Judges 2024

1 of the 1 of the bibles on the table, and there'll be, a number of readings.

The the first is going to be the very last, verse of the book of judges. So If you are with us for the first time this evening, we've been working our way through the book of judges, and, Rory's gonna be closing out that series for us this this evening. And we're just gonna start by reading that very last verse of the final chapter, and then we'll move on to Isaiah and then a reading from Matthew as well. So here's a summary of the whole wretched mess that has been the book of judges Judges is 21 verse 25. In those days, Israel had no king.

Everyone did as they saw fit. And now if you'd like to turn on to Isaiah, we're gonna have a reading from Isaiah chapter chapter 9. They're gonna come up on the screen, Isaiah chapter 9, and we're gonna read verses 1 to 7. Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. In the past, he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of NAFTA.

But in the future, he will honor Gallery of the nations by the way of the sea beyond the Jordan. The people walking in darkness have seen a great light on those living in the land of deep darkness. A light has dawned. You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy. They rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest.

As warriors rejoice when dividing the plunder. For as in the day of Midien's defeat, you have shattered the yoke that burdens them. The bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor. Every warrior's boot used in battle And every garment rolled in blood will be destined for burning will be fuel for the fire. For to us, a child is born.

To us, a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders, and he will be called wonderful counselor, mighty god, everlasting father, prince of peace, Of the greatness of his government and peace, there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom. Establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the lord almighty will accomplish this. And so now, let's turn to the book of Matthew, and we're gonna read Matthew 1 versus 1 to 17.

This is the genealogy of Jesus, the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham was the father of Isaac. Isaac, the father of Jacob. Jacob, the father of Judah and his brothers, due to the father of Perez and Zera, whose mother was Tamar. Perez, the father of hezron, hezron, the father of Ram.

Rammed the father of amenadab, amenadab, the father of Nayshon. Nayshon, the father of Salmon. Salmon, the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, Boa, the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth, Obed, the father of Jesse, and Jesse, the father of king David. David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Yuri's wife. Solomon, the father of Rehoboam, Rehoboam, the father of Abaysia.

Abaysia, the father of Asa. Asa, the father of Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat, the father of Juhoram, Juhoram, the father of Uziah. Uziah, the father of Jotham. Jotham, the father of Ahaz. A has the father of Hezakaya.

Hezakaya, the father of Vanessa. Manessa, the father of Amon, Amon, the father of Josiah. And Josiah, the father of Jaconiah, and his brothers at the time of the exile to Babylon. After the exile to Babylon, Jekani was the father of Shiltil. Shiltil, the father of Zerubbabel.

Zerubbabel, the father of a by hood, Abaihud, the father of Alayakim. Alayakim, the father of Azor, Azor, the father of Zadok, Zadok, the father of Akim, Aqim, the father of Alaihud. Elaihud, the father of Eliaza. Eliaza, the father of Mathan. Mathan, the father of Jacob, And Jacob, the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, and Mary was the mother of Jesus, who is called the Messiah.

Thus, there were 14 generations in all from Abraham to David, 14 from David to the exile to Babylon. And 14 from the exile to the Messiah. Well, good evening. My name's Rory. This is gonna be a little bit different to what we're used to at Cornerstone because it's not so much a talk on, a particular passage rather it's gonna be a sort of a a bible aviance.

It's gonna be more like a history lesson. So if you don't like history, sorry, you might wanna go now. But if you do like history and you like the bible, stay put, and if you wanna know about Jesus stay put, because there's some really exciting things, hopefully, that we're gonna see as we go through, as we go through the sort of wrap up of judges. Tom said this morning that I was gonna summarize the whole of the book. That is not possible.

So I'm gonna try and summarize the whole of the Bible instead. Let's pray because we definitely got help with this 1, and then we'll get stuck in. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much, for your words. And, we pray that now as we come to it, we will be expecting to hear from you.

We pray father that you will give us who have read this this book before an a renewed excitement about it. We pray father for those who are maybe here who are not so familiar with it, and they will see just how this is the word of life, and that it is so amazing how everything fits together. And we pray father that as we consider, judges and sort of what it points to, we'll be excited to know the lord Jesus Christ, and we will be excited to serve him, as our lord and savior. And so we pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. Well, I wanna begin, by considering the theme of hope.

