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00:01 Thank you Karen.
00:07 So good afternoon. We are now going through the book of Judges. We come to a
00:13 very interesting leader. It's not often we preach
00:19 having a woman as the main subject. So the ladies here will be particularly interested. Let's start with a word of
00:25 prayer. Lord, we ask that you uh speak to us through the words of scripture,
00:30 through the lives of Deborah, Barack, and Jael. Uh we submit our lives to your
00:37 hands and we're open to your spirit as you minister to us. We ask for Jesus sake. Amen.
00:43 Let me just give you a little bit of overview about what's happening in uh the book of Judges. the book of Judges,
00:50 we've uh ended it ended Joshua with a situation where Joshua established the
00:57 people of God in Canaan, but they didn't quite capture all the land. Israel was supposed to be a place where all the
01:05 people of God lived under the Torah. The whole all the nations were supposed to see what it's like to be living under
01:13 the rule of God. So that was the vision but they actually didn't capture a lot
01:19 of it due to the lack of faith and the intermingling with the locals caused
01:25 some problems. So we actually have judges shows you the total failure of
01:30 Israel. We start off with the first two chapters with Elder Yeden who preached and it tells us about Israel's failure
01:36 of conquest and there's moral corruption of the Canaanites. Chapter 3-6,
01:42 corruption seeps into even the leaders of Israel. The worsening trajectory of
01:48 the quality of the judges from 3-6 and 17 to 21, corruption creeps down to the
01:54 very people of God. And this is the cycle that is used to interpret the book
01:60 of Judges. Uh you can see it's a regular cycle. It's repeated in every judge.
02:05 Every time this happens, you've got peace as Israel serves God. Then you've
02:11 got Israel does evil and God punishes Israel. Israel cries out, God raises up
02:18 a judge, God delivers, there's peace and right after peace, Israel sins again.
02:23 And so you have this cycle uh which is explained to us in chapter 1 and two. And then you actually have three judges
02:30 epic battles defeating evilneilood and today Deborah and chapter 3 to 16
02:36 we've got Gideon Jeep Samson all along the trajectory is the character flaws of
02:43 the of the judges getting worse and worse and 17 to 21 uh almost total chaos
02:50 because it the the refrain that's repeated all the time is in those days
02:55 there was no king and everyone did what was right in their own eyes. Sounds like
03:00 this country some time ago, isn't it? It comes it's it's like it's all falling apart, isn't it? Um and then and uh so
03:09 now today we're going to do two chapters. This chapter has like 20 something verses. The next one's what
03:14 31. And we didn't get Karine to read all of that. We got her to read Judges
03:20 chapter 4 because it's the short one. It's like reading Malaysia Kini. Short
03:26 three paragraphs. you want to know more you you know that's why I was talking to the Malay male editor nowadays they
03:32 don't write much because the young people you read three par three paragraphs if you don't get your point across in three paragraphs nobody's
03:38 going to read newspaper right so it's like that narrative gives you skimpy details gives you the outline and then
03:44 the interesting thing is you got a song chapter five gives you the indepth view
03:50 if you wanted to have more in-depth view you go to chapter five and actually some
03:56 of the uh um websites are doing that. If you go to BBC, if you go to BBC today,
04:02 you see three paragraph articles. Then you want to know more, you click and then it gives you more editorial
04:09 comments, which is good. Suits young people, old people. Old people go to chapter five, young people go to chapter 4. So what I'm going to do today is to
04:16 preach to you using the narrative of chapter 4, but I'll bring in the chapter five because chapter five gives you the
04:22 insights of what's happening, the emotion of what's happening. All right? So, uh, you got all the judges and today
04:28 we're going to be looking at it's actually not about Deborah. The title is all wrong. If you read the whole
04:34 chapter, it's about God. So, the four points I want to make about what it tells us about God is the Lord always
04:40 acts on behalf of his people. The Lord always acts in partnership with his people. The Lord uses the weak to
04:47 confound the strong and the Lord uses his women mightily in ministry. So first
04:53 of all, the Lord always acts on behalf of his people. We look at this cycle and you find in chapter three after Ehood
04:60 killed the uh Canaanite king Moab was uh subdued that day under the hand of
05:07 Israel. The land had rest for 80 years. So after the bad guy is killed off uh in
05:13 those days they don't bring you to court case with 100 tri uh charges, right? the swift justice and then you've got
05:20 rest for 80 years. And the trouble is when that happens, the people of Israel
05:25 again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. After Ehood died, when the judge died, they did evil again. And the
05:32 Lord sold them into the hand of Jabin, king of Canaan, who reigned in Hes. The
05:37 commander of his army was Cicora, who lived in Herth, Heaggoim. You notice
05:42 here, what does it say? Who sold them into evil? God. God delivers. God causes disaster.
05:50 God is behind it. He's the bad guy and the good guy as it were. But there's a particular purpose. U then Israel cries
05:57 out to God. The people of Israel cried out to the Lord with help. And here for he had 900 chariots of iron. He
06:03 oppressed the people of Israel cruy for 20 years. The last prime minister Nissa from 2009
06:10 to 200 what 18? Yeah. That was bad enough. We got a trillion dollar debt.
06:15 These people suffered for 20 years. Imagine how bankrupt you'll be after 20 years, you know. Uh so I'm sure during
06:23 that time they cried out a lot. But God takes some time to answer the prayer, doesn't it? Sometimes God takes 20
06:28 years. All right? But he does act in the end because he raises up a judge. Now
06:34 Deborah as a prophet, wife of Lepidot were judging Israel at that time. And
06:39 God delivers. If you look at verse 15, God the Lord routed Cisora and the chariots and all his army before the
06:45 barak by the edge of the sword. And and this is a cycle that shows you very
06:50 clearly that the Lord brings disaster. Lord delivers and the Lord is constant.
06:55 He is the main actor involved. You look at the song, if you look at the song in chapter 5, the song starts off with,
07:02 "Oh, here o kings." This is Deborah and and Barat singing a duet together. All
07:08 right? more like David Adams and his wife. They sing a duet together. It's wonderful because you you respond better
07:15 to a song. Uh, oh, O kings, give ear, O princes, to the Lord. I will sing. I
07:21 will make melody to the Lord God of Israel. The glory goes to God. And then he says, the Lord when you went out of
07:28 Sierra, you marched from the region of Edom. These are areas outside Canaan.
