Judges Week 6 • Judges 8:1-10:5

Show Notes

Sunday, October 25th • Beau Bradberry

"As soon as Gideon died, the people of Israel turned again and whored after the Baals and made Baal-berith their god." — Judges 8:33

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Beau Bradberry

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Thanks for listening.

Well, good morning.

I just want to share this with you guys, all right?

Occasionally, God gives you these glimpses of pure joy, and you're the only one that

can see them, all right?

Over the last six weeks or so, every Sunday, I get to watch Johnny Cobb watch the puppet

shows.

And I've never seen a man get more excited and have such a good time.

So, Johnny, thank you, man.

I'm not watching the screen.

I'm just watching you appreciating what God's doing.

I appreciate it.

Hey, as we get ready for next week, just a couple reminders for everybody that's here.

We're going to be starting back into our kids' ministry on Sunday morning.

So, a couple things, minor details, just want to remind everybody of, okay?

So, next Sunday, services are at 930 and 11, okay?

But we will only be having kids' ministry that's birth through fifth grade at the 930 service.

And so, if you're used to coming, but during the 11 o'clock and you want your kids to be

a part of that, we're going to need you to come to the 930 service for that, because that

will be the only one that we have for kids' ministry.

So, it's going to look different, all right?

It's going to be different than any time that we've ever done kids' ministry.

As the staff and I have talked about this, of getting you ready for what it'll be like

to get the kids into their classes and all those things, we're kind of approaching

next Sunday like this.

Everyone who comes is a first-time guest, all right?

So, it is our job to help you feel easy and understand about what you're to do, where

you go and drop your kids off and do certain things.

And so, if you're showing up next week to drop your kids off, maybe you're even watching

at home this Sunday and you haven't been back yet, but you're ready to come back because

children's ministry's starting, but you're not sure, where do I take my kids?

What do I do?

We're going to be here with you, walking you through that, making sure everyone gets taken

care of.

Now, with that said, I want to challenge you guys something that's really hitting a lot

of churches hard right now, but God has been very gracious to us during this time as we've

been regathering since June.

I got a text message from a buddy of mine who's a pastor in the upstate.

He said, man, please pray for our church.

They're a church about 150.

They will now be shutting down for the third time since they've regathered because of COVID

outbreaks.

And so, we don't take any of the credit that we haven't had to shut down.

We truly believe God has just blessed us and we've been able to go forward with this.

But we are excited about the fact that we haven't had to close down.

And so, as we continue to push back forward and continue to open up more ministry, we just,

we beg you, we plead with you, please continue to pray for us that we don't have to shut down.

But then also, there are so many churches that, and when I talk about like this friend of mine,

within the course of two days, 25% of the congregation tested positive for COVID.

And so, they had to kind of work through that.

And so, pray for churches like that that are going through these times.

God has been very good and very fortunate to us.

And so, we're excited to go.

With that, with Kent's ministry starting back, I do have some bad news to share to folks like

Johnny that we will not have our puppet shows.

So, that is the last of the one, as the puppet show said, for now, right?

Maybe we can bring those back in the future.

But starting next week, we'll be moving back into the regular.

So, if you've got your Bibles, open up to Judges 8.

And like you saw, so the puppet show talked about Samson.

We're still talking about Gideon.

We want to make sure that we got that in for our kids.

But this will be the last week that we look at Gideon as we continue on.

And as we've looked at Gideon over the last several weeks,

we've seen this great, this growth, this maturity that's happened in this man of Gideon.

We see that what Gideon's life was marked by when we were introduced to him

and Judges chapter 6 is a man who was at a very low point in his life.

When we find him in Judges chapter 6, if you recall, it says that he is tucked away in a hole,

in a cave, in a mountain, and you find him there hiding food because he's so scared of the oppressors

And so when we find Gideon, we find him at the lowest spot that he's ever found himself.

He is literally sitting there trying to hide his food away, right?

Like think of a squirrel trying to pack acorns away.

That's where we find Gideon.

