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151: The Kingdoms’ Fall
31 Plays4 days ago
As we read through these stories of the Hebrew people ignoring God, turning to pagan idols, and worshiping a false god like Baal, it's easy to spot where these ancient people went astray. We would never worship a shiny baby cow. We wouldn't ignore a prophet with a good track record of rightly speaking God's Word. We will always follow great advice. I hope that last one is true. Scripture has some exceptionally wise words that are as relevant now as they were in ancient times. Psalm 119:105 tells us, "Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.” Join Pastor Chuck Schlie in this week’s episode for three simple words from our God that will keep you on the right path and guide you to life in His great name!
If you’d like to dig deeper, check out these discussion questions. You can complete them on your own, with your Community Group, or with family and friends.
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Transcript
Introduction and Sermon Series
00:00:00
Speaker
The following podcast is a Jill Devine Media production.
00:00:20
Speaker
Welcome back to Normal Goes a Long Way. I'm your host, Jill Devine, and let's go ahead and continue with the sermon series based on the book, The Story, in this week's episode.
Humor in Sermon
00:00:30
Speaker
All right, three friends decided to go deer hunting together, a lawyer, a doctor, and a preacher. And as they were walking, along came a big buck. and all three of them shot at exactly the same time.
00:00:45
Speaker
Immediately, the buck was dropped to the ground, and they all rushed to see exactly how big it was. ah The only problem was that they couldn't determine who it was that actually shot the deer.
00:00:57
Speaker
And so a heated debate ensued. And a few minutes later, ah a game officer came by and he said, what's the problem here? And the doctor told him that they were debating which one of them it was that shot the buck. And the officer went over, took one look at the deer, and within a few seconds, he said with very much confidence, oh, the preacher shot the buck.
00:01:20
Speaker
and they all wondered how he knew this so quickly. And the officer said, easy. The bullet went in one ear and out the
Challenges of Being Heard
00:01:27
Speaker
other. All that's a little harsh and not that much funny.
00:01:31
Speaker
But take it from me. Pastors have a tough gig. But you don' you don't need to be a preacher to know the feeling. Some of you are teachers and happy summer vacation to you.
00:01:44
Speaker
ah Some of you are bosses. ah Some of you are parents. You get it. You get it. ah You'd like to think that some of your words have some staying power. But you know the feeling in one ear and out the other.
Divine Wrath and Relationship with God
00:01:58
Speaker
And God knows more than any of us. The Lord, the God of their fathers sent word to them through his messengers again and again because he had pity on his people and on his dwelling place.
00:02:15
Speaker
But they mocked God's messengers, despised his words, and scoffed at his prophets until the wrath of the Lord was aroused against his people and there was no remedy.
00:02:31
Speaker
He tried again and again and again, but his message was received in one ear and out the other. No matter how many times, no matter how many messengers God sent to warn his people, they repeatedly ignored him.
00:02:50
Speaker
ah Through his prophets, God warns, he begs, pleads with these two kingdoms, relentlessly trying to convince them to turn away from their wickedness and so that they would enjoy a great relationship with him.
00:03:05
Speaker
and And that really is the whole theme of the story. It's relationship with God. God wants relationship. And so he says, I love you.
00:03:18
Speaker
I want you to be part of family, y'all. I want you to enjoy it all of the blessings that I have for you. So I want you to trust me and love me.
Worship of False Gods and Consequences
00:03:29
Speaker
And I want you to know put me in the top spot in your life.
00:03:33
Speaker
But the people of Israel and the people of Judah, just couldn't do it or wouldn't do it. They couldn't resist worshiping the false gods of their neighboring nations.
00:03:48
Speaker
And since they didn't worship the one true God, they also rejected his rules for living. And they had become a horribly inaccurate reflection of God's character.
00:04:03
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And the Bible tells us that it got so bad that they even threw their own children into the fire as sacrifices to pagan gods, and and they performed evil acts with others.
00:04:17
Speaker
Now, God is patient, but he is not permissive. If God were to look the other way and let them just continue in their wickedness, no one would ever see who he really is.
00:04:31
Speaker
No one would ever want to be drawn to him. and so he sent his messengers and he warned them, ah but in one ear and out the other. And so it was time for God to act.
