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Live Under God, Not Over God
24 Plays20 days ago
Judges 10:6-12:15
Recommended
Transcript
Rituals and Faith: The Old Car Analogy
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Many of you who have old cars, antiques, old trucks, sometimes they develop a habit. You have to sit in them just the right way.
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Put the key in at just the right angle. Wiggle that key the right number of times. Pump the gas twice with your left foot, but not your right foot.
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Wait for three seconds. whisper a silent prayer, and then that old car will start up.
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But if you don't follow those exact steps, that start up ritual, that car won't start. Before long you stop trusting the engine, you start trusting the routine.
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We believe somehow the power is in that process. those steps we take, those rituals we follow, that routine that we do.
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But if we're honest this morning, brothers and sisters, many of us treat God the same way.
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We don't stop believing in Him outright, but we do start believing we can somehow manage Him to do what we want to do.
Manipulating God: A Flawed Approach?
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Not me, you say, Pastor.
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If I just simply pray this way, then God will answer my prayers. How many y'all prayed a prayer like that before? Oh, come on.
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If I promise that I'll just fill in the blank, then God will bless me. If I give up this or I start doing that, well, then God will fill in the blank.
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If I simply show up enough at church on Sunday mornings or Wednesday nights, then God will start showing up for me.
Lessons from Israel's History in Judges
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Friends, what happens when God's people stop submitting to Him and start manipulating Him?
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Real disaster happens. This is exactly where we find Israel in chapter 10 of Judges. By the way, I'm so excited to hear that the Women's Saturday Morning Bible Study is chosen to look over my past sermon and also look forward to this week's sermon. and so I've already heard from you ladies. I get it.
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There's a lot of chapters today. How is he ever going to cover it all? Well, I'm to be real selective, but I'm to tell this fantastic story of God's people who who stop listening to him and start trying to manipulate him.
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Your notes may have a sermon heading called, Live Under God, Not Over God. When I first wrote this and taught this many years ago, I simply put, The ATM God.
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as if you go to God as an ATM machine. I'm gonna stick in my card and I'm gonna ask, Lord, well, I've done this, this, and this, and I'd like this, this, and this back.
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Brothers and sisters, that's not faith. That's manipulating God. This is exactly where Israel is. They've stopped believing in God, but they start treating him like that old vehicle, that antique vehicle.
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A set of rituals to perform. A name to call upon when things break down. a power to be activated rather than a Lord to be obeyed. And it brings us to the very first movement of our passage. Look at me, chapter 10, starting in verse 6.
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I just apologize to the audiovisual guys ahead of time. There's a lot of verses today, but we're going to be kind of jumping around a little bit. Just bear with me. Chapter 10, starting in verse 6. This should sound very familiar if you've been following along with us over the last several weeks. Again, the Israelites did evil in the Lord's sight. To which you go, not again, Israel.
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Yes, again. They served the images of Baal and Ashtoreth. And not just those two, but now listen, the gods of Aram, Sidon, Ammon, Philistia.
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They abandoned the Lord and they no longer served Him at all.
Jephthah's Story: A Warrior's Journey
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And so the lord the Lord burned with anger against Israel. And he turned them over to the Philistines and the Ammonites, who began to oppress them that year. And for 18 years they oppressed all the Israelites east of the Jordan River in the land of the Amorites, that is in Gilead.
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The Ammonites also crossed to the west of the Jordan and attacked Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim. The Israelites were in great distress. Finally they cried out to the Lord, help, saying, we have sinned against you because we have abandoned you as our God and we have served the images of Baal.
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Pause right there, just for a second. S-O-R, what's our last letter? D. I'm going to challenge you today, there might not be D today.
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It might look different. Sin, oppression, repentance, they cry out to which the Lord says in verse 11, did I not rescue you from the Egyptians and the Amorites and the Ammonites and the Vegemites?
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No, the Philistines, the Sidonians, the Amalekites, the Maonites.
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When they oppressed you, you cried out for my help and I rescued you. I, the Lord, rescued you, the end of verse 12 says. Yet you have abandoned me and you served other gods.
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So I will not rescue you anymore. Go and cry out to the gods that you have chosen and let them rescue you in the hour of distress.
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It's scary place to be right there. But the Israelites pleaded with the Lord and said, we have sinned. Punish us as you see fit. Only rescue us today for from our enemies.
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Then the Israelites put aside their foreign gods and served the Lord, and he was grieved by their misery.
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What's happening here in these first ten verses?
