The Strangest Story Ever Told

Honestly, it's been in my back pocket for a little while because this is kind of one of those series that isn't like, it's a great series, it's going to be a great series, but it's not your average story or stories because we're going to be studying through the book of Judges and I really feel like this is the time, this is the time, this is the place, this is the moment in history we need to be talking about some of the things that were happening in these stories. So we're beginning the new series and I'm getting ready to tell you something, I'm actually going to go to the last story in the book of Judges, the last episode of the book of Judges because this is one that I believe is the strangest probably in ancient literature, it's probably one of the strangest ones and it's found in the Old Testament and the narrative of Judges is placed between, and just to kind of give you some context, is placed between the time of Joshua settling in the promised land, bringing the Israelites into the promised land, and then David becoming the future king, David becoming king. So there's about 330 years between that time period and for those 300, a little over 300 years, Israel was operated like a common wealth state. They didn't really have a king, they were 12 tribes with common ancestry and religious beliefs. So at that time there was no king, God was sort of like their king, and they were to follow and obey the law, and God would establish and distribute the law to the tribes through people that he anointed, he put in place called the judges, and they, or in some cases they, he would put judges in place to deliver people from bondage to, to, to other nations and, and, and deliver Israel.

But there's a, there was a problem here. There was a problem. Because the nation of Israel was a lot like you, and, and they were a lot like me. They didn't like to be told what to do. They didn't like to be told what, there was, there was, there was no real government.

There was no real ruling body. So everyone kind of did what they wanted to. So for 330 years, there was this cycle that took place. People would, that you'd have God's law, they would disobey God's law, and as a result disaster would take place. And then when disaster would take place, they would be in this horrendous, uh, difficult season for life.

They'd cry out to God, and God would send a deliverer, and that deliverer would save them, and then they would be happy for a little while, and then it wouldn't last very long, but they would go right back and disobey again. And then they'd enter into that disaster, and then ask God for help, and then God would come and deliver them. And, and over and over and over again, this would happen in the book of Judges. Does that sound familiar? This is a cycle we've all experienced, whether you're a Christian or not, or you've got a different type of religious background, or maybe you grew up under a religious household, and there was a set of rules.

At some point in your life, whether it was just your parents that established rules over you, somewhere in your life, you disobeyed either the law or some type of religious system you grew up in, you disobeyed your parents, or even you disobeyed your conscience, and, and, and there as a result was some kind of disaster that took place. Something went wrong, and what did you do? You asked for help. You asked for help. Someone came along to help you.

Maybe they came along to bail you out of jail. Maybe they come along to, to help you get into a, a rehab program, or maybe to pay a fine, or pay, pay a fee, and then you said, you will never do that again. I will never do this again. That's what you said. I will never do this again.

And you did it for about a week, and you did it again. And so is the book of Judges. Over and over again, the same cycle happened, and in some way, this reflects the lives of all of us. So we're looking at this final episode in the book of Judges, and the reason I'm starting here is because it reflects how bad things had really gotten for Israel. It reflects what happens when a group of people in a community, in a nation, or an individual who decides, I'm going to do what I'm going to do because I think that it's right.

What I think is right may not be right to you, and what you think is right may not be right to me, and I'm going to do what I think is right, and you can do what you think is right. And we can just leave each other alone, we can go about our business, I don't have to, we don't have to get in each other's business, we don't have to go which way or the other, and there's no absolute truth. And so we mind our own business, and for 330 years, that's how the Judges operated. They were up and down, and it was all, it all dissolved into this sickening cesspool of a story. And it's hard to believe, but it's how it happened, and it's so graphic, and I'm going to do my best to try to keep this PG-13, or below PG-13, and I'm going to actually not finish, in case some of you have kids in here, or you're listening at home, and you have kids in the room.

