Adopting A Pattern For Failure Series

Threads of Deliverance

Adopting a Pattern for Failure

Judges 2:10-23

5/3/09

INTRODUCTION

Hmmm! What do you think of when you hear the word cycle?

„X Tricycles?

„X Bicycles?

„X Unicycles?

or

„X Motorcycles?

„X Exercise cycles?

„X Toy Cycles?

or

„X Tandem Cycles?

„X Tandem Unicycles?

Or

„X Life Cycles of Plants?

„X Insects?

„X Fish?

„X Animals?

You may have thought of anyone of these things when you heard the word "cycle." But I am hoping that after today you will forever associate another word with "cycle" whenever you hear it. I am hoping that these two words become locked together in your thinking. I am hoping that whenever you hear the word "cycle," you will associate it with the Book of Judges.

T.S. Turn with me to Judges Chapter 2.

Judg 2:10-23

10 After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, 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 fathers, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples around them. They provoked the LORD to anger 13 because they forsook him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths. 14 In his anger against Israel the LORD handed them over to raiders who plundered them. He sold them to their enemies all around, whom they were no longer able to resist. 15 Whenever Israel went out to fight, the hand of the LORD was against them to defeat them, just as he had sworn to them. They were in great distress.

16 Then the LORD raised up judges, who saved them out of the hands of these raiders. 17 Yet they would not listen to their judges but prostituted themselves to other gods and worshiped them. Unlike their fathers, they quickly turned from the way in which their fathers had walked, the way of obedience to the LORD’s commands. 18 Whenever the LORD raised up a judge for them, he was with the judge and saved them out of the hands of their enemies as long as the judge lived; for the LORD had compassion on them as they groaned under those who oppressed and afflicted them. 19 But when the judge died, the people returned to ways even more corrupt than those of their fathers, following other gods and serving and worshiping them. They refused to give up their evil practices and stubborn ways.

20 Therefore the LORD was very angry with Israel and said, "Because this nation has violated the covenant that I laid down for their forefathers and has not listened to me, 21 I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations Joshua left when he died. 22 I will use them to test Israel and see whether they will keep the way of the LORD and walk in it as their forefathers did." 23 The LORD had allowed those nations to remain; he did not drive them out at once by giving them into the hands of Joshua.

NIV

IN THE BOOK OF JUDGES WE DISCOVER CYCLE TO BE AVOIDED THAT LEADS TO A PATTERN OF FAILURE.

T.S. Signs we are in a "judges" cycle

I. Forgetting the Past 10

We are in a Judges cycle when we have forgotten our past and what God has already done.

The movie 50 first dates is about a women who had a brain injury that lead to a short term memory loss. See woke up everyday forgetting what had taking place the day before. The movie is filled with the challenges of building a relationship with a woman who never knows who you are.

Israel struggles with short term memory loss. As a people they too easily forget what has gone before and because of that their relationship with God is always affected.

We need to be people who . . .

A. Embrace your Deliverance story.

B. Share the story with others.

II. Looking Elsewhere for Answers 11-13

In the movie Yes Man. Carl Allen is at a standstill. No future... Until the day he enrolls into a personal development program based on a very simple idea: say yes to everything! But he discovers that saying yes to everything isn’t the answer.

We are in a Judges cycle when we are searching for answers elsewhere, saying yes to every spiritual idea.

A. Keep the Forgiver Central.

He is not a priority. He seeks to be central. Everything connected to him.

He is the Hub of our lives

„Ï We may be seeking peace through distractions

„Ï Change through self help

„Ï Directions through horoscopes

„Ï Fulfillment through fantasy

„Ï Self worth through spending.