WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.560 Good morning. That was not bad, but we'll try it one more time. Good morning. Much better. 00:00:08.279 --> 00:00:11.939 My name is Eric. If you don't know me, I'm the youth director here at Watermark Church. 00:00:12.120 --> 00:00:18.100 I'm really excited to get to share with you guys today. If you were here earlier in the year, 00:00:18.440 --> 00:00:24.879 back like January to March maybe, we did a series called God's Story, Our Story. And in that series, 00:00:24.879 --> 00:00:30.179 we basically looked at the big story of the Bible from like 30,000 feet and just flew through some 00:00:30.179 --> 00:00:34.859 highlights to try and get a picture of how all of the Bible fits together into one big story. 00:00:35.460 --> 00:00:41.439 And what happened in that is we would jump like 400 years in between stories from one week to the 00:00:41.439 --> 00:00:46.379 next. And it meant that we covered the whole Bible in like 10 weeks, but we skipped a whole bunch of 00:00:46.379 --> 00:00:52.519 stuff in the process. And so over the summer, what we're going to do is we're going to go back and 00:00:52.520 --> 00:00:58.140 we're going to hit one of those 400 year periods that we skipped, which is the time of Judges. 00:00:58.380 --> 00:01:03.920 And we're going to spend five weeks looking at the book of Judges and seeing how the stories from 00:01:03.920 --> 00:01:09.460 the book of Judges actually connects to our lives today, sort of filling in the gaps. And hopefully 00:01:09.460 --> 00:01:15.780 it'll be set up so that if you're here for just one or two weeks, that one or two weeks can be a good 00:01:15.780 --> 00:01:20.240 sermon that connects with you. And if you're here for all five weeks, then it's building and connecting 00:01:20.239 --> 00:01:26.599 to your life in different ways each week. And we're going to start looking at the story of Judges 00:01:26.599 --> 00:01:33.560 in what may seem like a strange place, but it really isn't, and you'll see why, which is the gospel. 00:01:34.500 --> 00:01:39.340 Now, if you've been to Watermark before, you've heard this word before. We use it a lot around here. 00:01:39.699 --> 00:01:45.619 We say the gospel is what should be guiding our lives. We say the gospel is how we become Christians. 00:01:45.620 --> 00:01:50.180 Christians, but I think, I could be wrong, but I think there's a lot of people who have been in 00:01:50.180 --> 00:01:55.380 Watermark for a while, who've been around Watermark for a while, who if we brought you up here right 00:01:55.380 --> 00:02:00.780 now and said, please explain to us what the gospel is, would be pretty uncomfortable and not quite sure 00:02:00.780 --> 00:02:06.580 what to say. So I want to take a few minutes and just go through what is the gospel and then show how 00:02:06.580 --> 00:02:12.520 the gospel actually gives us a framework for us to look at as we go through the book of Judges. 00:02:12.520 --> 00:02:20.120 So in a very simple form, the gospel is the good news that God saves sinners through the death and 00:02:20.120 --> 00:02:26.460 resurrection of Jesus. So there's good news that God saves sinners through the death and resurrection 00:02:26.460 --> 00:02:34.120 of Jesus. But if you need a little more of an explanation, we're going to explain it a little 00:02:34.120 --> 00:02:41.580 more deeply. That's what I was looking for with some visual aids. And so we have six pictures here 00:02:41.580 --> 00:02:46.360 that sort of illustrate the gospel for us. The first one, you'll see a crown up there in the 00:02:46.360 --> 00:02:54.700 corner. That represents God. The gospel is first and foremost, a story about God. God is good. God is 00:02:54.700 --> 00:02:59.800 generous. And out of that goodness and generosity, he creates. He creates the world. That's the little 00:02:59.800 --> 00:03:07.120 circle in the picture. And he creates man in his image to rule over the world under his rule. See how 00:03:07.120 --> 00:03:13.200 we're under the crown. And that is how God created the world to function, with us ruling the world 00:03:13.200 --> 00:03:19.599 under his ultimate rule. But something went wrong. We rejected God's rule. That's why there's an X 00:03:19.599 --> 00:03:26.120 through the crown. And we said, we want to rule ourselves. We don't want you to tell us how to live 00:03:26.120 --> 00:03:33.140 our lives, God. We can handle that. We've got this. And when we did that, we stepped out from under God's 00:03:33.139 --> 00:03:39.699 rule. And we failed to rule ourselves or the world properly. There was a problem. There was 00:03:39.699 --> 00:03:46.959 the goodness that was created to be there ceased to be there. And God, being just, couldn't let our 00:03:46.959 --> 00:03:53.060 rebellion go on forever. Which is why in the third picture, the guy is dead. Because the consequences 00:03:53.060 --> 00:04:01.759 for sin are death. So God creates good, we rebel, and death is our consequence. But the good news is 00:04:01.759 --> 00:04:09.219 that the story doesn't end with God's justice. God, in his love, steps down into the earth. He sends 00:04:09.219 --> 00:04:17.420 Jesus, the J, who's fully God and fully man, into the earth as a man. And unlike all of us, Jesus 00:04:17.420 --> 00:04:25.579 submits perfectly to God's rule. Jesus lives perfectly like we are supposed to, but none of us have. 00:04:25.579 --> 00:04:33.740 And the world around him sees this perfection and they hate it. They can't stand it. And so they kill 00:04:33.740 --> 00:04:40.639 him on a cross. That's why his arms are stretched out in the picture. And what happens when he dies 00:04:40.639 --> 00:04:47.919 is that he didn't deserve death because he was perfect. We deserve death. But because he died, 00:04:47.920 --> 00:04:54.960 although he didn't deserve to, he takes our place. And we're offered a new life in him. We're offered 00:04:54.960 --> 00:05:00.860 forgiveness and restoration in our relationship with God through him. And God didn't leave Jesus 00:05:00.860 --> 00:05:07.220 dead. He raised him up, brought him back to life, a literal, physical, new body, and then raised him 00:05:07.220 --> 00:05:11.980 up to heaven where Jesus is now ruling over the world. That's why there's the J in the crown in the 00:05:11.980 --> 00:05:17.360 fifth picture. He's ruling over the world. He's guiding us today. If we're his people, 00:05:17.360 --> 00:05:24.420 he's giving us hope to sustain us from day to day. And the thing is, not everyone gets to experience 00:05:24.420 --> 00:05:30.240 this new life. The sixth picture, you see there's two people with two different size crowns. 