Now, before I get into the message, let me just bring you up to speed quickly with the
story and explain what's going on here in chapter 20.
Of course, in chapter 19 is where the story starts out.
And we have a Levite man who's traveling and he stops to lodge in a city of Benjamin.
And of course, while they're in the house that night, there's a knock at the door.
The house is surrounded by these horrible predators, these sons of Belial.
And basically what they were is they were homosexuals, they were queers.
And so they surround the entire house and they're going to assault these men and they
basically want to force them into perverted, wicked activity with them.
And they don't succeed in that, but they do succeed in taking this man's concubine and
forcing her and killing her and all these horrible things happen.
Well, when this man gets home, he lets the rest of the children of Israel know about
what had happened.
And the whole nation of Israel decides to band together and demand that the perpetrators
of this horrible, violent crime would be brought to justice.
And so they gather together and they go to the tribe of Benjamin and they say, look,
you need to turn over to us these guys.
We know that you know who is guilty of this and you're harboring these guys.
You need to turn these guys over to us so that we can kill them, so that we can bring
them to justice for this horrible, violent, disgusting crime that they've committed.
And of course, the children of Benjamin refused to turn them over.
And so therefore, the nation of Israel goes to war against the children of Benjamin.
And that's what we read about in this passage.
Now what's interesting, first of all, let's look at the battle and then I'll explain to
you how this applies.
But look at verse 15.
It says, And the children of Benjamin were numbered at that time out of the cities twenty
and six thousand men that drew sword, beside the inhabitants of Gibeah, which were numbered
seven hundred chosen men.
Among all these people there were seven hundred chosen men, left-handed, everyone could sling
stones at an hairbreadth and not miss.
And the men of Israel beside Benjamin were numbered four hundred thousand men that drew
sword.
All these were men of war.
So we can see here what the odds are like.
The children of Israel consisted of twelve tribes.
Benjamin is just one tribe.
So the other eleven tribes are gathered together to fight against them.
They have four hundred thousand troops.
The Benjamites only have twenty-six thousand, but they also had these seven hundred highly
elite trained men who were able to sling stones and be extremely accurate.
Now the other advantage that the Benjamites had is that they were on the defensive.
And in any battle whoever is defending has an advantage on those who are attacking.
So they're on the defense and they have these seven hundred men who are able to sling these
stones which are very accurate.
And so therefore when the children of Israel attack them the first time they're defeated
badly because these men are slinging stones before they can even get close.
It's almost like firing a gun, you know, and this is before guns.
And so the Benjamites just destroy them the first time.
But look if you would at verse number eighteen.
The Bible reads,
And the children of Israel arose and went up to the house of God, and asked counsel
of God, and said, Which of us shall go up first to battle against the children of Benjamin?
And the Lord said, Judah shall go up first.
And the children of Israel rose up in the morning and encamped against Gibeah.
And the men of Israel went out to battle against Benjamin.
And the men of Israel put themselves in a raid to fight against them at Gibeah.
And the children of Benjamin came forth out of Gibeah and destroyed down to the ground
of the Israelites that day twenty-two thousand men.
So that's just a huge amount of casualties for the Israelites.
I mean the Benjamites only have twenty-six thousand troops, period.
And they demolished twenty-two thousand men in the first day's battle.
It says in verse twenty-two,
And the men of Israel, the people of the men of Israel encouraged themselves and set their
battle again in a raid in the place where they put themselves in a raid the first day.
And the children of Israel went up and wept before the Lord until even and asked counsel
of the Lord, saying, Shall I go up again to battle against the children of Benjamin, my
brother?
And the Lord said, Go up against him.
And the children of Israel came near against the children of Benjamin the second day.
And Benjamin went forth against them out of Gibeah the second day and destroyed down
to the ground of the children of Israel eighteen thousand men.
All these, so they lose again.
They lose eighteen thousand troops, another staggering loss.
And it says,
And then all the children of Israel and all the people, verse twenty-six, went up and
came into the house of God and wept and sat there before the Lord and fasted that day
until even and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord.
And the children of Israel inquired of the Lord for the ark of the covenant of God that
was there in those days.
And Phinehas, the son of Eliezer, the son of Aaron, stood before it in those days, saying,
Shall I yet again go out to battle against the children of Benjamin, my brother?
Or shall I cease?
And the Lord said, Go up, for tomorrow I will deliver them into thine hand.
And of course that's what happens.
On the third time, they completely demolished the Benjamites.
They completely win the battle.
And you know, what can we learn from this?
What we learn from this is that often we're not always going to succeed the first time
when we try to do something great for God and we try to do something right and when
we try to fight a battle that's a just battle, you know, we're not always going to win the
first time.
Now you can ask yourself, you know, why did they lose the first time?
Why did they lose the second time?
And in other parts of the Bible, like for example when we're in the book of Joshua and
we see the children of Israel go out and fight against Ai and they're defeated by Ai.
You know, there are a lot of defeats in the Bible, but most defeats in the Bible you can
point to a specific reason and say, hey, here's why they were defeated.
You know, we look at the battle of Ai and we know, hey, they lost that battle because
of the sin of Achan.
Achan had stolen from the Lord and God was wroth with the whole congregation and so they
were punished because of Achan's sin and that was a much less staggering loss.
I mean, you know, the casualties were in the two digits, you know, not even close to these
thousands and thousands of people who died in this battle.
And you know, we can look at the battle of Ai and understand why they lost.
We can look at the battles where the Philistines are defeating the Israelites earlier in the
book of Judges or in the book of 1 Samuel, for example, and we know why.
Because they were doing wrong, because they turned against God.
But here the Bible is clear.
Their battle was a righteous battle and God had told them, go fight this battle.
And then they said, how do you want us to fight it?
And they fought it according to his instructions.
They were doing everything that they were supposed to do.
These sons of Belial were supposed to be brought to justice according to the law.
They were all supposed to do exactly what they're doing in the passage.
Then they prayed to God and got confirmation, yes, specifically in this case you're doing
the right thing, fight this battle, win this victory.
And yet they're defeated.
And then when they're defeated, they pray, they weep, they fast, and God says do it again.
