Judges 2024

Okay. I'm gonna read, judges 14, and then Chris is gonna come and read judges 15. Samsung went down to Timna and saw there a young Philistine woman. When he returned, he said to his father and mother I have seen a Philistine woman in Timna now get her for me as my wife.

His father and mother replied. Isn't there an acceptable woman among your relatives or among all our people? Must you go to the uncircumcised Village to get a wife, but Samsung said to his father, get her for me. She's the right 1 for me. His parents did not know that this was from the lord who was seeking an occasion to confront the Philistines.

For at that time, they were ruling over Israel. Samsung went down to Timna together with his father and mother as they approached the vineyards of Timna suddenly, a young lion came roaring towards him. The spirit of the lord came powerfully upon him so that he tore the lion apart with his bare hands as he might have torn a young goat. But he told neither his father nor his mother what he had done. Then he went down and talked with the woman and he liked Some time later, when he went back to marry her, he turned aside to look at the lion's carcass, and in it, he saw swarm of bees and some honey.

He scooped out the honey with his hands and ate as he went along. When he rejoined his parents, he gave them some, and they too ate it, but he did not tell them that he had taken the honey from the lion's carcass. Now his father went down to see the woman, and there, Samsung held a feast as was customary for young men. When the people saw him, they chose 30 men to be his companions. Let me tell you Samsung said to them.

If you can give me the answer within 7 days of the feast, I will give you 30 linen garments and 30 sets of clothes If you can't tell me the answer, you must give me 30 linen garments and 30 sets of clothes. Tell us your let's hear it. He replied, out of the eater, something to eat, out of the strong, something sweet. For 3 days, they could not give the answer. On the fourth day, they said to Samsung's wife coaxed your husband into explaining the riddle for or we will burn you and your father's household to death.

Did you invite us here to steal our property? Then Samsung's wife threw herself on him sobbing. You hate me. You don't really love me. You've given my people a riddle.

You haven't told me the answer. I haven't even explained it to my father or mother, he replied, so why should I explain it to you? She cried the whole 7 days of the feast. So on the seventh day, he finally told her because she continued to press him. She, in turn, explained the riddle to her people.

Before sunset on the seventh day, the men of the town said to him, what is sweeter than honey, what is stronger than a lion? Samsung said to them, if you had not plowed with my heifer, you would not have solved my riddle. Then the spirit of the lord came powerfully upon him. He went down to Ashcalon, struck down 30 of their men, stripped them of everything, and gave their clothes to those who had explained the riddle. Burning with anger, he returned to his father's home, and Samsung's wife was given to 1 of his companions who attended him at the feast.

Later on, at the time of wheat harvest, Samsung took a young goat and went to visit his wife. He said I'm going to my wife's room. That her father would not let him go in. I was so sure you hated her, he said, that I gave her to your companion. Isn't her younger sister more attractive?

Take her instead. Samsung said to them this time I have a right to get even with the Philistines. I will really harm them. So he went out and caught 300 foxes and tied them tail to tail in pairs. He then fastened the torch every pair of tails lit the torches and let the foxes loose in the standing corn of the Philistines.

He burned up the the the shocks and standing corn together with the vineyards and olive groves. When the Philistines asked, who did this? They were told Samsung, the Tim Knight's son-in-law, because his wife was given to his companion. So the Philistines went up and burned her and her father to death. Samsung said to them, since you've acted like this, I swear that I won't stop until I get my revenge on you.

He attacked them viciously and slaughtered many of them. Then he went down and stayed in a cave in the rock of Etam. The Philistines went up and camped in Judah, spreading out near Lehigh. The people of Judah asked, why have you come to fight us? We have come to take Samsung prisoner, they answered, to do to him as he did to us.

Then 3000 men from Judah went down to the cave in the rocker BTam and said to Samsung, don't you realize that the Philistines of rule is over us? What have you done to us? The answer that I merely did to them, what they did to me? They said to him, we've come to tie you up and hand you over to the Philistines. Samsung said, swear to me that you won't kill me yourselves.

Agreed, they answered. We will only tie you up and hand you over to them. We will not kill you. So they bound him with 2 new ropes and led him up the rock. As he approached Lehigh, the Philistines came toward him shouting, the spit toward him shouting.

The spirit of the lord came powerfully upon him. The ropes on his arms became like charred flax, and the bindings dropped from his hands. Finding a fresh jaw bone of a donkey. He grabbed it and struck down a thousand men. Then Samsung said, With a donkey's jawbone, I have made donkeys of them.