07:33 The whole idea in those days was the lord the gods were actually local. So you got a USJ god, you got Sububanga god
07:41 and all that. Um here Deborah and Barak sings of a great God who comes outside
07:46 of Israel who rules the heaven and earth. Uh you march from the region of Edom. The earth trembled and the heavens
07:52 dropped that yet the clouds drop water the mountains quake before the Lord even
07:58 Sinai before the Lord God of Israel. here the entire battle the the the the
08:05 glory goes to God and in verse 31 may so may all your enemies perish oh Lord but
08:10 your friends be like the son as he rises in his might. So here very clearly in
08:16 this cycle we see happening time and time again is the sovereignty of God. He controls. There is both justice when you
08:22 sin he punishes and yet he doesn't destroy because there's mercy. So if you
08:28 got justice and you got mercy and his justice is redemptive. It's always
08:33 designed so that the people of God are led to the inevitable conclusion that
08:39 they have to seek God again. And then when he seeks God he doesn't cast them aside. They should be cast aside. They should
08:45 be abandoned by his longsuffering. And the reason why you have this interplay between justice and mercy is because you
08:51 got a covenant. This is how God deals with his people. He will not let you go
08:57 if you sin. And yet when you repent, he will bring you back. And the covenant is
09:03 forever. He will be their God, but they will be his people. They have to be like him. And God doesn't compromise on that.
09:09 So if you look at the book of Judges, you've got the whole book of Judges. At the end of the book of Judges, there's
09:14 the continual refrain. In those days, there was no king and everyone did what
09:20 was right in their own eyes. Cowboy town. Why there's no king? The reason
09:26 why the next few chapter books will come the Davidic king first, 2 Samuel,
09:32 Chronicles, it was bad. There were judges and and and the solution to the sin is what the king you bring in David
09:39 who will establish God's rule. But David failed Solomon went down and they failed
09:45 and that looks forward to the ultimate Davidic king which basically Messiah bringing in the new covenant where God
09:53 will put his law in the hearts and Ezekiel talks about this. I will give you a new heart, a new spirit. I will
09:59 put within you. I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit
10:06 within you and cause you to walk my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. By obeying his rules and walking
10:13 his statutes, you are proving to be his people. I will be your God. You will be
10:18 my people. And that cycle can only be broken by the power of the Holy Spirit coming into their hearts. uh in fact if
10:26 you look at Martin Luther when he nailed his 95 thesis on the doors of Wittenberg
10:32 one of the thesis reads our lord and master Jesus Christ will the entire life
10:38 of believers to be one of repentance so this cycle doesn't stop when you sin you
10:43 repent God brings you back when you sin you repent God brings you back but through the power of the Holy Spirit
10:49 that's why if you go to one John you've got this message this is the message that we've heard from him. We
10:56 proclaim to you that God is light and in him there's no darkness as all at all.
11:02 He is justice. All right. Um if we say we have fellowship with him while we
11:07 walk in darkness we lie and do not practice the truth. If we walk in the light as he is the light we have
11:13 fellowship one another. And the blood of Jesus Christ Jesus his son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin
11:20 we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sin, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins
11:27 and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So the the the life of believers here is one of walking in the light. And when
11:34 there's unrighteousness, we confess it. We don't stand and say we've got no sin. All right? I know we don't like to
11:39 confess. You know why we don't like to confess? Because we feel that we're always good enough and we don't like to
11:46 go to God. I remember and the worst thing I was a Catholic before I became a a born again Christian at 17 years. I
11:52 was brought up from young right up to about 17 years of age as a Catholic. And what we have in tradition the Catholics
11:58 is that we actually have confession. All right? And every month you're supposed to go to confession and the worst thing
12:04 is going to confession because it was like pulling your teeth because you go there and tell the priest all the bad
12:10 stuff you doubt you've done and you're walking in corridor. He looks at you and you look at him,
12:17 you know. So nobody likes that. You know why you don't like it? Because because you feel you're very great. We cannot
12:24 admit it when you're wrong. Imagine your whole life coming coming to God and admitting you're wrong. That's how if
12:31 you feel that confession is difficult is because we are living by works. Our self-esteem is based on what we have
12:38 done on our reputation. That's why. But but actually there's great blessing in
12:44 confession. And if you look at Psalm uh 32, blessed is the one whose transgression
12:50 is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, in whose spirit
12:55 there's no deceit. Which means if you admit that you are a sinner, if you admit you've messed up, there's no
13:02 deceit. What the worst thing is not confessing is believing that we're okay all the time, you're living a lie. And
13:08 so therefore, what are the blessings we actually have? Luther just pointed out is that our whole life is based on
13:15 confession. And then that's the road to blessedness. How many churches teach you? They teach you all sorts of things.
13:21 Having faith in God will bless you. But the psalm says blessing comes through what? Confession, repentance, coming
13:29 before God. That's a new path that we have actually ignored. And why do we
13:34 actually mess up? We mess up is because we always forget to remember. This is Deuteronomy. When Moses brings the
13:41 people towards the promised land, he says, "Take care less you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his
13:47 commandments and his rules and his statutes which I've commanded you today. Less when you have eaten and are full
13:53 and have built good houses and live in them. And when your herds and flocks are multiply, your silver and gold is
14:00 multiplied, all that you have is multiplied, then your heart will be lifted up and you forget the Lord your
14:06 God who brought you out out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. So when do we sin? We sin when we buy a
14:14 new bungalow. We sin when you got a new job. You never
14:19 sin when you lose your job. You're crying to God. It's typical, isn't it? If you look at the the cycle in judges,
14:26 peace in Israel as God ser every time after peace there's always evil. The
14:31 cycle goes this way. It doesn't go evil and then there's peace. Remember the cycle goes clockwise. This is the cycle
14:38 of human behavior. Why? Because we forget. That's why when you come to the psalms, you a whole bunch of you knowund
14:45 so many 150 psalms. And all of Psalms basically help us internalize what we
14:51 know from the Lord in terms of the theology. Uh Psalm 103, bless the Lord, oh my soul, all that is within me. Bless
14:58 his holy name. Bless the Lord, oh my soul. Forget not all his benefits. And it goes through all the benefits. So the
15:04 book of Psalms is for us to sing and meditate and push that theology from here right down to our hearts. You can't
15:10 do it based on Sunday. You take a psalm and you chew on it. All right. Now, so
15:16 are you interested? We actually do this on a Wednesday. We're this coming Wednesday, we're doing uh gamma. We'll
15:22 be studying Psalm 51. Psalm 51 is a beautiful psalm of repentance when when
15:28 David actually sinned against God by having an affair with Bath Sheba. Psalm 51 is a result of that. And because of
15:36 that terrible pain upon his life, he actually tore his heart out and he expressed it in Psalm 51. And when we
15:43 actually go through Psalm 51, it actually expresses the the pain in our hearts when we struggle with sin. Uh and
15:49 that's a beautiful psalm to learn. And we actually do that on Wednesday. Come and join us for gamma uh starting at
15:55 about 8:00. The idea is that we are the psalms help us remember. All right. Uh remembering
16:02 is not just mental recall. It's a controlling consciousness. Having something so central to your
16:08 consciousness that it actually controls how you act. It's not remembering to
16:13 switch off the tap, you know, it's actually acting on the memory that is
16:18 central to your core being. All right? So songs do that. You look at Moses. Moses has three songs. Not a very
16:25 musical guy. You only have three songs. David got half of all the psalms. Every time you've got a song, Exodus 15 is
16:31 after the salvation through the Red Sea.