00:04:47
Speaker
And he did so decisively. In the story today, the kingdom dissolves. They went from compromise to captivity.
00:04:58
Speaker
History tells us that in 722 BC, the Assyrians invaded the northern kingdom of Israel, slaughtering them by the thousands. And those who survived received iron hooks through their nose so in their lower lip, and they were led away as slaves.
Power of Storytelling
00:05:17
Speaker
136 years later, such was the case for Judah in the south as Jerusalem fell at the hands of the Babylonians and they destroyed the temple. They carried out the Ark of the Covenant and and God's chosen people.
00:05:29
Speaker
Wickedness, warning, Judgment, slavery, dispersion, Assyrians, Babylonians, Israel, Judah, 722, 586 BC, ancient history. What does this have to do with you and me?
00:05:50
Speaker
Well, this week i read a book about preaching and it contained this line. It said, tell someone to do something... and you change them for a day.
00:06:03
Speaker
Tell them a story and you change them for life. Well, I don't know that's true. So I'm gonna
The Tale of Anna Hurley Begins
00:06:11
Speaker
do both. Tell you a story. I've told this one only just once before and that was a long, long time ago.
00:06:16
Speaker
and some of you, i don't know, one of you might remember. But maybe, but again, maybe it went in one ear and out the other. So as an aside, i like this story.
00:06:29
Speaker
My wife does not like this story at all. So you can be the judge. I call it the Anna Hurley story. And it begins with a buddy of mine named John Gunderson, with whom I went to college with at Concordia in River Forest, Illinois, way back 1984. That's over years. who John and I were suite mates together my freshman year. He was a sophomore.
00:06:55
Speaker
And the best way that I could describe him is by saying that he was just really a good guy. He was from Wisconsin, you know, one of those guys. He grew up working on his family's a dairy farm, a great guy, the kind of guy you hope your daughter marries someday.
00:07:13
Speaker
Will Gunderson, or Gundy as we called him, he was always working. Always working. He had a campus job, but he also took on odd jobs all the time. There's a bulletin board by the dean's office, which I passed by once or twice on my way to visit Dean Davis. But this bulletin board had job postings from people in River Forest who wanted someone exactly like John Gunderson to come over and pull weeds or clean out their garage.
00:07:41
Speaker
Well, Mrs. Weaver, the dean's secretary, she was on a first-name basis with John. ah Me too, but for other reasons. John knew, or she knew John, and she recommended John all the time because he was just like such a good guy, and he was such a hard worker.
00:07:58
Speaker
Well, anyway, one day, Gundy gets this call from Mrs. Weaver, and she has this primo, great job lined up for him. He is to go to the rich part of River Forest, and by the way, it's all rich in River Forest.
00:08:11
Speaker
Really, it's a nice place. ah Great big houses line the streets, and a This particular job was way down on Bonny Bray Avenue in the nicest part of River Forest. It's really something, so like something out of the movies, you know? There it is, this big old stone house sealed off by a 10-foot-high concrete wall, kind of spooky in a way, mysterious to say the least.
00:08:37
Speaker
And so Gunderson has this job there on some Saturday morning, and and he was to arrive at precisely 9.30 sharp. He was to push the button on the outside of the great iron gate and the one that closed off the one and only entrance. And so at exactly 9.30, he pushed the button and a voice comes on the speaker and says, what's your name? State your business. And he says, my name is John Gunderson from Concordia on Augusta Street.
00:09:09
Speaker
And I'm supposed to do some work here, I think. And she asked a few other questions to make sure that was, in fact, the John Gunderson from Walbatosa, Wisconsin, who had been sent by Mrs. Weaver from Concordia College.
00:09:23
Speaker
Well, once all that was settled, These iron gates roll back on the tracks, and he drives his beat-up Chevy Caprice over the brick drive, past the manicured lawns, right up to another but smaller iron fence with another speaker and another set of questions.
00:09:43
Speaker
And finally, this gate also opens, and he approaches the house, and he went to the front porch as he was instructed, and there a lady met him on the porch, and she asked him for some identification.
00:09:55
Speaker
And so he showed her his student ID and his driver's license, and she looked that over, and she was satisfied, and she invited him into the house. And there he sat with Anna, who was in her mid-30s, and her sickly mother, Irene.
