God’s Judgment and Mercy: A Study of Obadiah

Turn to the book of Obadiah.

So last Wednesday night we did an introduction message about Obadiah covered many different areas.

Mainly what Obadiah, what his message is, who he was and the message that he to the ones he was prophesying to, which is Edom.

So we'll cover a little bit that tonight by way of review.

But tonight will be the most practical message of all the messages.

We're going to preach one more after this and it'll be in a few weeks because next Wednesday night is vbs.

Our stay in here will be abbreviated and so we'll preach out of the Psalms next Wednesday night and then the following two Wednesday nights.

Brother Stone's going to be preaching a couple of weeks and so and I'm going to take that opportunity to meet with our Sunday school teachers for two Wednesday nights during the service.

And so I'm looking forward to that.

We're going to.

We actually decided as our staff, we decided to cancel the Sunday school clinic and we're instead going to have an appreciation dinner on the 10th of August, Sunday night after church for all of our teachers and workers.

That means anybody who's involved in Sunday school, children's church and master clubs in those areas.

And so we have a nice, nice dinner.

That's what we used to do years ago.

Some of you remember we used to do a Sunday school clinic and then the following year doing appreciation dinner.

We're going to go back to that model and.

And then I will individual or I will meet with the adult teachers one Wednesday night like I said, and then meet with the children's teachers the next Wednesday night.

I look forward to that.

I do.

I want to just encourage you and try to strengthen you and look forward to a good fall.

We have seen our church at times in the position we are right now and that is just a lot of visitors and our attendance just so good.

You know, besides this last Sunday, everybody decided on a four day, three day weekend to hiatus out of here.

You know, it's amazing how we had a 100 drop from the previous Sunday, but.

But I can tell you just by way of historical records that again, we're kind of back up to that point.

I think this is a good point to make on a Wednesday night to my.

Our core group kind of back up to that point where we're bumping the 400.

You know, we've done this before a few times and so, you know, we want whatever the Lord wants.

I really do.

I have zero, really.

I'm at that point.

You know, there's enough going on.

But I also want us to reach more people for Jesus.

I still go back and I mentioned this to a couple of men the other night.

Again, we had 50 saved last year.

And then we're not going to have that every year.

I realize that, but why not?

You know, we have that opportunity.

We're just in just a blessed area.

People moving here from all over the world, all over the country.

And, you know, we had some more people from the north joining and people from California here.

And I met a couple from California who sat over here a couple Sundays ago who came because of the daycare and just amazing, amazing stuff.

I'm supposed to preach, ain't it?

So all that to say that there'll be a couple of weeks of meeting with teachers and then we'll have the revival meeting.

But this Wednesday night after the revival meeting, it will be the prophetical message out of Obadiah.

Because in verse 15, he does mention the day of the Lord.

What is that?

What does that mean?

I'm going to preach also preach on the replacement theology and why we don't believe in that, why we believe the church did not replace Israel.

Israel is still God's chosen people.

We're going to take a whole service, preach on that subject out of this, out of this particular book.

And then also the prophetical aspects of this wonderful book.

And it is a neat book.

And so let's look at it again.

Let's look at verse one and two.

And we'll use this as a springboard to bring five practical lessons from the Book of Obadiah.

The Vision of Obadiah.

Thus saith the Lord God.

Concerning Edom.

We have heard a rumor from the Lord.

And an ambassador is sent among the heathen.

Arise ye.

Let us rise up against her in battle.

Behold, I have made thee small among the heathen.

Thou art greatly despised.

Greatly despised.

Look with me in verse 18.

And the house of Jacob shall be afire, and the house of Joseph a flame.

And the house of Esau, that's Edom for stubble.

And they shall kindle in them and devour them.

And there shall not be any remaining of the house of Esau, for the Lord hath spoken it.

I mentioned last Wednesday night there are.

You can Google this.

There are approximately 15.8 million Jews in the world today.

The Jews have stayed a distinct people.

15.8 million.

But not one Edomite.

Not one.

And God.

The prophecy of Obadiah came true.

Just no one's going to stand up.

I was watching a YouTube video about this subject.

And there's a.

There's a lot of good stuff out there.

You had to weed through some junk.

But.

And the.

There is a conference speaker who preaches about basically Petra in that area where the Edomites lived.

And he said everywhere he goes and he would preach like 60 times a year all across the nation.

He would ask at every place he went.

It wasn't just churches either.

He would ask, is there any Edomites here?

And he said, I've been preaching this for 20 or 30 years.

I forget how long.

