Sermons

God is more concerned about the Object of our faith than the size of it. And this is the lesson all of Israel needs to learn, starting with Gideon. It makes no sense to fight an army unmanned with torches and smashed pottery. Neither did it make any sense to march around the walls of Jericho seven times. God has His own ways of showing His power. We would do well to listen and learn, for it is way better to be numbered among the 300 trumpeters than the thousands of dead!

Gideon often gets a bad rap. The whole asking for signs and fleeces and stuff can make it seem like he is one big lump of doubt. Yet we find his name in the Hall of Faith in Hebrews 11. And the Bible does not appear to condemn him for asking God to confirm His commands. While Gideon was weak, he also chose to obey. Maybe that is one big point in his life that we are supposed to learn from.

What's so relevant for the Christian about a story involving sowers, soils, seeds, birds and thorns? A whole lot more than you would think! In Mark 4, Jesus tells a story about soils to help us see the different type of listeners of God's word. He wants you to examine your life and ask the question: What type of listener am I?

There are many puzzling things in the events of Deborah’s judgeship. First off, a female Judge. Then the whole Barak refusing to go to war without her. Not to mention a foreigner woman (Jael) killing Israel’s greatest enemy (Sisera) with a tent peg and a hammer! Why is this history included in our Bibles? Are these people for us to imitate or disdain?

God’s ways often look strange to our eyes. But if all He did was predictable, one might start to think He was nothing more than our projection of what a really big man might do. This God of the Bible delights to use odd people and strange situations and surprising plot twists to show the world, He is God and there is no other.

God took His people into the land as promised. They did not avoid the false gods in that land as they promised. In fact, they jumped in to the whole idolatry thing. Why are we so prone to break our promises and devote ourselves to false deities? What appeal do they have? Why do they so easily lure us into their devotion? And what will God do with us when we turn from Him?

We often fail to realize that the problems of the ancient world are essentially our great problems as well. Not so much in the specifics of time and place, as in the inner workings of the heart. The early parts of the book of Judges can seem like a boring rehearsal of mundane geographical ditties to a casual reader, but we are close readers and thus, there is much for us to learn by considering a place like Aijalon or the odd chariot. Judges teaches us all that we NEED a Saviour.

Jesus rose from the dead. Who cares? What difference does it make? Any at all? What difference does it make in the warp and woof of real life? How does it change our relationships or the way we handle our money? Does the resurrection really matter all that much? If we are living lives where we just give in to and accept certain sins, can we really claim to be people who have been saved by a resurrected Lord?

Have you spent much time thinking about God's holiness? Isaiah's life is forever changed when he sees a vision of His Holy God. God's holiness shows us how great God is, how sinful we are, and how much Christ Jesus has done for us.