16:37 Deuteronomy 32, Psalm 90. And if you look at Psalm uh Deuteronomy 32 and you
16:43 read Moses came and recited all the words of this song which is a song in
16:49 Psalm in Deuteronomy 32 there's a song hearing in the hearing of people he and
16:55 Joshua the son of none and when Moses finished speaking all these words to
17:01 Israel remember he's speaking he didn't sing he's not a very musical guy and he
17:06 said to them take heart all the words by which I'm warning you today that you may command them to your children for they
17:13 may be careful to do all the words in this law for there's no empty words for you but your very life. Imagine he he's
17:21 saying he's bringing this song and asking you to sing this song so much so that this song these words become your
17:28 very life and by this word you shall live long in the land that you're going to over to Jordan to possess. That is
17:37 the secret to your long life. That is the secret to your successful life lived in flourishing in the center of God's
17:43 will is to take these words and make them your very life. How often do we do
17:49 that? Do we know how to do that? Do we know how to take a psalm and do we know how to meditate on that to share that to
17:55 actually express your emotions through that and have that psalm minister to your heart? We need to learn to do that.
18:02 the the Christian church very seldom goes through the book of psalms and because you do that either church
18:07 becomes too emotional on one side or too theoretical on the other side because you don't do the psalms you don't
18:14 remember right now Jonathan Aiken who was a British member of parliament for
18:20 about 18 years of his life um and one day he did something which by our local
18:25 standards is nothing because he went and stayed in the hotel and a rich Arabian businessman paid paid the bill. When
18:33 they asked him who paid the bill, "Oh, my wife paid the bill." Small white lie, isn't it? When he was caught with that,
18:40 he went to court and he who paid the bill and he said, "Oh, my wife paid the bill." You know, that's what that's
18:45 called. Perjury for that little lie. He got 18 months in jail. 18 months. I know
18:52 people who spot a lot of money and have got a lot less. So, here we actually
18:57 have him in jail. And in jail, you know, he writes this. I was there for 211
19:02 days. I counted them all. Every day I did far more praying and thinking and
19:08 Bible reading than ever before because of the luxury of all the extra time. 211
19:13 days and after that he went to Bible college. He quit politics forever and he writes this in 2018
19:20 June. He's become a minister. The time in prison is good. You know why? It gave him an opportunity to
19:27 reflect. You can't run for office. you can't politic anymore. You sit down there and the words of the Lord
19:33 percolate through his heart. They become the controlling thoughts. So many of us are so busy that this doesn't, you know,
19:41 you go to Bible study, you go, you go to church all the time, but you find that it doesn't change you. Why doesn't it change you? Because you don't have the
19:47 time to have it transform you for you to and you don't even know how to meditate on it. And so this is a challenge to us.
19:54 Second thing is that the Lord moves in partnership with his people.
19:59 And you look at uh Barak called out Zebulun and Napali to Kadesh and
20:05 thousand 10,000 men went up to his heels and Deborah went up with him. So it's a call. It looked as if only the tribe of
20:13 Napali and Zebulun joined him with 10,000 men. But if you actually look at the song behind it, then down marched
20:21 the remnant of the noble, which means not everybody joined him. Uh the people of the Lord b down for me against the
20:29 mighty from Ephraim their root they marched down into the valley. So
20:34 Ephraim joined him. Following you Benjamin Benjamin joined you from Macher is Manassia marched down the commanders
20:42 and from Zebulun those who bear the lieutenant staff. The princes of Ishahar came with Deborah and Ishar faithful to
20:49 Barak into the valley. They rushed at his at his heels. So here are the tribes. Uh and then lastly, Zebulun is a
20:55 people who risk their lives to death, naturally too on the heights of the field. And here are all the tribes. The
21:02 call went out and they joined in the battle. And here you actually have verse 18.
21:09 Zebulin is a people who risk their lives to the death naturally on the heights of
21:14 the field. And right after that, you've got before that you've got among the clans of Reuben, great searchings of
21:21 heart. Why did you sit still among the shepholes to hear the whistling to the
21:26 frogs? Among the clans of Reuben, there was great searchings of the heart. Everybody else went and risked their
21:32 lives. You know what they're doing? Sitting down there and wondering, should I go? I should I not? Should I go or
21:39 should I? And then they have whistling, you know, waiting for music. Uh then you've got Gilead stayed beyond the
21:45 Jordan that they say beyond the Jordan, I'm too far, no grab car, can't get there.
21:51 And then he got shipping business. How to leave shipping business? If you leave
21:57 shipping business, you lose money, right? And then you've got Asia sat still on the coast of the sea staying by
22:03 his landings. He's hanging out by the beach playing volleyball.
22:09 What happened? You've got all these tribes who couldn't be bothered to come.
