This recording is from Christ Kingdom Church in Avalon Park, Orlando. Visit us online at ChristKingdom.org for our calendar driving directions and more audio recordings. Well, we are wrapping up judges, believe it or not. Right now this morning we've gone through 21 or we will after today, gone through 21 chapters, which is pretty amazing on this. We're going to do some things a little bit different. We hear this morning and how we're going to do it. One, I'm going to give you all the outline answers that are in your bulletin to start with. And then we're going to use the entire story to guide us through thinking about that. And we're going to even do some other things this morning. But to begin with, I need two volunteers. I need one, at least one of the two volunteers has to have a watch. But I need two volunteers that will help me this morning. And it could be even a little bit fun. Dan is volunteering thinking anything to spice up this sermon. Yeah, all right. I got Dan Haughton who has a watch. Anybody that will join Dan Haughton? He's not scary. I saw that hand. Were you volunteering Aaron? Aaron wasn't Aaron's a friend of mine. So I just picked on him real quick there. Other, I need another one. Oh, Charles Bell. All right. So Dan and Charles, you get to get up right now. Right now get your coffee to Kim. I should finish it for you. You're going to take my car keys before you get too excited. I left something in the trunk. It's for you. You guys will go out the door. The blue toy to have one close to one of the building there. You'll retrieve a clock from the trunk. There's batteries for the clock, the batteries and the clocks at the time of the clock correctly. And then stand by that door until you're ushered to come back in. You guys got it? I do know the odometer mileage of the car. All right. So Dan and Charles are off on their most excellent adventure as they head out there. But as we look at judges here this morning and we kind of wrap it up and tie it all up here together, let us be reminded one more time. And you'll help me with this. What is the purpose of the book of judges? No PowerPoint this morning. You have to remember this on your own. What is the purpose? We said it every single week the entire fall. Oh, there is one. She stuck it up there anyway. All right, cheat sheet. How about let's read it together. In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. Now if somebody has already turned a judges 19, well somebody read judges 191, the very first section of the section that we're looking at today. Somebody read just the first sentence of 191 out loud. In those days Israel had no king. So this beginning of this section last part of the book of judges starts off in those days there was no king. And what is the very last verse in this section we're talking about? We just read it. Now don't miss this. The writer here is saying, all right, just a reminder in those days there's no king. And the very last thing he's going to say in these three chapters is there was no king. Everyone's doing right in their own eyes. So everything about this is kind of bringing together this entire book and giving you one last plug to say don't miss it. There was no king in those days. And what was the problem? Everyone was doing what was right in their own eyes. Now as Joe talked about last week, this section like the one he did last week, this is not going on chronological order. This happened earlier on in the book of judges, somewhere during one of the reigns of one of the judges. But nevertheless the writer, specifically putting all these details here at the end because he wants to summarize and make one last big point to make sure you and me don't miss it. So let me help you right now. You got that outline in your bulletin. I'm going to give you the answer so that real quick because I want this to overshadow everything we do this morning. Number one says, and you should fill in the blank if you're into that kind of thing. Everyone wants a kingdom without a king. Everyone wants a kingdom without a king. And I'll explain what I mean by that through the rest of our time. Number two, no one gets a kingdom without the king. Sorry for the typo, it should be without in your outline. So number one, everyone wants a kingdom without a king. And number two, no one gets a kingdom without the king. Now I'm going to explain what I mean about that throughout the entire service there. Look, they're there, they're ready, they're handy. Actually, Marcus, go over there and tell them too that I need them not to be able to see what I'm doing in here because I'm going to bring them back in in a second. So tell them to pretend like they're warm and not look in. You know, I would feel really bad if it wasn't Charles and Dan out there, but I don't feel bad at all. All right, what do I mean by this? Here's what I mean. Let's just take those two statements slowly here. First off, you got to ask, you know, what's a kingdom? For me to say something, everyone wants a kingdom without a king. You know, you're obviously seeing that I have some real meaning behind what I think a kingdom is. And let me tell you what I think a kingdom represents. Okay, don't just think of empires and earthly kingdoms, but don't exclude that from that too. But realize that what makes