Can you imagine the desperate point that he finds himself?

The lowest of the lows of his life.

And yet in this is where God reveals himself to Gideon and where Gideon is going to go through

this journey of obedience and faith that is found in the pursuit of God in the midst of Gideon's

desperation.

And so we see this weak little man from the weakest tribe, from the weakest family of the tribe,

we see this great man of faith begin to grow and develop

as he wants to pursue after God and understand him and be obedient to him.

And so we see Gideon commit acts of treason against the people and the religion of the day.

God calls him to go down and to tear down the idols of Baal and he does that.

God calls him to go into war against an army and he does it.

And during the entire time what Gideon is saying to God is,

God, I want to know who you are more.

I want to understand you.

I want to fall deeper in love with you.

And so we see when Gideon lays out the fleeces, you know, that's Gideon saying,

God, help me understand more and more about who you are.

When Gideon has the dreams interpreted for him and he overhears this, what he's dying to know,

what he's longing to know is more and more, God, who are you?

And through all of these journeys in the midst of Gideon's desperation, when logic tells him,

no, you shouldn't do this.

Faith in who God is drives Gideon to radical points of obedience.

When Gideon tore down the altar of Baal that was at his dad's house,

the next day men of the town came to kill him.

That's the level of obedience that this man has.

And what we looked at last week was Gideon leading his men into battle.

A weak Israelite army of 32,000 men that some believe would have been up against as many as 200,000 soldiers.

But Gideon is willing to lead 32,000 men, even though they're outnumbered, into battle.

But God says, no, no, Gideon, it's too many.

And then through the sovereignty and process of God, God whittles that army of 32,000 down to 300.

And Gideon obeys and leads them into a battle where they didn't even have to draw their swords.

They didn't even have to fight.

And that God was the victor.

And all of this starts, all of this can be traced back to a moment of brokenness,

a moment of weakness, and a moment of desperation in Gideon as we find him hiding away.

So when you look at the story of Gideon, you see what God is able to do from the weakness.

You see what God is able to do with the least of these.

But the key is that it's not because Gideon is weak, it's because Gideon is weak and he's desperate.

It's because Gideon longs for and wants to be obedient to God.

But we're going to see a different side of Gideon this morning.

The story of the last two weeks were the story of Gideon that movies are made about to inspire men and women to great faith.

But what we find in Judges chapter 8, we're not going to see that same side of Gideon anymore.

We're going to see a man who stops living in desperation and who starts to live in the experience and maybe even believe in his own victory.

Do you remember the whole reason why God shrunk the army from 32,000 to 300 was what?

So that everyone who knew that Gideon had led them into battle would know that the victory came from God and God alone.

But now we're going to see a different heart of Gideon that we've seen before.

And in Judges chapter 8, Gideon's going to come into conflict as he continues to pursue the Midianites to fully defeat them.

And Gideon is going to have conflict with some of the clans and the tribes that are part of the nation of Israel.

And we're going to see in how Gideon interacts with them to begin to show us what Gideon is really dealing with.

To see what Gideon is really going through.

The first tribe that he has conflict with is the tribe of Ephraim.

And they're a powerful tribe in Israel.

And what Gideon does is he calls on this tribe to help him go into battle to fully defeat the Midianites.

And they say, you know what, we're not going to go into battle with you.

He's like, are you kidding me?

No, no, no.

You need to go.

You and I, we can partner together and we can go.

You're the most powerful tribe.

You're the ones that we need.

And kind of like some stubborn people, maybe you know somebody like this, maybe you and I, maybe we are some like this.

They kind of step back and they're like, well, you didn't need us to begin with, so why do you need us now?

So no, we're not going to be a part of what you're doing.

We're not going to help you out because you didn't need it before.

Why do you need us now?

Because what they're going through, they're hearing all the chatter.

They're hearing all the talk.

They wanted to be a part of the victory so their name could be associated with that.

And so what does Gideon do?

Gideon doesn't challenge them.

