Doing okay? Good. Okay. It happens that people
come back around. I've had a number of people
in my life that have left me. In fact, I recently
had a man who reinstituted our friendship and
we've been meeting. pretty much monthly now,
to talk and pray together, after he decided he
literally wanted nothing to do with me ever again.
And he told me as much, and I tried to explain
to him that I didn't know what I had done wrong,
and it's definitely on. Beep, beep, beep, beep,
beep. Okay. All right. Anyway, and he hung up
on me, and then I tried to call him back, and
he would never let me call him, and so I just
kind of gave up on our friendship. But of recent...
We have been meeting and praying together and
rebuilding that friendship. And I'm kind of excited
about that. And if you're on right now on Facebook,
you get to hear that. I'm not going to name your
name, but I'm grateful for that friendship. It's
happened a number of other times. We've had people
in the church who left the church, disgruntled,
and then got out there and life went really awry.
It didn't go well at all. And then they came
back. I know one woman that did it three times.
She was in the church. She left the church because
she got a job and got a van or her health got
right. I thought everything was good, so she
left. She didn't really need God at that point.
And then she lost her van, lost her health, lost
her job. It was all falling apart. She was in
the hospital for like three weeks. Come out of
the hospital, first thing she did, come back
to church. And over a space of about a year,
her life got all back in line. She got a van,
got a job, got her health back in line. She had
a mysterious health condition that went away.
And then she was in the church for a while. And
then a family member of hers had a time commitment.
It was kind of lined up. And she's like, well,
I want to be there. And I'm going to start doing
that instead of coming to church. And overnight,
it all fell apart again. And it's still falling
apart as we speak right now. But she came back
twice and had it fall apart three times. It happens
that people come back around. I've had folks
who come to me and say, you know, leave me alone.
I don't want anything to do with it. I want to
hear about the gospel. I had one friend of mine
who was a professing atheist, and he didn't want
to hear nothing about God. And I waited two and
a half years, and I wrote him a letter. He said,
don't talk to me about it. So I wrote him a letter.
He wound up accepting Christ. He's still got
a long way to go, maybe compared to biblical
standard or whatever, but he has accepted Christ
and professes to be a Christian. It happens that
people come back around. It also happens that
there are things called archetypes. Do you know
what that means, an archetype, if I say an archetype?
An archetype is a story or a situation. or it
can even be a person, right? That then other
stories, situations where people tend to follow
that model. I submit to you that the story that
we're going to hear today has that trait to it,
that it is an archetype. But the question is,
which comes first? This story as an archetype
or did the archetype already exist and this story
follows the archetype. So pay attention as you
go and you can make that decision for yourself
and then maybe I'll try to sway you a little
bit in the conclusion. Okay? So we've been reading
from the book of Judges and somebody might take
a breath right now and hold it while I'm talking
and you might say a little amen or who are you?
Yep, I'm here. Say something. Cough. Right? But
make some kind of noise as we go now to Judges
chapter 10. Amen. I'm not going to Judges chapter
10 on that. I need something. Come on, give me
something. All right, here we go. Judges chapter
10. That's better. I'll take it. Thank you, Haley.
You contributed at least 50 % of the effort.
Where was Kashawn? Kashawn, were you slacking
off? You're usually my loudest person. What?
You know, I did that like four times during preparation,
and it's Judges chapter 10. I told Sherry, it's
funny, because I'll go to make the slide, and
I'll put numbers. I don't know why I was doing
that. It is Judges chapter 10, very clearly,
okay? Ignore the slide for that purpose. I will
fix it before it goes to the podcast. All right,
so it's Judges chapter 10. Last week, we read
in verse 16 this beautiful kind of phrase where
they're suffering again, right? They cry out
to God, and God says, nope, I'm not going to
help you, all right? And then right at the end
of that, it says that God... could not, it wearied
God. God could not stand for them to suffer any
longer. And so they, and so they would get their
intervention, right? So in Judges chapter 10,
beginning of verse 17, so the implication is
that they would get their intervention. Now we're
going to read about the intervention. Judges
10, 17 says as follows. Then the sons of Ammon,
ah, we know something about them, don't we? Were
summoned and they camped in Gilead. And the sons
of Israel gathered together and camped in Mizpah.
