1 00:00:00,200 --> 00:00:03,320 Before I get into this week's message, I want to ask for your 2 00:00:03,320 --> 00:00:09,200 prayers for something the I I did not see the news till this 3 00:00:09,200 --> 00:00:12,760 morning about our strike in Iraq yesterday. 4 00:00:13,600 --> 00:00:17,920 I have been following I mean I've got my job is not a full 5 00:00:17,920 --> 00:00:20,600 time news person or news reader, but I've been trying to follow 6 00:00:20,600 --> 00:00:25,360 the events over there since the attack by Hamas on October the 7 00:00:25,360 --> 00:00:30,920 7th. I, I, I'm feeling led to address 8 00:00:30,920 --> 00:00:36,680 that this is such a big and, and increasingly global thing that's 9 00:00:36,680 --> 00:00:41,440 happening and I'm feeling led to speak to it from the pulpit as 10 00:00:41,440 --> 00:00:45,000 part of the sermon or as, as the general theme of the sermon next 11 00:00:45,000 --> 00:00:47,000 week. And I'm not quite sure how to do 12 00:00:47,000 --> 00:00:50,080 that yet. So I want your prayers for me 13 00:00:50,080 --> 00:00:51,600 this week. I hope that you're praying for 14 00:00:51,600 --> 00:00:54,840 me every week for the sermon so that what I say is not what I 15 00:00:54,840 --> 00:00:58,120 think, but what the Holy Spirit is wanting us all to to hear. 16 00:00:58,360 --> 00:01:01,600 But, but particularly because this is such a hot button topic, 17 00:01:01,960 --> 00:01:04,480 it's so divisive and so controversial. 18 00:01:05,120 --> 00:01:09,200 And I don't know exactly what I will say if I do address it, but 19 00:01:09,200 --> 00:01:13,400 I know what I will not say it. It will not be a political rant 20 00:01:13,440 --> 00:01:17,400 against one party or position or country or another. 21 00:01:17,480 --> 00:01:20,920 It will not be a an ideological rant. 22 00:01:20,920 --> 00:01:24,680 And it will not be a religious rant, you know, condemning any 23 00:01:24,840 --> 00:01:27,720 particular group or religion or anything like that. 24 00:01:28,560 --> 00:01:32,600 What, what I hope to be able to say and want to be able to say 25 00:01:32,800 --> 00:01:35,760 is, is where is God in all of this? 26 00:01:36,000 --> 00:01:41,360 And how can people of faith on the other side of the world, 27 00:01:41,560 --> 00:01:45,720 how, how do we respond in faith to what's happening and what's 28 00:01:45,720 --> 00:01:48,960 going on? I, I make it a point and I, I 29 00:01:48,960 --> 00:01:53,040 work very hard because, you know, there are no Democrats in 30 00:01:53,040 --> 00:01:54,680 heaven. There are no Republicans in 31 00:01:54,680 --> 00:01:56,320 heaven. There are no socialists in 32 00:01:56,320 --> 00:01:57,760 heaven. There are no capitalists in 33 00:01:57,760 --> 00:02:00,080 heaven. There are followers of Jesus who 34 00:02:00,080 --> 00:02:04,960 are in heaven and, and I never want by what I preach to send 35 00:02:05,160 --> 00:02:08,440 the message that people of any particular political or 36 00:02:08,440 --> 00:02:11,440 ideological background are not welcome in the church. 37 00:02:11,760 --> 00:02:14,160 And, and I want to continue that. 38 00:02:14,960 --> 00:02:18,960 And, and this is, again, it's such a significant thing, I feel 39 00:02:18,960 --> 00:02:22,120 the need to address it, but I want to make sure that I address 40 00:02:22,120 --> 00:02:27,080 it in a way that isn't some sort of partisan political scree of 41 00:02:27,080 --> 00:02:29,400 some sort. So if you could pray for me on 42 00:02:29,400 --> 00:02:31,360 that, I would very much appreciate that. 43 00:02:31,360 --> 00:02:33,720 And then we'll see what happens next week. 44 00:02:34,160 --> 00:02:40,160 That said, we are, we are jumping into Genesis chapter 6 45 00:02:40,160 --> 00:02:43,880 here. And I the passage I'm preaching 46 00:02:43,880 --> 00:02:48,360 on is a passage I, I I never have said to myself, I'll never 47 00:02:48,360 --> 00:02:52,680 preach on the 1st 8 verses in the book of Genesis, but I've 48 00:02:52,680 --> 00:02:55,560 never read the first eight book verses in the book of Genesis 49 00:02:55,560 --> 00:02:58,200 and gone man, I really can't wait to preach on that. 50 00:02:59,720 --> 00:03:04,480 Some of the strangest stuff in the Bible in the 1st 8 verses of 51 00:03:04,480 --> 00:03:08,880 the book of particularly the 1st 5 verses of Genesis chapter 6 52 00:03:09,120 --> 00:03:14,160 and but the the the general thrust of this portion of 53 00:03:14,160 --> 00:03:19,160 Scripture is the folly of idolizing power and the dangers 54 00:03:19,320 --> 00:03:23,680 of idolizing power, particularly when God says quite clearly of 55 00:03:23,680 --> 00:03:26,400 human beings. The Lord said my spirit will not 56 00:03:26,400 --> 00:03:30,000 contend with humans forever and I left out the closing quotation 57 00:03:30,000 --> 00:03:31,440 marks. That's going to bother me for 58 00:03:31,440 --> 00:03:34,160 the rest of the morning. I have to fix that before I put 59 00:03:34,160 --> 00:03:38,600 it on YouTube. God will not contend with humans 60 00:03:38,600 --> 00:03:41,840 forever. God is patient, but God's 61 00:03:41,840 --> 00:03:46,000 patience will not last forever. And I think these verses are 62 00:03:46,000 --> 00:03:50,200 important for us to hear and to process and to respond to. 63 00:03:50,200 --> 00:03:53,800 But the first thing we have to do is address some translation 64 00:03:53,800 --> 00:03:56,560 problems. Challenges might be a better way 65 00:03:56,560 --> 00:03:59,760 to put it, but there really are problems because there's some 66 00:03:59,760 --> 00:04:03,440 weird stuff here, particularly depending on how you translate 67 00:04:03,640 --> 00:04:06,360 and how you understand the words that we translate. 68 00:04:06,640 --> 00:04:09,520 I will say again, I am not a Hebrew scholar. 69 00:04:09,520 --> 00:04:12,640 I don't read Hebrew. I depend on the work that other 70 00:04:12,640 --> 00:04:14,800 people have done for translation. 