Floating Axe Head

0:02 Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is the Theology Central podcast, making Theology Central. Good morning everyone. It is Wednesday, October sixteenth, twenty twenty four. It is currently ten forty nine am Central Time, and I am coming to you live from the Theology Central studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. Now, as a Christian, you have probably heard lots of discussions about interpreting the Bible. Sometimes someone may actually use the word hermeneutic or hermeneutics, or maybe someone will talk to you about Bible study or maybe Bible study methods and talk about the different principles and the different ideas you need to know in order to interpret the scriptures correctly. And a lot of times you'll hear discussion about do we interpret this passage allegorically, do we spiritual it or do we take it very literally right? Do we take it in its historical textual context?

1:07 And you'll hear a lot of discussion about these principles. But if you listen to a lot of preaching, sometimes pastors who put forth a specific hermeneutical idea will seem to almost violate it in their preaching, which can probably be very confusing for the person sitting in the pew. Well, I thought these were the principles we use, but in this passage we seem to throw all of that out. We're not worried about the historical grammatical. We've gone very allegorical or spiritual. So which is it? Well, then they may make some exception, and of course if you add too many exceptions, then your entire herminutic becomes very subjective, and it can be become very problematic. It can get very I don't know what it's like for the person sitting in the pew, but I know, at least for me with you know, Bible Institute, Bible collegists, seminary, you know, with education, it can still be confusing for me because I'm like, well, wait a minute, what are we doing here?

2:07 And there's one passage of scripture that I have heard so many sermons on that to this day, I don't really know what hermeneutical principles we are utilizing. And that is the story of the floating axe head. The floating axehead, and this story is found in Second Kings Chapter six, Second King's Chapter six. Here at a minute, I will read the seven verses that make up this narrative that makes up this story, and I just want I'm going to stress that I'm going to read to you the seven verses that make up this narrative. But these seven verses have turned into hundreds of thousands of hours of preaching, and most of the preaching is very, in my estimation, allegorical spiritualizing the text. And at times it's like, what, I don't know exactly what principles were utilizing? How are we coming to these conclusions? What are we basing these conclusions on? But you're not supposed to ask those questions because well then you'll be seen as being a trouble maker.

3:16 But I'm going to be a little bit of a trouble maker this morning. And here's what's going on. I sat down like, Okay, well we've been working on first John. That's being you know, that's a lot of work, kind of tedious. Okay, we've been doing that. I know we kind of mentioned what was it, second Kings? I think it's chapter fifteen about those a list of kings told you to start looking up sermons about that. Well, probably need to review a sermon on that, so maybe maybe I will look Okay, maybe all right, we're working on some other things. Okay, what do I do? What do I do? So I'm well, the one thing again. I know this year, we're fast approaching the end of this year. It's hard to believe, you know, it's October sixteenth. Before we know it, it's all over. And the main one of the major challenges goals for twenty twenty four was the Sermons two point oh app sermon challenge, listening to a random sermon for every single day of the year.

4:12 So I'm like, well, let me look at my you know, let's look at I think I looked either under my feed tab on the sermon's two point oh app. Maybe I looked at new sermons, but I saw a sermon entitled check your axe head. Check your axe head Now. Immediately as soon as I saw that, I knew it was going to be Second King's Chapter six. I knew it was gonna be Second Kings Chapter six. I absolutely knew it. So I listened to a little bit of it, found out that it was Second King's Chapter six, and then immediately the title tells me what they're going to do, check your axe head. Oh, so now we're gonna go to Second King's chapter six about a floating axe head, and somehow magically it's gonna be about my axe head?

4:59 Is it gonna be about a literal ox head? Now? No, the ax head now is going to so immediately, I know we're going to go spiritualizing, We're going to go allegorizing. This is and this is what almost everyone does. So I'm like, well, maybe this will be worth the time to listen and to review. So let's let's just go to Second King's chapter six. Let's go to Second King's chapter six. Let me read the text. Now, what I almost started. I almost wanted to begin this episode with just reading the text and then asking you what you would do with it. But I thought we would really kind of turn it into a lesson about hermeneutics and Bible interpretation. Either way, I guess I could have made it the lesson. It was just how do I how do I want to begin today? But I want you to just think about this, and I want you to just ask yourself, for if you've never heard a sermon, if you've never read a commentary, if you've never done anything, and you were to open your Bibles and you were to read this story, what would you do? Second King's Chapter six, Verse one, and the sons of the Prophets said, unto Elisha, behold now the place where we dwell with thee is too straight for us verse two. So verse one, what do we have? I know we're gonna interpret verse one as very literal, are we not? We have the sons of the prophets, they speak unto Alaisha. We're gonna say, the sons of the Prophets are real people. Elisha is real people. Behold now the place where we dwell I'm assuming we're gonna see that as a literal place is

6:31 too straight for us. Verse two. Let us go, we pray thee unto Jordan, and take thence every man of beam, and let us make a place there where we may dwell. And he answered, go, ye, so hey, we don't. We can't stay here anymore. We need to go. We need a bigger place. And so if we're gonna take material and we're gonna go, seems pretty now again, you do you go in and start saying, well, the beams represent this, and the place represents this, and this represents this, and this represents that. Even if you start doing that, what are you basing that off of But I think if you were just to read that, you would just see this as like a historical narrative. Right. Verse three, and one said be content, I pray thee and go with thy servants, And he answered, I will go.

7:23 Verse four. So he went with them, and when they came to the Jordan, they cut down wood. All right, we only have three verses left. We only have three verses left. We only have three verses left. Right. Verse five. But as one was felling the beam, the axe head fell into the water, and he cried and said, alas, master, for it was borrowed. Right, So the axe head falls into the water, and he's he's upset. You know, master, what it was borrowed. I've lost the axe head. Okay, Now for us we may be like, what's what's the big deal? Now? Is there some historical context that would make this a big deal? Or do we spiritualize it? Well, now, now we only have two verses left. Verse six, and the man of God said where fell it? And he showed him the place, and he cut down a stick, cast it and thither and the iron did swim. Hey, where is it? He cuts down a stick, puts it in the water, and the axe head did swim it floats Verse seven therefore said he take it up to thee, and he put it out. He put out his hand and he took it. There's the entire narrative, seven verses, Second King six one through seven. Now what do you do with this? How do you handle this text? You've been a Christian five years, ten years, fifteen years. You're

8:55 meeting a brand new Christian, a brand new Maybe they've been a Christian for six months, they've been a Christian for a year. They're just starting to really dig into scripture. They're trying to understand scripture. They asked to meet you, I don't know, somewhere restaurant, coffeehouse, somewhere you go. You're sitting down and like, hey, this morning, for my devotionals, I was reading Second Kings, chapter six, verses one through seven. Please help me understand this. How would you explain it to them? Now? Now, on one hand, you may explain something, you know, some big spiritual picture because you've heard it in a sermon. But at that point the new Christian may be like, well, how did you come up with all of that? Now?

9:35 I know I've heard people preach this, and more people in the pew will go to the pastor, how did you see this? I've never seen this in the text. Now. Sometimes what frustrates me is the pastor doesn't just simply say well, I got this from this pastor or from this commentary, or from this sermon, or from this book. And in many cases I know exactly where they got it from, because I'm like, I've read that same book, I've heard that same sermon. Okay, but I don't say anything. Sometimes I just shake my head. It's like, just come on, tell them where you got it from. Okay. But they will get to say, well, this represents this, and this represents this, and then the stick being cut down and put in the water. See that's Jesus Christ dying on the cross. That's the cross. And when the cross is put into the water, and then it causes Okay. I could go through all the things. I've even had to write papers in Bible, college and seminary trying to go with this more spiritualized version of this. And there's been times I've been like, I think we're just making all of this up. I just think that this is crazy.