Gideon doesn't point out that God is the great victor, that it's only through God and God alone, that Gideon didn't do this, that God did this.

Gideon instead, he does something that you and I often do.

He appeals to their pride, and in doing so, he appeases their sin.

In an attempt to smooth things over, in an attempt to get Gideon through this, Gideon no longer stands as the man of truth under the authority of God.

But what we see is the crack that begins to happen in the character and the heart of Gideon.

This is the first moment where we begin to see that Gideon begins to waver.

Well, this is Ephraim.

This is a powerful tribe.

But Gideon's also going to have conflict within two very small towns that he passes through.

One town named Succoth and another town named Penuel.

And as Gideon is in pursuit of two Midianite kings, Zeba and Zalmanah, we see that he comes through these towns.

And as he's in pursuit of these kings, because once he defeats these kings, he will have defeated the nation as a whole.

He finds that his men are tired.

His men are hungry.

And his men are thirsty.

And so as he comes into each village, he says, hey, feed us.

Give us something to drink.

Give us rest so that we can gain our energy back so we can go forward.

And the people of the town are like, I don't think so.

I'm not sure we really want to be a part of this.

I kind of just want to stay out of it.

Because if you don't defeat them, if you don't overtake them, then what do you think is going to happen to us?

They're going to find out, well, who helped you along the way.

And you're going to tell them that we did.

And we certainly can't stand up against them.

So we're not getting involved.

And you're going to see more and more of the downfall of Gideon.

So look at Judges 8, verse 7.

And from there he went up to Penuel and spoke to them in the same way.

And the men of Penuel answered him as the men of Succoth had answered.

And he said to the men of Penuel, when I come again in peace, I will break down this tower.

Look now who Gideon's pointing to.

Gideon's no longer pointing to God, but Gideon is pointing to himself.

As Gideon takes step after step of obedience, what it has created and what is happening is step after step of the victory of what God is doing.

But as Gideon is walking away from his desperation, is walking more into the victory, Gideon is starting to believe that the victory belongs to him.

Notice what he says.

When I come here again, here is what I will do.

Gideon looks at them and says, how dare you doubt me?

And we begin to see the pride of Gideon come out.

And so they chase after the kings.

They capture the kings.

They will kill the kings.

The victory has been full.

It has been had.

And we're going to see that Gideon does what he says he's going to do.

Look at verse 14.

And he captured a young man of Succoth and questioned him.

And he wrote down for him the officials and the elders of Succoth.

Seventy-seven men.

And he came to the men of Succoth and he said, behold, Ziba and Zalmina, about whom you taunted me, saying,

Are the hands of Ziba and Zalmina already in your hand, that we should give bread to your men who are exhausted?

And he took the elders of the city.

And he took thorns of the wilderness and briars.

And with them taught the men of Succoth a lesson.

And he broke down the tower of Penuel and killed the men of that city.

Do we see what's beginning to happen in the heart of Gideon?

Do you see what's beginning to happen in the character of Gideon?

A man who at one point in time was willing to lead an unarmed army into battle because God had told him to, to take 300 in charge and to do this.

And it's completely dependent on what God has called him to do.

He captures one of his own Israelites.

He has him turn against his own people.

He takes the 77 elders that have, that he says, look, these are the guys that made the decision.

He captures them.

He takes the thorns from out of the wilderness and begins to beat them with it so that it would leave scars all over them so that they would never forget the wrath of Gideon and that everyone would know what had taken place.

And then he goes to Penuel, just like he said he would do, and he tore down the tower.

But remember from back before when we read, it said that the men of Penuel said no.

And so what does he do?

He kills them all.

He kills them all.

Why?

Because they had gone against Gideon.

And what we've seen in the life of this man is such a tragic story.

But it's a story that honestly, many of us find ourselves in the exact same battle.

You see, Gideon faced a test of adversity.

The adversity of a man who was afraid.

The adversity of a man who was weak.

The adversity of a man who was unconfident of what to do.

But now that he's going through this, he's going through now the test of prosperity.

