Living with the True God II: Extraordinary Importance of Ordinary Lives

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Welcome to the Whole Council Podcast. I'm Jon Snyder and with me again is Teddy James and we're looking at lessons from the book of Judges.

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We did a study on Judges over a year ago and it's a book that is difficult.

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It can be a bit frightening if you approach it. You think it seems that these stories are strange.

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We have accounts of some very bad decisions even by those that are in spiritual leadership that normally we would think are admirable and we don't always find moral commentary.

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You know it's not always and so -and -so did this and then God sent a prophet and said why have you done that?

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Sometimes there's no remark given from God about the behavior and so it can be a book that can be alarming or confusing.

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So we want to look at just a couple of the lessons because if you can get past some of those tricky places and understand like well how do

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I where do I walk in those places then I think Judges is one of the most significant books particularly for the

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Western Evangelical Church. So Teddy what are we going to look at today? Yeah so in a nutshell today's episode is going to focus on why it is that it is so particularly helpful for the

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Western church for Western civilization when we live in an era when things are pretty easy.

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I mean honestly you know if you listen to the 24 -7 hour news cycle then you know the sky is falling and everything's falling apart and it's the worst time to ever have lived in human history.

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When you step away from that and you talk with people yeah there's bad things happening but we do live in a in a good time in a good era of human history and it is so easy to live life today.

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Now understanding that we have challenges but in the the time that we're focusing especially so this is kind of coming from one of the earlier sessions from Judges where you're talking about you know you open up session one is a geography lesson and and that's how you know

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Judges begins it's the end of the life of Joshua and there's a kind of a parallel when

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Moses dies he he delivers was it five sermons in the book of Deuteronomy?

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Three. Three okay. What translation you got? It's the ESV yeah yeah yeah that's it.

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Added some added sermons? Yeah that's it the lost sermons of Moses. Okay. So you know he preaches his three sermons and then he dies and then there is then

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Joshua comes in and there's the conquest of Canaan. Every day something significant happens something big there's a there's a massive victory at the walls of Jericho there's a terrible defeat at Ai.

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Every day something new is happening but in the beginning of Joshua things are quite different.

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It's been 25 years that they've lived in the promised land. 25 years of living life and this is a whole new generation.

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People have gone home they've they've had babies they've you know established their farms and now they're living in a time of normal everyday life and it is so easy as it was easier for Israel and it's easy for us to look at these things and to think back and think that was the important time and now we can just coast.

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Yeah like you mentioned they've been so at the end of Joshua Joshua gives two farewell speeches.

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Not five. Not five not not even three and at the beginning of Judges you know so it's the transition and like you mentioned it's such a contrast when

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Joshua the book of Joshua starts basically they leave that church service with Moses and they go home to say the men go home to say goodbye to their families because they're going to grab whatever instruments they have that could be used as weapons and they are going to form an army and then they're going to go into a promised land and it's obviously significant you know because it's it's a great crisis.

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Who would dare not walk with the Lord? You know the Jews would not dare to to kind of be careless with God when they so desperately obviously need him for that crisis and it's significant spiritually because they're about to inherit something that God promised to Abraham over four centuries earlier.

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God is keeping his word but that's all past and like you mentioned in the beginning of Judges after Joshua's farewell speeches they just go home to normal life so normal marriage problems normal kid problems normal work problems farm problems you know and and then there's all the happy things and it's but it's just common it's so ordinary and it is hard to see the significance of the ordinary moment but spiritually our lives are made up mostly of ordinary moments not great big spiritual events and not great crisis.

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I mean if you want to think of it like this so when my wife and I first got married somebody gifted us a

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Dave Ramsey study and I wish that I had learned all of the lessons that I should have you know we would have made some decisions differently but I do remember those first couple of years when we were getting completely out of debt getting rid of student loans and all of those different things every financial decision had weight and then we got debt free and it was so easy to just coast at that point and to think okay we've arrived we finished you know and really that's the time when focus is more required not less.