I'm going to not finish some of the stuff, and you can kind of read on your own to learn more about the story. But, and I'll try to make this as simple as possible, because this story is so involved, and so very complicated. So let's get started. Remember that the nation of Israel was divided in 12 tribes, there were tens of thousands, and possibly hundreds of thousands of people in some of these tribes. So there was a lot of people, so there was this story of a Levite man.

So the characters in the story, let me introduce it. There was a Levite, and he was from Ephraim. Ephraim was a city north of Benjamin. It was north of Jerusalem. And he goes down to Bethlehem to get himself a concubine, which is a girlfriend.

A concubine in that day, if you don't know what that is, it was sort of a girlfriend, a servant, or a wife, or whatever it was. She served in whatever area that she wanted to, you know, that she was, you know, at that time. So you had a concubine, and that wasn't the ideal heritage of Israel, okay? That was something that was adopted from the Canaanite culture, and we'll learn in future messages about how that happened, and how the Canaanites came in, and they adopted those. But it wasn't God's idea, but he had this concubine from Bethlehem, south of Benjamin in Judea.

He had him to move in with her. She was unfaithful. So she goes home, back to her. He brings him home, and she was unfaithful. And then she runs back to her father down in Bethlehem after a period of time.

And then for about four months, he decides, you know what? I am going to go back and get her. Maybe he missed her. Maybe he had some time to thought and process everything that had happened. And I'm going to go back down and get her.

And so this Levi went back to Bethlehem to get her. And the father of the concubine, the Scripture actually calls him father-in-law, so I'm not sure if he's a father-in-law or if he's not a father-in-law or what. You know, it's hard to tell exactly what's going on here. Maybe we can call him a concubine-in-law, right? And he's not happy about it.

He's kind of like, okay, so you're going to take her back. Well, why don't you just stay? You stay and hang out, and we'll drink, and we'll eat, and we'll have a good time. So he ends up staying for the night, and they stay up all night drinking and eating. And then he wakes up the next day.

He has a hangover, and he doesn't wake up until probably noon because he had just drank too much the night before. And then he starts to get ready. Well, I've got to go, and the father's like, oh, the father-in-law. Well, I've got to go, and the father's like, oh, the father's like, oh, the father's like, oh, the father's like, oh, the father's like, oh, the father's like, oh, the father's like, oh, the father's like, oh, the father's like, oh, the father's like, oh, the father's like, oh, the father's like, oh, the father's like, oh, the father's like, oh, the father's like, oh, the father's like, oh, the father's like, oh, the father's like, oh, the father's like, oh, the father's like, oh, the father's like, oh. He's like, okay, why don't you just stay another night?

You don't have to leave. Just do it. So he does it again. He stays and he says, okay. And they eat and drink all night.

He gets drunk. He wakes up at 12 o'clock the next day and he's getting ready to leave. The father-in-law says, no, no, no, no, don't, don't, don't go. Stay. It's a long journey.

You woke up late. He says, okay, I'll do it again. And this happened day after day after day until one day he wakes up and he says, you know what? I need to go. I got to get out of here.

So it's the middle of the day and the Levi has a servant. He grabs two donkeys and the concubine and they go on their way late in the day. So on their journey, they stopped in a town called Gibeah. Gibeah is a Benjamite town. It's of the tribe of Benjamins where Benjamites lived.

People from the tribe of Benjamin, they arrived late in the town square, obviously, because they left late from the home. And they go to the middle of the town square to see if someone would invite them in for that night because there was this law of hospitality, just law of hospitality. And there wasn't hotels in that day. There wasn't a lot of inns in that day. These were small villages.

And what people would do, they'd come into these villages, they'd rest in the middle of the village, they'd set up camp, and they would wait for somebody to invite them in their home. But nobody was inviting this man in his home. They kind of looked at him, kind of walked on. They went indoors. They didn't really, nobody invited him in.

So as he's setting up late night, his camp, this man, this elderly man ends up coming into town. He meets the Levite. He says, wait, I'm a Levite too. Where are you from? I'm from Ephraim.