10:36 Now I do understand. I will say this, though when you read the text, it does seem kind of odd. Right, You're kind of like an axe aad You put stick in the water, and a stick in the water makes the axe head float. So I can understand the desire for preachers to say, well, I think something else is going on here. There's got to be something. There's god to be a spiritual picture. I can understand that. The issue is, well, then how do you, basically, how do you color the picture? If you believe this is a picture where there's no color there? Right, it's a it's just a sheet of paper, And so where do you draw the lines? And how do you color it? In saying this represents this, this represents this, this represents this, And why is it that all the people who paint some kind of spiritual picture some kind of allegory here?

11:29 How come there's disagreement on sometimes what the picture is and what the details are. Does that not then make hermeneutics and Bible interpretation very subjective? At the same time, if I just reduce this to, yeah, someone lost an axe head. They put a stick in the water and it floated. The end, Well, what's the meaning you Well, the meaning is in this particular case, an axehead was recovered. No, it's got to mean more than that. It's it's got a picture. Jesus. Well, I know I think that you're claiming that that's the case. So what should we do. Well, now, the sermon work that I have queueda it is called check your accent. So obviously the ac said now is going to represent something that applies to you, to me, to everyone, And I don't know how you draw that conclusion is well, we'll throw out a lot of harmonutical questioning of this as we as we go through. I think this is going to get really crazy. So here's what I've done. I've been doing this recently. A lot of times we go into these sermon reviews completely blind.

12:39 I did not go into this completely blind. I listened to enough of it to know it was Second King's chapter six, because I already assumed it was, but I was verifying. I then did some my own work and looking up some things, so I have notes, so I'm a little bit prepared. I did fast forward through the first part of this sermon because there's some discussion I gifts someone in the church has gotten engaged. Then I can't remember he makes some jokes about it. Then they're trying to get nursery workers because they're having some I guess they call him it Jubilee coming up in like, I don't know, fourteen days, thirty days, so they need nursery workers. Then he reads Second Kings chapter six, verses one through seven. Then I think there's someone in the congregation praying. There's just a lot of stuff going on.

13:27 And then finally, finally, after all of that, the message begins. Now it's going to begin by him immediately saying leave Second Kings and go to someone nineteen, which I found somewhat fascinating because on wait a minute, is he going to connect someone nineteen to Second King six? Is this going to be an example of just, I don't know, good cross referencing, bad cross referencing. And that's where I stopped it. So and then I realized the volume wasn't loud enough at the beginning, so I did a little you know, trying to increase the volume. But then in the summon it gets really loud. So it may be a lot of fluctuation here, so just be prepared. I don't know where this is going to go. I don't know. So if you if you looked at Second King chapter.

14:09 Six, what would you do with it? What would you do with the. Second King chapter six, verses one through seven? What would you do with it? And hopefully, hopefully we'll learn something here. All right, I'm a little bit concerned, but let's let's find out here. I'm going to try to be cautiously optimistic. But again, the title check your axe head to me, that just screams that it's going to turn the ax set into picturing something. And I just don't know how you come to this conclusion. Maybe he's got some reference in some one nineteen that's going to fit this together, and I'm gonna be like, oh, that's perfect. Okay, So oh I just got an idea. I don't know how well that would work. Okay, all right, here we go, Here we go. Let's let's just let's just see where this goes.

14:59 Like for you to if you will to Psalms one hundred and nineteen, Can you leave your finger right there for just a minute. I don't repent of the statement that I made that for most Christians, the ones I deal with, the ones that I'm around now understand this. The people that I'm around. For the most part, they're people like you. They're people that are in church. They love the Lord, they believe the book, they rightly divide, they're doctrinally straight. They're doing all the things that are necessary. They're not necessarily what you would call wicked and ungodly individuals. They're not crackheads, and they're not dope smokers, and they're not drinkers. Or they may have a little social drink here and there. I can.

15:40 Now already okay, oh boy, okay, So wicked and ungodly is classified as crackheads, dope smokers, and drinkers. I think you can be wicked ungodly and never take a drink, never smoke dope, and never well smoke crack. I is wickedness determined by the substances you pull take into your body. Right, you're ungodly because you smoke dope, You're ungodly because you smoke crack. You're ungodly because you drink. Is ungodliness determined by the substances you bring into your body. Well, if you are ungodly because you smoke crack, do smoke I guess dope or weed or however, he stated, I think he said, dope and you drink, If that makes you ungodly? Well, are you ungodly? If you partake of too much food and you enter into the realm of being a glutton, does that make you ungodly? It's just funny that. Hey, hey, the people I know, I mean, they're not wicked and ungodly.

16:59 They don't smoke dope. So that the way you know someone is ungodly is because they smoke cracked, they smoke dope or they drink. I mean that just seems like that that's such a reducing that's reducing god godliness or ungodliness to the most basic external activity that you can. But I guarantee you food is not going to be mentioned, even though the Bible actually condemns gluttony, does it not? But hey, let's not talk about that, right, let's not get talk It doesn't the Bible, Okay, condemns pride. I mean, can you be prideful and be and would that make you ungodly even though you don't drink or you don't smoke or you don't do crack. I mean, like that's just a weird that's very external, that's very specific, and I guess everyone in the church can be like you, my head, I'm not ungodly. I haven't I haven't hit the crack pipe recently, I haven't smoked any weed, and I haven't drink very much. Okay, I'm doing pretty good.

17:56 Right. Is that the way that we determine our godliness or ungodles? That just seems like an interesting way to start. Okay? But all right, so he's talking about the good people he knows. Because the good people he knows don't smoke crack, don't smoke dope, and well, don't drink much. Let's exclude that more than Nike will, and then may have some problems as far as the character flaws along those lines. But as far as being really wicked and ungodly people, You're not those kind of people. You're really relatively moral kind of individuals. I mean, if I preach on smoking around here, very few obvious. Is it gonna hit you or put you under conviction? Not gonna all right, so you're moral. You have character flaws.

18:40 So now so now Christians have character flaws. We don't have sin. We have character flaws and smoking smoking clearly is a sin. Now, if smoking is a sin, what would make smoking a sin. Well, smoking is a sin because it's not healthy. Well, have you ever been to a church pot luck? Have you ever been to a church fellowship mill? You got every you have fried foods, you've got, sweets, you've got. I'm baffled by this idea of what godliness is here. This is kind of a confusing idea. Ungodliness is smoking, crack smoking, dope, drinking, and just smoking. I guess smoking cigarettes make you ungod Smoking cigarettes make you ungodly? What would be the scriptural basis for that? Now, smoking obviously is not a great thing to do because of all the health risk. But there's lots of health risk from so many other things. So is it ungodly because of the health risk? Well, if it's ungodly because of health risk, then you would have to then place the same kind of preaching on eating.

19:50 How about look out in your congregation? How many people are overweight? Oh? Oh no, we can't know where You're not going to go there, are we? How is their blood pressure? How's their cholesterol level? How is their physical activity? Are they exercising twenty minutes a day for three days a week, four days a week? Whatever? The typical suggestion is are they Are they doing enough that? What if they are not getting enough sleep? They're recommended a number hours of sleep, what if they're not getting enough? So, I mean, are we just going to go after every health issue?

