WEBVTT 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:00.800 Well, good morning. 00:00:00.959 --> 00:00:07.040 Today we're going to launch into a nine-week study on the book of Judges. 00:00:07.360 --> 00:00:10.080 So I know right away you're extremely excited about that. 00:00:10.240 --> 00:00:13.439 I mean, Judges is not one of those books we tend to go to, right? 00:00:13.519 --> 00:00:15.519 Like you probably hadn't spent a lot of time in it. 00:00:15.599 --> 00:00:17.920 I don't know if I've ever spent any time in it. 00:00:18.079 --> 00:00:21.280 It's one of those Old Testament books we all tend to skip. 00:00:21.440 --> 00:00:24.719 But I know as a Bible-loving church, we're excited, right? 00:00:24.800 --> 00:00:26.960 Like you got excited when you heard Judges. 00:00:27.120 --> 00:00:27.920 And so here we go. 00:00:28.079 --> 00:00:33.920 Years ago, uh John Turney, he wrote this, he wrote this article in the New York Times magazine. 00:00:34.000 --> 00:00:37.920 Uh it's entitled, Do You Suffer from Decision Fatigue? 00:00:39.359 --> 00:00:41.520 Do you suffer from decision fatigue? 00:00:41.759 --> 00:00:44.240 Well, uh, this this might uh hit you. 00:00:44.479 --> 00:00:57.119 Decision fatigue can make quarterbacks prone to dubious choices late in the game and CFOs prone to disastrous deliances late in the evening. 00:00:57.280 --> 00:01:03.679 It routinely warps the judgment of everyone, executive and non-executive, rich and poor. 00:01:04.000 --> 00:01:18.480 Decision fatigue helps explain why ordinarily sensible people get angry that colleagues and families splurge on clothes by junk food at the supermarket and can't resist the dealer's offer to rust-proof their new car. 00:01:18.719 --> 00:01:27.760 So Turney says that the more choices you have throughout the day, the harder it becomes for your brain to make sound decisions. 00:01:27.840 --> 00:01:35.280 And the point is that we eventually all uh take shortcuts, we eventually all become reckless, right? 00:01:35.439 --> 00:01:37.920 You can't believe you sent that email. 00:01:38.079 --> 00:01:43.359 Like you can't believe you said that or did that thing or said that to your friend. 00:01:43.519 --> 00:01:45.359 At my house at 9 p.m. 00:01:45.519 --> 00:01:46.079 we have a rule. 00:01:46.159 --> 00:01:49.920 You don't talk to mom about anything legitimate at 9 p.m. 00:01:50.319 --> 00:01:51.680 Sweet mom is done. 00:01:51.760 --> 00:01:54.159 We call her night Christie, comes out at 9 p.m. 00:01:54.560 --> 00:01:56.000 8 p.m., fine. 00:01:56.079 --> 00:01:59.519 Everything's great at 8 p.m., 9 p.m., everything changes. 00:01:59.680 --> 00:02:02.319 Night Christie is out and you have to wait till the morning. 00:02:02.480 --> 00:02:05.040 Now in the morning, don't hit me up. 00:02:05.280 --> 00:02:06.640 Don't hit me up in the morning. 00:02:07.280 --> 00:02:09.919 I've never woken up with energy in my entire life. 00:02:10.080 --> 00:02:11.680 And so I need a warm-up period. 00:02:11.759 --> 00:02:12.479 So don't hit me up. 00:02:12.560 --> 00:02:13.919 You don't know what's going to happen to you. 00:02:14.000 --> 00:02:19.199 I'll just warn you if you hit me early, I cannot be too responsible for what happens, right? 00:02:19.280 --> 00:02:20.159 I don't have any willpower. 00:02:20.240 --> 00:02:22.240 The willpower hasn't come yet. 00:02:22.479 --> 00:02:30.800 Yet, if we think that all of our mistakes, this is where eternity is a little bit off, if we think that all of our mistakes are from weariness, we don't have the full picture. 00:02:31.039 --> 00:02:31.360 Right? 00:02:31.520 --> 00:02:42.240 Because we both know we've we've made huge mistakes where we have plenty of willpower, where we have plenty of energy, and we still do the selfish thing, we still do the sinful thing. 00:02:42.400 --> 00:02:46.479 See, we actually are rightfully diagnosed by the scriptures. 