Text: 2 Timothy 1:3-14, Bottom Line: Make the Right Investments In Our Replacements

It was December 24th, last year, Christmas Eve. I was at Peg’s Glorified Ham and Eggs (our version of Wade’s Dinner back in Reno) and I sat across from perhaps one of my best friends and ministry partners Phil Burdoin. Phil, a couple of years older than me ,had a passion for the gospel like few I’ve ever seen. When I got to The Bridge Church I knew he was the guy I needed to make my biggest investment in. Investment in time, investment in prayer and investment in helping him continue to develop his giftings. It wasn’t as though Phil was immature by any stretch, he was a deeply ground believer in Jesus Christ and had been using his gifts in amazing ways for the kingdom, but there was something about him that made me want to make a deeper investment in him and there was a reason; He was always willing to make hard sacrifices in order to invest time in other people even though his full-time job for almost two decades was as an IT professional. He had a full time job with full time commitments and yet still was willing to invest in others. That was the type of man I wanted to invest in.

We met for Bible study with a group every Monday at my house, Phil and I met Tuesday mornings for coffee, we were together on Wednesday nights leading youth ministry some times on the weekends and of course on Sunday mornings. There were times when I literally saw Phil every day of the week.

This encounter over breakfast on Christmas Eve was particularly important because Phil and I both had a sense, even then three months prior to setting foot here in Oswego, that this is where God was calling my family for the next step in ministry and Phil and I, who share an affinity for planning ahead, were dreaming about how to set up the ministry well for my departure.

After a long talk, about two hours, as we sat and we cast a vision for what a proposal would look like to present to the staff and board at The Bridge we had a well laid plan and a thought for the type of individual the Bridge Church would need, and I realized something, he was sitting right across from me, it was Phil; a man I had instructed students numerous times to address as Pastor Phil because he was that to them.

So I asked him, “Phil, what about you? What would stop you from stepping into full-time vocational ministry”. We talked more, dreamed more, took time over the next several months and through some rather God inspired events, here is Pastor Phil today, Associate Pastor at The Bridge Church.

Phil is built for ministry and I saw that in him. But I wasn’t the only one who saw that, Pastor Bill West the Senior Pastor at The Bridge Church had seen that well before I had seen that, Pastor Josh McCrary my predecessor had seen that in him and countless others. We all saw the same thing, Phil was worth the investment.

And as I sat across from him that morning over breakfast I knew, I just knew I had been investing in my replacement. That really is the essence of discipleship, finding your replacement; the person you can invest time in and energy around the gospel of Jesus in a way that says, I know that time is short, who am I investing in to replace me as the gospel goes forth.

Transition:

As we continue in our series Everyday Leaders, Biblical Leadership Principles for Every Christian I would like for you to consider the investment you are making in the next leader. How we are going to see that unfold in scripture this morning is in the life of a man who is everything I described in Pastor Phil Burdoin, today we are going to be looking at Timothy, The Next Leader. Open your Bibles with me to 2 Timothy 1 starting at verse 3.

At this point in Paul’s life he is preparing to go to be with the Lord, he sits in prison, execution is not too far off in his future, this is in fact the last writing we have from the great apostle Paul and who does he write it to…his young protege Timot

Introduction:

Every year a list of fears people have is published, we know them as phobias, things that people are debilitatingly afraid of, if you end up in this situation things will literally shut down for you and the fear associated with the phobia takes over. There are very common phobias that we know of: claustrophobia: the fear of tight spaces, acrophobia: the fear of heights,  for those who know my personal hatred for spiders there is arachnophobia, there are many common phobias that we deal with as humans every day.

But there are also some not so common phobias some that you may not have every heard of: There is Nomophobia: fear of not having mobile access, there is Ablutophobia: fear of bathing, this one becomes very apparent with junior high boys at summer camp, there is Spectrophobia: the fear of one’s one reflection and of course there is Phobophbia: the fear of phobias.

There is no shortage of phobias, things that we are afraid of, but one that is perhaps one of the most common, least talked about phobias is Kakorrhaphiophobia: The fear of failure.