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Yeah I think that because of the there's that natural tendency that we have to be kind of lulled to sleep spiritually and we see that in the

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Jews there you're going home after the death and the final farewell speeches of Joshua now you know there's certainly there is some sense of significance in that moment

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Joshua has led us he's no longer going to be with us but do we need him as much as we did before you know are we in a crisis we already have pushed the enemies to the corner of the land there maybe there's there's a few pockets of resistance but they're very weak at this point and you know so it's time to just settle back down and get on with normal life and you can do that in a way that spiritually is unaware of opportunities that you're missing because you don't see the significance of the moment and of the enemies around you so think about Israel Israel wins the battle for the the for the land they win the wars that give them a promised land but then they go home and the book of judge judges sadly demonstrates over and over that they forget that there is still a war the battleground is not for you know acres of land it's for a place in the heart so while they won the war for the land they are losing the war for their hearts and they are embracing the idolatry of the people that they just conquered so they conquered the people but they foolishly become careless they're not aware that it's still a dangerous time so spiritually they lay the armor aside and they are seduced by the friendliness or the promises of the idol worshippers around them or in their midst still because there's many of them they they took a shortcut and didn't remove everyone and so bewitched by that they give their hearts to God plus God plus whatever else promises whatever other idol promises me happiness and then what we find is they're no longer in in a conflict with the nations around them as much as they are now finding themselves at war with their own

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God so we find God handing them over to the enemies it's it's not the Philistines or the

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Midianites that are the real problem it is that Israel has turned her back on God and God in gracious fatherly discipline has responded and you know it looks a lot like they've they're in a battle with God as Isaiah describes many years later that God has become their enemy or God seems to oppose them now it's for good but it's still a sad thing that that they have to go through so many bitter generations you know over and over and over again being enslaved to powers that that once were pressed back simply because they were not careful to guard their hearts in the ordinary moments and it's so easy we look at at least

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I tend to look at the people of judges and I think you have so many direct promises from God so many direct promises from Abraham and then you see that fulfilled and you see promises made to Moses and you see that fulfilled and you see the promises made to Joshua and you see that fulfilled how could you lose your way so easily and yet we see that again in the

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New Testament Paul when he's writing to the Galatians who has bewitched you you know

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I just came and preached the gospel to you and now you're falling away after a false gospel but we're not different from them we're not higher than them it is so easy for us and I think that we all know this to be true when we're in a spiritual crisis of our lives our prayer life it's like it goes on steroids we seek the

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Lord we seek counsel we spend time on our knees before an open Bible crying out to the

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Lord and then the crisis moves past or we move past the crisis and and that sweet time of prayer begins to fade and it dissipates and then the time that we spend in the

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Word well I don't have to read quite as much as I did you know it's so easy for us to just simply drift away and when we what we have to remember is when we're reading the book of Judges these were drifts that happened over years so even though for us it we read it in a couple of chapters so it's not as though the the people in the era of the judges they just woke up one morning and said okay

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I'm done now you know it was a slow drift for them and we have to keep that in mind yeah

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I think one of the clear messages that we can draw from this is that Israel has a very egocentric a very me centered view of their day -to -day events and you know of the common things of life and they forget the bigger picture of what

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God is doing and so they have goals and aims and expectations that are warped they're inappropriate for God's people they're very much like everybody else on the planet and that would not have happened and they would not have become therefore they would not have become careless missing opportunities not guarding against dangers that wouldn't have happened if they would have kept the perspective that God had and that God explained to them that they should have throughout you know that from Abraham forward they should have recognized that coming into the land and living in the promised land with the

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Living God in a covenant relationship with God that that was something that was much bigger than just their personal happiness so one of the things that you said so and I knew

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I know that we do want to get into this they they drew a line between you know

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God's sovereign acts in man's typical action and what

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I mean by that is they said that you know it's almost as though in their minds they had this idea that well in my everyday acts of life so whether that's picking up toys or whether that's working for my job filling out a spreadsheet or whatever the case may be that's not something to be done as unto the

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Lord yeah and we'll talk about that in a minute you know the separation between sacred and secular in a

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Christian's life in the danger of that so Israel is in the land they should remember that being in the land that the present comforts that they enjoy that it is part of a greater picture

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God is keeping his word to Abraham but that problem those promises to Abraham the