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The Israelites have drifted. Remember we talked about that last week. They started drifting, but they not only just drifted away from Yahweh, they've diversified, I put in my notes here.
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They say, we're not happy to serve in one false god. Look at all these ones that they've listed here. Baal and Asherah. The gods of Aaron, Sidon, Moab, Ammon, Philistia. We're going to cover all of our bases.
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We're worship every god that's available in this area.
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But when trouble comes, they cry out to the Lord, but the Lord exposes their problem. They want relief, Not a relationship. Do you notice that?
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And his response is stunning. Go cry out to the gods you have chosen. That's the way you want to go? Well, have at Only when Israel puts away those foreign gods does God relent.
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I put in my notes up there, suspect repentance. You know these type of people that when the starts falling, the sky starts falling Oh boy, they're quick to go to the Lord then. Oh Lord, I'm so sorry, get me out of this mess I'm in right now.
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And God sometimes delivers in that situation.
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But I feel like the Israelites here are suspect in that they're gonna put away those false gods for just a minute until they're saved and then we're gonna see they they go back to them.
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Brothers and sisters, they go back to them over and over and over in their history. It's the same thing that you and I did.
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Lord, save me from this current situation that I'm in right now.
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I promise I'll stop drinking, cursing, cheating. Get me out of this situation that I'm in right now.
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It's like the person who goes to the doctor after trying all the homeopathic stuff for years. don't get me Don't get me started. i don't want any emails about all the homeopathic medicines at work.
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It's like that person who goes to the doctor after trying all that other stuff and then says, hey, doc, I'm here. I need a miracle at the end.
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Repentance is not escaping the consequences. That's not what repentance is for. If we find ourselves in that, that's a very dangerous ground to be in.
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I put real repentance equals life change. It means when we really sin and we start experiencing the consequences of that sin, God tells us we should repent.
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It means a turning of the mind, turning of the life. Real fruits should start appearing after that repentance. You should really start changing your life. If you have trouble, many of you know in my past, drinking was a main issue for me.
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If I eventually gave that over to the Lord, Lord, I can't deal with this anymore. I need you to take that from me. And he delivered me from that, but yet a month or two later, I go right back to it.
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What's that say about my faith in him? Am I really delivered? Is my life showing the fruits of that repentance?
The Consequences of Rash Vows
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Or was that just for a momentary, save me out of the fire, Lord?
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Before we're too quick to blame other people, you and I are are are much like the Israelites right here.
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This position that they're this suspect repentance, this evil doing, this forgetting who Yahweh is... Leads to disaster. just Just look with me real quick.
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How Jephthah, if you flip over to chapter 11, how Jephthah is introduced. Which I don't know about you, but in my notes, I spell this name J-E-F-T-A.
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It's the only way I'll remember Because there's too many P-H's and T-H's in that name if you try to read that. I know I'm not the only one. Listen how it says chapter 11 verse 1 now.
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Jephthah of Gilead, he was a great warrior, but listen how he's explained here. He was the son of Gilead, but his mother was a prostitute.
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Gilead's wife, this is Jephthah's dad, his his dad's mom, has also had several sons. He has all these half-brothers. And when these half-brothers grew up, they chased Jephthah off the land.
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You'll not get any of your father's inheritance, they said, for you are a son of a prostitute. And so Jephthah fled from his brothers lived in the land of Tov, which really in Hebrew is the land of good, the irony there.
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Soon he had a band of worthless rebels following him.
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And about this time, Ammonites began their war against Israel. When the Ammonites attacked, the elders of Gilead sent for Jephthah in the land of Tob. And the elders said, come and be our commander.
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Help us fight the Ammonites. And you got to love verse 7. Look with me, verse 7. But Jephthah said to them, aren't you the ones that hated me and drove me from my father's house?
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Why do you come to me now when you're in trouble? Because we need the elders replied. If you lead us in battle against the Ammonites, we will make you ruler over all the people in Gilead.
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Understand, Jephthah has no inheritance. He's been kicked off his father's land. He's got nothing. And now these elders are saying, if you'll simply come and fight for us, if you'll be our commander, if you'll lead our troops, we're goingnna let you rule over all the people of Gilead.
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To which I like verse 9. your Your translation may not do a great job, but listen to the New Living Translation. I love this. Jephthah said to the elders, now let me get this straight.
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Don't you like that? I hear what you're saying to me, but let me make sure I'm understanding this. If I come with you, and if the Lord gives me victory over the Ammonites, will you really make me ruler over all the people?
