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Live Godly
8 Plays17 hours ago
Judges 1:1-2:5
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Transcript
Generational Decline in Faith
00:00:00
Speaker
I want to start this morning with this illustration. You've probably seen it before, if we can get that on the screen there.
00:00:10
Speaker
It's a picture of generational decline as you step further and further away from the church and from God. It depicts here the grandfather who at one time the church was essential for him, but the very next generation, the son church, was optional down to the grandson who now says it's unnecessary, showing the full breakdown of faith that can happen just a few generations to the point where the grandson says, Jesus who?
00:00:41
Speaker
Right? My prayer is this illustration, why I show it this morning, is that it it hits home for some of you today. Many of you here are ah grandparents.
00:00:55
Speaker
Many of you are parents. And I'm here to to kind of shake you a little bit this morning, to wake you up a little bit this morning, that that brothers and sisters, it doesn't take but one generation to get off track.
00:01:08
Speaker
And by the time we realize it, we're so far down, um we've lost the faith and we have an entire generation who is saying, ah Jesus who. It's a wake-up call for you. It's a wake-up call for me.
Introduction to the Book of Judges
00:01:23
Speaker
And we've seen throughout history in the church there are these wake up calls. There are times when God is tapping us on the shoulder. There's times when he is grabbing us by the arm and he's giving us a good shake and he's telling us it's time to get back on track.
00:01:42
Speaker
It's time to turn away from those sinful lifestyles. It's time to turn back to a lifestyle that is uncompromisingly committed to Jesus.
00:01:54
Speaker
Friends, as we open up the book of Judges today, we're going to see this same picture. It's God's people, but it's but it's a picture of you as well, and it's a picture of me as well.
00:02:08
Speaker
They go through cycles, and we're going to see this cycle over and over and over in the following weeks. um it's a sad It's a sad picture. I was telling somebody this past Wednesday,
00:02:20
Speaker
I love Judges. I love it. I'm so excited to teach it. and And it really breaks my heart to teach it at the same time. We're going to leave here today answering these two questions.
00:02:31
Speaker
How do we lose God's blessing when when we live ungodly lifestyles? That's the first question we're going to answer. And second, how do we start living a godly lifestyle?
00:02:43
Speaker
Judges is where we're headed. If you have your Bibles, open it up. You'll know if you've been in any of our classes. Judges Testament. is the Old Testament. Judges is the seventh book in the both the English Old Testament as well as the Hebrew Bible. It goes Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, and then what?
00:03:05
Speaker
Who knows? Joshua, Judges, and then Ruth. And the only way I can ever remember that, by the way, I have a little little trick in my mind. I always remember after I get past the first five books, J.J.R.,
00:03:21
Speaker
Joshua judges Ruth. Poor Ruth. She's always judged by Joshua. That's the only way I can ever remember that. I don't know why. it's It works in my mind. But Ruth, in God's wisdom, is placed right after Judges. And Ruth 1.1 gives a clue about the time of Judges. Ruth 1.1 says,
00:03:43
Speaker
If you want to flip there, great. If not, I will just simply tell you, it starts this way. In the days when the judges ruled. Or the more literal translation is, what in the days when the judges judged.
00:03:57
Speaker
There was this great or severe famine. You'll remember as we walk through the Old Testament, many of you guys, when y'all were studying Deuteronomy Sunday mornings, you'll know Deuteronomy 28 was all about what?
Consequences of Disobedience
00:04:10
Speaker
The blessings and the The curses, right? Blessings for obedience, curses for disobedience. Blessings always came in the way of crops and kids. That's what we said. if If God's people were doing things God's way, boy, they had great crops and they had lots of kids.
00:04:26
Speaker
If they were disobedient, we saw chaos and confusion. And so Ruth one one gives us this picture of what's going on in Judges as we step into it this morning.
00:04:37
Speaker
It says, in the days when the judges judged or when they were in power or when they were ruling, there was a severe famine, meaning that God's people were living ungodly lives of disobedience, and hence we have this famine.
00:04:55
Speaker
By the way, the book of Judges... can be misleading the title judges. We often think about judges like we do in in our court law the court of law here, right? Who the judge is, somebody who passes ah judgment, right? Really, in the Hebrew Bible, this is really a deliverer.
00:05:10
Speaker
This is a book of deliverers. that If you want to write that as a note, you might write that down. Judges equals deliverer.
