Beyond Sunday
Beyond Sunday is a podcast where we dive into what our Church is up to, what's happening in society, go deeper into topics from Sunday mornings, and hear leadership talks from Pastor Greg Griffith. This is a podcast of King of Kings Church in Omaha, NE. Learn more at kingofkings.org.
Beyond Sunday
Don't Skip This - Week 3
Dina, Pastor Seth, and Chad continue the Don’t Skip This series in this Beyond Sunday episode with a look at the unexpected story of Ehud in Judges 3. They explore how God often works through what the world sees as weakness, reminding us that our differences might be exactly what God wants to use for His purpose.
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Thanks for listening!
Welcome to Beyond Sunday, the King of Kings podcast, where we dive a little bit into our message series and find out what we're taking Beyond Sunday. My name is Dena Newsom and I am excited that I have some brand new guests to the podcast today. Go ahead and introduce yourselves, guys.
Speaker 2:All right, can I go new guy number?
Speaker 3:one. I think you can, I'll be number two, all right.
Speaker 2:That has a lot to do.
Speaker 3:Did you plan that? No, okay.
Speaker 2:Sure, uh, my name is Seth Seth Flick. I get to be the campus pastor here at the Millard campus. Uh, I'm married to a wonderful woman by the name of Melinda and I'm going to shout out to my boys because they listened to the podcast. So I'm going to say hello to Noah, micah, elijah, judah and Luca, who I know is going to listen to this as soon as it gets uploaded, all right, and.
Speaker 3:I'm Chad Kelly. You'll understand why we laughed at number two here in a little bit, but I'm the student intern here. King of Kings as well. Just started the same day as Seth a couple of weeks ago. I'll shout out my wonderful wife, Caroline, and Seth's boys as well. They love you too.
Speaker 1:I just feel like neglected if I don't shout out Seth's boys, so you know hey guys.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, it was so good to kick.
Speaker 1:All right. Well, I did meet them when you came for your visit. They all came and got t-shirts from me.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's where they got the next steps through. Yes, you are their second favorite person. The first favorite person is Greg, because Greg was like you guys need some free stuff.
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah, greg literally walked them over and said, hey, we need shirts for these boys and I was like, who are these boys? Because you were not with them.
Speaker 3:These five random guys.
Speaker 1:But it was great. Yeah, all right. So I don't know if you guys know this, but this week is a big holiday. It is World Emoji Day.
Speaker 2:I thought you were going to say World Emojium Day. Wow, that's perfect.
Speaker 3:You tied it up perfectly the number two connections.
Speaker 1:So World Emoji Day.
Speaker 2:So my question for you to start today, is what emoji do you use most often and what emoji do you hate when people use whoever wants to go first all right, I can go with the one that check his phone to see which ones he uses the one that I like the least is the two hands that are like trying to most people use them for praise hands, but I'm pretty sure they're supposed to be like high fives yeah. And like I do high fives at the gym and I do high fives outside, but I don't think it's applied, do?
Speaker 1:you have one that you, that you just don't like.
Speaker 2:That's probably it.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Just because it's misapplied, that's it. Favorite one, though, is like the crying emoji face, because I sent a lot of reels to the kids and to Melinda with that in there. Like as in. Like, it's funny, right? Please affirm my sense of humor.
Speaker 1:The laughing crying one yeah, all right, all right, I got it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I don't have a least favorite. All emojis have a place here, in this, in this uh there's this really good movie you should watch.
Speaker 2:It's called the emoji movie.
Speaker 3:You'd love it. Oh yeah, but I was looking through and I couldn't see a single emoji that I that I do not like, so yeah, my favorite emoji is the face palm emoji.
Speaker 2:I am a big fan, I use that.
Speaker 1:I use that very often. Um, my second favorite, uh, which cause I use it often with my face palm is the shrugging emoji. Just like that, yep.
Speaker 3:Yeah, did you use it with like the, the slashes and the dash before you could do the actual emoji.
Speaker 1:No, I didn't, I just I was not that that uh cool then.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you can be cool now and not use the actual emoji and then do that instead.
Speaker 1:My least favorite emoji this is the case before we even started the conversation today is the poop emoji only because I have a son and when he was he got his first phone ish device when he was about 10, and so poop was really funny and so we would get the poop emojis all the time.
