WEBVTT 00:00:07.019 --> 00:00:12.000 Still a very dark time in Israel's history as 00:00:12.000 --> 00:00:15.679 the Israelites have brought about punishment 00:00:15.679 --> 00:00:19.260 on the tribe of Benjamin. We are in the last 00:00:19.260 --> 00:00:22.940 market, the last chapter of the book of Judges. 00:00:23.039 --> 00:00:25.500 And it's been quite a lengthy journey with a 00:00:25.500 --> 00:00:28.260 break for a couple of holidays. And now we look 00:00:28.260 --> 00:00:30.620 at, we finally move into the last chapter of 00:00:30.620 --> 00:00:32.020 the book of Judges. I'm going to go to the text 00:00:32.020 --> 00:00:34.289 and read it. I know it's kind of a dark text, 00:00:34.350 --> 00:00:35.929 but at the same time, it teaches us something 00:00:35.929 --> 00:00:38.409 desperately needed in the world today, and perhaps 00:00:38.409 --> 00:00:40.810 for always. And so maybe give me a little hooter, 00:00:40.810 --> 00:00:43.270 holler, amen, as we go to Judges chapter 21. 00:00:43.630 --> 00:00:47.189 Thank you very much. We're only going to read 00:00:47.189 --> 00:00:49.829 the first eight verses, which means we have more 00:00:49.829 --> 00:00:53.250 of this dark story to unfold next week. But here 00:00:53.250 --> 00:00:55.609 we go, Judges 21, verses 1 through 8, and it 00:00:55.609 --> 00:01:00.210 says as follows. Now the men of Israel had sworn 00:01:00.210 --> 00:01:03.579 in Mizpah, saying, None of us shall give his 00:01:03.579 --> 00:01:06.599 daughter to Benjamin in marriage. So the people 00:01:06.599 --> 00:01:09.519 came to Bethel and sat there before God until 00:01:09.519 --> 00:01:12.739 evening and raised their voices and wept profusely. 00:01:12.939 --> 00:01:14.519 So a couple things you need to understand in 00:01:14.519 --> 00:01:16.200 the background context of the verse. First of 00:01:16.200 --> 00:01:19.500 all, this is coming off the massacre. And I'm 00:01:19.500 --> 00:01:21.359 calling it a massacre intentionally. It is not 00:01:21.359 --> 00:01:25.439 even a vindictive justice action, right? They 00:01:25.439 --> 00:01:28.819 went from responding to the wickedness of the 00:01:28.819 --> 00:01:31.400 men of Gibeah. They eventually wipe out Gibeah, 00:01:31.400 --> 00:01:34.359 all men, women, and children, wipe them off totally, 00:01:34.500 --> 00:01:37.620 and then it spreads, and they go town to town 00:01:37.620 --> 00:01:40.099 and kill, bless you, everyone in the tribe of 00:01:40.099 --> 00:01:42.319 Benjamin. And so essentially everyone in the 00:01:42.319 --> 00:01:44.659 entire tribe has been wiped out for the sins 00:01:44.659 --> 00:01:50.420 of that view. At least that's allegedly the reason. 00:01:52.219 --> 00:01:54.379 During that process, they promised that they 00:01:54.379 --> 00:01:56.920 would not give their daughter to Benjamin in 00:01:56.920 --> 00:02:00.480 marriage. They would isolate the tribe of Benjamin 00:02:00.480 --> 00:02:02.379 and not let them have their daughters anymore. 00:02:03.159 --> 00:02:06.019 That's a pretty stiff punishment, not being able 00:02:06.019 --> 00:02:08.740 to marry into the other tribes. Benjamin was 00:02:08.740 --> 00:02:11.060 going to be in trouble anyway. We know that 600 00:02:11.060 --> 00:02:13.319 men fled from the fight and they're hiding out 00:02:13.319 --> 00:02:16.560 in the hills. They are all that remains of the 00:02:16.560 --> 00:02:20.099 tribe of Benjamin. And they are men. And the 00:02:20.099 --> 00:02:22.000 problem with men, when they're just men, is that 00:02:22.000 --> 00:02:24.159 they can't do certain necessary things to propagate 00:02:24.159 --> 00:02:27.469 the race. by themselves, and so the tribe of 00:02:27.469 --> 00:02:30.569 Benjamin is doomed to die out, because there 00:02:30.569 --> 00:02:35.370 are 600 men with no wives. In response to that 00:02:35.370 --> 00:02:39.129 situation, the people come to Bethel. Now Bethel 00:02:39.129 --> 00:02:41.289 and Shiloh sit right up next to each other, and 00:02:41.289 --> 00:02:44.270 that's where the tabernacle is during this day. 00:02:44.569 --> 00:02:47.949 And so they gather around the open country, around 00:02:47.949 --> 00:02:50.969 the tabernacle, and they are begging God, thinking 00:02:50.969 --> 00:02:55.750 how horrible this situation is. And they said, 00:02:55.889 --> 00:02:59.270 why, Lord God of Israel, has this happened in 00:02:59.270 --> 00:03:03.349 Israel that one tribe is missing today from Israel? 00:03:03.430 --> 00:03:05.289 In other words, it is destined at this point, 00:03:05.310 --> 00:03:07.229 there's nothing to stop it, that the tribe of 00:03:07.229 --> 00:03:09.750 Benjamin will cease to exist and will be 11 tribes 00:03:09.750 --> 00:03:13.129 instead of 12 tribes. And it's a terrible, terrible 00:03:13.129 --> 00:03:19.289 thing. Now, if you were God, you're not, and 00:03:19.289 --> 00:03:22.689 nor am I. But if we were God, we would know for 00:03:22.689 --> 00:03:25.150 sure the answer to that question. And here's 00:03:25.150 --> 00:03:26.909 the amazing thing. Having worked through the 00:03:26.909 --> 00:03:30.650 book of Judges, I think you do. I think you do 00:03:30.650 --> 00:03:34.310 know the reason why. They beg God and say, why, 00:03:34.530 --> 00:03:37.090 Lord God of Israel, has this happened in Israel 00:03:37.090 --> 00:03:39.270 that one tribe is missing today from Israel? 00:03:39.590 --> 00:03:46.770 And I ask you, why? Well, the answer is, on the 00:03:46.770 --> 00:03:50.629 surface anyway, the sin of Israel, right? We 00:03:50.629 --> 00:03:52.430 know that the book says over and over again. 00:03:53.150 --> 00:03:54.849 God just says over and over again that they did 00:03:54.849 --> 00:03:59.030 what was right in their own eyes. Now God doesn't 00:03:59.030 --> 00:04:03.050 answer, which is interesting. He doesn't say, 00:04:03.069 --> 00:04:04.590 well, this happened because of your sin, you're 00:04:04.590 --> 00:04:07.030 being judged or whatever. At least it's not recorded. 00:04:07.069 --> 00:04:10.669 It's possible that they could not hear him. But 00:04:10.669 --> 00:04:12.750 they did hear him back when they were wiping 00:04:12.750 --> 00:04:15.150 out Benjamin and the last day, and he said, go 00:04:15.150 --> 00:04:17.810 for today, I will give that in your hands. And 00:04:17.810 --> 00:04:21.069 they did go. But there is no recorded response 00:04:21.069 --> 00:04:23.310 here. Beginning in verse 4, it says, And it came 00:04:23.310 --> 00:04:26.009 about the next day that the people got up early 00:04:26.009 --> 00:04:28.689 and built an altar there and offered burnt offerings 00:04:28.689 --> 00:04:31.089 and peace offerings. And so they're trying to 00:04:31.089 --> 00:04:33.550 mend their relationship with God to some extent, 00:04:33.709 --> 00:04:36.910 at least by the offerings. I submit to you that 00:04:36.910 --> 00:04:38.550 they are still practicing, as we talked about 00:04:38.550 --> 00:04:42.529 last week, syncretism. God did not call for these 00:04:42.529 --> 00:04:44.750 offerings. These are not ordinary, scheduled 00:04:44.750 --> 00:04:48.699 offerings. God did not answer their prayer. God 00:04:48.699 --> 00:04:50.720 did not ordain that they should wipe out the 00:04:50.720 --> 00:04:54.199 tribe of Benjamin. Verse 5. Then the sons of 00:04:54.199 --> 00:04:56.819 Israel said, Who is there among all the tribes 00:04:56.819 --> 00:04:59.360 of Israel who did not go up to the Lord in the 00:04:59.360 --> 00:05:02.519 assembly? So notice the tag -back question on 00:05:02.519 --> 00:05:04.399 to the previous question. None of us shall give 00:05:04.399 --> 00:05:06.259 their daughter to Benjamin in marriage. That's 00:05:06.259 --> 00:05:08.699 what we promised. Now they're saying, Who is 00:05:08.699 --> 00:05:10.540 there among all the tribes of Israel who did 00:05:10.540 --> 00:05:13.139 not go up to the Lord in the assembly? And initially 00:05:13.139 --> 00:05:14.899 it sounds like, Okay, well maybe if they didn't 00:05:14.899 --> 00:05:16.279 come up and they didn't make that commitment, 00:05:16.439 --> 00:05:18.660 then they could give their wives. to the tribes 00:05:18.660 --> 00:05:21.879 of Benjamin, and the tribe could be saved. It 00:05:21.879 --> 00:05:23.959 sounds like they're looking for a solution. But 00:05:23.959 --> 00:05:26.220 God has not given them a solution. They're sort 00:05:26.220 --> 00:05:28.899 of brainstorming a solution in their own ability, 00:05:29.060 --> 00:05:32.540 if you will. It says, For they had taken a solemn 00:05:32.540 --> 00:05:34.699 oath concerning anyone who did not go up to the 00:05:34.699 --> 00:05:37.319 Lord at Mizpah, saying, He shall certainly be 00:05:37.319 --> 00:05:39.480 put to death. Okay, now we realize they're not 00:05:39.480 --> 00:05:43.519 looking for somebody who didn't go up to give 00:05:43.519 --> 00:05:46.459 their daughters to... Benjamin, they're actually 00:05:46.459 --> 00:05:49.000 looking for somebody more to wipe out. They wiped 00:05:49.000 --> 00:05:50.480 out the entire tribe of Benjamin, and now they're 00:05:50.480 --> 00:05:51.980 looking to wipe out anybody that didn't come 00:05:51.980 --> 00:05:54.399 to help in the participation. They didn't participate 00:05:54.399 --> 00:05:57.160 in the wiping out of the tribe of Benjamin. They 00:05:57.160 --> 00:05:59.240 made an oath that they would not give their daughters 00:05:59.240 --> 00:06:01.800 to the tribe of Benjamin, and apparently they 00:06:01.800 --> 00:06:03.600 made an oath that said that they should certainly 00:06:03.600 --> 00:06:05.920 put to death anyone who does not come and help 00:06:05.920 --> 00:06:09.560 at the battle. Now notice this means that if 00:06:09.560 --> 00:06:11.759 they didn't fight against them, I'm talking about 00:06:11.759 --> 00:06:14.199 that, notice they just didn't come and kill alongside 00:06:14.199 --> 00:06:19.050 of them. And that means they could have just 00:06:19.050 --> 00:06:23.850 abstained. They said, well, we don't agree. We 00:06:23.850 --> 00:06:25.689 don't think that Israel should be attacking Israel. 