00:05:30.900 --> 00:05:36.040 There's one response where you can say, forget this. I want to live by my own rules. I want to 00:05:36.040 --> 00:05:42.980 continue to rule myself, even though I know that leads to death. Or we can submit and say, I want to 00:05:42.980 --> 00:05:48.759 submit to God's rule. I want to trust in Jesus for forgiveness. There's two ways to live, our way 00:05:48.759 --> 00:05:55.180 or God's way. And if you want this on your phone, there's actually an app that you can download. 00:05:55.580 --> 00:06:02.060 It's called Two Ways to Live in the App Store. So you can click that and download it. And it'll 00:06:02.060 --> 00:06:06.680 explain it to you with the pictures and words and everything so that you can have it nice and handy. 00:06:06.680 --> 00:06:13.199 But if you're here and you've ever read or heard anything about the book of Judges, you're probably 00:06:13.199 --> 00:06:18.680 a little confused right now. Why are we starting with a story about Jesus when we're talking about 00:06:18.680 --> 00:06:25.500 Judges, which was written like a thousand years before Jesus lived? And here's why. Because this 00:06:25.500 --> 00:06:32.600 framework of the gospel gives us a structure by which we can explain the book of Judges and every 00:06:32.600 --> 00:06:40.100 other scenario in our lives. Basically, what we have here is we have creation. What is the ideal? 00:06:40.280 --> 00:06:48.000 What is the world supposed to look like? We have the fall. What goes wrong? We have the consequences. 00:06:49.040 --> 00:06:55.260 What happens? How does that lead to death? We have salvation. How does Jesus step in and change that 00:06:55.260 --> 00:07:02.500 story? We have hope. How does Jesus continually provide us with a new framework for living? And then we 00:07:02.500 --> 00:07:08.139 have a response. Are we going to choose our way, which leads to death, or God's way, which leads to 00:07:08.139 --> 00:07:14.439 life? And really, like I said, you can plug this in with any story in life. Work. What's the creation 00:07:14.439 --> 00:07:19.339 story that so many people in Hong Kong have for work? I want to work hard so I can provide for my family 00:07:19.339 --> 00:07:26.720 and retire and enjoy life someday. But it goes wrong. Something goes wrong. Maybe you get laid off from 00:07:26.720 --> 00:07:33.080 your job. Or maybe you have a job, but it doesn't actually pay enough for you to be able to provide 00:07:33.080 --> 00:07:39.080 for your family like you want to. Or maybe you have this boss who forces you to work crazy, insane, 00:07:39.280 --> 00:07:47.600 long hours. And it leads to death. Maybe it leads to a broken relationship with your family because 00:07:47.600 --> 00:07:52.420 you're spending so much time at the office that you just don't have time to invest in those 00:07:52.420 --> 00:07:57.759 relationships. Maybe it leads to physical death. If you go to any hospital in Hong Kong, there are so 00:07:57.759 --> 00:08:03.000 many people there who are there because they just got stressed out from working too hard and their 00:08:03.000 --> 00:08:11.139 bodies could no longer handle it. That happens every day in Hong Kong. And so this ideal world 00:08:11.139 --> 00:08:18.560 doesn't work out. It leads to some type of death in our lives. But then when we see Jesus, that changes 00:08:18.560 --> 00:08:25.780 the story. That gives us hope. That shows us a God who will provide for us so that we don't need to 00:08:25.780 --> 00:08:33.100 kill ourselves trying to provide. That gives us a God who we can root our identity in so that even if 00:08:33.100 --> 00:08:39.059 we can't set the standard of living that we want for the family, we don't need to despair and question 00:08:39.059 --> 00:08:45.220 who we are. And it gives us a hope day to day that we're able to go to our job. We're able to work hard, 00:08:45.220 --> 00:08:50.820 but we're not having that define us. We're not having our identity shaped by whether or not we're 00:08:50.820 --> 00:08:57.480 able to make millions of dollars every month. And we have a response. We can live our way. 00:08:57.980 --> 00:09:03.980 We can break relationships. We can stress ourselves out. We can end up dying in some way or other. 00:09:03.980 --> 00:09:14.759 Or we can die to ourselves and live God's way and have a hope that we can go to work with every day. 00:09:15.700 --> 00:09:22.580 And really, you can plug anything in life into this outline and it fits. Sex, work, family, goals, 00:09:22.759 --> 00:09:30.600 dreams, school, anything fits into this outline. And the book of Judges also fits into this outline. 00:09:30.600 --> 00:09:36.680 Because what happens over and over and over again in the book of Judges is the nation of Israel, 00:09:36.680 --> 00:09:44.159 who is created as God's special people, chooses some story of reality other than God's story that 00:09:44.159 --> 00:09:54.240 they want to follow. They turn, they worship idols, they rebel against God, it leads to death. He sends 00:09:54.240 --> 00:09:59.800 in plunderers who capture them and hold them captive, who take all of their goods and their slaves. 00:10:00.600 --> 00:10:06.620 They cry out to God and God sends saviors who come and rescue his people and guide them in obedience 00:10:06.620 --> 00:10:13.060 to God. And the people obey God until that rescuer dies. And then they're faced with a choice. Are we 00:10:13.060 --> 00:10:18.120 going to continue following God or are we going to go back to following our own ways? And again and 00:10:18.120 --> 00:10:23.519 again and again in the book of Judges, what we're going to see is that the nation of Israel 00:10:23.519 --> 00:10:30.960 continually turns against God and just repeats the cycle over and over and over again. 