00:02:46.879 --> 00:02:52.879 It's very relieving to be rightfully diagnosed as a sinner because it explains you and it explains me. 00:02:53.280 --> 00:02:59.280 And this is what Judges will tell us as we get into this story that we are, in fact, sinners. 00:02:59.759 --> 00:03:01.439 And God is telling us this. 00:03:01.599 --> 00:03:06.400 And then God is moving toward us in our sin and shows us the rescue. 00:03:06.560 --> 00:03:20.639 The story here in Judges is that Israel had these strong leaders there early in the Old Testament, where the people were enslaved in Egypt and Moses becomes the leader and leads them out of Egypt, and then Joshua becomes a leader and leads them into the promised land. 00:03:20.879 --> 00:03:33.840 And so they're in Canaan, and they get up in Canaan in that promised land, and other people groups had taken over all their land, and it had become a pluralistic society, much like our country, a very pluralistic place to live, right? 00:03:33.919 --> 00:03:39.599 We live and work around different religions, people with different beliefs, lifestyles. 00:03:39.759 --> 00:03:43.280 Our culture is filled with little G gods. 00:03:43.520 --> 00:03:45.199 None of this is new. 00:03:45.439 --> 00:03:46.960 None of it is new. 00:03:47.280 --> 00:03:52.719 The Old Testament was full of this, ancient biblical times, full of this type of society. 00:03:52.960 --> 00:03:57.919 We have gods of achievement, gods of pleasure, money, sex, control, performance, right? 00:03:58.000 --> 00:04:10.240 I mean, it's all the mentality that if I have that little g god, if I appease that little g God, then I will be whole, then I'll be okay, then finally I'll be at peace, right? 00:04:10.319 --> 00:04:15.280 If I can just get enough of whatever that little g God is for your heart. 00:04:15.439 --> 00:04:22.959 And in this way, false religions and the idolatry of our own hearts, they operate the same way. 00:04:23.839 --> 00:04:24.240 Right? 00:04:24.480 --> 00:04:34.959 They're both an overreach of control to use something other than the creator God and the provision of grace in Jesus to be our functional Savior. 00:04:35.199 --> 00:04:37.120 This is where we get point number one. 00:04:37.839 --> 00:04:41.120 Our hearts always need the one true judge and king. 00:04:41.519 --> 00:04:43.199 Our hearts always need that. 00:04:43.680 --> 00:04:48.480 My mentor, Pastor Scotty Smith, he wrote this about God's story for us. 00:04:48.720 --> 00:04:53.199 This is one of those quotes I think I've read to you before, and I will never stop reading it to you. 00:04:53.519 --> 00:05:06.720 God's story is the story, the meta-narrative from which all human stories originate, and within which all our stories are contained. 00:05:07.279 --> 00:05:08.399 So here's the point. 00:05:08.560 --> 00:05:22.800 Without this anchoring story of the meta-narrative of God's provisional redemptive rescue of you, we begin to find our lives in lesser stories, little G gods. 00:05:23.040 --> 00:05:26.160 I did it recently in like a really, really small, like silly. 00:05:26.480 --> 00:05:28.560 I mean, we do it in devastating ways, right? 00:05:28.720 --> 00:05:30.079 I have some of those stories too. 00:05:30.160 --> 00:05:32.720 I did it in a really silly way just recently. 00:05:32.879 --> 00:05:35.279 We just finished renovating our house. 00:05:35.680 --> 00:05:46.560 Like during during COVID, during the worst pandemic of the last hundred years, we went from wiping our groceries to letting 15 men a day just be in our house, okay? 00:05:46.800 --> 00:05:48.000 So just try that on. 00:05:48.079 --> 00:05:50.319 As an anxious person, try that on. 00:05:50.480 --> 00:05:54.480 Go from wiping your groceries one day to just like come on in, all of you. 00:05:54.560 --> 00:06:00.879 I don't know where you've been, just come on in and rip my house up and be here all day, and then I'll come and live in it in the evening. 00:06:01.040 --> 00:06:02.720 That's what was going on for us. 00:06:02.959 --> 00:06:06.480 So lots of windows open, lots of cold air through the winter. 