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Relinquish Ungodliness & Avoid Divine Retribution
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Judges 8:33-10:5
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Transcript
Reflecting on Past Relationships
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like for you to imagine this morning with me for just a few moments a relationship that you've had with somebody in the past that has drifted.
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You'll remember at the very beginning of that relationship how great it was. Everything was new. Everything was exciting. You talked to each other every chance you had.
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You asked each other all sorts of questions. You talked about your dreams, your hopes, your goals, even your concerns. But over time, those conversations, well, they they slowed down.
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And eventually they stopped, not because everything was fine, but because distance had already settled in. And instead of a relationship filled with close, intimate conversation, it's now filled with silence.
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It's not the silence of peace, it's the silence of separation. Maybe you're here this morning and you've come through these doors in the back and you're sitting here in the pew living in that silence.
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Maybe you're sitting here this morning experiencing that separation from from God. Well, if that's you, I want you to know you're not alone. You're in good company. The Israelites this morning in our passage find themselves living in this silence that follows spiritual drift.
The Consequences of Spiritual Drift
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They've turned from following the Lord who once delivered them to now following a false god who cannot deliver them.
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It's not immediate, that shift, that drift from following the Lord to not following him. believe it's one of the hardest truths that you and I must grasp this morning.
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that God's judgment oftentimes in our lives doesn't just come as some sudden tragedy. doesn't come as some car driving through our sanctuary.
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It comes quite often, slowly and quietly, as God steps aside and allows us to have our way.
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Friends, when God's voice is ignored long enough He allows his people to live with the consequences of their own turning away.
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It's a scary place to be.
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As we pick up Judges chapter 8 this morning, the very first verse introduces us to this sober reality. Listen carefully, if you will, to how quickly things unravel once Gideon is gone.
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Chapter 8, verse 33 says, As soon as Gideon died, the Israelites prostituted themselves by worshiping the images of Baal, making Baal berit their God.
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What stands out immediately to me in this very first verse is not what Israel has done, but who's missing from this story.
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As the story unfolds, the Lord is not heard from at all. He's noticeably absent. And it signals this greater danger.
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God's people are no longer facing this external enemy, they're facing something within. And it's forgetfulness of who God is and what he's done for them. Even before we meet Abimelech, which we'll look at in just a minute, before we even get into his story, we notice right off the bat something is deeply troubling.
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God fades from the story. He fades from the narrative. And spiritual drift begins to happen.
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And a new God, a false God, takes prominence. Yahweh steps in the background, this false god comes from the back to the foreground. And I thought to myself this week, quite often this is what happens in our lives.
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It's a slow drift for many of us. We don't just wake up one morning and say, I'm not going to follow the Lord.
Superficial vs. Genuine Faith
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But what happens, brothers and sisters, is God, when he slowly disappears from our decisions and from our conversations and from our priorities, but somehow we seem to still navigate and function life like everything's okay, we may not notice anything is wrong at first, but there's something really wrong.
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That spiritual drift often begins not with rebellion, but simply with having God become less relevant in your life. in my life.
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Many believers still attend church today, quietly planning in their heads, as some of you are doing right now. What do I have to do this afternoon? Am I getting beef or chicken on my baked potato?
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See, there's one right there. Full rebellion. Doesn't even know it.
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So what we end up doing is we sit here and instead of having God in the forefront, we've now started having these other things going on in our mind. And he becomes optional.
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Church attendance becomes priority. God becomes optional. And religion takes place.
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always worries me a little bit, by the way, when people say, I'm so happy for you, Patrick, you sure are religious. And I go, no, no, no, I'm not religious. You want to make sure you set that straight with people.
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Religion is this, I'm showing up because I have to show up.
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We show up because God is important, that he's the most important, and he's not optional. We want him to be in the foreground, not in the background. But also I notice here right off the bat in this first verse, there's no prayer.
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There's no prophet. There's no repentance like we've seen chapter after chapter up to this point, right? God's no longer prominent on the scene. He's somewhere in the background.
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J.T. Price says, when God fades from the narrative, it signals a covenant abandonment, not a divine neglect.
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That's interesting about that. Who they stop worshipping is Yahweh. Who do they start worshipping is Baal Barret, which that name really means the false god of covenant.
