 All right, Judges chapter 12, so we're finishing up the the Judgeship of Jephthah this evening. So we're looking at Judges chapter 12. It's a short chapter, so the sermon's only 11 minutes long. So we'll see if we can find something in here. That's the one thing about the Bible is that you just read through these stories and there's just so many lessons. It doesn't even matter how many verses really that you read. You can always find some good stuff in there. So Judges chapter 12, let's just finish up the story of Jephthah. So of course the previous story when Jephthah took over as the judge and he freed the Gileadites from the Ammonites in Judges chapter 11. This finishes up the battle. Of course we went through Jephthah's oath that he swore unto God if God would deliver him from the battle which God did. And then we talked about that in Judges chapter 11, so go ahead and check that out if you missed that sermon. But in Judges chapter 12, let's look down at verse number one. The Bible says, We will burn thine house upon thee with fire. So, I mean, nice people, right? So basically the men of Ephraim, they saw that, you know, Jephthah had fought the children of Ammon and that he had won this great victory and they came to him and they said, How come you didn't call us to the battle? You know, how come you didn't come get us? And not only that was because you didn't come get us, we're going to kill you basically, right? And you know, turn to Judges chapter 8, there's a very similar story about this in Judges. We've already gone over it, but there's two different outcomes in these two situations. But in verse number two of Judges 12, the Bible says, And when I saw that ye delivered me not, I put my life in my hands and passed over against the children of Ammon and the Lord delivered them into my hand. Wherefore then, are ye come up unto me this day to fight against me? So look at Judges chapter 8, and we see this same group of people causing sort of the same type of trouble, okay? So it's the same people and they're saying to, at this time, they're saying to Gideon, they're saying, Hey, why didn't you call us? So Gideon, of course, had a great victory, you know, maybe one of the best victories you could possibly even think of with just 300 men. Gideon defeated this entire army, and look at verse number one of Judges 8. And the men of Ephraim, same guys, same tribe, okay? Said unto him, Why hast thou served us thus, that thou called us not? And when thou wentest to fight the Midianites, and they did chide with him sharply? So, you know, it doesn't say that they specifically threatened his life here, but it did say they chided with him sharply. I mean, they were having harsh words with Gideon here. So basically, what we're seeing here in Judges chapter 8 and Judges chapter 12 is a pattern of behavior from this tribe of Ephraim, or these men of Ephraim. Now Gideon, we talked about this in Judges chapter 8. He handles it sort of the opposite way that Jephthah handles it, okay? So, Gideon basically diffuses the situation. Gideon tells the men of Ephraim, he's like, you're great. You guys are the best. I mean, why are you even having problems? You know, because they had a little victory and they had these three princes that they defeated. And, you know, Jephthah basically in verse number two, he said unto them, What now have I done in comparison of you? He's like, you are the best. Is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abbeazer? God had delivered you into your hands the princes of Midian, Orab and Zeb. And what was I able to do in comparison of you? Then their anger was abated towards him when he had said that. So he basically puffs them up and tells them how great they are. Now, Jephthah, go back to verse chapter number 12. Jephthah on the other hand, he takes it in a different direction. Okay? So they threaten to burn his house down. And Jephthah, well, look at verse number four. Jephthah gathered together all the men of Gilead and fought with Ephraim. So he basically just went to war with them. And the men of Gilead smote Ephraim because they said, Gileadites are fugitives of Ephraim among the Ephraimites and among the Minasites. And the Gileadites took the passages of Jordan before the Ephraimites. And it was so that when the Ephraimites were escaped and said, Let me go over that the men of Gilead sent unto him, Art thou an Ephraimite? And if he said, Nay, then said they unto him, Say now, Shibboleth. And he said, Sibboleth. For he could not frame to pronounce it right. Then they took him and slew him at the passages of Jordan. And there fell at the time of the Ephraimites 40 and 2000. So 42,000. So basically what Jephthah does is he just goes to war with these men. He doesn't try to make peace. He just goes straight to war with them. They have a battle. They defeat them. When they are trying to cross back over the Jordan River to their home, the Jephthah's men, the Gileadites, basically stop all these fleeing soldiers and kill them. And how do they know who they were? Well, they had an accent apparently. Apparently these men had, if you were from Ephraim, you had an accent and you had a problem with the SH pronunciation apparently. Now, I mean, look, this is very common that people just can't pronounce certain things. I remember when I moved for the first time from North Dakota to Texas, people loved when I said the word