20:32 All right? Okay, I don't know if we're even going to get to the axehead. Okay, I want to get to the ac this this is a business. How does what does any of this have to do with the axehead? I don't know. I don't know, so let's let him. I know I'm interrupting this quickly. But it's just I just I think sometimes Christian's idea of morality is very external. It's just this external list of things. Hey guys, if you want to be godly, don't hit the crack pipe you want to be godly, don't smoke weed you want to be godly, don't drink alcohol. You want to be godly, don't drink or don't drink, don't smoke cigarettes. Got it? And I'd be like, ay, man, we have character flaws or we're not like these wicked people who do crack and Okay, and that kind of a weird, I know, weird thing. Like if you look at many of the lists of sins in the Bible. I don't even know if you Maybe you have drunkenness, maybe I don't think in any of them. I know you don't have crack or weed or smoking cigarettes mentioned. I know the Bible does condemn gluttony, slothfulness, pride, uh not loving. I mean it goes after you know, and didn't Jesus say it's not the things that come into the body, it's the things that come out, because the sinfulness comes from within us.

21:57 I don't know. It seems like a really odd way of looking at it. Bother you much. I preach on drinking, it might hit two or three of you out of a crowd like this to be a wasted sermon to preach that today, be it wasted sermon to preach on dope addiction or something along that. I could preach some messages on being addicted to social media. That might get some hits and those kind of things. But for the. Most part, the majority of individuals that are here today, it's not going to be some large, big, massive, terrible, ungodly sin. You're probably not going to get caught up in adultery or fornication. You're probably not going to get caught up in some doing something that's illegal or immoral. You're not going to get arrested by the police for doing something that you shouldn't be doing. That's not what's going to create a problem for you. Want to create a problem for you if you're not careful. Is something that I'll refer to for the sake of illustration as just a little wobble, just a little shaking, just something small, something about the size of an axe head.

22:55 You start off doing things you want to do. I like in the passage there where the boy come and say, hey, listen, man, we see a need. We need a bigger building, and we need to go do that. We're willing to do the work. And I see the fact that they didn't take off half cock. They went and asked the preacher, hey, is all right with you if we do it, and he said, yeah, go ahead and do it. And then they said, why don't you come with us? And he joins in, and immediately they start felling beans. In other words, everybody is doing his part. We know Second Corinthians twelve toy our Second Corinthians teaches us that God places everyone in the body as it pleases him, and so you can make application there, But that's not where I'm going today. Where I'm headed today is is that this individual's out there and he borrowed an acts because he wanted to get in on the work. I actually know of an individual because he wanted to get in so bad on an offer and he borrowed money from somebody so that he could get in on the offering because he didn't bring money for the offering that day, and then after it was over, he went and paid the guy back double what he had because he was unprepared. That's one individual I've known of in years to do that just because he wanted to get in on doing something that.

23:59 He felt God is doing. But I'm not talking today, ladies and gentlemen, about you being willing to work. You're willing to work, that's been proven. You're willing to come to church, you're willing to read your Bible, you're willing to pray. For the most part, you're willing to come to the altar. And I mean, there's some of you could brush up on some of this, but there's for the most part, most of you are not lacks of lacks of lacks of daisy coal or laoticy and Christians, most of you aren't lukewarm. Most of you tend to lean a little more hot than you do cold. I'm giving you that, I'm giving the accolades, I'm patting you on the back. But you got to be very careful because where you can be caught up in the work to begin with and excited about it and can't wait to get things done and excited about what's going on, time has a way of putting your commitment to those things, your faithfulness.

24:49 Time has a way of wearing you down. Okay, there's so much going on here. I don't even know where to begin, but clearly you see what's happening. Second six now represents Christians who work. Second King six now is about Christians who work. So the fact that these people are chopping down these beams, that's a picture of Christians working. Now, how did we get there? How did we just insert that this is a picture of Christians working? Like? How did we get there? Like? Like does the Bible? Are there no rules governing this? I mean, like is it just a free for all? Like already I'm already like whoa wait a minute, how are we getting there?

25:35 Is there any textual justification. And I thought we were going to someone nineteen. So far we're not in some one nineteen. Maybe we'll get to someone nineteen, because maybe someone nineteen is the key to how Second King six now is no longer about these individuals, but it's about us and the church, because we're godly people and we work, and we read our Bible, and we don't smoke crack, and we don't smoke dope, and we don't drink. And he says we don't commit fornication or adultery. But I wonder how many people have committed fornication and adultry in their minds. I guess we're not gonna worry about that. Everything's about external action. I guess I don't know. But Okay, all the people in his church are really, really good people, and they work all right, And somehow this has some connection to Second Kings Chapter six. Let's see where this goes.

26:21 And all of a sudden, that work becomes routine, it becomes mundane, it becomes the same thing all the time. It's it doesn't change much in the Christian life. There's not a whole lot. I mean, after you get saved, it's pretty much a downhill after that. I mean, I don't blame the charismatics. They get excited to go, they call it being filled with the Holy Ghost and so on and so forth. But they're looking for that same excitement that they got when they got saved. That's the crescendo in a Christian's life. When you get saved. That's as good as it gets. Everything after that it won't ever come up to that level again. A Heroinattic told me one time. Before that I had dealt with on repeated off opportunities, and I said to this individual, I said, explain.

27:03 To me something, because I can't get my head around it. You know how bad the stuff is. You've now been sitting for three hundred and sixty four days at the peace arm and they didn't send you to the big house, and now you're out, now you're clean. Why did you go back to it? You know what his answer was, He said, the first time I used that, he said, it was almost like the equivalent of seeing God. And he said, ever since that time, I've looked for that same feeling, that same excitement, that same. Thing taking place. And he said, I've never found it, but it hasn't stopped me from ceasing to chase it. And he said, and that's why I'm an at it because it grabbed a hold of me. And over a period of time, guess what winds up happening and that luster of that first time experience begins to wear off. I hate to tell you this, ladies and gentlemen, but being a faithful Christian says a lot about an individual talked to an elderly fellow today's in his eighties and came up and just having a conversation. He's been in the military, and he's worked with the Medical Examiner's office and done all kinds of things along that way.

28:12 But you know what he said that struck me, not as military service, not a service to his community, and that kind of what struck me. I've been in church all my life. I mean, I hope that's said of me when I'm eighty years old, that I can say I've been in church. Listen. I was raised that way, and I'd be glad to be able to say, am I going. To finish that way? But nowadays that's rare as hounds teeth. Nowadays, it's kind of like, well, I've done my job, I've done my part. And so now I'm not going anymore, and. So I'm just gonna ask the Lord to bless me from the house or do something else along the way, because just sheer faithfulness can become routine or boring. You say, what are you And I just came to church. I just listened to a guy yell at me for an hour or so, and you know, enjoyed the singing and stuff like that. But I don't see why I can't get it at home. Routine duty just exhausts you at times. You remember the excitement that you had when you were getting ready to do something. I mean, there's a little bit of electricity in the air here because we have the Jubilee coming in and you'll have six to eight hundred people that will be gathered here and it'll be a real hoot nanny, and everybody's throwing in and everybody's trying to help, and everybody's excited.

29:18 But that's not the Christian life. The Christian life. Will be we wake up tomorrow morning, then probably turn on the Weather Channel or ACU Weather or Mike's forecast or whatever it may be, and you're gonna look and see and your attention's gonna be out in the Gulf and you're gonna be paying attention to protecting your family and protecting what God's given you and those kind of That doesn't mean you're not a good Christian. It just means we're very easily distracted. Now on one hand, On one hand, this is an interesting discussion the Christian life. Does it is do you reach the Crestcindo, do you reach the the in fact, the most apart is salvation? And then after that it's it's kind of just now routine living your life, your ups, your down, struggle with sin, trying to figure out the word of God. Just is is that, well, how do you handle that? That Christianity can just become this daily routine, weekly routine, and you lose the excitement, you lose the passion, you lose the zeal and Okay, that's a very interesting discussion to have, right by all means he's bringing up some very interesting points and I don't and it would be a kind of like, how do we deal with this?