00:10:10
Speaker
And they visited, and they interrogated him at length, finding out, you know, that he truly was a nice person, which all students from Concordia are. ah Well, she gave John just a small list of
Betrayal and Ruin
00:10:23
Speaker
chores to do,
00:10:24
Speaker
And they really didn't seem all that important that he would have to be such a trusted individual to do these kinds of jobs. But he spent a couple hours doing this and that, and then they paid him three times the going rate.
00:10:41
Speaker
Sweet deal. Well, about a week later, there's another message. Miss Anna Hurley called the office and specifically oh wanted John Gunderson and only John Gunderson to come back to the house on Bonnie Bray.
00:10:58
Speaker
Same arrangement, same time, same drill. He didn't have to show his ID this time, but it was just about the same thing as before. He visited with the mom and with Anna at length.
00:11:09
Speaker
He was given a small little list of chores to do. He did them, got paid a lot left, left. A week later, the same thing. Same instructions, same kind of visit.
00:11:22
Speaker
But this time Anna said, okay John, I believe I can trust you and have you do the job that we really need to have done. This particular job is one that you had to be checked out for.
00:11:38
Speaker
And she took him to the back part of the house that he had never seen before. He hardly knew it was there. um And on one wall of this room in the back of the house, there seemed to be a hole. It didn't look like a door. it was just an opening kind of in the wall.
00:11:53
Speaker
And she led him through that opening in the wall. And they went but down the carpeted stairs into a basement den kind of thing. And on one wall, there were there were books. and And she told John to turn around.
00:12:07
Speaker
And look at the books and not to look at her until she told him. And so he turned around and looked at the books. A few seconds later, she said, okay. And he turned around and there in the paneled wall was another opening to a room.
00:12:25
Speaker
And they went into this secret room. And he noticed a number of file cabinets and a small antique desk. but what really caught his attention was the whole wall in the back was an enormous door to a vault.
00:12:42
Speaker
It looked like one of those vaults that you see in a bank, you know, had a big wheel on it a handle. And what Ann had needed was somebody to move all those file cabinets and the desk from downstairs in the basement up to a study in the second story so that she could work there.
00:13:02
Speaker
She explained that her father, Arthur Hurley, used to work in this hidden office right up until the day he died, which was just about a month ago. And he taught Anna how to take care of the family books and the accounts, which were stored in these file cabinets.
00:13:20
Speaker
ah But she didn't want to work in the basement. And who could blame her? kind of creepy. And so she wanted everything moved upstairs, and there was no way that she could do it. She was in a little out of shape, and she wasn't used to manual labor.
00:13:35
Speaker
Now, her father, Arthur Hurley, he had made millions in the copper smelting business, mining and smelting copper from South America.
00:13:46
Speaker
But actually, that was the second fortune he made. The first came from involving a quarry and delivering limestone all over Chicago. It was a good business.
00:13:58
Speaker
And since Arthur was a kind of frugal sort of man, had a pretty good-sized nest egg of stocks and plenty of cash in a bank saved up.
00:14:10
Speaker
But then came the bank crash and the stock market crash and the Depression.
00:14:17
Speaker
found himself penniless And he lived those hard days of doing without. And during those tough times, he made himself a promise. He said, I'm going to be rich again, but there is no way anybody is ever going to take it away from me again.
00:14:39
Speaker
and so after the war, he started this copper business and it quickly became very successful And he hid his money in iron boxes in the ground until he bought this property on Bonny Bray Avenue in River Forest.
00:14:55
Speaker
And he built ah huge wall around the place. And on top of that wall, he put black metal spikes all around the top of it. And he put up an iron fence inside that wall.
00:15:08
Speaker
And he put up a fortress inside that iron fence and he built this enormous vault in the basement with a big door. And he said, no bank is ever going to get my money again.
00:15:21
Speaker
I will guard what I have worked for. will guard it to protect my wife and my child and her children, maybe her children.
00:15:34
Speaker
And after... You know, Arthur Hurley. he taught us He taught this lesson to Anna. Well, ah he he taught her everything there was to know. He taught her about the security system.
00:15:49
Speaker
He told her, make sure you always keep your mouth shut. No one is to know anything about this. Don't trust anyone with anything ever.
00:16:01
Speaker
Guard what's yours and guard it carefully.