00:06:06.959 --> 00:06:10.639 And I had been dreaming about a toilet room, right? 00:06:11.120 --> 00:06:14.399 Like within your bathroom where you get to go and shut the little door. 00:06:14.480 --> 00:06:15.680 It's just I had been dreaming. 00:06:15.759 --> 00:06:22.079 We've been in our house for nine years, eight and a half years, and it didn't have a toilet room, just you know, out in the open. 00:06:22.160 --> 00:06:23.600 Some of y'all are out in the open, you know what I'm talking about. 00:06:23.759 --> 00:06:24.800 Some of you have bigger dreams. 00:06:24.879 --> 00:06:25.279 I get it. 00:06:25.360 --> 00:06:28.319 You have bigger dreams than a toilet room. 00:06:28.560 --> 00:06:33.439 Sounds funny, but every time I was in that bathroom, I was dreaming about a toilet room. 00:06:33.519 --> 00:06:34.959 If only this was a toilet room. 00:06:35.040 --> 00:06:37.439 Like how different my life could be. 00:06:37.519 --> 00:06:43.279 And so we were renovating to get a toilet room, and we got the toilet room, and I'll tell you, it's fantastic. 00:06:43.439 --> 00:06:47.600 Like it is, I mean, more quiet time, Christy finds me more attractive. 00:06:47.759 --> 00:06:49.680 That's a benefit of the toilet room. 00:06:49.839 --> 00:06:55.600 There's great things happening in our marriage because of the toilet room and what it can do for our relationship. 00:06:55.759 --> 00:06:59.519 But here's what's also true: my heart hasn't changed. 00:07:00.160 --> 00:07:02.399 It didn't provide fulfillment. 00:07:03.279 --> 00:07:03.600 Right? 00:07:03.839 --> 00:07:06.480 Just like uh more money never has. 00:07:06.639 --> 00:07:09.839 I keep thinking that'll work, it doesn't work, or more affirmation. 00:07:13.360 --> 00:07:13.680 Right? 00:07:13.839 --> 00:07:18.000 What we keep finding, this is this is the lesson that's in Judges. 00:07:18.079 --> 00:07:28.000 And what the Bible's teaching us in this meta-narrative that God gives us through the scriptures is when we don't find our lives in the meta-narrative of God. 00:07:28.160 --> 00:07:37.199 When we don't find our lives there and that big story for our lives, we accept lesser stories and lesser rulers. 00:07:37.839 --> 00:07:39.839 We're all gonna have a ruler. 00:07:40.639 --> 00:07:45.759 The Bible's teaching us to accept the ruler that frees us and loves us. 00:07:46.240 --> 00:07:55.360 And judges through a very messy story, really messy, is part of this meta-narrative being laid out for us in the entirety of the scriptures. 00:07:55.519 --> 00:08:01.600 That speaks of our worth, it speaks of our sinfulness, it speaks of God's justice, and speaks of his grace. 00:08:01.839 --> 00:08:04.560 So, Judges 1, 1 through 3. 00:08:05.199 --> 00:08:13.279 After the death of Joshua, the people of Israel inquired of the Lord, who shall go up first for us against the Canaanites to fight against them, right? 00:08:13.360 --> 00:08:17.439 Because they showed up in this land, and all there's other people here, there's other people in our land. 00:08:17.519 --> 00:08:19.279 So who's gonna go up and fight against them? 00:08:19.360 --> 00:08:19.759 Verse 2. 00:08:19.920 --> 00:08:21.600 The Lord said, Judah shall go up. 00:08:21.839 --> 00:08:24.160 Behold, I have given the land into his hand. 00:08:24.399 --> 00:08:33.120 And Judah said to Simeon, his brother, Come up with me into the territory allotted to me that we may fight against the Canaanites, and I likewise will go with you into the territory allotted to you. 00:08:33.279 --> 00:08:35.279 So Simeon went with him. 00:08:35.519 --> 00:08:36.639 So here's what's playing out. 00:08:36.799 --> 00:08:47.360 The army of Israel is going up through this land to push these people groups that have come in and established and taken their land to push them out, to defeat them and push them out. 00:08:47.440 --> 00:08:58.080 The text even says in chapter one that at one point they catch a leader of the opposing side, they cut off his thumbs, and they cut off his toes. 00:08:58.159 --> 00:08:58.480 Right? 