Speaker 2:I don't love the poop emoji but you know, moving on from this is a wonderful segue.
Speaker 3:Actually, how many times can we talk about poop in one day? Speaking of poop?
Speaker 1:you know we had our week three message of hey, don't skip this, our message series that we're doing right now, and Pastor Greg Griffith kind of took us into Judges for this Bible event and it is in Judges 3 if you wanted to kind of look up and check up on your own. But I don't know, I forget now who won the rock paper scissors. Seth and Chad were doing rock paper scissors.
Speaker 3:I won the rock paper scissors. Seth and Chad were doing rock paper scissors. I won the rock paper scissors. Fortunately, chad won, so Chad's going to give us like a little 10-second kind of overview.
Speaker 2:Oh, 10 seconds Well.
Speaker 1:I mean 30, 60, whatever you need Like a little overview of this Bible event because it may not be one that you're familiar with.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So before we jump into the actual details of the story, the grander picture of the judges is Israel messes up, they do something that's evil on the side of the Lord, and then they realize they messed up. Something bad happens. They're overrun by a country, a king, someone in particular, and they cry out to the Lord and say, hey, we need help. And it's this cycle of sin, cycle of judges. They mess up, they need a God, and then he sends a judge. And a judge can be simply defined as someone who God sends to save his people. This judge then goes and does exactly that save God's people. They're good. They're back up to the top of the cycle. Next chapter boom, did something evil on the side of the Lord. Back to the cycle, over and over and over again. And this story is my personal favorite story in the Bible, or not book in the Bible excuse me, story in the Bible, because I'm left-handed. In this story we have a hood, a hood, a hood.
Speaker 1:I don't know.
Speaker 2:All right, a hood, just say it with confidence and no one will correct you Exactly I shouldn't have said anything.
Speaker 3:Yep, my bad A hood.
Speaker 1:E. However, you pronounce that great.
Speaker 3:Ehud, it is. He is God's judge, who's chosen for this story, to release them from the Ammonites and especially from King Eglon, correct? Is it Eglon or Eglon Should have just been confident again. But whatever it is, Eglon Awesome.
Speaker 3:Eglon, and we'll talk about this in a little bit. But he is a fat king, probably a big, big fat guy. I don't want to, I don't want to get in too many details, but he's. He's heavy, he's a hunky guy. Um and the uh, a hood goes to King Eglon. There's a lot of ease in this story. Eglon's house, the palace or whatever, and says um which it goes through security. But the thing is with Ehud. He's unique because he's left-handed. That's why he's. This is my favorite story in the Bible, because I'm left-handed, and in Bible times they would check the left side for swords because everybody is right-handed. Not many people were left-handed, so they wouldn't check the right side where Ehud would have kept his sword. So he gets through security without being caught. The sword is in his cloak.
Speaker 3:He gets through no metal detectors, then Gets through TSA, scot-free and goes up to King Eglon and says hey, I have a secret for you. And so King Eglon says oh yeah, let's do it, Follow me into my chambers and you can tell me the secret. Sends all of his servants out, locks the door and you can tell me the secret. Sends all of his servants out, locks the door, he stands up, he says I have a message from God for you. King Eglon stands up in excitement and bang Ehud stabs him in the belly and his fat goes around the sword so much and it cuts his bowel. So, number two poop goes everywhere and King Eglon dies and the servants. Well then, Ehud climbs out the bathroom window and escapes, and the servants just think King Eglon's going to the bathroom for a long time. Until it's an uncomfortable amount of time, they go and check on him. And Pastor Greg made the joke that, oh, when your spouse is in the bathroom and you're like, are you?
Speaker 1:okay.
Speaker 3:Is everything good in there. That was the feeling that was happening for these servants and they go in and check on King Eglon and he's dead. But this allowed the Israelites to be rid of their captor and be saved through Ahud, the judge, the savior for the Israelites. And they had I think it was 80 Israelites and they had.
Speaker 3:everything was 80 years, 80 years of peace, 80 years of peace after that. So that's the story, and then we're not going to get into it, but chapter four, the. The first verse is after a hood's death, the Israelites again did evil on the side of the Lord Shocker.