00:10:32.319 --> 00:10:37.620 Now there's a big difference between the book of Judges and the story of Jesus in the sense that in 00:10:37.620 --> 00:10:43.740 the book of Judges, the saviors are human. They're fallen just like us. And they can never bring the 00:10:43.740 --> 00:10:50.680 ultimate salvation that the nation of Israel needs. And so what happens is in every story in the book 00:10:50.680 --> 00:10:56.740 of Judges, we have a shadow of the ultimate gospel. We have a mini gospel, maybe we can call it, 00:10:57.460 --> 00:11:03.200 where we can see a picture of what Christ is going to do, but we have a savior who falls short 00:11:03.200 --> 00:11:08.480 of what Jesus is ultimately going to accomplish and who leaves us longing for something more. 00:11:08.480 --> 00:11:15.240 And so in the book of Judges, we're supposed to be left with this hunger for Jesus, this hunger for 00:11:15.240 --> 00:11:23.580 the savior who will come and bring the rescue that his people really need in full. And so now that we 00:11:23.580 --> 00:11:31.580 have this framework, I'd like to jump into today's actual passage and see how this framework and this 00:11:31.580 --> 00:11:37.879 passage fit together and how this will lead us as we look through the book of Judges during the rest of 00:11:37.879 --> 00:11:45.559 the summer. And what we're going to see in today's passage, again, Israel forgets the gospel, they turn 00:11:45.559 --> 00:11:54.399 to idols, they rebel against God, there are consequences, but then God steps in and he saves his people. 00:11:57.460 --> 00:12:01.039 So, Judges chapter 2, verse 6. 00:12:02.240 --> 00:12:07.460 When Joshua dismissed the people, the people of Israel went each to his inheritance to take possession of the 00:12:07.460 --> 00:12:14.759 land. Now, a little recap in the Bible story up to this point. Israel was the descendants of a man 00:12:14.759 --> 00:12:20.860 named Jacob. Jacob had a son named Joseph who had been sold into slavery by his brothers, but then 00:12:20.860 --> 00:12:27.500 became the number two in command in the nation of Egypt. A famine came and the whole family moved down 00:12:27.500 --> 00:12:31.940 to Egypt because Joseph said that he would provide for them and take care of them, and he did. 00:12:31.940 --> 00:12:38.620 They settled there. They got comfortable there. A few generations went by. The Egyptians forgot about 00:12:38.620 --> 00:12:44.600 who Joseph was and realized there are these foreigners in our land, and they're multiplying very fast, 00:12:44.600 --> 00:12:52.560 and they're intimidating us. We need to make them slaves so that they can't hurt us. And so, the nation of 00:12:52.560 --> 00:13:01.020 Israel became slaves in the land of Egypt, and they stayed as slaves for 400 years. After 400 years of 00:13:01.019 --> 00:13:07.319 slavery, they called out to God, and God sends a man named Moses to come rescue them. Moses goes up to 00:13:07.319 --> 00:13:13.480 Pharaoh and says, let my people go. And Pharaoh says, no. And then God sends plagues and eventually 00:13:13.480 --> 00:13:22.980 rescues his people from Egypt. And if you are an Old Testament Jew, this is the ultimate salvation story. 00:13:22.980 --> 00:13:33.399 This is the ultimate picture of what Jesus is going to do someday. You have the Passover, which is 00:13:33.399 --> 00:13:39.399 basically the night where every Israelite family killed a lamb, put its blood on the door, and the 00:13:39.399 --> 00:13:46.879 firstborn son of that family was rescued, while the firstborn son of every family in Egypt died. You have 00:13:46.879 --> 00:13:55.139 a lamb that gets killed in place of the firstborn son, and the people are set free from their slavery through 00:13:55.139 --> 00:14:01.899 the death of these lambs. It's a picture of what's going to happen someday with Jesus, the lamb of God who is 00:14:01.899 --> 00:14:10.059 killed for our sins, who sets us free from our slavery to sin. And so, for the Israelites, this is the big 00:14:10.059 --> 00:14:16.839 salvation event of the Old Testament. If you read the Old Testament, basically anything up to 00:14:16.839 --> 00:14:25.639 about there in the Bible, and you see anything in there that says God is our Savior, or God brings 00:14:25.639 --> 00:14:32.939 salvation to his people, no Old Testament Israelite could write those words without the Passover being in 00:14:32.940 --> 00:14:41.800 their mind. It was a big deal to those people. And so, the Passover happens. Israel is set free from Egypt. 00:14:42.120 --> 00:14:46.380 Moses leads the people out into the desert, ready to bring them into the promised land, and the people 00:14:46.380 --> 00:14:51.900 say, no, we're scared. The people in the promised land are too big. They're too strong. We can't beat them. 00:14:53.440 --> 00:14:58.240 And God says, they didn't listen to me. They disobeyed. I told them to go into the promised land, 00:14:58.240 --> 00:15:05.240 and they didn't. And so, because of that, they get to stay in the desert for 40 years. And anyone 00:15:05.240 --> 00:15:13.000 aged 20 or above gets to die in the desert and never see the promised land. 40 years go by. The 00:15:13.000 --> 00:15:21.080 generation dies off. Moses, the leader, dies off. And Joshua, Moses' number two in command, takes control 00:15:21.080 --> 00:15:28.520 of the nation. He brings them across into the promised land. He leads their armies into battle 00:15:28.520 --> 00:15:35.379 and conquers all of the neighboring nations. And right now, as we pick up this story, he's sending 00:15:35.379 --> 00:15:42.280 the people of Israel off to live in their inheritance. And for the first time in almost 500 years, 00:15:42.480 --> 00:15:46.280 the nation of Israel has a home of their own and is comfortable. 00:15:46.279 --> 00:15:55.839 The first time in almost 500 years, the nation of Israel has a home of their own and is comfortable. 00:15:56.519 --> 00:16:01.799 And at this point, they're still following God, but it's not going to last long. 00:16:02.740 --> 00:16:04.500 We have verse 7. 