And they lose again.
And then it's not until the third time that they fight.
You see, oftentimes in our life we'll do something good or we'll set out to accomplish some righteous
deed for God and things don't go right the first time.
Or maybe we mess up, maybe we fail, or we run into some adversity.
And oftentimes at that point we'll just give up and just say, you know what, God must not
be in this.
Or God's not blessing me.
Or you know what, I'm just going to quit, I'm just going to throw in the towel.
You know, I must be doing something wrong.
But you know what, often in life, on our way to success, on our way to victory, there are
going to be failures along the way.
There are going to be bumps in the road, there are going to be setbacks.
And I think this is an encouraging story to show us that sometimes that's part of God's
will for our life is to go through setbacks, and to go through failure, and to make mistakes.
Now you say, well what's the point?
Why did they have to go through these failures, what did it do for them?
Well one of the things I noticed that it did for them, and first of all if you notice,
look at verse 1 of the chapter.
It says, then all the children of Israel went out and the congregation was gathered together
as one man.
Whenever we see the children of Israel gathering together into what's known as the congregation,
keep in mind that the New Testament word for congregation is the word church, because the
word church means congregation or assembly.
Psalm 22, 22 says, in the midst of the congregation will I sing praise unto thee.
Hebrews 2, 12 says, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee, quoting the
same verse.
And so a church and a congregation are the same thing.
And so there's a lot of symbolism, there's a lot of a picture of the Old Testament congregation
of the children of Israel when they would join together pertaining to the New Testament
church.
There's symbolism there.
He says in verse 2, the chief of all the people, even all the tribes of Israel, presented themselves
in the assembly of the people of God.
Again picturing the church, 400,000 footmen that drew sword.
And when they're gathered together in this battle, look what the Bible says in verse
So all the men of Israel were gathered against the city, and look at this next phrase, knit
together as one man.
You know sometimes fighting or battles or adversity or hard times, sometimes it can
bring out the worst in people, but other times it can bring out the best in people and sometimes
it can cause people to be more united.
You know the people that I feel the greatest kinship with and the closest friendship with
and the greatest camaraderie with are people with whom I've gone through hard times.
You know the people that you hung around with and that you were friends with when things
were going great, you weren't necessarily knit to them as one man.
But people who've been with you in your hour of suffering and your hour of tribulation
and your trials and you've been through thick and thin with them, you know what?
That relationship is a much closer relationship.
That bond is a stronger bond and that friendship is a better friendship.
The Bible says there's a friend that sticketh closer than a brother and the Bible says that
brothers are born for adversity.
And you know what?
I think about the people that are nearest and dearest to me and they're people with
whom I've gone through suffering and hard times and fought battles with.
Those are the people that you feel the closest friendship and closest camaraderie with.
And so this experience, although it was a very negative experience, although it was
a bad thing that I'm sure everybody wished would have never happened.
That horrible story in Judges 19 that we don't even like to think about or read about
because it's so disgusting.
And by the way, the homosexuality is just as disgusting today as it was in chapter 19.
You think they've changed, there's nothing new under the sun and the same kind of filth
and wickedness that we read about in Genesis 19 and Judges 19 is the same thing that goes
on today in that segment of the population.
Don't be deceived by television and Hollywood and all the lies that are out there.
But let me tell you something, although it was a wicked thing that obviously it would
have been better if it had never happened and it was not God's will for such a horrible
thing to happen, but in the battle, which I believe that the battle was God's will,
that was them fulfilling the law.
That was them obeying what is taught in the book of Numbers and so forth.
You know the battle was God's will and that did bring them closer together and being joined
together in a just cause and in a righteous cause for justice.
When they were joined together, that knit them together as one man, that actually did
something good for them.
So we might think that our life would be better if we had no problems.
You know we might think that our life would be better and our church would be better if
our church never struggled with anything.
And we might think that our marriage would be better if we just never had financial problems
or if we just never had health problems or if we just never went through any kind of
suffering.
But honestly, those type of adversities can actually bring us closer together if we allow
them to.
If we will stay strong in the Lord and the power of his might, if we'll encourage ourselves
in the Lord, if we'll walk in the Spirit, read our Bibles, pray and go through trials
and tribulations, not run away from them, not hide from them, not just pretend, oh let's
just pretend this never happened.
No they said we're going to deal with the problem, we're going to see it all the way
through to the end.
And you know when we go through trials and tribulations and when we come out the other
side stronger and when we come out the other side victorious, all the suffering and all
the pain that we've gone through has joined us closer together, it's made us stronger,
and it's made us have more faith for the next trial to be able to go through.
You see, turn if you would to Proverbs 24 for example, Proverbs 24.
But then not only that, we see them knit together as one man because of the battle, but then
secondly we see that after their first defeat, what do they do?
It says that after the first defeat, they go up and it says that they weep before the
Lord until even, and they ask counsel of the Lord, saying shall I go up again to battle
against the children of Benjamin my brother, and you know what, often times we don't pray
like we should, and then we go through bad times, all of a sudden we're doing a lot of
praying, right?
You know, people who never pray, people who pray once in a blue moon, but man alive when
they're in a life or death situation, or when their finances are falling apart or when their
marriage is falling apart, or when their business is falling apart, or when their health
is falling apart, all of a sudden prayer becomes very real.
All of a sudden they're on their knees, they're weeping, they're begging God, they're pleading
with God, and sometimes, I hate to say it, but God has to put us through bad times just
in order to remind us to pray, just to remind us to care about asking Him for anything or
talking to Him about anything.
Because often when things are going great, we forget about Him, and we just enjoy our
life, we live our life, and we don't stop and realize that we need His help every day,
so sometimes He puts us in a position where we know that we need His help, where we know
that we need to get on our knees and pray to God.
And so it caused them to pray, it caused them to weep, and you say, well weeping, weeping
is a terrible thing.
You know, every great man in the Bible did a lot of weeping.
I was going to preach a sermon on this one time, several months ago, and I went to look
up every, and I wanted to preach on every time great men in the Bible wept.