00:06:26.750 --> 00:06:28.910 We think that we also have problems. There is 00:06:28.910 --> 00:06:30.810 in our lives some sin. We don't want to go kill 00:06:30.810 --> 00:06:32.709 our brothers for their sin because we also have 00:06:32.709 --> 00:06:34.930 sin. What we think is we should all be repenting 00:06:34.930 --> 00:06:37.290 and turning to God. That's a possibility. And 00:06:37.290 --> 00:06:39.230 that possibility would still have resulted in 00:06:39.230 --> 00:06:41.009 the place that we are at the end of verse 5. 00:06:42.769 --> 00:06:45.050 He shall certainly be put to death. Which means 00:06:45.050 --> 00:06:48.529 if you lived as a tribesman in the day that we're 00:06:48.529 --> 00:06:50.389 talking about, when they massacred first over 00:06:50.389 --> 00:06:53.050 40 ,000, and then that day they turned around, 00:06:53.129 --> 00:06:54.350 that was amongst the Israelites, turned around 00:06:54.350 --> 00:06:56.970 and massacred another 25 ,000 Benjamites. So 00:06:56.970 --> 00:07:00.029 when 65 ,000 dead men fell on the ground, if 00:07:00.029 --> 00:07:02.769 you lived in that day and did not participate, 00:07:03.170 --> 00:07:05.550 your tribe did not participate in that battle, 00:07:05.689 --> 00:07:07.629 even if it was because you were trying to be 00:07:07.629 --> 00:07:10.790 faithful to God, there would be a decree that 00:07:10.790 --> 00:07:13.629 you would be put to death. That's pretty extreme. 00:07:14.640 --> 00:07:16.639 And it also looks a little bit like an answer 00:07:16.639 --> 00:07:20.720 to the question of why, Lord God of Israel, has 00:07:20.720 --> 00:07:22.579 this happened in Israel that one tribe is missing 00:07:22.579 --> 00:07:26.819 today from Israel? Verse 6 says, And the sons 00:07:26.819 --> 00:07:29.040 of Israel were sorry for their brother Benjamin. 00:07:29.220 --> 00:07:31.779 So now they're like, oh, we're so sorry that 00:07:31.779 --> 00:07:34.480 your tribe is almost wiped out. Even though we 00:07:34.480 --> 00:07:37.199 did it, we're really sorry how bad off things 00:07:37.199 --> 00:07:39.139 are for you now that it looks like it's going 00:07:39.139 --> 00:07:42.519 to be over for the tribe of Benjamin. The sons 00:07:42.519 --> 00:07:44.220 of Israel were sorry for their brother Benjamin 00:07:44.220 --> 00:07:48.220 and said, Today one tribe is cut off from Israel. 00:07:50.220 --> 00:07:52.899 What are we to do for wives for those who are 00:07:52.899 --> 00:07:56.019 left? Since we have sworn by the Lord not to 00:07:56.019 --> 00:07:58.339 give them any of our daughters as wives. Bottom 00:07:58.339 --> 00:08:01.759 line, there are 600 soldiers. healthy, strong, 00:08:01.920 --> 00:08:04.519 some of the best soldiers in all of Israel. They're 00:08:04.519 --> 00:08:06.120 hiding in the hills. And if they could have wives, 00:08:06.199 --> 00:08:08.279 there'd be 600 couples that could propagate the 00:08:08.279 --> 00:08:09.720 tribe of Benjamin. And they're thinking along 00:08:09.720 --> 00:08:13.079 that line. We could solve this problem if we 00:08:13.079 --> 00:08:17.680 could just find them wives. And they said, what 00:08:17.680 --> 00:08:19.959 one is there of the tribe of Israel that did 00:08:19.959 --> 00:08:22.759 not go up to the Lord at Mizpah? And behold, 00:08:22.939 --> 00:08:26.600 no one had come to the camp from Jabesh Gilead 00:08:26.600 --> 00:08:30.569 to the assembly. And so now they set their eyes 00:08:30.569 --> 00:08:35.149 on Jabesh Gilead. And you can imagine that they 00:08:35.149 --> 00:08:38.029 are looking to, one, wipe them out because they 00:08:38.029 --> 00:08:39.769 didn't send anybody up to help in the battle. 00:08:39.950 --> 00:08:42.629 But two, it's in their mind that maybe they could 00:08:42.629 --> 00:08:45.289 get some wives for the Vengemites because those 00:08:45.289 --> 00:08:46.789 people didn't make a promise. So we're going 00:08:46.789 --> 00:08:48.809 to kill all of these people. And I'm kind of 00:08:48.809 --> 00:08:50.149 giving you a little bit of a flash forward of 00:08:50.149 --> 00:08:51.629 the story. We're going to kill all these people. 00:08:51.960 --> 00:08:54.100 But amongst them, we hope to find some wives 00:08:54.100 --> 00:08:56.440 that we can give to the Benjamites. We're not 00:08:56.440 --> 00:08:59.340 talking about romance. We're talking about essentially 00:08:59.340 --> 00:09:03.480 slavery, so they can go and be latched onto the 00:09:03.480 --> 00:09:06.000 600 Benjamites and propagate that tribe again. 00:09:07.240 --> 00:09:09.340 That's the end of our text today, but I want 00:09:09.340 --> 00:09:10.860 you to see what's happening here. First of all, 00:09:10.860 --> 00:09:13.519 notice that they were God's people, that everybody 00:09:13.519 --> 00:09:15.759 that's involved in this story is part of the 00:09:15.759 --> 00:09:18.379 supposed kingdom of God. part of the supposed 00:09:18.379 --> 00:09:20.659 nationality that God has chosen for himself. 00:09:20.879 --> 00:09:22.919 So they are the descendants of those who walked 00:09:22.919 --> 00:09:26.980 across the Jordan, parted by God, who walked 00:09:26.980 --> 00:09:29.519 across the Red Sea, who wandered in the wilderness 00:09:29.519 --> 00:09:32.100 because of their unfaithfulness, a whole generation 00:09:32.100 --> 00:09:34.879 dying off except for two men, and then finally 00:09:34.879 --> 00:09:37.539 came in, defeated Jericho by marching around 00:09:37.539 --> 00:09:39.799 in faith and howling out and playing the instruments 00:09:39.799 --> 00:09:44.100 on the last day, took all the land, which is 00:09:44.100 --> 00:09:48.240 very prosperous, under Joshua. But they haven't 00:09:48.240 --> 00:09:51.000 completed the job. But they had great success. 00:09:51.100 --> 00:09:56.480 These were God's people. They added syncretism. 00:09:56.480 --> 00:09:59.120 That is to say that either A, they added things 00:09:59.120 --> 00:10:02.500 to God worship. False God worship, maybe will 00:10:02.500 --> 00:10:04.899 to God worship. Or they worshipped false gods 00:10:04.899 --> 00:10:09.620 as if they were worshipping God. They added syncretism. 00:10:09.720 --> 00:10:12.340 And they added idolatry to their lives. Some 00:10:12.340 --> 00:10:14.320 of them just walked completely away from God 00:10:14.320 --> 00:10:18.070 and started worshipping false gods. They did 00:10:18.070 --> 00:10:21.570 not complete the charge of God to secure the 00:10:21.570 --> 00:10:26.350 land. They did not make sure that they taught 00:10:26.350 --> 00:10:30.409 their children God's ways and God's words. They 00:10:30.409 --> 00:10:33.029 found fault with others while ignoring their 00:10:33.029 --> 00:10:36.669 own sins. They aggressively dealt with family 00:10:36.669 --> 00:10:38.950 who had transgressed while transgressing themselves. 00:10:40.679 --> 00:10:43.600 And then they grossly exceeded the mandate to 00:10:43.600 --> 00:10:45.879 deal justice and violence against the Benjamites 00:10:45.879 --> 00:10:48.519 for the evil that they had perpetrated. And not 00:10:48.519 --> 00:10:50.840 only killed the men who committed the crime, 00:10:51.000 --> 00:10:53.960 but all those who defended them. And then all 00:10:53.960 --> 00:10:57.299 the women and children that they left at home. 00:10:57.519 --> 00:10:59.860 And then all the men, women, and children in 00:10:59.860 --> 00:11:03.059 all the villages of the entire tribe. Many of 00:11:03.059 --> 00:11:04.879 whom probably didn't even know what was going 00:11:04.879 --> 00:11:07.899 on until the Israelites showed up and killed 00:11:07.899 --> 00:11:11.960 them. The sermon today is called The End of the 00:11:11.960 --> 00:11:15.480 Rope. Sometimes you can see the end of the rope. 00:11:16.759 --> 00:11:19.360 The truth is, we live at the end of the rope. 00:11:20.080 --> 00:11:21.500 Sometimes you don't see the end of the rope. 00:11:22.159 --> 00:11:24.960 Sometimes you do. But that's where we actually 00:11:24.960 --> 00:11:29.360 lived. And see that in this sermon, in this text, 00:11:29.460 --> 00:11:30.759 broken down into three points you're about to 00:11:30.759 --> 00:11:34.639 see, that sin, unchecked, will put you at the 00:11:34.639 --> 00:11:38.529 end of the rope. Which is bad. But the worst 00:11:38.529 --> 00:11:41.470 of it is that sin, unchecked, will put you at 00:11:41.470 --> 00:11:46.490 the end of the rope, unsecured. We read Judges 00:11:46.490 --> 00:11:54.990 21, 1 -8. I'll talk first about the civil war 00:11:54.990 --> 00:11:58.149 that has just taken place. Benjamin is nearly 00:11:58.149 --> 00:12:01.330 destroyed. They made an oath that now created 00:12:01.330 --> 00:12:03.590 another problem. They'll destroy anyone who didn't 00:12:03.590 --> 00:12:05.629 go out, as well as they will not turn over any 00:12:05.629 --> 00:12:08.940 wives to the Benjamites. Why, oh Lord, they ask, 00:12:09.000 --> 00:12:11.220 has this happened to Israel? That's the moment 00:12:11.220 --> 00:12:13.919 that they realize they are at the end of the 00:12:13.919 --> 00:12:17.039 road. They have created a situation. They don't 00:12:17.039 --> 00:12:18.379 want to admit that they're the ones who did it 00:12:18.379 --> 00:12:20.159 wrong necessarily, but they have created a situation 00:12:20.159 --> 00:12:23.279 in which one tribe of Israel will seek to exist. 00:12:26.259 --> 00:12:30.419 As they reach the end of the road, they cry out 00:12:30.419 --> 00:12:36.259 to God. Not for a solution. Not even for a deliverer. 00:12:36.730 --> 00:12:38.970 We'll talk about that in a second, like a judge. 