Destroying Strongholds......well, kinda

Transcription

1 Destroying Strongholds......well, kinda Mountain Life Church/Life Pack/October 26-27, 2013

2 Destroying Strongholds Sermon Notes October 26-27, 2013 I. A Holy Book Stained with Blood A. Warfare in the Old Testament 1. God used it as a form of judgment 2. It was an earthly judgment that revealed to all generations the reality of judgment after life B. God s great mercy and patience 1. Genesis 15: 16 - God waited over 600 years to judge the people of Canaan 2. God s judgment is conditional C. God s redemption and judgment 1. The world 2. Nations 3. Ethnic groups 4. Tribes 5. Families 6. Individuals II. The Symbolism of the Old Testament Conquest A. Each Geographical place symbolized spiritual reality 1. Egypt = the life of slavery under sin 2. The Desert = The place where God brings us to spiritual poverty 3. Jordan River = Salvation and baptism into new life 4. Canaan = Abundant Life 5. Strongholds = Sin habits and demonic strongholds in my life 2 19

3 Table Talk Teens Read Judges 2:11-23 Question One: In verse 2:11, the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord. Describe what the children of Israel did that was evil in the sight of the Lord. Question Two: Israel would stray frequently from the Lord. God had promised to deliver Israel into their enemies hands if they forsook Him. Nevertheless, how did God show his grace? Question Three: The Lord, in his grace, raised up judges. What are the judges purposes for the people of Israel? Question Four: In verse 2:17, how did the people of Israel react to the judges that were appointed by God? Question Five: Who is the true Judge of His people and why? B. The symbolism of people groups in Canaan 1. Temptations and idolatry that so easily entangles us 2. The need to show no mercy to our sin and to temptation 3. The seriousness of the battle C. The Demonic Idols of Canaan 1. Baal and Ashtoreth gods of the ages The sexual aspect The innocents slaughtered in sacrifice 2. Baal and Ashtoreth today Ancient symptoms of idolatry still in play today The innocents slaughtered III.The Judges A. What were judges? 1. Charismatic leaders raised up by God 2. A picture of grace 3. An answer to prayer 4. They pointed to the True King B. Why judges instead of a king? 1. God always wanted to be seen as the King of Israel 2. God knew that kings would oppress the people 18 3

4 Life Group Questions for October 26-27, 2013 Message =Destroying Strongholds Ice Breaker: What is your favorite car and why? Have three or four people read Judges 1 and What do you observe about this passage? 2. Tell how you feel about God commanding the Jews to wipe out entire people groups. 3. What parallels do you see between the people of Israel and the people of today? 4. Have someone read Judges 2: 10. How do you think an entire generation can grow up not knowing the Lord? Please discuss this. 5. Randy spoke about the symbolisms of the book of Judges. The land of Canaan represents abundant life, the Jordan River represents our salvation and baptism. The Canaanites represent old idols and sinful thought palerns in our lives that must be unmercifully rooted out. Comment on what this makes you think about concerning your spiritual life. 6. How can you know if defeats and misery are due to the enemy fighting us because we re walking with God, or if they are due to us giving into idols in our lives? Table Talk Elementary Focus: Trusting God Scripture: Psalm 86:11 Day 1 - Who is your favorite sports hero, actor, or singer? We tend to like these people because they are good at what they do. What if (your chosen person) suddenly showed up today and said to you, I want to be your coach. What would you say? I doubt that you would turn them away and say, No, thank you. No one would pass up the chance to be coached by someone who is considered the best at what they do. Believe it or not, sometimes we turn down God s offer to help us make us the best people we can be. Read Psalm 86:11. Day 2 - Coaching means that you are teaching someone how to do something. What is something that you are good at? What does a good coach need to know? What does a good coach need to do? In order for us to learn from a coach, what do we need to do? It doesn t matter what situation we re in, God is always there to give us direction just like a good coach would! Day 3 - The book of Judges has a story about a man named Gideon who did what his coach asked ~ even when it didn t make sense to him. (Read Judges 7:2-8.) Why did God tell Gideon there were too many soldiers? What do you think Gideon learned about God through this story? What would you have thought if you were Gideon? Much like Gideon did, we can ask God to help us make good choices instead of relying on our own ideas! 7. Pray for one another. 4 17