really a kingdom a kingdom? Two main things. One is this glory, glory. If there is not glory, then you don't have a kingdom. Let's just be honest about it. And secondly, if there's not peace, you might have something that hopes to be a kingdom, but the proof that you have a real kingdom present is that there's peace. Let me explain what I mean by that. Okay, if you have, and we can look back at, like let's take for example, the Roman Empire, which was what was going on in the birth of Jesus Christ back 2000 years ago, the Roman Empire was the kingdom, the prevalent kingdom over all the earth at the time. But what was proof of that? Number one, glory. This was the land that was bountiful and plentiful. And what else was going on with that? Peace. They had subdued the world. And even though they were putting out little squirmishes here and there, during the period of time in its height, peace. And we established it, we acknowledged it as an incredible empire in kingdom because they had conquered the enemy. And they were ruling over like little nations like Israel, and they had subdued the enemies around them. So if you don't have glory, if you don't have something that's truly glorious, power, prestige, honor, wealth, you can name the different things that would be a part of that beauty, excellence, leadership that's honorable. If you don't have glory, you don't have a kingdom. And if you don't have peace, you might have a wishful kingdom, but you don't have a kingdom either. You've got to have glory, you've got to have peace. And when those two things are present, you can pick whatever kingdom you want throughout history, but you can look back at it and go, there was a kingdom at that time. Maybe that kingdom doesn't exist anymore, maybe it's passed away, but you can establish and look at it because of its period of glory and peace. Key distinctions about that. Well, let me talk for a second here about that first part of number one. Everyone wants a kingdom. What do I mean by once a kingdom? Every person, and I believe it's a human reality. Every single human being, you and me, is created with a desire for glory and a desire for peace. Let me make sure you understand how every person ate off Hitler as a young child, had a desire for glory and for peace ultimately. Mother Teresa about the other extreme I can go, had was born as a child and had a desire for glory and for peace. Both went about it two completely different directions, but in their core as being human beings. And you might debate the humanists of one of them at their core. It was part of who they were were and who they were created to be, because they're made in the image of God. Now the paths that were taken were completely different. And even the path in the short term and the temporary of one looked to be more glorious and ultimately the goal was to for Hitler was to oppress and to dominate the world. He was shooting for peace, but peace on his terms. Now he knew it was going to take battles to get but that was his goal, world domination. The path was completely different than somebody else who in the short term maybe didn't seem so glorious, but who in the long term has no question in the minds and hearts of women, men and women around the world of a glorious representation of a life. I can't think of two people probably more extreme than those two, but in the nature of who they were, they both had the exact same desires. They both have the exact same fears, but the paths that were taken were radically different. And I want you to think about that that you are just the same. You have a desire for glory. Think about it, you have a desire for honor. Who doesn't want to be honored? Who even desire for significance in your life? That goes along with glory. You have a desire for beauty. You want to be spent so much time trying to make ourselves beautiful. But you know what else? You want to hang around people that are beautiful. You want to go look at things that are beautiful. You want to read stories and books that are beautiful. You want to be around beauty. You desire excellence. Why? Because there's something glorious about it. It's in each of us. But not only that, you seek peace as well. And what is peace? Well, peace is anything. Okay? Or I should say, what is a threat to our peace? Is anything that's a threat to glory? And here's, I want to illustrate this a little bit here using the clipboard. This is what I don't want these guys to see. Which I will in a second. I want you to think right now. Just go, run with what I'm saying. I think most of you would agree anyway. But run with it even if you don't completely agreed to say, all right, we all are seeking glory. We're all are seeking peace. And if you're thinking about that, what are the things that I mentioned some that are most glorious about life that every single human being is looking for? Give me some. What is it we're seeking when we say we're seeking glory? What's glorious? Relationships. What else? Prestige. Prestige? It's kind of like honor. We talked about. What else? Excellence. You said that already, too. Feel free to wander off some of the things I've said. You can think of others maybe. Anything. What? Success. That's glorious. Power. Knowledge. Harmony. Victory. You guys are getting hot