The theme of hope. So when I when I when I thought about this, I thought let's find a definition of hope, and there's a lot of different definitions of hope for some reason. That 1 of the first ones I got was a feeling of expectation and desire for a particular thing to happen. But as I as I read through more and more sort of definitions, it was kind of some thought about, you can have confidence that it will happen. Others said you should have very little confidence that that it should happen.

And I think that reveals how people view hope. Some people I've discovered have a very positive view about hope. Others have a much more negative view of hope. Many of you may have seen, the film Shoreshank redemption. It's a it's an absolutely fantastic film.

It's Gavin's favorite film. If you wanna know what Gavin's favorite film. In that in that film, there are 2 characters, 1 called Andy Defrain, and another 1 called red. Andy Defrain is a big fan of hope. He's been put in prison wrongly, and he wants to hold on to hope is the 1 thing that no 1 can take off him.

And when he talks about hope, his friend is the opposite. He's much more negative. In fact, Red replies to him, let me tell you something, my friend. Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane.

Later on, Andy will not be deterred and he says, remember red, hope is a good thing. Maybe the best of things and no good thing ever dies. Hope is positive or is hope negative. Nietzsche said hope and reality is the worst of all evils because it prolongs the torments of man. If you if you follow any sports team or a football, if you're a football fan, you've ever met a football fan, their team is rubbish like myself, who sports everton, unfortunately.

Our common phrases, it's the hope that kills you. In other words, don't get your hopes up about your football team because they will always let you down. That's why we're ridiculous. Franklin says he that lives upon hope will die, fasting. But on the other hand, there's those who say to live without hope is deceased to live.

We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope. So there's, what is it? And as we Think about those positive and negative views about hope. Which 1 fits judges? As we look throughout this book of judges, and if you're if you're here for the first time and you haven't heard anything about judges, you might wanna go back and listen to it.

And, Which 1 of those quotes fits judges? See, in the book of judges, we've seen this downward spiral of sin that repeats itself again and again and again as as god's people, Israel fail to live out their purpose. They were meant to live for god. They were meant to live for god as their king. They were meant to show the foreign nations around them just how incredible god was and what it meant to be in god's kingdom.

Yet they fail and fail and fail. And they imitate the culture around them, and they look no different to anybody else. And they actually reject Guardian's king, and they take the idols of the nations around them as the king, and we saw this cycle, didn't we? Firstly, they do evil in the eyes of the lord, the people strayed. Secondly, we see god gave them over to the idols and to the nations of the idols.

They were enslaved. They were in chains. Thirdly, we saw they were dismayed. They cry out. Oh, we're in misery gods.

We're enslaved. We're we're in pain. Help was god. And then fourthly, we saw the judge raised my god, and the people were saved. Just to start the cycle and the downward spiral again.

They stray again. And as as we've gone through the book of judges though, we we we have had glimmers of hope, haven't we? A judge is raised. Oh, maybe maybe it'll be different now. No more so than when when Samsung came onto the scene, get a miraculous baby, 1 that's gonna be a nazirite who's gonna abstain from, eating, drinking wine, who's gonna of statement cutting his hair.

This guy is surely the guy. And as soon as you got your hope up about 1 judge, it was dashed. And then we came to the last 5 chapters. And if you've been here the last 2 weeks, I I'm amazed you've come back. Because the last 5 chapters of judges, may be the most depressing chapters that we come across.

Is completely and utterly dark. And that verse that Tom read summarizes everything that we have seen in judges. In those days, Israel had no king. Everyone did as they saw fit. Everyone did what was right in their own eyes.

Everyone said, god, You're not gonna be arcing. We're gonna be the ones who decide what is right and wrong, and it was a very, very bleak picture. But the thing that we needed to remember about judges is that judges is not an isolated period in history. Judges is our world too. George is is is our world too.

We live in a world where genocide happens. We live in a world where the horror of rape occurs. We live in a world where girls are kidnapped from their village, and they're married off to people without their consent. That is our world. But not only that, But this was the people of guards.