Speaker 1:There's an old meme that I used to love that would say God said don't do the things. People said yeah, we won't do the things.
Speaker 2:Then they did the things.
Speaker 1:And it just repeat, repeat. We are sinful human beings.
Speaker 3:That was longer than 10 seconds, but that's the overview of the A-Hood story.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this is this. Hey, don't skip this Bible event for this week. So now hearing the message, what are you guys taking beyond Sunday? What was like your first takeaway or something that really stuck with you from this message?
Speaker 2:All right, I'll give you a break, because you just got through all of this and you did it right, so it's Ehud.
Speaker 3:Okay, I actually looked it up, is it really? Yep, I've said Ehud my entire life, so Ehud is transformational for me.
Speaker 2:Yes, so Seireh is what that's called, and then it's Eglon, like a dozen eggs.
Speaker 1:Like eggs, it's like a short E sound.
Speaker 2:Okay, got it. So that's a Se-goal for those keeping track at home, for the Hebrew scholars, all right. So here's what I took away from this, and Chad and I were actually talking about this earlier, and Chad and I were actually talking about this earlier. So you have this awesome contrasting story where you see what a king of men actually will bring for his people. And so in this you see this king who was we'll just be really nice and call him Rotund or Rubenesque or something else. That's really kind, but he was fat. That's what it says here in the translation of scriptures we're reading. So how does a king get fat? How do you think a king gets fat?
Speaker 3:I mean lots of food, lots of not exercising, yeah.
Speaker 2:So is this the guy that's going to be leading everybody out in battle? Is this the guy who's going to be thinking about his people? You know, like we have this mantra in our culture of leaders eat last. And that's all about how you should serve your people before you serve yourself. And this is what a king looks like when it's a king of men. And so he's become fat, he's no longer out in the front lines, he's no longer leading his people, but he is getting all the rewards for being a leader.
Speaker 2:And so what happens? Well, this guy takes advantage of his people and lords over them the power and the authority. And what does he get for that? Like a John Wick style assassination, where something sharp goes into this man's abdomen and what comes out are the fruits of his labor. I mean, that is kind of a metaphorical way to understand it, like, realistically the poop came out, but metaphorically that's what you get.
Speaker 2:But now you contrast this to Jesus, because we're thinking about this beyond Sunday, and you have a King of Kings and a Lord of Lords, one who does not like try to Lord it over his people. In fact, taking on the name of King only happens, like, while he's on the cross, and it's something that's given to him. And it's a totally different kingship, because he's here to lead his people to be out front, to not have a home, to not eat, but provide provision for the 5,000 when they're hungry, or the 4,000 when they're hungry. And yet, even though the violence is the same, the outcome is completely different. So he gets pierced through his abdomen, but what comes out is blood and water, you know, showing us what he gave for us.
Speaker 2:So his kingship is very different, and now, because his kingship is different, we want to follow him in a different way. We don't follow like an Eglon type leader, because we're going to get something out of it We'll be elevated and we can abuse people then. Instead, we want to be like Jesus and serve like he does, and so we'll give up what we can give up. We'll be radically generous and we will be courageous in the way that we live our lives, like he was. So that's what I'm taking away from Sunday is this connection to the Lord, and I think we're going to talk a little bit about that a little bit later too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's great. What about you, Chad?
Speaker 3:I mean he loves left-handed people. Come on.
Speaker 2:They're not sinister.
Speaker 3:Right, not sinister. Yeah, yeah, so I'm God's favorite. Is what I hear? No, for real. I think it's related to that that God chooses people that aren't fit for the job. Almost he makes people fit for the job. The classic adage God doesn't call the equipped, he equips the called. And for me personally it's like dang. God calls me. It doesn't matter what I've done, what experience I have, who I am, but it matters who I will be through the Lord, through Jesus, who he's equipping me to be. And in this stepping into this new role of student ministry, like it's scary. A lot of days I have imposter syndrome. I don't feel like I can do what I'm called to do. Yet God calls me and he's going to equip me because of the call. I can feel confident in that, in that equipping of what's going to happen in these, in this next year and the next. Who knows? God knows how far.
