MidTree Church
The sermon audio of MidTree Church in Harris County, Ga. BEHOLD // BELIEVE // BECOME
MidTree Church
Walking Toward Redemption | Pastor Will Hawk | June 15th, 2025
The journey from complete brokenness to divine purpose unfolds powerfully in this moving episode opening with Darin Sharpe's raw testimony of redemption. His story begins in rural Georgia, tracks through a devastating divorce that led him to homelessness in New York City's Central Park, and continues through the tragedy of 9/11, imprisonment, and a 12-year battle with meth addiction. The turning point arrives when Darin answers the call to care for his dying parents, gradually softening his heart toward the God he'd been angry with for decades.
Surrender comes in October 2020 when, kneeling on an old mattress in his mother's garage, Darin finally gives himself completely to God. What follows is both simple and profound – a divine instruction to "walk" transforms his life, freeing him from addiction and bringing unexpected blessings including marriage and meaningful work. His testimony illuminates how God uses our deepest pain to bring us to our knees, only to lift us toward purpose.
Pastor Will then takes us through the closing chapters of Song of Solomon, unpacking the profound metaphor of divine jealousy. We discover that God's jealousy for His people isn't possessive but protective – a holy desire for exclusive relationship that cannot be quenched by "many waters" or purchased with wealth. The sermon draws a vital distinction between sinful envy (coveting what isn't yours) and righteous jealousy (protecting what rightfully belongs to you).
The message culminates with a powerful image of Christ standing at the door of our hearts, knocking. Who sits at the table of your soul? Have you invited Jesus in to dine with you alone, or are other things occupying that sacred space? Let the world have its thousand loves – we're called to choose just one.
If you want to learn more about the MidTree story or connect with us, go to our website HERE or text us at 812-MID-TREE.
So I want to invite Darren Sharp on up. Come on up, Darren. All right, and we'll turn it over to you, brother.
Darin Sharpe:She ducked on me Morning Midtree. My name is Darren Sharp, I'm 56 years old. Oh yeah, I forgot about that part. Sorry, I'm trying not to see any of you guys.
Darin Sharpe:My name is Darren Sharp, I'm 56 years old, from a small, quiet country community nestled in the pocket of two mountains 30 minutes north of Rome, georgia. My dad worked for the telephone company as a lineman and my mom was a dressmaker for a bridal shop. I grew up working in chicken houses and cattle farms and our family farm and garden at grandmother's. That fed our family and the families of many others in the community. My grandmother, ransom, was the heart and soul of our family and the voice of my conscience to this day. We attended a small church mostly relatives. We were at church whenever the doors opened.
Darin Sharpe:I was a typical boy in the country, I think. I did not enjoy school but I did enjoy sports and girls and cars and music. I graduated from high school in 1986. I tried a lot of things. I went to college for a little while, tried cosmetology, carpet mills, cloth mills, drove a Pepsi truck, delivered auto parts and pizzas, just to name a few. I went to work for the Kirby Vacuum Cleaner Company in the early 90s and, surprising myself, I did very well.
Darin Sharpe:I met Kelly at a party and things started to change. I was in my mid-20s, tired of partying all the time and thought I should settle down. Kelly was fun and she was smart and I thought she was the one. I was so naive and full of hope. Kelly said that we should get married and I thought it was time. So we did. I opened my own Kirby vacuum cleaner office then and we struggled to make it work, but it wasn't meant to be.
Darin Sharpe:After a year of disappointing sales, we decided to try something different in a new place, so we moved to Athens. Different in a new place, so we moved to Athens, georgia, with our infant son. I sold cars for a while with, but the feast and famine income wasn't good for a young family. So I answered a blind ad in the Atlanta paper and was hired as a manager at the Waffle House. I was checked into my first store in Madison, georgia, and I'd found a career that I loved and was good at. Then Kelly became pregnant with our second son and the task of raising two kids under two without any family support was overwhelming. So we made arrangements to transfer back to Rome, georgia, and have the support of our families.
Darin Sharpe:I was doing well at work, but that meant working on a good week at least 65 hours, and in hindsight, kelly was not doing good with me working all the time and, in spite of me being 100% faithful, she was constantly accusing me of cheating on her and it became too much for me to stand. We tried counseling but that didn't help. I moved out and filed for divorce. A few months later I got a promotion to district manager in Knoxville, tennessee. I'm trying to navigate visitation, divorce, a new job and three restaurants. I was spread pretty pretty thin, to say the least, but I was making it work. I thought At this point the divorce had dragged out for 18 months.
Darin Sharpe:Kelly had said several times to me that she had planned to ruin my life and that plan included calling my job an average of 80 times every day to berate, belittle any and every person that answered the phone, including employees, bosses, police, family. Anybody that answered the phone was told about how a worthless human being I was, and my two-year-old son was put on the phone to ask me why I didn't love him, why I didn't love him. It was psychological and emotional torture and it worked after 18 months. The last straw was her telling me that she had moved and wouldn't tell me where to pick the boys up for visitation. I was to my breaking point. I could not explain or remember the next two days of my life. I have a few flashes of memory, but nothing, until I woke up laying on a piece of cardboard under some trees and I could hear some traffic, and that was July of 1997. I soon found out that I was in Central Park in New York City. Thank you, thank you. In Central Park in New York City with a duffel bag of clothes and 20 bucks, I remember thinking I can start over. Miracles were abundant in New York. That's a story for a different occasion.
