Judges 10:1

I'm Mark Childress, the Executive Pastor. Most of you know me, but I realize that many of you don't because you're new to the church. That really excites me! We're welcoming new people to church every week, which is why we added the third service.

As the Executive Pastor, I handle various aspects of the ministry, including people, problems, programs, and property. I deal with problem people, problem problems, and problem property. My role has a very practical side, and I strive to approach it in a spiritual way. My background is a bit different from most pastors; I was a commercial fisherman. In fact, I come from a long line of commercial fishermen. After I got saved, I decided to come onto land and figure things out. I then became a carpenter and built custom homes.

Because of my unique background, I tend to focus on the pragmatic aspects of ministry. To be honest, some of the people Jesus hung around with—like fishermen and carpenters—were a little rough around the edges. I can be a bit rough around the edges myself. Some of you who know me might be wondering what kind of trouble I might get into today.

Today, we're going to look at the Book of Judges. I've been enjoying this book for the information it provides and for watching others mess up. I love observing how people can get things wrong. However, it can also be a bit of a bummer. It can be depressing to see the Israelites continually doing things that cause them to fall out of favor with God. It raises the question: how long will this go on? It feels like a root canal that started and is only getting worse as we progress through Judges.

Despite this, I want to encourage you. I want to approach Judges 10 this morning from a positive standpoint. When I look at what's happening in our church and see what the servants and the congregation are doing, I notice a lot of "well-dones," and that excites me. I'm less focused on the negative news and more focused on the good news of what this congregation is accomplishing.

Is doing out there in the big world of Christianity and loving people. I want to talk a little bit about that this morning, too. As we watch things go from bad to worse with the Israelites, take these as cautions, not necessarily to convict you, even though you might need conviction this morning.

The history of Judges is that Joshua and the Israelites have come into the land. They were supposed to inhabit the land, and they did an okay job. They did it-ish, but that was part of their covenant. In chapter 10, it has gone from bad to worse, and we are going to watch the Israelites deconstruct, self-destruct, and reconstruct their relationship with God all in one chapter.

One thing we need to look at as we study the Old Testament is that the same God is present, but these are different people, in a different time and place, with some different rules. When we apply these lessons, we want to be careful and realize that the promises and covenants are not necessarily promises and covenants to us. They are applicable to us and many times flow right to covenants and promises in the New Testament and in the New Covenant, which you and I are under. There are valuable lessons there.

I had said, if Hitler is riding a motorcycle and he hits a wall at 100 miles an hour, do we ignore the lesson just because we don't like the guy? No, we don't ride our motorcycles into a wall. I have nothing to do with that guy, but I'm not riding my motorcycle into a wall. Actually, I'm not allowed to ride motorcycles; my wife won't let me. That's another story, and that's part of our covenant.

We are also going to learn the cause and effect of what happens when we are out of covenant with the Lord this morning, and what happens when we are in covenant with the Lord. We will look at both the present and the future of the Israelites as it relates to their obedience to God.

So let's pray and ask the Lord to empower us to learn this morning. Lord, give us the ability to learn this morning, and use me in the words and concepts you have been showing me that you want your people to hear. I ask that you would teach our minds, our hearts, and our souls, and that you would bring us to action as we study your word.

We're so thankful for Your Word, Lord, and we're thankful for You. In Jesus' name, we pray, amen.

All right, so we're going to be in Judges 10. If you do not have a Bible, just raise your hand, and the ushers will bring you a Bible. They will bring you one, and if you don't have a Bible at home, you can take that with you. We'd love to give that to you.

So, Judges chapter 10, verse 1, says, "After Abimelech, there arose to save Israel Tola, the son of Pua, the son of Dodo, a man of Issachar. He dwelt in Shemir, in the mountains of Ephraim. He judged Israel twenty-three years, and he died and was buried in Shemir. After him rose Jair, a Gileadite, and he judged Israel twenty-two years."

We'll stop there for a second. This marks forty-five years of slowly coasting downward, getting a little worse all the time. The thing for us to know is that the relationship between the Lord and the Israelites was a covenant relationship.