now. Purpose. Beauty. Love. Malike truth. I might go for joy. It's just a season, all right. We've got a sampling here, just a sampling here. All these things are glorious. All of us seek to be a part of this and to be around it. I mean, think about it right now. I was just looking when I was this morning at Panera Bread, reviewing and brushing up here about how much Florida Gator paraphernalia there was this morning. There's one guy that I see there every single week. And as long as the Gators win, he comes. When the Gators don't win, he's not there. Honestly, that's been truthful last two or three years. I don't know the guy's name, but I know exactly who he is. And he's always in Gators paraphernalia unless they lose and they didn't come. But what is it? What is it about that? Well, you think you got a team that obviously beat the number one team going on in the national championship. And you know, they're not. It's not my team, but you know who you are. It's something glorious about being a part of something that's successful. Something that has honor. And if you're a football fan, you have to admit that the national title has been a title, has honor to it. And people want to be a part of it. And that's why people will start buying gator stuff. Even if they're not gator fans because the team looks like it's going places. And you want to be a part of that. And you want to be associated with that. Good. Arise track with me so far here. Here is the problem. The Bible goes on and says not just do we seek glory, not only do we just seek peace. And by the way, here's a definition of peace keeping anything that threatens any of these. When you have eliminated or kept at bay, anything that threatens any of these, that's your definition of peace. That's it. Peace is having these ruling and dominating. And your fear is your core fear is anything that wants to threaten these. What could threaten them? Poverty? Broken relationships? Depression? Depression? Disease? Throwing off things about my mind? Anything can threaten these things. Death of a loved one? Lost job? foreclosure? You name it. And when those are put to suppression or those are eliminated, you experience peace. The glory, the peace, and you are created this way. But here's where the problem exists. The problem is this according to the Bible. The problem is that in the midst of this situation, the Bible says that our natural design by God was distorted. Our natural design by God was distorted so that what you look for and what you think is glorious. It's there because it's part of who you are, but it's a little bit less clear. I'm sorry for those sitting over here. It's a little bit less clear. It's a little bit more glorious and what is not. Marcus, will you please ask just one of our volunteers to come back in the room? Clock can come later. Everybody tracking with me? Are they gone? Can you call for them? Come here. All right. I will have a talk with these two later. Look. Okay. There's one coming. They've been hanging out there in the hallway. We're going to put Charles. It's Charles. Let's get Charles a hand. Charles. All right. Charles, actually, well, I'll take the clock, but just stand right back there by Ted Solwick. And the thing here, I need you to help me hear something. Charles, please read anything and everything that you can from this. And you can make a close guess if you want to. Any words phrases that you see? Any guesses? Okay. Any other guesses? All right. Did a great job. Have a seat. What? Yeah. What? Just give me a rough percentage. How? How percentage close did you think he got based on our list? I hear ten. Twenty. Three. Three percent. Oh, thanks, Mike. All right. So between three and twenty is what I'm hearing from the group here. Now, most of you, looking at the big picture, all of you go, that's not too bad based on what he has to look at. Based on what he has to work from, let me ask you this. How good are you think you are in looking at others and looking at your own lives, especially in determining what you're really living for. And in your understanding of what is ultimately glorious, how good are you picking that out in your own life? How effective are you? Are you 20 percent? Are you 3 percent? The Bible is saying, you have a distorted picture because of sin. And the story we're about to read about in judges, you'll see it really clearly. You have a distorted view. The things that you deep down and you want and you're looking for, there's something really true there. But the way you're going about doing it, you're really missing something. Or you heard Charles say, edge. Can you imagine? How many people in life are going, edge? Edge is what I know I'm longing for in life. Edge. Because I can see it. I can see my natural desire for edge. People, they want to be on the cutting edge or whatever. People are looking at that because you know what, this is what you can see. But if you think your view is not distorted, then of course you're going to come to this conclusion that edge is what you're really missing. But, and Marcus, please get our other volunteer. If you've got the clear picture, and I didn't write it that clearly, let's see how he does. All right, Dan, come stand right back here by Ted Solwick and Ernie Jones, right there in the hall, or walk away. All