November 19 2017 Let's Go to Court

November 19 2017 *Judges 4.1-7, I Thessalonians 5.1-11  “Let’s Go to Court” Pastor Jacqueline Hines

According to the first verse of our scripture from the book of Judges, Ehud died. Who was Ehud you might ask. The name Ehud means “united”. [ slide # 1 Ehud] He was a hero because he united God’s people in a victory by liberating the city of Jericho from the Moabites.

The people we remember the most in life and in death are those who deliver us from some enemy and those who don’t. When Ehud died, the people lost hope and the scripture says, once again, they did evil in the sight of the Lord.

What evil did they do? Perhaps they gave up hope. After all who could do as good a job as Ehud did. Rather than turn to God, they may have let go of the reigns of their faith, they got deeper and deeper involved in having a good time enjoying themselves and they went farther and farther away from the important things, the things that demanded hard work and sacrifice to build a future worth living.

When Ehud died, they knew other enemies would take the place of the one that Ehud had gotten rid of, so they probably got discouraged and thought there was no use in doing the right thing anymore.

Doing the right thing always pays off. [slide # 2 Do the right…] Doing the wrong thing never pays off, and it did not pay off for the children of God in Israel. Soon another enemy came to their doorstep and that enemy was stronger than them because they had become so weak. The commander in chief of the enemy’s army was named Sisera [which could mean horse or bird – it is unclear]. Sisera was harsh and cruel and the children of God felt threatened and no doubt could barely sleep in peace because instead of preparing and training for battles that were sure to come, they were having parties and doing their own thing, and they became spiritually weak and that made them militarily weak! They were too weak to fight.

When they finally had enough of the enemy creeping around their borders with weapons and climbing overhead in their treetops as snipers, they were wise enough to do what verse 3 says, they cried out to the Lord for help even though they had not done anything to help themselves. [slide # 3 cried out to the Lord for help]

God heard their cry and sent them another hero to do great things like Ehud had done.  Her name was Deborah. Deborah means “honey bee”. [slide # 4 Deborah…] She was sweet yet she could zap you with her words. The scripture tells us that she was the wife of a man named Lappidoth. The name Lappidoth means “fiery torch”. [slide # 5 Lappidoth…] No doubt she was inspired and emboldened by her husband who lit up her life.

Deborah was a prophetess. She spoke for God and could tell you what you needed to do to get right with God, whether you wanted to hear it or not. Deborah was also a military leader. She was strong and brave and trained to know when God wanted her to fight and when God called her to make peace.

We read about Deborah in the book of Judges because she was a judge in Israel. The bible says she would meet people in her office under a certain palm tree –the Palm tree of Deborah. [slide # 6 Deborah at the palm tree]  She was so notable that the palm tree was the palm tree of Deborah – a neighborhood that was named after her just as Spring City is named so because of the many springs in the area or Kulp Road and Buckwalter Road and Bethel Church Road are named because they are known for something or someone significant.

The palm tree of Deborah could be found between the towns of Ramah and Bethel. Ramah which means “high place” or “eminent place” was famous because many highly esteemed prophets lived there. Bethel means “house of God”. Besides Jerusalem, no other place is mentioned in the bible more often than the town of Bethel.

People came to Deborah’s office near the big palm tree between Ramah and Bethel for her official judgments. She ruled on civil and criminal disputes for all those who came to her because she was a judge. slide # 7 Deborah in a crowd]

The bible tells us to judge not lest we be judged. That does not mean we should not judge. It means that we should have our act together if we are going to judge others. It means that our judgments should help and not hinder. Our judgments should be righteous, Godly and build people up, not tear anyone down. [slide # 8 righteous judgments]

Deborah was known as a good judge for her time. In our time, the world is a better place when Christians make right judgments. We just had an election a few weeks ago. God saw everything that went on in each voting booth. Hopefully, there were some right judgments that were made.

I hear the museum of the bible opened up in Washington, D.C. [ slide # 9 bible  museum] It cost $500 million dollars, it is 17 stories tall, opens up to a digital ceiling, a flying simulation, and there is a room that lists all the scriptures that can be found on all of the federal buildings in the country. Fifty thousand people made private contributions to the museum. The main contributor was a company known for good, but also known to be critical and judgmental – that is rejecting and contemptuous to persons who are gay, lesbian, or transgender. Is that what Jesus would do? You be the judge.

We are told that the life expectancy in the U.S. is declining for the first time in many years. The opioid epidemic is killing us. Twenty million Americans are addicted. Two million of them are addicted to opioids. Thirteen addicts die every hour. How do we judge wisely in the face of all kinds of circumstances surrounding such epidemics? [slide # 10 life expectancy chart]

In the last few weeks we have heard an avalanche of accusations against men in high places, admitting to inappropriate behavior, victimizing women, men, children and their families. God rules and reigns. God judges. We want our judgments, whether in casual conversation or official juries to be judgments that reflect God’s justice for all. That is he Christian value that our country is built on – justice for all.

There are days when we judge ourselves too harshly. When something bad happens to us and we have done everything we know to do right, we wonder: what is God thinking? How could we have escaped this or prevented that? Sometimes we can see clearly what needs to be corrected. At other times, we have no clue as to why God allowed something terrible to come our way. What we do know is that God is with us and has a purpose and a plan that is worth waiting for. [slide # 11 trusting God]

We must rely on God to help us make right judgments. If we don’t we will wander off into ideas informed only by our culture, our experience, our prejudices, our temptations. We must pray for right judgments. [slide # 12 ask God for wisdom]

We all have what I call our “pet sins”. There are many sins, many ways to offend God and God’s people. There are many ways to hurt others and ourselves, but humans naturally, for a multitude of reasons, will focus on one or two sins, “pet sins”.  [slide # 13 pet sins]

Even pastors have “pet sins.” Two of my pet sins are smoking and drinking because I do not smoke or drink. But you will rarely hear my talking about how many chocolate chip cookies I can eat in a day, because I do not want to think about the ways I am guilty. We all have certain sins committed by others that we think about more often than we do our own shortcomings. We all need to judge ourselves with a right judgment before we judge others. [slide # 14 righteous judgement ]

That is what the prophet and military leader Deborah was called to do when she led the battle against the invading enemy Sisera. The battle was won with the help of God because she stayed on the winning side. She did not get weaker with each day. She was strong because she exercised her faith and worked to build herself and others rather than to tear down, and that is what we need to do as well!

We need to exercise our faith and strengthen our spirits so when the enemy comes, we will be ready. [slide # 15 lion] Let it not be said of us like it is said of others in a time of trouble: Again, they did evil in the sight of the Lord. Let it be said of us that when we fell down, we got back up. When we were going in the wrong direction, we turned from our wicked ways. When we were discouraged we prayed until we got a breakthrough. Let us be able to say with the songwriter: [slide # 16 Sweet hour of prayer] Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer that calls me from a world of care and bids me at my father’s thrown makes all my wants and wishes known. In seasons of distress and grief, my soul has often found relief and oft escaped the tempter’s snare by thy return, sweet hour of prayer. Let it be said of us that we are the children of God, beloved and faithful. Amen. [slide # 17 god loves each of us]