Now, we know in our culture about contracts, right? We all have contracts. Contracts are different from covenants. Covenants are agreements made between parties, but each of those parties really wants this to succeed, and it's about relationship. Contracts, on the other hand, are based a little bit on mistrust. If you don't do this, we'll do that, right? A contract does not work for marriage.

For example, if you sat down to get married and said, "Okay, I want meatloaf once a month, and we're going to have two kids, and a vacation here and there," while your partner said, "No, I want to always drive a sports car," you would have to bring in your agent to negotiate. That's a contract, based on mistrust. We don't do that.

My wife and I have a little bit of a contract in that I was not allowed to ride street bikes. She said, "I don't want to get married and have you riding street bikes." I replied, "Okay, then I want an Easter basket every year." Man, I got the best of that one.

Every year, I get an Easter basket. I remember one year when she was sick, and she said, "I'm really sick. I don't know if I'm going to be able to pull off the Easter basket thing. You're not going to get a motorcycle, are you?" I assured her, "No, we're good." It's based on relationship.

You can also have relationships in other ways, or, excuse me, a covenant relationship in other ways. For example, let's say you go to a movie. You pay your money, get your ticket, and go in. You know, you get your 32-ounce drink and your popcorn, and you watch the movie. When it's over, some of us leave our 32-ounce drinks and our popcorn behind, right? You leave, and it's over.

When you come to church, you walk in, see people, and hopefully have relationships with them. You're serving in some way, giving, and being part of the church. You don't leave your big gulp behind. When you leave, you have a relationship at a church. It's more of a covenant relationship, so they are different.

Point one on our fill-in-the-blanks is that in a covenant relationship, God always fulfills His promises. I want to look at the history, the covenant history, and the intent of what God's relationship is with His people, the Israelites. This is found in Deuteronomy, and it will be on the screen too.

We will start in Chapter 4, verse 5. I think it describes, through Moses, what God has commanded. Hopefully, you have your glasses so you can read along. It says, "Surely I have taught you statutes and judgments, just as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should act according to them in the land which you possess. Therefore, be careful to observe them. For this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes and say, 'Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.' For what great nation is there that has God so near to it as the Lord our God is to us whenever we call upon Him? And what great nation is there that has such statutes and righteous judgments as are in all the law which I set before you this day? Only take heed to yourself and diligently keep yourself, lest you forget the things..."

Your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life, teach them to your children and your grandchildren. Man, I'm so excited about teaching stuff to my grandkids. Good stuff. Right now, it's just wrestling. Oh, I love it. I love grandkids.

The Israelites' commission, as we can call it, was to first inhabit and expel the people from the land. In this instance, I believe it was the Canaanites in the section they were in. They were to expel the other people from the land. Now, there was a reason for this. God knew that they would be a snare to them later. They were to make that a place that was set apart just for them. So that was job one. They didn't do so good with that, and that's one of the things, you know, sometimes us Christians in pulpits will pick on the Israelites for, and I'm going to push back on that in a minute.

The other thing was that they were supposed to be obedient to God's laws and statutes. What we see in Judges is that they are not. They are falling away, doing things they're not supposed to be doing, and they're kind of blowing God off. They were to be set apart and supposed to be different from the other nations. They were supposed to be unique and to teach and train their children in these ways so that their kids would learn and be just like them.

You see, this was the evangelism plan then. The evangelism plan was that all the nations would look at what God was doing with the Israelites—how mighty, how powerful, and how much God would save them when they got in trouble. That was to be a model for all the surrounding nations. They would look at that relationship and fear and respect the God of the Israelites. In fact, when people went up against the Israelites and they knew that God was with them, a feeling of dread came upon them. Historically, they didn't do so well against God-led Israelites who were in obedience with the covenant with the Lord. The other nations would fall.

Have you ever noticed, does anybody name a great Jewish evangelist?

Was there ever a Billy Graham of Judaism? That's not how it works. It was a come and see thing. It was not an evangelistic effort where we go out like we do in Christianity. It was about coming to see how great God is and witnessing what God is doing. That was the attraction. Part of that was bringing glory to God in His name, which was what they were supposed to do. It's different.