00:12:39.149 --> 00:12:41.509 Not even for somebody to lead them in righteousness, 00:12:41.809 --> 00:12:45.370 to save them from their plight, but really just 00:12:45.370 --> 00:12:49.370 to know why. First point then is we all live 00:12:49.370 --> 00:12:52.529 at the end of the road. Dependence on God is 00:12:52.529 --> 00:12:57.169 not a crisis. I'll never forget, I was attending 00:12:57.169 --> 00:13:00.169 Bible college. I've not actually had this conversation 00:13:00.169 --> 00:13:05.429 before. I was attending Bible college in Michigan. 00:13:06.250 --> 00:13:08.210 I went on my nutrition, what we call a nutrition 00:13:08.210 --> 00:13:11.450 mission trip. Nutrition and human sciences mission. 00:13:11.529 --> 00:13:14.169 It was a biology class. We went into the UP, 00:13:14.230 --> 00:13:16.230 and while we were there, we learned how to read 00:13:16.230 --> 00:13:18.669 signs in blood. We learned how to identify different 00:13:18.669 --> 00:13:23.529 forms of blood and nature. We dug into fossils. 00:13:23.669 --> 00:13:25.470 I learned how to do acupressure. It was five 00:13:25.470 --> 00:13:29.509 days and all that. Four credit hours for my degree 00:13:29.509 --> 00:13:32.929 in Bible college. While I was there, a man who 00:13:32.929 --> 00:13:35.330 had become famous for a renown in the back of... 00:13:35.779 --> 00:13:38.740 Dr. Martin, because he had pioneered and also 00:13:38.740 --> 00:13:42.559 trained another 35 people, I think it was, to 00:13:42.559 --> 00:13:45.440 do the same thing, to read people's blood. So 00:13:45.440 --> 00:13:46.639 in other words, you would look at your blood 00:13:46.639 --> 00:13:48.480 under a microscope of 400 times magnification, 00:13:48.720 --> 00:13:50.519 and they could look at the shape of your cells, 00:13:50.659 --> 00:13:53.659 and it would tell you something about the person, 00:13:53.779 --> 00:13:56.259 their health condition, or whatever problem. 00:13:57.310 --> 00:13:59.690 And I had a hard time. I had to do my own blood, 00:13:59.830 --> 00:14:01.490 and I was trying to learn how to do this process, 00:14:01.669 --> 00:14:03.149 put it on the microscope, put it at the right 00:14:03.149 --> 00:14:05.009 magnitude, and I couldn't get my blood to show 00:14:05.009 --> 00:14:06.990 up, and I couldn't compare it to the many, many 00:14:06.990 --> 00:14:09.730 slides, there were a thousand slides. And so 00:14:09.730 --> 00:14:11.990 Dr. Martin came over, and we were in a hotel 00:14:11.990 --> 00:14:13.250 room, because we were on a mission for a hotel 00:14:13.250 --> 00:14:14.830 room, and we were all gathered around these two 00:14:14.830 --> 00:14:16.649 hotel rooms that were adjoining, there was like 00:14:16.649 --> 00:14:19.450 25 of us. And I could not get my slide to show 00:14:19.450 --> 00:14:21.090 up, and so he came over, and he's like, there 00:14:21.090 --> 00:14:25.090 it is. And he goes, I took in a little breath. 00:14:26.120 --> 00:14:28.399 like what he saw was important. He's looking 00:14:28.399 --> 00:14:30.340 at my blood and he went, what can that possibly 00:14:30.340 --> 00:14:31.879 mean? That doesn't sound good. Maybe there's 00:14:31.879 --> 00:14:34.179 something wrong with my blood. A few minutes 00:14:34.179 --> 00:14:37.019 later, Dr. Mark led me outside the hotel room 00:14:37.019 --> 00:14:39.059 and he got me away from everybody else and shut 00:14:39.059 --> 00:14:40.799 the door to the hotel room while I was continuing 00:14:40.799 --> 00:14:43.139 to work on the project and he said, I just wanted 00:14:43.139 --> 00:14:44.779 to talk to you about what I see in your blood. 00:14:45.399 --> 00:14:47.419 And the microscopes that we have were really 00:14:47.419 --> 00:14:49.080 expensive and they could take a picture. He had 00:14:49.080 --> 00:14:50.679 taken a picture and he printed the picture out 00:14:50.679 --> 00:14:52.019 and he brought the picture outside with him and 00:14:52.019 --> 00:14:53.960 he showed me the picture. And then he showed 00:14:53.960 --> 00:14:57.720 me the picture that it compared to in the pictures 00:14:57.720 --> 00:14:59.379 that we had, which was, I don't know, hundreds 00:14:59.379 --> 00:15:02.519 at least, if not thousands of pictures. And the 00:15:02.519 --> 00:15:05.120 picture showed that I had advanced prostate cancer. 00:15:06.179 --> 00:15:08.460 Based on the shape of my cells, I had advanced 00:15:08.460 --> 00:15:11.259 prostate cancer. And he said, based on what we're 00:15:11.259 --> 00:15:14.259 seeing in here, so this preliminary, right? So 00:15:14.259 --> 00:15:17.779 you would have to go to a hospital, get tested. 00:15:17.879 --> 00:15:20.700 There are tests for this and that compared with 00:15:20.700 --> 00:15:22.600 this. But the amazing thing about the science 00:15:22.600 --> 00:15:26.179 that we're using is that it's growing. Why? Well, 00:15:26.240 --> 00:15:28.279 it's inexpensive, right? It just drops your blood, 00:15:28.340 --> 00:15:30.259 it costs a slide, a few bucks, whatever. You've 00:15:30.259 --> 00:15:31.580 got to have an expensive microscope, but other 00:15:31.580 --> 00:15:34.080 than that, a few bucks, right? And it advanced 00:15:34.080 --> 00:15:39.100 diagnosis things that people can't get tested 00:15:39.100 --> 00:15:41.259 for easily. They can be tested, but it's more 00:15:41.259 --> 00:15:44.120 expensive or lengthy. And he said, so as soon 00:15:44.120 --> 00:15:46.500 as you get back from this mission trip, I want 00:15:46.500 --> 00:15:48.299 you to make, in fact, you should call today and 00:15:48.299 --> 00:15:50.019 make an appointment with your doctor to be tested 00:15:50.019 --> 00:15:51.620 for prostate cancer. Because I'm telling you 00:15:51.620 --> 00:15:54.019 right now, with a relatively 100 % certainty, 00:16:08.240 --> 00:16:09.960 This is the guy who taught biology class, but 00:16:09.960 --> 00:16:11.200 he also taught counseling and a bunch of other 00:16:11.200 --> 00:16:14.960 things. This guy had something like 20 -some 00:16:14.960 --> 00:16:17.720 doctorates, like doctorate degrees. Like, he 00:16:17.720 --> 00:16:20.879 had PhD times 23, right? This guy was one of 00:16:20.879 --> 00:16:23.019 the most intelligent guys alive in Michigan at 00:16:23.019 --> 00:16:26.000 the time. He had been a member of MENSA, which 00:16:26.000 --> 00:16:28.120 is the genius organization, since he was, like, 00:16:28.159 --> 00:16:33.820 pre -teen, right? He led mission trips all over 00:16:33.820 --> 00:16:35.740 the world. He trained three dozen other people 00:16:35.740 --> 00:16:37.620 to do this. He was training us in our class. 00:16:37.700 --> 00:16:39.460 I had great respect for him. I believed what 00:16:39.460 --> 00:16:42.840 he was telling me. And so I didn't go back in 00:16:42.840 --> 00:16:44.919 the room. He said, I can see that you're stricken 00:16:44.919 --> 00:16:46.360 by this. He said, I want you to take some time 00:16:46.360 --> 00:16:48.240 and pray. It's the time of the Bible. It's a 00:16:48.240 --> 00:16:49.919 very Christian organization, Christian college 00:16:49.919 --> 00:16:52.659 I was at, Christian command. So take some time, 00:16:52.700 --> 00:16:55.600 pray. It's the time of the Bible. And then I 00:16:55.600 --> 00:16:57.720 would turn back. I would finish up the lesson, 00:16:57.919 --> 00:17:00.840 whatever, and then get a good night's sleep. 00:17:01.399 --> 00:17:03.059 call first thing in the morning, call your doctor, 00:17:03.159 --> 00:17:05.960 because they do have treatments for this, but 00:17:05.960 --> 00:17:07.380 I'm telling you, with the shape of your cells, 00:17:07.420 --> 00:17:10.279 it's advanced, and you need to get on it, like, 00:17:10.279 --> 00:17:15.720 right now. At that moment, I realized that for 00:17:15.720 --> 00:17:19.140 however long, weeks, months, or years, I had 00:17:19.140 --> 00:17:21.180 been living at the end of my rope. Advanced cancer 00:17:21.180 --> 00:17:24.599 means you've had cancer for a while, right? So 00:17:24.599 --> 00:17:26.869 I went away. And I was walking around this property, 00:17:26.950 --> 00:17:28.690 some wood by there, next to a little hotel we 00:17:28.690 --> 00:17:30.430 were staying at. A motel, I guess. It cogs all 00:17:30.430 --> 00:17:32.109 the doors. We're facing out to a parking lot. 00:17:32.549 --> 00:17:34.349 Anyway, and I'm walking around. I'm talking to 00:17:34.349 --> 00:17:37.329 God. And God took me while I'm walking around. 00:17:37.470 --> 00:17:40.809 He said, so what has changed? And I said, well, 00:17:40.849 --> 00:17:43.289 I have prostate cancer, and I might die from 00:17:43.289 --> 00:17:46.869 it. And as soon as I said, I might die from it, 00:17:46.910 --> 00:17:48.289 I thought, well, you know, like, that's really 00:17:48.289 --> 00:17:50.910 not that new. I've done a lot of things in my 00:17:50.910 --> 00:17:54.009 life that I might die from. And I remembered. 