How to Fight Well

Good morning, everybody. Man, great to see everybody today. Thank y’all so much for being here. [cheering] Really appreciate everybody brave in the elements. I assume that some of our driveways and yards were slightly flooded. So, if this is your first time with us or first time in a while, man, welcome. Welcome back. Really proud to see you this morning. Really grateful for that. For real. We would love to be able to share some of the great stuff that the Lord is doing here at Sauldam with you. So, use that tear-off card, put it in the offering plates in the front or the back of the sanctuary at the end of the service. Love to follow up with you later. Absolutely. If this is your first time with us, then what we’re about to do might feel a little funny. We spend a portion of every Sunday morning service just praying. We believe that if we attempt things in our power, then we might be able to start something. We might be able to get something cool off the grounds, but it won’t really last. But if God is involved in something, then whatever He wants to do will prevail. It will work. So, we want to take as many of our needs and dreams to Him as possible.

So, all month we’ve been praying for the Celebrate Recovery ministry that Robbie Cranford is going to be kicking off for us. And we’ve got various needs that we have for this ministry. And I want to say God in His kindness has been moving the hearts of our members to get involved. We needed child care, but guess what? That’s been handled for us. We needed a female conversation facilitator. That’s been handled. We needed someone to coordinate snacks and the meals for all of the meetings. That’s been handled. And we needed a worship leader for the events. That’s been handled. So, man, let’s just praise the Lord for what He’s done through that. Awesome. [applause] So, there is one line that’s not checked. We need another man to join Robbie that’s going to take this really seriously. It’s kind of like when Al and I were kicking off Experiencing God. We don’t want someone to step forward that wants to add Celebrate Recovery to a busy plate. We want this to take some substantial space on a plate for somebody. We need a man that’s going to join Robbie, that’s going to share, be vulnerable about how the Lord has worked in his life, going to take it seriously, ready to help him out. So, if you are itching to pour your life into somebody else, not because you’ve got all the answers, not because you’re perfect, but just because you want to help spread in someone else’s life what God has done for you, then please meet with Robbie after today’s service. Robbie’s cell phone number is even in the bottom right. So, what we’re going to do, we’re going to pray once more for Celebrate Recovery in this ministry that’s kicking off and pray for that final need. We need a man to join Robbie on Sunday nights. So, grab a neighbor. We’re going to pray out loud for a few moments, asking God to bless Robbie, bless this ministry, and I’ll put a bow on it here in a second. Y’all take it away.

Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit. Thank you. Surely You are alive and active in Sauldam Baptist Church. Thank you so much. Thank you for being here. Thank you for working and moving and leading. Thank you for placing a stream of living water in the soul of this church to flow into the hearts of the people in this community, bringing life and flourishing where there was death and dryness. Thank you for doing that in my life as a 15-year-old when a buddy shared the good news of Jesus Christ with me. Thank you for doing it in the lives of the members here and the members that aren’t here. Please continue to do that. Please use Celebrate Recovery to be like the spring of water. Not because our pride is in Celebrate Recovery. Psalm 20:7 says, “Some take pride in chariots, some take pride in horses, but we’ll take pride in the name of the Lord our God.” Lord, I am proud of Robbie, but my pride is not in Robbie. My pride is in You. My trust is in You. My hope is in You. Lord, do through Robbie and Celebrate Recovery what You want to do in that. Lord, I pray that You would call another man right now to join him, to become part of his team to help help others.

find freedom and recovery from hurts, habits, and hang-ups that are keeping them down. We know from the promise of Your Word that where two or three are gathered, You are there with them. We also know, Jesus, from Your words in Matthew 28:19 and 20, that You’re with us always. So, I’m not going to ask that You would be with us this morning. Your Word already says You’re here. What I am going to ask, God, is that You would move. That You would use the next few moments of us looking at Your Word and reflecting on it. You would do something in us that only You can do. Please, God, we love You. Thank You for loving us. It’s in Your great name that we pray. Amen.

