ONLY GOD CAN JUDGE ME

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2 ONLY GOD CAN JUDGE ME A Sermon Series in the Book of Judges table of contents Upcoming Events Sermon Text Commentary & Community Group Guide 6/3 - Judges 1-3:6, Generational Failure 3 6/10 - Judges 3:7-31, Return of the Idols, Rise of a Savior 4 6/17 - Judges 4-5, Unlikely Salvation.5 6/24 - Judges 6, The Call..6 7/1 - Judges 7-8, Salvation Belongs to the Lord..7 7/8 - Judges 9, Pride Before the Fall..8 7/15 - Judges 10-12:7, The Tragedy of Cultural Assimilation.9 7/22 - Judges 12-16, Scandalous Grace..10 7/29 - Judges 17-18, Selling Out 11 8/6 - Judges 19-21, No King, No Righteousness 12 UPCOMING EVENTS Baptisms - Sunday, August 26th Baptism is a command of the New Testament, ordained by Jesus Christ, given to Christians, as a sign and public proclamation of faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Join us as we celebrate these new Christians joining our church community. To sign up, visit the connect desk or adam@lschurches.com. Student Group Resumes - Tuesday, July 31st We have a student group for 6th through 12th graders that meets at the church every Tuesday night from 6:30pm to 8:30pm. We take some time off over the summer for breaks and camp, but we will be back in the swing of things on Tuesday, July 31st IMPORTANT DATES Please save the date for the following events: Community Group Leader Meeting Sunday, July 29th Women s Retreat Friday September 6th through Saturday September 7th 2

3 SERMON COMMENTARY & COMMUNITY GROUP GUIDE Week 1 GENERATIONAL FAILURE Judges 1:1-3:6 ICEBREAKER Summer Plans Discussion - Leader, share your group s summer plans with your entire group. Many people in your group may be gone a few weeks for summer travel plans. If you re taking a few weeks off this summer as a group, have your members share prayer requests for the weeks you will be off. How will your group stay connected to each other during the summer? What is your hope for the fall, when you reconvene as a group? TEXT: JUDGES 1:1-3:6 What are some observations about the text? How does 1:7 inform us of the Canaanites attitude towards the invading Israelites? How can this help us as we read this in our modern context? Important: 2:16-23 lays out the format for the rest of the book of judges. The history of the Israelites is set in a downward spiral for 450 years and for the remainder of the book. Can you identify five things that will reoccur in this book? Knowing these five things will completely transform how you read the book of Judges. - The people will sin and turn towards idols. - God will allow His people to be oppressed. - The people will cry out for salvation. - God will raise up a judge to work His salvation. - There will be a period of peace after the judge. 1. How can half-hearted devotion to God affect future generations? How have we seen this play out in our own personal lives? Are there things that you are not submitting to God in that could affect future generations of believers? 2. Does God care about whether we date and marry people of the same faith as us? What in this text would indicate His feelings about this? Do you agree or disagree, and why? 3. Look at verses 2:1-2. What is the tension that God is experiencing with His people? How does Christ s sacrifice resolve this tension? How are you invited to turn towards the Cross in the midst of your own half-heartedness? 3

4 Week 2 RETURN OF THE IDOLS, RISE OF A SAVIOR Judges 3:7-31 TEXT: JUDGES 3:7-31 Break up into teams of three or four people (pairs for smaller groups). Make three lists: one list of all the details and events you find happening in the passage, another list of questions you have about the text, and a final list of new lessons you have learned about the text as God s people. Reconvene with the entire group and share your questions and what you have learned. Save this list for you to compare your notes for the next time your group does this activity. Compare and Contrast Othniel and Ehud. What is the same? What is different? Are there warning signs with Ehud that don t exist with Othniel? Have you ever had a problem or a sin that you tried to resolve by attacking or going after the symptom and not the source? What was it? As a group, how can we help each other with this? Ehud went after the physical problem but didn t deal with the spiritual one. How was Jesus ministry different than this? What does this tell you about how God wants to work in your life, and what his plan is to transform our culture? PRAYER Pray, acknowledge, and worship God and ask for his help. Specifically, pray in regards to what was discussed tonight. Spend a few minutes thanking God for how he has shown who he is in what we discussed tonight. We ll then also spend a few minutes asking for the Holy Spirit to empower us to live differently this week. 4

