Well, Ian, thank you for being here.
I appreciate the fact that, we got such a great staff that.
Sean, I can be gone.
Last week visiting family in Idaho.
We had a great time.
but it is super good to be back.
I appreciate Michael.
He did a great job preaching last week.
covering Jonah.
he is. He's dynamic.
Man. You're doing a great job.
If he if you're not involved in ministry, don't get involved in ministry.
That youth ministry is a great place to get involved.
I encourage you to do so.
but we're picking up judges again, and we're in judges.
chapter nine.
let me just acknowledge it's been a it's
been kind of a happy Sunday already, hasn't it?
Yeah.
Well, it's going to get worse because chapter nine is terrible.
not not like all Bible is great, but it's a tough chapter.
So, thank you also, just for being patient with us as we move stuff around,
we get a lot more people in here.
That whole section over there in the economy section of the airplane,
was completely full.
That's so good for you guys for getting there.
So you don't have to sit over there with those guys.
but we're going to
pick up chapter nine, and, I really was hoping that some of you
would read it before we got here, because it's 57 verses long.
And so I'm thinking 1105
we should be done by one easy tomorrow.
no, I'm not going to read the whole thing, but I'm going to read sections
and I'm going to and then I'm just going to
kind of encapsulate section and kind of we'll kind of walk through it together.
but this very long chapter is what I want you to read it
as I highlight sections, and I want you to watch
how bad things get
overall.
Chapter nine
reminds us of the destruction that happens,
when we don't consult God
nor allow God's rule and reign in our life.
I want you to notice how bad things get, how quickly it goes south.
Through this entire chapter.
This chapter is about one of Gideon's sons named Abimelech.
We just got done studying about Gideon, who was one of the judges
that God raised up to lead his people.
An incredible man, a man of great complexity and duplicity.
Sometimes he got stuff right and sometimes he got stuff really wrong.
have you ever done stuff really, really.
Well, then you just turn into an idiot in the next moment.
Any of you?
Yeah. Me too. But welcome to welcome to the Bible.
I mean, people are all like that in the Bible, too.
And so, Gideon, this man of great complexity and duplicity,
sometimes a very, very godly man, and other times you just like what he is.
And so his son Abimelech, this chapter is about him.
And and all through this chapter nine,
when it refers to Gideon, he's never referred to as Gideon anymore.
He's referred to as the pagan name Jeru.
But Bel.
That's significant to note,
because what had what we see is that there's a spiritual slide.
So much so they can't even recognize
the man of God, the work of God, the hand of God anymore.
Not only that, but in this entire chapter,
the personal name of God, Yahweh, is never used in this chapter.
So they're not even looking towards God.
And and God's people are not even looking towards God anymore.
There's the spiritual slide.
And the culture has been so profound
that there's no emphasis
nor thought of God, nor his ways.
One of the biggest problems in our culture
is that we value our own thoughts too much.
The thrust of our culture is goes along these lines
well, I just think that, well, I just feel
that we value our own thoughts so much.
It's one of the great detriments and faults of this culture
in which we live, because we've forgotten what Isaiah 55
eight says, which tells us that God's thoughts are higher than ours.
They're not ours.
They're bigger than ours, they're greater than ours, they're different than ours.
And until we know what God thinks.
Our thoughts don't matter.
And what we see in chapter nine is, no,
nobody is thinking about God.
Nobody's approaching God.
Nobody's considering what God's thoughts, wills and desire is.
And they make all these decisions in the absence of seeking God
that lead to complete and utter destruction.
Learn the lesson and that the same is true for us.
You run your marriage without the thoughts of God.
You will ruin your marriage, your run, your finances.
Without the will of God, you will ruin your finances, your raise,
your kids without the will of God, you will ruin your children.
So I'm going to read a couple verses, not a highlight, a whole bunch.
So the first verses I want to read are verses one and two.
A Amalek, son of Jeru. Bel, remember? So.
So there's this kid of Amalek.
And. And Gideon had 70 sons.
You. You know.
You know why he had 70 sons.
You remember?
He had a lot of ladies in his world.
Okay? Just an idiot,
I think
for a number of reasons.