How many of you have failed so massively that you never want to do so in that way ever again? Or perhaps you have tried so hard to not fail, to try to make sure everything is perfect, that you get lost in the see of indecision because you are trying so hard not to fail? I know I have, but what I have also learned is there is an appropriate place of failure in our lives. We fail, we learn, we grow, we move forward. Where failure becomes a problem for us is when it becomes a fear, I am so afraid to fail that I will spend more time trying to not fail that I will pursuing living the life God has for me. In many ways this lifestyle of not wanting to fail creates a grim reality for us; as we move day by day closer to the reality of meeting the Lord face to face, (no man escapes that), the more days we waste trying to not fail, the less time we have to live in intimacy with God.

There is a great line from one of my favorite movies The Shawshank Redemption. Morgan Freeman’s character, a wise old stick up man named Red, after spending years in prison says this, “Get busy livin’ or get busy dyin’.” Well living in the fear of not failing, you’ve done plenty of dying without a lot of living!

Friends we live in a fallen, sinful world that sets us up for failure, but there has to be a way for us to live without the fear of failure and know how to respond when we fail.

Transition:

Open your Bibles with me to Acts 4 starting at verse 5. As we continue in our series Everyday Leaders, Biblical Principles of Leadership for Every Christian today we are going to look at a leader who failed, possibly in the worse way you can fail, a man who denied the Lord Jesus Christ, today we are going to be looking at Peter, The Failed Leader. I call him the failed leader, not because that defines him, but because of where his failure brought him, that failure was a part of his narrative just like it is for us. And what we are going to learn from Peter this morning is that Failure is a Building Block for Growth in Jesus Christ.

Let’s stand together as we read from Acts 4:5-20, hear the Word of the Lord.

Teaching:

5 On the next day their rulers and elders and scribes gathered together in Jerusalem,

6 with Annas the high priest and Caiaphas and John and Alexander, and all who were of the high-priestly family.

7 And when they had set them in the midst, they inquired, “By what power or by what name did you do this?”

8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders,

9 if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed,

10 let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead-by him this man is standing before you well.

11 This Jesus is the stone that

Introduction:

Every year a list of fears people have is published, we know them as phobias, things that people are debilitatingly afraid of, if you end up in this situation things will literally shut down for you and the fear associated with the phobia takes over. There are very common phobias that we know of: claustrophobia: the fear of tight spaces, acrophobia: the fear of heights,  for those who know my personal hatred for spiders there is arachnophobia, there are many common phobias that we deal with as humans every day.

But there are also some not so common phobias some that you may not have every heard of: There is Nomophobia: fear of not having mobile access, there is Ablutophobia: fear of bathing, this one becomes very apparent with junior high boys at summer camp, there is Spectrophobia: the fear of one’s one reflection and of course there is Phobophbia: the fear of phobias.

There is no shortage of phobias, things that we are afraid of, but one that is perhaps one of the most common, least talked about phobias is Kakorrhaphiophobia: The fear of failure.

How many of you have failed so massively that you never want to do so in that way ever again? Or perhaps you have tried so hard to not fail, to try to make sure everything is perfect, that you get lost in the see of indecision because you are trying so hard not to fail? I know I have, but what I have also learned is there is an appropriate place of failure in our lives. We fail, we learn, we grow, we move forward. Where failure becomes a problem for us is when it becomes a fear, I am so afraid to fail that I will spend more time trying to not fail that I will pursuing living the life God has for me. In many ways this lifestyle of not wanting to fail creates a grim reality for us; as we move day by day closer to the reality of meeting the Lord face to face, (no man escapes that), the more days we waste trying to not fail, the less time we have to live in intimacy with God.

There is a great line from one of my favorite movies The Shawshank Redemption. Morgan Freeman’s character, a wise old stick up man named Red, after spending years in prison says this, “Get busy livin’ or get busy dyin’.” Well living in the fear of not failing, you’ve done plenty of dying without a lot of living!

Friends we live in a fallen, sinful world that sets us up for failure, but there has to be a way for us to live without the fear of failure and know how to respond when we fail.

