 Rating Radiant Church, you guys doing good? Good, well my name's John, I am the campus pastor here at the Richland campus and our lead pastor, Lee Cummings is speaking at a small little church of 40,000 or so in Texas called Gateway. So he's doing a prophetic presbytery there which means he's one of the people who's giving prophetic words to some of the staff and parishioners there at the church. So say a prayer for him, it happens today, tomorrow and Tuesday so they're working him over there but what a huge honor for us to sew Pastor Lee into that environment and to have him be an extension of radiant to that church and obviously a huge honor for me as well to share the pulpit with Pastor Lee Cummings. I am humbled and it's not even a holiday so what do you know, it's a good thing. So let's pray real quick before we jump into the word Father we love you and we're asking God that you would by the Holy Spirit speak to every single heart, God, you know our needs, you know God, our struggles, you know the things that are happening in our lives and you're intricately involved so we just pray God that there would be a Holy Spirit revelation given and revealed to each of our hearts in Jesus' name and everyone said amen. All right, so we're in a series, it's called Heroes. Everybody say heroes. Heroes, it's not just a sandwich anymore, okay? It's a sermon series and this is what we've done is we've taken people from the Old Testament and it's going all the way through July and we've looked at the lives of these individuals and we've seen the way that God has used them to further his plan, to further the purpose that he has for the earth and they've done amazing exploits and they've lived these miraculous lives and I just want us to remember not to fantasize about that in the sense that, you know that was then and this is now, but to remember that that is exactly what God still does today is he uses people to further the kingdom of God to advance the gospel. Philippians 2.13 says that God is at work in you both to will and to do for his good pleasure. So God isn't just randomly pushing buttons and God isn't just spinning things into existence, he uses people in order to accomplish the purposes he has on the earth. He uses his people, he uses us and we look at their lives and we think, oh man, we could never do that but at the same time they, when God called them were just regular people. They had their own insecurities, we've seen that, their own issues and God used normal people in supernatural ways and that's what the series is really about. So we've looked at, we've gone chronologically through the Bible so we started with Noah and then we went to Abraham and Sarah and then we talked about Joseph and then we went to Moses and last week, Pastor Lee talked about Joshua and Joshua, I'll give you a quick history lesson here, introduce a new section of scripture as far as the Old Testament goes. So all of those other heroes we talked about were in the first five books of the Bible, Genesis, Exodus, Seviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, that's called the law and Joshua introduces a new period in the history of Israel in the Old Testament called the historical books. So it's Joshua, Judges, Ruth, First, Second Samuel, First, Second Kings, First and Second Chronicles, Esther, Ezra, Nehemiah. Is that right? Yeah, and that's it. And then Job and Psalms and Proverbs, those are the poetical books and then we have the prophets after that. So this is a time in the history and it covers hundreds of years where we're following the journey of Israel as God's people, as they walk out the plans and purposes God has for them. So that's what this historical book is about and last week we saw Joshua take the children of Israel into the Promised Land. He brought them where Moses couldn't, he took them into their inheritance, into Canaan, the land flowing with milk and honey and the whole book of Joshua is about that and it's obviously named Joshua because he's the prominent figure but now we're going into a new book called Judges and Judges obviously is named after an office, not a person and that's because there isn't one prominent character in the book of Judges that God highlights. There's 12 and so it's different and each one has their own unique calling and their own unique influence on the history of Israel and so you probably haven't even heard of, most of them maybe even, but Samson is one of the judges God brings into power, how many have heard of Samson before? Once they made a movie, once you made a movie, you know you've made it big time as a hero and then Gideon is, Pastor Lee's going to talk about in a few weeks and so these judges were, I don't want you to think of like Judy or Joe Wapner when you hear judges, that wasn't even their primary role was to have rule over cases, although that was part of it, judges in this time in history were literally the commanders and chiefs of the land, they ran everything, they were the governors, they oversaw the military, they did all the administrative, they were the mouthpiece for all that happened in the land at that time and the reason God had to raise these judges up is because of what was happening in Israel, so if you brought your Bible, turn to Judges chapter two and we'll read a few verses and kind of get a little context for where we are, Judges two verses six through 12 says this, after Joshua had dismissed the Israelites, they went to take possession of the land, each to their own inheritance and the people served the Lord throughout the lifetime of Joshua and the elders who outlived him and who had seen all the great things the Lord had done for Israel and then Joshua's son of non-servant Lord died at the age of 110 and they buried him in the land of his inheritance in the hill country of Ephraim north of Mount Gash. After that whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation grew up who neither knew the Lord nor what he had done for Israel. Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord and they served the Baals, they forcipped the Lord, the God of their ancestors who had brought them out of Egypt, instead they followed and worshiped various gods with the people around them and they aroused the Lord's anger. This time in the book of Judges is a dark time in the period in history of Israel. As I said, Joshua brought them into the Promised Land, there were 12 tribes, he released them to go, they each had their own sort of territory they were supposed to take, but instead of driving out the inhabitants, they allowed them to dwell on the land with them and the Bible says that they began to intermingle and intermarry and they started serving the gods of the pagans around them and they forgot about the God of Israel and they served Baal and Asherah and all these false gods and the Bible says that God's anger was aroused and every single time that they would do this it would lead to a period of destruction, it would lead to a period of oppression, kings would come in, other nations would come in and dominate Israel for decades and they would be forced laborers and they would be oppressed and the Bible says that they would cry out when this happened after years, not even really crying out to God in repentance but just crying out like our lives are miserable, I hate my life kind of a crying out and the Bible says that God heard their cries and he raised up deliverers, he raised up judges, sometimes we think of the Old Testament, God in the Old Testament is kind of mean or ornery or in a bad mood, it's not true. Get back here. God was always had a heart for his people and so when they cried out he heard them and the Bible says he raised up these judges and this is what it would look like, these judges would come, they were deliverers of God's people and they would do miraculous things and God would use them mightily to rescue them and free them from oppression from these nations and then every time when that judge died the people would forget God again and they would go right back to worshiping bales, right back to idol worship, right back to forgetting about God and so time after time, 12 times God raises up judges over hundreds of years and so again, I had people read, I said on social media, Facebook and Twitter, hey if you wanna be prepared, read the first four chapters of judges, anybody actually do that? Seven people, praise the Lord, okay good. Don't follow me on Facebook anyway, it's scary, so don't, it's fine, don't listen to me but here's what happened leading up to this hero we're gonna look at today, there was a man named E. HUD who was, I just love his story, so it's a little PG-13 violent status, these few chapters in the Bible but I like that because people are like, the Bible's boring, I'm like, you need to read Judges chapter three because here's what happens, E. HUD is the deliverer, the judge that God raises up, he goes into the king of the Moabites so they've been slaves to the Moabites for decades and the name of the king is E. Glan, doesn't that sound like an evil king? King E. Glan, so he goes into his chambers, E. HUD does, the Bible says he's left-handed which I guess is important so he's in there and he says, I have a secret message for you, O. King and so the king says to all of his servants, okay everybody out and he says, come here, I gotta whisper it to you, it's a message from the Lord and the Bible says that E. HUD reaches with his left hand to his right thigh where he's hidden a dagger, takes it out and instead of whispering to E. Glan, he jabs his dagger into his stomach and E. Glan had like a mild Krispy Kreme donut problem, he was overweight significantly and the Bible says he was fat basically and the whole handle and everything of the knife went into his stomach and his gut just went over it and it was like by knife, kind of a situation so hey, I didn't write the book and E. HUD delivers Israel in that moment from E. Glan and then again he dies and this is where we pick up with our hero today, Deborah and so this is obviously a new twist because this is the first and only judge in all of this period who's a female and so Deborah rises up in chapters four and five of Judges and she's the deliverer of the people and we don't know a whole lot about her. She's relegated really to these two chapters and Judges, you don't read about her in Hebrews 11 and the Faith chapter, you don't read about her in the New Testament anywhere but she was a powerful, powerful force for God and we're gonna look at her story today. I actually have a picture of Deborah, you've probably never seen her before that is an artist's rendition of her leading as a woman in a time when men were dominating culture and then by my own research I also happened to come across a picture of Deborah when she was little. There she is, so just kidding, I don't think that was her. I'm sorry, I can't help myself. Every time I hear her I think of little Debbie because I like snacks, okay anyway. Dial it back in, Deborah, Judges chapter four, we're gonna read about the life of Deborah. This is her coming on the scene. It says, again, the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, now the E. HUD was dead so this was the pattern. So the Lord again, sold them into the hands of Jab and King of Canaan who reigned in Hazar. Cicera, the commander of the army, was based in Herisheth Hagia and because he, Cicera had 900 chariots fitted with iron and had cruelly oppressed the