Now Mizpah is an interesting city. It was on
the east side of the Jordan, in the terrain called
Gilead. There is another Mizpah. So later, if
you're reading your Bible and you see another
Mizpah, there are two of them in the same kind
of region of the world. This one is located on
the east side of the Jordan, kind of a mountain
place where people would go to be safe from invaders.
And it's where he originally lived. The people,
the leaders of Gilead, said to one another, Who
is the man who will begin to fight against the
sons of Ammon? He shall become head over all
the inhabitants of Gilead. So they started talking
about who could be the guy. Who's going to be
the general, the king, whatever. Then we get
into Judges chapter 11. Now this is the story
of Jephthah. And we mentioned last week how Jephthah
is one of the most interesting characters to
be a judge. And you're about to find out why.
11 .1 says this. Jephthah the Gileadite was a
valiant warrior. This guy could duke it out with
the best of them. But he was the son of a harlot,
so his mother was a prostitute. And Gilead was
the father of Jephthah. Now this is not that
original Gilead that the region is named after,
but a guy named Gilead that lived, that was his
dad, and he had a bunch of sons, right? Gilead's
wife bore him sons, and when his wife's son grew
up, They drove Jephthah out and said to him,
You shall not have an inheritance in our father's
house, for you are the son of another woman.
So the biological full brother said, No, we're
not going to let you have anything. You've got
to go. And they kicked him out. Verse 3. So Jephthah
fled from his brothers and lived in the land
of Tob. And worthless fellows gathered themselves
about Jephthah, and they went out with him. It
came about after a while that the sons of Ammon
fought against Israel. Okay, so now we're caught
back up. So that was like a little bit of a flashback,
right? Going back to how Jephthah got where he
was. Now we're back to where it says, who is
the man? All right, so verse four. It came about
after a while that the sons of Ammon fought against
Israel. When the sons of Ammon fought against
Israel, the elders of Gilead went to get Jephthah
from the land of Tob. So they're going to go
out and find him. They kick him out, right? But
now they're going to be like, well, we need somebody.
Maybe he's the somebody. And they go looking
for Jephthah. Okay. Verse 6. And they said to
Jephthah, Come and be our chief, that we may
fight against the sons of Ammon. Then Jephthah
said to the elders of Gilead, Did you not hate
me and drive me from my father's house? So why
have you come to me now when you are in trouble?
Some really packed stuff in there if you listen,
right? So Jephthah. He doesn't just say, oh sure,
this is what I wanted all along. He says, look,
you kicked me out. You literally made me flee
from my life. You wanted nothing to do with me.
And now you want me to lead you in this very
important fight? So why have you come to me now
when you are in trouble, he says. The elders
of Gilead said to Jephthah, for this reason we
have now returned to you. Notice it's returned,
not turned. For this reason we have now returned
to you. that you may go with us and fight with
the sons of Ammon and become head over all the
inhabitants of Gilead. So Jephthah said to the
elders of Gilead, If you take me back to fight
against the sons of Ammon and the Lord gives
them up to me, will I become your head? So he's
putting conditions on it. So it's not just, I'll
lead you now, but I become the boss. So I'm going
to be king or ruler over all the land. They say,
the Lord is witness between us. Surely we will
do as you have said. Then Jephthah went with
the elders of Gilead, and the people made him
head and chief over them. And Jephthah spoke
all his words before the Lord at Mizpah. And
we'll see what that's about next week. So notice
that they kick him out protecting their inheritance.
They were going to lose something if they shared
it with Jephthah. And I submit to you that that
is a motivation for people in the world. People
do that. Then they come to a place where they're
in need of a solution. And they come begging,
even trading, not just what he would have gotten
in the first place that was part of the inheritance,
but now essentially everything. They're trading
him everything. Remember, a king will take your
sons, essentially as slaves, into his army. A
king will tax you to pay for weapons of war.
