Ordinary People expressing Extraordinary Faith

``What happens to you? Yeah. You've you've had a sin issue in your life and you're okay with it and so you don't quite deal with the sin issue and you allow it to fester, you allow it to hang out but you go, that's okay. I'm comfortable with this issue. I'm comfortable with it. And pretty soon, pretty soon, before you know it, that sin issue that you thought was under control is no longer, that temptation you thought you had handled, those words that you thought you long forgot, that language, that fear, that doubt, that rebellious heart, that hardened heart. And what happens? It takes hold of you. It grabs hold of you. And you don't even know it, and then before long, you are enslaved. And what do you have to do? Once again, you have to humble yourself and cry out to the Lord. Lord, I had this problem, I confessed it a long time ago, and it's back. I've given in again, whatever it is. And what happens when that happens? God forget you? Does God leave you out in the cold and say, hey, you know, thought you learned your lesson. You should have done it. No. No. [00:58:35] (59 seconds)  #DealWithHiddenSin

In 1429, France was fractured. It was demoralized. It was steadily losing its ground to England in the Hundred Year War. It needed new leadership, and it got it. The leadership didn't come from a play it didn't come from a palace. It didn't come from the war council. It came from a young peasant girl named Joan of Arc. She had no military training, no nobility of birth, no political authority, but every standard of her time, she was unqualified to lead. And yet, she spoke with clarity and conviction. She spoke without fear or doubt, claiming she claimed that God had called her to deliver France. She what she brought was not a strategy, but she brought belief belief that defeat was not inevitable. Her presence transformed the nation. [00:48:13] (68 seconds)  #UnexpectedLeadership

Have you ever wondered why God has used some of the people and some of the stories that he has in the Old Testament? They just sometimes seem out of place and seem like that don't make sense or that's kind of gross. You know? In today's world, what they did back then was kind of gruesome. So today's story, one of the characters does something kinda brutal. Does something I'm not gonna sugarcoat it. It is a distinct act of violence, and yet God seems to reward it. You know, it doesn't make sense? No. Is it a product of their time and their culture at the day? Yes. Is there a lesson for us to learn today? Absolutely. Absolutely. [00:19:54] (40 seconds)  #HardBiblicalLessons

Wow. What a story. And you're going, pastor Paul, that's a that's an interesting story. What does that gotta do with us? What does that gotta do with us? How does that relate to us? From Jael, we've got a couple of lessons we can learn. One is you cannot let evil live in your tent, church. You you can't you can't invite evil in and can't say, hey, evil, come in. And the New Testament says, this is our tent. How many of us let evil into our tent? And we keep it company, we feed it, we nurture it, we strengthen it by allowing stuff into our mind, into our ears that Sisera would be proud of. We let stuff in. You don't protect evil in your tent. If there's evil in your home, evil in your thoughts, evil in your community, you you can't let that reside. You've gotta be quick to say, whose camp are you gonna choose? Are you gonna choose the Canaanite camp or are you gonna choose God's camp? You gotta make that decision every single day. You must kill the evil in your tent. Don't let evil just linger. [01:13:37] (68 seconds)  #DontHostEvil

Twenty years of ruthless oppression. Year after year, they owed tribute. Year after year, they were enslaved. Year after year, they were beaten and then trampled. They were mocked and ridiculed and probably killed, some of them. Year after year, and they cry out. So then we come up to this part of the cycle that we see in judges again and again. [00:58:04] (21 seconds)  #TwoDecadesOfOppression

Let me close the chapter down and give some final thoughts and we can come to the table. On that day, because of two women and the second lieutenant, on that day, Israel saw God defeat Jabin, the Canaanite king. And from that time on, Israel became stronger and stronger against king Jabin until they finally destroyed him. [01:16:13] (23 seconds)  #CelebrateChristsVictory

Church, so let's celebrate. Let's celebrate the one who conquered sin and death, who took our sins on himself and presented himself to the Lord as holy and righteous. Let's let's come to the table and and look at that and say, God, thank you. Thank you for conquering sin for me. Thank you for defeating death for me. And Lord, today, I'm just gonna try to walk in obedience and faithfulness to you. [01:18:10] (28 seconds)  #LeadershipIsInfluence

In our study in the book of Judges, we're in chapter four, we're seeing people just like that. We're seeing that God raises up leaders and God calls them to step forward. God calls them to step forward. John Maxwell, who was a pastor down in San Diego, and as his church grew and he he started to talk to executives, he realized that he had a gift for teaching executives how to lead, and he left the pastorateship and he started writing books and books and started teaching and training in a godly way leaders how to lead. And he came up with this definition of leadership. He said leadership is influence, nothing more and nothing nothing less. Leadership is influence, nothing more and nothing less. [00:50:02] (45 seconds)  #LeadBoldlyForGod