He said, I've never had anybody ever raise their hand.

But if you ask, are there any Jews in the room?

Hundreds and hundreds as he's met across the country.

Thousands.

And so again, God's word is true.

The prophecies fulfilled every one of them.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we do pray that you.

Thank you.

And we ask that you'd be with the service tonight especially.

Lord help us.

And these practical lessons we're going to learn tonight to apply them to our lives.

In Jesus name, Amen.

Obadiah, again, is one of the minor prophets.

Again, the minor just simply means shorter books.

Has nothing to do with the gravity of the subject, the importance of the subject.

In fact, again, he's a minor prophet with a major message.

He's prophesying to Edom.

And this is Esau's descendants.

So remember now, Abraham was called to the Uri Chaldees by God himself.

In fact, Acts 7 says that God spoke to him directly.

He came and spoke to him face to face.

It was a theophany Christophany and called him.

Abraham had a child.

He promised Abraham to have a child.

He had Isaac and Isaac had what?

Jacob and Esau.

Jacob and Esau.

Jacob was to be the promised seed for which the Messiah would come.

And Esau was not chosen.

And we'll cover that here in a moment.

But these are Esau's descendants.

Esau's descendants.

After Jacob and Esau split, when Esau came back to the land after 20 years of being away.

Remember Jacob was 75 years old when he.

When he fled his brother Esau after he stole the blessing from his father.

Remember, Isaac said, I'm about to die.

Esau, you know, go out and kill the.

Kill me a deer.

Make that stew that I like so much.

I'm summarizing, please.

All right.

This is the Eric Crawford version.

And he said, make that stew that I like so much.

And when you come back and we have the stew, I'm going to bless you before I die.

Well, instead, Jacob, mother made stew, put some skin, hairy skin of animals on Jacob.

Because Esau was a hairy dude.

He must have been really hairy.

Also describes him as being red.

And went before his father Isaac, who was blind or almost blind, and deceived his father and received Esau's blessing.

When Esau found out, he was a little bit upset.

Just said he was going to kill his brother.

His mother overheard and said, you need to leave.

And at 75 years old, that's when he deceived his dad.

At 75, he left.

Twenty years later, he comes back, he thinks, my brother's gonna kill me when I come back.

And he took some preparation to try to, you know, thwart that.

And then.

But we know as they met, they hugged each other, kissed each other, and Jacob dwelt in the land and Esau left and dwelt on the south side of the Dead Sea.

And that's the Edomites.

Edom, the land of Edom, the south side of the Dead Sea.

And that's where Petra's at.

We described Petra last week and I.

Many of you said you enjoyed that.

I encourage you to go online and do some reading and a lot of good videos out there.

You can look that up.

By the way, where does Israel flee?

We're going to.

We'll cover that later.

We'll stop.

So we have the prophecy against Edom, the prophecy against the descendants of Esau, of God's coming judgment for the way that they treated Israel.

God was going to judge them.

Edom, because the way they treated Edom said, edom's going to be destroyed.

And I already said.

I showed you verse 18.

That prophecy absolutely was fulfilled, by the way.

It's fulfilled by Babylon.

Same Nebuchadnezzar, the same that defeated Israel.

The same that defeated, I'm sorry, Judah.

The southern kingdom, same that destroyed Jerusalem.

After they had destroyed Jerusalem, they headed down south to destroy and defeat Egypt.

And on the way down to Egypt, Nebuchadnezzar took Edom.

And what a battle that must have been because it's almost impervious.

I mean, you'd have to.

There's no way.

There's as little I told you about that.

There's some places in that little valley, that little crevice to get to Petra that you can actually touch both sides of your hands.

The walls are.

The stone is so high.

There's some places.

It's like 300ft, 500ft.

You know, back then, they didn't have guns.

You know, they Had a bow and arrow you trying to shoot down.

And.

And then they have all these again, all these houses and stuff that are hewn into the rock, the face of the cliffs, you know, it's amazing.

And yet Nebuchadnezzar defeated them.

And those that were left in Edom fled to southern Israel and they dwelt there until 70 AD and the rest of them were wiped out.

And again, you can't find an Edomite.

So we see this leads us, as we think about again the Edomites being totally destroyed.

This leads into the first point.

The first practical point tonight is that God is sovereign.

God is sovereign.

He is God.

He is Jehovah.

He is independent.

He doesn't need anything.

He has the right to choose whomever he will.

There's a verse that says to us in the New Testament that God chose Jacob over Esau.

And you try to explain the verse and there are explanations for that verse.

