This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

We're in Judges, week one together, this is day five of week one, our last day
of this first week. We've been looking, starting yesterday, at these judges
through whom God delivered the people of Israel and the spiritual lessons that
we can learn through these judges. As we come to chapters four and five, we're
going to see that God delivers them through Deborah.

Deborah, who is the prophet judge. Let me read you the story of what happened
with Deborah, beginning in verse one of chapter four. "Again, the Israelites did
evil in the eyes of the Lord, now that Ehud was dead.

So the Lord sold them into the hands of Jabin, king of Canaan, who reigned in
Hazor. So Sarah, the commander of his army, was based in Haraseth-Hagohim,
because he had nine hundred chariots fitted with iron and had cruelly oppressed
the Israelites for twenty years. They cried out to the Lord for help.

Now Deborah, a prophet, the wife of Lapidoth, was leading Israel at that time,
and she held court under the palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the
hill country of Ephraim. And the Israelites went up to her to have their
disputes decided. She sent for Barak, son of Abinom, from Kadesh and Naphtali,
and said to him, 'The Lord, the God of Israel, commands you, go.

Take with you ten thousand men of Naphtali and Zebulun, and lead them up to
Mount Tabor. I will lead Sir Sarah, the commander of Jabin's army, with his
chariots and his troops, to the Kishon River, and I will give them into your
hands. ' Barak said to her, 'If you go with me, I will go.

But if you don't go with me, I won't go. Certainly I will go with you,' said
Deborah. 'But because of the course you are taking, the honor will not be yours,
for the Lord will deliver Sir Sarah into the hands of a woman.

' And so Deborah went with Barak to Kadesh. Now notice once again here how they
wait. This time they wait twenty years to cry for help.

Isn't it interesting? They're waiting longer and longer to cry for help. They're
trying longer and longer to trust in these false gods.

They finally do cry for help, because of God's grace, Deborah, a woman, a judge,
is leading Israel. This is an amazing thing that God has given this prophetic
gift to a woman by the name of Deborah. And she's judging the people, she's
settling disputes, but she's also a prophet.

She's hearing from the Lord. And the Lord tells her to command Barak to defeat
the enemy. He tells him exactly what to do, where to go.

Where to get the army, where to take the army, and how he's going to have this
great victory. And he says, 'I won't go without you. ' Which means he was
trusting in Deborah and not trusting in the Lord.

She says, 'I'll go, but the honor of the victory is not going to be yours. It's
going to go to a woman. ' In fact, it's going to go to two women we're going to
see in a few moments.

There's an interesting study here. Barak is commanded to do something by God,
and he doesn't totally say no, but he kind of says no. He says, 'I'll do it, but
not exactly the way God told me to do it.

' What does God do when someone says no? Well, Deborah says, 'The honor will not
be yours. ' He finds someone else to do it.

Now, often, if you find yourself saying, 'No, God, I won't do that,' often, as
with here, you will find yourself somehow wrapped up anyway into doing it. God
has his ways of getting you into doing it. The right conversation, the right
place, the right time.

It's not like you can run away from what God wants to do in your life. That just
doesn't happen. No, you're not going to see that happen in your life.

You're still going to find yourself wrapped up in the doing of it, but someone
else is going to get the blessing for the obedience because the blessing, listen
to this, the blessing comes from the obedience, not the action. You could do the
same thing God told you to do out of guilt, out of fear, and you're not going to
get the blessing. The blessing comes from obedience, and obedience is doing it
when God asks you to do it, doing it the way God asks you to do it.

In chapter 5, they sing a song about Deborah's victories, and this song is in
response to the deliverance of God, and it's a song that teaches you and I some
truth about God's victories, whether they be physical victories or spiritual
victories in our lives. What enemies are there that need to be defeated in your
life? And when those enemies are defeated, an enemy of fear, of doubt, of
temptation, when those enemies are defeated, you need to learn these lessons
about victory from this song that they sang in chapter 5.

Lesson number one is that victory always is based on the power of God. Verse 3,
"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. When you, Lord, went out from
Seir, when you marched from the land of Edom, the earth shook, the heavens
poured, the clouds poured down waters, the mountains quaked before the Lord, the
one of Sinai, before the Lord, the God of Israel.

" Here's a song that focuses in their victory, not on what they had done, but on
what God has done. Not on their power, but on God's power. The song focuses on
God, and the credit goes to God.

And you and I need to celebrate God's victories. God is a good father, and he is
also a mighty warrior. We need God to be a warrior because we must often fight
our way to victory, and because the most important battles in life cannot be won
on our own.

