02/22/2026 | Ups and Downs | Pastor Jay Rice

The morning opens with practical invitations to engage: scan the connect card, consider a mission trip to Mexico, and sign up for midweek classes on topics like the parables, worship practices, parenting, and comparative religions. Attention then turns to a theological thread running through Scripture: God’s consistent invitation to life under his law and the peril of human complacency. Scripture moves from Joshua’s clear commissioning and promise—“be strong and courageous” and mediate on the law—to Israel’s fragile response after Joshua’s death. The people receive God’s deliverance and blessing when they obey, but generations who “did not know the Lord” drift into habitual sin.

Judges sketches a recurrent pattern: rest and blessing breed complacency; complacency yields idolatry and moral drift; God permits hardship as discipline; people cry out; God raises deliverers; temporary peace follows; the cycle repeats and deepens. That repetition does not form a closed loop but a downward spiral that hardens hearts and magnifies corruption, culminating in the shocking moral collapse recorded at the book’s end. The New Testament analysis in Romans 1 echoes this pattern: knowledge of God without worship reorders the heart toward created things and images.

Yet Scripture refuses to leave the story in darkness. The book of Ruth, set amid Judges’ chaos, introduces redemption in an unlikely place. Ruth’s faithfulness and Boaz’s role as redeemer restore a family line that leads to David. The narrative points forward to the cross, where redemption becomes definitive: Christ takes sin’s penalty, offers repeated restoration, and provides a way back from the spiral. The service culminates in an invitation to communion, a call to examine spiritual habits, and an appeal to return to wholehearted devotion. Those trapped in recurring sin receive both a sober diagnosis and a hope-filled remedy: acknowledge the spiral, cry out for mercy, and cling to the redemption that God offers in Christ.

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Key Takeaways

• 1. Humans become creatures of habit Habit shapes behavior far more than intention. Routine locks decisions into patterns that feel automatic and unavoidable, so spiritual change must target daily rhythms more than occasional resolutions. Small, repeated practices form the architecture of devotion or the runway for compromise. Redirecting habit requires concrete replacement rhythms rooted in Scripture and community accountability. [31:21]
• 2. Sin follows a downward spiral Repeated cycles of compromise rarely return to baseline; they worsen over time. Each relapse hardens the will, narrows moral imagination, and raises the cost of repentance. Recognizing the spiral reframes guilt from mere failure to urgent risk that demands strategic intervention. Naming the pattern guards against minimizing the long-term drift. [48:42]
• 3. Discipline intends to restore Hardness of consequence often functions as divine discipline designed to awaken memory and repentance. Suffering that stems from wandering does not indicate abandonment but a corrective purpose that aims to reclaim life. Responding to discipline requires lucid humility, not defensiveness, and a willingness to change embedded practices. Embrace discipline as a summons to return, not as final rejection. [46:28]
• 4. Redemption breaks the spiral God’s redemptive work appears where collapse seems total and hope absent. Ruth’s restoration and the cross show redemption that reorders lineage, identity, and destiny. Redemption meets failure with concrete rescue—both immediate deliverance and long-term transformation—so hope remains possible even after repeated falling. Trust in that rescuing power and reckon with the practical steps that follow. [59:36]

Youtube Chapters

• [00:00] - Welcome
• [10:10] - Tap the Connect Card
• [26:55] - Mission Trip to Mexico
• [28:19] - Midweek Classes Overview
• [31:21] - Greeting & Habit Illustration
• [37:35] - Joshua’s Commission (Joshua 1)
• [42:32] - Judges’ Warning and Promise
• [48:42] - The Cycle and Downward Spiral
• [59:36] - Ruth: Redemption in Darkness
• [62:04] - The Cross and Communion Invitation
• [72:31] - Closing Prayer and Song

Bible reading: Judges 2:6-19 (ESV)
6 When Joshua dismissed the people, the people of Israel went each to his inheritance to take possession of the land. 7 And the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great work that the Lord had done for Israel. 8 And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of 110 years. 9 And they buried him within the boundaries of his inheritance in Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of the mountain of Gaash. 10 And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel.
11 And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals. 12 And they abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They went after other gods, from among the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed down to them. And they provoked the Lord to anger. 13 They abandoned the Lord and served Baal and the Ashtaroth. 14 So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he gave them over to plunderers, who plundered them. And he sold them into the hand of their enemies all around, so that they could no longer withstand their enemies. 15 Whenever they marched out, the hand of the Lord was against them for harm, as the Lord had warned, and as the Lord had sworn to them. And they were in terrible distress.
16 Then the Lord raised up judges, who saved them out of the hand of those who plundered them. 17 Yet they did not listen to their judges, for they whored after other gods and bowed down to them. They soon turned aside from the way in which their fathers had walked, who had obeyed the commandments of the Lord, and they did not do so. 18 Whenever the Lord raised up judges for them, the Lord was with the judge, and he saved them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge. For the Lord was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who afflicted and oppressed them. 19 But whenever the judge died, they turned back and were more corrupt than their fathers, going after other gods, serving them and bowing down to them. They did not drop any of their practices or their stubborn ways.

Observation questions

1. According to verses 7 and 10, what was the key difference between the generation that served the Lord and the one that came after them?
2. What specific actions did the people of Israel take that provoked the Lord to anger, as described in verses 11-13?
3. What was God's response to Israel's disobedience, and what was the resulting condition of the people (verses 14-15)?
4. What pattern of behavior is described in verses 16-19 regarding the people's response to the judges God sent to save them?

Interpretation questions

1. The text says the new generation "did not know the Lord." What does it mean to "know" the Lord in this context, beyond just having information about Him?
2. Why do you think periods of rest and peace (like the one described in verse 7) so often lead to complacency and spiritual drifting, rather than deeper gratitude and devotion?
3. The cycle described shows God allowing hardship as a consequence of sin. How does this view of discipline differ from seeing hardship as mere punishment or abandonment?
4. Verse 19 notes that each time the people turned back, they were "more corrupt than their fathers." What factors might cause a cycle of sin to become a downward spiral rather than just a circle?

Application questions

1. Human beings are creatures of habit, with 88% of daily actions being habitual [31:21]. What are one or two small, daily spiritual habits (or lack thereof) that might be quietly shaping your heart toward God or away from Him?
2. Repeated cycles of compromise rarely return to baseline; they worsen over time [48:42]. Is there an area of struggle where you've noticed the consequences getting more serious or the pull getting stronger with each repetition? What does that pattern reveal?
3. Hardness of consequence often functions as divine discipline designed to awaken memory and repentance [46:28]. When you experience difficulty or struggle, how do you typically discern whether it might be God's corrective hand inviting you to return, rather than just random hardship?
4. God’s redemptive work appears where collapse seems total and hope absent [59:36]. Where in your life or in the life of someone you love does it feel like things have spiraled too far for redemption? What would it look like to actively trust that God specializes in making a way there?
5. The people began to serve other gods not by completely rejecting Yahweh, but by adding other things alongside Him [45:56]. What are the "other gods" or priorities in our modern context that we are most tempted to add to our devotion to God, convincing ourselves it's not a big deal?
6. The story of Ruth shows that God's redemption often comes through simple, faithful obedience in the midst of darkness [59:11]. What is one simple, faithful step of obedience God might be asking of you right now, even if the bigger picture still feels messy or unresolved?
7. The ultimate picture of redemption is found at the cross, where Jesus did for us what we could never do for ourselves [01:02:26]. How does remembering the finished work of Christ on the cross provide both the humility and the hope needed to break free from a cycle of sin and striving?