boat. And now I'm saying it normal now because I've trained myself. But when I was from North Dakota, you would say boat. You'd say, oh yeah, we had a boat. And I would say kind of that long, oh. And people from Texas, they couldn't believe it. And they're like, hey guys, come over here. Jared, say boat again. It's kind of like shibboleth. It's basically the same thing. And I was like, boat. And I would say it how I would normally say it. And these guys are from Texas. And they sound like the weirdest people I've ever heard in my life. Have you ever heard somebody, have you ever not been to the south and then go to the south for the first time? How many remember that experience? I mean, when you hear somebody with a southern accent for the first time, I mean, it's fairly shocking. You're just like, whoa, what is this all about? Y'all? But anyway, so accents are a very real thing. And in this case, Jephthah's men used these accents to sort out who the Gileadites were. And he killed all of the ones trying to get back home as well. So look, he took care of the situation thoroughly. Okay? To the tune of 40 and 2,000 men. Look down at verse number seven. And the Bible says, and Jephthah judged Israel six years, then died Jephthah, the Gileadite, and was buried in one of the cities of Gilead. And after him, Ibn Zan, the Bethlehemite, judged Israel. And he had 30 sons and 30 daughters whom he sent abroad and took in 30 daughters from abroad for his sons. And he judged Israel seven years. So we're going through a few different judges here. We just aren't given much information about these judges. Then died Ibn Zan and was buried at Bethlehem. And after him, Elon, a Zebulonite, judged Israel and invented a car. No, I'm just kidding. So I wonder if that's where Elon, his parents got his name from the Bible. I don't know, probably not. Anyway, and after Elon, a Zebulon, I'm just seeing if you're awake, okay? Are you awake this evening? And after him, Elon, a Zebulonite, judged Israel. He judged Israel 10 years. And he got government subsidies for all his cars that he built. I'm just kidding. Okay, I'm done. I'm done. All right. Verse number 12. And Elon, the Zebulonite, died and was buried in Aegean, the country of Zebulon. And after him, Abdon, the son of Hillel, the Pyrethonite, judged Israel. And he had 40 sons and 30 nephews that rode on three score and 10 ass colts. And he judged Israel eight years. And Abdon, the son of Hillel and the Pyrethonite, died and was buried in Perathon in the land of Ephraim in the mount of the Amicholite. So we see a number of different judges that we go through there to finish off the chapter. But really what I want to do this evening, when we look at just what we can learn from this short chapter in the Bible, in this last section of Jephthah's life, of his judgeship, I guess you could call it, is I want to understand Ephraim. I want to understand Ephraim and see where did they come from? What was it that made them have this pattern of behavior and what can we take from that? That's really what I want to look at this evening. So turn to Genesis chapter 48. Let's look at who Ephraim was. Some of this will be just for your information, just so you can learn a little bit about the Bible this evening. But turn to Genesis chapter 48 and we'll look at who Ephraim was. So basically Joseph was in Egypt at this time and Joseph had two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. In Egypt. And Jacob, when Jacob came to join Joseph, if you remember, Joseph was the number two man in the kingdom at this point. He had these two sons. Look down at Genesis chapter 48. Basically Jacob adopted these two sons. So if you look at the 12 tribes of Israel and you ever go look at a map of the 12 tribes of Israel, basically Joseph's tribes or Joseph's land was broken up and split between Manasseh and Ephraim. Of course then you had East Manasseh that broke into, it's kind of confusing. Manasseh was broken into two, one settled on the east side of the Jordan, one on the west side, and then you had Ephraim. So you won't really find a tribe, a map of Joseph's land, because it was broken into Manasseh and Ephraim. These two boys right here. And in Genesis chapter 48, it shows you that Jacob basically adopted when he's blessing his sons, he basically adopted Manasseh and Ephraim, his grandsons as his sons. So we see that in Genesis 48 in verse number 5 where the Bible says, and now thy two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, this is Jacob talking to Joseph, which were born unto thee in the land of Egypt before I came unto thee in Egypt, are mine, as Reuben and Simeon they shall be mine. So he's saying, I'm going to treat them like my sons, he says, as he's giving the blessings. And then in verse number 17, for the sake of time, in Genesis 48, and when Joseph, so basically he blesses, he blesses the two sons and he basically, he blessed, he gave the first blessing to Ephraim, who was the youngest. And the first blessing is supposed to go to the oldest child. So Joseph stops him here and he's basically trying to correct his father in verse 17 where he says, when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand upon the head of Ephraim, it displeased him. And he held up his father's hand to remove it from Ephraim's head unto Manasseh's head. And Joseph said unto his father, not so my father, for this is the firstborn. So