
not all the way in it. So I just want to encourage
everyone to make sure you're present and putting
your heart in your worship. It's about more than
just the words on a screen. It's about what's
in our hearts during that time of worship. Tommy,
would you lead us in prayer and we'll pray along
with you as we transition. We pray for everyone
here that we just redirect our minds towards
you, direct the service in, just through everyday
life in general. Just keep focused on you and
walking down the straight and narrow path. We
pray for the offering, that you would bless it,
and we bless all the hands that contribute to
it as well. We pray for those around here who
are sick or whatever is going on within you.
I speak the name of Jesus over you. In your hurting,
in your sorrow, I will ask my God to move. I
speak the name because it's all that I can do.
In desperation, I'll seek heaven and bring us
forth. That's very cute. The tears go away Then
I remember The pledge you made to me Thank you.
I want you to think for a moment about a time
in your past, whenever it might have been. It
may have been your salvation. You might say that's
the only time. When you were in a difficult spot.
Could be with your health, finances, relationship,
whatever. And you just cried out to God. And
you said, God help me. I can name several in
my life. One of the most poignant times I'll
never forget. And I remember like it was yesterday,
even though it was a sad thing and it's one of
those things that you might like to maybe forget,
was when Stuart passed away, Sherry's grandfather.
Sherry's grandfather was very much the patriarch
of his family. He was a very dynamic personality.
He wasn't saved until very late in life by his
profession, about six months, eight months before
he passed away. He was looking for a miracle
from God and had cried out a number of times
to ask God to heal him from his cancer. But at
the same time, he was saying, but I am ready
for whatever. I've lived a long life and I'm
ready to go home to be with the Lord. We had
a softball game down in Walbridge. I don't know
if it was a doubleheader or just a single game.
I think it was probably just a single game. And
we were headed out immediately after the softball
game to go visit him in the nursing home in hospice
where he'd been down in Maumee there and got
the phone call. that he had passed away. We'd
already been called in, the family had been called
in, and they knew he could pass away at any time.
And we'd been out many times to see him, spent
hours there sitting in the room with him, talking
with the family in the little side room that
they had and so on. So we'd been there quite
a bit, and there was nothing imminent any more
than that, that he would pass away at any time.
So we thought we were going to go see him again,
and we got the phone call that he had passed
away. And we said, well, you know, can you still
go see him, visit the body, pray, whatever like
that. And they said no, that the body was being
taken care of by that time. And so there was
no sense in trying to drive out there because
you wouldn't be able to see him. You could just
go in the room where he had been, but it was
empty. And so we went home. And that night we
lay in bed, Sherry and I, and we just kind of
clung to each other and we prayed. And our hearts
were heavy, not just for... The fact that he
passed away, not really for that, because he'd
gone to be with the Lord. We were almost certain
that by his profession he'd gone with the Lord.
But for the family and for our kids, whose hearts
were surely breaking, and it was just a moment
where we were just crying out in pain to God.
You probably have a similar story or multiple
stories. And the result of your crying out to
God may be different. So we received comfort
from the Lord, and then we proceeded on, and
we have tried. sent from that day forward to
live the best we knew how, taking into account
what God had done in his life, taking into account
the kind of man that he was. To this day, when
I'm hanging drywall, I am extra careful to hang
it as well as I possibly can in honor of Stuart,
because one time I hung drywall, drywalled a
whole wall, and Alicia and Amalia, when they
were little, and we stayed there and drywalled
until about 3 o 'clock in the morning on a...
New Year's Eve, actually. Instead of going and
doing something New Year's Eve, we went there
and drywalled until 3 o 'clock in the morning.
The next day, he went there and saw what we had
done. He told his wife it wasn't right. He took
the whole thing down by himself and redid it.
The only thing he changed was there was a seam
at the top that was about 12 inches tall. I had
not gotten it on the stud. It was off the stud.
He took all the drywall, the entire wall down,
put it all back up to get that one seam on the
stud. And I stubbornly refused to go and help
him when I found out that he was doing it. I'm
like, it's fine. It's fine. It really wasn't
fine, but it wouldn't have taken much to fix
that one little spot without tearing down the
whole wall. But that was the care that he had
for making things right. And so every time I
drywall, I remember that. So the point is now
we live in honor of what God did in those circumstances.
You may have cried out for healing and didn't
get it. I've seen people do that. You may have
cried out for help in your finances and didn't
get it or didn't get it the way you wanted it.
You may have cried out for help in your job situation,
make my job better, make that person go away,
leave me alone, stop me from being persecuted,
stop me from trials and struggles, whatever it
might be, the condition of my body. It could
be anything. And you may have cried out to God
and you may not have gotten the answer that you
expected, but you realize that after having cried
out to the Lord, you have to live. with what
happened in that moment in mind. You're a new
person now. Either you cried out and didn't get
it, which means now you realize sometime in the
future you may cry out and not get the exact
aid the way you want it, and you have to take
that into account. Or you may say, well, I cried
out and I received it one time and I didn't another.
That's probably most of our experience. Like
one time you receive what you think is a miraculous
intervention, another time it doesn't seem that
God really intervenes other than to provide you
with some comfort for what you're going through,
and you have to live in light of that. When I
was in Bible college, and we're going to go into
the text right after this, when I was in Bible
college, I had to write a paper about why God
doesn't do miracles anymore. And I was in a class
of 45 people, and we all had to write a paper
about why God doesn't do miracles anymore. And
I took the risk. I knew that there was a substantial
possibility I would get a poor grade because
the paper I wrote was that the question is wrong.
God does still do miracles. And out of 45 people,
and the professor later would tell me, It was
a sophomore level theology class that I was writing
it in. And he said out of about 150 sophomores
taking that class every year for the last 10
years that he had taught it, nobody had ever
written a thesis saying God still does miracles.