And I was going to preach that sermon where I went through all of them, and there were
so many that it was impossible to preach the sermon, because I started going through it
and I was like, this sermon is going to be a 12-hour sermon.
Because there was just so much.
So instead I changed my sermon to just preach about the three times that Jesus wept, because
the Bible records three times of Jesus weeping.
But when I went through David weeping, I mean that in itself, I mean he must have wept like
50 times.
I mean, not 50, but it was like 20.
I mean, every chapter he's weeping.
The Bible talks about great men, and you say, well why is that?
Is he just a baby?
Is he just a weakling?
No, he wasn't crying because he dropped his sucker in the sand, okay?
He's not weeping because he didn't get his favorite breakfast.
You know, when you see David weeping, somebody died, or you know, look, he went through a
lot of hard times.
He went through a lot of sadness and pain and sorrow in his life, and you say, why did
great men go through so much suffering and so much sorrow and sadness?
You know what, part of it is that the sorrowing and suffering and sadness is what made them
great men, because God had to put them through trials and tribulations to get them to the
point where they needed to be spiritually so that they didn't grow up and be a spoiled
brat or a hedonist as we see a lot of people are today.
And so we see great men in the Bible, whether it's Moses, David, I mean Elijah, we go through
the list.
They wept.
Why?
Not because they were a baby, but because they were going through serious hard times.
You know, I mean if you're a baby, that's when you're just weeping about every little
thing or you're weeping because you skinned your knee, okay.
But when you're weeping because someone died, you know, or you're weeping because of lost
souls, you know, or you're weeping over someone's salvation, you know, I mean that's obviously
a right kind of weeping.
You look at why Jesus wept, and again, I'm not going to re-preach that sermon, but he
had great reason to weep in those situations.
Did I have you turn to Proverbs 24?
Look at verse 16.
And think about that story from the book of Judges that we just read, where they were
fighting that righteous battle and kept getting defeated until finally they won, even though
they were in God's will.
It says in verse 16, for a just man never falls.
Is that what it says?
No, it says for a just man falleth seven times, but here's the difference, and riseth up again.
But the wicked shall fall into mischief.
Now if we looked at the story in the book of Judges, and they would have fought the
first time, and they lost, and then they fought the second time, they're defeated,
they're routed, and then they just walked away and said, you know what, I quit.
Or if God would have told them to quit.
You know, then the story would be perplexing.
But when we look at the story as it is, we see that in the end they won.
In the end they defeated the enemy.
In the end they were victorious.
And the Bible says a just man falleth seven times and riseth up again, but the wicked
shall fall into mischief.
You see, the difference between the righteous and the wicked is that, you know, the one
who's righteous, he falls and he gets back up.
And so many people, they fall, they fail, they falter, and then they just throw in the
towel.
They just give up and say, what's the use in even trying?
Why even keep going?
But the Bible has already warned us that failure and falling is going to be a part of our lives.
Okay?
Now first of all, it's going to be a part of our lives because we're not perfect.
We're not, you know, we're sinners.
We're going to make mistakes.
And so we're not going to do everything perfect, and even if we're doing something righteous
and making a good change in our life, we're never going to be perfect.
We're never going to get it right every time.
And so we just need to accept the fact, hey, I'm not perfect.
I'm going to fall and I need to just be ready to get back up every day.
It's a new day.
It's a new start.
And try it again.
Try it again.
Do it again.
You know, maybe you tried preaching one time at the preaching class and you laid an egg
or, you know, it was a flop or whatever.
You know what?
You need to get up and try it again.
Keep going.
You know, don't quit.
Don't be a quitter.
You know what?
You know how many bad sermons I've preached?
No.
You know, but I preached a lot of bad sermons.
Let me tell you.
And especially, man, when I first started out preaching, I did not have the aptitude
for preaching.
And I often ask myself and, you know, wondered, am I ever going to be able to be a preacher?
You know, because I just don't know if I have the aptitude.
But I thank God that I didn't quit.
I'm just glad I kept trying.
I'm glad I just kept getting up there and trying to do better and trying to work on
my weaknesses and do a better job.
But you know what?
We need to understand, we're not perfect, therefore we're going to fall.
We're going to make a mistake.
You know, if you look at their failure in Judges 20, there was a little bit of a strategic
error there.
You know, they didn't have as good of a strategy as they did the third time, number one.
But not only that, we need to realize that number one, we're going to fall because we're
not perfect.
But number two, sometimes even when we are doing everything perfect, we're still going
to fall.
Even when we're doing it right.
Even when we're doing everything that we're supposed to do and we don't make a mistake,
seven times we're just going to fall through no fault of our own.
We're going to fail at something.
You know, you might try to accomplish something and you just fail.
I mean, you're just not good at it.
You just don't do well.
But you know what?
God is saying, get back up and do it again.
Keep on going.
He's not looking for a perfect person to serve Him.
His strength is made perfect in weakness.
And so God understands that we're weak.
God understands we're going to fall.
And He says, a just man falls seven times and rises up again.
But the wicked shall fall into mischief.
Go down to verse 10 there and it says, if thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength
is small.
And so God is saying, look, you're going to go through adversity and you ought not to
faint during those times and if you do, that's what's weak, is when you faint.
And what does faint mean?
Well when the Bible uses the word faint, it's referring to quitting because it says, you
know, for example, and be not weary in well doing.
For he says, in due season we shall reap if we faint not.
He's saying, keep on sowing, keep on fighting, keep on working at it, and he says, in due
season, eventually you will reap if you faint not.
But a lot of people quit before they get to reap.
I mean, a lot of people quit after that second battle.
They fight the second battle against Benjamin and Benjamin's slinging those stones at him
and they just say, you know what, we can't win.
We quit.
And think about how depressing that chapter would be if chapter 20 just ended with them
quitting after the second battle instead of fighting the third battle and winning the
victory.
Look at Ecclesiastes chapter 7.
You see, it's God's will for us to go through adversity.
It's God's will for us to go through hard times and trials and tribulations.
And so when we set out to do a great work for God, we need to understand that it's never
going to be an easy road.
It's never going to go smoothly.
It's never going to go perfectly.
There are always going to be ups and downs.
