SW // You Can't Save Yourself - Judges 7:1-25

“The devil, if anything, prefers Pharisees—men and women who try to save themselves. They are more unhappy than either mature Christians or irreligious people, and they do a lot more spiritual damage.”

— Tim Keller, The Reason For God

“The divine will is perfectly clear in his mind (v. 16). Gideon’s problem is that with his limited experience with God he cannot believe that God always fulfills his word. The request for signs is not a sign of faith but of unbelief.”

— Daniel Block

1. God wants you to see who saves you

2. You are a soldier, not a civilian.

We are in a war, this is not peace time.

2 Timothy 2:3-4

1 Corinthians 16:13

3. Jesus, the Bread of Life, rolled into the enemy’s camp and smashed it, for us!

Exodus 14:13-14

2 Corinthians 10:7

Philippians 3:3

Ephesians 2:8-9

SW // Deal With Failure - Joshua 1:21-2:5

Judges 1:21-2:5 -

1. Deuteronomy 7:1-11, 17-19

2. "It is not our lack of strength that prevents us from enjoying God’s blessings, or from worshiping God wholeheartedly; it is our lack of faith in his strength. When we rely on ourselves, and base our walk with God on our own calculations instead of simply obeying, we find ourselves making decisions like the Judaites. Othniel attacked a city in God’s strength; the tribe of Judah concluded they could not do likewise in their own. It is halfway discipleship, and Judges will show us that it leads to no discipleship at all. The warning to us is clear!”

— Tim Keller, Judges For You

3. “Ah! Jesus is bruised for my sins, and wounded for my transgressions, and the chastisement of my peace is upon him. He is thus made sin for me. Here I give up my sins to him that is able to bear them. He requires me to open my hands, release my grip and let him deal with my sin. And that I heartily consent to.”

— John Owen, Communion With God


4. “This is every day’s work; I know not how any peace can be maintained with God without it.” 

5. “What? Shall we daily come to him with our filth, our guilt, our sins?” 


6. “What? Shall we daily come to him with our filth, our guilt, our sins?

There is not any thing that Jesus Christ is more delighted with than that his saints should always have communion with him in this business of giving and receiving.”

— John Owen, Communion With God