Darin Sharpe:Flash forward a few years, to 9-11, 2001. I'm working for the Windows on the World Company, which is the top three floors of Tower One. We lost 85 people that day. My world crumbled that day Again. I worked at the Midtown Restaurant between 5th and 6th on 56th Avenue or 56th Street, and we were the morning center for the company. But the bottom line was nobody was eating out in New York. No money was coming in, so now no child support was going out. In December my ex called the DA in New York City to complain that her deadbeat ex-husband was not paying child support. So on January 2nd of 2002, three months after 9-11, I was helping a friend and his band set up at CBGB's when two detectives came in and escorted me out of that life. I was extradited back to Georgia and was released four months later, on May 2nd, with probation and fines and a restraining order.
Darin Sharpe:I was not the same person that I was before. I was broken and full of shame and anger. When I was in New York I didn't have to face my past or the broken part of me. But in my hometown people knew me, knew I was broken, or at least in my mind. So I became reclusive, self-destructive. I was back working at the Waffle House, trying to hide from the world and reality. So I was doing many things to numb all the pain. Linda, a relative of a co-worker, pursued me and offered me a place to hide from the world. So I jumped into a dark relationship and hid. For 15 years I was doing meth because it numbed everything. So I did that every day for 12 years.
Darin Sharpe:I don't remember the events or the moment that it became clear that my parents were in need of full-time care, and I felt a calling in my heart to take care of them. My dad had vascular dementia and my mom was in the late stages of Huntington's, so in 2017, I quit my job and moved into their garage. It was the hardest thing I've ever done in my life, but the most rewarding. We had time to heal old hurts and talk about life, and they finally got to see me becoming the man they raised. Sorry, I've never been a man of faith and I could not be an atheist because I was too angry at God for him not to exist. For three years, I got to care for them and in the process, god began to soften my heart. My life did not get any easier, though.
Darin Sharpe:In December of 2019, linda, the woman that I'd shared my life with for 15 years, was diagnosed with cancer. I didn't know how I was going to handle it all. Hospice and Home Health came in to help with my parents. I borrowed a camper from my brother to move Linda to the property so I could care for all of them. On June 2nd of 2020, my dad passed away at home. In August 2nd, linda passed away in her sleep at the hospital. I was completely lost and back in the house Linda and I shared, but with no power or water. Can I have a tissue Lost my place? Thank you, appreciate it. Thank you.
Darin Sharpe:I was completely lost and back into the house that Linda and I had shared, but with no power or water or a car. I called an old boss at Waffle House and they helped me get back to work. I packed everything I could fit in the old van and went to mom's house. I had not been working in public in over three years and I wasn't prepared for answering questions and telling people what I'd been through and dealing with the pandemic restrictions. Questions and telling people what I'd been through and dealing with the pandemic restrictions. Then, october of 2020, I was sleeping on an old mattress in mom's garage, thinking about my grandmother ransom telling me that when I was little, that when life gets to be too much and you can't stand anymore, kneel. So I did. After all these years and their prayers, I finally kneeled. I surrendered myself to God completely. I said God, I give you my body, my mind, my spirit and I will serve and follow you however you see fit.
Darin Sharpe:In that moment, I heard a word deep in my soul walk. I struggled for a while with what it meant. Where was I going? What was the purpose? But the word hit me like nothing else ever has. I've never been so motivated to do anything so much I began walking. All the time that I wasn't working or sleeping, I was walking. I barely noticed that my addiction was gone. I no longer wanted to smoke cigarettes. After 30 years, my friends and co-workers started to worry about me because I'd stopped hanging around with them after work, because I was answering the call God had put in my heart. Walking gave me purpose again, gave me a way to move forward, one step at a time, towards healing, towards hope, towards God. Looking back, I see now that God used everything the pain, the loss, the hopelessness to bring me to my knees so that I would surrender. And when I finally did, he gave me what I needed most a reason to move forward, a purpose to serve God. Amen, purpose to serve God. I've been obediently walking every day since that day in October of 2020. God's been so good to me.
Darin Sharpe:In May of 2021, I reconnected with a high school friend through Facebook that I had not seen or talked to in 35 years. In April of 22, kathy became my wife and after a few months, another friend from school called me to ask me if I knew anyone that was interested in working at Impact 360 Institute. I had never heard of it. I told her I would check, but I didn't. I just discussed it with Kathy and felt a strong calling to apply for the job myself, but I had serious doubts that I would be hired with my history. I prayed about it every day on my walks. Slowly, step by step, I began to work towards the goal of getting that job. I achieved that goal. I achieved that goal and June 1st of 2023, I started that job.
Darin Sharpe:I have so many things to be thankful for every day on my walks. In Galatians 5, 16, it says so I say walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. I no longer desire the earthly pleasures, but yearn for the fullness of heaven. And so I walk every single day with God, for God and because of God, I walk. Praise God, thank you.