right, I want you to read anything and everything that you can recognize on this as many of the words you can. All right, Dan, you're good. You can have a seat. Yeah, Dan. The Bible says that Jesus Christ comes, and he reallines the distortion by changing what the Bible says was total depravity, a depraved mind, a depraved heart, a distorted heart, that on its own thinks edge is what you're really living for. But what does this say, Dan? Knowledge. If you think you're looking for edge, and you're really looking for knowledge, you might really end up pretty depressed in life, because you thought it was all about edge. But you missed the full picture, no, it was knowledge. All right, dumb example, but I'm wanting you guys to get it crystal clear of what it means when we talk about there's a kingdom. And when we say that everyone wants a kingdom, everyone wants glory. And you know what, everyone wants peace. Don't threaten what I know is glorious. Everyone wants that. Everyone wants the kingdom. But I don't want the king. This is the point. This is the point of this book in the Bible. And this is the point, by the way, of Christmas. But notice the second part. Nobody experiences or gets the kingdom without the king. It takes the king to be able to establish this. Because without a king, you will do what you think is right in your own eyes. With a distorted view, you'll do what you think is right in your own eyes. Case in point. Judges, let's go through the story. Judges, chapter 19, verses 21. I'm going to summarize things here. You can fall along. You want. We're not going to read through it because it's so long here. But I want you to see and recognize the same factors in this story. And then I want you to go a little deeper. Be bold enough to let your own story be exposed. And be thinking, man, am I like that? Do I have a propensity like that? Be honest, be real. And if you are, I think God will meet you in a special way as we continue going. Well, this story starts off with a Levite. Just like the last story had been talking about a Levite. A Levite, part of the priestly line, somebody that should be a man of integrity, a man moving forward. And in this particular story, he goes forward in this and he takes on a concubine. Now it's not necessarily anything wrong with that. That often was happened there. But we're not told anywhere in the story that he had a wife also. Because usually a man would take on a wife, maybe even a second wife, and then there'd be concubines that follow. But concubines had less legal rights than a wife did. And so it was very strategic sometimes for men to want to entertain the whole concubine relationship without the real marital vows that come with a wife. But best that we know here, he's not even interested in marital vows. He just wants a concubine. So if you're not looking inside of this here, inside of it, from the very beginning here, you've got a guy that's looking for what he has to get out of it, not what he has to put into it or his responsibility. We're told in this story here too, not only that soon after this, we're told the concubine has an adulterous affair with him. So not only did he pick a concubine, he picked a poor one. One that wasn't going to be faithful to him. And maybe one that read right through him that really wasn't going to, wasn't concerned about her. And before we think too badly about some mistress woman going out there, remember there's always a man. Some man that she was having an affair with as well too. So you've got a concubine to not married man. You've got an adulterous concubine. And then this story starts off in chapter 19, he goes on. And after several months were told, not right away, but just after several months maybe he was lonely. He decided to pursue after her and go after her. And not with the law of Moses following beside him. Because at this time the law of Moses would have said she is worthy of being stoned and the one that she had an affair with. Not that at all. Just goes off pursuing her is like, well, she's mine. I need to reel her back in. He just goes off, lonely pursuing her. But no regard for God and his character and his authority in this. But it seemed right in his own eyes. And then going on in the story too, we're told that after he gets her back in his possession, we're told that he goes on a journey with his servant in his concubine. And they end up wanting to come across the first city and the servant says, hey, we're tired. Why don't we turn in here? And he's like, nah, that's not part of our people. That's not part of the Israel tribe. We're going to go a little bit farther. We're going to go all the way to the people of Givia, which were part of the clan of the Benjaminites. Benjamin, one of the sons, they're part of the Israelite tribes. So he said, no, let's not go there. You don't want to stay in a foreign city. You want to go and stay with your own people. So he goes on with this concubine, with this servant to this town. But nobody will take him in. Now, if you look at it with modern eyes, you might think, well, yeah, who would? You don't know this guy as a stranger. Would you take a stranger in your own house? Yes, you would in the days of Israel. Why? It was actually part of the law of God. To be hospitable was part of God's decree and