71 00:04:14,800 --> 00:04:20,240 So I'm not Speaking of like my own work other than the work of 72 00:04:20,240 --> 00:04:22,120 reading or the work that other people have done. 73 00:04:22,560 --> 00:04:27,160 But there are a few phrases and words in here that that are are 74 00:04:27,200 --> 00:04:32,440 notoriously difficult to translate and are some frankly 75 00:04:32,440 --> 00:04:35,880 some of the hardest passages in the Bible to get accurate 76 00:04:35,960 --> 00:04:39,320 translations of. And consensus on one of those is 77 00:04:39,440 --> 00:04:43,640 2 times the phrase sons of God is used where where the sons of 78 00:04:43,640 --> 00:04:48,320 God see the daughters of Eve or or women on the earth and they 79 00:04:48,320 --> 00:04:51,800 take whoever they want to marry. And the question is, who are the 80 00:04:51,800 --> 00:04:53,720 sons of God? What's happening here? 81 00:04:53,840 --> 00:04:57,040 How is this best translated? The word sons is easy. 82 00:04:57,040 --> 00:04:59,680 That one's no problem. It's the God part that's the 83 00:04:59,680 --> 00:05:02,360 challenge. The word in Hebrew was Elohim, 84 00:05:03,360 --> 00:05:07,080 and that word most of the time when it's used in the Bible 85 00:05:07,080 --> 00:05:12,440 means God as we address God, God when God created the heavens and 86 00:05:12,440 --> 00:05:15,440 the earth, that's Elohim. That's the word that's used. 87 00:05:15,640 --> 00:05:19,440 But there are other places in the Bible where Elohim means 88 00:05:19,520 --> 00:05:25,400 gods, as in Psalm chapter 8, where it says God has put us, 89 00:05:25,400 --> 00:05:30,280 made us as human beings, a little lower than the gods, some 90 00:05:30,280 --> 00:05:33,400 sort of spiritual beings, other spiritual beings that are out 91 00:05:33,400 --> 00:05:37,040 there, maybe angels that are part of God's heavenly court, 92 00:05:37,600 --> 00:05:40,280 other creative beings. But that word elohim, it's 93 00:05:40,320 --> 00:05:45,960 plural and, and, and it, it means gods as well as God. 94 00:05:46,840 --> 00:05:49,360 Even though it's plural, it means God because in Hebrew 95 00:05:49,360 --> 00:05:52,800 plural sometimes is a superlative, like the most, the 96 00:05:52,800 --> 00:05:54,800 strongest, the best, the highest. 97 00:05:55,040 --> 00:05:58,920 And so when it's used of God himself, it's like God most high 98 00:05:59,080 --> 00:06:03,000 or the God of gods or the highest God, those kinds of 99 00:06:03,000 --> 00:06:05,920 things. There's a third way that it's 100 00:06:05,920 --> 00:06:09,520 translated legitimately in the Old Testament, and that's in the 101 00:06:09,520 --> 00:06:13,200 book of Act, or I'm sorry, in the book of Exodus, where where 102 00:06:13,360 --> 00:06:17,560 we are told that in certain legal cases people are to be 103 00:06:17,560 --> 00:06:20,160 brought to the Elohim for judgement. 104 00:06:20,760 --> 00:06:23,720 And very clearly that's not God or gods. 105 00:06:24,000 --> 00:06:26,400 Those are human judges. And so that's how it's 106 00:06:26,400 --> 00:06:30,360 translated these these human beings of great authority 107 00:06:30,360 --> 00:06:35,600 deciding and making legal decisions for people in conflict 108 00:06:35,600 --> 00:06:39,080 within the Society of Israel. So there's three different 109 00:06:39,080 --> 00:06:45,920 possibilities here, sons of God, sons of gods or sons of judges, 110 00:06:46,400 --> 00:06:50,320 people of great military or not military, people of great power 111 00:06:50,320 --> 00:06:52,640 and influence within the society. 112 00:06:53,640 --> 00:06:59,080 And the interpretation is split on whether we should view this 113 00:06:59,080 --> 00:07:05,080 as angelic beings who see women on earth and say, I got to get 114 00:07:05,080 --> 00:07:08,720 me some woman wife. And they come down and they have 115 00:07:08,720 --> 00:07:14,680 kids with human women and others who say, you know, how does that 116 00:07:14,680 --> 00:07:19,080 work by angels or spirits? How are they going to mate with 117 00:07:19,080 --> 00:07:21,080 and have children with human beings? 118 00:07:21,560 --> 00:07:24,560 Doesn't work that way. That that this is intended to 119 00:07:24,560 --> 00:07:28,640 represent powerful human beings, humans that are in positions of 120 00:07:28,640 --> 00:07:34,240 power and authority given the rest of Genesis chapter 6 and, 121 00:07:34,240 --> 00:07:38,000 and the story of the flood of Noah and then what we see 122 00:07:38,000 --> 00:07:39,800 throughout the history of Israel. 123 00:07:40,360 --> 00:07:44,200 I, I believe, and again, if you disagree with me on this, you 124 00:07:44,320 --> 00:07:46,080 know, we can arm wrestle over it later. 125 00:07:46,080 --> 00:07:51,840 Flip a coin if you want, but but the one's going to go to hell 126 00:07:51,840 --> 00:07:53,680 for disagreeing on this translation. 127 00:07:54,080 --> 00:07:56,520 But I, I find it hard to believe. 128 00:07:56,760 --> 00:08:00,600 And, and there's a lot of really sort of heavyweight Christian 129 00:08:00,600 --> 00:08:03,520 interpreters, everyone from Augustine to John Calvin and 130 00:08:03,520 --> 00:08:07,360 John Wesley, who basically said angels can't have babies with 131 00:08:07,360 --> 00:08:09,520 humans. It's just not, it doesn't work 132 00:08:09,800 --> 00:08:12,360 that way. So these must be human beings, 133 00:08:12,560 --> 00:08:14,760 powerful human beings that we're talking about. 134 00:08:15,000 --> 00:08:16,880 I believe that's what we're talking about here. 135 00:08:17,240 --> 00:08:20,320 I, I don't think this is the, the, the Nephilim that are 136 00:08:20,320 --> 00:08:24,120 talked about later are some sort of bizarre Marvel Cinematic 137 00:08:24,120 --> 00:08:29,040 Universe human Angel hybrids that are wandering the earth 138 00:08:29,240 --> 00:08:32,880 doing amazing things as heroes. That's not what we're talking 139 00:08:32,880 --> 00:08:35,120 about. We're talking about powerful 140 00:08:35,120 --> 00:08:40,760 human beings that are doing some very, very bad things in the 141 00:08:40,760 --> 00:08:42,960 world. That's the first one. 142 00:08:42,960 --> 00:08:46,360 The second one is heroes, which, and, and again, some 143 00:08:46,360 --> 00:08:49,080 translations you get heroes, some you get mighty ones. 144 00:08:49,520 --> 00:08:52,360 Mighty ones is really, I think a better translation. 