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To which the elders replied, the Lord is our witness. We promise you to do whatever you say. It's an interesting introduction to Jephthah, isn't it?
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Great warrior, son of a prostitute, all these half-brothers, no inheritance.
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And then you have the elders of Gilead, which I put lovingly in my parentheses, the pastor search committee.
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They come and find him and say, hey look, you're this great warrior. Don't worry about your past.
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Don't worry about what you did at those other churches. Don't worry that you're not walking with God. What's important to us is that you get stuff done and that's what we need at the church.
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And it's no surprise, brothers sisters, when we see churches failing in the United States, when they put pastors like this in charge, when their life doesn't match their walk.
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But because they dress a certain way and they're charismatic and they make you feel good from the pulpit, boy, the pastor search committee just loves those guys.
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Now, know you guys didn't do that when you called Kim and I. I love, ah where's Martha Henry Sheevan in here? I was looking, I don't see Martha. Boy, Martha said the best thing to me when we were in our pastor search committee, the very first meeting.
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She didn't ask me about my credentials, which I thought, surely my schooling, my seminary schooling is going to come up. She said, why in the world do you want to move to Cameron, Texas?
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Quick on my feet, I said, why not? Why not, Martha Henry? Why
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What happens quite often is we sideline God when it comes to these big decisions in our life, these leadership decisions.
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This is what the elders of Gilead are doing. The threat is eminent. War is eminent. And so they're like, get me out of this trouble that we're in. I don't care who Jephthah is.
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I don't care how bad his background is. Let's put him in and give him what he wants. And it's no surprise that when we do that, we start treating the Lord like some type of tool that we get to use.
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It's effectively saying, I don't want a relationship. I just want to be relieved from the effects of my bad decision.
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Brothers and sisters, Jephthah is no great model, by the way. He's going to sound a lot like, and I'm going to point out real quickly, how much he sounded like his predecessors.
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Look with me down to verse 12.
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Nope, nope, let's go up.
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Verse 11, so Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead And the people made him the ruler and the commander of the army. Mishpah, the presence of Lord, Jephthah repeated what was said to the elders. Then Jephthah sent messengers to the king of Ammon.
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Now what happens, and save you some time, from verse 13 all the way down to 27, is this back and forth conversation between Jephthah and the king of Ammon.
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And it goes something like this. Why have you come out to fight against my land, Jephthah says. Wait, Jephthah doesn't have any land. He has no inheritance. But somehow now, he's roped the Lord into this. Wait a second. If the Lord comes with me and the Lord gives me victory, he says to the king of Ammon, why have you come out to fight against my land?
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which the king of Ammon responds, and he sends messengers. And he says back, no, this is our land. You stole my land, he says, from Arnon to the Jabbok River, all the way to the Jordan.
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Verse 14, then Jephthah sends back another messenger. You know, I got a picture of this. Remember when you were in school, in elementary school, and you'd pass notes between your your friends, and you'd get it you'd unwrap it? Oh, he said this. This is exactly what's going on here.
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He's got a lot knowledge of Israel's history. Jephthah does, but it's not knowledge it's a lot of built up pride. It's not humility.
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He doesn't pray about this situation. He just starts arguing with the king of Ammon. And God becomes this weapon in Jephthah's purse, if you will.
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I put a note to myself. This reminds me, this back and forth, of people who love to quote scripture to you when it serves their purpose. You ever notice these people?
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They know a lot about the Bible, but they don't know who Jesus is.
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Matter fact, 15 years in the jail, preaching to these guys, this was 95% of these guys. Boy, they could memorize some scripture.
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But they weren't walking with the Lord. They didn't know Him. They didn't have a personal relationship. They simply wanted Him to relieve the pressure when things got too tough.
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Quick to quote, slow to submit. That's what I put in my notes. These people, quick to quote the Bible, slow to submit themselves. They're quick to point out what you're doing wrong, but don't realize how many fingers are pointing back at their own life.
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Pride always is involved when we are slow to submit. And when it grows unchecked, pride expresses itself in this bargaining.
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And that's what I want to accentuate here this next part. it's It's a bargaining. Jephthah's now placed himself in this position. He's roped God in and saying, well, if God provides me victory, this is going happen.
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And you got to think the Lord was going, what are you doing right now?
Rethinking Submission to God
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Why are you roping me into this situation? I don't want to go to war with you. You haven't been following me.
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You haven't been spending time with me. We're not in a relationship. And now you're calling on me? Now you're trying to manipulate me?
