Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:04 Welcome everyone. So glad you're here. You know, everybody has different forms of friendship. Uh, generally your friends are nice to you, Michael is mean to me. But that's the type of friendship we have here. Let me give you the most difficult thing to talk about. And, uh, I'm gonna go leave. See, I mean, look at that. That's amazing, <laugh>.
Speaker 1 00:00:28 So, um, you know, one of the, the, the general topic at first was why does God kill people? Begin to narrow it down to a topic is why does God orain the killing of people? And so you have different things in texts that all of us can track with. Like, you look at the Book of Job and you say, why did God allow that to happen? That's a permissible situation. And then you have things, uh, permiss, uh, permission or allowed. Uh, I remember with my brother, I've spoken from this very podium and giving you the story of my brother growing up to where, you know, my best friend got cancer when he was 16 and then died at 21. And, and I saw how he processed that. My life is a testimony of that. But for him, as he was going through that tremendous battle, I'll never forget, you know, just as he continually discipled me when I die, I don't want you to be mad at God.
Speaker 1 00:01:20 He has a purpose in this. This is the story of my life. This is the reason by which I was born. It was tremendous. Many, many were transformed. And that's a great example of that. Even if you look at the book, I just challenged you to go back and read the book of James or, uh, uh, acts and chapter 12, you look at James and Peter, if you just very quickly touched on that, you would see that James had his head cut off as one of the disciples by Herod. Yet what Peter was set free. And we don't always understand those things, but the reality is there's things that are allowed. But then you get to a deeper element, which is per, uh, ordained, which brings us to an element. When we step into society, you'll, he, you'll hear arguments like, uh, God must be a moral monster. Uh, God must, if God was loving, why would he allow that? We hear these type of things, and I, as I begin to wrestle through the message, I'm gonna share with you, I had to process the same things that all of us process. And so I just wanna give to you some of the things that God has given to me. Starting on the foundation of that would be a foundational question.
Speaker 1 00:02:27 If you or God, what would you do? What would you allow? What would you permit? I mean, that's fair, right? If you were God, what would you do? And so it starts with something that all of us are familiar with. And let's read this together because we grew up our entire life reading the Lord's Prayer. We find this in Matthew, let's read it. Our Father who art in heaven, hall, be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not to temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, the glory, forever and ever. Amen. So when you see Jesus here with the disciples, he's saying, how should we pray? And I remember, I mean, prior to, to, to hanging out with Michael and talking to him about this text, probably for a, a minimum of the last six months, when I get up in the morning and I get on my knees, for some reason, God has brought me to this exact spot, which is, God, what should I say to you today?
Speaker 1 00:03:47 And it starts with our Father who aren't in heaven. And you know, and as you stop for moments and you digest a singular word, our Father, it's pretty beautiful, isn't it? You know, I recently became a grandparent. You know, when you have a you adult, if you've had a child, you'll understand this as well. Uh, but I became a grandparent. So my daughter had a little fat, chubby, beautiful little girl. And recently I did something very bad, which is I woke her from her nap. Who knows what I'm talking about? So this was less than a week ago. And Tara, my beautiful wife here in the front, she, she had the, the beautiful little thing and put her to bed. And, and I was on a conference call, you know, your brain doesn't always work. And so as, as she's coming out, I'm going in and talking and it just scared a little, little runt to death.
Speaker 1 00:04:39 And so needles to say, she comes out and for a solid 10 minutes, the baby is just crying and screaming her head off. And I'm still on my conference call. And Tara comes in and says, you have to get off the phone now, and your job is to go put her back to sleep. How many guys wanna talk about? So she, she put me into discipline, uh, under house arrest, and sent me into the bedroom. It's almost like sending a kid to a candy store, because when I went in there, I knelt over to the pack and play and I laid my hand on Gwen and I said, Gwen. And she knew my voice. She stopped crying and I got to pick her up. And I held her. You know, I know I'm not supposed to do that. She's supposed to like cry herself to sleep or something.