Speaker 1:So yeah, yeah, that's really good. I think the biggest thing for me that I took out of this one was just the intentionality and this has kind of been a running theme for me the last couple weeks in these stories that are kind of like off the beaten path, but God is so intentional in them intentional in choosing the people that he wants to reveal more about his son, about his love, about his power, about how he protects his people, whatever it is. He's so intentional about it.
Speaker 1:It's not happenst it. It's not happenstance, it's not like oh, this guy was just in the right place at the right time. It was very intentional, and that's just a reminder to me of how powerful God is and how he continues to have our backs. Okay, so Greg kind of walked through three different points that he wanted to talk about, and so the first one that he talked about was God sees what others overlook. How did that speak to you, or what struck you about that in your own life, or about this message?
Speaker 2:Well, chad talked about how Ahed was a character that could be overlooked, but I love the idea of all of the guards that were there overlooked this really obvious thing that you could actually keep a weapon on your other leg, and so I wonder how many times, you know, if you kind of switch that around a little bit, we don't think we have the weapons that we need to involve, be involved in spiritual warfare, or we don't think we have the weapons that we need to be able to reach out with the gospel and we had, like, this other awesome piece of equipment on us the whole time and you only see it in retrospect and you're like, oh, my goodness, what else is the Lord blessed me with so that, like, I don't have to be afraid of not being adequate or not feeling like, oh, maybe I am an imposter here, cause I think that's something that anybody's listening to this right now is going to lean into, because I cannot tell you how many times people talk to me about in their jobs, in their life as a dad, as a mom, I don't know what I'm doing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think that's the best place to start is I don't know what I'm doing.
Speaker 1:Admitting that. Yeah, jesus, knowing that's where it is.
Speaker 2:What are my tools?
Speaker 3:And you know, we just pick up the scriptures and we find, wow, this is an amazing arsenal of tools. Yeah, I mean it's. It's just that, like too many times, um, when I was in college, when I was on campus ministry, um, at Concordia university, texas, it was scary to like step into, like praying for people like our, our, our campus pastor. Some people on campus would take us around and say, all right, we're doing a prayer walk, find five people and go pray for them. Go up to them and ask, hey, what do you need to pray for? And don't say I'll pray for you, do it, pray for them right in that moment. It's like I don't have the words to pray for somebody in the moment. That's scary. It's scary to go and pray for someone. I don't know what if I just say the wrong thing, what if I do the wrong thing?
Speaker 3:And you told us the other day that Peter Bay, when he's at restaurants, he asks to pray for his servers. He says what do you need prayer for? And then he prays for him. That's just stuck with me. What a simple way to witness and to have a conversation. A waiter, a waitress, somebody that you have an interaction with, you're guaranteed to if you go out to eat. How simple is that? Just to say hey, how can I pray for you?
Speaker 1:And I'm surprised at how vulnerable people are just knowing you in that scenario. I mean, they've known him for 15 minutes or whatever, and I don't know if it's easier because they think they're never going to see him again. But people like will be oh, this is what's going on in my life. You could pray for that, you know.
Speaker 3:Right and we'll pray like God, put people in my path, do all these things, and then someone's right in front of us and we'll have no idea. We won't think like, oh, this is who God's calling me to pray for right now, this person who's serving me literally. What would it look like for me to flip that script and serve them for a second?
Speaker 2:You know it's interesting. You talked about Peter and so, for those who are listening that may not know, Peter is campus director at our Northwest campus. I had lunch with him yesterday and he started talking to the person that was helping us out at the restaurant. He got his name and then within five minutes, they were scrolling through his socials.
Speaker 2:And this guy was telling them all about this clothing business he has and where his like inspirations came from and talked about movies he has and where his like inspirations came from and talked about movies. So to that point of uh just listening to somebody who probably feels like they're kind of being objectified or used as a tool and, you know, like not even seen. Uh, god, put them right in their path.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so cool, so so small of a thing and you don't have to go ask for people, like follow them on social media, do all these things with the waitress, but like just asking for their name or one thing that I've, that I've heard and learned such an important piece. When you're, when you're with people in homelessness asking for their name the weekend, we can do just the, the facelift of here. Here's some money, here's something, something on when you're driving past, but what it looked like to say like, hey, what's your name and who are you? Take two minutes out of your day to make that time to just see where God's working, see where he's moving and just be intentional with people. Do something that that didn't seem like a spiritual moment but that God could use that to turn into a spiritual moment.
