Back in the 80's when the movie Urban Cowboy was released, even the most urban city folk traded in their baseball caps for Stetsons, listened to country music and learned how to line dance. One of the hit songs then was Waylon Jennings “Looking For Love In All The Wrong Places.”
Some of the lyrics were:
I've spent a lifetime looking for you
Single bars and good times, never true
I was looking for love in all the wrong places
Looking for love in too many faces
Don't know where it started or where it might end
I turn to a stranger, just like a friend
You came a'knocking at my heart's door..
You're everything I've been looking for..
God bless the day I discover
You, oh you, lookin' for love...
And some of us can relate to winding up in all the wrong places. There’s an old country saying that the good Lord looks after the foolhardy and the Devil takes care of his own. In my own case, I’m thankful to God that He does indeed look after the foolhardy. And maybe as you look back at your own life you see those many times when you, like me, just seemed to foolishly wind up in wrong places. Well, according to my Bible, we are not alone. Noah, Elijah, Abram, Jonah, David, Peter. Have you ever noticed how the most saintly Saints also keep winding up in all the wrong places?
Noah and the Ark. We’ve all known this story since Sunday School. But in Sunday school we only hear the “G” rated version. Noah was used mightily by God. He built the ark, saved mankind and the animals from annihilation. Then the flood dissipated. The waters dried up. Genesis 8:20 says that the first thing this man of God did was to build an altar to the Lord and God blessed Noah and his sons. Period. This is where we usually stop the story because we don’t like what happened next. Because Noah winds up in the wrong place and goes from flannel board hero to R-rated sinner.
TURN TO Genesis 9:18 Now the sons of Noah who went out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And Ham was the father of Canaan. 19 These three were the sons of Noah, and from these the whole earth was populated. 20 And Noah began to be a farmer, and he planted a vineyard. 21 Then he drank of the wine and was drunk, and became uncovered in his tent. (It seems that one moment Noah is building an altar and worshiping God and the next moment he is in the wrong place. Lying drunk and naked on the floor of his tent.) 22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside. 23 But Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and went backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father's nakedness.24 So Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done to him. 25 Then he said: "Cursed be Canaan; A servant of servants He shall be to his brethren."
We don’t exactly know what the sin of Ham was, but Noah’s extraordinary response would indicate perhaps that it was more sinister than Ham just accidently seeing his father naked. There was a curse put on that family line that extended for thousands of years. But it all started with Noah being in the wrong place. Drunk and naked.
TURN TO Genesis 12:1 Now the LORD had said to Abram: "Get out of your country, From your family And from your father's house, To a land that I will show you. 2 I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." (Abram and his wife Sarai and his nephew Lot and their followers went to Canaan.) And VERSE 7 Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, "To your descendants I will give this land." And there he built an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him.
God gave Abram the land and said this is where you need to settle down but disobedient Abram split and went South. Abram who we also know as Abraham was called by God for His purposes much like Noah. God suspended judgement over His people, and through Noah and Abraham, God gave His people a gift of salvation. God provided land, food and water. Noah and Abraham both build altars and worship God. And then soon after, they both wind up mired in a wrong place and a bad situation.
VERSE10 Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to dwell there, for the famine was severe in the land. 11 And it came to pass, when he was close to entering Egypt, that he said to Sarai his wife, "Indeed I know that you are a woman of beautiful countenance. 12 "Therefore it will happen, when the Egyptians see you, that they will say, 'This is his wife'; and they will kill me, but they will let you live. 13 "Please say you are my sister, that it may be well with me for your sake, and that I may live because of you."
Abram got hungry, didn’t trust God for His provision and left the land that was given to him. Now, down in enemy territory, he has to lie about his wife just to stay alive. Abraham. Man of God quickly becomes Backsliding Believer. He is willing to give up his own wife to save himself and yet Abraham will once again receive God’s blessing as did Noah.
When we next read about Abraham’s nephew Lot, he is living with his family – wife and two daughters in the charming little town of Sodom and the quaint little village of Gomorrah next door. So what was Lot – this strong man of God – doing there?