00:05:19
Speaker
He starts off... Ruth 1.1 says, by the way, Judges is a time of ungodliness. But it didn't start that way. It doesn't start that way. You'll remember Moses, the servant of the Lord, leads God's people out of Egypt and he hands off the baton Joshua, who surprisingly is also referred to as a servant of the Lord.
00:05:45
Speaker
Both Moses, servant of the Lord, Joshua, servant of the Lord. Joshua receives the baton. He's not only called the servant the Lord, but he's also called the servant of Moses.
00:05:55
Speaker
That's really important. We see a ah lineage, somebody passing down the baton, the leadership. And now we get to Judges 1-1 and 1-1 starts this way.
00:06:06
Speaker
By the way, we have a a whole lot of passages today. To get through. i told poor Isaiah. You're going have to do some jumping around. Because I'm not reading all of it. But I'm going highlight what's important for us to get today.
00:06:18
Speaker
One one says this. After the death of Joshua. So immediately now you know the context. Moses has handed off the baton. Joshua has gotten the baton.
00:06:29
Speaker
And we know throughout the book of Joshua and parts of Judges, we're told that the Israelites were starting off well. They were following the Lord. But now Joshua 1-1 in Judges says he's dead.
00:06:43
Speaker
And the Israelites ask the Lord, which tribe should go first to attack the Canaanites? To which the Lord answered, Judah, for I have given them victory over the land.
00:06:56
Speaker
It's interesting to me that right off the bat and the Judges 1-1, we have a picture of um not a leader leading God's people.
00:07:07
Speaker
We don't see Moses. We don't see Joshua. But 1-1 tells us the Israelites go. There's no man who's stood up as a leader at this point. And all the Israelites are going before the Lord asking, what should we do? Who should we get rid of? And he says right here, you need to go The tribe, by the way, when you read any of the names here, Judah or Simeon, these are all the tribes of, these are all the groups of.
00:07:34
Speaker
He says here ind verse 2, the Lord answered, ah Judah, for I have given them victory over the land. And verse 3 says, the men of Judah said to their relatives from the tribe of Simeon, hey, join with us to fight against the Canaanites living in the territory allotted to us.
00:07:51
Speaker
Then we will help you conquer your territory. So the men of Simeon went with Judah. And when the men, verse 4 says, when the men of Judah attacked, the Lord gave them victory over the Canaanites and the Perizzites. And they killed 10,000 enemy warriors at the town of Bezek.
00:08:08
Speaker
What's interesting, friends, is they start off really well. They start off following the Lord. They start off asking for direction. And he says, go out and get rid of.
00:08:19
Speaker
You'll see this term, drive out, your your translation may say. Friends, this is a very important word or concept to understand. God is giving them a very specific command. Go and drive out the Canaanites.
00:08:34
Speaker
Go and drive out the original inhabitants. Get rid of them because they believe in a false god. And if you don't drive them out, you're going to start hanging out with them.
00:08:45
Speaker
You're going to start wanting to follow their gods.
00:08:52
Speaker
How does this play out for you and I today? I put, we're not all that different. We're not all different all that different from the Israelites at this point. We have to be real careful who we associate with.
00:09:06
Speaker
Matter of fact, Kim and I were at the gym just the other day. We decided to join the Cameron Gym. Get in shape. Yes, I see somebody back there, another fellow lifter. don't I just want to let you know right now, I will probably get really big and strong up here.
00:09:20
Speaker
I don't want that to throw you off. Monty's shaking his head like, no, you won't. I ran into somebody, a long story short, who was there at the gym, who knew me. And he invited me to some event.
00:09:34
Speaker
It's not important, the event.
00:09:37
Speaker
It would not be a event that I would go to. Personally, I wouldn't go to this type of event. Moreover, I would not go as your pastor to this type of event. And I simply told him, oh, that sounds really interesting. However, i got to be real careful who I associate with.
00:09:54
Speaker
You know the church, they see me and I got to watch out who I associate with. And he got it, I think, because he didn't ask me to go anymore. We had to be real careful about brothers and sisters, who we associate with, who we're close with because we're going to end up picking up some of their habits.
00:10:14
Speaker
He tells them here, good job, you're starting off well, go out and attack the Canaanites, get rid of them. They pick up the tribe of Simeon. Simeon, by the way, is a brother tribe to Judah.
00:10:30
Speaker
They get there, but look at verse 19 if you just jump down a few You'll notice your Bible probably has a heading. My Bible has a heading here. it says Israel fails to conquer the land.
