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And we're in chapter number 10 and chapter number 10 is kind of a transition chapter, so I think it fits really well For this evening, but look at verse number one the Bible reads and after Abimelech there arose to defend Israel Tola the son of Puah the son of Dodo a man of Issachar and he dwelt in Shemir in Mount Ephraim Now we just finished chapter number nine where Abimelech had risen to power He'd become a king and he basically taken the men of Shechem unto him he had killed all of Gideon's children except one except for Jotham and It kind of ended poorly it ended where there was really no Answer there was really no person to basically take charge after this because he gets wiped out the men of Shechem get wiped out and you're just kind of Like starting all over again and have no leadership But after Abimelech someone arises and notice this to defend Israel Tola the son of Fuah now if we think about Abimelech, why did he rise to power? Was he defending the children of Israel from some great oppressor or some great enemy? No, rather. He just wanted the preeminence. He wanted the power. He wanted to be in charge of things He didn't have good motives. And in fact, who was his enemy. His enemy was his own brethren His enemy was those people that were born of his father and they were on his side and they were also children of Israel, but notice the difference the contrast of Tola Tola is there to defend the Children of Israel and we talk about leadership when we talk about someone rising up One of the most important attributes of this person is their motive One of the most important things that we can think about this person. Why is this person coming to power? Why is this person wanting to be in leadership and notice the difference between Tola and Abimelech Tola wants to defend? Abimelech wants to take the power. He wants to attack. He's the oppressor of the children of Israel He's one that's going against the children of Israel and look there are people today who their enemy is God's people They'll attack God's people. They're not attacking any enemies. They're not going out and stirring up any kind of trouble They're not going out and preaching against false prophets They're not going and doing any mighty works for the Lord Basically on Sunday morning Sunday night and Wednesday night All they're there to do is to attack God's people and that's a bad pastor. That's a bad preaching. That's a bad church No, we need people that are gonna defend God's people They're there to go out and fight the right enemy and the right oppressor and go out and fight the Lord's battle Abimelech came to destroy and he never defeated any of God's enemies notice that What was Abimelech's rap sheet and we were gonna try and think about the previous chapter and I know it's been a couple weeks But if we were to try to think backwards about what Abimelech did what did Abimelech do for the children of Israel? He wiped out Shechem. I mean he destroyed all the children of Shechem. He killed a bunch of his brethren He never killed any of the enemies He never went out and did anything for God and so we have to look at people's actions and try to discern What is this person end up doing is this person even serving God is this person even going out and Battling for the Lord or is he just attacking God's people? Is he just going against other children of God? Now what I like about Abimelech and we kind of contrasting and I know we're kind of just reliving a little bit of chapter number nine But think about what Abimelech wanted to do Abimelech wanted to be The most high didn't he and Abimelech remember we talked about him being like the devil He wants to be the highest in the kingdom He wants to rise up and be the most like isn't that the attribute of the devil? The devil wants to be in leadership because he wants the praise the honor and the glory. Why is Tola being risen up? To defend the children of Israel. He sees a problem. He sees them being oppressed and he says, you know what? I want to defend these people. I want to go to their aid. I want to assist them I want to help them so we can see a complete difference and motive between two leaders One is there to attack oppress and destroy and wants to be lifted up as the most high The other person is there to defend assist You know basically fight their battles for them. This is a very clear-cut distinction between these two people now look at verse number two the Bible reads and He judged Israel 20 in three years and died and was buried in Shemir and after him arose Jair a Gileadite and Judged Israel 20 in two years and he had 30 sons that rode on 30 Ascults and they had 30 cities which are called Hayvoth Jair unto this day which are in the land of Gilead and Jair died and was buried in Caiman says in verse 6 just to start and the children of Israel did evil again on the side of the Lord So while they end up having leaders when they end up having people like Tola once they have people, you know, like Jair or Yair We have someone that's actually defending then they serve God But whenever this person falls off the scene now they're going back and serving false gods going back and this is a constant theme through the book of Judges, but here's what we have to understand if you want to be a leader You have to be someone that's willing to say no You have to be someone that's willing to actually put people in their place And you have to be someone that has a little bit of girth about you has a little bit of stamina and can say And defend God's people now Someone that's not a good person to be in this type of role is someone that's a man-pleaser Someone that's a compromiser or someone that is weak now. I'll admit this about myself You know, my personality is is naturally not very much like that My natural personality is the type of person that will let someone just walk all over me and not care at all I mean when I grew up when I was younger and most of my life people would treat me like dirt People would treat me like scum people would walk all over me People would call me every name under the Sun people do all kinds of things to me and I just let it all go I just constantly just was like whatever who cares just let you know, just water off a duck's back is my type of personality Naturally, okay, but here's the thing If I want to be in a position of leadership if I want to be over God's people I cannot keep that type of personality trait I have to change my personality because I have to stand to the defense of God's people I can't let God's people just be taken advantage of and ripped off and Constantly oppressed and just be like gut forget about it, you know, who cares no someone has to defend How could I say that I'm the defender if I never come to the aid of God's people if I'm never willing to say to someone no or to fight back or to tell someone off or to look and identify a wolf trying to come in and Say, you know what? This guy's wicked. I'm going to attack him I'm going to defend God's people or even just telling God's people you need to stop worshipping false gods and you need to worship the God of the Bible and Defending the Bible and defending God's Word But let me tell you this if you want to be in a position of leadership You have to have the ability to say no You have to have the ability to defend people and to attack the real enemies that are out there otherwise, you're gonna be a bad leader and When I look at leadership, this is how I look at it, I'm fine with keeping my personality for myself I don't have to go out and always defend myself and always go out and try to make sure and right every single wrong and make sure everybody that said anything negative about me or Attacking me that every single time. I'm just attacking them