Transition:

Open your Bibles with me to Acts 4 starting at verse 5. As we continue in our series Everyday Leaders, Biblical Principles of Leadership for Every Christian today we are going to look at a leader who failed, possibly in the worse way you can fail, a man who denied the Lord Jesus Christ, today we are going to be looking at Peter, The Failed Leader. I call him the failed leader, not because that defines him, but because of where his failure brought him, that failure was a part of his narrative just like it is for us. And what we are going to learn from Peter this morning is that Failure is a Building Block for Growth in Jesus Christ.

Let’s stand together as we read from Acts 4:5-20, hear the Word of the Lord.

Teaching:

5 On the next day their rulers and elders and scribes gathered together in Jerusalem,

6 with Annas the high priest and Caiaphas and John and Alexander, and all who were of the high-priestly family.

7 And when they had set them in the midst, they inquired, “By what power or by what name did you do this?”

8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders,

9 if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed,

10 let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead-by him this man is standing before you well.

11 This Jesus is the stone that

Text: 1 Kings 18:20-40, Gospel Driven Words Let Your Voice Be Heard

In our passage this morning, the nation of Israel is spiraling further and further toward destruction and captivity as a divided people. The kingdom at the point of this passage is now a divided kingdom between the southern people of Judah and the Northern Territory of Israel and while there were a few kings of Judah who remained faithful to God, none of the kings of the northern kingdom pursued the Lord and are marked by a common phrase as each new king of Israel is introduced and he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.

None, perhaps was worse than Ahab king of Israel. A few chapters prior to this morning’s passage we are introduced to Ahab and his sinister wife Jezebel and, well, we’ll let the text speak for itself to describe him and the state of the nation of Israel, 1 Kings 16:30-33 tells us this: 

1 Kings 16:30-33 (ESV) 30 And Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the LORD, more than all who were before him. 31 And as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, he took for his wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and went and served Baal and worshiped him. 32 He erected an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he built in Samaria. 33 And Ahab made an Asherah. Ahab did more to provoke the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him.

This was where the northern people of Israel found themselves as a people; under a wicked and godless government rule with the masses listening to the dominant voice of falsehood in the world and in the midst of this wickedness, in the midst of an evil people under an evil government, God raises up one voice, one man in the midst of many voices leading the people away from the Lord, in our passage this morning, as we continue our series on Everyday Leadership, biblical leadership principles for every Christian, we see Elijah, The Outnumbered Leader who sees people being deceived and in need of transformation and what he does, the means he uses to transform a culture is at its heart, the gospel. His Gospel Driven Words Let His Voice Be Heard.

As Elijah sets the stage for this celestial standoff between The God of All Creation, the God who has made his name known Yahweh, and the false god Baal, something else happening here. The nation of Israel at this point in the text is a monarchy and the monarchy, the governmental structure has led people away from Yahweh and into all sorts of evil. This goes beyond being a religious crisis to a national crisis. Spiritual warfare has crossed into the realm of national crisis.  In as much as this is a story of Yahweh verses a false god and false beliefs about God it is also a story of a cosmic sovereign Yahweh verses an earthly sovereign, Ahab.

The worship of Baal according to what we read earlier in 1 Kings 16 was a government sanctioned activity, the king led, directed and celebrated the worship of a god that turned the peoples eyes away from Yahweh, and in all of this Elijah stands as the lone voice. He references this in verse 22 “I, even I only, am left a prophet of the LORD”.

Friends this is a very contemporary narrative for us as a people in a country that is divided, that sees godlessness running rampant with people being led deeper and deeper into sin and evil, justifying and in some cases even celebrating human atrocities. Everything we read in our catechism reading this morning has been violated by humanity and as such we see the repercussions in our country. Our nation is in despair and needs the voice of truth and friends as the church, as the people who are called by God’s name we stand as Elijah, we stand as the outnumbered voice, we stand as the collective lone voice that must speak on behalf of God into the lives of people, into culture, but as we go to the polls in just over a week we are either going to put ourselves in a positio

Text: 1 Kings 18:20-40, Gospel Driven Words Let Your Voice Be Heard

In our passage this morning, the nation of Israel is spiraling further and further toward destruction and captivity as a divided people. The kingdom at the point of this passage is now a divided kingdom between the southern people of Judah and the Northern Territory of Israel and while there were a few kings of Judah who remained faithful to God, none of the kings of the northern kingdom pursued the Lord and are marked by a common phrase as each new king of Israel is introduced and he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.