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Abrahamic Covenant covered more than just getting a people into the land you know there'll be a great people that come from you that you can't number even though at this moment you don't have a son that occurred these people will be brought out of Egypt and given a land that occurred but what else if you think about it the

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Abrahamic promises carry all the way through to the New Covenant and Paul explains that particularly in Galatians that God had always explained to Israel that the kindnesses that they were enjoying in that covenant it was about something bigger than just them they were to be a people that walked with God they were to be the one nation on earth that knew the truth about the only

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God that existed their lives should have been this bright attractive clear explanation of the character and the ways of the one living

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God every nation in darkness around them worshiping rocks and chunks of you know wood that have been covered with silver or gold in their emptiness they should have been able to see well there there is one group of people who walk in a happy relationship with the

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God that really acts a God that is clean look at their lives we see this but of course they fail to do that and also there's the whole issue that I mentioned from Galatians where Paul says

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God promised that the seed of Abraham would come singular the seed the primary offspring of Abraham the

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Messiah the Messiah would come through the line of Abraham and he would bring blessing to the entire world he would bring by his gospel labors hope to every tongue tribe and nation and so Israel was a vehicle of that but it's like they forget that there that their present happiness their present safety their present enjoyment of God's faithfulness to his promises they forget that it's about something bigger than them they think well it's just about us and and right now we're happy and we feel pretty safe and things are good the farm is good the enemies have been pushed to the edge and they become comfortable and then you know complacent so understanding seeing their lives from the perspective of what

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God is doing as in the big picture is pretty important but that's not just for the Old Testament I mean even in the

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New Testament right in in conversion we see you know as Lloyd -Jones would say you know the

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Spirit comes into the isle of a man and there's so much warfare there's destruction of sin on the left and on the right and so even in the

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New Testament we see this we see you know the opportunity that we've been given in salvation in conversion and then there's still that tendency that we have to be comfortable and coast yeah so conversion can you know the conviction the stripping away about the false hopes and being emptied until you look to Christ and like Luther said you know it's like you're exposed you're naked and all your shame is there and then you see

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Christ on the cross by faith and you understand why he's there and you run to him

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Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress such a picture with the burden on your back you run people that don't have that burden they're fine to stay home pilgrim cannot go back so he goes to the cross he goes to the empty tomb the burden rolls off but then

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Bunyan wisely points you know as he takes his character through the life of a

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Christian and through that metaphor of a pilgrimage you know every page is full of dangers there's still an enemy we're not saying you'll lose your salvation but you know conversions like entering the promised land and now but now we have to live with the

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Living God we get to live with the Living God there will be enemies and there are so many wonderful opportunities and if we like you said if we think that wow now that I'm safe I'm my conscience is quieted by the peace that God has given me through Christ I am right with God and I have so many provisions are in Christ it's a good time to just kind of coast and and then the dangers of course are not noticed and the missus is the opportunities are missed so we've been to that a few times so when we're talking about opportunities that are missed what

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I don't want is for the audience to think like you know well there's all these big things out there that if only

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I was a little bit more obedient only I was a little bit more spiritual you know God would give me it's that we miss opportunities actually had a conversation with a kid the other day and we were talking about rewards you know this was you know it's different issue but it is related but I told him there's a lot of things that you your parents want to do with and for you but they can only do these things if you're obeying in these other areas in the same way there's opportunities that await us there's a fellowship with God there's spiritual conversations and we've talked about this in a previous episode you know with the weight of our words and with who can

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God trust with his words God gives words to those whose lives are weighty and who's who are trustworthy so we miss out on those opportunities we never see the opportunities because we're not living carefully is that yeah

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I think I can think in my own life a couple months ago going to get my hair cut and sitting with a guy who cuts my hair and he has recently been baptized and he's really open to talk about good things but I was kind of you know down in the dumps and distracted and you know and so spiritually looking for something to think about other than the serious things of life and so I was sitting in the chair and he was cutting instead of talking about what he'd been learning about Christ where he's been reading you know any questions he has you know we just talked about cars or chess or whatever it was we liked at the at the moment and then

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I went home and I felt really convicted you know you had a chance to speak to him and I don't mean that every conversation has to be religious but I had a chance that I knew it was there that I could speak about things there that are eternally valuable in a way that was natural and would be welcomed but instead