TURN TO Genesis 19:1 Now the two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them, and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground. 2 And he said, "Here now, my lords, please turn in to your servant's house and spend the night, and wash your feet; then you may rise early and go on your way." And they said, "No, but we will spend the night in the open square." 3 But he insisted strongly; so they turned in to him and entered his house. Then he made them a feast, and baked unleavened bread, and they ate. 4 Now before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both old and young, all the people from every quarter, surrounded the house. 5 And they called to Lot and said to him, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may know them carnally." 6 So Lot went out to them through the doorway, shut the door behind him, 7 and said, "Please, my brethren, do not do so wickedly! 8 "See now, I have two daughters who have not known a man; please, let me bring them out to you, and you may do to them as you wish; only do nothing to these men, since this is the reason they have come under the shadow of my roof."
All the men of Sodom came to Lot’s house to gang rape the two angels and Lot offered them his daughters and told the men they could rape them instead. We are horrified at the thought of a father doing that. Lot was at one time a strong man of God. Is this what happens to a person when they just spend too much time in the wrong places? Do we just become so saturated with the evil that swirls around us in our environment that the wrong place soon begins to look like the RIGHT place to be? Lot deserved the judgement of God and received His mercy instead. We read that the angels took Lot and his family out of the city and told them to escape to the mountains.
When we talk about our biblical saints being in the wrong places, we can’t forget our man Jonah that we read about last week. Disobedient to God. His soul infected with the sin of wanting to see Nineveh’s destruction and not their redemption, Jonah most definitely winds up in the wrong place. The belly of a fish. Disobedient Jonah deserves to be fish food and God intervened. In fact, we find that God’s grace is woven through all these stories of God’s people winding up in the wrong places.
King David was a man after God’s own heart and yet time and time again he keeps stumbling into all the wrong places. The rightful place of kings was on the battle lines. To lead and encourage their men. To determine battle strategy and then direct and guide their fighting men to the targets. Today the Commander-in-Chiefs of nations direct the battles from white houses and government palaces, but it was different in Old Testament times. As the Commander-in-Chief of Judah, the right place for David to be was on the first horse leading the charge. But David wasn't in the right place.
The devil delights when we stumble into the wrong places in life because that’s when sin can sneak up and devour us. And David the Saint is heading for a fall. TURN TO 2 Samuel 11:1 It happened in the spring of the year, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the people of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem. 2 Then it happened one evening that David arose from his bed and walked on the roof of the king's house. And from the roof he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful to behold. 3 So David sent and inquired about the woman. And someone said, "Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?" 4 Then David sent messengers, and took her; and she came to him, and he lay with her, for she was cleansed from her impurity; and she returned to her house.
Some Christian teachings today present David as the sexually abusive king who took this innocent neighbor by force. But the words, “she came to him and he lay with her” indicates that there was perhaps an interest and willingness on her part. David was in the wrong place and sinned but we overlook that Bathsheba was also in the wrong place. We forget that she was bathing in the nude in a place where she would have known that she could be seen by the King. If she could look up and see him, she knew that he could see her. All affairs start when two people are in the wrong place – logistically and emotionally.
And not just our Old Testament saints, but our New Testament saints also wind up in the wrong places. TURN TO Luke 22:54. This narrative is deeply disturbing to us. If it isn’t, it should be. As the attack by American culture continues to escalate, many Christians in America today are denying their faith in order to not offend the non-believer. Many Christians are now careful to not use the offensive word, “Jesus” in public and in polite company. In some circumstances, we’re told to even avoid using the word, “God” though 90% of the world’s population believes in Him. So we shake our heads in disapproval over Peter denying HIS relationship with Jesus as WE do the very same thing in our places of employment.
VERSE 54 Having arrested Him, they led Him and brought Him into the high priest's house. But Peter followed at a distance. 55 Now when they had kindled a fire in the midst of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter sat among them. 56 And a certain servant girl, seeing him as he sat by the fire, looked intently at him and said, "This man was also with Him." 57 But he denied Him, saying, "Woman, I do not know Him." 58 And after a little while another saw him and said, "You also are of them." But Peter said, "Man, I am not!" 59 Then after about an hour had passed, another confidently affirmed, saying, "Surely this fellow also was with Him, for he is a Galilean." 60 But Peter said, "Man, I do not know what you are saying!" Immediately, while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed. 61 And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how He had said to him, "Before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times." 62 So Peter went out and wept bitterly.