And so this could have been Melek, son of Jeru Bel Gideon.
And if you remember Gideon, they said, get in.
Be our king again. Seth. I want to be your king.
But he named his son Abimelech, which means literally my father.
The king.
he's a man of conflict.
His eyes are confused.
So a bit like son of Jezebel went to his mother's brothers and shuck them,
and said to them, and all his mother's clan asked the citizens of them,
which is better for you?
For you to have all 70 of durable sons rule over you or just one man.
Remember, I'm your flesh and blood.
So he's saying,
daddy had 70 of us.
Who do you want?
You want big government?
That's what he's asking.
Gideon said there shouldn't be a monarchy,
nor should my sons take over.
But there was one of them that wanted to.
Abimelech.
And Abimelech said, hey, let's gather all the people as the people.
Do you want 70 people to lead you, or do you want just one of us?
The thing that
amazes me is what do they not consider
God leading them?
This question should have never been asked.
This wasn't God's way of doing it.
Then the monarchy wouldn't come until King Saul,
and that's after they kept pitching a fit about not having a king.
It wasn't God's plan.
So the question should have been,
how about we seek God and see what he what desires, right?
That should always be the first question
in every decision we make, then every choice we have to make.
The first one ought to be God.
What is your will and desire?
What's your word say?
Have you ever heard us say, well, we got nothing left to do,
so you know we might as well pray.
We treat prayer as the
as, as the last resort rather than the first option.
And so they say, well, you know, who do you want
and how many, how many of you want big government?
None of us.
They didn't either. They said no, we just want one.
We want 70. We just want one. We want big government.
It's interesting.
The Bible says in Proverbs 28 two, it actually talks about big government.
And the Bible says big government is the outgrowth of a rebellious culture.
Proverbs 22 is what it says.
It says the result of sinfulness is big government.
All of your turn to approach 22, I think I really say that.
No one wants big government.
The only reason the government is bigger is because people are more corrupt to the
big government is the same thing.
But if you're going to choose one,
you better choose the right one.
To the right leader keeps order,
and when people live under the rule of God, they can govern themselves.
And so we get to verses three four, five, six and the people ask,
come here, this proposal from Abimelech, and they all agree
the city are you go ahead and be our leader.
And they have this mass donation to his election fund,
and he takes money from his election fund.
And it goes on.
He hires vain and light people.
The Hebrew text says what it means is he hires arrogant men of no character
who are reckless to be in his cabinet and part of his war cabinet.
It's interesting that he gathers them together, and his first edict
is to get rid of all his enemies, and he gathers all of his his 69 brothers,
and he gathers them on a big stone slab, and he slaughters
every one of them.
I told you, chapter nine is brutal.
He kills them all except one.
One of them, named Jotham, escapes.
He runs away. He gets out.
The interesting thing about where this took place.
This took place. It shook them.
The last we heard.
The highlight of shocking was that King Joshua 24
and it was at Shechem, where Joshua the Liberator, the deliver
of God's people, after Moses leads them into the Promised Land, it was at them
that Joshua makes a covenant between God and the people of God.
And it says, we will serve you and you alone, God in attachment, you
to support of him.
When Joshua says the great statement, as for me and my house,
we will serve the Lord, but you choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve.
Listen, this is what good leaders do.
As for me, in my house
we will serve the Lord.
It's not open to discussion.
It's not open to debate.
I'm not going to let my kids figure it out on their own.
As for me and my house,
this is the standard
and it's interesting.
It was at second that the people said, no, we will serve God to,
we will serve God to.
And Joshua told them, you're not able to serve God.
No you won't.
And they say, yes, we will.
And Joshua tells him, if you will serve God, then get rid of all of your pagan
household idols of the things you worship other than him.
Because Joshua knew that talk is cheap,
especially religious talk
is really cheap.
There has been such
a great spiritual slide from generation to generation,
from the high point of Joshua at Shechem to the low point
of Abimelech.
That said, this generational slide.
In verses
seven through 15, Jotham, the one son that escaped,
stands on Mount Gerizim, and he shouts to the people of them.
This parable.