Manasseh was the firstborn. Manasseh was the oldest. And put thy right hand upon his head. And his father refused and said, I know it, my son, I know it. He also shall become a people and he also shall be great. But truly his younger brother shall be greater than he and his seed shall become a multitude of nations. So all this to say this, and this is just some information for you on the Bible, but all that to say this, Ephraim became a great nation in Israel. And even when the kingdoms broke apart after judges, when the kingdoms broke apart, Ephraim was the largest tribe in the northern kingdom of Israel. That's where Samaria was. They were many times in the Bible in the prophets, in the major prophets when you're reading the Bible. It will refer to the northern kingdom as just Ephraim in many cases. But look, I mean great man in the Bible like Joshua, like Samuel, and of course Jeroboam, the very first king of the northern kingdom of Israel, were from Ephraim. So Ephraim was kind of the, what do you want to say, the big tribe of Israel and even especially in the northern kingdom of Israel, they were the main tribe. So let's look at this situation with Ephraim now that we know that and see what we can take from them. And the first thing that I want to show from this situation with Ephraim is handling situations. Now that we know about Ephraim and kind of maybe what makes them tick, we have Jephthah and Gideon that both dealt with this situation with Ephraim. Turn to Romans chapter 12. The question is, since they both dealt with these situations differently, the question is who handled it the best? Who handled it correctly? Look at Romans chapter 12 and verse number 18. Look at Romans chapter 12 and verse number 18. Now I'm using this situation, look I'm using this situation to compare and contrast what the Bible says we should do in situations. I wasn't there when Jephthah was dealing with these men and I wasn't there saying that either one of them was right or wrong but I'm just going to use this as an example in the Bible of how to handle things in your life. Look at Romans 12, 18. The Bible says, if it be possible as much as lieth in you live peaceably with all men. So that's a pretty direct statement right there saying look it says if it's possible if it's possible live peaceably with all men. Turn to Matthew chapter 5. So obviously in Gideon's situation it's possible because he was able to diffuse the situation. Would Jephthah have been able to diffuse this situation? Maybe, maybe not. We don't know, we'll never know. But we know that Gideon he basically swallowed his pride and he diffused this situation and he was able to live peaceably in this situation at his own expense. He was basically to say to them you're better than me, it's fine at the expense of his own pride or maybe at the expense of his humility he was able to diffuse the situation. He did what Romans 12, 18 says we should do. Look at Matthew 5, 9. The Bible says blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God. So once again we see the same concept here if it's possible you should make peace. If it's possible so we don't know if it was possible for Jephthah to make peace or not there's certainly no indication that he tried but maybe he did and it's just not listed there. But look Gideon certainly matches both Romans 12 and Matthew chapter number 5. So look let's talk about deescalating situations or being someone that can deescalate situations in your life. Look this is a seriously valuable skill if you can do this. If you are the kind of person who can walk into a situation that is very contentious whether it be you and somebody else or it be another group of people that are at each other's throats over something whether it be business maybe it's a physical altercation whatever I mean you will be a very valuable person if you can learn how to successfully deescalate things. Think about business situations customer service could you ever be a waiter if you didn't know how to deescalate situations you ever heard the customer is always right I mean that's what you're doing is you're deescalating situations look the customer is not always right usually the customer is just being a jerk that's the truth of it when you say the customer is always right basically what you're doing is when you give somebody something and they say you didn't give me the right thing and you did you just say okay I'm sorry how can I make that better for you you know you're deescalating that situation you're just taking that you're basically suffering yourself to be defrauded in the situation to deescalate the situation sales I mean these are very valuable skills to have in business think of law enforcement I mean law enforcement officers take you know training some maybe are better at it than others to deescalate situations and if a law enforcement officer is extremely good at deescalating a situation it could mean that someone's life could be saved it could mean that someone may not you know get killed in a situation like that which is why it's so important to deescalate in situations like that think about it personally think about deescalating situations just in your personal life you could avoid conflict look I'm telling you if you're an adult you know man and you get in a physical conflict in your life at that point it's probably because you're not very good at deescalating