Talk 1 : Living in Liberty - The Beginning Place
1. Introduction :
a. Theme : Saved to Serve. Being a Christian is a joyful and purposeful life, the reason for being left on earth by our Saviour and Master – John 17: 15, “My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but …”, primarily we are left here for the benefits of others. This is to be expressed by unselfish, undying, impartial and consistent Christian Service – characterized by love. We will look at this Christian Service over the next two days at four different angles.
Before we look at how we could and should serve one another (and the unbelievers), let’s look at Judges 6 – Jehovah Shalom, which I have entitled the Beginning Place.
b. Jehovah Shalom – Peace, God is Peace or the Peace of God is a message that has so forcefully gripped my heart when I first came to it. I am not sure how it will change you , but I know it has been changing me by the power of the Holy Spirit.
2. Opening Prayer : Serve an Awesome God and deal with this awesome God. Peace in serving You and another.
3. Read Judges 6:1-6, 19-24.
4. God uses His Name as a progressive revelation of His Character. Exo. 6 :2-3. Through the OT, God progressively reveal His Names. Jehovah Nissi, Jehovah Jireh, etc. Why? Psalm 124:8, ‘Our help is in the Name of the Lord’, Psalm 91:14b ‘I will protect/deliver him because he knows my Name, Isaiah 50:10 ‘Trust in the Name of the Lord and rely on his God’. Knowing the Name of the Lord is so vital. Today we are looking at one, Jehovah Shalom.
5. Shalom :
Noun : wellness, complete, to be made whole, in harmony with God and men, at ease not restless, peace inwards outwards
Verb : complete, finish,
Adjective : perfect.
But we cannot appreciate what Jehovah Shalom really means until we appreciate the context in which it was revealed to Gideon. Given to one man in crisis.
6. To understand the background or context, Judges 1 : 2, “ I will deliver this into your hand” I have already promised you victory ( Exodus/Leviticus/Deutronomy), if you obey me , I demand TOTAL Conquest on your part, no compromise, no treaty, no peace agreement, no co-existence, no intermarrying, no absolutely nothing to do with them, but total utter destruction, total defeat and total conquest. If you try to enslave them, they will turn to be your master. The repeated failure of the Israelites was NO TOTAL CONQUEST, compromise, make treaties, no utter cleansing.
7. But read Judges 1:27-33. There was NO utter destruction, they compromise , they try to out borders and say up to here and no more. That’s where many Christians do today, they try to put borders for their sins and say I can and will sin to this extent and no more, after all why can’t I enjoy a bit of fun. They try to put limits, try to put channels. We will go so far and no further. But God said utter destruction of anything in your life that’s unlike Christ. No trying to channel around it, you cannot channel sins, it will always spill over. You got it? It always spills over.
8. We come to these sad words, Judges 1:30, subject the Canaanites to tribute/labour, God command was : to cleanse yourself of all filth, perfecting holiness unto the Lord. God promise that if you were to wage war against every sin that is contrary to Christ, I will be with you , I will go up with you. BUT we say to ourselves, ‘As long as it does not control me’, it won’t be long before you lose control.
9. Bros & Sisters, this is the new generation after Moses, they had promised Joshua we will go God’s way. Joshua said cleanse yourself of all idols and filth, yet they carry the idols with them and live a double life. God was so gracious and always send prophets to them . Judges 2:1-4, These words are not only for the compromising Israelites but for the church of Jesus Christ today. Pleading with them. Remove everything that hinders the fullness of Christ, yet you keep hiding the secret sins from me, as though I do not know. That idolatry can be anything, materialism, greed, sports, indulgence of all sorts including ‘Food’, 5 hours on TV and not one hour with God. Material enjoyment. Utter destruction of anything that can rob you of power to stand against the enemy.
10. So first the utter destruction of all things that is contrary to Christ and His Holiness. Malachi 2:13-14
11. Entire book of Judges is a very sad story, every man does what is right in his own eyes. The story of our times, a church filled with believers who refuse to forsake sin, with an apathy towards sins. No outrage against sins and all that defile the Lord and His Church. His Precious Body.
12. We have made so much compromise, drifting into the pits, into secret and hidden sins, with permissiveness of our society. Look at the way Christian dress today, look at the scandals that involved Christians, look at the way we pursue the ways of the world and not the ways of the Living God.