Well, everywhere you look, I would say people are upset. People are got one laugh. People are upset about what’s broken. We’re frustrated with some of that that we see in the world. Like we get frustrated with injustice. We get frustrated with moral decline, with corruption, with broken families, compromised leaders. We want things to change. We are upset. We want better. We want better in our culture. We want better in our churches. We even want better in ourselves. And that’s a good instinct. But here’s the problem. If you’re like me, we are terrible at fighting the brokenness we get upset at. Right? It looks like when Christians talk passionately about sexual brokenness in the culture while privately excusing lust, emotional affairs, and even pornography. It looks like churches which want gospel fruit without gospel faithfulness, and they tolerate sin because of good numbers or good giving or good traditions or long-standing relationships.

Judges chapter 2 describes this reality through the life of a people who I believe knew what was right, wanted what was good, and still failed to fight faithfully. Because the brokenness we all hate isn’t just out there in the world for us to get frustrated at. The brokenness that we hate also lives right here. I want to ask you a question this morning before we really dive into the text. What if the greatest threat to you isn’t the brokenness around you, but the brokenness inside of you and our puny efforts to fight it? We get so riled up at the things out there that don’t feel right. But what if the greatest issue isn’t the stuff out there, it’s the stuff in here? Judges chapter 2, go ahead and start turning there with me right now. Judges chapter 2 is going to exemplify this. It’s going to show that reality. Today, we’re going to see a group of people who lost the fight over and over and over again with the brokenness inside of them. We’re going to see why we lose that fight. And in that, I believe we will gain three standards to fight that brokenness.

Well, this is Judges chapter 2, starting in verse 5. I’ll catch you there in a second. Actually, I’m going to recap where we are at. The book of Judges, if you’re not familiar, it’s a hinge moment in the life of Israel. Israel, if you’re unfamiliar, that is the name of God’s covenant people. Israel. They are in this hinge moment where God has used Moses to get them out of bondage in Egypt. He’s bringing them into this promised land. Moses has died away. So, He raises up—God raises up a man named Joshua. Joshua would take the people of Israel into the promised land and conquer it and take it for themselves. Later, the people of Israel would have kings. King Saul, King David, King Solomon, and so forth. The book of Judges is the in between. They are stepping into the promised land after Joshua before the kings. And what we will see over and over again is this repeated phrase: there was no king in the land. Because there was no king, because there was no central rule, the people eventually just start doing whatever in the world they want to do. They just do whatever is right in their own eyes. And unfortunately, what the Bible says is when we do what’s right in our eyes, we do evil in God’s eyes.

Chapter one, we looked at it a few weeks ago, tells the story of the Israelite tribes failing to take possession of the land God had promised. All Israel had to do was trust and obey God. For there’s no other way, right, to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey. They didn’t have southern gospel hymns back then. So they didn’t know that. Apparently all Israel had to do was depend on and trust and Obey God, and the land would be theirs. Yet they depended on themselves. They compromise God’s rule, and the land doesn’t become theirs. Compromise after compromise, failure after failure. So God raises up these saviors, these deliverers, what the Bible calls judges. We’ll see why He did that. But we will also see the shortcomings of each of these deliverers and judges.

This is Judges chapter 2, starting in verse 6. Previously, when Joshua had sent the people away, the Israelites had gone to take possession of the land, each to his own inheritance. The people worshiped the Lord throughout Joshua’s lifetime. And during the lifetime of the elders who outlived Joshua, they had seen all of the Lord’s great works He had done for Israel.

Eventually, Joshua dies. He’s buried in his territory. Verse 10, the whole generation was also gathered to their ancestors. After them, another generation rose up who, check this, did not know the Lord or the works He had done for Israel. Long story short, when Joshua is alive, the people walk with God, things go well. Joshua dies, the people are faithless, things go poorly.

Verse 11, the Israelites did what was evil in the Lord’s sight. They worshiped the Baals. They abandoned the Lord, the God of their ancestors who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed other gods from the surrounding peoples. They bowed down to them, and they angered the Lord. As Sam said, God was displeased for they abandoned God and they worshiped Baal and the Ashtars. You get this situation. You get this feel for what’s going on. This incredible compromise follows this season of faithful legacy and faithfulness under Joshua’s leadership. But Joshua dies away. All the elders die away, and the people just start going crazy.

