WEBVTT 00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:00.640 Well good morning. 00:00:00.719 --> 00:00:12.160 We are in our second week going through the Old Testament book of Judges, which is probably one of those books that you have been skipping your entire life, if you've even heard of it at all. 00:00:12.480 --> 00:00:18.399 But it has some interesting stories in it, has some really ancient stories for us to pull a lot of wisdom from. 00:00:18.480 --> 00:00:27.760 And the story, like all Old Testament books and stories, points us toward God's grace to us that we know perfectly in Jesus. 00:00:27.839 --> 00:00:32.159 So here's a story if you weren't here last week, just to set up real quick. 00:00:32.320 --> 00:00:44.240 The people of Israel, they were enslaved in Egypt, and Moses, this leader, he rises up, he leads them out of Egypt, he leads them out to the desert, they wander around in the desert. 00:00:44.399 --> 00:00:51.840 Then Joshua, the next leader, he steps in, he leads the Israelites into Canaan, which was their historic land. 00:00:52.000 --> 00:00:52.719 That was their land. 00:00:52.799 --> 00:00:56.719 But while they were gone in Egypt, other people groups have settled into the land. 00:00:56.799 --> 00:01:06.879 And so they come back to their land and they begin, like we talked about last week, they move into the offense to push these people out of their land so they can get back their land. 00:01:06.959 --> 00:01:13.680 And we get this story in the midst of this because the people of Israel don't perfectly push all the people out. 00:01:14.079 --> 00:01:16.560 There's an intermingling, and some people stay. 00:01:17.120 --> 00:01:24.400 And what happens is the people of Israel begin to adopt the idolatry of these people. 00:01:25.200 --> 00:01:41.359 So naturally, what that did for me this week is I just became sort of like hyper-aware of ways that I overuse different things in my life for self-worth or secure identity or even like a like an inner peace or something like that. 00:01:42.079 --> 00:01:45.760 For me, um, like many times it started with a catalog I got in the mail. 00:01:45.840 --> 00:01:49.040 It was Monday, a perfectly fine Monday, I might add. 00:01:49.280 --> 00:01:54.159 Got home from work, great Monday, and I get the free fly catalog. 00:01:54.480 --> 00:02:04.959 So I buy these bamboo-infused hoodies from Free Fly, because bamboo infused apparently is um like really great when you're wearing it on the beach. 00:02:05.120 --> 00:02:08.240 And so I I own a certain number of these hoodies. 00:02:08.319 --> 00:02:19.840 I won't disclose publicly how many I own, but I'm on the catalog list and I get the catalog, and on the front uh is um they're they're bone fishing in the Bahamas. 00:02:20.960 --> 00:02:24.400 And I was fine until I saw that picture. 00:02:24.560 --> 00:02:33.199 And then all of a sudden, my first thought, right, and you've had this moment, my first thought was my life is not that great. 00:02:34.479 --> 00:02:39.199 I mean, I'm just I mean, surely, I I really just my life is incomplete. 00:02:39.280 --> 00:02:42.000 I've never been bone fishing in the Bahamas. 00:02:43.199 --> 00:02:44.400 I'm not whole. 00:02:44.560 --> 00:02:45.599 I'm not at peace. 00:02:45.680 --> 00:02:47.439 I thought I was at peace like two minutes ago. 00:02:47.520 --> 00:02:48.879 I'm not I'm not at peace. 00:02:49.039 --> 00:03:02.159 But, but if I if I was on that crystal clear, flat casting out in front of a bone fish, now all of a sudden, now then I could be at peace. 00:03:02.400 --> 00:03:02.639 Right? 00:03:02.800 --> 00:03:10.639 Just like a little way that we have idolatry in our lives, where we use something else to try to give us peace. 00:03:10.719 --> 00:03:11.759 And you know what would happen. 00:03:11.840 --> 00:03:18.080 Like, I would be on the boat in the Bahamas, and it'd be like three degrees too hot, and I'd be to want to go back to the pool. 00:03:18.159 --> 00:03:18.240 Right? 