Alright, could you stand with us if you're willing
and able for the next couple songs? With songs
of deliverance Whenever I am afraid I will trust
in you I will trust in you Let the weak stand
screen. Just a quick word, if you could, just
right now, lift up a prayer in your heart and
your minds for Michael Brister. They just left.
Michael tore his stomach muscle across the middle
of his stomach, I guess a little over two weeks
ago while on the job. And they are working toward
getting that mended. And he was here overcoming.
And the pain is very great right now at this
moment. And so we left. So we'll pray briefly
for him and then we'll go to the word. Let's
do that. Father in heaven, we just ask you to
be with Michael and his family right now. Lord,
we could use a miraculous healing. He definitely
needs to be able to overcome and do the things
that he wants to do and believes he should do
for you. Bless them and strengthen them. Heal
him from his pain. In Jesus' name, amen. So we
have begun a series working through the book
of Judges. I'm going to give you the story up
to this point so that we make sure we understand
the individuals involved. And basically we are
looking at the story of Deborah and Barak. And
then today, Sisera and Jael. Okay, those are
all names that may or may not mean anything to
you at this point in time. I'm going to give
you the background. Deborah was a sort of a prophet
for God and she was judging Israel. She sat under
the tree. People brought her legal cases and
they would say, well, this person did this against
me. This person stole that and so on. And she
would decide them. And then she called out, God
told her to call out Barak. Barak became a general
for God's people. She told him to summon up 10
,000 men, which he did, and to go up against
a much superior force, which was the force of
Sisera, who was the general of the enemy army.
Sisera had 900 iron chariots. In their day, that
was like a tank. And so we're talking infantry
versus a tank, and not nearly enough infantry.
He went up onto the mountain, where in theory
they were safe from the army of chariots, because
chariots don't do mountains real well. And then
Deborah told him she went with him to the mountain,
as he requested. She told him to go down and
face them in the lowlands, which would be much
more dangerous for them. Infantry would be destroyed
terribly in the lowlands versus chariots. And
yet he did. And then God miraculously intervened
on their behalf, as she said he would. And they
destroyed that army of Sisera, all 900 chariots.
And we left off in the story last week where
they had essentially destroyed the entire army.
And that's where we're picking it up today. There's
just two points that I want to point out that
we covered before, so make sure that you see.
The first one is in verse 11 of chapter 4 of
the book of Judges. So if you go with me now,
maybe give me a little who to holler amen as
we go to Judges chapter 4. Amen. Thank you. This
is the word of God. Whether I get whatever I'm
about to say to you correct, I hope I will, but
whether I get it perfectly right or not, if you
listen to God's word and let it affect you today,
you will be changed. You will walk away from
it with a new perspective on something, I guarantee
it. Judges chapter 4 verse 11 said this, Now
Heber the Kenite, had separated himself from
the Kenites, from the son of Hobab, the father
-in -law of Moses, and had pitched his tent as
far away as the oak in Zananim, which is near
Kadesh. Now, Kadesh is the lowland where the
battle is going to take place that we're going
to look at, or really that we did look at already.
We're going to get the results of today, okay?
What's important, this was... back setting the
stage. Verse 11 was setting the stage for what's
going on because those people were allies to
the king and to Sisera the general. King Jabin
who had been persecuting God's people for 20
years and Sisera the general and their camp now
right on the edge of where the battle would take
place. Now they're not involved in the battle.
but they're camped there on the edge. So that
was set up. Then we see they told Sisera that
Barak had gone into the lowland, first to Mount
Tabor, and then to the lowland. Sisera goes out
after him. The big battle takes place. They put
the entire army to the edge of the sword, and
now we're down into verse 17. It says, Now Sisera,
remember he's the general who led the mighty
army that was just defeated by God. He fled away
on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber
the Kenite. Remember, that's the ally that was
camped near where the battle was taking place.
So he flees to her tent. Now, it's a little awkward
that he flees to her tent because, well, she's
a woman. He's a man. She's married. Her husband
is not there. So socially speaking, it's a little
odd that that happens, but it does. So he flees
there. And desiring to escape the massacre of
military force that's going on, all of his men
being destroyed, he takes the war to a place
of peace, into her tent. And immediately I want
you to see that he feels like he's between a
rock and a hard place. If he stays out there,
then they're going to kill him. They're killing
the entire army, right? The Israelites are destroying
the entire army, and he's going to go down if
he stays out there. If he goes in and hides there
with her, it besmirches his honor. It looks bad
for him because he's dependent upon her to survive.
Still a chance that he might get turned over.
He brings war to his ally, who is by no means
able to resist Israel at this point. So basically,
they're risking destruction of their entire people,
which is really just that one man's extended
family. that's moved away from the Kenites. So
it's not the entire people, but it's his entire
family could be destroyed. And so he's kind of
between a rock and a hard place himself. But
notice that Jael right away is between a rock
and a hard place. Here comes a wealthy, strong
man, well -known everywhere, leader of armies
to her tent seeking refuge. And so what happens
sometimes is that people from the battle take
the battle to a place of peace where the battle
really doesn't belong. Now they're just seeking
a port, seeking a place of safety themselves
perhaps, but all of a sudden now Jael is between
a rock and a hard place. Jael went out to meet
Sisera and said to him, this is verse 18, turn
aside my master, that's a term of respect, turn
aside to me, do not be afraid. And he turned
aside to her into the tent and she covered him
with a rug. Now we have a heavy blanket, probably
a rug, whatever, and she's going to hide him
there. Now this is not an unheard of thing to
hide under a rug or under a blanket in the tent,
especially if they're piled up there. It's pretty
common. We see that in a couple of other biblical
stories. But he's exhausted. It's said that in
the previous verse he's exhausted. And so now
he's going to hide under there. And so we can
imagine he's resting and he could possibly fall
asleep. So she's putting him to bed, if you will.
