Changing Your Story

Oh, good morning. If you have your Bible with you, would you please turn to the
book of Judges?
Judges chapter 11, if you're somewhat new to the Bible, Judges is in the Old
Testament, it's the seventh book of the Bible. If you get to the book of Psalms,
you've gone too far, and don't be afraid to use your table of contents,
We're gonna be in Judges, chapter 11, verses one through 28. If you're still
breathing, it's not too late to change your story.
If you're still breathing, it's not too late to change your story.
One fascinating thing about our modern culture is how it tells us we can be
anything we want to be and at the same time that we can't change who we are.
You ever find that weird? It's kind of a mixed message. You can be whatever you
want but you can't really change. You can't change your attractions. You can't change
your trauma. You can't change your history. All of that defines your identity. What
the world is really wrestling with with is identity, even personhood. But what
they're really asking is, who gets to write our story? Is it possible to change our
story? Or does where we come from, what's happened to us and how we feel dictate
the narrative of our lives? Well, in this morning's passage, we're introduced to a
fellow named Jephthah, one of the anti -heroes in the book of Judges. He helps us
to see that however our lives have turned out, wherever we think that we're going,
if we're still breathing, there's time to change our story. So let's begin reading
Judges chapter 11 in verse one. "Jeff the, the Gileadite, was a valiant warrior,
"but he was the son of a prostitute, and Gilead was his father. Gilead's wife bore
him sons and when they grew up they drove Jephthah out and said to him, you will
have no inheritance in our father's family because you are the son of another woman.
So Jephthah fled from his brothers and lived in the land of Tobbe. Then some
worthless men joined Jephthah and went on raids with him. Sometime later the
Ammonites fought against Israel. When the Ammonites made war with Israel, the elders
of Gilead went to Jephthah from the land of Tobbe. They said to him, "Come, be our
commander "and let's fight the Ammonites." Jephthah replied to the elders of Gilead,
"Didn't you hate me and drive me out of my father's family? "Why then have you
come to me now when you're in trouble?" They answered Jephthah, "That's true, "but
now we turn to you. "Come with us, fight the Ammonites, "and you will become leader
of all the inhabitants of Gilead. So Jephthah said to them, "If you're bringing me
back to fight the Ammonites "and the Lord gives them to me, I will be your
leader." The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, "The Lord is our witness, if we
don't do as you say." So Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead. The people made
him their leader and commander and Jephthah repeated all his terms in the presence
of the Lord at Misbah. Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites asking,
"What do you have against me "that you have come to fight me in my land?" The
king of the Ammonites said to Jeff the Messengers, "When Israel came from Egypt,
"they seized my land from the Arnon to the Jebic "and the Jordan. "Now restore it
peaceably." Jeff the again sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites to tell him,
"This is what Jeff the says. "Israel did not take away the land of Moab "or the
land of the Ammonites, "but when they came from Egypt, Israel traveled through the
wilderness to the Red Sea and came to Kadesh. Israel sent messengers to the king of
Edom saying, please let us travel through your land, but the king of Edom would not
listen. They also sent messengers to the king of Moab, but he refused. So Israel
stayed in Kadesh. Then they traveled through the wilderness and around the lands of
Edom and Moab. They came to the east side of the land of Moab and camped on the
other side of the Arnon, but did not enter to the territory of Moab. For the Arnin
was the boundary of Moab. Then Israel sent messengers to Sion, king of the Amorites,
king of Heshban. Israel said to him, please, let us travel through your land to our
country, but Sion would not trust Israel to pass through his territory. Instead, Sion
gathered all his troops, camped at Jehaz, and fought with Israel. Then the Lord God
of Israel handed over Sion and all his troops to Israel, and they defeated them. So
Israel took possession of the entire land of the Emirates who lived in that country.
They took possession of all the territory of the Emirates, from the Arnan to the
Jebek, and from the wilderness to the Jordan. The Lord God of Israel has now driven
out the Emirates before his people, Israel. And will you now force us out? Isn't it
true that you can have whatever your God, Kimosh conquers for you, and we can have
whatever The Lord our God conquers for us. Now are you any better than Balak, son
of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever contend with Israel or fight against them?