There are always going to be setbacks and bumps in the road and we just have to be ready
for that and realize, hey, I'm going to get back up, I'm going to get back up, I'm going
to get back up and keep on going.
You know, I was thinking about, recently I preached about, you know, having a prayer
and Bible time with just me and my wife alone because, you know, we've had the family Bible
time and I do a lot of praying and Bible reading on my own, but you know, I instituted a time
of just prayer and Bible reading between just my wife and I.
And you know, thank God we have not faltered on that.
We've not missed, even when I was out of town, we did it over the phone, you know, because
we were just really dedicated to not missing this time and making it a priority.
And maybe you heard that and maybe you instituted something like that and maybe you missed a
day or something.
You know what I mean?
And you're going along and maybe you did it for three days or four days and then you missed
a day or you messed up a day.
You know what?
Don't quit.
You're going to miss a day.
Now thank God we haven't missed one yet, but you know what, other things I've started
and stopped and you know, I've been trying to be a better Christian in a lot of other
areas over the last few months and I've been trying to make improvements in myself.
And you know, certain areas I've failed.
You know, I've fallen off the wagon and no, I'm not talking about drinking or doing drugs,
but you know, I'm saying I've fallen off the wagon, I've made mistakes and you know, a
lot of people, they'll criticize New Year's resolutions because they'll say, oh, you make
this New Year's resolution and then, you know, it lasts a few days and then you fail.
You know what, I'll be honest with you, I always make New Year's resolutions, I love
making New Year's resolutions, sometimes I push a reset button in the middle of the year
and make resolutions, but I always make New Year's resolutions and you know what, yeah,
you know what, yeah, I mess up.
Yeah, I fail.
Yeah, I fall.
But you know what, I still get more done than if I would have just made no resolution.
And you know what, if I get to day five or day eight and I screw up, I don't just throw
in the towel, I just start again.
I just start up again on the ninth day.
I just pick it up.
You know, you start reading your Bible and you know, some of you have maybe read Genesis
and Exodus like 500 times and you know, but you never get the rest of the Bible because
people start out in January.
I mean, Genesis chapter one's got to be the most read chapter in the Bible.
Everybody's read it.
You know what I mean, because you open it up, alright, I'm going to read the Bible,
you know, Genesis one.
And maybe you're doing good, chapter one, chapter two, chapter three, chapter four,
then you get to chapter five and it's like, oh, there's all these names.
Too many names, you know, and you plow through the names and then you get to chapter ten
and it's like, more names.
And then you quit.
Or people, or sometimes people start out the year like, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus.
You know, like, oh man.
And I remember as a kid trying to read the Bible cover to cover.
And I remember one time I had it in my head, I was a young teenager, and I had it in my
head, okay, I'm going to read through the whole Bible this summer.
You know, one summer, whole Bible, alright.
So I was all excited, I'm going to do this.
I got all this extra time, I'm not in school, and I don't remember how old I was, but maybe,
you know, 13 or somewhere around there, I don't know, 12, 13, 14, something like that.
The first time I actually succeeded at reading the Bible cover to cover, I was 17.
I started when I was 16, finished when I was 17.
But when I was a lot younger than that, I attempted to read it all in one summer.
And so I figured out, okay, I have to read 15 chapters a day, okay.
Every day, 15 chapters, I can do this.
So you know, the first day I read, you know, Genesis 1 through 15, you know, second day,
16 through 30, third day, 31 through 45, and I was going great.
I got all the way through Genesis, I plowed through that difficult part of Exodus, the
latter half, and then, you know, I even made it through into Leviticus, but then I got
into Numbers.
I was either somewhere toward the end of Leviticus or the beginning of Numbers, and I missed
two days, okay.
So because I missed those two days, I went to read my Bible and I was like, I have to
read 45 chapters today, and it's all Leviticus and Numbers, which is like, you know, I just
looked at the book of Numbers and I'm just thinking, I can't read this.
This is the hardest book in the Bible.
I can't read this in one day.
I can't read 45 chapters in one day.
And so I just quit.
But it was so dumb because you know what I should have done?
I should have just said I'm going to read 16 a day or something, you know, and then
I'll still get done at the same time.
And split it up over the whole thing instead of just saying I'm going to read 45 today.
I should have just said, okay, I'm going to read 16 a day starting now and, you know,
maybe eventually it'll become 17 if I mess up again.
Or I could have just said, let's keep reading 15 and I'll finish two days late.
Not a big deal.
But you know what?
Don't we often have that childish mentality that says, what's the use, I blew it.
I'm not going to read the whole Bible in three months, you know, for my first time
through.
I'm not going to get the whole thing done in three months.
Well then I guess I'll just wait several years before I even read the Bible at all cover
to cover.
But isn't that the way we are sometimes?
You know, we quit, we give up.
Instead of just get back up, we fall back because you know what?
Falling is discouraging.
Falling is depressing.
You know, nobody likes to fail.
Nobody likes to mess up.
Nobody likes to be a loser.
But you know what?
You just get used to it and realize, you know what, this is how life's going to be.
We're going to make mistakes and the difference between those who succeed in life and those
who fail are the ones who can get back up and set the battle in array a third time and
say, you know what, we're going to keep on fighting.
We know we're right.
We know God's on our side.
We know what we're doing is good.
Let's just keep on doing it.
Let's not quit.
Let's not give it up.
And you know, maybe you started a new habit or started a new resolution, maybe in January
or maybe more recently.
You know what, it's time to just restart that thing and say, you know, I'm not going to
quit on that.
That was a good idea.
That was a good thing I had going.
That was a righteous change that I was making in my life and I'm going to start over.
I'm going to give it up.
I know I failed last time and I know I failed six other times.
But this time I'm going to stand up and do it right.
Now look at Ecclesiastes 7.14 because this is a verse that shows us that we're going
to have bad days.
We're going to have days of adversity.
It says in Ecclesiastes 7.14, in the day of prosperity, be joyful.
So God's saying, you know, when things are going good, be happy about it.
Rejoice.
Get excited about it.
Of course that's pretty easy, right?
When things go great, we're happy.
