1 00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:01,120 You were watching online this morning. 2 00:00:01,120 --> 00:00:03,400 Welcome to you. If you're joining us live or 3 00:00:03,400 --> 00:00:05,560 sometime in the near future, grateful that you're here. 4 00:00:05,560 --> 00:00:08,720 And we want to invite you to come and be with us in person at 5 00:00:08,720 --> 00:00:12,720 115 E Main Street, right in the old historic part of Gaylord. 6 00:00:12,720 --> 00:00:14,960 Would love to see our services are at 9:00 and 10:30. 7 00:00:14,960 --> 00:00:19,280 Come and find us sometime soon. All right, those of you in the 8 00:00:19,280 --> 00:00:21,240 room and those watching online, if you have your Bibles, please 9 00:00:21,240 --> 00:00:23,760 take them and turn to the Old Testament. 10 00:00:23,760 --> 00:00:26,360 Kind of early on, after the book of Joshua, before the book of 11 00:00:26,360 --> 00:00:29,040 Ruth and First Samuel, there's a book called Judges. 12 00:00:29,320 --> 00:00:32,560 And we're going to start in Judges chapter 17 and Judges 13 00:00:32,560 --> 00:00:37,120 chapter 19. So Judges 17 and Judges 19. 14 00:00:37,840 --> 00:00:42,000 I'm going to read to you first from Judges chapter 17, and 15 00:00:42,200 --> 00:00:45,760 we're going to start in verse 6. And then we'll go to chapter 19 16 00:00:45,760 --> 00:00:47,400 and I'll read to you from verse one. 17 00:00:47,920 --> 00:00:52,040 This is verse 6. In those days, there was no king 18 00:00:52,080 --> 00:00:58,400 in Israel, and everyone did what was right in his own eyes. 19 00:00:59,320 --> 00:01:02,560 In those days there was no king, and everybody did what was right 20 00:01:02,560 --> 00:01:06,840 in their own eyes. And to see this refrain 21 00:01:06,840 --> 00:01:09,160 occurring again. This phrase is going to occur 22 00:01:09,160 --> 00:01:12,800 several times in the book of Judges, but even just a chapter 23 00:01:12,800 --> 00:01:17,160 and some later in chapter 19, it says in those days when there 24 00:01:17,160 --> 00:01:21,680 was no king in Israel, a certain Levite was sojourning in the 25 00:01:21,680 --> 00:01:25,360 remote parts of the Hill Country of Ephraim, who took to himself 26 00:01:25,720 --> 00:01:30,080 a concubine from Jerusalem, from Bethlehem and Judah, from 27 00:01:30,080 --> 00:01:33,080 Bethlehem and Judah. This morning, based on this 28 00:01:33,080 --> 00:01:36,320 story that we find in Judges, I want to talk to you about 29 00:01:36,320 --> 00:01:40,400 dealing with evil. Dealing with evil. 30 00:01:40,640 --> 00:01:45,480 Let me pray for us God, thank you that your presence is here 31 00:01:45,480 --> 00:01:48,360 with us. Holy Spirit, we, we, we know it, 32 00:01:48,360 --> 00:01:52,400 we sense that we believe it and now God is an act of worship. 33 00:01:52,400 --> 00:01:56,280 We look to your word and we open our hearts to your truth. 34 00:01:57,080 --> 00:02:01,000 And God, we say speak to us greatly, especially in the midst 35 00:02:01,000 --> 00:02:04,280 of this challenging season with all this going on in the world 36 00:02:04,280 --> 00:02:06,440 around us. Speak to us. 37 00:02:06,440 --> 00:02:09,360 We pray in Jesus name and everyone said Amen. 38 00:02:10,199 --> 00:02:12,600 Again, notes are available, I think are notes available on the 39 00:02:12,600 --> 00:02:14,360 back table. Did we already pass all of them 40 00:02:14,360 --> 00:02:15,640 out or there's some stumble back there. 41 00:02:16,640 --> 00:02:19,080 So this particular let me ask you to do something this time. 42 00:02:19,080 --> 00:02:21,520 Don't read ahead in my notes if you have them. 43 00:02:21,520 --> 00:02:23,560 I mean, if you can, you'll, but you'll kind of ruin it. 44 00:02:23,560 --> 00:02:26,560 It's like Santa Claus. You know, when you're a kid, you 45 00:02:26,560 --> 00:02:29,720 know you can ruin it if you, if you, you know, if you, you read 46 00:02:29,720 --> 00:02:32,280 ahead too quickly or remember your parents, they might maybe 47 00:02:32,280 --> 00:02:34,760 hid gifts in a closet somewhere. And as a kid, you found out 48 00:02:34,760 --> 00:02:37,240 where it was and you when you saw your presents and what 49 00:02:37,240 --> 00:02:39,480 happened on Christmas morning wasn't as great, right? 50 00:02:39,680 --> 00:02:43,320 So the notes are available. And if you read too far ahead, 51 00:02:43,560 --> 00:02:45,680 it'll kind of take away a little bit of the impact of this 52 00:02:45,680 --> 00:02:48,680 message, I think. I think, OK, now this morning, 53 00:02:48,680 --> 00:02:50,480 I'm talking to you about dealing with evil. 54 00:02:50,480 --> 00:02:52,240 And we're going to base it on the story. 55 00:02:52,520 --> 00:02:57,160 We're going to take some this ideas from the story of a Levite 56 00:02:57,440 --> 00:03:00,280 and it's concubine and it's a challenging story. 57 00:03:00,280 --> 00:03:02,720 I must tell you as I look around the room, it's kind of what I 58 00:03:02,720 --> 00:03:05,680 would call like a rated R story. Did you know there are rated R 59 00:03:05,680 --> 00:03:08,680 stories in the Bible? There are there are several and 60 00:03:08,680 --> 00:03:11,040 they're challenging and they're there for purpose. 61 00:03:11,440 --> 00:03:14,560 But what we tend to do is like this is not the kids are talking 62 00:03:14,560 --> 00:03:16,600 about the story in their in their Sunday school class this 63 00:03:16,600 --> 00:03:19,240 morning, right? This is not one for them, it's 64 00:03:19,240 --> 00:03:21,400 one for us. It's there, and it's 65 00:03:21,440 --> 00:03:24,680 particularly valuable in the context of what's going on in 66 00:03:24,680 --> 00:03:27,080 the world. Again, So this story, it's not 67 00:03:27,080 --> 00:03:29,080 one that our children are going to discuss, but it's a 68 00:03:29,080 --> 00:03:34,440 challenging, horrible, horrible, challenging story about evil. 69 00:03:35,480 --> 00:03:37,720 But if you'll stick with me, hopefully we'll be able to walk 70 00:03:37,720 --> 00:03:40,240 away with a lot of truth on how we're going to deal with the 71 00:03:40,240 --> 00:03:43,320 evil that we find and the world in which we Live Today. 72 00:03:43,720 --> 00:03:46,760 Now Tuesday was a long day for me. 73 00:03:47,800 --> 00:03:51,160 I came home, had a wonderful day, but just a lot of meetings 74 00:03:51,160 --> 00:03:53,160 and other things. I had lunch with Bill and Sue. 75 00:03:53,160 --> 00:03:54,640 Sorry, do you guys know Bill and Sue? 76 00:03:54,640 --> 00:03:57,280 Bill and Sue, if you're watching, wonderful part of our 77 00:03:57,280 --> 00:04:00,160 church got to have be with them and Dale and go sit in their 78 00:04:00,160 --> 00:04:02,360 home with them. And Bill is going to turn 85 79 00:04:02,360 --> 00:04:03,800 this month. So proud of him. 80 00:04:04,320 --> 00:04:06,520 And then had rehearsals and other things. 