In fact, I have very good Jewish friends. If I called a Jewish friend I've had for 45 years and said, "Man, I'm converting; I'm getting a yarmulke," he would just say, "Please don't. No, come on, don't do that. The Schwartz is not with you. You're not Jewish. Don't do it." Growing up in a Jewish neighborhood, every one of them would tell me that. Because that wasn't the plan.

Now, we're under a different covenant. God's Son, born of a virgin, did His ministry and performed all the signature miracles a Messiah was supposed to do. He was disparaged, tortured, beaten, put to death, and rose again from the grave as a sacrifice for our sins. I don't have to be walking on eggshells with God. I know that I am forgiven. I know that forgiveness is just one prayer away, and if I forget to pray, I'm still covered. I am so excited about that.

But I have responsibilities, too. I get everlasting life, I get to follow Jesus every day, and I live an exciting, fulfilled, awesome life, I'll tell you. I get to do that every day. However, it does not come without things that show my obedience and my love for the Lord.

So, where do we get that? Where does that come from? The way we bring glory to God is seen through two specific commandments. It's in Matthew 22. Verse 36 of Matthew 22 says, "Teacher, what is the great commandment of the law?" Jesus said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your...

Soul and with all your mind. This is the first great commandment. And then, without being asked, He says, "The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself." On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

Point two on your outline: The most loving and obedient thing we can do is lead someone to God. Now, how many people in this room came to a church at some time because you were invited by somebody? I went to church because I was invited by someone. I came to Christ because a friend shared Christ with me; it didn't happen at a church.

The reason my friend shared Christ with me was not because he was trying to put a notch in his Bible cover, bring me over to his way of thinking, or put me on his political team. He wasn't even trying to get me to be just like him. The dastardly evil plan—do you know what was at the basis of it? He loved me.

We bring people to church and tell people about Jesus because we love them. If we're doing it because we want them to be on our political team or to think just like us, that's not it; that's not the plan. We do it because we love people.

Why do we love people? Because some people are hard to love; I mean, let's be honest. We love people because it's very close to God's heart, and He commanded it. In doing that, we become more godly.

You see how we talk about serving around here? People need to serve, but it's not because I need to fill a hole. We serve because we want people to serve; we know it will bring a certain level of maturity and commitment to them. We don't want them to have a relationship where they're leaving their popcorn and their big gulp and then they're gone.

You become part of the church. You are the church. It's an exciting ride, let me tell you; it's an exciting ride.

Matthew 28 contains something called the Great Commission. Most of you know it, but for those who are new to this, I will clarify. It is found in Matthew 28, verse 16. It says, "Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them. When they saw Him, they worshipped Him. But some doubted. Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, 'All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.'"

That's our project. That's what we're supposed to do. That's our commission. The Israelites were told to get rid of the Canaanites, to remove them from the land. We, however, are supposed to bring the Canaanites to God. It's a little different, isn't it? As Christians, we are called to take the people who are on the outside, the Gentile nations, and bring them to the inside through Jesus. It's a different program. This is how we show our love and commitment to the Lord. He didn't give us a lot to do. This book here is probably about 98% about what God did and about 2% about what we are supposed to do. I'm thankful for that because I'm not good with a lot of instructions.

We make disciples because we love people. It's not about numbers. Now, let's turn to Judges 6. We knew this was going to happen. Or rather, Judges chapter 10, verse 6. It says, "Then the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals and the Ashtoreths, and the gods of Syria, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the people of Ammon, the gods of the Philistines, and they forsook the Lord and did not serve Him."

It seems to be a pattern, doesn't it? Does anybody here watch Hallmark movies? All right. Okay, guys, put your hands up if you watch them with your wives. I have reconciled it now. We have a 50 to 1 ratio. Think of it like this, guys.

It'll seem more manly: 50 to 1. Like your oil and gasoline and your weed whip or your outboard motor, you get 50 Hallmark movies to one John Wick. That's how it works. My wife and I watch them all the time, and she actually watches half of them because she usually falls asleep, but that's another story.