Speaker 2:But just be, oh, go ahead I was going to say be really careful, because if their next line to you is, I have a secret message for you from God you might want to protect your abdomen because apparently that's what happens here.
Speaker 1:I was going to say you take the time to do that and you make someone feel known and not overlooked. We're talking about how God sees what others overlook. They servers often feel overlooked. You know, people don't treat them like a person.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean. They're just there to deliver my food and take my order. Homeless people, you know, or people that are standing on the side of the road. They feel overlooked, people don't recognize them. A lot of people won't even make eye contact, you know, and so just making them feel like a human, that they are known and they are valued. You can't solve all their problems, but can you pray for them, can you at least see them? Yes, yeah, okay, I really liked how God chose Ahud, because of the difference.
Speaker 1:Like again it's that intentionality for me which, like I said, running theme for this series. But just this was what made him special. You know, this was what made him equipped to do this job because he was left handed, he knew that this assassination was going to be able to be executed, you know, in a way that was not going to draw a bunch of attention to him or get him killed. That was just because he was different. And I really enjoyed when Greg was talking about all the ways that left-handed people were forced to be right-handed or-.
Speaker 2:Tie their arm behind their back.
Speaker 1:And I can imagine it's probably even worse in Bible times you know what I mean.
Speaker 1:Like that, it was just more out there, okay. So Pastor Greg then moved on to his second point, which was God's strategy is often surprising. What spoke to you about this piece of things? Just that God's strategy is often surprising. I feel like I'm surprised by God all the time. So this to me, like it was not a surprise that God's strategy is surprising. But in the case of some of these Bible events, like then I understand more about, okay to the people at this time, this is really surprising. Like that was what stuck to me.
Speaker 3:I mean, every time I make a plan for my life, it ends up being very different. You can see God working in all those differences of what I expected. Very different. You can see God working in all those differences of what I expected. And if we look to Jesus in the New Testament, it was like man. People thought he was going to be this grand, glorious king who had all the power, all the glory. Yet he was. It was different. It was a different sort of power it was. It was a power of relationships and a power to bring people together and love people, not to go to the kings, the all the people that had so much power and influenced them, but influencing the ones that we wouldn't expect the tax collectors, the prostitutes, the people that nobody else would touch but that Jesus would use them and use those interactions, use the things that we didn't expect for God to use for his power and for his glory.
Speaker 2:I was thinking about something very similar, and that is how he uses the most surprising things, but nothing's ever a surprise to him. So like there's so much intentionality that we've already talked about already, and like how he even coordinated the birth of ahead to be someone who is left-handed, and that could have been surprising to everybody else and it could have been surprising for us to read, but it wasn't a surprise to him so what other things does he have in front of us?
Speaker 2:so this isn't just a like, this thing that seems like it could be a bad thing and then you see something good come of it. You can also see it in terms of like when in life do you think that the Lord can work in something that's really bad to provide joy? Not because of the bad thing, but despite the bad thing he's still bringing it and I think that just shows the presence and the impact of his ministry. It's not like at all times you are expected in bad situations to just be like pouting and mournful, but how often as a pastor I've seen people in deep mourning also have these beautiful moments of joy and laughter that allows them to live. And if they were just to stay in that like morose state, I have no idea how they would make the next step or eat their next meal. But because the Lord gave them some life, because a little kid came into their life and gave them a hug, and that made the difference for the day.
Speaker 2:I think it's huge to acknowledge yes he can do surprising things, but he can also do surprising things when you don't expect it, for your benefit, for joy and peace despite chaos and everything else.
Speaker 1:That's really good. So Pastor Greg made his third point as being God delivers through the unexpected. So that's kind of like surprising, but not exactly the same God delivers through the unexpected. How did that speak to you or what did that make you think of?
Speaker 3:I mean, like what you just said, Seth, I think death is one of those things that God tends to deliver in, always delivers in, but we never expect it, because in this worldly life, it's this one thing that's still nagging on us, that is inevitable for each and every one of us until Jesus comes back for the second return. It's hard Like it. Whenever there's a death or something, it's just like there's a loss, there's, there's a morning and there's something that that is then missing, um, and yet, like you said, there's many, many times that I've seen people in mourning, in death, that have just had a joy and something about them that makes no sense. That makes no sense to you, to anybody else, even to themselves sometimes.