You see, in the test of adversity, in the test of prosperity, are the journeys of life that you and I will find ourselves going through.

When we first find Gideon, he is what?

He's broken.

He's beaten.

He's desperate.

And there's nothing or no one else he can cling to other than God.

And so we asked ourselves last week, right, how do you view your weakness?

How do you view when you find yourself, figuratively speaking, hiding away in the cave, storing away some food in that moment of vulnerable, in the moment of adversity as it faces you?

And we shared this quote last week, that you can't know that he being God is all that you need until he is all that you have.

That for so many of us, as we go through adversity, we've tried everything else.

We've done in our own power and in our own will and in our own might and our own strength.

And we have failure after failure after failure that we can do nothing else but now desperately cling to God.

We have the child who's in rebellion, the marriage that's fallen apart, the bank account that's at zero, the sickness that there's no cure for.

And in those moments where we can't trust, we can't rely on ourselves, we find ourselves desperate for God.

And in that, we experience his faithfulness.

And we look at this and we see the test of adversity and we see Gideon walk through that and grow through that.

But where we begin to see Gideon's failings is not in the adversity of life.

But when we see the failings of Gideon, we find it, ironically enough, in the prosperity.

God, if all these things would just work out.

God, if all this could happen, if I could be a part of this.

God, if I could move from the valley to the mountaintop.

But what we find is in the valley, there's nothing else to do but cling to God and to cry out for him.

But in the mountaintop, we begin to think more highly of ourselves than we ought.

You know, are you desperate for God when things are bad?

Are we desperate for God when there's adversity?

Are we desperate for God when we've tried everything else?

Most of us would say absolutely.

But what we see here in chapter 8 is the same level of being desperate for the Lord

when we go through seasons and times of prosperity.

You want to hear people that say,

I woke up this morning and I desperately needed God?

They're probably walking through a battle.

But when we find we wake up that morning and we don't need him as we did before,

that's probably because we're beginning to lean in on ourselves.

You know, before, in Judges 6 and Judges 7,

in the adversity, Gideon prayed.

But in the prosperity, he stopped.

Before, in the adversity, Gideon consulted others and surrounded himself with others.

But now, he begins to operate in the prosperity in isolation.

Now, Gideon, in his prosperity, is not one of forgiveness.

Remember, all the nation had turned to idolatry and Gideon still called them back.

But now that they push against him, Gideon embraces resentment and unforgiveness.

Before, Gideon wanted everyone to know,

no, no, no, no, no, it's not the 300.

It's not me.

It's God.

But now, what do we find Gideon more concerned with?

We find Gideon more concerned with his reputation than the glory of God.

And church, when I look at myself,

when I see and I walk through in the lives of men and women,

seasons of adversity create within us a desperation to cry out for God.

But seasons of prosperity, when they're walked in sinfully,

cause us to say, nah, I'm good.

I got this.

I don't need anyone else.

And we see that lived out.

So Gideon looks in this.

That's all that's going on.

And Gideon, being the focal point of his own worship,

he seeks to bless himself.

Look down at verse 22.

After the defeats have happened, after the battles have happened,

then the men of Israel said to Gideon,

rule over us.

You and your son and your grandson also.

For you have saved us from the hand of Midian.

Gideon said to them,

I will not rule over you and my son will not rule over you.

The Lord will rule over you.

Let me explain what's happening.

Gideon brings them out of this bondage.

He brings them out of this captivity.

They're beginning as a nation to experience prosperity.

because Gideon has taken his eyes off of God.

They've taken their eyes off of God as well.

And as Gideon places his eyes on himself, they place their eyes on Gideon.

And so they come to Gideon and say,

Gideon, we want to make you king.

And not just for you, but we want to create a lineage that comes from you.

And so Gideon, it'll be you and then it'll be your son and then it'll be your grandson.

And this continues on.

And if we stop reading at verse 23, we think that Gideon rejects it.

But he doesn't.

He doesn't.

Let's keep reading verse 24.

