E e e e e e e e e e e Well good morning it’s nice to see everyone here this morning um if you’ve got a seat near you please do find it it’s uh time for us to start this morning but welcome to this morning service and whether you’re here or you’re joining us online welcome in the
Lord’s name if you are here for the first time or particularly warm welcome it’s great to see you we do hope you’ll stay behind after us for a cup of tea or a cup of coffee so that we can get to know each other is a great time to chat
So after the service in the small Hall beside us here we’ll have tea and coffee available to give us an opportunity to have a chat um this year is election year you probably know that you’ve probably heard it many times I heard a few days ago RI
Sunak just the offhand comment uh the election won’t be until the Autumn and I suppose that raises questions doesn’t it who will the next prime minister be what will he or she be like how long will they be in power maybe not quite as short as one one recent Premiership
Which lasted only 49 days and for some these questions may be important for others it might be just of passing interest but when we talk about Earthly powers and Earthly authorities we always ask these kind of questions who what and how long even for someone like Vladimir
Putin and other uh uh major leaders like that in our world even for people like that we’ ask those questions who what and how long because you see one thing we know is that their days are numbered they’re numbered by God but there is one ruler there’s one ruler whose name we
Know and we know too what he’s like and we know that his Reign is eternal his name is Jesus and he’s given the title king of kings and Lord of lords King even of people we would consider the greatest amongst us Jesus is Lord over all and the Bible tells us
That we will one one day all of us bow in his presence and I’d like to start our service this morning with these words and they come from Philippians 2 and they’ll appear on the screen behind us and Paul wrote this about the Lord Jesus Christ who indeed is king of kings
And Lord of lords therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow now in heaven and on Earth and under the Earth and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory
Of God the Father let’s pray Lord we thank you that you are the one who is king of kings and Lord of lords you are the one before whom every knee will bow and Lord we pray that as we come before you this morning each one
Of us might gladly bow the knee in your pray presence and acknowledge who you are we Rejoice Lord in the Salvation we have through the cross through your resurrection and uh knowing now that you are seated at the right hand of God in heaven and so we come before you now we
Thank you for your goodness to us and we pray You’ bless us as we meet together here this morning in jesus’ name amen our first hymn is a hymn that uh follows that well I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene and wonder how he could love me a sinner
Condemned unclean and when the music starts let’s stand and sing this Together is and amazing the of Jesus and wonder how he could love me I see cont un clean how how wonderful is my soul show love me how power oh wonderful is my savior’s love for me for me he PR in the G and B to the
Worldy he had no dears for his own Rich a sweet drops of blood For oh wonderful is my song shall be how marous how wonderful is my savior’s love for me in the Angels Behold Him and came from the world of Life to Come him in the Sorrows he for us all that night how how wonderful is my S shall ever be
How how wonderful is my Savor love for me he choke my sins and my sorrows he made them his heart he B the burden to calary and SED and alone how wonderous how wonderful this my S shall ever how how wonderful is my Sav all for when RS come in glory his
Face shall see my joy will be Through the Ages to sing Love is for me how how wonderful is my show shall ever how power how wonderful is my savior go for me please do sit down can I repeat the welcome that I gave a moment ago to everyone who’s here
This morning and people joining us online if you’re new here a particularly warm welcome my name is Peter I’m one of the uh members here and I’ll be leading the service this morning and Charles our assistant pastor will be coming in a moment to bring God’s word to us can I
Remind you I hope you are given this uh on your way in uh the church notice sheet please do take it home with you it is for you to keep and to remind you of everything that lies ahead particularly this afternoon we have our prayer meeting it starts at 4:00 everyone
Welcome please do come and join us we meet in the hall adjacent here and it’s our prayer me church prayer meeting where not only do we remember what happens in the church here but we we pray for the world around us for individual as well as for worldwide
Events do come and join us it’s a great ministry to have that we can intercede for others just to remind you this Friday is Good Friday and we’ll be meeting not at 10:00 but at 11:00 here on Friday morning for our Good Friday service a reminder of the time just just in case
You might Overlook it and think we’re meeting at the normal time it’s 11:00 in the morning and then on Easter Sunday we’ll meet here as normal at 10:00 can I remind you of one particular event that’s coming up uh in May it’s our church away day if you haven’t
Signed up for it it’s not too late do uh come along and see me you don’t need to have uh to fill in a form to to tell me just tell me you’re coming I’ll put you on the list and then we can sort out whatever payment is needed after that