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I kept the conversation in these shallows because I didn't want to have to deal with real things at the moment so you know it's those kind of opportunities things what

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God might have done through you had you been walking with him things you might have noticed words that could have been said you know at the right time in the right way that would have been used by God to do good witnessing but it isn't just evangelism you know it can be so it's even spiritual counsel

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I mean if we're if someone is coming to you you see a person in stress you see a person who may be you know down in the dumps like you were just talking about one it is the the one who is walking with the

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Lord who I think does have better eyes to see those things I think the Lord shows that but it's also the difference between being able to give counsel to someone in a way that the world does and giving counsel in the way that the

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Lord does so we don't want as Christians we don't want to be guilty of the same sin and that is not being gripped by the significance of the common events or of the here and now just because they're not particularly religious events or just because they're not big crisis moments and so if we're going to do that there's

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I think there's some applications we can mention one is it is true especially in the early days of a thing that choices made in the early days because they they affect all the choices that follow they have a greater impact far greater than perhaps we expect they're not the only choices that matter thankfully we can be far along in our

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Christian life we can be toward you know in our silver years you know and and we can still at that moment by the grace of God choose to walk with Christ choose to repent in areas where we've been careless and God can use it but much better from the very first to set a course that's careful and not a course that's careless so for example marriages you know we get married we look we we generally think it's all about us

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I'm going to be happy because this person is the right kind of person and maybe we go a little further and we think

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I want that person to be happy it's not just me I want them to be happy but perhaps we forget

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I know we officially say it but perhaps we forget that the way we treat each other every morning when we wake up has to do with more than our happiness we have opportunities and to take advantage of dangers to guard against in in a marriage we want to walk with the

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Lord together in such a way that God uses our little marriage as a part of the unfolding of his kingdom you know and the display of his glory like Ephesians 3 talks about where the whole church that is every individual believer is a part of this tapestry or this this panoramic picture of God's glory and it's unfolding it he's pulling back the curtain and the angelic beings are seeing realities about God the universe is seeing things about God it's never quite seen before through his activity in his own people year after year century after century little homes palaces it doesn't matter so getting getting our feet on the right course making decisions carefully at the beginning of a marriage when we have children a church plant you know a new job you walk in nobody knows you at the new school well who who do you want them to think you are you know what what identity are you going to present you're the cool person you're the hard -working person you're the easy to get along person we you know get along with you're the funny person you're the moral person what if you walk into a room where nobody knows you and you're gonna have to work with them maybe for many many years and the only thing that's impressive about you is that you're a person that Christ has loved and that by his grace you do love him back so early choices affect everything that follows but that's not it

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I mean think about the the issue of sacred and secular we mentioned that before so when you think of that when you know when you read what

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Tozer says in his book the pursuit of God and one one chapter is devoted to this how would you apply that to your life

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Teddy how would you apply that to a normal life the danger of a sacred secular divide what's he talking about yeah

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I mean I think that in the heart of it it's just okay so for me

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I think more in the realm of just you know what I'm doing right now what

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I'm working on and so I mean I love my job and so a lot of what I spend my time thinking about is my job and what

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I what I get to do here and even though it is a you know we'll call it a Christian ministry but the reality is it's so easy for me to be sitting in front of a computer editing a video and thinking okay this is work time and I am just doing work things because it's work time and I'd gotta

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I have to accomplish work tasks but the reality is that is work for the

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Lord to the Lord to the glory of the Lord now my wife did to use her as an illustration when she is picking up the same toy or looking for the lost sippy cup for the 10th time today and those really good ones that you find that had milk in them two weeks ago and you find them under the couch all of those things are to be done to the glory of the

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Lord there because there's not a wasted opportunity from the Lord he redeems all things he uses all things and he is using all of those for the glory of his

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Son for the sanctification of his people in Romans 8 for our good to conform us to the image of Christ yeah so you know the

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Old Testament the popular passage Zechariah 14 verse 20 and 21 you know the

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Messiah is coming the king will rule and part of that great rule we find is that even the ordinary things of life and and in verse 20 and 21 it talks about the bells on the horse harnesses and the pots in your kitchen so the bells on the horse on the harnesses of the horse etched into those bells would be the phrase holy to the

