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The purpose of this blog is to provide an overview of weekly sermons and questions for weekly Connection Point discussions.

Escalate Sermon Blog & Connection Point Questions

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That Death Won't Work - Judges 16:1-31

There is something different about the Samson narrative that causes it to stand out as unique from the narratives of the preceding judges - it's the author and narrator's recounting of Samson's death. In chapter 16 we see in some detail what led up to and what transpired at Samson's death. In the previous narratives of the judges that preceded Samson the author and narra...

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God's Call, God's Plan, and God's Glory Moved to the Backseat - Judges 15:1-20

Many believers in Christ love the "picture" of God ruling and reigning. But sometimes they're not so excited about the personal functionality of God's rule and reign - especially when God's rule and reign gets in the way of their own plans and their own glory. Samson should be a poster-child for one who was constantly guilty of putting his own plans before God's. But an...

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Who Cares About the Calling - Judges 13:25-14:20

Have you ever been frustrated by news of someone who had taken a certain oath or been given a certain calling who did not follow through with it? The thing that I often get frustrated with is news of 'dirty cops' - police officers who seem to show no regard for their calling to "serve and protect" and who partner with mob bosses, drug lords, or gangs who are making our co...

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Sorry, I Didn't Recognize You - Judges 13:1-25

What does it mean when you don't recognize someone? It probably means that they haven't played a significant part in your life, right? We don't fail to recognize our spouses or our children. We don't fail to recognize our close friends or our co-workers? The people we tend not to recognize are people we have only met once or twice or people that we have lost contact wi...

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Willing to Sacrifice What? - Judges 10:17-11:40

Would you be willing to sacrifice someone else's good name, someone else's career, or someone else's life in order to promote or maintain your own good name, your own career, or your own life? Most of us would probably respond very quickly with the answer, 'no.' But we can look all around us in our culture and find numerous examples in politics, in pop culture, and in sp...

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Attempts to Manipulate God's Deliverance - Judges 10:6-16

Most people don't enjoy seasons of distress or trouble in their lives. And while it is difficult to discern or understand the reasons for some of the seasons of distress and trouble we sometimes experience, sometimes those seasons of distress and trouble are directly related to bad decisions we make. Often times when we find ourselves in those difficult seasons we do our...

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God Reigning Where We Might Not Expect It - Judges 9

"Challenging" may be an understatement in regards to the text of Judges 9. What do we do with a text in which the narrative doesn't fit into the pattern of the 'deliverer' narratives that we have seen thus far, and where both God and the Israelites are almost entirely absent from the text? What do we do with a chapter dedicated to one who was not a God-appointed delivere...

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Deliverer - Not King - Judges 8:4-35

Have you ever known someone who had a tendency to let position or power go to their head? The kind of person who, when given a certain position or authority, would go beyond the position and authority they had been given by assuming even more authority and responsibility? It's not a commendable character trait is it? It's an even greater problem when it is an individual...

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No Time for Second Guessing When it's Time to Move Forward - Judges 6:33-8:3

Have you ever second guessed someone else's plans or promises? If you're honest with yourself the answer is probably, 'yes.' Most of us are probably very logical thinkers who think through plans that are proposed to us or promises that are made to us. Sometimes the plans that are presented to us or the promises that are made just don't seem all that realistic. And on t...

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"We Interrupt the Current Program with a Special Report . . ." - Judges 6:1-32

You may disagree with me on this, but my guess is that most news stations don't look forward to interrupting regularly scheduled programs to bring special reports. I can only imagine the kind of complaints that the news stations get from viewers upset that they missed a portion of their favorite television series or reality show. But news stations will interrupt shows to...

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