Everybody’s awake now, I guess. It’s good to see you. It’s Memorial Day weekend. Glad that you’re here. Glad that our kids are with us on Family Worship Sunday. We’re going to be in Judges chapter 3, verses 7 through 11. And I would encourage you to turn in your Bible or your copy of the Scriptures. There should be one in front of you because we won’t have the words on the overhead today. So we’ll be in Judges chapter 3, starting in verse 7. And before we start there, we need to get some context for our passage today. Context is always important when you look at a passage of Scripture. And for that, we need to review some of Israel’s history. And so starting in Exodus 3, we find God calling Moses at what we know as the burning bush to go back to Egypt and to lead his people out of captivity to the land that he had promised to Abraham. Moses was clearly God’s chosen leader during that time. He was the leader of the nerds. He was the leader of the nation all during that journey up to the edge of the promised land. And any time there might have been some rebellion against his leadership, God made it clear that Moses was his man. And even though the people failed to go into the promised land, Moses was still their leader all during that 40-year wilderness journey. In Numbers 27, we see God naming Moses’ successor as the leader of his people. He calls Joshua into that role. Joshua had been Moses’ assistant. He was an assistant from his youth. So we might say that he was being groomed for that position. Joshua’s call was done in a public ceremony. It was done before Eleazar the priest and all the people. So again, God made it clear, this is my man. There should be no confusion. There’s a clear line of succession from Moses to Joshua. But when we get to the end of the book of Joshua, we do not find God naming a successor.

There’s no clear leader for the nation. There’s no clear leader for the nation after his death. Joshua didn’t have an assistant. It had kind of been groomed for this all along. And so there was no clear leader for the people. And at the end of the book of Joshua in 24, Joshua makes a plea before the people. And in that chapter, we get sort of this back and forth. Joshua’s calling them to faithfulness. And so he says words that we’ve heard before if you’ve been in church. He says, He says,

But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. And then Joshua then goes on to tell the people, You’re not going to be faithful. You can’t give up these gods, these foreign gods. But the people respond, No, we will serve the Lord. And then Joshua says, You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen the Lord to serve him. And they responded, We are witnesses. So the standard of what God is saying is, The standard of what God expected of his people to be in a right relationship with him was clearly understood. It had been passed down by godly leaders through Moses and Joshua to the people. And they had before God and everyone stood up and said, Yes, we are going to be faithful. They agreed to be obedient. Again, as we move out of the book of Joshua, I’m sorry, as we move out of the book of Joshua into Judges, I think there’s two questions we might have. The first would be, Where were the leadership? Where did the leadership for the nation of Israel come from now?

And two, Will the people live up to the commitment they have made before Joshua, God, and each other to be faithful to the Lord? And I think we need to ask ourselves similar questions today. Who leads you? Who do you allow to have that authority to speak into your life? And secondly, Will you stay committed to the Lord? Will you be found faithful? Let’s see what happens. Let’s see what happened to Israel in our passage today and what it can teach us about the need for godly leadership and the necessity of following it. Judges chapter 3, starting in verse 7. And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. They forgot the Lord their God and served the Baals and the Asherah. Therefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel and he sold them into the hand of Cushon Rishithaim, king of Mesopotamia. And the people of Israel served Cushon Rishithaim, eight years. But when the people cried out to the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer for the people of Israel who saved them, Othniel, the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother. The spirit of the Lord was upon him and he judged Israel. He went out to war and the Lord gave Cushon Rishithaim, king of Mesopotamia, into his hand. And his hand prevailed over Cushon Rishithaim. So the land had rest forty years. Then Othniel, the son of Kenaz, died.

So first, let’s see the people’s disobedience in verse 7. And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. They forgot the Lord their God.

In the chapters and the verses leading up to our passage today, we see what happens when the people forgot their God. In chapter 1, we see primarily, we start seeing military decline. Chapter 2, we start seeing spiritual decline among the people. And this was all due to their unfaithfulness to the Lord. They had failed to live up to their part of the covenant relationship with God. And I want to highlight two verses in chapter 2 that I think encapsulate how the heart of the people is really kind of fickle. And those verses are in Judges chapter 2. The first one is verse 7. And it says, And the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders, who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great work that the Lord had done for Israel. So we see the people served the Lord during the time of Joshua and all those elders, those leaders of each tribe who outlived Joshua. Well then, just a few verses later, verse 10, we see, And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers, and there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that He had done for Israel. So we see this next generation being unfaithful.