22:15 And then you contrast that with gael most blessed women be jaile the
22:22 wife of Herbert the canite or tent dwelling women most blessed I underline the words woman she's a woman all the
22:31 men are sitting down there toasting marshmallows by the beach and this is a woman and then she is not Israelite
22:38 she's wife of her the canite musikakilang this is a foreigner it's
22:44 like a Bangladeshi you know, saying, "I'm going to fight for Malaysia while the while or the the Chinese sit down there and we'll toss some of
22:50 marshmallows." Um, if you look in Syria, God brings revival
22:57 there to the most, you know, unimaginable sources. It's
23:02 happening. Many of them convert to Christ after seeing Christ Jesus in a dream. If the people won't come and share the gospel, God will choose
23:08 somebody else. Even if you have to bring an angel through a dream, even in Iran today, the Christians have increased
23:15 from 100,000 in 994 to about 3 million. How are they receiving the gospel? To the most unlikely of sources because God
23:21 will always march on forward. And you look at the people, the reasons they give. They're searching their heart.
23:29 They're sitting still among the sheep holes list whistling for the flocks
23:34 staying beyond the Jordan staying with the ships having a p you know having a
23:40 party at the beach these are the reasons and you put that next to zebin is a people who risk their lives
23:48 to the death and the the psalm tells you the big contrast of two kinds of god's
23:53 people uh you know this is a uh the medal honor in 2009 was given to this
23:59 chap called Clint Romesha who uh was in an outpost in Afghanistan
24:05 and this outpost is described by the commanders as indefensible. There were 53 soldiers there and they were
24:12 attacked. They were in the valley, not on the top but the hill. They were in the valley. They were attacked by 400 Taliban for 14 hours and they fought
24:21 very bravely. Eight men died, 27 were injured. So it leaves you how many left behind fighting 400 Taliban. By the next
24:29 morning, 150 Taliban were dead. And this chap was still alive. He risked his life
24:36 many times to retrieve bodies of fallen soldiers. So much so that he actually
24:41 got the Medal of Honor. But these are the words he actually said recently because this story is going into a
24:47 Netflix film by the end of November. And he said these words, "Everything we did
24:52 that day, we did do it because we hated the enemy. Combat is not a great thing to be in. It's not a motivation to hate
24:60 by no means. It's a motivation to love your brothers." He went out on the
25:05 fight. He went out in the hail of bullets to retrieve the body of his fallen comrades. Why? Because he loved
25:13 them. And when you don't go out and fight,
25:18 it shows you don't love your brothers. Uh if you look here at the issues love,
25:24 this is 5:23. Meos is an unknown town. And the passage here occurs when Cisora
25:33 has already lost the war. He's running away. His men are dispersed.
25:39 And they asked the people of Meas, why don't you go and help us? The fellow lost already. You can just help us win the victory, right? Help us mop up. They
25:47 did nothing. Curse Meas says the angel of the Lord. cursed his inhabitants thoroughly
25:54 because they did not come not to the help of Israel, to the help of the Lord. To the help of the Lord, repeated twice
26:01 against the mighty. Whether you get involved in the kingdom of God is not a function of who you are, but your love
26:08 for God. Whether you sit by the coast and toast marshmallows
26:14 compared to getting into the fray and the battle is a function of whether you love the lost. In fact,
26:23 Esther very famously was challenged to save the Jews.
26:29 And uh she could have said no because there was risk if she approached her husband in the wrong way. She might have
26:35 to lose her life. And her uncle Modi said to her, "If you keep silent in this time, relief and deliverance will rise
26:42 from the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come
26:49 to the kingdom for such a time as this. So she could have said no. If you said no, God will use somebody else because
26:56 God is God. But you have a privilege to work in partnership with God. See George
27:01 Scott a missionary who was very unusual because he actually approached China
27:07 inland mission and talked to Hudson Taylor. He wanted to be a missionary all
27:13 his life. And Hudson Taylor was very skeptical. You know why? Because George
27:18 Scott has only one leg. How can you go to China, march up the
27:24 hills, up and down on one leg? In those days, they don't have nice prostesis. You know what George Scott said to him?
27:30 He said, "I don't see those with two legs going.
27:36 So therefore, with one leg, I might as well go." I mean that's the kind of
27:41 attitude when we work to see the Lord works in partnership with people. It's
27:46 always people and whoever you are you got one leg or half a leg or no leg. It
27:52 is love. Like Clint Romesha said we didn't fight because we hate the enemy. We fought because we love our brothers.
27:60 We love our brothers. And the people in this church is some of them working. I can see them in so many ministries. And the rest of them you know what are we
28:06 doing? Rushing off after the service. Spring Pal 1:00 pal gone. Don't you love your brothers? Don't you
28:13 want to be blessed by being in partnership with God? This is your opportunity.
28:18 See, God uses the weak to confound the strong. This is how God works all the
28:24 time. If you look at the strong, the commander of his army was Cicora who lived in Haroset Hegyim. And the people
28:30 of Israel cried out to the Lord for help. He had 900 carats of iron. He oppressed the people of Israel cruy for
28:36 20 years. The last government was there what how many 65 something years. This is 20
28:42 years just a bit short of that. It was a terrible time and it mentions 900
28:48 carrots of iron. That phrase is repeated a few times because chariots of iron are
28:54 terrible. They look like this. Some of them some historians say they're about 10 horses, not four, 10. And then at the
29:01 side of the chariot there will be uh the one that's a scythe that's used to cut
29:06 down lang. You know this is used to cut down human beings and people there will be a couple of soldiers inside it.
29:12 They'll have spears or they'll have uh arrows and it's basically a killing machine. It goes on the on on on the
29:18 battlefield and it's a killing machine. It cuts everybody down. And the Bible writes there are 900 chariots. Okay. Um,
29:27 and in those days of Shamgar, son of Anar to the days of Jael, the highway were abandoned and the travelers kept by
29:34 the byway. Why do you think the highways were abandoned? When you go to highway, what do you think? You'll see a chariot.
29:41 You could collect toll. So why nobody use highway anymore? They go to the byways. And then the the villages ceased
29:48 in Israel. They ceased until I arose. Deborah arose as a mother of Israel. And
29:55 you look uh chapter 4. Now Deborah of Prophetus, the wife of Lepidot, was
29:60 judging Israel at time. She used to sit under the palm tree of Deborah between Rama and Bethl, the hill country Ephra.
