From Sampler to Sower

Weekend Teaching Series: Heroes 

Message Title: A Vicious Cycle

Sermon in a Sentence: Don’t let complacency keep you from becoming the Hero God wants you to be.

Text(s): Joshua 23 – Judges 2

Weekend Scale of Difficulty: 1 out of 10, Really, this was an extremely easy night: nothing difficult, a lesson that came together very well, and a great group of students to work with.  I don’t think I’ve ever ranked a Tuesday at 1 out of 10, but I can’t imagine an easier week.

Message Summary:

We’re starting a new series in the Shore, our weekly service for Junior Highers.  It’s been a while since I taught two different series to the two different groups, but different series means I can do a better job at targeting the different age groups.  The new series, Heroes, will be a series of character studies from the book of Judges.  And this week’s lesson was essentially an introduction to the book.

We started the teaching time around tables.  Each table had paper, crayons and colored pencils.  I invited students to invent their own superhero.  I challenged them to think through their heroes powers, costume, secret identity, nemesis, etc.  Then I turned them loose to draw while I taught.  I told them we’d get back to the heroes they were creating later in the lesson.

Trying something like this always involves a risk that students will get distracted with drawing and not listen to the teaching.  However, my frequent questions seemed to show that they were paying good attention, and there was certainly less talking and fidgeting.  I believe that getting them involved doing something creative with their hands helps open them up to listen better.  And given the fact that as soon as they saw the set up of the room they started talking about the last time we did something similar, I think it helps with retention too.

Once they were busy drawing, I began to introduce them to the book of Joshua.  We talked about the historical context for the book.  God promised the Promised Land to Abraham and his descendants.  In the time of Jacob the Hebrews went to Egypt to escape a famine.  In the end, they spent 400 years in slavery there.  Then that God sent Moses to lead his people back to the Promised Land.  However, when they arrived at the Promised Land, Moses was not able to go in.  Moses led them to the Promised Land; it fell to Joshua to lead them into the Promised Land.

Under Joshua, the people of Israel began the work of retaking their homeland.  And under Joshua’s leadership they enjoyed considerable success.  But Joshua died before the land was reclaimed.  As Joshua neared the end of his life, he gathered the people to give them final instructions.  We read his speech in Joshua 23.  He told them:

1. The work was not finished.  There was still land to be reclaimed.
2. They must not allow the nations that remained to entice them into abandoning God.
3. God would help them to finish conquering the Promised Land.
4. If they allied themselves with those who served other gods, these nations would become a “snare and a trap” for them.
5. If they gave in to the temptation to serve other gods, the Lord would no longer help them retake their homeland.

Sadly, it wasn’t long before Joshua’s warnings came true.

The book of Judges begins with the death of Joshua and the question “Who will fight for us?”  For a time, the people of Israel fight for themselves.  The first half of Judges chapter one records their successes.  But eventually, it seems they grow tired of fighting.  The chapter that started so strongly, ends with account after account of failure.

Judges 2:6-15 summarizes the problem.  As long as Joshua and the elders who had been a part of the Jordan crossing were alive, the people served God and enjoyed success.  But when that generation died, a new generation who no longer remembered what God had done to bring them into the Promised Land came.  They stopped fighting and started assimilating the religions of the people already in the land.  Because they forsook God and served the Baals, God handed them over to defeat and oppression.

So starts the cycle that forms the plot of the book of Judges.

1. Israel suffers distress.
2. Israel repents and cries out to God for help.
3. God raises up a judge to rescue them.
4. The people are victorious.
5. The people enjoy peace and prosperity as long as the judge is alive.
6. Prosperity leads to complacency.
7. Complacency leads to compromise.
8. Compromise leads to idolatry.
9. God hands them over to defeat.
10. Defeat leads to oppression.
11. The people suffer distress.
12. And the cycle starts over…

We’ll see this pattern repeat as we move through the book.

There were two things in particular I wanted students to take away from this introduction.

The first is that God can use anyone to become a hero.

Here we talked about the heroes they invented.  Their invented heroes all had superpowers.  But while the judges of Israel came from all kinds of backgrounds, none of them had superpowers.  They were just ordinary people who answered God’s call to change their world.  And one of the key messages of Joshua is that if God can use anyone to change the world, he can use me.

The second lesson was that complacency is the nemesis that threatens every Hero.

It’s true that Israel failed to fully take possession of the territory God promised to Abraham.  Even at their strongest, Israel’s borders didn’t fully encompass the Land that was promised.  Why?

The problem wasn’t with God.  He didn’t lack the strength to live up to his promises.

The problem wasn’t with their enemies.  It wasn’t that the people already in the land were just too strong.

The problem was one of complacency.  They got to the place were they felt they’d come far enough, taken control of enough territory, inhabited enough of the Promised Land to be happy.  And so they stopped struggling. The enemies that God would have helped them defeat instead became a trap the Israelites could not escape.

Now, our struggle isn’t against flesh and blood.  And our inheritance from God isn’t a piece of property.  Our inheritance is the promise of holiness, and the possibility that we might be free from the tyranny of sin.  Yet often we fall short of realizing that promise, not because God’s not strong enough to deliver us, nor because sin is just too strong to ever be defeated.  Instead it’s because we fool ourselves into thinking we’ve come far enough, and we can settle down here and be happy.  We must not let complacency keep us from becoming the Hero God wants us to be.

Volunteer/Student Involvement: This is the area of biggest improvement for us.  I’ve got a great staff of volunteers who are helping out on Tuesday nights this year, and we’re already seeing the benefits that come with having increased parental involvement.  And student involvement is up too.  New students are helping out in the praise band, and all our tech is run by students.

Element of Fun/Positive Environment: I already alluded to this, but we had a great time inventing superheroes and sharing our inventions with each other.

Worship Set: God You Reign, Holy is the Lord, In Christ Alone, How He Loves

Favorite Moment: OK, this one admittedly comes from the sentimental dad, and not the youth pastor in me.  But my son, Brenden, has started playing Bass Clarinet with our praise band on Tuesday nights, and I’m loving getting to play with him.  Almost as awesome as getting to play with Brenden, is getting to play with all the other students – Cameron, Caleb and Scott, who’ve joined our band over the last few months.