00:17:54.359 --> 00:17:56.859 Paul saying, you know, to live is Christ, to 00:17:56.859 --> 00:18:00.059 die is gain. So maybe that's not that big of 00:18:00.059 --> 00:18:02.579 a deal. And God said to me, he said, so what 00:18:02.579 --> 00:18:05.380 has changed? And I said, well, I might be sick. 00:18:06.740 --> 00:18:09.740 Then I thought to myself, but yesterday I had 00:18:09.740 --> 00:18:12.220 this whatever it is. And last year, probably, 00:18:12.339 --> 00:18:14.519 I probably had this for a couple of years. And 00:18:14.519 --> 00:18:16.200 I'm thinking, like, so really today, in this 00:18:16.200 --> 00:18:19.079 moment in time, the only thing that changed was 00:18:19.079 --> 00:18:21.970 I became aware. That's literally the only thing 00:18:21.970 --> 00:18:23.390 that changed. And I thought about that, and I 00:18:23.390 --> 00:18:26.009 thought, if we become aware that we're living 00:18:26.009 --> 00:18:28.769 at the end of the road, then two things are true. 00:18:29.210 --> 00:18:31.269 One, we were already living at the end of the 00:18:31.269 --> 00:18:33.309 rope, so nothing has really changed except in 00:18:33.309 --> 00:18:35.630 our awareness. And two, we now have an awareness 00:18:35.630 --> 00:18:37.190 of something that we could have been aware of 00:18:37.190 --> 00:18:39.450 all along. And the truth is, I discovered in 00:18:39.450 --> 00:18:41.630 that moment in a very organic way, without really 00:18:41.630 --> 00:18:43.109 getting into the Bible and understanding it in 00:18:43.109 --> 00:18:46.049 this chapter or whatever, that I was living at 00:18:46.049 --> 00:18:48.150 the end of the rope already. And Dr. Martin saying 00:18:48.150 --> 00:18:49.970 that you have prostate cancer and are probably 00:18:49.970 --> 00:18:53.150 going to die from it if you don't jump right 00:18:53.150 --> 00:18:56.250 on it, and maybe even then, really didn't change 00:18:56.250 --> 00:18:58.650 anything at all. And so by the time I got done 00:18:58.650 --> 00:19:00.609 praying and talking to God for about a half hour 00:19:00.609 --> 00:19:02.529 and 45 minutes, after that I went and played 00:19:02.529 --> 00:19:04.289 basketball. And I want to tell you, I played 00:19:04.289 --> 00:19:05.809 some of the best basketball I ever played in 00:19:05.809 --> 00:19:07.329 my life. I'm not even a good basketball player. 00:19:07.430 --> 00:19:09.450 I was making three -pointers left and right and 00:19:09.450 --> 00:19:11.630 left and right. The whole time I'm thinking to 00:19:11.630 --> 00:19:13.950 myself, I'm on the end of my rope. I'm barely 00:19:13.950 --> 00:19:16.230 surviving it. I could be dead from prostate cancer 00:19:16.230 --> 00:19:17.809 in three weeks and I'm sinking three -pointers 00:19:17.809 --> 00:19:20.990 like I could be a pro basketball player. And 00:19:20.990 --> 00:19:23.569 I don't have any pain. So that's probably not 00:19:23.569 --> 00:19:26.910 the worst place to be, right? So I got back to 00:19:26.910 --> 00:19:29.130 town, and over the remainder of this trip, I 00:19:29.130 --> 00:19:31.950 prayed about it and so on. And Dr. Martin did 00:19:31.950 --> 00:19:34.049 tell me a number of things. There was a diet 00:19:34.049 --> 00:19:36.390 that he suggested that I get on right away. And 00:19:36.390 --> 00:19:38.529 I immediately got on that diet when I got back 00:19:38.529 --> 00:19:40.849 to town. But what I did not do is I did not immediately 00:19:40.849 --> 00:19:44.769 call my doctor. And so for about a year, I lived 00:19:44.769 --> 00:19:47.230 with the understanding that I probably had advanced 00:19:47.230 --> 00:19:49.509 prostate cancer. And then I went back home. I 00:19:49.509 --> 00:19:51.329 didn't tell my wife. I didn't tell my daughter 00:19:51.329 --> 00:19:54.230 until that time. I didn't tell my friends at 00:19:54.230 --> 00:19:56.369 church. life group, whatever. I didn't tell anybody. 00:19:56.710 --> 00:19:58.529 And I continued to pray about it. I continued 00:19:58.529 --> 00:20:01.190 to eat the diet that Dr. Martin had told me to 00:20:01.190 --> 00:20:05.809 eat. Eventually, I had to have a physical. I 00:20:05.809 --> 00:20:07.309 don't remember what it was. I was for a job. 00:20:07.329 --> 00:20:10.309 I had a physical. I went in and I told my doctor 00:20:10.309 --> 00:20:14.549 about that. And my doctor tested me for that. 00:20:15.390 --> 00:20:18.490 And she said, no, you don't have prostate cancer. 00:20:19.039 --> 00:20:20.619 You have some of the precursors for prostate 00:20:20.619 --> 00:20:22.559 cancer, but you don't have prostate cancer, so 00:20:22.559 --> 00:20:24.180 you're not going to die from prostate cancer. 00:20:24.319 --> 00:20:27.519 But anyway, for a year, roughly, I lived believing 00:20:27.519 --> 00:20:29.299 that there was a good possibility that I had 00:20:29.299 --> 00:20:30.839 it, and it was really going to be up to God whether 00:20:30.839 --> 00:20:33.519 I live or die. And I'm telling you today, it 00:20:33.519 --> 00:20:35.460 is like that every single day. You don't understand 00:20:35.460 --> 00:20:39.599 that with the... Speaking mathematically, just 00:20:39.599 --> 00:20:42.119 speaking mathematically, somebody in this room 00:20:42.119 --> 00:20:44.900 probably has cancer developing in their body 00:20:44.900 --> 00:20:49.029 right now. Somebody in this room has some other 00:20:49.029 --> 00:20:51.609 kind of significant illness developing. You live 00:20:51.609 --> 00:20:55.150 in this life. This is it. We live in a fallen 00:20:55.150 --> 00:20:58.849 world full of fallen stuff, fallen people. Somebody 00:20:58.849 --> 00:21:00.990 in this room will probably face a gun in the 00:21:00.990 --> 00:21:03.869 next month. Somebody in this room will probably 00:21:03.869 --> 00:21:05.970 be in front of a car in the next month. I'm not 00:21:05.970 --> 00:21:07.710 prophesying this thing. I'm just saying statistically 00:21:07.710 --> 00:21:11.849 it's true. Right? And so we are blessed as a 00:21:11.849 --> 00:21:16.390 church to have an amazing provision of God. When 00:21:16.390 --> 00:21:18.730 we were toward the end of automation, we looked 00:21:18.730 --> 00:21:20.950 at some of the statistics. And there was a time 00:21:20.950 --> 00:21:24.029 where the early planting of new heights, where 00:21:24.029 --> 00:21:27.529 the unemployment rate in East Toledo was double 00:21:27.529 --> 00:21:30.950 -digit, around 11 -12%. And we look back at the 00:21:30.950 --> 00:21:33.670 previous four years. And for the four years previous 00:21:33.670 --> 00:21:36.009 to that, where the unemployment had been between 00:21:36.009 --> 00:21:40.529 9 % and 12%, we had never had a time where anybody 00:21:40.529 --> 00:21:44.710 in the church had been unemployed for any length 00:21:44.710 --> 00:21:46.680 of time. As soon as they start looking for a 00:21:46.680 --> 00:21:48.920 job, they find one. Just like that. Everybody 00:21:48.920 --> 00:21:50.400 would get employed that wanted to be employed. 00:21:52.059 --> 00:21:55.299 Talk about that. In a church of 50. Understand 00:21:55.299 --> 00:21:59.819 that the church significance at 50 is that you're 00:21:59.819 --> 00:22:03.720 the same size church as 60 plus percent of all 00:22:03.720 --> 00:22:05.660 churches in the United States of America. We 00:22:05.660 --> 00:22:10.380 are not a small church. Okay? So 60 percent of 00:22:10.380 --> 00:22:12.160 the churches in the United States of America 00:22:12.160 --> 00:22:15.579 are our size. And in churches all over the United 00:22:15.579 --> 00:22:18.819 States of America, pastors perform funerals for 00:22:18.819 --> 00:22:22.920 members of their church who pass away. At this 00:22:22.920 --> 00:22:26.420 point in time, in the history of New Heights, 00:22:26.579 --> 00:22:32.519 having planted New Heights for 22 years, and 00:22:32.519 --> 00:22:37.779 constituted for 10, I have not done enough funerals 00:22:37.779 --> 00:22:42.789 for church members to get off my fingers. That's 00:22:42.789 --> 00:22:47.630 statistically not right. Don't kid yourself and 00:22:47.630 --> 00:22:50.369 think the fact that we are not dying or unemployed 00:22:50.369 --> 00:22:53.490 or sick or struggling or something like that 00:22:53.490 --> 00:22:55.690 somehow means we are not living at the end of 00:22:55.690 --> 00:22:59.329 our rope. We are completely dependent day in, 00:22:59.509 --> 00:23:02.529 day out on God. You are dependent on God for 00:23:02.529 --> 00:23:05.049 your strength. You are dependent on God for your 00:23:05.049 --> 00:23:08.069 life. We say strength, power, love. We are dependent 00:23:08.069 --> 00:23:10.690 on God for all of those things. For his provision. 00:23:11.319 --> 00:23:13.059 You can say, well, I have a job, and I can pay 00:23:13.059 --> 00:23:15.160 my rent when the time comes. Between now and 00:23:15.160 --> 00:23:17.160 when your rent or your mortgage is next due, 00:23:17.319 --> 00:23:19.599 you can lose your job, you can lose your life, 00:23:19.720 --> 00:23:21.920 you can lose your family, you can lose it all. 00:23:22.079 --> 00:23:26.339 You are dependent on God for his provision. You 00:23:26.339 --> 00:23:29.519 can spend all that you have thinking you have 00:23:29.519 --> 00:23:32.019 it all coming in again, and it just doesn't come 00:23:32.019 --> 00:23:36.200 in again. That's why it's so foolish when humans 00:23:36.200 --> 00:23:38.420 live outside their means and are living paycheck 00:23:38.420 --> 00:23:41.440 to paycheck. Hear me now. If you are living paycheck 00:23:41.440 --> 00:23:47.500 to paycheck, stop it. Tithe, write a spending 00:23:47.500 --> 00:23:50.480 plan, and in your spending plan put away a minimum 00:23:50.480 --> 00:23:52.640 amount of expenses because there are expenses 00:23:52.640 --> 00:23:54.920 that are yet coming and you cannot count on paychecks 00:23:54.920 --> 00:23:57.339 that are yet coming. That's not how life works. 00:23:58.339 --> 00:24:00.940 And so God can provide for you and you can live 00:24:00.940 --> 00:24:03.160 hand to mouth from God, but while you're doing 00:24:03.160 --> 00:24:05.960 that, you certainly should not expect that the 00:24:05.960 --> 00:24:08.039 provision, strength, and blessings of God that 00:24:08.039 --> 00:24:10.750 we are receiving somehow says, That we are not 00:24:10.750 --> 00:24:13.309 at the end of our rope. We are at the end of 00:24:13.309 --> 00:24:17.230 your rope. We are dependent on God for wisdom. 00:24:17.329 --> 00:24:19.930 We are dependent on him for protection. We are 00:24:19.930 --> 00:24:25.150 dependent on him for tomorrow. Jesus said, and 00:24:25.150 --> 00:24:27.329 we read this last week, apart from me, you can 00:24:27.329 --> 00:24:31.230 do nothing in John 15, 5. There's a saying, by 00:24:31.230 --> 00:24:33.329 the way, that's attributed to Thomas Jefferson 00:24:33.329 --> 00:24:36.089 primarily that says that when you reach the end 00:24:36.089 --> 00:24:38.109 of your rope, you should tie a knot and hang 00:24:38.109 --> 00:24:41.500 on. except that Thomas Jefferson never said that. 00:24:43.059 --> 00:24:45.539 It was also attributed to Theodore Roosevelt, 00:24:45.680 --> 00:24:48.579 who never said it, or at least wasn't the originator. 