He flees. Look at verse 3. Jephthah fled from his brethren. So, I mean, they're threatening
him. They're physically threatening him because that's what it means to flee. You don't flee
if there's no threat. There's a threat of violence there. They're going to gang up on
him. And so he flees from before his brethren. And he dwells in the land of Tob, you know,
wherever that is. It's kind of a no-name place in the Bible because, you know, it's not an
important place that I knew of. And there were gathered vain men to Jephthah and went
out with him. So he gets thrown out of his family and he finds a group of people that
will accept him. And here's the thing. You're always going to be able to find a group of
people that will accept you no matter who you are. But here's the thing. That doesn't
mean that you want to be in that crowd. And this is where a lot of teenagers get into
trouble because teenagers, they want to be accepted. You know, they want a sense of belonging.
And let's face it, children and teenagers can be cruel to one another. It's very sad.
It's wrong. It's sinful. And it doesn't mean that it's not going to happen though. You
know, it's wrong. And if you're a teenager, you should never enjoy picking on other kids,
making fun of other kids because of their family situation, making fun of kids because
they're from a broken home or making fun of kids because they're a different race or making
fun of kids because they're poor or making fun of kids because they're maybe disabled
in some way or ugly or whatever you find wrong with them. You know, you shouldn't make fun
of other people. You should live by the golden rule as a Christian. All things whatsoever
you would that men should do to you, do you even so to them. You don't want to be made
fun of. You don't want to be picked on. So don't pick on other people. It's not fun or
cool. It's wicked is what it is. It's ungodly and sinful. But let's face it. That's what
school is like. I mean, I don't know what it's like these days. But back when I was
in school 30 years ago, you know, kids were constantly getting picked on and getting bullied
and it was often a bad atmosphere in school. And guess what? It's not just the kids who
had something wrong with them that are getting picked on. If you excel, you also get picked
on for excelling. Just like Jeff here gets picked on, you know, for excelling on the
one hand and for being a bastard on the other hand. Well, you know, you go to school and,
you know, what happens if you get an A plus in the class? Do your fellow students pick
you up on their shoulders and start singing for he's a jolly good fellow? No, they're
going to mock you and make fun of you. Why? Because you're excelling. Okay. And even excelling
in good looks, you know, the most beautiful girl. Oh, she's going to be popular. Not necessarily
because what if the other girls get envious of her beauty? You see what I mean? And so
in a school environment, unfortunately, there's a lot of bullying. There's a lot of mockery
of other kids and people being picked on and things like that. And so it can be a bad atmosphere.
And what can often happen is that kids get picked on or bullied or treated poorly by
one group of people. And then there's another group of people that's ready to accept them.
And so they'll kind of just go to that other group no matter how bad that other group is
because you know who that other group is. Sometimes it could be the drug crowd. They're
like, dude, we'll hang out with you. You know, like, you know, they'll kind of, you know,
maybe they'll kind of just accept anybody. And then next thing you know, you got teenagers
doing drugs because they're accepted by that drug crowd. Or it could be the sodomites.
Maybe the sodomites are like, sure, come on over to our crew, you know, and then that's
where they're going to try to molest them and groom them and twist them into that filthy
death style. And so what am I trying to say here? I'm saying that you got to be careful
that if you get rejected by one group of people, if you get rejected by family, rejected by
friends, rejected by a certain group on the job or at school, you don't want to necessarily
just go to whoever will accept you and start hanging around with a bunch of what? Vain
men, vain people. You know, the Bible talks a lot about these kind of vain and light persons.
You don't want to just go hanging around with just whoever accepts you. Now, look, we as
human beings, we want to be part of a group. We want to be accepted. We're social creatures,
right? We typically don't do well on our own. There's that rare person that wants to go
be by themselves and be a hermit and be a recluse. But let's face it, 99% of us are
social creatures and we want to be part of some kind of a group, whether it's a family
or friends, we want to be accepted. And here's the thing, we want to make sure that we don't
just go to whoever will accept us, no matter how vain they are, no matter how sinful they
are. And let me tell you the answer is that the local church should be a place that accepts
us. Okay, that's where we should seek that sense of belonging. Now, you know, I hope
that you will also feel a sense of belonging in your physical family. And I hope that you
feel a sense of belonging at your job. You know, I hope that at your job there's camaraderie
and you know, every few times a year there's a company party and everybody gets along and
I hope that you have a nice barbecue, you know, and whatever. And I hope there's a sense
of camaraderie at your job. That's good, right? Look, I hope that you have acceptance and
camaraderie in many areas of life. But let me tell you something, the one place where
you should be able to come and be a part of the team and be a part of the family is the
local church. You know, that's where you should seek to be a part of that group because this
is a group that you can be a part of. If you're a saved child of God, you know, this is the
place for you. Red, yellow, black, white, we don't care if you're poor or rich, we don't
care if you're good looking or homely. It doesn't matter. You know, we accept our brothers
and sisters in Christ here and we don't worry about those kind of vain things such as skin
color or how good looking you are or your economic status. You know, the Bible teaches
that we should never have more respect for the rich person than the poor person. You
know, the Bible rebukes a church that would give good seating to the rich and then say
to the poor, you know, you're going to be standing over there or sit here under my footstool.
But then the guy comes in with the ring and the goodly apparel and you put him in a good
seat. You know, that's wickedness. We're supposed to not respect the person of the poor or the
person of the rich. We're not supposed to worry about people's ethnicity or those type
of things. In the local church, our standing is based on whether we're in Christ. And obviously,
there are people who commit very grievous sins that get thrown out of the church and
that's biblical. But short of committing these awful, horrible sins, major sins, you know
what? All of God's people are welcome and can be a part of the team. And you know what?
Many people have successfully found a sense of belonging and acceptance in the local church
and that's where we ought to find that. And like I said, it's good when we have it in
other areas of life as well, in our home and other places, maybe even our job or other
But we don't want to just run to whoever will accept us. And you've got to be careful, teenagers.
I hope the teenagers are listening to what I'm saying right now. You know, let's say
you're a teenage girl and you don't have a great relationship with your dad. Don't just
get sucked in by the first guy who gives you attention and shows you some love. You need
to be discerning and don't just marry the first guy that comes along or even worse,
marry the first guy that comes along. Don't just go running off, you young dudes, with
the first girl that comes along, the first girl that shows you the attention that you
crave and desire. You know, be discerning. And this is a mistake for Jephthah to just
surround himself with vain people, surround himself with people that are not good friends,
they're not godly people, they're not the right kind of people. And you sympathize with
them because he got thrown out. Well, who's he supposed to hang out with? Well, find someone
else, Jephthah.