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I Will Not Run and Hide!: What to Do When Evil Triumphs, Part 1

From the series Be Strong and Courageous 

In most beloved classic stories, good conquers evil, the hero beats the villain, and justice prevails. However, the narrative is quite different in reality. In this program, Chip asks: What do you do when evil repeatedly wins or gains the upper hand? He will delve into this critical issue, sharing uplifting biblical insights that will empower you to face injustice and suffering head-on.

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Message Transcript

You know, sometimes a rhetorical question can really say a lot more than big, bold statements or lots of information. You know, and a question that just kind of hangs in the air and you say to yourself, Wow, either I’ve never thought about that or man, that’s a big question I don’t have a good answer to.

One of the classic rhetorical questions that is raised in all of the Psalms, in fact, of all of Scripture is in Psalm 11. It goes like this, “When the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do?”

The word here foundations, we’ll learn in a minute is “pillars.” In fact, It’s a very formal word, it has the idea when the civil authorities or when a society or when the laws of a culture are no longer enforced and it crumbles. In other words, you could say when anarchy starts happening in a culture or a country or a society, what are God’s people supposed to do?

In fact, maybe a better way to put it is this is when good is called evil and evil is called good, what are the righteous to do? When corruption and evil are winning, winning in academia, winning in culture, what are the righteous to do?

When truth evaporates, what are the righteous to do? When there’s violence in the cities, when statues are pulled down, when laws aren’t enforced, when people have disregard for one another, what are the righteous to do? When censorship of truth is celebrated and people who say marriage, or a life in the womb, is important are now haters and bigoted and narrow and actually are dangerous people, what are the righteous to do?

When self and greed and institutions can’t be trusted, when information coming from whatever source is who knows if it’s true, who knows what we are getting, when you don’t trust the government, you don’t trust academic institutions, you don’t trust corporations.

I don’t mean any of that politically. Those are just facts. And they are getting worse and the fact is that AI will probably have some tremendous, tremendous benefits, but we will have opportunity for exploitation like never before. And, sadly, what is it when you can’t trust the Church? When whether it’s pastors in sexual immorality or priests with a history of sexual immorality and cover-ups and when there’s corruption, when doctrine is compromised, when you begin to add all these things together, what are the righteous to do?
You know, at some point you just say, “Look what is happening all around us and what about our kids, what about our schools, what about the Church, what about truth, what about life? I mean, what about all these wars?” What are the righteous to do?

And David was in a very similar place where the foundations were destroyed. We don’t know the exact historical context. It could be when Absalom had overtaken the government and there was a coup and he was running for his life. It could have been when Saul went completely off the rails and decided: I’m threatened and I’m going to kill David.

But what he knows is, in this particular case, everything has fallen apart and the people that should execute justice are no longer doing it. I mean, when the king starts killing priests and not just one and it’s so evil that he tells the guards to do it and they all won’t and he’s got one really mean, heartless person named Doeg and he literally takes his sword and butchers thirty priests right in a row. The foundations of justice and law and civility were gone.

And David is in that kind of situation and he’s fleeing for his life. And in verse 1 of Psalm 11 it says, “In the Lord, in Yahweh, I take refuge.” And then he raises this question, because his advisors have said, “We have a plan.” But he says, “How can you say to my soul, ‘Flee as a bird to the mountains, for behold, the wicked bend the bow; and they make ready the arrow upon the string to shoot in darkness in the upright of heart.”

And so, David said: Whoa, wait a second. God is my refuge, my faith, I can’t give up my faith; I’m the king. I can’t run to the mountains. In fact, in this series about being bold and strong, every message I have given you a phrase, a declaration. Are you ready for this one? In Psalm 11, here’s your declaration: I will not run and hide.

In a world, in a church, in a difficulty, in economy, in wars, in being canceled, you’re a follower of Jesus. I want you to declare, based on Psalm 11, and you’ll learn why in a minute: I will not run and hide. I will not allow my fear of evil winning to cause me to go and find a secure place in a little world in a gated-type community, and I won’t open my mouth and I won’t do anything and I won’t rock the boat because I know if I do, there’s going to be, as they say in the world, hell to pay.

This is a very strong call to the righteous. And what David’s advisors, I’m sure they want him to be protected. But David is a righteous man. He says, “I can’t run and hide.” He says, “Behold, the wicked, their bows are already bent.” In other words, the danger isn’t going to come later, the danger is imminent. The problem is right now.

You better do something right now because this is really dangerous and it’s not way out there. And it’s not only really dangerous but they are doing it covertly. Notice the next line. It says, “They shoot in the darkness.” Literally, the word is they are shooting from out of the shadows.

And how much of all that has happened wasn’t overt. It was from the shadows, it came through the media, it came through academia, it came through educational training. It’s coming through DEI. It came through city councils and while Christians were doing many other things, they weren’t running for office. While Christians were doing many other things and pursuing a lot of things, we didn’t get much involved in government, we didn’t get involved in our world, in our community.

And some people with a very, very clear agenda, very clear agenda, and a very specific game plan decided that America should be a different America. And this isn’t just about America, there is an ideology that is going around the world and it’s not new. But what it does, it dethrones God, it dethrones truth, it has a very clear agenda to stop life, to cancel marriage, to destroy the nuclear family, to eliminate any sense of right and wrong, absolute truth.

And it has a whole different picture of what life should be between the oppressed and the unoppressed and a different set of rules that make life very confusing, very unfair, and absolutely tragic. And before we get all hostile about where it might come from, I will tell you where it comes from. It comes from the enemy himself and he has deceived a lot of people, many who think they are doing a great thing and that’s why evil is most dangerous when those who are purporting it believe they are being righteous in their evil.

And so, David says: I’m not going to run and hide. I know it’s imminent, I know it’s coming from the shadows, I get that it’s scary, I realize that I am in danger and you’re in danger.

And then they say: But you don’t understand, David. It’s hopeless. Okay? They give him this rhetorical question. They say, “If the foundations are destroyed,” civil government, laws are destroyed, “what can the righteous do?” And just in case you might be thinking I’m exaggerating, I’d ask you if you will to, I don’t know whether you’re a Republican, a Democrat, or an Independent. I’d like you to lean back and think through this lens. The actual word here for foundations is “pillars,” as I shared. But this isn’t just a thought. You can read any commentary, good Hebrew commentary, this is when the civil authorities, those who had been charged with governing to keep justice and safety and the benefit of all people, when that crumbles it’s a picture of the foundation.

It’s a picture of a house on a foundation. And the foundation goes and everything just slips into it. They say, “What do the righteous do?” Can I give you a few examples of the anarchy, that’s the picture. It’s a picture of there are no laws. Everyone does whatever. Everyone grabs, everyone takes, there’s no consideration for others. Forget right, forget wrong. It’s our stuff.

Let me give you some examples. Portland gets taken over by a group. Chicago becomes a place where daytime murders are something that is not even shocking. Stores are looted across the nation and people take out up to a thousand dollars with no consequences. People are arrested and then immediately released to go right back into the streets and do exactly the same thing, because there’s a new ideology about what happens when a person is arrested.

There are open borders - think of no law, no filters, not a political open borders question, obviously, there are real refugees, but millions and millions of people and hundreds of thousands of drugs coming into our country. Regardless of where you’re at on the political scene, we happen to be the only country in the world that operates this way currently. Children being able to get drugs or potential surgeries without their parents even knowing.

Police are told not to arrest. Christians are told that because you believe in life in the womb, or you believe in marriage – not that you’re against other people having the freedom to have whatever kind of relationships, but the fact that you even believe that and don’t endorse this, you’re anti-American, you are a dangerous person.