00:24:48.660 --> 00:24:52.740 He probably did say it. And Franklin Delano Roosevelt 00:24:52.740 --> 00:24:54.720 also said it, but he was not the originator. 00:24:54.779 --> 00:24:56.440 Abraham Lincoln may have said it, they're not 00:24:56.440 --> 00:24:58.240 sure, but he was definitely not the originator. 00:24:58.700 --> 00:25:00.740 And Ben Franklin may have said it, but he didn't 00:25:00.740 --> 00:25:03.640 originate it. In fact, the first time it was 00:25:03.640 --> 00:25:07.839 ever recorded in print was in 1923, and... more 00:25:07.839 --> 00:25:10.720 than half of those men were dead by now. So they 00:25:10.720 --> 00:25:15.160 did not originate it. What it shows us is that 00:25:15.160 --> 00:25:17.099 people know that it happens that you come to 00:25:17.099 --> 00:25:18.819 the end of the rope. The actual saying, by the 00:25:18.819 --> 00:25:20.900 way, the end of the rope, comes from the idea 00:25:20.900 --> 00:25:24.039 of an animal being tied. And the animal can graze 00:25:24.039 --> 00:25:26.079 on the ground and pick up whatever food and whatever 00:25:26.079 --> 00:25:28.740 travel around, but when he gets to the end of 00:25:28.740 --> 00:25:30.680 his rope, he can't go any further. So there's 00:25:30.680 --> 00:25:35.430 no more fresh grass to be harvested. That's where 00:25:35.430 --> 00:25:37.269 the saying actually comes from, but that's not 00:25:37.269 --> 00:25:39.170 the common way that people use it because this 00:25:39.170 --> 00:25:40.950 saying that says if you reach the end of your 00:25:40.950 --> 00:25:42.569 rope, which is the extent of your resources, 00:25:42.730 --> 00:25:45.150 tie a rope and hang on, altered the meaning. 00:25:47.569 --> 00:25:51.390 And it's attributed probably from the western 00:25:51.390 --> 00:25:54.210 United States, but they adapted it and they had 00:25:54.210 --> 00:25:55.549 animals that were tied up and they said, well, 00:25:55.589 --> 00:25:57.329 you can't get any more fresh grass because at 00:25:57.329 --> 00:26:02.440 the end of this rope. The end of my rope is not 00:26:02.440 --> 00:26:05.960 the end of God's resources. It's okay to realize 00:26:05.960 --> 00:26:07.279 that you are at the end of the rope. The Christian 00:26:07.279 --> 00:26:10.700 life is not about getting more rope. It's not 00:26:10.700 --> 00:26:12.460 about getting up tomorrow and knowing that you've 00:26:12.460 --> 00:26:14.460 got money in the bank to cover retirement, illness, 00:26:14.839 --> 00:26:18.039 bills paid, generosity, etc. It's not about getting 00:26:18.039 --> 00:26:19.440 up tomorrow and knowing that you've got a job 00:26:19.440 --> 00:26:22.460 to go to. The Christian life isn't about having 00:26:22.460 --> 00:26:25.319 enough rope. It's about knowing who holds the 00:26:25.319 --> 00:26:31.369 rope and who holds the climber. But there is 00:26:31.369 --> 00:26:34.849 a dangerous way to realize that you're at the 00:26:34.849 --> 00:26:36.930 end of the road. And that's what they have done. 00:26:37.390 --> 00:26:41.390 They took certain steps to arrive at a recognition 00:26:41.390 --> 00:26:42.950 that they were at the end of the road. They said, 00:26:42.990 --> 00:26:45.150 oh, no, Private Benjamin is now going to be gone. 00:26:45.690 --> 00:26:48.150 Right? That'd be like if we said to the Beavers, 00:26:48.410 --> 00:26:50.930 we're now going to be gone. Right? Or if we now 00:26:50.930 --> 00:26:52.269 said, well, the show is just going to be gone. 00:26:52.910 --> 00:26:54.769 Not just gone from our fellowship, but gone from 00:26:54.769 --> 00:26:58.230 the world. Killed all of them, God forbid. Right? 00:26:58.369 --> 00:27:00.079 We're just gone. We'll never see them again. 00:27:00.079 --> 00:27:01.839 Never talk to them. That'd be horrible. And we 00:27:01.839 --> 00:27:04.059 would realize in that moment that we're at the 00:27:04.059 --> 00:27:05.619 end of a rope. Do you not understand? You're 00:27:05.619 --> 00:27:08.240 at the end of a rope now. You're going to get 00:27:08.240 --> 00:27:10.579 in your car. You're going to go to the doctor. 00:27:11.000 --> 00:27:15.140 Something could happen. Sometimes then we see 00:27:15.140 --> 00:27:17.240 the end of the rope. We start to realize that 00:27:17.240 --> 00:27:20.000 we are there. We don't like the idea of what 00:27:20.000 --> 00:27:21.980 seems likely to come next. We think, oh, this 00:27:21.980 --> 00:27:24.660 is not good. I don't want that to happen. So 00:27:24.660 --> 00:27:27.619 it's a wake -up call. And we say, we need a deliverer. 00:27:28.620 --> 00:27:30.619 I'm at the end of my rope. I don't want to see 00:27:30.619 --> 00:27:33.319 someone so sick. I don't want to see a bill come 00:27:33.319 --> 00:27:35.279 that I can't pay. I don't want to pay that money. 00:27:35.519 --> 00:27:37.559 I don't want to lose that job. I don't want to 00:27:37.559 --> 00:27:39.640 fight with my wife or my kids. I don't want to 00:27:39.640 --> 00:27:46.839 be old and not have sports ability or no true 00:27:46.839 --> 00:27:50.759 romance. You start thinking, oh no, we need a 00:27:50.759 --> 00:27:53.839 deliverer. I submit to you that living at the 00:27:53.839 --> 00:27:55.839 end of your rope and recognizing that you are 00:27:55.839 --> 00:27:58.950 at the end of your rope is all about knowing 00:27:58.950 --> 00:28:02.529 you need a deliverer. But you don't just need 00:28:02.529 --> 00:28:04.849 a deliverer one time to get you off the end of 00:28:04.849 --> 00:28:06.829 the road. That isn't even how that works. What 00:28:06.829 --> 00:28:10.470 you need is a deliverer who can secure you despite 00:28:10.470 --> 00:28:12.490 the fact that you're living at the end of the 00:28:12.490 --> 00:28:17.589 road. The next thing to see in the text, then, 00:28:17.609 --> 00:28:20.890 is that sin can leave us on the end of the road 00:28:20.890 --> 00:28:25.940 without security. In fact, That's what it means 00:28:25.940 --> 00:28:31.640 when it says the wages of sin is death. They 00:28:31.640 --> 00:28:36.000 ask why. Why has this happened? But really they 00:28:36.000 --> 00:28:37.920 need to consider how they got to that point. 00:28:38.180 --> 00:28:40.980 Because it's pretty obvious why it happened. 00:28:42.839 --> 00:28:45.519 Their problem didn't start with a crisis. They 00:28:45.519 --> 00:28:48.119 didn't go, oh no, we've got a tribe that's disappearing. 00:28:48.859 --> 00:28:52.299 We've got to do something. It started with one 00:28:52.299 --> 00:28:56.759 man. One man's concubine and the concubine being 00:28:56.759 --> 00:28:59.559 put to death, right? But did it really start 00:28:59.559 --> 00:29:03.019 there? This crisis started there. But really, 00:29:03.119 --> 00:29:04.900 the problem started in the fact that they were 00:29:04.900 --> 00:29:08.079 not faithful to God. That the whole nation had 00:29:08.079 --> 00:29:10.599 added in all of this evil and wicked behavior 00:29:10.599 --> 00:29:14.319 that needed to be dealt with. Starting by, they 00:29:14.319 --> 00:29:16.960 needed to realize they were already at the end 00:29:16.960 --> 00:29:18.640 of the rope. So the situation goes like this. 00:29:18.759 --> 00:29:22.160 And James writes similarly. James 1, but he uses 00:29:22.160 --> 00:29:24.160 different words. First it starts with compromise, 00:29:24.539 --> 00:29:26.980 then it becomes a pattern, then it becomes a 00:29:26.980 --> 00:29:29.519 consequence, and then finally you have a crisis 00:29:29.519 --> 00:29:32.019 in which you realize you are dangling, barely 00:29:32.019 --> 00:29:37.599 holding on to the end of the road. Sin, unchecked, 00:29:37.599 --> 00:29:40.180 eventually puts us in places that we never intended 00:29:40.180 --> 00:29:43.079 to be. Which is why we talked about it the last 00:29:43.079 --> 00:29:45.660 two weeks. Don't do that. Don't stuff your sin 00:29:45.660 --> 00:29:47.539 in a closet, keep it in a bright box, or carry 00:29:47.539 --> 00:29:52.799 it around in your pocket. squash it, destroy 00:29:52.799 --> 00:29:56.200 it, repent of it, and turn to God. We ask God, 00:29:56.319 --> 00:29:58.819 why did you let this happen? But sometimes the 00:29:58.819 --> 00:30:01.440 better question is, God, where have I stopped 00:30:01.440 --> 00:30:08.759 following you? Don't blame God for the destination 00:30:08.759 --> 00:30:17.660 when you've been ignoring his directions. There 00:30:17.660 --> 00:30:22.140 may be legitimate evils. There may be legitimate 00:30:22.140 --> 00:30:26.460 injustice, but even a legitimate cause does not 00:30:26.460 --> 00:30:29.640 make us right if we have sinned and we are not 00:30:29.640 --> 00:30:31.779 following God and bringing about the justice. 