These verses, chapter 2, describes the 400 years of the book of Judges. What we’re about to get is 400 years of history summarized. But let me explain a little bit. They start worshiping two false gods in particular, Baal and Ashtoreth. Baal and Ashtoreth were gods that were worshiped by the people of that area at that time. Baal literally means master or ruler, but specifically referred to the storm god of fertility. People would worship Baal so that rain would come, so that the crops would grow, so that they would have food. And in that they believed that this God Baal would also bless their relationships so that their wives would be fertile. They’d bear lots of kids. That’s what you need at that time. You can’t go to Walmart or you can’t go to the grocery store to get everything you need. You need crops to grow, and you need a family to work those fields. So they worshiped Baal to get good weather, and they worshiped Baal to get families.

They also worshiped Ashtoreth, the goddess of love and war. Not only do they want their relationships to be fertile, but they want their marriages to be warm. That makes sense. And they want success in battle and in war, fertility, battle, big families, good weather. Man, these are resources that Israel needed. Resources though that God had already promised. The people were shortcutting God’s ways for the world’s ways, and worshiping false gods to get what the real God really wants to give.

Here’s the deal. I empathize with them. I want blessing in my life. I want my family to be good. I want good circumstances. You want that, too. We all want blessing. We all want the good life. And here’s the thing. God wants to give it to you on His terms.

Look at verses 14-15. The Lord’s anger burned against Israel. He handed them over to marauders who raided them. He sold them to the enemies around them. They could no longer resist their enemies. Whenever the Israelites went out, the Lord was against them. He brought disaster on them just as He had promised and sworn to them. So they suffered greatly.

Verse 16. The Lord then raised up judges who saved them from the power of their marauders, but they did not listen to their judges. Instead, they prostituted themselves with other gods. That’s literal. That’s how they would worship them. I’ll let you fill in those details. They would bow down to these gods and do what these gods demanded. They quickly turned from the way of their ancestors who had walked in obedience to the Lord. They did not do as their ancestors did.

Verse 18. Whenever the Lord raised up a judge for the Israelites, the Lord was with him and saved the people from the power of their enemies while the judge was still alive. The Lord was moved to pity whenever they groaned because of those who were oppressing and afflicting them. Yet when the judge died, the Israelites would act even more corruptly than their ancestors, following other gods to serve them and bow and worship to them. They did not turn from their evil practices or their obstinate ways.

Man, time and time again, God would send a judge to rescue the people both from the external enemy of the marauders and their internal idolatry toward these false gods. Yet time and time again, that savior couldn’t really deliver them because he couldn’t really save them because the problem is deeper than bad circumstances or wayward worship. God was disciplining Israel for Israel’s sin, but He refused to abandon them. God keeps raising up these saviors, but these saviors are broken. They can’t really save Israel from the real problems because Israel kept refusing God’s kindness.

God then tests Israel. He says, “Okay, if that’s the case, if that’s how you want to be, if you want to worship the nations’ gods, if you want to go the way the nations go, all right, I’m going to leave those remaining nations. Let’s see, Israel. I’m going to test you. I’m going to see if you will depend on me. I’m gonna see if you will truly cling to me or if you just call to me when life gets a little uncomfortable. I’m going to test you. Let’s see how Israel does with the test.”

Jump down to chapter 3, verses 4-6. The Lord left the nations to test Israel to determine if they would keep the Lord’s commands He had given their ancestors through Moses. But that’s not good. Usually, “but” in the Bible is not good. It’s good sometimes. [inaudible] is not here. But they settled among the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. Verse 6, the Israelites took their daughters as wives for themselves. They gave their own daughters to their sons, and they worshiped other gods.

How do you think Israel did? They pass or fail?

They failed.

God’s explicit design for His people Israel was for them to remain what I would say hospitably distinct from the nations. They were supposed to be in the world but not of the world. They were supposed to look different than all the people surrounding them in that they were not supposed to just keep themselves away from the nations, but they were actually supposed to draw the nations in to the worship of God explicitly. They were called to be a light to the nations, a city set on a hill so that the nations would see them. They would see how God is blessing them. They would see how Israel’s families were healthy. They would see how Israel’s business was good, and the nations would be drawn in to worship the same God.