In other words, I want you to know that the foundations of right and wrong, of truth, of love, of compassion, of God, of evil – all those things are being blurred. The foundations are literally crumbling. And what do the righteous do? What is our calling? Because what I will tell you is, by and large, there have been a couple responses. And, again, I don’t mean this politically, these are observations.

There are some righteous that have seen this happen and they are very, very angry and they are very, very vocal and they are involved in a cultural war that is all about our tribe or their tribe and, I mean, it is hostile and most people after meeting them or reading or seeing their posts do not have a higher opinion of Jesus or the gospel of what we are all about. And it’s sort of gasoline on the fire both directions. There’s a far, far greater group that actually is silent. I looked at a study where, in America, you know, the bell curve, about six percent of the population in America is far right and about six percent is far left. And the overwhelming majority is in the middle.

And the overwhelming majority is silent and afraid because if I bring even this topic up or that topic up or that name or this name, all of a sudden you have polarization, division, and we have people who have cowered. A lot of coffee talk, a lot of private conversations about how bad things are and maybe hiding behind social media, say this or say that. But there has not been a righteous response the way that David has a righteous response.

See, the question is: When the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? David says in verses 4 through 6: I’ll tell you what we can do. We can look up. We can look up. Verse 4, “The Lord is in His holy temple.” He’s not talking about a literal temple, here. It’s not even built yet. He said, “The Lord is in His holy temple; the Lord’s throne,” by the way, both times he uses His personal name. This is Yahweh. This is the personal God. This is the I AM THAT I AM. “He’s in His holy temple and He’s on His throne in heaven.” So, He’s king. Throne, King, Judge, sovereign, powerful.

Well, what is He doing? “His eyes behold, His eyelids test the sons of men. And the Lord tests the righteous and the wicked, and the one who loves violence, His soul hates. Upon the wicked He will rain snares; fire and brimstone, and burning wind will be [the] portion of their cup.” Do you see what he’s saying? He says when everything is falling apart, I’m going to look up to the Lord in His holy temple, He is the king and He’s in control, and by the way, He’s not caught by surprise.

Notice the very first thing: “His eyes behold,” and this very interesting, “His eyelids test the sons of men.” Why eyelids? You know, when you and I are looking at something, we are looking at this. And then when we really want to focus on it, what do we do? We squint. We bring our eyelids together and we really focus.

And David is saying this: In the midst of these foundations falling, I’ve got news for you. Number one, God is still in control. And number two, He is looking and observing what is going on.

And notice where the tests are. It’s a word for examining. He’s seeing into what is going on. He says He tests the righteous and He tests the wicked. See, it’s really easy and we are guilty of this so I’ll own it, when things are falling apart, what do we do? Them. Them. And then we blame everybody. Those evil people, that political party, those people who do that, those people who do that. And then we find, if you’re a follower of Jesus, other Christians. They are not doing that and they should be doing this and…this group is wrong over here and this group is wrong over here but I perfectly have a balance and perspective of it all. That’s our human nature.

And God says if you are passive and hiding and just saying, “You know what? I just want a good job. I don’t want headaches. You know, I’m going to put my kid in a private school.

I’ve got enough finances.” By the way, there are some people that you can protect yourself. There’s a whole lot of people that can’t. They don’t have the money to do that. They don’t have the power to do that. And so, that’s why you see this polarization more and more between the haves and the haves-not.

And God calls us. We are the Church. He says the Lord is testing the righteous. God is looking for a man, God is looking for a woman, He’s looking for a student, He’s looking for some people who say, “I get it, the foundations have been destroyed. I see where things are at.”

And before He looks at the wicked, He’s looking at us and says: What are you doing? I’m going to evaluate you on how you respond to this situation. Are you a part of the problem? Better yet, are you a part of the solution? And I think the answer to that is what we are called to be and what we are called to do.

What the righteous need to do is not look over here and blame, we are to look up and say, as Isaiah did in his crisis time, “Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty. You are holy. I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people that are unclean.”

First, deal with me. And then, “Here am I.” I’ll do whatever You want me to do. That’s what God is looking for.