None, perhaps was worse than Ahab king of Israel. A few chapters prior to this morning’s passage we are introduced to Ahab and his sinister wife Jezebel and, well, we’ll let the text speak for itself to describe him and the state of the nation of Israel, 1 Kings 16:30-33 tells us this: 

1 Kings 16:30-33 (ESV) 30 And Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the LORD, more than all who were before him. 31 And as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, he took for his wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and went and served Baal and worshiped him. 32 He erected an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he built in Samaria. 33 And Ahab made an Asherah. Ahab did more to provoke the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him.

This was where the northern people of Israel found themselves as a people; under a wicked and godless government rule with the masses listening to the dominant voice of falsehood in the world and in the midst of this wickedness, in the midst of an evil people under an evil government, God raises up one voice, one man in the midst of many voices leading the people away from the Lord, in our passage this morning, as we continue our series on Everyday Leadership, biblical leadership principles for every Christian, we see Elijah, The Outnumbered Leader who sees people being deceived and in need of transformation and what he does, the means he uses to transform a culture is at its heart, the gospel. His Gospel Driven Words Let His Voice Be Heard.

As Elijah sets the stage for this celestial standoff between The God of All Creation, the God who has made his name known Yahweh, and the false god Baal, something else happening here. The nation of Israel at this point in the text is a monarchy and the monarchy, the governmental structure has led people away from Yahweh and into all sorts of evil. This goes beyond being a religious crisis to a national crisis. Spiritual warfare has crossed into the realm of national crisis.  In as much as this is a story of Yahweh verses a false god and false beliefs about God it is also a story of a cosmic sovereign Yahweh verses an earthly sovereign, Ahab.

The worship of Baal according to what we read earlier in 1 Kings 16 was a government sanctioned activity, the king led, directed and celebrated the worship of a god that turned the peoples eyes away from Yahweh, and in all of this Elijah stands as the lone voice. He references this in verse 22 “I, even I only, am left a prophet of the LORD”.

Friends this is a very contemporary narrative for us as a people in a country that is divided, that sees godlessness running rampant with people being led deeper and deeper into sin and evil, justifying and in some cases even celebrating human atrocities. Everything we read in our catechism reading this morning has been violated by humanity and as such we see the repercussions in our country. Our nation is in despair and needs the voice of truth and friends as the church, as the people who are called by God’s name we stand as Elijah, we stand as the outnumbered voice, we stand as the collective lone voice that must speak on behalf of God into the lives of people, into culture, but as we go to the polls in just over a week we are either going to put ourselves in a positio

Our text for this morning is from Exodus chapter 16 starting at verse one, open your Bibles there with me. As we continue our series in Everyday Leadership, one of the challenges of leadership is that often it comes with criticism. How many of you have ever felt like you were criticized for something unfairly?

Today we are going to look at someone from scripture who was one of the most enduring examples of godly leadership, but also one of the most openly criticized leaders we have ever seen, today we are going to look at Moses, The Criticized Leader.To set this up; The Israelites were held in captivity, in captivity for 430 years. Their people were slaves in Egypt, forced labor, beaten, their children murdered by the hand of Pharaoh, they were in fact a people who were not a people in Egypt; about fifteen generations experienced this horrible, tragic human reality and at the right time and in the right place God spoke to Moses. He spoke to Moses and used him as a means to display his power and display his glory in Israel as he delivers them out of the hands of Pharaoh.