With a donkey's jawbone, I have killed a thousand men. When he finished speaking, He threw away the jawbone, and the place was called Ramath Lehigh. Because he was very thirsty, he cried out to the lord You have given your servant this great victory. Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised? Then god opened up the hollow place in Lehigh and water came out of it.

When Samsung drank, his strength returned and he revived. The spring was called En Hakor, and it is still there in Lehigh. Samsung led Israel for 20 years, in the days of the Philistines. Thank you, Chris. Thank you, Emma.

What a story, Bring it on. I've been blown away by the masterful storytelling in this passage and I just can't wait to share it with you. My name is Tom. If you haven't met before, welcome, I'm 1 of the members here. We need god's help, don't we?

So let's ask him for it. Father, you are great. You are greatly to be praised you have done great things. We give you praise for who you are, lord, for your faithfulness. We thank you.

We celebrate with Beckentry. For your 10 years of faithfulness there for all of those photos, of people. We don't know who they are, but you do. And, we celebrate with them your faithfulness. Father, as we come to this passage now, give us eyes to see, fill us with your spirit, and maybe want to know Christ more and live for him, more as a result of going through it.

In his name, we ask our men. I've been thinking over the last couple of weeks about an appropriate illustration to use to describe the state of god's people as we meet them in this passage. And this week, I was cooking some eggs for lunch And after finishing, I stepped out for a walk, returned home. And as soon as I opened the front door, I was met with this powerful stench of eggs, and it hit me that that's something like what Israel was in. I wasn't even aware it smelled like aches before.

I gradually got accustomed to the smell and it took me to go and get some fresh air to realize this stench. And that's that's, I know it's a silly example, but it's a picture of the state we find israel in because they're in a real mess right now. And the crucial point is that they don't realize they are they don't realize they are in a mess. And unlike previous cycles where the Israelites cried out to god for mercy, while they're being oppressed because of their sin, here, they seem to be quite happy being ruled by the Philistines. Over the last 40 years, god's people had gradually grown accustomed to Philistine culture.

And I've become barely distinguishable. They can't even smell the stench of the sin they are living in. They can't even recognize their moral decay and don't even cry out to the lord. For help. Complete anarchy.

Yet in this dark hour of Israel's history, even without their plea for help, god intervenes an unnoticed stench meets unwavering grace because god raises up an unlikely deliverer, Samsung, We met him last week, miraculously born to a woman previously barren, who who was told by an angel of the lord that she would give birth to a son who would begin delivering Israel from the hands of the Philistines. God is faithful to you then. In this passage, as we continue through the story of Samsung, even though it is archaic and abstract, we'll see that it mirrors our spiritual condition and the messy state of our heart And we'll be reminded again of god's character because as Israel spirals more and more into sin, where sinner bounds, grace abounds all the more. We've got a lot of griffing and gory stuff to get through tonight. So we're going to split it up into 3 news flashes to break it up and help us understand what's happening.

And then we'll draw out some applications. So news flash, a bride, beast, beads, and a bet chapter fourteenth a bride, beast, bees, and a bet. We enter this chapter full of excitement. Because Samsung has just been blessed by god and the spirit began to stare him. That's not said of any other judge.

This is exciting stuff and it's worth remembering Samsung was a nazirite from birth. So he was seen in Israel as a spiritual leader, a dedicated servant of the lord who would abstain from wine or anything of of of the vine. Avoid contact with the dead and never cut his hair. That was the sign of a nazirite. And this this boy's future is looking bright.

This kid has potential. Imagine if you can being Samsung's parents anticipating what this boy will grow up to be like. How exciting? What's he gonna be like? What's he gonna do?

Safron and Ira expected a baby. We found out on Friday that we were expecting a girl. And we're praying for that's some gender reveal, isn't it, babe? And so we, and and we're praying for we're praying for this this our daughter and we're excited to see what's she gonna be like? What what what's she gonna do for the lord?

And that's what the Samsung's parents would have thought. Imagine What is this boy gonna be like? What's he gonna do? He's gonna begin the important worker delivering Israel from the hands of the field stands after 40 long years. Okay.

Exciting. Now imagine how they felt in verse 1 of chapter 14. When Samsung goes down, to Timna and find a Philistine woman. Mom, I wanna marry her. You wanna marry her.

You wanna marry her? Samsung, that's not men that's not how this is meant to pan out mates. You're in his right. She's a Philistine. We've been through this.