Speaker 2:Well, connecting death and unexpected how many of Jesus' followers expected him to die. Now, keep in mind, this is after he told them three times like this is going to happen everybody Uh, I'm going to be handed over into the hands of sinful men, I will be beaten, I will be uh and I will die, and on the third day I will rise. And they didn't expect either one of those things to happen. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Whatever?
Speaker 2:Cool story, bro. Uh, where's my bread? Uh, but they don't expect him to die, die. In fact, even some of the people that were at the foot of the cross are like, well, have them call Elijah, maybe he'll come. It was kind of ironic that they said it that way, but his followers didn't believe he was going to die, and so that's why they're all sad and such when they're in the upper room. And then the other sad part of that is it's been three days.
Speaker 2:They should have been expecting, like, oh, he died. He said he's going to be back on day three. It's day three. We're up in this upper room not for fear of the people that are pursuing us, and that's what the scripture says. No, they're up there. They should be up there waiting for him to return, but they don't. And it is to their startlement that he actually like I don't even know how he does that with his body, because he's raised in bodily form, but somehow he Star Treks right into the upper room. Yeah, I don't know how he did that, but, that being said, death was unexpected, but then, even more so, his resurrection was unexpected.
Speaker 2:So you really take a look at like okay well, they got it wrong sometimes and they were as close as humanly possible to walking with Jesus in ministry and maybe that gives us a little bit of margin, as well as his disciples that we're not going to get it right all the time.
Speaker 2:But there are some things we should get right, and that is he did die for our sins and we can expect that he's going to connect us to his resurrection, and that's why I love like Bapt Sundays coming up here at King of Kings and how many people have been met in unexpected ways over the last few months through so many different ministries. Now are going to be connected to the unexpected new life that they never thought they'd have access to, so praise Jesus for that.
Speaker 3:Well, it reminds me, like too many times in my life, god's done a miraculous thing and it's like, wow, I can only look back and know that that was from God. And in the moment, though, I was like God's not going to fix this, this is going to be horrible. Whatever this happened in my life, it's it's unfixable. Or something happened in my life and I don't think God's going to do anything about it. And then, bang, he does it again. And the next time comes up where something could happen, or I do something wrong or something goes not to exactly my plan, and I'm like, all right, god's not going to do anything, I'm just going to be here. And then bang, he does it again.
Speaker 3:It's like, over and over and over, and God works for that unexpected moment, the time that you, you promises that he makes to us, the promise that they gave the disciples, that he's going to come back. They didn't believe him, they didn't understand what it meant, and he came back. And I mean, I can imagine every day, we all go through moments where we don't believe God's going to do anything special. We're just living our life with no purpose. And then, bang, something amazing happens, like, wow, that was awesome God. Then next day you forget it again.
Speaker 2:Yep, and if you want to take that and make that lesson portable for anybody who's listening, go listen to Sons of Sunday. It's a Christian band.
Speaker 3:It's like a super band.
Speaker 2:Brandon Lake, stephen Furtick. They got a song called God Did it and it's just a litany of all of the amazing things that nobody expected that God did and I think for me it's a celebration and a hope of if he did all those things. Look at all the promises he has for us in the future. He's going to do that too, despite, you know, the brokenness and our expectations and everything else.
Speaker 3:Yeah, take heart in that truth and the promise that God's faithful, that he's good and he's amazing, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:That's great. That's great. So you kind of touched base on this a little bit already, Seth. But, like Greg asked, how does the story of Ehud parallel the story of Jesus as a deliverer? And he touched base on a couple of pieces. You kind of elaborate a little more. How does that question speak to you? What are the similarities that you guys see, the parallels there?
Speaker 2:Do you want to go Sure All?
Speaker 3:right, yeah, I mean it's the whole book of Judges and the book of Kings, the first and second Kings as well.
Speaker 3:I mean it's it's the whole book of judges and the book of Kings, the first and second Kings as well.
