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Let's pray together, family church. There is no other one who is worthy. Our Heavenly Father, we bow before you, acknowledging you as our King and as our Creator, and as our Savior, and as our God, and as our friend. We come to you in the name of your Son Jesus, crucified on the cross for our sins and raised from the dead. And God, we come to you this morning to open your word, and I ask that you would teach us, that you would teach us by your spirit, from your word to your people, and give us hearts to receive what you have to say. We thank you for the power of your word, for the truth of your word, for the way that your word is ancient and yet it still speaks today. We love you and we pledge to receive everything you have for us this morning, and we receive it by faith, and we receive it in Jesus' name, and all God's people say, Amen. You can't be seated. Welcome again to Family Church. My name is Jimmy Scrogins. If I haven't had a chance to meet you, I would love to meet you while you're here. I'm one of the pastors. And every Sunday at Family Church, we have a Bible study, and we're going to have our Bible study right now. So go ahead and get your Bibles out. Turn your Bibles on on your devices. Grab a Bible from the pew in front of you and open up to the Old Testament book of Obadiah. The Old Testament book of Obadiah. Now, I would bet that the vast majority of people in this room, including many of you who would call yourselves SEAL Team 6 Special Forces Christians, I would bet that off the top of your head, you know very little about the book of Obadiah. I bet most of you have never memorized a verse from the book of Obadiah. I bet you most of you couldn't tell me one single thing off the top of your head about the book of Obadiah. Many of you would even say, I didn't know Obadiah was a book of the Bible. Which calling it a book of the Bible is extremely generous because it's one page and one chapter. It's just a little prophecy. Before we read the book of Obadiah, I do want to say how wonderful it is to get to gather as family church downtown. I'm glad this is where my wife and I are building our marriage and planting our life. I'm glad this is where we have raised our children. I'm glad our grandchildren are able to attend here with us like they are today. And I am so thankful for all of the families that are making this place their anchor point when it comes to their spiritual lives. I'm so grateful that we have so many gifted communicators. Last Sunday I was up at Family Church in Palm Beach Gardens. They're having a leadership transition there. So I went there to just help make sure that that went okay. But I'm so glad that if I'm not here, uh someone like Pastor John McTaggart or a host of others can get up and teach the Bible competently and powerfully like Pastor John did last Sunday. And I'm so grateful for the families that join with us here. I mean, it was awesome this morning with Anthony and Paige dedicating Ridge while Slater's getting baptized. And what a blessing and what an encouragement that is. All right, let's get into our Bible study. Here's what I would like to ask you. Will you do me the favor of doing a little introspection right now? And I want you to think of a current struggle that you have right now with sin. I would like for you to think of a current struggle that you have right now with sin. I want you to picture it in your mind. I want you to go ahead and name it in your mind. And if basically anyone with even minimal spiritual death can do this. Is it cursing? Is it pornography? Is it drinking too much? Is it lying? Is it gossiping? Are you having an affair? Are you misusing money? What is it for you? I have some news for you. The root sin at the root of all of our sins is pride. The root sin at the root of all of our sins is pride. Thinking too much of ourselves. Thinking of ourselves too much. Thinking too much of ourselves and too little of God. Not seeing ourselves the way that God sees us, which is the way that we really are. Pride is at the root of every sin. And that's why the big idea for our sermon today is that God humbles the proud. God humbles the proud. This sounds fun, right? This is already fun. Are we having fun already? Okay. Okay. So we're in this series called Summary in the Minors, and we're teaching through these Old Testament little short books in the back of your Old Testament called the Minor Prophets. And today we're studying this little book called Obadiah. And I want you to remember the basic timeline that you have to know in order to study the minor prophets. You remember that after Saul and David and Solomon, there was a divided kingdom. Israel had a civil war, they divided up. The northern kingdom was Israel. The southern kingdom was called Judah. Israel wandered away from God and they were wiped out by the Assyrians in 722. Judah also wandered away from God, and 150 years later, they are wiped out by the Babylonians in 586. In the 530s, Cyrus the Great was over, he was the emperor of the kingdom at that time, and he lets the exiles that have been taken from Judah go back to Jerusalem and begin to rebuild. You have to know that basic timeline, or the minor prophets are going to be completely inscrutable to you. Well, Obadiah prophesies right around 586, just after the time that the Babylonians invade Jerusalem, ransack the temple, burned down the city, carry their children away as exiles. It is a humiliating, devastating defeat. And Obadiah prophesies right after that. But Obadiah prophesies against not the nation of Israel or Judah. He prophesies against a neighboring nation that are their relatives. He prophesies against Edom. E-D-O-M. So let's read. Here's the vision of Obadiah. Obadiah verse 1. The vision of Obadiah, thus says the Lord God concerning Edom. Everybody say Edom? This is an important uh concept. Remember, let me show you a map. There's the northern kingdom of Israel, there is the southern kingdom of Judah, and then there is the neighboring nation of Edom. You say, well, who are the Edomites? What does Edom have to do with anything? The Edomites are the descendants of Esau. You can read about Esau back in the book of Genesis. Esau was the twin brother of Jacob, and Jacob is the grandson of Abraham. Therefore, he is one of the great patriarchs, the OG patriarchs of all of the Jewish people. Well, Jacob and Esau in the book of Genesis had this bitter, intense, lifelong sibling rivalry. And you would hope that once these guys died, that their children would get along. But that did not happen at all. Jacob and Esau lived around 2,000 B.C. But by the time 600 years later, in Numbers chapter 20, when the Israelites got out of Egypt and crossed the Red Sea, you guys remember that story? They go out into the desert and they need to make their way to the promised land. And in order to get there, they need to pass through this little corner of land that belongs to guess who? Edom. And the king of Edom not only denies Moses and the children of Israel passage through their land, they marshal an army to come out and chase the Israelites away. This is a bitter sibling rivalry that lasts for generations and generations. You go all the way to the time of David and Solomon, and there are constant border wars and skirmishes between the nation of Israel and the nation of Edom. You can fast forward all the way to 586, which is when Obadiah is prophesying. During the conquest, when the Babylonians rode into Jerusalem to destroy it, to humiliate the kingdom of Judah, the Edomites, who were their neighbors and their cousins, instead of lining up to come and help against the Babylonians, they cheered the Babylonians as they destroyed the city. In addition to cheering, they actually went into the city and they actually helped loot the city of Jerusalem. And they cut off, they actively cut off the escape routes of the refugees who were fleeing the Babylonian destruction. And they actively handed over refugees from the kingdom of Judah to the Babylonians so they could be exiled. And God sees all of this. And now the prophet Obadiah has come and he is calling down the judgment of God against the Edomites. What does he say? Back to verse one. We're going to read the whole chapter. So some of you guys are new Christians, or you're not Christians yet. Some of you guys have never read an entire book of the Bible in your life. Today is your day, baby. We're going to read an entire book of the Bible together in church. Back to verse one where we picked up. Obadiah says, We have heard a report from the Lord, and a messenger has been sent among the nations. Rise up, let us rise against her for battle. Behold, I will make you small among the nations. You shall be utterly despised. The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who live in the clefts of the rock in your lofty dwelling, who say in your heart, Who will bring me to the ground? Though you soar aloft like the eagle, though your nest is set among the stars, from there I will bring you down, declares the Lord. If thieves came to you, if plunderers came by night, how you have been destroyed, would they not steal only enough for themselves? If great gatherers came to you, would they not leave gleanings? How Esau has been pillaged, his treasures sought out, or your allies have driven you to your border, those at peace with you have deceived you, they have prevailed against you. Those who eat your bread have set a trap beneath you. You have no understanding. Will I not on that day, declares the Lord, destroy the wise men out of Edom and understanding out of Mount Esau? And your mighty men shall be dismayed, O Taman, so that every man from Mount Esau will be cut off by slaughter. Because of the violence done to your brother Jacob, shame shall cover you, and you shall be cut off forever. On that day that you stood aloof, on that day that strangers carried off his wealth and foreigners entered his gates and cast lots for Jerusalem, you were like one of them. But do not gloat over the day of your brother in the day of his misfortune. Do not rejoice over the people of Judah in the day of their ruin. Do not boast in the day of distress. Do not enter the gate of my people in the day of their calamity. Do not gloat over his disaster in the day of his calamity. Do not loot his wealth in the day of his calamity. Do not stand at the crossroads to cut off his fugitives, and do not hand over his survivors in the day of distress. For the day of the Lord is near upon all the nations. As you have done, it shall be done to you. Your deeds shall return on your own head. For as you have drunk on my holy mountain, so all the nations shall drink continually. They shall drink and swallow, and shall be as though they had never been. But in Mount Zion there shall be those who escape, and it shall be holy, and the house of Jacob shall possess their own possessions. The house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau stubble. They shall burn them and consume them, and there shall be no survivor for the house of Esau, for the Lord has spoken. Those of the Negev shall possess Mount Esau, and those of the Shephalah shall possess the land of the Philistines. They shall possess the land of Ephraim and the land of Samaria, and Benjamin shall possess Gilead. The exiles of this host and the peoples of Israel shall possess the land of the Canaanites as far as Zarepath, and the exiles of Jerusalem who are in Seraph shall possess the cities of the Negeb. Saviors shall go up to Mount Zion and rule Mount Esau, and the kingdom shall be the Lord's. And this is the word of God, and all God's people say. We received God's word at family church. That's pretty powerful stuff. That's pretty dark stuff. That's pretty aggressive stuff that God is saying. And there's a couple of things I want you to notice in this text before we jump into our outline. If you still have your Bible open, check out verse 3. The big problem for Edom, the big problem for Esau's descendants was pride. It is the pride of their hearts that God is opposed to. And I want you to know when God looks at me, when God looks at you, the big problem that God has with us is not these different manifestations of our different sinfulness. It is the core sin of pride. Look at verse 4. Edom is going to be judged severely. He says, God is going to bring you down. Which reminds me of that great theologian and hymn writer. You can run on for a long time. Run on for a long time. Run on for a long time. Sooner or later, God will cut you down. Johnny Cash. Verse 15: all nations are subject to the judgment of God. All the nations, not just Edom. Verse 21, the day is coming when God's kingdom will be the only kingdom left standing in the world. When you read this, I hope you feel the force of it. I hope you feel the terrifying nature of the judgment of God. Because it's real and it's right here on the pages of your Bible. Did you see the metaphor that Obadiah used for the judgment of God in verse 16? The image is of Edom and all these rebellious nations drinking the cup of God's wrath and judgment. Drinking the cup of it. The picture is after Babylon had reduced Jerusalem to rubble, and all of them are out there partying and drinking and celebrating. And Edom's right out there drinking and partying and celebrating the demise of Israel. And God says, You boys want to drink, I'll fix you a drink. Only God's cup isn't one for celebration. God's cup is a cup of judgment. And these nations who've rebelled against God and ignored him and mocked him and abused God's people, they will drink the cup of the judgment of God. And the cup is always used in the Bible as a metaphor for judgment. Let me just show you a few places. There's a lot, but let me show you a few places. Psalm 75, I'll put it on the screen. Psalm 75, this is what the word of God says. For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup with foaming wind, well mixed, and he pours out from it, and all the wicked of the earth shall drain it down to the dregs. There is a cup with foaming wine, and all the nations of the earth will drink it down to the dregs. Isaiah 51 talks about the cup of the Lord's wrath. Jeremiah chapter 25 talks about the cup of the Lord's wrath. And in Matthew chapter 26, some of you guys might remember the night before Jesus is crucified, he's in Gethsemane, and what does he say? Let this cup pass from me. What is the cup? The cup of the judgment of God mixed with foaming wine, and all of the wicked of the earth would drink it down to the dregs. Okay, Pastor Jimmy, that's fine. You made us read this whole one-page book of the Bible. I don't know anything about Edom. Apparently, all the Edomites are gone according to this prophecy. So are you talking about Israel right now? Because I'm not sure about what's going on over there in Israel right now. I've got enough problems of my own right here in America. What do you want me to do with this book of Obadiah? What can I learn from this book of judgment? I'm glad you asked. And I hope you'll be ready to take notes. On your program, there are some fill-in-the-blanks, and you should be in the habit of writing things down. When we have a Bible study, here's what you can learn about the judgment of God and how God opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble. Number one, pride will deceive you. Pride will deceive you. Verse 3, that's what he says to God, Edom. The pride of your heart has deceived you. And what is the deception he describes in verse chapter 3? He says, You guys think because you live up in the rocks, because you live in these mountain fortresses that nobody can get to you. You have a position that's so fortified and so strong and so safe, even God can't get to you. Edom's pride made them feel invincible. Edom's pride made them feel untouchable even by God. Edom's pride allowed them to justify all kinds of unspeakable beliefs and behaviors. And then God says, You think nobody can do it, but I will bring you down. And I don't care what you've achieved in this world, I don't care how much money you have in your investments, I don't care what your real estate portfolio looks like, I don't care what it is that you think bulletproofs you against the judgment of God, the God of the universe looks at you and looks at me and says, If you want to rear up against me and you want to hold on to your pride, I can bring you down. It says this in the New Testament, too. It's really powerful. 