We're strictly forbidden from marrying Philistines. They're not in covenant with the lord. They're they're oppressing us, Samsung. You're meant to be the 1 who's delivering us from them. What do you mean you wanna marry them?

There's plenty of girls in in Israel. Get her for me. She's the right 1 for me. Tragic start. This Philistine woman was in Timina, and Timna was deep in Israelite territory, and that tells us that the Philistine of Israel went deep It was peaceful.

So peaceful that Samsung thought nothing of marrying 1 They co existed and his reason for marrying her. Did you see that? She's the right 1 for me. Or the translations are helpful here. She's right in my eyes.

That ring any bells. This theme that is echoed in judges, their current status, if you like, and the key interpretive phrase in the whole book judges 21, 25 In those days, there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in their own eyes. Samsung is reflecting the real spiritual state of Israel who've adopted this way of life to do what was evil in god's eyes because it was writing their own, and it reveals the condition of Samsung's heart he saw her and he takes her. And that's the pattern that we see in the rest of these chapters he sees and he takes.

He does what is right in his own eyes. In his own eyes, god will deal with his eyes in a very literal way in chapter 16. But that's for next week because for now the headline is that Israel's judge is marrying the very people he was supposed to be 1 He's marrying into the very people he was supposed to be wiping out. Things have never been more hopeless. Then we get this amazing burst and it's in brackets.

Best 4. And as the readers will let into a in on a little secret, that the main characters don't know about. God is after an opportunity for striking the Philistines. He is sovereignly at where to rescue his people. Even though Samsung was going down to Timina, and he's seemingly spiraling down into sin.

God is about to ordain these events so that he will deliver Israel. He uses all a mess. He's able to work through sin sinlessly. Samsung's foolishness isn't going to prevent god from working and accomplishing his purposes. In fact, it's exactly how god will work.

Despite Samsung's flawed actions god was working out his purposes. How often do we see that in our own lives? When things seem out of control, when situations feel hopeless, Could it be that god is sovereignly at work, a bride? Let's see what happens next. As we unravel the consequences of Samsung's actions.

Samsung goes down again, verse 5, approaches the vineyards, We know he shouldn't be anywhere near these because he's an Azirite, then as if to tell us as readers, this young man needs to control his roaring sexual appetite. A young lion came roaring towards him. Pretty terrifying stuff. But that's when we get a preview of what God is gonna do through him because the spirit of the lord comes powerfully upon him and he tears the lion apart with his bare hands. I can't even imagine how strong this man must have been.

Wow. What a sign of God's strength? And we ought to think wow. That's insane. The god who can empower him to kill a lion with his bare hands can empower him to overthrow the Philistines.

A beast. But as soon as we see this incredible strength, we see his weakness. Because he goes down to this Philistine woman. Bear say sometime later, He goes to marry her. And on the way, he looks at the lion's carcass that he killed as if to boast in it.

Just checking on it. And he sees honey in the lion. Ah, this land is flown with milk and honey after all, but it's defiled. Because the honey is in a dead body. Remember what that second thing was about being an Azirite?

You can't touch dead bodies. But as he's done before, he sees he takes, he eats, and he gives some to his mom and dad. Familiar pattern that of sin, isn't it? As we know, when sin entered the world, Eve, saw, took, ate, and gave. It's worth pausing for a minute here to consider our own lives.

How often do we pursue what is right in our own eyes and ignore god's guidance. Where are we impulsive? Where should we Praffly seek god's will about our decisions. He should have gone straight to the tabernacle for cleansing, but instead he continues to go down That's when Samsung hosts a wedding feast in verse 10. In Hebrew, the word for feast is Mishhta which literally means not eating but drinking.

It's a drinking party. It's a drinking party in verse 12 that will last for 7 days complete drunken desperation. And it says it was customary for young men. So Samsung has completely assimilated into Philistine culture. He's 1 of them at this stage in a drunken brawl with 30 Philestine young man, and as was Philistine tradition that have forms of entertainment.

So he has this wager verse 12. Attempting to embarrass them. He challenges them to an impossible riddle out of the eater, something to eat, out of the strong, something sweet very odd this, isn't it? And we're meant to be confused. Why would you why would you do such a thing?

What is going on here? He does this all for 30 linen garments and 30 set of clothes. Yeah, that would have been some sort of luxury, but is it really worth putting your wardrobe on the line for that. He should be slaying the Philistines. Now he's marrying them He's drinking with them.