situations now I'm not saying there's not a situation where you may need to defend yourself or your family but look you should try to deescalate first there's always you know try to live peaceably at every turn until you can't okay but look this takes self control to do this it takes self control many times you want to get in the flesh and you just want to fulfill vengeance yourself right I mean you just get angry and you get rageful and you want to just satisfy that temper which is the opposite basically of what Gideon did in judges chapter 8 okay Gideon defused his own temper you know Gideon was obviously a mighty man Gideon was no effeminate weakling I mean Gideon was a mighty man of war and you know I'm sure he was angry at the men of Ephraim when they said what they said to him but he was able to overcome that alright so look somebody with a temper let's talk about this I remember there was a kid that I went to high school with and I'll never forget this kid because he just he had such a temper problem I'm sure if he didn't go to jail he's been in jail because the kid I mean somebody one time you know threw a snowball at him just threw a snowball at him and he was like 13 or 14 years old and he went and he got a screwdriver and he smashed the person's windows out of their car I mean you know what I mean he just had this temper that would just break and he was just filled with rage and I mean my friends and I were just like that guy's gonna kill somebody one day that guy's just gonna lose I mean he's destined for prison but look you're just constantly overreacting to situations I'm not saying this was the case with Jephtha quite frankly maybe the men of Ephraim it was time for them to learn their lesson the hard way but we'll contrast it anyway but look I think we can say that while Jephtha was a great man of God that you know he didn't necessarily have the best decision-making ability I think you can say that in the Bible turn to Titus chapter one let's look at this idea of a temper or losing your temper and let's see what the Bible has to say about this this is actually something when we're talking about the qualifications for somebody that wants to be in the ministry for a pastor for a bishop this is something that's brought up several times okay in Titus chapter one look at verse number seven and the Bible says this it says for a bishop that's the same as a pastor must be blameless as the steward of God not self willed not soon angry not given to wine no striker not given to filthy lucre but a lover of hospitality a lover of good men sober just holy temperate holding fast the faithful word as he had been taught that he may be able to maybe may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers so there's several things listed here but I would point out that three of these things have to do with a man controlling his temper or controlling his anger and another thing I want to point out here is the Bible says be slow to anger and it also says here it says not soon angry we were talking about this before the church service it says not soon angry and then it says talking about violence once again no striker he's not going to be the kind of person that just immediately you're talking to me doesn't like something you're saying it punches you in the face I mean and then it says temperate in verse number eight you know somebody that is just that has a decent manner about them and is able to control their emotions okay you can't have a pastor who's just all over the boards this this manic depressive crazy person that any one thing happens and he's angry and then he's you know happy and then he's angry again and he just goes off with a short fuse there's a reason that there when the Bible repeats things there's a reason for it okay there's a reason that three of these items here have to do with you know your physical temperament in as you know a qualification for somebody who could lead a ministry but I do want to say as we were talking about before the service look it doesn't the Bible never says never get angry okay I mean what kind of man would you be what kind of man with you would you be if you just never got angry at anything you would not be a man if everybody could just roll over you and no matter what happened I mean I don't think your wife would appreciate that I don't think your wife would appreciate the fact that you know she's married to a man who just never gets angry at anything oh you know there's nothing you know whatever they're breaking into her oh it's fine you know and just you know you never get angry at anything and never have it says slow to anger it says soon angry it's always talking about you know how long it takes you to get angry do you consider the situation do you try to find those situations where hey is there a way for me to get out of this in peace is there a way for me to live peaceable in this situation is there a way that I could deescalate this is there look that takes time to think about all those things it takes time to go back and forth with somebody and talk about if there's a solution to the problem or I could just get man you know angry and you know solve the problem with chair to the face right that's not slow to anger right so that's what the bible is talking about it's about your ability to control your temptation I mean it's a temptation to have a temper it's a temptation for a man to lose his