5 Luke 17:11-19 Table Talk Preschool & Nursery Day 1: Read Luke 17: As a family, discuss some ideas on what it means to be thankful. Share some thoughts on what it might have been like to be a leper (someone with very bad sores all over their body). The lepers knew Jesus could make them well... they had great faith. Ask how the ten lepers may have felt when they realized they were healed (happy, excited, clean, etc.). Day 2: Read Luke 17: again Only one of the ten men, when he noticed he was healed, over came his excitement and came back to thank Jesus for healing him. He was so very grateful that Jesus had healed him. The man knew his life would never be the same and he was glad. Ask your child(ren) what the reason may have been for the others to not come back to thank Jesus. When the one man came back, Jesus healed his whole body, including his heart and mind! How exciting! Memory Verse: Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever. ~Psalm 107: 1 Day 3: Talk about some things in your life that make you thankful. We can be especially thankful for Jesus who died on the cross for us. Our hearts and minds can be very unhealthy without Him! We need Jesus to heal us and forgive us! We can be very thankful He has the power to do that! Pray together and thank God for filling your heart with love. Activity: Play a fun game of Mother may I. Have all other family members form a horizontal line, facing you. Take turns assuming the role of the Mother and back up to create a good distance. Choose someone to go first. They need to ask, Mother, may I take (number) giant, regular, or baby steps? The Mother responds either, Yes or No. If yes, the person takes the pre-determined number of steps and says thank you. If they forget to say thank you, they need to return to the starting line. Play continues with the next person in line. The first one to high-five the Mother wins. (Use Jesus, Father, Brother, or Sister instead of Mother, if you choose.) Personal Devotion Pages The following pages are designed to help you enjoy a regular time alone with God. We have divided up the curriculum to help us grow wherever we are at in our relationship with God and in our knowledge of His Kingdom. LEVELS: Since we are a Colorado church, we use skiing imagery to communicate the different levels of intensity and time involved in relating to God. BEGINNER: If you are new in your relationship with God, we encourage you to try the exercises under this symbol: INTERMEDIATE: If you have walked with God for some time and would like a little more challenge and more time involvement, try the exercises under this symbol: ADVANCED: These exercises are for people who have walked with God for some time and display maturity in their relationship with Him. These exercises provide a practical way to encounter God and His truth on a regular basis. There are no rules here. Please don t hurry through the process. Slow meditation and memorization seems to soak in better than cramming. Enjoy! 16 5

6 Day One 1. Take some time to praise the Lord for who He is and enjoy thanking Him for what He has done in your life lately. 2. Read Judges 1-2 slowly and deliberately. 3. Write down any observations you see in this passage. Memorize Psalm 18: 19. Memorize Psalm 18: Memorize Psalm 18: 16-19, and Day Five Whenever the LORD placed a judge over Israel, he was with that judge and rescued the people from their enemies throughout the judge s lifetime. For the LORD took pity on his people, who were burdened by oppression and suffering. But when the judge died, the people returned to their corrupt ways, behaving worse than those who had lived before them. They followed other gods, worshiping and bowing down to them. And they refused to give up their evil practices and stubborn ways. ~ Judges 2:18, 19, NLT Judges were charismatic, anointed leaders who brought the people out of oppression and brought them back into pure worship of God. They are all, to a person, pictures of grace. Grace always sets us free from sin and idolatry. Grace brings us into relationship with God and it is given freely by a loving King who shows great mercy and kindness to people who shun Him. Like I said, the judges were pictures of grace. Grace is something that we perceive as weak, but God uses to overcome what we think is strong. One of the first judges was Ehud, a left handed man. In that day, left handed people were deemed imperfect and weak, yet God used him mightily. Deborah was a woman. Females were considered almost sub-human in that day. Most cultures viewed them as possessions rather than as people. Yet, God used Deborah to wisely overcome the enemies of the people. Gideon was a natural born coward. Yet God used this chicken of a man to do mighty things. Samson, though possessing superhuman strength, was a fool and a scoffer, profaning God at every opportunity. Yet, God used him to set His people free. Father, thank you for Your grace! Thank You for setting me free! 6 15

7 Day Five 1. Take some time to praise the Lord for who He is and enjoy thanking Him for what He has done in your life lately. 2. Meditate on Judges 2: Ask God if some of the troubles you have dealt with lately are due to spiritual warfare or due to your failure to destroy the idols in your life. 4. Finish your Bible memorization today. Day One The angel of the LORD went up from Gilgal to Bokim with a message for the Israelites. He told them, I brought you out of Egypt into this land that I swore to give your ancestors, and I said I would never break my covenant with you. For your part, you were not to make any covenants with the people living in this land; instead, you were to destroy their altars. Why, then, have you disobeyed my command? Since you have done this, I will no longer drive out the people living in your land. They will be thorns in your sides, and their gods will be a constant temptation to you. ~Judges 2:1-3, NLT Reading the Old Testament for the purpose of edification and pursuit of wisdom requires us to read carefully and to understand symbolism. As 21st century Christians, we read the book of Judges and are perhaps appalled at the out and out gore and bloodshed that God commanded. After careful study, we find that God used His people to bring judgement on the Canaanite people for rejecting Him and adopting perverse idols. Before sending His people into the land, God waited over 600 years for the Canaanites to repent. When they did not repent, He sent the armies of God to destroy them. This is where we as New Testament believers must understand symbolism. Though the battles and wars were very real for the Israelites, their history serves to teach us deep truths symbolically. For example, New Testament believers must see the land of Canaan as a symbol of the abundant life that Jesus promised to all those who follow Him (John 10: 10). However, that abundant life comes at a high price. We must show absolutely no mercy to the sin strongholds in our land (i.e., our lives), or they will serve as a constant temptation to us. Father, I pray that You would reveal to me all the sin strongholds in my life. Help me to give them no ground in my life. I commit myself to show no mercy to the things that have constantly brought me down in the past. 14 7