We rejoice about it.
But he says, but in the day of adversity, consider.
God also hath set the one over against the other to the end that man should find nothing
after him.
He says that the day of adversity and the day of prosperity are often set the one against
the other.
Now I know that many times I've had a very bad day.
You know, a terrible day.
Everything's going wrong and I can think of times when I just go to bed early because
I'm just thinking like, this day is so bad, I just need this day to be over.
You know, I'm just going to go to bed before I do any more damage, you know?
So I just go to bed and just call it a day because it's a bad day.
But you know what, often the next day can be a great day.
And often the darkest hour is just before dawn.
Like the Bible says, weeping may endure for the night, but joy cometh in the morning.
And so when things are going bad, sometimes we have this tendency to think, it's the end
of the world.
It's over.
Just because you're having a bad day.
Just because you're going through adversity.
And you think, this is it.
It's over.
I'm done.
I'm done pastoring, you know?
My marriage is over.
My children are going to go up and worship Satan.
My business is shut.
I mean, look, and for me, this illustration goes the most with my business.
You know, there are times when the IRS comes at you with a fat bill, oh, we just decided
that you owe us another several thousand dollars.
And there have been many times I got a letter like that in the mail and just thought like,
you know what, I'm closing down my business.
I'm quitting.
You know what I mean?
This isn't even worth it.
They're taking all my money.
Or you know, jobs will fall through or my car will break down or you know, I end up
taking a trip and I work a lot of hours and I end up losing money or you know, everything
goes wrong.
And you know what?
Often, I've often just thought about just quitting.
You know, just why do I even do this?
You know, it's just a waste.
Because often we get short-sighted and we don't realize, hey, you know what, stay calm.
This is just a temporary setback.
Next week, the jobs are going to come in.
You know, next week, we're going to get this done.
But you can apply this to every area of life.
Whether it's pastoring, whether it's your marriage, whether it's your childbearing,
whether it's your business, whether it's your job, whether it's your health.
You know, often when we're going through a hard time, it's hard to see past that.
And it's like we can't see the light at the end of the tunnel and we just think we're
doomed.
It's over.
Life is going to be horrible from here on out, you know.
How am I going to live out the next 40 years of my miserable life?
But often things are better right around the corner.
And often it's the very next day.
Because often God has set the one against the other.
So look, if God has set the one against the other, does that mean that God's desire is
that we just go through one day of prosperity after another?
Is that God's plan for our life?
Just prosperity, prosperity, prosperity, joy, joy, joy.
Is that God's plan for our life?
No.
God put the day of adversity there.
Just like He put the day of prosperity there.
And so this prosperity preaching so-called that preaches that if you're right with God
you're never going to go through hard times is a lie.
Because God's will is that we suffer.
God's will is that we go through hard times.
Not just because He enjoys our suffering, but because He knows that it makes us better.
Look at verse 1 of chapter 7.
In the same chapter where you are.
It says a good name is better than precious ointment.
Than the day of death, than the day of one's birth.
You know we look at that, the good name is better than precious ointment.
You know who has precious ointment?
Precious the word precious, look at the first three letters.
It comes from the word price, like a price tag.
Precious ointment is talking about very expensive ointment.
Well who has expensive ointment?
People who have a lot of money.
And God says it's better to have a good name than to have a lot of money.
He's saying it's better to be a good person than to be a person who's prosperous.
Where everything's going well for them.
You know would you rather have everything go well for you and everything in your life
be prosperous, your health, your wealth?
Would you rather be totally prosperous if it made you a bad person?
Or would you rather go through suffering that makes you a good person?
Look at verse number 2.
It says it is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting.
For that is the end of all men and the living will lay it to his heart.
Sorrow is better than laughter.
Now look, laughter is good because the word better does not necessarily mean that something
else is bad.
There's good, there's better, and there's best.
Laughter is good.
The Bible says laughter doeth good like a medicine.
You know laughing is good.
The Bible never speaks ill of laughing, but the Bible says sorrow is better than laughter.
And it says sorrow is better than laughter for by the sadness of the countenance the
heart is made better.
So let me ask you something, do you want to be a better person or do you want to be a
worse person?
And the Bible tells us that when we go through times of sorrow and sadness, although they
are unpleasant, although no one likes to go through sorrowful and saddening times, the
Bible says that they are making us better people.
And people who don't go through sorrow and suffering and sadness are not as good of a
person.
That's what the Bible is teaching us, that the sorrow of the countenance makes our heart
better.
You know the Bible talks about this in regard to discipline in Hebrews chapter 12 when it
says, Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous.
Nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are
exercised by their body.
God is saying, look, nobody likes to go through discipline.
Children don't like to go through discipline.
Children don't like to be spanked by their parents.
And here's the thing, we as Christians don't like it when God spanks us a while and when
God chastens and scourges and chastises us, he says it doesn't seem joyous at the time
but afterward it makes you righteous, afterward it makes you a partaker of his holiness, afterward
it makes you a better person.
It says, By the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better.
Verse 4, The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning but the heart of fools is in the
house of mirth.
It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise than for a man to hear the song of fools.
Go to 1 Peter chapter 1 in the New Testament, the end of the New Testament, 1 Peter chapter
1.
And while you're turning there I'll read for you from Romans 5 where the Bible reads in
verse 3, Not only so, but we glory in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience,
and patience experience, and experience hope, and hope maketh not ashamed, because the love
of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
See the Bible says without tribulations, without trials and hard times, we wouldn't
have any patience.
We wouldn't have any experience and we wouldn't have any hope.
And those are three things that we want to have in our life, we're going to have to go
through sorrow, we're going to have to go through sadness, we're going to have to go
through suffering and trials and tribulations.
Look at 1 Peter 1.5, Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready
to be revealed in the last time.
By the way, does that say through works?
We're kept saved by our works, right?
Well, you don't have to do works to get saved, you've got to do works to stay saved, wrong.
We're kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the
last time.
Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness
through manifold temptations.
Now what does heaviness mean?
Now I don't want to say that this modern word is the exact parallel here, but a similar
word would be the word depression, you know, and obviously that kind of has a certain psychobabble
connotation to it that I'm not trying to bring in here.