But notice that something has already begun to
happen. Jael is beginning a process to deal with
herself being between a rock and a hard place.
She said to him, come, I'll keep you safe, right?
And then she puts him under a rug in the back
of her tent. Now, so if she gets found with him,
she's in trouble. If he gets found, he's in trouble.
If she refuses to hide him, she's in trouble,
right? So no matter what, she's in trouble. She
offers them a situation that looks safe. Now,
I want to say to you that not every situation
that looks safe is safe. Hiding there under the
rug, she could just go tell them, here he is,
and turn him over, right? Or something worse.
Bottom line is a person can offer safety with
no intention of actually providing safety. We
see that, unfortunately, in society somewhat
frequently today. We see it especially in the
case of people who molest children. They will
prepare the child and the child's caretakers,
offering a place of safety, showing them that
everything is okay, making them trust them. And
then everyone, after the fact, after they are
bad to the children, everyone will say, oh, we
never thought that person would do that. We thought
they were safe. We thought they were kind and
so on. This is what Jael is doing here. I'm giving
you a little forward insight. She's offering
him safety, but she's not really offering him
safety. In verse 19, he says to her, please give
me a little water to drink for I am thirsty.
So she opened a bottle of milk. and gave him
a drink, and then she covered him. So he asked
for water. but she gave him milk. Now, everybody
that's studied this passage says that's kind
of bizarre. Water would have been cheaper, easier,
right? It was what he asked for, but she doesn't.
She gives him milk. Now, he doesn't refuse the
milk. It's to drink. It makes him not thirsty.
He thinks he's getting safety, but you can see
that she's begun to enact a plan leading toward
her own getting out from between a rock and a
hard place. When a person has no intention of
providing safety, oftentimes there is a process
for pulling people deeper into their trap. Now,
he's exhausted laying under a rock. rug and he's
just drunk what was probably goat milk which
is well known in science that goat milk usually
most goat milk provides drowsiness so you can
imagine what's about to happen he said to her
stand in the doorway of the tent and it shall
be if anyone comes and inquires of you and says
is there anyone here that you shall say no So,
Sisera's asking her to lie for him. Now, he's
accepting her comfort and asking her to lie for
him. And if she does that, again, she's stuck
between a rock and a hard place. Because if he
is found, she is destroyed. And if he is not
found, she is enslaved to him indefinitely, right?
She is now going to be Sisera's servant, ongoing.
Notice that he was setting her up just as she
was setting him up. He was putting her in a position
where she was going to basically she could never
admit that she hid sisera on the day of the battle
she would be forever in his debt forever enslaved
he gave her directions to cover his presence
he was pretty specific, and he was used to people
following his orders. She was the lie for him
while he rested for his benefit. She was to take
a risk. She wasn't going to get any reward. An
enemy will entreat you to do the wrong thing.
Now, they may look like a friend or even a loved
one, but they will entreat you to do the wrong
thing. They'll ask you to follow certain direction.
An enemy will betray you whenever it's convenient
for them, but as long as they can continue to
have that relationship with you and move you
forward in the direction that they want, they'll
continue to look for your service. The wise move
here for her would be to eliminate one potential
enemy. Does that make sense? If she could get
out of this, either get the army of Israel off
her doorstep or get Sisera out of her house one
way or another permanently, that would be the
wise move. People think that she was setting
herself up to do that. She gave him the rug.
She hid it in the back of the tent. She gave
him the goat's milk. In theory, people should
be able to be seen, they should be able to see
when they are between a rock and a hard place.
You can look at, if I do this, this is a possible
outcome, and this is a possible outcome. And
one of these really sucks, and the other one
is pretty bad too. And so you know when you're
stuck. Anybody know where the saying between
a rock and a hard place comes from? We use it
pretty frequently. Originally, it comes from
Greek mythology, okay? In Greek mythology, there
were two individuals, one called, really not
an individual, I guess, but it was sort of an
animate giant whirlpool called Charybdis. And
Charybdis would swallow whole ships. If you went
near, it would suck your ship in and destroy
the ship and everybody on board. And then Skyla
was a six -headed... Hydra -like dragon with
big stalk legs and long necks, and it would pluck
sailors off the ship. And in Homer's Odyssey,
which is an ancient Greek story, if you've never
read it, I'd recommend you do so or at least
watch the movie, a hero named Odysseus has to
take his ship, as many had to do, between those
two places, between a rock and a hard place.
Or they didn't call it that. They said between...
Charybdis and Skyla. That saying lasts today
in Greece, but around 1900 or so, the concept
invaded the United States of America, especially
the West, and miners were known to be between
a rock and a hard place. So the rock was their
mine. So they would be in the mine and they'd
be toiling away. And they'd come out, and they
were in danger of someone jumping their claim,
stealing their gold, killing them, a lot of other
problems, right? And so they were between a rock
and a hard place. If they fled into the mine,
they were pretty safe, but they couldn't stay
there forever. They had to have food. They had
to have water, sustenance, safety, whatever.