5 Week 3 UNLIKELY SALVATION Judges 4-5:31 ICEBREAKER Share a "High" and "Low" this past week in your personal life. Why does your "High and Low" point your back towards your walk with God TEXT: JUDGES 4:1-5:31 Read the passage together as a group. Then, take five minutes individually to write down and retell what you just read in your own words. Share what you have written down with your group. Slow down in reading the passage together. Give your group enough time to individually read a passage for a few minutes. You can break longer chapters into smaller passages and discuss the following: What are some observations from the text? Look at 4:3. From God s perspective, what is the problem with the Israelites fixation of the advanced technologies of the people they are supposed to conquer? In this passage, the women call the men to fulfill the calling given to them by God. If you are a man, was there a time in your life that you knew you were supposed to do something and you avoided it? If you are a woman, was there a time in your life that you had to step up and do something because you were the only one who was willing to? What does this passage communicate about friendships between men and women? Scripture holds women in high value (every woman in the book of Judges is shown as wise, shrewd, filled with faith, or bold). What in this passage indicates that and how do we see that in the life of Christ and the church? PRAYER This week, break up into small co-ed groups for prayer. Have the ladies pray for the men and the men pray for the ladies. 5

6 Week 4 THE CALL Judges 6 TEXT: Judges 6 Answer the following questions. It can be helpful to keep a journal or notebook of the answer to these questions throughout the book of judges. What verses do you see the Israelites turning to idols? Who does God send to oppress the Israelites to force them to recognize their idolatry? Do they cry out for a savior? How does God respond? Who does God send to save them? What are the positive and negative aspects of this Judges character? How many signs does Gideon ask for in this chapter? Is Gideon entirely truthful? Compare verses 15 and 27. : Notice the ways that God gives mercy to Gideon in the midst of His fears and doubts. How does that speak to you as you read this text? Have you ever put out a fleece for God or asked him for a sign? Talk about how you have done this. What does God call us to do instead of this? Are there things going on in your life that you are desiring God s wisdom on? How can you seek it individually and as a group? Many believe that the Angel of the Lord in this passage is pre-incarnate Jesus. How does the presence of Christ in the Old Testament affect your view on human history and the Old Testament? 6

7 Week 5 SALVATION BELONGS TO THE LORD Judges 7-8 TEXT: JUDGES 7-8 Close your eyes while reading the passage aloud two to three times. Designate someone new to read each time. Imagine and visualize yourself as one of the characters in the text. As you visualize what is going on in the passage, what is jumping out to you? Slow down in reading the passage together. Give your group enough time to individually read a passage for a few minutes. You can break longer chapters into smaller passages for discussion. What are the positive and negative aspects of Gideon? How does God work salvation for His people in this section? Read verses 8: This is a tragic moment and the beginning of a descent into madness for the rest of the book. Discuss why. Has there ever been a time in your life that God called you to do something that was far beyond your ability? What was it, and how did God reveal himself through this? Think back to the last major victory or success in your life. Did you give God the credit due to him at that moment? How? Gideon is exhibiting false humility. He says don t make me a king, but he sets up a center of worship based on his personality, asks for gold, and names his son My dad is king. Ask your group this difficult question: Are there any hidden pockets of pride in your life? Despite Gideon s faults, he still deserves honor, as we ll see in the text next week. Are you able to recognize the good that has been given to you by those that went before you, even if you don t 100% agree with them or get along with them? Contrast Gideon to Christ. How is Jesus a better hero than Gideon? PRAYER Public Prayer - The leader will announce five prayer topics. The group will all pray aloud in unison for a couple minutes on each prayer topic: (1) Pray for our church. (2) Pray for the City of Sparks. (3) Pray and repent of any sin we need to address before God. (4) Pray for God to bring healing to our local community. (5) Pray thanksgiving for what God is doing in our lives and His church. 7

8 Week 6 PRIDE BEFORE THE FALL Judges 9 TEXT: JUDGES 9 Read over the text as a group. Is there something in this chapter that surprised you? If so, how were you surprised? Are there any verses in this chapter that confuse you or that seem to contradict other parts of the Bible? Why do you think God included this part of the text in the bible? Look at verses This is a fable. What is the meaning of this fable and how is Jotham using it to show something to the people of Israel? In Gideon, we saw pride under the surface. Here we see pride unleashed. Why is pride such a destructive sin, and why do we as humans so quickly turn to it? Answer the following question: Other than God, the most important authority in my life is. How often do you find yourself listening to this as your authority than God and who he has revealed himself to be through His word and His Spirit? Discuss the phrase The end justifies the means, then look at verse 57. How does the presence of a just God who is personally involved with His people and His creation affect this saying? How can verse 57 help us in our discussions of a just God with our friends? This is obviously not how Jesus wants his church to live. Read Ephesians 4:1-16 and discuss the contrast of how the Spirit transforms our lives, then close in prayer. PRAYER Use key verses from what have read tonight in your prayer in thanksgiving, confession, and supplication. 8