You know, that's like something that you take a drug for or something.
But I'm just saying, you know, depress, what does it mean?
Sometimes you're reading an instruction book and it'll tell you to depress something.
It's telling you to press down on it, right?
And what does heaviness do?
It presses down.
It's the force of gravity, it's weight.
And so when the Bible talks about Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane becoming very, it
says he began to be very heavy, okay?
It's not saying he gained weight, okay?
When it says he began to be very heavy, it's talking about the pressing down on him of
sorrow.
And that's where we get our word depressed, someone being depressed or someone being in
depression.
You know, the Bible word for that would be heaviness, okay?
A heavy heart.
Now today we're taught, oh, if you're sad, if you're in heaviness, if you're depressed,
take drugs.
You know, oh, you need to fix that.
You need an anti-heaviness or anti-depressant, you know.
You need an anti-depressant.
You need to take this drug so that you'll feel better.
And look, I knew a woman whose only son, her toddler son, stumbled into the pool and drowned,
okay?
And this woman obviously, you know, she felt so sad that her only son had died.
And not only that, but the guilt, and obviously I'm not saying it was her fault, you know,
there's a lot to the situation and the story, but obviously as a mother, no matter what
happens, you're going to be feeling like this was somehow my fault, even though she wasn't
even around, even though it had nothing to do with it.
You know, you're going to feel like, I didn't stop this from happening.
I didn't prevent this.
And this woman was obviously mourning and sorrowing for her son.
Is there anything out of the ordinary about that?
But after a week or two, it's like, they're telling her, you need to get on these drugs.
Because this is keeping you too sad and too sorrowful.
You just need to get on these drugs.
And I told her, I said, no, you need to weep, you need to mourn, you need to be sad.
Your son died, it's okay to feel that way.
You know, you need to go through this, you need to go through the pain, and go through
the sorrow and the sadness, and you know, you'll come out the other side and you can
live your life.
But don't try to rush the grieving.
You know, you look at people in the Bible, often they grieve for 40 days, you know.
They grieve for a long time.
But eventually she gave in and took the drugs, and you know what, she said it made it worse.
Made it way worse.
One of the side effects on the packet said, depression and suicide.
And it's an anti-depressant.
Literally.
No, and you know what, you think that's a joke.
Go online right now and Google one of these mainline anti-depressants and read the side
effects and they all say depression and suicide.
Okay.
And so, you know, drugs are not the answer.
And our society has become a society where if you feel any slightest pain, take this
painkiller, quick.
You feel any slight, oh, take this anti-depressant.
I mean, you just need to be happy and feeling good 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
That is not a healthy way to live your life.
Pain is good for you.
You know, one of the major physical pains that I've gone through over the last several
years was that I had a wisdom tooth come in and it came in all wrong.
Came in all diagonal and it was impacted and this is something that they tried to remove
when I was a teenager and I just said, no, I want to keep it, you know, oh, you're going
to have problems with this.
I just said, I'm taking my chances.
You know, so this wisdom tooth came in and it was all diagonal and sideways and the dentist
is saying, you've got to get this thing out, you're crazy.
And I'm like, no, no, I'm going to do it.
So here's the thing, after a while, man, it started to hurt really bad.
I mean, it started to hurt so bad where, you know, it was hard to go to sleep at night.
It was hard to function.
It was hard to live my life, okay?
Because what would happen is because it came in at a weird angle, little bit of food would
kind of get stuck back in there, okay?
And then it would just really create problems and so forth and eventually it started to
develop way back deep in that wisdom tooth, it started to develop some type of a cavity
or something back there because it was just so far back in there and it was just kind
of coming in at a weird angle.
And so, you know, I haven't gone to the dentist in like a decade.
So my wife finally, you know, talked me into, you know, just go to the dentist and we won't
let them do anything to you.
Just let them look.
So I'm like, okay, you know, I can live with that as long as they don't do anything.
You know, and at one point she pulled out the hook and came at me and I'm like, no,
no, we're just checking, we're just looking, remember?
Oh, sorry, sorry, you know.
So she came in and looked at it, you know, and they checked everything out and they did
a full analysis of every part of my mouth.
You know that thing where they stab like every part of your gum?
They stab each tooth and they see like, you know, how far your gums have receded or if
it's bleeding or whatever.
You know, so they looked at it and they checked everything and I think I even let them do
the x-ray of it.
I don't know what I was thinking but, you know, so I let them do the x-ray or whatever.
I just let them, everything just looking, just don't do anything.
So they looked at it and she said, oh man, she said, your wisdom tooth is so messed up.
She said, I'm surprised that you're not just like on the ground right now in the fetal
position just writhing in pain.
Isn't that what she said?
Yes, she did.
I'm not exaggerating, that's what she said, but anyway, my wife doesn't believe me.
But she's like, and this is what she said, she's like, you'll be back.
This is the part my wife disagrees with, but she was like, you'll be back.
But she didn't do, okay, she didn't do the evil laugh.
But she did say, she literally did say, I'm surprised you're not on the ground in pain
right now and she's like, you'll be back when you're in excruciating pain, then you'll be
begging me to work on your mouth.
I'm like, I'll never be back.
But anyway, I'm just kidding.
I'm being a little dramatic.
But she was, she was like, man, this, you know, I can't believe that you're not in more
pain than you're in, it looks bad, we've got to get this thing out.
She's like trying to mark the calendar, I'm like, no.
I said, listen, I told her, I said, look, I said, I'll tell you why I'm having a problem
here because I have been neglecting my dental hygiene.
Because I told her, I said, I travel a lot, and I'm constantly traveling, and I said,
when I'm at home, I brush my teeth, you know, once a day when I'm at home, I never floss.
But I said, when at home, at least I brush every day.
But I get on the road, I get real busy, I'm working 18 hour days, I'm sleeping in my car,
you know, sometimes I don't always get to take good care of my teeth, just do a quick
brush or don't skip a day brushing, whatever.
And I told her, I said, let me just fix this myself because I feel like if I will improve
in that area, you know, I could fix this thing.
