11 Traits of The People of God – Part 3
Christian Shields
11 Traits of The People of God / Tribes of Israel / Genesis 29:31–30:24
Going over the Tribe of Judah (Praise). God’s people praise Him, Jesus is the Lion of Praise! Part 1 of 2 going over Judah.
Lords Prayer
Before we begin today’s sermon would you join me in praying the words our Lord taught us to pray?
Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done
in earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: Amen
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Introduction
Please stand for the reading of God’s Word.
Genesis 29:31–35 NKJV
When the Lord saw that Leah was unloved, He opened her womb; but Rachel was barren. So Leah conceived and bore a son, and she called his name Reuben; for she said, “The Lord has surely looked on my affliction. Now therefore, my husband will love me.” Then she conceived again and bore a son, and said, “Because the Lord has heard that I am unloved, He has therefore given me this son also.” And she called his name Simeon. She conceived again and bore a son, and said, “Now this time my husband will become attached to me, because I have borne him three sons.” Therefore his name was called Levi. And she conceived again and bore a son, and said, “Now I will praise the Lord.” Therefore she called his name Judah. Then she stopped bearing.
• Welcome back to our series titled “11 Traits of The People of God”
• In this series we are going over the first 11 of the 12 tribes of Israel, as each of their birth stories are outlined here at the end of Genesis 29 and the beginning of Genesis 30.
• And each of these births happened under a specific set of circumstances and desires from the moms involved… each child being given a prophetic name that I believe translates to traits that Christians should exhibit, after all, we are grafted into the vine of Israel, we are all heirs of Abraham’s promises. So, this is as much our story as anybody else’s…
• Now, in our first sermon we went over the first two children born to Leah, Reuben, which comes from the Hebrew sentence “Reu’ Ben” which means “See a son” or “I have been seen, and this son proves it”.
• The second son was Simeon, from the Hebrew word “Shama” which means to be heard and considered.
• See, Leah was unloved… some translations even say she was hated! Jacob loved Leah’s younger sister Rachel… he was tricked into marrying Leah first… but Leah truly desired to having a loving relationship with her husband… and since having boys was so culturally important and signifigant, Leah thought that having sons would fix her problem.
• So her first son she saw as a miracle from God, and she said “God sees me in my affliction! He has seen me and given me a son, He has Reu’ Ben! Surely now my husband will love me”.
• Then her second son she thought “God has Shamad me… God has heard and considered my prayer, surely SURELY now my husband will love me”
• Her third son, which we talked about a couple of weeks ago, was Levi… coming from the Hebrew word “Lavah” which means to be joined together, or bond together…
• Now with this third son, Leah thought “My husband will surely be Lavahed to me… He shall surely be joined to me.
• Reu’ Ben
• Shama
• And Lavah….
• I was seen by God, thus my husband will love me.
• I was heard by God, thus my husband will love me.
• Surely after this third son, my husband will be joined to me.
• Now what is sad about this whole thing is that Leah was wrong… well she was right about the nature of God, but she was wrong about the nature of her husband.
• God did see her in her affliction… but that did not mean her deliverance from affliction had come.
• God did hear her cry, but that did not mean the answer to her prayer was near, or even what she wanted the answer to be…
• And though she had three sons, though her rival, her younger sister had no sons… she still remained unjoined, unyoked, to her absentee husband.
• And what we learned from all of this is that God hears us when we cry, assuming we are living for Christ and in Christ, for God does not hear the prayers of the unrighteous…
• We learned that God sees us in our affliction… even if we can’t see deliverence, we can take comfort in knowing we ARE SEEN by the Deliever…
• We learned that as Christians we are to be joined with Christ… royal priests focused on His will, and His glory… fellowshipping with Him, walking in His truth, chasing after His vision, living a life that is all in for Jesus!
• And as an aside, we also learned that men can be creeps… because through all of this Jacob hated Leah, but was still making babies with her…
• Now we come to Leah’s fourth child… Judah…
Genesis 29:35 NKJV
And she conceived again and bore a son, and said, “Now I will praise the Lord.” Therefore she called his name Judah. Then she stopped bearing.
• Reu’ Ben, Shama, Lavah… See, Hear, Join… and now a fourth… Judah.