00:10:43
Speaker
But we scratch our heads because God just told them, go drive out the Canaanites. Matter of fact, I'll be with you. I will give you the victory. But verse 19 says, the Lord was with the people of Judah.
00:10:56
Speaker
And they took possession of the hill country.
00:11:00
Speaker
But they failed to drive out. Here's this word again. They failed to drive out the people living in the plains who had iron chariots. So what they did is, i put down a note to myself this week, they were partially obedient.
00:11:16
Speaker
They started off great, but instead of driving them out completely, they didn't. They let them stay there. And over time, we have this picture. And this I hope Isaiah can jump through this because it's a bunch of different verses all together.
00:11:32
Speaker
I want to just kind of jump with me. Verse 19 starts by saying, but they failed to drive out. Verse 21, the tribe of Benjamin, however, failed to drive out. 20, what's my next one up there?
00:11:49
Speaker
I have a whole bunch. 27 maybe the next
00:11:54
Speaker
Look to 27, the tribe of Manasseh failed to drive out. 29, the tribe of Ephraim failed to drive out. 30, the tribe of Zebulun failed to drive out.
00:12:08
Speaker
Asher on 31 failed to drive out. Do you see where I'm going? Can I keep going?
00:12:14
Speaker
They failed to drive them out. They failed to get rid of those Canaanites. Which, by the way, the Canaanite is the big term for all these different ites.
00:12:27
Speaker
The Perizzite, the Hizzite, the Vegemite.
00:12:33
Speaker
All those ites are in this group. All of them, as a group, represent somebody who is not following the God of the Bible. They're following a false God. God has a purpose by telling them, drive them out.
00:12:47
Speaker
Don't hang out with those people. Don't. Be lured in by them because they're believing in a false god. But it says they were partially obedient. By the way, partial obedience in my notes equals disobedience. You might just want to write that down.
00:13:03
Speaker
Partial obedience equals disobedience.
00:13:08
Speaker
So the indictment by God, look with me, chapter 2, it starts this way.
00:13:14
Speaker
And the angel Lord went from Gilgal to Bochim and he said to the Israelites, I brought you out of Egypt into this land that I swore to give to your ancestors.
00:13:25
Speaker
And I said I would never break my covenant with you. For your part, this is the part of the people, you were not to make any covenants with the people living in this land. Instead you were to, this says destroy their altars.
00:13:37
Speaker
Your translation may say drive them out of the lands. It's one and the same. But you disobeyed my command. I like the New Living Translation right here. Why did you do this? This is God telling the people.
00:13:49
Speaker
You knew my command. Why did you do this? So here's the indictment. So now I declare that I will no longer drive out the people living in your land. It's interesting, right, if we pause right there.
00:14:02
Speaker
All the victories that the Israelites had by driving out the Canaanites, weren't really the Israelites. It was really God working through the Israelites to drive them out. But when they tried to do it in and of themselves, they failed.
00:14:15
Speaker
And as God says, though I'm not even going to be with you anymore. And a matter of fact, he says, they, those Canaanites, those people living in the land, those people who believe in the false gods, they will be a thorn in your sides and their gods will be a constant temptation to you.
00:14:33
Speaker
Your responsibility, God says, is simply to drive them out. Don't make any oaths with them. Get rid of them. Get rid of their false gods. Why did you do this?
00:14:48
Speaker
Friends, oftentimes I feel like God is asking you and I the same question.
00:14:54
Speaker
If so, in a loving way, but sometimes he's just shaking his head at us going, why are you why are you doing that?
00:15:04
Speaker
And then he says, because you didn't fully obey your God, the God of Israel, I'm going to hand you over to obeying those gods. And friends, this is this is the pattern God does all throughout the Bible.
00:15:17
Speaker
He gives us chance after chance after chance to stop living an ungodly lifestyle. A constant reminder to return. that that By the way, that nagging voice that you call a conscious is the Holy Spirit telling you, get back on track.
00:15:34
Speaker
Stop living that way. I have something better for you, but you have to begin by obeying. And if you continue in disobedience, eventually God says, I'm just going to give you over to what you really want.
00:15:51
Speaker
We see this, the Apostle Paul tells us, Romans 1, 21-24. twenty four He says, For although they, this is the unbelieving people, they knew of God, they neither glorified Him as God or gave Him thanks, but in their thinking they became futile, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
00:16:09
Speaker
They claimed to be wise, but they were actually fools. They exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images that were made in mortal human beings and animals and Birds and reptiles.