81 00:04:06,520 --> 00:04:11,160 So I got home around like 9:00 after a long day, and Jason 82 00:04:11,160 --> 00:04:13,400 already had dinner. And so I sat down and warmed up 83 00:04:13,400 --> 00:04:16,640 some dinner and she was watching ATV show and I was just eating 84 00:04:16,640 --> 00:04:18,959 in the kitchen. And then she says from like the 85 00:04:19,279 --> 00:04:22,360 the library area where she was watching, she said, hey, did you 86 00:04:22,360 --> 00:04:27,360 see the news about this woman who died on the transit in one 87 00:04:27,360 --> 00:04:31,560 of the Carolinas? And I had, but I'd had such a 88 00:04:31,560 --> 00:04:34,160 busy day and a busy couple days. So I'd seen it, but I 89 00:04:34,160 --> 00:04:38,480 intentionally tried to steer clear of the story because I 90 00:04:38,480 --> 00:04:42,760 knew it was disturbing. And not only that, I knew there 91 00:04:42,760 --> 00:04:44,680 was a video. I just read enough to go, oh, 92 00:04:44,680 --> 00:04:46,040 there's a video that you can watch. 93 00:04:46,040 --> 00:04:49,240 And and I chose not to watch it. I'm like, I don't want to watch. 94 00:04:49,240 --> 00:04:51,360 So we're talking, you know, she's in the library, I'm in the 95 00:04:51,360 --> 00:04:54,800 kitchen area eating and so back. So in that moment I said, I 96 00:04:54,800 --> 00:04:58,440 don't I, I'm not, I'm not ready, I'm tired. 97 00:04:58,640 --> 00:05:01,440 I don't want to kind of have to deal with the story right now. 98 00:05:02,000 --> 00:05:03,680 OK. And she wasn't an argument or 99 00:05:03,720 --> 00:05:05,000 anything like that. It was just like a brief 100 00:05:05,000 --> 00:05:08,000 conversation. So then, and I'd had my, my 101 00:05:08,040 --> 00:05:10,960 message for this morning planned really months ago of what I 102 00:05:10,960 --> 00:05:12,600 wanted to kind of do right after Labor Day. 103 00:05:12,600 --> 00:05:15,400 So I've got my message ready to go and everything's good to go, 104 00:05:15,640 --> 00:05:17,920 but I wake up at like 4:00 in the morning and it was, I don't 105 00:05:17,920 --> 00:05:19,920 want to over spiritualize this, but it seemed like the Holy 106 00:05:19,920 --> 00:05:24,680 Spirit was saying, you've got to look at this, you've got to 107 00:05:24,680 --> 00:05:27,600 notice this. You can't just go, I don't have 108 00:05:27,600 --> 00:05:29,680 energy for this. And then particularly I thought 109 00:05:29,920 --> 00:05:35,640 our church needs to be aware of of this story and the the 110 00:05:35,640 --> 00:05:39,120 atrocity of it and many others. There's so many other horrible 111 00:05:39,120 --> 00:05:45,160 stories of violence and murder and rape and assassinations. 112 00:05:45,640 --> 00:05:46,920 There's so many things going on in the world. 113 00:05:46,920 --> 00:05:50,000 So Wednesday morning before the events of Wednesday, like 4:00 114 00:05:50,000 --> 00:05:52,200 in the morning, I woke up and feverishly started working 115 00:05:52,200 --> 00:05:55,880 several hours to redraft, to pivot on my message for this 116 00:05:55,880 --> 00:05:59,280 morning. And it was because of her name 117 00:05:59,280 --> 00:06:03,120 was Irena Zarutzka. Because of that, then it readied 118 00:06:03,120 --> 00:06:06,240 me for what was going to happen on Wednesday around lunchtime 119 00:06:06,240 --> 00:06:08,040 when I got the news that Charlie Kirk had been shot. 120 00:06:08,960 --> 00:06:11,920 So we're going to wrestle through this difficult story. 121 00:06:11,920 --> 00:06:14,680 And my point is not to just bring you a heavy depressing 122 00:06:14,680 --> 00:06:17,560 story for the sake of it, but I want to, I want to show you 123 00:06:17,560 --> 00:06:20,160 something that is so important and so powerful in the way we as 124 00:06:20,160 --> 00:06:24,520 believers, we as Christians respond to the evil that is in 125 00:06:24,520 --> 00:06:27,200 our world. And, and I want you to know that 126 00:06:27,200 --> 00:06:29,800 this is not a right or left issue. 127 00:06:30,160 --> 00:06:31,600 It's not about the left or the right. 128 00:06:31,960 --> 00:06:34,360 There is just evil in the heart of man. 129 00:06:35,240 --> 00:06:39,040 And without God, we are, we are given to depravity. 130 00:06:40,280 --> 00:06:42,880 And This is why things that happened this week, in the last 131 00:06:42,880 --> 00:06:47,320 several days and, and wars and even in the last 50 years. 132 00:06:47,320 --> 00:06:49,760 I mean, you had World War 2 and you thought, oh man, now that 133 00:06:49,760 --> 00:06:53,000 type of horrible treatment of people will be gone, will write 134 00:06:53,000 --> 00:06:56,280 the world. No, the world is still in midst 135 00:06:56,280 --> 00:07:02,000 of depravity and evil. So what did we do as Christians? 136 00:07:02,160 --> 00:07:05,040 Well, we don't think that that politics and the government is 137 00:07:05,040 --> 00:07:07,040 going to fix it. The left is not going to fix it. 138 00:07:07,040 --> 00:07:08,120 The right is not going to fix it. 139 00:07:08,360 --> 00:07:10,480 It's the right president is not going to fix it. 140 00:07:10,640 --> 00:07:14,360 We'll navigate through it and we can change the moral compass of 141 00:07:14,360 --> 00:07:15,960 our nation. I believe that we should. 142 00:07:15,960 --> 00:07:17,800 I believe we should be involved in politics. 143 00:07:17,800 --> 00:07:19,840 I believe that we should speak. And I'll get more to it than the 144 00:07:19,840 --> 00:07:24,040 end of the message, but I'm not encouraging people to step back 145 00:07:24,040 --> 00:07:26,480 into retreat. No, when the midst of evil, what 146 00:07:26,480 --> 00:07:28,640 do we as Christians do? How do we respond? 147 00:07:28,640 --> 00:07:32,720 How do we respond to assassinations in Minnesota 148 00:07:33,040 --> 00:07:37,080 several months ago and this past week with Charlie Kirk, Human 149 00:07:37,400 --> 00:07:41,160 evil is real. It's horrible and it's close. 150 00:07:42,280 --> 00:07:45,680 And there's a song by an artist like his name's David Wilcox, an 151 00:07:45,720 --> 00:07:49,760 obscure song. And the verse of the song says, 152 00:07:49,920 --> 00:07:51,840 it says, you say you see no hope. 153 00:07:52,720 --> 00:07:56,400 You say you see no reason we should dream that the world will 154 00:07:56,400 --> 00:08:00,080 ever change. You're saying love is foolish to 155 00:08:00,160 --> 00:08:05,760 believe because they'll always be so crazy with an army or a 156 00:08:05,760 --> 00:08:12,280 knife to wake you from your Daydream and put the fear back 157 00:08:12,280 --> 00:08:17,320 in your life. And then from there he goes on 158 00:08:17,320 --> 00:08:19,720 to this idea that God created everything and he's there to 159 00:08:19,720 --> 00:08:22,080 show us the way. The name of the song is Show the 160 00:08:22,080 --> 00:08:25,320 Way, and the idea is that God can show us the way even in the 161 00:08:25,320 --> 00:08:28,840 midst of a crazy with a knife or a gun or etcetera. 162 00:08:28,960 --> 00:08:31,760 What do we do as Christians? How do we respond? 163 00:08:31,800 --> 00:08:34,600 Well, I want to go to the story about the Levite in this 164 00:08:34,600 --> 00:08:36,200 concubine. I'm going to navigate through 165 00:08:36,200 --> 00:08:36,799 it. How many of you? 166 00:08:37,000 --> 00:08:38,880 I did a survey this morning. Very few people know of the 167 00:08:38,880 --> 00:08:40,200 story. How many of you are familiar 168 00:08:40,200 --> 00:08:41,799 with the story of the Levite in this concubine? 169 00:08:41,799 --> 00:08:44,280 A couple of you, OK, very good. A couple of you, great. 