Yet, Israel becomes like the nations they’re supposed to be distinct from. They worship the gods of those nations. They marry into the nations’ families. God’s whole design for His people is to look different than the world. By the way, that’s still His design for you. You’re supposed to look different than your neighbors and family members and friends and co-workers who don’t claim faith in Jesus. We’re not supposed to live the same way. Now, we don’t need to be hermits that keep ourselves away from them because God has also told us to take the good news of Jesus Christ to a lost and broken and dying world. We’re supposed to be in this world. We’re just not supposed to be of it. So, as you do business, as you are online, as you go about your day, consider, am I looking like the people God has told me to be different than?

Let’s get back. Why would Israel compromise God’s law? Why would they become like the nations they’re supposed to drive out and bring in? It’s because of sin. Sin’s at the heart of this whole book. It’s at the heart of this whole narrative. But sin, that’s a—that’s a good church word, right? Guys like me, we get up here and we rail the pulpit against sin. What is sin? John Piper, pastor up in Minneapolis, puts it this way. Sin is any feeling, thought, speech, or action. Let me say that again. Any feeling, any thought, any speech, any action that comes from a heart that does not treasure God over everything. Let me put it in layman’s terms. Sin is anything that comes from me because God is not better than everything. Sin—Sin is when I don’t seek God’s truth and I live by my own. Sin is when I don’t trust God’s faithfulness, so I try to secure my future through My ideas and my hard work. Sin is when I disobey God’s commands and I live by my rules. Sin is when I reject God’s presence and I choose to enjoy the presence of this world. Sin is when I don’t love God’s person and I live for people’s love instead. And here’s the thing, you and me and your grandma, we are all sinners. Everyone has sinned. Everyone has fallen short of the glory of God. None of us are righteous. None of us are good. No, not even one. And in that, because we have all sinned, we have all died. We are all spiritual zombies just walking around looking alive but actually dead in our souls because sin, this cancer of the soul has made us dead.

And it gets worse. You can’t stop. We can’t stop. Romans chapter 7, Paul is writing and he says, “Every time I want to do good, I feel this force in me that’s pulling me back to the bad. And every time I want to resist the bad and do the good, it’s like a force field over here pushing me away from the good, back toward the bad.” Every day you and me sin. We can’t stop doing it. Sin is not just the big stuff like murder and adultery and embezzlement. Jesus said, “You have heard it said, ‘You shall not commit murder.’” That’s awesome. But I say to you according to Jesus that everyone who has anger in his heart toward anybody has already murdered them in his soul. So that next week when someone cuts you off in traffic getting on 526 or coming off and you got some words and some signs for them, you’ve murdered them. It’s like you put a gun to their head and pull the trigger.

Jesus said, “You shall not commit adultery.” Awesome. But according to Jesus, I say to you, anyone who looks at someone else that’s not their spouse with lust in their heart has already slept with them in the sleazy motel. We’ve all sinned. Every one of us has sinned. Israel, their greatest enemy was not the nations. It wasn’t the Canaanites or the Jebusites. Their greatest problem wasn’t even lacking a king. Their greatest problem was sin in their souls. And that’s your greatest problem, too.

Sin is the crud you get upset about in your life that you can’t avoid. Sin is the reason you fought with your spouse or your child this morning. Sin is the reason tonight you’re going to linger on that website or that TV show you know you shouldn’t. Sin is the reason that you want to escape the difficulty of your responsibilities and self-medicate with sugary food. I’m guaranteeing you, we will all sin today and tomorrow up into the rest of our lives. Our job as followers of God is to try to fight that as we love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. But what we see in today’s passage is a group of people that did not fight well.

I think you’re here this morning because you do want to fight well, right? Don’t you want to be more self-controlled? Yes. Do you want to be more loving? Answer me here. Do you want to be kinder? Do you want to be faithful? Do you want to be gentle? Do you want to be good? You’ve got an enemy. And it lives right here. So, let’s learn how to fight.

Well, this passage gives us three standards to fight sin. Here’s the first standard. We must remember. This passage opens up with this moment in the life of Israel where they chose not to remember. Here’s the deal. God’s faithfulness and remembering God’s faithfulness will inspire your faithfulness. Look at verses 10 and 11 with me again. “That whole generation, Joshua and the guys he ran with, that whole generation was also gathered to their ancestors.” They died. “After them, another generation rose up who did not know the Lord or the works He had done for Israel.” That word “know” does not refer to the passive awareness of information. I know it’s raining outside right now. That word “know” refers to the active engagement with [inaudible]. I know it’s raining outside right now. But if I go outside in my backyard just in a bathing suit and I really feel the rain, I would know it’s raining. Does that make sense? >> Thank you.