And that was more heartbreaking than had I handled
it some other way because I'm like, well, I know
God does miracles. And then in my essay, I was
able to write some of the miracles that I had
seen that God had done. and also support it biblically,
that there's no reason. There's really only one
text that you can use to support that God doesn't
do miracles anymore, and it's misinterpreted
to do that. The Bible clearly teaches that God
still does miracles. And I thought, so you're
trying to tell me that out of the, whatever,
1 ,400 students, they all accepted that? And
we know that's not true, right? Really what happened
was they just wrote the assignment. They did
what they were told. They probably believed that
God does still do miracles. But they just wrote
the assignment because the assignment was why
doesn't God do miracles? So they wrote why God
doesn't do miracles anymore. And maybe they came
away from that experience saying, well, God doesn't
do miracles anymore. And I submit to you that
when you cry out to God and ask for his help
and he doesn't answer or he answers in a way
that doesn't show up in power and change the
circumstances to be everything you want it to
be, it's easy to say, well, God doesn't do miracles
anymore. Because the alternative is you have
to look at how do you live in light of the fact
that God does miracles but didn't do a miracle
for you right then. So we're going to look at
a text today where God's people are in a very
unique situation. We'll look at what that unique
situation is, and then the situation that they're
in is going to inform us about how we need to
think about when we're crying out to God for
help. But we're going to see that the very unique
situation that they were in matched up with the
fact that God is a God who provides help for
his people, that he is a stronghold for his people.
God exactly tells us why. Sometimes, not necessarily
always. This is not a big, broad brush that paints
every time you would ever cry out to the Lord,
right? But sometimes why God doesn't answer.
Okay? So grab your Bibles if you would, and maybe
give me a little who to holler amen as we go
to Judges chapter 6. Amen. This is God's Word,
Judges chapter 6. We have been going through
the book, and basically what we've had so far
is three other instances where the Israelites
have strayed into sin. And in every case, they
cry out to God in the suffering that arises.
And in every case, God has answered. And he did
so by sending judges, or what we are calling
deliverers, because we think maybe the book would
be better called the book of deliverers than
the book of judges, because not even all of them
are judges, for example. One of them starts out
as a judge and then the rest of them kind of
gain that status. But none of them, it shows
really that they become statuses, judges of the
whole of Israel. OK, so it could be called the
deliverers, but it's always been called the book
of judges. And it is the period where if they
had rulers leading them, they were judges. They
didn't have kings. And so that's why it's called
the book of judges. Right. So here we go. Judges
6 -1. Then the sons of Israel did what was evil
in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord gave them
into the hands of Midian seven years. Now, what
we're going to see in just a second is it's not
just Midian that's the problem, but Midian gets
the capital emphasis here. Now, just briefly
for a second, if you go back into the history
of Midian, like if you go back into the book
of Exodus, for example, Midian has a great reputation
overall. So they accepted Moses when he was in
flight from Egypt, and he married his wife there.
His father -in -law even had an early role in
the structure of the country of Israel because
he gave Moses an encouragement and said, look,
you can't do all the judging yourself. You can't
make all the rules and set everything yourself.
You're wearing yourself out. So set some good
men and some judges over the rest of the story,
basically over the rest of the questions that
are arising, and don't try to handle everything
yourself, but set some others to do those things.
So that's Jethro, and he had a Big impact in
that. And then, so it was good for a while. Now,
there's also some downside, like Joseph was sold
into slavery and the Midianites facilitated his
sale into slavery. Now, they didn't know necessarily
that he was the chosen one of God or anything
like that, right? But his brothers sold him to
Midianite traders who took him into Egypt and
sold him. That's not so great, but they were
just making a living and they didn't really know.
And slavery was a thing. And so if he was told,
he said that he was a slave, he didn't have rights
to himself, then they could sell him. That makes
legal sense. And then also the Midianites, by
now, they've been targeted as a people that stand
opposite God's people. And even before this,
we see that they had said, hey, we're going to
stand against the Midianites because of the way
they treated us when we came out of Egypt. So
the Midianites become the enemy in this story.
But notice that maybe even in the verse, we can
see that it's really not the Midianites who are
the enemy. It says, So you're almost kind of
like, it's God who's the enemy, right? God is
the one who gave them into the hands of the Midianites.
And we know that when God stood with them during
the book of Joshua, for example, that one Israelite
soldier was worth over 20 enemy soldiers, and
now they cannot stop Midian. But it's not just
Midian, as we'll see. It says, The power of Midian
prevailed against Israel because of Midian, the
sons of Israel made for themselves the dens which
were in the mountains and the caves and the strongholds.
Now, it's interesting right there. In that text,
there are three separate Hebrew words. You'll
remember that we're kind of in an area of the
Bible. It's very, very old Hebrew, okay? And
there are three separate Hebrew words that are
used here, and I'll slaughter them. to the best
of my ability. It's minharot, metorot, and mesadot.
So you can see they kind of have very similar
sounding words. That's the only reason I'm reading
the Hebrew to you, is you can see that they're
kind of very similar sounding words. And they
are mountain clefts. You can picture in your
mind what a mountain cleft is. It's like a hole
in the rock. You go back in there, maybe like
a little box canyon or valley or something. You
go in there, and you're guarded on sides. A mountain
cleft. And then there's caves. Well, we know
what a cave is. A cave is something you go back
into and you get out of view and you might have
some windings back in there, that kind of thing.
We know what a cave is. And then there's the
strongholds. And so these are more like constructed
places that are easily defensible, right? And
so the bottom line is they were... living or
retreating back into these areas and making them
defensible, the dens, the caves, and the strongholds.
Then it says in verse 3, For it was when Israel
had sown, that means they put the seed in the
ground, that the Midianites would come up with
the Amalekites, we've already seen them as enemies,
and the sons of the east, and that word right
there is not well translated. It was called the
sons of the east, but the truth is they don't
really know what people group. was being given
that third place right there. And so it was probably
a mess of people from various places, the sons
of the east, and it would go up against them.
So this is when the Israelites had sown the seed,
the crops are growing in the field. Now this
mass of people moves into their country. Verse
four, almost done with the text. So they would
camp against them and destroy the produce of
the earth as far as Gaza. And Gaza was that.
We're not looking at a map right now, but it
was that kind of border town. We know, we studied
this back, especially on Tuesday nights a couple
months back, as far as Gaza, which means they
went from the east, they went all the way to
the west, because Gaza's on the west border.
And it says, and they would leave no sustenance
in Israel, as well as no sheep, ox, or donkey.