Speaker 1 00:05:23 But the reality is, father, if you know what I'm talking about, the, you know, there's like God, who, and I, and I, I know this is a little weird, but as I laid there, sat there on the, uh, the couch and I held her in my arms for an hour and 15 minutes as she took her nap. Uh, you learned so much about God as you parent, parent. And you know what I'm talking about. Um, I, I am not God, but I, I thought about how God must love me cuz I was sitting there hugging and holding and surrounding and protecting and fearing feeling her little diaphragm breathe. And, and I was so, so attentive. And Father, our father who art in heaven, holy is your name, your kingdom come, your will be done. That becomes a clash in our culture. It becomes a clash with our culture. Because in essence, in the first point of this, as we approach difficult topics like why would God allow or orain or permit suffering, or even in this a deeper topic, would God, would God orain the wiping out of a people group? So you have to step into biblical history to understand some of these things. But I always start with this saying, our position makes a difference. See our position mentally as we approach God changes things. Our viewpoint changes things.
Speaker 1 00:06:56 Is your life encompassed with this? I'm walking through life, God, I want you to be a part of my story. Or is it God? I want to be a part of your story. You are God, I am not. That positional shift of mindset makes a difference. How do you approach God? You'll see my beautiful daughter Kelsey, and this last Sunday she got married, um, her husband Andrew, just a wonderful, wonderful gift. And I know you don't know her, some of you do, but Kelsey, a beautiful bride, anybody who knows her actually today knows she's the most tender and sweet and loving and caring. If she was around your child, all the children want to adopt her as mama and go home with her. She's just precious. But that's not the entire story. If you, you see a picture of her as a a little one is, uh, you know, my wife would say this is an adorable picture of her.
Speaker 1 00:08:00 When I see that, I see the devil <laugh> is, I mean she was maybe my wife would know three, maybe at that age, that is a smile of wickedness. As a matter of fact, probably in this view right now, she has a younger brother that was 11 months later than her. And part of her joy was to torture him. I'm no exaggeration. I mean, when he's trying to crawl, it was a constant problem of her going over and sitting on him with great joy to watch him scream. And he would scream and we would, I remember Kelsey, someday he's gonna be bigger than you. And I just remember that she was me.
Speaker 1 00:08:52 As a matter of fact, she had something inside of her that all of us had have. I remember one of her favorite phrases as a young girl was, I don't wanna, I don't wanna, I remember when she was a flower girl herself going down the aisle. I have an older sister, Lindsay, and her second one, which is Kelsey. And, and you guys know how rehearsals are, everything goes perfect and you do the little flower pedal, shin dig, and everything's good. But then, you know, here is the real deal, the bride in the groom and all of that type of stuff. And the little flower girl, the little flower, uh, girls are supposed to go up and drop the pedals and I'm mommy's up front, they're gonna walk to mommy and I'm supposed to be in the back. Come on, let's go. And I'll never forget Lindsay and them starting and then Kelsey turning around and look at me and goes, I don't wanna and takes the basket of flowers.
Speaker 1 00:09:36 She doesn't just drop it, she throws it. I don't wanna, oh, we can learn so much from our kids. As a matter of fact, this is true. They want what they want. They want to do what, what they want to do. Their focus is on their life, not their family, not others, not others around them. They are the center of their universe. But in reality, isn't that really all of us, it really is in perspective to God. See the Lord's prayer as I've literally, I would say every day for a minimum of six months than before the Lord with that prayer, I think our prayer is often dis different. I wrote this down little, I just said, okay, what, what is often in my being that is a prayer. Here's the prayer that my flesh would pray. Dear God, as a reminder, life is really all about me. Give me what I want today in case you don't remember. I have things figured out. I determine what is right and what is wrong, just and fair. Oh, also, I have a strong opinion about that. And I'm right. I am the center of life and all things revolve around me. Thank you God for remembering this.
Speaker 1 00:11:14 As you process this next week, process your being positionally towards God. And you will find that our sinful nature is extremely powerful and life is really all about me, not about him. Here's the second. So our position makes a difference. The second point being in our approach makes a difference. The lens by which we look creates clarity for what we see. See, when you're processing difficult questions around God and faith, our approach makes a difference. If we approach with doubt and skepticism, no argument will suffice. How many of you guys know what I'm talking about? It's true in relationships. We have situations that we're trying to talk common sense into someone, but they're positionally already here. And it doesn't matter what logic enters that storyline, it does not change it. I have a phrase inside of me that came out of me as a young man giving my life to Christ when I was 18 and, and it was this, I don't care what the truth is, I just want to know it. In other words, I wanna be in positionally humble before the Lord saying, teach me and show me your ways, not my ways. And so doubt, skepticism, no argument will suffice. If we approach God in a position of humility, I believe we can get a glimpse into the mind of God, not necessarily know all his ways, but certainly begin to understand in some ways if you start with distrust, it leads to a verdict of guilty. I would say if we start with a position of trust, it leads to objectivity.