temper I mean some of you have seen me angry once or twice in this ministry so far and I hope I wasn't you know quick to anger but in that one particular situation maybe two I was very angry so it's okay to get angry at times it's just if you just angry dynamite stick constantly going off it's no good turn to Proverbs chapter 15 look I mean here's the thing I mean I mean fighting and maybe this is not maybe this is you know not is kind of a surprise to women and girls but look fighting is a temptation for a man I'm telling you there are times in a man's life where fighting or not fighting is a temptation where a man will just will really want to fight what do I mean fight no I mean like physically fight there's situations like that in a man's life I mean it's kind of by men's nature to solve things that way so we have to kind of fight that nature Proverbs 15 a wrathful man stirs up strife so that's the opposite of de-escalation so it says a wrathful man an angry man he takes a situation and he makes it worse he takes a situation that maybe is small and makes it a big thing and just stirs up big problems but what's the opposite of that he that is slow to anger there it is appeaseth strife so just the fact look just the fact that you're not quick angry the bible is telling you you're like I don't know how to diffuse situations I'm not good with words I'm not you know I'm not this great people person that can just convince people to you know not be you know upset or whatever well it just says here it says being slow to anger will appease wrath I mean it says just just the fact that you're not quick because look if you get angry you have a person that's angry and you have another person that's angry then they just get angrier and angrier it just builds on itself whereas if you have somebody that's just they're slow to anger and they might think about situations more it's just the fact that they're slow to anger will appease strife in many situations so look in a man where this is unchecked it's no good so we don't want a man who just has unchecked anger well how does that happen how does a man end up in his life where he just has unchecked anger he just has short fuse and he just goes off like this well it starts when he's a kid guaranteed because guess what I knew this kid's parents this guy that was quick to anger I knew his parents and he just would get whatever he wanted by just throwing a fit over everything and I'm telling you it created a monster when he was a teenager and later on in his life when he was an adult we call it temper tantrums when kids throw temper tantrums you say oh you know temper tantrums are a big deal I mean that is what the bible is talking about here a kid having a child having a temper tantrum is being quick to anger is being you know not slow to anger so you need to be very careful with your kids when they throw temper tantrums and it is something that needs to be corrected when it happens you need to recognize it you say so look here's the mistake people will make they will look at a situation and a child doesn't get something can I have this toy at a store and the answer is no you can't have the toy and the temper tantrum happens and then the parents will think it's about the toy no the punishment is because of the temper tantrum it's because of the fact that something didn't go your way and you were quick to anger and a child needs to be taught that that is not okay the worst thing that you could do is reward a temper tantrum that is the worst thing is a parent that you could do because what you are doing is you are training your children to be quick to anger you say well there are four look two year olds throw temper tantrums I mean one and a half year olds you know I don't know about one and a half year olds it's been a long time but okay brother Ryan is shaking his head they throw temper tantrums I'm old okay it's been a long time so I've had a one and a half year old but look the bottom line is that kids from the very youngest age can be quick to anger and they need to be taught to not be that way it's not going to happen on accident it's their nature to want the toy or want this and you're going to train them to do it every single time but look here's the problem if you're in a grocery store or whatever my wife used to call me all the time she used to bring groceries and I just had to leave the store because one of the kids threw a fit and I just left the store the whole cart there and the whole thing and took the kids home and spanked them right so look you can't reward it at the beginning when you're in the store it might be easier to just give it to them and just make the problem go away that's the worst thing you can do don't do that okay look it's easier it's less embarrassing you're going to create a long term problem for you okay you're training them to be soon angry turn to Proverbs chapter 25 and then look then you're going to raise you're going to raise a child who's going to be a Proverbs 25 child and then you're going to have no recourse look you got all kinds of look parents you have all kinds of recourse when these kids are 2, 3, 4 when they're young, when they're below 10 you still have recourse when they're above 10 look the corrections are going to get smaller that you can make when they get to be older when you have an 18 or a 19 or a 20 year old and you need to make major corrections