And so not only is it our world, but this could be our churches too. The people of god look just like everyone else around them. So easy the church assimilates imitates, looks like the culture does what the culture does, and fails to be unique and stand out forgot. Now as I said when I preach through judges 19, if judges was the final word, we won't find it pretty hopeless. We might agree with some of these negative people on hope.

We might think, well, there's no 1 here to break this downward spiral. Where's the hope? But praise god, it is not the final words. It is not the final word. So here's my first point, because it's not even the final word in judges.

Number 1, first point, hope in the world of the judges, hope in the world of the judges. Just by a show of hands, who who did the media fast? Right. So the media fast is where we read the whole book of judges. Together as a church.

Wasn't it really good news that we didn't finish at judges? Cause everyone was really depressed by what day was it? Thursday, Thursday more than people are like, I don't think I could carry on with this. It's so sad. But we didn't stop at judges Because the very next book, if you just turn the page after judges, you come to Ruth, and Ruth is exactly what we need after reading judges.

But Ruth is in the same time. If you read Ruth chapter 1 verse 1, it says, in the days when the judges ruled, it's set at the time when the judges ruled, and so we come to Bethlehem, which is where this concubine was from in judges 19. We come to Bethlehem, and we're met with a bloke called Boas. We need some Boasas in church. What a name?

Bowers are strong. That's what it means, strength. And in Bowers, we see 1 who is faithful. We see 1 who is kind. In a in a completely faithless world.

In a world that has rejected God as king, we find Boas, 1 who is faithful and lives for god, and he is faithful. He's kind to roof a foreigner. Who's also showing kindness to her mother-in-law, Naomi. Here's a faithful 1. Here's 1 that is there is light.

There is hope. And and and, you know, after after judges and all that horror, I think what we need know, after you watch, like, a heavy movie or you've read a heavy, but we did this once when we've we watched Tenet by Christopher Nolan. And and we came out of it, and we thought, what has just happened to us? And we came in, we said we need we need something just to alleviate our stress. So we watched some rubbish comedy, and I thought, oh, few.

But this isn't rubbish. This is, like, Alita, I need relief, and so what we need is this a beautiful love story. And so Boas, Marries, Marries Ruth, and and there is redemption there. But not just that, because of that marriage, we get the birth of obed. And I think what?

And I was like, yes, obed, aren't we? No? Just me? Loves O bed? O bed.

After O bed, We get Jesse. And after Jesse, we get David. And there is hope in the world of judges For David, after the failure of Sorter's King, who was just like the the nations around them, David comes in and in to Samuel in to 7. David is promised that he will have a son whose kingdom will last forever. He will establish the house of the lords.

He he's he's he will always be king. And so then Solomon comes onto the picture afterwards, and he builds the temple the house of the lord. And so hope Hope, yes, there's light, there's relief, there's hope in the world of the judges, yet it is not fulfilled. David and Solomon both fail. Both of them fall in the trap of lust and of women.

But there is something to hold on to here in terms of hope. So there's hope in the world of judges Secondly, there's hope as the wait continues. Now if you know anything about the scriptures, David and Solomon is about as good as it gets, generally. In terms of kings of Israel, What follows is, what could be best described as as false storms. I think there's I think there's 38 kings in total after after David, after Solomon.

Sorry. 5 of those kings are described as doing what is right in the eyes of the lords. 33 kings fail. So king after king after king after king gets it wrong. And do you know what the word is what this phrase is used to describe those who get it wrong?

It's a phrase that we've seen in judges time and time again. So and so did evil in the eyes of the lord. So and so did evil in the eyes of the lord. And so The king's get it wrong and wrong and wrong and wrong until there's no more kings. They're taken away into exile, Nadikhanazakhstan defeats Israel and that people of god have been defeated.

And so the hope that we might have had in these men is totally futile, isn't it? Surely, these guys who were negative about hope they're right. I mean, this is a bit like This is like Pete mentioned 19 66 this morning. Year after year after tournament after tournament, England people, they're mad. It's better to be Scottish.

No hope at all. Isn't that right, brother? Thank you. Yeah. We don't we don't have any expectations.