Speaker 3:Um, god is or excuse me, jesus is the perfect fulfillment of all of the broken judges, of all of the the broken Kings, um, the broken priests, all of the broken, broken things in this world. Um, jesus is the perfect fulfillment of that. So every time I read in the book of judges of Samson who messed up, numerous, numerous times, of all the people who met the judges that were not perfect, that were imperfect and that led an imperfect solution to the problem, because yet again the Israelites did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. Yet Jesus came back, has died for us on the cross, and he's coming back again. That won't end with us doing evil in the sight of the Lord again. When he comes back, that second time it'll be the end of death, the end of all things sad, evil, horrible, and it's the perfect fulfillment of these broken judges, because those were temporary fixes for a very deep, deeply rooted issue in all of our lives, and Jesus is that eternal fix for the issue of sin, death and the devil.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I actually kind of had something similar too as I was reflecting and praying on it, because the good thing is I got a chance to see Greg's messages before they get preached and so. I've been an opportunity to kind of marinate with it for a while.
Speaker 1:So you're cheating is what you're saying, yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm cheating hard is what I'm doing, but what I think is interesting is Ehud goes in there and he kills Eglon and then that problem is dead. And I think connecting that to Jesus is important as well, because in the Old Testament, as you guys probably know, there's this thing called types, and so there's a priest type and there's a prophet type, and there's a prophet type and there's a king type, and they all fulfill some aspect of that role, but then they get fulfilled, like filled, all the way up in Jesus. So there's an ultimate prophet and an ultimate priest and ultimate king. But we don't often talk about judge and in this case, like Eglon was judged and death was the verdict, and then Ehud comes in and kills this problem and in the same way, jesus comes in and wrestles death on us.
Speaker 2:This is why one of my favorite scriptures in the whole wide world is God made him, who knew no sin, to become sin so that we might become the righteousness of God. And to me what that means is Jesus took death onto him, wrestled it on the cross and as he died, he kills death and he kills wrath against sin. And as he rises, he has wrestled death and sin away from us. And if he won that wrestling match, my biggest struggle is not to go back and regrapple with the thing that's already killed the old sins, the guilt that came with that, the shame that came with that. And that's so freeing to know that Jesus won that victory over sin, death and the power of the devil. And if he did that already, my next steps in sanctification and following after him are ones in victory where, like it's not an inevitable conclusion, I'm going to go back to the same problems. No, jesus killed it, it's gone, and so I just love the idea of this is like thrown a shadow towards Jesus, like if you look at this, you'll get a glimpse of what the real fulfillment of this type is going to bring, what really can happen in a person's life.
Speaker 2:So you know, some people would like skip past these areas and judges and be like and they'll do this in the whole of the Old Testament, they'll just go right to Jesus. I don't realize how ultimately practical a teaching like this is, and that's actually what I appreciated about Greg's message is that it wasn't this like history lesson about Old Testament Israel. It was. This is how this applied to them, and now that we see this really well now. You know how it applies to us, how much more valuable are you as a servant in the kingdom because of it. So that kind of teaching, I love it. It's deep and it's focused on Jesus and I just felt like it was a blessing to the whole congregation here. Things like that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, people often forget, like the Old Testament is the book for the Jewish faith, and that Jesus is not, yes, at the start of a new church, but he's the fulfillment of the Israelite people. He's the fulfillment of the Israelite people, he's the fulfillment of the Jewish faith. Christianity is the next step of the Jewish faith for God's eyes, for his vision, for this faith and people can separate those like oh, I'm just a New Testament person, I don't touch into the Old Testament much, but, like you said, it has much depth. It has so much meaning because it's the precursor to Jesus. It's the Old Testament where it has the depth. It has so much meaning because it's it's the precursor to Jesus. It's the old Testament where it has the old covenants, all these things with so much historical richness and value that Jesus not only changes but but fulfills. That he fulfills the promises set in the, in the old Testament, and that's why he taught from the old.
Speaker 3:Testament oh exactly.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he's 12 years old. Can you imagine, if our Kidman kids stepped up and they're like I will now recount to you the book of Isaiah. That's awesome. You can keep doing that.
Speaker 1:All right. So, as we wrap up today, what are your final takeaways from this message?
Speaker 2:I'm going to have to come up with a really good poop story because the other teaching team pastors had the opportunity and I don't know if I can pass it up. Yeah, yeah, I don't know how I'm going to do it, but You've got some time I do.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:September.