00:08:58.559 --> 00:09:00.480 So this is violent. 00:09:01.200 --> 00:09:05.759 And I'm so tempted to re-preach some sections that we went through in Joshua chapter one. 00:09:05.919 --> 00:09:11.600 And I'm gonna refuse that, but I do want to point you to like we're not blind to this issue of violence in the Old Testament. 00:09:11.759 --> 00:09:16.399 And we're not also saying that we can solve all of it, but we are saying there's some answers for that. 00:09:16.480 --> 00:09:19.600 And you can go listen to that sermon from Joshua chapter 1. 00:09:19.759 --> 00:09:26.799 This story moves on in verses 19 through 35, and it turns out this army of Israel, they they don't succeed. 00:09:26.960 --> 00:09:29.679 Like they don't do the thing that God has asked them. 00:09:29.919 --> 00:09:48.799 And so in verse 27, we get this Manasseh did not drive out the inhabitants of Beth-Sheon and its villages, or Tanakh and its villages, or the inhabitants of Dor and its villages, or the inhabitants of Eblem and its villages, or the inhabitants of Megadoh and its villages, for the Canaanites persisted. 00:09:48.960 --> 00:09:54.879 So the other side persisted more willpower in dwelling in that land. 00:09:55.120 --> 00:10:00.879 So point number two is this even at our best, we are limited in willpower. 00:10:01.679 --> 00:10:05.919 We went to the beach for spring break with my mom and my sister's family. 00:10:06.320 --> 00:10:07.360 It was a great week. 00:10:07.440 --> 00:10:08.080 It was like a really great. 00:10:09.200 --> 00:10:14.720 Even like a great Saturday can be where you just have a Saturday where there's nothing, you don't have anything all day. 00:10:14.960 --> 00:10:15.360 Right? 00:10:15.440 --> 00:10:23.120 The big decisions for that week were do I keep reading my book or do I get up and play bocce ball? 00:10:23.279 --> 00:10:24.399 Like that's the decision. 00:10:24.559 --> 00:10:25.360 That's the weight. 00:10:25.440 --> 00:10:31.440 That's like that's the amount of stress in this moment is bocce ball or walk on the beach. 00:10:31.519 --> 00:10:32.799 Like that's the amount of, right? 00:10:32.879 --> 00:10:34.080 That's not normal life, right? 00:10:34.159 --> 00:10:37.440 Like that would say, whoa, like what an incredible luxury, right? 00:10:37.519 --> 00:10:40.639 Like I think I think I wore six articles of clothing all week, right? 00:10:40.720 --> 00:10:41.840 I didn't have to make any decisions. 00:10:41.919 --> 00:10:44.080 It was like bathing suit or the shorts I wore yesterday. 00:10:44.159 --> 00:10:44.720 That's that's it. 00:10:44.960 --> 00:10:45.840 Just over and over again. 00:10:46.000 --> 00:10:47.279 I didn't own the house. 00:10:47.519 --> 00:10:49.200 So, like, there's sand in the garage. 00:10:49.279 --> 00:10:49.759 Do I care? 00:10:49.919 --> 00:10:50.720 Don't care at all. 00:10:50.960 --> 00:10:52.879 Gutters are filled, doesn't matter. 00:10:53.039 --> 00:10:54.159 None of these things matter. 00:10:54.320 --> 00:10:54.879 Doesn't matter to me. 00:10:54.960 --> 00:10:56.399 I have to make any decisions. 00:10:56.559 --> 00:10:57.759 What a great week. 00:10:57.919 --> 00:11:03.279 What a great day or afternoon that can be where you get just a little bit of time without decisions. 00:11:03.759 --> 00:11:04.399 Right? 00:11:04.720 --> 00:11:10.399 Now that's actually what Turney was saying in that New York Times magazine that I read to you to start. 00:11:10.559 --> 00:11:10.879 Right? 00:11:11.039 --> 00:11:17.919 That your willpower will slowly just be worn down over time with the onslaught of decisions. 00:11:18.320 --> 00:11:27.519 And here in our text, we have certainly it's always this mixture of an inability to have willpower as part of our sinfulness, and then also just our pure desire to be disobedient. 