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So they've abandoned the covenant they have with Yahweh, and they've picked up this covenant with this false god, Baal Barret. Look here verse 33 and 35
The Dangers of Self-Rule
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with me.
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he continues
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they They forgot the Lord their God. This is the Israelites, verse 34. They forgot the Lord their God, who
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That's Gideon. So they've already forgotten all about Gideon, despite all the good that he had done for Israel. Notice what Israel's forgotten. They've forgotten Yahweh their deliverer.
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They've forgotten Yahweh their covenant Lord. They've forgotten Yahweh their moral authority.
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I like this. It's not willful amnesia. J.T. Price says this. It's not willful amnesia. It's not like you forgot your car keys someday. Hey, where i for where are my car keys at?
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That's not what he's saying is happening here. It's a purposeful forgetting of the Lord and who he is and what he does.
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But notice it's not immediate. It's this slow drift. If you think forgetting God happens overnight, I'm here to tell you it's a very slow decision by decision, day by day process.
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Our gratitude fades and our dependence on the Lord weakens. Little bit, little bit, little bit, day after day, day after day.
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I was just telling somebody this past week, what used to be
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pornographic on TV in the 80s is now PG and we let our kids watch it. That didn't just happen overnight. That was decision by decision, little bit by little bit.
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And compromise settles, settles in.
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Ah, compromise.
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These Israelites are lots of the most guilty ones, aren't they? before we shake our head like sweet Marilyn's doing over there.
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I say that because I'm the same way. we We're easy just to jump right on top of those Israelites, aren't we? Oh boy, they just compromise Brothers sisters, that's you and I. We're looking at the mirror with those people.
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Look here, first four verses, chapter nine. Jump with me.
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One day Gideon's son, Abimelech, remember Abimelech means my father is king,
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Just pointing back to Gideon, good old pat on Gideon's shoulder. One day Gideon's son of Abimelech went to Shechem to visit his uncles. That's his mother's brothers. And he said to them and the rest of his mother's families, the leading citizens of Shechem whether they want to be ruled by all 70 of Gideon's sons or by one man.
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by the way By the way, that one man is him. and remember that I am your own flesh and blood. So Abimelech's uncles gave this message to all the citizens of in favor of Abimelech because he was their relative.
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And they gave him 70 silver coins from the temple of Baal-Berit, which he used then to hire some reckless troublemakers who agreed to follow him. interesting appointment, if you will, Abimelech comes on the scene.
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He's got some competition. Some 70 brothers all winning this position of ruler. But here, Abimelech takes the opportunity.
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What's deeply disturbing, I put in my notes, is that he's self-appointed. Once again, we don't see God in the picture here at all. Not only is God not in the picture, He's self-appointed and He's paid by the false god's dollar.
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He's int instilled by political manipulation. He goes behind the scenes and says, would you rather have these 70 guys or me? It's what Dr. Curavilla identifies as living over God instead of under God.
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You and I do this every day.
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How do I know that? Well, because we make decisions quite often hastily, unconsulting God. Or perhaps you've been praying for something for God to do and He's not working in your timeline and so then you decide, you know what, I'm gonna circumvent that system with my own way and I'm gonna get something done quicker.
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We think we know better than God does.
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We prefer leaders, presidents, Pastors, preachers, podcasters, influencers, who speak like us and look like us, who promise convenience and security and affirmation.
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Hey, you guys are doing it the right way.
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And we get behind these folks even though they lack godly character. I had somebody real close in my family tell me one time many years ago, Boy, i just love that Donald Trump.
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Just the most godly man ever. And I'm not here to make a political statement. You don't know how I vote. But I will tell you right now, if you were holding that gentleman up as a godly figure, you were highly mistaken.
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We choose what benefits us instead of what honors God. And when we do that, brothers and sisters, we repeat that exact same mistake that Israel is making here. They elevate human preference over divine authority.
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And when we do that long enough, God gets out of the way. And he lets us live out that natural consequence of our decisions. When we put ourselves first long enough, he says, go ahead and have it your way, not my way.
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And he gets out of the way.
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And it never ends well, by the way, if I can just tell you that. Humanity is never an upward trajectory when we start taking things into our own hands. It's always a downward spiral.
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Because we are fallen, broken people.
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And it starts small, this drift, when we forget about who God is and what He's done. It goes from forgetfulness to to trouble.