A king will rule over everything. So they're
not just giving him what he was going to inherit.
as being a son of Gilead, they're giving him
literally everything in order for him to come
and lead them. Because why? Because in their
minds, they were going to lose everything, right?
So there is an inheritance of the world. Well,
what does that look like? The world thinks that
they have the freedom to do whatever they want
to do, right? That they can sneak and do things
behind somebody's back and that that person will
never know or that they won't have to answer
to anybody. They can lie or cheat and steal.
And as long as nobody ever saw it, it didn't
do any damage. And that's just not true. That's
not the reality of it. But that's what the world
generally believes. And to them, that is an inheritance.
And if you come up into their life and start
living life with them and trying to help, and
you're trying to like, well, I want to be a better
person. Let's not me and you go shoplift, let's
say. But I want to be a better person. I want
to be a godly person. I want to be somebody that's
good. I want to call you to be the best that
you can be. And you try to be that person in
their life, they want to get rid of you because
you're stealing what they perceive as their inheritance.
Are you following this logic? They think they
have something. Or that they're going to have
something. And they don't want you to interfere
with what it is that they think they have. For
example, if you're a person that doesn't drink,
and they go out and drink all the time. I can't
tell you the number of times after I had given
up drinking before I got saved that I was expressly
not invited to parties because there was going
to be considerable drinking there. And they knew
that I had given it up, even though I wasn't
saved yet. Now, as a Christian, guess how many
parties were there going to be drinking that
I've ever been invited to? One. And I was invited
because I conducted the wedding, and then they
had alcohol at the reception. So pastors, as
you can imagine, don't get invited to a lot of
places. And I submit to you that if you are overtly
living as a Christian, if you are being a good
person, that anywhere where people are planning
to do bad things, They're only going to invite
you along if they think that they can corrupt
you, if they can get you to do the things, or
at least accept that the things that they're
doing are acceptable. So the world pushes away
the church, pushes away God's people, and even
God. That's just the reality of it. But frequently
there is a capitulation. A capitulation is when
you come back and you come under the terms of
the person in question. So for example, if an
army is defeated, they have to capitulate when
they surrender. We'll surrender all our weapons,
we'll become your slaves, or we'll give you all
our lands, or we'll pay payments going forward,
reparations, whatever. When they are defeated,
they have to capitulate to the demands of the
person that defeated them. So frequently there
is a capitulation. People in the world want what
the church has. People look at the church and
go, I need what they have. I need some kind of
peace in my life, or I need some kind of, maybe
I need some money. I need a safe place or whatever.
And they come to the church saying, help me.
And they want the church to pay for their situational
improvement. So sometimes they come to the church
because the church is doing okay and they want.
And generation after generation after generation.
At one point in time, we were on Main Street
and I did a calculation. I think it would probably
still hold true today. At that time, unemployment
in the nation was like 12 or 14%. It was over
double digits. And we surveyed our body. And
in the previous three years, we had not had a
time where people did not have employment. Every
able -bodied individual that wanted to work in
our church had employment except ever like maybe
one and for a very short period of time. Like
it would be a couple weeks or something. And
then they'd be working again. Even though the
nation had 14 % unemployment, New Heights had
like 0 % to 1 % unemployment. You follow? And
so people are like... When we were down in Georgia
the one time we went, and at the beginning of
the service, they announced all the politicians
that were there. They had 1 ,000 people in service,
and they announced all the politicians that were
attending their church that Sunday. You know
why they were there? Because that might get them
votes. And the church has people. And the world
over, the church has people. And if you want
to go where people are on a Sunday morning, one
way to do that is to go to church. If you want
to have relationships, go be with people. If
you don't want to have relationships, then push
the people off. But sometimes people realize
they want something the church has, and they
say, pay my situational improvement, and they
capitulate, at least for a time. Sometimes there's
a capitulation specifically to God's people.