145 00:08:52,480 --> 00:08:56,560 Heroes in our culture and our context has a very positive 146 00:08:56,560 --> 00:08:59,240 connotation. You've got heroes and you've got 147 00:08:59,240 --> 00:09:03,560 villains, you've got superheroes and super villains and, and 148 00:09:03,560 --> 00:09:05,320 heroes. We generally think of if they're 149 00:09:05,320 --> 00:09:07,640 a hero, they're on the side of good and right. 150 00:09:07,840 --> 00:09:09,960 The Hebrew word is morally neutral. 151 00:09:10,360 --> 00:09:16,400 It's used, it's the word is used of God, God's acting as in, in 152 00:09:16,400 --> 00:09:18,960 mighty ways. It's used of good people in the 153 00:09:18,960 --> 00:09:21,280 Old Testament and of bad people in the Old Testament. 154 00:09:21,640 --> 00:09:26,240 So what we've got is sons of God, these Nephilim and their 155 00:09:26,240 --> 00:09:30,480 children are are doing or who have a great deal of might and 156 00:09:30,480 --> 00:09:33,400 power in the world. Don't think of them as heroes. 157 00:09:33,400 --> 00:09:36,880 Think of these are powerful people that are also mighty 158 00:09:36,880 --> 00:09:39,200 people. They've got political power and 159 00:09:39,200 --> 00:09:42,640 influence and they've got great might to exercise that power and 160 00:09:42,640 --> 00:09:46,160 influence. The third one is where it's the 161 00:09:46,160 --> 00:09:48,000 verse that I used on the opening slide. 162 00:09:48,160 --> 00:09:51,200 God, the Lord says my spirit will not contend with humans 163 00:09:51,200 --> 00:09:54,600 forever. Word contend can also be 164 00:09:54,600 --> 00:09:58,760 legitimately translated as abide and on most translations have it 165 00:09:58,760 --> 00:10:02,760 as abide it again, it's maybe like 6040 split on the best way 166 00:10:02,760 --> 00:10:06,080 to translate that at the at the end of the day, I only bring 167 00:10:06,080 --> 00:10:08,280 that one up because if you're following along in your own 168 00:10:08,280 --> 00:10:11,800 Bibles and you have a different word so you know why the word 169 00:10:11,800 --> 00:10:13,600 can mean abide. It can mean content. 170 00:10:13,840 --> 00:10:16,680 It can meet, stay with or fight or wrestle against. 171 00:10:18,360 --> 00:10:20,640 Either way, the effect is the same. 172 00:10:21,240 --> 00:10:26,080 God says my spirit is not going to deal with humans forever, not 173 00:10:26,080 --> 00:10:29,400 going to stand around and stay with humans while they're doing 174 00:10:29,400 --> 00:10:33,160 awful evil things forever, or I'm not going to continue to 175 00:10:33,160 --> 00:10:36,120 wrestle with them while they want to do evil things and I'm 176 00:10:36,120 --> 00:10:38,360 trying to get them to do good things forever. 177 00:10:38,760 --> 00:10:43,240 The end of the day, the point is, is there, that clock is 178 00:10:43,240 --> 00:10:46,320 ticking. There is a time limit on God's 179 00:10:46,320 --> 00:10:50,200 patience with human beings and the third one is the 120 years 180 00:10:50,360 --> 00:10:53,320 where God says my spirit will not contend with or abide with 181 00:10:53,320 --> 00:10:54,880 humans forever. I will set a limit to their 182 00:10:54,880 --> 00:10:57,800 days, 120 years. Some folks say that God 183 00:10:57,800 --> 00:11:02,440 established 120 years old as the oldest that human beings can get 184 00:11:02,600 --> 00:11:06,280 from this point forward. And, and if you read the, the 185 00:11:06,280 --> 00:11:09,880 generations of, of humans in Genesis chapter 5, you hear 186 00:11:09,880 --> 00:11:13,520 about people living 400 years, 500 years, 600 years, 900 years. 187 00:11:13,840 --> 00:11:16,800 And God's saying no more, 120 years is where we're going to 188 00:11:16,800 --> 00:11:18,600 stop. The problem with that is you 189 00:11:18,600 --> 00:11:22,120 still have people living well past 120 years even after the 190 00:11:22,120 --> 00:11:26,120 flood. I think and, and, and again, 191 00:11:26,120 --> 00:11:30,320 what many interpreters say on this is that that this is God's 192 00:11:30,320 --> 00:11:33,440 countdown to the flood. At the point where God makes 193 00:11:33,440 --> 00:11:37,880 this pronouncement, he's like 120 years and, and, and the 194 00:11:37,880 --> 00:11:40,840 flood will come and, and this is the countdown. 195 00:11:40,840 --> 00:11:43,760 And that's the time that Noah spent building the ark during 196 00:11:43,760 --> 00:11:47,000 that 120 years. So just wanted to touch on those 197 00:11:47,000 --> 00:11:48,440 things. I don't want to dwell on them 198 00:11:48,440 --> 00:11:50,760 all, but those are real, real challenges here. 199 00:11:51,000 --> 00:11:56,080 And, and it's really hard. There is no conclusive 200 00:11:56,080 --> 00:11:58,240 interpretation to any of those things. 201 00:11:58,640 --> 00:12:02,200 But I think as we are engaging this from where we're sitting in 202 00:12:02,200 --> 00:12:06,760 Chester, OH, Meigs County, Ohio, and 21st century United States 203 00:12:06,760 --> 00:12:11,880 of America, that that it's more important for us to see how do 204 00:12:11,880 --> 00:12:16,600 we react when people with great power and influence and might 205 00:12:16,600 --> 00:12:20,080 are behaving badly in our culture than for us to wrestle 206 00:12:20,080 --> 00:12:22,520 with what do we do with Angel human hybrids? 207 00:12:22,880 --> 00:12:27,160 OK, I, I, I think that's less relevant to our present context. 208 00:12:28,600 --> 00:12:31,840 So we're going to take it in that score today and in that 209 00:12:31,840 --> 00:12:34,360 direction. The other thing before I do 210 00:12:34,360 --> 00:12:36,960 that, because no, I'm not, I'm not going to do that because 211 00:12:36,960 --> 00:12:38,560 I've spent enough time on that already. 