back. I don't have to have that type of personality I don't have to have that type of attitude, but you know what? I don't want to have a lazy that lacks a daisical attitude with you If I see someone attacking you guys or attacking my church or trying to pull people out of the Church of God Then I need to come to the defense of them and you know what? That's the same type of personality the men in this room need to have Hey, it's okay to let people take advantage of you personally, but you know what? You shouldn't let them take advantage of your wife. You shouldn't let them take advantage of your children You shouldn't let them take advantage of your brothers and sisters and Christ And so in my mind I want to come to the defense of my brothers and sisters in Christ when they're being attacked when something's going Against them and this is important when we kind of see the underlying architecture or what's happening in these first few verses Notice these guys are there to defend God's people the opposite of Abimelech the opposite of what he did And if you want to have a position of leadership and you want God to put you in that position of leadership Well, when are you coming to the fence of God's people? Now this is not necessarily a good example per se but I think it shows the heart of a great leader in the Bible And it's Moses now notice when Moses if you think about the story whenever he saw his brethren being afflicted He came to the defense of his brethren didn't he now he didn't necessarily handle it correctly. He killed the Egyptian He buried him in the sand and maybe that wasn't right per se but notice in his heart He wanted to defend his brethren He wanted to take care of them and that is the right type of heart for a leader is Someone that's willing to defend if you say, you know what? I never want to fight anybody. I Don't want to get in the middle of some kind of situation. I don't want to call someone out I don't want to have to attack anybody. That's fine. But don't be in leadership and If you have a family you need to man up because people want to hurt your family And so sometimes you do need to defend yourself Hey, if you're a lone ranger and you just want to take every single knife in the back that you can possibly take go for it, but if you have anybody underneath you an Important aspect of a good leader is one that's willing to defend to come to the defense of people now Let me prove this to you go to Ezekiel chapter 22 Ezekiel 22. Let me give you another story Aaron Aaron oftentimes does good. He does bad But in one case when the children of Israel sin against the Lord and the Lord is pouring out his wrath upon the children of Israel Aaron comes and he stands in the gap between the dead and the living is what the Bible says He defends God's people from God himself From God's wrath himself and you know what anybody that's in a position of ministry has to understand that important role Sometimes you're protecting God's people from God himself You were saying you know what if you go out and you drink alcohol God is gonna rain on you God is gonna chastise you God is gonna pour out his wrath on you And so what you're doing is you're trying to stand in the gap of God's people The person that's not willing to call sin out call people out defend his people even from God's own Wrath is not a good leader is not a good minister now in Ezekiel chapter 22 This is probably one of the most famous verses in the Bible, but look at verse number 30 It says and I sought for a man Among them that should make up the hedge and stand in the gap before me for the land that I should just not destroy It but I found none. So notice what God is looking for. He says I want some man to defend This land and nobody's willing to do it. No one's willing to make up a head. No one is willing to stand in the gap No one is willing to defend his nation from God's own wrath and so you know what God does he ends up destroying That land. So if you want to be in a position of leadership, let me tell you this man You need to be a defender You need to have the spirit of one who's willing to defend things and go to bat Hey at very least you should be willing to defend the Bible That should be just number one But even beyond the Bible you have to identify God's people and say you know what I'm willing to defend them, too I'm willing to go to bat for them. And even when it's not necessarily Something that directly involves me if I can get in there biblically and stand in that gap. I want to do it I want to help people go to verse number six go to verse go back to judges chapter 10 and go to verse number six and You know in my ministry I want to be the type of person that if I see God's people hurting if I see God's people Needing someone to stand in the defense and no one else is willing to do it that I should do it You know, I say hey here am I send me I say hey, there's a problem. There's a need Why don't I just fill in that gap? And you know what this can happen in any area of your life even going out soul winning Sometimes when you're going soul winning, you're the silent partner and there's a tendency to be a silent partner Just kind of check out think about other things do other things not really care. Sometimes silent partners are even a distraction Sometimes they're like distracting the other person from getting someone saved now. What's a good attribute is this? If you're out there soul winning and you notice someone is being a distraction or there's a dog or there's something to say You know what? I'm gonna try and defend this talker from this dog or from this person that's coming and attacking them and obviously you have to use Discretion to some degree but if I can kind of identify the situation or someone's going to come and interrupt the basically the presentation Sometimes I'll go try to intercept that person and just try to talk to them about anything, you know, Oh football sure Let's talk about football for ten minute You know just whatever I can do to allow that talker to just keep fighting the battle and keep going to bat You know That's the type of attitude and attributes that we should have is someone that's willing to defend our brothers defend our sisters in Christ Here's another way you can defend your brothers and sisters in Christ when someone comes to you and wants to talk crap on your brothers And sisters in Christ and you're not willing to defend God's people. How can you be in leadership? When someone comes up to you and says, oh, did you hear about so-and-so? I don't want to know Why don't you stand up for your brethren, you know, and people come to me even with accusations even bad things You know what? I typically try to do. I just try to defend them even not knowing the situation well Maybe you don't know why they did that or maybe they made this decision for a reason that you didn't think of and I just Try to help them understand why they should not just go on the offense and try to attack their brothers and sisters in Christ Well, I just like to take the gossip in well, you're not a good defender then you're an attacker You're so what happened when the men of Shechem heard a bimelech coming with these all these accusations against his brethren Were they defending or were they were like, let's just take that accusation and run with it. Let's kill the our brethren No a godly person is gonna come to the defense of his people of the fence of his brothers and sisters in Christ and say I Don't want to hear that. In fact, why don't we bring them over here and we can all talk about it. I I Would love that I would love if someone comes up and said hey, do you like pastor Shelley's sermon tonight? What do you think about it? Well, let's go ask him You know, did you hear about what pastor Shelley did next? What