Will Hawk:I did a poor job of giving Darren the memo to change clothes before he shared his testimony, so we're going to have a little bit of a moment here together as he runs and changes real quickly. I will take this as a divine moment just to tell you, isn't it an incredible thing to hear what God is doing in the lives of people around us? And I know that there are people who are here today because Darren is sharing his story, because you were a part of the story that God had been writing in him. I think about Kathy, I think about Impact360, folks, many people who love Darren very much and very well, and I would give you this encouragement because I don't usually have the opportunity to do so.
Will Hawk:Two things. Number one God wants you to be the people in the lives of others that become part of the story that they will one day share. And there are people in your lives that may be two months away and they may be 20 years away, but regardless of where they are, if you are a believer, we are called to forget our own story from time to time and enter into others. It's why we have been given what the gospel refers to as the ministry of reconciliation. We are drawing people to God. Second thing that I would give you is this there are probably many of you in this room who need to share your story, and some of you need to share your story and get baptized. Some of you have already been baptized and you just need to share your story, and so, if that is not something that is a regular thought for you, I would like for it to be something that you begin wrestling with today. Is it in God's design time for me to share this story? When Darren walks in, I'll tell you what we're going to do In the event that you aren't sure what baptism is. This is not man. He was really dirty and now we're going to get him really clean. This is not a public bathing ritual. What this is although it does point to sin being removed and dirt in that sense being removed from the body what you really must notice most is when Darren goes from standing to being laid down under the water.
Will Hawk:What scripture says is this is us becoming like Christ in his death, so that we would become like him in newness of life, and so what you're actually seeing is somebody raised their hand to say I am dying to myself. I'm dying to the life that I used to live and I am being brought up by the spirit of God to walk in newness of life. To help you with that, this was just this serendipitous type thing, Darren. Go ahead and hop up with me. Our staff reads through different articles weekly where we work through a book, and the one that we were reading was on the benefits of walking with the Lord, literally. And so as much of Darren. How long have you been walking? Yeah, five years. And then what is a typical walk for you? This is what blew me away.
Darin Sharpe:I walk an average. I walk an hour every morning, lunch evening, three hours a day.
Will Hawk:So you're not going to beat him Too late to play catch up, unless you're one of the little ones. But there's a little article for you guys, as you head out today, that I would love for everybody to pick up and just wrestle with. What does it look like to walk with the Lord, but literally to get off my phones, to get away from screens for a moment, feet on the ground and pursue the Lord, because that's turned into your devotional and your prayer life? Amen, all right, darren, if you would go ahead and grab a seat. Brother, I just wanna tell you thank you for being brave enough and willing to share your story with us.
Will Hawk:For those of you who are members, for those of you who are believers, this is a family that is inviting a new member in. Adoption is the name of the game in God's family. And so, darren, because of your faith in Jesus Christ not in yourself or anything of your own doing we baptize you in the name would go ahead and come up and, as he does, you will notice Darren's going to share his testimony in the next service. One thing we love to do is encourage folks when they share, tucked into the pews around you. Do you have one, william? On you Are little cards that look something like this Says baptism on one side, lined on the other. Would love for you to jot down an encouragement for Darren, a scripture that has meant a lot to you, and on your way out of the sanctuary you will see a big glass jar to drop those things in. William, what's next for us?
William Moore:All right, we're going to be reading the word of the Lord together. So if you guys could turn in your Bibles to Song of Solomon, chapter 8, verses 6 and 7. That's on page 564 in your Pew Bibles. Again, that's Song of Solomon 8, 6 through 7. While you're flipping there, just a quick little announcement for MCG kickoff. That was scheduled for June 25th. We still want you guys to be able to get together with your MCGs grab a meal, but VBS is actually happening that Wednesday, so the content kickoff will be the next week, July 2nd. Again, we would encourage you guys I'm going to step to the side so they can get that up here I'm going to encourage you guys to get together, grab a meal, but the content kickoff will be July 2nd.
William Moore:So Song of Solomon 8, 6, and 7. Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm, For love is strong as death. Jealousy is fierce as the grave. Its flashes are flashes of fire, the very flame of the Lord. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it. If a man offered for love all the wealth of his house, he would be utterly despised. This is the word of the Lord.
Will Hawk:Thank you, william, appreciate it. What a great morning as you guys are there. Let me do this very quickly. First thing we must ask ourselves as we hop into this final closing of the book is where are we coming from and where are we going? And so what I would like for us to do is I know that sometimes, if you've, we just started watching Andor at our house, and so whenever we yeah, I'm glad I have fellow nerds and geeks, depending on how you identify yourself I'm glad that y'all are here, but my wife keeps falling asleep halfway through each episode, but I am determined for us to make it all the way through. So when we start a new episode, there's this little button in the bottom right corner and I bet you guys can guess what it says, and I have to choose to or not to press it. In the bottom right corner, there are two words and a little button and it says skip recap. Please, please, don't skip recap. I just want to give you one minute of recap, recognizing that and, by the way, you should clap for this at the end of my sentence.
Will Hawk:We are about to finish reading through a book of the Bible together as a church. Praise God. I wanted to go back and figure out how many books we have read through as a congregation. It is our typical thing and our typical way to work through books of the Bible, and we are going to finish the Song of Songs today. But what I want to make sure that you know, in the event that you are sort of new here, is where are we? So here you go the skip recap. Don't press the button.