00:03:18.400 --> 00:03:19.360 I mean, that's what would happen, right? 00:03:19.439 --> 00:03:22.479 I mean, you know what, like you get the thing you want, and then it's never enough. 00:03:22.560 --> 00:03:23.280 It's what happens. 00:03:23.360 --> 00:03:26.080 Here's what we said last year when we studied idolatry. 00:03:26.159 --> 00:03:27.439 A little bit of review here. 00:03:27.599 --> 00:03:36.960 Uh, idols are anything we love too much that end up holding power over our hearts being at peace. 00:03:37.280 --> 00:03:53.039 Because as soon as we love them too much, we hand the power, I hand the power over to the bone fishing, and now the bone fishing has power over me, and the bone fishing holds no power, no real power, it's just a thing, but I've handed over power to him. 00:03:53.520 --> 00:03:59.520 Tim Keller in his great study workbook, Bible study, gospel and life, he says this. 00:03:59.680 --> 00:04:03.280 Idolatry in our hearts begins with, and this is part of our review also from last year. 00:04:03.439 --> 00:04:08.240 He says this life only has meaning, or I only have worth. 00:04:08.560 --> 00:04:09.520 So I like that. 00:04:09.919 --> 00:04:11.360 Life only has meaning. 00:04:11.680 --> 00:04:16.639 I only have worth if I have power and influence over others. 00:04:16.800 --> 00:04:18.959 So that would be power idolatry. 00:04:19.120 --> 00:04:21.680 I only have worth if I have some power over somebody. 00:04:21.839 --> 00:04:33.279 I only have worth if I am loved and respected by, fill in the blank, your father, some person who you think has prestige, some person that you adore. 00:04:34.399 --> 00:04:41.680 I only have worth if I have this kind of pleasure experience or a particular quality of life. 00:04:41.839 --> 00:04:43.680 That would be a comfort idolatry, right? 00:04:43.839 --> 00:04:46.079 I mean, that that's that's me, that's me on Monday. 00:04:46.160 --> 00:04:47.439 That's my situation. 00:04:47.759 --> 00:04:51.040 I only have worth if I am highly productive and get a lot done. 00:04:51.120 --> 00:04:56.480 So you might have a really unproductive day and you just need to check something off. 00:04:56.560 --> 00:05:04.160 So you like you're gonna vacuum the den, you're gonna clean the dishes, like you've got to find something productive, and then you will feel like you have worth. 00:05:04.560 --> 00:05:09.759 I only have worth if I am being recognized, I'm excelling in my word. 00:05:10.240 --> 00:05:11.920 Achievement idolatry. 00:05:12.240 --> 00:05:19.040 I only have worth if I am fulfilling my religious moral codes and accomplishing what is expected of me. 00:05:19.199 --> 00:05:21.360 That's a religion idolatry. 00:05:22.000 --> 00:05:33.120 See, idolatry is us placing our infinite needs, which is what our hearts have, infinite needs of love and acceptance. 00:05:33.839 --> 00:05:36.800 And we place them on a finite resource. 00:05:37.120 --> 00:05:41.920 Bone fishing, work, romance, all that has is finite. 00:05:42.240 --> 00:05:44.639 It cannot solve our heart issues. 00:05:44.720 --> 00:05:53.199 And as soon as we do that, we are set up in an idolatry relationship where that finite thing can't solve our real problems. 00:05:53.759 --> 00:05:55.519 All right, Judges 2, here's our text. 00:05:55.600 --> 00:05:56.800 That sets us up for our text. 00:05:56.959 --> 00:06:00.240 Judges 2, uh jumping in halfway through verse 10. 00:06:00.480 --> 00:06:11.839 And there arose another generation after them, so this is the generation after Joshua's generation, after them who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel. 00:06:12.079 --> 00:06:17.040 And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served Baal's. 00:06:17.199 --> 00:06:22.639 And they abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. 