do you think about the new location? Hmm? Do you like the color of the new invite? Hmm? You know The church is a 700 West Bedford Ulysses. What about 700? That's a lofted number. Hmm I mean, I don't know people just kind of stupid crap. Did you see the latest troll video gets pastor Shelley? Hmm That's true. That happens all the time. Okay, and I recommend not watching it unless you just really want to laugh Okay, they're pretty funny. But look at verse number six. Okay, so we talked about the importance of defense But what happens when they don't have a defender verse six and the children of Israel did evil again in the side of the Lord And serve Balaam and Astaroth and the gods of Syria and the gods of Zaydun and the gods of Moab and the gods of the Children of Ammon and the gods of the Philistines and forsook the Lord and served him not The anger the Lord was hot against Israel and he sold them in the hands of the Philistines And in the hands of the children of Ammon that year They vexed and oppressed the children of Israel 18 years All the children of Israel that were on the other side Jordan the land of the Amorites Which is in Gilead, moreover the children of Ammon passed over Jordan fight against also against Judah and against Benjamin and against the house of Ephraim so that Israel is sore at distress now Think about this few verses for a moment. First of all children of Israel are not Discriminatory when it comes to false gods a false religion. They just go for everything, right? They just a smorgasbord of everything and another thing we can point out or look at these verses understand who is it? That's really their enemy Who is the person that's gonna cause all the pain and discomfort in their life, is it the Philistines? Nope, it's God Here's the thing whenever they displease the Lord God allows the Philistines to come in or allows other enemies to come in to afflict them really that defender Was defending them from God's wrath from God's anger. It was God that was mad at them It's God that allows enemies to come in to oppress you and to afflict you and so the only person that we should worry about Or care about is God That's the only one we should even be fearing. Oh, I if I serve this false God enemies will attack me Yeah, it's not really the enemy though It's God that's mad at you and allowing that enemy to come and to afflict you and to oppress you and without some kind of Somebody defending them. Look notice God's anger and wrath is poured out upon these people and The Bible says this this is an interesting phrase, but it says they were sore Distressed sore Distressed whenever you do not follow God's commandments. Let me tell you this sore Distress on your life when I think of the some of the people that are not in this room this evening But they came to our church at some point and you know what they decided they're not in this room for Let's talk about one specific reason they forsook God's commandments They forsaken the Lord, you know what I think of sore Distress sore distress like I don't know Let's say your wife leaves you and you lose all your teeth and the only thing you have is video games that's sore distress and Nobody cares about you. You have no friends. No job. No life Nothing going for you. You know what that is sore distress pain and suffering and low and shame and everybody's mocking you and Ridiculing you why because you're a complete idiot You say how's you an idiot? He forsook God's commandments. Hey that same person could have decided You know what? I'm gonna follow all God's commandments to the best of my ability and they could still be here serving God They could be excited about a new building. They could keep getting souls saved. Maybe their life would look a little bit different I can think of other people they forsake the Lord and now they have to suffer the consequences of adultery I Can't think of a worse thing. Honestly, I mean if I was gonna think something to happen in my relationship is Adultery where I have to constantly feel the low and the pain and the sorrows of adultery In fact, some people it's not even a one-time thing It's an everyday thing Kill me now. I mean, I can't even imagine Whenever my family, you know, if I was thinking about my wife committing adultery every single day I'm constantly wondering where she's at. I'm constantly wondering if she's gonna be faithful to me. That's sore distress That's sore pain. You don't think it happens to God's people. Oh, yes, it does. Oh, it definitely does You don't think that kids get Raised by the public fool system and they despise their parents and they hate their parents and their drunks and their derelicts And they're idiots and they're morons and they're fools and you know what they have sore distress and they keep producing Bastard child after bastard child. Look I even have that in my own family I have people they're such losers and such derelicts and they won't even get a job and you know what they have to constantly bailed out By mommy and daddy and you know what? It's called sore distress Well, I don't want to take my kids to Wednesday night church. Mmm. I just can't wait to keep bailing them out of jail later in life and Raising their bastard kids for them and Cleaning up the vomit whenever they vomit all over themselves for all the drugs and alcohol Hey, you want to talk about pain? What's kind of hot in here? You know what? There's some real pain out there Whenever you forsake God's commandments, it's sore distress Jesus Christ said his yoke is easy in his burdens light and let me tell you those people look I haven't seen a single person that forsakes church. I haven't known anybody that came to this church They were like serving and then they forsook it and now it's just like lollipops and rainbows and unicorns it pain sorrow Whoa, sore distress shame. Oh, but I'll be different. No, you won't God's gonna chase it and scourge it every son in whom you receive it number one and number two if you're unsaved There is nothing to look forward to there is no hope for that person Let me warn you Christian you serve God if you think that your life is tough Let me warn you it can get way worse. And when I say way worse, I mean horrible sore Distress the pain and the woe of all the affliction of God's people and you know what God is not gonna spare his wrath Whenever you're just in rebellion Whenever you just decide to just live however You want do whatever you want get out of church and stop serving God don't read your Bible. Just chase money sore distress Sore pain and you know, these people are never satisfied. That's why they have to drink alcohol They don't have any pleasure. They don't have any real joy anything that's satisfied. Nothing satisfying outside of serving God Hey, even the greatest meal ever it's over after you're done and Then it's like well, what do you next meal? You know, where are we going now? My kids after we eat a meal, they're like what restaurant we going to now, you know, it's like we just ate You didn't eat it. It's like let's go another voice, you know, I mean every night sleep. It's never satisfying you want another one No house is satisfying. You always want a bigger one No, I'm at no bonus is big enough. You always want another bonus eventually No church is big. Nothing's nothing satisfying outside of Serving God nothing and you know what? I don't want to be satisfied with one soul saved I want to keep getting people saved. But you know what that brings a lot more satisfaction in my life and Knowing that I'm gonna have eternal rewards in heaven and let me warn you Christian when you don't serve God sore pain The consequences of sin are way worse than anything you're going through right now Anything I mean read Deuteronomy 28. He'll take away your mind. I Mean people in the