The people of Israel chose not to know. Look at verse 10. “After them, a generation rose up who did not know.” They may have been aware of the stories. They may have been aware that at some point God had called this guy named Abram.

to be a father of their nation. They may have been passively aware that God used this guy named Moses to deliver the people of Israel out of Egypt. But they did not know it. They didn’t experience it for themselves. Verses 10 and 11 show us that Israel’s forgetfulness of God’s past grace was tied to their current evil. So believer, one of the best ways to help yourself fight your evil is to remind yourself of God’s beauty and mercy and grace. Remember, we must remember, man, I’ll make you a promise. Sin gets real puny when it’s put up against the beauty of God’s grace and mercy. And I want to show you a little example that helps you see this for yourself.

When I was a kid, this car came out. Anybody recognize what that is? A PT Cruiser. I remember when these things came out and I remember seeing them at church or in like the car ride line, all that stuff. My initial impression of the PT Cruiser, not a bad car. I get what they’re going for. It’s kind of swoopy. I like the grill, yet it looks economical for a small family. You know, the PT Cruiser, though, is not a standalone vehicle. It’s owned by the Chrysler Corporation. It was explicitly modeled after another car that was built about 80 years prior to that. Let’s put the other one up. That’s a Chrysler Airflow. That thing’s priceless.

When I look at the Chrysler Airflow, I say, “That’s a car. That’s gorgeous. Look at that.” You see how the PT Cruiser sort of looks like the Airflow? It’s got the the like the the larger sort of body with a smaller sort of cab. It’s got the same sort of slopes. But man, if you this morning, if I had a PT Cruiser and a Chrysler Airflow up here, brand new PT or a fully restored Chrysler Airflow, we’re all choosing the Chrysler Airflow every single time, right? >> Exactly. This is like sin and God’s faithfulness. Sin can look like the original thing, but at best it is just a just a cheap remake. God is offering you the Chrysler Airflow of His presence and His provision and His power in your life. Yet so often we choose the lesser option because by itself the PT Cruiser looks okay, functional even. But man, when you put that PT Cruiser, and if you drive a PT Cruiser, I am so sorry because I am dogging your car so hard. God wants the Chrysler for you. So, I’ve got a C. I’m just kidding. Sin’s like this by itself, it’s appealing. But when you are tempted to sin, remind yourself of the Chrysler Airflow God’s got for you.

Remind yourself of the time when God came through and provided that financial necessity for your child. Remind yourself of the day that you tasted God’s grace for the very first time and you gave your life to Him. Remind yourself of how God showed up and delivered you from that self-destructive habit and gave you freedom. Remind yourself of how God showed you just how stinking awesome He is. You got to remember practically how do you do that? I want to give you some handles this morning. Everybody at our church needs to start doing two things if you’re not already. One, you need to keep a spiritual journal. And two, you need to be reading your Bible every day.

A spiritual journal is literally where you write down moments in your life where you see God come through. It could be the small things. So and so texted me an encouraging verse. It could be the big stuff. I got a check in the mail that exactly covered my medical bills. You need to write those things down and remind yourself of what God has done for you. You need to create your own spiritual catalog of God’s faithfulness in your life. But you also need to be reading your Bible every single day. You need to read about how God throughout His history has been providing for and protecting and caring for His kids, a family that you belong to. You need to remind yourself of the lengths God has gone to to save your soul. You need to remind yourself of the inheritance that you have in Jesus Christ. The Chrysler Airflow that has come to you because God has delivered you. You need to remind yourself of that.

We must remember. Not only must we remember, but this passage tells us we must repent. We must repent. The story of Judges is like a TV show with episode after episode of Israel falling into Sin, crying out to God, God delivering them, and them just just repeating the same old pattern again and again and again because the true enemy of Israel’s joy, their sin, is not being dealt with. It’s not being uprooted out of the garden of their soul.