Will Hawk:We started by looking at this book and saying, hey, guys in the back, hit the button for me, saying does this book belong in the Bible? It talks about intimacy, talks about sexual intimacy. It's got some pretty graphic pictures that it paints, more so than any other book of the Bible. Does this book belong in the Bible? Emphatically yes, it does. Now, there are a number of reasons, but one of the primary reasons is, as we see, this incredible man pursue this incredible woman, even though they are both incredibly broken. Pursue this incredible woman even though they are both incredibly broken. One of the things that we see on display is the way that Christ pursues us. If you are a Christian, which he refers to as his bride, that the church is the bride of Christ. Jesus chose her, pursued her, paid for her, adorns her and one day he is going to come and take her home. One of the other things we realized is it gives us a lot of information on human romantic love, what I would call lateral love rather than vertical love, and in scripture there are three things that we see God lift up as important in a romantic love environment. We see chemistry, but it can't just be chemistry. That only lasts for so long and it goes through seasons. Character must be there and then, uniquely, community must be as well.
Will Hawk:As we look at this, it also brings us to recognize the longings that we have. Some of you are single and happy about it. Some of you are single and you're not happy about it. Some of you are married and happy about it. Some of you are single and you're not happy about it. Some of you are married and happy about it. Some of you are married and you're not happy about it. All right, and that too is seasonal.
Will Hawk:But one of the things this book shows us is that the longings that we have, every longing you have, even though we will often fill it with sinful things, is given to you by God, to draw you to God, even though he may stretch out the time of that longing, he in all things is the one, ultimately, who fulfills it. And then, the last time we had our eyes on our couple, they had just finished their first big fight. I got you, there you go. They had just finished their first big fight and the fight ended with them joining back together, being, what we would call in our culture, back in love. And that leaves us with two questions we must ask, and the questions are what pieces of wisdom does this book still have to give us? There's got to be one or two. And secondly, does this couple make it to the end? And so, join me as we conclude our time in this book, me as we conclude our time in this book.
Will Hawk:And fathers, happy Father's Day. I put on my most fatherly adornment that I could find. This is actually just a little piece of summer camp that followed me home, but when I went to shave it, my wife said do not touch that thing. I love it so very much. And she is homesick, so you do not need to ask her if that is true or not. Fathers, stay tuned. I think one of the greatest encouragements you will find in Scripture is tucked in the very closing of this book. Those of you who long to be fathers, stay tuned. Those of you who did not have great fathers, stay tuned. So we hoped they would make it. We hoped they would be okay. Do they make it, and are they actually okay? I put he in the top left corner so you would know by the time we get to chapter six there are only eight in the whole book.
Will Hawk:He is absolutely, emphatically in love with this woman. You are beautiful as Terza that was the northernmost kingdom, my love. Lovely as Jerusalem. No matter where I go, high or low, you are lovely. You're as awesome as an army with banners. In fact, just turn your eyes away from me, for they overwhelm me.
Will Hawk:And then he makes an argument that could sound scandalous, but just hold with me and let me explain the Hebrew to you on this. He tells her how beautiful she is and then she goes there are 60 queens, 80 concubines You'll have to Google that, I'm not going to teach you that right now and virgins without number. Now, typically, if we hear a guy say this, we're not thinking now, that is a man of character who is chaste. Here's what he's basically saying. Notice, the number increases as he goes, he's saying it doesn't matter to me whether you are regal, it doesn't matter to me if you have all of these things going. Show me 60 queens, I tell you what I'll raise you. Show me 80 concubines, concubines. Show me 80 concubines, concubines. Show me virgins without number. Do you see it increasing? 60, 80, without number.
Will Hawk:But here is where his heart is. My dove, remember. He loves this girl. He loves her eyes, can't get enough of them. My dove, my perfect one, she is the only one. Now I will just tell you I've been married 20 years. Come November dated my wife for six years, quarter century together. This is still the love that I aspire to. This is the love that the gospel encourages us to aspire to.
Will Hawk:When we find her in chapter five and in chapter six, she is right there, leaning in as well. This is my beloved, this is my friend. This is one of the biggest comments I got from the sermon a couple of weeks ago was how much you guys loved that word, that she loved his appearance and she loved what a cutie he was. But at the end of the day, what she missed most at the end of their fights was her best friend was not beside her, but they are here. He is again her friend. And by the time we get to chapter six, there is this coming together I and my beloveds. His desire is for me. They are, without a doubt, leaning in. Not only has their chemistry been repaired, but the thing she missed most her best friend has been restored.
Will Hawk:So when we turn to the last chapter, chapter eight, here is where we find our couple. Who is that coming up from the wilderness? You imagine this couple walking up from a trail on the woods, and all of their friends and their family see them walking up. And what is their demeanor? What is their posture? They are hand in hand, but they're not just hand in hand. You get the sense that her head is leaning on his shoulder.
Will Hawk:Who's this coming up from the wilderness Leaning on her beloved? Only time in the Old Testament that word is used. Why? Because this couple has been restored. They're not just close, they are. Please hear me on this, please hear me on this. Please hear me on this. They are closer because of the storm than they would have been without it. That's what I want you to hear. This couple is better off for the difficulty they walked through with the Lord than had they not walked through it at all.