And I found this helpful in the New American Commentary. Daniel Block kind of outlined it this way, and I thought that was helpful. So if we think of it as kind of maybe three generations, we see the days of Joshua, which we find in the book of Joshua. That was time of all the great work of the Lord, all that God had done among the people to conquer the land. Think of Jericho. That’s a great example. That was a work of God. The people marched around, I believe it was for six days, the seventh day they marched, I think seven times around the walls. There was a shout, or the trumpets blew, there was a shout, and the walls just simply fell. That was clearly a work of the Lord. The people of Joshua’s time saw that, and they followed the Lord. Then Joshua dies, and then those are the faithful elders who served with him. And that was the time, the memory of all the great work of the Lord. That was a time when they reflected on stories like what God had done for them in Jericho. And we see that’s a time when the people serving the Lord. And then along with verse 10, I just read, the days after those elders died, we find the people did not know the Lord, so the people did not serve him. What do we see them doing instead? Back to verse 7, and it says, they served the Baals and the Asherah.

What does that mean? The Baals, the Baals and the Asherah were Canaanite gods. The Baals were believed to be the most powerful of all the gods. And there were multiple, that’s why it’s plural, there were multiple Baal gods. And the Asherah was a popular Canaanite goddess. These were the gods of the nations they had failed to conquer. And instead of positively influencing those nations for the Lord, they allowed those nations, the gods of their nations, to influence them, to take them away from the Lord. And in verse 7, again, it says, they forgot the Lord their God. So we have to wonder, how could this happen? We’ve seen faithfulness. It seems like a few short years. How can the people be forgetting their Lord? Two reasons come to mind. The first might be, is they were not taught by their ancestors all that the Lord had done. So this generation didn’t see what God had done with their eyes. Presumably, maybe those memories had not been passed down of what God had done. Because during this time, it was an oral culture primarily. So ancestors told kids, grandkids, and it was passed down that way. So perhaps their ancestors simply had not told them all that God had done. I think there’s a message here for us today as parents and grandparents. It can’t be stressed enough the importance of teaching our kids what God’s ways are. The family should be the first school of Christian education. Yes, godly values and principles will be reinforced in the church. But Pastor Chad and the elders and the Sunday school teachers can’t be with your kids all during those teachable moments. And what I’m calling teachable moments are the ones that come up many times when only parents or grandparents are around. It’s those moments that we talk about. I read in Deuteronomy 6, Elder Chase read part of that earlier, and it says in other verses, it’s the times when you’re sitting in your house, when you’re walking by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise. And I think those are sometimes the most teachable moments because many times those are the quiet moments when you can really have a conversation. The distractions are at their minimum, and so you can really talk about life and the things of God and what’s important.

So we’re not primordial. We’re not primarily an oral culture. I can’t talk today. My mouth’s dry.

Excuse me. We’re not primarily an oral culture today, and we have the full revelation of God in Scripture. And certainly as parents, as grandparents, it’s our job to teach our kids the whole counsel of God. But I also think there are stories that we pass down, stories that are unique to your family. Think about the times that maybe you prayed for healing or you prayed for a new job or you prayed for a new home and God answered that prayer. Maybe not in the way you thought He would, but still, the details of that, how God worked in that situation is unique to your family. And so I would encourage you to make much of that with your kids because that, I think, gives them a tangible way of seeing Scripture lived out in practice.

And dads, it starts with us. God’s given us that responsibility, so both by example and by word. The character of our life much match the words that we speak. If we don’t speak and act in union, I think our kids figure that out. Dad says something, and he does something different. And moms, supporting husbands in that, teaching God’s truth as well, is God’s destiny. It’s not designed for the family. And yes, we’re going to fail. We’re going to make mistakes. But again, I think those are teachable moments. Be willing to admit it. Tell your kids, I messed up. Ask forgiveness. Ask the Lord for forgiveness. Pray about it as a family because, again, I think that models biblical behavior to them and makes Scripture tangible.