212 00:12:39,400 --> 00:12:42,440 What is the evil God? Clearly there's a lot of evil 213 00:12:42,440 --> 00:12:45,400 that's going on here. And, and what's important for 214 00:12:45,400 --> 00:12:48,960 us, another important thing in this passage is what is the evil 215 00:12:48,960 --> 00:12:55,840 that God is identifying? Why is God regretting making 216 00:12:55,840 --> 00:12:59,800 human beings? What has gone so horribly wrong 217 00:12:59,800 --> 00:13:02,240 that God regrets? Some translations will say 218 00:13:02,240 --> 00:13:06,720 repents of making human beings and has decided to wipe all 219 00:13:06,720 --> 00:13:10,480 human beings except Noah and his family off the face of the earth 220 00:13:10,480 --> 00:13:13,640 and almost all of the animals off the face of the earth. 221 00:13:14,360 --> 00:13:16,960 What has happened? What has gone so very wrong? 222 00:13:17,120 --> 00:13:20,880 What is the specific things or are there specific things that 223 00:13:20,880 --> 00:13:24,800 God has identified and they are indeed identified in here. 224 00:13:24,800 --> 00:13:27,320 We're going to look at a couple of different verses here, 225 00:13:27,600 --> 00:13:32,160 Genesis chapter or six chapter that Jennifer Genesis chapter 6 226 00:13:32,160 --> 00:13:35,240 verse five. Wow, the Lord saw how great the 227 00:13:35,240 --> 00:13:39,240 wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that 228 00:13:39,320 --> 00:13:43,680 every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was 229 00:13:43,680 --> 00:13:48,720 only evil all the time. Folks, that's as bad as it gets. 230 00:13:50,200 --> 00:13:53,960 I've been around some pretty rough people. 231 00:13:54,280 --> 00:13:57,280 I've been around some people that have done some pretty bad 232 00:13:57,280 --> 00:14:00,480 things in my life. And even those people, and I 233 00:14:00,480 --> 00:14:03,120 don't, I obviously haven't met everyone in the world, but 234 00:14:03,120 --> 00:14:05,920 there's not a single one of those people that I can say 235 00:14:05,920 --> 00:14:10,080 every inclination and thought of their heart was always evil all 236 00:14:10,080 --> 00:14:13,040 the time. Things have gone really off the 237 00:14:13,040 --> 00:14:18,400 rails and this, this generation, we talked last week a little bit 238 00:14:18,400 --> 00:14:21,960 about how the legacy of sin and we pass that on to our kids and 239 00:14:21,960 --> 00:14:24,280 it can multiply and grow through the generations. 240 00:14:24,280 --> 00:14:29,680 And this is what's happened. So that now with every human 241 00:14:29,680 --> 00:14:34,240 being outside of Noah and his family, everything they do, 242 00:14:34,240 --> 00:14:36,920 every thought of their heart is evil. 243 00:14:37,080 --> 00:14:39,800 It's wrong. There's no hope of return from 244 00:14:39,800 --> 00:14:42,000 that. There's no point. 245 00:14:42,000 --> 00:14:44,760 There's no leverage. There's no room to step in and 246 00:14:44,760 --> 00:14:48,560 say, let's change the direction. God says I'm not I'm done. 247 00:14:49,000 --> 00:14:51,440 I'm done abiding with you. I'm done wrestling with you on 248 00:14:51,440 --> 00:14:52,720 this. I'm done. 249 00:14:53,560 --> 00:14:56,280 And, and, and it's not a question of waiting for the next 250 00:14:56,280 --> 00:14:58,640 generation because the next generation is just going to 251 00:14:58,640 --> 00:15:03,280 learn from their parents how to have evil and do evil with every 252 00:15:03,280 --> 00:15:05,840 breath that they take. But that's still general. 253 00:15:06,320 --> 00:15:08,560 It's we don't get any specifics. It's still general. 254 00:15:08,560 --> 00:15:10,960 Let's look at a little bit further on in the passage in 255 00:15:10,960 --> 00:15:14,800 chapter 6 here, verses 11 to 13. Now the earth was corrupt in 256 00:15:14,800 --> 00:15:17,480 God's sight and was full of violence. 257 00:15:18,000 --> 00:15:21,560 God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people 258 00:15:21,560 --> 00:15:23,040 on the earth had corrupted their ways. 259 00:15:23,040 --> 00:15:26,960 So God said to Noah, I'm going to put an end to all the people, 260 00:15:27,120 --> 00:15:30,080 for the earth is filled with violence. 261 00:15:31,200 --> 00:15:37,200 The corruption, the evil that God identifies specifically is 262 00:15:37,200 --> 00:15:41,240 violence. This is the legacy of Cain. 263 00:15:42,880 --> 00:15:46,920 This is the legacy of I want to get honor and glory on my own 264 00:15:46,920 --> 00:15:50,680 terms, in my own way, by stomping on my rivals and my 265 00:15:50,680 --> 00:15:57,000 enemies to elevate myself. That he passed on to his kids 266 00:15:57,000 --> 00:15:58,880 and his grandkids and his great grandkids. 267 00:15:58,880 --> 00:16:04,280 And we saw a Lamech proudly boasting to his wives about how 268 00:16:04,280 --> 00:16:06,520 he killed someone just for injuring him. 269 00:16:10,400 --> 00:16:13,920 The violence just continued. That legacy of violence grew. 270 00:16:15,880 --> 00:16:18,320 I'm not saying that's the only evil that was going on. 271 00:16:18,320 --> 00:16:21,040 If your thoughts and inclinations of the every human 272 00:16:21,040 --> 00:16:22,960 heart is always evil all the time. 273 00:16:23,160 --> 00:16:24,840 There was lots of other stuff going on. 274 00:16:25,000 --> 00:16:28,720 But the thing that God identifies, the specific thing 275 00:16:28,720 --> 00:16:32,280 that God identifies, is the multiplication of violence. 276 00:16:33,800 --> 00:16:39,240 God had created human beings for community, for connection, for 277 00:16:39,240 --> 00:16:43,360 relationships of love and trust, to be ezers to each other. 278 00:16:43,360 --> 00:16:47,200 That word back when, when, when when God was looking for a 279 00:16:47,200 --> 00:16:50,920 companion for Adam and he couldn't find anyone suitable. 280 00:16:51,040 --> 00:16:54,240 He couldn't find an ezer, a partner, an indispensable 281 00:16:54,240 --> 00:16:56,600 partner for Adam until he made Eve. 282 00:16:57,880 --> 00:16:59,440 But that's what God was looking for. 283 00:17:00,160 --> 00:17:04,160 That's what God intended, that human beings live in in, in 284 00:17:04,400 --> 00:17:08,480 cooperation and interdependence and love, care and concern for 285 00:17:08,480 --> 00:17:11,960 one another. And it has gone a complete 180. 