00:16:06
Speaker
And so John Gunderson spent the day moving all the records upstairs in the file cabinets in the little desk. And then he went back to the dorm. And John would continue continually, you know, on on occasion, you know, every once in a while, he he would get calls out to to go so back to Bonnie Bray and visit with Anna and and do whatever little jobs that she needed to get done.
00:16:31
Speaker
you know, he was now kind of like a trusted part of the family. He was allowed to go to different places throughout the house and make small repairs and paint, you know, places where no one had ever been gone before.
00:16:42
Speaker
and And he was there for Anna. but They kind of became friends, and he was there for Anna when her mother Irene passed away in January.
00:16:54
Speaker
And then one bright fall day, he went to the estate, and when the door opened, Anna, she came bounding out of the porch. She was different today.
00:17:07
Speaker
Her hair was all fixed up. She had makeup on. ah She had this new designer style dress. Her voice was different. She had a big smile on her face. And John said, Anna, boy, you, you, you look different today. And she replied, I feel different.
00:17:31
Speaker
Since the last time you were here, i met a man, ah wonderful man, a charming man. His name is Donald Rosello. And i I think he's the one.
00:17:42
Speaker
I think I'm in love. And John was happy for her. And she said, in a few hours, Donnie is it coming over and I can't wait for you to meet him. but And sure enough, around noon, Donald Rosello pulled right on up. Gates opened up right up for him. And he drove this sweet looking Camaro. And he was handsome. He was friendly, you know.
00:18:05
Speaker
Maybe a little too friendly, John thought. But Anna was in love. And the next time Gundy went out, she gave him a very large bonus, and she said, John, I've appreciated knowing you.
00:18:20
Speaker
You've been a good friend. You're a wonderful young man, um but we won't need you here anymore. Donnie feels that he can do these sorts of things now, and and it's it's better not to have too many people around.
00:18:34
Speaker
And that was the end of the Anna Hurley story. until the fall of 1987.
00:18:44
Speaker
John got another call. Anna had asked him to bring some of the other students with him to help her move. He thought that she must have gotten married.
00:18:56
Speaker
So a group of guys from the floor went out with him, and the great iron gate was already opened. And John went up to the door, and he knocked,
00:19:09
Speaker
But when it opened, John was taken aback because Anna was completely disheveled. Her hair was all messed up.
00:19:20
Speaker
She wore a ratty bathrobe, sweatshirt, pajama pants, and she looked very, very tired. And John said, so you're moving.
00:19:36
Speaker
And she said, yes, I'm moving. And John got the guys started and then found Anna and they went to the kitchen and she sat down at the table and she began to cry.
00:19:52
Speaker
She said, I don't know where I'm going to go. Donald, Donnie, he talked about marriage. He talked about the stock market and having a legacy fortune for our children one day and our grandchildren and And my father had been so against any type of investment.
00:20:15
Speaker
But Donnie was so persuasive. He said it was for our future and our family and we would be set generations from life.
00:20:27
Speaker
And so he proposed marriage and I readily accepted. The clock was ticking, you know. ah We didn't have a date set, and he kind of kept putting it off, and I didn't want to nag him about it.
00:20:41
Speaker
Well, to make a complicated story short, what he did was he convinced Anna that she should allow him to invest the money, but she wouldn't have to worry about it anymore. She could relax, and that he was going to take care of everything.
00:21:02
Speaker
Well, this went on for about a year and a half. And the gist of it while Donnie Rosello was away on one of his business trips, he had been gone for well over a month, and had received a certified letter from an attorney.
00:21:19
Speaker
it was a corporate attorney. And the letter explained that the house now belonged to a corporation for which he worked, and She had 60 days to move out of their property.
00:21:36
Speaker
And she read the letter again and again and again. This couldn't be. How could this happen? There must be some kind of a mistake.
00:21:49
Speaker
And this is before cell phones, yeah. and she But she tried calling Donnie, and she couldn't find him. Anna hired lawyers, and and they did some check-ins.
00:22:00
Speaker
And they discovered that during the whole time, Rosello had been laundering the money. And he had it covered up in such a way that it was impossible to get it back.
00:22:14
Speaker
And they tried. The whole law firm tried.