Bible were cursed so bad. They ate their own children They have the emeralds and their secret parts that cannot be cured you're not gonna find a cure for AIDS Okay, quit quit donating money to it. All right, the cure for AIDS is a bullet in every faggots head. All right, that's the cure But at the end of the day what I'm trying to emphasize is when we read this story It'd be easy to be like, well, they were stupid But what about you? Do you have someone to defend you you have someone that's defending the Word of God to you You have someone that's defending you from God's wrath Why don't you look at the pastor as the preacher is someone trying to defend you from God's wrath? Well, I don't agree with that point that he made. I Don't like that sermon. I feel like he was talking about me. Yeah, I was You're right every single time you think it's about you. Let me just tell you it's about you and You know what? That's because God's Word applies to every single person whosoever believeth Every single person that puts their faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ every verse the Bible applies to you apply it and you know what if I preach something that seems to step on your toes receive it You say well what if it's not in the Bible? Well, you don't have to receive things that aren't in the Bible But if it's in the Bible receive it Every single time you need to fix yourself and you need someone to step on your toes every once in a while Not just defend you against the wolves defend you against God himself That's the real enemy here because you know what the wolf can't do anything unless God allows him Look at verse number 10 And the children of Israel cried on the Lord saying we have sinned against thee both because we have forsaken our God and also serve Balaam, well, you know what pastor Shelley? I'm not gonna serve Balaam. I'm not gonna serve the gods as Iden I'm not gonna serve Kemosh, you know, I'm not gonna start, you know serve the god of rim fan Okay, what about the god called Mammon the god called Money, are you gonna serve that false god? Because let me tell you it's a false god, too It's got that all-seeing eye on the back of it. You know, you look at it close enough. It's got a chip in it It's reprobate. No, it's good It's literally got a chip in it But here's the thing people can't decide how they're gonna make decisions in their life. Let me tell you this Number one for me is gonna be church Number one for me is gonna be serving God Now some people they put their job above church Let me tell you what I know who you're serving because he can't serve two masters No one in this room is making money, you know outside of the people on staff. Okay? No one in here is just like you can't make money while at church if you are that's impressive, but I doubt it Okay, I don't know if any of you are moonlighting while at church, but that's kind of weird. All right You're not gonna be able to make money and serve God at the same time You're not gonna be able to make sales calls while you're out going soul-winning Well, if you don't want the free gospel, what about a vacuum? I got a vacuum in the backpack Can I get you interested in some furniture, you know No you can't serve God and ma'am at the same time and if you go out and you're selling stuff if you're going and Working and you're always constantly going to gospel presentation. Let me tell you what one of those things is gonna suffer Either you're gonna get fired from a job from not working or you know what you're gonna not do gossip You're not gonna really serve God that well because you're gonna be busy working. Okay, you can't serve both Now if you're gonna be a godly well-balanced Christian, you have to make money as a man. I mean you have to revive your house Otherwise, you're worse than an infidel. But here's the thing. You don't have to elevate your job above serving God though and Whenever people decide to put their job their occupation and what they do with their time and their money tells me who they're serving and It's easy to look at this list and say well, I would never serve Balaam Okay. Well, what about the dollar bill? What about the American dream, you know, I want to have that bake I want to have that second home and I want to have that boat and I want to have that yacht When are you gonna go out in your boat Sunday? You're a church Saturday you're busy soul winning and working at the church or something. Okay You're practicing the hymns. All right, you're doing you're serving got your spending time with your family Hey all the pleasures of this world. They're just a distraction from the things of God You know what some people not only do they show up at church, you know what they do other stuff They lead a soul winning time. You know what that does. It doesn't profit you financially Every single one of my soul winning leaders I pay them zero dollars, okay Nothing, they get zero dollars for soul winning. You know what God is gonna pay them God is going to reward them. Well, I'm too busy with work. Okay, we know who you serve then You know some people come to church early so they can play an instrument Some people show up early so they can be an usher some people show up early so they can you know practice reading the Bible They're the Bible reader or they're the song leader. Hey, they're putting a bunch of extra effort and the serving God And you know what? I can tell who they serve and I can tell the other people who they're serving Well, you know what I do. I miss church for work. I don't do anything extra I don't do anything above my reasonable service. Well, let me tell you what I know who you're serving and You know what? You can't have both You cannot Make all the extra bucks and get all the promotions and get the yacht and get every single thing that you want in this life And serve God at the same time you have to choose which one you're going to choose and you know what? Sometimes you need a defender to tell you what you need and I want to work really hard For servicing God not this world. Not this flesh. Not my house. You know, my house is gonna burn up someday It gets worse every minute right the house is finally slowly decaying and slowly You know waxing old and getting worse and worse my car for sure Okay, that thing is just hanging on by a couple bolt loose bolts or something. I don't know but at the end of the day I want to work as hard as I can at serving God and as little at serving the world as little at serving my own Belly and so we have to make sure we have our priorities straight and that we're not forsaking God to serve Balaam Look the god of this world has blinded the minds of them which believe not what does every single person want that's not serving God money, I Don't even the derelict and the gutter who doesn't even have two nickels to rub together. You know what he wants more than anything money What does he have he has a sign asking for money? He's not saying do you have a spare Bible by chance? Anybody need a song leader You know at church service anybody know where the nearest Baptist Church is that I can go to No, you know what? There's people they call here all the time. They call our church You know, it's the number one call I get for this church money Hey, I've never been to your church at all, but I'm really behind on my rent. Will you pay my rent? It's like the one thing you want for me is money the one thing you want from God's house is money I can tell you serve I can tell where your heart is And you know what? I try to tell them if I ever talk to these people I say well, where'd you go to church? Why don't you go to church and then we'll talk and you know what they never do show up at church They want me to come in the fact this if you told them you give them money They probably wouldn't even