And Gideon said to them, after they've come to him and said, do this,

he said, I want the Lord to rule over you.

Verse 24, Gideon said to them, let me make a request of you.

Every one of you give me the earrings from his spoil.

For they had golden earrings because they were Ishmaelites.

And they said, we will willingly give them.

And they spread a cloak and every man threw in it the earrings of his spoil

and the weight of the golden earrings that he requested was 1,700 shekels of gold.

Besides the crescent ornaments and the pendants and the purple garments worn by the kings of Midian.

And besides the collars that were around the necks of their camels.

In verse 27, and Gideon made an ephod out of it and put it in his city in Ophrah.

And all Israel whored after it there.

And it became a snare to Gideon and to his family.

All right, let's look at what's happened in this passage of scripture.

They come to Gideon and say, let's make you king.

Gideon says, no.

No, your Lord, the ruler over you, needs to be the one and true God.

But then what Gideon does, doesn't match what he says.

Gideon says, now I'm not going to be king.

But I am kind of a big deal.

So here's what we're going to do.

Give me all the gold from the spoil.

Give me everything that we've gotten.

And I am going to make an ephod.

A golden ephod.

Now an ephod was an item that was worn by the high priest in the tabernacle.

Which there was one, and it was where the people went to hear from God.

And so look at what Gideon's doing.

Gideon says, there's an ephod.

And that determines where the people go to listen and to surrender to the Lord.

So I'm not going to be king because I know that's not what I'm supposed to do.

But here's what I am going to do.

I'm going to make a copy of this.

And I'm going to set it in my hometown.

And what I'm going to do is I'm going to encourage people, hey, hey, come to me.

Don't go to God.

Come to me instead of going to him.

And so what Gideon does is he turns worship into idolatry.

And in this we see another turn in the life of Gideon that's going to continue to build and build and build.

And what he instills in his people is that they are no longer going to be the people of God who they were before.

Because people of God are people of word and action.

Gideon's words say, oh, no, I would never do that.

But his actions say, yes, I would do that.

As crazy as this is, all right, I'm trying to lose a little bit of weight, but it would be like somebody coming up to me and saying, would you like a milkshake?

And me saying, no, no, no, I'm good.

And then as soon as they leave, go in and get in a big bowl of ice cream and saying, well, it's different.

You know?

No, it's not, right?

It's completely against what you said.

And as silly as that is, that's what we see in Gideon.

No, I'm not going to be king, but treat me like one.

No, I'm not going to be king, but you need to respect me like I am.

No, no, no, no.

God is who you need to seek as long as you seek after me.

You know, church, it is so easy for you and I to fill our conversations with words of faith, but lack the obedience that comes with them.

Gideon would probably be the best at quoting scripture, but fails at the applying it to his life.

It's the whole purpose of the book of James in the New Testament.

I think I've preached through that twice since I've been the pastor here, seven and a half years, and we may need to do it again.

But the whole point is like, look, faith without works, it's dead.

So Gideon, you say these things, that's great.

That's great that you say them, but it doesn't match with who you are.

And it begins to build and build and build.

I just want to ask you, like take a moment back in our lives and look at the things that we say.

And honestly ask yourself, do my grand, beautiful words of faith truly line up with the man or woman who I am by my actions?

Is there hypocrisy?

Is there conflict within there?

Or is there a level of we're meshing and we're working these together to see what comes from these?

And what Gideon is building in the Israelites, what Gideon is building in his family, what Gideon is building in those around him,

is a culture that is going to drastically bring them away from God.

One of the things that God's given me a passion for is going to, experiencing, and talking to people of other cultures.

It's one of the reasons why I love to go to other countries, because I love to hear from people who grew up in a different way than I did,

who were taught in a different way than I was taught.

If I found out that anyone here has lived in for an extended period of time, or maybe was even born in another country,

I love to sit down and to talk and to listen and to see what that's like.

Because there's the beauty of how much we begin to realize that the culture that we live in, how it molds and shapes us.

