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145: A Kingdom Torn In Two
0 Playsin 16 hours
Wow, those Israelites sure know how to ruin a good thing! Their 100+ year streak of relative stability under the kings they asked for ends in (spoiler alert) a kingdom torn in two. How did things get so bad? Well, we learned last week about Solomon's gradual slide into idol worship. His reign as king that started out with so much promise ended in catastrophe for Israel when he turned on the one true God. It's the same trap we fall into today. No, we don't build literal temples to false gods, but we certainly prioritize our idols above our God and separate ourselves from Him. Pastor Chuck Schlie takes a look at the big mess Israel has made but also takes a look at the seeds of redemption among the destruction in this week’s episode.
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 to the Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
The following podcast is a Jill Devine Media production.
00:00:19
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.
Wisdom from Proverbs and Solomon
00:00:30
Speaker
All right, hey, good morning, church. And let me get this out of the way right away.
00:00:35
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May the fourth be with you. yeah that's right. Happy Star Wars Day. And so in the spirit of Yoda, I offer you Proverbs 1, verse 8. Your father's instruction, you must listen, my children.
00:00:49
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Mother's teaching forsake you not. All right, that was just pathetic. That was terrible. That was terrible. I was... Not looking forward to doing that, but I tried, all right. Here's how it is in real life.
00:01:01
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Listen, my children, to your father's instruction and do not forsake your mother's teaching. All right, listen to your parents, kids, it's in the Bible.
00:01:13
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Yes. and all the more listen to and obey the word of God, for it will go well with you. Now, let's consider Proverbs 19 verses 20 and 21.
00:01:25
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That's easy to remember, 19, 20, 21. Listen to advice.
00:01:29
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listen to advice and accept instruction, and in the end you will be wise. Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails.
00:01:44
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All that proverb right there perfectly sums up the part of the story that we're going to be covering today. If you were with us last week, then you might recall that King Solomon wrote a good portion of the wisdom literature in the Bible called Proverbs.
00:02:03
Speaker
A proverb is a short little word of instruction that was and still is intended to help God's people live rightly. Live God's way in God's world.
Solomon's Downfall and Its Consequences
00:02:15
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Okay, in general, and I'll say it again, in general, not always, but generally speaking, life will work out well if you take the wisdom of Proverbs to heart.
00:02:27
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Here is a proverb we looked at last week. 22 verse 6, train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not turn from it.
00:02:39
Speaker
The message translation reads, point your kids in the right direction, and when they're they won't get lost. All right.
00:02:50
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Hey, remind me later to tell you about a time when one of my kids got lost. That being said, this proverb is not talking about physical lostness, but spiritual lostness.
00:03:04
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Unfortunately, that's what happened to Solomon. He turned away from his father's teaching. He got himself lost. He didn't take his own advice, actually.
00:03:17
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but got off track and went off the rails with his time and with his wealth and with his wives. Probably the the most outrageous example is that Solomon loved many foreign women. yeah He had 700 wives of royal birth and 300 concubines.
00:03:35
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Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Hittites, just about any ite with a pulse. Solomon loved the ladies.
00:03:45
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But love is not the right word. Not real love. How can a man love a thousand wives? What's more, a good number of them were from nations which the Lord had warned the Israelites, do not inter intermarry with them because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods.
00:04:09
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Nevertheless, that's exactly what Solomon did ah thousand times over. and Previously, God had instructed Solomon personally, not once, but twice about this.
00:04:21
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If you or your sons turn away from me and do not observe the commands and decrees I have given you, and you go off and serve other gods and worship them, then I will cut off Israel from the land i have given them.
00:04:38
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Sadly, those words came to pass. As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after their gods, after other gods.
00:04:50
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Solomon turned his heart to their hometown gods. And he funded pagan temples and other structures to be built.
Division of the Kingdom
00:05:02
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And he allowed their their wicked worship practices to take place. Evil stuff. Gross, weird, evil stuff. And Solomon let all that come in and make a home in Israel.
00:05:18
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It's tragic, if not idiotic. When God established the nation of Israel, he told them, you will be set apart.
