11 Traits of The People of God – Part 4

Christian Shields

11 Traits of The People of God / Tribes of Israel / Ge 29:31–30:24

Going over the Tribe of Judah (Praise). God’s people praise Him, Jesus is the Lion of Praise! Part 2 of 2 going over Judah.

Introduction

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.

Revelation 5:5 NKJV

But one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals.”

•     Welcome to part 4 of our sermon series

•     11 Traits of the People of God.

•     In this series we are going over the 11 sons of Jacob mentioned in the end of Genesis 29 and the beginning of Genesis 30.

•     These 11 sons become the first 11 tribes of Judah. The final tribe, Benjamin, is not intoduced until chapter 35, so we will go over his birth when we get there… but for now I wanted to preach on these 11 tribes of God’s people…

•     But what I found interesting as I was studying these scriptures is that each and every name of these 11 come with prophetic meaning… they are all word plays of actuall Hebrew words and sentances that are directly related to the circumstances of their birth… but not only that, I think they paint a prophetic picture of who God’s people are supposed to be.

•     For example, Reuben is a play on the sentance “See, a son” and Leah named him that because she felt that God saw her in her afflection.

•     Simmeon is based off of the Hebrew word Shama which means to hear and listen… because Leah felt that God hear her cries.

•     Then there is Levi which is based off of the Hebrew word Lavah… Meaning, to join together… Leah foolishly felt having another son would maker her husband be joined with her… but it didn’t work, he still hated her.

•     From the names of those three sons we derived 11 traits that all of God’s people should have…

•     We should be people who live knowing that we are seen by God, even in our affliction, letting our lives and attitudes show that we are a people who are not abbandoned by our God. He sees us, and He has a plan for us.

•     We should be a people who cry out to God, and God listens to our cry, He considers our pleas, and He acts on our behalf.

•     And we should be a people joined with God… Joined with Christ… Everything we do, we do for Him, through Him, and with Him… from now until eternity.

•     Now last week I started talking about this fourth son, Judah.

•     Judah comes from the Hebrew word Yadah, which means to praise God verbally and openly… to acknowlege and thank God for all He has done in a public way so that others hear and understand just how good our God is.

•     See Leah was in a crisis… her husband hated her… and he was also married to her younger more beautiful sister.

•     Now Leah was reaping a bit of what she has sown, because she was in on the deception of Jacob, she pretended to be Racheal on the wedding night so that Jacob would consummate marriage with her instead of her sister… she knew what she was doing, and now she has to live with that… but she REALLY wants to have a good marriage… she really loves Jacob and want’s Jacob to love her too…

•     She thinks that God made a way for her to be loved by giving her a son… but he still didn’t love her.

•     Her second son, surely, she thought my husband will love me now… but he still hated her.

•     Her third son… mind you Rachel, her more beautiful sister was baren at this time, her third son… “Now my husband will be joined with me!”  But again she was wrong… her husband did not Lavah her… he still hated her…

•     But finally, on the fourth son… she makes no mention of her husband… there is no trick to get him to love her, there is no desperation for him to be attached to her… finally on the fourth son she gives all the praise and glory to God.

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.

•     The word here used for praise, do y’all remember? Yadah!

יָדָה (yadah)
To openly acknowledge, confess, or praise God aloud

•     We spent a lot of time talking about Yadah and Judah last week.

•     We spent time talking about how the people of God, like Leah, must learn to put praise over problems…

•     Leah decided finally to let her focus be praise, instead of focusing on the problem.

•     As Christians we believe that God has a plan for us, we believe that God will deliver us, we believe that God will provide for us, protect us, and heal us…

•     But Yadah doesn’t even think about those thinks… because even if He doesn’t, we still chose to Yadah…

•     We don’t Yadah in order to get something, we Yadah because Jesus already gave us it all…

•     So in the midst of hardship and pain and persecution, we Yadah the Deliverer without worrying about deliverance.

•     It doesn’t mean we don’;t want to be delievered, it doesnt; mean we don’t think He will deliver us, it doesn’t mean we wont fight for deliverance, and pray for delieverence… but it means that God is good and worthy of praise regardless of everything else… and when we make that praise public, even in our suffering, God get’s glorified and spiritual atmospheres shift…

•     We also talked about praise going first… even when going into battle, even when seeking deliverence, or whatever life may bring… start with Yadah… and I really challenged us as a church to live a life where we start everything with Yadah, with open and verbal praise.

•     Now this week we are going to continue with two more points about Yadah… and I know, everybody else got half a sermon… why does Judah get two full sermons?

•     Because it is from Judah that our Lord Jesus Christ comes from, it is from the line of public praise that Jesus comes from…

•     It is the line of Kingship, where David comes from, and the line of salvation… clearly there is something special about Yadah, and so I think it prudent to spend time talking about it… let’s start with point one this morning… Praise Must Persevere.

