Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / May 23, 2021 | Uncommon Sense - Uncommon Sense from Little Folk

Transcript

May 23, 2021 | Uncommon Sense - Uncommon Sense from Little Folk · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Good morning.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: How are you doing?
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: Open your Bible if you have one to the book of Proverbs, next last chapter.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: We're in a series called Uncommon Sense this month.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: This is the fourth out of five.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: And this morning, Uncommon Sense from Little Folk.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: And this is such a fun.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: I'm looking forward to this quite a bit.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: This will be fun.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: Proverbs chapter 30, verses 24 to 28.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: By the way, take a look at verse 1 for a minute.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: The sayings of Agar, son of Jekkah, an oracle.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: So this chapter is by a guy that we don't know, who's the son of somebody we don't know either.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: We never hear of them again.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: We don't know who they are.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: We don't know if they're Israelite or not.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: All we know about Agar is what he tells us about himself in this chapter, which is that he's weary and worn out.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: That's in verse 1.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: That he doesn't consider himself very wise, that he considers God's words completely true.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: That he doesn't care all that much about money.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: He's the kind of a guy we'd like.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: For him, money's not the most important thing in the world.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: And uh everyone who knew him considered him wise.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: But that's all we know about him.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: And by the way, if you ever have a chance, or if you ever have a choice between becoming friends with someone who's wise or someone who's rich, pick Eger.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: Uh pick a guy who's wise.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: And by the way, Eger clearly likes to make lists.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: We find lists in this chapter, but they're not the kind of lists that you and I make.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: You know, things-to-do lists today or things to do this week.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: He makes a list like three things that are never satisfied.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: You know, the hunger of a fire, the thirst of a ground for water, and uh and the desire of the womb for a baby.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: All of them have a twist.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: Four things we don't understand, four things that are really proud, four things that shake the world.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: This morning we're gonna look at four small things that are, he says, extremely or unusually wise.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um reading from the NIV at this point.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: Four things on earth are small, verse 24, yet they are extremely wise.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: Ants are creatures of little strength, yet they store up their food in the summer.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: Conis are creatures of little power, yet they make their home in the crags.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: Locusts have no king, yet they advance together in ranks.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: A lizard can be caught with a hand, yet it is found in kings' palaces.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: Father, um, this is your word, and uh.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: from four little creatures, and we ask that we can learn this wisdom in Jesus' name.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: Uncommon wisdom from little folk.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: At this time of year, commencement speakers usually model up, not down.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: They try to inspire us with big heroes.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: They erect high pedestals on which they put superstars and great people like Winston Churchill, who went out and did great things, and then they tell the students, the graduates, you go out and do likewise.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: But Ager does the opposite.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: He has pedestals that are low to the ground, and on them he puts small creatures that we usually either ignore or try to step on.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: Honestly, they're not only small, but they're unattractive.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: They're not pretty.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: We would prefer soaring eagles or roaring lions or graceful deer, but the four little folk that this wise sage lifts up for us to admire are ants, uh rock rabbits, we'll call them, uh locusts or grasshoppers, and lizards.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: Don't know about your house, but ants appear in our house at this time, month of April and May, every year.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: They are uninvited guests.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes they apparently squeeze in through cracks.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: Clearly, sometimes, since they're in our sink, they crawl up through the drains, but there they are, and we do not sit around and admire them or make pets out of them or bring them to church and show them off.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: We do away with them.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: We stomp on them or we rub them out.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: Now, that's why it's a little surprising that this ancient sage says, hold it, stop before you stomp.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: There's something you should admire about that small thing, something you should learn, a bit of uncommon sense from a very common creature.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: Take the ant, for example.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, four things on earth, and now I switch to the new living translation on earth that are small but unusually wise.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: The first one is the ant.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: Ants, they're not strong, they aren't strong, but they store up food all summer.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: Uh to boil this down, ants know what time it is in life.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: They know it's time to prepare for the future because winter is coming.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: Though ants aren't strong, they use what strength they have to prepare for the winter.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: Ants attend picnics, but they don't relax.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: While we are lounging with our hot dogs and our lemonade, the ants are carrying off the potato chips one grain at a time.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: And if you don't watch them, they'll be back for the cookies.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: Because they're always at it.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: They're working, they're straining, they're lugging, they're lifting.