13. It is a story of repeated repentance and repeated sins and then confess again, then sin again. 3: 7-12. Othniel, he died, and the children again did evil in the eyes of the Lord.. Ehud, and again the children did evil in the eyes of the Lord. Deborah, 40 years of peace and she died and again, in Judges 6:1-6
14. No substance, no steadfastness. Imagine the people who died during the time of Christian backsliding and are lost to eternal hell.
15. They didn’t teach their children the things of the living God. Why didn’t God give up on them? He can’t. They are His only testimony left on earth. They are His promised seed out of which the Christ shall come.
16. Folks we are God’s only testimony on earth. We are the seeds of Christ. If Israel was His plan A, we are His plan B and no other plan is left. No plan C. No Plan D. Just you and I, Do you know why is God so gracious to you and so patience to you while you are not what you should be? He has no other plan. O, Father, I pray that the weight and the awesomeness of Your Glorious Plan may be made plain to all. What a privilege and joy to be Your Only Plan.
17. v2-6, for seven years they hid in caves and in strongholds. Midianites and Amalekites utterly robbed them and stripped them of all crops. Totally impoverished.
18. For seven years, Gideon’s father had at his backyard an Altar to Baal. And Gideon did nothing about it though he had a grieving heart.
19. Here are the people turning to God in prayer and crying to Him but they could not understand why God did not help them. Why so much trouble? Why didn’t they have peace? Seasons of distress vs prolonged life of distress. Here they are living and hiding in caves. Why no power against the enemy at all? Does this speak about your life.? Does this sound familiar? Oh, the extent of permissiveness, the parading of the grasping materialism amongst Christian today and we wonder why is God far from me? Why there is such a lack of joy in worship? Why am I so dry?
20. You see after the prayer meetings in those den and tents, crying out to God, what is next for them?. After their prayer meeting, they were sneaking up on Gideon’s father’s property and bowing down to Baal. They were hypocrites. They were going to the house of God with weeping and wailing and yet holding on to their idolatry. You see, they were afraid of Baal. They looked at the Midianites, Amalekites and saw how powerful they were, how prosperous they were and say they must have a powerful god. They got what they want. They didn’t want to worship Baal as much as they didn’t want to offend him,. Now they have two gods, afraid of both, trusting neither. And that’s where we are in many, many lives. Bros.& Sisters, it is so heavy on my heart that that’s where most of us live today. Afraid of the god of modern world (be it financial security, be it our bank accounts, be it anything) and yet unable to fully trusting God for our lives. We want to control everything. We must have everything under our control. We must achieve financial independence (which I think is nonsense) before we want to serve God. When ask to be involved in a ministry in church, we have all the rights to say to the leadership that let me earn my money first, let me finish my MBA first, let me do this and that (all for myself) first. Who gave you that right in the first place? Christ died for us that we should not live for ourselves but for the One who saved us and died for us.
21. You don’t fear anything for you have a Almighty God. Judges 6:6-10. Still holding to Jehovah but afraid of Baal, kneeling before Baal not to offend him.
22. v11.Mighty Warrior? To a man for seven year sat there doing nothing about the hypocritical worship of his people. A brief account of Gideon’s meeting with the Lord
23. Alas! Ah! V22. Exclamation of sorrow, regret and grief, apprehension of danger. I have been dealing with the Almighty God and I didn’t know it. I have been putting God on hold, toying with Him and I didn’t know it. O, we have been toying with Him and He has been so patient. We have been putting Him on hold. You can’t enter into Shalom until you acknowledge and know who you are dealing with? Awesome, Holy, Almighty and Righteous God. No fooling around.
24. What has this got to do with serving? Brothers and Sisters, my submission to you is this: Unless and until you denounce all filth, all sins that are contrary to Christ, you cannot and will not be able to fully and freely serve Jesus and His Church. Unless you are convicted to say Alas! Ah!, O God, what am I doing with You? What am I doing with my life? O God, why am I fearing the world and Baal? Why am I not trusting You fully? , you can’t serve God joyfully and willingly!
Let’s pray.
Here is my invitation. At the beginning of this Family Camp, we are amongst Brothers and Sisters in the family, more importantly before a Holy God who is our Father.
O God, the defeats and fears of our lives.
Appeal and altar call.
What a joy to know Gideon was able to defeat the whole army of the Midianites with only 300 men?