00:16:05.259 --> 00:16:12.419 The people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the leaders, or of the elders 00:16:12.419 --> 00:16:19.279 who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great work that the Lord had done for Israel. As long as the 00:16:19.279 --> 00:16:26.179 people had strong spiritual leadership to point them towards God, they continued to obey God. As soon 00:16:26.179 --> 00:16:34.279 as the strong spiritual leadership died out, their obedience and faith disappeared. What happens is, 00:16:34.539 --> 00:16:41.879 Joshua served God. Joshua raised up the next generation to serve God as well. That generation was 00:16:41.879 --> 00:16:48.000 powerful enough that during their lifetime, everyone else followed their lead, but they didn't train up 00:16:48.000 --> 00:16:54.759 the next generation. They expected everyone to sort of just catch it, and the next generation didn't. 00:16:55.600 --> 00:17:00.960 And so as soon as these leaders were out of the picture, the nation turned away from God, 00:17:01.779 --> 00:17:07.440 which is a scary thing because in the nation of Israel, there were many, many safeguards built into the 00:17:07.440 --> 00:17:15.799 daily life of the people to help them remember, to help them remember who God was and what God had 00:17:15.799 --> 00:17:22.740 done for them, how he had rescued them. And yet in less than 100 years, it disappears, this memory. 00:17:24.500 --> 00:17:31.519 They had priests whose job was to remind the people of who God was and what he had done for them 00:17:31.519 --> 00:17:39.599 and how they should respond to them. They had festivals and holidays. They celebrated the Passover every 00:17:39.599 --> 00:17:45.680 year as a way of reminding themselves, like we just took communion, they would take Passover every year 00:17:45.680 --> 00:17:55.119 to remember how God had rescued them from the land of Egypt. They had a feast of booths where they would 00:17:55.119 --> 00:18:00.819 remember how God had provided for them for 40 years through the wilderness, how he had given them food to 00:18:00.819 --> 00:18:06.839 eat in the desert and sent them water out of the rocks and taken care of them the entire process, 00:18:06.960 --> 00:18:15.460 every step of the way. They had the Sabbath day. Once a week, they had a day that was specially set aside 00:18:15.460 --> 00:18:24.240 for them to remember who God was and how he had saved them from Egypt. And as if that wasn't enough, 00:18:24.319 --> 00:18:29.299 they had this prayer called the Shema, that every Israelite parent was supposed to teach their 00:18:29.299 --> 00:18:34.940 children repetitively. You may not have heard the word Shema before, but you've probably heard the 00:18:34.940 --> 00:18:41.259 prayer. It goes like this, hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one, and you shall love the Lord 00:18:41.259 --> 00:18:47.619 your God with all your heart and soul and mind. And the parents were supposed to teach that to their 00:18:47.619 --> 00:18:51.899 kids when they sat down to eat dinner and when they put their kids to bed and when they got their kids 00:18:51.899 --> 00:18:57.480 ready in the morning and when they were traveling together over and over and over so that no one forgot it. 00:18:57.480 --> 00:19:06.360 And yet less than 100 years after this great salvation experience of Israel, the memory is gone. 00:19:08.180 --> 00:19:16.799 And the problem with forgetting the gospel is that God has a very specific way of working in the Bible. 00:19:17.200 --> 00:19:21.759 It's a pattern that he repeats over and over and over again, where first he saves, 00:19:21.759 --> 00:19:29.299 then he calls for obedience. First he rescues his people, then he calls them to follow him. It happens 00:19:29.299 --> 00:19:36.519 here. He saves Israel from the land of Egypt and then after they've been set free, he gives them the 00:19:36.519 --> 00:19:42.940 law in the desert. It's the same thing today. He sends Jesus on the cross to forgive us for everything 00:19:42.940 --> 00:19:50.400 we've done wrong and only after forgiving us does he call us to live for him. If you look in the Bible 00:19:50.400 --> 00:19:57.100 in Ephesians chapter 2 verses 8 through 10, it talks about, for by grace are you saved, that's total 00:19:57.100 --> 00:20:02.860 unmerited favor from God, nothing that we've done to earn it. Through faith, meaning that we get it by 00:20:02.860 --> 00:20:10.400 believing, not by doing anything to earn it. And it's the gift of God, totally free, not by works, 00:20:10.840 --> 00:20:16.140 in case you missed that in the rest of the verse, so that no one can boast because there's absolutely 00:20:16.140 --> 00:20:22.080 nothing that we've done to earn it or make it our own. But then he goes on and he says, 00:20:22.580 --> 00:20:29.080 for you are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works. So basically God saves us 00:20:29.080 --> 00:20:37.259 for free out of his own goodwill so that we will obey him. The pattern is God saves first and then he 00:20:37.259 --> 00:20:43.360 calls for obedience. And it's the same thing here. He saved them from Egypt. He calls them to obedience. 00:20:43.359 --> 00:20:49.240 And when they forget how God has saved them from Egypt and they forget who God is, 00:20:50.299 --> 00:20:56.859 their obedience quickly flies out the window because the root that's supposed to inspire 00:20:56.859 --> 00:21:06.159 their obedience is gone. And also notice this process of turning from God, it's not an all-at-once thing. 00:21:06.160 --> 00:21:15.519 Joshua, first generation, sees the amazing things that God does. Sees God save Israel from Egypt. Sees him 00:21:15.519 --> 00:21:23.800 lead them through the wilderness. And he is committed. First generation, committed. He trains up the next 00:21:23.800 --> 00:21:28.759 generation. The next generation has seen some of it. They've heard the rest from Joshua. 