Well, I'm from Ephraim too. Well, why don't you come and stay with me tonight? So he grabs his concubine. He grabs his two donkeys. He grabs a servant.

They go over to the house and there they are for the night. And then this is when things start getting interested. There was some wicked men in the town that surrounded the house and were shouting and they were beating at the door. And this is when it gets really weird. This is what happens.

If you pick up at chapter 19, verse 22, it says, they yelled at this man, bring out the man who came to the house so that we, and you can finish that. The idea here was humiliation, not gratification. It was a form of male humiliation that was adopted from the Canaanite culture, which was then taken into the Greek and Roman culture and whatnot. And it wasn't the way of the Israelites, but they brought these ideas in. And it was a way of saying, you are not welcomed here.

You cannot be here. You are a stranger. We don't allow strangers. If you come into our area, we're going to do this to you. And when you leave, you're going to tell other people and nobody else is going to be allowed into this place.

What does that sound like? That sounds like another story, right? Another story. And I'm not going to get into that today, but this is something that's just happened throughout scripture. And then the homeowner of the house, he starts speaking.

He says, the homeowner of the house went outside and said to them, no, my friends, don't be so vile. Don't be this way. There's a law of hospitality in place. Since this man is my guest, don't do this outrageous thing. And this is how bad Israel had gotten.

They had gotten so far away from God. They were doing these things. And when you thought it couldn't get any stranger, here's what they did in the house. They said, look, here's my virgin daughter. And here is my concubine.

I will bring them out to you now. And you can use them and do to them whatever you wish. But the man would not listen to him. So the men, the Levite, took his concubine and sent her outside to them. They, and you can read the rest of this story, I don't want to share it today because it was so awful, the things they did to her, what they did, it's just awful, an awful, horrible part of the story, just horrible.

The next morning, the Levite finds her dead at the threshold of the door, and he puts her on his donkey, and he begins to rest for, he begins the rest of his journey. And he's so angry, he's so mad, because the laws of hospitality had been violated, they had killed his concubine, and also they had almost murdered him, and he is not, not happy. So he takes her home, and this really gets crazy, okay? He writes 12 letters to all the tribes of Israel, but he thinks, they're not, this isn't going to get their attention, you know, I'm going to have to do something else, because this is outrageous what they've done. He takes the body of his girlfriend, and he cuts her into 12 pieces, and attaches it to each of the notes, and sends it out to the tribe, the 12 tribes of Israel.

So they receive it, the mayors of the city, the leaders of the city, or whomever they are, they receive it, and they're like, what has happened? They open up a box, and there's an arm, there's a leg, there's a head, and they start reading this letter, and they're like, what has happened? And they can't believe what happened. The nation has sunk to an all new low. This is incredible, this is horrible, that one tribe would do this to another.

And this is what they said, they said, everyone who saw it was saying to one another, such a thing has never been seen, nor done, not since the day the Israelites came out of Egypt. So they've reached rock bottom, is what they were saying, and said, just imagine, we must do something. So speak up. So speak up. Then all of Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, and from the land of Gilead, came together as one, and assembled together before the Lord in Mizpah.

So what happened was, they pulled leaders together, they had representatives, much like we have representatives that go out, and they sent representatives out from each tribe. They pulled together, they stood before the Benjamites and Gibeah, and they're standing before them, and they're ready to, they're like, you need to bring these people out. They need to be prosecuted. They should be tried for what they've done. But the Benjamites were like, wait a minute, you can't just walk in here and demand a trial and hang somebody on the spot or kill somebody and murder somebody on the spot.

There's fair trials, we have laws, we abide by, and we're protecting these citizens. They said, no, this awful thing they've done. So they gathered their armies together, they gathered their representatives, these men of battle together, and they begin to march on this city. And then the Benjamites come together, they grab their armies, and they begin to march against the Israelites to protect Gibeah. And it's awful.