They had to come out of the mine. So they were
stuck between a rock and a hard place. That's
where the saying comes from. It means neither...
outcome looks good. But Jael, being not only
prophesied, but also kind of understanding what
was happening, sees that she's between a rock
and a hard place, and she has already enacted
a plan to deal with it. In verse 21, it says,
but Jael... Heber's wife took a tent peg, and
she seized a hammer in her hand, and she went
secretly to him and drove the peg into his temple.
And it went through into the ground, for he was
sound asleep and exhausted. So he died. Now,
interestingly enough, as I was preparing the
sermon, I had it over half done. Ariana and I
listen to Bible stories every night when she
goes to sleep, and then she continues to listen
while she's falling asleep. And this story came
up. And she said to me, she didn't know I was
preparing the sermon for this Sunday. She said
to me, Dad, do you think God forgave Jael for
murdering Sisera? And she mispronounced both
names, by the way, but that's okay. She's 11.
And I said, what makes you think that Jael murdered
Sisera? And she said, he said, well, he wasn't
doing anything to her, and she killed him. And
I said, he wasn't doing anything to her? No.
And I said, well, what do you think happens if
he's found in her tent? What do you think happens
after if he's not found in her tent? And we talked
through it. This was not murder. The Bible describes
murder as when you kill somebody with anger in
your heart. When a soldier fights for his country
and is required to kill enemy soldiers, that's
not murder. That's killing. And she was in a
place where she was stuck. Her life ended the
moment that Sisera approached her tent and asked
her for safety. Not only hers, but her kids,
her husband, everybody in the tent complex, their
lives ended the moment that he came there and
asked her for safety because they had two options
at that point in time. They would forever be
under Sisera's reign, which was ending. by the
way, the thousands in the army were all being
destroyed. And later, just not long after this,
we'll read that Jabin's whole nation is destroyed
after 20 years of persecuting the Israelites.
And so if they wind up part of his group, part
of Sisera's group, they wind up destroyed. And
if she sides with the Israelites and she says
no, then either he kills her right then, right?
Or she is in danger of any surviving members
of his army, et cetera. So the bottom line is,
her life ended, as she knew it, the moment he
came to her tent. There he lay, asleep, exhausted,
and there he died. She killed him with a familiar
tool, something that she knew well, a spike and
a hammer. Now, this group of Kenites were nomadic.
Know what that means? They moved around. They
found their sustenance in various places. So
they raised their animals off land here, and
then they would move here and raise their animals
off land here, and then they'd move here and
raise their animals off land here. They weren't
farmers. If they planted crops, they were short
growth crops. They planted them, harvested them
very shortly thereafter. They were nomadic. So
she had set up a lot of tents. And so she used
a familiar tool, her experience. It was something
that she was good at. She had aptitude. Apparently,
she had quite a bit of aptitude because with
pretty clean precision, she was able to drive
the stripe with the hammer and put the spike
through his temple, probably into the other,
but in any case, into the ground. She found the
one potential way out of the trap that she was
in. That's heart. That's not giving up when you're
between a rock and a hard place. That's figuring
out the way to go. She did it well. She did it
completely. She didn't stop until it was for
sure done. Now, she could have drove it into
the side of his head, and that probably would
have killed him, but she didn't. She drove it
all the way into the ground, right? So here's
a sure way to get in the kingdom history books.
This is that. That's what we're reading, right?
We're reading the history of the kingdom of God.
Get stuck. Enemies of God as your allies is stuck
because God's going to put them down eventually.
So get stuck. She was stuck. Then get unstuck.
Choose God's side. Be invited onto God's side
and then go for it. Choose that and then kill
the enemy. Put it away once and for all. Be done
with it once and for all. The Bible calls that.
in Christianity being born again. Don't just
put him to sleep. She could have just put him
to sleep, right? And then she could have maybe
turned him over and said whatever. And I submit
to you, if she put him to sleep in the back of
the tent, went to the Israelites and said, he's
asleep in the back of my tent, they would have
taken him. But she couldn't know that they would
kill him. And she couldn't know what the outcome
of that road is. Odds are she was still going
to have problems. They were going to say, why
did you provide him with comfort? Were you planning
on hiding him? Let's say that they didn't. They
didn't question that. They took him into captivity
and then later traded him back to King Jabin
for prisoners or whatever. Now she has an eternal
enemy in Sisera who will always be coming for
her or his men always coming for her because
she did not provide him the safety on the day
that he asked for it. So no matter what, She's
toast. Don't just put him to sleep and turn him
over and say, it's up to God how it turns out.
Rather, she acted decisively, ensuring that he
would never be back. Then, use a familiar tool,
but don't stop until the enemy is dead. In Christianity,
we call that spiritual discipline. Just a couple
verses left. Verse 22. And behold, as Barak pursued
Sisera, JL, Barak, remember, was the... God -ordained
leader of the Israelite army, the one that Deborah
sent, and they are hunting down every last member
of Sisera's army, and they're pursuing Sisera.
And Jael came out to meet him and said to him,
Come, and I will show you the man whom you are
seeking. And he entered in with her, and behold,
Sisera was laying dead with the tent peg through
his temple. So now she informed his pursuers
of the location of the enemy. He wasn't asleep.
He was clearly dead. Barak had a sword. Barack
was killing people, but maybe he couldn't honorably
do that to a captive king, a captive general.
So in other words, if he'd have gone in there
and if he was hiding under the rug, she turned
him over, maybe he couldn't just kill him laying
there. There would be a question of honor for
him to kill this man asleep on the floor or wake
him up and kill him, right? So basically she
said, come get this dead man out of my tent.