00:21:28.759 --> 00:21:38.420 And they trust. And they obey. But they're not as committed as the first generation because they 00:21:38.420 --> 00:21:46.099 don't train up the third generation. They become complacent. So first generation, committed. Second 00:21:46.099 --> 00:21:54.160 generation, complacent. And then the third generation follows for a little bit until the second generation 00:21:54.160 --> 00:22:00.360 dies off and realizes that they've had all these rules that they've been following their whole lives, 00:22:00.420 --> 00:22:07.279 but they don't understand why. And when they divorce the rules from the God of the rules, 00:22:07.680 --> 00:22:17.600 and they see only the rules without the God who saved them, who has their best interest at heart in giving 00:22:17.599 --> 00:22:24.119 them the rules, and they just see the rules, they say, forget this. Why should we follow these rules? 00:22:25.679 --> 00:22:33.099 They're confused, and they compromise the gospel, and they give it up. So it's a process. First 00:22:33.099 --> 00:22:39.980 generation is committed. Second generation is complacent. Third generation, confused and compromised. 00:22:39.980 --> 00:22:47.579 And that's very common in the world today, right? If you've been following the news at all this past 00:22:47.579 --> 00:22:54.059 week in America, lots and lots of people are crying out, what happened to our country's morals? 00:22:55.319 --> 00:23:01.860 Right? And basically, there's a process. One generation believed the gospel and believed its 00:23:01.860 --> 00:23:07.740 implications. The next generation sort of believes the gospels, follows its implications, 00:23:07.740 --> 00:23:13.620 but doesn't teach the next generation what the gospel is. And then all of a sudden, you have a 00:23:13.620 --> 00:23:20.940 generation that forgets God, and our behavior is just reflecting the fact that we don't believe in 00:23:20.940 --> 00:23:27.859 God anymore. That's the pattern in the world that's so, so common. And that's why, one of the reasons why 00:23:27.859 --> 00:23:34.880 it's so important for us as the church to be explicit about the gospel, to be clear and repetitive 00:23:34.880 --> 00:23:40.920 in telling the next generation about the gospel because the stakes are literally life and death. 00:23:43.420 --> 00:23:52.420 It's literally a matter of whether people will know God for eternity or be separated from him forever. 00:23:53.800 --> 00:24:01.500 So if you're a parent, I cannot urge you enough, please talk to your kids about the gospel. 00:24:01.500 --> 00:24:08.960 Be clear about it. Don't just assume that spending time at church each week will get it through to them. 00:24:09.619 --> 00:24:13.720 Like, think about it. I'm in charge of the youth here. When we have the kids in class, 00:24:13.900 --> 00:24:18.880 we try very, very hard to teach them God's truth, and the kids' ministry does too. 00:24:19.940 --> 00:24:22.920 But the thing is, we have them in class for maybe 45 minutes a week. 00:24:22.920 --> 00:24:28.519 And then outside, there's 167 hours that you guys are in charge of. 00:24:30.000 --> 00:24:35.880 And if we're teaching them God's truth for 45 minutes a week, and then they spend 167 hours a week 00:24:35.880 --> 00:24:40.500 having a different message taught to them, which one's going to stick? 00:24:42.240 --> 00:24:47.920 And so please, if you're a parent, talk with your kids about the gospel. Reinforce what they're 00:24:47.920 --> 00:24:54.320 learning here. And if you have youth-age kids, we actually have our youth lessons parallel what 00:24:54.320 --> 00:24:58.580 the sermon is on, so that it's very easy for you to talk to your kids, because you've just heard 00:24:58.580 --> 00:25:04.279 about the same thing. And if you don't feel comfortable talking to your kids, or you feel like 00:25:04.279 --> 00:25:09.120 you aren't mature enough yourself, please come talk to me or Chris Thornton after service, 00:25:09.220 --> 00:25:14.759 and we would love to talk with you about how we can get you equipped, and how we can get you to the 00:25:14.759 --> 00:25:20.500 point where you're ready to do that. Because passing on the gospel, this good news of what 00:25:20.500 --> 00:25:28.019 Jesus has done for us to the next generation, is incredibly important. And if we don't believe 00:25:28.019 --> 00:25:33.379 that yet, let's look at what happens to the Israelites when they forget. Jump to verse 10. 00:25:33.379 --> 00:25:38.299 All the generation were gathered to their fathers. There arose another generation after them who did 00:25:38.299 --> 00:25:43.460 not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel. And the people of Israel did what was evil 00:25:43.460 --> 00:25:48.180 in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals. And they abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers, 00:25:48.180 --> 00:25:53.340 who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They went after other gods from among the gods of 00:25:53.340 --> 00:25:58.440 the peoples who were around them, and bowed down to them, and they provoked the Lord to anger. 00:25:59.059 --> 00:26:02.299 They abandoned the Lord and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth. 00:26:04.400 --> 00:26:08.200 When they forget the gospel, they abandon the God of the gospel. 00:26:08.200 --> 00:26:18.100 And each of us is created and designed to worship. Each of us needs to worship. So when we reject the 00:26:18.100 --> 00:26:24.240 God of the gospel, when we stop worshiping the true God, there's a worship void, a worship vacuum 00:26:24.240 --> 00:26:30.360 in our hearts, and we fill it with something else. With the Israelites, they filled it with Baal and 00:26:30.360 --> 00:26:36.680 Ashtaroth, which were basically just false gods that the nations around them worshiped. Every individual 00:26:36.680 --> 00:26:41.000 city had their own Baal, it looked a little different in each city and really just reflected 00:26:41.000 --> 00:26:47.560 the culture of the people there. There were two main things that every one of the Baals had in common. 