Here’s the deal. Here is my promise for you. You’ll never fight sin well if you don’t repent of it. Man, trying to fight sin without repenting of it, all that you’re doing is just making a tally mark against the credit of your heart or just reminding yourself of how crummy you are. And people who constantly think about how bad they are don’t walk in joy in the Lord.

What you need to do is repent of your sin. You need to intentionally turn away from your sin and turn toward what God has for you. The story of Judges, man, God is punishing Israel. He’s disciplining Israel for their sin. God hates sin. He punishes sin. But God also shows mercy to sinners. His anger is not forever. And eventually He gives Himself to kindness. That’s the whole point of Judges. Each judge was a real life display both of God’s hatred for our sin, but also His mercy on sinners.

So God is calling people to repent. He’s calling people to repent. But what we saw a few weeks ago, failure after failure after failure. What we read this morning is that the people of Israel don’t repent of their sin. Let that not be true of you. Repent. Recognize that you live for lesser things and say sorry to God for it and turn away from it.

Man, the story of Judges foreshadows another day when God’s punishment on our sin would combine with His mercy through a different deliverer. And let me introduce you to Him. His name is Jesus Christ. For God so loved the world that He would send a deliverer named Jesus Christ who would deal both with your sin but also through a mechanism of God’s mercy and grace and kindness to you. So God so loved you so that anybody who would believe in Jesus and His perfect life and death and resurrection would not have to suffer the eternal punishment of their sin, but would have freedom both in this life now and into eternity because of what God has done for us.

We’re going to read the great stories of Gideon and Samson and Deborah. We’re going to read about these deliverers that God was raising up. Every single one of them though is broken cuz they are not God. For God did not come into this world to condemn this world because it’s condemned already. We are condemned already because remember we are all sinners. God sent Jesus to give us freedom. So why would we still dabble in entertain the very crud that God had to die for?

Let me put it this way. That little struggle, that pet sin we live for, that little white lie you’re going to be tempted to tell, fudging the numbers on your taxes, that TV show you watch, but you know you shouldn’t. That habit that you feel kind of icky in your soul after, God took that so seriously that He killed His son for it. Why would I Why would I not try to be killing that in my life?

Here’s repentance. That’s another big church word. Repentance simply means when you agree with God about sin and you turn away from it. Which means as soon as you recognize that you have sinned, you pray, you agree with God, and you ask Him to forgive you and make you a better follower of Him.

Let me give you a promise. First John 1:9 says it this way. If we confess our sins, God is faithful and righteous to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. When you recognize you’ve done that and you apologize, God promises to forgive you and to cleanse you.

Let me take it a step further, though. The author of First John, he’s talking about when we as believers confess our sin to one another. You really want to break the power of a habit or a sin over your soul? It’s when I pick up the phone and I call Al and I say, “Hey, can you please pray for me?” I just And he says, “Well, bud, let’s pray right now.” When you pick up the phone and you call that trusted girlfriend and you say, “Can we meet at Starbucks tomorrow? I’ve got to talk about something.” It’s when you pull somebody aside in the hallway here on a Wednesday night and you say, “Hey, I’ve really been struggling with XYZ. Can you pray for me?” You know what God promises to do to that destructive sin and have it whenever you confess it to one another? Cleanse you of it. To make you new. To break the power of that thing over you. Man, so often we as followers of Jesus walk around dirty and shackled, fully trusting in God’s amazing grace to secure heaven for us, never once walking in the freedom and the joy God wants for us now because we don’t confess our crud to others.

We sang a few moments ago the song, Family of God. We can’t really claim to be a family of God if we never get real with each other about our struggles. So, let’s get real with each other.

We must remember, we must repent. The final standard this morning, we must recognize because here’s the thing. God does test and discipline us. God will let you sin and fall away from Him. So, we’ve got to recognize when something is in our life because God is just allowing it. Like some of us, we walk around with so much anxiety and our souls and our minds are so wound up because we have not been resting in God’s presence. We have not been reading the Bible. We’ve not been praying. We haven’t been giving financially. So, we get all this anxiety and God’s like, “Hey, I want to free you from that. Take up My word and read it. I want to free you from that. Let’s start tithing. I want to free you from that. Spend some time with Me.” And we refuse it. So, God says, “Okay, have all the anxiety you want, you bad little chaotic monster.” And God does that to us.