A war breaks out, and Benjamin, the tribe of Benjamin is successful, because they were trained warriors, anointed by God, and tens of thousands of Israelites were martyred, were slaughtered that day. And then the next day, it wasn't much difference. They marched against the city. The Benjamites came out, skilled in army, and tactics, and battle tactics, and tens of thousands of more people are killed. Tens of thousands.

Just a slaughter fest. And then the Israelites get smart. They're like, we're going to stage a retreat and ambush the city. So on the third day, they stage a retreat. They start running away from the city.

The Benjamite warriors are coming after them. They think they've won once again. And then they... They say they were pat feats. They say they're in the house Aubrey Joachay!

They say he's good enough for the rest and they say it's gonna be lit this month. They ambushed the city from the back end. The Israelites, the rest of the tribes, ambushed the city from the back end. They set things on fire, there's smoke going up in the air, and then the Benjenite warriors turn around and they see that there's smoke, and it confuses them, and they become afraid, and then the battle turns, and the Israelites begin to defeat them, and then not only do they defeat them, they burn their city to the ground, killing everybody, everything, every animal, and they're so angry. They start marching through the region, taking out every city, killing everything in sight, burning every city of the tribe of Benjamin.

And also, and they made an oath, and they made an oath that we will never allow any of our men to marry a Benjenite woman. So that happened and everything, I mean, it's just, it's just a deserted disaster, smoke, just nothingness. That happened. And then they thought, a few days have passed, a few weeks have passed. What have we done?

Have you ever thought that after you've done something? What have we done? We just eliminated an entire tribe of Israel. And they begin to repent to God, and they're like, what do we do? How do we fix this?

What do we need to do? And they begin to seek God, and then they talk to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, they, they grab their leaders together. How are we going to fix this? And, and, and what they had learned is that, wait, there was 600 soldiers that, that fled, and they were alive. So maybe we can get these 600 Benjamite soldiers to take wives, so, so they, they can repopulate the tribe of Benjamin.

But, but what they learned is, wait a minute, we, we made an oath. We, we, we can't, we can't, we can't do this. We can't do this. And they said, well, wasn't there a city that didn't participate? And somebody said, yeah, yeah, Jabez Gilead didn't participate.

He says, that's the city. We'll just take that city, take the virgin girls, and give them to the Benjamite soldiers. So they, they organized a, a battle against, uh, Jabez Gilead, who, who, who, who basically had nothing to do with this war, and went in and wiped them out completely. Men, women, children, except for, uh, and, and even animals, except for, uh, the virgin women, and took them out and, and handed them over. But the problem was, there was only 500 women and 600 men.

So they thought, well, what do we do with this? These, these 100 men that are out of a wife. We can't give them our women, because we have, we've made an oath. We've already given those women, so what do we do from here? So they decide, oh, I, I know what we can do.

There is a festival in a field, uh, near Shiloh, and the women come out, and they dance, and they do the thing in the festival. And what we can do is have those 100 men just hide out, and then run out while the girls are dancing, and yank them up a woman. Kidnap them a wife. That'll fix the problem. And then we can tell the fathers, you know, they're out, like, we're, like, this is a good thing, because, you know, we're trying to replenish the tribe of Benjamin.

We've got to do this. We've done something wrong, and you're, the oath that you've sworn is, is now to put, because, you know, we're, we're kidnapping the women. So they grab these women, and, and the, the Benjamites are walking back to their land with these kidnapped, and whether it's the woman's choice or not, they have these women are going back to their, just, desecrated land to replenish their tribe. And, Then the book ends. There's no hero, there's no savior, there's nobody to step into the picture, and then this one statement explains something that occurred in this.

And it said this, in those days, there was no king in Israel, and everyone did what was right in their own eyes. In those days, there was no king, there was no ruler, there was no moral code, everybody did what was right in their own eyes. Here's another way of saying it. In those days, there was no binding moral consensus. So everyone followed his or her own moral compass.