Will Hawk:And the Bible gives you this beautiful word used one time to say she is not just reconciled or reconnected or renewed, she is upheld, she is supported. He is upheld as they lean on one another and she turns to him and she says my beloved, would you do something for me, would you set me as a seal upon your heart? Now, interestingly, this may mess you up for just a minute. When we go to a wedding, whenever I'm doing a wedding, there are only a few things that have to be there. Okay, if they want to light a candle, they can light a candle. If they want to pour sand into a jar, pour all the sand you want. We can tie threads together. I don't care what we. But what we must do is this we must exchange vows, okay, and then, typically, at the end of exchanging vows, we exchange rings. And I can tell you from my pastoral book what I say With this love and these promises in your heart, you have chosen to exchange rings as the sign and seal of the promises you are making today. I've said it so many times, I don't even need the book. This is what she's saying. She's saying my beloved, the one whom I love, would you set me as a seal on your heart?
Will Hawk:It might surprise you to know that in Old Testament culture they did not exchange vows. They didn't. Part of the reason is because they didn't have a gear in their romantic transmission for love that was not expressed exclusively. In other words, if I am living with that person, they are obviously my wife for all of time, and vice versa. If I am pursuing this person, I would never pursue someone else. Their culture didn't even have a concept for that, whereas in our world, we say our vows standing at the altar. I'm usually like this and they're usually like this. We say our vows and do you know, the next time the couple thinks about those vows? Either when they print them and hang them in the room, or when they're debating breaking them. That is the way our culture deals with vows. You probably have not looked at your vows since you said them to your spouse. If you are married, the only time we begin thinking through our words is if we are debating breaking them, but not them. This is not just words, this is action, and I thought you might find this interesting.
Will Hawk:A lot of us who watched medieval movies, always remember the king with his signet ring and the wax which for some reason was always red. And they would put their little stamp and their seal on the letter. And what are they saying? This is mine, this is authenticated, right. Give me the little blue check mark. This is authentically from me. Not only that, I'm not going to seal everything, only the things of greatest value, only the things that matter most. This is one of the ways a seal would have looked in their day. It would have been this little what is that? An inch and a half. It would have been this little ceramic or clay cylinder that somebody would painstakingly etch so that when you rolled it across clay, when you rolled it across a vase of some value, when you dipped it in ink and rolled it across parchment, you would get these little images. But they did take these seals and do something we do in our culture they turn them into jewelry, they would put a little loop on it, they would wear it around their neck, and so the closest thing we have to rings in our day would be this very thing that she says to him in hers Will you make me your most valuable thing? Will you put on display for the world to see that I am yours and I am yours alone and you are mine. Why? Because that's what the Bible means when it says for because love is as strong as death, jealousy fierce as the grave. Its flashes, or flashes of fire, the very flame of the Lord. I want to give you a picture to hold in your mind until we get to the end of this book in a few moments.
Will Hawk:Karen Ann and I are entering a unique season of life. We're entering a season of life where we have a driver. We're almost all the way into, like, middle school and upper years, and I wasn't ready for this because it just like surprised us one day. We I'm spilling almost you know what. I'm just not used to it, yet it doesn't catch as well we were doing. It was June 3rd. It was the day after my birthday.
Will Hawk:I love spaghetti. She was doing spaghetti for the whole family. It's one of my favorite meals and we didn't look at the family calendar to realize all of our boys were going to be gone. So we make all this pasta, tiggy. So we're like, oh cool, it'll just be us and Tiggy. That'll be a sweet little moment.
Will Hawk:Nah, she's upstairs taking a bubble bath for an hour and a half moment. Nah, she's upstairs taking a bubble bath for an hour and a half and in that moment we have this entire family size spaghetti dinner ready. And I'm just looking at my wife and my wife is just looking at me. And in that moment I was not sad, I was like heck, yes, I'm going to get date night credit, I'm not going to have to swipe a card. I literally walk across like we're making plates. I walk across the room, I light a candle and I put it next to our kitchen sink. And we just sit next to our kitchen sink staring at each other eating spaghetti like Lady and the Tramp.
Will Hawk:In this unexpected moment of what I hoped would be heights and depths of romance extraordinaire, it turned into us just kind of having dinner and saying well, this is weird. Over and over and over again, I love my children. I do, but I really love that moment without them. And it's not because I don't love my children, it's because I jealously want to be many times just alone with my best friend and my wife. To me, there is no better place to be, so long as we're not arguing, than with just me and my wife enjoying life together and in much the same way. It is not a bad thing for God to want to sit or walk alone with us. He is jealous for that time.
Will Hawk:This passage is actually very, very fascinating because this is the only time, right here, god ever comes up in the entire book of Song of Songs, the only time God makes an appearance like this, the very flame of the notice the all caps LORD. This is the flame of the notice the all caps, lord. This is the name of God. The only time he shows up in the text is when he says here's the deal I wanna be with you and I wanna be with you alone. I am jealous for this time.