He's betting with them. He's playing a dangerous game, and it comes to bite him because the filler signs obviously can't crack this impossible riddle by themselves so they pressure his wife to reveal the answer. First 15, they threatened to burn his wife and her family over this burn fire is a is a theme here, and what does fire do it spreads, and we'll see how sin and the effects of it spread and spread and spread throughout this story. Keep that in mind. But for now, Samsung caves into his wife's waterworks.

Oh, you don't love me. Don't love me. And he tells of the answer, a taste of what's to come with the lilah. So the Philistines win the bet And Samsung rage quits, he gets off. He calls his wife a heifer, a cow.

And in order to pay up, He marches down, and he goes to Escelon. Escelon's actually 20 miles away from where he is, so he's pretty angry. He's betting him betting him with anger. He actually says that he's betting with anger. And he goes to kill 30 Philistines for their garments to settle a bet.

So he's like, okay. Yeah. I lost a bet. I'm gonna go over here. I'm gonna kill vet of your own people to give you their garments.

To settle it. And this is where we see the spirit, Russia Pawnen again. Second time we see it in this chat in this passage, the spirit rushed upon him and this is what we've been waiting for. Believe it or not. This is the moments that we've been waiting for because here was the occasion God was seeking.

Can you believe that? It was the beginning of the beginning. How does that make sense? Well, Samsung was beginning to defeat the Philistines. This isn't actually an active Samsung's 10 temper and and and his his retaliation This is the spirit's work.

This is the beginning. God is being faithful to his promise, even through Samsung's mess. God's bringing about his deliverance. So we finished chapter 14 with Samsung, burning with anger, returning to his father's home, his wife, meanwhile, in verse 20, is given to 1 of his companions 1 translation I read was she was given to to his best mate. What a complete mess.

That's a bride, beast, bees and a bet. Samsung breaks his vows. He's a reckless man and chooses his own desires over the very vows he's taken. Is this really so different to our own experience? I was quite challenged by 1 commentator who said the most sobering thing here is that this isn't far fetched at all.

This happens every day. People around us, people we love, our families, our friends, perhaps even ourselves. Samsung's the mirror of our fickle state. And yet god uses him. God is starting to save his people, even in a messy and seemingly insignificant way with just 30 people being killed and wiped out.

Slowly but surely god is divorcing them from their marriage to the world around them. 1 right said, god is in the business of using our failures as the foundations for his success. He uses imperfect people in his perfect plans. He is faithful to his promises, and our sin will not stop them from saving us or even using us. Alright.

That's news flash 1. News flash number 2. 215 1 to 8, foxes, fire, and fury. Best 1 later on, at the time of wheat harvest, Samsung took a young goat and went to visit his wife. He's not just reckless, but he's also romantic.

Bringing the equivalent of a bunch of flowers to make up for ruining the wedding feast, calling his new wife a cow, and storming off in anger. But it wasn't exactly a better roses because he discovers that his father-in-law has given his wife to his best man. These Phyllis dying's day. They take away Samsung's wife. And so in a sense, what they're doing is they're taking away his offspring his seed, his crop.

And so what does he do? He takes away there, seed. And crop and offspring. He says he'll really harm them. So that's exactly what he does.

He hits them where it hurts in a strategic, cunning feet, which will have massive implications for them as they watch their food reserves go up in flames. And how he does that is by capturing 300 foxes in verse 4. They they these are little Jackals We went to the British, what where do we go? Natural History Museum, Natural National National National National History Museum, and we saw these little jackals. And they they they travel in pairs.

They've got big bushy tails. And Samsung caught 300 of them and he ties between the tie he puts them in pairs and ties between the tails. A torch. And as the tied up foxes zig zag through the fields the fires of destruction are burning through god's people as they have assimilated into the culture, and the sinful cycle just gets bigger and bigger and bigger. Remember Gidian's army against the midian eye?

In judges 7 and 8. Remember that story? It's the massive army of god's enemies. So big, they were like locusts they had more camels than there was sand on the seashore, where god insisted on making the army weak or Israel would glorify themselves and say we won the battle by our own. God reduces Gidyan's army from 32000 to 10000, then to 300.

And they have victory, only with trumpets and tortures. Salvation was from the lord that deliverance was a result of god's power and mercy. There's a irony here because where Gideon led by the lord raises off an army of 300 torch bearing and shouting faithful. Here, Samsung takes it into his own hands to to raise up an army of 300 torch bearing and screaming foxes. I just found this amazing.