30:08 And the people of Israel came up to her. Oh, she's just a prophet. She hangs out under the palm tree in a Kong and people
30:15 are coming to her for judgment. This is the most unlikeliest of his or heroes
30:20 because she's a woman and she's under a palm tree. It's not a palace. At the same time, I Deborah arose when new gods
30:28 were chosen. idols was in Israel. Israel revived with idols. War was at the gate.
30:34 Was shield or spear to be seed among 40,000 in Israel. There was no standing army, no shield, no spear. The other
30:42 fellow has chariots of iron. And you have got a whole bunch of tribes
30:48 who aren't going to join you. Then you've got the other unlikely hero, Barack. So Barack comes, this is not
30:55 Barack Obama. So this is the normal Barack. Okay? He sent and summoned Barack, son of Abinoim from Kadesh
31:03 Napali, and said to him, "Has not the Lord, the God of Israel, commanded you? Before we gather your men at Mount Tabor, taking 10,000 from the people of
31:10 Napali and the people of Zebulun, and I will draw Cisora, the general of Jabin's army to meet you by the river Kishon and
31:17 his chariots and his troops, and I will give him into your hand." And Barak said to her, "If you will go with me, I will
31:25 go. But if you will not go, I will not go." Oo,
31:32 how would you like a general like that uh to lead your army? Uh uh auntie if you go with me I go auntie if you don't
31:39 go with me I won't go hello you got a husband like that you got a problem
31:45 I think some commentators like Keller will say you know he's okay guys you know he just wanted to make sure that
31:52 God was with him but you don't often see women dragged into the middle of the battlefield you know even though this is
31:59 a woman of God so I take the view of more traditional commentators that this fellow you know is not all together put
32:06 together. He's not that strong. All right? He's he's a weak leader as it were. Then you have the battle. So all
32:13 the Israelites are hanging out at the mountain. You know why you hang out on the mountain? Do you think the chariots can go up the mountain? Cannot, isn't
32:20 there? You climb up the coconut tree there, nobody can get you, right? So they're hanging out at the mountain. And
32:25 then at the right time, they asked to come down from the mountain. And the kings came and they fought and fought
32:30 the kings of Canaan by the waters of Megiddo. They got no spoils of silver and from heaven the stars fought from
32:37 their courses they fought against Cicora. You see when the Bible in prophetic or song or poetic language
32:44 depicts uh a a fighting scene, a battle scars fight. If you go to Revelations, the
32:51 moon turn red and the stars fall down. It's it's pctoral language. It's not literal. You don't stand there and you
32:57 watch the stars fight each other. Okay? And then um from the heavens the stars fought on the courses they fought
33:03 against Cicora. The torrent Kishon set them away. The ancient torrent the
33:09 torrent is torrent means what? It's a flood of water. Kishon is the river.
33:15 March on my soul with might. So if you look here, here we have all the the Israelites hanging out 10,000 of them on
33:22 Mount Tab. No shield, no spear. And then they go down to meet Barak to to to
33:29 fight against uh Cisora and they are by the river. This is Mount Tabor.
33:35 This is the Jezrael Valley flat. Okay. And the Kishon River is somewhere here
33:42 and here's the Kishon River. So imagine you've got 900 tanks all there. Your
33:48 nothing moves. The entire army was destroyed because God used natural
33:54 forces. Then you've got this woman ga
33:59 and you Herba the Kennite has separated from the Kennites the descendants of
34:04 Hobab the father-in-law of Moses and they pitch his tent far away as the oak
34:10 of Zion which is near Kadesh. Here Jael is not an Israelite. She's the wife of
34:18 Herbert the Canite who's a descendant of Moses father-in-law.
34:23 And then it Cisra fled away on foot to the tent of Gile, the wife of Hera the Canite. For there was peace between
34:30 Jabin, the king of Hzor, and the house of Herba the Canite. See, Jael's husband
34:36 has a peace treaty with the enemy called Jabin. So when Cicora goes to Jabin, goes to
34:44 Kennit's uh uh tent, he's going back to his own people. So Canites are in
34:51 relationship with the enemy. So therefore, Jael should be helping Cisero. Correct. Instead,
35:01 you've got Deborah song. It contrasts the people of Israel in Meros, the Queen
35:07 Mother and Jael. When we actually have this in the song, you've got bad and
35:13 bad. It highlights the good in between. I will show you this. You've got Israelites. You've got uh curse Baros,
35:21 says the angel of Lord, curse his inhabitants thoroughly because they didn't come and help the Lord to help
35:27 the Lord against the mighty. And then you've got most blessed of women, a child, the wife
35:32 of Herbert the Canaanite, twwelling women most blessed. And it goes on and then you've got Cicerus mother. You see
35:40 the daughter is trying to you know bring a contrast between Jael Cicora's mother
35:45 and the people of Meos and you look at Cicora's mother out of the window she peered mother Cisra wailed through the
35:52 lattice hey where's my chai why is he not back why is his chariot so long in coming why carry the hoof bits of his
35:59 chariot why can't I hear the hoof bits of his chariot you know why then they tell her and she discusses this her
36:05 wisest princess answer indeed she answers herself Who have they not found and divided
36:11 spoil? Do you know why he's not back? Because got a lot of spoil. A lot of war booty. A womb or two for every man. What
36:19 does that mean? A womb or two for anybody? Know what a womb or two for any? A woman described as what? A womb.
36:26 What a terrible way to describe a woman, isn't it? A womb or two. Because every woman is what? War booty. Isn't it? You
36:33 become sex slaves. This jab, this Cisora is a horrible man.
36:38 He takes women, abuses them. He uses them as sex slaves. He only describes them as what? And this is his mother
36:44 describing, not him. No, his mother describes them as a womb or two for
36:49 every man. My goodness, how many coming back? And then you see this continuing re uh uh word, the spoil of dyed
36:56 materials for Cicora. There's a obsession with this spoil of dyed materials. Spoil of dyed materials.
37:03 Embroidered two pieces of dyed work embroidered for the neck as spoiled. You
37:09 translate into Malaysian language, it is what? Burkin bag.