Israelites for 20 years, they cried to the Lord for help so here's his deliverer, now Deborah, a prophet. The wife of Lapideth was leading Israel at that time and she held court under the palm of Deborah between Rama and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim and the Israelites would go up to her to have their disputes decided and so she sent for Baruch, son of Abinahm from Ketish in Naftala and said to him, the Lord the God of Israel commands you, go take with you 10,000 men of Naftala and Zebulun and lead them up to Mount Tabur and I will lead Cicera, the commander of Jabin's army with his chariots and his troops to the Kishan river and give them into your hands. So she gets the commander, Baruch and she's the leader of Israel and she says, God is saying this to you, we've been oppressed by the Canaanites, I know they have 900 chariots of steel, I know their armies way bigger than ours but you're supposed to take 10,000 of your men, go and fight him at Mount Tabin and God's gonna deliver him into your hands. So this is Deborah saying that to the commander and in verse eight, Baruch said to her, well, if you go with me, I'll go but if you don't, I won't go. So basically, again, she's the mouthpiece for God and he's saying, look, if you're serious and you're saying God said that then I want you to be all in too. You don't get to hang back here and kind of send me out. And so she says in verse nine, certainly I'll go with you but because of the course you're taking, the honor will not be yours for the Lord will deliver Cicera into the hands of a woman. So Deborah went with Baruch to Kadesh. So they go to war with the Canaanites, they're outnumbered, they're outman but God delivers them a massive landslide victory and the Bible says every single one of the Canaanites is put to the sword. None of them survive except for Cicera, who is the commander of the Canaan army. He flees on foot, he runs to this neighboring town, it's called Kadesh and he thinks he's gonna be safe there because he has a relationship and another woman named Jail invites him into her tent to hide and says, yes, you can hide here and he's like, great, thank you. If anybody asks for me, you haven't seen me, I'm not here and she says great and again, this is where it gets rough but he's like, hey, I've been in that battle, I'm really thirsty, do you have any water? I can do better, I can get you some milk. So she's like super hostess with the mostess here, right? For a minute, Jail and he's like, thank you, drinks the milk, puts his head down to sleep and she takes a tent peg, puts it on his temple, smams it with a hammer into the ground and Cicera's dead. That's all I have, you guys can leave now. I'm just kidding, don't leave, there's more. So that's the story and it's the self-fulfilling prophecy that Deborah said, hey, because you took this course, Barak, Cicera's gonna be delivered into the hands of a woman and you're not gonna get the glory someone else is. And so that's what happens and it's this incredible story and in that there's more sub-stories that we're gonna look at but Deborah is this incredible judge, leader, worshipper, warrior that God raises up to save and deliver Israel at the time. So the question becomes for us, like I wanna do every time I teach is how do we take that and what does that mean for us today? 2018, what does that mean for us as Christians? What's our takeaway? And it's not that you should invite people into a tent so that you can put a peg through their heads, okay? That's not it, but there are some things we wanna take away from this story and from this incredible woman of faith named Deborah. So I'm gonna give you three things, you can write these down. The first thing we learn in this story is that God uses women mightily in the kingdom. Can I get any amen? Amen. God used a woman and again, that was something that was unheard of in this time. I mean, it was a male dominated time. There was a male high priest who was still there and yet God raised up Deborah. And what I want us all to hear, especially if you're a woman, a young woman in this place is that God is not interested in anything other than people who are willing and people who are able by the power of the Holy Spirit to step into the role God has called them to. God sees beyond gender, God sees beyond race, God sees beyond social or economic standing and God will use anyone who makes themselves available to be used in the kingdom of God. And that's what he did. That's what he did with Deborah. We can clap for that, praise the Lord, come on. It's in, I don't know how I can overstate how incredibly unique it was that God raised up a woman in this time and the role that she played was so prominent for Israel, for so many years. And it's a glimpse, it's a snapshot into who God really is. And I understand that there are many religions and cultures that still really minimize women and their role and their influence, but that is not how it's been traditionally in Christianity. God has used women all throughout the old and the New Testament. We're gonna look at the books of Esther and the books of Ruth, powerful women who are used by God. When you look in the New Testament, you have Mary Magdalene, who was the first one that God revealed himself to. Jesus, after he was resurrected, they were the ones who found the grave empty and ran back and told everyone else. I mean, again, in that culture, if you wanted someone to believe your story, years later, you would not say, unfortunately, you wouldn't say, well, women were the ones who discovered it because they just, they weren't prominent in society, but God is different than that. God sees past those things. Jesus had women, disciples and followers who financed