00:30:32.319 --> 00:30:38.640 That's what we saw last week. So what do we do 00:30:38.640 --> 00:30:40.660 when we finally reach the end of the road, we 00:30:40.660 --> 00:30:42.660 realize we're at the end of the road, we finally 00:30:42.660 --> 00:30:48.099 see it, what do we need to do? And the answer 00:30:48.099 --> 00:30:52.940 is simple. Stop living For yourself. You're the 00:30:52.940 --> 00:30:55.019 one who got you there. You're the one who put 00:30:55.019 --> 00:31:03.859 you there. God can do better. Then, live for 00:31:03.859 --> 00:31:06.480 God at the end of the road. Paul writes in Romans 00:31:06.480 --> 00:31:09.380 14, for if we live, we live for the Lord. The 00:31:09.380 --> 00:31:11.960 answer isn't find more road. It is trust God. 00:31:12.319 --> 00:31:16.279 If I'm living for myself, I need the next thing 00:31:16.279 --> 00:31:21.859 to go my way. I can't tell you how many. I'm 00:31:21.859 --> 00:31:23.640 living for myself, and I'm thinking, man, I don't 00:31:23.640 --> 00:31:25.700 want that to happen. And I start scrambling, 00:31:25.740 --> 00:31:28.960 trying to make sure it doesn't happen. I'm sweating, 00:31:29.059 --> 00:31:30.759 charging around my house, trying to make sure 00:31:30.759 --> 00:31:35.519 I'm not late. Right? I'm scrambling, trying to 00:31:35.519 --> 00:31:40.019 fix the car at the last minute so I can get where 00:31:40.019 --> 00:31:44.099 I gotta get. I'm beating myself up mentally, 00:31:44.180 --> 00:31:46.339 deciding whether or not to call. or to talk to 00:31:46.339 --> 00:31:48.539 somebody that's heading into crisis because I 00:31:48.539 --> 00:31:49.839 see it coming, but they're not going to want 00:31:49.839 --> 00:31:51.279 to hear from me. It's going to turn into a conflict, 00:31:51.339 --> 00:31:54.299 and I'm stressing. I need the next thing to go 00:31:54.299 --> 00:31:56.720 my way when I'm living for myself. But if I'm 00:31:56.720 --> 00:32:00.940 living for God, I can trust that God is still 00:32:00.940 --> 00:32:03.980 in charge whenever things don't seem to go my 00:32:03.980 --> 00:32:09.640 way. Living for God says I need control. I need 00:32:09.640 --> 00:32:11.700 justice my way. That's what they did. I need 00:32:11.700 --> 00:32:14.740 security. I need to know what's coming next. 00:32:15.359 --> 00:32:19.980 But living for God says, He's in control. He 00:32:19.980 --> 00:32:23.019 will judge rightly. He is my security. I don't 00:32:23.019 --> 00:32:28.000 have to know tomorrow. Can you do that? Can you 00:32:28.000 --> 00:32:30.059 think right now, look, I don't have to know how 00:32:30.059 --> 00:32:34.660 tomorrow is going to go exactly. You've got a 00:32:34.660 --> 00:32:36.380 plan already. You know if you'll be working. 00:32:37.160 --> 00:32:38.779 You might even think about what you'll have for 00:32:38.779 --> 00:32:40.519 lunch. You know what time you're going to get 00:32:40.519 --> 00:32:43.349 off. You've got a calendar for this week. But 00:32:43.349 --> 00:32:45.950 what if Jesus comes again before 5 p .m. tomorrow? 00:32:50.670 --> 00:32:54.910 Or what if a real tribulation of some kind breaks 00:32:54.910 --> 00:32:58.950 out in the world? Another pandemic. People rewrote 00:32:58.950 --> 00:33:01.029 all the kinds of things they were clinging to 00:33:01.029 --> 00:33:03.710 that were making them feel comfortable thinking 00:33:03.710 --> 00:33:05.549 that they weren't hanging on the end of the rope 00:33:05.549 --> 00:33:08.109 during COVID. And pretty soon it's like, kids 00:33:08.109 --> 00:33:10.700 don't have to go to school. Yes, kids have to 00:33:10.700 --> 00:33:11.839 go to school every day. If you don't go to school, 00:33:11.880 --> 00:33:13.240 you've got to come to Columbus for a meeting. 00:33:13.319 --> 00:33:15.660 You miss school, you're going to come for a meeting 00:33:15.660 --> 00:33:18.119 because your kids cannot miss school. Oh, there's 00:33:18.119 --> 00:33:20.000 a pandemic. Your kids don't have to go to school. 00:33:21.079 --> 00:33:22.559 And you can say, well, yeah, they all went to 00:33:22.559 --> 00:33:24.339 school online or whatever, but Arianna was in 00:33:24.339 --> 00:33:28.480 kindergarten, and not one time the entire semester 00:33:28.480 --> 00:33:32.680 was her entire class online. And only half of 00:33:32.680 --> 00:33:36.980 the class ever showed up online at all. And all 00:33:36.980 --> 00:33:42.339 of them became first graders. We say, this must 00:33:42.339 --> 00:33:44.740 be, and then something changes. And we say, oh, 00:33:44.759 --> 00:33:47.359 maybe it doesn't have to be. Why? Because we 00:33:47.359 --> 00:33:49.700 know we're living bangling on the end of the 00:33:49.700 --> 00:33:52.819 road. You will all be there due to work tomorrow 00:33:52.819 --> 00:33:54.759 morning between 7 a .m. and 10 a .m., right? 00:33:54.819 --> 00:33:57.380 You'll all go to work. But if one of your family 00:33:57.380 --> 00:34:00.759 members goes tonight to the hospital in an emergency, 00:34:01.039 --> 00:34:03.700 you'll probably call off. But you'll be there 00:34:03.700 --> 00:34:07.589 unless something more important happens. And 00:34:07.589 --> 00:34:09.869 the something more important reminds you that 00:34:09.869 --> 00:34:14.730 you are hanging on the end of the rope now. And 00:34:14.730 --> 00:34:16.989 sometimes it events in our lives. Open our eyes. 00:34:17.630 --> 00:34:20.130 When you live for yourself, the end of the rope 00:34:20.130 --> 00:34:23.630 looks like the end. You're like, oh no, I'm crashing, 00:34:24.010 --> 00:34:27.150 right? Or like the Wicked Witch, I'm melting, 00:34:27.409 --> 00:34:29.809 I'm melting, right? That's what you do under 00:34:29.809 --> 00:34:32.889 difficult stress, under difficult times, temptations, 00:34:32.889 --> 00:34:34.389 trials, tribulations, things that are right. 00:34:34.489 --> 00:34:37.309 You start throwing a fit or you start... falling 00:34:37.309 --> 00:34:39.329 down like I can't get up, and you start isolating 00:34:39.329 --> 00:34:40.989 from other people, I can't help anybody, I can't 00:34:40.989 --> 00:34:43.590 help myself. All of those things are because 00:34:43.590 --> 00:34:46.889 you did not realize going into that crisis that 00:34:46.889 --> 00:34:50.309 you were dangling on the end of the rope. And 00:34:50.309 --> 00:34:51.650 suddenly you realize you're on the end of the 00:34:51.650 --> 00:34:53.070 rope, and you're like, oh no, I'm going to fall. 00:34:55.409 --> 00:34:57.849 But when you're living for God, the end of the 00:34:57.849 --> 00:35:01.070 rope became the beginning of dependence, and 00:35:01.070 --> 00:35:03.610 it continues to be. You realize day in and day 00:35:03.610 --> 00:35:04.849 out that you're living on the end of the rope 00:35:04.849 --> 00:35:07.150 depending on God. And instead of letting go, 00:35:07.409 --> 00:35:09.449 instead of crying, I'm melting, I'm melting, 00:35:09.489 --> 00:35:11.289 you say, this is tough, but I got this somehow. 00:35:11.469 --> 00:35:13.530 I don't know. God knows what he's doing. I'm 00:35:13.530 --> 00:35:18.090 trusting in the Lord. That brings us already 00:35:18.090 --> 00:35:20.150 to the first part of our conclusion. It won't 00:35:20.150 --> 00:35:24.389 take long. We're making good time today. I'll 00:35:24.389 --> 00:35:29.789 ask you a question. Who holds the climber and 00:35:29.789 --> 00:35:32.769 the rope? You say, well, the rope is tied off 00:35:32.769 --> 00:35:35.780 at the top, and the climber holds himself. If 00:35:35.780 --> 00:35:38.659 the climber holds himself, how long will it be 00:35:38.659 --> 00:35:42.440 before the climber falls? Well, it varies person 00:35:42.440 --> 00:35:45.980 to person, doesn't it? The stronger climber takes 00:35:45.980 --> 00:35:49.019 longer. You say, well, if I had the strength 00:35:49.019 --> 00:35:51.139 to do so, I would just tie the rope around under 00:35:51.139 --> 00:35:52.940 my arms. I would dangle there until somebody 00:35:52.940 --> 00:35:55.820 comes and gets me. Did you know that if you tie 00:35:55.820 --> 00:35:57.420 yourself in a rope and hang from the cliff, you 00:35:57.420 --> 00:36:01.320 will die? It's true. You cannot tie a rope around 00:36:01.320 --> 00:36:04.019 under your arms or... whatever, you will die. 00:36:04.139 --> 00:36:05.519 And I'm not talking about you'll starve to death 00:36:05.519 --> 00:36:07.820 or die of thirst eventually, although those things 00:36:07.820 --> 00:36:09.719 would be true too. But there's a thing called 00:36:09.719 --> 00:36:12.000 crush syndrome. Your body cannot sustain its 00:36:12.000 --> 00:36:13.860 own weight on the parts of your body that you 00:36:13.860 --> 00:36:17.239 would tie the rope to. Right? If you manage to 00:36:17.239 --> 00:36:19.099 tie it around your wrist and hang by your arms, 00:36:19.219 --> 00:36:21.519 you will die. If you tie it around your feet 00:36:21.519 --> 00:36:22.980 and hang by your feet, you'll die. If you tie 00:36:22.980 --> 00:36:24.360 it around your chest and hang by your chest, 00:36:24.460 --> 00:36:27.139 you'll die. You cannot tolerate that weight that 00:36:27.139 --> 00:36:28.840 way. You can handle it on your feet walking. 00:36:29.360 --> 00:36:30.800 You can handle it sitting down, but you and I 00:36:30.800 --> 00:36:32.699 both know you can't even handle it sitting down 00:36:32.699 --> 00:36:36.139 for long enough to survive that. Right? You sit 00:36:36.139 --> 00:36:38.159 down for six, eight, ten hours, it starts to 00:36:38.159 --> 00:36:40.519 hurt. Parts of your body start to ache. Now do 00:36:40.519 --> 00:36:44.239 that for a couple days and you'll be dead. Your 00:36:44.239 --> 00:36:46.320 body's not made to do that. It's made to move. 00:36:46.460 --> 00:36:48.219 It's made to sustain the weight the way it's 00:36:48.219 --> 00:36:50.800 designed. Who holds the climber on the road? 00:36:53.179 --> 00:36:56.969 Maybe you are strong right now. You're actively 00:36:56.969 --> 00:36:58.909 sustaining the most important things in your 00:36:58.909 --> 00:37:02.449 life. We got this. It's going on. Maybe you're 00:37:02.449 --> 00:37:05.349 in a place where you have and make choices about 00:37:05.349 --> 00:37:08.590 how to apply resources and to reach goals. I'm 00:37:08.590 --> 00:37:10.510 going there. I'll be there at that time. I've 00:37:10.510 --> 00:37:12.170 got the money. I don't got the money. I'm going 00:37:12.170 --> 00:37:13.630 to pay it. I'm not going to pay it. I'm going 00:37:13.630 --> 00:37:15.929 to buy this, keep it. That'll save me some money. 