There's a formula, right? There's a strong independent woman. She's either from Seattle, New York, or Chicago. Sometimes she's nice; sometimes she's not so nice. She's hanging out with some guy who's got it all figured out. He's got the $200 haircut, the suit, the nice car, and the job. But somehow, he's just not fitting in. Then she has to go home because somebody broke a leg or somebody died. There's always a broken leg or a death; those seem to be the two things.

And guess what? Big surprise! I've got to save a bakery, a gym, a hockey rink, a Christmas tree farm. Am I leaving anything out? A coffee shop? Yeah, sure. The YMCA, the shelter, Pound Shelter. What was it? We were saving a bakery the other day.

Okay, and they're all filmed in Vancouver, Canada. I just found out I'm part Canadian. I love these things. Except I saw one the other day in Hungary. They really did it in Hungary, Sandy. They all looked like... You must have had eight sisters in that movie. We kept looking at one another, going, "They really filmed this in Hungary, didn't they? That's not Seattle." It was amazing. So Hallmark's branching out.

But why do I tell you about that? There's a formula. You know how it's going to end, right? The guy in the flannel who barely has a job, who secretly went to Harvard when nobody was looking, she finds her first love, and they live happily ever after.

So the Israelites, they've just lost the bakery. That's what happens. It can seem so monotonous to us, and it's so easy for us to kind of put that on the Israelites, especially since hindsight's 20/20.

Hindsight is 20/20. They failed. Point number three on your outline: when God's people live ungodly lives, the nation suffers. Why did they fail? Prosperity. They were doing really well. They had everybody just about whooped, so they could live in relative peace. They were doing really well financially. Their lives were looking better—way better than Egypt, way better than the desert. So they got prosperous. They got familiar. They thought God was always going to be there.

Pride played a significant role. There was a certain pride and arrogance that the Israelites had. Just because they were them, because they were so special, they felt they didn't have to pay attention to the rules necessarily or keep up their end of the bargain. They forgot. They forgot the things that God had done for them, delivering them out of Egypt. That was a big one.

They also got political. We actually see in chapter 11 that the next judge goes and does all this really cool stuff, but it's all for political reasons. He totally forgets that God has anything to do with the equation. He forgot that the Israelites are Israelites because they belong to the Lord. It became kind of political.

The overarching issue was their lack of humility. They became very much about themselves. They became very successful. They had it going on. They were gifted and talented because God set them up to be successful and for all the nations to look at them, as they were supposed to reflect what God was doing. They started to think it was because of their own abilities. God became an accessory, something they took with them.

They taught this attitude to their children. If you want to teach your kids something, do it. If you talk about it for about 18 seconds, they've heard it, right? But if you want your kids to pick up habits, demonstrate them. They'll watch you. If they see you reading your Bible, if they see you going to church, if they see you involved...

With God's community, if they see you out doing good works, if they see you living your life in a way that Christians should, that's catchy. It's not guaranteed, but it's catchy. They have a baseline for that. Our children do that, and their children did what they did. They blew God off, and then the Canaanites and their customs became a snare, and they began to worship their gods.

Remember in the first part of the chapter, I talked about 45 years? Now I've been beating up on these guys, right? Who was around 45 years ago? I was around 45 years ago. I was 15 years old. I had already met my wife, and I didn't even know it. I was working on a fishing boat, no surprise. In 1979, Jimmy Carter was president, but we were getting Ronald Reagan. I was excited about that for some reason. I don't know why; I like cowboy movies, I guess.

There was something going on to the north of us in a place called Costa Mesa. We were right in the middle of a time period in church history known as the Jesus Movement or the Jesus People. Unlearned men—carpenters, fishermen, drug addicts, musicians—were coming to Christ who never knew anything about the Bible or Jesus. But they looked at what was going on in life and knew they didn't like that. The message of the cross clicked, and it made sense to them spiritually.

People got saved, and the church grew at a pace that had never been seen before. People were getting saved left and right. Thousands and thousands of people were getting baptized. I have a friend who was part of those early days. He became a pastor because he was about one chapter ahead of the rest of the congregation. He talked about giving a message and just sweating through it. A hundred people got saved. It was a move of the Lord. He took these regular people—nobody special—and grew these huge megachurches out of them.