While Israel lived 300 years in Heshban and Error and their surrounding villages and
in all the cities that are on the banks of the Arnan, why didn't you take them
back at that time? I've not sinned against you, but you were doing me wrong by
fighting against me. Let the Lord who is the judge side today between the Israelites
and the Ammonites. But the king of the Ammonites would not listen to Jephthah's
message that he sent him. This is the word of the Lord.
Father, we thank you for this word. Would you please bless the preaching of it that
we might see above all things the glory of Jesus Christ. And it's in his name we
pray.
One of my all time favorite movies is "Seven Samurai." I don't know if any of you
have seen the movie Seven Samurai. It's directed by Akira Kurosawa. It's a Japanese
film, of course, made in 1954. It's a classic film. It's inspired many,
many imitators. The basic storyline is a traditional story that's been used in
countless movies, especially in the American and European counterpart to the samurai
movies, The Western. And in fact, Maybe more of you have seen the Magnificent Seven,
the Western, the Magnificent Seven is actually a remake or an update of Seven
Samurai. The storylines of these samurai and Western movies go kind of like this,
there's a villager town that's being terrorized by marauding villains. The villains
steal, they murder, they vandalize, and the townspeople are helpless to protect
themselves. they cannot field off these marauding villains,
the bad guys. And so what do they do? They hire some outsiders to come get rid of
the villains for them. In Seven Samurai, they hire, of course, Seven Samurai.
In the westerns, it's always some grizzled gunslinger who's not on anybody's side
until the money talks. And then you discover somewhere along the line that for all
of their greed and their tough exterior, that grizzled gunslinger is really a good
guy at heart. Well, that's kind of what happens here in Judges chapter 11.
The character Jeff is like one of those outsider samurai. He's an outsider
gunslinger. His life up to this point is one of exile, one of solitude.
He's kind of doing his own thing. He's a brilliant warrior, verse one tells us, but
he's been driven from his home and he's ganged up with some verse three worthless
men, but the opportunity comes to change his story.
And from this passage then, we discover three truths for anybody wondering if it's
possible to change the story of their lives. The first truth is this,
your beginning doesn't have to be your birthright. Your beginning doesn't have to be
your birthright. What you've descended from doesn't have to be your destiny. Sometimes
we think we can't escape our upbringing. The baggage that we carry from our
families, the burdens that we bear from places that we come from. Maybe the labels
put on us by parents or siblings, or teachers, or even childhood churches.
All of it can be heavy and painful, but none of it has to define or determine our
future. As our passage begins, Jephthah is living in exile on the land of Tobbe.
He and his band of worthless men are going on raids, just living for themselves and
enjoying the spoils of that samurai gunslinger lifestyle, and then one day,
the elders of Gilead, the place that Jephthah is from, they show up. They're being
threatened by the Ammonites, right? The villages under the sway of El Guapo, and
they need the three amigos to come rescue them. Look at verse six, they said to
him, "Come be our commander, let's fight the Ammonites." In verse seven,
Jephthah replied to the elders of Gilead, "Didn't you hate me? "Didn't you drive me
out of my father's family? "Why then have you come to me now when you're in
trouble?" And I love this, verse eight, they answer, "Jephthah, that's true, but now
we turn to you. "We need you now, come with us, fight the Ammonites, "and you will
become leader of all the inhabitants of Gilead." This exchange is so revealing,
isn't it? Jephthah is reminding them that he'd been rejected by his people as an
outcast. His family and by extension, his tribe, are ashamed of him because of his
origin. He's the son of a prostitute. And so he's been exiled because of that
origin. But the elders are making him a proposition. Yes, we need something from
you. But Jephthah, this can be a win -win. "You fight for us, even though we've
treated you terribly, "but when you win, not only will we welcome you "back into
the tribe, you'll be the leader of the tribe." And Jeff is facing the prospect of
going from exiled to elder, from loser to leader,
which is a really stunning reversal because in this culture, your family and your
family name, even your order in the family, your birth order was connected to your
honor, to your inheritance. The oldest son in an Israelite family received the
highest honor. He would receive the birthright, basically the honor and authority that
comes from the father of the family. The birthright entails receiving what the father
leaves behind, the inheritance, the possessions, and of course, the status as head of
the family. And it looks like Jephthah was Gilead's first born son, but because he
was born through an immoral act with a prostitute, he doesn't receive the honor. He
doesn't receive the birthright. Gilead has subsequent sons with his wife, so they
become the true heirs. And by contrast, Jephthah's birth was shameful,
his place was dishonor and so he sent away. So when this proposition now comes,
he's suddenly discovering that his beginning doesn't have to be his birthright.