But the a day it’s the Saturday the 4th of may do come it’s a great time to spend together now Charles has got a a notice for us uh morning all just to say next Sunday as you know Easter Sunday uh we’re doing something for the kids right
After the service we’re having a little Easter story Trail um a slight Twist on the Easter egg hunt you’re not hunting for eggs you’re hunting for QR codes very 21st century uh which will then ask you questions you need to answer uh you’ll follow a trail you’ll get to the
End and there’ll be a small treat at the end if you complete it so that’ll be straight off the service next Sunday that will sounded very vague if you want more details please ask army or Jenny I think they know more than me uh but anyway that’s next Sunday straight off
The service this Easter Story Trail uh kids will probably need to go with a parent just so they can have a phone uh just to be aware but that’s next Sunday thanks good thank you Charles now a question for you children well a few questions for you some of which I’ve
Already answered the first one is this can anyone tell me what’s important about next Sunday if you listening to the notices you might have heard it and it is it is did you say Easter Sunday good it’s Easter Sunday next Sunday Easter Sunday and of course it’s school holidays
You’ll all be off but we remember something particular on Easter Sunday what do we remember on Easter Sunday go it Jesus rose from the dead that’s right well done Jesus rose from the dead between now and next Sunday we have Good Friday Good Friday the day when Jesus
Died on the cross and we have uh all the things that uh we read about in the Bible that happened to Jesus but on Easter Sunday he rose again now here’s a question if next week is Easter Sunday and next Friday is Good Friday what’s special about today what’s special about
Today now someone surely must know that go on pal it’s Palm Sunday do I guess that you didn’t really know that well if you didn’t it’s just as well because I’m just about to tell you what happened on Palm Sunday the interesting thing about Palm Sunday is
That we read about it in all four gospels so it must have been a really important event event now I’m going to read uh a passage in a moment it’s going to appear on the board and I’m going to ask you a few questions about it so
It’ll remain up on the board so you could see the answers when you look at the passage but when I’m reading it just think you’re going to answer a question here it is sit on the board good all right it it comes from John’s gospel
It’s just a few verses and it’s John 12: 12- 15 the next day the great crowd that had come to the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem they took prom branches and went out to meet him shouting hosana blessed is he who comes in the
Name of the Lord blessed is the king of of Israel Jesus found a young donkey and sat upon it as it is written do not be afraid daughter Zion see your king is coming Seated on a donkey’s cult all right did you get it Palm Sunday Jesus came into
Jerusalem okay first question what was Jesus riding on who can answer that what was Jesus riding on go on he rode on a donkey that’s right now here’s a rather fetching looking donkey behind me we all like donkeys don’t we but it’s in fact it’s a little bit
Unexpected Jesus riding on a donkey you see we’ve talked about that he was a king and he’s Lord of lords and King of Kings I’m sure if you’ve seen any statues around England in fact many places around Europe if you’ve been to other cities you’ll see the great
People sitting on a horse usually a magnificent horse where you can see it’s a strong and mighty horse but not on a donkey now that’s unusual isn’t it Jesus the king coming riding on a donkey okay here’s the second question what did the people do what did the
People do now you can read it there you can see it someone else come on someone else go on then what did Jesus what did the people do what did they do as well that’s right they waved palm branches there’s a palm branch perhaps something like that and you can imagine
The trees around there would have palm branches like that people took off the palm branches and they laid them in front of Jesus as well as waving the air and they said and of course that’s my third question what did the people say can anyone tell me what did the people
Say what do the people say come Brave it’s only up there go on thenar hosana they said ah it’s not there anymore they said hosana and they praised the king of Israel they were singing praises to God and this is what they saw Jesus coming in on a donkey and
They’re all praising him now I’m sure a lot of you um when you’re talking to little children have heard one question I hear it a lot when I’m speaking to my grandchildren and I’m telling them something and they’ll say Granddad why and then I’ll explain it a bit more
And then I’ll say yeah but why and I’ll try again and they’ll say yes but why and of course it’s really funny to hear those kind of questions because the children are trying to get to know and understand what’s going on but you know that’s a really good question to ask
Here why did Jesus come on a donkey and why did the people praise him in the way they praised him when they said um hosana in the highest uh blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord that’s what they were saying why did they say
That well you know the interesting thing is even the disciples didn’t know the answer to that question and here it is just up on the board here’s what the disciples thought at first his disciples did not understand all this only after Jesus was glorified did they realize that these these things have been