00:06:22.800 --> 00:06:33.439 They went after other gods, little G, notice that, from among the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed down to them, and they provoked the Lord to anger. 00:06:34.319 --> 00:06:34.639 Right? 00:06:34.879 --> 00:06:50.959 The Lord will be angry toward our idolatry, not because he is angry at you as a child of God, but he is angry in the way in which we're living our lives because we're not honoring him, we're not living in the freedom he wants for us. 00:06:51.120 --> 00:06:54.240 So that even the anger is inside the love of God to us. 00:06:55.600 --> 00:07:02.959 So, verse 13, they abandoned the Lord and served the Baals in Ashtaroth. 00:07:03.199 --> 00:07:14.160 So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he gave them over to plunders who plundered them, and he sold them into the hand of their surrounding enemies so they could no longer withstand their enemies. 00:07:14.319 --> 00:07:23.199 Whenever they marched out, the hand of the Lord was against them for harm, as the Lord had warned, and as the Lord had sworn to them, and they were in terrible distress. 00:07:23.600 --> 00:07:30.800 Point number one is this our idolatry begins with a refusal to remember God's faithfulness to us. 00:07:30.959 --> 00:07:31.839 That's where it begins. 00:07:31.920 --> 00:07:34.879 It just rem begins with a forgetfulness. 00:07:35.199 --> 00:07:46.160 So we tend to think about idolatry, even what I just set up for us in our review, we tend to think of it as sort of like one thing over the other, right? 00:07:46.319 --> 00:07:53.519 Like bone fishing, your work, your marriage, and something incredibly immoral could be here as well. 00:07:53.680 --> 00:07:55.680 And then God should be over that. 00:07:55.759 --> 00:08:02.160 Like, and then idolatry would be where we put uh the other thing over God. 00:08:02.319 --> 00:08:04.800 We think of it in terms of that way. 00:08:04.879 --> 00:08:06.160 And it and it works that way. 00:08:06.319 --> 00:08:08.399 I mean, that's a good framework for us to think about it. 00:08:08.480 --> 00:08:11.519 But there's another way to think about it, too, that this week I learned. 00:08:11.600 --> 00:08:20.240 And I read this in on the Mockingbird blog, an article entitled Modern Origins of Anxiety, Reflections on Idolatry by Will McDavid. 00:08:20.319 --> 00:08:21.600 And I read this sentence. 00:08:22.000 --> 00:08:33.120 One definition of idolatry would be failing to see through to the reality behind something, but to stop with the thing itself. 00:08:34.000 --> 00:08:37.759 So we realize we're overly depending on things. 00:08:37.840 --> 00:08:41.600 Um, and some of these things would be incredibly destructive and immoral to begin with. 00:08:41.759 --> 00:08:47.120 Some of these other things could be moral things and legitimately okay things that we over-exalt. 00:08:47.440 --> 00:08:51.759 And in that way, idolatry is us stopping with the thing itself. 00:08:51.840 --> 00:08:53.279 We don't see through it. 00:08:53.679 --> 00:08:56.399 We're stuck, it's an end in of itself. 00:08:57.600 --> 00:09:15.519 But the other way to think about this is to think about it in terms of when we're walking with the Lord and not in idolatry, but holding God as the supreme peace for our hearts and justification for us, that we're able to see, we're able to see through things. 00:09:15.759 --> 00:09:37.679 So we're able to see through the empty promise something gives us, whether it be our work or a power idolatry or romance idolatry or religion idolatry, that you were able to see through that for what it is, that it is a thing in and of itself, but we can see through it that the promise it's showing us is not actually gonna work out. 00:09:37.840 --> 00:09:42.080 And so we can see through it to the creator of the created. 00:09:42.799 --> 00:09:47.120 That God created that, and we can see through the created to the creator. 