Get him out of here. Doubtful she could readily
move him herself. A big man in heavy armor with
his head spiked to the ground. So then she had
to let God's people, let Barak do what she couldn't
do. All right, verse 23. So God subdued on that
day Jabin, the king of Canaan, before the sons
of Israel. Here, God gets the credit for destroying
Sisera and eventually King Jabin. This is not
the general, but it's the king and everyone under
the general. That's over now, and God has put
it to an end. God freezes people because they
cried out to him. Not because they turned to
righteousness, but because they cried out to
him. That's a part of his character. This is
grace and compassion, and he bestows it, displays
it time and again. Verse 24, our last verse for
the day. The hand of the sons of Israel pressed
heavier and heavier upon Jabin the king of Canaan
until they had destroyed Jabin the king of Canaan,
which shows us that it was a progressive cleanup,
a progressive overall victory. It wasn't suddenly
done. It was decided when she destroyed Sisera.
when they destroyed the army and all the iron
chariots. But it was a progressive victory from
then on. This may be where people begin to get
the idea that the victory over the enemy is one
of a long, drawn -out fight with much suffering
along the way. But that's not accurate. Certainly
not in the case of Sisera and Jael. All right,
there's three things I want you to see in this
text and then a conclusion. The first one is
this, the state of the enemy. If you are a follower
of the Lord Jesus Christ and you are here, you
need to understand the state of the enemy. If
I could share it with you in kind of a joking
manner for a second. There is an old movie, been
around for a long time. It's called Monty Python's
Search for the Holy Grail. There are some parts
in it that are a hint of risqueity, right? Kind
of weird, kind of maybe over the edge, but it's
nothing too terrible. And there is a scene where
one of the knights is traveling and he runs into
the black knight. And the black... knight challenges
him to a battle now if you know the story of
king arthur the actual arthurian tales the arthurian
knight was undefeatable he could no one could
defeat him right but then arthur defeats him
with um excalibur okay and so the point is the
in the monty python search for holy grail he
fights him he cuts his arm off and he says i'm
not done yet and then he cuts his other arm off
you think he's done i'm not done yet and then
he cuts one leg off and he's like oh I'll still
kick you. I'll still kick you. Now he's both
arms and both legs are gone, and he's sitting
on the ground, but he's still alive. The Black
Knight is still alive. He says, I'll bite you.
I'll bite you. Right? Say it again. I'll bite
your legs off. Yes, I'll bite your legs off.
Yes. Okay? And so... That is a good picture of
the enemy that we're dealing with. Let's be realistic.
The state of the enemy is also pictured herein.
The enemy is weak from his struggle with God.
People think Satan has power. He has nothing.
He is virtually nothing, okay? The enemy is weak
from his struggle with God. He comes to you or
me for comfort. He comes looking for a hiding
place. He needs you more than you need him. In
fact, His presence, his very presence there is
a danger. Right now he'll sleep and he just wants
you to lie for him, but later he'll want more.
Friendship with the world, the Bible says, is
enmity with God. If you are giving the enemy
shelter as a non -believer or as a believer,
the path to finishing him is simple. Repent.
Turn to God and God alone. Now, I understand
that that feels like that puts you between a
rock and a hard place because we live still in
the world. I was talking with Ariana another
night this week, a different night. We did a
devotional together. We always do a devotional
first and then the Bible stories. And she was
telling me about how there were some kids in
her class at school last year, some kids that
just would not let her talk to them about God
or Jesus. Or if she brought up God or Jesus at
all, then they just didn't want to hear it. And
they would just say, I don't want to hear it.
And she said, and that hurt a little, but...
I kind of figured, that's their right. If they
don't want to hear it, they don't have to hear
it. But then there were other kids that would,
she didn't use this term, but it's the truth,
bait her into talking about God or Jesus and
then persecute her for doing so. They mock her,
say nasty things, cuss at her, take the Lord's
name in vain on purpose in her presence because
they knew that she felt uncomfortable about it.
And that saddened my heart. And because we live
in the world, we think we live somewhere between
a God who is powerful and the enemy who is powerful.
But the reality is, that's not true. The enemy
is exhausted and weak from fighting with God
all the time. People in the world who do not
know God, care about God, don't know anything
about Jesus, also are exhausted and weak. I cannot
tell you the number of times I've shared a simple
gospel presentation with people and their response
was, I needed this so badly. I get this. This
is the answer or whatever, right? I went to visit
one lady one night and she said, We've been waiting
for you to come. And I said, what do you mean?
I didn't call ahead and make an appointment.
She said, we were sitting here for two hours
in silence because we were fighting. We were
desperate. We have no idea what to do. Our family
is a wreck. We all hate each other. And that's
not the way a family is supposed to be. Will
you tell us what to do? Three minutes, I'm in
the door. She says, will you tell us what to
do? And I said, well, the first thing you do.
is turn your house over to Jesus. Turn yourselves
over to Jesus. And if everybody is willing to
do that, then we will have peace. Not because
we have peace with each other, because the reality
is, we always have friction, right? Personalities
always clash. We always struggle with the way
we think, the way we act, our culture, our background.
You're doing things, you don't even know why.
Nobody knows why we do certain things, right?
Psychologists will try to say, well, you have
a trigger in your past, and counselors will say,
we need to defeat that trigger, and you won't
do it anymore, or at least be aware of it so
you don't do it anymore. But the reality is,
you could be looking at the wrong trigger. A
lot of things we don't even know why we do them.