Written about him and that these things had been done to him you see Jesus coming into Jerusalem on a donkey was prophesied in the Old Testament now the word prophesy just means it was spoken about in the Old Testament it was spoken about that Jesus would come on a donkey
It was also spoken about that the people would say what they said praising Jesus and you know many many other things were spoken about or prophesied in the Old Testament and in one way or another they all pointed towards Good Friday towards Easter Sunday to Jesus
Being king of kings and Lord of lords and that’s a wonderful thing that even though the disciples didn’t understand then what it all meant we can look back and say yes we understand because everything that Jesus did was fulfilling something that was spoken about by about
Him in the Old Testament and that’s a great joy and we’re going to actually sing A Hymn which reflects on that and the the verse goes like this we have heard a joyful sound Jesus saves spread the uh Tidings All Around Jesus saves bear the news to every land climb the
Steeps and cross the waves we’re singing Just as those people did in Jerusalem hosana to the King of Kings so when the music starts let’s stand and sing this together we have heard a joyful song Jesus St spread the tidings all round [Applause] Jesus the news to every
Land the and cross the way Lord W the Lord come on Jesus he said he said when Jesus is the his CR and great become a wict he sa he sa be reconciled to God all the nations Jesus Sing of all the batt Rock Jesus by his Ser andless one Jesus sing his s through the GL one the heartful mercy gra sing Tri of all the Jesus he he Christ Jesus is the his cross and PR become our great heide heide be to go the of Jesus
Give the way of Mighty voice Jesus at concious now Rejoice Jesus sa shall salvation full and free highest H and deepest G his of s the victory Jesus he he Jesus is his and PR become the victory heide he say be to go of the nation Jesus he
He said right Jesus is the L is and pray become awake re he sa his in to to the of the before the children leave let’s pray our loving Heavenly Father we thank you that we can join with people down Through the Ages who sang that sung that same song
Jesus saves and Jesus is Alive we thank you for that Lord and we pray that you would meet with us now in jesus’ name we pray amen the children will now be leaving for their Bible clubs I’ve mentioned a few things this morning about what’s happening in the world
Around us particularly the possibility of an election later on this year and we should be praying that God would lead us as a nation um because the choice of the next leader will have a huge impact upon us uh not just uh for the uh Society at
Large but us as a church and how we can meet together and I’d like to spend a littleit of time just praying for our nation but praying for ourselves as well and I’m sure some of you got some individual prayer things that you’d like to pray maybe there’s an
Opportunity now as we come together just pray quietly in your own heart for what uh way God is leading you and how he’s dealing with you so let’s come before the Lord in prayer and let’s just have a period just of quiet as we pray together our loving Heavenly Father we thank you
That we can come before you through the Lord Jesus Christ because of what he did on the cross for us bringing us into a relationship with you and we thank you that as we can pray for each other we can pray too for the world around us for
All the things that are happening and particularly we want to remember our nation and the political changes that will be happening later on on this year we pray Lord that you would provide our nation with good leaders with good laws laws that honor you and that glorify
Your Name Lord as we think of wider field as well we think of there’s many areas in this world where there’s conflict where there’s sadness where there’s uh uh where people are facing dire and diff ult situations Lord we just want to intercede for those particular areas whether they be in the
Middle East or further a field we know there’s many many places throughout this world where uh men and women are at war with each other Lord we thank you that you are the Prince of Peace you are the one who can bring peace and so we pray that in these
Situations we pray to you Lord that there would be peace that resolution would be found we pray for ourselves Lord we thank you for the time we’re able to spend together here around your word meet us we pray meet us uh each one of us in the different situations we
Find ourselves in Lord for some it will be bereavement or sadness or family difficulties or challenging relationships we pray that as we study your word together as we hear your word preached so you’d meet with us we pray Lord that if we’re coming here with joy
In our hearts that we might be able to share that Joy with others but Lord whichever situation we come meet us we pray and might might your will be done we pray for the children too as they meet together we thank you for the work that continues there and we pray father
As your word is taught that these young hearts would hear and understand and turn to you in Repentance and faith and so we want to bring ourselves to you now Lord and pray that you would meet with us and grant us to know your presence