• Judah comes from the Hebrew word Yada…
יָדָה (yadah)
To openly acknowledge, confess, or praise God aloud
• Yadah means to praise God with your voice… this is not a silent praise… and it means to praise God openly in front of others…
• Now if you don’t know what praise means, it is so important to the Christian life… so let’s take a moment to explain this.
• Praise:
• To acknowledge God for what He has done.
• To thank God for what He has done.
• To glorify God for what He has done.
• So when you sing songs about God saving you… you are praising God.
• When you testify to others about how God has provided for you… you are praising God.
• When I say God is good, and you unironiclly reply “All the time” you are praising God.
• You can praise God with a facebook post, you can praise God with a song, you can praise God at home, you can praise God at church, you can praise God silently in your prayer closet, privatly acknowleging directly to Him all He has done… you can praise God in your private prayer journal. Anytime you acknowledge what God has done for you, you are praising God.
• Now take that definition and plug that into the definition of Yadah, because Yadah is a very specific type of praise… there are more than a dozen words for praise in the Bible, each meaning something different, so when we say Yadah we mean something very specific…
יָדָה (yadah)
To openly acknowledge, confess, or praise God aloud
• Yadah means to praise God with your voice… this is not a silent praise… and it means to praise God openly in front of others. There are types of praises that are silent or private, but that is NOT Yadah praise.
• So little side sermon here… If you are only praising God when alone, you are not Yadahing God… and if you are not using your voice to praise God you are not Yadahing Him.… You can not Yadah God alone while watching the livestream… and you can not Yadah God with your mouth closed and your hands in your pockets… Now there are ways to silently praise God… and there time to privatly worship Him, those are important… but they are not EVERYTHING… and to Yadah God, you must be praising openly and verbally… aloud so others can hear… this is how we Yadah… this will be important later in the sermon… but for now, remember that Yadah means praise.
• And if you remember that J sounds historically have been pronounced as Y’s, then it is not hard to see the connection… his name is not pronounced Judah in Hebrew, but Yudah… or more accurately Yehuda… which makes that Yada connection very clear…
Genesis 29:35 NKJV
And she conceived again and bore a son, and said, “Now I will Yada the Lord.” Therefore she called his name Yehudah.
• Alright I have four points about Yadah, and frankly, Judah is the tribe in which our Christ comes from… so we are really going to take our time with this one because it might just be the most important. So I am going to preach two of the points this morning and then next week I am going to preach the second two points… can we handle that?
• Man I just don’t want to rush it, this is so important, so let’s get into it with point one… Praise Over Problems.
Point One – Praise Over Problems
Genesis 29:35 NKJV
And she conceived again and bore a son, and said, “Now I will praise the Lord.” Therefore she called his name Judah. Then she stopped bearing.
• You know there is something interesting with the birth of Judah that hasn’t happened with the three sons before him…
• With Reuben… she thought her husband would love her… but he didn’t
• So she bares again, Simeon! This time God has listened! Now my husband will love me… but he didn’t
• So she bares a third time… Levi! Now my husband will be Lavah’ed to me… now he will be joined to me… but he wasn’t.
• Then comes Judah… Now I will Yadah the Lord… Now I will praise God.
• What was NOT mentioned with Judah’s birth? ALL THE OTHER BIRTHS LEAH WAS STILL FOCUSED ON HER PROBLEMS.
• She could see God moving, but it was always in reference to her problems. God sees me, therefore my problem will go away… God hears me, therefore my problem will go away… this time finally my husband will join me and my problem will go away.
• But now, at the end of the chapter… right before she stops bearing… she says “You know what… I have four sons… problem or no problem… I am going to Yadah YHWH… I am going to praise God”
• Praise Over Problems.
• A few months ago I preached a sermon called “Promises over problems” where we talked about having the faith to believe God’s promises and staying focused on those promises instead of being focused on our problems…
• This time… let’s take our faith a bit further… let’s have greater faith… faith to say “Regardless of the problems… I will praise God”…
• “Even if there is no promise, I will praise God”
• Or more accurately “Even if I don’t know the promise yet, even if I don’t understand how the promise applies… even though I can’t see the big picture of God’s plans and promises for me… I WILL PRAISE GOD”
• And not just any praise, not silent praise, not secrete praise… NO ,PUBLIC PRAISE!