Did you get that? So no crops, no sustenance,
nothing for them to live off of, as well as no
sheep, ox, or donkey. They were taking everything.
They were cleaning them out. For they would come
up with their livestock and their tents, and
they would come in like locusts for number. Both
they and their camels were innumerable. That
means there was no way you could count them.
And they came into the land to devastate it.
They had a particular thing in mind. They were
going to reap everything they could. They were
going to take everything that was left that they
could get access to. Verse 6. So Israel was brought
very low, and there's a very interesting word
there in the original language for very low.
I'll get back to it in a second. Because of Midian,
and the sons of Israel cried out to the Lord.
And so it brings them to that moment in time
where they cry out to the Lord. Okay? And that's
what we're talking about today. Now that word
that I mentioned to you in there where it says
it brought them low is a Hebrew word. Again,
you don't have to remember this, but it's essentially...
And it means to become small. It means to become
insignificant. Right? That's what it means. So
what we have going on here is there is a victorious
people. Let's be straightforward about who we're
talking about. The Israelites are a victorious
people. They took this land with God's help and
there were crops already growing and towns already
built. And they moved into other people's houses
and they themselves harvested other... crops
that had been grown there that were not theirs
they didn't plant them right and since then they
have been a victorious people and they now have
been brought low by a series of compromising
value decisions they have slid further and further
into doing what God would not want them to do.
And they didn't do it overnight. They didn't
do it instantly. They didn't say, well, we're
just going to walk away from the Lord. In fact,
they had the opportunity at the end of the book
of Joshua where Joshua said, if it seems too
difficult for you to follow God the way I'm talking
about doing that, then pick one of these other
gods, the gods from the land that you came from
or the gods from the land across the river. Pick
one of them and make them your God because if
this is too hard for you, you're just going to
make an enemy of God. And they said, no, no,
we will stay for him. So they did not one day
just switch it off like a light switch and say,
we're walking away from the Lord, we're not going
to live for Jesus anymore. Rather, through a
series of compromising value decisions, they
did evil in his sight. And we don't know for
sure what evil in his sight they were doing during
this time. The specifics are not laid out. They
might not have specifically gone back to following
false gods. At this point in the story, we don't
actually know for sure what the evil was they
were doing, but we can see one part of it for
sure. Clearly in the text, you should have already
seen it by now. There is an evil that Israel
is doing that is very clear in the text and it's
made to sound like it's a good thing. And in
their minds, it probably was. Remember that the
greatest problem in the book of Judges is that
the people do what they think they should do
rather than doing what God would have them to
do. by his direction. So what we have then is
a victorious people brought low by a series of
compromising value decisions. They did evil in
his sight. Notice also that there is here a people
that exercise their ability to adjust. Things
have gotten difficult. I'm hurting right now.
I need this to deal with my stress. My triggers
are being stomped on, so now I know that that's
what triggers me, so I have to take certain steps,
coping mechanisms, whatever. I have to take medicines
for my ailments. I have to run away and get some
rest, some quiet. I have to count to ten and
walk away because this is making me mad. So we
have a people adjusting, and they're using what
would basically be considered worldly wisdom.
What are you going to do if somebody invades
your land and there is a safe place in the hills?
What do you do? Well, you run to the hills. That's
very logical. They're just adjusting to the day.
In fact, even Ecclesiastes says there is a time
for everything. So by all rights, they could
argue this is the time to run. This is the time
to hide in the mountains. We've just got to survive
the day. And then we'll come back later and do
something different. Right? So we flee into the
strongholds. That just makes sense. We're going
to exercise our ability to adjust. But it's more
than that. They were creating. They turned those
caves and those clefts and the strongholds that
already existed into a society. They became a
people hiding out in the mountains for a generation.
They became a people for which that was the new
normal, to just get by and to do the best they
could with what they had. Again, doesn't that
sound pretty good? They were creating in the
mountains. And they persisted to survive. Oh,
now wait a second. So they did wickedly. They
didn't do what God wanted them to do. God allows
the Midianites to get up over on top of them.
And then they say, well, we're going to do what
we have to do to survive. See, what they actually
did was they doubled down. They doubled down
on not doing what God would have them to do.
There are some things. Let's be very clear and
very simple about this. There are some things
that God requires of you now as a believer. And
if we go out in the world and we look at people
who claim to be Christians, what you will find
is that many of them are not doing some of the
things that God is requiring of them as a believer.
You can say, well, I'm not 100 % sure the Bible
teaches certain things. If you want to do that,
you can start to debate those things and you
can adapt. Adjust, bless you. You can adapt and
adjust and even create out of that, right? I
know, for example, on university campuses, they
teach a certain lifestyle is acceptable. And
there's a group that will go in there, thousands
of them, and they will teach anyone who will
listen. They know that that's a very formative
time and they will teach them that these things
are acceptable to do things that they are not
really supposed to do, according to God. And
they teach them that they don't have to do what
it is that they're supposed to do. And the same
thing is happening to you and the same thing
is happening to me. But if you know what it is
that God is calling you to do, then you can stop
using, exercising your ability to adjust and
not doing the thing that God was calling you
to do. And you can say, well, I'm going to do
it. If it kills me, I'm going to do it. If I
spend my blood, sweat and tears and I have nothing
left at the end of the day, I'm going to do what
it is that I know I'm supposed to do for the
Lord. You can do that. Or you can, like this
people, exercise your ability to adjust, create,
and even persist to survive the ramifications
or the results of your own decisions. The truth
is, they held up pretty well. All things considered,
they retreated to the mountains and they survived
as a society when, by all rights, faced with
an overwhelming foe, innumerable camels, and
warriors attached. They would take in everything.
And you figure the first time they came in, everybody's
like, whoa, holy cow, here comes an army. It's
more than we are. They're obviously ready. Whatever,
let's retreat to the hills. Then they left. Whew.
Escaped that one. Made it through. Plant the
next year. Man, we're hungry. This is tough.
We have enough seed to plant, but that's really
all we have. So let's plant. We need to survive.
So they planted. Then when it comes time to get
close to the harvest, the plants are growing.