We just think we're glad we're here tournament after tournament after tournament. Not manager after manager, player after player. This is the 1 we should hope and this is the 1 we should hope and this is the 1 surely this is our year. Or if you like your tennis, it was always Tim Hemman every year. After years, Tim's year, it's Tim's year.

It's Tim's year. It's never Tim's year. And that's what it's like with these kings. Is this the king? Is this king?

Is this king? No. No. No. No.

It's like the MPs. They put a new MP in charge of this thing. Maybe he's the MP that we could trust in. Oh, well, what surprise. He's not the MP to trust in.

And so it feels like there's no hope, but the hope hasn't been extinguished. There's a flicker of light. There's a little emblem that's still on fire. For at the end of kings, we're told that the king of Israel, Jahoya King, is released from his captivity and eat at the table of nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar, his descendant is the rub zerubbabel.

Zerubbabel takes the remnant of Israel back to Israel. There is still hope, even in the darkest of days of Israel's history. But not only that, you get all these prophecies. Did you see that 1 in Isaiah 9? Did you see it in Isaiah 9?

The yoke will be broken. The oppressed are gonna be free. There is a there is 1 coming, a sun coming. There's 1 coming. See, that this is what god's like.

And this is why we can have the positive view of hope. Because god is the eternal god of the universe who is totally and utterly committed to fulfilling his promises. The eternal promise that there will be a king, he will make sure it goes through. And so the theme, the drumbeat, if you will, of the old testament, is he's coming, he is coming, he is coming, he is coming, He is coming. The king is coming.

The crisis is coming. The Messiah is coming. He is coming. He is coming. He is coming.

Have you heard the drumbeat of the Old Testament? It's good. He's coming. He's coming. It reminds me of that Children's book, which is so much more than a children's book, the lion, the witch and the wardrobe.

And there you have, it's always winter Christmas. But then things start to happen, the thawing of the ice, and the animals are saying, have you heard, Aslyn? Is on the move. Aslan is on the move. And so this is not a negative view of hope.

This is positive. You know, when a when a kid is really excited about something coming up, long do I have to wait? How long do I have to wait? I'm nearly there. Yeah.

I'm nearly there. Yeah. Yes. We're nearly there. You say just a little longer.

Just a little longer. Just a little longer. It'll be worth the wait. And so thirdly, Hope arrives the wait is over. Hope arrives.

The wait is over. And so we come So that last passage that Tom read, Matthew chapter 1. First 1 to 17, and you'll see in verse 3, Judah. Whose father is Jacob. You go down to verse 5, and we see that beautiful man again, Boas, whose whose mother was Rayhad, by the way, which is probably why he was so good to show faithfulness to Ruth.

Verse 6, Jesse, the father of King David's. And then lastly, verse 16, Jacob, the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, and Mary was the mother of Jesus, who is called the Messiah. He's coming. He's coming. He's coming.

He's coming. He's here. The line of Judah. And there he is, born in Bethlehem, are hoped fulfilled. This is the greatest thing.

The hope in the old testament never was fulfilled. I don't know if you felt that. I hope you do. Here he is. And do you know what?

He does not disappoint? Not like the managers, not like the players, not like the MPs, not like the kings that we've seen, not like the judges. He's not like Gideon who doubts the word of god, who getting his around. He's not like Jeff the who makes rash promises. He's not like Samsung full of promise, but fails to deliver.

This 1, this king, the line of Judah, fulfills all hope, meets all expectations. And that's what the gospel show was. He fulfills it in every single way. If I I I I I decide to do this just before, if you turn to every nearly every page of the Gospels, you will see a footnote that references an old testament passage. It's very rare that you won't see any.

And it's saying every book is saying fulfilled, fulfilled, fulfilled, for filled fulfilled. I got on-site off. It said 70 major prophecies that Jesus fulfilled. They think there's between 304 hundred and 56 prophecies about Jesus in the old testament. Don't know what they were saying.

He's coming. He's coming. He's coming. He's coming. And these Jesus saying, here.

Done. Done. Done. Done. He is the 1 that fulfills the hope.

He's he's the 1 that is recognized as the Messiah you'll notice if you look at the next chapter of Matthew, that the major icon, and they say, where is the Messiah? Where is the Christ? Where is the king? We wanna we wanna worship him. We wanna give him his due.