Amongst us for we ask it in Jesus name amen we’re going to sing again now and we’re going to sing uh himym In Christ Alone My Hope Is found he is my light my strength my song When the Music starts let’s stand together and sing In Christ Alone My Hope Is it is my light my strength my S this corn this solid through the and Stor what high of what of Peace when Fe are sto when St se My comfor My Lord in all in the love of Christ I Stand In Christ Alone who to on fles fullness of God in Hess Fai this gift of love and righteousness swor by the one he came to say h on the cross as Jesus G the of God was sacri for every sing one him was l in the death of I there in the ground his body lay light of wo my darkness L then bursting forth in glorious day off from the gravey rose again as he in bre your ring since has is on me for I am his and his mine part with no precious love God of
Chist no guilt in l no fear in love this is the part of Christ in me from life right to final breath Jesus commands my destiny No no man and me from his hand till he return so CA me home hi in the part of Christ I son the part of no single one and from his hand he Church on to home hi in the part of Christ Our please do sit down before Charles
Comes to preach Jonathan will come and read the Bible passage this morning to us Judges chapter 3 and uh Jonathan will introduce it for us Jonathan as Peter said the reading this morning is from Judges chapter 3 um I shall be starting to read at verse 12 and finishing at verse
31 and that’s page 244 four in the church Bibles and the passage I’m reading is headed in the church Bibles Ehud again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord and because they did this evil the lord gave eglon king of Moab power over Israel getting the
Ammonites and the amalekites to join him him Egon came and attacked Israel and they took possession of the city of Palms the Israelites were subject to Egon king of Moab for 18 years again the Israelites cried out to the Lord and he gave them a deliverer Ehud a left-handed man the son
Of Gara the benjaminite the Israelites sent him with tribute to Egon king of Moab now eood had made a double edged sword about a cubit long which he strapped to his right thigh under his clothing he presented the tribute to Egon king of Moab who was a very fat
Man after Ed Hood had presented the tribute he sent on their way those who had carried it but on reaching the stone images near gilgal he himself went back to eglon and said your majesty I have a secret message for you the king said to his attendants leave us and they all
Left EOD then approached him while he was sitting alone in the upper room of his Palace and said I have a message from God for you as the king Rose from his seat Ood reached with his left hand drew the sword from his right thigh and plunged it into the king’s
Belly even the handles sank in after the blade and his bowels discharged echod did not pull the sword out and the fat closed in over it then eud went out to the porch he shut the doors of the upper room behind him and locked them 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 palace 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 while they waited Ehud got away he passed by the stone images and escaped to Sierra 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 follow me he ordered for the Lord has given Moab your enemy into your hands so they followed him down and took possession of the Fords of the Jordan that led to Moab they allowed no one to cross over at that time they struck down about 10,000 moabites all vigorous and strong
Not one escaped that day Moab was made subject to Israel and the land had peace for 80 years after Ood came Shamar son of anath who struck down 600 Philistines with an ox go he too saved Israel this is the word of of the Lord thanks Jonathan let’s pray as we
Come to God’s word uh dear heavenly father thank you that you’re a God who speaks uh you have not left us in the dark thank you that your word is a light to our path and we pray that this morning for whoever we are this morning whatever
Anxieties or burdens we come with we pray that through your word our faith will grow and strengthen our love and confidence in you will also grow we pray that by your spirit’s help and in Jesus name we ask amen uh well uh in many ways the passage
We uh just heard this morning is a bit of a comedy uh there are many comedic elements in it uh but it’s worth pointing out as we dive straight in not all elements of this story are meant to be funny there are some things that are more tragic than
Comedic uh you can follow along uh what I’m saying the outline will be on the back of your service Sheets if you still got that with you uh we’ve got first of all here friends the usual problem uh the usual problem here we go again now last week Simon shared with you a
Diagram to kind of explain uh the vicious cycle we see in judges what keeps happening again and again and again uh people turn away from God uh foreign power comes to enslave them they cry out to the Lord the Lord sends a deliverer uh there’s peace and then they
Turn away from God again and here we’re back to Turning Away from Gods the shortness of the account almost reflects sort of how unsurprising it is they’ve rebelled again remember this is willful Rebellion this is not just turning away away from God this is turning to other gods and it’s a big
Problem uh there’s been a lot of discussion recently about the new uh a lot of new synthetic opioid drugs uh flooding the UK drugs markets and causing terrible harm to people because they such high potency uh I think the new one is called the Franken drug a new opioid drug and
It’s right and good that we try and stop those from trying to get into people’s veins but as your friends there’s a even worse drug that’s already out there and already in people’s bloodstream um it’s a drug that has an addiction like no other and it’s called
Sin uh turning away from God rebelling against Gods uh sin in one way is is is boring it just keeps on happening sin is also perverse notice this happens again after a time of peace a whole generation has enjoyed peace after oo defeats kushan ratham as we saw last