They don't have to be ready to harvest, but the
plants are growing. Here they come again, these
armies from the east, and they move in and they
take everything. The Israelites retreat to the
hills. Pretty soon, the only people that are
surviving are the people that are capable of
retreating to the hills, into the fortified strongholds,
into the clefts, into the caves. You see what's
happening? So now we have this image. of a people
that exercise their great ability to adjust,
to create, and to persist, to survive the ramifications
of their decisions, but the pathway that they
have into the mountains is not a pathway that
everyone can walk. So to relate this to spiritual
warfare, we come to church. We serve God. We
tithe. We exercise control of our money and our
health the best we can in the situation that
we're in. But the truth is, are we not? Living
out the ramifications of the decisions that we
made before. If you're not happy with the condition
of your body, that's probably true. If you're
not happy with the condition of the relationships,
that's probably true. Oh, you expected God to
run your body, your relationships, your job,
your finances, your mouth for you. Since you
became a Christian, God was going to do all that,
run all of that for you so that you could have
the perfect life for the rest of your life. That's
not even the gospel that we teach. That's not
what the Bible says. You have responsibilities
in the Lord. And if you do not. work those responsibilities,
you know, do the things that God would have you
to do, then the results are you wind up creating
for yourself a space, a vision, if you will,
an idea of who you are that can persist. And
you see lots and lots of Christians. So we have
churches that have, we have it right here, 25,
30 people, 40 people meeting on a Sunday or whatever,
and then there's no new people coming. And nobody's
inviting anybody, and nobody's sharing the gospel
out in the trenches or wherever you work or play
or eat, whatever, because you're faithful. You're
strong. You're able. When Sherry and I were young
Christians, very young Christians, they asked
us to teach a Sunday school class at East Little
Baptist Church. And we didn't share the gospel,
not early on. We taught while I was in the lesson,
and so if it was specifically included, we would
include that. But, you know, for two years we
taught that Sunday school class, and I never
talked to anybody at my work about the fact that
I was a Christian. I never shared the gospel
with a person I worked with or I went to Owens.
I never talked. I went in study groups to study
for my accounting class. I never talked to them
about the fact that I was a Christian. Oh, but
I faithfully shared whatever was in the Sunday
school lesson the best I could because I wasn't
preparing in advance most of the time on Sunday
mornings. I sang the songs boldly in worship.
Or for those of you, and the truth is probably
that early on, I really wasn't singing them boldly
because I was afraid of what the sound of my
voice was like. For those of you who don't sing
in worship, you understand the command is to
sing, right? But then for those of us who did
sing in worship, it's like, well, I can sing,
but these other people, they can't sing. They
can't bring themselves to sing. So I tolerate
that because I understand that they are where
they are, but the command is to sing, right?
Well, I serve, and there's people that live in
my block. My neighborhood down the street from
me that I'm talking to at work or whatever, and
they don't serve, well, they can't stomach the
course. I'm going the hard road. I'm serving.
I'm singing. I'm giving. But the other people,
they can't walk the walk with me. They can't
make the safe place with me. So you have a safe
place in God because you can do the things again.
Listen, if you're in this room and you're under
the age of 40, you need to understand, you have
energy right now that eventually you will never
have again. in the sense that you have it, you
have growth and renewal of cells that you'll
never have again. Once you're past a certain
age, whatever that looks like, 40, 50, 45 for
some people, whatever, whatever that looks like,
that energy is going to go away. And if you're
spending that energy on your entertainment, on
your recreation, on whatever, or if you're dividing
your time between serving the Lord and doing
these other things, eventually you're going to
have less energy and you're going to have to
decide, am I going to do these other things or
am I going to serve the Lord? And so those are
on the backside of that. They're 60 years old,
for example. They have less energy for serving
the Lord than they've ever had. And yet they're
doing more serving the Lord than they've ever
had, than they've ever done. Why does it make
sense? Because as they walked with the Lord,
the Lord led them to let certain things go that
they could no longer spend energy on so they
could put their energy where it really belonged.
You see, with the people in this story, they
were giving up their society. They're elderly.
Occasionally they could maybe take them into
the clefts of the mountains, but most likely
they couldn't take them. They couldn't stomach
it, right? That can't be us. We cannot be a people
who just exercise our ability to adjust, who
just create and persist to survive the ramifications
of our decisions. We can't just hold up pretty
well all things considered. That is not Christianity.
Christians don't just hold up pretty well all
things considered. Yes, you might call that perseverance,
but it's only perseverance over persecution,
overcoming as Jesus describes it in Revelation
3. It's only overcoming when it's not all things
considered. It is we are doing what it is that
God would have us to do. The next thing to notice
in this text then is that their rock bottom,
when they got to the bottom and they theoretically,
they had lost everything. They lost all their
donkeys. They lost all their sheep. They lost
all their ox. They lost all their crops. They
lost all their safety. They couldn't use the
highways. You remember before when Deborah and
Barack were called out, the big thing was that
they couldn't use the highways because if you're
up on the highways, you could get picked off
by brigands, right? Now they've lost the highways
completely. They can't even walk in the low spaces.
They have to hide in the mountains. So it's gotten
worse. What they did was worse because they received
the salvation from the Lord and then went back
to doing the things that they shouldn't do. And
now the punishment is worse. They've lost even
more. They are at rock bottom. But notice that
their rock bottom is a place with strongholds.
Their rock bottom is a place of safety. You may
have heard the old adage. You've heard the old
adage which says, when I get to the end of your
rope, when you get to the end of your rope, what
do you do? Most of us have heard it, right? When
you get to the end of the rope, what do you do?
Tie a knot and hold on. Right? This is what they
had done. They got to the end of their rope.
They tied a knot and held on. They're like, we're
going to make it. We're going to survive. We're
God's people. Somehow or other, we're going to
survive this. Yes, we're in iniquity. Yes, we're
in sin against the Lord. We're not doing what
God wants us to do. We're not going to stop that.
But we're still going to survive, create, persist,
overcome the ramifications of our actions. But
here's the truth. The enemy is not interested
in killing you. Yes, I understand he's a thief
who comes to kill, steal, and destroy, right?
But he's not interested in taking you out. If
he was interested in taking you out, he's got
agents that could do that, theoretically, right?