30:37 My question is, well, this has got to do with Second King Chapter six. This is like Second King's chapter six because they're cutting down trees. This now is all symbolic illustrative, spiritualized picture of the Christian life. That's where my issue is. So I'm not disagreeing that this is an important concept. How do we handle this reality? You become I'm saved, you have that zeal, you have that passion. Everything's reached a crescendo, and then Monday turns into Tuesday, Tuesday turns into Wednesday, January turns into February, this year turns into five years later, ten years later, and you're still just trying to live your life. But Christianity is Christianity, Your life is Christianity just a part of your life.

31:21 You're living your life, and Christianity just kind of shows up at different times, maybe on a Sunday, maybe on a Wednesday night? Does it show up daily? How does it look? Is the Christian life supposed to be about that passion in that zeal? Well, we're not supposed to be luke warm? So how do we understand that passage? Right? We can get into discussion there. There's lots of arguments that that's been misinterpreted. But okay, so how do we not depart from our first love? Like, how do we like we can go there? There's there's that's a very interesting discussion. I just don't know what it has to do with Second Kings chapter six. But at some point maybe he's going to get to the some one nineteen passage. That may be the key. I don't know see where he goes with this, all right, So basically in his text, these men who want to build this new place, they are pictures of godly Christians who are working. But work can just become routine and we can become distracted. That seems to be the picture he's painting from this text.

32:23 I just have no idea where how any of this is coming from the text. But let's see where this goes. And it's been horrible what we've seen the people north of us go through, and we've been paying attention to those things, and we're very easily distracted. And over time, guess what will happen. They'll be forgotten, something else will become the headline on the news, and then before long you won't even remember. Nine to eleven. It'll just be something that happened in whenever two thousand and one, and I wasn't even alive then. That was twenty four years ago or twenty three years ago. Preacher and I just you know, I. Mean, it's just you know, I mean, what's the big deals. Just a few thousand people died, and some towers came down and and all that kind of stuff, and in hu hum, and here we go again.

33:08 That's the Christian life. You cannot live your Christian life, ladies and gentlemen, based on something that occurred in the past, all the time a good meeting. Brother Sam mentioned to you this morning. We went for. Years up there to preach your lackeys. We went to Mount Airy, North Carolina. That's how they say it up there, and they would sing that song and that reminded me of about the Jubilee. And yes, I'd like to take all of those things that we had great meetings up there, and God dealt with us up there, and God did some miraculous things there. And I met doctor Ruckaman up there, and I met Brother Lynce up there, and a lot of things that I cut my teeth on are right there in Carolina. I preached up there and things. But you can't live off of a past experience.

33:50 You can't always talk about how great it was over in Pensacola, or how great it was in Jacksonville, or how great it was at some. Other meeting that you happened to be at. It's all of a sudden, guess what happens. Well, I was excited about it, and I was pumped up about it, and it was really going good. But after a while I lost something along the way. Okay, so all right, So it appears the direction this text is going. Second, King six is the men working are Christians. Their work becomes routine, and them losing the axe head is now picture, or the person losing the axe head is a picture of us as Christians who get so distracted by our work and the routine that we lose something. So the axehead represents Christians losing something. Okay, I'm just gonna be patient. Maybe I'm misinterpreting this. Maybe, so I've got to let them explain. I'm just waiting.

35:03 All we're waiting for is to get their basic hypotheses here. And then I'm I'm then, yeah, I don't know. Let's I can't make any Let's just see where this goes. Something ran them up, something came off, and I had worked up a sweat, I'd worked up a froth, and I was all excited and pumped up because I'm working on my beam to be a part of something bigger than me, and right midstroke, something happened that jarred it loose, and now I don't have the accent. Remember David in Second Samuel, chapter number six, David's coming along there and he's getting the card made up. There you've got two holy cows that are gonna pull the cart, and he's made the cart the best it could possibly be. And they grab, excuse me, that arc of the c and they picked that thing up and they set it on that cart, and Ohio goes out this way and Us is walking along the side of that thing, and all of a sudden that the Bible said, the ox shook like he tripped, like he stumbled.

36:13 It was just a little stumble. It was just a little trip. And us are reached out there and touched that arc, and the collateral damage killed him on the spot. You say, why he. Just gotten accustomed. It's just the arc, it's just the holy thing. It's just uh, it just represents God. It's it's really I mean, I'm around it all the time. It's just there. It just doesn't matter. And I've been told don't touch it, but I've gotten so familiar with it. I I don't have a problem touching something. God said, don't touch Achin comes along the same way. God said, when you go in and you take the city of Jericho, when the walls fall down, mysteriously but obviously, uh, it falls down because God ordained for the walls of fall are On the seventh day, they walked around seven times and they shouted with a great shout, and the walls came down, and rayhabs apartments hanging up there on the top in the air, floating mid air, and there's a scarlet thread down there. And they go rushing into that city. And the Lord said, now when you go into that city, don't take anything.

37:20 But Aiken said, you know, I mean, God's not gonna miss this, and it's really not that big of a deal. And I mean, God doesn't really mean don't take anything. That's just an interpretation the literal Greek there the trilateral root word. He really meant say don't take anything out of the church or out of the temple. What he really meant to say there was is. Take what you can carry, but just don't take any more than that. I don't know what he thought, but all of a sudden, Guess what happened. He decided to take. A wedge of gold and some silver and a Babylonious garment, and guess what happened. He buried it in his house. You say why he got familiar with it. God's gonna forgive me. It ain't no big deal. It's just a little thing. It's really not a big deal. It's just an axehead.

38:03 Yeah, but without an axe head, you can't cut any wood down. Without an axehead, you can't do what you're wanting to do if that main piece of that axe is not in the place where it needs to be. He never even stopped to check. He's so interested in getting done. But can I say this for the sake of this message. Maybe he just got bored cutting wood and he just figured that the axe head would always be there, and so all of a sudden, he's just cutting wood and then unbeknownst to him, because he's. Mindlessly going through the routine duty of cutting wood. Now, okay, now those other passages are very powerful passages that he mentioned, right, And does it demonstrate a lack of concern, A familiarity breathes contempt kind of concept that look, these are all concepts that are worthy of discussion. But so but we can't really spend time discussing that because the issue is how he's handling Second King's chapter six.

39:08 So all of a sudden, he now just starts making all of these assumptions about the person, and Second King six, who's shopping this down? He's bored, he's not paying it. How can you just start throwing all of these accusations over a real person, right, you're making You're just making accusations. The text does not say one thing about the person. This is what the text says. They so he went with them, and when they came to the Jordan, they cut down the wood. But as one was felling a beam, the axe head fell into the water, and he cried and said a last master, for it was borrowed. It doesn't say that he wasn't paying attention. It doesn't say he was bored. It didn't say that he didn't care.

39:49 It didn't say it doesn't see anything like that. We do not have the right to place things into the text that are not there. I know pass love to do this because preaching, in many cases it is just a form of storytelling. And we've got to create the story. We've got to create the narrative so that we keep everyone's attention. But that is storytelling. That's not actually dealing with the text. The text doesn't say anything about this person. It does demonstrate they're extremely bothered by the fact that it's lost because it was borrowed. That's what it demonstrates. It doesn't see any of the things he's saying about the text. It doesn't imply it, it doesn't insinuate, it doesn't hint. There's not a clue about any of the things he's reading into the text. Zero It preaches good, but is it the text.

40:48 I don't know if you've ever lived to do that. I'm talking about the days before the walls, and the days before everybody had a chainsaw, and the days before lithium battery. I'm talking about in the days of double bedded axes and single bedded axes, and that when you wanted to go out, you didn't go. To the corner to buy a Christmas tree. You went and cut one down. And God help anybody that complained about the one you cut down, because you had to cut it and drag it and get it back to wherever it needed to go, and if the tree came down on your house, you were out there with a hatchet or an axe or one of them long saws and cutting those limbs off. And boy, you were sure glad if somebody showed up with one of those shainsaws.