But can I just tell you, as Christians, we just say God has the right to do that.

God has the authority to do that.

He's the one who made us.

He made everything.

And therefore he's sovereign.

He has the right to choose by the way he sees the beginning from the end.

That's why he has the right to choose.

Not just because he created all things, but because he knows the beginning from the end.

So he knows what's going to.

And this is so mind blowing.

I know.

This is why we have Calvinists, because they think they're smarter than us.

We know God knows what's going to happen in the future.

We know that God knows who's going to get saved.

He doesn't choose who gets saved.

He doesn't force people to get saved.

Irresistible grace is a farce.

Nobody, we're not robots.

But God knows.

God knows everything.

And so why did he choose Abraham?

Well, first off, I want to say it doesn't matter.

That's who he chose.

Amen.

He's sovereign God.

That's the point tonight.

He is a sovereign God.

He can do what he wants.

But I will say, because he knows what's going to happen in the future, he knows the decisions that Abraham's going to make and his future generations are going to make.

He chose Abraham.

We also know from the scriptures that Abraham was seeking, even though he lived in a pagan society, Abraham sought the Lord.

I'm thankful to God that whoever seeks him, God comes to them.

We see that in the New Testament too.

Cornelius House Cornelius.

Seeking for the Lord and seeking for the right.

And guess what?

God sent somebody to his house.

I believe that can happen in the deepest part of the jungles of Africa, the jungles of South America.

If someone is seeking God, truly seeking God and wanting to know who he really is, God will send somebody.

That's why we got to keep sending missionaries.

God has the right to choose.

He chose Abraham.

He chose Jacob over Esau.

I want to remind you too that Isaac and Rebekah were told prior to this Esau and Jacob feud, they were told that Jacob was the promised seed.

And yet they, Isaac especially, didn't accept the message.

Or else that whole event would have been a lot different.

Again, you think about it.

Had they clearly accepted God's message that Jacob was indeed going to be the leader of the family and not Esau, even though Esau was older, then it would have been totally different.

Esau would have been told as a kid, he would have been raised that way, hey, God chose your brother.

I don't know exactly how it would have went, but it would have been much, would have went much better than it did because of their refusing again, God's word.

It caused problems in the family, but ultimately the Messiah would come through Jacob and Jacob's descendants.

So why was Edom and you read this chapter, you read history.

Edom's mentioned a lot in the Bible.

Every time they're mentioned, it is them attacking or doing something to their brothers and sisters, the Jacob's descendants, to the Jews, not letting them come across their land.

Or when Nebuchadnezzar and destroyed Jerusalem.

That's what it's describing here.

We read earlier that, that Edom laughed.

Not only did they laugh and just revel in the destruction of Jerusalem and the descendants of Jacob, but they plundered.

They came in and took stuff back to Edom with them.

This was their own kinfolk.

So here's the point.

At the root of the problem between Israel and Edom was jealousy, not accepting the choice that God had made.

God clearly had chosen Jacob over Esau and they refused to accept it.

Think about this.

Over hundreds of years, hundreds of years, the Edomites became very bitter towards the Israelites.

Again, read it.

That's.

That's assuming that's what happened.

Otherwise, why?

Clearly, over several hundred years, bitterness grew.

Hebrews chapter 12, verse 15 speaks of the root of bitterness bringing up trouble in you, in us.

We need to be careful about bitterness.

Bitterness will grow.

The Edomites were jealous in not accepting God's choice.

And because of that, they became bitter towards the children of Israel.

And if we're not careful, we become bitter towards those whom God chooses to bless.

Sometimes we look at others and God's blessed them.

And you go, why hasn't God blessed me?

And I'm talking about maybe in financial area or whatever it may be, or we can many other ways in which we can question God's choices that he makes in my life or he makes in your life.

Hebrews 8:23 says, Thou art in the gall of bitterness.

We need to be careful in the Christian life of becoming bitter.

Becoming bitter.

In order to overcome bitterness in our life towards those around us, we have got to be able to forgive.

If we're not careful, we can become bitter at other people because of whatever it may be, whether it's jealousy towards something they have or they've gained, or whatever it may be or something they've done.

We need to be willing to forgive.

By the way, Jesus Christ forgave you.

That's what the New Testament tells us we ought to forgive.

As Christ forgave us.

He forgave us of everything, all of our sins.

Resentment leads to bitterness.

I always, I say it like this.

It's kind of like if the.

If you have a problem with an individual and you can't, you continue to rehearse that in your mind over and over and over again.

