SERMON SPOTLIGHT * 3/17/24
Spiritually speaking, that is God’s desire for us: that we would be ALL IN. He saved us to be His own, and He desires that we make Him our all-in-all. This has been the calling of God’s people from the beginning. Below is an outline summary of the sermon for your further study and deeper reflection.
SERIES: Christ in the Chaos
TEXT: Judges 10:1-12:7
TITLE: All In!
PREACHER: Derek Overstreet
SERMON EXCERPTS:
All quotes are taken from the pastor’s notes.
”The Bible is brutally honest. It does not cherry-pick the best examples but gives us warts and all. Nowhere is that more evident than in the Book of Judges. Over and over, we have witnessed an idolatrous Israel. Today is no different. What is different is the degree of Israel’s idolatry.”
“One thing Judges has repeatedly shown us is that idolatry always leads us away from God and into oppression. Pick your idol: Money, looks, lifestyle, position, the praises of people, or the perfect family; it doesn’t matter; the effect of idolatry is always oppression.”
“You may be blind to it, but whatever you want more than you want God will oppress you. Whatever you serve, meaning live for, becomes your master (Matthew 6:24), leaving you empty and dry because it’s not meant to replace God—it’s meant to point you to God!”
“We are all guilty of bombshell religion to some degree—It’s a reality of living in a fallen world. But there are some whose relationship with God is characterized by a break-the-glass-in-case-of-emergency attitude. If that is you, you are not a healthy Christian. You need help, so turn to the Lord in repentance now. God is merciful.”
“They didn’t earn God’s rescue. They didn’t deserve God’s deliverance. The text makes it clear: it’s not their repentance; it’s their misery that moves God to mercy. The God who loves His people with steadfast love hates to see His people in misery.”
“God’s mercy is expressed in Chapter 11, where we are introduced to the next Judge—Jephthah. In 1-3, we get Jephthah’s bio: He is a mighty warrior. He is the son of a prostitute. For this reason, he was disowned and disinherited by his family. As an outcast, he started hanging with the wrong crowd. All this to say, Jephthah is an unlikely candidate to be the deliverer of God’s people. And yet, he went from the banished son to the ruler over all.”
“Jephthah negotiates with history, theology, and precedent. Good diplomacy, right? In 28, the king of the Ammonites didn’t buy it.”
“We know Jephthah will win the battle because 29 says the Spirit was upon Jephthah. That means the Lord’s power was with him to win the fight. And win he does, but his victory is overshadowed by a foolish and unbiblical vow—to offer whatever (whoever) was first to walk out his door and greet him as a burnt sacrifice. To his great dismay, that person was his only child, his daughter. And after a time of mourning by his daughter, Jephthah offered up to the Lord as a burnt sacrifice. Tragic. Hard to imagine. Hard to stomach. How bad can things get in Israel?”
“Some have tried to soften the moment by offering alternative views of how Jephthah fulfilled his vow. But they fail under the scrutiny of the broader context of Scripture and the clarity and purpose of the immediate context. The text is clear: Jephthah offered his daughter as a human sacrifice. How should we think about this? The passage never says God or the writer approves of or endorses this. On the contrary, God strictly forbids human sacrifice.”
“God says you must never worship me this way. So, how could Jephthah do this? Remember Chapter 10. Israel is steeped in pagan worship. It’s the air they breathe; it’s the life they live. This tragic moment illustrates the disintegration of their relationship with God and their assimilation into the world around them.”
“Jephthah’s story ends with another tragedy in 12:1-7, where, like with Gideon, the Ephraimites want to know why Jephthah didn’t include them in his battle, a fight breaks out, and Jephthah kills 42,000 fellow Israelites.”
“…it’s an imperfect salvation that points us forward to the perfect Savior—another man who was also forsaken and rejected by his people. In eternity past, God chose to offer up His only Son a sin for sacrifice. Jesus was all in (Phi 2:8), coming to us, giving His Father total loyalty and obedience by offering himself a once-for-all sacrifice and enduring righteousness for his enemies.”
“Jephthah would do anything for his power and success, but Jesus gave himself up for the eternal good of others. From the right hand of God, Jesus now holds forgiveness and righteousness out without price to all who come to him by grace through faith.”
“Come to Jesus today with your bombshell religion and syncretistic faith. Lay it at his feet. Repent. He is merciful, and His grace is sufficient for you be ALL IN on loving and living for him like you have never loved and lived for him before until he returns for us and we will indeed be ALL IN!”
ADDITIONAL SCRIPTURE:
Romans 12:1-2
1 John 2:15-17
Philippians 3:20-21
Isaiah 63:9
Deuteronomy 12:29
QUOTES:
Dale Ralph Davis- “The theology of bombshell religion teaches that—of course—God will help you in your need, that he is—helpfully enough—incredibly naïve and hopelessly soft. He’s like a great warm vending machine in the sky into which you need only drop a token or two of repentance before he spits out the relief you currently crave. Religion is a great game—you only need to know a few rules. And Yahweh is a great God—if you happen to need him and want to use him.”
Robert Chisholm Jr. - “It is shocking to see that even a Yahweh-worshiper has become so paganized in his thinking that he would resort to human sacrifice to assure his success.”
APPLICATION:
What should be our takeaway from this tragic story?
1. We must vigilantly guard against being conformed to the world
Jephthah and Israel were completely conformed to Canaan. They looked more like Canaanites than Israelites. Jephthah knew redemptive history. He understood the theology of God’s sovereignty. Yet, he was living a syncretistic religion— professing Yahweh but living as a pagan—and it is devastating! We need to ask ourselves—where am I living a syncretistic religion? Where do my profession and my living not line up? Where are you blind to your syncretistic religion? TIP: Guarding against being conformed to the world is more about pursuing Christ than is resisting the world. The more we pursue our glorious Savior the less attractive and satisfying this world becomes.
2. We must continually breathe the air of grace
We try to smuggle character into our relationship with God—If I do _______, you fill in the blank, God will pour out His favor on me more. The books of Job and Galatians remind us we don’t earn God’s blessings with our works. Are called to vigilantly guard against being conformed to the world—Yes! Is holiness our calling in Christ—Yes! Does our obedience matter to God—Yes! But how we live isn’t a bribe for God’s grace—it’s a grateful response to God’s grace, and that transforms our obedience into joyful, God-pleasing, Christ-exalting, Spirit-empowered worship!