41:38 Back in these days, they didn't have anything that was gas powered or electric or battery powered. Everything had to be done the hard way, the long way, and sometimes the. Hard way and the long way the slow way. Becomes very boring, and it can become mindless and without even checking and without even thinking. Now, maybe you've never been there. This is an individual that without even thinking about, I guarantee you by the time the end of the story, I can assure you he's checking that axe head because he's gonna learn a lesson. But how many times have we done things and we mindlessly go through those things, and before long we realize we're just. Going through it with no intention of paying attention.

42:22 And the axe head comes off, and we're still swinging the handle and beating the tar out of everything and everybody, and we're just mad and frustrated and aggravated and irritated and all those other kind of things. That go along with that, and you're wondering what happened? Can I use the axe head as your fellowship with the Lord because you just knew it was just always gonna be there. Every time you hit the tree, the chips fall. Every time you hit the tree, the chips fall. Every time I go to church, God comes. The Church is gonna always be there, The Bible's gonna always be there, Prayer's gonna always be there. God's gonna always forgive me. I mean every time I've been there. Before and before long mindlessly going through the Christian life and mindlessly taking things for granted, without pausing long enough to just check.

43:11 Now again, this is where, this is where I'm so conflicted. He's bringing up, on one hand, a very important issue, Like I can applaud the discussion. It would be more. I would have appreciated it more. Hey, Today, what we're gonna talk about is this idea that in the Christian life we can lose our passion, our zeal, we can lose our fellowship with God because we allow the mundane of our familiarity breeds contempt. We're gonna discuss that and not use Second Kings Chapter six because Second King Chapter six all of a sudden Now the people are us.

43:51 The chopping down the tree or the beams are us working work. We become bored with, we become we take it for granted. And now losing the axehead is us losing our fellowship with God. How in the world what hermeneutical system allows you to do that to the text? What would be the cross reference that says the axehead represents fellowship with God. Now, maybe he's gonna provide a cross reference. I don't know. Now one's not coming to my mind. Fellowship with God is now an axehead that you use to cut things down. So my fellowship with God is an instrument in which I like, I don't even know how you try to make the picture work. All right, So we're already at forty four minutes. This is taking much longer than I wanted to buy, all right, So we're getting the basic hypotheses right. The axhead represents our fellowship with God. Let's let him expand this so that we make sure we're not misinterpreting it.

44:56 And see if the axehead might be a little bit on the loose side. I don't think the time to check it is after it comes off, especially in this case, because when it comes off in this case, it goes. For a swim. It's not always that way. Most times when you're cutting wood, you're not right next to water, and you can probably think you can get it. And can I use this as. An illustration, Can I say to you. Most of us have this idea in our mind. Because of eternal security, that if the axe head comes off, it's gonna fall in the wood somewhere where I can just go pick it back up. I don't need nobody to help me get it. I don't need nobody to help me find it. If it comes off, I can repair the damage and put it back on.

45:38 Nobody'll even know that it was off in the first place. He intentionally puts this story in the picture in the Bible in order to show us that it don't always come off where you think it's going to, and it ain't always so easily recovered. Is that the point of the story is that the axe head represents fellowship, and sometimes the fellowship can come off and it's not so easily retrievable because it fell into water. So now the water represents the fellowship falling into a place that's not easily retrievable like all of that, like where and he's saying, I'm gonna use this as an illustration of But can you just can we just go to the Bible and make anything an illustration of anything?

46:20 Can I just just is the Bible just like, hey, that that represents this and this? Right, I can just go to I mean, this is just subjective. I don't even know what this is. It's not hermeneutics. I don't know what it is. I literally do. It's just like this is Plato, right, remember when you I don't know if you remember a kid. I wasn't ever into Plato too much, but there was a couple of places where I ended up. I don't know why I was there, but I ended up at certain locations and there were all these tables and they just dump Plato in front of you and basically, okay, now go play with that and then you just use the Plato to make whatever you want to make. I didn't never find it that very interesting or anything, but okay, some kids loved it. Well, the Bible is not just Plato. Hey, I'm just gonna make the ex head fellowship and I'm gonna make the waters where we lose our fellowship in a place that's hard to be retrievable. And I'm gonna see that the cutting down the tree is Christian doing work, and then these Christian I'm not just gonna I can't just turn it into whatever I want, right? I mean, are there not any rules that govern it at all? Are there any rules at all? Are there? Is it just a free for all?

47:29 Sometimes it requires a supernatural intervention on the part of someone bigger than you to say to you, Hey, if you want it back, you're gonna have to cry about it. It's gonna have to bother you, it's gonna have to upset you. But I'm trying to suggest to you this morning, before you just wait for it to come off, why don't you just say you know something, Lord, I need to go ahead now. And just check it. Notice if you will. In Psalms one hundred and nineteen, just a real quick thing. I'd like to say this. This guy's concerned. You say, how do you know it? Because it bothered and that he lost it. I just have a note here to remind me to say this.

48:10 I have dealt a lot more this past two couple of years than ever before that I recognize in a few places that I've had the privilege of going. That y'all allow me to go to. I've recognized this. There's more apathy in the church today than I've ever seen. Again, this is where I get conflicted. The apathy is a great discussion point right, how old should we live the Christian life? Where's the Crestindo? Where does all of this is? Great? Look, there's so much of this that's worthy of discussion. My concern is now now He's like, Hey, this guy was bothered because he lost the accent. He was bothered because it was borrowed. He was borrowing and he lost it.

48:59 So if we're gonna say that fellowship, if the axead represents fellowship, then we borrow our fellowship from someone else. Like the story begins to follow apart. If I louse, hey, lord, I lost my fellowship with you and I borrowed it. Can I get it back so I can give it back to the other? Is fellowship borrowed? The axet here is borrowed? How do you make that fellowship? We don't borrow fellowship, do we? What? The whole text? See, the whole text is systematically just being ripped apart in front of us. All right, So but there's appen see the points he's making. I'm in agreement with the points. I want to make it very clear.

49:43 My concern is how the text is being handled. That is my concern, right, that is my concern. Okay, So at some point he's gonna get to some one nineteen. I want to know what the some one nineteen is because I want to know if there's some like this is the lynchpin that handles his entire illustration, That's what I want to know. But I agree with him. I've talked about apathy and myself apathy within Christianity for a very very, very very long time. So I again, this is these are very important concepts. What's that gonna do? A second King sixth? And we've not even got into my notes, So all we got like I hate always going over an hour. I know I can't. I seem to be able to get an episode in within an hour, But all right, we've got to at least bring this to some conclusion, right, or then we'd have to do a part two. Let's try to bring this to some conclusion.

50:35 All right, here we go, there's more of an attitude of who cares. I certainly don't than I've ever seen before. We've kind of lost that that axe head that says, you know what, now that I'm saved, God saved me for the purpose of getting his word out, not just for salvation. The reason that this church is here is to bring more people, and for what reason? To get the word out? So does the axhead represent fellowship that I borrowed? Or does the axhead represent an attitude of working to get the word out. I don't know what the axhead is anymore.

51:16 I don't know. I don't even know what the axhead is anymore. Right, I don't understand. I don't understand. I don't understand. I don't understand. I remember hearing a lot of this kind of preaching when I was young, going how how could I ever preach this way? Right? Because it's just very just I just feel like you're just making stuff up? Right, And so it was. It was not until I really started learning, you know, true exegetical, stay with the text, historical, grammatical like kind of And I look, if anyone, if anyone knows about more of the spiritualized allegorical type preaching and teaching. I mean, I went to a school that was very known for that, right, I mean, does everyone remember the man Harold Camping? You know the world was going to end in nineteen ninety four.