1 Peter chapter 5, St. Peter writes, The devil is like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. Because we have a really good God, but there is a really bad devil. And who is the devil going to devour in 1 Peter chapter 5? He's going to devour the prideful people. This is what it says. I'll put it on the screen. God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Therefore, you should humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God. Anyone ever have trouble figuring out their iPhone? I mean, I know I'm old, and some of you young people are like, that's because you're old and you don't know how to do anything. It could be true. My iPhone, I'm constantly learning things about it. It's constantly things that used to work don't work anymore. And things that I used to do it this way, I can't do it that way anymore. And every once in a while I'll read something on social media and they'll say, the problem that you're having with your iPhone is there's this automatic default setting. And there's all these conspiracy theories about Apple, you know. Apple has has set these default settings for you. And what you've got to do is go in and change the default setting. Okay, that might or might not be true. I would have no way to know. One thing I do know, I know about the default setting of your heart. And the default setting of your heart is pride. You don't have to work hard at being prideful, it comes natural. You don't have to work hard at thinking too highly or too much of yourself, it just comes natural to you. You will be prideful on accident, but you will only be humble on purpose. You will have to choose to be humble. Humility is not just some magical state that is bestowed on some and withheld from others. Humility is a choice every single time. If you want to be humble before God and before others, you must choose that because the default setting of your heart is pride. Some of you in this room, you kind of want to get saved. You kind of want to become a Christian. There's this part of you where you want this. You look at what happens on the stage, people loving each other and building their marriages and raising their children and baptizing their children, and you think, I want that. That is what I want. But the reason that you don't have it is pride. Because if you are going to become a Christian, you're going to have to humble yourself, acknowledge your own sinfulness, turn from your sins, turn to Christ, crucified and raised from the dead, and give your life to Christ. And some people they want the benefits of Christianity, but they won't make the choice to humble themselves before God. Don't be too prideful, guys. Hey, especially men. Men. Don't let your pride and your strength and your toughness that God's given you cause you to miss God's will and God's plan for your life. Because you're too prideful to humble yourself before God. You should do that. Being converted to Christ, it is humbling because the whole nature of the Christian Faith is admitting that you need God to do something for you that you cannot do for yourself. That's what conversion is. Me saying, I surrender, God, I cannot do for myself. I cannot get my own sins forgiven. I can't make my own self right with God. I can only do that by receiving it by faith because of what Jesus has done for me. Conversion, being saved, becoming a Christian is humbling. But you should do it. What did Jesus do for you that you cannot do for yourself? Jesus drank the cup of God's wrath for you. So you don't have to drink it for yourself. Hey, baptism is humbling. I love seeing Slater up here getting baptized, man. He got up here in the water, and his mom's here, and his dad's here, and some of you are thinking, it's not very humbling for Slater. He's a kid. He's been raised to do all this stuff. You get up here in front of everybody, people that you don't even know, even the balcony people are up there looking at you. And you you're up here and your hair gets all wet and your clothes get all wet, and people put their hands on you and put you under the water and pull you up out of there. And some of you are thinking, that's fine if I was a kid, I'm not going to do that because my hair will be a mess and it'll be embarrassing, and I don't want to do it. You should get baptized. If you're a believer in Jesus, you should humble yourself and get baptized. Church membership is like that. I know some of you are like, I don't have to be a member of that church. I can just attend