00:09:47.279 --> 00:10:14.159 And so my prayer for us is for us to continue to have our hearts so enriched and deepening in our identity in Christ and God's love for us, that permanent love for us that is infinite for our infinite needs, that we can become so secure that we can risk, we can risk awareness and confession of all of our idolatry. 00:10:14.399 --> 00:10:17.039 So we can move into greater freedom. 00:10:17.600 --> 00:10:22.559 For these people and judges, Joshua had died, that generation passed. 00:10:23.120 --> 00:10:27.039 And this next generation, it says they forget. 00:10:27.200 --> 00:10:28.399 They didn't remember. 00:10:28.639 --> 00:10:30.399 Like that was the beginning of their idolatry. 00:10:30.559 --> 00:10:33.679 They didn't remember the Lord's goodness to them. 00:10:34.559 --> 00:10:41.840 And Baal is this God that is dominant out of all these little g gods, and Baal is the god of thunder and lightning. 00:10:42.000 --> 00:10:45.200 It's actually incredibly uh sexual and perverted. 00:10:45.279 --> 00:10:47.440 And it, I mean, you can Google it, but buckle up. 00:10:47.519 --> 00:10:50.639 I'm just gonna tell you, buckle up for that ride, what's coming for you. 00:10:50.799 --> 00:10:54.799 Now, it's easy to think we're we're so modern. 00:10:55.120 --> 00:11:01.840 Like, oh, that incredibly perverted sexual worship of little g god from the ancient times. 00:11:02.000 --> 00:11:04.159 We're so modern and sophisticated. 00:11:04.399 --> 00:11:11.360 We, I mean, that's so far from our lives, this idea of idolatry and little g gods, it's so far away, so easy to think this. 00:11:11.440 --> 00:11:19.120 But then I read this week, and I love the way of thinking about it this way, is the gods have simply changed their clothes to fit into our culture. 00:11:19.600 --> 00:11:24.559 And the reason why is because we're the ones who create the little g gods. 00:11:24.799 --> 00:11:25.039 Right? 00:11:25.200 --> 00:11:29.039 Like in ancient times, like that little g god didn't exist, it didn't exist. 00:11:29.200 --> 00:11:34.960 The people created it and handed their power for their own peace over to it, and we do the same thing today. 00:11:35.039 --> 00:11:36.799 That's why it changes their clothes. 00:11:37.039 --> 00:11:45.840 And you could go into a third world country and the little g gods change their clothes because those people, human beings, are creating these little g gods. 00:11:48.559 --> 00:11:52.320 The story teaches us in verses 10 through 13 that first we forget. 00:11:52.480 --> 00:11:56.559 Verse 10, they knew neither the Lord nor what he had done. 00:11:56.879 --> 00:12:03.279 So this word know, it probably doesn't mean that they didn't know at all. 00:12:03.679 --> 00:12:07.600 It's more that it means that it quit being precious to them. 00:12:09.679 --> 00:12:21.840 They no longer had any astonishment for God's supremacy, him as creator of all things, and for his faithfulness to them. 00:12:22.080 --> 00:12:27.200 They stopped seeing through all the created around them to the creator. 00:12:27.679 --> 00:12:35.519 Then we get verses 14 and 15 that teach us that ongoing oppression from various people groups just wore them down. 00:12:36.000 --> 00:12:43.919 Now, I'm not a us them type of thing where like all the evil is like everybody else, and like I'm like, I'm good, but everybody else is bad. 00:12:44.000 --> 00:12:44.720 I'm not that at all. 00:12:44.799 --> 00:12:49.200 I mean, I think there's enough sin in me to lead me astray like for the rest of my life. 00:12:49.360 --> 00:12:57.840 But there is this aspect of oppression from other people groups that are doing other things that are not healthy ways of life or godly ways of life. 00:12:58.000 --> 00:13:04.879 And for these people living in a very pluralistic society, much like us, they get led astray by that. 00:13:05.039 --> 00:13:06.399 They accept it. 00:13:08.000 --> 00:13:13.919 And part of our calling, as we live in a pluralistic society, part of our calling is to slow down more. 00:13:14.159 --> 00:13:16.720 I really think it's just for us to slow down more. 00:13:16.960 --> 00:13:17.200 Right? 