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: They know instinctively, apparently, that time is precious, and if they spend it carelessly, they will suffer.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: When ants go to college, uh, well, actually, their wisdom is they know what time it is, time to prepare for the future.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: When ants go to college, uh, their favorite professor is Stephen Covey, who says the key to life is not spending time, but investing it.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: Investing it and preparing for the future.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: That's the ant motto.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: That's what time it is.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: This is not the only time in this book where the ant gets called up on stage to receive uh an award.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: The other time they are praised, Proverbs chapter 6, because they maintain a three-dimensional view of life.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: And you can see that here as well.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: They somehow know the past, leverage the present to prepare for the future.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: You and I know a lot of people in life who are one-dimensional only.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: They're sort of stuck in one time period.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: Some are stuck in the past.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: Their theme song is the Beatles song yesterday.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: When they go on a trip, they see the scenery through the lens of their cell phone.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: Instead of sitting and gazing at the beauty, they snap pictures of it from all angles so that they can remember the trip later and when they get home, they look at their pictures.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: What they enjoy is the picture, not the journey.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: You might say they travel through life looking through the rearview mirror.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: And the problem with living in the past is you tend not to get very much done today.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: Other folks are stuck in the present.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: Their favorite song is a 1967 hit by the grassroots, let's live for today.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: And which the chorus went, I confess I sang along with it many times.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: Sha la la la la la live for today.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: Sha la la la.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: You know that song too.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: Look at him.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: You want to sing it with me.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: And don't worry about tomorrow.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: These people live for today as though there were no tomorrow.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: And for some of them, there isn't a tomorrow.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: They die having pursued the thrill of today over the cliff of addiction.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: And the problem with living only in the Carpe Diem is that you miss the depths of the past and the heights of the future.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: And then some people, of course, that we know are stuck in the future.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: Their motto is the song from Annie, tomorrow.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: Tomorrow.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: Or Dorothy's song in The Wizard of Oz.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: Somewhere over the rainbow.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: You hear them say things aren't very good now, but after I graduate, then things will be different.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: Or after I get married and have kids, then I'll settle down.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: Or once the children leave home, then I'll get my life together.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: And finally, it's once I retire, then I'll have the time and energy to focus on God.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're a good Christian, it's once I get to heaven, then it's all gonna be wonderful.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: But the ant is three-dimensional.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: Recalling the past, it uses the present to prepare for the future.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: It knows what time it is.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: It knows that it's time to prepare for the future, so it gathers food in the summer because it knows that winter lies ahead.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: And with winter comes cold, with winter comes death.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: And the wise man applies that truth in this book, especially to young people.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: He says to them, you need to prepare for the winter ahead of you by getting to know the word of God.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: In chapter 2, he says to young people, you need to read the word, you need to study the word, you need to memorize the word, you need to meditate on the word.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: And the sooner you read and study and memorize and meditate on the word of God, the better.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason you need to read and study and memorize and meditate on the scripture is that winter is coming.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: And winter means cold, cold days are coming for you, and the scriptures will guide you and guard you and protect you in the winter that lies ahead.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: And winter means death as well.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: And the wisdom of this book to defeat death is the only wisdom that you will find when death comes.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: It is the wisdom to outlast death by possessing eternal life.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: And listen, he says, the only thing that you will have with you in the winter is what you have laid up for yourself in the summer.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: Frankly, cold days are ahead for all of us.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: No doubt about it.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: For some of us, it may be very personal.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: Perhaps you'll marry and find out that your partner did not take your vows as seriously as you did.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: Or perhaps you may find that it's difficult to have children.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: Or that even worse, those children that you bring into the world may uh may turn their back on you one day and reject you and everything you believe in.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: Or perhaps a disease that you thought belonged only to other people invades your life or the life of someone that you love very much.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: Perhaps your finances will face a sudden attack.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: But one thing is certain that somewhere, sometime on this side of the rainbow, winter will come, and that the only thing that will help you on those winter days is what you laid up in the summer.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: But of course, it doesn't have to be personal.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: It certainly is societal.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: For we know we live and move in a society in which the most destructive winter that we've ever seen is already upon us.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: Do you not feel the cold winds already as they whip across our country?