9 Week 7 THE TRAGEDY OF CULTURAL ASSIMILATION Judges 10:1-12:7 TEXT: JUDGES 10:1-12:7 Do a recap of the past six weeks of Scripture and sermon series. How does the text from previous weeks connect to this week s discussion? What would you say is the main theme so far? What is God teaching you through the study of Judges? What are obvious observations in the text? What does the text say about God (i.e. Father, Son, Holy Spirit, the Word of God, the character of God)? What does the text say about man (i.e. the sinfulness of man, our need for God, Community, emotions we see in the passage, a call and response to God)? How has Jephthah misunderstood the character and commands of God? How are the Israelites treating fellow Israelites? There are two dangers explicit in this story. First, observing the commands of God that makes us look holy while ignoring the more important commands. Matthew 23:23-24 is a New Testament example. How can a religious/legalistic attitude cause us to ignore the broken or defenseless? The second danger is viewing God through the lens of our culture instead of through who he says he is as revealed in scripture. It was the Canaanite gods who demanded human sacrifice, not God. How have you seen God portrayed through the lens of our culture instead of through scripture? What was a time in your faith that you viewed God in a way that he wasn t? If you are a non-christian, are there things about the Christian God that you do not understand? How can you make sure you are understanding the will of God and who he is based on who God really is, and not through the lens of our own culture or even our own biases? Based on the character of God, why do we never have to make a vow to ensure success if it s something God desires? PRAYER (10-15 minutes) Thanks to God, we never have to make a sacrifice of any sort for our salvation. Close in prayer. 9

10 Week 8 SCANDALOUS GRACE Judges TEXT: JUDGES Read the passage with different readers for different sections. What stuck out to you the different times we read the passage? Where in the passage do the Israelites cry out for help from oppression? Why do you think that is? Why does God wait until Samson s hair is cut before he takes his strength, despite the fact that he has broken other parts of his vow already (Numbers 6:1-12)? How is Samson different from the other Judges that we have read about? What does this communicate about our God? Why is it dangerous for a Christian to be totally immersed in a society without discerning the aspects of that culture that are against God s will? Christians in scripture are called the holy ones or the set apart ones. This is what saint means. In what ways are you set apart from the broken parts of our culture? More challenging, how have you become part of the broken and sinful aspects of our culture? Are there habits in your life from which you want to be free, or patterns of thoughts that need to change? Despite the horrible nature of Samson, he is in the New Testament as an example of faith. How does he display faith in the last moments of his life? How does his life show that we are saved by faith alone? How does Samson point forward to Jesus? 10

11 Week 9 SELLING OUT Judges ICEBREAKER: Share an Evidence of Grace this past week of what God is doing in your life. Our Evidence of Grace should bring us to a posture of humility and help us recognize that God is the one in control of our lives. Why does this evidence of grace point you back towards God and His Character? TEXT: JUDGES At this point in the book of Judges, there are no more judges. There will be judges in the beginning of the book of 1 Samuel, but the next two stories show that the Israelites have almost completely lost their national faith in God and are no longer any different from the peoples they were supposed to remove from the land. There are two phrases to look for: There was no king in the land and Everyone did what was right in their own eyes. Where do you see this in the text? What other observations do you have? If there was a moral to this story about idolatry, what would it be? Are there times in your life that you worshipped something, someone, or an idea as the most important thing in your life, and it destroyed you? What was it? Have there been times that you have been in danger of selling out your faith, or even have done so? It could have been for a guy/girl, job promotion, fear of losing a job, offending someone, etc. What can encourage us to never shrink away from proclaiming the gospel of our God? Additionally, how does Jesus treat those that have sold out but want to come back? (See John 20) PRAYER (10-15 minutes) A.C.T.S. Prayer - Pray that God would use our group to be his witnesses by the Power of the Holy Spirit. Use the A.C.T.S. format to pray through the application: Adoration Confession Thanksgiving Supplication 11

12 Week 10 NO KING, NO RIGHTEOUSNESS Judges TEXT (20 minutes): JUDGES What are some observations from the text? What do we learn about the character of God in this text? What do we learn about the sinfulness of mankind in this text? There are two phrases to look for: There was no king in the land and Everyone did what was right in their own eyes. Where do you see this in the text? How does the half-hearted obedience in chapters 1 and 2 lead to this moment? (10-15 Minutes) How does this passage reflect on the darkness of situations that we may encounter in real life? Is there a danger in only focusing on the happy moments of the Bible while turning a blind eye to the darker moments? Does the scripture s willingness to address the darkness of humanity speak to its truthfulness? In light of this and other dark moments of human history, how often do you rejoice in the justice and righteousness of God? How does this text illuminate our need for the gospel of Jesus and our great need for a savior? At the end of the book of Judges we see that no prophet, warrior, or priest can save the people of Israel. They need a king. How can you apply this truth to your life as we close out the summer? Is there a way for you to rededicate yourself to following the one who can save you? 12