And it was changing our nation 45 years ago. But what happened? I will bear some responsibility in this because I was at the tail end of it. I think we became too prosperous, too familiar, and too prideful. We had forgotten who we were and what God saved us from. We got political, and the worst thing of all is that we lost our humility. We spent a lot of time pointing the finger at the people who were just like us five years before that—the lost and guilty.

The church I was attending as a young man had about 9,000 people at the time. If you didn't get there a half hour early, you would not get a seat or certainly a parking space. You may or may not get a seat. I believe there were three services: a Wednesday night service, a Sunday night service, and most of those services were pretty full or at capacity. That was like nothing I had ever seen before. As a young Christian, I was laying hands on people and praying for them. They were getting delivered from various issues, and people were coming to Jesus. You would show up on a Wednesday night, and 50 people would get saved. The next thing you knew, they were in clearing classes, and churches were blowing up and starting everywhere. It was amazing. What a valuable experience! I cherish that time.

I will be very honest with you; that was a time and a place that you can't duplicate. That was made by the Holy Spirit. That was the move of God. That church today could almost fit in my living room. As someone who understands how churches work, I can see mistakes of pride, humility, and political issues. Again, I share this not as a condemnation of us, but as a caution. It can happen to people. It says in Judges 21:25...

In those days, there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in their own eyes. That's the conviction, I think, of the single biggest scripture that sticks out in the entire book of Judges to me.

We have a saying at Cross Connection. Well, there are two of them. One of them is, "Play stupid games, win stupid prizes." The extended version is, "Go stupid places with stupid people, do stupid things, and win stupid prizes." I can think of a lot of times I wouldn't have won stupid prizes if I had just avoided those first three. There is a cause and effect to these things.

Now, we can look at the nation of Israel today, and even this last week, and see that some not-so-great things are going on. They are at odds with the world, and I believe the world hates them because they see God's kids. I believe that's a big part of this. However, we also have to question what's going on with the protection of God in that, because they are completely out of covenant with Him. The nation of Israel is no more godly looking than the United States of America. In fact, it's quite a bit gnarly. The stuff that is endorsed there, you know, running through the streets, is not where God wants them to be, if we're to be honest.

I love Israel, and their world looks the way it does because we can trace it back to this book, largely by their actions or inactions. My question is, does our world that we live in today look the way it does because of our inactions? Are we reaping some of the consequences of not going out into the world and making disciples? It's a good question to ask ourselves. It's always good to ask yourself questions, but don't do it out loud by yourself too often; people start to wonder.

I can trace so much of this back to worshiping the gods of our own interest. I won't name what those are, because they're different for people. We have a saying around here: it's energy, assets, and time.

Whatever you put your energy, your assets, and your time into is what we worship. I say that fully understanding that we live in a world where you have to work to live, especially in California. We can tell a lot about a person's calendar and a person's checkbook. What do we do with our time, our energy, and our assets?

Now, why was God so angry? In verse 7, it tells us, "So the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel, and he sold them into the hands of the Philistines and into the hands of the people of Ammon." From that year, they were harassed and oppressed. The children of Israel, for 18 years, were on the other side of the Jordan, in the land of the Amorites and Gilead. The people of Ammon crossed over, and Israel cried out. It was a mess, and they were harassed.

Why was God angry? God was angry because He was misrepresented. In verse 2.4 on your outline, it states that God's people should represent God's glorious name.

In 1 Samuel, there's an example of this. In 1 Samuel 4:5-11, the Israelites brought the Ark of the Covenant out into battle against the Philistines, which they were not supposed to do. They were kind of far away from God and decided this would be their lucky charm. The Philistines heard the noise and were alarmed, saying, "Oh no!" The Philistines were afraid, for they said, "God has come into the camp." They exclaimed, "Woe to us, for such a thing has never happened before! Woe to us! Deliver us from the hand of these mighty gods."

These were the gods who struck the Egyptians with all the plagues in the wilderness. The credit for the deliverance of the Israelites was now being given to the foreign gods that they were worshiping instead of God.