286 00:17:12,520 --> 00:17:15,520 And all of these humans. And if you do the math and look 287 00:17:15,520 --> 00:17:18,240 at birth rates, and if you assume they're the same and you 288 00:17:18,240 --> 00:17:22,800 count out the years between, you know, Adam and Eve and the 289 00:17:22,800 --> 00:17:26,560 flood, there could legitimately be billions of people on the 290 00:17:26,560 --> 00:17:28,720 earth by this time. We don't know. 291 00:17:29,480 --> 00:17:34,640 We don't know. That's the upper end with all of 292 00:17:34,640 --> 00:17:37,640 these people. And all they want to do is 293 00:17:37,640 --> 00:17:41,200 fight. All they do want to do is kill. 294 00:17:41,200 --> 00:17:45,360 All they do want to do is destroy, to get their own, to 295 00:17:45,360 --> 00:17:47,960 get their own. There's one more in 6-2. 296 00:17:47,960 --> 00:17:51,760 The sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were 297 00:17:51,760 --> 00:17:54,960 beautiful, and they married any of them that they chose. 298 00:17:54,960 --> 00:17:57,360 This is the other specific thing. 299 00:17:58,160 --> 00:18:01,960 We cannot look at this through 21st century romantic eyes. 300 00:18:02,880 --> 00:18:05,360 Ah, now they get to marry whoever they want. 301 00:18:05,560 --> 00:18:07,880 If you love each other, you can get married. 302 00:18:08,080 --> 00:18:14,960 This is the powerful human men saying, I get to pick any woman 303 00:18:14,960 --> 00:18:20,160 I want, period. And as many women as I want, 304 00:18:20,560 --> 00:18:26,280 period, they get to choose. So there is violence and there 305 00:18:26,280 --> 00:18:30,560 is exploitation of the weak and vulnerable by the powerful and 306 00:18:30,560 --> 00:18:36,720 the mighty, those in authority taking what they want, taking 307 00:18:36,760 --> 00:18:41,600 who they want to be their own. We see this played out later on 308 00:18:42,920 --> 00:18:46,920 in the nation of Israel itself in the story of David and 309 00:18:46,920 --> 00:18:50,360 Bathsheba where he looked out a window and he saw his friend's 310 00:18:50,360 --> 00:18:53,080 wife and he said, I want her. And he took her. 311 00:18:54,800 --> 00:18:57,320 And everyone said he's the king. He gets to do what he wants. 312 00:18:59,160 --> 00:19:04,000 He gets to do what he wants. And God said that's not good. 313 00:19:04,240 --> 00:19:06,960 We'll talk about David and Bathsheba more when we get there 314 00:19:07,160 --> 00:19:11,600 in this walk through the Bible. But the image we get here on the 315 00:19:11,600 --> 00:19:14,760 earth before the flood in Genesis is that's just how 316 00:19:14,760 --> 00:19:20,320 everyone was behaving. The people in power exploited 317 00:19:20,760 --> 00:19:26,600 and abused and abused those with less power than them all the way 318 00:19:26,600 --> 00:19:29,960 down the line, all the way down the line. 319 00:19:30,240 --> 00:19:34,840 And God said no more. This is not what I created, 320 00:19:34,840 --> 00:19:38,480 Eden, and you've turned it into hell on earth. 321 00:19:40,000 --> 00:19:42,040 I will not allow this to continue. 322 00:19:44,440 --> 00:19:47,040 So God says I'm hitting the reset button. 323 00:19:47,040 --> 00:19:49,480 We're starting over. I'm going to wipe the slate 324 00:19:49,480 --> 00:19:52,480 clean. And that meant killing every 325 00:19:52,480 --> 00:19:55,880 man, woman and child except for Noah and his family. 326 00:19:58,320 --> 00:20:03,760 The stakes are serious and the stakes are high in all of this. 327 00:20:03,920 --> 00:20:07,080 The corrupt and the violent exploit. 328 00:20:07,080 --> 00:20:10,840 The weak and the vulnerable and the powerful. 329 00:20:11,240 --> 00:20:16,360 The corrupt and violent exploit. OK, I got my brain is, I don't 330 00:20:16,360 --> 00:20:18,600 know what's going on with my brain today, but I can really 331 00:20:18,600 --> 00:20:20,720 read this sentence. I wrote it, I should be able to 332 00:20:20,720 --> 00:20:22,440 read it. The corrupt and violent 333 00:20:22,440 --> 00:20:25,360 exploitation of the weak and vulnerable by the powerful 334 00:20:25,360 --> 00:20:26,920 there, That's what I'm trying to say. 335 00:20:27,880 --> 00:20:31,200 The corrupt and violent exploitation of the weak and 336 00:20:31,200 --> 00:20:37,560 vulnerable by the powerful as a pervasive thing within society. 337 00:20:37,720 --> 00:20:45,920 That is why God destroyed by the flood the people that he now 338 00:20:45,920 --> 00:20:50,680 regretted having made, because they took to Eden and turned it 339 00:20:50,680 --> 00:20:53,640 into hell on earth. And that hell on earth is a 340 00:20:53,640 --> 00:21:00,080 society in which the powerful in their corruption, exploit the 341 00:21:00,080 --> 00:21:05,160 weak and the vulnerable. What can we do? 342 00:21:06,960 --> 00:21:10,160 What can we do? Obviously we can't do anything 343 00:21:10,160 --> 00:21:16,920 about the flood long time ago, but I I think you got to be 344 00:21:16,920 --> 00:21:22,480 blind not to see in our world now echoes of that world before 345 00:21:22,480 --> 00:21:26,360 the flood. Not that the thoughts and 346 00:21:26,360 --> 00:21:28,760 inclinations of every human heart is always evil all the 347 00:21:28,760 --> 00:21:33,680 time, but there's certainly ample exploitation of the 348 00:21:33,680 --> 00:21:38,200 powerful and the mighty using their positions of power and 349 00:21:38,200 --> 00:21:42,000 strength and privilege and position and status to exploit 350 00:21:42,000 --> 00:21:44,920 the weak and the vulnerable for their own good. 351 00:21:47,080 --> 00:21:49,160 That's easy to see in this world. 