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Lord and the pots and pans in your kitchen will be as holy in God's eyes as the bowls in on the altar in the holy place of the temple and it's a wonderful simple picture and it's not that nothing is holy now you know it's all not holy there's no special building there's no special holy of holies on earth there's no special priesthood in that way so everything is just kind of leveled that's not it at all it's the opposite that it is that since the believer has been bought by the blood of Christ and we have been separated unto him placed into him by faith by the

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Spirit working through faith now everything can be devoted to him and all can be holy and that gives great significance to every moment you mentioned picking up the toys

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I remember reading the little account by the monk brother Lawrence and of course we don't endorse everything that brother

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Lawrence might have preached but he's been dead for four hundred years and his little book does give an encouraging picture of living unto

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God and he talks about bending down and picking up a piece of straw off of the sidewalk of the monastery and he said

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I learned to do even something like that for the love of God or I wouldn't pick up the straw except for love to God I wanted to do that and he and he eventually felt that working in the kitchen or working as a cobbler making shoes for the monastery he felt that that was that could be as much an act of worship as their special monk routine of prayers or singing so it's not that worship is brought down or praying is brought down and you know gathering of believers is brought down to the normal it's that every every legitimate action in the

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Christian life can be an expression of love to God it can be an act of worship well I mean in my mind

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I think of it is the same way as if you were to to be you know doing something simple like cooking a meal all right

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I am NOT a great cook you would not want to come to my house if I was tasked with cooking dinner but I I do know that there have been multiple times a perfect example

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Jeremy Walker a couple years ago came to visit the church he came and he taught our men he spoke at the church a few times but he came over for dinner now

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Jeremy is a dear friend of ours at Medi Gratia and over the years he's become a very dear friend of mine so when he was here we had him over for dinner and my wife made a dish that she calls red beans and rice now it's not typical because it's not soupy it's real dry it's really good it's one of our favorite things to make it was a normal ordinary dish in our home but it was made extraordinary because of who was coming to have it with us and I think in the same way it's the little things that we do that are the ordinary things that we do but they're made extraordinary because of who does them with us or who we're doing them for yeah my wife

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Misty for a longest time in the bathroom she had a sticky note that was on the mirror and so I would see it and it would it would say something like you know live in his presence do all you know right now for the

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Lord so whatever we're doing right now do it as unto the Lord whether you're brushing your teeth combing your hair you know getting dressed or whether you're preaching you know and I remember reading a book many years ago and I can't quote it exactly

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I'm not sure the title of the book but the author said that it the humble man can see

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God in the little things of the Christian life but the arrogant man only sees

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God in the big crisis things the big super spiritual things you know the humble man sees that all the common events of my day these are like a thin veil and behind that veil

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I recognize in a sense a shadowy but I recognize the hand of God working that is my

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Savior ruling in and through and over all things and I'm allowed to be a part of that to live with him by him for him in him and so the present moment matters

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I think also we can kind of pull this all together like for the

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Jew the Christian can be delivered from the carelessness of misunderstanding the present moments significance we can be delivered from that if we can step back and realize that what

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God is doing in our lives and what he has done and what today this present moment is for has okay it is happening to us but it is about something so much bigger than us so think about personal sanctification if you think of growth as a

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Christian personally if your view of the purpose of that is to reach a certain place where you feel satisfied with yourself you know you look in the spiritual mirror and you think well look

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I've I've quit doing those things and I've started to add some of these things and and the people in the church have recognized that and you know my wife's mentioned it or my kids notice it and and you know that's a very satisfying thing and I feel like this is a good place to go ahead and coast because you forget that even your personal sanctification becoming more like Christ in your behavior and thoughts that is part of something much bigger than your personal satisfaction

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I mean it's a part for example of God's promise to his son that Christ would be given a company a great company a kingdom of sinners that he saves who would all be conformed to his image they would all look like him at the end of time or that Christ would present you to the father complete so your personal sanctification is about more than you being happy with your growth and feeling like you're doing well it's it's more about the father's faithfulness to the son and the son's faithfulness to the father and how your growth in Christ likeness is a part of something much bigger think of our involvement with other church members other

