Designer God: Designed for What is Good in His Sight
[powerpress] Judges 3:12-30 And the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord strengthened Eglon the king of Moab against Israel, because they had done what was evil in the sight of the Lord. He gathered to himself the Ammonites and the Amalekites, and went and defeated Israel. And they took possession of the city of palms. And the people of Israel served Eglon the king of Moab eighteen years. Then the people of Israel cried out to the Lord, and the Lord raised up for them a deliverer, Ehud, the son of Gera, the Benjaminite, a left-handed man. The people of Israel sent tribute by him to Eglon the king of Moab. And Ehud made for himself a sword with two edges, a cubit in length, and he bound it on his right thigh under his clothes. And he presented the tribute to Eglon king of Moab. Now Eglon was a very fat man. And when Ehud had finished presenting the tribute, he sent away the people who carried the tribute. But he himself turned back at the idols near Gilgal and said, “I have a secret message for you, O king.” And he commanded, “Silence.” And all his attendants went out from his presence. And Ehud came to him as he was sitting alone in his cool roof chamber. And Ehud said, “I have a message from God for you.” And he arose from his seat. And Ehud reached with his left hand, took the sword from his right thigh, and thrust it into his belly. And the hilt also went in after the blade, and the fat closed over the blade, for he did not pull the sword out of his belly; and the dung came out. Then Ehud went out into the porch and closed the doors of the roof chamber behind him and locked them. When he had gone, the servants came, and when they saw that the doors of the roof chamber were locked, they thought, “Surely he is relieving himself in the closet of the cool chamber.” And they waited till they were embarrassed. But when he still did not open the doors of the roof chamber, they took the key and opened them, and there lay their lord dead on the floor. Ehud escaped while they delayed, and he passed beyond the idols and escaped to Seirah. When he arrived, he sounded the trumpet in the hill country of Ephraim. Then the people of Israel went down with him from the hill country, and he was their leader. And he said to them, “Follow after me, for the Lord has given your enemies the Moabites into your hand.” So they went down after him and seized the fords of the Jordan against the Moabites and did not allow anyone to pass over. And they killed at that time about 10,000 of the Moabites, all strong, able-bodied men; not a man escaped. So Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel. And the land had rest for eighty years.
How we utilize our time, our talent and our resources may be evil in the sight of the Lord though things may be ok in our eyes. Just because something is right in your eyes doesn't mean it is ok in the Lord's.
Is how you spend your free time edifying to you and those that you are with in the Lord? Is it biblical fellowship or meaningless, carnal revelry? Do you come away from these encounters loving Jesus more, being provoked to love of others and good deeds? Are you stirred to pursuits which would aggrandize Jesus and further His gospel purposes or some other worldly passion?
Are the relationships that you are forming useful in introducing people to Jesus and making disciples?
Do you think that you and the Lord ever have differing standards about what is good to do? About what is evil? Who do you consult and who do you most obey?
The Lord strengthened a foreign nation against His people. The length of the captivity was increasing.
The Israelites were a people with a national identity. They both prospered and suffered together, as when they took the land and when the Moabites, Amalekites and Ammonites defeated them. Many times we don't even notice the subjection and we don't cry out to God because we are so assimilated in the world we can't tell the difference. How identified are you with Christ and being a Christian? Is that your identity? That is the only thing that will provoke you to cry out to God.
Ehud was not raised up with fanfare but took the opportunities that we're presented to him to serve the Lord. Are you doing the same in the church and your sphere of influence?
Ehud made a double-edged sword and strapped it to his side.
Get the word of God in you and begin to pray/think about how you are going to shape the environments in which you find yourself through it.
“We are the people that we have been waiting for and no one else is coming.” ― T.D. Jakes
Being put in proximity to rulers, you will have opportunity to bring change.
Repentance demands that you do something different, out of the ordinary to break free. Thus God raised up a left-handed man to plunge the sword into the belly of the oppressor.
Mark 9:42-43, 45, 47-50 “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, ‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’ For everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”
Has your sin been getting large while feeding off of your incessant defeats, while for years you've become used to serving it?
In my gym, "Get a perfect life!" is advertised. If living "the good life" is your ultimate goal, you will throw off things important to Jesus to obtain it.
In the following quote, you have this designation of characters: The speaker: Screwtape, a devil The recipient: Wormwood, another devil The Enemy, "He": God The man: a Christian
"To be sure, the Enemy wants men to think of the Future too - just so much as is necessary for now planning the acts of justice or charity which will probably be their duty tomorrow. The duty of planning tomorrow's work is today's duty; though its material is borrowed from the future, the duty, like all duties, is in the Present. This is now straw splitting. He does not want men to give the Future their hearts, to place their treasure in it. We do. His ideal is a man who, having worked all day for the good of posterity (if that is his vocation), washes his mind of the whole subject, commits the issue to Heaven, and returns at once to the patience or gratitude demanded by the moment that is passing over him. But we want a man hag-ridden by the Future - haunted by visions of an imminent heaven or hell upon earth - ready to break the Enemy's commands in the present if by so doing we make him think he can attain the one or avert the other - dependent for his faith on the success or failure of schemes whose end he will not live to see. We want a whole race perpetually in pursuit of the rainbow's end, never honest, nor kind, nor happy now, but always using as mere fuel wherewith to heap the altar of the future every real gift which is offered them in the Present." -C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters - Letter 15
Romans 13:11-14 Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.
Second City Church- Designer God Sermon Series 2015