The second reason I can think of why Israel forgot the Lord their God is that their ancestors were faithful to do that. They did. They did try to teach them all of the counsel of God. They did talk about Jericho. They did talk about all the mighty things that the Lord had done. But kids grow up, and they get to a point where they make their own choices. And sometimes, despite our best efforts, they can make poor choices. Some poor choices, thankfully, don’t have severe consequences, and correction can be made, and they can be brought back to where they need to be. But some choices do have significant consequences. Some poor choices drive kids away from the church, away from the Lord. They may send them down a dark path for a time, perhaps for many years. And it seems to be kind of where Israel is today in our passages. They’ve just walked away. They’ve forgotten the Lord. And some of you may have dealt with that. Some of you may have experienced that with your own kids,

or some of you may even been one of those kids. You strayed away from the Lord for a while, but the Lord brought you back, and He mercifully and graciously drew you back to Himself into a right relationship. And some of you might be experiencing a wayward child now.

Or you may know someone, a family member, a friend, who is going through that now.

If you’re in a situation like this, I think the best thing we can do is pray. Pray, pray, pray. Don’t lose heart. Be faithful in prayer. And speak God’s counsel, His biblical wisdom, when you have an opportunity to do so. I think as parents, we all lean on Proverbs 22.6. Train up a child in the way he should go. And even when he is old, he will not depart from it. So I think as parents, we want them to grow up in the church. We want them to come to Saving Faith young. And we want to just see them, faithfully following the Lord all their life. And that happens. But sometimes, the child’s path can be this wandering path. I have family that’s been through that. You know, it’s kind of a wandering path. But I think we hold on to the fact at the end of this verse that it says, even when he is old, he will not depart from it. So we trust the Lord that if we’re faithful to do what we should do as parents, that He will do, His Spirit will do the work that He needs to do to bring that child back. So again, my encouragement would be keep praying.

So when we look again at the evidence in verse 7, I think what we see here is that this was the second case that I just said. It wasn’t that the parents and grandparents didn’t try to teach their kids. It’s that their kids chose to forget. The word for forget used here literally means to do something. To dismiss from the mind or stop remembering. So they chose, presumably, looking at these Canaanite gods, forgetting. Looking at these Canaanite gods, forgetting. You do that long enough and then maybe you’re just looking over here. You’re not looking at the Lord like you should. Joshua and the elders had set up the people for success. They had set them up to be faithful. They were godly leaders.

But the success, the success was not automatic. Ultimately, when this generation was free to choose, they chose deliberately to pursue foreign gods and thus forgetting the Lord their God during that pursuit.

So we’ve seen the people’s disobedience. Now let’s see God’s response to their unfaithfulness.

Verse 8. Verse 8. Therefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel and he sold them into the hand of Cushon Rishithaim, king of Mesopotamia. And the people of Israel served Cushon Rishithaim eight years. But when the people of Israel cried out to the Lord, and I’ll stop there. So God’s response to their persistent rebellion was to become angry.

Near the end of his life, Joshua was charging the elders to be faithful. And he says this, Joshua 23, 16. If you transgress the covenant of the Lord your God, which he commanded you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them, then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you and you shall perish quickly from off the good land that he has given you. God had warned Israel many times through the life of Moses, through the life of Joshua, what would happen if they served other gods. And what we see here is God responding, in verse 8, just like he said he would. But unlike our anger, God’s anger is a righteous anger. When we get angry most of the time it’s for selfish reasons, right? I work just as hard on that project as Joe and he’s getting all the credit. Or I’m driving down the road and this guy cuts me off. Does he not see me here? Does he not know the rules of the road? I’ve been waiting in this line for 20 minutes and this guy cuts me off. And the guy in front of me lets his buddy in at the last minute. These are examples of perceived injustices against us.

Our God is a holy God. He’s completely set apart from sin. He hates sin. All sin is ultimately an injustice against his holiness. It’s an affront to a holy God. And his anger towards sin is righteous. So the people had done evil in the sight of the Lord and the Lord’s response was just. And it should have been just what the people should have expected to happen because they’ve been told. But I want us to notice something else in this verse I read in Joshua 23, 16.

The last sentence there says, Then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you and you shall perish quickly from off the good land that he has given you. Joshua here says they will perish. Which literally means to cease existing. That’s what the word used there means. But notice that’s not what we see in this passage. We instead see God’s patience with his people, with his unfaithful people. And even though he’s justifiably angry, we see them extending mercy and grace to the people.