He's not interested in taking you out. In the
traditional sense, what he wants to do is trap
you away from the kingdom advance. See, if he
kills me, I go straight to heaven. What does
he gain? What's he going to gain from that? Right?
He makes a vacancy in my family. Those Christians
who were in my family, I can tell you what they're
going to do. They're going to be upset. They
may cry. They may weep. They're going to draw
close to the Lord because in their end of the
rope scenario, right, they're going to tie it
out. Hold on. In our version of what I've taught
them, what I hope is true, what I hope the people
in our church, the people in my family know,
is when you tie a rope, that means you cry out
to the Lord. You cry out to the Lord. They draw
close to God. God draws close to them. So then
that makes my family stronger because the Lord
is working in them. That makes my church stronger
because the Lord is working in them. So the enemy
is not interested in killing you in the traditional
sense, but rather trapping you away from the
kingdom of advance. He wants what he wants, and
frankly, he's getting it if believers isolate
and fortify instead of standing in the day of
evil as God has called us to do. Why do you think
it is when your mental issues rear up that the
first thing that happens is you want to withdraw?
I need time. I got to get it alone. I got to
go process this. I can't deal with them right
now. How many times have you said, I can't deal
with this right now? I want you to understand
that every time you say, I can't deal with this
right now. That is an enemy of you, probably
you, probably you as your worst enemy, saying
you can't deal with it because Jesus said, here
are the keys to the kingdom, and whatever you
loose shall be loosed, and whatever you bind
shall be bound. In fact, whatever you loose shall
have already been loosed in heaven by the forces
of God and angels and God the Son and the Holy
Spirit loosed. And whatever you bind shall have
already been bound in heaven by the forces of
God, God himself. God the Son, God the Holy Spirit,
and the angels will have already bound that which
you bind. And you say, I can't deal with this
right now. So it's either you and your flesh
or your psychology or someone brainwashed you
to think that the way you handle the difficulty
is to step away. That is not God's way of handling
difficulty. Yes, God will withdraw his presence
and his voice gets quieter and quieter. But his
intention is for you to lean in and listen. not
for you to be dismissed and lost. God doesn't
want to trap you away from him. No, he's drawing
you unto himself. And no one comes unto the Father
unless he be called. And so if you've come to
God, you've been called. And if you're called,
you are one of the spiritual generations of Israel,
essentially. Abraham is now our father. And we
mustn't give in to isolate and fortify instead
of standing in the day of evil as God has called
us to do. What they needed was a David or a Noah
or a Moses. What they needed was a man who would
step up and say, I will stand for God. Guess
what they're going to get? Beginning in verse
7 and following. That's exactly what they're
going to get. They're going to get somebody who
will say, no, in my life, I have seen God do
miracles. Yes, God will sometimes do miracles
and sometimes not. A Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,
right? You throw us in the fiery furnace, our
God is able to save us, but even if he doesn't,
we still will not do what you're commanding us
to do. We will not bow down. So we need somebody
like that. But understand that a rock -bottom
place is also a place with strongholds. It's
a stronghold that you can paint, you can decorate,
you can build walls, you can put up a rampart,
you can stockpile weapons. It's a stronghold
that probably looks a lot like your house, your
bedroom, in front of your TV. Some place where
you can just say, nothing's bothering me right
now. And you can set it up real nice and to be
just right for you, and you can retreat there
when things go wrong on the battlefield. So there
are three highlighted things in there. The first
one is that they were a victorious people brought
low by a series of compromising value decisions.
They did evil in God's sight. The second is that
they were people exercising their ability to
adjust, create, and persist to survive the ramifications
of their decisions. And they held up pretty well,
all things considered. The third was that that
rock bottom place is a place with strongholds.
As the Hebrew words for mountain clefts and caves
and strongholds reminds us. And then that brings
us to our conclusion. And it is this. We were
made for better. Don't go this way. Don't follow
this example. The text is saying that we were,
owned by God. We were chosen as a people of God
to apply the keys to loose and to bind in the
land that God has given us. Fortify? If you're
going to hide, then you would have to close down
enemy ingress. But I want you to think about
how possible that actually is. If you say, things
are not going right in the church, things are
not going right in my house, Things are not going
right at my job. And you say, well, I'm just
going to go home. At home, I am the master. I
control what goes on, right? And so there I am
safe. In my yard, in my shop, in my house. Or
if you're just retreating on a vacation or something
there, I am the master. I am safe. No one can
get to me, right? I don't have to deal with what
he says, what they do, the things that are happening.
I'm going to retreat, isolate, and fortify. If
that's the tactic that you use, then you would
have to close down enemy ingress in every way.
And they were doing it. They were building ramparts.
They were building walls. They were stockpiling
weapons. They were trying to hide away supplies,
which they had very little to hide away. They
were trying to isolate themselves from the massive
forces of the enemy, which we already know God
was unleashing or allowing them to have their
reign because Israel was in wickedness. So they
go in there thinking they're going to close off
ingress. I want you to think about that in spiritual
terms. In the middle of your living room, there
is a window. It lights up. You can control it
from your couch. Now you tell me which channel
that you can watch on your TV that does not allow
for the ministry of the devil to have been involved.
Now you'd like to say right now media, right?
That's it. I'm just going to watch Bible studies.
Except every one of those Bible studies It's
being taught by a human. Which channel does that
human watch that isolates every one of those
possible ingress? That there's no way they can
be affected by evil spirits. How do you know
that Bible study number three is even biblical?
How do you know that there isn't a teaching that's
off or wrong? So you say, well, I'm not going
to watch my TV at all. What about the internet?
What about your cell phone? Are there books on
your shelf? Your family members that live in
your house with you? Or that are in your life
that call you? What do you have to do to isolate
and fortify versus all possible intrusions of
the enemy? You're like, oh, well, from what I'm
hearing, there is nothing. There literally is
nothing that I can do to isolate and fortify
against all possible intrusions of the enemy.
Right? That's the math of it, isn't it? There's
always an ingress. There's always going to be
a way. You can go in your prayer closet and just
sit there. And when you're listening in your
thoughts, what percentage of what goes on in
your head will be attributed to evil spirits
or your flesh? So it's just you in a small two
foot by five foot box with a Bible. And what
percentage would one percent be good enough?