Speaker 3:If you ever hear just a random poop story from Seth, you'll know why.
Speaker 2:I'm testing.
Speaker 3:I'm floating the idea. You're floating what?
Speaker 2:There we go. I'm glad that we're back to this point of kindergarten humor again, like we got real deep with typology.
Speaker 3:We got to go full circle, Dude. I'm working with middle schoolers. This is my whole jam.
Speaker 1:Poop. Humor is half of it. Oh, it's awesome yeah.
Speaker 3:I mean, I think for me it's just like that, it's simple. But God uses unexpected people, he uses unexpected things and that's how he fulfills his, his dream for us, his love for us. Um, yeah, what? What are you guys dealing with in your life that has that that you think has no meaning or isn't going to affect your life beyond just a hard day? But what would that look like? To say God, how are we going to use this horrible moment for your, your, your beauty, for, for your fulfillment, for your grace, and in my life, to teach me something, to, to show me something new and to to to transform me into who you, you want me to be?
Speaker 2:I love that, the way that you put that, because that shows that it's not to try to call that bad thing a good thing. It's trying to say that Jesus is present and makes some beautiful things despite some chaos and some nasty things.
Speaker 2:And that's so much better than kind of that false view of what Christianity sometimes pushes. And that is false view of what Christianity sometimes pushes and that is well. You know your child got hurt and here's why you know it's a really good thing. No, it was terrible and and I think that causes people not to be able to actually grieve- Uh and, uh, it also puts this like real fake view of what Christianity is.
Speaker 2:No, if something is grieving worthy, then you should grieve. Uh, it was a gift that God had given to you and somehow it got broken or busted or gone now. But what's beautiful about the way that you're describing that is? But Jesus is still there, Right?
Speaker 3:And how amazing is it that we serve a God that is powerful enough to make those horrible, broken things into something beautiful. To turn these graves into gardens, the Brandon Lake song, graves into Gardens just is like incredible with that. The graves into gardens, the bones into armies, all these different things that he can turn these horribly broken things into something beautiful.
Speaker 2:Is that Brandon Lake? Or is that Elevation Worship? I mean, he sings it. I've heard him sing it before.
Speaker 3:I'm not sure. Actually, I'm sure Elevation wrote it, but it's a great song.
Speaker 2:Oh, it's amazing. I think every church has, since it came out, sings that on Easter.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2:That's kind of fitting.
Speaker 1:I really liked the idea of how God can use each of us, which is, you know, a lot of us feel unworthy or we feel broken or we feel less than, but God can use any of us, and I like the quote from Ben Franklin that Greg used and it was hide, not your talents, they were made for use. What's?
Speaker 3:a sundial in the shade and I really liked that about it, doesn't?
Speaker 1:you may not think it's something special. I'm sure Ahud didn't think his left-handedness was something special at first, when he was being shunned or having his hand tied down potentially or something like that, but it was special in the grand purpose of what God was gonna do with it.
Speaker 3:Yeah Well, and if you haven't listening, taken time to figure out who you are and what you are, you got to know if you're a sundial or not If you try and tell the time. If you're not a sundial, you're not going to do much good.
Speaker 1:If you're a. You might be an Apple watch, right? If?
Speaker 3:you're an Apple watch. You try and stand in the sun. You're just going to not. No one's gonna be able to see purpose Right. Yeah, and but doesn't King of Kings have a spiritual giftings test?
Speaker 1:We do have a spiritual gifting test. You can find it on the website or in the app. Yeah, that's a great thing, and the other thing that we have talking about purpose coming up is we're starting a new thing here at King of Kings called pizza with purpose. And our first one takes place at the Millard and Northwest campuses. It's coming to Fremont soon, but at Millard and Northwest it'll be on August 10th from 1230 to 2. You can register online Check that out in the app or on our website too.
Speaker 3:Find out more information and if anybody's listening that has a heart for students, email me at Chad, at kingofkingsorg.
Speaker 1:We'd love to see you guys jump in with students If your spiritual gifting is poop jokes.
Speaker 3:Email me immediately. I need you guys on my team. Email me immediately. I need you guys on my team.
Speaker 1:Yes, alright well, thank you guys so much for being here we will hear the last message in this series next week and until then, let's keep living our faith beyond Sunday. Thank you.