So people cause frustrations with each other,
but people who come to peace with God have peace
with each other because we all have peace with
God through Jesus Christ. And so what I'm saying
is, you have an enemy, he looks like he has some
power, but the truth is, it's all illusion. It's
all smoke and mirrors. He's exhausted from his
fight with God. Decisively deny him and his sinful
requests and his presence and risk his wrath
if necessary. who has something great, I'm sorry,
he who was something great has become nothing.
If you believe the legends that say that he was
the greatest of all angels and the leader of
the choir in heaven and fell from all of that,
and there is some biblical support for that,
but it's not real strong. But if you believe
that is the way it unfolded exactly, then you
realize he was great in heaven. We know that
he walked in God's presence. That's pretty great
and challenged Job. That's pretty arrogant, right?
And so we know he was something, really something.
And now he's nothing. He's lost everything. He's
exhausted. He's coming. He wants to sleep in
your tent for a while and let you lie for him
so that he can have a respite. Don't do it. That's
the state of the enemy. Secondly, a rock in a
hard place. I submit to you, it's often just
impending. We're talking about decisions or things
that we make that we go like, well, this is going
to be bad and this is going to be bad also, right?
We get caught in the middle. like it or not.
Adam and Eve and the serpent were like that.
The moment that they sinned against God, right?
And Eve was kind of caught in her own mind between
a rock and a hard place. She could have just
waited for God and asked, but she saw something
that was good. We might even argue that she said,
well, this looks good and I want it. And God's
not going to deny it to me. He's a good God.
He loves me. He's going to give me everything
I want so I can just take it, right? Even though
she had the command that told her she couldn't
and so on. Pick God's side every time because
he is the one who's going to last. If the enemy
finds some ounces of strength, some good scheme,
and I think there's some pretty good ones going
in the world today, frankly, and he gets something
going like that, understand God is still going
to bring it to an end eventually. He's going
to put it all away. There will be no child molestation.
There will be no rape. There will be no lying.
There will be no pornography. There will be no
stealing. There will be no ducking service or
pretending that you don't know. In heaven, none
of that will be there. Pick the enemy of God.
Remember I said that she used her experience,
her aptitude, her passion, her heart, all of
that. And she used it decisively and thoroughly.
And every one of us is bestowed with those things.
You have something you're good at. You have things
that you've done. You've seen things that maybe
nobody else saw, right? Or you've seen things
that only 3 % of the people in the world have
ever seen. Because you were present. You were
there. You had experiences. And yet... Combined
all told, you and I are pretty ordinary people.
We all have aptitude, passion, experience, and
heart. All of us have that. And we should act
in that decisively and thoroughly. That's why
Psalm 8 says that from the womb we have the power
to put down the enemy. To make the enemy cease
is what it actually says. Because he's tired.
And he's weak. And we can do it. Even without
Jesus. Even without God. We had that inherent
in us. That aptitude, that passion, experience,
and heart. And decisively and thoroughly we can
use that. But notice then that God bestows spirit.
And we don't take... the enemy out in our hate,
heart, aptitude, passion, and experience. We
take enemy out in our shape, spirit, heart, aptitude,
passion, and experience. God bestows the Holy
Spirit on us and his presence in us is what then
makes us mightily the victor. That's what makes
us able to overcome everything and ultimately
to go to heaven when we die and ultimately to
come into the throne room of God, to lift our
prayers up to God personally and to be heard
because the Holy Spirit is in us because of the
sacrifice of Jesus. That brings us to our third
point. Having received spiritual gifting proceed
to destroy him the enemy from the land and free
God's people the kingdom effort continues and
God will use your choices to empower others as
word spread you know how many people heard about
JL and your tent spike and hammer all the way
to thousands of years later because we heard
about it today. And your testimony of being able
to share how you got through dark times, of being
able to speak up in our inspirational moment
in church and say, and those things make it to
our podcast eventually, and your testimony goes
out potentially across the world because God
can use the ordinary, the weak, those who are
ignorant and don't know. He can use all of that.
to bring the world into recognition of himself.
The kingdom effort continues, and God will use
your choices to empower others as his word spreads.
That brings us to our conclusion already. He's
going to come when you're alone. Now, there were
some social things that happened here. Jael should
never have invited a man into her tent when her
husband wasn't home. That was socially unacceptable.
nor served him, gave him milk or even water.
She was a married woman. She was overcoming social
barriers that she should not have even been participating
in. Now, they're not necessarily things that
are in the Bible. It doesn't say that, right?
It doesn't say a married woman cannot give hospitality
to a man, right? It doesn't say that anywhere
in the Bible. But she had to overcome those social
barriers. And when you're alone in your bedroom,
in your car, when you're the only one watching
what you're watching on your phone or on your
computer, when you're alone with your thoughts
thinking about what somebody said to you or how
they said it or the way things went, the enemy's
going to come. He's going to ask you to do things
that do not honor God or serve God's people.
He's going to ask you to be mad at the person
who said what you didn't like, which we don't
do that. The Bible says when you're mad at somebody,
angry at them, that's basically murder. That's
what Jesus said. He's going to ask you to have
feelings of covetous nature, to want what the
world wants. You watch a few too many commercials
that tell you if you can have this, you can be
strong. You can have this, you can be thin. You
can have this, you can be pretty. You have this,
it'll prove you're wealthy. You'll be in more
comfort in your car if you buy this particular
version, right? The truth is that most of the
things that we're told that we need are, we're
told that we need them to lead us to covetousness
and lust. He's going to ask. ask you to do things
that do not honor God or serve God's people,
suddenly, softly, he's on your doorstep. He wants
to traffic on your prior allegiance. You used
to have a friendship with him and the people
of his kingdom. I had a young man who was in
my high school. He knew me back then pretty well.