Acts 16:25 NKJV
But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.
• Even if I am thrown in the furnace… let the King know that I praise God.
• Even if I am thrown in the lions den… Imma Open my windows and let the city know I praise God.
• Even if I am stoned to death… I’m gonna let those Pharisees know, I praise God.
• Even if I am locked up in prison and chained to the wall… when there seems to be no way out… when I don’t have a promise to cling on to… it doesn’t matter! I am going to yadah… I am going to sing loud and proud so the prison guards know, so the fellow inmates know… so the demons sent to torment me know… so the angels sent to protect me know… I PRAISE GOD!
• And you better believe it is going to be loud and proud praise… because when that prison starts to shake, I want the prisoners to know it is because of the of the God I Yadah.
• When the chains break and the prison doors open, I want the guards to know it is the God I Yadah who set me free.
• When the king comes and finds me snuggled up next to a purring lion, I want him to know it is the God I Yadah that shut those lions mouth.
• I want that king to know that the fourth man in the fire is the very same one I chose to Yadah instead of bowing down before Idols…
• And listen, this point is praise over problems… because the truth is sometimes deliverence doesn’t come.…
• Sometimes the cancer isn’t healed.
• Sometimes the womb isn’t opened.
• Sometimes the prodigal doesn’t return.
• Sometimes the persecution doesn’t stop.
• Sometimes the stones find their mark and do the job those pharisees intended them to do.
• And while I am not Okay with cancer, or bareness, or prodigal living, or persecution… while I am not okay with suffering… IT DOESN’T MATTER… because my praise is above those problems… they are not even on the same level… honestly they shouldn’t even be mentioned in the same sentance.
• I will Yadah because I will Yadah, and nothing is going to change that.
• You can heat that furnace as hot as you want, I will Yadah.
• My God will deliver me from your furnace, and I will Yadah.
• And even if He doesn’t, let it be known oh king, that I don’t Yadah you… I Yadah YHWH.
Daniel 3:17–18 NKJV
If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up.”
• Regardless of our problems… regardless of whether or not deliverance comes… WE PRAISE GOD! Publicly, with our voice, unashamed, so the world can know, OUR GOD IS and OUR GOD IS GOOD.
• I think the prophet Habakkuk says it best:
Habakkuk 3:17–18 NKJV
Though the fig tree may not blossom, Nor fruit be on the vines;
Though the labor of the olive may fail, And the fields yield no food;
Though the flock may be cut off from the fold, And there be no herd in the stalls—
Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.
• habakkuk gets it… even when everything is going wrong, the figs don’t blossem, the harvest fails, the flocks are cut off, the livestock is dead… even then we rejoice in God! Praise OVER Problems.
• I will give you a real life example, because I want this to be so DEEP into your faith… I want YADAH praise to be part of who you are as a Christian… If you can make this a part of who you are, this will supercharge your faith and the faith of those around you… I have told this story before, but it falls right in line with Yadah praise…
• When I was 18 or so, my best friend Eddy died suddenly from a cancer we had only learned about weeks before.
• It was late Saturday night when he died and I stayed up all night with the family.
• As Sunday morning rolled in I went out to my car to cry… The rain started falling, and it started falling hard as I cried…
• I started talking to God, trying not to argue… but trying to understand… trying to make it make sense…
• I am sure some of you have been there before…
• I knew that I was supposed to serve at church that morning, but I didn’t know how… surely I could cancel, surely they would understand… but I couldn’t bring myself to cancel serving… As I was crying, and loathing the fact I had to go to church and serve, the Lord told me to turn on the radio… so I started my car, and the radio was set to the Christian Radio station… and the song that was playing as the rain became torential around me was Casting Crowns “I will praise you in this storm”… and so I praised God, in my car, on the top floor of that hospital parking garage, in the middle of a physical and methaphorical storm, I praised God. But it wasn’t Yadah.