Every time then you see them, that anger is there.

Every time you see them, the volcano inside begins to build.

That's resentment.

That leads to bitterness.

And when you get to the point where you can't sleep at night sometimes because you can't stop thinking about it, that's bitterness.

And bitterness has got to be dug out.

It will eat you alive.

It will hollow you out.

Illustration is, you know, is a tree that I use the illustration.

A few years ago when we were preaching on forgiveness and we were out cutting hackberry trees on our property and I had to.

I love electric chainsaws.

They're amazing.

Amazing.

Now, if you had to cut wood for a living, you would.

You still want the gas one.

I get that.

I totally get it.

But if I'm just going to cut a few trees down, I just got this small piece of property.

No way I'm ever buying a gas chainsaw ever again.

They only start like every 10th time.

And then you got to get the barium amount and clean the carburetor and put it all back together.

No, I can just stick a battery in one of those little electric things and go to town.

It's awesome.

Starts every time.

I guess it'll wear out sometimes anyway.

All that to say I was, I was going through a tree about.

Literally, I have a 16 inch electric chainsaw, Milwaukee, not a Milwaukee, but a DeWalt.

And I was going, that thing's powerful.

And I was going through that tree and it's, it's every bit of probably 16 inches or 20 inches around.

And as I went through it, I'm glad I kind of know what's going on.

It was hollow.

And man, that thing started trying to kick on me.

It tried to do things, but on the outside you could not tell.

I could not tell it was hollow.

And that's many times what happens in our own lives.

On the outside we look fine, we look fine.

But on the inside we're hollow.

And eventually it will be revealed.

It will come to the top.

What's in the belly, what's in the bottom of the well, eventually it gets brought up to the top.

What's behind the stage of your life, behind the stage will eventually be brought to the front.

You've got to be careful.

That's why the Bible speaks of the New Testament, that if you have an odd against a brother, you need to get it right.

You have an odd against a fellow believer, you ought to get it right.

And by the way, that's on your end, not theirs.

Doesn't matter.

Their response, honestly, it's just you getting it right with them.

Them.

The Bible says if you have an odd against a brother and you don't get it right, better not come to the altar.

Says, go get that right and then come to the altar.

Now by that I mean, I don't mean you can't come to the altar and ask God for help, but it's saying that your prayers will be hindered.

Boy, there's a.

That's tough, isn't it?

Forgiveness.

Be willing to forgive, forgive others.

It's the greatest antidote in life.

It's the greatest help in marriage.

I'm telling you.

Marriage, you've got to be willing to forgive each other.

I would put it number one on the list.

Number one on the list.

Yes, of course.

Love and showing your love and telling them you love them.

But forgiveness, man, it is the, it's the glue.

Being willing to forgive.

Forgive one another as I have forgiven you.

In our relationship with God, we must understand that sometimes we get to that point, we get in a situation, we may question him.

And you know, I've never been there.

I would never have done that.

But maybe you have.

And if you're not careful, you may get to the point where you are in that position where you're not just questioning him, but maybe you're mad at something he allowed in your life.

What do you do about that one?

Well, on that one, you go to ask him for forgiveness.

You got to go to him and ask for forgiveness.

We'll say, well, what did I ask for forgiveness for?

A lack of trust.

Lord, I'm sorry I should trust you more.

Lord, forgive me for being angry at you.

Forgive me for being resentful or bitter.

Lord, I love you.

Help me.

Help me get.

Help me get past this.

Give me the grace I need.

Boy, he will do it, won't he?

We have an amazing God number two.

And we see this very evident verse three says, the pride of thine heart hath deceived thee, that thou dwellest in the clefts of the rocks.

Obadiah is saying, you think you're safe from destruction that's being prophesied against you because you dwell in Petra.

You dwell in this place that's, you know, almost basically indestructible.

You live.

You live in the clefts of the rock.

You live in these houses that are etched into the edge of the rocks.

It's an amazing place.

It really is.

And it is a man.

I don't know, a modern army would have somewhat.

Well, we got drones now, but it would still be difficult.

Guys.

Amazing.

And they.

They were prideful about it.

They thought no one could.

No one can take us.

No one.

No one can defeat us.

No one's going to be able to penetrate Petra.

For pride deceives us.

Pride is so deceitful, by the way.

Pride is deceived.

Means to beguile or lead astray, delude or seduce.

Proverbs 16, verse 18.

Y' all know it.

Pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit before fall.

Pride.

Proverbs 8:13 says, God hates pride.

Satan's sin was that of pride.