I have a friend named Ross who grew up in Scotland and for the first number of
years of his childhood, Ross's father was an alcoholic. He wasn't physically or
verbally abusive, but he was not a respectable or admirable man at all, and his
alcoholism led him to be a terrible and irresponsible father. The family lived in
poverty and was always on the verge of losing their home, because whenever dad got
money, he would spend nearly all of it on alcohol. His addiction got to the point
where he even started selling things around the house, his wife's things, his
children's toys, in order to pay bills in an emergency or even to buy more booze.
And Ross says he hated his dad. And then one day a lady came to the house
basically to look at something that Ross's dad was selling. And while she was there,
this lady asked Ross's dad, do you know the good news about Jesus?
And Ross's father said, no, actually I don't. And this lady shared with him that
God loves sinners so much that he sent his son Jesus to die for them and rise
again from the grave so that they could have their sins forgiven forever and be
reconciled to God. And hearing this news, Ross's dad became a Christian. And the
change was practically instantaneous. He stopped drinking cold turkey.
And the withdrawals were very painful and difficult, and Ross's dad already had some
medical problems besides, so he was really suffering. But he started leading his
family to read the Bible and to pray, and they started going to church. Ross says
today that he knows Jesus is real because he saw the miraculous change that trusting
Jesus had in his father's life. It was a total stunning turnaround, a total life
transformation.
And Ross's father died when Ross was just nine years old. So he effectively grew up
without a father. But Ross's mother and his brother and Ross himself and his family,
they're all followers of Jesus. Ross is in ministry today in part because when his
father died, he didn't pass on a birthright of dysfunction and addiction, but a
faithfulness to Jesus. because his dad, by the grace of God,
changed his story.
Their family, their family beginning, didn't become the family's birthright.
And your beginning doesn't need to be your birthright either. Secondly, your past
doesn't have to be your path. Your past doesn't have to be your path.
Verses 12 through 28 are a rather complicated exchange between Jephthah and the king
of the Ammonites. The king of the Ammonites is basically saying, this land belongs
to us. And Jephthah responds with a history lesson that turns into a theology
lesson. In verse 13, the Ammonite king makes the claim, Israel took this land from
us. And in verses 14 through 22, Jephthah's history lesson basically corrects the
king. He says the land in question wasn't even yours to begin with. The Amorites
had it, not the Ammonites. And the Amorites went to war with the Israelites. They
had their rears handed to them. So it became Israelite land by the right of
conquest. Jephthah says to the king, "Your people weren't even there." But then the
history lesson becomes a theology lesson. Look again in verse 23. "The Lord God of
Israel has now driven out the Amorites "before his people Israel, and will you force
us out now?" In other words, Jephthah is saying, "Our right to this land wasn't
just won by physical force. "It was won by the sovereign hand of the Lord our God.
The one true God is in charge of us. The one true God is in charge of this
place. The one true God is in charge of all places. He gave us this land before
by driving out the Amorites. So then when Jephthah poses the question, will you
force us out? He's basically saying, do you wanna go against that God? The God who
owns everything? The God who is in sovereign control, you want to oppose that God?
We've seen what the Lord can do to his enemies. Do you want to repeat history?
The implication is that the Ammonites don't have to do that. They don't have to
keep going the way they're going, repeating the failures and sins of the past. They
had a long track record of idol worship and opposition to the people of God, but
they didn't have to keep going down the path laid out by their past. And by
application, you and I don't have to either.
Sometimes we might think that what we've done, our old habits, our history, our
track record is like a rut and we're stuck in that rut and we can never get out
of it. We feel like we don't have a choice. Maybe you feel like you're in a cycle
that just keeps repeating. A cycle of dysfunction or bad habits or yes,
even a cycle of sin. And you think, well, that's my story. This is my life.