00:13:17.279 --> 00:13:19.519 The first thing they did is they didn't remember. 00:13:19.840 --> 00:13:27.279 I mean, it's just to slow down, or to have diligence and grace to spend more time reflecting, more time remembering. 00:13:27.519 --> 00:13:31.840 That we're already beloved, we're already forgiven, we're already righteous in Jesus. 00:13:31.919 --> 00:13:38.799 We don't have to go out and create a little gig God and hand power over to it and get put to work by it. 00:13:39.519 --> 00:13:40.799 Verse 16. 00:13:41.360 --> 00:13:43.120 Then the Lord raised up judges. 00:13:43.279 --> 00:13:50.559 So these judges were uh pretty much like military leaders that became leaders of the people, who saved them out of the hand of those who plundered them. 00:13:50.720 --> 00:13:55.840 Yet they did not listen to their judges, for they hoard after other gods and bowed down to them. 00:13:56.000 --> 00:14:02.720 They soon turned aside from the way in which their fathers had walked, who had obeyed the commandments of the Lord, and they did not do so. 00:14:02.879 --> 00:14:16.720 Whenever the Lord raised up judges for them, the Lord was with the judge, and he saved them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge, for the Lord was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who afflicted and oppressed them. 00:14:17.120 --> 00:14:27.120 But whenever the judge died, they turned back and were more corrupt than their fathers, going after other gods, serving them and bowing down to them. 00:14:27.360 --> 00:14:32.000 They did not drop any of their practices or their stubborn ways. 00:14:32.159 --> 00:14:38.399 Now, when we read this, I think it's good for us not to read it as these ancient people that were nothing like. 00:14:38.559 --> 00:14:42.159 We should be reading this as like, oh, that that's me. 00:14:42.480 --> 00:14:43.840 Like, I do that. 00:14:44.080 --> 00:14:57.600 I'm incredibly stubborn, and I return back to idols that have never fulfilled me, and I do that over and over again, and yet God is continually pursuing me, even in that stubbornness. 00:14:57.759 --> 00:14:59.200 Here's a few of the points we get from it. 00:14:59.279 --> 00:15:05.759 Point number two is this idols can be anything we add to God as a means for being whole. 00:15:06.559 --> 00:15:08.960 That we just think we need to add something else. 00:15:09.200 --> 00:15:20.799 And I love that list that I went through that Tim Keller has in his Bible study because it's so good for us to see that this can be anything from religion to work to achievement to approval. 00:15:21.039 --> 00:15:24.879 This is anything we add to God for us to become whole. 00:15:26.639 --> 00:15:32.799 And when we do that, like I've been saying, we're giving over power, and as soon as we do that, now we're at work for it. 00:15:32.960 --> 00:15:35.200 We're performing for it. 00:15:35.759 --> 00:15:41.759 And the Israelites did this, and they did it over and over and over again because they're incredibly stubborn, just like us. 00:15:42.000 --> 00:15:46.799 So, point number three, we get we return to idols because idols place us in control. 00:15:46.879 --> 00:15:51.039 That's why we love idols, that's why we love idolatry, it's because of control. 00:15:51.279 --> 00:16:01.120 So our hearts are miserable, and we're never really getting peace from this thing, and yet we go back to it because our old Adam, our flesh, loves control. 00:16:02.720 --> 00:16:05.679 I don't want to live in a receiving posture in my flesh. 00:16:05.840 --> 00:16:07.039 Like I want to be in control. 00:16:07.200 --> 00:16:08.080 I want to be sovereign. 