Before I get to the parable, let me tell you the significance
of what's going on.
He stands on Mount Gerizim.
If you go back to Joshua again in chapter eight,
Joshua gathers the leader, God's people, all 12 tribes,
and he has six leaders of of six tribes stand on Mount Gerizim.
And opposite Mount Gerizim is Mount Ebel and has six other leaders
stand on Mount Evil, and all the people are between Mount Gerizim, Mount
Evil in the Valley, and the leaders of on Mount Gerizim.
Read the promises of God and the blessings of God for obedience.
And in response,
the six leaders on Mount Ebel read the curses of God for disobedience.
The destruction and death that will come for disobedience.
And they read the promises of God and the curse of God,
and the promises of God, and the curse of God,
and the promises of God and the curse of God,
so that all the people in the valley can hear.
This is what happens with obedience, and this is what happens with this happens.
You choose.
And so Jotham goes back to that mount
where he knows that his ancestors is.
Here it is has heard the promises of God, where they promised to follow God.
And he tells them this parable, this fable.
He gathers the people around
and he says, I want to tell you this fable.
He said, all the trees gather, the trees represent the Hebrew people.
And he says, they ask the olive tree to be their leader.
The olive tree represents Gideon,
and the olive tree says, no, I'm not going to be your leader.
I'm not going to collect the like, my olive oil
and all the things that I produced to be your leader.
And so then the trees gather together again, the Hebrew people,
and they ask the fig tree and the vine, the fig tree and the vine were Gideon's
legitimate sons who could have taken over leadership if they chose to.
And they say, no, we don't want leadership.
We don't want that.
Let me just say this sometimes a promotion can be a demotion.
Any one of these sons could have promoted themselves,
but that promotion would
have been a demotion because it wasn't at the discretion and direction of God.
Do you understand?
Just because you have an open door, just because it looks like
the next better step, does not mean that promotion is of God.
That promotion could be a demotion.
There's no consultation of God in any of this.
Did you recognize that seal?
Nobody's stopping to ask God,
what do you want?
There's been a few times in the past few years
where I've been approached by other churches to be their pastor,
and there's been every one of them has said, I don't,
you know, whatever they're paying, you will double it.
So let me just ask you, if you were guaranteed
a double salary, wouldn't that feel like a promotion?
Yes. Don't get spiritual now.
Some company comes.
You said, hey, I'm going to double your salary.
Come work for us.
That would have been a demotion for me
because God wasn't in it
to understand.
And until you can
discern God's direction and voice,
you may settle for promotions that feel like it
at the time that turn out to be demotion, be very careful.
And so Gideon's children say no.
And then the trees.
The Hebrew people go to the thorn bush.
In this fable they go to the thorn.
But from the thorn bush is Abimelech.
And they say, thorn bush, would you rule over us?
And the thorn bush says, yes
again, no.
One second God, his name isn't even mentioned in this whole scenario.
And in verses 19 and 20,
Jotham then directs his voice to the people again,
and he says, if you've done right in God's eyes, if you've honored Gideon
and his family, take joy in Abimelech, I may be your joy.
But if you've not done right before God,
may Abimelech burn you down to the ground.
Then Jotham escapes and runs to beer.
He doesn't run to have a beer.
He runs to a place.
So it's you're like, I've been there last night.
It was very.
He runs to a place called beer.
And so as time goes, watch out!
Watch how beautiful God just is.
He orchestrates it all.
After a bit of luck, had governed Israel three years God stirred up and
a sort of animosity between Abimelech and the citizens of them,
so that they acted treacherously against Abimelech.
God did this in order that the crime against terrible 70
sons, the shedding of their blood,
might be avenged on their brother Abimelech, and on the citizens of them
who had helped him murder his brothers in opposition to him.
The citizens of them set men on the hilltops to ambush and rob
everyone who passed by, and this was reported to Bill.
So here's what happened.
Literally, the Bible says that God sent an evil spirit
to drive a wedge between Abimelech and the men of them.
Everything
is under the sovereign hand of God.
Even the evil one.
Read the book of Job.
The devil does not have free reign in this world.
God is sovereign over all, and God uses an evil spirit
to drive a wedge between an evil man and an evil people.