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Now, let's go down to verse 28. Chapter 11, 28. This sums up this entire interaction between Jephthah and the king of Ammon. But the king of Ammon paid no attention to Jephthah's message.
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All that back and forth made nothing made no difference to the king of Ammon. Verse 29 says, But at that time the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah, And he went through the land of Gilead Manasseh, including Mizpah and Gilead.
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And from there, he led an army against the Ammonites. And Jephthah made a vow. This is if you're going to highlight something or circle something or star something, verse 30.
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Jephthah made a vow to the Lord. he said, if you give me victory over the Ammonites, you can just put ATM card right there in the side, in in in your in your column right there.
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If you'll just give victory
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over the Ammonites, I will give to the Lord whatever comes out of my house to meet me when I return in triumph. I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering. So here's the vow. He says, Lord, if you'll just do this, I'll do this.
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If you'll give me victory, whoever comes out and greets me first when I come back in victory, that's the person that I'll sacrifice to you.
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If you fix this, I'll be better. If you save me from this, I'll turn i'll turn around.
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I know none of you have ever prayed a prayer like that before. To the patron of saint negotiation.
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Lord, would you please?
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As if, I put in my notes in big letters, as if we could manipulate the Lord of the universe. into somehow doing what we want him to do.
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In the timeline that we want it to show up in. In the blessing in the way we think it should happen.
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And he makes this horrible vow, brothers and sisters, a vow which God never asked Jephthah to make. And the tragedy we see starting in verse 32, look with me.
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So Jephthah led this army against the Ammonites and the Lord gave him victory. The Lord came through he crushed the Ammonites and devastated about 20 towns.
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Now I'm going to try to pronounce that next name. R-O-R. In the area near Mineth, as far away Abel-Kerameen.
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In this way, Israel defeated the Ammonites. Now, verse 34, when Jephthah returned home, now he's come back from victory. Here's the second part of his vow. He came back home to Mitzvah, and who came out to greet him?
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His daughter came out. She came out to meet him, playing on the tambourine and dancing for joy.
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By the way, she was his one and only child, and he had no other sons or daughters. And when he saw her, listen how he responds. Tell him, fathers.
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When he saw her, he tore his own clothes in anguish. Oh, my daughter, he cried out. You have completely destroyed me. What? You brought disaster on me.
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For now made a vow to the Lord and I can't take it back.
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It's crazy, isn't He makes a vow that God never asked him to make, and now he has to sacrifice his one and only child. Brothers and sisters, the sad part is he does just this.
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He's become pagan a sense. He's gone so far away from the Lord and he's followed all these other false gods, he's become pagan.
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Canonized, I put in my notes. Because he's been surrounded by them. And he's made this horrible vow to which you think he if he had a relationship with the Lord, he would say, I know what I said.
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Is there any way you can forgive me? I don't want to sacrifice my own daughter. You would think that's what a father would say for his one and only daughter.
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But instead he acts like a Canaanite.
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And I put in my notes, we've got to be real careful who we surround ourselves with. and what we surround ourselves with. It can lead all sorts of chaos, all sorts of violence.
00:25:08
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It doesn't end there for Jephthah. Just listen to how the rest of his story goes beginning in chapter 12. It says, then the people of Ephraim, which this should sound real familiar, by the way, they mobilized an army and they crossed over the Jordan River to Zaphon.
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They sent messages to Jeff, hey, why didn't you call on us for help when you came to fight against the Ammonites? Remember the Ephraimites? These are these guys, they always feel like they're left out. In every battle, they're always coming up. Hey, why didn't you call us?
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I know some people in this church that are just like that. Hey, why'd you leave me out?
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I didn't leave you out, brothers and sisters. Your voice is going to be heard next week at the business meeting when you stay after church.
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Listen to how his story just unwinds here. Ephraimites are like, hey, why didn't you include us? Jephthah replies, verse 2, hey, I summoned you at the beginning of this dispute, but you refused to come.
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And you failed to help us out and struggle against the Ammon. So when I realized you weren't coming, I risked my own life and I went to battle without you. And the Lord gave me victory over the Ammonites, so why have you now come to fight me?
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Jump down. End of verse 4. So Jephthah gathered all the men of Gilead and they attacked the men of Ephraim and they defeated them.
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Jump down to the end of verse 6.
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In all, 42,000 Ephraimites were killed at this time. Who were the Ephraimites? They're Jephthah's own people. This is his own blood. he's gone from killing his own daughter, his one and only daughter, to now killing 42,000 of his own people.