And she's like, no, it's impossible, it can't be fixed, it will be bad.
So then, you know, and this was like, I don't know, a year ago or something.
So then I just started just religiously, after every meal, okay, flossing and brushing
and rinsing out my mouth with black walnut powder or hydrogen peroxide, you know, and
honestly, now, it never, and it was something that was just kind of sore all the time, just
kind of always a little sore, and then sometimes it would get excruciating and then I'd like
floss it or rinse it out.
But ever since I started doing that, I mean, my teeth are just healed.
I mean, just perfect, like it never hurts at all.
I don't feel anything, it feels perfect.
But I noticed the whole rest of my mouth feels great too, and everything is getting better.
And you know what that taught me, a very valuable lesson, is that sometimes pain can serve a
good purpose in our lives.
Because think about this, and I know this is kind of a long-winded illustration, which
I don't usually do as a pastor, but you know, you can put up with it every once in a while.
But here's the thing, when I had that pain in the left side of my mouth, it was like
a wake-up call telling me, hey, I need to do something about my mouth because I have
this sharp pain and this wisdom tooth.
But here's the thing, I didn't just decide, okay, now I'm just going to floss and brush
that one tooth.
Every day I'm just going to floss and brush that one tooth.
See, here's the thing, I decided that because of this problem over here, I'm going to floss
all my teeth after every meal, and brush after every meal, and rinse out my entire mouth.
And so honestly, in the end, it's probably good for my whole mouth and all my other teeth.
I probably prevented a bunch of other problems that I would have had later in life.
So let's say my wisdom tooth had never come in.
Think about this now.
What if my wisdom tooth had never come in, or what if I would have just had it removed
as a teenager, and I never would have felt that excruciating pain in the left side of
my mouth?
You know what, I'd probably still be barely brushing.
I'd probably still be neglecting, and then pretty soon my whole mouth would be messed
up, and my whole mouth would be unhealthy, and then my whole body would be unhealthy.
But instead, that pain was telling me, hey, there's a problem, you need to fix this problem.
And to me, the problem wasn't just, oh, you know, if I left tooth within thee, pluck it
out and cast it from thee, you know, for me it was more like, hey, maybe there's just
a problem with the fact that I'm not flossing and brushing.
Maybe that's the problem.
And then when I started flossing and brushing, everything was fine.
But I probably did a favor to my entire mouth, I probably did a favor to the right side of
my mouth.
And so do you see how pain can sometimes show us, hey, there's something that needs to change,
hey, you need to fix something, hey, you need to do something better.
So instead of just every time you feel pain, a lot of times people's pain is because they're
dehydrated when they get a headache.
And a lot of times people are, oh, headache, oh, etc. in the headache medicine.
Instead what they really need is to drink water, or eat better food.
You know, a lot of our sicknesses are caused by not taking care of ourself, like the sickness
I had in the left side of my mouth, it was from neglect.
It was from nothing but neglect.
And once I got that straight, and you know, another thing is obviously, you know, I decided
okay I'm not going to eat too much sugar and stuff like that, because that's bad for your
teeth too.
You know, I read up all the things to do for your teeth, and I've been doing them all,
and now my teeth are doing better than ever.
Okay?
And so we don't need this mentality that just says, let's not ever go through pain.
Let's not ever go through suffering.
Every small little pain, I'm going to pop a pill.
Every little bit of depression, prescribe me a mind-altering drug, or let me take another
hit off that joint, or let me drink a beer, and drown my sorrows, and get drunk.
You know, because I just don't want to feel any sadness.
I don't want to feel any sorrow.
I want to find some comfort.
But look, oftentimes we need to get the comfort by fixing the actual root of the problem.
And often there isn't even a problem, we just need to go through sadness, because God's
trying to make us better, and He's trying to try us and strengthen us.
Now go to Job chapter 23, Job chapter 23.
In the dead center of your Bible is the book of Psalms, and the book right before that
is the book of Job, Job chapter 23.
What am I talking about this morning?
I'm talking about not giving up just because you fail.
Just because you fall.
The just man falleth seven times and riseth up again.
Not quitting when things are going bad.
Not feeling like, oh, I'm experiencing pain, I must be doing something wrong, instead of
realizing that, you know what, suffering and sorrow and sadness are a part of our life.
Yes, often we are doing something wrong.
Other times it's just God's will to try us and test us.
But either way, we need to not panic, and not throw in the towel, and not quit just
because things are going bad.
And maybe things are going bad in your life right now, and you're thinking about quitting
church, or you're thinking about quitting solany, or quitting your marriage, or quitting
whatever.
Just stay with it.
Get back up.
You know, pick yourself up and start over again.
Look at Job 23.
This is Job when he's going through the hardest time in his life.
And it says in verse 8, Behold, I go forward, but he's not there, and backward, but I cannot
perceive him.
And he's talking about God.
He's saying, I go forward, I can't find him.
Backward, I cannot perceive him.
On the left hand, where he didth work, but I cannot behold him.
He hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him.
So he's saying that he's going through a time in his life where he feels like God is absent.
He's saying, forward, back, left, right, I can't find him.
Now we've known that God has promised us that I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.
So don't we know he's always there?
And he even says here that on the left hand where he didth work, but I cannot behold him.
He's saying, just because I can't see him, I still know that he's there at my left hand.
I know he's there.
But there are often times when we feel like the Lord has forsaken us.
And we feel like we're failing, we go to the Bible, we feel like God's not talking to us,
we get on our knees and pray and we feel like it's not going past the ceiling, and
we feel like he's not before me, he's not behind me, he's not to the left, he's not
to the right, I'm a failure, I'm a loser, you know, I give up.
But he says in verse 10, but he knoweth, even though he can't feel like God's there, he
says, but he knoweth the way that I take.
When he hath tried me, he says, I shall come forth as gold.
My foot hath held his steps.
His way have I kept and not declined.
He's saying, I didn't quit, I kept serving God, neither have I gone back from the commandment
of his lips.
I've esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.
But he is of one mind, and who can turn him?
And what his soul desireth, even that he doeth, for he performeth the thing that is appointed
for me.
You see that?