And in verse 26 and 29,
this guy named Gao Gazelle
moves into Shechem and turns all the people against Abimelech,
and they start robbing people so they can't pay taxes.
And Ben like getting poor.
And the governor of check him in verses 3333, the governor, his name is Zeeble.
He hears this God guy at this bar getting drunk and spouting off his mouth,
and he tells a
bimbo like, hey, this guy goes, this is is causing trouble for you.
He's going to rally people against you,
set an ambush for him.
And so you got the governor of shock.
I'm Zeebo, who's talking to a bimbo elect about this guy.
God, he's kind of playing the middle road.
You understand what I'm saying? You saying, hey, watch out for Gaul.
Go beat him up.
Hey, God, why don't you go ahead and listen?
Be very careful of those people that always get you into trouble.
You understand?
I'm saying.
And so verses
34 through 40, A sets an ambush at night.
And watch how this goes down. Verse 38.
Then Zeebo said to Gaul, this drunk guy
Zeebo, the governor of shekels, says, where's your big talk now?
You who said, who is a bimbo?
That we should be subject to him?
Aren't these men? Aren't these men?
You go fight them.
And he kind of
orchestrates this battle between the elect and the men of Second Gauls.
People.
And Gaul takes the bait,
and he and his men go out to fight, and they're beaten.
Some of them escape.
They're not all killed.
And then verse 42 through 45,
Abimelech with his army divides them into three groups.
Why did he divide them into three groups?
Who was his daddy?
Who was a guy who was a bit like to daddy?
Gideon.
When Gideon went off to war with this 300 men
to fight the Midianites, what did he do with his army?
Divided them into three groups.
So all Abimelech is doing is what he saw his father do.
There's no strategy.
There was no military strategy here. There's no word from God.
All he's doing is saying, I have comfort, I'm in trouble.
I got to fight.
I'm just going to do what my father did.
Pay attention. Parents,
you've heard me say before
that our children learn more by what is caught than by what is taught.
Right?
When your kids.
When our kids face trouble, difficulty,
fear, conflict, battles,
they will respond in the exact ways
they see you responding to yours.
You understand?
So he attacks the city and conquers it.
And then he covers it all with salt.
Why would he cover the whole land with salt,
So nothing grows.
This guy is an idiot.
This is his home.
He's destroying his own home, his own life, his own future.
This is what happens when people do not consult the Word of God.
We make stupid decisions that are destructive to our own
lives, our own homes, our own futures.
Stand is.
And in verses 46 and 49,
all these people, they run to the tower.
And Abimelech attacks the tower and sets fire to the tower.
And in that fire a thousand people die,
accomplishing exactly what Jotham had prophesied.
If you have not done right in the eyes of God,
you have been will burn you down.
That's exactly what happened.
Brutal chapter in it.
It gets worse.
In verses 50 through 53,
Abimelech in his bloodlust continues to fight,
and he goes to the city called Phoebus, and he tries to burn down its tower.
And the men and women see him coming, and they run to the tower to escape.
You know, you got to love Old Testament women.
Old Testament women were some bad dudes.
They were awesome.
You think back in just the book of judges, this lady named Jael
when sister was running away, right?
She was the one with the tent peg that drove the tent peg through his temple
as he laid on the ground and nailed his head to the ground.
Incredible woman.
I mean, she's the
type where you're like, yes, dear, no, dear.
If mama's happy, you know, everybody stays alive.
It's I mean, she's just it is amazing.
Another amazing woman.
Now, this woman is a man, but she's up in the tower as a woman comes
to set fire to this tower, and she takes what's called an upper millstone.
It was a central, cool cylinder stone that was used for grinding grain.
And she grabs this, this stone, and she throws it down and bam!
Hits him in the head, drops a stone on his skull,
and it breaks his head open.
What an awesome woman.
He has severe head trauma,
but he's not dead.
Hurriedly, he called to his armor bearer,
draw your sword and kill me so that they can't say a woman killed me
like anything but that.
Please.
So his servant ran him through
and he died.
When the Israelite saw
that the violence was dead, they went home.
it's.