his ministry, who were intricate and integral parts of what he did on his time on earth. And so women are used mightily. And I know sometimes even in the Bible, they get, you know, it's sort of the bad women who are emphasized, you know, the Jezebel's and the Delilah's and things like that, but all through scripture, God has used women. So I just wanna highlight a couple things about Deborah and I want you, men too, but as a woman or a young lady in here to just grab a hold of how powerfully God used Deborah in this time. So the first thing is that he calls her a prophetess. Four verse four says this, now Deborah and the Bible says a prophet, the wife of Lapidus was leading Israel at the time. So she was a mouthpiece for God. God downloaded information into her that she shared with the people as she led and as she ministered. And when you read about other judges in the stories of the book of judges, many of them men would talk about God or even talk to God, but she was a mouthpiece for God. Listen again to what she said when she called Baruch down. She said, you go, take with you 10,000 men, this is what the Lord of God of Israel says, and I will lead Cicero, the commander of the army, the chariots and troops and give them into your hands. So she was a mouthpiece for God. And sometimes we get kind of freaked out about the prophetic office in the church because maybe we don't understand it or we've seen it used in a weird way or in a negative way. And that's why I just wanna encourage you to come back out in August for our prophetic presbytery. It is going to be something that will be, I promise you edifying an eye opening for you as a Christian because all it means to prophesy, it's not Miss Cleo and it's not fortune telling and it's not, hold on, I feel like you're getting ripped off right now if you pay me. That's what fortune telling is. Prophetically is taking what God has said, God's word and using it to edify and encourage other people. I see this in you, I see God doing this in you. God wants you to know and then you encourage and you bless and so you ask God, hey, give me words, give me wisdom, give me the ability to be a mouthpiece for you. Deborah did that powerfully. The second thing the Bible says about her is she was a judge. In verse five, it says that she held court under the palm of Deborah between Rama and Bethel and the Israelites went up to her to have their disputes decided. So God used this woman supernaturally and gave her divine wisdom to solve problems and to discern issues that people were having. It was a huge part of how she led. And I want you to remember that this was a time with massive pagan worship, massive idol worship, massive sexuality that was outside of God's covenant. So these people had mad issues. It was like a reality show on steroid status. They were, if this wasn't like, oh, yeah, okay. No, it was, she was invested. She was somebody who God gave wisdom and grace to handle these situations. And the Bible talks about her as a mother. In chapter five, she describes herself. So chapter five of Judges is the telling of everything that I just shared with you in chapter four, but in a song, a song of praise, a song of thanksgiving that Deborah wrote after all this happened. And she starts off by talking about herself. She says in verse six, in the days of Shamgar, in the days of jail, the highways were abandoned, travelers took to winding paths. Verse seven, villagers in Israel would not fight. They held back until I, Deborah, arose until I, a mother in Israel. And the reason I wanna highlight this is because I think it's important that as God raised this woman up and as God empowered her to be a leader, he did it in a way that was different than many of the men in the book of Judges. She led from the position of a mother as a nurturer, as a life giver, as a caretaker, as an encourager. And I think sometimes in our society today, women feel like if I'm gonna be a leader, if I'm gonna have influence, if I'm gonna have a level of authority, then I have to be something I'm not. Then I have to maybe be more like a man or be different or be meaner or be whatever it is. And there's all of this sort of outside pressure to conform to something you're not. And I think it's so cool that God used Deborah so mightily, but she never lost who she was. She never lost the way that God designed her. And that's how she led the people. She led as a mother. She led as someone who cared about their issues, who counseled them, who decided on things for them and people felt that for her as a leader. And so I just want you again, if you're a young lady in here, to not feel like you have to be something you're not to be used by God, to think that you have to lead in a way that God hasn't designed you to lead. God will take your gifts, take your callings, and just like he did with Deborah, he will use them mightily. If you'll surrender them to him and if you'll humble yourself and say, God, I'm a willing vessel for you. The main Deborah actually means be. Like this is like that kind of a be. Are those bugs, insects, whatever they are. Which I thought was cool because when she ministered to the people, she was sweet like honey to the broken, to the hurting, to those that came to her. But when it came to being an adversary to the enemies of God, she was like a bee when they sting you. So there you go. Last thing about her is a warrior. I love this. She was a warrior. Remember, Barrick said to her, oh, I'm not going unless you go. And she wasn't like, hey, that's kind of your responsibility. I'm just the prophet. No, she said, let's go. I'm in. And so I want you to just see this. This is hand-to-hand combat, 900 chariots fighting the Canaanites in the midst of