You can then go to the temple scene in in Luke, and you see Anna, and you see Simyan, and they praise god for finally, they have seen The consolation of Israel, the Messiah is here. You come to his cousin, John, the Baptist, and he prepares the way. For the 1 that brings salvation, the Messiah himself, he's preparing the heart that people might receive the Christ. You see a blind man and and his friends. Bartermais, and he sees more clearly than the most of the people around them.

He says, son of David. Amazing. Have mercy on me. You come to Peter? He says who do you say I am?

He says you are the Christ. You are the Messiah. But not only is it that people recognize him, he claims to be him as well. He goes into a temple in his hometown in Lazarus. Lazarus, I got there in the end.

In Luke chapter 4, He gets the Bible. He goes to Isaiah. 58 and 61, he says the spirit of the lord is on me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind to set the oppressed free to proclaim the year of the lord. Favor.

He's saying, see all that stuff. I am he. I wish I could go through all the claims. But we will be here for an incredibly long time. He comes onto the sea and he says, the kingdom of god, the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of god, the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of god, the kingdom of heaven.

He is a king, but he is like now what there is he. You think about earthly kings. You think about earthly rulers You think about Alexander the great, or I watched that film about Napoleon. That was very boring if you have seen it. I was like, well, how can you make it so boring?

Anyway, And they they were physical, impressive, grand battles, bloody. Powerful about me, but this is a king, like, not not like them. This is a king, not like earthly kings. For we need a king that is not like those earthly kings. We need 1 who is the son that never fails.

We need 1 who is different both in the way that he acts. But he comes and he says, I am, I am the king, but I've come to lay down my life. I've come to, I've come to serve my people. I've come to to die for my people. But not only that, but it is on a different scale to earthly kings.

Alexander, the great, well, done. You you you you you got some of Persia. At Napoleon, well done, you conquered not Russia, but a load of other places. You're well done brilliant, but this here is so much grander The lord Jesus Christ has to do things on a spiritual level. Yes, he goes to bloody death, but he is so much greater in that he he goes to defeat the powers of, of death, and sin, and satan.

This is the king we have longed for in judges. This is the king we hope 4. This is the king. We're saying, I want this. I want this king.

Because this is the king. That can break that downward spiral. There it is. That wheel in motion going down and down and down, and we need someone to come in and stop it. And he does that by going to the cross.

And dying. He does that. By rising again in glorious power, and he does it by his ascension. The cross of the lord Jesus Christ spells hope for me and you. The resurrection of the lord Jesus Christ spells hope for me and you.

The ascension of the lord Jesus Christ says hope for me and you. And so we can sing with the songwriter I'm ransomed. I'm healed. I'm restored. I'm forgiven.

Ransomed. I've been, I've been bought by the blood of the lord Jesus Christ, so I'm set free from the oppression of my of my addictions and of my slavery to sin and from the the chains of death and of hell, I've been set free from that I've been healed from the sickness of my sin. I've been restored to the place where I was meant to be. I was I was meant to be in the kingdom of God. I was meant to be living with god I've been restored to him.

I've been forgiven. Forgiven of my sin. For Kevin of all the times, I've got it wrong. But I said, I'll be king. This is the ultimate king.

This is the ultimate judge. This is the ultimate deliverer. And he is the 1 who brings reversal of the downward spiral. Later on, in the book, the line of which in the wardrobe, many of you will know that Aslan sacrifices himself for the place of Edmund, and then he rises again. The table breaks.

And and Lucy Lucy and Susan, like, what how has this happened? What what does it mean? And here's Aslan's response. I should have put it off. I'm sorry I haven't.

He says this. It means that though the witch knew the deep magic, there is magic deeper still which she did not know. Her knowledge goes back only to the dawn of time. But if she could have looked a little further back into the stillness and the darkness before time dawned, she would have read there a different incantation. And here you go.

If you haven't heard the rest of this, hear this. She would have known that when a willing victim who had committed, no treachery was killed in a traitor's stead, the table would crack, and death itself would start working backward. See, he doesn't just stop the downward spiral. He starts to make it go up with an out. See, before we had the the judge has been raised and saved, that is the only thing that now stays the same.