there well you're going to have a problem you better have the course pretty much set by the time they're 18 or 19 years old I mean look there's some major there's some minor corrections that need to be made along the way always but if you've got major corrections to make at that point it's not going to work out it's not going to work out you're going to have a Proverbs 25, 28 on your hands the Bible says, he that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that has broken down and without walls have you ever met a kid like this that just has no rule over his own spirit yes I'm sure you have and here's the thing, these parents they just want to give their kids everything just to make them happy they create children that have no rule over their own spirit and they're like cities with broken down walls they're not happy they're miserable human beings and guess what, then you raise an adult that is a city with broken down walls that has no rule over his own spirit hello King Saul no rule over his own spirit so I'm all of a sudden I'm angry I'm going to kill you with the javelin my own son I'm all of a sudden angry and I'm just going to try to kill you immediately I go straight from 0 to I want to kill you now how do you like to hang out with somebody like that that's a person that has no rule over his own spirit how did that work out for Saul it cost him his life it cost him his life in the end I mean God finally was finished with him it cost him his life on an individual level that kind of thing will destroy you I mean why would you ever want to raise your children to be like that think about it on a family level now you can take it to a group level we're going to get to Ephraim and we're going to see that this is kind of how the nation of Ephraim was just look at a family level look, you can raise a family to be like this to just have no rule over their own spirit to just be angry just to be angry and vengeful all the time, have you ever heard the story of the Hatfields and McCoys I mean it's a real story I mean you hear about it in folklore and songs and things like that but it's actually a real story that happened in the 1860s in the Kentucky area in the United States you had two families in the 1860s and the whole thing started over a pig over somebody thought that this guy owned the pig and somebody thought this family owned the pig and at the end of this whole thing it lasted like 30 years and somebody killed one of them in the Civil War there was some Union Confederate stuff going on there but look, the point is that one of them killed one of them and then they would kill two of the other ones and they just kept this big one there was dozens of people dead by the time this whole feud was done, I mean the government got involved and came in the federal government came into this situation and arrested people and tried to stop this feud but look this is just unchecked anger and obviously you have a family here who's raising children to have unchecked anger to raising children to just not have any control over their temper or anything like that and Ephraim is a national example of this, of just this nation that is just I mean look they're like why didn't you call us why didn't you call us to come fight we're gonna burn your house down I mean they're gonna kill them so they basically, they mean they're literally threatened to kill Jephtha in the same verse that they asked him why he didn't call to call him to battle they're very, very quick to anger very quick to lose their temper over situations but let me give you a, so that's a that's an example for Ephraim let me give you a secondary application looking at Ephraim and kind of trying to think about what made them tick what they did, we obviously know that they had you know some anger issues here that they had some problems but look the men of Ephraim, if you look at verse number one of Judges chapter 12 let's look at just these verses here and Ephraim gathered themselves together and went northward and said unto Jephtha wherefore it passes thou over to fight against the children of Ammon and did not call us to go with thee look at verse number one of chapter 8 and the men of Ephraim said unto him why hast thou served us thus and thou called us not when thou wentst to fight with the Midianites and they did chide with him sharply look, these guys they threatened it and I like Jephtha's response in the fact that it does explain Jephtha explains he's like look the Ammonites were oppressing us for years he's like where were you he's like we called you to help us you know the enslavement of these people and you did nothing but now that the battle is basically won now they want to come in now they want to win the battle now that Ammon is on the run now Ephraim wants to come in Ephraim and we learn this from Genesis chapter 48 they became this big powerful tribe and they it shows you here in Judges chapter 8 chapter 12 that they were the type of people that not only were they quick to anger but they wanted to have the preeminence they did not want to have a situation happening where someone was gaining a great victory and they were not part of it or they were not they didn't get credit for it now they didn't want to be the first ones look they didn't want to be the one to walk up to the bully and punch him in the face first but when the bully was on the ground they wanted to be able to walk