We used to game together and we played two, three
days a week. And I used to go to his house. In
fact, we just drove by his old house. They don't
own it anymore. He passed on. He's gone to be
with the Lord now, but his family doesn't own
it either. And we drove by there and I told Arianna,
I said, we used to play games in that house right
there, right there in that front room. I said,
we were so poor. We were poor. They were even
more poor. We played games. So one night in the
middle of the night, 3 a .m., we all got up with
towels and snapped and killed the flies off the
ceiling because there were tens of thousands.
of lies on the ceiling because the garbage had
festered. And that's what life was like back
then. He came to know me back then. We spent
a lot of time together. And then when he heard
that I was a Christian, that I had given my life
to the Lord, he said, I had to come seek myself
because I was like, no. Dan? Never. No way he
ever came to be a Christian. Because he knew
who I was. First of all, I was a pretty bad guy
as far as doing a lot of things. It wasn't terrible.
I got drunk a few times, but I didn't do that
really long term or anything like that. And I
didn't get involved with marijuana or any other
drugs. Alcohol was my drug of choice. I fought
a lot. Mostly lost. I paid the price for that
in my hands up until I was probably about 40,
45. And it finally went away. I was very skeptical
about everything. Wouldn't believe anybody. had
told me anything. And he knew I was that. And
we used to argue, logical arguments, philosophical
arguments, and we'd argue to the end. I'm telling
you right now, if you can think of a reason not
to come to Jesus, I've already thought of it
and used it. And after months and months and
months of doing that, I realized that these teachings
about Jesus, they are real. He died for our sins.
He came for us. No other God can even claim that.
And even if they could, He rose again on the
third day. A historical event recorded not only
by Christians, but by people who hated Jesus.
They said, yeah, they crucified him. There came
a prophet talking, preaching, healing, doing
things. They crucified him, and three days later,
he came back to life. They saw him again. They
didn't say he came back to life. They said they
saw him again teaching after they crucified him.
Three days later, they saw him again. That's
what historians recorded. The truth is true.
Jesus is real. And whatever skepticism you have
or questions, I already had it. And he knew that.
And he came and he said, I couldn't believe it.
And he came and he stayed in our church. In fact,
he was still coming to our church when he passed
away and went to be with the Lord. As far as
I understand, I don't judge anybody's salvation.
What I'm saying to you is. The enemy wants your
hospitality, your shelter, your protection for
a time. He wants to traffic on your prior allegiance
with him, your cynical character, your sinful
nature, your desires, etc. Many who have a hate
have made their own way. They have heart, attitude,
passion, experience, and they've made their own
way. They are capable of siding with him and
making the wrong decision, winding up in a long
-term detrimental relationship with the enemy.
And let's be serious, it's... Satan, demons,
evil spirits, and the world system. That's the
enemy that we're talking about. And so they've
done that. Long -term detrimental relationship.
Still more emphasize their hate and reconnect
with one enemy or another time and again. Widely
ignorant of what these compromises are costing
them. His people possess not just a hate, but
a shape. And they have seen and cannot deny that
God will have the victory. So they should destroy
the enemy of God who comes into their tent looking
for solace, hospitality, and sinful protection.
There are a lot of people that think they're
doing pretty well. We think we can add to our
lives. So now I'm a professing Christian, so
now I can sample the things of the world. I can
get involved. I can do the things that the world
does. But then there comes a time where you're
between a rock and a hard place and you have
to choose between truly faithfully following
the Lord and the sampling that you've been doing.
Well, based on what we just saw in JL's life,
we now know what we're supposed to do with that,
right? You either got to kill God. or kill the
sampling. Those are your options. It's going
to come down to a time where you can't play sports
anymore, can't play games anymore, can't spend
your money anymore. You're laying on your deathbed
and all you can do is breathe. You're on an IV
or a ventilator or whatever. When it comes down
to that, will it be you'll kill God or you'll
kill the enemy? And we know what to do. We should
choose God and we should do it before we get
to the point where it's all we have left to do.
Having a hard time saying no? We try to do both,
and we wind up slighting our devotion to God.
We choose our own entertainment over making money
or hoarding money, but are unwilling to choose
devotion to God over money. So we take vacations
to get off work, and we make less money that
week, or we take a day off with no pay, for example,
to go do what we want to do. But instead of doing
that, walking away from money to truly follow
God, we follow the money. Let's be careful. Let's
be realistic. Are we between a rock and a hard
place? We teach devotion to God and then even
say it's one of the most important things to
us, but when we have an opportunity to partake
of a blessing in this lifetime that will short
our devotion to God, we say, God knows we are
devoted, and that's enough. We do godly things
in worldly ways and think that's sufficient.
We try to do worldly things in godly ways and
think that's sufficient. We embrace our house
guest who is an evil spirit or an antichrist
teaching or a scheme of the devil and we leave
them at home while we come to worship because
we don't want people to know that we are in an
allegiance with him. So you come in here all
cleaned up or go to church wherever all cleaned
up and tell the truth and honor and sing praises
or think about the words of the song or play
the instruments or preach the sermons all the
world over. While waiting for you at home is
that exhausted enemy who needs your comfort.