00:05:30
Speaker
You will be different. I don't want you to be like everybody else. I want all the nations to look at you. And when they look at you, they're going to see me They'll look at the relationship that we have together and they'll see how I love you and how I save you and how I care for you and how I protect you and how I fight for you. And when they look at you, as you reveal my character, they might want to do life with me also.
00:06:00
Speaker
The nations of the world will be blessed as they see what life looks like with the one true God as your God. This is the way it's supposed to work.
00:06:12
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And a very important aside for you and me, that's the way it's supposed to work now with our neighbors. They should see that we're a little different, maybe a lot different.
00:06:26
Speaker
we do life with the one true God. Okay, back to Israel. It worked great as long as God's people were following God's ways. And when they did, man, they prospered.
00:06:39
Speaker
And foreign nations just kind of caught a glimpse of what it would look like to be a part of God's family. However, when they turn their backs on God and they live selfishly,
00:06:54
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But God would discipline them because he needed to make sure that his people actually reflected who he was and the kind of holy nation that he was building.
00:07:07
Speaker
And if you've been with us since January, you've seen this many, many, many times over in the story. When they listen ah God's instruction and they follow his ways all as well,
00:07:24
Speaker
But when they ignore God's word and they go their own way, it's a disaster. Solomon knew this. He knew it. He wrote about it.
00:07:37
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he He taught it. He preached it. And yet he couldn't resist. And that's temptation for you. It compromised his faith.
00:07:51
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He rationalized with God's truth. I don't know about that part of it. Did God really mean? That's kind of old. That's for old, that way back in the old days, right?
00:08:03
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He minimized God's instruction. Well, it can't be really today. He bowed down to idols and false gods.
00:08:16
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And the Lord became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice. Although he had forbidden Solomon to follow other gods, Solomon did not keep the Lord's command.
00:08:34
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So the Lord said to Solomon, since this is your attitude and you have not kept my covenant and my decrees, which I commanded you, I will most certainly tear your kingdom away from you and give it to one of your subordinates.
00:08:54
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Nevertheless, for the sake of David, your father, i will not do it during your lifetime. I will tear it out of the hand of your son.
00:09:07
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Yet I will not tear the whole kingdom from him. The kingdom shall be rent asunder, shall be torn apart, torn in two. And it happened just as God said.
00:09:21
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God will not be mocked.
00:09:25
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He will prevail. God always keeps his word. And that is a promise. Here's how it all went down. ah Solomon dies.
00:09:36
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Shortly thereafter, the people gather to crown his son Rehoboam as king. Rehoboam, not to be confused with Jeroboam, but it is confusing as we shall see.
00:09:49
Speaker
Rehoboam, Jeroboam. yeah Fun to say, but there's nothing fun about these two guys. They are the Hatfields and McCoys of the Old Testament. And they're going to have a feud, and this feud's going to last all the way through the whole rest the Old Testament and beyond. At least 530 years of fussing and fighting and gunslinging and division.
00:10:10
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Well, maybe not gunslinging.
Civil War and Consequences of Sin
00:10:12
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Spearslinging? Back to the story. Solomon's son, Rehoboam, is crowned king.
00:10:20
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However, before the coronation takes place, the people call for one of, get this, Solomon's subordinates, Jeroboam, to be their spokesman. And what they want is for Jeroboam to come and make a request of Rehoboam.
00:10:37
Speaker
They said, will please tell him that your father put a heavy yoke on us? Now lighten the harsh labor and the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you.
00:10:50
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Apparently Solomon accumulated much of his wealth the old-fashioned way, high taxes and forced labor. And the people were heavy burdened and weary, and they need a rest.
00:11:03
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And Rehoboam kind of listens to all this, and he said, well, give me three days, and and I'll get back to you with my answer. Okay, so far, so good.
00:11:14
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He needed to talk this through, get some advice. And so Rehoboam sought out a group of seasoned elders, and he he asked them, okay, what's your opinion on this matter? And these wise, gray-haired advisors tell him something like this, hey, you know what? They've got a good point.
00:11:34
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honor their request, you have an opportunity to recapture the hearts of the people. If you lay off just a little, they'll be loyal and they'll serve you forever.