Now, we live in a society of multiple cultures.

Every day, you live and you function and you operate in many different cultures.

You've got the culture of your individual life, which affects the culture of your family,

which affects the culture in which you work,

which affects the culture in which we all live,

which affects the culture in which we worship,

and you can continue to build on and farther and farther out.

The culture of my home and how we do things may be different than the culture of your home and how you do things.

And as men and women of faith, what we are working toward is establishing a culture that lives to glorify and honor God.

And that's not what we see here in Gideon.

So the question that we have to ask as we look at his life and we examine our own is,

are we embracing a culture of sin or a culture of sanctification?

In Gideon's desperation, Gideon was walking in a culture of sanctification.

It was what he was building around him in his desperate moments for the Lord.

But what we see here in Judges chapter 8 is him moving away from the culture of sanctification and moving more toward a culture of sin.

We find out in Scripture, all right, that Gideon has 70 sons, all right?

So, we'll figure this out.

It means Gideon had many wives.

When you read about, because I get this question a lot, there is polygamy in the Old Testament.

It's common in the Old Testament.

But it's important for us to know that while polygamy, having more than one wife, is common in this practice in the Old Testament,

it is never, not one time is it condoned by God.

It's not God's plan.

Gideon has 70 sons by many different wives.

But Gideon also has a concubine.

And again, the culture of his day says, this is okay.

God never, God never says, this is good by me, that this is my will for you.

And we begin to see this life that Gideon has.

We begin to see this culture of sin that is more and more invading his heart and his life.

And so, Gideon has a son from the concubine.

And this son, Gideon, gives the name Abimelech.

And it's very important that we understand that Gideon gives him this name.

Because the name Abimelech means, my father is king.

My father is king.

Oh, here's almighty Gideon, all noble Gideon.

Nah, I'm not going to be king.

But I'm going to name my son, my father is king.

Gideon who says, no, no, no, no, no, God is your lord, God is your king.

But with my actions, seek after me.

And what Gideon is doing in these moments is he's continuing to build more and more of a culture of sin around him.

And then Gideon dies.

And what we are going to see is this culture of sin and how it plays out.

So, I ask myself this question with looking at Gideon's life, with understanding scripture, what does the culture of sanctification look like?

Parents, let's go ahead and acknowledge that in our lives, I say parents, but let me say for all of us, where we go, that there are parts of us, because we are not perfect, where we embrace cultures of sin.

Right?

There's not a one of us in here who's perfect.

So, we all have that.

But when we begin to live boldly for the Lord, when we begin to pursue after him, what we find that comes from that is a culture of sanctification.

And what we see from that in scripture is this.

A culture of sanctification first is marked by repentance.

Will always be marked by repentance.

Where men and women of God are confident enough in their faith in God and their standing in God to look at all the people around them and say,

Not only do I understand that I'm not where I need to be, but I repent before God of it.

And the level of boldness of faith that it takes in that.

A culture of sanctification is one that shows complete dependence and trust on God on the mountaintop and in the valley.

A culture of sanctification requires a deep-rooted sense of prayer in your life.

One of the first things that we see Gideon walk away from is this communication with the Lord.

And in a culture of sanctification, more so than anything else maybe, from a man or woman of God, is to be desperate to grow.

To experience growth.

I heard a sportscaster, and I may offend some people in here.

I found that when you talk about this sports team, some people you offend and others cheer when you give them a hard time.

But he was talking about the dysfunction of the Dallas Cowboys, all right?

And so if you're a Dallas Cowboys fan, you don't like that.

But he said they're the most dysfunctional sports program.

The most dysfunctional sports team that we have going on right now.

And he said this about them.

He said, when it comes to life and to where you need to be, I'm not asking for perfection, but I'm just asking for growth.

And I heard him say that, like I said, on a sports talk show.

And I thought, man, how much does that relate to us with God?

Right?

God knows that you can't be perfect.

God knows that I can't be perfect.

That's why we're made perfect through Christ.