52:11 And I was a student of his school, and he taught very much a spiritualized interpretation of scripture, very much. He would be there's the literal sense, there's the historical sense, but there's the spiritual sense. So this represents this, and this represents this, and this represents this. Now there were times I thought he was onto something, there was some good, but then ultimately it disintegrated into well, now he's predicting the world's ending in nineteen ninety four, and he lost his ever living mind. Okay, we want and then the church age has over and if you stay in your local church or taking the mark of the Beast, and oh man, it just I mean I could go through everything that. So I've gone to schools that taught a very much more allegorical, spiritualized approach. I'm guarantee you this person preaching would condemn the oracle hermenudic. He would condemn the spiritualizing. I guarantee you he would tell you he believes and the historical grammatical herminutic I guarantee you. But here in second King six, I don't know what this is.

53:15 Now he's saying, he's just using it for an illustration. That's important language because he's he's trying to argue that there is a historical grammatical meaning, but he's just using it as an illustration. The key is how how much what can we do with the text? How much freedom do we have to turn the text into an illustration before we actually destroy the meaning of the text. Is there some guideline. Not just to see people saved, it's to get the word out. It's to do what we can't Why I'm saved, I have a responsibility to get the word out in whatever shape. Form or fashion. I need to be getting the word out. Listen, the majority of people that you're around on a regular basis, they're already saved or you know they're lost.

53:59 You've already giving them salvation. How much of the word do you give them during the week? How much do they see the Bible open on your desk? How much do they hear the Bible quoted under your death? We've kind of forgotten that we are Christians. We are to be the light of the world. We are supposed to be his ministers. I think he refers to us as an ambassador for Christ. I wonder sometimes if we're. In kind of that silent majority we've lost that you know something I should. I've got a responsibility. To tell my waitress by putting a track in the bill, to leave it at the gas pump, for God knows who cares.

54:40 The fact is, my job is put out the world. But I put out the word and guess what happened? Nothing? And nobody comes, and they say they're gonna come, and nobody visits, and they say they're going to Are they visiting? The preacher runs them off or whatever the excuse is. We forget our predominant responsibility after our fellowship with Jesus Christ is to get his word out, not to keep it bottled up. I'd like to say this about the prophet here, the man that's in training. You know what he does. It bothers him that it. Prevented him from doing what God wanted him to do. Where do you get that it bothered him because it stopped him from doing what God wanted him to do.

55:26 His exact words were a last master, for it was borrowed there's nothing in the Texas says he was bothered because he couldn't do what God wanted him to do. He was bothered because he lost someone else's property. And so if we're going to say this text represents something, then your fellowship is someone else's property, and your call to get the word out is someone else's property. So if you lose it, you're upset because you lost someone else's property. That's what the text says. This is like the Veggie tells of Bible stories. Right with Veggie tells, You're like, wait, where did that happen in the story?

56:07 This is the chosen where Wait where where did that dialogue come from? Wait? That's not what was said. But you know what, Christians don't care. You can add all day. We always say you do not add or substruct from the Word of Good. That's why I don't use the inn iv because it adds and takes away from the Bible. And then in our preaching we add entire narrative to it. Entire We just turned the story into something that doesn't even represent the text. And the slightest and everybody's in the congregation, Amen, Amen, what are we amening? He wanted to be a part of that building, and it concerned him that it bothered him.

56:49 How do you know? He began to cry, Look at the Psalmis here in Psalms one hundred and nineteen. Notice what happens here? I cried with my whole heart. Hear me, Oh Lord, I will keep thy statues. I cried under thee save me, and I shall keep thy testimonies. I prevented the dawning of the morning and cried. I hoped in thy word, mine eyes prevent the night watches, and I might meditate in thy word. Here my voice, according to thy loving kindness, Oh Lord, quickened me. According to thy judgments, they draw nigh that follow after mischief that are far from me. Thou art near, o Lord, and thy commandments are true. Concerning thy testimonies, I have known of old, and thou hast founded them forever. Can I say this to you? David is in a position here.

57:33 You know what he's doing. He's crying out. I have no idea what any of that has to do with Second King six. The man is crying out in Second King six because he lost something that was borrowed. I don't he just went he cried Now let's go to PS. One nineteen and look up random verses about crying out, and now let's connect it to Second King six. There's no hermeneutical, Prince, I don't understand this at all. Now, there's no way at this point we're not going to review the rest. You need to look up the sermon, check your axe head, tell me what you find. But I am going to just briefly. Now, I'm going to go through this quickly, all right, So let's just let's just do this, all right, Let's just go through this.

58:20 Second Kings Chapter six, verses one through seven, I'm going to hit the microphone and throw it across the room recounts the story of the floating axe head. As we've already established in this passage. Second King's Chapter six, Elisha's disciples are building a new dwelling near the Jordan River. Now what some preachers will do. The Jordan River represents this, the dwelling place represents this. Now, if you can do some cross referencing, maybe maybe we can figure something out. At this point, we're not going to attempt to do that, all right. One of them, as we have seen, loses a borrowed oxhead. Remember it is borrowed. The text literally tells us it's borrowed. There's got to be some significance in the story to that right. Elisha miraculously causes the axehead to float, enabling the man then to retrieve it.

59:22 That's the basic story. Now, throughout church history, many pastors and teachers have used this passage to illustrate spiritual principles. Here's some of the common interpretations throughout church history. Number One, this is a story about the restoration of lost power. The oxhead is often viewed as a symbol of spiritual power or effectiveness. The loss of the axhead can represent a Christian losing their spiritual edge or effectiveness, or their passion or their zill and Elisha's intervention is seen as a demonstration of how God restores what has been lost when we seek him. So many just say this is a we've lost our power. We've lost our power. Now, I've heard this in Bible college and seminary and Bible institutes. Hey, preach your boys. You feel called to the ministry, but you can lose your power, you can lose your effectiveness.

1:00:24 You've got to get your power back. You need a supernatural intervention. To get and to restore your power. So let God know this morning that you've lost your power. Cry out to him. Come to the altar so that God will restore that power. So you can be effective in your preaching. People not coming down to the altar when you preach. You've lost your effectiveness. People not getting saved. You've lost your effectiveness. Your church is not growing. You've lost your effectiveness. Fall on your face before God and repent of those hidden sins so you can get your power back, and your church will grow and people will come to the altar when you preach. I can literally preach the sermon. I've heard it a million times. Don't know if that has anything to do with Second Kings, Chapter six, but I've heard it used that way. A second interpretation is this demonstrates dependence on God's miraculous power.

1:01:13 Some interpreters focus on the fact that the axehead was borrowed, implying that the power or gifts of Christians have are not their realm, but they come from God. Thus they emphasize dependency on God to maintain effectiveness in ministry and life. See that power you have, the effectiveness you have in the Christian life that's borrowed. God gave that to you. You're borrowing it from God, and you have to rely on him to maintain effectiveness. They take that from Second Kings, chapter six. Others say this is a symbolism of redemption and grace. The axe head sinking in the water is sometimes allegorized as a symbol of humanity sinking into sin or death, while the floating axhead report that's God's grace and rescuing are redeeming people from their fallen state. So I've seen it preach the cutting down the tree, that's us trying to work. We're trying to work, but our work are trying to obey the law. It doesn't work, it doesn't happen. What happens when we try to obey the law the axe head comes off and it sinks to the bottom, and we descend, and we will go to hell. Because the sinking down into the water is a representive hell, because we'll be thrown into the lake of fire. It's representing hell. But then the cross is Jesus Christ dying for us, and then he brings us back to the top and redeems us by grace. The axe head is the work is us trying is trying to get saved, trying to follow the law. The axe

1:02:45 head when it comes off, represents that the failure of us trying to keep the law, we sink to the bottom. The stick put in the water is the cross, and now we come back and we're saved by grace alone. This is a picture of law and gospel. I've heard it preached that way. Next, I've heard it preached as financial integrity and responsibility. Since the acts was borrowed, the responsibility to return what belonged to another is sometimes emphasized as suggesting that this is an application about financial responsibility and integrity and stewardship. Okay, I just have to laugh because you see, those are radically different interpretations. Those are like night and day different interpretations, like they're not even in the same universe. But these are all preached, and in every church where they're preached, the people are sitting in the people going amen, aa man, and you're like, well, how do we get there?