170 00:08:44,360 --> 00:08:46,680 I love bringing you things that are in the Bible that you may 171 00:08:46,680 --> 00:08:48,880 have read and forgotten about or have never read. 172 00:08:49,080 --> 00:08:51,560 So here we go, the story of the Levite in this concubine, and 173 00:08:51,560 --> 00:08:54,080 we're going to get how we as Christians deal with evil. 174 00:08:54,160 --> 00:08:57,880 Now, a Levite in the Old Testament was a priest. 175 00:08:58,480 --> 00:09:01,400 He's a spiritual leader appointed by the Law of Moses. 176 00:09:01,520 --> 00:09:06,480 They're from the tribe of Levi, and they were to lead and serve 177 00:09:06,720 --> 00:09:09,760 the Israelites in their worship of God. 178 00:09:10,120 --> 00:09:13,320 OK, Now the story starts in those days when there was no 179 00:09:13,320 --> 00:09:14,720 king in Israel, so there's no king. 180 00:09:14,720 --> 00:09:17,600 And you must remember when we think about the issue of a king 181 00:09:17,760 --> 00:09:23,120 in the Old Testament, God wanted to be the king of his people and 182 00:09:23,120 --> 00:09:25,480 the nations around the Israelites, they all had kings 183 00:09:25,680 --> 00:09:27,360 and God said, I want to be your king. 184 00:09:27,360 --> 00:09:30,400 So until the book of First Samuel, when the people bug God 185 00:09:30,400 --> 00:09:32,200 enough, they get a king. His name is Saul. 186 00:09:32,200 --> 00:09:35,360 It's going to be in the future. And things quickly go awry with 187 00:09:35,360 --> 00:09:37,440 Saul. And then David and Solomon, the 188 00:09:37,440 --> 00:09:40,240 kings of Israel had just a horrible track record. 189 00:09:40,440 --> 00:09:42,720 God wanted to be their king, but they wanted to be like the 190 00:09:42,720 --> 00:09:45,720 nations around them. So they there was no king and 191 00:09:45,720 --> 00:09:47,760 God wanted to be their king. And when the scripture saying 192 00:09:47,760 --> 00:09:50,720 there was no king, it's telling us that they were not following 193 00:09:50,920 --> 00:09:53,280 their king. Who is God? 194 00:09:54,040 --> 00:09:56,480 So watch this. In those days there was a Levite 195 00:09:56,480 --> 00:09:58,440 with a concubine. Now immediately when you get 196 00:09:58,440 --> 00:10:02,200 this, you go, OK, wait a minute. There is a spiritual leader and 197 00:10:02,200 --> 00:10:04,600 he has a concubine. You might not know what a 198 00:10:04,600 --> 00:10:06,760 concubine is. In the ancient world, a 199 00:10:06,760 --> 00:10:11,600 concubine was kind of like a live in girlfriend, kind of a 200 00:10:11,600 --> 00:10:15,840 wife almost, but not really. He's a Levite, he knows the law 201 00:10:15,840 --> 00:10:20,880 of God, and yet he has a concubine which immediately says 202 00:10:20,880 --> 00:10:23,920 there's compromise in his life. He's not. 203 00:10:23,920 --> 00:10:27,000 It's, it's sadly it's, it's, it's like today, in the day and 204 00:10:27,000 --> 00:10:30,840 age which we live now, a lot of God's plan is one man, one 205 00:10:30,840 --> 00:10:35,480 woman, marriage for a lifetime. And yet we find that our culture 206 00:10:35,480 --> 00:10:40,160 has rewritten the standard. And so now you have situations 207 00:10:40,160 --> 00:10:42,880 where where people, they don't marry, they live together for 208 00:10:42,880 --> 00:10:46,000 long, long, long periods of time, and it's just not God's 209 00:10:46,000 --> 00:10:48,240 best. God's plan is one man, one 210 00:10:48,240 --> 00:10:50,440 woman, marriage covenant forever. 211 00:10:50,640 --> 00:10:53,640 That's God's plan. But here you have a Levite who 212 00:10:53,640 --> 00:10:56,120 has a concubine. It's not legally his wife. 213 00:10:56,160 --> 00:10:59,280 It's unfair to her because she doesn't have the rights of a 214 00:10:59,280 --> 00:11:01,160 wife. She only has the rights of a 215 00:11:01,160 --> 00:11:03,920 concubine. So immediately when the red flag 216 00:11:03,920 --> 00:11:06,040 immediately is like, OK, wait a minute, A Levite with a 217 00:11:06,040 --> 00:11:07,520 concubine. Well, right out of the gate, 218 00:11:07,520 --> 00:11:10,000 this is wrong. It's morally wrong and he is the 219 00:11:10,000 --> 00:11:13,320 spiritual leader of his people. It says compromise. 220 00:11:13,600 --> 00:11:15,520 Now watch this. I'll tell you the story in 221 00:11:15,560 --> 00:11:17,200 brief. I'll read you several verses. 222 00:11:17,200 --> 00:11:20,920 But so this concubine, she leaves the Levite for four 223 00:11:20,920 --> 00:11:22,920 months. They separate and she goes back 224 00:11:22,920 --> 00:11:26,240 to her father. Then the Levite goes to redeem 225 00:11:26,240 --> 00:11:28,960 like he wants to bring her back. So he goes to be with the 226 00:11:28,960 --> 00:11:32,520 father-in-law for some days. The curious thing is that the 227 00:11:32,520 --> 00:11:37,560 writer of the book of Judges in this occasion calls the calls 228 00:11:37,760 --> 00:11:40,000 the girl's dad, the Levites, father-in-law. 229 00:11:40,000 --> 00:11:42,800 But it's really not that because they're not legally married. 230 00:11:43,000 --> 00:11:46,040 OK, it's hard to say how big of a problem this is, but it's a 231 00:11:46,040 --> 00:11:49,960 big problem because the moral compass of the Israelites has 232 00:11:49,960 --> 00:11:55,080 gone awry, and even the Levite is not following God's will and 233 00:11:55,080 --> 00:11:57,880 God's plan. So there's a repeated refrain 234 00:11:57,880 --> 00:11:59,200 that happened several times in the story. 235 00:11:59,200 --> 00:12:01,320 Everyone did what was right in their own eyes. 236 00:12:01,600 --> 00:12:04,240 They had their own truth. They were their own moral. 237 00:12:04,240 --> 00:12:07,280 And this led to moral chaos. There was great evil at even a 238 00:12:07,280 --> 00:12:10,320 national level. The day and age in which we live 239 00:12:10,320 --> 00:12:14,640 now, it's still the same. People tend to go, you know, I, 240 00:12:14,640 --> 00:12:16,360 I see what's right in my own eyes. 241 00:12:16,520 --> 00:12:19,560 I have my own truth. This is my truth over here. 242 00:12:19,680 --> 00:12:22,520 It implies it's not necessarily the truth for everyone, but I 243 00:12:22,520 --> 00:12:24,760 have my truth. Well, I see what's right in my 244 00:12:24,760 --> 00:12:27,920 own eyes, and the Levite and the people are going to do some 245 00:12:27,920 --> 00:12:31,240 terrible, terrible things that they think are right in their 246 00:12:31,240 --> 00:12:34,720 own eyes. So 19 verse 2 And his concubine 247 00:12:34,720 --> 00:12:36,720 was unfaithful to him, and she went away from him to her 248 00:12:36,720 --> 00:12:39,800 father's house at Bethlehem and Judah and was there for four 249 00:12:39,800 --> 00:12:41,480 months. And the Levite starts his 250 00:12:41,480 --> 00:12:44,760 journey back after he visits. So he goes into the Levite goes 251 00:12:44,760 --> 00:12:47,400 and he visits and he convinces the concubine to go back with 252 00:12:47,400 --> 00:12:49,680 him. But the father-in-law holds on 253 00:12:49,680 --> 00:12:52,000 to them longer and longer and delays their departure. 254 00:12:52,280 --> 00:12:55,200 So they leave late in the day. And after leaving late in the 255 00:12:55,200 --> 00:12:58,960 day, on their journey back, they stop in a town called Gibeah. 