In this series, we're going verse by verse through the book of Judges, seeing how God continually showed mercy on the Israelites by sending them a rescuer in the form of a "judge," and how the Israelites responded by continually drifting away from God's law. As we study this disturbing and violent book, we can recognize our need for a true savior and how God satisfied his love and his justice through the person of Jesus Christ.
March 26, 2023 |
Judges 6 |
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We all struggle with various fears and phobias. But God wants us to choose obedience to Him over our fears. He wants to help us overcome our fears in order to obey His Word and His calling on our lives.
In chapter 6 of Judges, the Israelites have again fallen back into that repetitive cycle of sin and sorrow. And God heard their cry and again sent them a judge to rescue them. This time it’s a timid man named Gideon that God calls to overcome his fear and obey the Lord. We can learn to overcome our fears by obeying the Lord.
March 19, 2023 |
Judges 4-5 |
exposition
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What’s God’s calling on your life? Or do you not think you have a calling? You don’t think He could use you? You don’t have any special talent or ability? Awesome! God loves using ordinary people to accomplish extraordinary things.
Or maybe you’re going through a time of trouble? Sometimes God uses suffering to get our attention, so that we’ll actually hear His call. Receiving His comfort, we also receive His call to comfort others in the same trouble we once had. Are you willing to answer God’s call on your life?
In chapter 4 and 5 of Judges, the people of Israel again rebelled against the Lord and did evil in His sight, but after falling into servitude, they cried out to the Lord, so the Lord called an unlikely duo named, Deborah and Barak, to rescue Israel. And they answered God’s call. We can answer God’s call on our lives.
March 12, 2023 |
Judges 3 |
exposition
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Spiritually speaking, the heart is the seat of the will, the driver’s seat of our lives. Yet we have this human tendency to have forgetful hearts. And when we forget the Lord in our hearts, we put our very lives at risk. For we open our hearts up to temptation and every kind of sin and enslavement. Where have you forgotten the Lord today? Where do you need to be reminded to remember God in your heart today?
In chapter three of Judges, the Israelites were caught up in a cycle of heart-forgetfulness, until they remembered the Lord and repented and the Lord rescued them. We can remind our forgetful hearts to always remember the Lord.
March 5, 2023 |
Judges 1-2 |
exposition
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In these first two introductory chapters today, we see that Israel had not fully placed their hope and trust in God to fully obey Him. They said they “could not.” But God essentially said, they “would not.” This is a question worth asking ourselves. Where have you made flimsy excuses to God because you’ve put your hope in yourself or someone or something else instead of in Him? That’s what started the downward descent of Israel.
In the first two chapters of Judges, Israel failed to fully trust God’s promise and obey His word, so the Lord allowed their enemies to oppress them. Yet, God was moved by their suffering, so He raised up judges to save them. We can learn to fully trust and obey God.
We all tend to think that if we could renovate our house, or our job, or our marriage, or our …, then we’d be happy, but the truth is that life is not lived from the outside – in, but from the inside – out. We live from our hearts. So what does it mean to let God renovate, to transform our hearts? It means to have the heart of Christ, the character of Christ formed in you.
February 26, 2023 |
Ephesians 4:11-16 |
discipleship, spiritual growth
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In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, he gave them a vision for being a church that builds up believers in love, growing them to spiritual maturity in Christ Jesus. We can get a vision for being built up in love, growing up to spiritual maturity in Christ Jesus.
February 19, 2023 |
Matthew 11:28-30 |
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Are you mindful of your soul? How are you doing in the deepest places of your life? Are you wasting away from within? Is your soul withering due to lack of care? How much attention do you give to your own soul?
We often think if only we could change our circumstances, then we would be happier, more at peace. But the truth is, there is a place deep within us that only the Lord can touch, that only He can heal and restore. In the gospel according to Matthew, Jesus invited his hearers to come to him for rest and renovation of their souls. We can answer Christ’s call to come to him for rest and renovation of our souls.
February 12, 2023 |
1 John 4:7-21 |
discipleship, relationships
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All along, we are being shaped by these various relationships. We seek acceptance, but we are so bent and broken by sin, that we often experience rejection and in like manner, cause others to feel rejected by us. This is the human condition apart from God. We are all deeply wounded relationally. We are hurt. And hurt people, hurt people.
We’re relationally broken and only a right relationship with God through Jesus Christ can heal us and renovate our relationships. And what is the chief way that God moves to heal us? Love. In the apostle John’s first letter, he wrote to encourage believers to let the love of God heal and renovate their relationships with Him and with others. We can let the love of God renovate our relationships.
February 5, 2023 |
1 Corinthians 6:12-20 |
discipleship
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How we view our bodies and how we use our bodies matters to God. How do you view your body? Do you have a love/hate relationship with your body? Do you struggle with your self-image because of your appearance? How much of your identity is connected to your body… its color, gender, height, weight, age, health, etc.? Have you ever wondered how God wants you to view your body? Does He call it evil or good? And what’s its real place in following Jesus? What’s God’s purpose for our bodies?
It just so happens that we’re not the first believers to struggle with questions about the body. The believers in Corinth had some of the same questions and God inspired Paul to respond to them. In the apostle Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, he responded to their questions about the body by challenging them to recognize God’s good and spiritual purpose for the body, so that they might submit their bodies to God for renovation. We can submit our bodies to God for renovation.
January 29, 2023 |
Romans 12:1-2 |
discipleship
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Have you learned to pray as Jesus did? Asking for the Father’s will in your life? Do you struggle with knowing and doing God’s will? Most Christians don’t have trouble knowing it, they have trouble obeying it. Why? Because we have what Willard calls “the splintered will.” This is a will that has been “splintered,” corrupted and turned against itself by choosing to its own way, rather than God’s. The splintered will asks, “How can I get my way?” Rather than, “How can I please God?” Manipulation, deception, seduction, and malice replace transparency, sincerity, and goodwill, as exaltation of self replaces submission and service to God.
But what would it look like for our hearts, our wills, to be in total alignment with God’s heart and will? Is this way of life even possible? In Paul’s letter to the Romans, he appealed to believers to fully submit themselves to God for renovation of the will, transforming it to know and follow God’s will.
January 29, 2023 |
Galatians 5:16-25 |
feelings
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Our feelings can be both a blessing and a curse. We might even put them into two categories of feeling: pleasurable or painful; and two categories of effect: helpful or harmful. That’s why we’ve entitled today’s sermon: Renovating Our Feelings.” In becoming like Christ, our hearts, our minds and our feelings too, must be renovated. Because feelings are a major influence on how we make decisions. Feelings affect the heart as the seat of the will.
In the apostle Paul’s letter to the Galatians, he taught them how to yield their desires and feelings to the Spirit of God for renovation, so that they would no longer be controlled by their old nature. We can yield our feelings to God’s Spirit for renovation.