that. And verse 14, it says, then Deborah said to Barrick, go. This is the day the Lord has given Cicera into your hands. Has not the Lord gone ahead of you? So Barrick went with his 10,000 men following him as he advanced the Lord routed Cicera, all his army, all of his chariots fell by the sword of Israel. She was a warrior. And I'm telling us that God is raising up a warrior generation, especially in young women who are warring in prayer, warring in the place of intercession, warring in the spiritual realm and saying, I don't have to take a back seat to anybody. Being a woman in ministry doesn't mean I make cupcakes or something. It's like, I'm in the battle with everyone else. And notice that Barrick wasn't like, hey, I'm not taking orders from you. She was like, go. And when she spoke, he listened and God gave her influence and God gave her authority that yes, might have been different than a man's, but it was equally powerful and equally effective. I wanna read something to you. And if again, you're a woman in this place and you desire leadership or a level of authority. I just want you to hear this from a book I read in preparation for this that a woman wrote about the modern day Debra's. And I just thought this part, this is word for word is so good. This is what she said prophetically over this generation. This is the hour when God is raising up modern day Debra's who will administrate the justice of the Lord. They will be empowered by the Holy Spirit with the gifts of wisdom and discerning of spirits. They will administrate with the heart of a servant leader who listens to others to help restore their value. They will be women who represent a personal God to an impersonal world. They will be women who listen and advise according to the heart and mind of God. They will have spiritual insight from the heart of God to bring deliverance and freedom from decades of oppression of the enemy breaking through strongholds of shame, fear, comparison and pain. These modern day Debra's will have an anointing to settle disputes and foster true kingdom relationships. They will have an understanding heart to discern justice. They will be women who delight in the fear of the Lord. They will not judge by the natural or by the sight of just their eyes nor will they decide by the hearing of just their natural ears but with true spiritual insight they will have equity and righteousness as they judge. They will be women who have ears that are open tongues that are bridled walking in the wisdom and power of the Holy Spirit to bring change to their sphere of influence. Amen, come on now. Receive that, receive that. I just think this is so powerful. Such a powerful example of God using who normally people wouldn't say God would use. And that really is what being a Christian is about. We embrace who we are, who God's called us to be. So that's the first thing we learned through the story of Debra. Second thing that we learned from her is this. Praise is the pathway to peace in your life. Praise is the pathway. I told you that chapter five of Judges is literally an entire song that Debra wrote about what God did in this battle, what God did as he delivered Israel, what God did as they were in need and God came through and she took the time to recognize that she needed to thank and worship and remember God in the battles. And I think it's amazing that in Judges and I read the entire book there is time after time that God comes and does powerful exploits, rescues his people, does amazing miracles so that they can be set free. And this is the only time that somebody takes the time to say thank you and to worship and to praise is with Debra. None of the men ever did it. And when you go back and you see when Israel came across the Red Sea, it was Miriam who sang the song of deliverance. And then when you fast forward to first Samuel, Hannah who was barren but then had a child miraculously in her old age and dedicated him to the temple, she took an entire chapter to sing and worship and remember the goodness of God. And what I feel like we need to learn from this story is that in every situation, God is worthy of our praise. God is worthy of our worship. We need to be people who worship God and remember God and give glory to God for the victories that he's done in our lives. Listen to what it says. I'm gonna read a couple of verses of this song. It's Judges 5. It says this, on that day, Debra sang this song. When the princes in Israel take the lead, this is a song. I won't sing it because you'll cry. But when the people willingly offer themselves, praise the Lord, hear this you kings, listen you rulers, I, even I will sing to the Lord. I will praise the Lord, the God of Israel in song. And so she's worshiping and she's praising. And then look at verse 31, the last verse of this chapter. So may all your enemies perish, Lord. I don't recommend you pray that way, but may all who love you be like the sun when it rises in strength. And then look what it says. Then the land had peace for 40 years. Worship was connected to the breakthrough she needed in her life, the breakthrough that Israel needed in their lives. And so the takeaway for us today is to remember two things. Number one, we have to be grateful people. The tendency in our culture is to complain, to focus on what we don't have, to focus on what we're not and what hasn't happened in our lives. It's just the natural tendency. But the Christian person on purpose remembers the goodness of God, reflects on the mercy of God and gives God praise no matter what the circumstances are in our lives. That's what it looks like to be a Deborah, to be a person of praise. And I'm telling you, the Israelites always got that wrong. They were complainers. God