Yo-Yo Effect: Lessons from Judges – Opportunity (Message 2 in the series)

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Yes, this is lasts weeks sermon in brief form – you can catch up and join us this Sunday for the third message in the series.

God calls people to stand in the gap to help others grow and navigate through life. In the days of the judges as today life is like a yo-yo and goes up and down. The question that we must entertain is how do I too be a hero of the faith even in the face of these ups and downs.

We need people who can stand strong and lead the way. You are one of those people just as one of the judges of the book of Judges. That is right – each of us can be a Gideon, or a Samson, or a Jephthah, or a Deborah, just to name a few. When the opportunity arises can we stand up and be counted and take the opportunity to lead others in the life of true spirituality.

We may have flaws …

Jephthah did, as he had a problem with making rash statements.

Samson had some romantic improprieties.

Gideon dealt with flaws.

What are our flaws? The point – with God we can still overcome and make a difference.

We need to be like Deborah who choose wisely a general (Barak) who helped her succeed in the mission. We need to be like Gideon who was used of the Lord to raise an army of 32,000 even with doubt.

God can use you, yes he can. When he calls we need to step through the door of opportunity.

Join us this next Sunday for the next message (September 23, 2018) Blessings.

 

Yo-Yo Effect: Lessons from the Book of Judges – Message 1 Appropriate

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If you missed the first message in the series here is a synopsis.

Judges starts off with the statement from God to the people … “”I have given the land into your hand” (Judges 1:2). The point – God had provided the victory to the people and all they had to do is go in and take the land. But we read in the first chapter that the people “could NOT drive them out …” (Judges 1:19,21,27,29,30,31,33).

The people had been given the victory but they could not appropriate this victory in practice. The passage explains the basic reasons for this.

First, we find that they have half-hearted worship (Judges 2:11-15). The people thought they could have victory over their enemies by mixing worship – that is both to worship other gods and to worship the one true God. Reality check – this is half-hearted. We are either all in or not. We need to be on the same page as the one true God or we will face difficulties in our walk with the enemies of our faith. The result is the inability to appropriate the victorious life that has been promised us in God.

Second, they sought to please themselves. They saw the women of the people and saw that they were nice looking. Instead of staying true to the Law per the covenant agreement that they agreed to they sought to please their own eyes and flesh. There is no doubt that the women were nice looking and some, if not the majority of them, were nice people. This is not about the women but rather about the agreement that was made that the people had agreed to. They gave in to the physical desires rather than the spiritual truth and did not appropriate the victory that was promised in and through the work of God.

The point … the book of judges is about the yo-yo effect of the ups and downs of life. Life is not easy but rather can be rather difficult even in the face of the good days. Initially the nation of Israel was facing good days. They had victory and were seeing God’s blessing but they did not stay the course. Just like we face the yo-yo effect of the ups and downs of life they did and there is much that we can learn. Thus, let’s first step out into this life by living in faith and receiving or appropriating the truth of the victory we have in the Gospel.

WE HAVE LIFE ETERNAL

Let’s appropriate this truth and examine the lessons from the book of Judges that will help us to stand firm in our faith.

This next Sunday (9/16/2018) and the following Sunday we will examine the judges that God selected to help the people rebound from the inability to navigate the yo-yo effects. Join us and if you would like to be prepared – who is your favorite judge? Why?

Come and let’s grow together!

Blessings … Pastor Mark

Here are the messages: Message 1 Part 1: https://youtu.be/pewD96UKjgQ ;  Message 1 Part 2: https://youtu.be/Q0M8Fv_3wCs