In those days, there was no moral absolute truth that people could stand on, so they followed their own moral compass, followed his or her own way. And the strange thing about this story is that all the people thought they were doing what was right. The people, the men that walked up to the home of the Levite thought they were doing the right thing by telling this stranger not to be in our community, because we don't like strangers. The Levite felt like it was his right to send his concubine outside. After all, she'd been unfaithful, right?

And he wasn't going out there, and if your dad got me drunk, right? I mean, he got me drunk, and I'm coming out late, and it's your fault anyway. After all, she's just property. She's just property. I own her, and she's, and you know, it's not really that big of a deal, right?

The Israelites thought it was right for them to go crazy on the Benjamite cities because they killed people. They killed an innocent woman. They thought that they had the right, and Israel thought they had the right, and then the Benjamites thought they had the right to protect their cities. So everybody is running around thinking that they did what was right. And then Israel's like, I got to do something.

We got to fix what we've messed up. So we have the right to go into Jabesh Gilead and take out that city and take all the women out there so that we can fix the problem that we messed up. So it was just a sickening, awful disaster because everyone did what was right individually, but collectively it was so wrong, terrible, and catastrophic. And this is not the story you tell by the bedside, is it? It's not, you know, your nice, you know, Jesus in the manger story or Moses parting the Red Seas.

This is the one your parents perhaps skipped over, right? But this happened, and everybody thought they were doing what was right in their own eyes. And there's something of that in all of us. There's just a little streak of that in you. There's just a little streak of that in me because it's my life, right?

And I do what I want, and I have a right. And we have this American understated or unstated part of the American dream. As Americans, we say this, right? We have the freedom to do what we want, when we want, with whom we want, with whom we want, and nobody can tell us what to do. We can do what we want, when we want, with whom we want, and nobody has to tell us what to do.

But we put this one little caveat in there because we're American citizens. We're good people, you know. We're American citizens. As long as it doesn't hurt anybody. As long as it doesn't hurt you.

As long as it doesn't hurt anybody else, it's okay. But there's a lot of problems. Problems with this. And I'm going to talk about this over the next course of weeks as we look at the Judges. But we live in a culture where media and music and all those things kind of trigger something inside of us to think that we can do.

And it's good for us to do what we want, when we want, with who we want. It's like it hits our heart, it hits our conscience, it hits our emotions. It really digs down inside of us that as long as it doesn't hurt anybody, it's okay, right? But the problem with this is two things. The first thing, it only works for the super rich.

It only works for those who can afford it because sooner or later when you do what you want, when you want, with whom you want, it costs you. You're going to have to have some lawyers at some point, right? And it only works for those rich entertainment people that preach this message, the songs, the narratives, the marketing, the films. And we say, oh, to be like him and to be like her and to be like that. If only, and you don't hear this from an elementary school teacher, do you?

Okay, kids, before you leave today, remember, remember that the key to happiness is to do what you want, when you want, with whom you want, as long as it doesn't hurt anybody. You don't hear a judge say that, right? Just do what you want, with whom you want, as long as it doesn't hurt anybody. You don't hear a patrol officer say that. You don't hear a parent say that to their children because people who deal with the consequence side know better.

We know better. We know the consequences of that. So it doesn't work. And honestly, it doesn't really even work for the rich. And the second thing is, this generally works out better for men than it does women.

Because in any situation where men do what they want, when they want, with whom they want, as long as it doesn't hurt anybody, it's not true. Because it always hurts women. Whenever women have rights, whenever women fight for their rights, wherever women have rights, they've always had to fight for them. They've always had to fight for them. Why?

Because when men do what they want in their own eyes, women always suffer. They become possessions and profit centers. Possessions and profit centers. Everywhere in the world, women have rights. They've had to fight for them.

Because when men do what's right in their own eyes, women suffer. Which leads me to my primary point. You can't do what's right in your own eyes without essentially hurting someone. Without eventually hurting someone else. Because, first of all, you hurt you.