But what he desires and what he longs for us is to experience and to go through growth so that day by day we're seeking and looking to walking closer and closer with him.

And so what Gideon could have left behind was the culture that was created in that cave, was the culture that was created with a fleece, was the culture that was created when he shrunk the army of 32,000 down to 300, but instead he left behind a culture of sin.

And so he dies, and in Judges 9, verse 6, it says, all the leaders of Shechem came together, and all Beth Milo, and they went and they made Abimelech king by the oak of the pillar of Shechem.

And we begin to see what the culture of sin has created.

God never wanted them to have a king.

God was their king.

But they said, no.

We can't trust you.

Instead, give us a man.

Give us a man.

And so they took Abimelech.

They made him king.

And we're not going to read it this morning, but if you want to continue on reading through chapter 9, what you'll see is the depth of depravity that Israel goes through.

And I believe when you and I take a step and take a moment, and we look at our culture, and we look at our climate, and look at where we find ourselves today.

Are we following man, are we following God?

See, they desperately, desperately wanted a man to follow after.

And God said, no, no, no.

You seek after me.

And when they don't, the culture of sin builds, and it builds, and it builds.

Take the time.

Read through chapter 9.

See the depth of which the nation will go, and the depth in which it will fall.

And honestly, reading through it, kind of find yourself like, God, man, like, I'm not sure, like, if there's ever a point in time that you could, like, wipe your hands and say, I'm done.

Israel, y'all, y'all have done messed this up enough.

I mean, there was all of these from the times where I showed you my faithfulness to my faithfulness to my faithfulness.

But yet, this is who you are, even though of Abraham, even though of Moses, even though of Joshua, but yet, time after time, this is what we find ourselves.

And even after the history of all of the judges that you've seen, after you've left me, and as you've pursued other things.

Like, if you read chapter 9, and you don't walk away from it going like, God, I don't know why you just didn't wipe them all out, dry your hands off, and walk away from this.

Like, in that moments where you're like, I get it, God, I get it.

God, just start over.

God, be done with this.

But read with me, and we're going to close with this.

Read Judges 10, 1 through 3.

It says,

After Abimelech, there arose to save Israel, Tola, the son of Pua, son of Dodo, a man of Iskar.

And he lived at Shemir, in the hill country of Ephraim.

And he judged Israel 23 years.

Then he died and was buried at Shemir.

And after him arose Jaar, the Gileadite, who judged Israel 22 years.

Do you get it?

As Israel wanders away, they can never wander too far from God's grace.

Never.

And in spite of their idolatry, in spite of all they've done, God says,

I know what you deserve, but here's what I'm going to give.

And here's what I'm going to give.

And here's what I'm going to give.

Even in your culture of sin, here's what I grant you.

God's grace.

You know, the beautiful part of God's grace is that the same way that God gives His grace to Israel in Judges 10,

He gives to you and I.

Because we've collected earrings and made idols.

We've taken the credit for what God's done.

We've pursued after the things of our hearts more than we've pursued Him.

In not one point in time, did God look at His hands and wipe them clean and say,

I'm done.

I'm done.

I'm done.

God's grace.

Now, God's grace is a big deal.

God's grace is what keeps us out of hell and gives us eternal life with Him.

God's grace is how we find our right standing with Him and how we're heard by Him.

God's grace is what He gives the filthiest of sinners and those who view themselves as the most religiously elite.

It's His grace time and time again.

I don't know that anyone will ever ask you a more important question in your life than this.

Have you experienced God's grace?

Have you experienced the favor of God by understanding that you didn't deserve it?

The forgiveness of every wrong that you've ever done and every wrong that you'll ever do.

To experience God's grace by understanding that every sin in your life and every sin in my life

fully deserves every ounce of God's wrath.

Just for one.

But God's grace says, no, not on them.

And instead, He pours it all out on Jesus.

That's it.

Every part of it.

So that because of the sacrifice of Christ, you and I, by experiencing God's grace,

are no longer His enemies, but are His children.

Made new and whole and complete in God.