up and give them a couple kicks themselves and say look what we did that's Ephraim they were very prideful and look they were cowards they were babies and I mean turn to Isaiah chapter 28 this cost them throughout their history turn to Isaiah chapter 28 the basis of their problem is what Isaiah chapter 28 Isaiah chapter 28 and verse number 1 the Bible says this it says woe to the crown of what it says woe to the crown of pride to the drunkards of Ephraim whose glorious beauty is a fading flower so they were this big powerful tribe and they were a bunch of drunks it says their beauty was this fading flower they used to be great which are on the head of the fat valleys of them that are overcome with wine turn to Hosea chapter 4 they used to be this great powerful nation now all they were was this prideful nation we probably should learn this lesson as a nation but look I mean just like Ephraim some things you just have to learn the hard way learn turn to Hosea chapter 4 Hosea chapter 4 look at verse number 17 again the Bible says Ephraim so this is talking about you know Ephraim this is talking about that nation kingdom of Israel you know as they're going to go into captivity or not even in captivity into destruction by the Assyrian Empire in verse 17 of Hosea 4 the Bible says Ephraim is joined to idols let him alone their drink is sour they have committed hordom continually her rulers with with shame do love give you look at Hosea 1214 the Bible says Ephraim provoked him to anger most bitterly therefore shall he leave his blood upon him and his reproach shall be his lord and his reproach shall his lord return on to him he's saying look Ephraim is going to pay you know they provoked the lord to anger they were prideful they were drunks they were the most proud they were the worst nation in the north that turned against god the capital was in their country or in their area the capital of Samaria Jeroboam was from there and we can see it we'll begin here we can see the problems with Ephraim beginning before the northern kingdom even existed we can see it beginning in judges so don't miss this I mean these things in the Bible in judges chapter 8 judges chapter 12 this is giving you kind of a preview of what is going to happen to the northern kingdom of Israel that doesn't even exist yet in judges chapter 8 and judges chapter 12 all from pride as the source so look it's always better to think of yourself as blessed than proud okay I mean that's it was on the prayer list somebody put it on the prayer list what a great prayer you know help us to just realize our blessings and not you know help you know let's not get popped up over our blessings so let's talk about you know modern day Ephraim you know how can we apply this idea of Ephraim and their pride and they're needing to have this preeminence and they never want to be the one to start the trouble they never wanted to be the one to actually do the right thing but they wanted to get in there and claim the victory they wanted to get in there when the work was done and claim the victory so look this is kind of people I mean think about people that just they don't go to church but they go around to conferences you know their life is like is like a three or four time a year Christian vacation that's their spiritual life right I mean actually before we moved before we moved before we you know decided to move when we came here to visit that was kind of my preliminary plan that was working in my head I was like alright I could just put some money to the side and we could just come and we could visit you know a place like this or conferences like this two or three times a year and I could just commit to you know making sure that we do that you know we could take these Christian vacations but look you know we just I knew that lasted about five minutes that whole thought process that thought experiment of mine because I knew that you know we would always be we would never be the ones that were in the fight we would never be the ones that were actually you know serving in a church you know the another one is these internet warriors you know the internet warriors that are constantly on the internet you know making all the comments and causing all the strife on the internet they don't even go to church anywhere I mean it's crazy my favorite ones my favorite ones that I just saw one of these the other day is when you get somebody that comments I mean there's a good biblical sermon and then somebody comments on the sermon and like asks a question and then you get some internet warrior that answers the question with false doctrine you can't make this stuff up you know but they don't go to church anywhere they don't know anything you know they're just they're a modern-day Christian Ephraim is what they are they're all puffed up with pride they think they've got everything figured out but look they're never going to fight the Christian battles that come along with living the Christian life you say fights you say you know what kind of fights well I don't know like week in and week out being sold out for a church that's like you know that's the Gideon right there you know how about this one how about this fight like cleaning the church you know that I mean supporting the church I mean look I mean cleaning the church I mean look that is that's a fight you know here you know cleaning this church especially I'm not