WE SERVE
A GOD OF MERCY
Judges 3:12-30
The nation of Israel
With nations, they were
empowered to destroy.. They forgot
Their God, the one true
living God.
Judges 3:5-6
5 The Israelites lived among
the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 6 They
took their daughters in marriage and gave their own daughters to their sons,
and served their gods.
They angered God from time to
time and only called out to God when they
Were in trouble. Each time
God would deliver them after their cry
DISOBEDIENCE RESULTS IN
LOSS OF BLESSINGS
V:12 Once again the
Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and because they did this evil the
Lord gave Eglon king of Moab Israel Israel Palms Moab
A. Freedom comes from
obedience to the Lord.
1. If you align yourself with the devil,
you will always end in slavery
and loss of blessing.
2. When you align yourself up with God,
there will be freedom and
favor from God.
B. We can easily see what
happened to Israel
in His Word.
1. But can we relate our own attitudes to
the Israelites?
2. Are we spiritually doing the same thing?
3. Are you devoted to God, or are you
devoted to your own agenda?
4. Does God take second place after your desires?
5. Is this pandemic, racial protests, and
violence and economic
downturn a result of our own defiance against
God's command?
C. Only you can answers these
questions about yourself truthfully.
1. Certainly, we can point our fingers at
the world and say yes.
2. We are in this world, so we suffer the
same as the world.
3. To some extent we are guilty because the
Word says:
Rom 3:23
for all have sinned and fall short of
the glory of God,
GOD HEARS OUR PRAYERS
V:15 Again the Israelites
cried out to the Lord, and he gave them a deliverer — Ehud, a left-handed man,
the son of Gera Moab Moab
A. When we cry out God, we
have allowed Him to bring us a solution in His
Way.
1. In answer to their prayer, God gave them
a warrior to deliver them
from the Eglon the king.
2. But, notice the Israelites sent a gift
to the King to make peace.
3. God did not want peace with the enemy,
He wanted revenge.
4. The Israelite leaders were going to
prolong the problem
5. God will solve the problem.
B. If God let us have our
way, there would never be a solution.
1. The reason we can’t solve the problem of
racial inequality
is
everybody wants a compromise but leave the hearts and
minds of the perpetrators in tack.
2. God does not compromise with evil.
SOMETIMES GOD SELECT A
WARRIOR TO KEEP HIS SECRET
V; 18 After Ehud had
presented the tribute, he sent on their way the men who had carried it. 19 At
the idols near Gilgal he himself turned back and said, "I have a secret
message for you, O king."
The king said,
"Quiet!" And all his attendants left him.
20 Ehud then approached him
while he was sitting alone in the upper room of his summer palace and said,
"I have a message from God for you." As the king rose from his seat,
21 Ehud reached with his left hand, drew the sword from his right thigh and
plunged it into the king's belly. 22 Even the handle sank in after the blade,
which came out his back. Ehud did not pull the sword out, and the fat closed in
over it.
A. God’s plan is not like our
plan.
1. Notice Ehud, sent all the compromised
Israelites away
so that it was only him and king,
2. We would say killing a man is wrong.
3. We would say that even though the man had
killed
many of our people, he needs our
justice.
4. The God we serve says vengeance is mind.
5. Ehud couldn’t tell the Israelites what
God had told him to do
because they would have tried to block
the divine plan.
B. We live by a double
standard.
1. If we are at war with another country,
killing men, women and
children
is ok.
2. We kill to protect our country.
3. The God we serve kills to promote His
righteousness.
4. The king probably had not met a
left-handed soldier, so
he was not alarmed when Ehud, used is left
hand to draw the
hidden sword.
5. We must remember that the king of Moab
enemies
to God.
IN THE MIST OF THE ENEMY,
GOD PLANS AN ESCAPE
V:23 Then Ehud went out to
the porch; he shut the doors of the upper room
behind him and locked them.
24 After he had gone, the
servants came and found the doors of the upper room locked. They said, "He
must be relieving himself in the inner room of the house." 25 They waited
to the point of embarrassment, but when he did not open the doors of the room,
they took a key and unlocked them. There they saw their lord fallen to the
floor, dead.
A. God will not put more on
us than we can bear.
1. We have to go boldly before the throne
of God and do what
He commands us to do.
2. God always gives us a way out of
trouble.
3. The plan to get the king by himself was
the hand of God.
4. To hide the sword in the belly of the
king was the hand of God.
5. For Ehud to get out of the Moab
of
God.
B. For Ehud to get to the
King had to pass by an array of Moab
1. Idol gods are man-made objects
attributed to the imagination
of evil people.
2. Notice, God started at the top of the
idol infestation.
3. God has a way of getting to the root of the
problem.
4. Many times we treat the symptom and
never get to the
problem.
5. In the case of police brutality, we
judge the police officers
and not the system that promotes and enables
his/her
behavior.
6. In the case of racial inequalities, we
attack the laws of the
government, when the problem is in the hearts
and minds of
the
people who apply the laws.
GOD CALLS US TOGETHER TO
SEE HIS GLORY
V:26 While they waited, Ehud
got away. He passed by the idols and escaped to Seirah. 27 When he arrived
there, he blew a trumpet in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites
went down with him from the hills, with him leading them.
28 "Follow me," he
ordered, "for the Lord has given Moab Jordan Moab
A. When God moves, He moves
quickly in ways we cannot plan.
1. While the Moabites were confused about
the death of their king.
God moved to get Israel
them.
2. God called the Israelites together and
gave them victory before
the
battle started.
B. With God on your side,
victory is a sure thing.
1. When God gives us victory, He will
confuse the enemy
so
that we can easily take possession of that He has
for
us.
Deut 11:25
No man will be able to stand against
you. The Lord your God, as he
promised you, will put the terror and
fear of you on the whole land,
wherever you go.
2. We have to be obedient and follow the
leadership that God
put in place.
WHAT GOD HAS FOR ME IS
MIND BY FAITH
V:29 At that time they struck
down about ten thousand Moabites, all vigorous and strong; not a man escaped.
30 That day Moab Israel
A. There is a time when we
have to take to the road and battle the
Enemy under God’s direction.
1. It takes faith to go up against an enemy
more powerful and
well equipped than you.
2. With God on our side, who can stand
against us.
Rom 8:31
What, then, shall we say in response to
this? If God is for us, who can be
against us?
THANK GOD FOR HIS MERCY
Rev. M. Mitchell
Asst Pastor Of Greater Macedonia Baptist Church
For More Lessons follow me on
facebook and visit my blogs;
revmmitchell.com and
goodnewsrevmitc.blogspot.com
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