00:11:27.679 --> 00:11:29.759 Like those two things are not separate. 00:11:30.000 --> 00:11:33.120 And what happens here is that Israelites just lack the willpower to move them. 00:11:33.279 --> 00:11:34.720 These people just persisted. 00:11:34.960 --> 00:11:36.639 They just didn't follow through. 00:11:36.879 --> 00:11:38.639 They just weren't obedient. 00:11:39.120 --> 00:11:45.440 The people just wouldn't leave, and so what happens is this army of Israel does something God didn't ask them. 00:11:46.000 --> 00:11:47.679 They enslave the people. 00:11:48.960 --> 00:11:49.279 Right? 00:11:49.360 --> 00:11:50.960 They do something evil. 00:11:51.759 --> 00:12:01.519 It made sense economically, it made sense practically, it made sense because it was easy, but it wasn't what God asked them. 00:12:02.960 --> 00:12:08.559 Here's what the response is from God in Judges chapter 2, verses 1 through 3. 00:12:10.320 --> 00:12:20.240 Now the angel of the Lord went up from Gilgal to Bochum, and he said, I brought you up from Egypt and brought you into the land that I swore to give to your fathers. 00:12:20.480 --> 00:12:25.919 I said, I will never break my covenant with you, and you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land. 00:12:26.080 --> 00:12:30.879 You shall break down their altars, but you have not obeyed my voice. 00:12:31.600 --> 00:12:33.200 What is this that you have done? 00:12:34.080 --> 00:12:37.200 So now I say, I will not drive them out before you. 00:12:37.679 --> 00:12:43.759 But they shall become thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare to you. 00:12:44.799 --> 00:12:48.240 So point number three is this, and we've got to work this out a little bit. 00:12:48.559 --> 00:12:54.960 God moves toward our self-deception and calls us toward himself. 00:12:56.159 --> 00:12:57.679 See, I actually love this text. 00:12:57.759 --> 00:13:01.679 It's really interesting the amount of kind of complexity going on here. 00:13:02.000 --> 00:13:04.240 God loves us to move toward us, right? 00:13:04.320 --> 00:13:05.519 He doesn't just walk away. 00:13:05.840 --> 00:13:06.720 They don't walk away. 00:13:06.879 --> 00:13:09.519 He's still talking to them, he's still engaged. 00:13:10.159 --> 00:13:12.240 And he gives them truth, right? 00:13:12.320 --> 00:13:12.879 We need that. 00:13:12.960 --> 00:13:17.279 Like he gives them the truth of what they did and how this will play out. 00:13:17.440 --> 00:13:18.879 I mean, how much do we need that? 00:13:19.039 --> 00:13:20.799 We just need truth in our lives. 00:13:21.120 --> 00:13:24.320 My opinions need to go before the scriptures. 00:13:25.360 --> 00:13:25.679 Right? 00:13:25.840 --> 00:13:36.960 A good question for us as followers of Jesus: are we willing to place ourselves and our opinions in front of what God has to say about the subject? 00:13:37.200 --> 00:13:39.519 Or do we just keep on with what we think? 00:13:41.120 --> 00:13:44.080 And then also, how often do we claim we just can't do something? 00:13:44.159 --> 00:13:45.120 This is what these people did. 00:13:45.200 --> 00:13:46.080 They just said, I can't do it. 00:13:46.159 --> 00:13:48.159 We can't, we can't push them out, we can't do it. 00:13:48.399 --> 00:13:50.240 So they revert back to what they want to do. 00:13:50.480 --> 00:13:52.000 Like, how often do we do that? 00:13:52.159 --> 00:13:54.480 I can't, but really it's just like I won't. 00:13:54.720 --> 00:14:00.559 I can't forgive, I can't move on, I can't heal, I can't call him. 00:14:01.039 --> 00:14:02.480 There's no way I can call her. 00:14:02.720 --> 00:14:03.759 I can't stop that. 00:14:03.919 --> 00:14:05.440 I can't let go of that opinion. 00:14:05.679 --> 00:14:07.440 And on some level, you're right. 00:14:07.600 --> 00:14:10.559 Your will is bound through your sinfulness. 00:14:10.639 --> 00:14:12.000 And I am too. 00:14:13.279 --> 00:14:18.000 But 1 Corinthians 10, 13 tells us there's even more to this story. 