VISION SERIES: “Make All Things New”
TEXT: Judges 1:1-4
MESSAGE: Obeying God’s Voice
“Our greatest fear should not be of failure but of succeeding at things in life that don’t really matter.” — Francis Chan
Our vision is to be a church for our city that seeks new life in Jesus.
“In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes…” — Judges 21:25
Q: How do we listen and trust the voice of God over everything else?
TEXT: Judges 1:1-4
“Historical events always have two dimensions: the earthly, where humans act with genuine freedom, and the heavenly, where the sovereign Lord exercises full control. When human beings fail to take the theological dimension into account, disaster is inevitable.” — Daniel Isaac Block
Q: What can we learn about trusting God’s voice to lead us? It’s by remembering these three concepts…(1. Backward to go forward 2. Upward to go forward 3. Inward to go backward)
- Backward to go forward (v. 1)
After the death of Joshua, the people of Israel inquired of the Lord, “Who shall go up first for us against the Canaanites, to fight against them?”
“…the church goes forward best by going back first—but not to any imagined golden age: ‘We are talking about a return to God, not an era.” — Os Guinness
- Upward to go forward (v. 2)
“The Lord said, “Judah shall go up; behold, I have given the land into his hand.”
“God’s call to his people (then and now) is to combine spirituality with bravery. True discipleship is radical and risk-taking, because true disciples rely on God to keep his promises to bless them, and not on their own instincts, plans, or insurance policies. It is hard to be truly brave without faith in God. The kind of bravery that does not arise out of faith in God is adventurism, or macho heroism, or plain cruelty. It can be rooted in insecurity, or a desperation to prove oneself, or hopelessness. Only faith-based bravery will walk the line between atrocities on the one side, and cowardice and ineffectiveness on the other.”— Timothy Keller
“Numbers and the mania for metrics are therefore a critical element of secularization. Crucially for Jews and Christian, the Bible shows the link between statistics and self trust…Called to be a separate and distinct people, our call is to the “narrow” rather than the “broad” way. For followers of Jesus, the voice of the people must never be taken as the voice of God.” — Os Guinness
- Inward to go backward (v. 3)
“And Judah said to Simeon his brother, “Come up with me into the territory allotted to me, that we may fight against the Canaanites. And I likewise will go with you into the territory allotted to you.” So Simeon went with him. 4 Then Judah went up and the Lord gave the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hand, and they defeated 10,000 of them at Bezek.”
“Practical atheism appears when we live as if there were no God. The externals continue, but man becomes the central thrust of devotion as the attention of religious concern shifts away from man’s devotion to God to man’s devotion to man, bypassing God. The “ethic” of Christ continues in a superficial way, having been ripped from its supernatural, transcendent, and divine foundation.” — R.C. Sproul
”When human beings fail to take the theological dimension into account, disaster is inevitable.” — Daniel Isaac Block
“Now the angel of the Lord went up from Gilgal to Bochim. And he said, “I brought you up from Egypt and brought you into the land that I swore to give to your fathers. I said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you, 2 and you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall break down their altars.’ But you have not obeyed my voice. What is this you have done?” — Judges 2:1-2
TAKEAWAYS:
- Seek His voice above all
- Fully obey His next step
“Joshua and Caleb followed the Lord fully… They looked up to God to see His design. They knew the big picture plan of God and the process He had taken them through. That included the time and the timing of God for them. They listened carefully to hear His desire…God communicated with them enough info to know His will…They obeyed the light they had and trusted God to give more light when necessary—enough light to take the next step. When He gave further guidance, they lined up to follow His details. They followed step by step. They refused to walk with a “fleshly,” earth-bound, doubt-filled perspective. They received what God said and were eager to receive what God wanted to give in life and ministry. Ministry must be received by faith, never achieved by flesh.” — Richard Shepherd
- Remember His Grace covers our missteps