Speaker 1 00:13:11 Our third point is A is a posture that makes a difference. So stepping into an environment by which we say, not judgmental God, how could you versus would you help me to understand why would you? It changes the environment of seeking and posture and humility. I would say the danger on the first part, the caution is what, think of this for a moment. We put God on trial. Who are we to put God on trial? And what's even more crazy is that we judge God with a double standard. That's what's crazy when you go through and tackle a difficult topic like why would God allow good people to die? Or why would God allow? Why would he permit or why would he orain? And we place him on trial, we say things like this, why did you wipe out those people? But then the very next moment we will see wicked, unjust things and say, now God, why didn't you wipe out those people?
Speaker 1 00:14:27 It's a double standard. He's evil either way. It's just not fair. In our American culture, we experience the same thing. As a matter of fact, our culture has certain benefits or rights to it that we don't quite grasp because we live in America. A simple topic like what? Innocent until proven guilty. That's a luxury. Did you guys know that? Because not in all countries, that is accurate. It is guilty until proven innocent. Yet if we were in the court system when we was standing in front of the court, we'd say, no, I'm innocent until proven guilty. As a matter of fact, you're, if you're an activist, you would be one that would be if you saw the injustice in the world, right? And you wanted to march on the streets for those who were taken advantage of and abused, you would say, that is not just, that is not right.
Speaker 1 00:15:21 Yet we turn towards God and place him in a position of guilt first. And he must choose. And we might, he must prove himself innocent. It's just interesting how we hold double standards. I don't think it's fair. One of the things that I, I do want is I want my faith to be real. One of the reasons I went to moody, I gave my life to Christ and I was stuck in a quandary of trying to understand the depths of God. You begin to read God's word and you can't connect all the dots and it takes a long, long time, many years of study to get it and you never will. But the point being is to continue to deepen your understanding of God's word. So I end up going to moody and one of the things that I wanted to strive for and have her, I don't even know now, 35 years or 40 years, whatever it's been since I've known the Lord, is I want my faith to be reasonable.
Speaker 1 00:16:09 Would that be fair? I don't wanna be nuts, I don't wanna just say just because I wanna have some construct of logic and reason behind my faith. So I believe our reason makes a difference. The first being when you take a biblical con, a biblical story like the story of Noah, and you say, what did God or what did God orain or instruct, that the people would be wiped out. And you put it into proper context. Look what it says in Genesis chapter six, verse five through eight, the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Think about that for a moment. It draws me to thoughts like this. What would you do? What would I do? If you really begin to dive into culture and situations and the wickedness of man, what would you do?
Speaker 1 00:17:09 As we know God chose to, to wipe that people group and the people up until Noah off the face of the earth. That was his decision. But he knew so much more than we understood every intention. Every thought was wicked, continually. I would say, what would we do? How would we act? What would we prescribe if we were in that same position as God ourself? Even when you go on to other stories like Somon, Gamora, you guys get that deal? You know what I'm talking about? Somon? Gamora, the fire comes down. When you go through and read the story, you begin to realize that Abraham God says, Hey listen, I'm gonna wipe these two cities from the face of the earth post Noah and Abraham begins to plead and say, not really, no. Can I? If I find 50, will you relent? All right, go try.
Speaker 1 00:18:05 And then what else? Now that doesn't work out. Sorry, could I down my number a little? How about 10? No, that didn't work out. And ultimately when you begin to dive into the story, you begin to see God sends a couple of angels who come, uh, as men and visit lot his nephew. What's the rest of the story? The mob shows up outside of the house and says, give them to us. What is that all about? It's like, you know, give them to us. Uh, it wasn't a welcoming committee, you guys know that, right? The wickedness of Sodom and Gamora was one that they would rape and kill and destroy if you began to really process it yourself. Even if the injustice had happened to you and or happened to one of your children, you would say they deserve justice. Kill them, destroy them. Well, God saw that obviously he really, he did allow lot and others to come out.