But now rather than being dismayed, we are amazed at that we've been set free. Rather than being enslaved by our sin and our addictions, We've been unchained. We've been uncaged to go and live for him as our savior and as our king. And rather now than straying, we can go away and obey him. This cycle has gone the other way.

Can you see it? We've been free. And so everything is reversed in the in the cross of Christ and the resurrection of, the ascension of Christ. What once we were enslaved, now we're free. Once once we forgot god and and judges, now we can remember him and know him and be in relationship with him.

Once we were in darkness, what a dark, dark picture judges were, was now we're in the glorious light of the lord Jesus Christ. Once were in death now. We are bursting full of life. I could go on and on. Once we were going away from Eden, now we're being brought back to Eden.

The reversal has happened. It's all going back this way. We're going upwards. We're going outwards. This is true hope, brothers, and sisters.

Roman says that this hope will never put you to shame. Hebrew 6, I think there's a slide up, actually. You can flick over to it. Hebrew 6 verse 18 to 20 says this. Scott did this so that by 2 unchangeable things in which it is impossible for god to lie.

We who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be greatly encouraged, and I love this verse. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It's not just a I hope it won't rain tomorrow. This is this is secure. It enters the inner sanctuary.

In other words, the lord Jesus enters the inner behind the curtain where our forerunner Jesus has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever in the order of Melchizedek. This is true hope. Hope has arrived. The wait is over.

There's a new wait now as we wait for his expected return. But in the meantime, here's the fourth point, hope for the world, the unstoppable kingdom. Hope for the world, the unstoppable kingdom. See, that is not the end of the story. After Jesus rise from the dead 4 years ends on high.

He talks to his disciples in Matthew 28, and he says go to all the nations baptizing. Preaching, teaching them to obey my commandments. In acts, it it is repeated again. It's an amazing thing in in acts versus acts chapter 1 verse 7 to 8, he says it's not for you to know the times or dates the father is set by his own authority, but You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem. And in all Jude, and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

And acts is so exciting because acts tracks that. In acts chapter 2, Where does the gospel go first? It goes to Jerusalem. Peter stands up. He preaches probably 1 of the greatest sermons ever, I imagine because 3000 people are converted in 1 sitting.

Yes? Wow. So in Jerusalem, but in chapter 8, persecution hits the church, And so the the gospel then goes to Judea, and then it goes to Samaria. And so you've got Philip in Samaria, preaching the gospel. And then as you read the rest of acts, The gospel goes out to all the nations.

It's going to places like thessalonica, and Barria, and Listra, and iconium, and and and Corrent and Filipi, Macedonia, and all of Greece and Turkey, and it going and going and going. I said, you know what? It's still going today. And so do you see this? It's not a downward spiral anymore as people caving on themselves as they're all about sales of their individuals, but now it's bursting forth.

This is how cool, axes. As people of all walks of life, all types of people come to know our great king, the lord Jesus Christ. And that is our mission. Isn't that isn't that a kingdom that you wanna be part of? Is that not a mission that you wanna be involved in?

It was great to hear, brother, and sister how you got a a church that has a heart to go and tell people about the lord Jesus Christ, I don't even do something as crazy as door knocking. Because they know that this king is worth knowing, and they know that this kingdom is worth being a part of. There's purpose here. There's meaning that there's such a desperate search for meaning and purpose in this world, and and you have people trying to create their own meaning, and you have people trying to to to determine what they think is right and wrong, and it's so much easier if you just come and submit and bow the knee to the lord Jesus Christ as King. And so Christ gives us the prayer that we should pray.

Let your kingdom come. Let your will be done. We prayed it this morning in the lord's prayer. Let your kingdom come. Let your will be done.

On earth as this is in heaven. In other words, lord Jesus, Let your rule reign in my heart. Lord Jesus, Let me listen to your word above all other words. Lord Jesus let your desires be my desires. Lord, Jesus.

Let that be true of all people's hearts. And as we preach the gospel, we get a a church. We get the kingdom of unity and diversity. Isn't it amazing, like, in in judges? Like, the the people they were meant to be like, the same nation.