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The end of chapter 12 tells us that Jephthah led the shortest amount of time of all the judges. God only allowed him to rule for six years. He leaves no legacy of peace.
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He leaves no restoration. He leaves nothing but sorrow in his wake. He leaves no legacy of children after the death of his daughter.
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Which by the way, the end of chapter 12 tells us all the other guys after him had a bunch of kids. was like pouring salt in the wound. Hey Jephthah, he went off the reservation. He killed his one and only daughter.
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All the other guys that followed him had all these kids.
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It's a picture, Chuck Swindoll says, of a life filled with activity but no spiritual fruit. It's a busy life with nothing to show for it.
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Chuck Swindoll says, neither you nor I want to be known for that.
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We want to be known for making a difference in this life.
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In the short amount of time that we have here on earth, whether it's 10 years or 40 years or 80 years or further, there has to come a time, brothers and sisters, where we're asking ourselves, what's our legacy?
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What have we done to further the kingdom of God here on earth?
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With this limited amount of time, what are we gonna do? How are we gonna live differently? And that's where we're gonna land today.
00:28:34
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How do we stop manipulating God? Start trusting Him and ce submitting to Him.
Transforming Prayer and Trusting God's Plan
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I know you're sitting there this morning thinking, I'm not somebody who's manipulating God. You might want to think think about that. Pray about that.
00:28:53
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First, instead of asking or saying or praying, God, here's what I want you to bless, maybe we try changing that order, that prayer order Lord, how about you show me what you're already doing and let me follow that? Isn't that better way?
00:29:15
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What it does puts what we want out of the picture. And it puts what God wants right in the center.
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Lord, I know you're at work in my life. I may not see it. I may not see it. coming into fruition the way I think it should come in, but I know you're at work. Would you show me how you're working?
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Would you show me how you're already involved my life? Would you help me join in that effort? Would you help me follow? That's the first thing.
00:29:47
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What's my second point up here? Oh, yeah, change it. Yeah. Wait, go back to that previous one, sorry. Yeah, change your prayer language. check came up with the last minute. Doesn't that sound great, your your prayer language?
00:29:59
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How often we go to God with these prayer needs? If we just simply change our wording, our language, and how we speak to the Lord? All right, second, sorry. Begin each day with scripture. Before going to God with your request, how about you go to God's word?
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Pray without bargaining language. That's what i put in my notes.
00:30:24
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Obey God in the small, unseen areas of your life. talked a little bit about this on Wednesday in our in our Red Sea Rules Bible study. Trust God even when the outcome is uncertain, even when it's unknown.
00:30:39
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What a better way to submit yourself to him, to live under him and not try to be over him. It starts in a way that says, Lord, I know I'm praying for this thing to occur, and I'm not going to get in the way and try to arrange it to turn out the way I want it to turn out.
00:31:02
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I'm going to let you have that Lord, which by the way, He already has. I'm going to fill you in on that. You simply have to let go of the reins and let God rule your life.
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Third.
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Was that third? Sorry, I do want to change this last one. Submission. When I think about the word submission,
00:31:25
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I've changed the way I've thought about this word over my Christian walk. When I when i was a new Christian or a baby Christian, this word submission rubbed me wrong a little bit, rubbed me the wrong way because I still had this real tight grip on the world and the things I thought I would lose if I gave it all over to Christ.
00:31:47
Speaker
As I've matured in my Christian walk, I've realized we simply have to submit fully.
00:31:55
Speaker
100%, we talked about on Wednesday. always joke Kim and I when we're talking about things, what percentage of that have you given over? 100%, 90%, 50%? It's how much do you feel like you still have to control hold on to?
00:32:13
Speaker
Or are you just simply saying, Lord, I trust you.
00:32:18
Speaker
I exist to serve you. I exist to serve your plans. Your plans are my plans. How counter-cultural is that? We often want to think, my plans.
00:32:30
Speaker
And that's how I'm going to fit God into my plans. Brothers and sisters, it's his plans, and he's fitting you in what you think you deserve into his plans. We're only here for a very small time.
00:32:43
Speaker
I think we need to get after it. That old pickup truck, that old antique car that you have, eventually it stops working. Not because the ritual failed, but because the engine was never cared for.
00:32:57
Speaker
Many people don't lose faith overnight. They lose it slowly by replacing trust with techniques, by replacing relationship with ritual.
00:33:10
Speaker
Our passage this morning reminds us God cannot be managed. He will not be manipulated. He won't be bargained with.
00:33:21
Speaker
He can only be trusted and obeyed.