Week There’s peace but of course what is The Human Condition well a slide with Romans 1 will come up behind me this is the human condition for although they knew God they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him you see sin loves to take good things
And transform them into gods that we worship good things we enjoy become things that we ignore gods for um and friends just to caveat that that’s why Christians in the persecuted World they don’t look at the west and say man it must be really easy to be a
Christian in the west so much Freedom actually people in persecuted countries are praying earnestly for Christians in the west because of the comfort and prosperity many Us in joy not everywhere but the west by large is defined by comfort and that’s not a good place often for Faith to
Flourish um it can be a place where we forget where these good things come from and worship those good things um Jesus talked a lot about how difficult it is to live a life of comfort and to follow him above everything else it’s hard to do both of
Those two things and although as Christians we have the Holy Spirit in the way that the Old Testament people of God did not we must still be aware that sin pulls at us in every direction especially when life’s good or okay and there’s a reminder here that
Sin has consequences as it should um in comes the next Tyrant into Israel Egon king of Moab he forms a coalition with other nations he takes the city of Palms uh which is interesting for Palm Sunday uh city of Palms is probably Jericho Jericho would have been a good base in
Terms of its strategic position and he beds himself in for 18 long years so it’s the usual problem but friends don’t miss again what’s more amazing yes there’s sin again but there’s also Grace again don’t allow yourselves to become numb to hearing about God’s amazing grace verse
15 chapter 3 again the Israelites cried out to the Lord and he gave them a deliverer it’s Grace um you may remember at the start of the covid pandemic uh there was a week I think it was Thursday evenings people encouraged people to open their Windows uh and to clap for the
NHS if you remember that feels like a a long time ago uh what that did actually was it woke many people up to the fact that many in the NHS were doing something amazing they were on the front line as they were in the pandemic um and we shouldn’t just take them for
Granted they were sacrificing themselves in many respects for us um they didn’t have to be there but they were doing that for us and friends here it’s amazing that God comes to the rescue um it’s amazing because remember it’s willful Rebellion the people have rejected God again he’s no
Way obligated to come and help them um it’s not his job to come and rescue people who reject him but he does it he’s purely gracious and we need to remember that and Delight in that Truth uh they say a generation that assumes God’s grace leads to a generation that forgets God’s
Grace friends we’ve always got to ask ourselves the question are we in danger that parents do we assume the gospel because if we assume the gospel and God’s grace then our kids will forget it the next generation will forget it if we assume it how do we know if we’re
Assuming God’s grace well it’s if it doesn’t wow us anymore if it doesn’t feel like big a big deal anymore maybe it starts to think like well of course God is for me I’m I I’m I okay in a sense we start to think we deserve it and so we play it
Down but friends because of the sin drug that’s in our bloodstream all that we ever deserve is judgments all we ever deserve is judgments but because of Grace we don’t actually get what we deserve we get Deliverance God comes he asks to deliver his people from their usual
Problem so that’s a usual problem but what he does send in one sense are unusual deliverers unusual deliverers um there’s been a conversation in recent years um if you’re aware about our heroes um and whether they were as good and moral as we think they might have been uh
Probably the one of the biggest examples of this would be someone like Winston Churchill uh back in 2002 I remember this actually uh there was a BBC BBC poll uh asking people to vote for the who they thought was the greatest Britain um and Churchill came out on
Top um but then other people started raising the matter of well actually there were a lot of skeletons in his closet um there were his views on certain peoples is not something we’d probably Echo today uh some of his policies probably led to a lot of hurts being done to people especially in
India there are skeletons in his closet the greatest Britain uh some people still defend him it’s a lot of nuance to that debate but friends it’s important for Christians to be able to say that no one on the planet will be the perfect hero no one on the planet will be the
Perfect hero everybody to some extent has skeletons in the closet which brings us to ah hoods okay ahood there’s no question God is using him to deliver his people but at the same time the narrator seems to think and view ah’s own actions in a negative way he may do something impressive but
The way he does it may be less so um ahood is meant to make us long for a better kind of deliverer now why do I say ahood is seen in a negative way well it’s basically things that narator points out about him in the story um I’ll list a few things
Uh ahood comes from The Tribe of Benjamin now Benjamin is probably the most underwhelming tribe in Israel they only mentioning judges up to this point is their absolute failure to drive out the jebusites uh ahood is described as a left-handed man um he uses his left hand now this in