256 00:13:00,120 --> 00:13:03,320 And this is a, it's like a Sodom and Gomorrah type of story. 257 00:13:03,320 --> 00:13:06,040 It's very horrible. So they get to the city, they 258 00:13:06,040 --> 00:13:08,120 find a place to stay. You can read it in detail, but 259 00:13:08,120 --> 00:13:10,680 in brief, they find a place to stay in a home. 260 00:13:10,720 --> 00:13:13,720 And the men of the city come and bang on the door of the home and 261 00:13:13,720 --> 00:13:18,360 say, we want the Levite to come out so that we could be with 262 00:13:18,360 --> 00:13:22,520 him. And this is in 1922. 263 00:13:22,520 --> 00:13:24,400 As they were making their hearts merry, behold the men of the 264 00:13:24,400 --> 00:13:26,760 city, worthless fellows, surrounded the house, beating on 265 00:13:26,760 --> 00:13:28,000 the door. And they said to the old man, 266 00:13:28,000 --> 00:13:30,400 the master of the house, bring out the man who came into your 267 00:13:30,400 --> 00:13:35,160 house, that we may know him. And they mean much evil in what 268 00:13:35,160 --> 00:13:36,920 they're saying. I won't say it in detail, but 269 00:13:36,920 --> 00:13:38,680 you understand what the the Bible is saying here. 270 00:13:38,880 --> 00:13:42,840 They want to abuse this Levite and watch what happens. 271 00:13:42,840 --> 00:13:45,440 But the men would not listen to him when they said, leave us. 272 00:13:45,440 --> 00:13:47,080 So be that. So the man sees. 273 00:13:47,080 --> 00:13:50,360 Watch this. The man seizes his concubine, 274 00:13:51,440 --> 00:13:55,200 and he made her go out to them. And they knew her, and they 275 00:13:55,200 --> 00:13:57,280 abused her all night long until the morning. 276 00:13:59,400 --> 00:14:02,240 And as the dawn began to break, they let her go. 277 00:14:04,040 --> 00:14:08,000 And this morning appeared the woman came and fell down at the 278 00:14:08,000 --> 00:14:10,800 door of the man's house, where her Master was, until it was 279 00:14:10,800 --> 00:14:14,200 light. So in the story, they abused 280 00:14:14,200 --> 00:14:20,240 this woman throughout the night, and when the sun is starting to 281 00:14:20,240 --> 00:14:25,680 appear, she's still alive. She crawls to the house and then 282 00:14:25,680 --> 00:14:28,320 watch as morning appears, she's still alive. 283 00:14:28,880 --> 00:14:31,160 But watch, this is terrible. Verse 27. 284 00:14:31,800 --> 00:14:34,440 And her Master rose up in the morning, and when he opened the 285 00:14:34,440 --> 00:14:36,960 doors of the house, he went out to go on his way. 286 00:14:36,960 --> 00:14:39,840 And behold, there was his concubine lying at the door of 287 00:14:39,840 --> 00:14:43,160 the house with their hands on the thresholds. 288 00:14:47,320 --> 00:14:50,960 And he said to her, get up, let us be going. 289 00:14:52,800 --> 00:14:54,680 But there was no answer. And then he put her on the 290 00:14:54,680 --> 00:14:57,160 donkey and the man rose up and he went away to his home. 291 00:14:59,520 --> 00:15:05,240 This is a heartless story. The the concubine is given by 292 00:15:05,240 --> 00:15:13,280 her Levite pseudo husband to be abused and murdered. 293 00:15:14,000 --> 00:15:16,120 And he walks out and just says, get up, let's be going. 294 00:15:18,320 --> 00:15:24,480 The moral chaos in the nation is terrible by the men of Gibeah 295 00:15:25,400 --> 00:15:27,680 and by the Levite who should be a spiritual leader. 296 00:15:28,160 --> 00:15:32,120 He's heartless. But then watch what happens. 297 00:15:34,040 --> 00:15:40,480 He goes home and when he entered his house, he took a knife, and 298 00:15:40,480 --> 00:15:46,040 taking hold of his concubine, he divided her limb by limb into 12 299 00:15:46,040 --> 00:15:49,280 pieces, and he sent her throughout all the territory of 300 00:15:49,280 --> 00:15:52,120 Israel. This is in the Bible. 301 00:15:53,840 --> 00:15:59,920 He takes her, he cuts her into 12 pieces, and then he sends the 302 00:15:59,920 --> 00:16:03,480 pieces of her body throughout the Kingdom. 303 00:16:03,480 --> 00:16:06,160 And Israel was divided into 12 tribes. 304 00:16:06,800 --> 00:16:12,720 So he sends parts of her body to 12 tribes and in doing so, what 305 00:16:12,720 --> 00:16:17,000 he's doing, watch this, he's broadcasting the news of what 306 00:16:17,000 --> 00:16:21,040 injustice was done to her, but he's disrespected her in the 307 00:16:21,040 --> 00:16:22,280 process. She should have been buried 308 00:16:22,280 --> 00:16:25,680 properly, but instead he does this brutal thing and watch 309 00:16:25,680 --> 00:16:28,400 this. This is the way that he 310 00:16:28,400 --> 00:16:32,800 broadcasts and spreads the news of what has happened. 311 00:16:34,920 --> 00:16:37,680 So then what happens is now the Israelites, they gather 312 00:16:37,680 --> 00:16:39,000 together. They gather together and they're 313 00:16:39,000 --> 00:16:40,440 figuring out what what they're going to do. 314 00:16:40,840 --> 00:16:44,120 And in verse six and seven of Judges 20. 315 00:16:44,120 --> 00:16:46,560 So I took he's telling this to like a council of people. 316 00:16:46,560 --> 00:16:49,720 So I took hold of my count cocky mind and I cut her in pieces and 317 00:16:49,720 --> 00:16:51,720 I sent her throughout the country of the inheritance of 318 00:16:51,720 --> 00:16:53,240 Israel. For they have committed 319 00:16:53,240 --> 00:16:55,960 abomination and an outrage in Israel. 320 00:16:56,040 --> 00:16:59,600 Behold, your people of Israel, all of you, give your advice and 321 00:16:59,600 --> 00:17:05,680 your counsel here. And the tribes of Israel, in 322 00:17:05,680 --> 00:17:08,640 verse 12 and 13, it says they sent them through all the tribes 323 00:17:08,640 --> 00:17:11,160 of Benjamin, saying what evil is it that has been taking place 324 00:17:11,160 --> 00:17:12,160 among you? Watch what happens here. 325 00:17:12,400 --> 00:17:15,760 The tribe of Benjamin is where the town of Gibbey was from. 326 00:17:15,960 --> 00:17:19,680 So those men who murdered and abused this woman, they're from 327 00:17:19,680 --> 00:17:22,119 the tribe of Benjamin. So the other tribes get together 328 00:17:22,119 --> 00:17:25,400 and they say you need to do something about this. 329 00:17:27,000 --> 00:17:29,440 And verse 13 Now therefore give up the men, the worthless 330 00:17:29,640 --> 00:17:31,960 fellows, and give you that. We may put them to death and 331 00:17:31,960 --> 00:17:35,000 purge evil from Israel. But the Benjamites would not 332 00:17:35,000 --> 00:17:37,560 listen to the voice of their brothers, the people of Israel. 333 00:17:37,640 --> 00:17:40,840 The tribe of Benjamin defends its criminals and protects the 334 00:17:40,840 --> 00:17:43,440 perpetrators from punishment and justice. 335 00:17:44,240 --> 00:17:46,720 Do you see anything that is like the world in which we live now? 336 00:17:49,040 --> 00:17:51,800 So the tribe of Benjamin, instead of bringing these 337 00:17:51,800 --> 00:17:56,200 horrible men from Gibeah, who did this terrible, awful thing, 338 00:17:56,360 --> 00:17:59,480 they just protect them. They put there's no punishment 339 00:17:59,840 --> 00:18:03,960 and they protect them and they buffer them from being found. 