I will go above the heavens.

I will be like God.

Satan fell because of his pride.

It's also the root cause of mankind's refusal to worship God.

Pride.

Refusal to worship him in obedience to him, acknowledging his authority over mankind.

Edom got in a power struggle with God.

You get in a power struggle with God, you're going to lose.

Pride is deceitful.

Their hearts were deceived by their pride.

Again, they should have accepted God's choice.

And they could have benefited from the promise found in Genesis chapter 12, the promise to Abraham that those who bless Israel will be blessed.

Those who curse Israel will be cursed.

They could have Been blessed nation.

Thirdly, we need to hurry.

God's judgment will overcome.

Edom's amazing location again made that a hard, hard place in order to defeat an enemy.

But God was unlike any other enemy.

I mean, God's all powerful and God used Nebuchadnezzar and he even said that against Israel.

He said, God is my instrument to defeat Jerusalem.

Nebuchadnezzar is my instrument.

God used the nation of Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar to defeat many, many the then known world.

And Obadiah reminds Edom, God's judgment will be complete.

They would not escape.

There was no amount of protection or plans that would rescue them.

You can't outsmart God.

The Edomites had a wrong view of God.

You know, I always say that most people's ideal of God is Zeus, right?

But you kind of have, you have two trains of thought about God.

I would say still probably the majority have that Zeus mentality, especially with all the movies that have come out lately.

But the other one is God and you know, long white hair, long beard, sitting on a front porch in a rocking chair.

You don't you think?

I mean it is funny to me, absolutely.

But man, a lot of people think he, you know, he kind of started the earth, he kind of, he made it, yes, but he just kind of wound it up and threw it into space and basically has nothing.

He's just sitting in his rocking chair, just watching like it's a tv drinking Mountain Dew.

Can I tell you that the wrong view of God is so prevalent today?

And as it's always been, God is not a 75 year old man sitting in a rocking chair.

By the way, God's not a 51 year old, fat bald white guy.

Because so many times we think of God, we think of God kind of compared to ourselves.

Well, he's unlike, he's transcendent.

He's wholly other.

He's unlike anything that you could ever think or imagine.

Our little finite minds can't wrap around the ideal or the thought of an everlasting eternal God.

It's so, so hard to wrap your head around you.

You can't escape.

Galatians, chapter six says, you reap what you sow.

By the way, you reap more than you sow.

Psalm 50 speaks about God's God may be silent, but don't think that God being silent in our sin is a weakness of God.

What it is, and I'm so thankful it's showing us the mercy of God, the patience of God.

By the way, Edom could have experienced that same mercy and same patience.

And they did up to a certain point.

But they never, never, never accepted that mercy and grace.

I'm thankful.

I know our core group here tonight.

I know most of you are saved.

Most of you have accepted that grace and mercy.

And when things come into our life that shouldn't be there and we begin to question, or whatever may happen in our life, we need to remember the grace and mercy of God.

But don't be careful that you take for granted the grace and mercy, because the reaping, the sowing, will happen.

Number four, God protects his children.

Zachariah 2, 8 says that Israel is the apple of God's eye.

Can I remind you tonight that God loves Israel?

They are his chosen people.

God set his favor on the nation of Israel, and they're still God's chosen people.

And those who come against them will face God's wrath.

And by the way, they're still God's chosen people.

One day, According to Romans 11, Israel the Jew will recognize Jesus as their Messiah.

By the way, Romans chapter 9, 10, 11 deal with Israel.

Romans chapter 9 deals with Israel's past.

Romans, chapter 10, Israel's present.

Romans, chapter 11, Israel's future.

Go read those three chapters.

It'll help you.

We are to pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

The Bible says we're to reach Jews for the cause of Christ.

We're to give them the Gospel.

To the Jew first, the Bible says, and also to the Greek.

Brother Phil Savalowski likes to remind us that all the time it says to the Jew first.

Some of y' all don't know who brother Phil is.

We support him.

Jewish evangelist.

We're to pray for the Jew.

New Testament believers.

As New Testament leaders, we've been grafted into the vine.

Grafted into the vine.

Israel's the vine.

We, as Gentiles have been grafted in the vine.

The saved have been grafted into the vine into God's family.

Galatians, chapter six.

I'm sorry.

Galatians, chapter three and verse seven.

I just went over and looked at it a while ago.

I was thinking about that verse again.

Galatians, chapter 3 and verse 7 says, now know ye therefore, that they which are of faith the same are the children of Abraham.

Father Abraham had many sons.