Itself could be a bit of a put down now apologies if you’re here who is here and left-handed by the way yeah apologies to you for the next 30 seconds uh being left-handed in many cultures in that day was seen as a bit of a negative uh the left hand was kind
Of associated with being impure or being devious you weren’t allowed to use your left hand for example to eat food um and of course the the English word sinister comes from the Latin meaning on the left side uh but there’s of course more here going on uh he’s not just a left-handed
Man he’s a left-handed man who’s a benjaminite uh what is does Benjamin mean Benjamin means son of the right hand so this guy is a son of the right hand who uses his left hand um it’s a way that the narrator is highlighting something a bit devious
About him a bit deceptive uh notice verse 16 he makes a double-edged sword again an interesting detail um swords often represent speech in the Bible and many other places The Sword in itself could also reflect ah’s character um he’s double mouthed as it were um and that’s
Actually what he does verse 19 when he gets into egon’s presence what does he say to him he says your majesty I have a secret message for you message could mean thing I have a secret thing for you of course Egon thinks he has a message
But actually what he means is I’ve got a sword to stick in your belly okay he’s pretty devious uh there’s also a the narrator is not a massive fan in the way he constructs the passage now this is obscured when we translate it into English uh but behind me for example is
A way in which the narrator highlights certain aspects of what happens uh there we go he parallels certain things certain actions so we see that ahood goes in to meet eglon the sword then goes in to his belly uh excrement goes out and then ahood goes out
Uh in a deliberate way he’s paralleling ahood going out and the excrement going out almost as to say this is what I think of ah’s actions here that’s the regard he has for them and two other points about ahood remember last week we looked at oil he
Is the model judge as it were but ahood differs from oo in a very big way there’s no mention here of the spirit of the Lord coming upon on him as we saw with oil now yes he is used by God in some sense that’s true but there’s
Little mention of God actually being with him in fact the absence of God is quite deafening in the passage um he often has little regard for god um He makes himself a sword in the Hebrew again the himself is emphasized he makes a sword for himself
Uh verse 28 when he gathers the people around him to go attack the moabites what does he say he says follow me and yes he does mention God but notice he’s the one mentioning God not the narrator the narator is pretty silent so there’s a question Israel is delivered yes but is
Ahood involved more for personal reasons and for the power and Prestige what’s his motivations and in that regard there’s a curious element we haven’t touched upon I wonder if you noticed twice in the passage there’s a reference to Stone images verse 19 and verse 26 ahod walks past these stone images
Twice uh these stone images were probably places of idol worship in Israel idol worship going on why are they mentioned twice what’s going on well again it seems to be the narrator highlighting something probably that ahood is ignoring these Idols he’s just walking past them if
He’s this competent at getting rid of a king of Moab surely he could do something about these Idols but he just walks past them twice and actually the idolatry is the main problem that’s what’s leading Israel astray but he leaves them alone other judges will smash Idols but not
Ahood so in some ahood comes across this bit of a self-reliant kind of guy um he’s pretty skilled in premeditated deception he seems to enjoy the power this gives him uh is Victory by any means necessary and he seems to ignore Israel’s spiritual problem uh what’s going
On which seems to be just as the Israelites are acting like the Canaanites in their idolatry so they seem to get a deliverer who himself acts quite like a Canaanite um and I think that’s what’s going on with the Sham guy account in verse 31 a lot of people think what is
That doing there uh shamgar is most likely a foreigner hence the uh son of Anna many people think he’s probably from Egypt it’s a very brief account isn’t it it almost sounds like there really small terms and conditions that are placed in a contract uh where the company hopes
You won’t really notice them uh there’s an air of embarrassment about the fact that they have to depend upon an outsider to help deliver them again those who act like the Nations seem to get deliverers who look like and are actually from the Nations around them ahad’s name actually means where’s the
Glory that’s a good question where is the glory is it on himself or is it somewhere else so friends I think the narrator wants us to be clear about something ahood is not the hero of this story um only God is the true hero he is the one who must get the
Glory not ahood uh the world at the moment craves authenticity more than ever uh people want someone who lives up to what they say and is fully trustworthy and that’s hard to find isn’t it a lot of politics seems to be about promises being made and then
Broken uh maybe you’ve been hurt by someone who said they were one thing but turned out to be something else maybe that was a Christian you claimed to follow God but actually didn’t um I Heard previous pastors who were very influential in my life who then turned out to be someone that they
Weren’t and ahood reminds us that actually we long for a better deliverer and a better hero ahood seems deceptive which is why it’s noticeable how Jesus is described in the New Testament uh here’s a verse from 1 Peter 2 way he say this to this you were called because Christ suffered for you