00:26:48.720 --> 00:26:56.140 First, if you wanted to be economically comfortable, you needed to worship Baal. Because the people in 00:26:56.140 --> 00:27:02.160 those days, as part of doing business with you, they would make sure that you worshipped the same God as 00:27:02.160 --> 00:27:07.680 them. So if you wanted to do a business deal, you might have to like make a sacrifice or bow down to 00:27:07.680 --> 00:27:15.960 their God. Which seems really archaic, but I think is actually way too prevalent in today's world too. 00:27:17.160 --> 00:27:24.840 Think about how many bosses in Hong Kong require their employees to bend the rules just a little bit 00:27:24.839 --> 00:27:33.079 for the God of money. How many Christians are willing to just go along with that because 00:27:33.079 --> 00:27:41.480 that's what it takes to make a profit in today's world. How many schools in Hong Kong require their 00:27:41.480 --> 00:27:48.000 teachers to teach the school's stance on sexuality, even if that's wildly different than the Bible's 00:27:48.000 --> 00:27:53.980 stance? And how many teachers are willing to compromise what they're teaching in order to get 00:27:53.980 --> 00:28:02.059 these jobs at these prestigious top schools? How many jobs just have rules that you have to work crazy 00:28:02.059 --> 00:28:09.740 long hours and reject your family, forsake your family for the sake of the God of money? And how many 00:28:09.740 --> 00:28:18.519 Christians in Hong Kong follow that God rather than prioritizing the God of the Bible and their families? 00:28:18.519 --> 00:28:26.599 It's the same thing today, just packaged a little bit differently. If you want to serve, if you want to be 00:28:26.599 --> 00:28:33.960 economically comfortable in Hong Kong, in some way you're probably going to have to serve the gods of Hong Kong. 00:28:35.160 --> 00:28:40.119 It's not an idol that you can bow down to necessarily all the time. It might be money, it might be power. 00:28:40.119 --> 00:28:47.399 But generally, if we want to be economically comfortable, it's going to require compromise in some way. 00:28:47.399 --> 00:28:53.959 Not always. There are plenty of great ways that you can make a huge profit and provide for your family 00:28:53.959 --> 00:29:02.279 without compromising. But there are also many, many, many ways where the culture calls us to compromise 00:29:02.279 --> 00:29:08.359 for the sake of fitting in and being comfortable. The second thing that the Baals had in common 00:29:08.359 --> 00:29:14.839 is that they were fertility gods. They were storm gods. And so what would happen in worship of Baal is 00:29:14.839 --> 00:29:20.519 you would come into the Baal's temple and you would have sex. Because they believed that if you had sex 00:29:20.519 --> 00:29:27.879 in front of Baal, then Baal would imitate you and make your crops grow. And so what happened in Israel 00:29:27.880 --> 00:29:34.120 when they turned from God and they turned to Baal, they did it for the sake of economic comfort and 00:29:34.120 --> 00:29:41.880 sexual liberation. Worshipping Baal rather than God was comfortable, it was easy, it allowed them to live 00:29:41.880 --> 00:29:49.720 very comfortable lives economically, sexually, they could have fun, they could enjoy life. Nothing was wrong. 00:29:50.920 --> 00:29:55.640 Except for the fact that they had rejected God and were now under his wrath. 00:29:55.640 --> 00:29:57.720 It says, 00:29:57.720 --> 00:30:03.560 The anger of the Lord, verse 14, was kindled against them and he gave them over to plunderers who plundered 00:30:03.560 --> 00:30:08.360 them. He sold them into the hand of their surrounding enemies so that they could no longer withstand 00:30:08.360 --> 00:30:14.600 their enemies. Whenever they marched out, the hand of the Lord was against them for harm, as the Lord had warned, 00:30:14.600 --> 00:30:20.520 and as the Lord had sworn to them, and they were in terrible distress. This is the third picture up there. 00:30:20.519 --> 00:30:28.680 The consequences, the death. Israel turned from God. Israel forsook God, despite all of the great 00:30:28.680 --> 00:30:33.879 salvation that he had brought to them, and they turned and instead worshipped the idols of the nations 00:30:33.879 --> 00:30:43.000 around them, and God was angry and God sent consequences. God is just. God can't let our 00:30:43.000 --> 00:30:49.799 rebellion or their rebellion go unpunished. And so their idolatry led to slavery. It's always the 00:30:49.799 --> 00:30:55.720 pattern in our lives. When we turn to something other than God to satisfy what only God can satisfy, 00:30:55.720 --> 00:31:03.559 it always leaves us enslaved. Because our idols, whether that's money, sex, comfort, power, whatever, 00:31:03.559 --> 00:31:10.519 can never follow through on the promises that they hold out to us. And they always constantly demand 00:31:10.519 --> 00:31:17.159 more and more and more and make us their slaves and never follow through with their promises. 00:31:18.599 --> 00:31:24.440 The great irony of Israel here is that the nations that took them captive are the same nations whose gods 00:31:24.440 --> 00:31:31.879 they were worshipping rather than the true God. They thought that by blending in and fitting in, 00:31:31.880 --> 00:31:36.360 they'd have true freedom. And yet they ended up as slaves. 00:31:39.240 --> 00:31:42.840 And then we see an incredible response from God in verse 16. 00:31:43.560 --> 00:31:47.720 Then the Lord raised up judges who saved them out of the hand of those who plundered them. 00:31:49.480 --> 00:31:56.360 In Israel's suffering, in Israel's time of need, God doesn't stand back and say, well, you deserve it. 00:31:56.359 --> 00:32:04.919 God sends rescuers. God sends saviors to free his people from the hand of the captors. 00:32:06.279 --> 00:32:12.599 God doesn't say, I'll save you when you fix yourselves. God says, I'll save you because I love you. 00:32:13.240 --> 00:32:20.119 Because that's my nature. I'm gracious. I'm forgiving. And so I'm going to give you another chance. And 00:32:20.119 --> 00:32:24.839 throughout the book of Judges, this cycle is going to happen again and again and again. Israel forgets God. 00:32:24.839 --> 00:32:31.399 Israel turns from God. Israel follows idols. They disobey God. He sends them into captivity or into 00:32:31.399 --> 00:32:39.879 the hands of plunderers. And then he rescues them. And it's so often that our lives follow a very 00:32:39.879 --> 00:32:47.480 similar pattern. And remember, with Judges, each of the rescuers that God sends is a mini picture of 00:32:47.480 --> 00:32:54.920 what Jesus ultimately is going to do for us. Someone who comes in. Someone who saves and rescues. 00:32:55.720 --> 00:33:01.720 But with the Judges, they're not quite there. They're also fallen. They're also making mistakes. 