An army of 300 from the lord and an army of 300 from man. It's like Samsung's trying to make himself into a god. He's doing what is right in his own eyes. Foxes. But the action isn't without consequence and the Philistines understandably are a quite upset and in retaliation to Samsung's retaliation, they fight fire with fire and what the Philistines threatened previously, sadly, comes to pass.

They burned Samsung's wife and her father, fires. And then as we would expect, again, this doesn't go down well with Samsung in verse 7. He says he won't stop until he gets revenge. And in fury, he attacks them viciously, it says. He slaughters many of them, and he gets his revenge, and he goes down and stays in the cleft of a rock.

Fury. Bat news last 2, dramatic developments and lots of destruction, foxes, fires, fury. Still with me. Newsflash 3. Defiance, deliverance, and donkeys Judges's 15 9 to 20.

In retaliation to Samsung ravaging through the Philistines, The Philestein's come up to an Israelite stronghold to, there's 10 says, due to Samsung as he did to them. And our final scene ends, begins with an act of defiance, but it's not the the israelites define the Philistines It's the is right defying their deliverer. Samsung's actions have unsettled the israelites. They fear their comfort is being threatened. The israelites.

So 300 men 3000 men judah, make a pragmatic decision, and they want to appease the filler signs by handing Samsung over to them. They're saying we don't want you anymore. Familiar story, isn't it? As the people the deliverer has come to save reject him. They approach him with this shocking statement in verse 11.

This is really in. Don't you know that the Philistines are rulers over us? Don't you realize that the Philistines are rulers over us. These are sad words. How did we get here?

The people don't cry out. They're so immersed in this godless culture around them. They didn't even notice their own decay. They've grown so accustomed to, to to to the life that they know it, that they see deliverance as a threat to peace. They see Samsung as against them rather than against the first lines.

And they say, what is this you've done to us? Thretting our threatening on our safety, our comfort, our freedom to live in sin. I like that. I quite like doing this, living at how I want. Isn't that how we treat our own sin?

We defend our position. We justify it. We don't want conflict. Defiance. The men of Judah say in best 12 that they've come to bind Samsung up and to turn him over to the Philistine.

So the deliverer is taken captive by his own people, and he's handed over to their enemies. It looks like it's game over. It looks like the Philistines have won because they're shouting They're sure that they've won because their enemies tied off and surrounded until suddenly the spirit of the lord came powerfully upon Samsung, and exciting things happen when the spirit of the lord comes powerfully upon Samsung, because the next minute he breaks free, from the ropes and beats up a thousand Phyllis times with a donkey's jawbone. Just when all was lost, instead of dying, he conquers. He kills a thousand Philistines with a fresh jaw bone of a donkey deliverance.

White death is a Finnish sniper. And he's often cited as having 1 of the well, having the highest number of confirmed kills by an individual in modern warfare, white death. He's 1 of the most effective snipers in the history of recorded warfare. His confirmed kill count during the winter war of 90 39 against the Soviet Union was 505 kills. Samsung doubles that, not with a sniper rifle.

With the fresh jaw bone of a donkey. I love how it told that the jaw bone was fresh. And it was fresh because it would it had to have been fresh because it would have been hard, not brittle. And you can do some serious damage with a fresh donkey's dentures. But it also means that he touched a dead body again.

He violated his nazirite bow Again, come on, Samsung. Samsung strikes a thousand Philistines down. And then it seems to sing praises to himself. And we get this big quote in verse 16 with a donkey's jawbone, I have made donkeys of them. With a donkey's jawbone, I have killed a thousand men.

If you look in the footnotes of your bibles for making donkeys of them, it may say that the Hebrew for donkey sounds like the Hebrew for heaps. It's written the same way too. So I've used the donkey's jawbone to make donkeys of them. I've may I've used the donkey's jawbone to make heaps of them. He's made the Philistines into Heaps.

And fittingly, he's called the place jawbone Hill, What's this guy? And if this battle was made into a movie, we've had this finale, this song that he's just sang to himself, and we get to the end credits. And if Samsung was in charge of the credits, I think it would just be Philstein's, his wife. Maybe the donkey gets a shout out in him. But the problem with that is that he's missing the director.

I don't know if you saw it, but as Samsung both and sings this donkey song to himself. After phone, Samsung's afraid he might die. A first. He's just killed a thousand Philistines, and he might die of first. Defiance deliverance, donkey's dehydration.

God humbles him to become thirsty until he cries out to god in verse 18, you have given your servant this great victory. He's gone from boasting about it all in himself. I have killed a thousand men to giving God the glory. You have given your servant this great victory. God's merciful to him and provides a spring.