340 00:18:07,120 --> 00:18:09,720 And then 1930 says, and all who saw it said such a thing has 341 00:18:09,720 --> 00:18:12,360 never happened or been seen from the day that the people of 342 00:18:12,360 --> 00:18:14,880 Israel came up out of the land of Egypt until this day. 343 00:18:14,880 --> 00:18:16,760 And then watch this. This is the big part right here. 344 00:18:17,120 --> 00:18:20,640 This is a rare moment in the Old Testament style of writing the 345 00:18:20,640 --> 00:18:23,360 historical books. It's the narrator is just 346 00:18:23,360 --> 00:18:26,640 telling the story, but he takes a wave a moment from just 347 00:18:26,640 --> 00:18:29,120 telling a story and he gives like a commandment here and he 348 00:18:29,120 --> 00:18:34,280 says this, consider it. Take counsel and speak. 349 00:18:35,280 --> 00:18:42,760 Consider it take counsel and speak in response to what 350 00:18:42,760 --> 00:18:46,160 happened to the Levite and his concubine. 351 00:18:47,360 --> 00:18:51,440 It's a unique command. Now let me give you the rest of 352 00:18:51,440 --> 00:18:53,280 the story. What happens is the the tribe of 353 00:18:53,280 --> 00:18:56,520 Benjamin, they don't, they don't hand over these horrible 354 00:18:56,520 --> 00:18:58,800 criminals and said they protect them. 355 00:18:59,080 --> 00:19:02,760 And So what happens is watch, there comes a civil war in 356 00:19:02,760 --> 00:19:06,080 Israel and almost all of the Benjamites are wiped out, I 357 00:19:06,080 --> 00:19:10,200 think all but like 400. So there's a terrible civil war 358 00:19:10,440 --> 00:19:14,720 in the nation of Israel as a result, not only of this 359 00:19:14,720 --> 00:19:17,640 horrible crime that has happened, but also because of 360 00:19:17,640 --> 00:19:21,160 the way that the Levite broadcast the news of what 361 00:19:21,160 --> 00:19:28,480 happened to her. Civil war rises up and great, 362 00:19:28,480 --> 00:19:31,440 great, great, great devastation comes across Israel. 363 00:19:31,640 --> 00:19:34,720 And that's the way that the Book of Judges ends. 364 00:19:35,400 --> 00:19:37,320 The Book of Judges ends this way. 365 00:19:37,320 --> 00:19:41,880 Judges 2125 says in those days, there was no king in Israel, and 366 00:19:41,880 --> 00:19:45,960 everyone did what was right in their own eyes. 367 00:19:47,680 --> 00:19:49,720 And this is like the world in which we exist now. 368 00:19:50,360 --> 00:19:52,520 People are without the king, God. 369 00:19:52,520 --> 00:19:55,040 See, if they don't have Christ, if they don't have God in their 370 00:19:55,040 --> 00:19:58,040 lives, then their moral compass just goes awry. 371 00:19:58,720 --> 00:20:00,400 And before you know what they're doing, it's right in their own 372 00:20:00,400 --> 00:20:02,160 eyes. And you have horrible, horrible, 373 00:20:02,200 --> 00:20:06,200 evil things happening, like what happened to the concubines, 374 00:20:06,200 --> 00:20:09,560 similar to what happened to, sadly, Irena, the woman on the 375 00:20:09,560 --> 00:20:14,600 transit train in Carolina. And we're not careful. 376 00:20:14,640 --> 00:20:20,640 We protect the criminals. And the moral compass is just 377 00:20:20,640 --> 00:20:22,880 out of whack. So before you know it, we can we 378 00:20:22,880 --> 00:20:25,480 can end up in, I don't want to prophecy this, but I'm just 379 00:20:25,480 --> 00:20:29,320 saying in this story, what happens is terrible civil war 380 00:20:29,320 --> 00:20:32,200 and arises up as a result of this crime. 381 00:20:32,200 --> 00:20:35,680 And the way that the Levite broadcasted the news of what had 382 00:20:35,680 --> 00:20:39,520 happened to her, He did it in a way to incite war and to incite 383 00:20:39,520 --> 00:20:46,280 violence and to incite disunity. That's why he did what he did. 384 00:20:48,000 --> 00:20:50,880 And interesting, you know, scholars think that the Book of 385 00:20:50,880 --> 00:20:53,560 Ruth and the Book of Judges used to be one book and then it got 386 00:20:53,560 --> 00:20:55,280 divided up. You understand why it got 387 00:20:55,280 --> 00:20:57,640 divided up when you look and go, OK, the end, This is how the 388 00:20:57,640 --> 00:21:00,040 Book of Judges ends with this terrible, horrible story. 389 00:21:00,280 --> 00:21:01,920 And then comes the story of Ruth. 390 00:21:02,200 --> 00:21:06,160 And that's a lovely, beautiful story of Ruth and Boaz. 391 00:21:06,160 --> 00:21:08,480 If you know the story of Ruth and Boaz, it's a love story. 392 00:21:08,720 --> 00:21:10,480 It's feel good. It's kind of Hallmark ish, 393 00:21:10,480 --> 00:21:13,520 right, Right. So you have that, you have the 394 00:21:13,520 --> 00:21:17,920 story of Ruth, but they, they, they, they eventually, we think, 395 00:21:17,920 --> 00:21:21,360 separated the books so that the story right before Ruth is not 396 00:21:21,360 --> 00:21:24,360 the story of Levite and his concubine, because there's great 397 00:21:24,360 --> 00:21:28,600 contrast there. So when dealing with evil, what 398 00:21:28,600 --> 00:21:31,000 are we supposed to do from this story? 399 00:21:31,000 --> 00:21:34,920 Well, the writer of judges says we are to consider it, take 400 00:21:34,920 --> 00:21:42,360 counsel and speak. So consider it evil and moral 401 00:21:42,360 --> 00:21:45,480 chaos, evil from even spiritual leaders. 402 00:21:46,480 --> 00:21:52,520 Often in our country right now. The people are heartless and 403 00:21:52,520 --> 00:21:54,360 even heartless. I mean, again, the whole story 404 00:21:54,360 --> 00:21:57,920 is terrible in that it's terribly unjust what the Levite 405 00:21:57,920 --> 00:22:01,520 did by sending his concubine out to be abused and murdered. 406 00:22:02,080 --> 00:22:03,640 And it's terrible what the men of Gibeah did. 407 00:22:03,640 --> 00:22:08,640 And it's terrible how the Levite took her body and sent it to 408 00:22:08,640 --> 00:22:11,440 these 12 places. It's several that the Civil War 409 00:22:11,440 --> 00:22:16,760 happened, that there was death endlessly and the tribe almost 410 00:22:16,760 --> 00:22:19,080 wiped out. This is the state of God's 411 00:22:19,080 --> 00:22:21,440 people at the end of the book of Judges. 412 00:22:21,440 --> 00:22:25,160 Now, if I quit here, you'd just go home and be bummed out. 413 00:22:27,680 --> 00:22:32,280 So let me keep going. The unnamed Levite. 414 00:22:32,280 --> 00:22:34,840 What's interesting is often the Bible people get names, but this 415 00:22:34,840 --> 00:22:38,600 Levite's not given a name. Interesting enough, and he sent 416 00:22:38,600 --> 00:22:41,560 the news of this, of this evil by breaking her body into pieces 417 00:22:41,560 --> 00:22:44,320 and sending it to the 12 tribes to incite and enrage war. 418 00:22:47,440 --> 00:22:53,080 So we're to consider this. But watch, here's what happens. 419 00:22:53,640 --> 00:22:56,000 There are these moments where scripture connects in these 420 00:22:56,000 --> 00:22:58,800 magnificent ways and you don't see it coming. 421 00:22:59,880 --> 00:23:02,880 So this is an Old Testament story, but watch what happens in 422 00:23:02,880 --> 00:23:05,960 the New Testament. So the news is going to be 423 00:23:05,960 --> 00:23:08,320 broadcast, but there's going to be new news. 424 00:23:08,320 --> 00:23:09,520 What do we get in the New Testament? 