even going to go off on it but I mean the thing is it's just it's the week in the week out things that maybe aren't the most glamorous things you're not going to get a trophy for hey you won the big battle you're not going to get up the chairs or stacking chairs or putting chairs back or whatever right but that's the Jeptas that's the Gideons the ones that are in the fight and serving look it's not always the thing is people misunderstand that this Christian life is supposed to be like people miss let me just put it this way I read a story today I'm going to tell you about it but people think that this life is just about glamour and it's such a weird problem I think it's mostly I don't even think it's really an American problem I read this story today I'm going to tell you about it I read this story today and it was about this situation that happened in 1980 1981, 1982 something along those lines this young kid he was Israeli and he got out of the Israeli military and his parents wanted him to go to college and all this stuff that you should normally do but he just wanted to go and just be free and have fun in his life so he went to Bolivia or some weird place in the jungle and he decided to just go to Bolivia and just wander around and see what he could experience and have fun and excitement and all this type of stuff this kid and two of his buddies they end up going into the jungle with this guy it turns into this huge mess two of them die he almost dies he barely makes it out he's stuck in the jungle for whatever and the other two of the guys they died they never saw him again they just got lost or killed in the jungle but the point is I'm just thinking where does this mindset come from then I'm just going to go and I'm just going to wander in the jungle there was another story of a kid that did that he was this middle class kid he just gave everything up and he lived the life of a vagrant in the United States he moved to Alaska and he died he walked off into the wilderness and he died there and you're just like where is this mindset coming from but here's the thing here's the thing these kids that have this type of mindset you know what they're doing they're pursuing fun and they're pursuing adventure and they're pursuing these things but you know what they're looking for they're looking for purpose they're looking for purpose in their life and by pursuing entertainment adventure and fun you know what they're never going to find purpose they're never going to find purpose I mean it's irony it's irony but I mean we probably need to explain these things to our kids we probably need to explain to our kids that you know what supporting a ministry or living a day to day Christian life you know what it's more about than fun look there's fun in there okay I mean do we not have fun there's fun in there but you know what you know what it really is I don't want it to all be fun I don't want it to just be fun time all the time you know why because it's not fun time you know what it is it's service it's service I want to have a life of service that's me personally because you know what I want to have a life of purpose I want to have a life that means something and I want my kids to grow up and I want my kids to be 18 or 19 years old or 20 years old and I want them to understand what it means to have a life of purpose not stupid adventure and fun and a life of purpose is going to have you know what a life of purpose is going to have a lot of it's going to have a lot of joy which is different than fun it's a deep seated feeling of purpose that's what joy is and what is our service my service and your service as we're here everyday as we're cleaning the toilets in this building as we're cleaning up the messes in this building as we're cleaning up as we're doing the things that just support the day to day operation of the church look that is a life of service to Jesus Christ is what that is we're playing at the door to somebody that's just gotten saved hey you know what you don't need to go wander through the rainforest you don't need to go and risk your life doing some stupid thing just give your life to a life of service and you'll have that life of purpose and you'll have that joy that's why we moved because I never wanted to be one of those cold and tibid souls to quote Teddy Roosevelt that never knew victory nor defeat I never wanted to be somebody that was the Gideon that was in there that was in there with the Gideons that was in there with the Jephthys to fight those battles to live that life of service and look there's fun along the way and there's great joy along the way we need to get that across to our kids we're just not you know these efferiums and we're not raising these efferiums that are just looking for these highs these momentary victories and these momentary fun moments in their lives that's how you get a kid that goes and wanders off into the jungle and then he writes a book and millions of people buy I mean what in the world hey I'm a moron I got lost in the jungle buy my book who's buying these books it's another story but look that's what you need to get across to your kids and that's the lesson from efferium we don't want to be efferium you want to be Jephthah you want to be in that fight not just for the glory but for the service and for the purpose of the whole thing let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer