Christ our Strong Deliverer The Book of Judges

IDOLATRY Placing any other person or thing at the center, rather than Christ. Submitting to anyone or anything else as the sovereign ruler in your life. Going anywhere - other than to Jesus - for rescue and deliverance.

IDOLATRY Finding your purpose and identity in something other than purpose and identity God has for you. Living by “faith” in something or someone other than God.

Judge, Deliverer, Savior THEMES in JUDGES The people did what was right in their own eyes (Judges 21:25, last verse). The Repeated Cycle: peace, rebellion and idolatry, oppression, deliverance, peace (Judges 2:18-19) . Judge, Deliverer, Savior

FIRST FOUR Othneil: the most faithful and qualified (Judges 3:7-11) Ehud: southpaw (Judges 3:12-30) Shamgar: best twitter-bio (Judges 3:31) Deborah: the most diversely gifted (Judges 4 and 5)

JUDGES 6:5-6 5 For they would come up with their livestock and their tents; they would come like locusts in number—both they and their camels could not be counted—so that they laid waste the land as they came in. 6 And Israel was brought very low because of Midian. And the people of Israel cried out for help to the Lord.

JUDGES 6:7-9 7 When the people of Israel cried out to the Lord on account of the Midianites, 8 the Lord sent a prophet to the people of Israel. And he said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: I led you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of slavery. 9 And I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out before you and gave you their land.

GIDEON Judges 6:27 - So Gideon took ten men of his servants and did as the Lord had told him. But because he was too afraid of his family and the men of the town to do it by day, he did it by night. Judges 6:40 - And God did so that night; and it was dry on the fleece only, and on all the ground there was dew.

GIDEON Judges 7:2 - The Lord said to Gideon, “The people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel boast over me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’ Judges 7:7 - And the Lord said to Gideon, “With the 300 men who lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hand, and let all the others go every man to his home.”

GIDEON Judges 8:22 -Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, “Rule over us, you and your son and your grandson also, for you have saved us from the hand of Midian.” Judges 8:28 - So Midian was subdued before the people of Israel, and they raised their heads no more. And the land had rest forty years in the days of Gideon.

HEBREWS 11:32-34 32 For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets— 33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.

II COR. 12:9-10 9 And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

FROM HIM TO US; BY HIM, FOR US; BY HIM, THROUGH US, FOR HIS GLORY Colossians 1:11; 29 - ...being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might ...For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me. I Corinthians 15:10 - But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.

FROM HIM TO US; BY HIM, FOR US; BY HIM, THROUGH US, FOR HIS GLORY Galatians 2:20 - I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. Philippians 2:13 - for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

FROM HIM TO US; BY HIM, FOR US; BY HIM, THROUGH US, FOR HIS GLORY I Peter 4:11 - If anyone serves, let it be from the strength God provides, so that God may be glorified through Jesus Christ in everything. II Peter 1:3 - His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness.

CHRIST-CENTERED STRENGTH Jesus delivers us from empty, shallow, destructive obsessions into a life of humble, purposeful, bold, courageous worship and service. Not champions, not victims, but Weak Mighty Warriors. Christ- centered strength in weakness is not pop psychology self-help, it’s not tools for us to implement as we pursue our self-driven agendas in our own strength, but the Gospel way through which God accomplishes HIS agenda for us, and through us, for the fame of the name of Jesus, and for HIS glory.

EPHESIANS 3:14-17 14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith ….

EPHESIANS 3:20 20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

WHERE’S THE TRUE DELIVERER? Jesus is the Deliverer the book of Judges and our hearts cry out for. Jesus would be the ultimate spirit-filled Savior, given to an undeserving people, delivering them - once and for all - from sin and death … and transforming them into obedient worshippers. Jesus ends the vicious cycles. (Philippians 2:8-11; Luke 9:51)

WHERE’S THE TRUE DELIVERER? Gideon’s signs of assurance (fleece; barley loaf dream): Jesus is the ultimate sign of assurance that God keeps his promises and victory is assured. Jesus – his perfect life, his death on the cross, and his empty tomb – is the bright, strong, inarguable sign that the victory is won, and that God will bring that victory to its glorious consummation.

CHRIST OUR STRONG DELIVERER “I didn’t come to judge … I came to save.” (John 12:47) Our Judge is our strong Deliverer. Our Judge is our Savior. Turn to Jesus your Strong Deliverer