Chapter 08 “Breaking the Cycle of Sin and Defeat”
Judges 6-7
Intro – welcome to chapter eight of The Story…a 31 week journey we are taking as a church family through the Bible…in which we are discovering the grand theme of the Bible, the one overall message that God is wanting to communicate to the world…that God created you and loves you…but then He lost you because of sin…so now He is on a rescue mission to bring you back to Himself through faith in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ…
-if you’ve been reading your book acc to our schedule, then this past week, in chapter 8, you read selections from the entire book of Judges…
Judges…with lots of interesting characters: Deborah, a fearless female leader of God’s people…Samson, a strong man with a weak character who couldn’t control his passion for women…Gideon, a fearful man that God used mightily despite his doubts and insecurities…and a whole host of names that might not sound familiar: Othniel, Abimilek, Jephthah and even a left-handed leader named Ehud…and many more…
Dark Period of The Story
Now the story of Judges takes place during a dark period in the history of God’s people…right after the death of Joshua. They’re living in the Promised Land, but it’s a bad time of oppression against the Israelites by enemy nations all because of their unfaithfulness and spiritual idolatry…
The people of Israel can’t stay true to God; they are addicted to worshipping other gods, the gods of the nations around them…
…and because of this, God allows them to be oppressed and punished by these nations so that they will wake up to their true condition, repent and become desperate enough to call upon the Lord and return to Him and worship Him alone…
The Sinful Cycle
We see a pattern of behavior in the book of Judges…a sinful cycle that occurs at least six times in this period of their history: about a 300 year period:
• peace, prosperity, honoring God
• spiritual idolatry and unfaithfulness
• oppression by an enemy nation
• crying out to God for help, repentance
• God raises up a Judge who delivers them
Randy Frazee points out that of the 330 years that make up this period of Israel’s history, they spend 111 of them in oppression. That’s about a third of the time…even after all the good things God continues to do for them…they always go back to sin and unfaithfulness…
We read about that cycle in 2:8-19…
Good summary of the Judges cycle in 21:25: In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit.
-very appropriate description of our society today…
-eg “Post-truth” Oxford Dictionaries word of the year…
(see note * at end)
Sinful Cycle Today
-this cycle of sin isn’t an unfamiliar one among us even today as God’s people…many of us as God’s people find ourselves following the same pattern…
-it’s a wonder God doesn’t give up on us…why doesn’t He give up on us?
* Because of His faithfulness…His faithful love for us…His covenant love for us…because of the complete work that Jesus Christ did for us which guarantees our salvation and makes our relationship with God secure…not based on what we do, good or bad…
Gideon’s Story
There is one story in the book of Judges that I want to focus on for the rest of our time together, that shows us the way to break out of this cycle of sin and defeat and be set free for God to use us mightily and effectively in His kingdom…
…and that is the story of Gideon, which we find in chapters 6 and 7.
Gideon, the fearful farmer who was chosen by God to lead the Israelites against the Midianites…who needed lots of encouragement from God and lots of assurance…and got it…eg the double fleece confirmation…
-then he got his 32,000 soldiers together only to have God pare that number down to 300…up against an army of about 135,000 Midianites…Yikes! But through whom God gave a decisive victory by causing the enemy to turn on each other in utter confusion…thus Gideon soundly defeated the Midianites and Israel was set free from their oppression…until:
One of my favorite Bible stories…probably because I can relate so well to the person of Gideon…
Breaking the Cycle of Sin and Defeat
From Gideon’s story, we learn how to break the cycle of sin and defeat that we so easily find ourselves in…
We do it in two ways:
A. by recognizing and renouncing the lower story lies that keep us locked in the cycle of sin and defeat.
B. by recognizing and embracing the upper story truths that set us free from the cycle of sin and defeat.
A. Five lower story lies that keep us locked in the cycle of sin and defeat:
1. I have to hide from trouble 6:11
-“Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites.”
