It's good to be here. Got a good report from my two sons that were here for your singing school, and they said they enjoyed it, and how warmly they were treated. And I've got to admit, it's been so long since I've been here, I said, oh boy, I'm going to be coming to Atlanta pretty soon. I need to get over there on a Wednesday night. And I am too. I'm sorry for the little girl whose birthday I interrupted with a preaching service. I pray that the Lord will bless us anyway. I've got something on my heart that I'd like to share. convicted lately to reach out to the community. And we've been doing it in several different ways. And this last Sunday we were able to get the fruits of this. There was a man that we speak and Brother Lincoln and Brother Richard Kemp go over there and they sang for us and we preach over there at the rescue mission. And there's a man that came up to us in April and said, would you let me come to your church? And I said, you bet. And he hadn't missed a Sunday since, and last Sunday we got to baptize him. And I'll tell you what, a couple weeks before, he asked me, he said, after church, he wanted to talk to me. And I kind of knew what he wanted, but he blew me away. He said, you know, Brother Dolph, he said, since I've been following the Lord and coming to church, good things have been happening. And I'm afraid the reason why I'm getting baptized is because I want those good things to keep on happening. And I told him, I said, if that's your biggest worry, I said, you're in pretty good shape. And we've been very thankful. And what I'd like to do is I'd like to share a message that I preached at the mission. Now, I want to preach it here for two reasons. Number one is I've been speaking there. It's been affecting all of my preaching. But as I do this, remember the mindset of the group that I was trying to reach that particular night. But then it's also good for us to realize that our nation is in real dire straits. And we've got so many people in this country that are so Bible illiterate. You know, the way you approach someone maybe 30 or 40 years ago, you have to go back 4 or 5 steps because the people in this country are so Bible illiterate. And there's so few godly men out there, even decent men, even strong leaders. And a lot of the men you'll run into just have not had the rearing. And you need to throw them a little grace because of where they're at. So with that being said, what I'd like to do is I'd like to look at an Old Testament character. This is a message I delivered a couple months ago. If you have your Bibles, would you turn to Judges chapter 11. Judges chapter 11. I want to talk to a man named, about a man named Jephthah. Jephthah was a judge. He was from the tribe of Gideon, or from the tribe of Manasseh. And God picked him to lead Israel. And as we go and we look at his case, once again, he was really started off in light, behind the eight ball in many ways. And I'm afraid many of the people that I was addressing that particular night have caught some bad breaks. And as we go through, hopefully it will make some sense. Okay? So I'm in Judges chapter 11. I'm going to start reading at verse 1, and let me read a couple verses here, okay? Judges 11 and verse 1. And Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valor, and he was the son of a harlot. and Gilead beget Jephthah. And Gilead's wife bare him sons. And his wife's sons grew up, and they thrust out Jephthah and said unto him, Thou shalt not inherit in our father's house, for thou art the son of a strange woman. Then Jephthah fled from his brethren and dwelt in the land of Tob. And there were gathered vain men to Jephthah and went out with him. Think about that, how this man was discriminated against. Socially, being the son of a prostitute. Religiously, being an illegitimate child. And also racially, he was, the way I read this, he was a half-breed. And again, I'm not looking at the victim mentality. That's not what this message is about. But he started in life with a lot of things against him. And as we read this chapter, is there really any surprise that he walked through life or a good part of his life with a chip on his shoulder? And the answer is no, it's not. Now again, please, if you had godly parents, if your parents have been married, if you've had a father in your house your whole life, thank God for your blessings. But there's a lot of folks out there that hasn't. And there's a lot of folks out there that are walking around with chips on their shoulders. And the way our country is going is we really need to take a step back because people we witness to aren't going to look like us. They're not going to drive minivans. They're not going to be raised in the church. And I just really would like you to just be a little more open to the opportunities that you get, just to remove the scales, because there might be some opportunities you don't even realize there are anymore. So poor Jeff, though. He walked through life with a chip on his shoulder. And you know what? He did a lot of wrong things. But I don't judge him and I don't blame him. Matter of fact, I feel sorry for him. I really do. Let's continue on with this case study. I'm in verse 4. Judges 11 and verse 4. And it came to pass in the process of time that the children of Ammon made war against Israel. And so it was so that when the children of Ammon made war against Israel, the elders of the Gilead went to fetch Jephthah out of the land of Tab. And they said unto Jephthah, Come and be our captain, that we may fight with the children of Ammon. And Jephthah said unto the elders of Gilead, Did not ye hate me and expel me out of my father's house? And why are ye come unto me now, when