00:33:01.720 --> 00:33:05.400 And the further you get into the book of Judges, the more mistakes each ruler will make. 00:33:05.400 --> 00:33:13.160 And the more hungry each of them is intended to leave us for Jesus, the true ruler, who will come 00:33:13.160 --> 00:33:19.160 in and truly deal with our greatest enemy and our greatest captor, sin and death. 00:33:19.160 --> 00:33:25.880 So I want to spend the rest of our time together today talking about how this story connects to our 00:33:25.880 --> 00:33:34.040 world. There's a couple things I want to see. The first is that we need to remember the gospel and 00:33:34.040 --> 00:33:42.440 that we need to let that lead us to worship. We need to remember the gospel. God's pattern is that 00:33:42.440 --> 00:33:48.200 he saves us first and then calls us to follow him. And if we forget what he has done to save us, 00:33:49.799 --> 00:33:56.519 it's only a matter of time before we turn completely away from him. Israel had this amazing 00:33:56.519 --> 00:34:02.200 salvation experience where a million people were led out of slavery in a foreign land through the 00:34:02.200 --> 00:34:08.920 desert and into their own land. Yet within a hundred years, they'd forgotten. 00:34:12.440 --> 00:34:19.800 The grandkids of the people who had been brought out of Egypt turned away from God. 00:34:21.639 --> 00:34:29.460 It doesn't take long. It doesn't happen overnight, but it doesn't take long. And we are constantly 00:34:29.460 --> 00:34:34.940 in danger of being one or two generations away from forgetting the gospel. 00:34:34.940 --> 00:34:46.619 And it's so important, I can't stress enough, to pass on this message and to remember it in our own 00:34:46.619 --> 00:34:52.940 lives. You know, the crazy thing is for the Israelites here, they saw God rescue them and they saw God 00:34:52.940 --> 00:35:02.059 forgive them again and again and again. And they understood that God was just. But for us, we live in a time 00:35:02.059 --> 00:35:08.219 where we can see how God is able to forgive us over and over and over again and maintain his justice. 00:35:10.139 --> 00:35:14.940 And the way that he does that is by taking all of his anger towards us and our sin 00:35:16.059 --> 00:35:23.980 and pouring it out on Jesus on the cross. The way that God is able to be just and to forgive us is by 00:35:23.980 --> 00:35:33.179 taking all of the justice that we deserve and pouring it on himself. Israel had a great and amazing salvation 00:35:33.179 --> 00:35:39.659 when they were rescued from Egypt. But our salvation through Jesus is so much better. 00:35:39.659 --> 00:35:50.940 The way that God has rescued us, the way that God has sacrificed himself and poured out his wrath on himself 00:35:50.940 --> 00:36:00.699 for us is so much better. And if it was important for Israel to remember the way that God had saved them 00:36:00.699 --> 00:36:05.659 from Egypt, it is so much more important for us to remember now. 00:36:05.659 --> 00:36:08.539 The way that God saves us from our sins. 00:36:10.539 --> 00:36:14.460 This needs to lead us to worship. And I'm not talking about just singing songs. 00:36:14.460 --> 00:36:22.619 I'm talking about living lives that reflect how powerful and amazing and glorious this God is who would rescue us 00:36:22.619 --> 00:36:23.419 in such a way. 00:36:23.420 --> 00:36:31.659 Because if we don't let that lead us to worship, our lives, our hearts are programmed for worship. 00:36:33.099 --> 00:36:35.740 There's a famous theologian named John Calvin and he said, 00:36:36.300 --> 00:36:43.980 our hearts are idol factories. Our hearts desire so badly to worship something that if there's nothing 00:36:43.980 --> 00:36:50.220 in there to worship, they will create new gods out of stuff that is not God so that we can worship something. 00:36:50.219 --> 00:36:57.339 Our hearts are idol factories. If we don't let the gospel lead us to worship in God, 00:36:59.339 --> 00:37:05.259 we will turn from God and worship something else that will drive us away from God. 00:37:06.139 --> 00:37:13.419 So we need to remember the gospel. We need to let the gospel lead us to worship. And we need to pass on 00:37:13.420 --> 00:37:22.619 the gospel to the next generation. Please never, ever assume that the kids understand it. 00:37:23.659 --> 00:37:27.659 Or that your friends understand it. Be explicit when we talk about it. 00:37:27.659 --> 00:37:33.900 Clarify over and over and over again because repetition is the key to learning, especially for little kids. 00:37:33.900 --> 00:37:43.579 But they need to hear it again and again and again. And if we are not intentional about passing on this message to the next generation, 00:37:44.780 --> 00:37:48.780 there's so many other things in the world today that are dragging them and pulling them 00:37:49.579 --> 00:37:55.820 in other directions that they will be like this third generation in the story today. 00:37:55.820 --> 00:38:06.220 And so I know not all of us have children. That doesn't exclude us from the need to be involved in the lives of the next generation. 00:38:07.180 --> 00:38:13.500 If you're a parent, you have an incredible, special privilege to impact your kids' lives in a way that no one else gets to. 00:38:13.500 --> 00:38:21.659 You get to live with your kids day in and day out. You get to teach them in ways that no one else can teach them. 00:38:21.659 --> 00:38:26.219 You get to model for them things that no one else gets to model for them. 00:38:28.059 --> 00:38:29.739 There's a pastor in the States. He says, 00:38:30.460 --> 00:38:32.780 as a parent, your greatest job 00:38:34.940 --> 00:38:37.739 is to prepare your kids for the day of judgment. 00:38:37.739 --> 00:38:51.500 How are we doing with that? 00:38:53.819 --> 00:39:01.339 I know in my life, probably the greatest influence on my faith, the thing that made the biggest impact 00:39:01.339 --> 00:39:05.659 on me being where I am today in my relationship with God is having parents who loved God, 00:39:06.299 --> 00:39:11.259 who modeled lives transformed by the gospel to me, and who encouraged me to trust in him. 00:39:13.259 --> 00:39:18.619 And it's my hope that someday every parent in here could have kids who say the same thing about us. 00:39:21.339 --> 00:39:27.259 That the reason that they are walking with God is because they have parents who modeled to them 00:39:28.699 --> 00:39:33.899 what it looks like to walk with God and who encouraged them to pursue that in their own lives. 