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: In the past year, warm friendships have turned cold, and the warm truths that our grandparents and parents and school teachers taught us have been banished to the deep freeze.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: And the morality being forced upon us by intolerant authorities is cold and dark and destructive.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: Like the media or like the land of Narnia, the media culture in which we live is always winter and never Christmas.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: And someday, maybe soon you will go into a winter, and what you will have in that winter is nothing more, nothing less than what you've laid up already.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: And if you have the wisdom of the ant, you'll know that now is the time to do that.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: And so the wise man says in his first little person that if you've got the brains of an ant, you'll prepare for the future.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: And then he turns to the second animal and he says, rock rabbits, uh they have other names, um, conies, dassies, um, uh rock hierxes, and so forth.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: Rock rabbit knows where its security lies, he says.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: It knows to run to the rock.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: They aren't powerful, but they make their homes among the rocks.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the rock rabbit is a little larger than a prairie dog, and it lives uh in rocks, in the rockies and in mountainous areas and all up and down uh uh Israel from the Dead Sea up to Mount Hermon.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: The ones we have here in America are mostly gray, the ones they have in Israel are mostly brown, but either way they blend into the rocks, and like the other three animals in this list, they're vulnerable.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: They are unable to protect themselves against predators.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: And when a vulture swoops down or an eagle swoops down for a tasty treat, the rock rabbit always looking up, runs to a crag, runs into a hole in the rock, and so that the vulture has to knock down a mountain to get at it.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: But if the hyrax or the cone or the rock rabbit wanders away from the rock, down the path, the sun itself in the field, it's in trouble.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter how courageous it is, it doesn't matter if it's pumping iron down at the local gym, it's uh dead meat.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's what's for dinner.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's wise, however, it doesn't wander far from the rocks.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: On our honeymoon in Estes Park, Melody and I went climbing.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: We uh headed up Long's Peak.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: It was a fun hike.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: We climbed all morning and uh finally broke out of the trees and we got above timberline.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: We came across a lovely hidden lake.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: I know a number of you have taken that hike and you've seen, I think it's Chasm Lake there.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's just beautiful, and we stopped to have lunch.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: We found some rocks.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: We sat down, and yes, that's my 18-year-old bride.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: And we broke out the sandwiches.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: And um, as she bit into her sandwich, I saw her eyes widen at something behind me, and I turned around to see one of those marmots, those uh distant cousins of rock rabbits.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: Its eyes were watching our food, hoping for crumbs, but it wouldn't take it from us.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: You'd have to put down the crumb and then you'd move back.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: But if we took a step toward it, it would race into the rock for safety.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: And God is saying here, that's a survival skill that I taught them.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_00: Rock rabbits are extremely wise because they know where their security and protection lie.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: It lies in the rock.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: And that's important to us.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's a wisdom we need for you and I, like the rock rabbit, are vulnerable to predators.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: The book of Proverbs warns us against them, for they are many.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: Some would steal your money, others would steal your soul.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: We're vulnerable to flattery and to slander, to gossip and to lies.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: We cannot protect or defend ourselves against those who would ambush us or hurt us or betray us.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: We're a little like the rock badger.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: We're soft and cute and vulnerable, and we need to know where our security lies.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_00: And it lies not inside of us, it lies outside of us.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I hardly need to tell you that when the wise man uh recommends that we run to the rock, when he applies that in this book, he's recommending that we find our security in God.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: He's saying, if you have the brains of a rock rabbit, you'll know that your security you need is the security of God himself.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: And the question that begs is do you have a relationship with this God?
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: Is he your God?
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: Is he your savior?
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: Is he your security both in this life and in the next?