Yes, their persistent disobedience required punishment and this came in the form of bondage to Cushon Risheth. But he didn’t wipe them out or drive them forever out of the land that he had given them. He was merciful and gracious to them even in their rebellion. And I think as we look to us as believers today, we see a similar thing. God says, Hebrews 12 among other places, God disciplines those who are his. Like a loving father to your own children, you discipline because it’s necessary to bring that child back into right action, right behavior, right fellowship with the family. It’s not out of a desire to just, I just want to punish them. It’s a desire to bring them back to where they need to be.

And so Israel needed discipline in this case and we do as believers sometimes today.

So verse 8 says that they were sold, sold, literally sold by God. He sold them in, he gave them over to Cushon Rishetham. So who is Cushon Rishetham? Well, we’re told here he’s the king of Mesopotamia and it’s believed that he was the most powerful enemy that Israel faced at that time. So God gave them over to their most powerful, probably most hated enemy. And it says they served him for eight years. And then in verse 9, we see the desperation of the people. But when the people of Israel cried out to the Lord,

so what we see here is not a cry of repentance. What we see here is a cry of pain, of agony. It’s a desperate cry for help, a desperate call to the Lord they had forgotten. In their pain, what does the Lord do? How does he respond? Well, first, let me say this. I wondered, why eight years? Eight years seems like a really long time. If I’m in bondage, if I’m struggling, if I’m in slavery, I’m being forced to do things against my will, why wait eight years? So some reasons I thought of, and the first one is one that seemed to be Matthew Henry’s thinking, is maybe the pain was manageable in the beginning and then it got progressively worse. So the people only cried out to the Lord when they couldn’t manage the situation themselves. And I think there’s a lesson there for us today. Sometimes, sometimes,

we want to attack a situation in our own strength, our own abilities. We trust in our own wisdom, and then we make a mess of it, and then we cry out to the Lord then.

I think another possibility is that they were still trusting in those false gods. So maybe for those eight years, they were crying out, but they were crying out to a God who could not hear them, who could not respond. And perhaps it took eight years before they realized, hey, the Lord. And they cried out to Him after eight years. And again, I think we can be guilty ourselves, trusting in other things. We trust in our own abilities, our own capabilities sometimes. And I think the third option is, this was simply the full measure of the punishment God had ordained for them. Sin always matters. Sin has consequences. If you break the law, and you go before a judge, and he says, your crime requires you to be in jail two years. Well, most of the time, it’s two years. Now, the justice system sometimes. But you can count on two years. So you can cry out, I don’t want to be here for two years. But the measure of that punishment for that sin, that crime, is two years. And you will not be released until the full measure of that penalty is paid. So I don’t think Scripture plainly tells us the reason. But regardless of the reason, it’s eight years before they cry out to the Lord. And what we see is a desperate cry out to the Lord. Now, let’s see God’s response to that in verse 9.

But when the people of Israel cried out to the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer for the people of Israel who saved them. Othniel, the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother, the spirit of the Lord was upon him, and he judged Israel. He went out to war, and the Lord gave Cushon Rishitham, king of Mesopotamia, to his hand. And his hand prevailed over Cushon Rishitham. So the land had rest forty years. Then Othniel, the son of Kenaz, died. So God’s response to their desperation was to raise up a deliverer, and his name is Othniel. Now, who is Othniel? So we’re told here in this passage that he’s the son of Kenaz. Kenaz was Caleb’s younger brother. This was the same Caleb, along with Joshua, who when Moses sent the twelve spies into the land, those were the two that came back with a favorable report that said, yes. With God’s help, we can go do this.

Caleb, Kenaz, and Othniel were from the tribe of Judah, which is the tribe our Lord, his earthly lineage is from. Othniel was Caleb’s nephew, but Caleb was also his father-in-law. Family dynamics worked differently back then. And Judges chapter 1 tells us how Caleb became his father-in-law. Caleb said, whoever goes out and fights and defeats the city, of Debir, I will give my daughter, Aksa, to him. So Othniel is the one that goes out and does that. He goes out, wins the battle, and Aksa is given to him as his wife. Caleb’s daughter is his wife. So by the time we get to this passage, Othniel had already established himself as a leader and a mighty warrior. He was from good stock, as we might say. He had that good, faithful lineage. So we might say, okay, here’s our leader. But notice that’s not what happened. That alone did not qualify him to lead. In verse 9 it says,

He’s the one that caused it to happen. He mercifully sends a deliverer to a disobedient people who are in rebellion to him. And then we also see, he raised him up, but he also gave him his spirit. In verse 10, The spirit was upon him. So God was not only the cause, he was also the source of the power, the power to make it happen. The Holy Spirit gave Othniel the power he needed to judge Israel and deliver the people from bondage to Cushon Rishithaim.