They want what God's people have, and they say,
give it to me. Please help me. Help me with food.
Help me with my electric bill. Help me with clothing.
Help me with whatever. And they ask the church
people to provide what they need. Sometimes that's
in the form of prayer. Like, I don't think if
I pray, God's even going to answer. But would
you please pray for me? Because, you know, if
there is a God and if the church is who the Bible
says the church is, then if you pray, maybe something
cool will happen and I need something cool to
happen. And they start thinking that ultimately
they need something more than what is available.
So it's not just about clothing, food, etc. That
there is a transcendent need that they have and
the church seems to have it and the people of
the church seem to have it. They have peace when
they're in struggles or they have joy that outlasts
difficulty and so on. Sometimes there's a capitulation
to God. They realize that whatever it costs to
surrender to God, what God is offering is more.
And that's the truth. That's the kind of capitulation
that the Bible calls for, that we come to God
on his terms. They call out in earnest to God
for actual salvation. They do this in foxholes.
They do it in dark alleys. They do it in hospital
beds. The vast majority of people that get saved
do not do it walking forward in a church service.
They may eventually walk forward into her service
and kind of cement it down and publicly tell
people, look, I'm living for Jesus now. But they
may get saved reading a Gideon Bible in a hotel
wondering, whatever am I doing with my life?
And they come to God on his terms and there's
a capitulation to God. They realize that what
they need is not a resource per se, which means
they can't buy it, can't trade it, can't steal
it. They need something that God is offering
that they can't get. And so they capitulate to
God. The gospel is about the need for capitulation.
It's not unfair terms of surrender. God is asking
you to come to him on his terms. Now, the rub
might be this. At the moment of capitulation,
sometimes at the moment that that person is about
ready to surrender, sometimes we feel kind of
ashamed or even cautious because we want so bad
for their decision to be genuine. Somebody's
hurting really bad and we want them to come to
God and we want that salvation to be real. You
don't really need to just say some words today
or whisper a prayer or even shed tears. You really
need real salvation, connection with the real
God of the universe. And so this is what happens.
Somebody comes to us absolutely broken. And instead
of sharing the gospel, we share the resources
that we think will help, right? Hoping that at
some point in time, we'll get around to sharing
the gospel. I was sitting at the life station
back when my office upstairs, Janet was next
to mine. I had a woman who was staying in a hotel
down in Perrysburg and she called me and her
life had literally blown up. She was struggling
with addiction. She was in a hotel. She was about
to not have enough money to pay for another night.
They didn't have food. Her kids were going to
go to Children's Protective Services because
she was about to go homeless. She had health
concerns and debatably couldn't even work, and
she couldn't get food stamps for the Senate.
And basically the list was everything was wrong.
And I proceeded to share with her what resources
we could offer, and then I shared the gospel.
And you know what she did? Over the phone, she
prayed to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
And I said, listen, I don't know that God's going
to provide you with everything that you're asking
for. I don't know that that's going to happen.
But what I do know is if your decision is genuine,
if you're coming to the Lord, you become his
child, then the outcome will be what it is that
God wants it to be. And it will be what's best
for you somehow. Can you imagine that people
come to those situations because that's what's
actually best for them? The details, the kind
of dark details, if you will, of Josh's story
that he didn't share this morning are like that.
We've seen some things. Most of you have probably
seen something like that where you get to that
place where you're hurting and that is what brings
you to church. That's what brings you to God.
It's what brings you to the Bible. To realize
there is something more. When I was 25 years
old, I was asking myself, what on earth? This
can't be it. I had a wife. I had a kid. A kid
on the way. A house with a great big mortgage.
Two cars with loans. Working 60 hours a week.
Not enjoying my job. I didn't hate my job, but
I didn't enjoy it. And I'm like, that's it? So
I've beaten life, and this is the great victory
lap. From here on out, I'm going to spend the
next 50 years and then die in a hospital bed
with two in my nose like everybody else, right?