• Then I drove myself to church… and as I drove to church I asked myself… How can I bear to sing of God’s goodness on a day like today? I haven’t even changed clothes from the day before… driving directly from the hospital to the church… God told me clearly “Go and praise me”…
• Guys, I didn’t understand it, my flesh didn’t like it… but I went to church and no one but Pastor Matt knew what had happened the night before… I dried my tears, walked in, ran the slides, and I praised God… I praise Him as loud as I could… others could hear me… they didn’t know my situation, but they knew that I believed my God was good and that He was worthy of praise… and you know what, when I Yadah’ed God in that moment, everything seemed okay… I no longer wanted to argue with God… I never sought from that moment on to understand why God took Eddy… something about that Yaddah broke my focuse on my problems and kept me focused on Praise… Praise over problems.
• Praise over Problems church… but that doesn’t mean that problems don’t exist… sometimes well meaning preachers preach things like this so hard that it almost makes it sound like problems don’t exist… or that if we are good God fearing, faith filled Christians then we shouldn’t have problems… but I know that is not the case… Problems are real… Some of us have some BIG problems… Some of us ARE big problems, but that is a sermon for another day… but some of us really do have major problems and those problems need to be addressed… So here is point two this morning…
• When going to battle… when addressing our biggest problems, our toughest fights… Yadah goes first. That’s point two this morning, Praise goes first.
Point Two – Praise Goes First
Judges 1:1–2 NKJV
Now after the death of Joshua it came to pass that the children of Israel asked the Lord, saying, “Who shall be first to go up for us against the Canaanites to fight against them?”
And the Lord said, “Judah shall go up. Indeed I have delivered the land into his hand.”
Judges 20:18 NKJV
Then the children of Israel arose and went up to the house of God to inquire of God. They said, “Which of us shall go up first to battle against the children of Benjamin?”
The Lord said, “Judah first!”
• In battle, God sends Yadah first… and you know I need to correct something I have said on occasion from the pulpit… I have said a few times before that God sends the Levites into battle first… that whenever there is battle the Levites, who include the worship leaders, go first… But that statement was actually wrong.
• There is only 3 times when God tells the Israelites who should go first into battle, two of them I just read where God says “Judah first! Yadah first!” And the other one is from 2nd Chronicles 20:21, and this is what I have quoted before:
2 Chronicles 20:21 NKJV
And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed those who should sing to the Lord (the Levites), and who should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army and were saying: “Praise the Lord, For His mercy endures forever.”
• So here we see the Levites being sent first… to worship and praise before the Battle… and what word is used for praise here? Of the dozens of words God could have used for praise, God used Yadah! Open, vocal, public praise!
• But wait there is more! Judah was not sent first in this verse because Judah was already AT the battle… they had been ambushed by the Moabites and the Ammonites… Levi was being sent to rescue Judah.
• So God sent the Levites to rescue Yahoda by singing Yada before the battle, because Yahoda was already at the battle and were probably already in the process of Yadahing before their enemy.
• But the point that I have made in the past about the worship leaders going first remains… though it was Judah who God would tell to go first, it was always with this concept that it is Praise that goes before the Battle, even when the Levites were coming to the defense of Judah, God still tells the Levites to Yadah before the battle.
• Praise Goes First! And not just any praise, but Yadah praise goes first.
• Now we can imagine a n Israel where this is true… the Bible describes it… we can imagine a people who, when they go to Battle, they send praises up first… either from Judah, the tribe of praise, or from Levi, the tribe of priests and musicians… This is easy for us to imagine, we read it in scripture, we put it in sermons, we watch it in movies and TV shows and songs… Israel, an ancient people who starts their battles with praise…
• But for a minute I want you to imagine a CHURCH like this… imagine if CLC, and everyone in CLC, handled their battles like this.
• Business men going into big meetings… hey before I go and fight for my salary, I need to praise God.
• Husbands and wives, about to get into a huge argument… Hey honey, before we battle this out, let’s praise.
• Students stressed from the pressure of examines and peers and growing responsibilities… hey before I head into school this morning, I am going to praise.
• Listen, I am a pastor, I have seen major spiritual battles, I have gone to war with the demonic… yes the demonic is real and active, and no I am not afraid of it… but when I do battle with demons, I start with praise… every time I have ever gone to do deliverance ministry, I always start with praise. We once had a demon manifest before service downstairs one Sunday, the first thing I did was to tell the worship team to stop practicing for service and to come down and sing praise.
• Praise goes first.
• In Battle, Judah went first.
• In the wilderness Judah went first.
• Walking into the promised land, Judah went first.