No. Because if it's one percent, after you think
for ten minutes, A portion of that will be incorrect,
ungodly, and your heart is literally on the line.
Is there, I ask you, a method by which you can
isolate and fortify to block out all possible
intrusions of evil spirits, of false teachings
and temptation? What if I told you there is?
What if I told you that there is a method by
which you could isolate and fortify? and block
out all possible intrusions of evil spirits,
and be with God alone. If you're going to hide,
then you would have to close down enemy ingress,
but it's impossible. Enduring well results in
the same thing every time. Retreating to just
your prayer closet, which would be probably the
best chance you have in your own strength. I'm
just going to prayer class with just my Bible.
I'm not going to answer if anybody knocks. I'm
not taking my phone in there, right? It's just
going to be me and God alone, except that there
will be intrusions of evil spirits. So you're
not really going to be alone. So you're going
to have to fight. Why do you think it's set up
that way? Because God is pointing to the one
place where you actually can isolate and fortify
and be free. As we try to do that, we always
will receive the same result. If we try to isolate
and fortify by the other than the one means that
God has given us to do so, we'll always receive
the results that they received. And it's that
other Hebrew word that I mentioned to you. It's
the Y -A -I. Or the E. We become small. When
you isolate and fortify in your own strength,
by your own methods, by your best knowledge,
even with just your Bible, just in times of prayer
with the Lord or whatever, you do that all on
your own and choose God over everything in your
own strength and just isolate and fortify, withdrawing
from the world, withdrawing from relationships,
withdrawing from what's supposed to be right,
you just become small. That is what the enemy
wants. He wants you to become small. It makes
a strong picture spiritually, doesn't it? I want
to give you three quick illustrations. The first
one is regards to Alexander the Great. You may
have heard of him. He's a pretty famous military
guy, ruled a vast part of the known world. He
was at Tyre in 332 BC. And Alexander the Great
set up a siege. He sieged the island fortress
of Tyre. He knew a direct assault would be costly.
Instead, he built a massive causeway and cut
off their harbor access. So he blockaded the
harbor with essentially a wall across the water
so ships could not get in under any circumstances.
And he destroyed their supply ships. And without
resupply, Tyre eventually fell. The enemy may
look fortified. So we look out there and we say,
man, he's at work, he's got it going on, don't
want to face persecution, we're going to face
trials and struggles and like that. But if we
cut off sin's supply line, that is to say temptation,
bitterness, lies, etc., it will eventually fall
in our lives and then we achieve the true isolation
and fortification that we're looking for. That's
how you get there. You have to cut off his supply.
You don't do that by hiding in your prayer closet.
You don't do that by going home. You don't do
it by withdrawing from a relationship. Ulysses
S. Grant at Vicksburg's, 1863, in American Civil
War. Grant didn't just batter Vicksburg with
cannons. He strategically cut off all Confederate
supply routes along the Mississippi River. By
controlling the river, God be with him, by controlling
the river and surrounding the city, he starved
the Confederate army into surrender. Victory
often comes not from one big battle, but from
patiently choking off the enemy's supply lines.
If the devil can't keep us supplied with excuses,
bad influences, or secret sins, his strongholds
will crumble. Ours will become unnecessary. Napoleon's
invasion of Russia in 1812. Napoleon marched
into Russia with one of the largest armies in
history. Did you hear that again? Russia that's
never been conquered. Napoleon marched into Russia
with one of the largest armies in history, but
the Russians burned their own crops and villages.
It was called the Scorched Earth Strategy, and
it's been used in other cases. Denying Napoleon's
army food and shelter, Winter finished what the
Russian army started. Napoleon's supply lines
collapsed, and his invasion failed. Sometimes
the best way to defeat the enemy is by not giving
him ground to feed on. If we refuse to feed anger,
lust, pride, or doubt, the enemy's attacks lose
their strength and wither away. And thus it may
even feel at times like distancing yourself from
the battlefield, from the harvest, is the safest
way to go. We say, well, I don't want to be out
there and be tempted. I'm fleeing temptation.
There you're using a Bible verse for an excuse
of why not to be involved in the fight. I'm getting
angry. I've got to back away. There you're using
a misconstrued Bible verse. That's not even what
it says. The Bible verse says, be angry, but
don't sin in your anger. But you take the one
where it says, put anger away from me. You say,
that's my excuse. I'm getting angry, so I'm not
going to be involved. I'm going to withdraw.
Spreading the good news is dangerous and often
seems unwelcomed. helping others be better, calling
church members to repentance through Matthew
18 accountability or just one -on -one discussion,
going again to the harvest after the last time
resulted in you being persecuted, these things
seem challenging. But what did we sign up for?
As Christians, what do we say we are? What did
Jesus recruit us to? We are now ambassadors for
the truth. We are living now not for ourselves,
but for him who died for us. In many movies,
most movies run between about an hour and a half
and two and a half hours. There are a few that
are much longer, but most run in that time frame.
When I was going to the movies when I was a teenager,
quite frequently, most movies were 90 minutes.
And then sometime around about 2 ,000 movies
kind of crept up to be like 205, 210. Part of
that was because the movie quality increased
so much they could do things so quickly that
they could cover a lot more material in that
period of time, and so your mind doesn't grow
bored in a two -hour, five -minute movie where
it used to grow bored in an hour and 35 -minute
movie. Now they can do that. Better quality and
so on. But in most movies that tell a lengthy
story, there's a thing called a montage. A montage
is when you're transitioning from one part of
the story to another part of the story, and you
just show images to indicate. So in Pride and
Prejudice, which is one of Sherry and I's favorite
movies, there's a montage and one of the main
characters and she sits on the swing. She sits
on the swing and she twists it up and then she
lets it unfurl. And as she unfurls, it shows
from her point of view, the camera goes around
like this. And as it goes around, it goes around
like five or six times and it goes through. It's
spring. You can tell it's spring. There's water
on the ground. It's summer. Everything's in bloom.
Then it's fall. Then it's winter. Then it's spring.