1:03:53 Now? Some of these interpretations might resonate with some people, and they tend to do so, but they can move too far from the text original meaning and context, Allegorical reading and poses layers of meaning not explicitly present in the text, which can lead to misinterpretation, and are you ready speculation, which we've already heard a lot of speculation. He's just throwing out concepts. Now, why would should we be concerned with this allegorical approach? Well, allegorizing the acset into a symbol of lost spiritual power, sin or redemption and poses meaning that isn't inherently in the text. The original context is more about a miracle demonstrating God's care for the seemingly small practical needs of his people, rather than illustrations of abstract spiritual principles. So there's a contextual disconnect. You're disconnecting.

1:04:57 You're just throwing these principles, and you're disconnecting it from the actual text. The allegorical interpretation can lead to varied and subjective understanding of the text, where each teacher might focus on different symbols or ideas and aren't actually grounded in the biblical narrative. There's all kinds of problems with it. So what should we do with Second Kings Chapter six? Well, we're a sixty five minutes and twenty eight seconds. I'm just gonna leave it there and let you try to figure it out. I want you to go listen to the rest of this sermon. Check your axe head, right, hey, look, go listen to the rest now. Now this is very important.

1:05:41 Am I disagreeing strongly with how the text is being handled? Absolutely? Do I completely agree with some of the points he's making about apathy? And yes, he's making some valid points here that should be discussed and should convict all all of us about apathy. And since the Christian life just becoming this dull routine and we're losing our passion and zil, how should the Christian life be? How do we get this back? How do we maintain it? What should be expected? Do we expect too much? Like? How do we There's all kinds of questions that shoe. I should have a list of questions about that topic over here, but I can't get to those questions about the topic because I'm so concerned with how the text is being handled, and I can't. I bothered greatly that the man cries and he doesn't read the next part, just goes jumps over to Psalm one nineteen. That's like, that's what I can't stand about. Cross referencing is some people just cross reference anything that they just there's no they don't understand any basic rules to cross referencing. Now, maybe in the next part he's gonna say borrowed. Maybe in the next part he's gonna say borrow Let's just listen for a second to see if he says borrowed, and then we'll wrap this up. I know we're already over time. Well, let's see if we can bring it to a much more like satisfying place where when you go listen, you'll know exactly where to begin.

1:07:04 It bothered him when the baby died. Come back if you will, please, if you've turned from there, come back to Second Kings, chapter number six. David is upset because the baby dies. David is upset the baby that he had with Esheba winds up dying there and he's down there in sackcloth and ashes, and it bothers him. I wonder, ladies and gentlemen, if we've ever considered. That an innocent. Baby dies with a collateral damage because of a decision David made. I wonder if we have that. Kind of concern When we lose our edge in the world, lose our edge in the schools, we attend, and the places where we work, and and the people that we have influence over that the collateral damage, because guess what, it doesn't remove us from the throne. It doesn't take us out of the way. We're safe, we're secure. But sometimes innocent people wind up dying. Why, Well, because of things that we've done we shouldn't have done. I wonder if there's even a concern or is it true that there really is.

1:08:11 An apathy over sin nowadays? I see and hear Christians nowadays say and do things, and I'm thinking to myself, I wonder, Honestly, I don't believe if you're saved, that you're always living right and doing right and spitting Why. But I'm telling you, I hear Christians say some things sometime and then right out of their mouth on the other side, you know what they say. They'll say, you know, well, I gotta go to church on Sunday. Reminds me of that illustration the old preacher. You said, are you gonna meet with your boyfriend? No, my husband will be in town on Monday. Well, how about on Tuesday? No? I got bridge on Tuesday. Well can we meet on Wednesday? No? I got prayer meeting on Wednesday.

1:08:51 I'll meet you at church. Are you not gonna go to the dance on Friday? Well, all go to the dance on Friday, there's no revival meeting, and I'll meet you in church on Sunday. You feel how still it got right there? Well? I didn't preach anything I hadn't preached for thirty five years. Here? Why you get stout there all of a sudden? Oh I get it? Just a little dance is okay? Let me ask you a question just. So. Now, dancing is wrong. I'm like I am. Smoking is wrong. Dancing is wrong. I but oh man, what is it this got to do with second King? Six? Okay?

1:09:31 I'm trying to find a place where we can find a good stopping point. I think you can. I don't even know what to say. A little bit of. Doing that's okay. How you gonna tell your kids when you do just a little bit? It's not okay for them to go all the way. Just a little Sip's okay, just a little pop. Don't know a big deal. But you tell you kids you can't touch it, Well, why not? What happens if they wind up being a drunk wall? Not your problem is it collateral damage? Are you with me? You lost your edge as a Christian. Kind of a shamed It's like, you want so bad to fit in with the rest of the world that the world dictates to you, and yet the whole time you're griping about being told what to do, but you're constantly capitulating to the rest of the war.

1:10:14 You compromise for comfort, and it's kind of like, well, I don't want to be the odd ball? Why not? It used to not bother you when you first got saved. You didn't care about anybody making fun of you or laughing at you. But now we're kind of got this sort. Of sophisticated style about us. And you know what's kind of noticeable in what comes out of our mouth. You say why, because it's in the recesses of our heart. I'm just saying, maybe we should have checked. Maybe the accent's not off, but maybe it's mighty. Loose this evening. Maybe we just don't. Care about the position we put other people into to make them participate in things, and they wind up being collateral damage.

1:10:57 Because for you it's good, but for them it's like I don't know, Well, then, why all of a sudden, are you. The bad guy? Why are you preaching this, preacher? Well, because Thanksgiving and Christmas is coming. Time together with the family, and before long there'll be more of being slung. At the table than just biscuits. But as your family, I'm pretty sure you know you got to learn to be gracious. Okay, why am I the bad guy? I didn't say you can't have your bottle of wine at your Thanksgiving dinner that you're making.

1:11:38 A public's commercial. I said, I'm not coming. We'll put our wine up for you. You're not gonna go to your family's meal because they have wine? Oh my goodness, gracious, what is any of this got to do with Second King six? I don't have any clue. This is why I know Christianity is not for me, I just as far as our say Churchianity, because I don't fit in in any of this. Like what is this? I don't know what any of this is.

1:12:25 I don't know. We're not dealing with the text in any meaningful way, and now we're just making rules that have no So now you're I'm losing my edge. I've lost my axe head because I'm going to go to a holiday meal with family who has wine, and I'm like. How dare you? I'm not coming because I'm a Christian. What in the world is that got to. You? No, you don't have to put it up. I'm not coming because as you. Don't want to not do that, you're just not doing that. So soon as I walk out the door, go to the bathroom, you.

1:13:06 Go over there and make a point of it. So have me removed. I have people I know, believe it or not, and friends that I know. That's never a problem. I don't worry about. Somebody sitting down with something like that in front of me and kind of like, hey, you know, better to ask. For forgiveness than it is for permission. Your axe head's loose. You shouldn't put people in that kind of a position. We're going to a movie and we're gonna watch it. Now. It's rated R, but there's only a couple. Scenes in there that are you can close your eyes during that.