rescued them from Egypt. God split the sea so they could walk right through it, right? And then two months later, they're complaining. They're sick of manna. They miss all the stuff they had in Egypt and they're grumbling to Moses. And do you know what God said to Moses about it? My people, Israel, have rejected me. God doesn't see complaining as just having a bad day. God doesn't see complaining as just keeping it real. God sees complaining as rejecting the goodness in his life, the goodness in your life that God wants to show you. And it's a big deal to God. It needs to be a big deal to us. And so Miriam wrote an entire song about worship and praise and the breakthrough that you want to see in your life, listen to me, is connected to worship. It's connected to praise. And so I think it's significant that it's a woman every single time who sings and who worships and who writes the songs. And I'm not here to browbeat men, but I'm saying there is something in us that has to rise up as worshipers. That has to rise up as people who connect with God through worship and through praise. And it has to happen on many levels. It has to happen corporately. I'm just gonna be honest. Many times when we do prayer meetings, it's mostly women. Many times when I've led mission trips, it's mostly females. Many times when we think about worship, it's something we kind of as men delegate or designate as something that women maybe do more easily or more often than men. And I'm telling you that has to change in the kingdom of God. Men have to take their rightful place. Men have to stand up as worshipers. We cannot, listen, and I'm talking about corporately too. As we come into church here, it's easy sometimes as men, there's things involved. I'll just say it. There's pride, there's other things where it's easy to just kind of, you know, stand there and maybe kind of, you know, oh, the, oh, probably hopefully ending. I don't know. Pretty cool love of God. And we don't engage. And as men, sometimes it's like, and all I want to say to you in this moment is that if you will stretch yourself in the area of worship, you will have breakthrough in your life. If you will go beyond what you're comfortable with, and I'm not talking about swinging from the rafters. I'm not talking about you have to be crazy and bark at people or anything like that. I'm talking about maybe you've never lifted your hands. Maybe you've never really engaged in the words. It's easy to just sing it because it's a great tune and reckless love is a great song. But are you actually connecting your heart with who God is? Are you actually allowing God to minister you? Are you focusing on the moment, on the worship, on the praise that is to God? Because sometimes, and I know this because people tell me, they're mad about, well, why can't we just sing the words? Why do we have all these pauses and breaks? And why does somebody have to pray all the time? Can't we just sing the song? I'm telling you, embrace the worship moments in your life. Embrace the times that God speaks to you in worship because the breakthrough happens. Embrace it. Do something that connects your heart to God in worship. And just as Deborah did that, the Bible says there was peace. There was peace for 30 years because of the worship, because of the praise, because of remembering who God was. And so, yes, it matters corporately. I'm just gonna say it. Stop showing up 15 minutes into worship. Get here earlier. Be in here. Engage in it. Make it an example to your children, to everyone else, that worship is not the warm up to the message, that this is part of who we are, this is part of how we worship. And then when you're at home, be a worshiper. When you're tempted to complain, when you're tempted to say this is the worst, you'll say, no, instead, God, I see you moving. I know you're for me. I don't know how this is gonna work. You read in 2 Chronicles 20, King Jehoshaphat is going up against an army that is insurmountable. He has no way of winning. You know what God told him to do? Put the worshipers in front. Know what he said specifically? Put the men who are worshipers in front. He didn't say get your best archers. He didn't say, hey, is Russell Crow in here? Mel Gibson? Braveheart? No. He said, put the worshipers out in front. And this is what they did. Against an army that was gonna kill them. They sang this simple song, the Lord is good and His mercy endures forever. The Lord is good and His mercy endures forever. They had stringed instruments. They had percussion. They lifted up a swell of worship to God. And the Bible says that the enemy was confused in that moment. And they turned on themselves and God delivered Israel miraculously through the power of praise. And I'm telling you the things that you need breakthrough for in your life are connected to worship. They're connected to gratitude. They're connected to remembering. And the world's gonna say it's weird. They just are. You look at David. In 2 Samuel 6, the Ark of the Covenant is coming back into Jerusalem. King David is in an ephod basically in his underwear. And he's dancing because he's so excited that the presence of God which had been captured by the enemy is back where it's supposed to be. And it's under the tent and people can now worship. And he's dancing and he's singing. And his own wife, the Bible says, is looking from the palace window and says that she despised David in her heart. There was something about authentic worship that made her say, this is weird. And you look dumb. And that's not real. And when David got up there, she even said that to him, boy didn't the king look stately dancing in his underwear? And David looked at her and said, I'll become even more undignified than this because the presence of God is back where it's supposed to be. And in the presence of God, anything is possible. And I'll dance and I'll sing and I'll do whatever I have to do to connect to God in those moments. And I'm not gonna let what the world says should be authentic worship be a reality for me. That's what David said. I'm telling you, a religious spirit is always going to scoff at extravagant worship. When the woman with the alabaster jar broke it and rubbed it all over the feet of Jesus and worshiped him with it, Judas the disciple was indignant. He said, that could have been sold. We could have used that money. Why are you wasting that on Jesus? And Jesus rebuked him and said, what she's doing is gonna be remembered in the chronicles of history for all time. You never waste your worship when it's on Jesus ever. Last thing. And we learned from Deborah is we learned that it's our job to prepare the next generation. It's our job. I couldn't help but when I read through Judges, I remembered exactly what I read when I spoke on Moses a few weeks ago that a generation arose that didn't remember Joseph, a pharaoh, that didn't have relationship with Joseph. And remember, he got insecure. And that's when he said, we gotta get rid of these Israelites. And now listen to this in chapter two, verse 10. It says, after that whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors, the generation of Joshua, who saw God move miraculously and powerfully, another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done. Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord. Something happened between the generation of Joshua and the generation that followed or maybe more accurately, something didn't happen. They didn't pass on the faith of that generation that saw God move powerfully. They didn't take that and instill it in the next generation and say, this is who God is. This is why we worship. This is why it's important. This is what God has done for us. They didn't do that. And an entire generation grew up that for some reason didn't know God. And sometimes it's easy to point at that generation and say, this is your fault. How come you don't serve God? How come you're serving Baals? But I look at the Joshua generation and say, where were you when it was time to invest? When it was time to be intentional about taking the faith of who God is and what he did and passing it on to the next generation. Listen to what God said in Deuteronomy chapter six. This is what intentionality looks like. Deuteronomy six verse four says, hero Israel the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. So he's talking to the people, he's saying love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Make that your heart cry. Surrender all you have to God. It starts with you. But then verse seven, but impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit down at home, when you're walking on the road, when you're sleeping, when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your forehead. Write them on the door frames of your house. What he's saying is, it's not enough to just talk about it one time and assume they're gonna get it. It's not enough to just think that, okay, I was raised in a Christian home so my kids are gonna serve God. He said, no, you have to be intentional when they're lying down, when they're getting up, when they're walking, when they're home from school. We as parents intentionally investing, intentionally giving who God is and what he's done to the next generation. And yes, the church is important. Yes, I'm grateful for Pastor Andrew and we have an insane youth ministry, but at the end of the day, listen to me, parents, it starts at home. It isn't dropping your kids off one time a week in children's church and hoping every problem's gonna be solved. That's not what the Bible says, no, no, no. If you wanna impress it on your children, you better be intentional. It better be when they wake up. It better be when they come home. This is what he's basically saying. God has to be made normal in your home. Prayer has to be normal in your home. Worship has to be normal in your home. Forgiving and loving and covering sin and iniquity with prayer and things like that has to become normal in your home because listen, if it's not normal, if God isn't normal, let me just tell you what's gonna be normal in your home because culture has a lot of norms but it wants to impress on our children, on our youth. And if you're here and you say, I don't have children, that's fine. Find somebody you can invest in. Find somebody you can mentor in the next generation. Go to youth for Christ, they need mentors. If you're older and your kids are raised, be intentional with your grandchildren. Be intentional, make it normal because you know what's normal in our society today? It's to hurl insults at people, to rip people apart on social media, deviserate people who don't think like we do with no consequence. You know what else is normal in our day? Debt, country's $20 trillion in debt. We're never gonna pay for that. Our kids, kids, kids are gonna pay for that because we can't get our act together. That's what's normal. Do you wanna know what your young child is hearing at school and hearing in the world and hearing in most of the music is that sex is recreational? But it's not a big deal, it's like Lincoln Logs, it's just parts that come together. And hookups and dating sites and Tinder and all this, it's just, there's nothing sacred about it. And if you think that you don't have to address those things, that is not, that is what's gonna be normal in your home. And so as a father of daughters, we have to say as sons, there is something precious that you have. There is a gift that God has given