00:37:16.010 --> 00:37:17.650 I'm not going to eat out. I am going to eat out. 00:37:17.769 --> 00:37:20.409 I'm not going to take medicine. I am going to 00:37:20.409 --> 00:37:22.130 take medicine. You're in a strong place. You're 00:37:22.130 --> 00:37:25.420 able to apply resources and reach goals. Perhaps 00:37:25.420 --> 00:37:28.900 so strong that you can begin to deny that you're 00:37:28.900 --> 00:37:31.079 at the end of the rope. You say, no, I'm doing 00:37:31.079 --> 00:37:33.380 okay. And so when you hear at the end of the 00:37:33.380 --> 00:37:35.380 rope, you think, well, if somebody reaches there, 00:37:35.440 --> 00:37:37.199 yeah, they got a real problem because I'm not 00:37:37.199 --> 00:37:39.440 at the end of the rope. But actually you are. 00:37:39.739 --> 00:37:42.539 Consider the example in our text of a nation 00:37:42.539 --> 00:37:46.019 of a people blessed by God with a land of plenty 00:37:46.019 --> 00:37:49.000 and living by their own standards instead of 00:37:49.000 --> 00:37:52.619 God's. They arrived at a place where all they 00:37:52.619 --> 00:37:56.599 could do. is ask God why. And I don't know why 00:37:56.599 --> 00:37:59.059 God didn't answer. I know that he did answer 00:37:59.059 --> 00:38:01.880 many times before this, but he doesn't answer 00:38:01.880 --> 00:38:03.699 right here, or they don't hear him one or the 00:38:03.699 --> 00:38:07.000 other. And I submit to you that if you continue 00:38:07.000 --> 00:38:11.000 living as if you can do it, living as if you've 00:38:11.000 --> 00:38:13.019 got this, you don't know how, but you'll pull 00:38:13.019 --> 00:38:15.239 through. You're going to pull it off somehow. 00:38:15.460 --> 00:38:17.820 If you continue living like that, not living 00:38:17.820 --> 00:38:20.360 dependent on God, you too will arrive at a place 00:38:20.360 --> 00:38:23.230 where you ask yourself why. How many people got 00:38:23.230 --> 00:38:26.090 a college degree, became successful in their 00:38:26.090 --> 00:38:29.510 field, only to be diagnosed with cancer a few 00:38:29.510 --> 00:38:31.949 years later? Or get killed in a car accident? 00:38:32.349 --> 00:38:37.130 Doctors get killed in car accidents? People who 00:38:37.130 --> 00:38:39.690 are successful in life die before they can put 00:38:39.690 --> 00:38:44.090 to use their success. Don't. Realize that you 00:38:44.090 --> 00:38:45.909 are living at the end of the world today and 00:38:45.909 --> 00:38:50.449 instead say, how must I live since I am dependent 00:38:50.449 --> 00:38:52.599 upon the one who created me? Maybe you're waiting 00:38:52.599 --> 00:38:55.239 for the other shoe to drop. You're like, I kind 00:38:55.239 --> 00:38:57.400 of get what you're talking about. Right now things 00:38:57.400 --> 00:39:01.139 are okay, but I'm kind of wondering how they're 00:39:01.139 --> 00:39:04.480 going to fall apart. Or how they're going to 00:39:04.480 --> 00:39:09.320 stay together. The truth is, we all deserve the 00:39:09.320 --> 00:39:13.539 falling apart. And the Bible says, all have sinned 00:39:13.539 --> 00:39:15.300 and fall short of the glory of God. What it means 00:39:15.300 --> 00:39:19.679 is that if pure justice, just justice of God 00:39:19.679 --> 00:39:22.630 were delivered, you and I would all go to hell 00:39:22.630 --> 00:39:25.050 for an eternity. That's the justice that we deserve 00:39:25.050 --> 00:39:27.989 for our lives, for our sinful nature, for falling 00:39:27.989 --> 00:39:30.090 to our desires, for not pulling up and doing 00:39:30.090 --> 00:39:31.989 what we said we would do, for not teaching our 00:39:31.989 --> 00:39:34.190 children about God, for not making God the number 00:39:34.190 --> 00:39:37.010 one priority in the house, for not mentioning 00:39:37.010 --> 00:39:39.849 God while we're on the job, for taking things 00:39:39.849 --> 00:39:42.769 that don't belong to us at times where it was 00:39:42.769 --> 00:39:45.510 no big deal. It just goes on and on and on. Our 00:39:45.510 --> 00:39:47.570 sinful nature guarantees that what we actually 00:39:47.570 --> 00:39:52.420 deserve is for everything. to fall apart. But 00:39:52.420 --> 00:39:55.400 the grace of God is that He is willing to hold 00:39:55.400 --> 00:40:00.739 everything together for you and for me. There's 00:40:00.739 --> 00:40:04.579 no time for worry or regret or unfaithfulness. 00:40:04.820 --> 00:40:07.679 You will stop getting this feeling, feeling like 00:40:07.679 --> 00:40:10.420 it may fall apart at any time when your steps 00:40:10.420 --> 00:40:13.360 are ordered in God. When you're making your decisions 00:40:13.360 --> 00:40:16.380 based on what God wants you to do and your eyes 00:40:16.380 --> 00:40:20.730 are on God rather than The blessings and the 00:40:20.730 --> 00:40:24.769 possible results, good or bad. Stop thinking 00:40:24.769 --> 00:40:28.730 about, I want this. Start thinking about, what 00:40:28.730 --> 00:40:34.809 does God want from me? Maybe you've experienced 00:40:34.809 --> 00:40:37.269 enough trouble that you can't imagine things 00:40:37.269 --> 00:40:39.530 getting any better. You totally resonate with 00:40:39.530 --> 00:40:41.130 the idea of anything on your own. You've got 00:40:41.130 --> 00:40:43.070 a particular problem that seems insurmountable 00:40:43.070 --> 00:40:44.389 to you. I don't understand how we're ever going 00:40:44.389 --> 00:40:46.590 to get there. God can do a miracle, but he's 00:40:46.590 --> 00:40:50.280 not doing it. So how? ever does this work itself 00:40:50.280 --> 00:40:52.619 out. Maybe you come to the place where you're 00:40:52.619 --> 00:40:56.940 asking, why is that happening? Maybe, like the 00:40:56.940 --> 00:40:59.059 Israelites, you're asking, why has God allowed 00:40:59.059 --> 00:41:02.659 this? Before you only ask, why has God allowed 00:41:02.659 --> 00:41:05.519 this, ask yourself, am I walking in his will? 00:41:08.039 --> 00:41:10.960 Have I been living for him, obeying him, trusting 00:41:10.960 --> 00:41:13.260 him, seeking his justice rather than my revenge, 00:41:13.320 --> 00:41:15.480 following his direction rather than my desires? 00:41:16.079 --> 00:41:18.239 Because the issue isn't whether the rope will 00:41:18.239 --> 00:41:20.800 eventually run out. That's not the issue. Or 00:41:20.800 --> 00:41:22.679 whether you will run out of strength and fall 00:41:22.679 --> 00:41:24.900 off the rope. That's not the issue. The rope 00:41:24.900 --> 00:41:26.719 will run out. The strength will run out. The 00:41:26.719 --> 00:41:29.360 resources will run out. Our understanding runs 00:41:29.360 --> 00:41:33.639 out. Our control runs out. God doesn't run out. 00:41:34.559 --> 00:41:40.079 God alone doesn't run out. If you owned all the 00:41:40.079 --> 00:41:45.079 cattle on a thousand hills, if you owned every 00:41:45.079 --> 00:41:47.500 corporation, in the United States of America 00:41:47.500 --> 00:41:51.800 so that you own so much wealth that they couldn't 00:41:51.800 --> 00:41:55.179 calculate the number from the exponent 10 times 00:41:55.179 --> 00:41:59.619 what power to calculate your wealth, you would 00:41:59.619 --> 00:42:05.880 be poor compared to God. The psalmist doesn't 00:42:05.880 --> 00:42:07.559 write God owns the cattle on a thousand hills 00:42:07.559 --> 00:42:12.760 because God is wealthy. His point is God is not 00:42:12.760 --> 00:42:16.460 limited in resources whatsoever. And you and 00:42:16.460 --> 00:42:21.820 I are. The end of the rope is not, nor will it 00:42:21.820 --> 00:42:25.280 ever be, the end of God. So don't live your life 00:42:25.280 --> 00:42:28.019 trying to make sure that you never reach the 00:42:28.019 --> 00:42:29.559 end of the rope. Because you're already there! 00:42:34.920 --> 00:42:37.519 Live so that when you are at the end of the rope 00:42:37.519 --> 00:42:42.480 and realize it, your natural response will be 00:42:42.480 --> 00:42:45.860 to trust God. The moment something happens that 00:42:45.860 --> 00:42:48.579 shakes me, that turns my attention to the fact 00:42:48.579 --> 00:42:50.139 that I'm hanging on to the end of the rope instead 00:42:50.139 --> 00:42:53.940 of whatever else I was focused on, I'm going 00:42:53.940 --> 00:42:56.380 to take my eyes off the end of the rope and put 00:42:56.380 --> 00:42:58.260 them back where they belonged in the first place, 00:42:58.460 --> 00:43:00.579 which is on the God of the universe and the salvation 00:43:00.579 --> 00:43:04.420 that only he can provide. See, they've been through 00:43:04.420 --> 00:43:06.840 this before. I'll give you a couple excerpts. 00:43:07.480 --> 00:43:10.420 Judges 8. As soon as Gideon died, the people 00:43:10.420 --> 00:43:12.840 of Israel turned again and poured after the Baals. 00:43:13.909 --> 00:43:17.309 Judges 6 recounts that God has done for Israel 00:43:17.309 --> 00:43:19.829 and then says, But you have not obeyed my voice. 00:43:19.989 --> 00:43:22.030 And the people of Israel again did what was evil 00:43:22.030 --> 00:43:24.829 in the sight of the Lord after Ehud died. Judges 00:43:24.829 --> 00:43:27.409 3. But when the people of Israel cried out to 00:43:27.409 --> 00:43:32.150 the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer. And 00:43:32.150 --> 00:43:34.510 the people of Israel did what was evil in the 00:43:34.510 --> 00:43:37.630 sight of the Lord and served the Baals. Then 00:43:37.630 --> 00:43:40.090 they abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers, 00:43:40.250 --> 00:43:42.530 and the results of the anger of the Lord was 00:43:42.530 --> 00:43:44.829 kindled against Israel, and he gave them over 00:43:44.829 --> 00:43:47.309 to plunderers. This is essentially the answer 00:43:47.309 --> 00:43:49.190 to why are we at the end of the rope. It's all 00:43:49.190 --> 00:43:51.650 over the book of Judges. We're there. We're at 00:43:51.650 --> 00:43:54.570 the end of the rope because we abandoned God. 00:43:56.909 --> 00:44:03.110 As a race, by that I mean as humans, there is 00:44:03.110 --> 00:44:05.239 only one race. Despite what someone else might 00:44:05.239 --> 00:44:06.500 tell you, you can argue it if you want. Bottom 00:44:06.500 --> 00:44:08.019 line is there is only one race. It's the human 00:44:08.019 --> 00:44:11.179 race. I don't know if you know this or not, but 00:44:11.179 --> 00:44:15.179 the concept of race was invented by Darwin. It 00:44:15.179 --> 00:44:16.800 was invented to prove that there are inferior 00:44:16.800 --> 00:44:19.699 people with darker skin who are closer to baboons. 