After a miraculous moment at the Red Sea the Israelites find themselves in the wilderness as God prepares them for the land he has promised them; their own land, no longer slaves, no longer oppressed, this is the backdrop for where we will pick up the Exodus narrative in an uncomfortable conversation in which Moses is being criticized for his leadership of God’s people, but what Moses will teach us through this passage is that in the midst of criticism the most important thing is God’s work, not man’s words. Let’s stand together this morning out of reverence for God and his Word as it is read: Exodus 16:1-12, hear the word of the Lord.1 They set out from Elim, and all the congregation of the people of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had departed from the land of Egypt.2 And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness,3 and the people of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”4 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not.5 On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily.”6 So Moses and Aaron said to all the people of Israel, “At evening you shall know that it was the LORD who brought you out of the land of Egypt,7 and in the morning you shall see the glory of the LORD, because he has heard your grumbling against the LORD. For what are we, that you grumble against us?”8 And Moses said, “When the LORD gives you in the evening meat to eat and in the morning bread to the full, because the LORD has heard your grumbling that you grumble against him-what are we? Your grumbling is not against us but against the LORD.”9 Then Moses said to Aaron, “Say to the whole congregation of the people of Israel, ‘Come near before the LORD, for he has heard your grumbling.'”10 And as soon as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the people of Israel, they looked toward the wilderness, and behold, the glory of the LORD appeared in the cloud.11 And the LORD said to Moses,12 “I have heard the grumbling of the people of Israel. Say to them, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread. Then you shall know that I am the LORD your God.'” – Exodus 16:1-12

May God add his blessing to the reading of his word as we seek his face this morning.According to this passage this narrative takes place on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had departed from the land of Egypt. they had

Our text for this morning is from Exodus chapter 16 starting at verse one, open your Bibles there with me. As we continue our series in Everyday Leadership, one of the challenges of leadership is that often it comes with criticism. How many of you have ever felt like you were criticized for something unfairly?

Today we are going to look at someone from scripture who was one of the most enduring examples of godly leadership, but also one of the most openly criticized leaders we have ever seen, today we are going to look at Moses, The Criticized Leader.To set this up; The Israelites were held in captivity, in captivity for 430 years. Their people were slaves in Egypt, forced labor, beaten, their children murdered by the hand of Pharaoh, they were in fact a people who were not a people in Egypt; about fifteen generations experienced this horrible, tragic human reality and at the right time and in the right place God spoke to Moses. He spoke to Moses and used him as a means to display his power and display his glory in Israel as he delivers them out of the hands of Pharaoh.

After a miraculous moment at the Red Sea the Israelites find themselves in the wilderness as God prepares them for the land he has promised them; their own land, no longer slaves, no longer oppressed, this is the backdrop for where we will pick up the Exodus narrative in an uncomfortable conversation in which Moses is being criticized for his leadership of God’s people, but what Moses will teach us through this passage is that in the midst of criticism the most important thing is God’s work, not man’s words. Let’s stand together this morning out of reverence for God and his Word as it is read: Exodus 16:1-12, hear the word of the Lord.1 They set out from Elim, and all the congregation of the people of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had departed from the land of Egypt.2 And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness,3 and the people of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”4 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not.5 On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily.”6 So Moses and Aaron said to all the people of Israel, “At evening you shall know that it was the LORD who brought you out of the land of Egypt,7 and in the morning you shall see the glory of the LORD, because he has heard your grumbling against the LORD. For what are we, that you grumble against us?”8 And Moses said, “When the LORD gives you in the evening meat to eat and in the morning bread to the full, because the LORD has heard your grumbling that you grumble against him-what are we? Your grumbling is not against us but against the LORD.”9 Then Moses said to Aaron, “Say to the whole congregation of the people of Israel, ‘Come near before the LORD, for he has heard your grumbling.'”10 And as soon as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the people of Israel, they looked toward the wilderness, and behold, the glory of the LORD appeared in the cloud.11 And the LORD said to Moses,12 “I have heard the grumbling of the people of Israel. Say to them, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread. Then you shall know that I am the LORD your God.'” – Exodus 16:1-12

May God add his blessing to the reading of his word as we seek his face this morning.According to this passage this narrative takes place on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had departed from the land of Egypt. they had

Our text for this morning is in Judges 4 starting at verse 1, turn there with me if you would. The period of the Judges is a dark time in Old Testament history. A few weeks ago we studied guiding principles for leadership in the life of Joshua and the fulfillment of the conquest of the land God promised to Israel. The period of the Judges happens historically after that time when Israel takes the land of promise west of the Jordan that we read about there. But after the death of Joshua a problem arises in Israel, a problem of faithfulness to God. There is a pattern in the book of Judges that goes like this: The people of Israel would do what was evil in the sight of the Lord, they would cry out to the Lord for deliverance, God would raise up a leader; a judge, more of a military and spiritual leader than a judge as we would think of it, someone to deliver and govern the people, and these judges were raised up by God to deliver the people from the consequences of their evil in order to point them back to God, to turn the peoples hearts back to the Lord.