And as soon as you get back home, that's what
you'll be doing, comforting them. So you'll be
watching the shows that you shouldn't watch and
doing the things you shouldn't do and thinking
about how you can get away with not serving the
way you should. We'll all be deciding to avoid
martyrdom. And we don't really want a tough teaching
from the word when what we're actually called
to is martyrdom and a tough teaching from the
word. We think, how will anybody know? You know
how I know this is what some Christians are doing
or some professing Christians are doing? Because
the Bible says so. And it says it will get that
much more common as we get closer to Jesus coming.
And I'm telling you, we're getting closer. Every
minute, whether he comes in our lifetime or not,
we're getting closer. We think, I'm saved and
so I should. Do this one. I'm a Christian. I'm
a follower of Jesus and so I should. I should
go to church, I should give, I should serve,
I should be kind, whatever. If you're living
the I shoulds of life, you are not living for
Jesus. The moment you say, I'm saved and so I
should, you've already missed the boat. Because
Jesus came to make you new so that it becomes
part of your personality, part of your shape.
The Spirit is in your heart, cleansing your heart,
and guiding you to do, and you shouldn't have
to say, I should be nice to them, I should ask
for forgiveness, I should do better, I should
try harder. You shouldn't have to say that, because
this is who you are now. But the reason we do
that is because we have not killed the enemy
that's in our life that is ours to kill. Instead
of, we should say, I love God, and I want to
show how much I love God by exercising my shape,
my whole shape, not just my heart, attitude,
passion, and experience, but my spiritual gifting
in the kingdom of God. You can deal with the
evil with your hate. You don't even need the
S to do that. You don't need the Spirit of God.
You were built to do that. And that's why people
can go get in the 12 Steps program. and pick
some other higher power other than God and still
have great victory and actually get away from
alcohol for a long time or whatever else because
your hate can do it, but your shape can do it
and make it eternal. You can only kill him permanently
with your shape. Greater is he that is in me,
it says in the Bible, greater is he that is in
me than he that is in the world. It means if
I am between a rock and a hard place, I choose
the rock and we destroy the hard place. That's
what it means. God deserves and demands your
undying allegiance. He calls you out of any past
allegiance and he commands you to choose him
over any other future allegiance. Commit to do
that today. A couple of quick illustrations and
we're done. There are a few passages in the Bible
that I just kind of like get chills when I think
of the story and the events that are happening.
One of those is Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
in front of the fiery furnace. So there's a story
about these three guys. They're captured. They're
taken into an enemy kingdom. And then while they're
there, they're told that whenever the music should
play, they have to worship. They have to worship
this false god. They have to bow down to the
king, to the false gods of this kingdom. And
they won't do it. They know they're between a
rock and a hard place. Like J .L., for example,
if they choose to bow down, they offend God and
God's people and God's law and the spiritual
strength that God offers, etc. And if they choose
not to bow down, they can be put to death. Sure
enough, they get arrested. They're drugged before
the fiery furnace. Not quite there yet, but they're
getting there. And the king says, you didn't
do it. You didn't bow down. You seem like a good
man. You're trying hard. What's your problem?
And they said, you know what? If you cast us
into the fiery furnace, this is where I always
get the chills. If you cast us into the fiery
furnace, our God is mighty enough to save us.
See, they could see the rock and they could see
the hard place. The rock was God and the hard
place was the fiery furnace. And they said, if
you cast us into the fiery furnace, our God is
mighty enough to save us. But hear us now, even
if he does not save us, we will not bow down
to your false gods. In the book of Job, the devil
who's coming for God is accusing Job, and ultimately
God gives the devil permission to strike Job's
life, destroy all of his property, all of his
kids are gone, they're all dead, all of his in
-laws are dead. Only one left is his wife. And
Job is sitting in a pile of ashes, which is a
way of mourning. He was mourning as deeply as
anybody can mourn. And as he sat in the pile
of ashes, he had sores all over his skin because
the devil was allowed to strike his skin. And
God had allowed him to do that because the devil
had said he wouldn't stay faithful. And Job is
sitting there and he's scraping the sores on
his skin with broken pieces of clay pot because
it's the only way he can get just a little bit
of... relief from the itching. And so he's scraping
the sores and trying to get the infection out
and trying to just survive. He was mourning so
deeply and just trying to survive. That's all
he was trying to do. And his wife comes to him
and he says, Job, why don't you just curse God
and die? So that's why the devil didn't take
her away so that right there in that moment she
could come and make his campaign pitch. See,
Job was between a rock and a hard place. And
he said, no, no. God gives everything. If God
giveth, then God has the right to take it away.
So he gave me everything, and he has the right
to take everything away. Who am I to curse God?
And he would not do it. Between a rock and a
hard place, he chose God, and God and Job destroyed
the hard place. And very shortly, you see, he's
out of the pile of ashes. The sores are all healed
up. He's got a bunch more family, a bunch more
houses, a bunch more wealth. And then God himself
comes to talk to Job. And he corrects Job because
Job was a little prideful throughout it. But
he never truly sinned against him. But he did
kind of challenge God and say, I want to make
my case. He asked God if he could make his case.
But the men who had been plaguing God that had
come into Job's house and said, you need to understand
that you must have sinned against God. You're
getting all this because you're wrong. You sinned
somehow. And Job said, no, it's not because I
sinned. I don't know why it's happening, but
it's not because I sinned. God told them if they
wanted to be forgiven, they could go and ask
Job, and Job would pray for them, and they would
be forgiven. You see, when he was between a rock
and a hard place, he chose God the rock, God
empowered him spiritually, and he overcame and
destroyed the hard place. Jesus is on the earth.
You might have heard John 3 .16, for God so loved
the world. John 3 .17 is a little less well -known.