00:11:48
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Well, however, ah this was not the answer that Rehoboam had been looking for. And he responds, hey, thanks old timers, but no thanks. You know, bye-bye.
00:11:59
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And so the... He sends the geezers out and he brings in his buddies. ah Same question, this time his homeboys give the answer that he actually wanted, right? Rehoboam's friends were yes men.
00:12:14
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um Rehoboam was blinded with the power that he had come in, and they were equally blinded with the prospects of being you know very close to the the man with the power.
00:12:26
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And so they told him what he wanted to hear, and Rehoboam went with it. ah Three days later, the people come back, they reconvene, and Rehoboam gives them his answer.
00:12:37
Speaker
And I'm going to give you the Schlee version here. My loyal subject, subject, subject. Eat my shorts. Shorts, shorts.
00:12:49
Speaker
You think you had it tough? Well, you ain't seen nothing yet. My little finger is thicker than my father's waist. My father laid on you a heavy yoke.
00:13:03
Speaker
I will make it even heavier. My father scourged you with whips. I will scourge you with scorpions. Have a nice day
00:13:17
Speaker
Now, if you have a copy of the story, i would encourage you to turn back to chapter 10.
00:13:24
Speaker
It's a time when the Israelites demand to be like other nations and have a king. And and the prophet Samuel pleads with them. He says, no, you don't want to do this, people. you don't You don't even know what you're asking for. It won't go well for you or your children. And they ignore all that. Yeah, whatever.
00:13:44
Speaker
And sure enough, a few kings later, the people are filled with regret and they are begging for mercy. Well, you can guess that after hearing Rehoboam's little pep talk, it didn't go really well.
00:14:01
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Actually, it was a train wreck. Of the 12 tribes that make up the kingdom of Israel, only two of the tribes remain with Rehoboam, while the other 10 tribes essentially say, we're out of here.
00:14:17
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The 10 tribes of the north go back home, leaving King Rehoboam with only the southern tribes of Judah and Benjamin to boss around.
00:14:28
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The northern tribes get together and they elect for themselves a new king. You want to take a guess
Parallels to the Prodigal Son
00:14:35
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as to who they may be? Exactly. It's Jeroboam, ah the one-time foreman of Solomon's workforce.
00:14:44
Speaker
The kingdom split with a good chunk of it handed over to one of Solomon's subordinates, just as God said it would. Now Jeroboam, he's over here. He knows a little something about how to work people.
00:14:58
Speaker
And he proceeds to unite the 10 tribes into a nation that is going to be called Israel. You'll know it later as Samaria, by the way. Unfortunately, Jeroboam is no spiritual giant. Get this. This is just terrible.
00:15:15
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In order to keep the people from going back south to Jerusalem to worship at the temple, and that's where the temple is, Jerusalem South, in order to keep them from going there, he sets up two new centers of worship in the north.
00:15:28
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Okay, so you're like, what's the big deal? Here's what. He places in each one a brand new golden calf.
00:15:41
Speaker
You heard that, right? I don't know what it is about worshiping these shiny cow babies. I don't, but they come around all the time. And he tells the people, these are the gods that brought you out of Egypt, worship the golden calf. And whether willingly or unwillingly, they do.
00:16:01
Speaker
Tragic all the way around. What was once a united nation for 120 years, 40 under King Saul, 40 under King David, 40 under King Solomon, has now become a kingdom torn in two.
00:16:21
Speaker
And in your Bibles, as you read through the books of Kings and Chronicles and so on, if you've done this before, it gets a little confusing because You got to kind of pay close attention because the author is going to keep on crossing over the borderlines back and forth.
00:16:38
Speaker
And it gets a little tricky to understand who is doing what and where. So let's review. Ten tribes in the north. Jeroboam is king. Capital city is Shechem. Also, I said it's going to be Samaria.
00:16:54
Speaker
You'll hear that in the New Testament. Who are those Samaritans? All right. Right. Okay. They're known one as a nation of Israel. They're going be Israel. In the south, there's just two tribes left. And Solomon's son, Rehoboam, is the king.
00:17:09
Speaker
The capital city is Jerusalem. And they are going to be known as Judah. Judah, Israel. ah Ten, two, Jeroboam, Rehoboam.
