Who Will Deliver Us?
Notes
Transcript
Have you ever played a game of telephone?
And if you have and you have played it with kids you know it is awful, because kids get off the message so quickly.
One kid will just get distracted
The next kid think it would be funny to swap out the original message with something like “boogers” (very mature right)
And when you play this game ever with three kids the original message is almost always gone.
Because the kids loose focus on communicating the message to the next person.
But you know where we are today in “The Story” there has been a message that God has given the people and told them to communicate to the next generation, but they have lost focus and done a poor job at communicating the message.
And really as we start I just want to read this verse in that sets the context for us.
Because we are in the book of Judges today and we will be starting in Judges 2:10
Because if you have been with us God has moved powerfully, and has brought Israel to this land He had promised
And if you were here last week it ended on a high note, but there a shift that takes place
Because God tells them to tell others about what God had done, but the message does not get communicated, and look how we start today.
Judges 2:10; It says:
10 After that whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel. 11 Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord and served the Baals. 12 They forsook the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples around them. They aroused the Lord’s anger
So look at the shift here, because they go from God doing all these amazing things, to a place where it says an entire generation did not know God or what He had done.
And because of this we see the Israelites start to rebel, but I want you to notice that is doesn’t start with them rebeling, it starts with them not being told about God and the amazing things He had done.
And because they did not know they forgot about God and chased other things.
Its kind of of like this story I was reading online there was a woman who had this painting hanging in her kitchen
And she was getting ready to sell her house and decided to get rid of the painting
However what she did not know was this painting was from the 13th century and it turned out it was worth 26.8 million dollars. (I am waiting for that to happen to one of the pictures we have in our house)
But you know somewhere along the line the story of this painting was not told, and because of that she was planning to get rid of it, to make room for something else that she probably thought was more up to date and valuable.
But you know similarly the Israelites are chasing all of these other false gods in their society, because they have heard of all these other false gods, but somehow they did not here about the true God.
And I just have to say this is one of the great tragedies that we see occur over and over again in the Bible and even in todays society.
We forgot the goodness of God and chase other things.
And I want you to notice what happens because in this story it sets up years of the Isralites being wishy washy in their walk with God and often times walking away from Him.
And just to be honest this is such a relevant issue in our society today,
Becuase in our culture we hear about all these “gods” (anything we place above god) (money, jobs, success, power) and what will often happen is we hear about these “gods” more than we hear about our true God.
And this is why last week God was telling the Israelites meditate on God’s word day and night so His word will shape you, and not just that but also others will see and hear about the true God because He is the most central part of your life.
You know I just need to adress the parents and grandparents in the room on this.
Your kids will catch on to the things you make the most important in your life.
I mean kids are always watching
Liam will do whatever I do.
If I go to brush my teeth, Liam will start to brush his
If I am cleaning, Liam will clean
If I jump up on our coffee table and start dancing, Liam will do the same exact thing.
Because He is watching me for better or worse
But our kids will see the things that are most important in our lives.
If its your job that is the most important in your life, your kids will see that
If its your pride, your kids will catch on to that
If its a political party, they will see that
And my fear is that as a parent or grandparent our kids or grandkids will not see God as the most central part of our life.
And you might be saying okay Pastor, but how do I do this?
Can I just say it starts by making your relationship with Christ a priority in your own life
But then you need to live it out in front of them.
Pray with them
Go to church faithfully with them
Help people in need and have them be a part of it.
I remember as a kid my parents making an impact on me:
I mean I remember we very rarely missed church as a kid
I remember a few times where my parents helped families that needed help
I remember my mom being involved in a women's small group and because I was a kids, I got dragged into going, (and to be honest I was never crazy about going)
But heres the cool thing, because I could probably go on, but all of these things my parents did (even the women's small group) communicated something to me that this whole God thing is important.
What would it look like to communicate to the next generation that the God we serve is important.
And like I already mentioned it going to start with making Him the most important part of your own life.
Because if I can be honest in our culture we are in the process of doing what the Israelites did
And we have a generation that is in the process of growing up and not knowing God.
And can I just say this needs to change.
I believe God is calling each one of us to be a part of this change where we can help people know God personally and understand what He can do in their lives.
Well lets get back to the story because this generation has forgotten God and they do not know how He has moved in the past.
So what happens is the Israelites begin to shift from this mighty nation one that is constantly concurred.
And so what happens is we see this pattern where they get concored, but then God will raise up a person called a “judge” to deliver them, and they will turn to God for a short period, but then they stray away and get concord again
And like I said you see this pattern and God keeps raising up these judges until it gets to the last one named Samson.
