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Judges 9 marks a dark turning point in Israel’s history as the familiar cycle of sin, repentance, and deliverance collapses. Abimelech, Gideon’s illegitimate son, seizes power through manipulation and violence, and when faithful leadership steps aside, Israel crowns a bramble instead. The result is destruction for both the king and the people who chose him, revealing how tolerated sin grows heavier over time and leadership vacuums invite corruption. Yet even in the collapse, God’s justice and mercy remain, calling His people to repentance and true refuge under the rule of the rightful King.

In this message, we follow Gideon’s story to see how starting well and finishing well aren’t the same—especially after success. Gideon trusted God in weakness, but after victory he began relying on himself, chasing recognition, and building a “replacement” for dependence on the Lord. This is a warning about the spiritual danger of success and an invitation to return to prayer, accountability, and humble faith. Ultimately, we’re pointed to Jesus—the true Savior who succeeds where we fail and calls us back to grace-filled dependence on God.

Judges 6–7 shows Israel caught in a cycle of spiritual decline, hardship, and crying out to God. The message highlights how faith can fade across generations, and how God uses unlikely people like Gideon to bring deliverance. Even when God’s plans seem confusing or impossible, He confirms His calling and proves His power. The takeaway: trust God—He is faithful, big enough, and His plans are always right.

God alone deserves the praise that results from a life of faith in practice.. We should live with a mindset of obedience and faith, recognizing that we’re not alone as we follow. God goes before, God works His will, and we give Him praise.

God is not as predictable as we often seem to make Him out to be. He is sovereign over all; and that includes sin, evil, and suffering. God will stop at nothing to redeem His people, and works in mysterious ways to accomplish that goal. He is always seeking our trust, and will work in the necessary ways to foster our dependance on Him.

Judges 2 show God’s people slowly drift from Him through partial obedience, forgetting He is Lord across generations, yet are relentlessly pursued by a faithful, rescuing God.

As Christians, we have been saved and given an inheritance that we will experience more and more as we’re sanctified by the Holy Spirit, grown to emulate Christ, and work to mature in their faith.

This sermon will be laying out the series, bringing in past context, talking about the purpose behind Judges and examining the reality of what happened to the people of Israel when they made it into “the promised land”.

Being in community with one another is central to the Christian faith, we know that we cannot do this life alone. However, why is it that all too often the community that we are in is a community that we keep at arms length. Have we lost the hospitality in our humanity as it relates ...