00:16:08.240 --> 00:16:09.600 I want to be the creator. 00:16:09.840 --> 00:16:12.559 I want to live in a controlling posture. 00:16:12.799 --> 00:16:13.200 Right? 00:16:13.519 --> 00:16:18.879 Like we're grace needy and yet at the same time we're grace allergic because we love control so much. 00:16:19.039 --> 00:16:25.919 But the good news is, is God is committed to us, even while we are trying to do this so futile. 00:16:26.159 --> 00:16:34.320 A quick gospel application before we get to our final point is this that what we see in the stories, we see one generation that was faithful, and then the next generation is not. 00:16:34.399 --> 00:16:38.960 So there was some breakdown from one generation to the next generation. 00:16:40.159 --> 00:16:48.799 And that generation, they knew the great commandment, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind, and that's in Deuteronomy 6, and then we can get these words, Deuteronomy 6, 6 through 9. 00:16:48.960 --> 00:16:52.559 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 00:16:52.799 --> 00:16:57.600 You shall teach them diligently, and that word also can be impressed. 00:16:58.159 --> 00:17:06.559 Teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down and when you rise. 00:17:06.640 --> 00:17:10.079 I love the ongoing relational nature of that language. 00:17:10.319 --> 00:17:15.759 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 00:17:15.920 --> 00:17:19.519 You shall write them on the doorpost of your house and on your gates. 00:17:19.680 --> 00:17:33.359 So the idea here of passing the story of God's faithfulness from one generation to the next, from you to your children, or from you to our children in our church, if you don't have children, is not force. 00:17:33.759 --> 00:17:34.720 That's not what it is. 00:17:34.960 --> 00:17:35.920 That's not gonna work out. 00:17:36.079 --> 00:17:40.640 Like either we're gonna get compliant children who are resentful, or we're gonna get rebellious children. 00:17:40.799 --> 00:17:42.720 Like that's all that's gonna happen if we do force. 00:17:42.880 --> 00:17:44.799 It's an impression over time. 00:17:44.960 --> 00:17:52.160 And I love that that's the word is this idea of teach them diligently, and then all this relational, ongoing language. 00:17:52.640 --> 00:17:57.920 The idea here is it's not like pounding a lump of clay once a week on Sunday morning. 00:17:58.079 --> 00:18:04.079 It's just that very slow, ongoing pressing of your palm into a lump of clay. 00:18:04.640 --> 00:18:07.839 Constant relational contact. 00:18:09.039 --> 00:18:24.079 Just telling the story of God's faithfulness and vulnerability and care, not performance, but teaching your children and our children the same thing that you need to know, and I need to know that we're fully known and fully loved by God, and that this is settled in Jesus. 00:18:24.400 --> 00:18:26.000 That He is enough for us. 00:18:26.240 --> 00:18:27.200 And then guess what? 00:18:27.359 --> 00:18:28.880 And many of you have learned this. 00:18:29.119 --> 00:18:30.319 Guess what happens? 00:18:30.799 --> 00:18:31.839 Your children? 00:18:32.720 --> 00:18:34.559 They have their own wills. 00:18:34.880 --> 00:18:35.440 Right? 00:18:35.680 --> 00:18:37.359 This is not an equation, right? 00:18:37.440 --> 00:18:40.480 And some of you would say, yep, learned it, I know it. 00:18:40.720 --> 00:18:52.160 And in a community our size and in a town our size, what we need to know and hear is that we are going to have children who walk different paths. 00:18:53.279 --> 00:18:57.839 And some of our children are gonna walk destructive paths for a season. 00:18:58.079 --> 00:19:02.079 Some of them are gonna walk destructive paths for 30 seasons. 00:19:03.839 --> 00:19:09.759 And some of our children are gonna walk like really upright paths and have like a whole bunch of hidden stuff they're going through. 