425 00:23:09,520 --> 00:23:15,800 We get good news and watch how Jesus broadcast the message of 426 00:23:15,800 --> 00:23:21,120 his love and his forgiveness. Matthew 2626. 427 00:23:21,120 --> 00:23:23,840 It says now as they were eating, this is at the Last Supper, 428 00:23:24,040 --> 00:23:28,880 Jesus took bread and after blessing it, he broke it and 429 00:23:28,880 --> 00:23:31,440 gave it to the disciples and said, take, eat. 430 00:23:31,440 --> 00:23:36,680 This is my body, and he gave it to how many people? 431 00:23:36,920 --> 00:23:39,480 12. There are 12 disciples. 432 00:23:40,800 --> 00:23:43,760 And this is like, this is a way like Jesus is broadcasting the 433 00:23:43,760 --> 00:23:48,240 news of what he's going to do for us at the cross and he takes 434 00:23:48,240 --> 00:23:51,920 his body, he breaks it into 12 pieces and he gives it to the 435 00:23:51,920 --> 00:23:58,040 disciples. 12 It's in contrast to the story of the Levite and 436 00:23:58,040 --> 00:24:01,280 the concubine where he broke her body into 12 pieces, but sent it 437 00:24:01,280 --> 00:24:04,360 out for evil purpose. Jesus is going to take and break 438 00:24:04,360 --> 00:24:08,160 his body for us. The big idea is that Jesus, the 439 00:24:08,160 --> 00:24:10,640 name above all names, that Levites not even given a name, 440 00:24:10,880 --> 00:24:13,520 but Jesus, the name above all names, sent the news of his 441 00:24:13,520 --> 00:24:18,120 broken body to unite us to God eternally and to bring peace and 442 00:24:18,120 --> 00:24:26,400 healing. And so the issue becomes what 443 00:24:26,400 --> 00:24:30,440 type of news senders are we going to be and how will you 444 00:24:30,440 --> 00:24:33,080 send it and what will be your motivation? 445 00:24:34,440 --> 00:24:36,920 Because watch, what can happen is we can watch endless, 446 00:24:37,000 --> 00:24:43,040 endless, endless hours of news and get on social media, or get 447 00:24:43,040 --> 00:24:47,400 on e-mail, or get go with a sign in the streets of Gaylord, or we 448 00:24:47,400 --> 00:24:50,440 could go any. If our intent is to broadcast 449 00:24:50,440 --> 00:24:55,360 the evil that's been done for horrible purposes, then we will 450 00:24:55,360 --> 00:25:00,480 lead to greater civil unrest. And a lot of Christians get 451 00:25:00,480 --> 00:25:02,320 swept up into this. They become obsessed with just 452 00:25:02,320 --> 00:25:05,200 like spreading the news, like the Levite in the Old Testament. 453 00:25:05,400 --> 00:25:07,760 It's like they just cut it up. They take the news, they cut it 454 00:25:07,760 --> 00:25:11,080 up into pieces, and they viciously send it out to create 455 00:25:11,360 --> 00:25:14,040 unrest. And it's heartless and it 456 00:25:14,040 --> 00:25:17,560 creates more and more disunity. And when that becomes your 457 00:25:17,560 --> 00:25:20,560 obsession and your focus, then you miss out on the news that 458 00:25:20,600 --> 00:25:24,480 Jesus wants to be broadcast and sent out for the motivation of 459 00:25:24,480 --> 00:25:28,960 bringing unity back to us. The news that his body is broken 460 00:25:28,960 --> 00:25:32,040 into 12 pieces and given to his disciples on the night of the 461 00:25:32,040 --> 00:25:33,600 Last Supper. Can you say Amen? 462 00:25:34,760 --> 00:25:42,040 Are you with me? OK, now every time we receive 463 00:25:42,040 --> 00:25:45,720 communion and remember the body of Jesus, we are spreading the 464 00:25:45,720 --> 00:25:49,760 news of God's love and redemption. 465 00:25:52,720 --> 00:25:54,880 But the Levite, though evil himself, sends news of such 466 00:25:54,880 --> 00:25:57,400 great evil in a shocking way just to incite people. 467 00:25:58,240 --> 00:26:01,200 So we're to consider, first thing we're to do is we're to 468 00:26:01,200 --> 00:26:03,600 consider, OK, think about this story. 469 00:26:04,040 --> 00:26:07,080 That's an interesting instruction at the end in Judges 470 00:26:07,080 --> 00:26:10,520 where he tells a story and he's like, consider it, don't ignore 471 00:26:10,520 --> 00:26:11,800 it. I didn't want to pay attention 472 00:26:11,800 --> 00:26:13,760 on Tuesday night when Jay said, have you seen the news? 473 00:26:14,080 --> 00:26:15,760 I'm like, I don't have the energy for it right now. 474 00:26:16,120 --> 00:26:19,000 And so this is a heavy story to get from Judges, but the Bible 475 00:26:19,000 --> 00:26:23,320 saying, consider it, think about it, it's worth thinking about. 476 00:26:23,480 --> 00:26:26,640 But then we're to take counsel. What? 477 00:26:26,640 --> 00:26:29,160 Where do we look for counsel? We look first to God's word. 478 00:26:29,760 --> 00:26:34,080 So how do we respond in moments like the evils that we watched 479 00:26:34,120 --> 00:26:38,080 this last week? Romans 12 starting in verse 14, 480 00:26:38,080 --> 00:26:42,600 it says bless those who persecute you and bless and do 481 00:26:42,600 --> 00:26:46,280 not curse them. Last week in our first service, 482 00:26:46,280 --> 00:26:50,240 if you were here, it was a woman who came in like most of the way 483 00:26:50,240 --> 00:26:52,000 towards the end of the message, and she walked down the center 484 00:26:52,000 --> 00:26:53,360 aisle and she walked through the aisle. 485 00:26:53,400 --> 00:26:54,960 She walked right, right, right here. 486 00:26:55,480 --> 00:26:57,240 And I could tell something was awkward if you were in that 487 00:26:57,240 --> 00:26:58,960 service. She was kind of walking in and 488 00:26:59,080 --> 00:27:02,200 eventually I, I actually pointed Tim was sitting right here and 489 00:27:02,200 --> 00:27:05,480 like Tim, you know, and then I said, can I, are you looking for 490 00:27:05,480 --> 00:27:07,680 somebody? And it was an odd moment, right? 491 00:27:07,920 --> 00:27:11,440 And then our, we have security, unless you didn't know, we have 492 00:27:11,440 --> 00:27:15,360 security at our church and they are on top of things for such 493 00:27:15,360 --> 00:27:16,960 type of situations and anything else. 494 00:27:17,320 --> 00:27:20,960 And so our security team quickly jumped, you know, in and just 495 00:27:20,960 --> 00:27:23,720 basically brought her out. And if you were here, what was 496 00:27:23,720 --> 00:27:27,720 the first thing I did? I prayed and I'm like, God bless 497 00:27:27,720 --> 00:27:29,920 her. I pray blessing over her. 498 00:27:29,920 --> 00:27:31,720 God, whatever this, whatever she's going to, whatever the 499 00:27:31,720 --> 00:27:35,480 situation is. So the first, our first instinct 500 00:27:35,480 --> 00:27:37,720 should become those who persecute you. 501 00:27:37,720 --> 00:27:40,720 She said some crazy things about me and the church in the moment. 502 00:27:40,720 --> 00:27:43,240 It's kind of crazy if you had to be here. 503 00:27:43,240 --> 00:27:46,360 But but in the moment, my instinct was just to say, God 504 00:27:46,360 --> 00:27:48,880 bless her, bless those who watch this. 505 00:27:48,960 --> 00:27:51,520 How do we deal with evil? The first thing you do is bless 506 00:27:51,520 --> 00:27:54,360 those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse them. 507 00:27:55,000 --> 00:27:56,880 And when you bless someone, it's like you're hoping for their 508 00:27:56,880 --> 00:28:00,560 good. And then it says rejoice with 509 00:28:00,560 --> 00:28:03,120 those who rejoice and weep with those who weep and then watch. 