Jephthah

August 18th 2024

Series: Holy Spirit in the Old Testament

Sermon Title: Jephthah

Topic: Journey to help us learn who the Holy Spirit was, is, and will always be and how the Holy Spirit is active in our lives today.

Key Passages: Judges 10-12

Topic: Holy Spirit, Deliverance, Samson

Sermon Blurb: In today’s message, we will see how the Holy Spirit can take a man whose mother was a prostitute, whose brothers hated him, whose father did not stop him from leaving the family, who became a scoundrel…. How he went on to do great things through the Holy Spirit changing him.

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Sermon:

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In this part of the Holy Spirit series, we examine the evidence of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament.

We are in a series taking a DEEP dive into who the Holy Spirit was, is, and will always be.

PAUSE

We are in the process of reading the Old Testament and examining how the Holy Spirit was active there.

We have already examined the role of the Holy Spirit in the first five books of the Bible, and today, we continue in the book of Judges.

The book of Judges also contains over 1/3 of ALL the references to the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament historical books.

For further reading, you can see those locations in your notes and on the screens.

Holy Spirit in Judges: Judges 3:10, 6:34, 11:29, 13:25, 14:6, 14:19, 15:14

Today, we will hit several chapters, so we will not be able to read all of it. I want to encourage you to read Judges 10-12 today to catch up on all the things we won't have time for today…

PAUSE

Grab your Bible and open it up to

Judges 10

And by the way…..

New Person Bible Connection:

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After service, we will give you an AMAZING leather-bound study Bible!

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PAUSE

Let me just give a little background, and then we will jump into the Bible.

During the period of Judges, there was no King in Israel.

This, in turn, led to the appointment of Judges to guide them through particularly turbulent periods.

There is a cycle in the book of Judges that we will see over and over as we walk through this book.

You can see that cycle in your notes and on the screen.

The Cycle of Judges: · Abandonment of God: Israel turns away from God, leading to moral decay and idol worship. · Oppression: Enemies oppress Israel. · Cry for Deliverance: Israel cries out to God. · God Raises Judges: God appoints judges to deliver them.

Leave that on the screen, and I want you to think about your life.

Does that pattern describe your relationship with God?

I know SO MANY PEOPLE….

That they walk away from God…

Their life goes into a spiral the wrong direction…so they blame God for that…

Life gets harder and harder…. Right oppression….

Then I have seen so many people cry out to God AFTER walking away from Him…

And crying out can be yelling at God.

Being mad at God…

Or ask God for help…

BUT….

God usually waits until the anger turns to recognition of what we did and asking Him for help with what we CHOSE to walk into…

Then God delivers us…

Just like he did with the Israelite people in the book of Judges…

PAUSE

Today, we will see not one but two people who step into that reality in their world and lead.

Judges 10: 6-7, “Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord. They served the Baals and the Ashtoreths, and the gods of Aram,

the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the Ammonites and the gods of the Philistines.

Church pause there….

Do you see EXACTLY what is above in your notes…

They CHOOSE to abandon God….

They CHOOSE to serve OTHER gods instead!

Let’s keep reading and see the next point above…

And because the Israelites forsook the Lord and no longer served him,

7 he became angry with them. He sold them into the hands of the Philistines and the Ammonites,”

Do you see it in church?

They CHOOSE to abandon God…

So God allows them to reap the fruit of that….Called oppression…

Church….

God will allow you to make bad choices…

BUT….

Understand that the Holy Spirit will try to guide you away from bad decisions…

BUT….

You and I have to listen to Him!

It is no different than parenting….

I can remember growing up and my parents telling me ALL THE TIME….about how much they loved me and wanted to best for me…

AND STUDENTS….

I would ROLL my eyes and think YA RIGHT!!!!!

I thought my parents just wanted to be buzz kills…

They were just uptight…

They wanted to keep me AWAY from fun…

They just wanted me to do what they wanted in life…

But students listen to me….

When you grow up you will realize something…

You will….I PROMISE YOU….you will realize they did want the best for you!!!!

I have kids now….

And I would bet my kids think about me what I did about my parents!

I know, at times, my kids think I am a buzz kill….

I know, at times, my kids think I am uptight…

I know, at times, my kids think I am keeping them from having fun.

I know, at times, my kids think I just want them to do what I want them to do in life…

BUT I can PROMISE you….

I just want the best for my kids…

I want to save my kids from the pain they do NOT know will come if they make the WRONG choices…

PAUSE

Just like God….

The Holy Spirit tries to guide us AWAY from wrong and into right.

The Holy Spirit tries to lead us AWAY from sin because He knows the pain it will cause he….even if we cannot see it!!!

PAUSE

Church that is the point write it down….

The Holy Spirit wants to save us from future pain.

Repeat

But we have free will..

We can choose….

Just like you see here in the Bible…..

Just like we have seen in EVERY story in Judges….

The Israelite people OVER and OVER….

CHOOSE to follow God…

Then life gets good….

Then the CHOOSE to stop following God…

Then, you know what, hits the fan….

Then people are like….OH YA…Maybe we need God…

PAUSE

Which church…

That is exactly where our nation is today….

We used to be a Godly nation…

We followed God as a nation….

Then LIFE GOT GOOD!!!!!

Then, because life was good…..we CHOOSE to say we DON’T need God anymore….

Now….look around…..you know what is hitting the fan….

And I do not think we are to the point yet of realizing that as a nation, we need God….

I think it will need to get a lot worse before we do…

PAUSE

Church….

PLEASE choose to learn from the Bible…

Let’s choose NOT to repeat the mistakes of those who lived before us..

PAUSE

Later today you can read the rest of chapter 10….

But more or less, the people are oppressed, so they, just like the outline above in your notes…. Then they cry out to God.

And the person God raises up is an interesting guy…

Let’s read about him in chapter 11…

Judges 11: 1-3 Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty warrior. His father was Gilead; his mother was a prostitute.

2 Gilead’s wife also bore him sons, and when they were grown up, they drove Jephthah away.

“You are not going to get any inheritance in our family,” they said, “because you are the son of another woman.”

Not let’s pause here and I want to say something….

The sins of your parents do NOT define you.

The conditions of your birth do NOT define you.

Now the life your parents live and the conditions of your birth will affect you…

But it does NOT have to DEFINE you….

And I know that is a struggle for people who were adopted.

I know that is a struggle for people who have terrible parents.

I know that is hard for people who were abused as kids…

But church Jephthah came from some messed up roots…

His own brothers would NOT accept him because he was not one of them…

And think about it for a second….

His brothers drove him off, and his father didn’t even care, it seems.

This guy….who is the HERO in the story…

This guy who is about to be used by God to deliver God’s people came from a ROUGH family and had a ROUGH up brining….

So if you are listening to this and you come from a rough family…

Or you had a rough upbringing…

Please hear me…..

That does NOT mean God was not there!!!!

That does NOT mean God will never work in your life!

That does NOT mean you will never go on to do great things!!!

Here is the point….

The Holy Spirit can work through anyone.

Repeat

Let’s keep reading because this will make him even more interesting….

3 So Jephthah fled from his brothers and settled in the land of Tob, where a gang of scoundrels gathered around him and followed him.

Stop there…. (Add story that can relate from your life)

I can relate to this….

It honestly sounds like me some…

I was NOT a great kid growing up.

If you ask any of my teachers I was the leader in a gang of scoundrels.

I mean ask Jenny, my wife, anytime….

She was told OVER and OVER, “Why are you with him. Jenny you could do so much better.”

That is 100% a true story!

But church look at what you just wrote down…. And what we talked about just a second ago…

God can work through anyone!!!!

This guy came from a JACKED UP family….

He left that family and didn’t go and live this perfect life!

The Bible does NOT say….

He left his family and went to live with monks…

He prayed 3 times a day for God to use him for great things…

He became a biblical scholar…

NOOOOOOOO

Look at your Bible….

He left his jacked-up family and went on to be a scoundrel!!!

PAUSE

If this does NOT give all of you a LOT of hope that God can even work through you….I don’t know what will!!!!

PAUSE

But because of who he is….

Look back at verse 1 of chapter 11…

Because he is a MIGHTY warrior….

Again, another thing he and I have in common with him…..

PAUSE

The reality is God created him to be a mighty warrior and because of the way God created him….

Look at what happens…

Let’s keep reading….

4 Some time later, when the Ammonites were fighting against Israel,

5 the elders of Gilead went to get Jephthah from the land of Tob.

6 “Come,” they said, “be our commander, so we can fight the Ammonites.”

7 Jephthah said to them, “Didn’t you hate me and drive me from my father’s house? Why do you come to me now, when you’re in trouble?”

8 The elders of Gilead said to him, “Nevertheless, we are turning to you now; come with us to fight the Ammonites, and you will be head over all of us who live in Gilead.”

9 Jephthah answered, “Suppose you take me back to fight the Ammonites and the Lord gives them to me—will I really be your head?”

10 The elders of Gilead replied, “The Lord is our witness; we will certainly do as you say.”

11 So Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and commander over them.

WOW!!!

That is quite a shift in life!

The people go from driving him out because of who he was…

To asking him to lead them because of who he was!

What a shift in life!!!!

And you can read the rest of the chapter later today….

But long story short he leads…

And he leads God’s people BACK to freedom from oppression.

He leads God’s people back to freedom.

He leads God’s people BACK to worshipping God!

And he does this all because of verse 29…..look at it….

29 Then the Spirit of the Lord came on Jephthah.

God’s Spirit….

The Holy Spirit came upon him and enabled him to do what needed to be done!

Which is the same thing we have literally been seeing happen OVER and OVER and OVER in the Bible!

That we come to God with our broken sin filled selves and the Holy Spirit changes us and leads through us to do things we would NEVER imagine possible!

PAUSE

I mean lets be honest….

How many of you would have thought walking into church today that we would read a story about a child of a prostitute who grew up to be a scoundrel that would go on to lead God’s chosen people….

Anyone?????

NOPE!!!!

PAUSE

Do you see the last point?

The Holy Spirit can work through anyone.

PAUSE

It does not matter how broken you are today…

It does not matter how bad your up brining was.

It does not matter how many times you have messed up in life.

It does not matter how other people view you.

It does not matter if you have been a bad person most of your life.

The Holy Spirit can change you!

The Holy Spirit can make you new!

The Holy Spirit can do things through you that you would never imagine possible!!!!

The key is…

Will you submit your life to Jesus…

Will you accept Jesus as your savior?

Will you allow the Holy Spirit to enter your life and change you?

PAUSE

Which leads to our life application today…..

Let me share your life application with you today….

For those of you who are new, or newer, to Family Church.

We end our messages with a Life Application.

It is simply something to help you go home and process this message with someone else.

Something to help you continue to ponder how you can apply today's message to your life.

So here is what I want you all to spend some time processing and talking with someone about.

Life Application: The Holy Spirit can change anyone. What is an area of your life where you need the Spirit to help you change? As a result of today’s message, I will _________________________.

Prayer:

Make sure to do salvation call!

Offering:

Thank you all for being here today!

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