Speaker 1 00:19:01 But even in that story, yes, he was imposing justice or the seven tribes of of Israel. What's that all about? Well, the seven or not seven tribes. The seven tribes that Israel destroyed. So if you go through biblical, the understanding of the biblical timeline, you've got Adam and Eve, you've got what? Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Jacob has 12 sons, which become the 12 tribes of Israel. They end up, uh, being enslaved in the nation of, uh, Egypt. God raises up Moses and says, yo, let my people go. Probably didn't have the yo part, but we pretend yo let my people go. They cross over the Red Sea, they wander for 40 years and then they begin to enter into what Command day Israel. And as they're standing on the banks of Jericho or the uh, uh, the Jerichos on the other side, the Jordan River, when they're standing at the banks of the Jordan River and Jerichos over there, he begins to prescribe to them warnings.
Speaker 1 00:19:59 He says to them, destroy the people groups. These seven people groups mier and stronger than you. Destroy them completely. Now, well that's interesting about that. Yet the people did not, that's what's interesting. He prescribed it. Yet when they went across as the army of the Lord, they did not obey fully. And so what you begin to see is the major problems that come along with it. See, I want my faith to be real. I want it to be reasonable. And part of that was the enacting of justice, the what he's saying. I see what is going on in these seven people groups. I see it. You may not see it, but I see it. And what did he see? Because as you look, you can understand the things that he said in that period of time, there were three major gods in that part of the world, which was bale, molik, and astro.
Speaker 1 00:20:54 And as I begin to study this new sum of it, you can see this picture, which is the God molik. And he was known as the Babylonian God of the underworld by which to gain favor in the god's eyes. They would burn their children at the altar and, and, and maybe maybe us with our western point of view, what would we say that is wrong? You, you should strike them dead. That's that's not right, man. Straight up. And as a matter of fact, many of you are going like, I can't, I can't believe they would do that. Do you know they do that? Now see, at Village Church, my friend Peter, uh, over in Africa, we've, we was over there four years ago and I talked to him just the other day. I talked to him a lot, but I talked to him the other day when my wife and I and our children went over to Africa to kind of visit what's going on.
Speaker 1 00:21:45 He was exposed to child sacrifice by which literally today, and this is not new, this has happened throughout all of history by which now you go out into the bush of Africa and you speak to a witch doctor and you say the name Jesus, I'm telling you right now, they don't even know the name. You can't believe this in our western world. You can't, they don't even know the name Jesus. But they literally, for the same reasons they did it here, they sacrificed their children for to gain a prosperity and favor from the gods. And I was restrained wisely by my wife and others to not show you literal pictures that I have seen literal pictures where they chop the children up. Literally, it's crazy for prosperity. But it was no different there, it was no different then. And so God saw those things including human sacrifice and worship for the per for personal gain. Uh, bail worshipers, very similar, usually the first point of the community in order to gain personal prosperity in Leviticus, you can see this. See, they're getting ready to cross over the Jordan River and what is God saying to them? You shall not give any of your children to offer them to Malik because he know they, he knows they're getting ready to enter a culture that that is acceptable, A God that they've made out of their own hands and their own mind.
Speaker 1 00:23:23 And you'll see this in Second Kings 2310. I can't, I'm just giving you some verses to write down. Look it up.
Speaker 1 00:23:34 Here's another reason I want my faith to be real. I would say one because of justice. I think that's fair and good and right, but I think another one is to prevent future child sacrifice. See, what's interesting is that the people of Israel did not obey fully. They let some people groups live. And as you go through biblical history and go through the kings and read the Old Testament and try to put it in context and in chronological order and do those type of things, you begin to realize there were kings like aha, aha and manassa who became very wicked. And they brought spouses into the kingdom that still held those ancient beliefs and those ungodly practices as you see, right? King Aza, it says in Second King, 16, three, he even burned his sons as an offering. Isn't that interesting and awful because of the disobedience of the people of Israel not fully executing God's plan.
Speaker 1 00:24:41 In Isaiah chapter 57, verse five through seven, you can look that up. It i i I don't have time to read it all, but it is interesting. Part of that says you sacrifice your children in the ravines and under the overhanging. Craigs in second Chronicles 33 verse six, when King Manassas sacrifices his own two sons, it's appall. See, part I believe reasonably that God was giving the order to wipe these people groups from the face of the earth was not only because of justice but to, to curve those wicked practices into the future. And clearly it still happened. Here's a third reason to prevent ongoing sexual perversion. As I studied about asterisk, which was the other God, it was a female God. And some of you just like myself until this week, I didn't even know this, that you'll see like go down and tear down the astro poles.