Have you experienced God's grace?

And if you have, let me ask you this.

Are you displaying it?

Are you displaying it?

I want to close by just kind of sharing my heart.

I don't know if everyone's aware, but

it's not hard to find division in our culture right now.

It's not hard to find people who disagree.

People who don't like each other.

People who hate each other.

And the condition that I think we find ourselves right now in the world in which we live

is not a surprising condition to find the world.

The world's broken.

It's full of sinners.

It's full of people who don't know the Lord, who don't understand grace.

It's the way it's always been.

It's the way it'll always be until Christ returns.

The painful part that I think that we're experiencing right now in our culture

is not that there's the divide between the world,

but that those of us who call themselves the bride of Christ,

that there's the divide that's there.

Joel Van Ham and I were talking this morning.

And I was telling him, I said, man, I just, I don't know.

I watched a Facebook conversation happen with two people that I know who I dearly love and care about.

And before this conversation started, they dearly loved and cared for each other.

And now at the end of this, they can't even find themselves in the same room.

And yet both of them say that they're followers of Jesus.

My fear is not that the world is going to be divided because the world is.

Truth divides.

I've got friends who are lost and we disagree on a whole lot of things, right?

But my heart breaks right now, not because of the division that's in the world,

but the division that's in the church.

And if God's people who are called, God's word tells us, to be ministers of reconciliation,

to love one another, to love others, to share the hope of the gospel.

If that doesn't bother us, that there's division within the body,

that there's brothers and sisters who hate and who mistrust each other,

and church, we've fallen off.

And we're absolutely missing it.

I get right now, just like it is every four years,

is the wonderful time where people have opinions.

And I'm glad that people do.

I say this to everyone in here.

As you vote, vote your conviction as you've prayed before God

and as God leads you.

Before you listen to a commercial or a Facebook post, listen to God.

Let Him lead you.

But if we can't hit the point where we can't disagree

and we can't extend each other the same grace that God's extended us,

we've missed it.

We've missed it.

As I look at Gideon,

I see a man who started so well in his pursuit with the Lord,

but took his eyes off of him and placed it everywhere else.

And he forgot what grace looked like.

Before we speak, before we speak, before we act, before we post,

ask yourself the same question that my grandma told me

before I walked out the door.

Every time,

Bo,

is what you're going to do going to glorify God?

God, I thank you for your grace and your kindness and your compassion to us.

Lord, as Israel continued to wander,

Lord, oftentimes so do we.

Lord, in the midst of the adversity, we cling to you.

But, Lord, in the midst of prosperity,

Lord, for lack of better terms,

we kind of forget where we came from.

And so, Lord, I pray that we would carry on

a position of our heart

of a desperate cry for you and for you alone.

Lord, I pray for our country

as more and more

the words of hate

tend to fill

the mouths and the hearts

of so many.

Lord, I pray that the church,

that the bride of Christ,

while so many of us

may be

different politically,

Lord, that

we could be unified in the gospel.

Lord, that we could seek

to extend

one another grace.

Lord, to have

great, wonderful, challenging,

meaningful conversations

with each other.

But, Lord, that we

walk away

understanding

a complicated word

called perspective.

Lord, grant us

hearts of meekness

and of kindness

and compassion.

help us to understand

the plight of those

that

don't look like us,

don't act like us.

Lord, in us,

as Satan

seeks to tear us

apart,

may we hold

your word true

that your church

will stand.

Lord, help us

understand

how you loved us

and in that same way

we're called

to love one another.

Lord, while we were

yet sinners,

you died for us.

Every head bowed

and every eye closed.

have you received

have you received

God's grace?

If not,

why not today?

And if you have,

if you've received it,

if you understand

how dirty

and filthy you were

and Christ loved you

in spite of it,

would you go

and walk

in that same grace?

Extending it

to so many others.

God, change us.

Make us more like you.

in Jesus' name is right.

Thanks again for listening

to the Willow Ridge Church

weekly podcast.

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listening to this week's message.

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