The most feared military commander in Canaan… was exhausted… unarmed… hidden beneath a rug… inside a woman's tent. And he thought that he had finally escaped judgment. But folks…while Sisera had escaped Barak… He had not escaped God. And that's where we pick up tonight.

If you have God's Word… turn with me to Genesis 2. And this morning… I wanna talk about this subject: "What a Marriage Is Supposed to Be." Folks… we live in a world… that has all kinds of opinions about marriage. • Hollywood has an opinion about marriage. • The government has an opinion about marriage. • Your friends have opinions about marriage. • Your parents may have opinions about marriage. • And you certainly have an opinion about marriage. But there is one question… that towers above all the others: What does God say about marriage? Because I wanna tell you something… marriage wasn't man's idea. Marriage was God's idea.

Folks… In Judges 4...God was the Deliverer! And everybody else… was simply an instrument in His hand. And that's where Judges 5 begins. Because after God gave Israel this tremendous victory… Deborah and Barak did something… Israel desperately needed to learn how to do. They remembered it! They didn't just celebrate the victory. They turned the victory… into worship. And that's where we pick up tonight.

If you have God's Word… turn with me this morning to Genesis 1. And we're gonna to begin our message…exactly where the Bible begins. We're gonna begin with verse 1. "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." (Genesis 1:1 HCSB) You know…there are some questions… that almost everybody asks… at some point in life. • Where did I come from? • Why am I here? • Does my life have a purpose? • Is there really a God? • What happens when I die? And folks… those are some big questions. But the way you answer those questions… depends largely on… how you answer another question: How did all of this get here? Where did everything we see come from?

If you would…take God's Word… and turn with me once again to Exodus 33. And this morning … I want to continue talking about the subject we started last week: Knowing the ways of God. Now if you'll remember…in Exodus 33… Moses was facing a huge task. And because of the huge task he was facing…he went to the Lord in prayer….and he prayed a special prayer! So let's take a look at that prayer again… to get things started this morning.

Last week… we left off… with Israel standing on the edge… of one of the greatest victories in the entire Book of Judges. If you'll remember… God had already promised Barak the victory. So… he gathered ten thousand men… from Zebulun and Naphtali… and marched them up Mount Tabor. Meanwhile… Sisera assembled all nine hundred of his iron chariots… and positioned his army near the Kishon River…. exactly where God had promised Barak He would draw him. Then Deborah looked at Barak and said, "Move on, for this is the day the LORD has handed Sisera over to you. Hasn't the LORD gone before you?" (Judges 4:14, HCSB) And that's exactly what happened. The LORD… stepped onto the battlefield. • He sent the storm. • He flooded the Kishon River. • He removed the advantage… of Sisera's iron chariots. And Scripture tells us, "The LORD threw Sisera, all his charioteers, and all his army into confusion before Barak..." (Judges 4:15, HCSB) Folks... that's where we stopped. The battle had been won. The army had been broken. But there was one man... ONE MAN… who was still alive! And that's where we pick up tonight.

If you have God's word… turn with me to Exodus 33. And this morning… I want to talk to you about this subject: "Knowing The Ways of God". Now in this passage of scripture…Moses is facing a great task. And because of the great task he's facing…he goes to the Lord in prayer….and he prays a special prayer! And that's what we have here before us this morning.

Last week we spent our time pondering this question concerning Barak in Judges 4: Was Barak a coward? Or was something deeper happening? And we discovered that Hebrews 11… lists Barak among the heroes of faith. So rather than seeing a man who rejected God… what we really saw… was a man whose faith… still needed encouragement. We also talked about Deborah… and how she responded to Barak. If you'll remember we said: • She did not mock him. • She did not shame him. • She strengthened him. • She gladly went with him. And we ended with this thought: God is incredibly patient with growing faith. He is not looking for perfect people. He is looking for surrendered people. And that brings us to our message tonight. And we'll re-read Deborah's response to kick thing off.

If you have God's Word… turn with me to 2 Corinthians 10:3-5. And this morning… we are gonna be talking about "Satan's Battleground". There's a battle… that's much more deadly. There's a battle… that is much more sinister. It's a battle…for…the mind. There's a deadly war… that's being waged against God by Satan! And folks… the battle ground… is YOUR mind…and YOUR soul!

Now right here… we're introduced to someone unexpected. It's not a king. It's not a warrior. It's not a priest. But instead… it's a woman named Deborah. Now… throughout church history... people have argued about Deborah. Some have tried to explain away her leadership. Others have tried to use Deborah… to make arguments… Scripture itself never makes. But folks... we just need to get out of the way… and simply let the Bible speak. The Bible presents Deborah with tremendous honor. She's called three things. First… Deborah Was a Prophetess. Now what does that mean? Folks… it means she spoke God's Word faithfully. Now we need to stop for a moment… and we need to understand what a prophet actually did. Most people hear the word "prophet"… and immediately think of someone who… predicts the future. Now… sometimes prophets did predict the future. But their primary responsibility… was something much greater. A prophet represented God… before the people. They proclaimed God's truth. They called people back to covenant faithfulness. They confronted sin. They encouraged obedience. Matthew Henry once wrote: "The greatest work of a prophet… is not foretelling the future, but bringing men… back to God." Folks... in Judges 4… that's exactly what Deborah was doing. Israel had forgotten God's Word. So God raised up somebody… who would faithfully proclaim it.