Speaker 1 00:25:32 Do you guys remember reading that? You'll read go up to the high places and tear down the poles? And I never actually dug into what is that? But as I dug into it, using that, I love archeology and history. Even now those poles exist, you can go and see the temples to bail that still exist. And so what is that? It's a female God that they put on top of a mountain believing that the sexual union of bail and asterisk produced for, for, uh, fertility pagan worshipers engaged in immoral sex to entice the gods to join together and ensure a good harvest. God's incredible gift of sexuality within the context of marriage was perverted by the sexual acts between the priest and the bail worshipers. And as you see, God saw all of it.
Speaker 1 00:26:22 And in the intent to per to prevent that in the future, he was given an order to kill those people groups. And you can see from this verse in the Bible in one kings 1426, and there's other verses in 22, chapter 22, verse 46, there were even male shrine prostitutes in the land. The people engaged in all the detestable practices of the nation. The Lord had driven out before the Israeli. And so what's going on, that wickedness continued, the attempt to prevent that was unsuccessful because they did not fully execute God's plan. You can see it in multiple places, Jose, in chapter four, verse 10 through 14, they sacrificed on the mountain tops and burnt offerings on the hills under oaks and, and, and shade. The, and it is interesting, therefore your daughters turned to prostitution. And so these, this wickedness continued in God's attempt to prevent it.
Speaker 1 00:27:25 The issue to me was not why did God kill certain people or groups or use the Israelites to do that. Here was a question, what if he did nothing? What if he did nothing? Seeing I'm 51 in my old age, it's taken me a long time to figure this one out. And that is it. That is this to not to address injustice, to not stand up against ungodliness is an essence to endorse it. I've learned that to remain silent really isn't an option because to remain silent is to endorse things that are ungodly and wrong. There's a proper way to approach things. But the reality is if God did nothing, he in essence indirectly would be approving it. Not good to as. Here's the next thing I wrote down to establish societal and reflective law. Societal law. We're familiar with reflective law just came out of my brain.
Speaker 1 00:28:24 I'm not even sure if that's real, but the, the societal, you go from one society to the next and you have different laws. We would take God's law and the things that we see in the Old Testament, maybe put him on trial and say, that's not fair. We might choose to do that. But even when you die into more archeology and history, there was a code called the Hara, the Harabi code, which was pre, uh, pre-law, pre uh, the Judea Judea law or the law of Moses. And so you see he was a, uh, the, the Mesopotamian Empire King from 1894 to 1595 BC and this law that was established in the Circle Court graved on Iraq. And these are the type of things that was the Habibi's law here. Ha Abbi's reputation remains as a pioneer law giver who worked to prevent the strong from oppressing the week.
Speaker 1 00:29:19 And to see that justice is done to widows and orphans. What do you guys think of Harabi? You think he's a good dude? Bad dude. Well, I don't know. That sounds pretty good. But then you go through the rest of the law. Here's his law. He says, oh did you? He said the code of hara includes many harsh punishments, sometimes demanding the removal of the guilty party's tongue, hands, breast eyes or ear. But the code is also one of the earliest examples of the accused person being considered innocent until proven guilty. Why am I bringing this stuff up? I just say, I'm saying that I think that sometimes our approach to how we judge God, we put him on trial, it's not exactly fair.
Speaker 1 00:30:13 I would say societal law certainly restrains us from doing the things that we would want to do sometimes. You know what I'm talking about. If you could do anything you wanted without any restraint at all, never getting caught, no repercussions what so ever. I don't know if I should lead you down this road cuz where does your mind go? You're like, I'm not gonna do that cuz I'll get in trouble. Exactly. Societal law and the judicial system that we have does restrain us. Here's another point. Culture also restrains us. See our culture. We are raised with 20 generations of pleas and thank you. That's what our culture adopts that. But in certain cultures things are different. You know, I, in American culture, we might stand in line and there might be a space between them and the next person. When you go to another country, I've been to those countries where you're standing there and someone just steps in front of you.