ye are in distress?" All the men in Jephthah's life basically bailed on him. Dad was gone. Brothers ranted on him. And unfortunately, even the church elders. It says right here they ran him out of town. And I've looked at a map. And if you looked at Manasseh, if you remember those two tribes, actually Manasseh had half a tribe on one side of the Jordan and the other half on the other half. And based on what I could tell, Jephthah was on the east half. And if you look at a map of the east half, way up in the right-hand corner of that land was the city of Tab, the land of Tab. So he basically took off as far as he could go and still be in Manasseh. And then what happened is Manasseh got into a pinch. They got into a jam. They looked around. They didn't have any godly leaders. And they say, we need Jephthah. And the church elders go and grab him. And the only reason they grab him is they need him. Okay? Let's keep on reading. Verse 8. And the elders of Gilead said unto Jephthah, Therefore we turn again to thee now, that thou mayest go with us, and fight against the children of Ammon, and be our head over all the inhabitants of Gilead. And Jephthah said unto the elders of Gilead, If ye bring me home again to fight against the children of Ammon, and the Lord deliver them before me, shall I be your head? And the elders of Gilead said unto Jephthah, The Lord be witness between us, if we do not do so according to thy words. Then Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and captain over them. And Jephthah uttered all his words before the Lord in Mizpah." Jephthah, basically the way he interacted with other people and even God, he negotiated with them. He even prayed in a negotiating way. And I look at this, but that's all he ever knew. Please just hang on with me. Again, this is not a victim mentality message. This is following the Lord and doing the right thing. But the way this guy started off, this man named Jephthah, all he knew was negotiated fellowship. Mom negotiated with Dad. Vain men were only hung around as long as things were going well. The church elders said, you can come back because we need you and negotiate. So is it any surprise that when Jephthah prayed, that's the way he treated God? Fathers, whether you realize it or not, the way you act is a little picture of what God is. Just like your marriage is a little relationship between Jesus Christ and the church here on earth. Those institutions we have are a reflection of God. And that's all he knew. So again, I don't judge him. I actually feel sorry for him. So then when I run into someone at maybe at the rescue mission and I start hearing their story, sometimes you have to be firm. Like for instance, this young man that just got baptized. He had a job interview about two months ago and I pulled him aside and I said, cut your hair, trim your beard and lose the britches. No one's ever talked to me like that. I said, you're a liability. No one's going to hire you with that kind of stuff. Oh, I never thought of it that way. He knew it was done in love. You understand? And he never had a father to teach him that. I remember one time. This was a while ago. The boys and I were out traveling, and we were getting lunch somewhere. And there was a young man who was in a, it was a Zaxby's restaurant. And there was a young man that came in, and he was filling out a job application, and he was sitting at the table. And then the manager came out, and we were eating our lunch, and it was just two or three tables away. And the young man was sitting there, and he was being interviewed. And it was a teaching moment. It wasn't a self-righteous moment, but it was, I said, boys, what's wrong with that picture? And they looked at him, and he had a rock t-shirt on. His hair wasn't combed. His pants were real straggly looking. I said, he's interviewing for a job. And they said, I don't judge that boy. You know who I really fuss at? His daddy. His dad didn't teach him better. Well, that's what I'm trying to convict you. We as a New Testament church have to be reaching out to the community and loving these young men and women in this way. It's the society we live. They don't know any better. What they're learning is from what they're learning on television and in the public school system. And it's up to us to be that light in every aspect of their life. It's interesting when I go to the story of the Good Samaritan. I really try, I'm actually a little, there's so many kids here, I feel like I'm at home at my dining room table. And I get a lot looser at home at my dining room table than I do in a pulpit. I'm feeling a little comfortable here, okay? But when Jesus was telling that story, he was speaking to some Jews. And when he talked about the priest and he talked about the Levite, he talked about the Good Samaritan. I mean, he was hitting them where they lived. He was jumping all over the religious ropes. So when I sit down with my children, I say, okay, let's pretend this is a, Jesus is here now, and he's talking to Primitive Baptist, okay? And he tell him the story, and he's telling with, instead of a Jewish flavor, he's telling with a Primitive Baptist flavor. And there was this Primitive Baptist preacher, and he was on his way to an annual meeting. That was the preacher, so I was picking him up. See, you're smiling, you know where I'm going, right? And he's driving there, and he looks, and he sees this guy broken down, tore up on the side of the road. Well, I gotta go to my preaching appointment, and he keeps on driving. Gee, Dad, aren't you supposed to preach? That's the God's Word. Yeah, but I guess they could wait for me about 15 minutes while I help this brother out. And then the