They were gonna be brothers and sisters, and they were so divided and and fractious. Yet the church brings people together, and I look around this room, and I think you're all very different to me. And I and at lunchtime, we had the internet a lunch, and I was just rejoicing that god has saved people from Asia and Africa. And even Europe and even the UK. And the gospel has gone out and out and out because it's upwards and outwards.

It's the mission unstoppable. It's the kingdom unstoppable. And so you may think it when you look in this world, you think, oh, well, there's no hope. The church is failing. The church is not failing brothers and sisters.

The church is more alive than it has ever been. The church will continue to thrive. The church will never be destroyed. The church will always be, and it will always thrive. It will continue to do so.

And so it's so exciting to be part of this church. And let's be what Israel were meant to be. Let's be what the church is meant to be Cornerstone church. Let us be a light to this world. How easy is it to be a light to this world, by the way?

It's such a dark world. You look outside there. You think, my goodness, the confusion. The evil, the evil that you see on the street, the the complete disregard for god's law, all I've gotta do. I'll tell you what, I was in Liverpool, And I dropped some a crisp packet.

Sorry. I dropped a crisp packet. And it it was a very windy day, so it blew off. And I thought, oh, gosh, I've gotta go and walk after that now. And I thought in my heart, I could just leave it.

And I did. I walked after I think I walked 2 miles for it, actually. Got it. Came back. An old lady says if she was smoking a cigarette and she went, no 1 else will do that here.

I was like, what? It's picking up rubbish. And in other words, we live in a world that that It's so dark. It's not hard to stand out and be attractive, and we should wanna be attractive. And we should wanna live for our king, and we should wanna show people that Jesus is worth following.

And as we do that, we pray that people will come of all types of people will come to know the lord Jesus Christ, and will be a beautiful multicultural unified church of god until the day. When we be with him forever until the final day of completion, till the final day of hope comes For that is what Revelation promises. Look with me at Revelation chapter 7. Converse, will go from verse 9 to 17. You'll notice that beforehand, There's a hundred and 44000.

In other words, the whole people of god will be saved. And in verse 9, John picks this up, and he says, after this, I look and there before me was a great multitude that no 1 could count from every nation, tribe, people and language standing before the throne and before the lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice, salvation belongs to our god who sits on the throne, unto the lamb. All the angels were standing round the throne and round the elders, and the and the 4 living creatures.

They fell down on their faces before the throne and worship god saying, amen. Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our god forever and ever are men. Then 1 of the elders asked me, these in white robes, who are they? And where did they come from? I answered, sir, you know.

And he said, these are those who have come out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the lamb, therefore. This is our hope. They are before the throne of god and serve him day and night in his temple. And he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence.

Never again will they hunger. Never again will they thirst. There's some will not beat down on them. Nor any scorching heat for the lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd. He will lead them to springs of living water, and god will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

There are some verses. Bursting with hope. That's our future brothers and sisters. That's our future. So where are you?

Where are you? Are you hopeful? Or are you hopeless? If you're hopeless, if you don't know the lord Jesus Christ as king, if you experience the darkness of this world and the hopelessness of it, and there's nothing that gives you meaning or purpose. Now can I ask you, tonight?

Come, know the lord Jesus' crisis king. Come and bow the knee before him. Kiss the sun, and you will have hope that never puts you to shame and Christian. Be hopeful. Be hopeful.

Have hope in the king. Have you seen them tonight? I hope you've seen them tonight. He's glorious. He fulfills all of our hope, all of our desires, all of our dreams if you want.

See him. Let's see him. And as we see him seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the book of judges and all that it's shown us. And we thank you that it creates on us a longing and a hope for a king that can deliver.

We thank you that the old testament keeps on drumming that beat that he is coming. He is coming. He is coming. And we see the fulfillment in the new testament, praise you father that Christ came. That he broke the spiral.

He reversed the pattern. So that we may have freedom and light and life and true hope And so we pray father that we will understand just how great our king is. And what he has done for us. And let us obey him. Let us live for him.

Let his rule, reign in our hearts, and that was desire to show people how great he is. And how worth being in his kingdom is. We pray these things in his name. Oh, man.