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And from trouble to really bad trouble.
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Look at verse 4. It tells us right there, Abimelech is funded by Baal's temple. And he takes these 70 coins, these ungodly sourced coins.
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By the way, one coin for every half-brother. That he takes, verse 5 says, look with me.
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He went to his father's home in Orphra, and there, on one stone, meaning a big, huge block of stone, they killed all 70 of his half-brothers, the sons of Gideon.
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But the youngest brother, Jotham, escaped and hid.
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Unchecked power here. He put himself into position. He was paid by ungodly sources. And it just escalates. skin Sin just always escalates.
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Ungodliness escalates. We forget, we compromise, trouble happens, it multiplies. it It may not lead to murder, but it leads to unchecked ambition, and it always hurts people.
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It dehumanizes people. You just simply need to turn on the news.
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Our good friends in Northern California
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megachurch. It doesn't need to be named. You know who I'm talking about. Pastors all over the news, brothers and sisters. Power unchecked.
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no No elder board. He's a solo guy running the show. Sexual scandal. Brutality. Retaliation.
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One guy going unchecked. Why do I bring this up? Well, You guys need to keep me in check. That's what I'm telling you. Just because ah I'm up here doesn't give me that privilege that you guys are following what I'm teaching.
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Making sure the fruits of my life match what I'm teaching. Power unchecked is always going to result in abuse, bullying, harassment, retaliation, and people will get hurt.
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Make no mistake, this is what Abimelech is all about. He went unchecked and his violence just grew.
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But it didn't go unnoticed by God.
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I thought today I was scrambling before, you know, I like to review my notes and sometimes I come up with a ah better illustration. And I thought there's this great movie called A Few Good Men. Y'all remember this?
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Good movie. Shake your head even if you don't. There's one line in there, and and I wish, I know I could probably look to Bob, he probably has this memorized. right He's talking about this this young officer that was killed in this movie.
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And this Marine says, well, the reason he was killed is because he had no code, he had no honor, and God was watching.
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Isn't that harsh? But brothers sisters, let me tell you something. Abimelech goes unchecked. And his sin goes so egregious. and The idolatry goes so egregious. It doesn't just affect him. It affects this entire group of people. And God is watching. And it doesn't go unnoticed. And his consequence, we see, is
Divine Justice and Abimelech's Demise
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next. Just look with me, starting in verse 7.
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Jotham, who escaped, now goes about telling this parable He climbs, verse 7 says, he he hears about this, he climbs to the top of Mount Gerizim and he shouts, ah listen to me, citizens Shechem. And he goes on and tells this entire parable, which I'll let you read all the way down.
00:18:13
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to 21 this afternoon. This parable is fabulous in that it tells about these trees, these fruitful trees. and He says the fruitful trees are the ones that refuse to be ah placed into a leadership position. They refuse kingship.
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But he uses this other example, not of a fruitful tree, but a bramble. Y'all know what a bramble is? It's like a thorny shrub. He says this thorny shrub is something that gets planted and it overgrows and it takes over and it consumes and it overpowers that area in which it was planted.
00:18:47
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Jotham says, that's Abimelech. You're going to let this guy go unchecked. His power is going to be all-consuming and he's going to destroy everybody around him. It's a warning, this parable is.
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It's a warning that God gives each one of us. before we get too far down the road. He warns you and I through scripture. He warns us through our conscience.
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He warns us through godly counsel from our brothers and sisters. Hopefully you're loving enough with your brothers and sisters that you can pull somebody inside and go, hey, I notice this going on in your life. Maybe you should pray about that. Maybe we should pray about that.
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He uses scripture, he uses our conscience, he uses godly counsel from our brothers and sisters, and sometimes he even uses uncomfortable sermons, like today. The danger is not in ignorance, it's in ignoring that warning. It's like that car light that comes on in your dashboard.
00:19:52
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You know that one you have to get your manual out? What is that picture of? Friends, if you leave that warning light on and just ignore it, eventually real trouble's gonna happen in your car.
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The same is inevitable in your life and my life. Abimelech goes unchecked, but look look at how his life unravels with me here. Verse 23, jump down to 23 with me. It says, the citizens of Shechem set an ambush for Abimelech on the hilltops, robbed everyone who passed by that way, but some warned Abimelech about that plot.
