Posts with the tag “life-on-the-way-down”

Sermon Title: A Kinsman RedeemerScripture: The Book of Ruth (NIV). . . Orpah kissed her mother-in-law good-by, but Ruth clung to her. Ruth 1:14. . . the LORD enabled [Ruth] to conceive, and she gave birth to a son. Ruth 4:13By the time one finishes reading Judges one has been confronted with a sometimes horrifyingly realistic description of the depravity and evil of which human beings are capable ...  Read More

Sermon Title: Life without a KingScripture: Judges 19-21 (NIV) In those days Israel had no king . . .. In those days Israel had no king. Each man did what he considered to be right. Judges 19:1; 21:25Judges 19 through 21 speak loudly. In a painfully unpleasant text not easily ignored, three themes in the life of Israel stand out. Israel’s corruption is deeply and widely embedded throughout the who...  Read More

Sermon Title: Counterfeit GodsScripture: Judges 17-18 (NIV)In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit. Judges 17:6In recent weeks we have seen external threats to Israel’s security and the leaders God raised up to rescue them. In Judges 17 and 18 the focus shifts to the internal state of the nation and the religious and moral decay that was weakening it from within. This week w...  Read More

Sermon Title: Fallen Hero – SamsonScripture: Judges 13-16 (NIV) “Sovereign Lord, remember me. Please, God, strengthen me just once more, and let me with one blow get revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes.” Judges 16:28In today’s text, we consider the colorful life of Samson, another of Israel’s judges. Samson was born to Manoah, a man from the tribe of the Danites, during a period of Philisti...  Read More

Sermon Title: Strong Faith, Weak TheologyScripture: Judges 10:6-12:7 (NIV)“We have sinned. Do with us whatever you think best, but please rescue us now.” Judges 10:15We begin today by encountering the Israelites during another period in which they “did evil in the eyes of the Lord” (10:6) by serving the deities of the peoples around them. For eighteen years, the text records, the Israelites were s...  Read More

Sermon Title: AbimelechScripture: Judges 8:28-9:57 (NIV)He went to his father’s home at Ophrah, and there, on one stone, they killed all seventy of his half brothers, the sons of Gideon. But the youngest brother, Jotham, escaped and hid.  Judges 9:5And a certain woman threw an upper millstone on Abimelech's head and crushed his skull.   Judges 9:53As we move to Judges 9, admittedly, much of the te...  Read More

Sermon Title: We LamentScripture: Judges 8 (NIV)From all this Gideon made an ephod, which he placed in Ophrah, his hometown. But soon all Israel prostituted themselves by worshiping it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and his household. . . And as soon as Gideon was dead, the Israelites turned and prostituted themselves with the Baals, and they set up Baal-berith as their god. Judges 8:27, 3...  Read More

Sermon Title: When Weakness Is EnoughScripture: Judges 7 (NIV) “When I and all who are with me blow our trumpets, then from all around the camp blow yours and shout, ‘For the Lord and for Gideon.’” Judges 7:17-18Last week, we saw how God called Gideon son of Joash the Abiezrite to “go out in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand” (6:14). Despite his relatively low status, “the...  Read More