00:17:21
Speaker
What a mess, though.
00:17:24
Speaker
mess. a mess. There's this terrible civil war that's going to take place for about 300 years. And eventually both Israel and Judah will fall to pagan nations and God's people will be carted off as slaves.
00:17:38
Speaker
Here we go ah again. have more to come on that in the weeks to come. But what a shame, isn't
00:17:50
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Sinfulness leaves quite a devastation in its wake, right? It goes all the way back to Solomon.
00:18:00
Speaker
Your dads and grandpas and moms and grandmas, you pick it up on this? Good.
00:18:07
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And don't know who said it, but it's true. Sin will take you farther than you want to go.
00:18:14
Speaker
sin will cost you more than you want to pay. And sin will always keep you longer than you want to stay. And don't we know it?
00:18:28
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Because we have been there.
00:18:32
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We have ignored God's wisdom because we have our idols too. Not the golden statue kind. no, no. Ours are green and made out of paper.
00:18:47
Speaker
Or they come in the shape of cool car, sweet house, or
00:18:54
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Maybe it's even the goals we have for our kids take top spot. and we We could add all kinds of other idols to the list of where we, it's basically when we know God's word and we go, meh, lust.
00:19:11
Speaker
Maybe it's being popular at all costs. Careers, calendars, just to name a few more idols than we care to admit. Like prodigal children, we just kind of go astray.
00:19:24
Speaker
But you got to know this. It's the Lord's purpose that prevails. See, God will have his way.
00:19:35
Speaker
and We might fool ourselves a little bit when it comes to compromising our faith.
00:19:43
Speaker
But God is never fooled. He cannot be mocked. And know this, if we choose to ignore God's word and just kind of separate ourselves from him, here's the scary part.
00:20:00
Speaker
He'll let us.
00:20:04
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He does not, he will let us live with the fallout. You consider Jesus' story about the prodigal son, right? That young guy, man, he thought he had it figured out.
00:20:15
Speaker
He thought he was really getting away with something, man. He had it. He ignored dad's wisdom and he went his own way, he took the money and ran. And the scary part is his father let him.
Divine Love and Redemption
00:20:30
Speaker
And the kid quickly finds out that I'm broke, I'm hungry, far from home. The consequences were and still are very real.
00:20:43
Speaker
And the way this works with you and me is that we kind of get, we pick and choose the parts of God's word. We pick the ones that appeal to us and we ignore the ones we don't care for that much.
00:20:59
Speaker
Well, we'll take this, but we I don't like that part. So we'll just kind of ignore it.
00:21:06
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And we just run the risk of getting hurt and getting lost.
00:21:13
Speaker
It hurts us. It hurts God too. It breaks the father's heart. and it It broke his heart as he sees this nation that he dearly loves broken, divided, separated, torn in It breaks his heart when his children are missing.
00:21:31
Speaker
and the word for that is racham.
00:21:35
Speaker
You see it there in Luke 15, and this is good. Everybody needs to hear this. Upon his son's return, and while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him, and he ran to his son, and he threw his arms around his boy, and he kissed him.
00:21:57
Speaker
It's filled with compassion, mercy, tender love. The Hebrew word for that is rakam. And it's a beautiful word.
00:22:11
Speaker
And the only way that rakam can properly be explained is through a story which you just reminded me about. ah Sixteen years ago, my family and I were visiting my brother and sister-in-law when they were living in upstate New York. And for just one day and one night only, we toured New York City. New York City, that's right.
00:22:34
Speaker
These country bumpkins from Missouri thought they'd take a look at the big city. We saw all that we could. It was amazing, friends. About nine o'clock at night and Mary and I and our family were heading back to the hotel and we were walking somewhere in downtown Manhattan's on some major street. I don't know.
00:22:53
Speaker
And, you know, it was amazing. It was like a city that never sleeps. That's what it was. And we're walking down the street, and that street is lined up with the same stores, one after another, after another. And they're all selling the same stuff, little taxi cabs, I Heart NYT shirts, miniature statues of liberty.
00:23:20
Speaker
And we go in, you know, kind of walk in, and then we take a look around, and no, we're not buying that. Let's go and leave. And we, after, you know, one after the other, it was crowded.