00:20:27
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So he gets away, Abimelech does. Verse 24 says, but he was but he punished Abimelech for murdering Gideon's 70 sons and the citizens of Shechem for supporting him in his treachery and murdering his brothers.
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Now jump down to verse 50. Let's look exactly how he ends. Abimelech attacked the town of Thebes and captured it. But there was a strong tower inside the town, and all the men and all the women, the entire population, fled to this tower.
00:20:54
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And they barricaded themselves in, and they climbed up to the roof of the tower. This sounds a lot like ah Bob's training yesterday, by the way, those of you who were here for handgun safety. Abimelech followed them to attack the tower, but as he prepared to set fire to the entrance, get get verse 53 here with me.
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a woman on the roof dropped a millstone that landed on Abimelech's head and crushed his skull.
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54 says, He quickly said to his young armor bearer, Quick, draw your sword and kill me. Don't let it be known that a woman killed Abimelech.
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So the young man ran him through with his sword and he died.
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Abimelech's men saw that he was dead and they disbanded and returned to their homes. In this way, verse 56 says, God punished Abimelech. Divine retribution, fitting a divine retribution for the evil that he had done against his father by murdering his 70 brothers. God also punished the men of Shechem for all their evil.
Growing in Spiritual Maturity
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So the curse of Jotham, son of Gideon, was fulfilled.
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The irony here is Abimelech is the one who placed these stepbrothers' heads on the stone and killed them. And now here it is a stone that's dropped on him by none none other than a woman.
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Why is that important? Why does the author point that out? Well, that would be considered public disgrace. That during a battle, a man was killed by a woman. That's why he was so quick to say to his armor bearer, quick, don't let this be my end.
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Take your knife and and kill me.
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It's a picture of public ambition ending in public disgrace. Violence returning upon violence.
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Judgment in our lives often happens this way. Sometimes it's immediate. We sin, we reap the benefit right there. We reap we reap what we sow right there. Oftentimes it's this slow, gradual drift and God's constantly warning you time and time again through scripture, through friends that are talking to you, through your own conscience telling you the way I'm living is not right.
00:23:14
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It's not pleasing to God. Put my notes this morning, those aren't some random happenings. That's God being gracious and merciful and tapping you on the shoulder and reminding you it's time to return back home before eternal damage is really done. Brothers and sisters, this passage teaches us about several things, but teaches us that God doesn't overlook persistent sin, persistent ungodliness in our lives.
00:23:46
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How do we apply this today? How we take this seeming strange story of Abimelech written oh so many years ago, how do we make this relevant to you and I today? Well, a couple things.
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How do we relinquish ungodliness in our life today?
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What does relinquishing ungodliness mean? Well, it means dismantling whatever competes with God right now for your loyalty,
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and your trust and your obedience.
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I put a question myself. Where are the Baals in my life right now? What are these temples that I've created in my life that somehow supersede where the Lord should be?
00:24:38
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I got three. Hopefully I have at least one of them up here. Maybe we need to relinquish the idol of control.
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When we insist on having the final say in every decision, we functionally declare ourselves as king.
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Anybody know somebody like that? Always got to have the last word. Maybe you're married to them today. God help you.
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Relinguishing ungodliness means yielding the outcomes, yielding the timelines, yielding the expectations. to God rather than manipulating those circumstances the way we'd like for them to turn out.
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It's saying, God, I know you have a different timeline than me. And while I wish this would be faster and I wish this would happen quicker, Lord, I've been praying for that healed marriage. I've been praying for that healed kid to come back into the fold.
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Lord, it's not on my time, it's on your time. I'm going to give up the control. And brothers and sisters, I will tell you, a ah direct sign of spiritual maturity is when you realize you're not in control.
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And you never really have been.
Addressing Sin Seriously
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But it's coming to that realization that he is the one who is in control. And we relinquish that idol of control to him. We give God back his due position in our lives.
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Second, we relinquish the idol of image and approval.
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Like Abimelech, many are tempted to build a name rather than a testimony. This happens when our reputation somehow means more than righteousness. When public perception outweighs private obedience.
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When we forget really what the Bible says just as long as we're popular.
00:26:31
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And it happens from the pulpit every Sunday in many churches. Much rather preach up a fun loving message. Brothers and sisters, can I be completely honest with you pastorally?