00:14:19.279 --> 00:14:23.039 No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. 00:14:24.000 --> 00:14:25.440 That's kind of good news, too, right? 00:14:25.519 --> 00:14:28.399 Like it just means like we're all experiencing kind of the same thing. 00:14:29.279 --> 00:14:34.000 God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability. 00:14:34.240 --> 00:14:40.240 But with the temptation, he will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it. 00:14:40.480 --> 00:14:49.679 So we have a resting place in God and a power source from beyond our limited willpower and our sinfulness. 00:14:50.879 --> 00:14:54.480 So we know the Holy Spirit is in us, which is the one that's helping us. 00:14:54.639 --> 00:14:55.840 He is the helper. 00:14:56.000 --> 00:15:03.279 And the Holy Spirit is helping the gospel, the good news that we're already justified, already loved, already secure. 00:15:03.440 --> 00:15:07.279 We don't have to go and earn that or find that or find another place of satisfaction. 00:15:07.440 --> 00:15:11.440 We have all of that already in Christ. 00:15:11.759 --> 00:15:20.159 And the Holy Spirit is burying that deeper and deeper into our hearts, which is the very way in which we can say no to temptation. 00:15:20.879 --> 00:15:22.879 Yet at the same time, we're not perfect. 00:15:23.120 --> 00:15:23.600 Right? 00:15:23.840 --> 00:15:25.120 Yet we're not perfect. 00:15:25.360 --> 00:15:33.759 The same guy who wrote that wrote in Romans 7, Paul wrote, I want to do one thing, but at the same time I find myself doing the other thing. 00:15:33.919 --> 00:15:36.720 I want to do right, but at the same time I end up doing wrong. 00:15:36.960 --> 00:15:41.759 So we're not perfect, even though we're called to this sort of life. 00:15:42.320 --> 00:15:50.480 And even then, in our failure, God through Christ is the one who welcomes us back, forgives us, calls us again. 00:15:51.759 --> 00:15:55.039 So the story in verse 3, an interesting thing plays out here. 00:15:55.120 --> 00:15:56.080 Maybe you picked up on it. 00:15:56.159 --> 00:15:57.919 So the people fail. 00:15:58.559 --> 00:16:00.080 And then God bails. 00:16:00.720 --> 00:16:12.639 I mean, this works against all of our theology, especially at our church, because we are sold out to God being unconditional for us, to his promises, that he is covenantal. 00:16:12.799 --> 00:16:17.679 And here is a text, a story, a verse you could cite, where God is not. 00:16:18.080 --> 00:16:20.480 He says, You did this, so I won't. 00:16:20.639 --> 00:16:21.759 That's conditionality. 00:16:21.840 --> 00:16:23.840 That's the opposite of what we believe. 00:16:24.080 --> 00:16:27.200 And this is exactly why you can't grab one verse. 00:16:27.600 --> 00:16:29.600 You can't grab one story. 00:16:29.840 --> 00:16:31.679 This is a meta-narrative. 00:16:31.840 --> 00:16:40.320 The scriptures is a progression of revelation of God being played out over history and written for us to know. 00:16:41.279 --> 00:16:45.039 You don't understand the fullness of God's love till the end of the story. 00:16:45.360 --> 00:16:50.080 And here we have early on a story to help us understand God's justice. 00:16:51.840 --> 00:16:59.039 God is perfectly just, and in that justice, he cannot overlook our sin or be in right-loving relationship with us. 00:17:00.399 --> 00:17:11.680 Unless, thank you for the cross, thank you for what the New Testament teaches us, the meta-narrative, unless his perfect justice is known in his perfect grace. 00:17:12.480 --> 00:17:14.640 And then that's what we have in the cross. 00:17:14.799 --> 00:17:17.440 He is just and he's loving. 00:17:17.920 --> 00:17:23.279 Point number four is this perfect justice and perfect grace are displayed in Christ. 00:17:24.240 --> 00:17:26.720 That is where the story always takes us. 00:17:26.880 --> 00:17:29.839 Even judges is pointing us toward that. 00:17:31.920 --> 00:17:33.359 Last point, point number five. 00:17:33.599 --> 00:17:38.240 Remembering God's faithfulness to us is our path forward with him. 00:17:38.480 --> 00:17:39.599 It's always our path forward. 