00:19:10.880 --> 00:19:11.279 Right? 00:19:11.359 --> 00:19:15.039 And none of that is, it's not always a commentary on parenting. 00:19:15.599 --> 00:19:16.480 Not always. 00:19:17.599 --> 00:19:24.480 And it's certainly not a commentary on the parent as a beloved child of God. 00:19:25.279 --> 00:19:28.319 Godly parenting just simply isn't an equation. 00:19:28.720 --> 00:19:30.319 That's not what this is laying out for us. 00:19:30.400 --> 00:19:34.000 It's an ongoing relationship through highs and lows. 00:19:34.799 --> 00:19:44.240 Verse 18 gives us the gospel in this passage that God sent rescue to them when they were groaning, like out of their misery. 00:19:44.400 --> 00:19:46.240 That's when he steps in. 00:19:46.640 --> 00:19:52.079 So he drives them to a point of breaking, which is what we all need. 00:19:52.400 --> 00:19:55.759 I mean, it's at the end of our rope that we find God's office. 00:19:56.000 --> 00:20:01.440 That's the point where we finally have our eyes open to see that this idolatry just doesn't work. 00:20:01.680 --> 00:20:04.799 The self-justification by these things, it just doesn't work. 00:20:05.200 --> 00:20:11.519 So finally, these people are at the end of themselves and they're groaning, and that's where point number four we get this great good news. 00:20:11.759 --> 00:20:15.279 God pursues us even when we are at our least. 00:20:15.759 --> 00:20:18.880 So salvation by groaning, not that's not performance. 00:20:18.960 --> 00:20:20.880 That's the opposite of performance, right? 00:20:20.960 --> 00:20:22.799 Like that that's your nothingness. 00:20:23.039 --> 00:20:24.559 That's our nothingness. 00:20:24.960 --> 00:20:26.640 And that's our story. 00:20:26.960 --> 00:20:29.279 That's the story of the Bible. 00:20:29.680 --> 00:20:38.079 God helping people see that they have to have God's grace to them, his grace to them, his pursuit of them. 00:20:38.240 --> 00:20:40.559 In our nothingness, we are found and we are free. 00:20:40.640 --> 00:20:49.119 It's when we finally give up trying to earn love and self-justify to see that we're already fully free and accepted in Christ. 00:20:49.279 --> 00:20:53.759 This week I found myself, I kept thinking back to the story in John chapter 8. 00:20:53.920 --> 00:20:59.839 And I think probably because the woman who's kind of set up in this situation in this story, she people think she could have been a prostitute. 00:20:59.920 --> 00:21:02.799 We don't know if she was a prostitute or she was just a woman having adultery. 00:21:02.880 --> 00:21:07.519 Either way, the Pharisees, these religious guys, they set her up as they want to discredit Jesus. 00:21:07.680 --> 00:21:08.880 You probably remember the story. 00:21:09.039 --> 00:21:10.640 We don't know where the man was, by the way. 00:21:10.799 --> 00:21:11.599 You ever thought about that? 00:21:11.759 --> 00:21:12.880 They didn't bring the man, right? 00:21:13.039 --> 00:21:14.640 Didn't bring the man, probably their buddy. 00:21:14.720 --> 00:21:16.319 That's probably how it worked. 00:21:16.799 --> 00:21:21.839 They catch the woman, they bring her in front of a crowd of people and in front of Jesus. 00:21:22.079 --> 00:21:25.599 She has to feel incredibly exposed and ashamed at this point. 00:21:25.759 --> 00:21:26.720 They don't care about her. 00:21:26.799 --> 00:21:30.319 They're just trying to get their thing accomplished in this setting. 00:21:30.400 --> 00:21:35.359 And we don't know her story, but you know she has one to be in this situation. 00:21:36.000 --> 00:21:42.480 I mean, she has to have a pretty large amount of hurt, devastation, maybe abuse. 00:21:44.480 --> 00:21:46.160 We don't know any of that. 00:21:47.519 --> 00:21:48.559 But she's there. 00:21:48.799 --> 00:21:51.039 And these religious leaders, they want to stone her. 00:21:51.279 --> 00:21:55.839 For the law says that if someone commits adultery, they should be stoned. 