352 00:21:49,680 --> 00:21:53,400 And you can see it at every level from interpersonal level, 353 00:21:53,400 --> 00:21:57,800 family level, all the way up to governments and, and, and 354 00:21:57,800 --> 00:22:03,640 international multi, you know, national corporations where the 355 00:22:03,640 --> 00:22:10,080 powerful, where that that old slogan of might makes right gets 356 00:22:10,080 --> 00:22:12,000 lived out. And I know it's right and I know 357 00:22:12,000 --> 00:22:15,160 it's OK and I'm going to do it because I can do it. 358 00:22:15,400 --> 00:22:17,480 And if you can't stop me, I don't care what you have to 359 00:22:17,480 --> 00:22:22,560 think. So what can we do in the face of 360 00:22:22,560 --> 00:22:25,680 that? We know, we know that there are 361 00:22:25,680 --> 00:22:28,960 people out there and there are organizations out there that are 362 00:22:28,960 --> 00:22:34,040 far more powerful, have far more might than than than we can 363 00:22:34,040 --> 00:22:38,160 imagine. And, and it's you can see it, 364 00:22:38,160 --> 00:22:40,640 one of the easiest places to see it is in the court system. 365 00:22:41,040 --> 00:22:44,040 You understand that there is a very, there is a completely 366 00:22:44,040 --> 00:22:48,680 different set of laws and rules for people that are wealthy than 367 00:22:48,680 --> 00:22:56,360 for people that are in poverty. For a very wealthy person, a 368 00:22:56,360 --> 00:23:00,600 fine is not a punishment. You just pay it and you keep 369 00:23:00,600 --> 00:23:07,320 doing what you're going to do. You can hire lawyers, you can 370 00:23:08,320 --> 00:23:13,680 bribe judges, you can Curry favor with folks that can grant 371 00:23:13,680 --> 00:23:16,280 pardons, and you can do what you want. 372 00:23:16,280 --> 00:23:19,800 And that's just one example. So what can we do? 373 00:23:20,440 --> 00:23:23,920 We're not people of great status and power and influence in the 374 00:23:23,920 --> 00:23:26,320 world. If you are, if there's a secret 375 00:23:26,320 --> 00:23:28,520 billionaire in the room, come talk to me later. 376 00:23:28,920 --> 00:23:31,120 Want to buy the school building across the road? 377 00:23:31,120 --> 00:23:37,400 We'll talk. But I'm assuming we don't have 378 00:23:37,400 --> 00:23:38,840 any secret billionaires in the room. 379 00:23:40,640 --> 00:23:42,840 What can we do? What can we do we can do. 380 00:23:43,400 --> 00:23:47,520 One of the things we can do is we can be aware of idolizing 381 00:23:47,520 --> 00:23:50,920 power. Beware of idolizing power. 382 00:23:51,080 --> 00:23:54,360 That's what was happening to the psalmist in Psalm 73 that Ray 383 00:23:54,360 --> 00:23:57,280 Ann LED earlier. The person writing that Psalm, 384 00:23:57,280 --> 00:24:01,000 looking out into the world and seeing that the powerful, the 385 00:24:01,000 --> 00:24:04,640 wealthy, the influential, they got the best of everything. 386 00:24:04,640 --> 00:24:07,160 They got the best food, they got the best living arrangements, 387 00:24:07,160 --> 00:24:09,800 they got the best status. They had the best health. 388 00:24:10,040 --> 00:24:12,040 Everything was going well for them. 389 00:24:12,040 --> 00:24:13,560 Nothing bad ever happened to them. 390 00:24:13,560 --> 00:24:16,200 And if anything bad did happen to them, they had the power and 391 00:24:16,200 --> 00:24:19,040 the wealth to deal with it, to insulate themselves. 392 00:24:20,120 --> 00:24:23,160 And on top of that, they were scoffing God and mocking God and 393 00:24:23,160 --> 00:24:26,440 saying God doesn't care, God doesn't know, God's not going to 394 00:24:26,440 --> 00:24:31,480 stop me. And they were falling into this 395 00:24:31,480 --> 00:24:36,680 mind of idolizing that power. Where is God? 396 00:24:37,160 --> 00:24:39,400 God isn't stopping. God isn't preventing. 397 00:24:39,600 --> 00:24:43,720 God is letting the bad people run roughshod over the weak and 398 00:24:43,720 --> 00:24:46,400 the vulnerable and seems to be doing nothing about it. 399 00:24:46,400 --> 00:24:49,680 Where is God and has my faithfulness to God? 400 00:24:49,680 --> 00:24:52,080 The psalmist was writing. I've been trying to do things 401 00:24:52,080 --> 00:24:54,720 the right way, I've been trying to live the right way, and I've 402 00:24:54,720 --> 00:24:56,880 gotten nothing but grief and suffering for it. 403 00:24:57,080 --> 00:24:58,960 Have I been wrong the whole time? 404 00:25:02,240 --> 00:25:04,520 And he's agonizing with this question. 405 00:25:06,680 --> 00:25:09,120 And this is the risk. This is the risk that we run 406 00:25:09,120 --> 00:25:13,320 when we idolize power and we sit back and think, you know, we 407 00:25:13,320 --> 00:25:16,560 could do something about this if we just had more money, if we 408 00:25:16,560 --> 00:25:19,320 just had more influence, if we just had more power, if we just 409 00:25:19,320 --> 00:25:21,800 had access to position, if we could just get the powerful 410 00:25:21,800 --> 00:25:24,720 people to listen to us. Because what that always leads 411 00:25:24,720 --> 00:25:28,920 to is taking the actions to pursue power or Curry favor with 412 00:25:28,920 --> 00:25:32,000 the powerful. And suddenly we are more 413 00:25:32,000 --> 00:25:35,280 concerned about what the powerful people think and what 414 00:25:35,280 --> 00:25:40,720 they do and what they will bless and honor and recognize than we 415 00:25:40,720 --> 00:25:44,400 are with what God thinks. We we become more obsessed with 416 00:25:44,560 --> 00:25:49,600 with what how we can Curry favor with them than live in the favor 417 00:25:49,600 --> 00:25:56,130 of God. It's easy. 418 00:25:56,290 --> 00:26:01,040 Our culture is built around idolizing power, whether it's 419 00:26:01,040 --> 00:26:04,200 sports celebrities or movie celebrities or business 420 00:26:04,200 --> 00:26:06,280 celebrities or political celebrities. 421 00:26:07,560 --> 00:26:10,800 The people on constantly on the news feeds and on the news 422 00:26:10,800 --> 00:26:15,360 programs, and I almost said newspapers, but not so much. 423 00:26:15,360 --> 00:26:20,200 I think they're still out there. Those are the folks, the people 424 00:26:20,200 --> 00:26:22,760 in power. They get the attention I just 425 00:26:23,320 --> 00:26:25,360 had. I could just make a difference. 426 00:26:25,840 --> 00:26:30,320 If I could be like Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos or or or or or this 427 00:26:30,400 --> 00:26:33,400 politician or that politician, then I could make a difference 428 00:26:33,400 --> 00:26:37,160 in the world that's idolizing power. 