next guy comes by, and it's a deacon getting ready for the sinking school. Now, don't get me wrong, preachers should preach annual meetings and deacons should get and do the work for singing schools. But brothers, if you see someone tore up on the side of the road, you can call ahead and say, you know, get some other people to do it for you while you're taking care of this brother. You understand what I'm saying? And along comes this deacon and he looks and he said, boy, that's going to hurt. Well, I got this business meeting or this, this, this is the singing school I got to take care of. And he keeps on going. And then another man comes that doesn't even go to church, and he stops, and he gets down in the ditch, and he helps. And it's real interesting, as I read that account over there in Luke chapter 10, the only recorded words by the Good Samaritan is what he said to the innkeeper. Boy, did that brother preach an incredible message, didn't he? He preached it with his actions. He preached it with his words. He was on his way to a business meeting and it says he took time out. He went there and took care of the provisions. He interrupted his schedule. Sometimes we think money is the most important thing. No, really, a lot of times it's time. And he gave up his time to go help this brother in need. My friends, that's what we need to be doing as a New Testament church. We need to be reaching out to the community and looking, and they're not going to look like us. They're not. Our society is going downwards too fast. We've got the greatest story in the history of the world, and it doesn't cost anything to share it. Now, if we were in Iraq, I said it might cost you something to share, but so far here, it doesn't cost us anything to share that. So back to our men. I'm at the rescue mission. I'm talking to some men there. And yeah, some of them got bad breaks. Some of them never had a father. Some of them never had a mentor. I've been very thankful. I had a good dad. I had good uncles. I had good teachers. I had good coaches. And I'm very thankful for those men in my life. Some of them don't have it. You might be it. You might be it. And you might tell them how to get ready for an interview. They might not know how to do that. I think that was Jephthah. Jephthah was born behind the eight ball. He had a lot of things against him. And you know what, he had a, you know what, as I read this account, he had a great relationship with the Lord. He prayed to God always. He said, Lord, should I do this? Should I not do it? And every time he had evicted, he gave God all the credit. His problem was his fellow brother. I think he'd just soon bust you in the mouth and look at you. But he liked the Lord. Because it was the way he was reared. It was his experience. You need to be taught better. And you know what? That's what we are as people in this community, both individually, as families, and also as a local church. And I'm really convicted about this, and we're doing some, the people in the church are doing some exciting things, and the Lord's blessing them. The Lord's blessing. Maybe we can be a blessing to someone else, but as we're reaching out, the Lord's blessing us, and I pray that We can be that. So this is my soapbox for about a year, and I pray that maybe I can light a fire under you in some way. I don't even know what you're up to and what you're doing here. Maybe you're doing all this stuff already. Maybe you're already convicted in this area and you're doing it. I don't know. But all I know is I am convicted in that area. There's plenty of scripture for it. You can go to Isaiah 58. You can go to Matthew 25. There's plenty about that. What's true religion? True religion is helping those that can't return the favor. So there you are. This is what I find interesting though as I look at Jephthah. This may surprise you. As orner as he was, as negotiating as he was, he was a type of Christ. Brother Dolph, that's a stretch. Well, the way I look at it is I go to Psalm 69 and Jesus was an alien to his mother's children. Well, Jephthah was an alien to his father's children. And I look at Scripture and the elders ran Jephthah out of the church. Well, the elders ran Jesus out of the church too. Jesus was born to an unwed mother. Jephthah was born to an unwed mother. But as we read the story, Jesus put away the bad way he was treated to come back and save his people. And you know what? That's what Jephthah did too. So when I go to Hebrews chapter 11, and I read all, I jokingly tell my sons, I was a baseball friend as I grew up as a little boy. And baseball has this hall of fame and it's in Cooperstown. And in there, there's Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb and Cy Young. Well, when you go to Hebrews chapter 11, that's the hall of faith. That's what I call Cooperstown. And in there, there's Moses and there's Abraham and there's Noah. And you know who's also listed there about verse 33, 34? David and then Jephthah. He's there. He's in the hall of faith. He's listed with them. This guy that just could be obnoxious? Well, yes he was. If you have your Bibles, let's go to Matthew Chapter 5. I hope this is a familiar passage with you. This is the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount. It's the Beatitudes. And for a long time, Jephthah had very few of these Beatitudes. in the Beatitudes are blessed are the peacemakers. Was Jeff the peacemaker? No, he wasn't. He had that chip on his shoulders. But can you blame him? As I read this account here in Judges 11 and Judges 12, his brother said, you want our inheritance? You can't have it. The elder said, you want to be part of our church? You can't have it. The Ammonites said, you