come here to get it They want you to go to their place and then hand them money That's what they want or just call I can give you the number to call to pay for my bill Look I've had people that I was even willing to help and they're like, here's the number Why don't you call them and take care of it? And I'm just thinking like what in the world? Look who are you serving today? And you know what the Bible says to work with quietness and You know take care of yourself. Look at verse number 11 Bible says this and the Lord said on the children of Israel did not I deliver you from the Egyptians and from the Amorites from the children of Ammon and from the Philistines Zydonians also in the malachites and the mayonites did oppress you and you cried to me and I delivered you out of their hand Yet yet forsaken me and served other gods Wherefore I will deliver you no more go and cry unto the gods which you have chosen Let them deliver you in the time of your tribulation Notice this important phrase. He's saying go and cry to the gods which you have chosen Now what's interesting here is this God can get to a point where he's done with you God can get to a point where he's done with you and he's no longer gonna deliver you There's no hope now. Keep your finger go to Proverbs chapter 1 for a second I want to show you a verse and I want to kind of delineate between two different people One group of people that we can first apply this and attribute this to is the unsaved There is a point in which the unsaved can be rejected by God He will no longer help them even when they cry out for help now. Some people don't understand this They say how could someone cry out for help and God wouldn't save them. Well number one We have to understand if you're unsaved the only cry for help that God's really gonna answer. Is that of salvation? Okay, there might be some extent Something's basically exceptions of that per se But if you're one of these people that's constantly rejected him and constantly pushed away from him. He's not interested He's interested in getting you saved now in Proverbs chapter 1 There's a group of people that have rejected the Lord over and over and over look at verse 24 because I've called and he refused I have stretched out my hand and no man regarded But you have said it not all my counsel and would none of my reproof. I Also will laugh at your calamity I will mock when your fear cometh when your fear cometh as Desolation and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind when distress and anguish cometh upon you then shall they call upon me But I will not answer they shall seek me early But they shall not find me for that they hated knowledge and did not notice this choose the fear of the Lord They would none of my counsel They despised all my reproof therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way and be filled with their own Devices for the turning away of the simple shall slay them and notice this and the prosperity of fools Shall destroy them, you know when you go out and you stop serving God and you start serving mammon You know, it's the worst thing that could ever happen to you. You're successful at it Say well, I started skipping church so that I could get a promotion and I got it But now I have to work Wednesday nights, too and now I have to work Sunday nights and now I have to do overtime and now I have to go on business trips and I have to do all this extra labor and this extra work, but I get a big Christmas bonus But now I'm boss now I get an office, you know now I get that white-collar job, you know Sometimes prosperity can be the worst thing to happen to you notice what it's telling about these people the prosperity of fools shall destroy them Why because people associate money or finances with blessing? They think well if I get more money, I'm more blessed That is not what the Bible teaches. Let me give you a clear example of how that's not true if you get pregnant Now every single pregnancy is gonna be like this to your finances You know what it was it was a blessing Every single time it's a blessing, you know losing money in that situation was a blessing But some people don't understand how God works and they think well as long as I get more money than my life will be better You know, some people need less money in this life Some people be better off getting fired or having less money or less to do because then they can just have more time to serve God then they can do more things for the Lord. They can serve him better Don't think of prosperity as an automatic blessing from God Nope, sometimes if you're prospering and that which is foolish and that which is not biblical it can be your destruction It can destroy you they hated knowledge. They didn't choose God They didn't choose the fear of the Lord and then when they turn just in their distress They're sorry for getting caught basically, okay Then they call upon him and he's just like I'm gonna laugh in your face. I'm gonna mock at you I'm gonna make a meme about you You wanted to you wanted help now that you're in sort of stress But you know what? He's not going to answer and look God can get to a point where he won't answer the call You know when we go and we knock on doors and we talk to people and they're just like not interested go away I hate the Bible. I hate God You know what when they have sort of stress and pain come upon them in their life and they're like, please help me now He's gonna laugh at them he's gonna mock at them Well, you know you chase money once you go see how much your money's gonna help you Why don't you go give money to the doctor? Why don't you get that new fancy vaccination? You know, why don't you go see whatever your money can buy you? You know what money can't buy you happiness Money can't buy you safety. You need to fear God You need to fear the Lord and not only is this unsaved people in this category of Proverbs chapter number one It can happen to save people too You can get to a point where God will no longer talk to you. It's called Saul Saul got to a point where he constantly rejected God's commandments. He rejected what the Lord was wanting to teach him He was no longer responding to him, you know, and this I even think happens the pastors Now, let me explain you what this means. There are pastors that are just so caught in sin. They're just so Carnal, they're not interested in spiritual things. So, you know what happens when they open this book They can't understand any of it It's all just like and I don't care how much you've read the Bible in the past If you get in the flesh, you're not going to be spirit filled You're not going to be able to just always rely upon those past achievements those pastimes reading the Bible So, you know what comes out of their mouth on Sunday morning? fleshly things carnal things lies false doctrine because they're not filled with the Spirit and If you just constantly reject God, he'll get to a point where he'll just say, you know what? I'm gonna shut you off. I'm just gonna turn you off and why don't you go check your Facebook feed again? See what sermons you get from there Why don't you just go buy a sermon online since you like looking at things online so much Why don't you get your wife to write your sermon for you? Since that's all you really care about and look I'm telling you right now You should never turn off the Lord because he can reciprocate that action When you decide not to choose God not to choose the Lord He may just turn you off go to Hebrews chapter number 12 Hebrews chapter 12. I want to look another verse here to talk about the saved You say well I stopped going to church for work Well, God might make it to where you could never go to church whether you like it or not God could just turn church off for you God could just make you