00:16:22
Speaker
Therefore, God gave them over to their sinful desires of their heart. To sexual immorality for degrading their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about who God was for a lie and they worshiping this lie and they served greater things than God.
00:16:41
Speaker
They worshiped idols. Friends, this is the picture of a people who over time, God just says, you know what, if that's the way you're going to go, have at it. And I can't tell you, brothers sisters, a scarier place to be.
00:16:54
Speaker
Outside of the reach of the Holy Spirit who's nagging you. If you're hearing it this morning and you're feeling it this morning and he's saying, turn, turn.
00:17:06
Speaker
Don't wait. Don't wait. Because there can be a time where you keep in your disobedience and he says, that's enough. And you stop hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit.
00:17:20
Speaker
For some of you, it's a wake-up call this morning.
00:17:25
Speaker
Why is this important, I put here today? Well, because its it
Impact of Disobedience on Society
00:17:30
Speaker
affects the individual. Understand this. It affects each individual person in the tribe of Judah. But all those individuals make up a tribe.
00:17:41
Speaker
So your disobedience, brothers and sisters, is tribe. is your business but understand you're part of a family you're part of a regular family a nuclear family or a broken family for some of you guys you're also part of the family here at the church that sin that you're persisting in is not only affecting your family it's affecting this family it's not only affecting this family it's affecting Cameron and it's not only affecting Cameron it's affecting this United States We have a whole group of people, Kim and I, and and I say laugh, but I laugh half-cried.
00:18:12
Speaker
Somebody posted on Facebook how great Rogers ISD was for posting the Ten Commandments in their schools. And then you just read the comments.
00:18:24
Speaker
And I know we shouldn't be reading comments on Facebook, but it is a horrible picture of the state of what our young people are I would read something and go, I can't believe that person. And I'd click on their picture and go, yeah, that makes sense.
00:18:39
Speaker
And that's a little judgy. I will agree. But you read some of them and it's so, um the range is so fantastic with, yeah, I disagree it shouldn't be in the school, to I hate God and I wish all the Korans were in the school. I mean, the full range of I just want to tolerate it, to I can't believe it's there, to hatred, all within these comments.
00:19:03
Speaker
And I thought, is this really where we're at, Lord? and It's a picture of our society. It's a picture of the United States. But those United States are built on individuals, you and me, living ungodly lives of disobedience.
00:19:19
Speaker
So what's the solution? If he says you're going to lose blessing, you're going to lose the land, you're going to be oppressed by these people, because that's ideally what happens, the Israelites don't drive out the Canaanites, and they end up living with the Canaanites.
00:19:35
Speaker
The Canaanites end up ruling some of them, They end up intermarrying with the Canaanites. And there's idol worship all over the place. So if that's what we're not to do, what what's the solution? Well, the solution is we're to lead uncomp um uncompromising lives of godliness.
00:19:55
Speaker
We see this here. I think we get hints of it all throughout chapter one and chapter two, but but look with me, the beginning of chapter one, verse three, he says, the men of Judah said to their relatives, the tribe of Simeon, come fight with us.
00:20:10
Speaker
Come fight with us so we can we can allocate the territory that God had given to us. We'll fight for you, you fight with us. And they take off on this battle and it says God starts and blesses them.
00:20:22
Speaker
But we don't see a lot of blessing for any other tribe here. just Just one other tribe. out of all these people that had failures. The Lord, verse 4 says, the Lord gave them victory over the Canaanites and the Perizzites and they killed 10,000 enemies.
00:20:40
Speaker
But then they immediately go up against these iron chariots, the tribe of Benjamin, and Benjamin loses out. But you know who wins? Caleb wins. That's the only other tribe that wins, by the way. Why?
00:20:51
Speaker
Because it says Caleb drove out. All these people didn't drive out. Only two people drove out. They did what God said. They drove them out. They got rid of the idol worship. Look with me in verse 22. Verse 22, chapter 1, he says this.
00:21:06
Speaker
He says, the tribe of 22 says this. The descendants of Joseph attacked the town of Bethel, and the Lord was with them. And they sent men to scout out Bethel, formerly known as Luz,
00:21:17
Speaker
They confronted a man coming out of the town and said to him, show us away in your town and we will have mercy on you. And so he showed them away in and they killed everyone in the town except that man and his family.
00:21:29
Speaker
Later that man moved to the land of the Hittites where he built a town. his name He named it Luz which is that name today. What does this story tell us? They went to drive out what would eventually become the Hittites, and instead of just driving them out, they made a bargain with this guy.