510 00:28:03,120 --> 00:28:09,000 Paul says in Romans, live in harmony with one another and do 511 00:28:09,000 --> 00:28:13,920 not be haughty, but associate with the lowly and never be wise 512 00:28:13,920 --> 00:28:18,120 in your own sight. In our culture right now, 513 00:28:18,120 --> 00:28:23,160 there's such a rampant problem of people being proud about how 514 00:28:23,160 --> 00:28:27,360 right they are. And it's become this thing where 515 00:28:27,360 --> 00:28:31,640 it's like it's haughty wise. In my own eyes, I've got it all 516 00:28:31,640 --> 00:28:35,720 figured out and it can lead to just again, the vision. 517 00:28:35,960 --> 00:28:38,920 So there's one thing to know the truth and humility and bring it 518 00:28:38,920 --> 00:28:42,000 in humility, but being right, the need to be right. 519 00:28:42,000 --> 00:28:45,480 And so again, man, we have now we have cable and 24 hours on 520 00:28:45,480 --> 00:28:48,160 Internet and YouTube. It's like it's just endless 521 00:28:48,160 --> 00:28:54,120 people arguing about who's right in their way of broadcasting the 522 00:28:54,120 --> 00:28:56,240 news. Even of horrific things causes 523 00:28:56,240 --> 00:29:00,280 division. And verse 17 says repay no one 524 00:29:00,280 --> 00:29:03,960 for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight 525 00:29:03,960 --> 00:29:06,240 of all. Repay no one evil for evil. 526 00:29:06,360 --> 00:29:11,800 We are not to return evil for evil and we can, you know, 527 00:29:12,280 --> 00:29:14,120 eventually start stacking and going well, this side, and this 528 00:29:14,120 --> 00:29:16,640 is what I see in this side, this we have these many evils that 529 00:29:16,640 --> 00:29:18,880 have been done wrong to us. So now it's time for us to do 530 00:29:18,880 --> 00:29:20,160 evil. Now, that doesn't mean that we 531 00:29:20,160 --> 00:29:24,640 don't fight for justice and we don't fight for for laws, 532 00:29:24,760 --> 00:29:26,520 etcetera. But it's this idea of like, I'm 533 00:29:26,520 --> 00:29:28,920 going to give evil back. They were evil and the I'm going 534 00:29:28,920 --> 00:29:31,520 to be evil back to them. If Christians succumb to that, 535 00:29:31,520 --> 00:29:33,400 then we become worse than the world. 536 00:29:34,920 --> 00:29:37,240 The Levite returns evil for evil. 537 00:29:39,240 --> 00:29:42,880 Verse 18 it says if possible, if possible, so far as it depends 538 00:29:42,880 --> 00:29:46,040 on you, live peaceably with all. The fact that Paul is saying if 539 00:29:46,040 --> 00:29:49,840 it's possible, live peaceably implies that sometimes it's 540 00:29:49,840 --> 00:29:53,400 impossible. But if it is possible, do 541 00:29:53,400 --> 00:29:55,960 everything you can to live peaceably. 542 00:29:57,720 --> 00:30:02,120 Church. I just think that Christians 543 00:30:02,120 --> 00:30:05,920 often fail miserably at this, but we don't want to. 544 00:30:06,240 --> 00:30:08,880 We want to stand for justice and stand for righteousness and 545 00:30:08,880 --> 00:30:10,640 stand for what is right and proclaim truth. 546 00:30:10,680 --> 00:30:13,880 Yes, we want to do that, but we want to do it in humility in 547 00:30:13,880 --> 00:30:18,320 order to hopefully lead to living peaceably with others. 548 00:30:19,600 --> 00:30:23,320 And then verse 19, beloved, never avenge yourselves, but 549 00:30:23,320 --> 00:30:26,880 leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written vengeance. 550 00:30:27,000 --> 00:30:30,800 Vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the Lord. 551 00:30:31,280 --> 00:30:36,960 So we're never to avenge and we're to trust the wrath of God. 552 00:30:37,720 --> 00:30:40,560 That's a curious statement. The wrath of God. 553 00:30:41,240 --> 00:30:43,640 It's like God, I trust your wrath. 554 00:30:44,760 --> 00:30:49,640 That's a bold prayer. Verse 20 To the contrary, if 555 00:30:49,640 --> 00:30:52,120 your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he's thirsty, give him 556 00:30:52,120 --> 00:30:54,800 something to drink for by so doing you will heap burning 557 00:30:54,800 --> 00:30:59,480 coals on his head. So we're to feed our enemies, 558 00:31:00,400 --> 00:31:02,640 bless those who curse us. This is how do we deal with 559 00:31:02,640 --> 00:31:04,160 evil. This is how we deal with it. 560 00:31:04,160 --> 00:31:07,800 And then probably the most important thing in this passage 561 00:31:07,800 --> 00:31:10,040 that Paul is writing here, this is what he says. 562 00:31:11,120 --> 00:31:15,520 Do not overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. 563 00:31:15,520 --> 00:31:19,920 Do not overcome by evil. Don't, I'm sorry, do not be 564 00:31:19,920 --> 00:31:24,560 overcome. Do not be overcome by evil, but 565 00:31:24,560 --> 00:31:29,720 overcome evil with good church. Don't be overcome by the sad, 566 00:31:29,760 --> 00:31:31,840 tragic things that have happened recently. 567 00:31:32,560 --> 00:31:34,680 Don't be overcome by it. God will give us strength. 568 00:31:34,680 --> 00:31:35,840 The Holy Spirit gives us strength. 569 00:31:35,840 --> 00:31:39,920 We can overcome evil. We're we're not overcome by it, 570 00:31:40,720 --> 00:31:43,880 but we are going to overcome evil with good. 571 00:31:44,960 --> 00:31:48,320 So in the response to this last week, it's like, OK, we want to 572 00:31:48,560 --> 00:31:51,640 God show us how can we're not going to be overcome by it. 573 00:31:51,640 --> 00:31:54,640 We're going to continue to have faith and you God, and in your 574 00:31:54,640 --> 00:31:57,720 sovereignty and your righteousness and your love and 575 00:31:57,720 --> 00:32:00,560 the sacrifice that Jesus gave for us, we live under the light 576 00:32:00,560 --> 00:32:03,320 of the resurrection. We live this way God. 577 00:32:03,320 --> 00:32:05,320 That's why we sang songs this morning about the joy of the 578 00:32:05,320 --> 00:32:06,480 Lord. And this is the day that the 579 00:32:06,480 --> 00:32:09,400 Lord is made because even in the midst of great tragedy and 580 00:32:09,400 --> 00:32:12,280 sorrow, we still have a joy that we find in Christ. 581 00:32:13,560 --> 00:32:16,280 So we're to consider, we're to take counsel. 582 00:32:16,280 --> 00:32:18,920 There's counsel from Romans. And then what did the end of 583 00:32:18,920 --> 00:32:21,240 Judges say in the context of the story of the Levite and the 584 00:32:21,240 --> 00:32:23,640 concubine? He said this speak. 585 00:32:24,800 --> 00:32:28,400 Christians are to be speaking up. 586 00:32:30,560 --> 00:32:32,080 We are. This is one of the instructions. 587 00:32:32,360 --> 00:32:34,560 Consider, take counsel and speak. 588 00:32:35,360 --> 00:32:38,000 We should respond to evil by speaking about it. 589 00:32:39,160 --> 00:32:41,720 I'm not like this morning. I, I just felt like this week 590 00:32:41,960 --> 00:32:43,960 pivoting my message. This is like this morning. 591 00:32:43,960 --> 00:32:47,080 I wanted to speak about the evil that's going on in the world. 592 00:32:47,480 --> 00:32:50,840 The, the, the assassination of Charlie Kirk was terrible. 