37:15 Isn't that all she's thinking about is that my son must be bringing a whole bunch of burkin bag. Burkin bag. Burkin
37:21 bag. And so what the when you actually write this song is beautiful. You know, you sandwich the people of meas who
37:27 couldn't give a damn about God. You have Cisra's mother and then you contrast her
37:32 with uh you know the nice girl called Jel in the middle right uh and the other is a $6 billion woman u and so here you
37:40 have Mount Tab and the and they rush all the way up to Cicus retreat up to Kadesh
37:46 where she meets Jel. Now when she meets Gile, he goes into the tent and there
37:52 she's when he gave him some milk, okay? And he's got this lulled into a false
37:57 sense of security and he falls asleep and then she sends a hand to the tent peg and a right hand to the worker's
38:05 mallet. She struck Cesura. She crushed his head. She shattered and pierced his temple. Between her feet he sank, he
38:11 fell. He lay still. Between her feet, he sank, he fell. Where he sank, he fell. dead.
38:18 This is supposed to be a song, you know. All right. This is the first what we call Me Too movement uh in history
38:26 very gory uh depiction of this and and you can see the the difference between
38:33 Judges 4 and Judges 5, isn't it? Judges 5 is a dramatization
38:40 of what happened in J. You don't write a drama the same way as you write a narrative, right? So therefore, they're
38:47 not contradictory, but they give you more information in a very is supposed to evoke what? Emotion when you actually
38:54 read a song. So here we have uh Gile being killed and and you know they use a
38:60 teng and here we have another non-Israelite Shamgar son of Anath kill
39:06 600 Philistines with what? An ox goat. You know what ox goat is? Ox god is the thing that used to poke the ox. He
39:12 doesn't have a shield. He doesn't have a big sword. He just use a stick. And in that he killed 600 Philistines. Which
39:21 shows you what? You use what you got. He uses ox goat. She uses a 10 pack. You know why? Because she uses a 10 pack
39:27 every day. And they use that for God's purposes. This is Hebrews 11.
39:35 Hebrews 11 writes backwards and comments on the his heroic efforts of God's uh
39:41 heroes. What more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barack,
39:48 Samson, Jeepath, of David, Samuel, the prophets. Hey, whose name missing? Huh?
39:56 Anybody tell me? Huh? Saul. Nala's come back. Huh?
40:04 Deborah. A bit disappointed, ain't it? You thought Deborah's name would be there, isn't it? Right. Got to work out
40:12 why. Who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained
40:18 promises, stopped the mounts of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the
40:24 edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness. Now you know why Barak's name is there.
40:31 were made strong out of weakness. They weren't strong intrinsically. Barak
40:38 wasn't the guy say, "Hey, I'm going to win everything." He needed a woman by him. But God made him strong. In the
40:44 end, Barak went down and charged against 900 tanks. You know, would you do that? Which one of you would stand up and
40:50 charge against 900 tanks with or without the woman? It's still an act of courage
40:56 inspired by the spirit of God. All right. And um this is Paul who sums it
41:03 up very nicely. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men. The weakness of
41:08 God is stronger than men. For consider your calling brothers. Not many of you are wise according to worldly stands.
41:13 Not many of you were powerful. Not many of you were noble girl birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to
41:20 shame the wise. God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised in the
41:26 world. even things that are not to bring to nothing things that are so that no human being might boast in the presence
41:32 of God. And that's how God works. God always chooses the weak. How did God
41:39 achieve the greatest victory in the history of the world?
41:45 By sending his son. And the greatest emblem of weakness is what? The cross.
41:51 Dying on the cross saved all of us. God always chooses the weak and uses the
41:59 weak. Psalm two. Why do the nations rage and
42:04 the people plot in vain? The kings of earth set themselves in the ruleristic council against the Lord, against his anointed, saying, "Let's burst their
42:11 bonds and cast away their cords. This is the world rebelling against God." And yet God says, "He who sits in the
42:16 heavens laughs." The Lord holds them in derision. He will speak to them in his wrath and terrify them in his fury,
42:23 saying, "As for me, I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill." God is the one
42:30 in charge. He delivers. He's the one who uses the weak. The irony is here's
42:36 Cicora, a huge general, enslaved population,
42:41 taken girls as slaves. You know what he's beaten by? He's beaten by two women. The ultimate indignity if you
42:49 live in that time is a general who was beaten by two women. One who sits around under the palm tree and the other one
42:56 with a ten peg. Huge irony, isn't it? Why? Because God uses this woman. And
43:04 third last point is that God uses women in ministry. Deborah was a prophetus wife described she's a prophetus wife
43:11 Lapedith judging Israel at that particular time. Um and and we've got
43:18 Old Testament women in ministry. Plenty of them. There's Miriam uh Moses sister as prophetess. Hula prophetess. Deborah
43:25 judge prophetess. Esther, Ruth and Naomi important in the development and the spiritual formation of Israel. New
43:32 testament Samaritan woman is first one described going out sharing the gospel. Mary and Martha Mary Magdalene mother of
43:39 James and John and Salomi witnesses of the first resurrection. It wasn't men who witnessed the resurrection. It was
43:45 the women uh Priscilla who taught Apollos corrected him. Phoebe Deaconess
43:51 mentioned in Romans women prophets in Corinthians 11 daughters of Agabus were
43:57 prophets. See history New Testament and Old Testament is replete with people in
44:02 ministry women in ministry. But the contentious issue in the church today is
44:07 that on one side you've got the Western church pushing that all women should be equal to men. And the eastern churches
44:15 patriarchy, the men are in charge. They are the authority. And there are some churches they don't even allow to have
44:21 women leading worship. And we were we fought those battles in this church 1015 years ago. All right. Uh so you've got
44:27 this two clash and and then the egalitarians will say look at Deborah.
44:32 Deborah is an example of equality. But the trouble here you have actually have is that the egalitarians think that the
44:40 women are the same as the men. So therefore when you got a hero like tall so the equivalent hero must be what
44:46 Wonder Woman same isn't it must be the same uh you know what about the men the
44:53 man must be pregnant too like like this show Arnold Schwashenegger but not many shows like that all right and then you
44:59 got queen habes in Egypt she was a queen before Jon of Arc you've got the New Zealand prime minister Jasinta Arden she
45:06 made history by bringing baby uh into UN and she's the leader of her country and
45:12 you've got the first mayor of Ottawa and she says this is very true whatever women must do they must do twice as well
45:19 as men to be taught half as good luckily this is not difficult
45:26 so because why because you got to prove yourself and it says if have you got to be equal and this is Marissa Maya when
45:33 Yahoo was falling apart then only she was chosen right all right she said women are tasked over when there's no
45:39 choice no choice things are going bad, then you no choice. I just choose a woman. No, no choice. Uh or we have the
45:46 church again pushing for Christian uh pastors um uh pastors in church,
45:52 Catholic church trying to ordain Catholic women. And the pope says no way. Uh and they're based on Galatians.