429 00:26:38,360 --> 00:26:44,120 That was Cain's mistake. Cain wanted the power. 430 00:26:44,240 --> 00:26:46,680 He wanted the glory, and he had his own way to get it. 431 00:26:48,440 --> 00:26:50,360 And he said, I don't really care what God thinks. 432 00:26:51,160 --> 00:26:55,080 I'm going to do what I'm going to do to get what I can get. 433 00:26:56,640 --> 00:27:00,760 When we idolize power, we ultimately go down the path of 434 00:27:01,520 --> 00:27:04,320 corrupt exploitation of the weak. 435 00:27:04,560 --> 00:27:09,120 And, and, and it might not be on the same scale as some of the 436 00:27:09,120 --> 00:27:13,400 most powerful people in the world, but I know, I know, I've 437 00:27:13,400 --> 00:27:17,160 read people in this region itself. 438 00:27:17,720 --> 00:27:20,080 They've got a little bit of power and they use it brutally 439 00:27:20,080 --> 00:27:22,240 over the people that are weaker and more vulnerable, whether 440 00:27:22,240 --> 00:27:26,280 it's their kids or their spouses or other folks in the community. 441 00:27:26,480 --> 00:27:29,560 We can be aware of idolizing power and you can pursue and 442 00:27:29,560 --> 00:27:31,840 maintain righteousness in your own life. 443 00:27:32,800 --> 00:27:34,200 That's what the psalmist concluded. 444 00:27:34,360 --> 00:27:36,520 The psalmist, after going all of these things, saying all of the 445 00:27:36,520 --> 00:27:38,560 stuff is going on, the psalmist said, you know what? 446 00:27:38,840 --> 00:27:42,200 If I had actually said those things, I've been thinking this. 447 00:27:42,200 --> 00:27:44,920 I've been pondering if I'd said it out loud, if I'd started 448 00:27:44,920 --> 00:27:46,760 speaking this into the community, I would have been a 449 00:27:46,760 --> 00:27:50,000 traitor to my own people. I would have been inviting them 450 00:27:50,000 --> 00:27:55,480 to idolize power too. And so the psalmist state, I'm 451 00:27:55,480 --> 00:27:58,000 going to stay faithful to God no matter what. 452 00:27:58,240 --> 00:28:00,520 We can pursue righteousness in our own lives. 453 00:28:00,800 --> 00:28:03,320 That's what Noah did. Noah couldn't change. 454 00:28:03,440 --> 00:28:07,080 He didn't change the world. He had no power. 455 00:28:07,240 --> 00:28:11,000 He had no capacity to change the world to prevent the flood. 456 00:28:11,200 --> 00:28:13,480 But he he maintained righteousness in his own life. 457 00:28:13,640 --> 00:28:15,960 And let's remember, righteousness is not about 458 00:28:16,280 --> 00:28:18,920 following a set of rules. Righteousness is about our 459 00:28:18,920 --> 00:28:23,000 relationships and particularly love within our relationships. 460 00:28:23,560 --> 00:28:26,000 The key to righteousness? Loving God with all our heart, 461 00:28:26,000 --> 00:28:28,800 soul, mind and strength, loving our neighbor as ourselves. 462 00:28:30,480 --> 00:28:34,360 We can pursue that instead of pursuing power. 463 00:28:35,240 --> 00:28:39,280 We can seek the favor of God and the glory of God instead of the 464 00:28:39,280 --> 00:28:43,400 favor of the rich and powerful and the glory that comes from 465 00:28:43,400 --> 00:28:47,520 wealth and power. We can do that and we can do it 466 00:28:47,520 --> 00:28:51,760 in situations where where we have little power relative to 467 00:28:51,760 --> 00:28:55,800 the forces that are around us. One of the greatest, you know, 468 00:28:56,120 --> 00:29:02,400 in terms of modern civilizations that were, as you know, close to 469 00:29:02,520 --> 00:29:05,960 the the global situation in the world before the flood. 470 00:29:05,960 --> 00:29:08,680 You got to look at Nazi Germany, right? 471 00:29:08,720 --> 00:29:10,880 I mean, that's an easy low hanging fruit. 472 00:29:12,680 --> 00:29:15,960 Talk about violence and exploitation of the weak by the 473 00:29:15,960 --> 00:29:19,120 powerful. And yet there's story after 474 00:29:19,120 --> 00:29:24,520 story after story of people in that situation who insisted and 475 00:29:24,520 --> 00:29:27,840 persisted in pursuing righteousness in their 476 00:29:27,840 --> 00:29:30,320 relationships with others. I think people like Corey 477 00:29:30,320 --> 00:29:32,840 Tenboon, who lived in the Netherlands, and she and her 478 00:29:32,840 --> 00:29:37,920 family hid Jews in their house for as long as they could until 479 00:29:37,920 --> 00:29:40,120 they were caught, and then they were sent to prison by the 480 00:29:40,120 --> 00:29:42,440 Nazis. And everyone in her family 481 00:29:42,440 --> 00:29:46,080 except Corey died in the prison. You got folks like Oskar 482 00:29:46,080 --> 00:29:47,360 Schindler. If you haven't seen the movie 483 00:29:47,360 --> 00:29:49,960 Schindler's List in a while, go ahead and watch it again. 484 00:29:50,160 --> 00:29:53,200 Oskar Schindler, another true story here was a man who who had 485 00:29:53,200 --> 00:29:55,040 a great deal of power and wealth. 486 00:29:55,040 --> 00:29:57,000 In some respects, he was a businessman. 487 00:29:57,000 --> 00:29:59,840 He was a wealthy businessman. And in his original intention 488 00:29:59,840 --> 00:30:01,840 was to make a lot of money on this war. 489 00:30:02,760 --> 00:30:05,120 And then he saw what was being done to the Jews. 490 00:30:06,200 --> 00:30:09,680 And instead, he used his position in business and he used 491 00:30:09,680 --> 00:30:13,960 his wealth there to protect and defend as many Jews as he could. 492 00:30:16,680 --> 00:30:20,640 In the end, he was declared a war criminal because he was 493 00:30:20,640 --> 00:30:23,440 pretending to help the Nazis while he was protecting the 494 00:30:23,440 --> 00:30:28,360 Jews. You've got other folks like Meet 495 00:30:28,360 --> 00:30:33,400 Geese. She was a secretary, just a 496 00:30:33,400 --> 00:30:38,800 secretary to Otto Frank. They had a room that no one knew 497 00:30:38,800 --> 00:30:42,320 about, and they hit Anne Frank and her family in there as long 498 00:30:42,320 --> 00:30:45,120 as they could until they were discovered. 499 00:30:45,320 --> 00:30:49,120 She used what she could to protect the weak and the 500 00:30:49,120 --> 00:30:53,440 vulnerable instead of exploiting the weak and the vulnerable. 