Many sons had.

Father Abraham.

What?

I am one of them.

And you are too.

Or so are you.

Some of y' all sing it wrong and just.

Just praise the Lord.

Right hand.

Left.

Right.

And I told you this, and I've said this to you.

Before.

But I had somebody come to me and say, preacher, we shouldn't be singing.

That song had nothing to do with anything.

I said, yes, it does.

Let me show you a verse.

Galatians.

I just.

I just read it.

We're spiritual descendants of Abraham.

We're spiritual children of Abraham.

That amazing.

Grafted into the vine.

Amazing, amazing thought.

Under God's care.

Secure in God's care.

John 10 says, no one can pluck us out of his hand.

Lastly, God holds us accountable when we gloat over our enemies.

I think this is fascinating too.

We always talk about the New Testament and how that Jesus said, love your enemies.

And that is absolutely true.

We ought to love our enemies.

Jesus commanded it.

And that's only done by way of the Holy Spirit, the grace of God upon our lives.

You cannot love your enemies.

You can't do it.

Naturally.

It doesn't just, you know, just happen.

No, it's the grace of God that enables you to love your enemies more than you love yourself.

It's an amazing, amazing thing.

But the Old Testament also refers to this.

In Proverbs chapter 24, he speaks of it.

I'm going to go read it.

Just because again, sometimes we think, well, only the New Testament really says, you know, we ought to love our enemies and whatever.

But Proverbs 24, verse 17, I breathed into the mic.

Proverbs 24, verse 17.

Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth.

And let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth, lest the Lord see it and it displease him.

And he turn away his wrath from him.

That's Solomon under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

That's what happened to Edom.

They rejoiced in Israel's defeat.

They rejoiced in Israel's demise.

They rejoiced in the destruction of Israel, of Jerusalem.

They participated somewhat and also took of the spoils.

And not too long after that, they themselves were destroyed.

It came upon them.

God turned Edom's desire to see Israel suffer back on their heads.

Can I remind you?

Deuteronomy 32, this is old Testament, says, vengeance is mine, saith the Lord.

Vengeance belongs to God in the New Testament.

Romans 12, chapter 12, verses 18 through 20.

We are to give our enemies what they need.

If our enemy comes to us and asks us of something they have in need, we ought to give it to them.

That's what the Bible says.

Matthew 5:44, we quote all the time.

Jesus said, love your enemies.

The only way we can do that is by way of the Holy Spirit power, the grace that he gives us.

So, Obadiah, practical lessons.

He warns us against pride.

We just got to get the eye out.

And it wells up, doesn't it?

We, me, are so much into ourselves.

It's what comes natural.

That's the old man.

We are, by disposition selfish.

That's our nature.

You don't have to teach a duck how to swim.

It's amazing to me.

We had several ducks on our pond in the spring, and the very first time that our dogs haven't gotten to the eggs.

And we had a little.

Little duck hatch about, I don't know, 10.

10 little.

Little.

Little ducks.

I don't know what they're called, little ducks.

I got video of them going around our pond, and she's.

She's out in front of them.

They're following her.

It's so cute.

Little bitty.

I mean, just tiny.

Just.

Just hatched, and they're out there swimming.

You don't have to teach a duck how to swim.

We had a rain.

A big, big rain.

About a week later, they're gone.

I don't know where they went, but.

I'm sorry.

I shouldn't have gave you the end part.

I was, like, all into that really cute thing, and then we got a big rain.

And by the way, when it rains and the water comes down our place, it's like a huge river.

And the ducks are down the river somewhere.

You know what?

They can swim.

They'd probably be fine.

Man, I shouldn't.

I spoiled the whole thing.

Some of you are so sad now you're gonna go home and cry.

The ducks are fine.

They can swim.

That's the whole point.

You don't have to teach a little baby duck how to swim.

They swam down that raging river.

I know it.

I know they did.

They swam right down it.

Mama's over there taking care of them.

About three miles that way.

You don't have to teach Doug how to swim.

You don't have to teach a person, a human being, how to be selfish.

We have to rely upon the Holy Spirit, the power of his grace to enable us to live a selfless life.

And then he warns us against revenge.

That's God's place, not ours.

He warns us against bitterness, resentment.

He reminds us that we serve a powerful God who is sovereign, who, by the way, protects his children.

We have a loving God.

As he protected and loved Israel, so he protects us, the spiritual children of Abraham.

He says he would never leave us nor forsake us.

God's so good isn't he?

All right, let's all stand.

We have verse invitation tonight.