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_00: If not, your dead meat.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: For well over a hundred years, nearly 150 now, uh an insurance company called Prudential has been putting up one of the three rocks that have meant uh a lot to me in my life.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: I've spent a number of years taking boats back and forth past the rock of Gibraltar.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: The first rock that meant a lot in my life, I think the third largest monolith in the world is called Haystack Rock at Cannon Beach.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: And the most recent rock that has meant so much to me is the rock called Mitsada in Israel.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: A protection, safety, security, run to the rock.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: Twenty-five times in the old Hebrew Old Testament, we are told to run to God who is the rock.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_00: Psalm 18, the Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my savior, my God is my rock, in whom I find protection.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_00: He's my shield, the power that saves me, and my place of safety.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_00: David especially found great solace in running to Mitsada and running to God the rock.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: My God is T-S-U-R means rock.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: My God is my rock, Tsuri, in whom I take refuge, my stronghold, my refuge, and my savior.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: He was speaking in 2 Samuel 22 of safety from King Saul.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: And then he writes in Psalms, In you, Yahweh, I have taken refuge.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: Be my Tsur, be my rock of refuge, a strong fortress to save me.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: Moses' last words in Deuteronomy 32, I'm going to proclaim Yahweh's name.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: And his next words are, his name is Hatzur, the rock.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_00: He's a faithful God, righteous and true.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: But then in the next paragraph, he laments as he speaks to Israel, but you have deserted the rock.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's a self-destructive behavior in a world full of predators to desert, to wander away from the rock, to get into a place where you have no safety.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: And so the point here is have the brains not only of an ant know what time it is in life and prepare for the future, but have the brains of a rock rabbit know where your security lies.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: Have a relationship with a rock and run into it.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: The third animal, small animal, is the locust or the grasshopper.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: He says they have no king, but they march in formation.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: Locusts know where their success lies.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_00: They know how to succeed.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_00: Their success lies in teaming up.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_00: Locust or a grasshopper by itself isn't scary.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: If you come across one in your house, in your kitchen, it may make you jump, but one grasshopper by itself is no threat.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: But if that grasshopper teams up with 50 or a hundred or a thousand other grasshoppers, then you run for cover because when you think of a whole lot of them, a whole lot of locusts, the next word that pops into your mind is a plague of locusts or an army of locusts.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: A locust is a sort of a grasshopper, by the way, on steroids.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's a kind of a grasshopper.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: But what they can't do alone, they can do when they team up with others.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_00: When they stop being a loner and cooperate and work together.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: Last summer was uh in June of 2020, was uh the worst day for grasshoppers and locusts around the world in in decades.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, worst day in India in 25 years.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: They had swarms that were 25 miles long and 35 miles, more than 35 miles wide.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_00: But that was minor compared with eastern Africa.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: In Kenya, uh, they would have swarms and marching uh locusts that were 100 miles long and 100 miles wide.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_00: That absolute tens of billions of locusts absolutely stripping the ground and causing starvation.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: Eight or nine months.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Ago, the history guy loaded a video onto YouTube entitled The Great Kansas Grasshopper Plague of 1874.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_00: A trillion locusts decimated crops all across the Midwest at a cost in today's money of$120 billion.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_00: If you've read Laura Ingel's Wilder books, you'll perhaps remember this story in the first book on the banks of Plum Creek up in Minnesota when they were absolutely swarmed.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_00: By the way, that's the largest swarm ever in recorded history.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_00: 110 miles wide, 1,800 miles long, a quarter to a half mile thick in depth.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: Both outside and inside the Bible, this is interesting, this insect is like an enemy.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's a destroyer.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_00: And yet, this wise sage in this passage says there's something we can learn from the locusts.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_00: God says, I want you to step back from this destructive insect and learn the wisdom that I gave it.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_00: Because the grasshopper, the locust, is not like other animals, small or large.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: Most creatures on the farm, the ones that we had on our farm, at least, chickens and goats and cows, birds, fish, dogs, whatever, they end up following a leader.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_00: Even ants and bees have a queen, but not grasshoppers, not locusts.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_00: There's no lion king, there's no queen bee, no billy goat or rooster to tell them what to do or organize them.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: Without any ruler or leader at all, God says, the locusts team up.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_00: They cooperate.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_00: They work together.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_00: They march in formation.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: They sense that they have to work together and cooperate, not compete, in order to succeed.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_00: And again, I hardly need to tell you how the Bible applies this.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_00: How the Old and the New Testament, time and again, speak of the failure that comes when God's people split up, when there's a rivalry, when they fight, whether it's Jacob competing with Esau or Joseph's older brothers hating and competing with him.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_00: When Moses' siblings, Aaron and Marianne, get, Miriam, get jealous of him, when Absalom turns against his father, when the twelve tribes of Israel split into the northern ten and the southern two, when they fracture, when there's no unity and no community, there's no success.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: There's just failure.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: And the New Testament likewise is always talking about the church.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's talking about the community, it's talking about you and me getting together, telling us that while we must have a personal faith, it cannot be a private faith, that you cannot be a successful lone ranger Christian, that to win you need to live in unity and community with other Christians.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why when the New Testament uses the word hagiash, uses the word saint, it's never really singular.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's always in the plural saints, because the New Testament never ever imagines a lone Christian sitting at home and only at home, watching, you know, the screen, worshiping alone, studying the Bible alone, not in community, not working and worshiping side by side in unity with others.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_00: There's a famous story that a man went to an insane asylum for the criminally insane, and he was surprised to find there were only three guards there to take care of a hundred inmates.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: And he said to one of the guards, Aren't you afraid that the inmates will join together, unite against you, overwhelm you, and escape?