It's summer. It's fall. And three years passes
in the time that it takes for the swing to unravel,
right? That's a montage. And there's a montage
in most big, lengthy stories because you're not
going to do that, right? How else are you going
to show that three years passed? So you need
some creative way to show. So this is what people
have determined. We are living like we are living
in the montage. We're living like we're living
in the building, training, preparing montage.
That moment, Rocky, right? He decides he's going
to go back into the fight. He's going to do it.
He was going to quit, but he got talked into,
you know, he shouldn't be a quitter. He should
do it. And so now you see him. Punching the meat
in the ice cooler. Pow, pow, pow, pow, pow, pow,
pow. And in one scene, he's punching the meat
in the ice cooler. In the next scene, he's jogging
in the street at night. But it's like three seconds
of each, right? And then he's up the steps and
he's down the steps and he's back punching the
meat in the ice cooler, right? And with every
scene, he looks, he's glistening a little bit
more. His muscles are bulging a little bit more.
He's in the building and preparing Montage to
go back into the big fight. And we think that's
where we're living. But it isn't. Because the
big fight is already over. It's already won.
You're not in the preparing, building montage.
You're in the battle. This is it. This is the
time at which souls can be saved. We live in
the middle of the fight every day, facing the
invader in our midst and successfully wearing
the armor of God and wielding the sword of the
Spirit, which is the word of God, because the
enemy is spiritual in nature. And when we isolate
and fortify, we ensure our downfall and our shrinking
because we have exposed the very avenues by which
we will prosper to his ministrations. Essentially,
we have surrendered to the enemy. We are acting,
when we do not share the gospel, when we do not
continue the fight, when we isolate and fortify
and stay away from the things that we are supposed
to do, when we do that, we are acting like Satan
is the boss. When we accuse others and look at
them and say, you didn't do what you were supposed
to do, and we get angry with them, but then we
get over it and we forgive them, but we didn't
do anything to hold them to accountability if
what they actually did was sin, and we didn't
repent of our anger if what they actually did
was not sin. So nothing happens. We just isolate
and fortify again. We retreat. We stay home from
worship. We don't go to serve. We don't show
up on Tuesday night for Bible study. We're isolated
and fortified because it got a little harder
or because somebody said things that we didn't
like or we took a deep hit to our core and now
our core is so sore that we wouldn't dare do
sit -ups. Listen, you were made to do spiritual
sit -ups every day, not just when you're not
sore. You do not live in a preparing building
montage. You live in the day of the war for souls.
And we have a responsibility to go where we are
safe in the Lord. And there is only one place
that we are safe in the Lord, and that is when
we are in the fight. Fully armored. Do you remember
what some of the pieces are? You got the belt
of truth. You got the shoes of the gospel of
peace. We're going. So some of us aren't going.
So when's the last time you shared the gospel
with somebody? Listen to me. I'm going to tell
you very plainly. It comes straight from the
Holy Spirit. It's coming out of my mouth right
now. I feel like God is saying this. It's not
on the nose. I'm telling you right now, if you
have not shared the gospel with someone, if you
have not told someone about the saving grace
of Jesus in the last seven days, then at best,
you are in a shrinking position, isolating and
fortifying in your own strength away from the
fight. And if you refuse to tell people about
Jesus whenever you possibly can and share the
good news, you will wind up isolated and fortified,
shrinking. You will spend your entire life, the
rest of it, shrinking, getting smaller and smaller
and smaller. And that's basically what actually
happens physically too, right? I'm a half an
inch smaller than I was 10 years ago. But you'll
shrink a lot more than that until your significance
in the earth will just not be significant. People
say, yeah, he's a Christian. He faithfully served
in the church for 10, 20, 40, he's a pillar of
our church. And then you'll show up and Jesus
will say, let's have a rally, a one, two, three
hurrah for everybody that Dan shared the gospel
with. And there'll be like three guys there going,
hurrah, he told me about Jesus. Or you can get
in the fight where you're actually safe, get
armored up, draw the sword, which is the spirit
of God, begin to use God's word daily in your
life and be safe. And actually be fortified,
not by yourself, but by God. And protected. Jesus
summoned his 12 disciples in Matthew 9. He says,
seeing the people, he felt compassion for them
because they were distressed and dispirited like
sheep without a shepherd. He said to his disciples,
the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are
few. He asked them to pray. He said, pray. that
God would send workers into his harvest. And
then when you get right into chapter 10, immediately
following, Jesus summoned his 12 disciples, gave
them authority over unclean spirits to cast them
out and to heal every kind of disease and every
kind of sickness. And then down in verse 5 it
says, These 12 Jesus sent out after instructing
them, do not go in the way of the Gentiles. Verse
7 says, And as you go, preach, saying, The kingdom
of heaven is at hand. And they were safe. I submit
to you that when challenged with that to go into
the harvest and become workers in the harvest,
if they had instead isolated and fortified, if
they instead refused to speak about the things
that are most important, if they instead refused
to use the kingdom of the kingdoms, keys of the
kingdom to loose and bind, if they had refused
to cast out evil spirits, if they had refused
to pray for healing because they say, well, sometimes
God heals, but sometimes he doesn't, and they
had refused to pray for healing, then the times
that God was going to miraculously heal would
have been in jeopardy, at least for them. They
would have been isolated and fortified until
they were small. And instead of the 12 disciples,
which would have become 11 and then 12 again,
instead of the 12 disciples starting the church
was spread to the world, which eventually brought
the gospel to you and me, they would have just
faded away like some other movement in history
and nothing would have happened. But that wasn't
going to happen because they were chosen by God,
just like you or I are, and they went into the
harvest. And so must you. So must I. The devil
is trying to cut off our supply. Because we are
not in the harvest. When we get in the harvest,
he won't be able to cut off our supply because
God will be fighting on our side. We are failing
to cut off his supply for the same reason. As
long as the state of affairs remains, the enemy
will grow and we will shrink. Put on the armor
of God and get out there and share the good news
unashamedly because in the good news, in the
gospel, is the power unto salvation. Stop isolating
and fortifying when you're in difficulty because...