Leaving you an example that you should follow in his steps he committed no sin and no deceit was found in his mouth friends only one person has never had any deceit about him only one person did everything not for his glory but for the glory of his Heavenly Father friends Jesus isn’t just
Beautiful in what he achieves but he’s also beautiful in how he achieves it um his example shows the beauty of a life given completely for others uh he wasn’t in it for the power actually he took the path of suffering for us uh and people have recognized that in
History you may know the famous quote from Gandhi Gandhi said I like your Christ um I don’t like your Christians because they’re so un like your Christ okay bit of a slap in the face but he saw where the real beauty of Christianity lies and it’s not with us
As it were but it’s with Jesus um and it is found in Us in as much as we follow Jesus’s example as we follow his example and imitate him then people can see the beauty of it and what a calling that is friends that is what’s meant by life and true
Life to live as Jesus lived so friends this is our call this morning to you to keep going with Jesus to keep going with him uh don’t leave those stone images in your life as it were just where they are get rid of them um anything in your life that offers you
Deliverance will let you down if it’s not Jesus anything that sells you the life you want or promises to satisfy you completely or to transform you in some sense they won’t be able to do that if it’s not Jesus in the end actually we become like the idols we follow we become like
Them only Jesus truly delivers us and also forms us into his likeness so friends keep going with Jesus don’t follow anything else that promises to fulfill your desires only Jesus does that so keep going with him him but of course that is quite hard often in life because of what we’re up
Against so that leads to the last Point shamed enemies uh we haven’t really focused on the comedy of this passage yet but this whole passage is a bit like a comedy they say humor is the best kind of medicine uh actually there was a 15year study in Norway done where they uh
Talked to about 50,000 people and they found that those with the strong sense of humor lived longer than those without one so humor is in a sense good for us and humor can also be a dangerous weapon against those in power uh in 2018 uh a film came out called
Christopher Robin uh Christopher Robin is in the win the Pooh Universe if I could put it like that arrival to the Marvel Universe uh this film was banned in China uh I don’t know if you some of you will know why it was banned in China uh
It was banned in China because in the previous year uh there were a lot of memes on the internet that compared the president of China Xi Jinping to Winnie the Pooh uh in a kind of way to mock him um not surprisingly the government didn’t find it that funny uh they actually said
It was a serious effort to undermine the Dignity of the presidential office and G himself but it shows right that humor has a way to undermine power power doesn’t tend to like humor and humor can be helpful also friends in showing us God’s perspective on his people’s enemies in a way that undermines
Them um it shows the Folly of those who oppose gods and humor reminds us not to take them too seriously I think that’s what we see here this story kind of strips Egon and his whole Entourage of dignity uh we’re told that Egon in verse
17 was a very fat man now just to be clear this is not fat shaming this is not haha he’s a fat guy uh rather it’s about who he is his name egon’s name means Cal or young bull so he’s sort of a fat calf um secondly notice his fatness is
Mentioned at the same time that tribute is brought to him uh given is Israel’s economy at the time that tribute is most likely food and so it’s a picture of a tyrant who’s literally getting fat from all the food he’s exalting from Israel and so what’s funny is that he’s
Kind of unwittingly turning himself into a fattened calf rip for Slaughter that’s meant to be the humor um his fatness is also doesn’t really help in his uh downfall he’s so fat he can’t actually move to defend himself from ahood and friends this is also true of
The soldiers I wonder if you noticed uh actually you probably didn’t because of the translation uh verse 29 when ahid has escaped and he calls Israel to go fight the moabit soldiers uh we read that the soldiers were vigorous and strong again the English translation is not the best the
Word strong there can also be the same word for fat and the word for vigorous can mean overweight so like King in other words the moabites have prospered at Israel’s expense but in a way that now works against them and they’re literally too fat to run away and even the servants don’t escape
A bit of humiliation uh when ahad’s escaped he’s locked the door into egon’s Chambers and because the doors are locked the servants assume the king is on the L um and probably what AIDS them in that theory is the smell that’s coming through the locked door right they
Probably think he’s had a bit of a interesting lunch and is now on the L when in fact it’s the smell of his guts that were on the floor uh then comes the all important question how long do you wait for someone to come off the
L when is it not rude to interrupt them on the Lio uh he is after all the king of Moab but it’s smelling pretty bad and eventually they get in and unlock the door and they realize of course what’s happened and they made to look a bit like