Or some of us, we need to recognize that we have damaged relationships and we’re not close with anybody because we tolerate slander and gossip and territorialism in our life. So God’s like, “Hey, I made you to be a family of God. I made you to have community. I designed you so that the people would be a temple where I dwell, but instead of being close with other Christians, you keep people at bay and you talk badly about other Christians. Therefore, you’re not close with anybody. And you come here on Sunday mornings or on Wednesday nights or you come to Bible study and you don’t actually feel like you’re part of this place because you’re not pulling together with people.” And God says, “Okay, have all the damaged relationships that you want.”

We may not bow down to the false gods of Baal and Asherah trying to get fertility and good circumstances and success in battle, but we bow down to some false gods. We bow down to the news cycle and choose to be wound up by Fox or by the guys on the other side instead of resting in the fact that there’s a King of Kings who’s on the throne and no media news outlet can touch the influence of God. We bow down to the God of social media and we spend hours scrolling and we claim we don’t have time to read the Bible. Delete Facebook, please.

Six months ago very clearly, I’m in the office. God says, “You got to get off Facebook. You got to delete the whole thing. I cannot tell you how much happier I am to not care what people think about my posts. Please get off social media. It is literally designed to dominate and destroy your life.” I cannot. Oh man, I got to get off that. I feel riled up.

We worship false gods and God in His kindness whispers to us and says, “Hey, get off that. I’ve got joy in life for you. I’ve got so much more abundance for you.” And we resist Him. We’re like [inaudible] and God says, “Okay, have it your way.”

So, practically, how do you recognize? We should all be a little offended. Stop blaming God for the brokenness you have put into your life. We got to stop blaming God. We’re not robots. We are people that God wants to relate with. So, He allows us some freedom and some autonomy. Which means that the joy that you experience in life is also a direct relationship of the work you put into your relationship with God, one He has already secured eternally in Jesus Christ.

Some of us need to recognize that the chaos we live in or the frustration we live in can be dealt with. I wonder, I wonder if we could start a ministry that would help people recognize that they don’t live life to the full and they got hurts, habits, and hang-ups that they can have freedom from. I wonder if there’s a way we can apply the gospel of Jesus Christ so that anybody can have fullness of life and abundance of joy. I wonder if there is something we can do, Robbie, maybe we talk about this sometime. Maybe we start celebrating recovery to help people out. February 1st, Sunday nights, 6 pm.

Let let can I say something? People hear recovery ministry and they think that it’s for the guy that’s strung out on opiates. Celebrate recovery is for the business executive who’s living with anxiety. Celebrate Recovery is for a housewife who recognizes that she wants to escape the difficulty of raising kids, so she self-medicates with sugar in the closet. Celebrate Recovery is for the guy that can’t stop watching TV or scrolling his phone. Yeah, it’s also for the harder stuff. Celebrate Recovery is also for the person that you can’t go to sleep unless you take a drink at night. Celebrate recovery is also for the person who is actively right now living in an adulterous relationship and they want to figure out how do I get out of this.

It’s for all of us until we are bodily home with Christ. We will deal with sin which causes hurts, habits and hang-ups which we need help to get out of. Sunday nights six o’clock we will be here. Men, if you want to help other folks find freedom in Christ, not because you’re perfect or have it all figured out, but because you want to give others what God has given you, I encourage you, you talk with Robbie Cranford.

We must remember, we must repent, we must recognize. I want to give us a moment right now to fight sin. Can you guys just all bow your heads, please? In a few minutes, Michael and Lindsay are going to come back up here and they’re going to lead us in a final song. I wonder who needs to come up here right now and pray with me and pray with some others because you know there is something going on in your life that you don’t have freedom from. There is something that you are struggling to repent of. There is something you’re struggling. There’s a promise you’re struggling to remember. There is a situation that you’re trying to recognize and you just need some help. You just ask God, “God, is that me?”

Father, thank You. We can go through the storms of life, be it weather or circumstances, and Your face can still shine on us. We know that You protect us. You go before us and behind us and beside us. And we know that You take care of us. God, help us to fight sin well, to leave a legacy of faithfulness behind us. Thank You for loving us, Lord. Amen.