So who was really the deliverer?

Notice in verse 10 it says,

He went out to war and the Lord gave Cushon Rishithaim, king of Mesopotamia, into his hand. So we see God calling Othniel and powering him. But ultimately it was God in his sovereignty who decided the outcome.

And then in verse 11 we see, The land had rest forty years, then Othniel the son of Kenaz died. So Othniel judged Israel for forty years, and we’re told here the land had rest. And that word for rest simply means absence of conflict. So we’re told, Othniel, they had peace from a military standpoint for forty years. But what about the heart of the people? And I don’t think Scripture plainly tells us anything here about the heart of the people during that forty years. But I would like to think there might have been some spiritual renewal because in verse 12, which is the next judge, it starts similarly to verse 7 and says, And the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. So perhaps I want to believe that there was some spiritual renewal

under Othniel’s leadership as the Spirit enabled. But again, we’re not told anything for sure about that. So as we think about this passage, as we think about application to us today,

so I think one thing that this passage highlights is the need for godly leadership. And if you’re an adult, you are a leader in some way, probably more than one way. Dads and moms are leaders in their homes. If you’re in a job, if you’re a manager or some sort of team lead, you’re a leader. If you own your own business, surely you’re a leader. Even in the church, pastors, elders, teachers, other ministry leads are leaders. And then there’s other types of leaders like community leaders, political leaders, many others. So I think it’s a given that you’re a leader in some way. The question you and I have to ask ourselves is what kind of leader am I?

As believers, our desire should be always to lead in a way that’s pleasing to God. So how can we do that? And I think first and foremost, it means we’ve got to be diligent students of God’s Word. Because it’s in the pages of the Bible that we find the wisdom of God. A godly leader seeks God’s direction, and we find that through the pages of Scripture, through prayer, and through counseling with other godly people.

We also find in these pages the perfect standard for godly leadership. Because it’s in these pages we find out the leadership of our Lord. And as we look in the Gospels and we think about some attributes of His leadership, these are some things that I thought of that we might reflect on. And one thing is we see Him always speaking truthfully. Sometimes speaking the truth, if you’re in a managerial position, and you have to speak truth to somebody, sometimes that’s a hard thing. But, it’s got to be said. Because like that parent correcting a child, sometimes you’ve got to modify behavior. And so we see the Lord always speaking truthfully, and we know that we can always trust what He says. And we see that clearly in John 14, 6. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. So we see Jesus is the way. He is the way. He’s all truth, all life. And we’re banking our eternity on that truth, right? That’s what we trust in. We’re trusting in Him to take us to the Father. We also see Him leading with humility. I think that’s most clearly seen when He washes the disciples’ feet. Because that’s literally the dirtiest job. That’s the job of a servant. That wasn’t the job of a leader. Somebody else would take care of that. But we see the Lord taking it upon Himself to do that. So I think the question we have to ask ourselves is, what kind of leader are we? Do we lead with humility?

We also see Him praying for the people He led. He prayed for His disciples and His other followers. Even knowing that Peter would betray Him, He prayed for them. So as a leader, I think you pray for your people. Pray for your people. I think that would be important. And lastly, I think we see Him leading in love and compassion. He cared about the people that were following Him.

He stopped for the woman with the issue of blood that touched His garment. He’s in a crowd. Someone touches Him. He stops because He cares about that woman and He interacts with her. We see Him healing Peter’s mother-in-law, who was very sick. He healed her so they didn’t go through that. You know, a terrible time of her death at that point.

Certainly Jesus is the perfect leader. But none of us are. We’re all going to make mistakes.

And I think we have to be willing to learn from those, to admit our mistakes, to ask forgiveness where it’s needed. So I think for this point, I would summarize it this way, that we should show godliness in how we lead in our homes, our jobs, our churches, and wherever else God places us in leadership. And we also, also show godliness in how we respond when we make mistakes.

The other thing I think we should see from this passage is just like we are people who lead, we are also people who are led.