That is how you make a man. The deal was that they were supposed to be a nation that served as an example. They were meant to give a glorious demonstration of what God does for His people and how powerful and glorious He is. However, that glory was being given to other gods, taken away from them. His glory and reputation had been profaned.

In the Ten Commandments, the first three commandments are clear: no other gods, no idols, and no graven images. Do not take the Lord's name in vain. All three of these commandments are interconnected; they are part of the same principle. The first two violate the name of the Lord and profane it when His people engage in such actions.

Now, there is good news. The guy in the flannel is showing up. In verses 10 through 16, the people are crying out and expressing sorrow for their actions. However, they are sorry but not necessarily repenting. God makes it clear to them how it is. He gives them what I call the Dr. Phil moment: "You worship this guy and that guy and this guy and that guy. How's that working out for you? Why don't you have them deliver you?"

They do something really important: they repent. They apologize, admit their guilt, acknowledge God for who He is, and put away their idols. They begin to worship the Lord. This demonstrates action, and that action brings them into a place where God can redeem them again. True repentance from God's people brings a godly result to the nation.

Now, what does this mean for us? Man, we're still going to light the dumpster on fire.

I mean, let's be honest. We're going to make mistakes. Maybe they're smaller mistakes, or they're better mistakes than we made when we first became believers or before we were believers. But there's a really good chance we're going to mess up. We're still going to light that dumpster on fire. It's still going to happen.

When you get knocked down, after you've been knocked down for about the hundredth time, there comes a point where you need the desire to get back up again. That desire looks very different in a person who is condemned, who's out of step with God, than it does in a person who can just say, "Dear Lord, forgive me. I've sinned. Show me the way." That is what gives you and me the power, the ability, to get back up and to go out and make disciples. Now, we are forgiven. We are not condemned. We should be excited about that.

I want to conclude with this. The title of this sermon was "Well Done," not because we're getting barbecued. As a pastor, I'm called to look at the flock and to see how they're doing. Here's what I'm seeing: I'm seeing you loving people. You're not just talking about it; you're doing loving acts.

We are, I believe, in five elementary schools right now. Mayor, am I close on that? About five. I know we have invitations to go into other schools to do after-school programs. We get to talk to these kids about Jesus, and they look forward to it. These kids are getting saved in the public schools. We have invitations to go to more schools, but guess what? We need more people. We can hook you up with that if you want to go into the schools.

We have people who go into the nursing homes. You know what? I mean, I'm 60. I don't feel like I'm old, but sometimes it's hard to look at the future. It's not easy. However, our people are going into these nursing homes and bringing Jesus to people, giving them hope, comfort, and love.

Seeing many of them when they don't have families that will come and see them is heart-wrenching. People are praying for others. We have dedicated prayer teams that pray for individuals every week with these cards. I see the church serving, and we need more people to serve. But I see you serving—well done. I see you giving; the lights are still on, and that's good. You're making disciples and loving people by bringing them to church. You know what? They're going to hear life-giving, life-saving information here because you're loving them.

I see great examples of what people are doing in the community, from working with veterans to having four guys on staff who are chaplains with the police and fire departments. People are working with Billy Graham, and I mean, there are all kinds of great things happening. We're reaching the outermost parts of the world and financing missionaries. We now have an electronic connection through Blue Letter Bible for missions and evangelism.

In the month of June, I believe around the middle of the month, we're going to be filling a sea container full of meals—30,000 meals. We're going to pack this church in this sanctuary. I believe these meals are going to go to Paraguay to widows and orphans who are being trained with the gospel of Jesus Christ and in job skills. You guys are doing a great job. Stay humble.

Let's pray. Lord, I love it when I can look out and see so many people I’m thankful for. I also see many people I don't know, which blesses me. Father, I just ask that as we leave today and enter the mission field, those we interact with, Lord, that we would love them in a way that would bring them to the cross. Empower our people, Lord, with your Holy Spirit. Give them the words to say, a good reputation, and the right answers. Bless them and fill them with your Holy Spirit. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.