00:21:48
Speaker
Hey, tell us how to get into the city so that we can win. Well, you'll remember, the Lord just told them, don't make any covenants, don't make any agreements with anybody else.
00:21:59
Speaker
And here they're making an agreement. They're already being partially obedient, which is full disobedience.
00:22:08
Speaker
It points us to this need I put in here to look at not only our successes but our failures.
00:22:20
Speaker
it's It's never,
00:22:24
Speaker
ah the deterioration is never immediate. You don't start being disobedient and then God strikes you down immediately. It's hardly ever that way anymore, brothers and sisters. You start to sin and that sin just keeps carrying you further further along and the deterioration just starts getting greater greater and greater.
00:22:40
Speaker
It's kind of like these tribes. They just kept moving in and compromising and moving in and compromising. And at some point, they're they're no longer Israelites. They're Canaanites. because they're worshiping Jesus and it's gotten to the point where their grandson is saying, Jesus who?
00:22:58
Speaker
Friends, it goes from the granddad to the son to the grandson who doesn't know Jesus.
00:23:05
Speaker
Brothers and sisters, how many grandfathers do we have here whose grandsons don't know Jesus?
00:23:14
Speaker
I'm starting. Just so you know, I'm not too preachy, Right? Understand, I struggle with the passage well before I ever bring it to you.
00:23:25
Speaker
Why? Why are we doing this? Why are we allowing the society to rob us of our faith so that we're not passing it
Influence of Secular Culture
00:23:35
Speaker
down? Is it because we're afraid to tell our kids who Jesus is? Are we afraid that somehow they're going think that's mom and dad's religion?
00:23:42
Speaker
Somehow that's the grandparents' God? That's not my God. Well, let me tell you what. You just simply need to turn on the TV. You need to turn on the radio. And they are promoting a world system that is not of God to your kids and your grandkids 24-7.
00:24:01
Speaker
It starts with the phone. It goes to the iPad. It goes to the TV. You're fighting that, grandparents, parents.
00:24:10
Speaker
So what do we do with this passage today? how do we If we know the drawl is to pull us further and further away, if the drawl is to make us and to make us compromise our faith so that somehow we look more like society, we somehow look more like the Canaanites, I want to tell you, brothers and sisters, if you look like the world today, if you're listening to the music that the world listens to today, if you're watching the TV programs that the world watches today, you're looking...
00:24:40
Speaker
More and more like the Canaanites and you just don't know it. It's a slow process. It gets to the point where Kim and I are trying to watch a lifetime movie on TV and it's fantastic.
00:24:54
Speaker
I'm a crier. You know this. Kim's not a crier. Just not. I can tell them that. You're not a crier. Sometimes when she cries, we get to two-thirds of the way. We're both bawling. It's the greatest thing.
00:25:08
Speaker
And then the very next show, the very next scene that comes on is two guys making out or two ladies making out in a Lifetime movie.
00:25:24
Speaker
Moral Decay.
00:25:27
Speaker
Slow process. And then you go, you know what, but two-thirds of that show was so wholesome. Yeah, you know.
00:25:39
Speaker
And what do we do? Oh, what's on next?
00:25:43
Speaker
I know, brothers sisters, it's not just me. It's you too. we We allow this to come in and seep in and pull us further and further away. And yet somehow...
00:25:55
Speaker
We're scared to tell our kids and our grandkids of who Jesus is. so what do we do here with these two questions I have? How do we lose God's blessing by living ungodly lifestyles?
00:26:06
Speaker
Well, we see it in the text right here. We see it as they get further and further away from God, as they separate themselves further and further from God, things start going not great for them.
00:26:20
Speaker
So I simply put, there are natural outcomes to living certain lifestyles. If you take drugs, 99% of the time it's addictive.
00:26:34
Speaker
100% of the time it's destructive. just going to tell you that right now. Certain things are natural outworkings of our choices. When we choose to disobey God, we align ourselves with a path that simply pulls us further and further away from God to the point where we even go, I kind of have a hard time remembering what he was like.
00:26:56
Speaker
I can always tell, by the way, when you come in here, this a gift that God has given me. I can see it on your faces. And you're like, What? I can see it on your faces, and I hope you can see it on my face.
00:27:11
Speaker
When you're not living right, when there's something going wrong at home, when there's some spiritual, moral problem in your lives, I can see it.
