Judges 1b

1March 28, 2010

Praise God anyway!

He is worthy!

Judges 1 1-2 Now after the death of Joshua it came to pass, that the children of Israel asked the Lord, saying, Who shall go up for us against the Canaanites first, to fight against them? And the Lord said, JudahJudah shall go up: behold, I have delivered the land into his hand.

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Send Judah first,

And the battle shall be won.

As we learned Sunday night,

Judah means praisepraise or celebrationcelebration.

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Psalms 100 4 Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise: be thankful unto Him, and bless His Name.

Send JudahJudah first,

And the battle shall be won.

Hebrews 13 15 By Him therefore let us offeroffer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His Name.

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Some have believed and taught that praisepraise and worshipworship must be compelledcompelled by the Holy Spirit;

That's simply notnot true!

We are commanded to offeroffer praise to God.

That which it takentaken or compelledcompelled is not an offeringnot an offering.

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Psalms 119 108 Accept, I beseech thee, the freewillfreewill offerings of my mouth, O Lord, and teach me Thy Judgments.

God doesn't want us to be a puppets on a

string.

1 Chronicles 28 9 And thou, Solomon my son, know thou the God of thy father, and serve (work and worship) Him with a perfect (completecomplete) heart and with a willing mindwilling mind: for the Lord searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts: if thou seek Him, He will be found of thee; but if thou forsake Him, He will cast thee off forever.

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God desires our lovelove, freely given.When we love Him with our whole heart, we

will freelyfreely worship Him and serve Him.

Some would say, "Wait until you feelfeel it."

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As long as we live by our feelingsfeelings,

We will do muchmuch wrong,

And do very littlelittle that is right.

Psalms 150 2 Praise Him for His mighty acts: praise Him accordingaccording to His excellent greatness.

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According to God'sGod's Goodness and Mercy.

Psalms 42 (NIV) 4 These things I remember as I pour out my soul: how I used to go with the multitude, leadingleading the procession to the house of house of GodGod, with shouts of joy and thanksgiving among the festive throngfestive throng.

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David knew how to go to church.

God's Goodness

3 And Judah said unto Simeon his brother, Come up with me into my lot, that we may fight against the Canaanites; and I likewise will go with thee into thy lot. So Simeon went with him.

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John 15 12 (Jesus) This is My commandment, That ye love one another, asas I have loved you.

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Romans 12 10 Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honor preferring one another;

Galatians 5 13 For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.

Just as the Tribe of Judah called oncalled on the Tribe of Simeon to helpto help with the battle:

We must call on one anotherone another for help.

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Just as Simeon readilyreadily went with Judah,

We must be always readyready to respond to a call for help.

We are all one family,

The family of God.

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No lone wolves in this family.

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This is the church agechurch age.

All that the Lord wants wants to doto do, He does through

the churchthe church.

1 Corinthians 12 13-14 For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many.

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1 Corinthians 12 21-22 And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. Nay, much more those members of the body, which seemseem to be more feeble, are necessary:

The apostles were always part of a churcha church.

They went over the world establishing churchesestablishing churches.

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The local churches are all partall part of the universal church.

Each church has its roleits role in fulfilling God's Will.

Universal church

Whether large or small, each church has a specific purposespecific purpose in the Plan of God.

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We are not in competition with one another.

We are all part of the same body.

Rather than competing, God's PlanGod's Plan is that we work togetherwork together to accomplish His Will on earth.

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God does not call men and women to work outsideoutside the church, and certainly not againstagainst it.

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To see God's Will done in ourour local church,

And the Will of GodWill of God accomplished in the world.

No you

We must eacheach do our part to have a church that is doing the

Will of GodWill of God.

Men's Fellowship and MeetingMen's Fellowship and Meeting

Saturday Morning, May 8

8:00 at Dinner Bell in Flintstone8:00 at Dinner Bell in Flintstone

20March 28, 2010