And I'm going to do this. This is what I'm going
to do for 50 years. And I thought, it can't be.
And so I started looking for something that was
not a resource, and I wound up finding out that
God was real, that Jesus was real, that Jesus
had truly paid the price. But I went looking
for it. I had to go looking for it because there
was nobody in my life, not one. I found out later
there were other Christians, but there was only
one person in my life who was a Christian. And
rather than sharing the gospel with me, she was
just inviting me to go to church, which was good.
And that's where I wound up getting saved. But
it's not what we're called to. On that phone
call, she prayed. We cried together. Now, I don't
know the full end of her story. I do know that
her situation got a lot better and that she got
in church and began to serve God to the best
of her ability and so on. But here's what was
amazing. When I got off the phone, Janet. who
had been working her desk, she had stopped. Stopped
moving paper. Stopped typing on her computer.
And she said, that was amazing. And I said, what
was amazing about it? She said, so many people,
when somebody comes in there hurting, so many
people just like talk about, well, we can't pay
your rent. I'm sorry, we don't have those resources.
We just tell them what you can't do and don't
share the gospel. And I thought, why would that
be amazing? Even then, I thought, why would that
be amazing? And then I'll tell you that I have
myself perpetrated the very crime that I'm talking
about at least a dozen times as I was preparing
this message. I realized people really need the
Lord. I'm going to be honest with you. People
don't really need you to pay their rent. People
really don't need you to provide food. They really
don't need you to hold their hand. They really
need the Lord. Because eventually, if you provided
food for them for every single day for the rest
of their life and they never need food, they're
going to face the judgment and face God, after
which they will not need food. And if they go
to hell, they'll never get food. And if they
go to heaven, they won't need it because God
will provide literally everything for them. So
the ultimate need is what we need eternally.
So in doing what we are doing, we are doing the
same thing. We are afraid to give up the outcome
fully into his hands. So we are protecting like
our inheritance instead of sharing it. Like we're
making it out like deathbed and foxhole conversions
are somehow unfair or unrealistic or unreliable,
except that I will tell you right now that some
of the people in this room have foxhole conversions
that are faithfully living for the Lord. They
realize I desperately need God. I can't do this
without him. And they came to him and yet they
stayed. I had a brother who served alongside
me for decades, had pastored in like a dozen
churches, and he had a foxhole conversion. He
accepted Christ in a military situation that
he thought he was going to die. And then he came
home and realized that his wife had accepted
Christ while he was gone. And then the two of
them slowly worked it out that they were serving
God together. And he went on to become an ordained
minister. Was his foxhole conversion not good
enough? No. Whatever your situation is, sometimes
people just need to get to a situation where
they will capitulate. And as a people, we need
to capitulate to God this, that he can save when
he wants to save. And your words out of your
mouth when people are hurting the worst should
include the gospel. The world must come to the
church, we think. The church is the bride of
Christ and we stand with Him and we rise with
Him and He lives in us. And so eventually they're
going to come to us, right? So we don't have
to go out and try to find them. We don't have
to be ready to share all the time, right? Because
it's all going to work out. No. We are commanded.
In fact, we are taking some part of the gospel
for our own use and keeping it for our own safety
if we're not willing to tell people. The next
time somebody tells you they're hurting, I want
you to hear at least my voice, I prefer God's
voice if possible, in the back of your mind saying,
do they know Christ? Can you imagine? If you're
a Christian in this room, I want you to think
about a recent hardship that you faced. Now imagine
facing that hardship without the help of God
at all. That's what they're doing if they're
not saved. Right? And we have to be ready then
to surrender our inheritance, what we think is
ours, even if it's our safety, our freedom, our
cost, whatever it is, your comfort, your favorites,
your benefit, your best outcome. Lay it all on
the line. When you come back, after you get done
with a month or a year of not being willing to
talk to people first thing about Jesus, after
you get done with that, you're going to come
back to God and capitulate. That's what's going
to happen. So what does it look like for those
who won't come? People are declining. Declining
God. Declining the church. Declining the gospel.