want to be our land? You want our land? You can't have it. The Ephraimites said, you want all the spoils? You can't have it. So you know what Jephthah did? He swung back and he swung back hard. You know what he needed? He needed to experience love and he needed to experience a pillow. And we will run into people that need to experience that too. And I pray the Lord can bless us to be that kind of response. Blessed are the merciful. You know, as I read the account of Jephthah, there was actually a time when the Ephraimites came to go to battle with him and he whipped them and there was 42,000 that were leaving and he cut off the pass and he killed them all. Was that merciful? He wasn't that either. He was very few of these things. Blessed are the peacemakers, blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are the merciful. And you know what? He experienced very little blessings in his life. He did. And I feel sorry for him. He needed to be taught. And we've got some, there's some of God's people out there. And we need to be reaching out to him too. The tribe of Ephraim came up to Jephthah Now, this tribe of Ephraim, they were rascals. And they actually did the same thing to a man named Gideon. Gideon was a judge in chapter 6, 7, and 8. And after Gideon had whipped the bad guys, the tribe of Ephraim comes up to Gideon and said, how dare you not include us? Well, let's go read that account. Forget the beat attitude. Let's go back to Judges here, OK? Judges chapter 8. This is something that we can learn as husbands and wives, as children to parents, parents to children, as co-workers, as brethren in a church, is the soft answer. What Gideon does is absolutely amazing to me. The tribe of Ephraim comes up to Gideon. God pointed and He says, Gideon, I want you to lead My people and I want you to beat these people. And Gideon did exactly what He said. And the tribe of Ephraim comes up to Gideon and says, How dare you not include us? Let's read his answer. I'm going to be in Judges 8 and verse 1. And the men of Ephraim said unto him, Why hast thou served us thus, that thou callest us not, when thou wentest to fight with the Midianites? And they did chide him sharply. And he said unto them, What have I done now in comparison of you? Is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abiezar? God hath delivered you into your hands the princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeb, and what was I able to do in comparison to you?" Then their anger was abated toward him when he had said that." That's a soft answer. I'm telling you, if I was Gideon, this is what I would have answered. I would have said, Ephraim, I had 32,000 soldiers and God said, that's too many. and he whittled them down to 10,000. And God said, that's still too many. And he whittled them down to 300. And you're telling me, why didn't I include you? I was obeying God. Do you think that would have baited their anger? It would not have. Even though it was 100% accurate, look at this answer that he responded. This is something we can learn as husbands and wives. is parents and children, children, brothers to sisters, co-workers, bad customers, mean customers, mad customers. It's a good lesson for all of us. Now let's go and look at Jethro's response to a very similar circumstance. Both Gideon and Jephthah were both judges. Both of them were for tribe of Manasseh. Both of them were handpicked by God to lead their nations into battle. Both of them got the victory and both of them were challenged by the tribe of Ephraim. Okay? Gideon responded with a soft answer and there was peace. Let's look at Jephthah's answer in chapter 12. Got a little saying back home with my children. And when I'm listening to their speech and I hear their speech just cluttered with me, myself, and I, I tell them that the me monster is eating them up. Well, please look at all the me, myself, and I in Jeff's response. This is one terribly self-centered response. In Judges 12 and verse 1, and the men of Ephraim gathered themselves together and went northward and said unto Jephthah, wherefore passest thou over to fight against the children of Ammon and didst not call us to go with thee? We will burn thine house upon thee with fire. And Jephthah said unto them, okay, here's his response in the next two verses. Notice all the me, myselves and I's. You ready, guys? I want your fingers ready. Every time you hear a me, a my, a misalphariah, I want you to point a finger, and I want you to count them, okay? You got it? Put that Bible down and listen. Okay? And when you run out of hands, what's your name? Jacob. When you run out of fingers, you've got your fingers going, right? And ladies, you help them out if they miss one. Ready? And Jeff has said unto them, this is his speech, I and my people were at great strife with the children of Ammon. And when I called you, ye delivered me not out of their hands. And when I saw that ye delivered me not, how many you have, two? She got, you got them all? You got six? Okay. I put my life in my hands. Well, there's a triple one, right? and passed over against the children of Ammon, and the Lord delivered them into my hand. Therefore then are ye come up unto me this day to fight against me." How many you got there? Twelve? You got twelve over there? That's a lot. I'm telling you, when my children come up and say, Dad, I want the car keys, and they've got twelve, me, myself, and I in there, they're not getting the car keys. You got that? When I apologize to my wife and my apology has 12, me, myself, and I, guess what? I'm in trouble. I better have flowers the next day, right? Okay. That self-centered speech doesn't work. And we need to model it. We need to