God's requirement to his people. Especially these are your brothers. These are your brothers, children. These are your relatives. And we're told that they go in and nobody takes them in. And they're camped out in the town square of this little town of Givia. What does that mean? That's basically advertising. Hey, we have no place to go. We're just camping out here waiting for somebody to take us in. And who takes them in? A stranger. A stranger coming back from another tribe who happens to be living in that city comes. And he says, hey, you guys come out of my place. He's the one that actually begins to act in the way that God had commanded them to. Has compassion, has sympathy, and part of his own relatives here in that. Are you in the picture of the decay that's present? First, not just in the family of this Levi, but the decay in this community that's present. Because people were doing whatever seemed right in their own eyes. And not only that, we're told that during the night after they just been relaxing and drinking and whatever else having a good time, they're told that finally the hospitality crew comes. And if you're familiar with the story, it's not the hospitality crew that anybody would have requested. Because we're told it's wicked men in the city. Wicked men in the city who come up and start banging on the door late at night saying, hey, you got a visitor in town, bring him out so we can have relations with him. Get the picture. Wicked men. Not the hospitality crew you're looking for. That's who comes. The owner of the house is like saying, hey, I've got a virgin daughter. Anything be better than wanting this man out here. Not good options either, but they're trying to figure out what they can do. And if you're in Israelite reading the story, what other story does this story begin to sound just like? You might think of it. Sodom and Gomorrah. What happened when the angels, these were messengers of God. The angels came and told a lot and you get out of the city. Wicked men in the city and came and said, hey, bring them in out to us. The writer is being very articulate here to make sure that Israelites are saying, you know what? This story, it sounds just like Sodom and Gomorrah, the most evil city that had ever existed at that time. And if you talk about Sodom, people would have gone, ooh, that place. The place that God with hail came down and destroyed by fire. And a lot barely escaped. That city. He's showing you just how decayed the society in the community had come to that. Well, he ends up basically kicking the concubine out, locking the door behind, and hoping for the best. And the concubine is abused all night long. And we're told that in the morning when he comes out, the graphic story, I'm sorry, but it's there. It's in the Bible. Her hands are on the threshold as though she was trying to get back in. But there's no answer. He tells her to get up in his compassion as her husband, you know, or her concubine's husband. To get up, we got to get on our way. And that author makes it real clear there was no response. Because she had died in the night. That's how bad things were. That's how a compassionate man he was as a Levite. That's what the hospitality had meant of the relatives and the people of God. That's the picture that you're getting here. Because men and women were doing whatever seemed right in their own eyes. And he's naturally mad as you can imagine. Probably not because of the broken relationship with this concubine, but because this was his property. So as he leaves, we're told that her body is divided up into 12 different parts and sent off to every tribe. Now, if you understand what this is going on in the middle, in this kind of mindset at this time, it was a big statement to say, look, this ought to get your attention. So that as a part came to a different tribe, of course, the story would come with it too of what had happened. And it was not only just to say, look, here's how bad of a thing that happened that everybody in this nation ought to be aware of. But it was also a challenge to say every tribe in this nation ought to come forward or this should happen to you if we don't come together as one. So it was serving a dual purpose to tell the story of what happened and say, look, may you be cursed just like this because this was a sign of cursing. May you be cursed if you don't come forward now as one voice to help rectify my injustice in a deal with the situation. Now, he forgets to leave out all the other details about how he had really put her in that position. But that wasn't strategic for him at the time. But things are getting worse and worse. And the writers making sure people realize that whatever seemed right in their own eyes was taking them down a very awful path. Well, the Benjaminites, the people there that give you this town were a part of, kind of step together as often family does with that. And the whole other tribes came together as one man were told. They came together to say, look, all right, enough's enough. You can't do this. And they come to the tribe of Benjamin and say, look, it's not all you guys, but it's the men in this town to give you a hand them over to us because we need to purge basically our country of this problem and these wicked men. And the people of Benjamin