• Dedicating the temple, Judah went first.
• In just about every area of Christian life we see Judah going first…
• So let’s agree right now that we will be a church full of people that starts with praise!
• So here is what I want to do, because I want this point to stick… I want to try something… a little church participation, okay… a little call and response… I want yall to say “I will Praise God”… okay, now keep saying it because I want it to get in your ethos… I will praise God… Come on, what are you going to do? I will praise God.
• Before I got to battle…
• I will praise God.
• Before I seek deliverance…
• I will praise God.
• Before I seek healing…
• I will praise God.
• Before I go to work…
• I will praise God.
• Before I have that meeting I have been dreading all week…
• I will praise God.
• Before I have that hard conversation that I don’t want to have…
• I will praise God.
• Listen… Before I go to church…
• I will praise God!
• Come on, David said it in Psalm 100:4
Psalm 100:4 NKJV
Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.
• So I am going to say it again… Before I come to church…
• I will praise God.
• Don’t fight with your kids, don’t fight with your wife on Sunday mornings… don’t turn on seculare music… laod up into the minivan and start with Yada before you ever even get to church…
• Even in the heartache…
• I will praise God.
• Even if I don’t understand it…
• I will praise God!
• Listen I still don’t understand why Eddy died… But even though I don’t understand it… I will praise God!
• Look… Even if I don’t see the promises…
• I will praise God.
• Even when I don’t feel like it…
• I will praise God.
• In all things at all times…
• I will praise God!
Psalm 34:1 NKJV
I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth.
• Now I am going to leave it here for this morning, because there is so much more to talk about with Judah and Yadah praise, we will get into that next week… but for now let’s conclude this sermon back where we started, with unloved and hated Leah, having a baby boy and praising God.
Conclusion
Genesis 29:35 NKJV
And she conceived again and bore a son, and said, “Now I will praise the Lord.” Therefore she called his name Judah. Then she stopped bearing.
• This word, Yadah, to praise and acknowledge openly and vocally… it apears in scripture 114 times… but these right here is it’s very first occurance…
• Through all the scripture we have been to up until this point we have not been told of anyone else giving Yadah praise… it probably happened plenty, but this is the first time we are told about it… the first time the word Yadah apears is at the birth of Judah…
• Leah, for the first time in her marriage, stops thinking about her husband and simply praises God… the other three children she wanted them to be used to draw her husband to her… she thought he would see her, and listen to her, and be joined to her… she though “I know God sees me and listens to me, surely God will make my husband love me”… now she doesn’t say any of that nonsense… and she gives the first Ydah praise in scripture…
• Listen… that means the first yadah happens not in victory
• The first yadah happens not in deliverance
• The first yadah happens not in prosperity
• It wasn’t in the garden, walking and talking with God in perfection that we see the first Yadah…
• It wasn’t after being saved from the flood or delivered from Sodom and Gomorrah…
• It wasn’t after Isaac the Miracle child was born… It wasn’t after Rebekah the miracle wife was found…
• It wasn’t even in the dessert after seeing visions of angels ascending and descending and God declaring once again the promises…
• NO! The first Yadah happens in rejection.
• The first Yadah happens in rivalry…
• The first Yadah happens in the midst of unresolved pain…
• “My husband hates me… no amount of children is going to fix that… FINE… let me take my eyes off of Jacob and fix my eyes on YHWH.… instead of focusing on what I don’t have, let me focus on what I do have… I WILL PRAISE THE LORD.
Hebrews 13:15 NKJV
Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.
• Who is the Him in this verse?
• Christ Jesus! It is by Him and through Him that we have any reason or ability to praise at all… so if your sitting here, listening to this sermon about Yadah praise, but you don’t know Jesus… then it might all sound a little bit hopeless…
• But when you know Jesus like I know Jesus, when you know Jesus like most people in this church know Jesus… then it is easy to consider praising God even in the midst of pain and hardship… it is easy to be inspired to praise God, to find hope and victory in Praising God… but if you don’t know Jesus then you really can’t know that kind of victory, that kind of hope… that kind of Praise… but I want you to know it, and it starts by knowing Jesus.
• Not knowing OF Jesus… but knowing Jesus as King, as Lord, as Master, as Father, as Friend.
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