This is my lot. This is the cards that I was dealt. Your past is so heavy and so
formative and so shaping. You can't foresee a future being any different. You've been
in a dark tunnel for so long. You're beginning to think there isn't a light at the
end of this thing. Maybe you feel like you're subject to forces beyond your control.
Maybe you feel like you've been in a dark tunnel.
Your past doesn't have to be your path. None of us can change our past, of course,
but if you're still breathing, there's still time to change your story. Just as Jeff
is laying out for the Ammonites here, Your past doesn't have to define you. Your
past doesn't have to rule you. When we turn to Jesus in faith, he gives us his
own story to live in. The story that's good news. This is why over and over again,
Jesus and his apostles after him are crying out to anyone who will listen, repent.
Repent, which means to turn, change your mind, and turn from where you're going,
how you're thinking, what you're doing, you don't have to keep going that way. You
can turn around, don't let your past dictate your future. Because the good news of
the gospel is that when we trust in Jesus, he doesn't regard us according to our
past. Praise God.
We bring all of our sin to Jesus and Micah 719 says, he casts all of that sin
into the depths of the sea. Hebrews says, "I will forgive their wrongdoing "and I
will never again remember their sins." You may have walked a very long road of
disobedience, but because the grace of God is real and because the grace of God is
powerful, you turn and get onto the path of Jesus. And when you do, he himself,
who is the way that leads to life, changes your story.
Your past doesn't have to be your path. Thirdly and finally,
your sin doesn't have to be your sentence. Your sin doesn't have to be your
sentence. Because the good news of Christ's crucifixion and resurrection is true news,
"The gift of grace is there for the taking "by whoever will believe in him.
"Because of our sin, we deserve the wrath of God "and the fires of hell, but out
of his great love, "the cross of Jesus announces to us "that the sentence of our
sin has been satisfied "by Jesus himself. "We have all sinned and fallen short of
the glory of God. All who fail to trust in Jesus remain condemned, but the choice
is put before you. Will sin be your sentence? Or will the good news be your
salvation? We get a foreshadow of this choice here in Judges chapter 11.
Take a look at verse 24. Jeff says, isn't it true that you can have whatever your
God, Kimosh conquers for you and we can have whatever the Lord our God conquers for
us. Now into verse 27, "I've not sinned against you, "but you're doing me wrong by
fighting against me. "Let the Lord, who is the judge, decide today "between the
Israelites and the Emonites." And the response is chilling in verse 28, isn't it?
The king of the Emonites would not listen to Jeff the message that he sent him.
Kamosh was the demon god that the Moabites and the Ammonites worshiped.
He was seen by these pagan peoples as a supreme deity, so an ultimate god in their
eyes. And thus in terms of worship, he was a direct rival to the one true god
Yahweh that the Israelites worshiped, and that Christians worship today. Unlike Yahweh,
Kamosh is a bloodthirsty god. He requires human sacrifices to be appeased,
something which Yahweh forbid. And here, Jefza is offering the Ammonites a choice.
You can keep siding with your demon god, and you can get whatever's coming to you
with that worship. You can get whatever Kamosh will conquer for you. Maybe you get
some earthly treasures out of it. But in the end, your soul remains condemned. Or
you can surrender to the true God, and Jephthah is very clear. It would be
perfectly natural for you to keep going the way you're going. But verse 27,
you are doing wrong. This is wrong this way that you're going. You're sinning,
he says, and make no mistake. The Lord our God is going to sort this out. He is
a judge, he will decide. In a way, Jephthah is echoing the cry of Joshua in Joshua
chapter 24, choose this day whom you will serve. As for me and the Israelites,
we will serve the Lord. And the king of Ammonites would not make that choice.
He decided to accept the judgment that was coming to him, even though Jephthah told
him, it doesn't have to be that way.
Maybe you feel like, you know, this Christianity thing sounds good. But these people
don't know all the stuff that I've done.
My sin is way too big. It's way too serious. I'm too far gone.