593 00:32:51,000 --> 00:32:54,160 It's a terrible, horrific tragedy and people celebrating 594 00:32:54,160 --> 00:32:58,720 it is shameful. And we should speak about it. 595 00:32:59,360 --> 00:33:02,640 We should talk about it in the right spirit and the right 596 00:33:03,560 --> 00:33:08,240 motivation not to, not to, not to cause unity, but I'm speaking 597 00:33:08,240 --> 00:33:11,840 about it to rally together people to say, right, we should 598 00:33:11,840 --> 00:33:14,440 stand for what is right. We're encouraged to speak. 599 00:33:15,800 --> 00:33:18,640 And I, you know, I forget this. I've never been to a Turning 600 00:33:18,640 --> 00:33:20,960 Point rally. I've never, I've never watched a 601 00:33:20,960 --> 00:33:22,680 podcast of Charlie Kirk. Never. 602 00:33:22,920 --> 00:33:24,960 But I'd seen clips of his and I knew who he was. 603 00:33:25,360 --> 00:33:29,120 OK, But just know this. I'm not here promoting his 604 00:33:29,760 --> 00:33:32,280 organization necessarily. I'm just saying that I know that 605 00:33:32,280 --> 00:33:35,920 he was a believer who spoke very boldly about his faith in Jesus 606 00:33:37,720 --> 00:33:40,560 and he was speaking. We're encouraged to do that from 607 00:33:40,560 --> 00:33:44,920 the story judges he's speaking out and when he's when he does 608 00:33:45,160 --> 00:33:48,440 what happened to him is an atrocity for him and his family, 609 00:33:48,440 --> 00:33:50,960 his wife and his kids. And so this week I was in tears 610 00:33:50,960 --> 00:33:55,560 about it and again, I'm not I don't even I'd have not a lot of 611 00:33:56,000 --> 00:33:58,320 investment in who he was as a person. 612 00:33:58,320 --> 00:34:01,000 I just knew who he was from the news and other things. 613 00:34:01,000 --> 00:34:04,640 Some of you are were probably far more familiar with him and 614 00:34:05,680 --> 00:34:07,040 maybe rattled you even the worst. 615 00:34:07,040 --> 00:34:11,600 So I believe that we need to speak about it, but we need to 616 00:34:11,600 --> 00:34:14,480 do it with an awareness that in the end, government and 617 00:34:14,480 --> 00:34:16,800 politicians will never be our savior. 618 00:34:17,960 --> 00:34:20,760 Jesus is our savior, God is our king. 619 00:34:21,480 --> 00:34:24,159 We're not about we're not about a political ideology. 620 00:34:24,159 --> 00:34:28,520 We're not going to the nature of the moral chaos and the evil 621 00:34:28,520 --> 00:34:30,840 that we see in the world. It's not going to be conquered 622 00:34:31,120 --> 00:34:34,560 by a political party. It's only going to be conquered 623 00:34:34,639 --> 00:34:39,199 when when Jesus is able to transform the hearts of man. 624 00:34:40,360 --> 00:34:43,760 Otherwise we will succumb to depravity like you have no idea 625 00:34:44,199 --> 00:34:49,560 when hearts have not been redeemed by the broken body of 626 00:34:49,800 --> 00:34:53,760 Jesus and we are to speak about it. 627 00:34:54,920 --> 00:34:59,440 Our eternal hope is not found on the left or the right, but 628 00:34:59,440 --> 00:35:04,960 instead in Christ. Now this is man. 629 00:35:04,960 --> 00:35:08,080 This was heavy. But I don't want to send you out 630 00:35:08,200 --> 00:35:09,560 heavy. I want to send you out like, 631 00:35:09,600 --> 00:35:11,800 yes, let's go make a difference in the world. 632 00:35:11,800 --> 00:35:14,800 Let's go, let's, let's go. Let's, let's consider it. 633 00:35:14,880 --> 00:35:17,720 Let's take counsel. Let's go speak about it. 634 00:35:17,800 --> 00:35:19,520 I encourage you. Speak about it. 635 00:35:19,680 --> 00:35:23,880 Speak about what's right. Don't be afraid to speak up in 636 00:35:23,880 --> 00:35:27,040 the right, in the right motivation and the right spirit 637 00:35:27,040 --> 00:35:29,920 of humility. Speak about what is right. 638 00:35:30,680 --> 00:35:33,080 Don't be afraid or ashamed to do so. 639 00:35:33,080 --> 00:35:36,480 Let me give you some application. 640 00:35:36,480 --> 00:35:39,200 How are you with the moral chaos that's going on around us? 641 00:35:39,200 --> 00:35:42,360 Are you being overcome by it? Don't be overcome by the evil of 642 00:35:42,360 --> 00:35:44,880 this world, but overcome evil with good. 643 00:35:45,400 --> 00:35:47,480 Don't let this. Don't let this put you in bed 644 00:35:47,480 --> 00:35:51,680 for days at a time. Don't let this have you in a 645 00:35:52,320 --> 00:35:57,080 place of depression or anxiety. Instead, focus on the sacrifice 646 00:35:57,080 --> 00:35:59,360 that Jesus made for us and the redeeming work that He's doing 647 00:35:59,360 --> 00:36:01,720 in our lives. Then I ask you this, are you 648 00:36:01,720 --> 00:36:03,560 willing to consider the state of what is happening? 649 00:36:03,720 --> 00:36:05,120 Consider. We are to consider. 650 00:36:05,120 --> 00:36:08,120 Don't bury your head. Consider and then be eager for 651 00:36:08,120 --> 00:36:11,640 biblical truth. Take counsel and then be willing 652 00:36:11,640 --> 00:36:18,480 to speak up and confront evil. This is how we deal with evil. 653 00:36:18,480 --> 00:36:24,560 Let me pray for us. God, thank you for this day. 654 00:36:24,560 --> 00:36:30,120 This is a day that you've made. And God, we pray that you would 655 00:36:30,240 --> 00:36:35,520 strengthen us, our resolve, our joy and the state of much evil 656 00:36:35,520 --> 00:36:39,560 going on in our world. Holy Spirit, we lean into you. 657 00:36:40,640 --> 00:36:44,080 Help us to consider, to take counsel and to speak. 658 00:36:44,760 --> 00:36:49,040 We pray And Jesus name and everyone together said, hey man, 659 00:36:49,400 --> 00:36:51,320 let's all stand together. Thank you this morning for 660 00:36:51,320 --> 00:36:56,040 coming and sticking with me. Notes are on the back table. 661 00:36:56,040 --> 00:36:58,680 If we need to make more of them. Brent are there if there, if 662 00:36:58,680 --> 00:37:00,600 there are more that need to be done, please, I would encourage 663 00:37:00,600 --> 00:37:04,080 you take the notes with you and and wrestle through this idea in 664 00:37:04,080 --> 00:37:05,360 the next week. If you, if you would like, you 665 00:37:05,360 --> 00:37:08,080 can even e-mail me and I'll send them to you also if you want to 666 00:37:08,080 --> 00:37:10,200 get them that way. Before you go, let me say a 667 00:37:10,200 --> 00:37:13,400 blessing over you if you'll prepare your heart to receive 668 00:37:13,400 --> 00:37:19,520 this blessing. And now may the Lord bless you 669 00:37:19,560 --> 00:37:23,560 and keep you, and may He make his face shine upon you. 670 00:37:24,600 --> 00:37:27,920 And may the joy of the Lord that is unspeakable and full of glory 671 00:37:27,920 --> 00:37:30,960 made a bound to you. And may the peace of God that 672 00:37:30,960 --> 00:37:34,520 passes all understanding, may it surprise you in the midst of all 673 00:37:34,520 --> 00:37:37,760 the challenges that life brings. And then may the mercies of the 674 00:37:37,760 --> 00:37:40,720 Lord, and in other words, the forgiveness of God that is new 675 00:37:40,720 --> 00:37:44,000 every morning. May it be especially new to you 676 00:37:44,000 --> 00:37:47,320 and your mornings to come. And now may the Lord Jesus 677 00:37:47,320 --> 00:37:50,320 Christ guard your heart and your mind. 678 00:37:50,480 --> 00:37:54,640 You are salt and your light. Go now and be salt and light 679 00:37:54,640 --> 00:37:57,120 into the world. You are blessed.