have maybe you're addicted to some kind of drug or some kind of alcohol and you can't even stop So you're not even welcome at church anymore God could do anything to you. We are we are like dust in his sight What is man that thou art mindful of him and the son of man that thou visitest him? Have you seen the universe? It's pretty big God can do whatever he wants to us at any moment. We should fear him in our lives We need to get a right perspective of our lives now in Hebrews chapter 12. I wanted you to look at a few verses here Look at verse 15 Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you and thereby Many be defiled lest there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright For you know how that afterward he would have inherited the blessing He was rejected for he found no place of repentance Though he cited carefully with tears notice Esau is Rejected of God even though he's seeking for it He's seeking it carefully with tears. You know what? He didn't find a place of repentance. There was no repentance Sometimes there's an opportunity for you to do something and you just screw it up and there's no chance to get it back Let me tell you how that was divorce Sometimes you pull that trigger. There's no getting that one back Your wife goes and marries another man Done done for That was a bad mistake. That was a bad decision You know what? There's all kinds of decisions you can make you take some some marijuana from your buddy and It just goes in fries your brain It's not like God's who's gonna be like Oh performer go to Benny head. He's not gonna lay hands and you're gonna recover You're not even get through the line because it's all fakes and phonies that are up on the stage anyways You're just gonna be waiting on the line and you're gonna be right there next on the line and you're like I'm ready to go and like we're done for tonight And you're just like marijuana Really mess me up, man Wish I'd never taken it. I only did it one time Look, I would be terrified to do that one time God could just destroy you instantly. We need to be careful less the grace of God We take that and just destroy it You know what God gives us grace in our lives But when we do wrong things we can still have his grace upon us But there gets a point where there's no turning back there gets to a point where you cross a line and he says, okay Done with you. Okay. I don't care anymore. Why don't you go reap the consequences of your sin and Let me say this and we're gonna kind of finish on this thought Sometimes you have to deal with the consequences of your sin Now go back to verse 15 go back to Judges chapter 10 and you know I hope this can still be an encouragement to you But let me say this whenever you commit grievous sin or you do something really wrong God is gonna make you go through the consequences of that sin Imagine if every time I screwed up horribly God just like oh no big deal No punishment No one's gonna learn their lesson Every time I threaten my children I say I'm gonna spank you if you stand in that chair one more time They stand on the chair. I'm like, alright, come here and they're like, I'm sorry. Okay, don't worry about it. I Just never spank them I never punish them I never follow through you know what they're not gonna obey me They're gonna do whatever they want And you know what? God is gonna follow through God is really gonna punish you and Sometimes you have to deal with the consequence of sin if you commit fornication and you have a bastard kid You know what? That's gonna be a lifelong decision You're gonna have that forever You go lay with someone that's not interested in the things of God That person may you know, give you a disease You may get married to that person quick and then they divorce you and have nothing to do with you the rest of your life That's a lifelong decision. You have to live with Hey You can do all manner of things you get arrested that record could be with you for the rest of your life There's lifelong decisions you can make and you have to be careful the decisions you make but you know What whenever you sin whenever you do wrong whenever you're suffering for the consequences and you need to embrace that now look what it says We read verses number 14 Look at verse 15 and the children of Israel said in the Lord we have sinned do thou unto us whatsoever Seemeth good unto thee deliver us only we pray thee this day they put away the strange gods from among them and serve the Lord and his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel then the children of Ammon were gathered together in a camp that Gilead and the children of Israel assembled themselves together in a camp Then misbe and the people and princes of Gilead said one to another What man is he that will begin to fight against the children of Ammon? He shall be head over all the inhabitants of Gilead now. This is what I want to say The children of Israel have not been given any hope from God of any grace He clearly articulated to them go cry into your other gods. I'm not gonna help you But you know what they decided to do they still decided to serve God anyways They still decided to get right with the Lord. They still decided to say, you know what? I'm just gonna go ahead and put away the false gods I'm gonna admit that I'm a sinner and I'm still gonna even ask for deliverance even though you said you're not gonna give it I'm just gonna ask for deliverance and I'm just gonna face the consequences of my sin I'm gonna get right with God and I'm just gonna move on you know, there's some people they they hear that they have a tough life to live ahead of them and Instead of just choosing to live that tough life. They just quit on God Someone comes up to me and says hey, you know, will you remarry me? I've been divorced and I say no Well, then why serve God nuts to God You Know someone has a horrible situation they go through something difficult, you know a wife says, you know what my husband sucks What should I do? It's like serve him You know You married him. Well, I don't want to do that. I'm just gonna run away Don't run away from your husband. Hey, my wife isn't interested, you know in serving me or being a godly woman or whatever So nuts to it. I'm just gonna join the non-denom Church and She can preach to me No, you just decide to serve God. Anyways, you say you know what? I don't care what negative consequences I have or how bleak the future looks I can still get away from that sin I can still stop messing around in that sin. I can still choose to serve God for the rest of my life I can still embrace the misery and the woe that I'm in and let me say this Serve God in misery That he may bring new grace Serve God and misery somebody in this room and I guarantee someone if someone might be going through a miserable time right now a Difficult time in some way that they're suffering in some ways someone's afflicting them in some way they have a poor outlook in their life or Something that's really difficult in their life and there they have constant sorrow constant pain constant issue Serve God anyways serve God in the misery of your life And you know what? You never know if God will still give you some kind of a special new grace now I want to articulate I want to go to another passage go to live Lamentations chapter 3 Lamentations chapter number 3 You know what I love about what they did is they did not complain About their punishment, but rather embraced it didn't they? You know, a lot of people just complain and bellyache and moan about the punishment that they clearly deserve Why don't you just embrace the punishment, you know children? Especially mine. I don't know about yours whenever I tell my kids that I'm gonna punish them. They're never like, oh I deserve that They don't need just accept it heartily