Fools and I think also that’s what’s going on in the shamgar account in verse 31 okay 600 supposedly hardened Warriors are struck down by one man uh with an ox code which is something that’s used to guide cattle uh ouch so why the humor friends what’s going on um from our Vantage Point
There’s often not much that’s funny about the world around us for Israel it probably wasn’t that funny to have Egon rule over them for 18 years and this is not just a call to lighten up uh the comedy actually serves to show us things as God sees
Them um I think a good place to go is Psalm 2 uh this the vers will appear behind me Psalm 2 says this why do the Nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain the kings of the earth rise up and the rulers bound together against the
Lord and his anointed saying let us break their chains and throw off their shackles but what does the Lord do well the one enthroned in heaven laughs the Lord scoffs at them do you see scary tyrants like eglon how does God view them when he laughs um how does God view Tyrant like
Putin or Kim Jong-un uh he laughs how does God view those is pushing measures to restrict what Christians can do or say or think or he laughs if you notice in the passage actually before verse 20 Egon is always referred to as Egon king of Moab right
Somebody but after verse 20 the narrator avoids using any kind of grand title for him he in a sense turns into a nobody and friends that’s true of everybody who opposes God one day there are somebody the next day they are nobody and actually the pants have been
Pulled down on the greatest enemy out there um here’s what Jesus does with Satan Colossians 2 again the verse will be behind me and having disarmed the powers and authorities Jesus made a public spectacle of them triumphing over them by the cross that’s referring to Satan and all his
Minions and so friends we laugh not because we’re meant to enjoy suffering okay that’s not the points it’s laughter because suffering can’t Rob us of anything anymore God is too big for that to happen a big fish are just tiny fish compared to God uh big scary rulers and
Powers are just toddlers having a tantrum compared to gods and if we’ve come to Jesus they can’t take away what we have in Jesus uh Easter is coming up next week as we’ve heard in a sense this is the laughter of the Resurrection uh Jesus suffered and died
So that way we get the last laugh over everything including death we can laugh in the face of death because Jesus rose again nothing can separate us from him and anything that tries to is laughable so friends if we’ve come to Jesus we are caught up in his victory
Over all things which means we can scoff like God does at all that tries to stand against it and friends I’m not sure where your particular fear might be this morning we all tend to have them uh maybe it’s fear at where the culture is going as it
Moves further and further away from Christianity uh maybe there’s fear about people around you who are waiting to pounce on something wrong that you say uh maybe people at work and maybe you get into trouble if you say the wrong thing uh maybe your fear of death still
Lingers uh maybe your own sense of guilt tries to condemn you again well at all these things friends God laughs because they can’t mess with his plan to bring his people home and to bless them for eternity because Jesus suffered the agony friends we can laugh too let’s pray
Just take a moment in the quiet of our own Hearts uh to bring to the Lord anything of which you might fear anything that might be stop us enjoying him and let’s confess those things and bring them to him now Heavenly Father we thank you that
Nothing can separate us from the love of God uh nothing in this world in this life uh can snatch your people out of your hands father help us see the sin in the passage and not be proud or boastful but to be even more committed to driving out that sin that
Still remains in us to coming to you and thanking you for your amazing grace to us thank you that that sin can’t even take us away anymore and with rulers and Powers around us father with Wars going on powerful people we pray that we will see them as you see them
That all those who conspire to act against you and against your anointed one father you laugh because nothing can th your plans help us to laugh with you so not laugh at people but to laugh with the confidence you give us because nothing can prevent us from being with you
Forever one day all things will be reconciled to you and under Christ’s feet father we long for that day help our faith to grow as you Journey on towards that final day and we ask that in Jesus name amen uh we’re going to sing as we
Close uh How Sweet the name of Jesus sounds in a believer’s ear it soothes our sorrows heals our wounds and drives away our fear do you please stand when the music starts The of Jesus Sorrows he our woods and D away of he makes The And to the S and to the to the re shield and hiding mying Tre with do of Praise my PR s of since I Am Jesus my sh my Pro with prise and my Lord I love I pr I am the praise I pray we the Earth all my heart and all my heart is but when I see you as you are I praise you as our Lord I praise you as our your [Applause] love and
Your refresh my soul inesh my soul in friends just a reminder about the prayer gathering this afternoon 4 till 5:30 back here in the small Hall it’ be good to see you there and remind about the good uh Friday service at 11:00 on Friday uh let me close with a verse from
Revelation Jesus Christ who is the faithful witness the first one from the dead and the ruler of the kings of the earth to him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and has made us to be a kingdom and priest to
Serve his God and Father to him be glory and power forever and ever amen