00:44:20.179 --> 00:44:24.639 Because Darwin was a bigot. And then, the United 00:44:24.639 --> 00:44:26.219 States of America tried to build their entire 00:44:26.219 --> 00:44:33.539 educational system built on the theory of which 00:44:33.539 --> 00:44:35.800 was that dark -skinned people are somehow closer 00:44:35.800 --> 00:44:39.079 to apes than light -skinned people. It's ridiculous. 00:44:39.239 --> 00:44:44.139 There is one race, the human race. Bottom line 00:44:44.139 --> 00:44:51.280 is this. We abandon the Lord God. As humans, 00:44:51.500 --> 00:44:56.559 in Adam, and then individually, you and I have 00:44:56.559 --> 00:45:00.179 sinned. But now, at the end of the road, there 00:45:00.179 --> 00:45:05.320 is security in Christ, the second Adam, Jesus 00:45:05.320 --> 00:45:07.880 says, he holds us. He says, I give unto them 00:45:07.880 --> 00:45:10.400 eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither 00:45:10.400 --> 00:45:13.599 shall any man pluck them out of my hand. Romans 00:45:13.599 --> 00:45:17.179 8 talks about how nothing can separate us. Paul 00:45:17.179 --> 00:45:19.800 declares that neither death nor life, angels, 00:45:19.860 --> 00:45:21.880 principalities, things present nor things to 00:45:21.880 --> 00:45:24.079 come, nor any other creature can separate us 00:45:24.079 --> 00:45:26.440 from the love of God in Christ Jesus. The end 00:45:26.440 --> 00:45:28.840 of your rope is not the end of Christ's reach. 00:45:30.760 --> 00:45:33.090 Philippians 1 .6 says, He which hath begun a 00:45:33.090 --> 00:45:35.909 good work in you will perform it until the day 00:45:35.909 --> 00:45:39.710 of Jesus Christ. Christ finishes what he started. 00:45:40.610 --> 00:45:43.150 It's a two -step action plan. Number one, I want 00:45:43.150 --> 00:45:45.789 you to realize today that you are at the end 00:45:45.789 --> 00:45:48.969 of your rope. And you will stay there. You belong 00:45:48.969 --> 00:45:51.769 there. It is justice that you should be there. 00:45:51.949 --> 00:45:54.769 However, it is not mercy that you should fall 00:45:54.769 --> 00:45:57.320 from there into the pits of... hell to remain 00:45:57.320 --> 00:46:00.300 for eternity, but rather it is mercy and forgiveness 00:46:00.300 --> 00:46:02.739 and grace by the holy God of the universe that 00:46:02.739 --> 00:46:06.059 in Christ we should be secured for an eternity 00:46:06.059 --> 00:46:12.820 and spend an eternity in heaven with God. You're 00:46:12.820 --> 00:46:16.619 at the end of your rope. What you need is security. 00:46:17.039 --> 00:46:20.360 And where you will find it is in Jesus Christ, 00:46:20.460 --> 00:46:24.579 the Son of God, who lived and died. Let me ask 00:46:24.579 --> 00:46:29.840 you a question. Was Jesus at the end of his rope 00:46:29.840 --> 00:46:36.960 when he was hanging on the cross? No. Jesus was 00:46:36.960 --> 00:46:40.199 God and he has never been at the end of his rope. 00:46:40.840 --> 00:46:43.019 Because if there ever was a rope and God was 00:46:43.019 --> 00:46:44.559 ever attached to it and never reached the end 00:46:44.559 --> 00:46:48.519 of it, he just made more. He's God. He could 00:46:48.519 --> 00:46:51.179 have called thousands of angels to rescue him 00:46:51.179 --> 00:46:53.920 off the cross. He willingly laid down. He didn't 00:46:53.920 --> 00:46:56.480 kill him. He willingly laid down his life that 00:46:56.480 --> 00:46:59.340 we might be saved. He willingly laid down his 00:46:59.340 --> 00:47:02.420 life that sins might be paid for. Not so that 00:47:02.420 --> 00:47:05.800 you can have more room. Not so you can feel like 00:47:05.800 --> 00:47:08.360 you're not on the road. Not so you can feel like 00:47:08.360 --> 00:47:09.920 you're not hanging on the bottom of the road. 00:47:10.719 --> 00:47:15.679 Or that at any moment tragedy might strike. So 00:47:15.679 --> 00:47:17.719 you can be full of worry and anxiety and regret 00:47:17.719 --> 00:47:22.880 and depression. No! He did it. So that you could 00:47:22.880 --> 00:47:30.219 be secure in this life and for eternity. Life 00:47:30.219 --> 00:47:34.039 may be at the end of the rope, but it is not 00:47:34.039 --> 00:47:37.460 at the end of God. And there is no end of God. 00:47:40.360 --> 00:47:43.260 Before we met Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, 00:47:43.340 --> 00:47:47.679 we too were subject to the wrath of God. We were 00:47:47.679 --> 00:47:49.719 at the end of our rope. There was no security. 00:47:52.840 --> 00:47:56.559 A famous Puritan preacher once preached a sermon 00:47:56.559 --> 00:48:02.699 and the Puritans were very devout. That's why 00:48:02.699 --> 00:48:04.460 they're called Puritans. They're pure Christians 00:48:04.460 --> 00:48:07.280 in their estimation. Right? Everybody called 00:48:07.280 --> 00:48:10.619 them pure Christians. He preached a sermon and 00:48:10.619 --> 00:48:12.880 he said it's called Sinners in the Hands of an 00:48:12.880 --> 00:48:16.860 Angry God. And in that sermon he described them 00:48:16.860 --> 00:48:19.619 and everybody, all of us, as if you were standing 00:48:19.619 --> 00:48:22.920 on a ledge and your toes are on a ledge. The 00:48:22.920 --> 00:48:24.480 ledge is only just big enough for your toes. 00:48:24.920 --> 00:48:26.639 You're standing with your hands to the wall. 00:48:26.840 --> 00:48:29.480 This is how you're living. And if at any moment, 00:48:29.659 --> 00:48:35.300 anything at all changes, slight vibrations, any 00:48:35.300 --> 00:48:39.260 sign of weakness, a breeze blows, you're plummeting 00:48:39.260 --> 00:48:43.260 to hell. That's a new meaning for life. The one 00:48:43.260 --> 00:48:44.780 that's walking down the street right now needs 00:48:44.780 --> 00:48:46.440 to live. It does not cost Christ his Lord and 00:48:46.440 --> 00:48:48.360 Savior. If he gets shot in the head, if he gets 00:48:48.360 --> 00:48:50.480 hit by a car, if he dies from cancer in a few 00:48:50.480 --> 00:48:55.159 weeks, He's going straight to hell. But you and 00:48:55.159 --> 00:48:57.460 I, if you know Jesus Christ, your Lord and Savior, 00:48:57.940 --> 00:49:03.820 to live is Christ, to die is gain. And we are 00:49:03.820 --> 00:49:07.179 secure. I'm asking you to be secure. Not because 00:49:07.179 --> 00:49:09.360 you're not at the end of the road, but to realize 00:49:09.360 --> 00:49:11.739 that your life, my life, all of our lives are 00:49:11.739 --> 00:49:23.739 at the end of the road. wages of sin is death, 00:49:23.880 --> 00:49:26.960 but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus 00:49:26.960 --> 00:49:34.679 Christ our Lord. Will you have it? If you haven't, 00:49:34.679 --> 00:49:36.679 or if you've been pretending not to have it, 00:49:36.679 --> 00:49:40.880 I would suggest that you do. I would implore 00:49:40.880 --> 00:49:43.699 you to do it. And say, I will no longer live 00:49:43.699 --> 00:49:46.440 for me, because if I add the rope, as long as 00:49:46.440 --> 00:49:49.619 I can add it, I'll still run out. If I rely on 00:49:49.619 --> 00:49:51.929 my strength, as long as I can be strong, I'll 00:49:51.929 --> 00:49:56.369 still go now. My life will be like a rollercoaster 00:49:56.369 --> 00:49:58.849 ride and someday, someday they'll tell me that 00:49:58.849 --> 00:50:01.710 I had advanced cancer. And in that moment, I'm 00:50:01.710 --> 00:50:05.769 going to need a savior. And I will now realize 00:50:05.769 --> 00:50:10.849 I need one right now. And you cry out to God. 00:50:10.889 --> 00:50:13.889 Don't say, God, why, God, why? You know why. 00:50:14.570 --> 00:50:16.869 Because you lied. You stole. You cheated. Whatever. 00:50:16.969 --> 00:50:18.389 You didn't look in his direction. You didn't 00:50:18.389 --> 00:50:20.789 desire him. He didn't follow his ways. He didn't 00:50:20.789 --> 00:50:22.469 teach your kids, your friends, your church members 00:50:22.469 --> 00:50:25.409 to follow his ways. He didn't step up. You know 00:50:25.409 --> 00:50:31.250 why? Because he was the God of the universe. 00:50:32.690 --> 00:50:35.329 Let him be in charge of your life. And let him 00:50:35.329 --> 00:50:37.710 secure you. And all the while you're here, you'll 00:50:37.710 --> 00:50:40.210 still be on the end of the road. But you'll be 00:50:40.210 --> 00:50:43.090 secure. And when you leave here, you'll no longer 00:50:43.090 --> 00:50:45.289 be on the end of the road. You get to go where 00:50:45.289 --> 00:51:03.909 the road is manufactured. I realize it's kind 00:51:03.909 --> 00:51:05.230 of a rollercoaster. Sometimes in the beginning, 00:51:05.369 --> 00:51:07.610 something's going to go wrong, and it does, or 00:51:07.610 --> 00:51:09.130 it doesn't. I'm going to tell it something, and 00:51:09.130 --> 00:51:11.349 it's not happening, or whatever. Or it really 00:51:11.349 --> 00:51:13.949 is a video, and I'm really feeling screwed on 00:51:13.949 --> 00:51:16.170 what to do about it. I need a Savior. I've got 00:51:16.170 --> 00:51:18.849 to swing your act. I need a Savior. I need you, 00:51:18.849 --> 00:51:21.150 Jesus Christ, not to fix your problem, but to 00:51:21.150 --> 00:51:24.210 secure you off the edge of the road. I cry out 00:51:24.210 --> 00:51:30.170 to you. I need you to pray for me. I need you 00:51:30.170 --> 00:51:33.449 to be my Lord. in the name of the Father, the 00:51:33.449 --> 00:51:36.050 Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.