And you're somebody. You are somebody. Isn't it true that the thing that masters you began as an expression of unrestrained freedom? Like, you will be mastered by something. Everybody's mastered by something.

And that thing that masters you, that you can't get away from, that you're in, isn't that a result of some type of expression of unrestrained freedom? Maybe it's the debt that you're in. Like, I can do what I want when I want. I can have it now. And I can do it.

And you're in debt. You're a slave to the lender. Or maybe it's a habit that you're in or addiction that you're in now. And you're like, well, I can do what I want when I don't with whom I want. So, and now you can't get, now you're enslaved.

So, it hurts you. It also hurts the people that are with you. That's why your parents told you, don't hang around that person. Don't hang around that person. Stay away from that person.

Don't hang around that person because ultimately it influences you. It does something to you and vice versa. You, if you could do something to them because it always affects somebody else. And it hurts the people. And it hurts the people.

It really hurts the people that care about you. Teenagers, you can't hurt you without hurting someone else. You can't hurt you without hurting someone else. If you're in a marriage, couples, you can't hurt you without hurting the other person. If you have living parents, you can't hurt you.

You can't hurt you without hurting somebody else, without hurting your parents. And let's be honest. Let's just be honest for a minute. You hurt the people who are coming behind you. You're hurting the people that are coming in behind you because some of you, and let's just be straightforward here.

Let's just be real. This is Salt Church. We can be real here, right? Yeah? You're dysfunctional.

I'm dysfunctional. We got some dysfunction going on in the house, right? And you say, I don't know why I do that. I don't understand why I do that. I just do it.

I don't understand why I do that. I don't understand why I'm obsessive compulsive. I don't understand why I say that or do that or act that way or react that way. And we try to figure it out. And then when you turn 30, you trace it back and you become like your own psychologist.

You know, everybody becomes their own psychologist and they're like, wait a minute. My parents. It was my parents. My mom did this or my dad did this or someone else did this. And you blame your parents.

Why? Because somewhere along the way, they said, I'm going to do what I want, when I want, with whom I want, as long as it doesn't hurt anybody. But it's been hurting you every single day of your life. So it's a myth. Isn't your current dysfunction related to a decision someone in your past made without taking you into consideration?

Then why would you want to do that to somebody else? Why would you want to do the same? And besides, this is a selfish standard. Why don't we do this? Why don't we say this?

Yes, I should be able to do what I want, when I want, with whom I want, as long as it helps somebody. Why wouldn't we aspire to that? Why wouldn't we aspire to some type of greatness? Why wouldn't we hone our passions? Why wouldn't we just take hold of the things that God has given us?

And why do we jump to that selfish card so quickly to say, I want to do it because it's about me? Why would we not want to take it the other direction? But in the end, we are all hypocrites. You remember disobeying your parents when you were younger? And you called them for help, right?

Your dad said, don't you do that. Don't go there. Don't do that. Just stay away from that crowd. Don't do that.

Don't do that. You know, you shouldn't do that because this is going to happen. And what happens? It happens exactly the way he says it. And who do you call?

Dad? I'm in jail. Or your mom said, stay away from that guy. Stay away from that guy. He's bad news.

Just please stay away from him. Just listen to me. I know. Stay away from him. Mom, you're just silly.

Don't, you know, they don't mean that. And then, who do you call? Mom? I'm pregnant. Who do you call?

The very person whose rules you abandoned? You end up calling for help. So, to land it, here's the deal. When we begin to reap what we sow, we all look for a king to bail us out. When we reap what we sow, we're all looking for a king.

Nobody wants a king until... What we want lands us in a place where we can't do what we want. And as Christians, Jesus has invited us to call God our Heavenly Father. Our Heavenly Father. And you know what's beautiful about our Heavenly Father?