00:27:23
Speaker
God has gifted me with that. I'm telling you today as your pastor, as your friend, as your brother in Christ, it's time to turn.
00:27:35
Speaker
Because the further and further you get away, the harder and harder it is to come back. Second, I put, we struggle with spiritual blindness and and deception. The further and further you get away from God's truth, just like Paul tells us in Romans 1.22 and on, he says we start becoming fools.
00:27:57
Speaker
We become foolish in our thinking. We would never be caught full in the blank. I would never be caught Cheating, lying, stealing.
00:28:10
Speaker
But brothers and sisters, the further you get away from God, the more the blinders get on. And he's blinding you on purpose. And you fall for anything.
00:28:21
Speaker
You're deceived. And there's moral decay. And I put here, maybe even a loss of purpose. This idea kept coming to me all week long. For some of you, maybe you're feeling lost Lord, what's what's my purpose? what am i What am I supposed to be doing?
00:28:40
Speaker
The reason you're feeling that is because the enemy is pulling you further or further away from God. And you're and your' and yourre your being deceived, you're being blinded. He wants you to have a clear-cut purpose for your life.
00:28:56
Speaker
And lastly, i just put, we have to be real careful of moral decay.
Path to Restoration and Faith Transmission
00:28:59
Speaker
Moral decay is something that we see in our personal lives.
00:29:07
Speaker
But the more we see that in group, family groups, more we see that in nations, you simply need to look at Africa or Haiti or the Philippines, right?
00:29:19
Speaker
All nations that are drenched in witchcraft and idolatry. And we see that type of lifestyle playing it out in the individuals but in the nations too.
00:29:36
Speaker
Where is the U.S. in that picture? Where is the United States in that picture?
00:29:43
Speaker
Is Haiti and Africa and the Philippines way over here and their sinfulness and somehow the United States, we're really righteous over here?
00:29:52
Speaker
going let you answer that.
00:29:55
Speaker
So what do we do? How do we start living godly lifestyles? Well,
00:30:01
Speaker
we're real clear here. Look with me, verse 4 and 5 of chapter 2.
00:30:07
Speaker
After God basically tells them, I'm no longer going to be with you, I'm no longer going to help you. Matter of fact, those enemies that you're cozying up with, I'm going to make them be thorns in your side. He says right here, it says verse 4, when the angel of the Lord finished speaking to the Israelites, the people, what?
00:30:24
Speaker
They wept out loud. This is our word for repent. but They cried out in their sin. And so they called the place Bochim, which means weeping, and they offered sacrifices there to the Lord.
00:30:37
Speaker
Friends, the hope in your life and in my life comes in the form of salvation through Jesus Christ. But it begins with repentance.
00:30:48
Speaker
I always say repentance and faith are two sides of the same coin. right Lord, save me from this ungodly lifestyle that I'm in. The Holy Spirit comes and he pulls the veil back and you realize, oh my gosh, my sin is horrific and this is the way God sees me.
00:31:07
Speaker
And it's in that moment, brothers sisters, that we repent. and Repent means simply a turning of the mind. I'm turning my mind. I'm no longer going that way towards a sinful lifestyle. I'm now changing my path and I'm going to follow Jesus.
00:31:22
Speaker
I put there's real hope for restoration, but it begins with repentance. It begins with us crying out, Lord, we failed you. Lord, we've sinned against you. And after a period of rebellion, will you please take us back?
00:31:41
Speaker
When was the last time your heart was broken for the things that break God's heart? I struggled with this all week because I thought if God really saw my sinful heart the way i see it, I think it's not so bad.
00:31:55
Speaker
That's why sweet Lizzie, when she read today, right? The heart is so deceitful.
00:32:02
Speaker
When was the last time you sat and just asked God? Take away that sinful desire of my life. Cut that out. Get rid of that. I'm so sorry for that. I know that's separating you and me.
00:32:18
Speaker
we ever plan on having some type of healing in this nation, it begins with you and I individually coming before the Lord in repentance.
00:32:28
Speaker
May we be a people who turn back. By the way, it's never too late. It's never too late. You're never too far gone. to experience his mercy and his grace and his forgiveness and a renewed blessing in your life.
00:32:42
Speaker
But you have to take that step. You have to start by repenting, and then you have to intentionally get on this path of passing on the faith so that the grandson doesn't say, Jesus who?
00:32:55
Speaker
But he says, Jesus, yes, I know Jesus. And he passes it on to the next generation. Brothers sisters, let's not fail in that endeavor as parents and grandparents. Amen?