He's saying, look, I know that if these things are coming into my life, it's God's will.
This is what God has appointed to me, I'm just going to stay with his commandments,
I'm going to keep on doing what I know to do, I'm going to keep on esteeming the words
of his mouth more than my necessary food.
He says, he performeth the thing that is appointed me, and many such things are with him.
Verse 15, therefore am I troubled at his presence, when I consider, I'm afraid of him.
For God maketh my heart soft, and the Almighty troubleth me.
Now look, we don't want to have a hard heart, do we?
Sometimes God has to make our heart soft by troubling us, to soften us up a little bit,
to tenderize us, as it were.
Let's turn to one last place, we'll go to a couple of places in the book of Psalms and
I'll be done.
Turn to Psalm 105, and while you're turning there I'll read you some other scriptures
while you're going to Psalm 105, just to blow through this last page of notes.
It says in 1 Peter 4, Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is
to try you, as though some strange thing had happened unto you.
But rejoice inasmuch as you are partakers of Christ's sufferings, that when his glory
shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.
So what he's saying is, don't be surprised when bad things happen in your life.
Don't think it's strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you.
So don't think it's weird when you go out to battle against the Benjamites of this world
and you get your backside kicked all over the place.
Don't think that's strange.
Don't think that's weird.
And when you go out the second time, and you get demolished a second time, you know what?
Don't be shocked, don't be surprised.
The trial of your faith being much more precious than of gold that perish that though be tried
with fire might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the period of Jesus Christ.
God compares us unto a precious metal.
And he says that just as gold is refined by the fire and all the impurities are taken
out of it, you know, we're going to go through fiery trials.
And what does fire denote?
Pain.
You know, putting you in the hot seat as it were.
Turning up the heat on your life.
It's to get the impurities out.
It's to make you better.
Look at Psalm 105 verse 16, Moreover, this is talking about Joseph, he called for a famine
upon the land.
God called for a famine upon the land.
He braked the whole staff of bread.
He sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was sold for a servant, whose feet they hurt
with fetters.
Meaning that they put the shackles on his feet to the point where it hurt.
Now anybody who's ever worn shackles on their feet, which I've worn shackles on my feet,
I've worn handcuffs and shackles when I was arrested, and you know what?
It hurts.
Because they don't put them on, you know, is this too tight?
They're just like, ratchet that thing down, and I mean the shackles hurt.
And the Bible's saying here they put them on Joseph to the point where they hurt.
And that's something we don't think about.
Oh, he's taken down to Egypt.
Yeah, but the whole ride to Egypt as he's bouncing in that wagon, he's got a fetter
digging into his flesh of his ankles.
And it says they hurt his feet with fetters.
He was laid in iron until the time that his word came.
The word of the Lord tried him.
Do you see that?
The Bible is teaching here, and then of course the next verse says the king sent and loosed
him.
So the Bible's teaching here that the time that he spent in captivity, and then the time
that he spent in prison, was a time when God was trying him and testing him.
Because after that, wasn't Joseph given great authority?
After that, wasn't he given great power and influence over his own family and over an
entire nation?
First he had to be tried.
First he had to go through suffering.
First he had to wear the shackles on his ankles before he would stand with the scepter and
rule the greatest nation in the world.
He had to have his feet in shackles first.
Go to Psalm 66, last place, verse 10.
Psalm 66 verse 10.
The Bible reads, For thou, O God, hast proved us.
Thou hast tried us as silver is tried.
Thou broughtest us into the net, and, watch this, thou laidst affliction upon our loins.
Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads.
We went through fire and through water, but thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place.
I will go into thy house with burnt offerings.
I will pay thee my vows, which my lips have uttered and my mouth has spoken when I was
in trouble.
So what's the Bible saying here?
Going through extreme trouble, fire, water, suffering, having affliction laid upon your
loins, and he says that through it all, he said, he made the decisions and the vows about
serving God when he was in that trouble.
And after all the trials, after all the tribulations, after all the suffering, when he came out
of it the other side and was brought into a wealthy place, brought into a place where
things were going good, then he said, you know what?
I'm going to live up to all the vows that I made when I was in that hard time.
This is the proverbial, God, if you get me out of this situation, then I'll do X.
And he's saying, you know what?
I'm going to pay those vows.
I'm going to do what I said I would do in that situation.
But you know what?
Why does God put us in those situations?
Sometimes so that we'll make that vow.
Sometimes so that we will make that decision to serve God and to love God with all our
hearts and all our souls and all our minds and strength.
So what I'm saying is this, don't think it's strange when bad things happen.
You know, maybe you've started a good habit lately or maybe you've decided to kick a certain
sin in your life or maybe you've decided to make a change in some area of your life or
maybe you've decided to start coming to church or maybe you've just decided to start reading
your Bible.
Whatever it is, don't think it's strange when bad things happen.
And oh, God's not blessing me.
Oh, God's not in this.
Oh, maybe I'm doing the wrong thing.
Maybe this is the wrong idea.
No, no, no.
Just realize, you know what?
This is part of the test.
I got to get back up and if I fall, I'm going to get back up.
I'm going to fall again.
I'm going to get back up and the just man falls seven times and rises up again.
That is the life story of every great man of God and every great woman of God is that
they fall, but they get back up and they keep on going and every day they realize, hey,
it's a brand new day.
It's a fresh start.
You know what?
I might have completely messed everything up yesterday.
I completely blew all my resolutions.
You know, I blew it.
I'm done.
No, get back up.
Do it again and do better the next time.
Let's bow your heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you for this story in Judges 20.
I'm sure it was very depressing at the time to keep losing the battle and they didn't
know how it was going to end.
But God, I thank you for their situation.
They didn't know why they were going through it, but part of the reason why they were going
through it was so that this sermon could be preached.
Part of it was to be an encouragement to us in 2013 so that we could look at the story
in Judges 20 and say, you know what, in a righteous fight, in a righteous battle, in
a righteous cause, there are going to be setbacks.
Help us to be ready for it.
Help us to stay strong and never to give up, never to quit, but to keep on picking ourselves
up and doing it again and in Jesus' name we pray.