501 00:30:53,720 --> 00:30:57,200 There was another person I just recently learned of, and I'm 502 00:30:57,200 --> 00:31:00,600 going to say their name wrong. And, and forgive me, it's a 503 00:31:01,520 --> 00:31:05,000 oddly, oddly enough, in this context, a Japanese person. 504 00:31:05,840 --> 00:31:09,960 Chiyune Siguhara Sugihara. Yeah. 505 00:31:09,960 --> 00:31:15,720 Chiyune Sugihara. He was Japanese, but he was a 506 00:31:15,720 --> 00:31:23,040 diplomat working in Lithuania as the Nazis were spreading and 507 00:31:23,040 --> 00:31:28,000 expanding. And in 1940 he started writing 508 00:31:28,000 --> 00:31:33,480 out transit visas for Jews and Lithuania so they could get out 509 00:31:33,480 --> 00:31:37,360 of the country. And in the space of a few months 510 00:31:37,720 --> 00:31:44,480 he wrote 2 to 3000 visas against the express instructions of his 511 00:31:44,480 --> 00:31:47,360 superiors. That allowed because some of 512 00:31:47,360 --> 00:31:52,080 those visas were families for as many as 6000 Jewish people to 513 00:31:52,080 --> 00:31:57,200 escape Germany through Japan. I don't know how that worked. 514 00:31:57,200 --> 00:32:02,120 I think they had to go through the Soviet Union. 1st, a 515 00:32:02,120 --> 00:32:08,520 Japanese dis diplomat living in Lithuania using his position to 516 00:32:08,520 --> 00:32:13,560 protect and shelter and care for the weak and the vulnerable 517 00:32:13,680 --> 00:32:17,200 rather than exploiting them and using them as a stepping stone. 518 00:32:17,200 --> 00:32:23,240 Of course it's not just Nazi Germany, it's not just folks 519 00:32:23,240 --> 00:32:25,200 protecting Jews that are great examples of this. 520 00:32:25,200 --> 00:32:27,480 This is another name I'm going to have a hard time saying. 521 00:32:28,760 --> 00:32:33,400 Narg Nargis Mohammadi. Nargis Mohammadi. 522 00:32:34,080 --> 00:32:35,680 This is a more contemporary person. 523 00:32:35,680 --> 00:32:39,320 She's still alive today. She's in prison in Iran. 524 00:32:40,680 --> 00:32:43,680 She received the Nobel Priest Prize while she was in prison in 525 00:32:43,680 --> 00:32:46,640 Iran. She spent a huge portion of her 526 00:32:46,640 --> 00:32:50,760 life in prison in Iran because she's been advocating very 527 00:32:50,760 --> 00:32:56,400 vocally for the rights of women, for the end of torture against 528 00:32:56,400 --> 00:32:59,680 the abuse of prisoners. While she was in prison, she 529 00:32:59,680 --> 00:33:02,680 organized White Wednesdays. I don't know why they called him 530 00:33:02,680 --> 00:33:05,520 White Wednesdays, but it was a time in prison where they would 531 00:33:05,520 --> 00:33:12,320 protest the restrictive, destructive rules limiting the 532 00:33:12,320 --> 00:33:14,760 status and the role of women in that culture. 533 00:33:15,640 --> 00:33:17,480 She's been tortured. She's been beaten. 534 00:33:17,480 --> 00:33:21,680 She's been held in isolation. She's continued to do this in 535 00:33:21,680 --> 00:33:24,240 spite of severe physical problems and health problems 536 00:33:24,240 --> 00:33:27,600 that she has, including lung problems and partial paralysis. 537 00:33:27,920 --> 00:33:33,000 And she she was not allowed by the Islamic Republic of Iran to 538 00:33:33,000 --> 00:33:37,640 actually receive the Nobel Prize while she was in prison, but 539 00:33:37,640 --> 00:33:40,080 family members living in exile received it for her. 540 00:33:44,440 --> 00:33:45,600 What? She's a prisoner? 541 00:33:45,600 --> 00:33:49,640 What a journalist prisoner? What status does she have? 542 00:33:49,960 --> 00:33:56,600 What can she do compared to the mighty and the powerful in that 543 00:33:56,600 --> 00:33:57,960 government? She has no power. 544 00:33:57,960 --> 00:34:00,640 She has no strength. But she uses the power. 545 00:34:00,680 --> 00:34:06,440 She uses the position she has to protect and defend and guard as 546 00:34:06,440 --> 00:34:09,920 much as she is able the weak and the vulnerable, rather than 547 00:34:09,920 --> 00:34:13,400 joining in the exploitation to Curry favor with the powerful. 548 00:34:14,880 --> 00:34:17,199 That's what we can do. That's what we can do. 549 00:34:17,400 --> 00:34:22,080 We can say yes to God's urgent call to repent, to look at and 550 00:34:22,080 --> 00:34:25,000 examine our own lives. Where, where am I? 551 00:34:25,679 --> 00:34:29,320 Where am I living and behaving and talking and speaking and 552 00:34:29,320 --> 00:34:32,880 acting in ways that that participate in the exploitation 553 00:34:32,880 --> 00:34:36,400 of the weak and the vulnerable? And how can I step away from 554 00:34:36,400 --> 00:34:39,840 that? How can I hear this urgent call? 555 00:34:39,920 --> 00:34:42,639 Because God says I I won't do this forever. 556 00:34:43,800 --> 00:34:45,600 I'm not going to be patient forever. 557 00:34:45,960 --> 00:34:48,600 I'm not going to try to wrestle you into this forever. 558 00:34:49,360 --> 00:34:51,560 I'm not going to stay with you through this forever. 559 00:34:53,880 --> 00:34:58,480 Decide for me now. Follow God now into God's way of 560 00:34:58,480 --> 00:35:00,560 doing things. And God's way of doing things 561 00:35:00,760 --> 00:35:03,920 doesn't idolize power. God's way of doing things says I 562 00:35:03,920 --> 00:35:08,080 have to find all the power I need in God himself and the Holy 563 00:35:08,080 --> 00:35:11,480 Spirit who gives us power. God's way of doing things says, 564 00:35:11,680 --> 00:35:14,600 I'm not going to seek glory and status from human beings. 565 00:35:14,840 --> 00:35:19,440 I'm going to receive glory and status from God, and I'm going 566 00:35:19,440 --> 00:35:24,160 to use whatever status God gives me to guard and protect and 567 00:35:24,160 --> 00:35:27,400 defend and care for the weak and the vulnerable around me, 568 00:35:27,600 --> 00:35:30,240 whoever they may be and wherever they may be. 569 00:35:32,080 --> 00:35:36,280 That's a far greater way to live than to idolize power in Jesus 570 00:35:36,280 --> 00:35:37,320 name. Amen. 571 00:35:37,760 --> 00:35:38,160 Amen.