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I would love to not teach something like this. I'd rather teach you a message that God loves everybody. Doesn't matter what you do. Keep sinning, he still loves you.
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But that's not what the Bible says. I would be doing you a horrible disservice. i would be doing his word a disservice.
00:27:05
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We're not here for, I'm not here for your approval. I'm just here to to to teach you what God says. Perhaps we need to relinquish the idol of self-rule. This is a big one. Matter of fact, I put two stars next to my outline here.
00:27:19
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At its core, ungodliness is this desire to live our lives with our control and under our power and not under his power.
00:27:31
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It's not surrendering.
00:27:36
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Put a note to myself midweek. Can you be a believer and not fully surrender your lives to Christ?
00:27:45
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Initially, yes. I think that answer is yes. I think you can come to the end of yourself and realize you need a Savior and you can give your life to Christ, but there might be areas in that life that you have not fully surrendered and fully submitted.
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brothers sisters, we must come to a point where we surrender everything. to God.
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We need to stop negotiating with him.
00:28:15
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Lord, I'd like to ah obey that command, but not that one. Kim and I have a friend, and we lovingly refer to him, as I've told you many times, a buffet Christian. I'll take a little bit of that, little bit of that, but I don't want any of that. It doesn't work that way, brothers and sisters.
00:28:36
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got to restore God to his rightful place as king and ruler in our lives. All right, second, how do we avoid retribution?
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I kept coming back to this phrase that I saw online all week. You need to take sin seriously. I literally saw this four different worded four different ways throughout this this past week as I was studying it.
00:29:01
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means we need to start responding to sin the way God responds to sin. Decisive and not defensive. We need to stop normalizing sin.
00:29:18
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What God condemns is sin. You and I need to condemn a sin.
00:29:23
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Well, MTV says it's okay. Okay.
00:29:30
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We laugh at that, brothers sisters, but we let little bit of that stuff seep in all the time.
00:29:38
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You can't even watch a ah Lifetime movie anymore. They've ruined them now with trash. You've got to take sin seriously.
00:29:50
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We've got to realize it's dangerous, especially when it feels familiar to you and I. probably the the most condemning thing somebody could tell you. Oh, I didn't even know you were a Christian, if you're hanging out with your secular friends.
00:30:06
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What? You go to church? Where do you go to church at? Brothers and sisters, they should know you go to church at First Baptist Church. Cameron.
00:30:15
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If you look a lot like them, there's that's a big problem. We need to rein in sin early rather than managing it quietly. This is our go-to thing. thing as fallen humans.
00:30:28
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I don't want anybody else to know about my sin.
00:30:33
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I think our home group, our small group, I think we should just do a Bible study, but I really don't want to get to know those people real close because I might have to divulge some of my personal sin that's going on in my life.
00:30:44
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You bet you should. Brothers sisters, that's what that small group is for. So that you are living life with those people, so that you're not on some island with you and your husband or you and your spouse, out on some farm 30 miles outside of Cameron, living all by yourselves, living in your own rule.
00:31:01
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This is why we meet together, not just to worship the Lord, but to have community, to have fellowship, to have some accountability.
00:31:17
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Address it quickly. Address it early before you're drifted way down the beach.
00:31:26
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Third, we need to respond to conviction. When the Holy Spirit says something to you, taps you on the shoulder, your conscience is bothering you, maybe that's not the right thing I should be doing, maybe that's not the right thing I should be saying, don't be resistant to that.
00:31:46
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respond. Lord, I'm sorry for speaking that way. Lord, I'm sorry for thinking that way.
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Sorry for treating my spouse that way.
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I said on Wednesday night, there's a real benefit to praying with your spouse together, out loud. If you don't do that, man, I just, I would really impose that upon you. Start that practice.
00:32:14
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what ah What a beautiful way to admit fault in a marriage during prayer. Lord, forgive me that I fill in the blank. Forgive her for filling in the blank.
00:32:25
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Forgive him for filling in the blank.
00:32:30
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God often warns you and I well ahead of time that we're going off track. Matter of fact, he does it several times through different means. Come back. Come back.
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Come back. Come back! You're too far.
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need to take sin seriously.
00:32:55
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God is holy. He wants us to be holy. His commands are good, and if we ignore them long enough, there are real consequences. Amen?