He says, the Son of Man did not come to condemn
the world, but the world is condemned already
by what they have done with the Son of Man. So
Jesus said, I didn't come to condemn. I'm not
here to tell anybody they've got to go to hell.
I'm not here to tell anybody they're wrong or
bad or anything. That's not who Jesus is. Now
the reality is, if you compare yourself to what
Jesus said you have to be in order to get into
heaven, you've got a problem. But Jesus knew
that problem existed and he came to make that
problem no longer a problem. The rock came to
destroy the hard place and to make people into
the shape that they have so that when the rock
moved to destroy the hard place, they are molded
into the rock. They become part of the rock and
the hard place is destroyed. Destroyed. whisked
away like it never existed. And that's what heaven
will one day be like. The new heaven and the
new earth will be like that, like hell never
existed. Earth never existed. Yes, we'll answer
for everything we've done in this lifetime, but
all sorrow, all sadness, all pain, all death,
all disease. And are those things all not a common
existence in almost every day of life? Is there
anybody in here who hasn't been sick or had a
loved one who was sick? I've got a loved one
who's sick right now. We had Michael, I had to
leave here because he was in so much pain. They're
suffering every single day. But if there's suffering
like that every single day and there's nothing
like that in heaven, you need to choose the rock.
One last one. Jesus said to a bunch of people
that were following him, probably thousands,
he said, unless you eat of my flesh and drink
of my blood, you have no part with me. Now that's
a tough teaching because there were people who
ate people like cannibals, that's bad, or cultists
who drank each other's blood and stuff. That's
gross. That's never what he was talking about.
We know what he was talking about. He was talking
about the Lord's Supper, right? He had enacted
a process, a covenant with them for the Lord's
Supper so they would never forget his sacrifice
until he came again. Well, when he said that,
Hundreds, maybe thousands of people left him.
Later that day, the disciples are sitting around
with him and they said, we need to talk to you.
And he said, yeah, so what is it? Are you going
to leave me too? Jesus said, are you going to
leave me too? To his disciples. And Peter said
back, he said, no, Lord, you have the words of
life. Where would we go? You see, Jesus Christ
is the rock and he's going to deal with the hard
place. And yes, you are caught in between. You
live on the earth between God's heaven and the
earth system. But we are not part of that system.
We choose the rock. He destroys the hard place.
But notice, it was Jael that destroyed Sisera.
You see, he fills us up with his spirit and our
shape, our hape of which, H -A -P -E, heart,
absolute passion, experience, are already capable
of dealing with, become spirit empowered. And
now... We're fighting not just to survive, not
just to make ends meet, not just to overcome,
but our victories are in the spiritual realm.
And demons and evil spirits can no longer stand
against you. And if Satan himself came and you
said, get out of here in the name of Jesus, he
would be forced to flee. So it's up to you. Do
you want to choose to embrace that weak, kind
of sickly, sorry for himself, enemy of God? who's
barely hanging on with a thin thread and knows
that one day he'll be destroyed eternally away
from God, not eliminated, not like not existing,
but in eternal damnation away from God forever?
Do you want to choose that? Or do you want to
choose God now? Now I'm going to tell you the
bad side. If you choose God now, you could die.
If you choose God now. If you choose God now,
someday your heart's going to stop beating, your
brain's going to stop waving, somebody may put
a bullet in you, you might even be crucified,
you might be flayed, drawn and cornered, you
might be hit by a car, you might be persecuted.
Bad things happen to good people. It can happen.
But if it happens to you, if you choose the rock,
the next moment after it happens to you, the
next instant, you'll be in heaven for an eternity.
We're absent from this life present with the
Lord. I'm asking you today to do either A, repent
and turn to the Lord for the first time ever
and accept Jesus Christ who was the one who paid
for your sins as leader of your life. And he'll
see you through. Whatever comes, he'll see you
through. Or if you're already a Christian, you
already are, and you know that you've been kind
of dallying, you've been playing, you've been
allowing hospitality toward enemies of God. Or
maybe you've even, you know, it's been so long
that you've let certain things kind of like bleed
into your life and take up a place that belongs
only to God. Then you repent today. Pick up your
tent stake and your hammer. Use the heart, skill,
aptitude, experience that you have and drive
that stake home and say, no more. I'm not going
to lie for you anymore. I'm not going to protect
you anymore. I'm going to live for God the way
God made me able, through His Holy Spirit, by
virtue of the sacrifice of His Son. Jesus didn't
come to condemn, and I'm not coming to condemn
you either. But we all were condemned already
by what we did with the Son of God. Caught between
a rock and a hard place. We were okay with facing
the hard place for as long as it lasted. Remember
the Odyssey? You know what he chose? He sailed
between and he sailed closer to the monster.
And six of his soldiers were plucked off the
deck and destroyed. But he made it through. He
made sacrifices to make it through the rock and
the hard place. That's how most people are doing
it. They're making sacrifices to make it through.
That's not the way. Choose a rock. Choose Jesus
Christ. And stand firm to the end. Think about
what's in your life that's trying to lure you
away and cut it out and be victorious. From the
moment the enemy came to your house, you were
in trouble. It's time to defeat him. It's time
to destroy him in the name of Jesus Christ. It's
not a person. It's a temptation. It's an evil
spirit. It's a distraction. It's a demon. It
could be a personality trait. It's time. I ask
the praise team to come forward at this time
and lead us in our closing hymn. As we sing together
or as you focus on the words, I ask you if the
Lord is speaking to your heart today and you
need to repent in some way or give your life
over to the Lord first time ever.