And Samson was a miracle birth and because of this his parents devoted him as a Nazarite (which was someone who was devoted and separated for God).
And so at this time a Nazarite would abstain from alcohol, They would not cut their hair, and would not be allowed to be in contact with anything that was dead.
And whats interesting is Samson is a Nazarite, but like I said, he is also the next person God would use to try and deliver the Isralites.
And so God gives Samson super strength,
I mean picture UFC heavy weight champion type of thing, because he is strong.
And whats so weird is you think between his strength and being set apart for God this guy would be an amazing deliver, but what happens is we begin to see Samson (this guy devoted to God) do things that are against what God has asked.
He takes a wife from another nation (which was against the law of God at this time)
He ends up eating honey out of a bee hive in a lions carcus, which is not only nasty, but it was against what he was supposed to do as a Nazarite
We see that he has anger issues and where he tells a riddle and the people solve it and he kills people over it.
We see him get revenge by burning their crops
And you get to this point in Judges 15:11-16 where Samson is in a cave after burning crops and murdering people and it says this:
Judges 15:11–16 (NIV)
11 Then three thousand men from Judah went down to the cave in the rock of Etam and said to Samson, “Don’t you realize that the Philistines are rulers over us? What have you done to us?”
He answered, “I merely did to them what they did to me.”
12 They said to him, “We’ve come to tie you up and hand you over to the Philistines.”
Samson said, “Swear to me that you won’t kill me yourselves.”
13 “Agreed,” they answered. “We will only tie you up and hand you over to them. We will not kill you.” So they bound him with two new ropes and led him up from the rock. 14 As he approached Lehi, the Philistines came toward him shouting. The Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon him. The ropes on his arms became like charred flax, and the bindings dropped from his hands. 15 Finding a fresh jawbone of a donkey, he grabbed it and struck down a thousand men.
16 Then Samson said,
“With a donkey’s jawbone
I have made donkeys of them.
With a donkey’s jawbone
I have killed a thousand men.”
And so Samson actually murders almost an entire army (but its not to deliver the Israelites, but its to free himself and humiliate the them)
And the whole time I am reading and processing this story I am thinking “what in the world happening?”
This guy has anger issues, he is immature, he’s not doing what he is supposed to, But God is going him strength? Why?
Why is God letting him do this?
But there are two things I want you to get here
Because first off this is a result of them being so far from God
I mean he is not using how God has gifted him for God but himself
But secondly (and this is really interesting) because God gave Samson the most streagth and courage oiut of everyone, but out of all the judges he accomplished the least.
He actually never delivered the Israelites, he just made the nation that oppressed them weaker.
But you know you can be very talented and God can gift us in amazing ways,
But if we do not use them for Him, the impact we make will be very little.
Its almost like if you have ever been to the Niles Ice Festival
I mean those guys are gifted
They can take a big chunk of ice and turn it into something beautiful, but its very temporary
(And I need to clarify, that I love the festival)
But in a way thats what happens when we use our God given gifts selfishly,
The things we do will eventually melt or fade,
But when we use them for God it makes an eternal impact.
But you know where we are in The Story this week is kind of a rough place because we see this pattern of people coming to God and then immediately stray away, over and over again
But there is something beautiful happening in the background that I do not want you to miss.
And to be honest this is the most important part of where we are today.
Because over and over again these people (or judges) rise up to deliver the people, but none of them are enough
None of them are able to help the people in a way that it makes a permanent impact.
And this is what I want us to understand; the ultimate deliverance cannot come from a man, but only from God
And in our lives we face a lot of battles,
Some of us with addication, others with temptations, maybe anger issues, and probably a lot more than just those.
And there are ways we can fix these issues or bring short term deliverance,
But we need something better to experience full deliverance.
And heres the cool part, because God sends Him years later after this story and His name is Jesus
And he died on the cross for the deliverance of our sins.
And because of this you can be delivered where God’s redeeming work can enter your life and be a central part where its not just your life that is being changed, but other lives are changed because of Him in you,
And not only that but where you are passing the legacy to the next generation and making an eternal impact.
And today we are going to end by remembering this deliverance that we have recieved by recieving somthing called communion.
And if you are unformilure with communion, it is how we remember the the act of Jesus dying on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins and the freedom from our chains.
Because on the night Jesus was betrayed He was having a meal with His disciples....
And now He extend this meal to each of us, but we have to decide if we are willing to say yes.
Yes, I want to be delivered