And when God wins one of those battles, you celebrate him as the victor. He's
the one, not I'm the one, he's the one who won that victory. Victory always
begins with God.

Lesson number two about victory in this song is that victory takes leadership.
Verses one and two, back to verses one and two. On that day, Deborah and Barak,
son of Abinom, sang this song, "When the princes in Israel take the lead, when
the people willingly offer themselves, praise the Lord.

" The princes took the lead, and the people won the battle. There's value to
leadership here. The leadership that happened here caused them to be able to see
God's victories in their life.

That's why good spiritual leadership in the church that you're in and the Bible
study that you're in is so much to be valued. That's why good spiritual
leadership through you is so much to be valued, because it allows other people
to experience God's victories. So you need leaders in your life that allow you
to experience God's victories, and you need to be a leader in other people's
lives that allow them to experience God's victories.

You need to take the time to praise God for good leadership. It's all too easy
to complain about bad leadership, whether it's in a church or a company or a
country. When good leadership is seen, take the time to praise God.

It came from God, so he deserves the praise. Victory takes leadership. There's a
third lesson about victory in this song, and that is victory takes sacrifice.

When the people willingly offer themselves, praise the Lord. Victory takes
sacrifice. Verse 9, "My heart is with Israel's princes, with the willing
volunteers among the people.

" Verse 13, "The remnant of the nobles came down, the people of the Lord came
down to me against the mighty. " They made a sacrifice, and there's actually no
real victory without sacrifice. This is not possible because it's a battle.

If there were no battle, there would be no sacrifice needed, but because there
is a battle, there is a sacrifice needed. So how about your life and my life?
When it comes to spiritual victory, what are the sacrifices that you have to
make?

Romans 12. 2 tells us that the sacrifice is us, is giving ourselves to him,
giving our bodies to him as a spiritual sacrifice, as a holy sacrifice. Without
the sacrifice of a broken and contrite heart, without the giving of yourself as
a willing sacrifice, there will be no victory.

So it's in the giving of ourselves to him that we experience his victories in
our lives. Now there's a couple of last truths here. Truth number four is that
those who retreat miss out on the victory.

In the last half of verse 15, "In the districts of Reuben, there was much
searching of heart. " Why did you stay among the sheep pens to hear the
whistling for the flocks? "In the districts of Reuben, there was much searching
of heart.

Gilead stayed beyond the Jordan, and Dan, why did you linger by the ships? Asher
remained on the coast and stayed in the coves. " These people all found excuses,
"I have to be with the sheep.

I have to be with the ships. I have to be in the coves. " And the Lord allowed
them to live in their excuses, so they missed out on the victory.

Where have you been retreating from what God wants to do in your life? Not
taking the leadership, not making the sacrifice, and so missing out on the
victory. Those who retreat miss out on the victory, but then the last truth is
those who risk enjoy the victory.

Verse 18, "The people of Zebulun risked their very lives. So did Naphtali on the
terraced fields. " Verse 24, "Most blessed of women will be Jael, the wife of
Hebra, the Kenite.

Most blessed of tent-dwelling women. " Because she risked, and so she enjoyed
this victory. In order to have God's victories in our life, we have to take the
risk to pray, to have faith, to step out, to involve other people in our lives,
to be a leader for others and allow others to be a leader in our lives.

We have to take the risk to believe that God could do something that he could
never do before in our lives. It's the risk of disappointment, the risk of
doubt. We have to take the risk to have integrity in a situation where we might
lose it all.

But it's those who take the risk who enjoy the victory. We have to take the risk
that our motives might be confused and we might be criticized. And we don't like
to be criticized.

We don't like people to look down on us and say those kinds of things about us.
But they're confused. The truth of the matter is the reason you're sharing the
faith is because you have love.

It's those who take the risk that enjoy the victory. Verse 31, the victory, "So
may all your enemies perish, Lord, but may all who love you be like the sun when
it rises in its strength. And then the land had peace for 40 years.

" Let's pray together. Father, we want to experience your victories in our
lives. But as we hear this example from Deborah, this song of victory, we're
reminded of some truths.

We pray that you help us to always give you the credit. Never look to ourselves
for the victory. We pray that we'd always look for the right leadership in our
lives, not the wrong kind of leadership.

Make us people who are willing to sacrifice for that victory. To instead of
retreating from that possible victory in our lives, to risk. Show us right now,
Lord, where you might want us to take a risk of faith in something that we do,
in some way that we pray, in something that we share, in some person that we
talk to.

Show us right now where you might want us to take that risk of faith. Pray this
in Jesus' name, Amen. Don't miss next week.

We're going to look together at some of the greatest lessons on faith in all of
the Bible from a man by the name of Gideon.