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Christians around us maybe not just in your local gathering but other believers you helping them is more than just about them thinking you know that person is a they're a really great

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Christian you know they'd give you this shirt off your back their back so no it's it's about something bigger the whole body of Christ coming to completion growing into this measure of the stature of Christ Paul says in Ephesians all of that is a part of the glory of Christ across this world it becomes a billboard to the world like Israel should have been the church ought to be a place where people can see the purity of God and the goodness of God in our happy obedient lives and so helping other believers walk with the

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Lord is much bigger than just us being good people or witnessing you know whatever wherever you look if you're stopping short of where the scripture says you should stop you know if you're stopping before the finish line a good question for us to ask ourselves is this why have

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I forgotten the big picture of what my life is a part of have I looked at the big kingdom of God and said wow

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I understand that in light of my salvation like my salvation is the big thing and the kingdom of God is this thing that fits into my life late and Jesus fits here and peace with God is here and you know in wisdom to know how to help my kids as they grow up well that's a little piece right here so God fits in my life and I'm grateful for him but that's the completely wrong view it's like getting the telescope flipped the wrong way and God looks tiny and he fits in your big life and you're thankful but if you put it correctly then your life is significant but not because you're so big but because your tiny life is part of something everlastingly big immeasurably big and important your life is connected to the glory of the triune

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God forever and so if you're stopping in any area that you shouldn't stop is it because like Israel you know you're viewing your

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Christian life and all your goals and aims are all orbiting you your comforts your sense of security your plans or are you pressing on imperfectly but all the way to the end because you see that your little life is part of something so much greater and you don't want to become careless you don't want to be open to enemies and you don't want to miss the opportunities to live unto

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God in the common moments today because it's a part of that big thing unless you be discouraged because you hear this and you think that sounds wonderful but I don't know that that's for me that's the promise for every believer that is what

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God says his desire if you want to know God's will for your life that's it and he answers that for those who bring the question to him

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God how do I live like that God gives you everything right and the New Testament especially the

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New Testament letters I mean it's they're not more important than any other place in the Bible but the New Testament letters are particularly written to baby

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Christians who people who grew up in pagan homes I don't know what a Christian marriage might look like I don't know what a

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Christian dad or mom should look like I don't know what being a Christian brother or sister or daughter or son should look like I'm not sure what a church should look like I'm not sure what a

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Christian's work ethic looks like all of those things are explained in those

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New Testament letters where Paul takes you back to what the Old Testament was telling you back to Christ's life and teachings and he makes it he brings it all the way down into this very practical areas well maybe we can close with a quote by Sinclair Ferguson a few months ago you and I were headed to Canada and we were looking at the theme

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I was teaching and you were filming and a part of that up there we're with some missionaries in Canada and we're looking at the theme of union with Christ and and I listened to a series of sermons by Sinclair Ferguson as I was wanted to hear what he said about it and they were very clear so you know

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I'm always amazed at how clear and simple and direct he can be but not shallow but in one of those talks he said this he said becoming a

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Christian I wish I had a Scottish accent you know I won't even pretend it we'll have to do a lot of cuts if I try my it always comes out like candy or something all right so in his

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Scottish accent he said that when we become believers we go from doing a thousand things to one thing but we do that one thing a thousand ways so it's not like we don't do all the ordinary things anymore you know

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I still have to get up and go to work I still have to pay bills I still have to mow my lawn I still have to fix things in the house when they break and being a

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Christian doesn't remove those and then all I do is just meditate on God I still do a thousand things a day but really

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I'm not doing a thousand things anymore I'm doing one thing I'm living unto him in the wonderful common moments that are extraordinarily significant because I'm doing it with him and to him and in him one thing now that we do we do it a thousand ways judges is a unique book for us to study

39:19

I think judges is also one of the most significant books for the modern evangelical church when we come to the book of Judges we admit that it sounds strange to our ears sometimes there are a lot of events there that confuse us there are other events that morally alarm us so we want to come at this book in a way that guarantees that by the grace of God we really will learn the things that God means for us to learn and our lives will be responsive to God in a way that they ought to be so that having studied the book of Judges we come out of this study more like Christ a clearer picture of our