love. the folks we're dealing with, including our children, but most of the people in our community, they just don't know any better. I feel sorry for Jeff. I really do. And what's so terrible is these behaviors caused him incredible sorrow and anguish in his life. And not only did it cause sorrow for him, it caused sorrow for he and his family. It really did. And as I'm running to these young men in the rescue mission, they've got the same kind of sorrow. And they just don't know any better. And if they aren't going to get it from God's children and people of a New Testament church, where are they going to get it? Are they going to get it from the president and the core curriculum? Are they going to get it from the movies? Are they going to get it from the NBA superstars? They're gonna get from God's Word and God's people. That's us. That's the light we need to be. I pray God can help us be those kind of people. So when I read the story of Jephthah, there's two lessons to it. I'm almost done. Number one is our country is going in a downward spiral, and the folks out there, especially, I call it the Disney generation. You know who the Disney generation to me is? It's that group from 20 to 25 that was raised on Disney, that watched all those Disney movies, that saw their parents as idiots, that spoke and were always right and their parents were always wrong, and they start believing that. That's what we're running into. And I pray God would help us to love and kindly, through our words and our actions, like that good Samaritan, just love them. And then you know what? You'll get the opportunity. They'll say, what's different? Tell me, tell me what, why do you act that way? Why are you doing this? Then you tell them about Jesus. You tell them about the Lord. You tell them about his word. You tell them about his godly principles of how to love and to interact and the peace and the joy that comes with it. I want it. I want it for myself. I want it for my children. I want it for all the church members over there in Roanoke. I really do. for those young men in the community that have gotten raw deals. I'm looking, Sister Anna Grace, you probably have plenty of opportunities in the hospital and it's not necessarily with the patients, it's the family of the patients. I know Lincoln does too being in a similar situation in his hospital. The parents come in there and the parents and the children come to visit a sick person. And boy, there's plenty of opportunities there just to love and just to show the fruits of Christ. And I pray we're not afraid to do that. Now, I'll tell one more story and then I'm done. We're being blessed right now. We've got two different kinds of groups visiting us. We've got some folks coming from the rescue mission. I'm telling you, it can be a sight sometimes. The long hair and the tattoos, really. But we've also got a group of German Baptists that are coming pretty regular to our church. And a couple Sundays ago, I looked up, and there's probably, I don't know, there's probably about three dozen, 35 or so German Baptists. So on this side, I had all the beards and the bonnets. And over here I had the long hair and the tattoos. And I got up in the pulpit and I looked out and my knees started shaking and I go, this message has got to be from God because I don't know how to preach to this diverse of a crowd. I just don't know how to do it. But they're all searching for the same thing. You guys have good sense here. I said that was the last story. I've got one more, okay? This is my favorite. The last time I spoke at the rescue mission, when I speak, I use PowerPoint. And the reason why I do is most of them don't have Bibles, so I want them to hear the Word of God, and I want them to see it. And they've got all the facilities to do that. So up on the board of the PowerPoint, and I had this little boat going across the Atlantic Ocean. And I had the boat getting pounded by a hurricane. And I had iceberg fields come down where they had, it was getting in the way of the boat. And then finally there was these strong currents pushing it off course. And the message was is trials happen to everybody. Good, bad, indifferent, old, rural, educated, rich, poor, it just happens to everybody. And the real problem is how you deal with them. So I quoted a bunch of scripture and most of the scripture I quoted was from Paul, okay? And I looked at him and I said, Paul was not just blowing smoke. I said, he had bad stuff happen to him. So there's 100, 150 men there. And I said, how many of you had a ship fall apart and got dumped into the sea, a raging sea? And no one raised their hand. And I said, how many of you were attacked by wild animals? And no one raised their hand. And I said, how many of you got stoned? And the whole back rows were like this. And I thought they were pulling my leg. Okay? But then Lincoln and Richard and James, the guy that I met, are giggling in the front row, and I go, oh, man. I go, not that kind. And they blew up. They laughed. We laughed. We had a good time, and we were able to move on. So it's a lesson to know your audience, but at the same time, you've got to realize they were honest. They were being honest. That was me. That was me. So even in that situation, I thought I was relating to him, but there's still a barrier there where I used a word that was totally off my chart in the way I meant it, and they were coming from somewhere else. Be ready for it. Be ready for it. Expect it. And when it happens, laugh about it. Enjoy it. You'll enjoy the difference. Don't be so tight. I pray that God can be glorified by this group of people in this community. Rich or poor, the ones that don't look like us. God bless you.