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_00: And the guard replied, Not a bit.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: Lunatics never unite.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: But locusts do, and Christians should.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_00: If we don't, we don't know where our success lies.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_00: When Jesus sent out his disciples, he did not send them out one by one.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_00: He sent them out two by two.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_00: If you live by yourself, you live in danger and you will fail.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_00: You need a friend, the kind of friend I spoke about in last week's message.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_00: A friend who shares your commitment to Christ.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_00: A friend who will be side by side with you, sharing your successes and your failures.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_00: You need a small group.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_00: You need a Sunday school class.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: You need fellow worshipers who raise their voices and hands next to you.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_00: You need to team up to work alongside others.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_00: You cannot be a successful Christian alone.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_00: And those of you that know me, like Hank here, know that any success that I've had as a pastor and leader, I've had because I've been part of a team.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: Been able to march side by side in unity and love and commitment with dozens of committed fellow pastors and leaders and servants, all of us sharing the common passion of leading people to life in Christ.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_00: And listen, if you don't know where your success lies, that it lies in unity and community and teaming up and working together, you're not going to make it.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_00: You'll make as much impact for God in this culture as a lone grasshopper would in your house.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_00: So let me summarize: have the brains of an ant, know what time it is in life and prepare for the future.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_00: Have the brains of a rock rabbit, know where your security lies and run to the rock.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_00: Have the brains of a grasshopper know how to succeed and team up.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_00: Finally, um, the fourth animal is the lizard.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_00: You can catch it with your hands, but it lives in the palace of the king.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to notice two major differences.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_00: Very typical, by the way, in the Bible.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_00: There are many lists of four things, and always the fourth is quite a bit different than the first three.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's just the way that the Bible does it.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's apparently a style in those days.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_00: And this is different in two ways.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_00: First of all, this is singular.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_00: All the others were ants, plural, and rock rabbits, or conies, or hyrax, plural, and locusts plural, but this is a single lizard.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_00: You can catch with your hands.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_00: But the second line is the real startling change because instead of telling us how this small creature, this vulnerable creature, can protect itself because the winter is coming by laying up food, or can run to the rocks for security, or can um can find some success in teaming up with others.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_00: It completely ignores the fact for a moment that it's vulnerable and that it's small and that people would like to catch it with their hands, and little boys will squeeze it really hard with their hands, and sometimes, you know, we'll put it on the end of a hook and try to catch a fish with it or something.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_00: And instead of talking about that and how the lizard can protect itself, it switches entirely, ignores that idea, and just says, but despite the fact that it's small, despite the fact that the lizard is vulnerable, it has a kind of crazy boldness.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_00: It kind of has a kind of uh courage that says it doesn't matter, and it finds its way even into the palaces, into the palace of a king.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_00: The word actually is plural, just to show you that this is not a small palace.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_00: This is a major king, and it is a major palace.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_00: And he's talking about the gecko here, of course, and we all know the gecko.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_00: If you've if you've been around the world, by the way, outside of America, outside of Canada, outside of the West, you've been down to Mexico, you've been down to the South America, you've been to the Caribbean, if you've been to Africa, you've been to Asia, you've been in fancy hotel rooms, you've been fancy houses, and you looked up one evening, am I right?