In Judges 4 Israel finds themselves in the same problem and in the same cycle, but this time they have an additional problem, a reluctant leader; a man named Barak; God’s purposes would be fulfilled in Barak’s life, God would have his way but what it would require was another leader, someone to come alongside Barak, someone who was not concerned about credit, or prestige, but someone who was concerned with obedience, willing to be a leader to a leader and vocalizing it, a woman named Deborah. As we continue in our series Everyday Leaders, Deborah was to Barak what we all need at some point in our lives, someone who was willing to be what we often need, the right voice in our lives at the right time.Let’s stand together as we read from God’s word in Judges 4:1-10, hear the Word of the Lord.

1 And the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the LORD after Ehud died.2 And the LORD sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. The commander of his army was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth-hagoyim.3 Then the people of Israel cried out to the LORD for help, for he had 900 chariots of iron and he oppressed the people of Israel cruelly for twenty years.4 Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel at that time.5 She used to sit under the palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the people of Israel came up to her for judgment.6 She sent and summoned Barak the son of Abinoam from Kedesh-naphtali and said to him, “Has not the LORD, the God of Israel, commanded you, ‘Go, gather your men at Mount Tabor, taking 10,000 from the people of Naphtali and the people of Zebulun.7 And I will draw out Sisera, the general of Jabin’s army, to meet you by the river Kishon with his chariots and his troops, and I will give him into your hand’?”8 Barak said to her, “If you will go with me, I will go, but if you will not go with me, I will not go.”9 And she said, “I will surely go with you. Nevertheless, the road on which you are going will not lead to your glory, for the LORD will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman.” Then Deborah arose and went with Barak to Kedesh.10 And Barak called out Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh. And 10,000 men went up at his heels, and Deborah went up with him. – Judges 4:1-10

May God be glorified as we proclaim his word and respond in obedience to what he is calling us to as we study this morning.

As this story unfolds in the typical cycle of the Judges period, we see Israel doing what is evil in the sight of God, they are doing evil, they have turned from God and as is God’s pattern in this cycle, God allows hardship, he ordains consequence for sin, for turning from him. But up to this point in the Judges narrative the pattern was simple, we do evil, we have consequences, we cry out, God provides a deliverer.

But in this instance there is a problem, the deliverer

Our text for this morning is in Judges 4 starting at verse 1, turn there with me if you would. The period of the Judges is a dark time in Old Testament history. A few weeks ago we studied guiding principles for leadership in the life of Joshua and the fulfillment of the conquest of the land God promised to Israel. The period of the Judges happens historically after that time when Israel takes the land of promise west of the Jordan that we read about there. But after the death of Joshua a problem arises in Israel, a problem of faithfulness to God. There is a pattern in the book of Judges that goes like this: The people of Israel would do what was evil in the sight of the Lord, they would cry out to the Lord for deliverance, God would raise up a leader; a judge, more of a military and spiritual leader than a judge as we would think of it, someone to deliver and govern the people, and these judges were raised up by God to deliver the people from the consequences of their evil in order to point them back to God, to turn the peoples hearts back to the Lord.

In Judges 4 Israel finds themselves in the same problem and in the same cycle, but this time they have an additional problem, a reluctant leader; a man named Barak; God’s purposes would be fulfilled in Barak’s life, God would have his way but what it would require was another leader, someone to come alongside Barak, someone who was not concerned about credit, or prestige, but someone who was concerned with obedience, willing to be a leader to a leader and vocalizing it, a woman named Deborah. As we continue in our series Everyday Leaders, Deborah was to Barak what we all need at some point in our lives, someone who was willing to be what we often need, the right voice in our lives at the right time.Let’s stand together as we read from God’s word in Judges 4:1-10, hear the Word of the Lord.

1 And the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the LORD after Ehud died.2 And the LORD sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. The commander of his army was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth-hagoyim.3 Then the people of Israel cried out to the LORD for help, for he had 900 chariots of iron and he oppressed the people of Israel cruelly for twenty years.4 Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel at that time.5 She used to sit under the palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the people of Israel came up to her for judgment.6 She sent and summoned Barak the son of Abinoam from Kedesh-naphtali and said to him, “Has not the LORD, the God of Israel, commanded you, ‘Go, gather your men at Mount Tabor, taking 10,000 from the people of Naphtali and the people of Zebulun.7 And I will draw out Sisera, the general of Jabin’s army, to meet you by the river Kishon with his chariots and his troops, and I will give him into your hand’?”8 Barak said to her, “If you will go with me, I will go, but if you will not go with me, I will not go.”9 And she said, “I will surely go with you. Nevertheless, the road on which you are going will not lead to your glory, for the LORD will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman.” Then Deborah arose and went with Barak to Kedesh.10 And Barak called out Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh. And 10,000 men went up at his heels, and Deborah went up with him. – Judges 4:1-10

May God be glorified as we proclaim his word and respond in obedience to what he is calling us to as we study this morning.

As this story unfolds in the typical cycle of the Judges period, we see Israel doing what is evil in the sight of God, they are doing evil, they have turned from God and as is God’s pattern in this cycle, God allows hardship, he ordains consequence for sin, for turning from him. But up to this point in the Judges narrative the pattern was simple, we do evil, we have consequences, we cry out, God provides a deliverer.

But in this instance there is a problem, the deliverer

Our text for this morning comes from the book of Acts 9 starting at verse 26 turn there with me if you would and let’s stand together as we read God’s word together.

Acts 9:26-31(ESV) 26 And when he had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples. And they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was a disciple. 27 But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and declared to them how on the road he had seen the Lord, who spoke to him, and how at Damascus he had preached boldly in the name of Jesus. 28 So he went in and out among them at Jerusalem, preaching boldly in the name of the Lord. 29 And he spoke and disputed against the Hellenists. But they were seeking to kill him. 30 And when the brothers learned this, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus.31 So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.One of the things that can get lost in our study of the Bible is chronology; we lose a sense of time in certain Bible events. On the surface of this passage and practically speaking we are going from one passage to the next in chapter 9 and one story to the next, previously in this passage Paul was in Damascus preaching the gospel following is conversion on the Damascus road, for those who are unfamiliar with that story Paul, who was a persecutor of those who followed Jesus Christ, had Christ revealed to him on the road going to a region called Damascus. It was in this revelation directly from God that Paul, in repentance came to realize his error in persecuting those who followed Jesus Christ and surrendered himself to Christ’s lordship. It was in that experience that his fervor and passion for God pivoted from wanting to destroy those who he presumed were coming against God, namely Christians, to proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ in the place where he intended to destroy Christians.

Now if you were to read that story of Paul’s salvation at the beginning of Acts 9, move through chapter 9 and his time preaching the gospel in Damascus to where we find ourselves in todays passage, in verse 26 it all moves rather quickly for us, but in reality as Paul affirms in Galatians 1:18, three years had gone by between verses 25 when Paul left Damascus and 26 as Paul arrives in Jerusalem.

It sheds a whole new light on what we are reading here in this passage. Paul had been a Christ follower for three years, he had been preaching the gospel in other regions and yet in that three years the disciples in Jerusalem, the place where his murderous journey started, weren’t buying it, they didn’t know this new and improved gospel-centered Paul. 

Although Paul was now an ardent defender and proclaimer of the gospel, his past actions had consequences in Jerusalem and now he had a reputation for something that was no longer true; fair or unfair, this was all the disciples in Jerusalem had as a witness for Paul up to this point. But despite that narrative Paul had an inescapable desire to align himself with the believers in Jerusalem and to not be an outsider looking in at the church. Paul faced an inescapable reality that every Christian faces:

Move 1: Every Christian Has aDesperate Need for Active Encouragement from Other Christians 

Imagine that you are Paul in this moment. You know and feel the weight of your errors, you just left a place where people wanted to kill you for preaching the gospel, you are now in a place where people don’t believe you are who you say you are in the gospel, what do you do?

Do you just go it alone? Do you just become a rogue in the Christian community? I don’t need these disciples anyway, God called me and that’s all that matters!Friends if COVID 19 has taught you anything, I hope what it has taught you is that you cannot go through the Christian life alone. Detreich Bonhoffer said it best in his book Life Tog