Will Hawk:I want you to remember this phraseology Jealousy, fierce as the grave flashes, or flashes of fire, the very flame of the Lord. I want you to remember that because we see it in one other place in Scripture, in Deuteronomy. You got to go all the way back. You got to go all the way back to where God unites himself with the people, rescues them from slavery in Egypt. And here is what he says. He says the Lord, your God, I am a consuming fire, I am a jealous God. So here's my question for you Is jealousy? You don't have to answer out loud rhetorical Is jealousy good or bad? Is it good or is it bad?
Will Hawk:In this context, what we find is that he's literally saying take care lest you forget the covenant, the seal, the promise that we have made to sit exclusively at a table with one another. This is God looking at his people and he's saying I have prepared this table for you In the presence of your enemies, as Pharaoh and his chariots and soldiers come down. Have I not opened a doorway of salvation for you? Have I not ushered you into a promised land? Have I not brought you into a place where there is plenty of food and plenty of drink? Won't you just sit with me? I think sometimes we open the doorway to the cottage or the kitchen of our soul and we invite far too many people into the table that Christ wants to sit at with us alone. In fact, when you look at this verse, one of the easy don't be offended here. I'm not scratching out scripture, okay. I'm just wanting you guys to see something. What's happening here is that the Bible is wanting to make an illustration. Death and the grave are similar, and as similar as death and the grave are so similar are love and jealousy?
Will Hawk:In this sense, scripture is using the term jealousy in a very positive way. It's God being jealous over his bride. When something is mine, like actually mine, and God wants it to be mine and mine alone, it is unloving for me not to care if somebody takes it, has it, enjoys it or pursues it. If another man pursued Karen Ann and I was indifferent, true, I would not be a jealous husband, but that is not a good thing. I would put on display to her that she is not cherished, she is not valuable, she is not worth putting my seal on, nor am I worth her putting her seal on me. Fun fact did you know I can feel that for you and I don't mean like will for you. Did you know pastors feel this for their congregation?
Will Hawk:Here's the way Paul puts it. He's writing to the Corinthians who were let me get your eyes for a minute a hot mess of a people. Okay, thank you for not being Corinthians. Like thank you for not being Corinthians. But here's what he writes I feel a divine jealousy for you. 33 times the word jealousy is used in the Bible. Did you know? They're almost all exclusively positive Jealousy is a wonderful, beautiful reality, and I'm going to show you what the healthy and the unhealthy is in just a minute. But Paul says man, I have this divine jealousy for you. Do you want to know why? I'll tell you why.
Will Hawk:I betrothed you to one husband. I found you when you were wandering in. Whatever it was that your life looked like before you came to Christ. I found you there and I told you about this one man who wants to sit at a table with you and he wants nothing more than to just be with you. And I explained who he was and I brought you into his presence. I told you of his glories and, even though he knew your broken story, he still wanted to sit with you. I wanted to present you as a pure virgin to Christ, but I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. Do you know that the elders in the room Feel this for you? We want you to love Jesus More than anything else. We don't want anything else Sitting at the table of your heart Than Christ and Christ alone, and we will awkwardly, difficultly, frequently Walk into difficult places, because we want to move anything that is being sat at the table of your soul. That is not Christ. How can you know if your jealousy is good or bad? Eric Thones puts it this way in an article called Redeeming Jealousy. I think we need to get better biblical terms.
Will Hawk:Go ahead and decide before you leave today, that you're going to have a good definition for envy and jealousy, because they are not the same thing. Envy is a desire to gain possession of something that does not belong to you. Covetousness, it is always sinful, but jealousy is this strong desire to maintain something that does belong to you. Now, can you get that wrong? Can you believe something is yours that isn't and be jealous of it? Yeah, absolutely you can. But go ahead and begin in your mind, in your heart, in your theological self, to separate jealousy, wanting to protect something that is yours. Father's ears get ready to perk up at that concept and the difference in just wanting something that isn't yours, a timing that may not be yours. Envy craves what isn't yours, jealousy protects, and these two realities are probably the two biggest separators of the difference in what is sinful and what is holy. How much does God protect his bride, his church. If you're a Christian, how much does God protect his love over you? An awful lot. It is the very flame of the Lord. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it.
Will Hawk:When I read this verse, it takes me all the way back to Genesis 7 through 9. Anybody want to guess what's happening in Genesis 7 through 9? There's a guy whose name starts with an N and his name is Noah. Do you realize that when God brought the flood, there was only one thing that was not put out, and it wasn't Noah, or Shem, or Ham or Japheth, they were peripheral. The only thing the flood did not extinguish was God's promise. The only thing, the entire earth being covered in a deluge. The only thing it couldn't stop was God's perfect promise, floating along the waves, that he would make a people for himself, that he would call that people to himself and that he would protect that people until he himself came and brought them home.
Will Hawk:That's why we can say this incredible passage I am sure, christian, just pause, can you read that and believe it? If you're not a believer in the room, can I just tell you this is what I want for you. This is what I'm going to invite you to Christian. Can you say this and believe it? Because it's God's word, it's true Never to be extinguished. I am sure that neither death nor life, angels, rulers, things present, things that haven't even come yet, nor powers, the highest of heights and the deepest of depths, anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God. Not, period. It can't separate us from the love of God because of you, because you filled out that little card at church camp, or because you walked down the aisle, or because you prayed with an elder. No, no, no, no, no, no. Do you want to know how you can know that your faith in Christ will not be extinguished? Because it is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. And I point this out to you because that is where we find this couple as they think about love. Many waters can't quench it, floods can't drown it.