they're not like, okay, here's the spoon will you please spank me now, you know, they're running away They're trying to avoid it. They're begging for it not to happen, right? They're not just embracing the punishment. They're not just accepting the punishment But look Lamentations chapter number 3 is a very Sad passage, but I think it kind of captured the essence of this chapter a little bit and look verse 1 The Bible says I am the man that has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. Now who's his wrath? That's God's wrath He has led me and brought me into darkness, but not into light surely against me is he turned He turned his hand against me all the day now, who's we talking about? We're talking about God turning his hand against one of God's people He says in verse 4 my flesh and my skin have he made old He had broken my bones. He had builded against me and compass me with gall and travail He has set me in dark places as they that be dead of old He had hedged me about that. I cannot get out. He had made my chain heavy Also when I cry and shout he shut it out my prayer Notice this person just being constantly rained on by God God's pouring out his wrath in this person and he's saying I'm not even listening to your prayers. He's shutting out the prayer He's constantly afflicting him. He's constantly tormenting him verse number nine He had then closed my ways with hewn stone. He hath made my paths crooked He was unto me as a bear lying in wait and as a lion in secret places He had turned aside my ways and pulled me in pieces He hath made me desolate Your best life now. No, I'm just kidding Verse 12 he has bent his bow and set me as a mark for the arrow He hath caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins I was a derision to all my people and their song all the day. He hath filled me with bitterness He hath made me drunken with wormwood. He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones He hath covered me with ashes and now has removed my soul far off from peace. I forgot prosperity And I said my strength my hope has perished from the Lord remembering mine affliction and my misery the wormwood and the gall my soul hath them still in remembrance and is humbled in In now is this person going through a good day, I don't know I mean, I know somebody in here might be going through a tough day. This person seems worse Some of you still have teeth. I think all right this guy I mean this guy is going through a rough day a rough time and you say who's oppressing him. It's God It's the Lord that's oppressing him. The Lord's the one not answering his prayer, but what did it do it humble them Verse 21 this I recall in my mind. Therefore have I hope it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed Because his compassion's fail not they are new every morning Great is thy faithfulness The Lord is my portion sayeth my soul therefore Will I hope in him the Lord is good unto them that wait for him to the soul that seeketh him it is good that a man should both hope and Quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord now what I want to point out here is we have this great song Great is thy faithfulness Notice they didn't like the first 20 verses of this chapter Where do we get that great inspiring phrase great is thy faithfulness and a picture of misery and a picture of affliction and a picture of Punishment and notice the Bible says why why is this guy still able? To keep going. Well number one He's still alive. It is of the Lord's Mercies that we are not consumed Because his compassion's fail not hey being alive is a mercy Being alive is a compassion of God and if you're still alive God still wants to use you in some way Count that a blessing that you just even have breath in your lungs Number one, I mean job didn't have much to keep count on but he was still alive And when it was of God's mercy and compassion that he was keeping him alive number two though is he's hoping because God has new Mercies it says they are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness now we have to understand about this verse, okay Is the fact that God is willing to extend new mercy every morning? That doesn't mean that he always does though. Okay. God's not gonna always necessarily give you new mercy every morning It's just every new morning. There's that opportunity to get God's mercy in your life God had God can give you new mercy every single morning. That's why he has hope That's why he's still has something to look forward to he says the Lord is my portion say my soul therefore I hope in him the Lord is good unto them that wait for him now when you're going through misery Let me give you some hope It's not necessarily forever. Even job had a pretty bleak outlook on life I mean he lost his children. His wife is just going off the rails He's got lesions all over his body His friends are you know falsely accusing him left and right and saying all manner of evil against him I mean, that's a pretty bleak outlook on life. He wants to die. He wants his memory to just perish from off the earth He curses his own day that he was born. He's in such misery and in such. Whoa, you know what his life turns around quickly His life gets better now look what it says in verse 27 It is good for a man that he bear the yoke and his youth Let me say this about you young men and most men in here are pretty young if not all of you Okay, I mean it's it's it's relative right? My grandfather was 97. He would look at all of you and call you young man, okay? But we have to understand is when you're young a lot of times your life might be considered misery Jacob had a miserable life whenever he was serving for his wife and you know what when you get started in the workforce when you get started building a Family when you get started doing all these things. Let me tell you misery should be a part of your life Because it's hard. It's hard to provide. It's hard to raise a family. It's hard to balance all the things that you need to balance It's hard to balance You know taking care of your wife and your kids and your job and serving God and doing all these things that are difficult You know Jacob's talking about he's not getting any sleep and his wage has been changed ten times and he's going through all this difficulty That's a lot of people's life when they're young. You know what? What does the Bible say? It says it is good for a man that he bear the yoke and his youth, you know when you can't do that 97 You only have one opportunity and let me say this you only have one opportunity to raise your kids at the age they are today It's Good to be in misery and woe now so that you can reap the benefits later. How about you young women? You know, when do you bear children? At the later part of your life or the early part of your life the early part of your life I mean women can get pregnant, you know 16 17 18 all the way up to maybe 40s kind of the whenever they get around 45 it pretty much ticks off naturally at least in our current culture So they're bearing that misery in their youth Why because you can't do it later and let me tell you what raising little kids is harder than raising big kids Maybe not from a mental perspective, but at least from a physical perspective, right? I mean having little kids is hard it sometimes feels like misery but serve God a misery and bear that yoke When you're young because you know what you're gonna be old one day and you know You're gonna be really glad that you worked really hard when you were younger I'm never gonna look back at my young years and think man. I shouldn't work so hard I'm thinking I wish I worked a lot harder Man, when I was in college, I wasted four years of my life Hey when I was in high school, I was wasting that time. I wasted a lot of my youth I waste a