Parable and Heart Protection
00:22:20
Speaker
But in the end, John moved Anna Hurley out of the home on Bonnie Bray Avenue.
00:22:30
Speaker
ah He heard from her maybe a few more times. That's the end of the story.
00:22:37
Speaker
He never knew what happened to Anna until it was time for John to graduate. The Tribune ran a small article about her.
00:22:50
Speaker
Anna Marie Hurley, the daughter and only heir of the late Arthur S. Hurley estate, was found dead in the 1700 block of Archer Avenue in Bell Rose Park.
00:23:02
Speaker
She was described as homeless living out of her car.
00:23:07
Speaker
The end.
00:23:13
Speaker
Sad story.
00:23:16
Speaker
My wife doesn't like sad stories. And this one definitely is that. But here's here's the thing. If Anna Hurley had known but I'm about to tell you, she wouldn't have lost her fortune.
00:23:35
Speaker
She wouldn't have lost her inheritance. She wouldn't have lost her dignity. She wouldn't have lost everything her father had left her and taught her carefully guard.
00:23:49
Speaker
She wouldn't have lost any of that.
00:23:52
Speaker
Because the words that I'm about to tell you are not my words, they're words from God. They're simple words. ah Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.
00:24:16
Speaker
Proverbs 4, 23. Above all else, guard your heart,
00:24:27
Speaker
Don't let this one go in one ear and out the other. should memorize it. ah You should have your children memorize it. You should teach them what it means.
00:24:41
Speaker
but Remind them often to guard their hearts.
00:24:46
Speaker
You see, what no thief had been able to do by force, Donnie Rosello was able to do. He found the weak point. It wasn't the big concrete wall or the iron gate or the security system or the hidden room in the basement. it wasn't the vault.
00:25:08
Speaker
No, those were not weak links.
00:25:13
Speaker
For all of the educating, all of the preparing of life that Arthur and Irene Hurley had so carefully prepared for their daughter, Anna,
00:25:26
Speaker
had failed to tell her to guard your heart.
00:25:32
Speaker
Yes, guard your money. Yes, guard your intellect, guard your body. But above all else, they should have instructed her guard your heart.
00:25:51
Speaker
Well, the story I have told you is true. just as a parable is true. So Arthur and Anna, John Gunderson, Donnie Rosello, they don't really exist.
00:26:08
Speaker
I made those names up. They're actually former students of mine. And Donnie Rosello played infield for the Chicago Cubs.
00:26:18
Speaker
I kind of took a story, I modified it one from when I heard from a at Colorado Christian University. So no, the Hurleys don't really exist, except they do.
00:26:33
Speaker
They are Israel and they are Judah and they exist as much as anyone who ignores God's word of warning and are so secure with everything else in life but who have failed to guard their hearts.
00:26:58
Speaker
And so yeah, it's a BC thing, but it's also a 2025 AD It's not just about a bunch of Old Testament folks.
00:27:12
Speaker
It's about you. It's about me. Your money, your kids' education, your health, these are all important matters.
00:27:26
Speaker
But it don't matter at all if God is not first importance to you. Because you're building on sand and the other stuff won't last.
00:27:43
Speaker
Only what's in the heart. So guard it.
Spiritual Inheritance
00:27:49
Speaker
The Bible tells us that we are God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved. So spiritually speaking now, through baptism in Christ, you and I have been born into quite a family.
00:28:08
Speaker
God has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade, which is kept in heaven just for you.
00:28:27
Speaker
So guard it.
00:28:31
Speaker
That's all.
00:28:33
Speaker
That's the message. I'm telling you, because God loves you and he wants relationship with you now and into eternity.
00:28:51
Speaker
Faith in Jesus Christ is your most valuable treasure. It is priceless. It is irreplaceable.
00:29:02
Speaker
It is worth more than a whole row of houses on Bonny Bray Avenue.
Conclusion and Teaser
00:29:08
Speaker
You have been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ. You are all set up.
00:29:25
Speaker
If you'd like to dig a little bit deeper, we encourage you to head to normalgoesalongway.com. We have some discussion questions that will help you do so. And come back on Thursday.
00:29:35
Speaker
Ms. Hannah and Ms. April will present to you Chapter 17, The Kingdom's Fall for the kiddos with Normal Goes a Long Way for Kids.