All you are doing is guaranteeing that you will
eventually lose. If you hide in the hills, you
guarantee you eventually lose. If you go home
to your house and stay there, you guarantee that
you eventually lose. If someone's yelling at
you, cussing you out or whatever, you would be
better off to put your hands down to your side
and just start praying and talking to God and
let them do their worst. They can't actually
hurt you unless they actually physically hurt
you. And if they actually physically hurt you,
then you'll be in pain. But pain can't actually
hurt you. You see, we're a living soul. We are
part of an eternal family. It says, store up
treasures for yourself in heaven, and there is
how you do it. Stop isolating and fortifying.
Instead, become on mission for the Lord. In this
analogy, the strongholds that they fortified,
which were providing them safety temporarily,
had become the very thing that had to be removed.
Remember I told you, you could see their sin.
It was making it sound like they were doing a
good thing. And the next time you see somebody
who's losing their temper, and they count to
ten and walk away, or they retreat back into
their house, and they aren't seen for a little
while, and they come out again, and they're all
peaceful and calm. They're going to realize that
the very strongholds that they are embracing,
the very things that they are using to continue
to be who they are, are the very things that
must be either removed or repurposed in their
lives in order for them to actually be safe.
And that's what we need to do. David understood
it in the song of hope that David penned and
then later was recorded in 2 Samuel. chapter
22, and in verse 3 it says, God is my stronghold
and my refuge. You going home to your house?
You backing out of your troubles or conflicts?
God is your stronghold and your refuge. And God
is not backing out. God is not backing down.
Jesus said, Since that day, talking about the
day of rest after creation, since that day, God
has never stopped working. So every time you
stop working in the kingdom, every time you stop
doing what it is that God would have you do,
every time you stop sticking your neck out and
trusting in the Lord, every time you shut your
mouth and don't say the thing that God wants
you to say, because maybe you're not qualified,
because you don't have the answer. What if they
ask me a tough question? They might get mad at
me. Do people even need to be saved these days?
98 % of Christians testify, blah, blah, blah.
Make all the excuses that you want, but every
time you shut your mouth, you leave God. Every
time you stop serving in the fight, in whatever
capacity God has called you to, you walk away
from the Lord. And you can create, and you can
persist, and people will say, well, he did pretty
good under the circumstances. You know, we live
in a day when there's a lot of wickedness, and
nobody really wanted to hear it, and he did win
a few. There were a few people that got saved.
God is our strength and our refuge. If you want
to be safe, retreat from yourself into the Lord,
not from the Lord into yourself. And then David
would pen later in Psalm 59 and Psalm 62, God
is my stronghold. He is my salvation and my stronghold.
And then in Proverbs 10 .29, the last verse,
and we're closing out our thought with this.
Proverbs 10 .29. I didn't mark my Bible for Proverbs.
Actually, maybe I did. Proverbs 10 .29, it says
this. The way of the Lord is a stronghold to
the upright. Did you get that? Not the house
of the Lord. Not the house that the Lord has
given you. Not the ground that the Lord has given
you. Not the place that he's given you. a place
of peace, a place of solace, but the way, the
way of the Lord is a stronghold to the upright,
but ruin to the workers of iniquity. When we
walk in Christ and do what God has called us
to do, we will be safe. And those who come against
us will not. It's time we stop. isolating and
fortifying. I think there's been a really powerful
effort, a really good scheme that made people
think that if you just get away for a moment,
no. When you're called to just get away for a
moment by something, you can be sure that you're
called to be a Christian, be a follower of the
Lord, and do the right thing by God. Now, there
is a time for everything under heaven. But notice,
that includes there is a time to die. I'm asking
you today to ask yourself. We need to ask ourselves
collectively. I need to ask myself. Have we been
isolating and fortifying away from the work of
the Lord? Do you feel safe when you are not sharing
the gospel? Do you feel safe? when you are not
going out with the sword of the Spirit in hand
to change lives in your own household, on your
job, with your clients, with your friends. There
was a long time in my life that I felt like afraid
to not try to bring up Jesus in some way, like
it was not who I am. I don't know where that
went. But I know it's not biblical for it to
be gone. We are ambassadors. We must speak up.
I'm not talking about becoming politically active.
I'm not talking about picketing abortion centers.
I'm talking about loving people and sharing the
gospel. You'll not change your friend, your family
member, your grandparent. You can go, well, man,
they stress me out. I can't be around them too
much because they stress me out. Every time they
stress you out, that's a call for you to share
the gospel. That's a call for you to go back
to teaching the one thing that you know for sure.
Jesus died on the cross for sins, rose again
on the third day, and he's saving souls even
still today. And doing miracles. And answering
cries. Teach them that they can cry out to the
Lord. And the one miracle he'll always do if
somebody cries out, if he's calling them to and
they cry out, is he'll save their soul. Stop
retreating from the harvest. Stop retreating
from the service. And instead, invest yourself
so heavily. That one of two things will happen.
God will get the glory or you'll die trying.
That's what it means to be a follower of the
Lord Jesus Christ. I ask the praise team to come
forward at this time and lead us in our final
song. As we sing this song, if you're in this
room and you realize that I've been isolating
and fortifying. I've been building my fortress.
I have a place at home or away from people or
whatever where I feel safe. I feel comfortable.
I feel like I've got it under control. Maybe
it's just outside this room. Maybe it's in here.
Some people feel safe inside the church building,
but they don't feel safe to do anything about
God elsewhere. We have that place, and I'm asking
you to repent of that place today. I'm asking
you to turn your life over to Jesus in earnest.
Would you sing this song with me? Stand up, sing
the song, and then if the Lord is speaking to
your heart, you can come forward and respond.
We're offline now, so it's just us in the room
with God. Would you submit your life to the Lord?
Repent of your isolating and fortifying. Don't
let the enemy make you any smaller. You're on
the battlefield swinging your sword. You just
want to hear God in your ears saying, I got you.
I'm with you. I'll carry you through. Many a
soldier has given his life over to the Lord because
he knew he was in a desperate situation and he
just cried out to God. And God showed up and
saved him spiritually. Some of them then went
on to die in battle. Others persisted and stayed
and served the people of God for decades or 50
or 100 years sometimes. Hundreds of years and
they go back in time.