CCF Weekly Services Podcast

Jephthah is raised up as a Judge of Israel. Though he doesn't trust the people seeking his help, He does trust God. Though he doesn't end up negotiating with honest people, God's Word exposes them. Though he wasn't perfect, God used him.

1. Pastors will let you down. God won't.

2. God doesn't need our permission to do the right thing.

3. God's Word is the first and final authority for anyone worth listening to.

In spite of the tyranny of Abimelech, God was able to raise up pictures of humility and wisdom like Tola and Jair. In spite of the ways God blessed Israel during this time, Israel still became complacent and compromised with Idolatry after their deaths. In spite of their sin, God still was able to restore Israel after they were willing to confess and submit to Him again.

1. Humility is an honest view of yourself and others. Pride is everything Humility isn’t.

2. No work of God lasts unless it is spent investing in the next generation.

3. God is more eager to restore us from our sin than we are in seeking it.

Amos asks a series of rhetorical questions to call Israel out on their idolatry and the consequences that would soon follow. Even though they had ignored every warning given thus far, sometimes the questions God asks us can accomplish more than lengthy lectures that we would just ignore anyway.

1. A well placed question is worth more than any lecture.

2. God always offers a warning and means of escape before judging anyone.

3. Whatever you have in this life is worthless if it doesn’t follow you where you’re ultimately headed.

Abimelech served as an anti-judge and an eerie foreshadowing of the prophetic Antichrist. Yet in spite of this great evil in Israel’s history, God still proved Himself faithful through his life. The only reason a man like him took power was because Israel compromised with idolatry. And the only reason he was taken out of power was because of the promise of His word spoken through Jotham.

1. The offer of peace at the price of truth invalidates both.

2. The only answer to false doctrine is with the truth.

3. The greatest opposition to the church is from within.

Amos’ address to 8 nations draws attention to the things they were about to experience judgment for. With these warnings we see the sort of things God isn’t a fan of, but also how patient God is and continues to be by continuing to warn them rather than just nuking them outright for these things.

1. The Gears of God’s Judgment grind slow but exceedingly fine.

2. Judgment delayed isn’t Judgment denied.

3. God is patient with people we don’t think deserve it too.

Gideon was a man that was used by God to deliver Israel from the oppression of the Midianites. He was also a fallen sinful human being who fell into all the same traps we would were we in his position. The question isn't if we make mistakes, but how do we deal with them and recover than compounding their influence over our lives and those around us?  

1. You'll never please everybody, but you can please God.

2. God is much better at payback than you are.

3. Deal with your sin or your sin is going to deal with you.

Amos begins his prophecy with a reminder of the fact the Lord is still speaking to His people from where He has from the beginning. And that message isn’t a pleasant one. On the verge of judgment, Amos is delivering God’s final warning and last chance before judgment comes to Northern Israel at the hands of the Assyrians.

1. Where God guides, He provides.

2. Be faithful with what is in front of you and He’ll let you know along the way if there’s anything more He wants from you.

3. Never take the blessings of God for granted. They can be taken away.

Gideon's victory against Midian was set up in such a way where no other explanation was possible apart from the intervention of God. Every promise made to Gideon himself was nothing new and had been written in scripture before, yet God met him where he was at and verified it all anyway.

1. Worship focuses on who God is rather than your circumstances.

2. God will always give you reasons to trust Him before asking you to.

3. The best way to verify a word from God is with the Word of God.