Speaker 1 00:31:20 There's space so they step in front of you. That's a cultural norm. Or if you do research like it in India and Southern India for health and wellness, you go to the priest and they crack a coconut in your head. That's their cultural norm. Our cultural norm is that justice should be done. That there should be law and order, please and think that's a cultural heritage. Here's a third thing that restrains us. And some of us understand this. The Holy Spirit, for those who know the Lord, that that know that he knows you by name. When you give your life away, an amazing thing happens. God sends his spirit to dwell within us, to convict us of sin, righteousness and truth and the, and what is to come. Do you guys know what I'm talking about? It doesn't take long for me to be reminded that I am owned by God if I lie or steal or do something bad.
Speaker 1 00:32:18 God is there like, boy straighten up. You know what I'm talking about? His, his spirit convicts me. But that's, that conviction restrains me from doing the wickedness that quite frankly I would want to do in my flesh. And so I would say we certainly have benefits societal and I would call reflective the, the reflection, the Holy Spirit reflecting in our life, restrains us from the wickedness that we would wanna do. See that, that Holy Spirit, what I'm aware of is that I live underneath the holy God who knows everything all the time. You'll see this in Psalm 1 39 when he says, Lord David says this, Lord, you have examined me and know all about me. You know when I sit up and when I get up, you know my thoughts before I even think them. God is clearly aware of what is going on that restrains me from my own sin.
Speaker 1 00:33:16 So the question, if you knew there would be no consequences, what would you or I do? There is a benefit to knowing God and him to know you and living in America quite frankly, you know? And then on top of all of that, some of you guys know this, Jesus radically changed the world. World. And some of you guys know the, the message that he gave when he's standing on the hilltop of the thousands of people, the bee attitudes, he begins to go down and say crazy stuff that we're all impacted. Those who know him are impacted by these truths. Weird stuff like pray for those who persecute you. What's your response? I don't wanna, that's your, I don't wanna turn the you're gonna hit me. I'm gonna hit you harder. Turn the other cheek. I don't wanna, what's the give your jacket also, when someone takes from you, give them more.
Speaker 1 00:34:18 I don't wanna, right? How about, how about the Lord's Prayer? What did Jesus say? Forgive as we have been forgiven. What's our, what's our flesh say? I don't wanna see does that conviction in working of the Holy Spirit that draws us close to him. Here's the next reason. I think reasonably, why would God give orders to kill a people group? Or certainly there's allowed, there's permitted, but ordained as difficult. I would say I had to get to this reasonably. And that is to set an example to us. Part of that is the discipline to us. What do I mean by God dis God disciplines those he loves. That's true, right? There's a discipline that says, I don't wanna do that again. I don't wanna receive God's disciplinary down in, down in Indiana, we have a farm down there and we have these white dogs that live on a farm that try to crawl the fences all the time.
Speaker 1 00:35:16 And they would always get out and run all over the neighborhood. Drove everybody crazy. So we put up this white electric fence that is a, uh, it's kinda like a rope on it that goes all the way around the size of my pinky. And as soon as the dogs try to crawl up, it, it, their nose touches that electric fence, except for this electric fence is like the super duper electric fence. It's for a hundred mile run, but it's only like a half mile run. So it's extremely powerful. Well, the other day, so I've got this pig too. Um, he's got a date on uh, December 12th. But I've got this pig and my pig, I love my pig, but my pig, the problem with the pig is I would give him food on the other side of the fence like this and his blue bowls down there attached to the wooden fence.
Speaker 1 00:36:02 But every time I'd come back, he, he sticks his nose under and he knocks it off the fence and it drives me nuts cuz I have to open the gate. Here's the big white cord, I have to go under the cord very carefully. And I said, okay, I got, I'm gonna fix this. I went over and got my drill and I got these big long screws and I said, I'm just gonna screw that trough right to the board so we can't knock it off. So I get it, I go under it, go over, I get my screws and I lean down to drill this in, but I forgot that the cord was right here. So I touched my forehead to that cord. The next thing I was waking up literally, I I, my leg, my knee still hurts. I don't know which direction it went, but it was not natural.
Speaker 1 00:36:48 There's the discipline of the electric fence. I don't want that again. I think God so often he gives examples of what we should live by and pay very close attention to knowing that the discipline of the Lord is real. You see it as he had, he had that happen in the Old Testament in a larger sense and also to us personally. But at the same time, you can see parts of God's character. If you study theology and who God is and his character, you'll see things like God is patient, God is patient. You see that in second Peter in chapter three, verse nine. What's going on with that? God is patient. He says the Lord is, is not slow to fulfill his promise, but is patient towards you? Not wishing that any should perish, but all should repent. What is that? If it was you or I?