lot of time after college Okay, I wasted a lot of my youth and I don't look back and think man. I wish I had worked less You know, I believe I've had a lot of nights even just working in a secular world where I work all night And I don't think like man. I wish I got an extra sleep back then I'm thinking like, you know, I'm glad I got that done. I'm glad I accomplished something I'm glad I did something with my life You know what bear the yoke while you can be in misery now. He says a verse 28 He said it alone and keep a silence because he has borne it upon him And put his mouth in the dust if so be there may be hope he giveth his cheek to him that smited him He is filled full with reproach where the Lord will not cast off forever now He understand obviously this is parallel, you know paralleling Jesus Christ himself. Okay, a lot of these pictures of Jesus Christ Well, he's going through and how God laid the iniquity of us upon him and God afflicted him and all you talking about the smiting Of the cheek is obviously when he's standing before the Pharisees and they're smiting him and beating him There's all kinds of pictures here, but I'm still trying to focus on you for a moment. Okay? Because you're gonna go through this difficulty, but God is saying hey, he's not gonna cast off forever though He's not gonna just always he's not just like you're just on misery train until you die, buddy Hey, you just keep serving God and misery and looking for that. Hope he says but though he caused grief Yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies free did not afflict willingly Nor agreed the children of men to crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the Most High to subvert a man in his cause the Lord approveth not Who is he that say that and it cometh to pass when the Lord commanded the not out of the mouth of the Most High? proceedeth not evil and Good notice. God doesn't just pour out blessings Sorry to burst your false doctrine bubble God also renders evil and you know what God might render evil in your life for a reason You might be going through misery for a reason and notice that God's not willingly trying just to flick you God doesn't want to hurt you God doesn't want to harm you but it could be the consequence of your sin and when you sin accept the punishment that God has Given you job accepted the evil that God gave him. He didn't even deserve it And It it hurt the Lord that he was hurting job. He didn't like that He wasn't pleased with hurting job and in a sense He's pleased in the fact that he's hurting Jesus Christ because we get saved through it, but he doesn't want to hurt his son It's a sacrifice to him. He's not excited. He's not Desiring to punish his child But look what it says in verse number 39 is important verse Wherefore does the living man complain a man for the punishment of his sins Let's read that again, he says wherefore does the living man complain a man for the punishment of his Sins Sometimes you're going through evil because you sin and it's not right to even complain about it. I Love the attitude when we read our chapter when we go back. Let's go back for a moment. Go back to judges chapter number 10 Did They complain about their punishment and notice their punishment Mind you again reminding you. What was the hope that God gave them in their punishment? Nothing, there was no hope and let me say this to the people in this room There might have been a time in the history of this church or in your spiritual What where you looked at the future and you said no hope? It's doomed. You know what if you just keep serving God, he just keeps being faithful these doesn't Hey when you're steadfast God's gonna be more steadfast than you. Hey when you're faithful He's gonna be more faithful than you great is thy faithfulness. Where does that great verse come out of it comes out of misery You know what? You're gonna have great faith in God when you're going through a hopeless bleak terrible situation And then finally that that grace and mercy comes in your life and you're like wow Great is thy faithfulness. Well, I didn't see how we're gonna get out of that. There wasn't even any hope I didn't even see any way to get out of that pain I didn't even see any way to get out of that misery, but don't forsake God when you're in misery It's the best time to plug in it's the best time to start seeking God even more and saying, you know what? I don't know how this is gonna work out But I'm just gonna I'm just gonna start getting right with you and I'm gonna accept the punishment of my sins judges chapter number 10 Look what it says in verse number 15 again and the children of Israel said in the Lord we have sinned do thou unto us whatsoever seemeth good unto thee Now that's the exact opposite opinion of complaining, right? He's saying whatever you think is right Whatever is the right punishment? Whatever is the right situation God just do it to me But they do ask for deliverance don't they they say but please still deliver us They get right with the Lord and then we have here in the last two verses It says then the children of Ammon were gathered together in a camp than Gilead and the children of Israel assemble themselves together in a camp The misbe and the people and princes of Gilead said one to another what man is he? That will begin to fight against the children of Ammon. He shall be head over all the inhabitants of Gilead Notice that they want to put in charge now The person that's willing to go out and fight enemy the person that's willing to defend them They say let's put that guy in charge Whoever it is, let's make him it not a bimlech. We're done with a bimlech We don't want and when we get into the next chapter We're setting ourselves up for important chapter chapter number 11 with Jephthah But what I want to emphasize this they felt like it was hopeless, but you know what salvation is right around the corner Salvation is right in the next chapter. This is a setup chapter This is a transition chapter don't lose all the pieces of the puzzle that we've just gone through a bimlech Elected himself Then they suffer and they start realizing you know what we need somebody that's gonna defend us and you know what whoever defends us Let's put him in charge Let's let him lead us and then salvation is right around the corner even in the greatest misery God has new mercies right on the corner and as we make a transition for our church I don't care what you're going through keep serving God Keep being faithful and he'll keep being faithful in you I mean, I feel like our church, you know, I've only been here for some of the time, but it's gone through some difficult moments It's that moments where you could even look at it and felt hopeless or could have felt Very difficult or kind of bleak, but then the God just keeps delivering us God keeps blessing us God keeps preserving us God even gives us blessings above which we you know deserve and So my message is of this Even in misery serve God, let's close in prayer. Thank you father so much for your word Thank you for this great transition chapter I thank you that you have such great mercy and compassion that even when we are beyond deserving it You have new morning every new morning. You could still be merciful to us. You could still be Compassionate towards I pray that whatever sins that we have to suffer the consequences for that We have the right attitude that we receive evil with good and we wouldn't complain about the sufferings and the miseries that we have To go through knowing that you're a faithful creator knowing that you're not willingly afflicting us But that you grieve with us and that you love us And I pray that we just have a heart to continually serve you no matter what obstacles come in the future in Jesus name We pray. Amen