Will Hawk:And then there's this beautiful little story that is drawn up If a man offered for love all the wealth of his house, he would be utterly despised. This doesn't translate super easily into our culture, so let me just give you the illustration. Here's the illustration the door is open and the bride begins to walk down. She's looked more beautiful than any other day in her life. They stand here. You hear these incredible things. He talks about her, she talks about him.
Will Hawk:The pastor says what he loves about both couples and then, right before we get to the vows, we say which we don't actually say that much in our culture anymore if there be any reason for these two not to be wed, speak now or forever, hold your peace. We don't even say it anymore because it gets so awkward. We're like this is pretty expensive, a lot of time, a lot of time put in, a lot of time. We barely even say it anymore. But I want you to imagine that the pastor says it and about four rows back, a man stands up.
Will Hawk:Everybody looks at him and he walks forward and he looks at the pastor and he looks at the bride and he looks at the congregation and he says you know, I'll be honest with you, I didn't really buy into this whole love thing. This is beautiful, I kind of want this and I've heard great things about her. She's cute, it's a great dress, great dress. And then he reaches into his back pocket and he pulls out his billfold and he says I'll give you everything I have for her. I'll sell my house. I'll do this. Can I tell you what wouldn't happen? Nobody in that room would say she's so valuable. Look at that. The guy's gonna mortgage his house just to get her. Nobody's thinking that. Everybody looks at it and, instead of being like blown away at an amount of money, they look at it and they feel disgust.
Will Hawk:How could you look at love? How could you look at a covenant and feel like it's something you can cover with your billfold? Are you tracking with me? This is what happens when we think we're going to impress God with the things we do. This is God opening the door, inviting you to the table to sit with him, and to sit with him alone. And you're saying Jesus, you know what. That sounds really good, but here's the deal. Don't you know that I memorized a lot of verses? I'm good, I don't really need this right now. Don't you know that I serve in kids ministry? Let me just pull out my billfold that I serve in kids ministry. Let me just pull out my billfold. I've been tithing regularly to the church, jesus, can't you see all of the value that I can bring? It's not impressive, it's disgusting. And this is where they find themselves. There is nothing in this world that you can purchase this kind of love with.
Will Hawk:And in this moment, all of a sudden, we move to the final words of wisdom of this book and it becomes more. I wish my wife was here so I could point to her. Can't point to a lady, I'll just use you guys. It's more than just this, it's more than that. It's more than a husband and a wife. It all of a sudden moves from lateral to vertical in the most beautiful of ways. I didn't tell you this.
Will Hawk:We usually only do communion the first Sunday of every month. In a few moments we're going to take communion together, and I'm stopping mid-sermon now to tell you this because I want you to begin asking the question who have I invited to sit at the table of my soul outside of Christ, when he wants to have that dinner with just me and with me alone? Because when we get here, what we find is that if we try to fill that with anything other than Christ, it is despicable. So what are the final words of wisdom in this incredible book of wisdom? To appreciate it, jealousy is going to be required. So if you haven't moved from envy and jealousy, you're going to need to make the separation now. I didn't give you a score morning, so here's your score morning Score morning. I've been doing that every week. We have a little sister and she has no breasts. What shall we do for our sister on the day when she is spoken for?
Will Hawk:There is only one version of the Bible that doesn't use that term and I don't want to preach out of the message. So I decided this is how Hebrew culture would have dealt with it. What they're basically saying is this dads ears up, men ears up, but not just men. I intentionally left the word others here. If you're looking in your Bible, you'll notice that probably, depending on the version you have above verse eight, this is the whole community looking at this book of wisdom, saying what is the final thing we must know and we must do. And the answer is this what are we supposed to do for those around us who are not mature enough for love yet? And, by the way, that might be an age, but the age could be 30. The age could be much older than that.
Will Hawk:And the Bible gives us this incredible phraseology where it says if, in other words, there are two ways that believers are expected to walk in this final advice that the book has to give. If she is a wall illustration one, we will build on her a battlement of silver. If she is steadfast and immovable, if the enticements of this world are not going to draw her away, then we get to build around her beautiful things and celebrate her. But, in other words, this is going to be a bit different. But if she is a door, we are going to enclose her with boards of silver. What are the final words of wisdom here?
Will Hawk:Well, much of our time in this song has celebrated love. It's done so with a word of warning for those who want a good theology of celebration, that we not wake up love too soon, that we would seek God's design for love and longing and life together, which we already hit when we didn't skip the recap. But here what was implicit becomes explicit the enjoyment of romantic love, of sexuality, is a gift that God gives, and this gift is a door. This door defines your heart. It is a door that can be open to good and it is a door that can be open to evil. It can be crossed by the wise or it can be crossed by the fool, but who you let in will affect you tremendously, for good and for ill. Fathers, you are called to protect this door, community. This is why I left the others up, other women in the church. You are called by God to protect this door Because there are children in the halls and children in this room, and every one of us must look at our heart and we must say when it comes to sin, when it comes to enticement, when it comes to the schemes of the devil, let me be real am I a wall against this thing, or do the hinges swing just a little bit too freely?