1:13:48 The axeheads loose. Your axe head is loose. If you watch your rated R movie. What if it's PG thirteen, is my axe head loose? If I'm listening to preaching, that's absolutely destroying the text and making it say something that doesn't say and adding and subtracting from it. Is my axe head loose? My axe head is loose. If I go to someone's house and they're having wine with their meal, my axe head is loose. Is my axehead loose if I'm becoming a pharisee and a sadducey.

1:14:35 You got a bunch of little ones in here that are watching you and looking at you, and you're thinking, well, they'll grow up one day and they'll probably do you mean what you've done, So you have a chance. But it has to concern you. You have to be willing to cry out. You have to say. It bothers me that I lost what is the business into my axe? I cannot do what God wants me to do. It bothers me. It upsets me. I want it back. But the problem is is the apathy whatever. I'm happy, where I'm at, saved, born again, blood wash, going to heaven, eternally secure, Praise the Lord, Hallelujah.

1:15:18 Pass the ammunition. I like my carnal lifestyle. I like the comfort that it brings me. I don't like the pressure of all. These people getting me to go. If I just go along, it's just so much easier. Certainly, it is easier to go with the current than it is to paddle upstream, No question, I agree with you one hundred percent. But could I just say this to you, and I'm not the poster child for it. It doesn't make me uncomfortable to be different. As a matter of fact, I get uncomfortable when I feel like I am using C's compromising.

1:16:02 Yeah, but Preacher, you know you lived to stop. This is about you. I already checked my head this morning. I had to put some wedges in it. I had to tighten it down. I never will ever preach to you as one having obtained. I will never preach to you as if my idea of my life and my standard of living is something that you should try to esteem to be, or try to claim to. Be, or try to rise to that kind of a thing. I'm just like you, a sinner saved by grace, and I struggle just like you struggle. But there's certain things that I made up my mind along. Baby. It's because I was a policeman for so long. I was picked out of.

1:16:45 A crowd right off the bat, and because I wore a blue suit and you walk in everybody's against you, and maybe that's what toughened me up. But I'd like to think. It's because I don't want to be an embarrassment to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and that when those those things occur, it tells me a lot about the person putting me in that position. I'm not the bad guy? Am I gonna push you to try to attain to that? Well? Sure, why shouldn't I? On our preacher, isn't that what you try to push your kids to do. There's no parent in here at all that doesn't wish better for your kids than you had. And hope they don't do some of the foolish things you did. And God help you if you ever tell them you're a fool, it's none of their business.

1:17:27 You say why, because they're kids. They don't know any better. I would like to say this, he had to be willing to make a confession. I lost it. Can't lose your salvation. We know that standing in state, right, I lost it. The desire, the willingness stuff, the forthrightness stuff. They want to be involved in this. The thing, it sounds like the acced represents basically everything everything I mean like if it was supposed to be then it was like the work to get the word out. Now it's spiritual edge. Now it's your feelings for seeing.

1:18:10 At this point, I don't really know exactly. It seems like it just keeps expanding, or it's like different layers of I don't know, and I don't know how all this is gonna fit with the borrowed part. I was hoping we would get to what he says about the borrow partment. We're running out of time, so we'll just go a couple of more, maybe a minute here, and we'll wrap it up. That used to drive me, that used to push me, it's gone. I want it back. There is nothing more miserable than trying to serve the Lord in your own energy and strength, just. In the flesh, just doing it because you gotta do it. It ain't gonna be long. You gonna be bitter, You're gonna be madder and to stinking hornet, and it's gonna show up every time you open your mouth you say, what is it? If you don't have God infuse you supernaturally, you ain't gonna lie.

1:19:00 You say why battle's hot? Wow? Literally use the word infused the entire Protestant Reformation was about imputed. He just literally used the word infused. I know he's not referring to justification, but I just like, I'm not a fan of the word infused. And if God is the one who does the infusing of the power in which you can live the Christian life, then why do you still sin? Right, we're right back to that same I know we return to that over and over and over and over, but okay, I just want to know. I don't know what any of you notice. We're not really dealing with the text in any way, shape or for. The text is being utilized simply. I don't know why. I don't even I don't know what how you want to be? How do you want to even classify how the text is being utilized?

1:19:46 Here? Sir, you're gonna get frustrated and aggravated and irritated with people and everything else because you're forcing, you're pushing, You're trying to make something happen. You're trying to get something back instead of stopp and going. I lost something, something came off. My relationship with the Lord ain't what it used to be. You can check that. I can't check that in you. I can't tell by looking at you how close you are to the Lord. Some of you I can't take Monroe seven millimeter a rifle. I couldn't hit you right now. You're so far away from Lord, and you're sitting on a church forew. Not pointing anybody individually.

1:20:28 You can be out of fellowship and still be in the field trying to cut wood. You can still look like you're busy. Can I say this? It concerned him, he cried, But the first step was he had to admit. Remember the woman at the well. Can y'all bear with me? I am not going to make twelve o'clock. If not, go ahead and go, and I'll preach about you when you walk. You you remember the woman at the well, and when she comes up there to the Lord, the Lord deals with her about her situation going on there with some men in the town. Are you married, Well, you got a husband. Well, I got a husband, but it belongs to somebody else. Well, said sister, you got five of them like that. Do you know that woman couldn't have got any help unless the pipe got cleared, unless she was willing to confess.

1:21:32 You got me. You're right, I'm a homewrecker. You're right, no matter what those men have done to me, I certainly yielded to it. I certainly have a problem. I've had five men, and all of them married. I mean, pretty ugly. You can't blame it all on the men. I mean, once or twice you might could give her a pass, But five times, I mean she seems to have. A target on married men. Can I get a witness? You guess you never thought about that. But she isn't too dirty for God to clean. But not until she's willing to confess. You know, the hardest thing in the world back years ago, and some of the stuff that I did, And you get him in the boxing there and you're sitting there talking to him and that kind of thing, and there's your Miranda, and you know, anything you say and so on and so forth, and sign all this and that and the other, and you got him dead to right. You can have a stinking video of them and sitting there, we got this, and we got this, and we got this, and you lay the whole thing out there and they look at you, go, well, it wasn't me.

1:22:31 Who is this? Well, I don't know if we're ever going to get to the borrowed part. I wanted to get to the borrowed part. See how then he makes it all work. I don't know. I don't know. Ladies and gentlemen, there we have it. What can I. Don't know what to say? Go listen to the rest. Check your axe head again. He's making some really valid points about some very important issues. He's bringing up issues that we should all be confronted with and discuss amongst ourselves and with ourselves about our own spiritual journey, our own spiritual life and where we are. But connecting it to an axehead, and then I like the whole thing, like, I don't know what you call this. I don't know what you call it. I don't know. I don't know what you do there.

1:23:28 I don't know. So we talked about the problems with this right when you handle it. We looked at all the different and allegorical interpretation spent them at offered through church history. We've talked about how this is a contextual disconnect, how this is becomes very subjective. I wanted to get into looking at the immediate constant text, looking at the historical and cultural context, looking at the theological themes, and then looking at divine power in the mundane and looking at prophetic authority. I wanted to kind of get into some actual handling of the text, but well, we're at eighty four minutes, so we're not going to get there. So I apologize for going along, but I don't have any I don't know what I don't know what this is. I don't know what this is. I don't know, So all right, thanks for listening. Ever, have a great day. Hey, maybe listen to some sermons today on Second King six and just see how others handle it. Read that first seven verses like multiple times, ask people you know in your family, Hey, what would you do with this? What would you ask friends you know on social media? Hey, what would you do with this? What would you do with this text?

1:24:45 And just see what people say. If you have a pastor you know, text the email, say hey how should we interpret Second King chapter six? I just see what they have to say, and then you can, well you can come to your own conclusion. Thanks for listening everyone, of great day, God bless