Of all the ways the lord could have humbled Samsung after this epic victory against the Philistines. God makes him thirsty. On the cross, John 19 says, knowing that everything had now been finished, Jesus said I'm thirsty. Jesus who lived a perfect life in whom there was neither trace nor stain of sin, who was despised and rejected, hadn't slain a thousand Philistines but thousands of our sins on the cross as he took the sin of the world, and it was laid on him. Samsung is a flawed type of a flawless Christ who took the punishment we deserve in our place, and after saying and fair seats to fulfill the scriptures on the cross, he said it is finished.

Redeem and work is done. All the debt is paid. Justice divine is satisfied. Praise god for that. That's a story?

Sin, scandal, salvation. And there's 3 things that I want us to take away from this by way of application. And the first 1 is a call for self examination. Remember my unnoticed stench of eggs just as stepping outside allowed me to identify the smell that had permeated my home So too must must we step outside and take time to examine our hearts. Are we living in an unnoticed stench?

What areas are we compromising with the world, adopting, and even promoting the popular opinions of modern culture pro prioritizing our own desires over the lord's commands. Toser said there is no such thing as harmonious coexistence between the church and the world, for where there is no conflict, it is because the world has taken over. What areas is god's word clear, but there's an absence of conflict in our lives. I've been really challenged by this passage to resist cultural assimilation. And to live in faithful obedience to god whatever the cost.

We're in a dangerous position If we adopt Judith, don't you know the first lines of rules over us? Where are we not calling for god to deliver us because like to that we quite like living in our sin. God doesn't call us. To even negotiate with sin, but to wage war on it, to have a holy hatred towards it and to warn sinners of it, to warn sinners of god's judgment instead of accepting them in their sin. But calling them to repentance and faith.

So that's a call for self examination. And maybe that's a comfort for those who are battling But maybe it's a challenge for those who aren't. If there's no conflict, it means that we're losing a battle. A call to the call self examination, secondly, a call to praise We see in this passage god's character that he is so faithful and committed to his purposes. He's so faithful and committed to his promises that he'll even use messy people.

And he works not just through this in of people as we see, but despite their sinfulness, remember this for that amazing verse, his father and mother didn't know that this was on the lord that Samsung wanted to marry a Philistine. For he, the lord was seeking an opportunity against the Philistines. Samsung's sinful pursuit was ultimately from god. God worked through Samsung sin in order to accomplish his victory. God is at work.

God is on the move. His sovereignty remains central. He uses Samsung to achieve his purposes, even though the is right reject him. God intervenes despite our desperate, hopeless state, or notice stench meets unwavering grace. And that's a call to praise for he is faithful to his promises in season out of season, god is on the throne, and we can praise him for that.

Call's praise. The third and final call a call to end her call. God opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble, and that's the pattern of scripture, isn't it? Where god gives us gives us over to our sin and allows it to break us so that we may come in humility and cry out to him. For help.

That's what happens to Samsung. After this epic victory, he's humble to the point of near death. Is forced to cry out to the lord for help, and god provides a spring. En hakor, that's the name of the spring that Samsung calls in Lehigh after he called to god. And En hakor means Colors spring.

Samsung called to god, god provided a spring callers spring. God causes water to come from the rock looking back to the water that came from the rock that gives life to the people in the wilderness. Paul says that Israel drank from the rock that was Christ. And we anticipate the water that flows from the rock that is Christ at his side as it's paced on the cross. God brings us to our dehydrated state so that we call out to him and that he can provide the all buying water that is Christ.

En Hakor is that state of humility when we know we cannot the our own god. When we know we cannot be our own Christ, we can't save ourselves. Our sin can't satisfy us and we need a savior that's in her core. So come Come to call us spring. If it's the first time, if it's the 5 hundredth time, call out to the lord.

Bring your brokenness and floors to the foot of the cross and drink from the water of life is provided for all who call out to him. A call for self examination, a call for praise, and a call to end our call. Let me pray. Fathery, I'm so thankful for your words We thank you for, it it's truth and lord were convicted by our own sin. By our own assimilation, we are sorry for how we have not waged war against it.

And so we pray that you would renew our minds that you're creating us new hearts, that we would come to you afresh this evening and confess us in and receive forgiveness. Thank you that you are faithful and just to forgive us. Thank you for Christ. Thank you for intervening god that you gave us your only son. Thank you for your spirit that has opened our blind eyes, and we just want to praise you for the glorious possible.

So maybe do that in our lives, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.