00:23:30
Speaker
It was crazy. Nine o'clock at night, there's people everywhere. Wow. Up and down the sidewalks. And we stopped, you know, outside of one, we counted the kids. There's one, there's two, there's three, there's four.
00:23:47
Speaker
And Mary and i looked at each other. And there was genuine fear and our eyes. We were missing. our little seven-year-old daughter, Grace.
00:24:05
Speaker
And in a panic, we split up real fast, and we started going in these different stores. In truth, it couldn't have been 10 minutes, probably five, but it was a lifetime, and I will never forget it.
00:24:24
Speaker
By the way, Grace graduates from Missouri S&T in two weeks, so I'm getting a raise.
00:24:33
Speaker
And again, she's getting married in October, so there goes that. um I'll tell you what a relief it was. i spotted her. She was in the back of one of those little shops back in the store, and she is just staring at a snow globe.
00:24:52
Speaker
And I got down on my knees. And I turned her around and that little bottom lip was quivering because she knew she was lost.
00:25:04
Speaker
And that feeling, that feeling as her little chest is right up against your beating heart.
00:25:16
Speaker
That feeling right there is rakam.
00:25:23
Speaker
Now get this. God rachams you.
00:25:35
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That's how he feels about you. Tender love, mercy, compassion, that separation from child and parents.
00:25:46
Speaker
Oh, it caused me to think of something really crazy. I was preparing for this. I wonder what price would I have paid to get my daughter back? you know All the money I had?
00:25:57
Speaker
Yes. Mortgage the house, sell everything I own as payment? Yes. I honestly had no problem doing that. and just starting all over as long to get my kid back.
00:26:08
Speaker
But what if I gave up my son?
00:26:13
Speaker
Trading him for her.
00:26:17
Speaker
leaving him there lost so I could have found her. And that's a disturbing thought, gut-wrenching even to just consider.
00:26:27
Speaker
It's an impossible situation. How? Bless you. Fortunately,
00:26:34
Speaker
that's the only one's brief imagination you pass it up. And yet that is the very reality of God the Father who gave up his son because you and I were separated from him.
00:26:45
Speaker
And it was your fault. Your sin pulled you away and you were lost. And on Good Friday, God traded his one and only son.
Conclusion and Reflection
00:26:54
Speaker
God in his rock harm for you gave his one and only son and Christ willingly went, taking upon himself the heaviest of burdens, which is the yoke, the size and the shape of a Roman cross.
00:27:06
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And God placed it upon his son so that you could come home and rest. You see, it's the Lord's purpose that will prevail.
00:27:19
Speaker
God keeps his word. That is the promise. He made it to Adam and Eve, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David. Through David's line, the tribe of Judah, the Messiah would come to redeem God's children forever.
00:27:33
Speaker
God's going to have his way. His love wins. The Lord prevails. And how do I know this? I'll tell you. I skipped ahead. I looked at the back of the book and there's this great multitude that no one can count and they are united. yeah They're united, one kingdom. And get this, there's no Catholics there
00:27:56
Speaker
or Anglicans or Methodists or Presbyterians. Now hold on to your small catechisms. There's no Messiah Lutherans there or Emmanuel Lutherans or Zion Lutherans.
00:28:08
Speaker
No, just Christians. Worshiping, finally worshiping the one true God, perfectly, joyfully, together singing the same song.
00:28:19
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Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb. No more idols, that's done. No more sin. The kingdom of God is one. and closing, I'll point to the description in Revelation chapter 7.
00:28:31
Speaker
All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne, worshiping God and saying, gonna finish this together. It'll be good practice for the future. All right, everybody with me, loud and proud. Here we go, ready?
00:28:48
Speaker
Amen. Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God forever and ever.
00:28:59
Speaker
Amen. Amen. And may the force of God's love be with you always. Amen. Thank you for listening. And if you feel as if you are ready to go a little bit deeper into this week's episode, head to normalgoesalongway.com. We have some questions for you to go through either by yourself or with a friend or your community group.
00:29:21
Speaker
And join us this coming Thursday as Ms. Hannah and Ms. April present this week's episode in kids form.