Pushing away. Going on with their own methods.
I'm good enough. I'll be okay. And there's a
special breed of won't. There are those who fake
come. There are those who will say the words.
Maybe even sing the songs. Do the work of the
Lord. The Bible says this is the worst case scenario.
Fake capitulation, faking coming to God under
his terms is worse because of a few reasons.
So the first one is the danger of self -deception.
You can think that you're saved, and then suddenly
you realize, uh -oh, all these things, and I
really never had it. Not everyone who says unto
me, Lord, Lord, Jesus says, but those who do
the work of my Father who is in heaven. There's
the lukewarm paradox. In Revelation 3, it talks
about being lukewarm. Jesus said, I know your
deeds that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish
you were either one or the other because you
are lukewarm. Gap. I am about to spit you out
of my mouth. A cold person feels the chill and
seeks heat. A lukewarm person is comfortable
in the compromise and feels no need to change.
I profess Christ. I pray to accept Jesus. I don't
really need to do anything. But the truth is,
if you didn't really accept him, then you don't
really need to do anything. But if you really
did accept him, then your faith without works
is dead. It doesn't really mean anything. You're
just making it up. It's fake. And fake is the
worst possible way of saying no to God. In fact,
God talks about a higher level of accountability.
The servant who knows the master's will, he says,
and does not get ready will be beaten with many
blows, but the one who does not know and does
things deserving punishment will be beaten with
few blows. In other words, if you're faking being
a Christian, the punishment that you're going
to receive when the time comes is going to be
worse from those who said, I want nothing to
do with God. That's pretty bad stuff. And Jesus
said it. 2 Peter 2 .21 says, It would have been
better for them not to have known the way of
righteousness than to have known it and to turn
their backs on the sacred command. God wants
people to capitulate, to come to him. He doesn't
want you to fake it. He wants you to say, okay,
God, here I am. I surrender. I throw off my arms.
I throw off my abilities. I realize I could do
a lot in my life. I could change a lot of things.
And any a lot that I'm going to do, any things
that I'm going to change, I now want to do for
you and in you and the way that you would have
me to do it. In the age of grace where we now
live, Fake capitulation looks like a functional
life. People do pretty good. They might do well
financially. They're kind of expecting it. They're
believing that things are going to go okay because
they're faking salvation. But in Revelation 6,
it talks about right at the end, right before
it's all going to be over, the people who are
not... have not followed God and not accepted
the gospel, right? And they cry, let the mountains
just fall on us. God is punishing the people
because they have no salvation because they're
not truly his people. And it's horrible. People
have died from diseases and terrible things are
going on. And instead of them repenting and turning
to God and say, okay, God, I surrender. I capitulate.
I'm willing. Instead of doing that, they say,
just let the mountains fall on us. See, so the
bottom line is there comes a moment in time.
where the rebel simply loses the war. The fake
capitulator loses the war and also the false
hope that they've spent their entire life building.
Lost people who just keep pushing God off, pushing
God off, they're going to be like, oh, this sucks.
I should have listened. But people who faked
it their whole lives are going to be like, this
really sucks. Not only should I have listened,
I actually said I did listen. Not only have I,
not followed, I've been building a life pretending
I was following. So let me ask you just real
quick, and I'm going to fill in the gaps here,
just make sure we all have the same answers.
What are God's terms? So here's a breakdown.
It's simple. There is an exclusivity of the path.
The path to God is just one. It is through Jesus
Christ. Jesus said, I am the way and the truth
and the life. No one comes to the Father except
through me. Acts 4 .12 says, God knew that people
needed to be saved, and even Moses and Noah and
David, who as far as we know were all saved,
probably, anyway, they were all saved by the
sacrifice that Jesus would eventually make. They
basically said to God, I capitulate. Whatever
way you want to do it, I surrender. And God said,
okay. Checkmark Jesus. I'll give you Jesus. I'll
give you the righteousness of Jesus. Right?