and worship God. I don't have to be a part of that church. Well, the Bible says that Christians should be church members. And I know why you don't want to do it, especially some of you guys don't want to do it because then you're going to have to show up every week and bring your Bible and try to find the thing in your Bible, and you don't know how to find the stuff in your Bible, and that's embarrassing. And then you, when you read the stuff, like you don't really know a lot of the stories, and that's kind of embarrassing. And then you're trying to take notes, and it's just requires some humility, doesn't it? To be teachable, to be humble, to sing the songs, to get in the water. It requires some humility. It requires requires humility for everybody, but you should do it because that is the essence of the Christian faith. If you will humble yourself before the Lord, God will lift you up. Several years ago, I was talking with a friend of mine, he's a little bit older than me, and he's very, very, very successful. And he used to give me a lot of good advice about how to run the church, especially on the business side of it. But I was always a little worried about him when it came to his spiritual life because he really never wanted to humble himself and submit to the program and the design of God for his life, especially baptism. He didn't want to be baptized because he said, I'm not getting up there in front of all of those people and act like I'm just like everybody else. It requires some humility to be like everybody else. But you know, you're not just gonna be like Slater if you get baptized. Slater's a kid, I think it'd be good for you to be like Slater. You're gonna be like Jesus because Jesus got baptized too. And the disciples got baptized too, and you should do it. Humble yourself. What does God want from you? God isn't asking anything from you that Jesus didn't already do first. Jesus, God wants you to humble yourself and serve others. The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. Jesus got down and washed the feet of his disciples. Jesus bent down and took the stripes on his back for your sins and for mine. Jesus carried his own cross up Calvary. Jesus took the nails in his hands and in his feet. He took the crown of thorns on his head. He didn't have to do any of it, but he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. And that's our king. So don't be like the Edomites. Be like Jesus. And why is this so important? Number two on your notes. Because your pride will destroy you. It will deceive you, but it will destroy you. What happened to the Edomites? Verse 16. They had to drink the cup of God's wrath for themselves. And in this text, Obadiah promises there are going to be no survivors, there's going to be nobody left. And that's what you read about when you read in the Bible. When the people of God, when the northern kingdom of Israel wandered from God, the judgment of God fell on them. When the southern kingdom of Judah wandered from God, the judgment of God fell on them. 586. When the Edomites wandered from God and celebrated the demise of God's people, the judgment of God fell on them. Obadiah predicted it. And then, of course, a few hundred years later, the judgment of God fell on Jesus. And Jesus was crucified on the cross for our sins. Now some of you are thinking, What if I don't humble myself? What if I won't be converted to Christ? What if I just take the risk and I drink the cup of God's judgment for myself? What if I just do it that way? Well, you can. You can either trust in Jesus who's taking the cup of God's judgment for you on the cross, or you can drink the cup of God's judgment yourself. Which means you don't want to receive Jesus. There's always hell. It's there. You either humble yourself and receive Jesus who drank the cup, or you remain deceived by your pride and be destroyed by your pride, and you will drink the cup yourself. Number three, on your notes. Internal pride leads to external evil. What did the Edomites do because of their pride? How did it show up in their actions? Look at all the do-nots that the Edomites did. Verse 12. They gloated over their brother's misfortune. Verse 13, they entered into the gates of Jerusalem. Verse 14, they cut off the crossroads and handed over the survivors. Edom did all of this and more. Their internal pride led to all kinds of external evil. Let me give you some examples of how that might work in 2026. Pride is what might make someone be so obsessed with their physical appearance so they can post it on social media. They spend a sinful amount of time and money and attention trying to fix their skin and their teeth and all the other things, their lips and all the other body parts they try to fix. Why would they do that? Because internal pride will lead you to external evil. Pride is what'll make a man begin to believe he deserves someone on the side. Pride is what'll make a man or a woman believe they deserve more money than they can legally make. So they gamble or they steal or they lie on their taxes. You see this in Obadiah. The internal pride of the Edomites led to all kinds of external sinful evil. And all of us in this room should listen to the vision of Obadiah. God is not messing around with