Walk This Way
By Matthew Parr
Alright, before I say anything about the sermon or the message, let me just say this. I felt God last night. I may be a Christian, and I may go to Rhythm every week, but personally, I haven’t felt God like that in a long long time. Not that I don’t feel God on a normal basis, or don’t talk to him, but there was just something about his glory, power, and mercy that grabbed ahold of me and brought me to my knees. I pulled myself to the side of the room and let it all out. I haven’t had such a humbling, sobering prayer like that in a while. I found myself thinking during the prayer that although I was in a room with a hundred or so people, I was alone with God. I began to weep and laugh and… I don’t know what to say, it was just glorious. I was able to pour out so many of my fears and problems, sins and praises all at the feet of my Lord. And it felt good. Praise God, the perfector, protector, lover, and justification of all men! Oh how He loves us.
Now let’s get to Judges. This week we were in chapter eleven with Mr. Jephthah. Jephthah was born to a man of Gilead and a prostitute. He had brothers by the same father, but a different mother. Those brothers were shamed that his existence was not as “clean” as theirs and by his relation to them so they cast him out of the family to go away from their land and live in the forest. Craig had quite a bit to say about that. Although it wasn’t the main message of Jephthah’s story, it was a great message nonetheless.
Society is very picky with what is viewed as acceptable, tasteful, clean, taboo, and etc. You see in movies and magazines that you should dress this way, talk this way, look this way, and think this way. Well, we as the body of Christ are the same way. We should be. God gives us Christ-like guidelines all throughout the Bible on how to live, what to say, what not to say, when it is wise to say it, what to do/not to do, how to act, and who to love. The world is wrong to think in such ways for it is biased and unloving, but we as Christ followers do this in order to love God and obey him as our king. But that last part is where we as people and as churches screw up. We think that we can only love people or serve people that aren’t “sinners”, unclean, or people that follow Christ. And that’s where Jephthah’s brother’s screwed up too. We should accept, love, and serve all men for Christ served, loved, and died for all men. No exceptions. But, I digress.
The king of Ammon was attacking the people of Israel living in these lands at this time. After Jephthah had left his family and became his own man, his brothers began fighting against the king of Ammon. Now since Jephthah had left, he had become a quite admirable and strong willed man. Many people looked up to him and followed him. Since his brothers and the people of Israel needed a strong leader and a man that could lead them to victory, they came to Jephthah for help.
Craig also expanded on this, explaining the comedy and mistakes of the brother’s ways. They had originally cast this man out for the way he was born, but now that they see that he is the man that he is, they come running and seeking his help. Personally, I think that’s where a lot of non-Christian people see that a lot of Christians are hypocrites. We worship and love our God, but we condemn and cast out people that we don’t think are fitting of our love and acceptance. We as Christians push people away from Christ. We push them away from the love of God because we don’t accept that we are all flawed and unclean. All men are sinners. “Let he that is without sin cast the first stone.” It is not our job to clean a man or to fix a man. No man is broken beyond God’s repair. Christ saved everyone and God loves everyone. No one is underserving of that gift. No matter what imperfection they may have. If we want to be like Christ, than we better start acting like him. That’s what a Christian is. When Christ says “follow me.”, He’s not ONLY talking about down your own path with God and your own personal future as a believer. He is mainly asking you, no, telling you to follow him by acting like him. Be like him. Follow him. In other words, follow his example. That is how you achieve closeness with God.
Jepthah was a righteous man. Although he gave his brothers a little crap for doing what they did, he accepted their request and led the Israelites against the king of Ammon. But before he did that he had a few words with the king himself in order to understand why the attack was happening. If you want to understand it better yourself, I recommend reading Judges 11:12-28. That will explain what Jephthah discussed with the king of Ammon. After a diplomatic back and forth, Jephthah called upon God and requested that He protect him in this battle. Now this is where our sermon got a little exciting. Craig used these exact words when he tried to help us understand the message. “Be careful little mouths what you say.” “And Jephthah made a vow to the LORD: “If you give the Ammonites into my hands whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites will be the LORD’s, and I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering.” (Judges 11:30-31)
First off, God did not request this type of sacrifice from him. God may have been on his side and handed over the Ammonites to Jephthah whether he made this request or not. But, the important thing, is that Jephthah made a promise to the Lord. And it is very important that you do not lie to God. It’s better to not obey than to lie. “Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few. A dream comes when there are many cares, and many words mark the speech of a fool. When you make a vow to God, do not delay to fulfill it. He has no pleasure in fools; fulfill your vow. It is better not to make a vow than to make one and not fulfill it.” (Ecclesiastes 5:1-5)
That being said, God did hand over the Ammonites to Jephthah when he went to battle. Jephthah held victory and the Israelites were once again led away from destruction and persecution. Jephthah rightfully rejoiced and gave all glory, praise, and honor to God in heaven. But, he also remembered and held his word to God. When he returned home, the first thing that came out to meet him was his one and only daughter, his only child of which he dearly and deeply loved. As I previously stated, Jephthah was a very moral, God-fearing, and righteous man. He did not disobey the Lord. So he wept. He knew that he must keep his word to the Lord. He made this offering to God from his mouth out of confidence and joy, without thoroughly thinking through his own consequences. As he wept, he told his daughter what he had promised the Lord and out of her reverence and obedience to God, she accepted what her father had promised the Lord. They obeyed and kept the promise that was made. Jephthah sacrificed his daughter to the Lord.
The main message that Craig wished to portray through this at Rhythm this week, was that we should not, out of our own foolishness and pride shout out to God and make promises of all the things we will do and give up for him. We are human and we will not always keep our promises. God will hold us to our words. It is better to simply give glory to God, follow the example of Christ Jesus, and love God with all our heart, mind, and strength. Through Christ we have been redeemed and saved. We have life and love. We will never feel the sting of condemnation or death that comes from our sins. We do not need to sacrifice or to make irrational promises to God in order to achieve forgiveness or his favor. We have it. Accept it. Follow Him. I encourage you to read about Jephthah in chapter eleven in the Book of Judges yourselves. I will always encourage you to open your Bible and hear from the Lord.
God bless. Grace and Peace. Accept. Feel love. And know that you are forgiven.
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