46:00 And Galatians says there's neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free. There's no male or female. You're all
46:07 one in Christ. So that's egalitarianism. So why can't women be pastors? After all, the gender differences are after
46:13 the fall. Um, but if you look in the life of Deborah, look at the song. In
46:19 the days of Shamgar and days of Jael, the highways were abandoned. The travelers kept by the byways. The
46:24 villages ceased in Israel. They ceased to be until I arose. I, Deborah, arose
46:30 as a mother in Israel. She never say I arose as a judge. No, she never say I arose as a king. I arose as a mother.
46:38 Her leadership was uniquely feminine. It's a mother. She didn't lead them into
46:44 battle. She asked Barak to lead them into battle. She didn't think her
46:49 leadership was in the same vein or same style as men. You and why does Paul
46:56 write as neither Jew nor Greek nor slave nor free male or female. You're all one in Christ. It's because whenever a Jew
47:02 gets up in the morning, you know what he prays? He prays, "I thank God I'm not born a slave, a gentile or a woman.
47:08 That's what he prays every day. He gets, "Oh, thank God I'm not a slave or woman or, you know, or a gentile." And so when
47:14 Paul actually preaches this, he reverses the prayer that the Pharisees would pray
47:19 that you are neither Jew nor Greek, nor slave, nor free. There's no male nor female. You're all one in Christ. He not
47:25 talking that you've got different values. They're the same values. Uh if you look at the context of Galatians
47:31 chapter 3, look at the context. In Christ, you are all sons of God.
47:36 Which means the women are called sons. Why are women called sons? Because sons are the privileged one. They inherit,
47:43 right? They get the power. They get the land. But he's calling all the women sons
47:49 because they're equal in inheritance. Because you look here, for as many of you were baptized into Christ and have
47:55 put on Christ, they're neither Jew nor Greek, nor slave, nor free, nor male or female, for you all in Christ. And if
48:01 you are Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring and the heirs through the prophets. The whole passage is couched
48:07 in the fact that you inherit eternal life. It's not that you're equal to men in
48:12 terms of occupation. He's talking you're equal to men in terms of inheritance, which is eternal life. So egalitarians
48:19 have turned it around the wrong way because the idea of equality must be the same. Here the Paul line balance here in
48:26 chapter uh 11 of of Corinthians. Paul has to talk about women who are
48:32 preaching in public or or sharing or praying in public and he has to say you wear a veil. Why? Because on one hand
48:40 uh but I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ. The head of the wife is a husband and the head of
48:47 Christ is God. And every man who prays or prophesies with the head covered dishonors his head. But every wife who
48:54 prays or prophesies with her head un this uncovered dishonors her head is since it is the same as if her head was
49:01 unshaven. There's an order. The man is the head. Okay. And woman has
49:08 to wear the veil as a sign of authority. But at the same time you look at verse 11. Nevertheless in the Lord the woman
49:15 is not independent of man nor man of woman. For as woman was made from man,
49:21 so man is now born of women and all things are from God. On one hand, he says there as a sequence, there's a
49:28 differentiation between men and women. On the other hand, they are the same. So
49:33 you could be a judge in the high court of Malaysia. You could be the prime
49:38 minister or deputy prime minister like one Aziza. But when you go to Pixon, how
49:44 many votes can you throw? One. no matter who you are because in this
49:50 country we're all equal and the same thing we all equal in the sight of God
49:55 but we have different roles to play. So therefore the contentious issue isn't contentious because we're not
50:01 egalitarian or we are uh focused on patriarchy. We're actually complimentarian. God made us different
50:08 and the differences actually glorify him. Anybody recognize this woman? Very
50:13 familiar face. Anybody know
50:19 a modernday Jael? Her name is Rosa Parks. Many years ago,
50:25 she refused to leave the bus because she stood up for her rights. And
50:30 as she said, I felt the Lord would give me the strength to endure whatever I had to face. God did away with all my fear.
50:37 It was time for someone to stand up. In my case, sit down. And I refused to move. and she sparked off the civil
50:44 rights movement in the United States. Uh you got Fanny Crosby. Many of the songs
50:49 you sing today, every week, 8,000 hymns come from Fanny Crosby, a woman who has
50:55 got so much impact all over the world. She writes, she was blind after six weeks of life. And she writes, "Oh, what
51:01 a happy soul I am. Although I cannot see, I'm resolved in this world. Contented I will be. How many blessings
51:07 I enjoy that other people don't to weep and sigh because I'm blind? I cannot and
51:12 I won't an inspiration to the world. What about Audrey Weather Johnson's
51:19 impacted so many people in his life she started BSF in 1959 started by a woman
51:24 not a man or about Susan Susanna Wesley mother to
51:30 John and Charles Wesley she writes I'm not a man nor a minister yet as a mother and a mistress I felt I had to do more
51:38 than I've done and yet done. I resolve to begin with my own children in which I
51:43 observe the following method. I take such a proportion of time that I can spare every night to discourse with each
51:49 child apart. She got 17 children and she spends time with each one to make sure that they do quiet time and she produced
51:56 John and Charles Wesley who produced a Methodist movement which actually has changed the course of this world. And
52:02 what about Jireina Lee? A black woman in the United States. 2,325
52:09 miles. She's traveled, preached 78 sermons. Not many, but for a black
52:15 woman, that's indeed remarkable. I want to leave you with a challenge.
52:20 The challenge is the curse of Meos. If you look, you see the Israelites already
52:27 won the victory. Cisora and his troops were fleeing the field. When they were
52:33 fleeing the field, the battle's already won. The citizens of Meos even then when the
52:40 battle won don't want to join. I can understand if you don't want to join before the battle. Here the battle is
52:46 won and they're running away and the angel says curse meas says the angel of
52:51 the lord curse his inhabitants thoroughly because they did not come to help to the help of the lord to the help
52:57 of the lord against the mighty. You see in life there's only three kinds of people. Those who stand around and
53:06 wonder why what has happened. Then there are those who stand around
53:13 and watch things happen. Then there are those who actually go and
53:19 work. Three kinds of people. But the first two is actually cursed by God. And
53:25 if you look at Matthew chapter 25, the goats wondered and watched. Then he will
53:31 say to those in his left, depart from me, cursed into eternal life, a fire
53:37 prepared for the devil and his angel. For I was hungry and you gave me no food. I was thirsty and you gave me no
53:43 drink. I was a stranger and you did not welcome me. Naked you did not clothe me. Sick in prison and you did not visit me.