00:21:56.480 --> 00:21:59.839 And we would say, well, adultery is wrong. 00:22:00.319 --> 00:22:02.000 And that's what the law is trying to say. 00:22:02.160 --> 00:22:05.039 The law is saying adultery is wrong, and we would say adultery is wrong. 00:22:05.200 --> 00:22:06.319 We agree with that. 00:22:06.640 --> 00:22:10.559 The good news here is that Jesus fulfills the law in himself. 00:22:10.960 --> 00:22:17.599 So he can pour out acceptance, he can uphold his justice, and he could pour out acceptance and compassion to her. 00:22:17.680 --> 00:22:25.359 And in the story, we get that great scene, you remember where Jesus he stoops down, he starts to draw or write or something in the dirt. 00:22:25.599 --> 00:22:27.920 Because all the attention had to be on her at that point. 00:22:28.000 --> 00:22:29.839 I mean, these guys are about to throw rocks at her. 00:22:30.000 --> 00:22:32.000 She's about to be stoned to death. 00:22:32.240 --> 00:22:37.759 And then all of a sudden, Jesus begins to stoop down, odd behavior, it makes no sense. 00:22:37.839 --> 00:22:39.759 We get no explanation of it. 00:22:40.079 --> 00:22:44.640 And all of that attention had to go from her to him. 00:22:48.400 --> 00:23:01.599 If you've ever felt exposed or at the end of yourself or ashamed, to know that that attention of condemnation is not on you, but it's on God's grace to you. 00:23:02.880 --> 00:23:13.680 And then he says, you remember it, let the first one among you who has no sin cast the first stone, and then from the oldest to the youngest, they drop their stones, and all these religious, self-righteous, judgmental leaders, they just leave. 00:23:18.880 --> 00:23:20.319 And she's been found. 00:23:21.519 --> 00:23:24.880 But I do wonder, does she know she's loved at this point? 00:23:25.440 --> 00:23:26.799 I don't think she does. 00:23:27.039 --> 00:23:30.319 Because she's not quite, she's still not quite sure what's going to play out here. 00:23:32.480 --> 00:23:36.880 And then that's where Jesus looks at her and says, Who's left to condemn you? 00:23:38.079 --> 00:23:40.240 Like, is there any condemnation left for you? 00:23:41.200 --> 00:23:44.480 Who's left to shame you or belittle you? 00:23:45.359 --> 00:23:45.680 Right? 00:23:45.759 --> 00:23:51.920 It's Jesus' way to try to get her to comprehend and rest in his sufficiency for her. 00:23:53.680 --> 00:24:00.640 That he's not there to condemn her, but to receive her and rescue her and free her. 00:24:01.119 --> 00:24:04.319 And then he tells her, go and leave your life of sin. 00:24:05.279 --> 00:24:07.039 Because that's God's call for us. 00:24:08.400 --> 00:24:17.519 It's not to behave in these incredibly destructive and pointless and toilsome and futile and silly ways of idolatry. 00:24:20.079 --> 00:24:25.279 He never condones her sin, but yet he rather pursues her in her sin. 00:24:25.440 --> 00:24:27.440 And that's the same story that we have. 00:24:27.680 --> 00:24:31.680 It's a story we see in Judges, it's a story we see throughout the Old Testament. 00:24:32.000 --> 00:24:38.400 That God is pursuing his people, he's pursuing you in all of your sin. 00:24:38.720 --> 00:24:40.799 Because he is sufficient for you. 00:24:41.039 --> 00:24:42.000 Let's pray together. 00:24:42.319 --> 00:24:56.960 God, thank you that you are a God of acceptance and welcome and love, no matter where we are at today, no matter how hard we are trying to work to earn your love within religion, or no matter how far and fast we're trying to run from you. 00:24:58.000 --> 00:25:05.279 No matter where our idolatry lies and how hard we're at work before that idol, that you are in greater pursuit of us. 00:25:06.720 --> 00:25:11.039 And your welcome and acceptance and love is better than life. 00:25:12.319 --> 00:25:15.759 Help us to see that in a greater way this morning. 00:25:16.000 --> 00:25:18.000 In Jesus' name, amen.