00:17:39.759 --> 00:17:41.599 Remembering God's faithfulness. 00:17:41.759 --> 00:17:43.119 You would say, how in the world could that be? 00:17:43.200 --> 00:17:45.039 It didn't look like God was faithful in this text at all. 00:17:45.200 --> 00:17:47.359 It looked like he bailed when we failed. 00:17:47.759 --> 00:17:49.680 But there's a little clue in here. 00:17:50.000 --> 00:17:52.799 The text says that the angel came from Gilgal. 00:17:53.599 --> 00:17:55.200 We could read over that so quickly. 00:17:55.359 --> 00:17:59.039 But angels don't, you know, it's like the angel live in Gilgal, right? 00:17:59.119 --> 00:18:00.319 Like you have an apartment there? 00:18:00.480 --> 00:18:02.160 Do you have a house there? 00:18:02.799 --> 00:18:03.440 No, no, no. 00:18:03.839 --> 00:18:08.799 It's a clue, it's a hint in the text because Gilgal's back in Joshua chapter 5. 00:18:09.680 --> 00:18:13.440 Gilgal is the place where the Lord and the people make a covenant together. 00:18:13.599 --> 00:18:15.680 Gilgal means to roll. 00:18:16.799 --> 00:18:23.839 And there, there in Joshua 5, the Lord says, Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you. 00:18:24.079 --> 00:18:32.000 See, on that day, there in Gilgal, God forgave their sin and entered into a covenant relationship with the people. 00:18:33.039 --> 00:18:42.319 See, this text, even in this moment where we're learning about God's justice and response to our disobedience, he hints toward his grace. 00:18:42.640 --> 00:18:45.519 And the covenant relationship that's bigger than that. 00:18:46.559 --> 00:18:53.039 It's a reminder for these Israelites that the relationship is still based in grace. 00:18:53.839 --> 00:18:57.440 That your salvation is always based in grace. 00:18:57.680 --> 00:19:01.119 And your faith walk is lived out by grace alone. 00:19:01.359 --> 00:19:06.720 So all of that, all of that to say to you this morning as we move into Judges for the next nine weeks. 00:19:07.039 --> 00:19:08.240 You live faithful. 00:19:09.519 --> 00:19:17.599 We live faithful, non-anxious, present, without fear, loving, compassionate, at peace. 00:19:18.000 --> 00:19:24.880 We do that by remembering God's faithfulness and his gracious character to us. 00:19:25.279 --> 00:19:29.440 And that his perfect justice is perfectly fulfilled on the cross. 00:19:29.759 --> 00:19:33.119 So that what we have from him is a loving Abba. 00:19:33.759 --> 00:19:37.920 And our God just keeps pursuing us no matter what condition that we are in. 00:19:38.240 --> 00:19:39.039 Let's pray together. 00:19:39.359 --> 00:19:44.319 God, thank you for this story where we get a taste of your justice. 00:19:44.720 --> 00:19:52.480 That your justice is repelled away from our sinfulness, and yet your grace is there ready to rescue us. 00:19:52.559 --> 00:19:56.160 And that the relationship was sealed in grace and is carried on in grace. 00:19:56.240 --> 00:20:01.759 And this is just one picture, one picture amidst the great story of redemption. 00:20:02.720 --> 00:20:04.720 That you are not a God that bails. 00:20:05.039 --> 00:20:14.480 And while your justice leads you to separate from us and our sinfulness, your grace pulls you toward us and you pursue us. 00:20:15.119 --> 00:20:18.079 That you actually woo us to yourself. 00:20:18.720 --> 00:20:27.359 Help us to turn from all the little stories and the little gods that we play with to try to find satisfaction and wholeness. 00:20:27.920 --> 00:20:36.640 That we might come into a greater love and astonishment of how good you are and how much you love us and how you adore us and how you welcome us. 00:20:36.880 --> 00:20:43.279 And how in Jesus we are fully we are fully loved and welcomed and accepted. 00:20:43.680 --> 00:20:46.480 In Jesus' powerful name we pray. 00:20:46.720 --> 00:20:47.359 Amen.