Speaker 1 00:37:48 Yeah, let's, let's switch roles. We're now the judge. We're now God, you do something wrong. Yeah, you're getting whooped for that deal. Pretty low patient, tolerant. You know what I'm talking about. But God is like ongoingly patient. If you begin to look at the research, you look at the trend lines of history. God is persuading and prompting and pushing and calling back to himself, the people of Israel. He does the same thing to us. He's patient and long suffering. And so the point where he finally says, all right, that's enough. You see that when you look at Noah, what happened in Noah's time? He, he still, he still sustained humanity even though they were continually wicked all the time, or Sador. Of course he, not only did he bring lot Abraham out of that, but at the same time his purpose of stopping the depth of that wickedness was a sign of his grace.
Speaker 1 00:38:44 Or in Niva, what else do you see in Niva? He sends Jonah over there says, I'm gonna destroy these people. He goes and preaches, they then repent and he pulls back that discipline to them. So you could see both his patience and the characteristic of his grace that lives out in our life too. Here's the next thing I saw as I was studying through this to separate a people group for himself. Now I had to struggle through this one. So why did God create the Jewish nation? Have you guys ever thought of that? So you go, why? Why are there Jews? I remember DL Moody saying this, how do I know God exists because the Jew exists? I thought that's interesting because the reality being in this, you could see this verse and second Samuel 7 23 among the chaos. And what do I mean by chaos?
Speaker 1 00:39:31 Let's just all come up with our own God. Let's come up with our own practices. Let's build our own idols. Let's sacrifice kids and do all these ungodly things. God says, I must make myself known. So he says in Second Samuel chapter seven, verse 23, and who is like your people? Israel, the one nation on earth whom God went to redeem to be his people, making himself a name. So when you think about yawe, I've been to Israel and culturally there's some things that are completely different. But it's beautiful because when you go there and the Sabbath happens on Friday night at sundown, everything shuts down and everybody gets together with their family and they have dinner and you pray over your children and you take a day of Sabbath, it's beautiful. But then at certain things they do weird stuff. Things like you can't eat that, you can't eat that.
Speaker 1 00:40:27 And the milks and meats are separated. What's going on with all of that? God is separating them as a people group to give himself a name. That's what he's doing. So that they would stand out amongst the others. Why is that important? Because it leads me to the next point that I kind of discovered and began to understand as I was preparing this is that not only does God make himself known through this process, but what he does is he PAs the road for redemption. And, and I saw this when I was going through, I remember the first time I read the book of Ruth and it is a striking book.
Speaker 1 00:41:06 Anybody who's read, Ruth knows the story. What's the story? Starts with Naomi. Something difficult happens. What is it? Husband dies. Man, that's a hard gig going on cuz if your spouse dies, that's not exactly wonderful. It's even worse back then. Why? Because man, the man protected and provided for that home. Women didn't necessarily have a lot of rights. That was a difficult deal. But worse than that, what happens? His two, her two sons die. That's awful. And then as one of his daughter-in-laws, her daughter-in-laws leaves, one is left. Ruth, if I just had one child die, I'd, I'd be a mess. And as you walk through the story, I wanna challenge you to reread the book of Ruth and look at it a little differently. How would she feel? How would you feel? What would be the emotions that she would be feeling as she leaves Moab and travels and you're like, oh, how far would that be to walk?
Speaker 1 00:42:03 And what would my feet feel like and what would be going through my mind? God doesn't love me. Why would he allow this to happen to me? I don't understand God. Are you real? I thought you loved me. Why wouldn't you protect me? Do you guys know what I'm talking about? What would you be thinking? I just remember living that I was, I was reading it for the first time. And then as you get over, you get through the rest of the story, she returns back to where Bethlehem, to the people, her people group where she was from. And she gets to Bethle ham and she calls herself, Mara, God's hand is against me. Why? Because well, she's actually going behind the people that are harvesting the fields and picking up the leftover pieces of grain. But then something happens. What happens? Boas shows up with his beautiful dreadlocks that are flowing hair and, and, and notices this cute girl named Ruth and says, oh yeah, there's a Ruth right there.