could have been like, hey, you got a good point. We're behind you on it. We don't want this part of our community either. But that's not what happens. The Benjaminites say, hey, look, these are our guys. And sorry, no, you can't have them. And so what ensues is a civil war. The other 11 tribes, mounting up against the one tribe of Benjamin, and Benjamin was no slouts tribe, had 700 men that were left handed. For those that are here and think it's a disadvantage to be a left handed, it wasn't in battle because every other soldier would hold his shield a right handed man on his left hand. And what side of his body was exposed the right side. If you're fighting up against a left handed man, he's got an advantage. And these are men that threw the sling. So you got to let me, it's kind of like baseball, right? You got a pitcher. You want the opposite handed guy throwing because he's got a better angle coming in with that. Or, you know, the advantages of the other angles when I'm talking about here that you have the advantage. They could take the sling and they could hit somebody. You know what they did. We're told that the first time, for the first battle that the other tribes say, hey, who should go at first to fight the battle? God says Judah. So Judah goes up, leads the way in and they get wiped out. The 11 tribes get wiped out by the one in the first battle. They come back and say, all right, we should probably do it again. And they go in for a second time and they get wiped out as well. And then finally, the 11 tribes are going like, hey, what's going on? God's got to be on our side, right? And you know what, for the first time in this entire story, somebody actually seeks God and God's will first. You know, the first question, how many times are you like me and do this? Their first question was in the first battle, even though they knew they were fighting for a just cause, was who should go first? Now, what question was missing that should have been asked before who should go first? What question? Should we go? Now, is there a problem here? I mean, it's kind of like, it'd be like your kids coming up for those of your parents and saying, Dad, what flavor ice cream should we get tonight? And then, you know, if you're like me as a dad, I'd be like, excuse me? Where did ice cream even come from? To jump to what flavor do you want versus, can we go get ice cream? There's probably a previous question, but that whole question has been missed, because everyone did what's seen right in their own eyes, and in their own timing. And it's not until after two defeats that what do they do? The text specifically mentions, and it tells us that the ark of the covenant of God had been with them. It's the first time the ark of the covenant has even been mentioned. And they seek the Lord, and they go and they offer sacrifices for who's sin, their own. They actually, and they're weeping, and they fast. There is finally a change that says, look, we have got to get right with God. And it's only after they do that. The God says, yep, go up tomorrow, and then I'm going to give them into your hand. You never told them they were going to have a victory until that point. And you know what, they weren't ready for victory until they were truly broken, and they were seeing their own need for forgiveness, and their own depravity. Now, I would like to say the story ends there, and it's all better, but it doesn't. Because every man, even though they won, had already taken a vow, that none of the 11 tribes would let their daughters be married to any of the men in Benjamin. It was a curse, and who would want their daughter married to a man in Benjamin? Now, the problem is that when Benjamin's wiped out, the few men that are left, they could be totally wiped out. This tribe could be wiped off the face of the planet, and they're thinking they feel guilty now, and they're thinking, wait a minute, these are our brothers. These are our distant cousins. Do we really want to have our ancestor Benjamin not represented as a tribe of Israel, in the nation of Israel, at all, ever again? And so what do they do? They think back and they go, wait a minute. Was there anybody that didn't take the vow that was supposed to? Was there anybody that didn't sign up for the whole thing that we all did, that we all said, curse it, be anybody that doesn't. You remember the body broke up in 12 pieces? That was the curse saying, hey, if you don't come along and fight with us, let this happen to you. And then somebody comes up and says, you know what there is? J. Bash Gilead, that group of people from that town, they didn't come. Oh, the people that we said should be cursed, and that were worthy of dying? Gosh, they didn't make the vow before God. Let's tell them to let their daughters be given as wives to the tribe of Benjamin. Only prom there, even though you see how distorted their logic was there, there wasn't enough. And what's the solution for that? Well, they're thinking here on this. Well, there's a festival we have every once a year for the people of God, and there's women that come up from Shiloh, and they're often out there in the fields, and they're dancing and celebrating. Remember, it's a feast to the Lord. They're out there celebrating and dancing this feast for the Lord. You know what, let's