Any good rule, any insight into morality, and how to make relationships better, comes from our Heavenly Father. A good Father. And the strange thing is, when we diss God, and we say, God get out, God go away, and then disaster comes, and tragedy comes, and all this stuff, what do we do? We pray. God, I need your help.

I need your help. And it's why some of you are probably here today. Some of you are here in this message, maybe God can help me. The God I didn't want interfering in my life can help me today. So one of the themes of Judges is that every time Israel disobeyed God, experienced disaster, and turned back to God, and said, I need help.

What did God do? He stepped into the life of a nation, and sent a deliverer. And what this tells us is that God, whom Jesus invited to call us, Father, will step into the chaos. The chaos that even you created, the chaos that you said, I invite, and the God that you ignored, He steps in, and saves you, and delivers you. So in conclusion, if you were God, this is where I want us to take it for the next few weeks.

I want us to be thinking about this, and really digging into this. If you were God, how would you respond to a culture, a nation, or an individual, by what I want, that characterizes the way they think, by what I want, when I want, with whom I want, as long as it doesn't hurt anybody. How, if we were God, if you were God, how would you respond to that? And how would you respond knowing that every man for himself isolates every man unto himself, and ultimately from himself? How would you respond?

And that's what we're going to chat about for the next few weeks. We're going to talk about that. We're going to dig into this. This was kind of an intro into that. And what's interesting is this, as I close, that in a few months, not too far from now, in a few months, the whole nation, in fact, the whole world in some way will stop and pause for a second, will stop and pause and celebrate a king.

That at Christmas, we're going to, you know, we've got Bethlehem, we've got the manger, we've got the Christ, we've got the, you know, we've got all of that. They'll stop and pause, and really what they're doing is celebrating. Because in the end, when people do what is right in their own eyes, ultimately it ends in disaster. And what can we do? But cry out for a king.

Isn't that interesting that even we people who intend to do what we want in our own eyes would stop and marvel how strange, how strange that is. A king. Everybody ultimately wants. Because we need some help. We need somebody.

We need a savior. We need a will. And wherever you are in your spiritual life, wherever you are on your next steps, wherever you are on your walk, as you're walking with Jesus, wherever you are, maybe it's time to consider, maybe doing what I want, when I want, with whom I want, is not a good idea. And as you reflect on your life, maybe it's time to do the right thing. It's time to invite a Heavenly Father who Jesus invites into this situation, in the midst of the chaos, a light in the darkness, to set things.

So if you would just bow your heads and close your eyes as we pray. Father, we got a lot going on in our world, Lord. There's so much going on. There's so much, so much, so much. Racial division, political upheaval, viruses and things like that are happening.

People are scared. There's just so much, Lord. But what ultimately has happened, Lord, and what we want to realize as believers and Christians today, and even if we're not with you, Lord, but coming into the fold and understanding who you are, Lord, is that maybe we have made it about what we want, who we want, with whom we want, where we want, when we want it, and it just hasn't worked out. So today, God, we're turning back to you. If we're in that place where we need to turn back to you, we're turning back to you today.

Say, God, come in. King, come in. Savior, come in. Lord, come in. God, come in and make this body subject to you because I don't want to do it the way I want to do it anymore because I realize that what I do is not right.

And it doesn't get me anywhere, but it only isolates me more. And for some of you today, maybe it's your first time, maybe you're here and you haven't even received Jesus as your personal Savior. Let me tell you this Heavenly Father that Jesus speaks of that comes into the chaos is here to give you purpose, to give you meaning, to give you hope in a world that makes no sense because we can't even figure it out ourselves because we always want to do what we want, who we want, with whom we want, and it doesn't help us. And you know that, and I know that because we've all been there. We've all fallen short of God's glory.

So if you just pray this with me, Father, I believe that you're the Son of God, that you died on the cross for my sin. And Heavenly Father, I pray that you would input yourself into my life, that it no longer be mine. And I give you myself. I give you the glory. I give you the praise.

In your name. Next week, join us for part two of Right to Eye.