It's so abrupt.
Because they're so stupid.
Nobody's seeking the Lord.
When you don't seek the Lord, you make stupid decisions.
You follow stupid leaders.
The boom was dead, so they went home.
You cut the head off the snake.
The snake dies.
Look at verses 56 and 57.
Thus God repaid the wickedness that had been like
had done to his father by murdering his 70 brothers.
God also made the people of second pay for all their wickedness.
The curse of Jotham, son of Jeru Bel came on them
may burn you down.
Friends, this is the law of reaping and sowing
would have been
sowed.
He reaped what the people of shuck them, so they reaped.
I want you to remember.
How did Abimelech die?
Before the sword was run through him.
What was it?
The stone dropped on his head.
Where was it that he killed his brothers?
On the stone.
You see how creative God is?
It's the law of reaping and sowing.
Now I'm thankful
that we live in a place after the cross,
because Romans eight one says, now therefore
there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Our sowing was reaped
by Jesus on the cross.
Spiritually.
There's no condemnation.
It's not like when we really mess
up, God gets angry with us and holds a grudge against us.
God doesn't repay evil with evil.
God repaid our evil on His Son on the cross.
So now the spirit of there is no condemnation.
God doesn't hold a grudge against you.
He's still not getting you back for what you did back then.
That's not how he operates now.
Now listen, there are some natural consequences for sure.
We know that all too well, and some of you are still living
in the natural consequences of what you've sold.
But even in the sowing of
those natural consequences, we can see God's grace.
And I want you to understand the mercy and grace of God,
even in those things, that the natural consequences
of what you are reaping from what you've sold, and what I've sowed God's grace
and intended to bring us back to him and God does in three different ways.
The first way God gives us grace to bring us back to him
is seen in the blessings of God.
God's desire is that we are his and we worship him,
and we are in love with him, and we're enamored by him.
And the reason God's pour out blessings on people like us
is so that we will see the blessing of God.
Say, father, you are so good.
I don't deserve this.
I haven't merited this, but this is your undeserved and unmerited
favor and blessing on my life, on my presence, on my feet.
My family and I just need to worship you, for you are so good.
Do you understand?
That's what blessings are intended to do.
Our problem is when we receive the blessings of God,
we either take credit for it or we take advantage of him.
God has given me this blessing of a of a boat.
I'm going to make sure I'm not going to church on Sunday
because I need to go to the lake.
That blessing is intended to draw you to him, not get you away from him.
Do you understand that?
And when we don't, when our hearts aren't drawn to God, we don't draw so God,
because of the blessings that he's given us,
then.
He wants us to see his grace and the blocking.
And here's what I mean.
Sowing and reaping.
None of us who are Christ's
have reaped all we've sowed
didn't sin. None of it.
You know, you might have reaped a lot of bad,
but not all the bad that you sowed.
So God has blocked some of the bad,
and you've not had to reap it.
And God's grace is intended to help us see God.
You have been so good not only in your blessing of my life, but
in what you've blocked from taking fruit in my life.
I have not reaped all that I've sold.
You've been merciful and gracious,
and you've kept it from being as bad as it could have been.
And because of what?
You've blocked the evil,
you blocked the pain, that you've blocked the despair that you bought,
the distraught destruction that you blocked.
I worship you and I thank you for your mercy.
Do you understand?
But if a person doesn't
worship God in His and through his because of his grace
in the blessing, nor in the blocking, God will allow breaking,
but God's
grace for the Christ follower can be seen even in the breaking.
When God says, you don't worship me because I bless you
and you don't worship me because of what I blocked from you.
I will allow your own natural consequences to break you.
But in that break,
God's grace will make it
so that we have the strength and the faith
to stand up under it,
and we'll cut it short so it doesn't destroy us.
So even in the breaking, we can see the mercy and grace of God,
and it's intended to again turn us back to him.
Do you understand?
Before Christ,
stone tablet, upper millstone.
Before Christ you reap, you sow.
After Christ.
Spiritually it's been leveled against Christ, and there is the mercy
and grace of God to mute it in our lives so that we turn to him.
Those without Christ.
You bear the condemnation.