tell the other men and Benjamin, let's tell them to go out and wait in the fields, and when they see them coming out, let's tell them to kidnap a young virgin for themselves. And then they'll be able to do that. And then if somebody comes and complains, we can say, hey, we didn't have anything to do with it. You know, what can we do? They got kidnapped, and that's the reasoning. That's the solution. The writer here is trying to say, look, you've got to understand. How really bad things are when you do what's right in your own eyes. And even your reasoning begins to be distorted about what's right and what's wrong and how you do it. And I bet if you're like me, you do the same thing. You think about what your decisions, and when you start getting yourself in a trouble, the way to get out of trouble is not so often seeking God and coming to Him first and humbling yourself. The way to get out of that is figuring out, how can I just kind of make it work? How can I kind of appease the situation? And how many times are we just like Israel we launched out, and we're doing something. We're saying, God, bless what I'm doing. But we forgot to even ask the first question, does God want me even to do this? I can't tell you how many times I've talked to couples who've talked about wanting to get married or doing this or that. But the question is not, is this the person, a godly person that God really wants me to marry? A person who is seeking God just like I'm supposed to be seeking God? They don't want to ask that question. They just want a good marriage counseling, some other perform the service so they can hurry up and get married. And I can get in trouble if I start bringing it up and say, look, is this really who you think God's called you to marry? Are they a godly man, or are they godly woman, whatever the case might be? People don't often want to ask that question. People want God to get them out of it, especially now, right? Want God to get them out of their economic financial problems? But where's the first question of God? How do you want me to live as a steward since everything I have is yours. Everything is a gift that you give and mean you could take away. And many are experiencing that take away sovereignty that God has. We want God to get us out of the mess, not God. Change who I am. And this is what was going on. So don't think, gosh, can't believe those Israelites were so screwed up back then but also seeing how screwed up our society is here today. Because we do these exact same things. We have the exact same problems. We're experiencing the exact same decay in our own nation and our own communities. In our own families, just like them. When it boils down to, as people are looking for a kingdom, they want glory. And they know that they're wired to pursue it. And gosh, they want peace. They don't, they want anything that's a threat to it to be subdued. People want glory. They want peace. But they don't want the king who can bring it. Well, Sony, read out loud, Luke 2, 13 through 16. And this makes our transition into the Christmas season officially as a church in our next few weeks, sermons. Somebody doesn't mind reading out loud, Luke 2, 13 through 16. We'll close with this. You might there yet. Luke 2, 13 through 16. Doesn't mind reading out loud, loudly. Wait, wait. Say what?
Glory to God. Glory, there's that glory word again. Okay, keep going. Wait, wait, on earth, what? Peace. Peace. Peace. Where's that peace word again? Alright, I'm sorry, I'm interrupting a lot. Go ahead and start the whole thing over again. There you go. Thousands of years ago, the first people reading judges didn't have the picture that you and I have here today. They would have read judges have gone, yeah, the people really needed a king. And they would have rejoiced when they saw King David and man after God's own heart. But you have the perspective of reading it today and knowing the rest of the story, the bigger picture of the story, that even King David was a precursor to the one true who comes out of the line of David, the Messiah. Jesus Christ. Glory to God in the highest. See, that's where we get wrong. We're thinking, glory to Scott in my highest. Wrong. And peace on earth. To whom? To whom? Help me. Just any man? Just all men? On whom? His favor rest. There is a condition. Do you want peace on earth? You must give glory to God in the highest. And then you experience his favor resting on you. Very Christmas, let's pray. Father, I pray this morning as we continue to respond as we come to your table here now. God, would you help us to realize that we come to the table of a king, a king whose life was laid down for us. And every kingdom of this earth, citizens lay down their life for their king. But in your kingdom, the king has laid down his life for his citizens. So God, will you draw our hearts and repentance here this morning? God, will you really set our eyes and help us not to suppress our desire for glory? Help us to release our desire for glory and realize it's only found in Christ. And God, would you come as a result? And would you bring peace, the peace that we're really looking for? Eternal heart filled peace that can only come. God in worshiping you as our master and as our king. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen.