Updating My fOS Pt.1

Sermon Title: Updating My fOS Pt. 1

Main Text: Judges 6: 11-16

Judges 6:11–16 ESV

11 Now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. 12 And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, “The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor.” 13 And Gideon said to him, “Please, my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.” 14 And the Lord turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you?” 15 And he said to him, “Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.” 16 And the Lord said to him, “But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man.”

For the next few moments I want to speak under the subject entitled:

Updating My fOS Pt. 1

Prayer

Father, we need a word from the Lord. Just one word from the Lord, will move all doubts

And cause the sun to shine And give peace of mind Speak Lord.

Open up our ears that we may hear your word,

Open up our eyes that we may see your word,

Open up our minds that we may understand your word,

And open up our hearts that we may receive your word.

It’s your time father, do what you do, in Jesus name, Amen.

Introduction

If you are an iPhone user, you are very well aware of this alert that often takes place multiple times throughout the year.

Now, I will not judge you if you are an Android user; all I will say is that I have no idea why you have not come out of Babylon, my people. 

I don’t know what goes on in Android land, so I can’t speak to it, but I can speak to the heavenly-minded people who are team Apple. 

And if you are a part of this special, remnant people, you are very familiar with this small red circle that pops up on your settings app for the purpose of bringing to your attention that there is what they call a software update available. 

See, the software update is for the iOS or iPhone Operating System, which is the core component of what powers all of your Apple devices. 

So, even if you have an older Apple model, your iOS will update it to the most recent version of the system’s software. 

And basically, what the software update does is that it provides the latest features, security upgrades, and fixed bugs that the last version might have had.

And this is essential because what Apple recognizes is that the original version of iOS is not meant to exist in every season of its operation. 

In other words, as the world grows, the system should improve to be able to keep up with reality.

See, 2017’s iOS system isn’t capable of keeping up with a 2025-type of technical world. 

So, what Apple had the forethought to do was to continuously work on its operating system as time progressed and offer users the opportunity to upgrade their system multiple times each year to match the technical necessities of the time. 

Transition

And I believe that this can be a relevant and necessary lesson not just in the technology space but in the Christian space.

See, the truth of the matter is that many of us don’t need just an iOS software update, but many of us need a fOS software update in our lives…

Oh y’all tryna figure it out… A Faith Operating System.

See, many of us are in need of an update on our faith in God. See, many of us are in a place in our lives where we are operating on old faith.

Yall not hearing me in here…

We are trying to navigate life on an old faith operating system. 

Illustration of Southwest Airlines Operating System

It reminds me of the recent blunder that took place at Southwest Airlines during the Christmas season of 2022. 

As you may remember, the US experienced an odd national weather challenge as a major cold front took place and caused disruption to the holiday travels all over the nation.

While severe cold and winter weather threw off every airline's scheduled travel, most airlines canceled about 3% of their flights. 

Unlike the other airlines, Southwest found itself in a more difficult position. See, Southwest Airlines ended up having to cancel more than 59% of its flights, and that was just for one day. 

Over the Christmas week, hundreds of thousands of Southwest Airlines customers were stranded in random parts of the country on possibly the highest season of airline travel. 

A few weeks after the blunder, the report came out that Southwest Airlines had cancelled significantly more flights than any of the other airlines, not directly because of the weather, not because of staffing issues, as assumed, but because their operating system was outdated. 

When investigated, the truth came out that Southwest Airlines had been aware of its outdated systems for years but didn’t see the need to update its system.

As a result, when something took place that called for an updated system to respond, they simply were not ready. 

Transition

And I believe if many of us were investigated in the church today, it is more than likely that we are walking around with outdated faith operating systems.

And here’s the danger, church family. We can actually function in life and not have updated faith. 

Just like Southwest Airlines, they were able to function for years with an outdated system, but when the day came, it all started crashing down. 

And in this life, there are some things that will take us out not because of how powerful it is but because our faith is outdated. 

And for the next few weeks, we are going to take a dive into the necessity of each and every one of us updating our faith operating system. 

So church family, go ahead and take out your notebooks and digital note-taking apps as we dive into this lesson today… 

Background

Our source of teaching comes from the book of Judges. 

And what is interesting about the book of Judges is that Judges is a continuation of the book of Joshua.

When reading the closing chapters of Joshua and the opening chapters of Judges we find that Joshua has fallen a sleep in the Lord.

We are able to see as well that God’s people have made it to Canaan, the place that was promised to them so long ago.

But whats interesting is what you find in Judges is that God’s promise wasn’t for them to show up, but rather for them to conquer.

I wish I was talking to some Bible readers…

So, what we learn in Judges is that even though God’s people show up to the promise land, they have not conquer every level of what God had promised to them.

And as a result, God’s people get to a point where they start to get comfortable with showing up rather than conquering.

Not only does God’s people get comfortable, but in their comfort they start to mingle with their enemies, and they start to adopted the practices of foreigners.

They began to indulge in idol worship like those around them. And this wasn’t the purpose of why God had led them to the promise land.

So, as a result of them functioning opposite of their God given purpose, God give them leeway to handle things on their own and they become captives of their enemies.

Now one thing I want you all to understand about the book of Judges that is very powerful is that Judges reveals to us very clearly, of what happens when God’s people trust God verses what happens when God’s people trust themselves.

If you read through the book of Judges, you will see that in the seasons when God’s people trusting themselves, they were always handed over to their enemies.

But when they trusted God, they always defeated their enemies. Which teaches us very simply that we ought to trust God in every area of our lives because 10 times out of 10 we are going to lose if we rely on ourselves.

Another thing it can teach us is that we better be careful who how we play with people who are not who God told us to play with because God will hand us over to them.

So we find this people in this up and down battle here in judges as they find themselves in a place of comfort.

And to make matters worse here in the book of Judges, the people of God are desiring to be like the other groups of people they see who have their own leaders and they want their own leader too.

They got to a place where they didn’t want to do things in the way that God intended for them. So, God allows them to experience what they so greatly desire and He give them Judges.

Thats why we have this book named Judges. And here in our sermonic text we enter a transition between the leadership of Deborah and the development of the soon to be leader, Gideon.