Peter is filled with sorrow over his betrayal. And, once again we find someone in the wrong place and lying to save his skin. We saw that Abraham was ready to sacrifice his wife and Lot his daughters. David sacrificed Bathsheba’s husband by arranging for his murder. Peter sacrifices his entire faith. Have you noticed that every time someone goes to the wrong place, there is sin involved? Peter deserved a lightening bolt out of the sky, but God is a God of second chances.
One more. TURN TO 1 Kings 19:1 Elijah the prophet. A man of God. Used by God to speak his Word. Elijah was a saint who also wound up in a wrong place. When it got dangerous, Elijah didn’t trust in God for His protection, He trusted in his own two feet and ran away as fast as he could.
VERSE 1 And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, also how he had executed all the prophets with the sword. 2 Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, "So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time." 3 And when he saw that, he arose and ran for his life, and went to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there. 4 But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he prayed that he might die, and said, "It is enough! Now, LORD, take my life, for I am no better than my fathers!" (And this is the part I love.) VERSE 9 And there he (Elijah) went into a cave, and spent the night in that place; and behold, the word of the LORD came to him, and He said to him, "What are you doing here, Elijah?"
Think back to Noah. What would have changed in Noah’s life, if he woke up in the middle of his drunken stupor and heard God say, “What are you doing here, Noah?” What if, as soon as Abraham crossed over into Egypt, he had heard God say, “What are you doing here Abram?”
Lot escaped but his wife was turned into a pillar of salt and Lot’s daughters got him drunk and had sex with him. Not a happy ending. When Lot moved his family to an evil place, what would have happened if he had been submitted to God and heard Him say. “Lot, what are you doing here?” I wonder if King David had been more submitted to God, if he would have heard the voice of God say, “What are you doing here, David? Get off this roof and return to the battle where you belong!” And if Bathsheba had heard God say, “What are you doing here? Get some clothes on, Girl!”
Things turned out differently for Elijah because he was tuned into hearing God’s still, small voice. Elijah wound up in the wrong place, but instead of committing a sin to try to weasel out of it, Elijah heard the voice of God. The Lord gave him some very specific directions and he obediently returned to the wilderness to carry them out. Elijah had gone to the wrong place, but in his submittedness to God, it was instructive and redemptive.
What happens when you find yourself in the wrong place? When you find yourself looking at the wrong images on your computer? When you wind up in a verbal smack-down with someone on Facebook? When you are in the middle of the tv show or a movie and you see something that makes you cringe? When you find yourself delighting in the embarrassment, failure of fall of a politician, public leader or just someone who has offended you? What happens when you open your mouth and gossip, bitterness or complaining comes tumbling out? When we go to the wrong places, that’s where sin rushes in to meet us.
The good news is that God says to you, “I will never leave you or forsake you.” The bad news is that God says to you, “I will never leave you or forsake you.” Because, like Elijah discovered, you can run but you cannot hide from God. He stands there waiting to see what we will do.
Like our beloved saints in the Bible, we go to those wrong places. But it’s what we DO in those wrong places that will determine God’s response to us. And we want to be like Elijah when even on the run, even in the darkest cave, we are submitted to God and hear the quiet, small, still voice of the Holy Spirit.
When we are submitted to Him, we will hear His voice. “What are you doing here? Turn that program off.” “What are you doing here? Just walk away from your computer.” “What are you doing here? Tell her you’re sorry and ask for her forgiveness.” “What are you doing here in this place of bitterness and judgement. Why are you saying those things to him?” What are you doing here?...”
And like Elijah we need to stop what we’re doing. We need to repent for being in the wrong place and confess any sins that we’ve given in to while we were there. And we need to ask God to show us the right place. The place where He wants us to be.