Will Hawk:Am I too easily enticed? Do I know? When that thing presents itself, I am going to usher it in to the table of my heart and ask Jesus to slide back just a little bit. If we're strong, we build that person up, we encourage them into ministry and, by the way, that is all of us. Where are you strong, serve God, and where we are weak, we look at our community and we say will you wrap me up, Will you protect me?
Will Hawk:Fathers, we are called to protect our doors first. If the doors of our heart are swinging loose when every sin comes, how are we going to stand guard for anybody else's? We are secondly, called to protect the doorways of our marriage and not let what she called, I think, in chapter two, or three, little foxes to come in. Are you on guard, men? But we must also protect the doorways of our children. Keep your heart with all vigilance. Keep the door closed until the proper time, for from it flow the springs of life For at least the most formative years of our children. Husbands, it is your calling and expectation to stand guard, knowing the doorway to the heart of your children, because they are children, is going to swing loose at the enticements of sin. But what if there is no father? What a beautiful reality that when the disciples come to Jesus and say, if I were to talk to God, what would I begin with? And he answers Father, I'll tell you what to do. Call out to your dad. Call out to the one who would protect you If you did not have a father, who was worried about protecting you. Additionally, the church exists for those who do not have fathers, to stand into the gap.
Will Hawk:We were finishing up family camp yesterday and as we were leaving, the last person I saw I'm going to change the name was a woman named Jessica, jessica's bawling her eyes out. This is a mom with a couple of kids and the reason she was crying was not because camp was ending. The reason she was crying is because her husband has been fighting cancer for so many years and he is not winning that battle. She knew that even though we have watched her children grow up at this camp that we have gone to for six, seven, eight years. She knew the likelihood of her family coming back with her husband was miracle only type stuff and she was weeping, knowing that her family may never walk into this thing that they are walking out of again. And when she was sharing with the group we finished the week and she was sharing with the group. Here is what she shared. She said my husband's always a prepper and a planner. He always has been. He has been going around to his family, to believers in our church and to some of you in this camp, asking you to be surrogate fathers Because our teenage son and daughter likely will not have him in one year.
Will Hawk:Church, yes, please look at your own heart and ask who is sitting at the table outside of Christ. But if you see Christ across the table, might it be time for you to go and protect the hearts of those around you Because ultimately, men in the room, we can't stand there forever. Hopefully our children will outlive us. I certainly hope that's the case and hopefully our children become way stronger believers than we are and they're standing guard way better than we ever did. Hopefully they will realize that the doorway of their heart was built by and exists for somebody else in the first place, somebody who designed it, somebody who stands there and knocks, somebody who knows their longings better than we do can protect them better than we ever could. So, fathers, we stand at the door protectively and prayerfully, hoping that they will hear the same knock that we did.
Will Hawk:That changed everything. Jesus. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. Might. I end you with this good news, gentlemen, if you want to go ahead and come on in for communion, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice, I will come in. If anyone hears my voice, you don't have a thing in your billfold, nothing to impress God. It would be despised for you to think so. Here's the only question Do you long to sit across the table with Christ and Christ alone? Are there people that you have invited in, things that you have invited in that you need to kick out of the cottage. Are you even now hearing Christ say, might I come in? Because if our answer is yes, he will come in and eat with him and be with him and this beautiful thing begins. The world will offer you more it's what it does, but all of its mores are going to be air quote mores. It'll offer you more love and it'll offer you more acceptance and it'll offer you more pleasure and it'll offer you more comfort. But we always have to put air quotes on it, because when we see that thing sitting next to Christ and we're honest with ourselves, it is not nearly good enough. And this is how the book ends.
Will Hawk:She looks at Solomon, who probably wrote this book, looking back on a love that he lost because he ran after way too many women instead of one person sitting at the table, and she says Solomon had a vineyard. He let it out to vineyard. He let out the vineyard to keepers. He had a garden, he had a heart, he had a door and everybody would bring him for its fruit a thousand pieces of silver. He used his love, he monetized his love. He tried to find more and more and more. But watch what she does as the book closes my vineyard, my very own, my table, my door, my heart, my relationship. It's before me.
Will Hawk:You, o Solomon, take the thousand. Take the thousand things that say they're better than Christ. You can have them, just give me, jesus. This is the greatest piece of wisdom that the book gives to us, and so I give it to you, jesus. You don't have to have anything in your billfold and you certainly don't need to be impressive. What you need to do is remove whatever else is sitting at the table.
Will Hawk:It might be schedules and it might be screens. It might be a sin that just doesn't seem to want to let up, and if you want help with that, we'll have pastors that will pray for you. Let up, and if you want help with that, we'll have pastors that will pray for you. But let's come to a table that was prepared for us that we might find intimacy with God. Let the world have their thousand loves. I'll take just one. If you're a believer, this table is open to you. You do not need to be a member of the church. But if you're not a Christian, please don't come to this table before first becoming one. If you need help with that, anyone in the room that you know to be a Christian, and certainly we'll have some pastors down by the doors. Would love to talk with you, but let's take a moment and let's look at the table of our heart. Who is there, who ought to be there and what must we do to be there?