-as long as we stay hidden from what troubles us, try to protect ourselves, even deny there’s anything wrong…
…we will stay defeated and locked in our sinful cycle
2. The Lord has abandoned us 6:13
-believing that God is unable, unwilling to help us…that God doesn’t care…
-this is Gideon’s discouragement talking…God understands how we feel when we are down and oppressed…
-that’s why we need to recognize it for what it is and renounce it as a lie…counter it with truth…
-that God hasn’t abandoned us, never does…that He is good and ready to help…that He is for us and not against us…
“You’re a good good Father…”
3. I’m insignificant, weak and small 6:15
-humility is one thing…but outright lies about your value and worth and significance in God’s sight is another thing…and frankly it’s sinful to rehearse how bad you are, how weak, puny and little you are…it’s an affront to what God says is true about you…
-stop giving power to those kind of lies…
4. I’m afraid of the way people might react 6:27
-Gideon’s fear of his family and the townspeople…
-fear of people will keep us bound like nothing else…
-the fear of man is a snare Pr. 29:25
-remember last week, God’s word to Joshua in 1:7-8…be strong and very courageous…
-faith is not demonstrated by fearlessness but by obedience…faith is when our commitment to obedience is stronger than our fear…
By the way, God’s altar cannot be built until Baal’s altar is destroyed…
5. My own strength has saved me 7:2
-“you have too many men!”
-our reliance on numbers, human resources…
-as I mentioned God reduced the number of Gideon’s men from 32,000 to 300…against approx. 135,000 Midianites and camels beyond number…
“you can never be too small for God to use, but you can be too big…”
-what if the Lord did a reduction, filtering out of our church…how many of us would be left? what criteria would He even use to pare us down?
• those who fear the powers of darkness? who are afraid to speak about the Lord to the lost? who want church to be comfortable, entertaining, just for them, fit our preferences and meet our needs? those who have little time for prayer and the word? who are half-hearted about obedience? who hold back their finances and their involvement?
…how many would be left?
From this story we learn that God can use a small group of dedicated folks in a greater way than even a large group of indifferent folks…
So those are five lower story lies that will keep us locked in the cycle of sin and defeat.
B. Five upper story truths that will set us free from the cycle of sin and defeat:
1. The Lord is with you, mighty warrior 6:12
-it’s time to start learning and believing the truth about who you are in Christ…
-what do you think God sees when He looks at you? vitally important how you answer that question…
eg Who I Am In Christ sheet…sheets on info table…
2. Am I not sending you? 6:14
-if God is asking you to do something, then that gives you the assurance that you are the right person for the job…
-it means you have found favor in His sight, like Gideon did…
-remember His promise in v.16 “I will be with you”
3. Joash replied to the hostile crowd 6:31
-Gideon’s father Joash stood up for him to the angry people who wanted to kill him after he tore down Baal’s altar.
-God will give you someone to help you, stand with you, fight for you…you need someone to help you break free from the cycle of sin and defeat…
• Moses had his Aaron and Hur
• David had his Jonathan
• Paul had his Barnabas
• Jesus had His disciples
-count on God to send you a Joash…you’re going to need one to break free from the cycle of sin and defeat…can’t do it on your own…
4. Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon 6:34
-the key to being set free from the power of sin and the cycle of defeat…the freedom the Holy Spirit brings as we allow Him to fill/control us…
-freedom comes to those of us who choose to walk in the way of the Spirit instead of the way of the flesh…
Gal 5:16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
5. Get up! The Lord has given the Midianite camp into your hands. 7:15
-God is the one who gives the victory…
-He is the one who defeats the enemy, sets us free, breaks the bondage to a cycle of sin and defeat…
Ultimately, Jesus is the One who breaks the cycle of sin and defeat, which He did by His victorious death on the cross…
Rev. 1:5 To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood…
Conclusion
-the choice is clear: to break the cycle of sin and defeat, we have to learn and embrace God’s upper story truths…and we have to recognize and renounce our own lower story lies…and we have to do all of this in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ…
-you can be set free from the cycle of sin and defeat…
-let’s lay hold of that today…prayer…
* Post-Truth
-declared Oxford Dictionaries’ 2016 word of the year
adjective = “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief”
-in the wake of the US presidential election and the UK Brexit vote…
-truth or proof doesn’t matter as much as what appeals to what I think and how I feel…