One day at the last church I was pastoring, I got a phone call from a lady in
the town who was a believer, not a member of my church, but a believer who wanted
me to go visit her parents, who were each, her mom and dad, were both basically on
their deathbeds. Her father in the hospital, her mother in hospice care. She said,
I need someone to share the gospel with them. Someone to tell them about Jesus one
last time, and I've tried so many times, and they're not listening to me, but Maybe
if a pastor goes. And so I agreed and went to visit both husband and wife in
their different places. And I went to visit the wife in hospice care and shared
with her the good news about Jesus. And we came to the end of the gospel
presentation. She said, I wanna believe in Jesus. I think I want this,
I want to be forgiven for my sins. I want to know that I'll be with him forever.
I want this gift of eternal life. And you know, only the Lord knows if her
conversion is genuine, but it seemed genuine to me and heartfelt to me. And then I
went to visit her husband.
And shared the good news with him. He was very respectful. He listened to me
patiently. But when I asked if he would like to respond in faith, he basically
said, you know, I've lived my whole life without any kind of religion or, you know,
believe in this thing. And I see the value for other people, but I just don't see
the point in changing now. I don't see the point in making that decision now. And
I wanted to say to him, I didn't, but in my head, I thought, you don't see the
point now. You're about to die,
but he just thought, this is how it's always been, this is how I'm going to go
out. He lived spiritually, he lived his whole life shaking his fist at God, and he
thought, I've lived that way, I might as well die that way. The husband felt that
how he had lived all those years up to that point was exactly how he needed to go
out. He never felt a need for God, so he found the gospel unnecessary. He spent
his whole life spiritually shaking his fist. He was willing to accept the punishment
for his life of sin. But his wife decided that as long as she still had breath,
she could change her story.
She learned in hearing the good news of Jesus that her sin didn't have to be her
sentence.
In Hebrews chapter 11, we find that famous chapter, sometimes called the Hall of
Faith, like a Hall of Fame, but it's a recounting of the heroes of the Bible,
known for their faith in God, despite impossible odds and horrendous tragedies and
even terrible sins. And we see names in there that we might expect. We see names
like Noah and Abraham and Moses. We see names like Abel and Enoch.
And then tucked away in verse 32 of Hebrews chapter 11, we see the name Jephthah.
Can you believe that? The grizzled gunslinger, I almost picture the spotlight as it's
here's Noah, here's Moses, here's Abraham, and then it goes over into the corner and
there's Jephthah sitting in a chair just smirking. And there's Jephthah, the swarthy
samurai.
How could this thrown away son of a prostitute? This rough friend of worthless men
become listed in the hall of faith as a hero. It's because of the story of the
gospel of Jesus. Because when the gospel story takes over our story, it changes our
lives from guilt to glory. See, See, Jephthah's story here is just a foreshadow of
the eternal story changer himself. There was another man who was despised and
rejected like Jephthah. He grew up on the wrong side of the tracks. He was close
friends with a group of uncouth outsiders. You might've looked at those disciples and
thought, "There's some worthless guys." He hung around the prostitutes and the tax
collectors.
And when sinners needed rescuing, despite the fact that we had rejected him, he came
to help. His name is Jesus Christ, and he stands in the breach between our sin and
the just wrath of God that we deserve for it, and he gives his life on the cross
to forgive us, and he rises from the grave to conquer death and hell for us, and
he cries out to us with a voice full of mercy and grace. Your sin doesn't have to
be your sentence.
Because like the Ammonites we only have two choices. We take the punishment for our
sin or we let Christ take it for us.
Everything in our past, everything from our childhood, everything in our sinful
patterns and compulsions, they do not have to dictate what happens from this moment
on. Choose Christ today. "Turn from your sin and believe in him "and you will have
eternal life." If you're still breathing, it's not too late to change your story.
Let me pray for you. Father, we thank you for the gift of this good news.
We ask that you would help us to believe it. For every precious saint in this
room, this beloved church, would you strengthen their faith by this grace, give us
the encouragement by your spirit, the inspiration by your word,
the empowerment by the gospel, to put one foot in front of the other and to trust
you, to walk by faith and not by sight.
And Father, for any lost soul in this room, I pray you would bring them from death
to life this very morning, that they would see the glory of your Son as satisfying,
as supreme, as saving, would you give them a heart of flesh that they might follow
you? What a joy that would be to this church to have another soul added,
not just to this fellowship, but to the kingdom. So we thank you for changing our
stories, for bringing us into the story that you are telling through Jesus, and it's
in His name we pray these things. Amen. (audience applauding)