8 Day Two 1. Take some time to praise the Lord for who He is and enjoy thanking Him for what He has done in your life lately. 2. Read Judges 1-2 again today. 3. Write down in this space any idols that you have a tendency to worship. 4. Take time to repent of sin and idolatry. Allow the Holy Spirit to release you from the sins that captivate you. Ask Him if He would like you to change some of your habits. 5. Continue memorizing and meditating on the scriptures for this week. Day Four Then the Israelites did what was evil in the LORD s sight and worshiped the images of Baal. They abandoned the LORD, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of Egypt. They chased after other gods, worshiping the gods of the people around them. And they angered the LORD. They abandoned the LORD to serve Baal and the images of Ashtoreth. ~Judges 2:11-13, NLT This narrative reads like a country song. The jilted Lord of the universe loses His love, the people of Israel, to images made of stone and precious metals. For the Lord, you re supposed to dance with the one who brung ya. He brought them out of Israel after a four hundred year stretch of slavery and He did it with pizzaz, springing water out of rocks and providing manna and quail to eat. Let s see Baal do that. But the heart of rebellious man works overtime as an idol manufacturer. We push away the truth from ourselves in order to possess our selfish desires. Idols, for some perverse, idiotic reason, intrigue us, and the priceless beauty and goodness of God bores us. It s crazy. In the mysterious tablets of Ugarit, discovered by Claude Schaeffer, Baal is the God of rain, thunder, and extraordinary bolts of lightning. The worship of Baal extended in this region to the Jews, Canaanites and the Phoenicians. But Herodotus informs us the God was also known under many other names such as Jupiter of the Romans. Zeus of the Greeks, Mazda of the Persians, and Amon of the Egyptians. Father, show me again the awesomeness of Your goodness and beauty. In Your light, show me the darkness of idols I ve hidden in my heart. I repent of these gods as I kneel before You. 8 13

9 Day Four 1. Take some time to praise the Lord for who He is and enjoy thanking Him for what He has done in your life lately. 2. Meditate on Judges 2: Write down any ways that you are pursuing God only halyeartedly. Take time to repent. Day Two So the LORD burned with anger against Israel. He said, Because these people have violated the covenant I made with their ancestors and have ignored my commands, I will no longer drive out the nations that Joshua left unconquered when he died. ~Judges 2:20, 21, NLT Sadly, the Israelites were halfhearted when it came to unmercifully wiping out the enemy in the land God promised them. This is a picture of a follower of Jesus who halfheartedly repents of sin and shows mercy to idols in their heart that pull them away from wholehearted worship of God. I know I have a drinking problem, but just one beer won t hurt. God s attitude toward us when we have this attitude is the same He had with the ancient Israelites. He allows those idols to continue to wreak havoc in our lives. 4. Continue meditating on and memorizing the scripture for this week. Even this is a merciful action. Following our manufactured idols always leaves us miserable, unfulfilled, and hungry for more. When we allow anything in our lives to be more important than God, we find ourselves in spiritual Death Valley - a place of dryness, misery, and famine. This serves to cause us to grope for God. Like the ancients, we come back to Him because of the slavery our gods inflict upon us. Only IN CHRIST am I truly free. But freedom comes at a price. I must continually live in warfare. I cannot take a even a moment s rest. The enemy crouches at my door, waiting for me to show him mercy. The moment I lay down my defenses, my old idols will quietly slip into my bed once again. 12 9

10 Day Three 1. Take some time to praise the Lord for who He is and enjoy thanking Him for what He has done in your life lately. 2. Meditate on Judges 2: and on Deuteronomy 6: 4-9. Day Three After that generation died, another generation grew up who did not acknowledge the LORD or remember the mighty things he had done for Israel. Then the Israelites did what was evil in the LORD s sight and worshiped the images of Baal. ~Judges 2:10, 11, NLT Judges sad lesson for us is that each generation needs it s own encounter with the living God. The implication here is that the parents failed to teach the children about following God. They may have lived it themselves, but they did not live it in such a way that it was contagious. 3. Bring at least three friends or loved ones to the Lord and ask Him to bring them to repentance and faith. Ask Him to show you how you can boldly love them and speak the words of Jesus into their lives. 4. Continue meditating on and memorizing the scripture for this week. Children have an inbuilt hypocrisy detecto-meter. They know when I m a fake. They may learn with their mind what I teach, but they catch with their heart what I practice. The life that Jesus promised that flows with abundance must be apprehended by each individual and by each successive generation. Tricorder readings show large amounts of hypocrisy, Captain. Joshua s generation lived a lukewarm relationship with God. They did not wholeheartedly fight against the enemies of their souls. As a result, their children saw no real reason to pursue the official beliefs of their parents. They instead ran with abandonment toward the gods of their neighbors. The gods of the neighbors were sexy, sensuous, and easy. The God of the Universe required self discipline, pure worship, and wholehearted devotion. Father, I know my sin. I acknowledge that I fake things often. Will You please remove my hypocritical heart and help me be Your worshiper? 10 11