you. And someday, you're gonna be married and there's gonna be relationship and covenant and in that there's gonna be safety and transparency and vulnerability and that's why God created sex. Sex isn't dirty, it's not something you have to be ashamed of, it is a gift from God but our culture and the enemy is bombarding us with no, no, this is normal. Divorce is normal to most kids. And listen, I'm not hurling stones, I'm not saying that this is a judgmental thing, I'm saying that one out of every two marriages, even in the church, fail and that needs to break our hearts. I'm not condemning anyone but I'm saying as a nation, as Christians, we better pray. We better say, God, break my heart for what breaks yours because we're setting up the next generation. We're the ones who are responsible. It is not the government's job to pass faith on to our children, thank God. It's not the school's job to pass faith through your children, it's not even the church's job to pass faith on to the next generation. It is our job to pass our faith on to the next generation so that there isn't, so that there isn't a generation that grows up and doesn't know God and doesn't know the exploits, doesn't know the miracles that he's done. We worship through the storm. We thank God for all that he's done and we're intentional about passing on the faith to the next generation. You gotta stand with me, I just wanna pray with you and I just want you to close your eyes and just want whatever the Holy Spirit is revealing to you in this moment, I just wanna ask God to seal this moment in our hearts, give us grace. Here's what I know right now, is that there's some people in this room that are fighting the voice of condemnation and shame. But the enemy's trying to come in and say, you didn't do that, you messed that up, this is your fault, you're not where you're supposed to be. And I'm telling you, that is the voice of the enemy trying to drown out the voice of the father that says I am for you, I love you, I'll never leave you or forsake you and that today can be a brand new day. You're not a slave to your past, you're not a slave to your failures, you're not a slave to what's happened, you are a child of God, you are a son, you are a daughter and you have a family inheritance and God is for you, God is always for you. Nothing can separate you from the love of God, nothing, nothing you've done, nothing you've thought, nothing you haven't done and the Holy Spirit is here not to condemn us but to empower us, to give us vision, to give us focus, to say today is the day, it's not someone else's job, it's not some other time, it's right now, this is why we're alive. God said darkness is gonna cover the land, deep darkness to the people but you arise and you shine, why? Because the glory of God is on you, it's not someone else, it's on you. And if you're here and you're in this room and you say I know, I need to give my heart to Jesus, maybe you did it, maybe you've walked away but you know right now I'm not in a right relationship with God. The Bible says today is the day of salvation, don't harden your heart in these moments. God cannot do a new thing in you until you release the old and if you're here and you say I need the grace of God in a powerful way in my life, I need to make Jesus the Lord of my life, I want you to raise your hand right now and we're gonna pray together and we're gonna believe God's gonna do something new, thank you, yes, I see your hand. Right now, today is the day, don't leave here the same. Let God do something new, thank you. Keep your hand up, anyone else today, just say include me in that prayer, we're gonna go before the Lord. I want everyone to pray this prayer out loud together and I want you to mean it from your heart, say dear heavenly father, thank you for loving me, thank you for sending Jesus to die on the cross, to forgive my sin and give me everlasting life. I put my faith in him, I turn my back on my past and I believe that today is a new day, fill me with your Holy Spirit, wash away my sin, make me brand new. Today is the day I follow Jesus, in Jesus' name, amen, amen. Come on, if you just prayed that prayer, welcome to the family of God, let's give him praise in this place, come on. Today is the day, today is the day, today is the day. Listen, before we leave, I'm gonna ask our prayer team and our care ministers to come forward and before you leave, listen to me, I want to invite you if you raise your hand as everybody else is going that way and you said I need to give my heart to Jesus to just come forward for a minute, let us connect with you, we wanna give you a book, it's called Ten Steps for Christ, it's an incredible resource that will help you on this journey and we wanna just celebrate what God has done and also, if you're here and you know that you need prayer, that there's something going on, there's an insurmountable battle that you face, there's something in your body or relationships or in your family and the Holy Spirit has spoke that to you, I wanna encourage you, there is power in prayer, this is why we do this, is because we're saying, you are a miracle working God and we believe that the miracle working of power of God is released in prayer, it's released in these arenas of faith and so as everyone else is going that way but you need ministry, you need prayer, you need God to do a breakthrough in your life and invite you to come forward and remember as you're leaving, you're not leaving Radiant Church, you're leaving as the body of Christ, as Radiant Church, so go into your sphere of influence and be the salt and light of the earth in Jesus' name, amen. You're dismissed, God bless you. If you're a guest, stop by Guest Central, we'd love to see you.