our sins and our pride. Sooner or later, God will bring you down. And one more thing you see in Obadiah. And by the way, I know some of you are like, man, I'm glad I came today. Can we get Pastor John back? I mean, this is ridiculous. This is a heavy sermon. What is going on right now? What's going on is we're studying through the minor prophets, and they don't tell a lot of jokes. I don't know if you've noticed this or not. Isn't that like a jokey portion of the Bible? But there is hope in every single one of these minor prophets, including this one, number four on your notes. Here it is. God gets the final word. God gets the final word. And God's final word is a judgment, is a God of judgment, yes. But he's a God of grace, and he's a God of mercy, and he's a God of love. And if anyone will repent of their sins and their pride and receive Jesus by faith, they will be fully, permanently, forever forgiven by God and restored to God. What does he say in the text? Verses 19 and 20 and 21. Obadiah prophesies that one day God's kingdom will encompass all of the land and will encompass people from every nation and every tribe. That's why he says in the last verse, the last phrase, the kingdom will be the Lord's. Not Edom's, because they're gone. Not Babylon, they're gone. Not Rome, they're gone. Not China, they will be gone. Not Russia, they will be gone. Not America, they will be gone. What? The kingdom will be the Lord's. A day is coming when Jesus will return and the unbelievers will be judged by God and they will drink their own cup. But the believers in Jesus will be welcomed into the city of God, the forever city of God. And the believers in Jesus will have Jesus get down and wipe the tears from our eyes. And there will be people from every language and tribe and people group in that city who exalt Jesus as their king. And the kingdom will be the Lord's. Now, there's one more little thing I want you to see. I know some of y'all started putting your stuff up already, but one more thing. This is cool. The 1500-year-old blood feud that started with the twins, Jacob and Esau, and extended all the way through Israel's history. And then Obadiah in 586 prophesies the destruction of Edom. And that happened. After Obadiah was gone, the Arab tribes overran the Edomites and their land, and the Edomites lost everything. By the time the 400s were over, the homeland was gone, their language was gone, their identity as a people was gone, and the final remnants, the descendants of Esau, were just absorbed into the nations around them, and Edom as a nation ceased to exist forever. So when the Greeks and the Romans came in and conquered this area over the next 300 years, the descendants who were kind of left and scattered of the Edomites became to be known as Iedumeans. Because Iedumea is the Greek way of saying, saying Edom. When the time came for Jesus to be born at Bethlehem at Christmas time, there was this one more clash in the Bible between Edom and Israel. Because do you remember the evil king who was sitting on the throne in Jerusalem? The Roman appointee. He tried to kill Jesus. He's responsible for the massacre of the innocents in Bethlehem. His name was Herod, and Herod was, guess what? He was an I do men, a descendant of Esau. And this blood feud continued all the way through the birth of Christ. And you know what happened later? Jesus survived. And then Jesus grew up. And then Jesus was crucified. And we needed him to grow up and we needed him to be crucified. Because we needed Jesus to drink the cup. And he did. And Jesus took the cup of the judgment of God and he drank it down to the tracks. For you and for me. The cup of God's judgment that we deserve because of our pride. But now anyone who will turn from their sins and receive Jesus can be forgiven because Jesus drank the cup. And that is how God humbles the proud. And every Sunday at family church, we remember the cup that Jesus drank when we celebrate the Lord's Supper, which we're going to do right now. Christianity is pretty simple. Jesus drank the cup for you, or you can drink it for yourself. So we eat the bread and we drink the cup, remembering Christ. And Jesus drank a cup of judgment so that we can drink a cup of grace and mercy and love. So this morning, as we take the Lord's Supper, let's do it with humility and gratitude and gravity and faith in Jesus, who is our King. Because the kingdom is the Lord's. Now the Lord's Supper is for Christians. If you're here and you're not a Christian, you should not take the Lord's Supper. Take the Lord's Supper after you become a believer. You can do it with integrity. In the family church, we believe the Lord's Supper should be taken after you've been baptized, like Slater was today, and after you become a member of a neighborhood church. If you're here this morning, you're a Christian who's been baptized, you're a member of another church, we would encourage you to take the Lord's Supper with us as part of the extended family of Jesus that goes around the world. But right now, let's pray. Let's thank Jesus for taking that cup for us. Let's confess our sins. Let's confess our pride. Let's repent of our sins. Let's repent of our pride. And then we'll all eat and drink together in just a moment.