And there's no great guarantee
of blocking or breaking.
And if you realize that and turn to him, that's all he wants.
Your heart.
That's intended to bring us to.
And so here's the question.
Which of those do you recognize in your life?
Do you recognize the blessing of God?
Let that turn you in adoration of him.
Do you recognize how much he's blocked from taking fruit and root in your life?
Let that turn you in thankfulness to him, in gratitude.
If God is allowing breaking to take place right now,
I encourage you in the name of Jesus to turn your face to him
and bend your knee in confession and repentance.
And ask him in mercy.
For his grace.
Let it drive you to him.
But without your acknowledge what Jesus did
on the cross, you bear the full brunt of it all.
And I want to save you from that.
See, part of the point of chapter nine is when the people of God chose
to try to live in a monarchy independent rule,
it failed miserably.
And the point of that for us is this
if you want independence from God,
the independence of his rule, and reign over your life,
what you put your hand to will fail
miserably.
They want an independence from God rather than a deepening
dependance on him and submission to his rule and reign over their life.
And you saw the result.
Chapter nine is a great warning, and that's a great lesson
about the harm of living
an independent life away from God and submission to him.
And so let me leave you with this.
Choose today
whom you will serve,
in the words of Joshua, as for me, in my house
we will serve the Lord.
We stand on Mount Gerizim, Mount Eyeball,
hearing the blessings of God and the curses of God.
And we get to choose.
Independence from him or dependance on him.
Independence from him or submission to him.
And I want to encourage you
with every fiber of my being,
to repent
and commit
to living as an apprentice of Jesus.
God's mercy and grace are profound.
And we don't have to live
in the destruction that we've sowed.
Why don't you pray with me?
Father, I thank you for your word.
And I thank you for the truth
that is in it.
I thank you, father, for your son.
I thank you for the cross
and Jesus.
I thank you for the submission to your father's will.
For my sake and for ours.
I thank you for the many blessings that you bestowed upon us.
May those turn us to you.
Holy spirit,
I pray that you would let us see
the blocking of the destruction that we rightly deserve,
that that would turn us to you.
And father, in our breaking,
be merciful and gracious.
Allow us the strength to endure
or the mercy to relent.
And turn us to you.
I thank you
for the cross that spiritually we bear no condemnation.
And I pray,
Holy Spirit, that in this moment,
with great mercy and grace
you would convict us.
Of where we've tried to live in,
in dependance of you.
And in mercy.
Counting on your mercy.
We repent.
For I encourage you in this moment.
Whatever that looks like, whatever that means for you to say.
Father,
I agree with you about my own sin.
I confess it to you and I repent of it.
I turn around, I go the other way.
Holy spirit, I ask in the name of Jesus right now
that you would cause us to be remorseful.
Over the sin in our lives,
over our desire to be independent of you and Your word and direction,
would you cause our hearts to be remorseful over it?
Saddened by it, grieved over it as your heart is?
And I encourage you in this
moment just to come before God said, God, I repent. I'm
today, I choose you.
I accept your forgiveness.
Give me your mercy and your grace continually,
as best as I know how
I want to live.
As an apprentice of Jesus.
Tell them, say God today
you are mine,
and I choose to be yours.
Give me all that your grace will allow me.
Father, you're a good God.
I thank you for these people.
I thank you for your love.
And, father, I ask that we would live an ever
increasing intimacy and dependance upon you.
Submission to your word, in your will.
In your name I pray. Amen.
Church, I love you and I love going through Bible with you
next week.
Judges ten 1112 I want to introduce you to,
to a friend of mine. His.
His name is Jotham or Jeff Suna.
That's his name, Jeff Tuna.
And and he's a gangster.
He's a member of a gang.
his mom was a prostitute.
and he lived a horrendous life that was used of God
in some incredible ways and made a really stupid decision.
he's a lot like us.
And so I want to introduce you to read it this week, and I'm
we're going to talk about I'm going to introduce you to him next Sunday.
You got it.
Okay.
If you know
someone who doesn't have a church home, guess what your job is this week.
Invite them and get them here early so they don't have to sit in economy.
Nothing thing.
Jeff.