00:39:33.900 --> 00:39:37.420 And if we're not parents, 00:39:39.980 --> 00:39:44.700 we have a unique opportunity to connect with the kids in the church and the teens in the church. 00:39:45.420 --> 00:39:50.539 Did you know that one of the greatest predictors of whether kids will stay in church after they graduate from high school 00:39:50.539 --> 00:39:53.340 is whether or not they have relationships with the adults in the church? 00:39:55.500 --> 00:40:00.860 One of the greatest indicators of whether kids will stay in church after they graduate from high school 00:40:00.860 --> 00:40:04.219 is whether or not they have relationships with the adults in the church. 00:40:04.219 --> 00:40:11.739 You taking the time to build a relationship with one of the kids or one of the teens or one of the university students 00:40:11.739 --> 00:40:16.059 can literally make the difference in whether they stay in church or not after they graduate. 00:40:16.059 --> 00:40:23.659 And with every kid, every teen, there comes a time in their life where they don't want to listen to mom and dad. 00:40:24.940 --> 00:40:27.659 And they need to talk to other people about their problems in life. 00:40:28.539 --> 00:40:33.980 And you having a relationship with them in that time can be the difference between them seeking godly counsel 00:40:33.980 --> 00:40:39.740 and them turning to the world for advice in that hour of need for counsel. 00:40:41.980 --> 00:40:43.539 A few weeks ago, Tobin asked, 00:40:43.539 --> 00:40:47.980 if every person used their singleness in the church in the way that all of the singles use it, 00:40:48.699 --> 00:40:49.880 how healthy would the church be? 00:40:50.579 --> 00:40:51.760 I guess the question today is, 00:40:51.840 --> 00:40:57.539 if every non-parent used their freedom from having kids in the way that you use it, 00:40:57.659 --> 00:40:58.440 if you're not a parent, 00:40:59.260 --> 00:41:00.900 how healthy would the church be? 00:41:04.940 --> 00:41:09.099 Parents, how intentional are you being about connecting your kids with other adults in the church 00:41:09.099 --> 00:41:10.960 and trying to have them build relationships with them? 00:41:13.199 --> 00:41:18.139 Non-parents, how intentional are you being about reaching out to other people in the church 00:41:18.139 --> 00:41:21.039 and building relationships and pointing them towards Christ? 00:41:23.539 --> 00:41:25.900 And I know it's not just the kids, it's not just the youth. 00:41:26.000 --> 00:41:29.800 People my age and even older also need people to come into our lives. 00:41:30.460 --> 00:41:33.960 Maybe not necessarily older people, but more mature people who can come alongside us 00:41:33.960 --> 00:41:36.159 and remind us of the gospel. 00:41:38.099 --> 00:41:40.480 The goal isn't just to focus on the kids. 00:41:40.480 --> 00:41:43.820 The goal is to focus outside ourselves on each other 00:41:43.820 --> 00:41:46.760 and point one another towards Christ and build one another up 00:41:46.760 --> 00:41:49.300 so that we as a church don't forget. 00:41:49.440 --> 00:41:50.780 So that 20 years down the road, 00:41:51.880 --> 00:41:54.760 Watermark's not a church that's totally forgotten the gospel. 00:41:54.760 --> 00:41:59.520 And so in recap, 00:42:00.100 --> 00:42:02.080 God made the world good. 00:42:03.760 --> 00:42:05.020 Israel turned against him. 00:42:05.480 --> 00:42:06.600 We've turned against him. 00:42:08.640 --> 00:42:09.640 God is just. 00:42:09.780 --> 00:42:11.220 He can't let our sin go on forever. 00:42:14.620 --> 00:42:16.700 But God is also a God who saves. 00:42:18.340 --> 00:42:19.960 God is a God who rescues. 00:42:19.960 --> 00:42:20.679 God is a God who saves us. 00:42:21.280 --> 00:42:22.760 How are we going to respond to that? 00:42:24.179 --> 00:42:26.360 Are we going to take that for granted? 00:42:27.639 --> 00:42:29.619 Not let it awe us? 00:42:29.880 --> 00:42:33.500 Not let it inspire us to have lives of worship? 00:42:34.559 --> 00:42:38.059 Or are we going to have our lives radically transformed by this gospel, 00:42:38.179 --> 00:42:40.960 by this good news of what God has done for us? 00:42:41.119 --> 00:42:42.900 Are we going to pass it on to the next generation 00:42:42.900 --> 00:42:47.480 so that they too can remember how great and amazing this God is? 00:42:47.480 --> 00:42:49.840 At the end of the day, 00:42:49.880 --> 00:42:51.219 there's really only two ways to live. 00:42:52.139 --> 00:42:52.820 Our way, 00:42:53.460 --> 00:42:54.579 following our desires, 00:42:54.960 --> 00:42:56.139 which leads to death. 00:42:57.679 --> 00:42:58.599 Or God's way, 00:42:59.519 --> 00:43:00.579 submitted to his rule, 00:43:01.480 --> 00:43:02.260 trusting in him, 00:43:02.780 --> 00:43:04.179 and living obediently to him. 00:43:05.300 --> 00:43:06.420 Which way are we going to live? 00:43:07.719 --> 00:43:08.300 Let's pray. 00:43:09.619 --> 00:43:11.280 God, we thank you for your love. 00:43:11.360 --> 00:43:13.960 We thank you for your grace and your salvation. 00:43:13.960 --> 00:43:17.619 And how even when we had rebelled, 00:43:18.179 --> 00:43:21.159 you saved us at great cost to yourself. 00:43:22.220 --> 00:43:28.019 God, we pray that each of us would respond properly to that amazing good news. 00:43:28.579 --> 00:43:34.460 That each of us would have lives of worship that reflect how amazing you are to the world around us. 00:43:34.900 --> 00:43:38.240 That we'd be intentional about spreading this message to the next generation. 00:43:38.239 --> 00:43:43.019 That we'd be intentional about living out the truths of this message in our own lives. 00:43:43.099 --> 00:43:45.119 That we wouldn't be complacent or confused. 00:43:45.779 --> 00:43:47.879 That we would be committed to you. 00:43:49.559 --> 00:43:50.639 God, we thank you. 00:43:51.179 --> 00:43:51.959 We love you. 00:43:52.799 --> 00:43:53.839 In Jesus' name, amen.