53:50 There is no place in the kingdom of God for spiritual apathy. The sign of
53:56 spiritual life is actually a harvest. If you look at the parable of seers the
54:01 harvest of the proper seed what is is 30fold 50fold 60fold. You don't sit in
54:07 spiritual at apathy. Deborah
54:13 used the prophetic gifts. Jael used a tent peg. Shegar use a goat stick.
54:18 Right? Moses uses his stick. Everybody uses what he has. You know, I was just
54:25 reading through a bit of science and looking at the DNA content of the human being.
54:30 And you look at the DNA content of the human being. It's got 3.2 two billion
54:36 base pairs and the onion has five times ours and the salamander is 65 billion base
54:42 pairs and and the flower has got 169 billion base pairs and and scientists wondering that only two billion 2% of
54:50 your DNA is used to transcript and to pres to to produce proteins that will produce enzymes. The other 98 scientists
54:57 actually say are junk. They're saying that evolution makes so many mistakes. There's a lot of junk DNA
55:04 left to the side. God makes mistakes. But recently through the work of Howard Chang and Jonathan Ren and Harvard, they
55:12 actually took junk's DNA away from mouse. And he he writes, "If you take away a piece of junk DNA, the mouse
55:19 dies. If you you can come up with criticism of that, go ahead. I'm pretty satisfied. I found a new piece of genome
55:24 that's required for life. Every day we're discovering that there's no junk. You know 98% you don't know what's
55:31 happened to the DNA but it's not junk. It designed finetuned.
55:38 If there's a beautiful program if you got time to watch on discovery channel uh history channel called the
55:45 unforgettable forgotten forest of Malaysia. Beautiful. I never knew such beautiful things actually occurred in
55:52 this country. This is an orchid mantis designed perfectly so you can't even
55:59 tell whether it's an orchid. And it sits there in all its glory because you know why it looks like an orchid and nobody
56:04 disturbs it because you think it's an orchid unless you're a flower guy and cut it off, right? And he sits there and
56:11 it's perfectly designed and the husband is designed small,
56:16 right? You know why? Because you can sit there for two weeks to mate. The mating takes two weeks. Talk about all night
56:21 long. This is like two weeks. And you know why he's designed small?
56:26 Imagine they carry the bugger for two weeks on your back. So he's got to be lightweight. It's designed perfectly.
56:34 And when the babies come out, you know what they look like? You think they look like orchids? No, they look like red ants. The reason why they look like red
56:41 ants because they run around. They scurry around the forest floor. And nobody wants to go near red ants. Not
56:46 human beings, not tigers, not leopards, nothing. perfectly designed.
56:52 And if you look and you see this show is beautiful. I saw it yesterday. The there's a horn bill. Horn bill only
56:59 chooses holes in the trees. And the and the and the wife goes inside there. And she looks after the tree chicks and she
57:06 does a bit of spring cleaning off and all. You see bits of hay being thrown out and the chip chip chip chip all the little chicks inside and and the and the
57:12 husband goes out and he carries a berry and he only carries one berry at a time.
57:18 Guess how many trips a day? 500. 500 trips to feed. That's all he does. 500
57:24 trips a day. You can see a perfect balance. And And when you look at that,
57:30 you see beauty because this is God's design. And when you look at that, you
57:36 reflect on Genesis chapter 1. So God created man and woman. Man in his own
57:42 image. The image of God he created them. Male and female he created them. And God
57:47 saw everything that he made and behold it was very good and it was evening and morning and the sixth day. And when you
57:55 live within the design of God that is human flourishing but yet we live in a
58:00 society where men want to become woman woman become a man they want to be in between and nonspecified gender is
58:07 absolute stupidity because there's glory in what God has meant us to be. And so
58:14 therefore, the bottom line is that in the kingdom of God, there's no useless
58:21 DNA. All of us, men, women, some of you men
58:27 are macho men. Some of you are like Barak and some of you women are like Deborah.
58:35 Some of you are like Jael. Some of you are like Shanga. But God has a purpose for every single
58:42 one of you. And I want to challenge the women in our midst. And I think sometimes this church gives you the
58:48 impression as if we are the ones the patriarchal church. Only men have the authority and all that. No, that's not
58:54 true. Men have the authority. But we recognize that that every person has a
58:60 ministry. Women have ministry. We you got lovely Phyllis coming up to pray in the most wonderful manner. And we want
59:06 to see more women exercising their gifts. The only difference in the Old Testament is that the elders are
59:12 actually male. You don't see female elders at all because we still believe in the complimentarian idea that the
59:18 ultimate leadership with authority is male. But otherwise, women serve in so many ways. Women have changed the world
59:24 in so many ways. So I encourage first baptist women. There are no useless DNAs here. We all designed to work together
59:32 because you know why? We love him and we love each other. You don't fight the
59:38 Taliban because you hate it, because you love your brothers. Join in the fight for this kingdom. Let's pray.
59:46 Father Lord, we we thank you that we are fearfully and
59:52 wonderfully made. I'm going to pray for every woman in this church that they
59:60 recognize that they created as a woman for a particular reason and they have
60:06 glory and flourishing in that design. And I pray that they will be able in
60:12 this church to reach their maximum potential to exercise all their gifts to
60:17 build up the community of the saved. and pray for all the men in this church that
60:22 we learn to see the world in your eyes. That male and female, we are created in
60:29 your image. And there is no one less. The male is not less nor more than the
60:34 female. We're equal in the eyes of God, but we each have a different role that actually maximizes our design. We ask,
60:42 oh Lord, that use each and every one of us. Give us your strength for you are the one who makes the weak strong. We
60:51 depend not on our own strength and our gifts but we depend on your strength, your gift, your faith, your power. For
60:58 you are the one to whom all glory belongs. For Jesus sake. Amen.