So the question I would ask is, who do you allow to have the authority to lead in your life? Israel allowed the voices of the pagan Canaanites to speak into their life. And they end up following false gods. So I think it reminds us of the importance to be cautious as to who we allow to speak in our life. Certainly there’s many voices. Every voice out there is trying to get you to think or act or react in a certain way. The voices come in different forms, whether it’s from TV or the internet or video games or billboards or other kinds of advertising.

As followers of Christ, we want to follow those who are faithfully following the Lord. Those who strive to exhibit those characteristics, those Christ-like, characteristics that we just talked about, some of those. Paul put it this way in 1 Corinthians 11.1. Be imitators of me as I am of Christ. So we follow Christ ourself. But we’re also being led by others along that walk. And so we want to look for folks who have the desire, who love biblical truth, who hold to the standard it teaches. Excuse me.

And again, I would say I think this underscores the need for us to be people of God’s Word. Because how are you going to know if you’re being led astray if you don’t know what God says? So you have to be able to discern because we’ve said before, you know, it’s usually not right and wrong you’re discerning between. It’s between right and almost right. And that takes a discernment that we get from, certainly from the help of the Holy Spirit, but from the study of Scriptures. So I would be… I urge you to be careful to watch what… Excuse me. To watch what you… I urge you to be careful what you watch and what you listen to because all those things are trying to speak to you and speak into your life in a certain way. And certainly a caution for parents would be guard your children in these areas. Guard what you’re allowing into your homes. Because again, all of those things are trying to speak to your kids a certain way. And the last thing I want to end on here is I think we see the gospel. It’s the gospel. Othniel is a shadow of Jesus who is our perfect deliverer. God has a standard for His people. He always has. And that standard is actually perfection. It’s holiness. Israel could not hold to that standard and neither can we. All who were born after Adam is under the curse of sin. So we too were a disobedient people. We walked in a way that was not pleasing to the Lord. But God’s Spirit worked in us. And He worked regeneration. And we began to see our sin and our need for His Savior. And we cried out in desperation. We realized that our sin deserved to be punished by death. Eternal separation from God Himself. But during our time of desperation, we also found out that God gave us a deliverer. Not one who came the first time, like Othniel, to be a military leader or to set up a earthly kingdom. He came instead to live the life that we could not live. He came to us. He lived that life of perfection that we could not attain. And He paid the wages of our sin by shedding His sinless, precious blood on the cross. So by His death, His burial, and His resurrection, He has purchased for us a rest too. But it’s not a rest like the people had under Othniel. It’s a rest that the Lord Himself described for us in Matthew 11, 28, and 29. Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. For I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Jesus gives us rest that results in a hope and a peace in this life and in the life to come that cannot be found in any other. That’s the rest that our souls look for, is a soul that rests in Christ. So if you’re a believer, Jesus is not only your Savior and your deliverer, but He’s also your Savior. He’s also your Master and your Leader. And He said it this way in Luke 9, 23. If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me. So friends, let us be found faithful to do just that. Let’s be faithful to follow our Lord. Let’s pray.

Lord, we’re grateful for Your Word. We’re grateful for the truths that we find there. Father, in the pages from Genesis to Revelation, we find pictures and shadows and tops of Jesus.

We’re grateful that You loved us enough, that You came and You died, and You paid that price of our sin, and You’ve given us a life. that life of perfection that we could not. Lord, as we think about leadership, as we think about all the places we lead, whether it be in our homes, our jobs, our churches, wherever you place us in leadership, Lord, let us exhibit those attributes of Christ. Let us lead with the humility and truthfulness and love and compassion and prayerfulness. And Lord, we’re also led. So, Father, help us to not be led astray like Israel was, not follow after the voices that would lead us away from you that we might forget you or forget what you’ve said. So, Lord, I pray that your Spirit would keep us, that we would only allow those to speak in our life who love your Word and love your truth. And Lord, we need your help in that. Every day, step by step, Father, we need your help. We need your wisdom. We need your guidance. And Lord, I pray that we would look to you for that. In Jesus’ name, amen. We’re going to take communion. I just want to ask you to bow your heads, be prayerful during this time. Communion is the time of remembering the sacrifice of our Lord. It’s for anyone who has placed your faith in Christ alone to save you and been baptized. So, I would encourage you to be prayerful during this time, reflecting on what the Lord has done for you.

Amen.