Speaker 1 00:42:58 And then what happens? They end up getting married. And I remember getting to the end of that story and I remember reading the very end of it. It was so striking, it took me years to figure out genealogy and studied a little bit de, but it says that Ruth and Boaz had a child and the child's name was something I don't remember. I should have wrote it down. But then it went down to the next, it went down to the next, and they had a son and they had a son and then they had a son. And I remember getting to it and it says, and then they had a son named Obi. And I was like, I know who Obi is, Obi is David's, uh, or Jesse's dad. And then it says, and then OB had a son named Jesse. And I'm like, I know who that is.
Speaker 1 00:43:39 And then Jesse had a son named David. And at first you're like, okay, I know somebody named David too, who cares? But, but when you understand biblical context, what was the promise that the Messiah would come through the line of David? And I thought, well how would that these are, this is generations later. Naomi lived and died. Ruth lived and died. Many lived and died. And in the context of all of time, we are about a spec on that time spectrum. We are a part of God's story. And on God's story, on the line of history of timeline, you begin to go, wait a minute, what if Naomi knew the story, the full story? In other words, I'm going to allow this to happen by which I bring you from Moab back to Bethlehem, by which Ruth meets Boaz by which you have a great, great, great, great, great great grandson named David a great king of Israel, by which I think it's 14 generator students.
Speaker 1 00:44:44 Later Jesus comes and they had all been looking for the Messiah. They were taught at a young age, they memorized the pen, they knew the Old Testament, they knew the Messiah would come, but she did not know that she was gonna be a part of that story. And I was like, wow, how would that have changed Naomi's mindset? I bet she would've cried a little bit less. I bet the pain would've been a little bit less. I bet her her position under God would've been more like, God, this really hurts. But my life is not my own. My life is yours. I submit underneath your authority and thank you for letting be a part of your story. It would change some things. See what God was doing so often in the process of Biblical Testament history, is that God is paving the road for justice and godliness and law and order.
Speaker 1 00:45:36 And then ultimately what? Redemption through Jesus. That's what was going on. By which now for you and I that hear this type of message, we have two options. Here's the two options. One is the heart of rebellion. And we see this, I was one of those, I, you know, you'll see once says, I'm really smart. Don't you know that I got, I got a 32 on my a C t. I'm like, that's cool. That's about like, I got 50% of that. And then, so yeah, and but don't you know my degrees? Let me go through my degrees. I'm a, I'm a nuclear physicist. I got, I've got my PhD. I am currently trying to blend atoms to create nuclear fusion. I'm like, that's cool, but what you're missing is the one who created the atom. And you're forgetting that God is the one that has the PhD in every subject.
Speaker 1 00:46:31 Your position is outta line, man. You just got a little bitty brain. And so we have this spirit that wants to say, uh, I don't wanna, and I'm the smartest in this pride filled heart that blinds us from God's righteousness and truth. That's one position. Another position is simply the rest to rest. And when we go back to the Lord's Prayer, what is it? It is our Father who is in heaven. Holy is your name. What is that? You are holy. I certainly am not how many guys would agree with that one, I am not that all of my thoughts and sins will be laid bare before him. When I stand before him, I have no position other than I am unrighteous and ungodly holy. You are holy Father, your kingdom come, your will be done in my life, around my life, through my life on earth as it clearly is in heaven.
Speaker 1 00:47:39 And that's where I begin to understand the criticalness for me and for you, for those who have that, that God knows your name, how special that is, that's awesome. But some of you are not a part of God's kingdom. You do. You don't. He doesn't know you. You don't know him fully. And you can't come to know him until you positionally submit yourself under his authority and give your life away. And that's what salvation is. Salvation is where you say, I no longer own my life. I give my life to you and take on your righteousness. The payment for all of my wrong is done through you, through your son Jesus. And then you take on his righteousness, not your own. So in closing, I would say that regardless of where you're at, we're called to one of those two things. A reminder, what's the reminder?
Speaker 1 00:48:32 I am not God. He is. I don't always understand, nor do I need to fully understand I, my mind can't. I can get a glimpse into God's mind that's positionally for us who are known by him and those who do not know him. I would say we also remember the Holy Spirit. I was talking about conviction of righteousness and truth, prompting and pulling you to him. I would just encourage you to submit to that and say, you know what? I'm gonna give my life away and we'll give you that opportunity just after we have communion.