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_00: And suddenly on the wall you've seen a gecko, and you're really surprised, and you stare at it and it doesn't move, and you go, maybe it's a little painting up there, or something like that.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_00: So you look down again, and the five minutes later you look up and no, it wasn't there before.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's four feet over that way, you know.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you'll find that stunningly, whether you're on the 24th floor uh of a hotel, you'll find a gecko in the fanciest room.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_00: That's just the way it is, the most prestigious, fancy, exclusive locations in the land.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_00: And yet this vulnerable little lizard uh will fearlessly go into the most fancy, exclusive uh uh dwelling in the entire land, where the king dwells who has the power of life and death over people, much less lizards.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_00: Lizards are like, in in king's houses are like mice in the White House, and by the way, we regularly hear that they show up there.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's as if the wise man is saying, there is a wisdom that's greater even than self-protection, greater than finding food and safety.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the wisdom of living boldly.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_00: That's the wisdom of taking advantage of the opportunity to rise far above your station, to live in the palace of the king.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_00: It struck me this week that the lizard is a little like the Arthur Gunn of the animal world.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_00: Here's a boy who just eight years ago, at age 15, this boy named Debesh, lived in smog-covered Kathmandu, Nepal, on the other side of the world, in the shadow of Mount Everest.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_00: Seven years ago, his family moved to Wichita, Kansas, and he changed his name to Arthur.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_00: Last year during COVID, when singers on American Idol had to sing at home each week, and that's where he was, singing his backyard, when they sang and taped themselves at home.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_00: Arthur rose week after week, eventually finishing Runner Up, Runner Up, Wichita Pride Sword.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_00: Nepal went crazy.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_00: And Arthur Shy, who has an accent just kept singing.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_00: It was unimaginable two years ago, a boy from the other side of the world, living at home with his mom and dad without much money, now sings in king's palaces.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_00: And the wisdom of the lizard is to realize that where you were born isn't where you have to live up, uh end up.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_00: Even if you come from a hole in the ground, you don't have to stay there.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_00: Even if you're small and undignified, and the rich and famous really don't want to see you in the room with them or on their wall.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_00: So you don't get invited to the best parties.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_00: Still, you can live boldly.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_00: If you want it bad enough, you can actually slip into the king's palace.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_00: And we can, can't we?
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_00: Live in the palace of the king, I mean.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_00: We're born lizards, undignified and dirty in our sin.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_00: And other people think that we should not aspire to such greatness.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_00: But the king in his book says, if you're wise, you'll show up in my palace.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_00: John Newton, the slave dealer, saw himself for the lizard he was.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_00: And he came to Christ.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_00: And that's his song, Amazing Grace Spread Across the Land.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_00: In answer to a question about heaven, he said, if I ever reach heaven, I expect to find three wonders there.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_00: First, the wonder of meeting some people I had not expected to see there.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_00: Second, I expect to miss some that I thought I would see there.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_00: The third, the greatest wonder of all, to find myself there.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_00: You and I will feel exactly the same way.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_00: In wonder and in amazement, we will consider the fact that we lowly, vulnerable lizards should be blessed by God's grace enough to live forever in the palace of the king.
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_00: And those are, you see, the four lessons of these four little folk.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_00: If you have the brains of an ant, you'll know what time it is.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's time for you to prepare for the future.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_00: If you have the brains of a rock rabbit, you'll know where your security lies, and you'll run to the rock.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_00: If you have the brains of a grasshopper, you'll know how to succeed.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_00: You'll team up with others.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_00: And most of all, if you have the brains of a lizard, you'll know that by God's grace you can live in the palace of the King.
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_00: Father, thank you for teaching us from four surprising little creatures, giving us uncommon sense from animals, from creatures that we tend to ignore or step on.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_00: Creatures that you say have terrific wisdom, unusual wisdom, extreme wisdom, wisdom that you've given them.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, give us some of that wisdom.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_00: As we look at them, and as we think of the future, and as we think of our safety and security, as we think of how to succeed in life, and most of all, as we think of how boldly we could end up living with you forever.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_00: Give us the wisdom of the of these four little creatures in Jesus' name.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks, folks.