Point One – Praise Must Persevere

Before I get to talking about the Lion of Praise, I want to talk about one of the battles that I mentioned last week. Here is the verse I read last week that I am talking about…

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!”

•     You see this was a civil war between the tribe of Benjamin and the other tribes of Israel… Benjamin had become extreamly wicked and sinful and had done some REALLY REALLY awful things as a people… and so God’s wrath was turned against them and God sent the other tribes to attack Benjamin…

•     When the people of Israel asked God “Which tribe should lead us into battle against Benjamin” God said “Judah first!.. Yadah first!”

•     And by itself that is very inspirational, God sends Yadah… God sends praise first. But there is a lot more to this story…

•     Because Judah lead Isreal into battle against Benjamin and isreal LOST the battle.

Judges 20:19–21 NKJV

So the children of Israel rose in the morning and encamped against Gibeah. And the men of Israel went out to battle against Benjamin, and the men of Israel put themselves in battle array to fight against them at Gibeah. Then the children of Benjamin came out of Gibeah, and on that day cut down to the ground twenty-two thousand men of the Israelites.

•     Now hold on… GOD TOLD THEM TO GO TO BATTLE WITH BENJAMIN… why did they lose? They lost twenty-two thousand men… thats not a small number of troops…

•     So the men of Israel cried out to God and God said… Go out against Benjamin a second day!

•     So they lined up in their battle lines, Judah in the front… and well…

Judges 20:24–25 NKJV

So the children of Israel approached the children of Benjamin on the second day. And Benjamin went out against them from Gibeah on the second day, and cut down to the ground eighteen thousand more of the children of Israel…

•     Man two days of defeat in a row! that’s 40 thousand men… and Remember… JUDAH went first… which means that Judah took most of the casualties…

•     Now I want you to think about this… if Judah took half of those casualties, from what we know from the censuses the Bible gives us that means that a fourth of the fighting age men of Judah were killed over these two days… but it could very much be closer to half of the fighting age of Judah depending how many of the casualties were actually form Judah… and like I said, they went first, and in ancient warfare… the first people in the battle are the ones who are taking almost all the casualties…

•     And here what the Lord is telling me through all of this… you know we preached last week that praise goes first… here is what the Lord showed me… sometimes in our battles, our praise take hits… it is our praise that is targeted… it is our praise that takes the casualties…

•     I don’t know if you have ever been in such a difficult battle that it becomes hard to praise… I hope you haven’t but I know some of you have…

•     Something so difficult to understand… something so painful to think about… you know God is good… YOU KNOW HE IS GOOD… but the fight is just so hard that you just can’t seem to get the praise out…

•     Man I have been there… I was there when my best friend Eddy died of cancer… I was there when my mom died of cancer… and I was there when I went through this horrible trauma in Israel…

•     We didn’t praise God that day in Israel… and it was not until the next day that we squeeked out some praise…

•     Over the next few weeks, as the flashbacks would roll in… and the wound would re-open… it was just HARD to Yadah God… not because I didn’t want to praise God, I knew He was good… but it just felt like my Yadah had taken some casualties…

•     It is in those moments church that I want you to remember this sermon… PRAISE MUST PERSEVERE… IT MUST…

•     DO NOT LET THE ENEMY DICTATE THE END OF THE WAR… MAYBE IT LOOKS LIKE HE IS WINNING… MAYBE HE HAS BEEN WINNING FOR A LITTLE WHILE NOW… AND YOU ARE TIRED AND BEAT UP… DON’T GIVE UP. LET JUDAH PERSEVERE!

•     I understood this point the most when I was driving home from church the week I came home from Israel… I didn’t want to see people… I didn’t want to talk to people… church was so increadibly difficult… and my android auto started playing by it’self… and it played a song that I had previously really disliked… I didn’t know if the singer on the song was really a Christian, I mean he confessed Christ but he made seculare music… plus the song said hell in it and I wasn’t sure if it was apropriate in this context… but it played… and I let it play… and I just broke man… the tears came, the praises went up… and I knew I was going to persevere… the song was Hard Fought Hallelujah by Corry Asbury and Jelly Roll… this lyrics just hit different in that darkness…

Yeah, I don’t always feel it
Yeah, but that’s when I need it the most
So I’ma keep on singing
‘Til my soul catches up with my song
There’s times when my hands go up freely
And times that it costs, oh, oh
There’s days when a praise comes out easy
And days when it takes all the strength I’ve got

I’ll bring my hard-fought, heartfelt been-through-hell hallelujah
And I’ll bring my storm-tossed, torn-sail story-to-tell hallelujah, oh, oh
‘Cause God, You’ve been patient
God, You’ve been gracious, faithful, whatever I’m feeling or facing
So, I’ll bring my hard-fought, heartfelt it-is-well hallelujah

•     And finally, here is the line that really hit me hard…

‘Cause faith isn’t proven like gold
‘Til it’s been through the fire, oh-oh
My head, heart and hands are feeling heavy
That’s when I lift them just a little higher

•     Bro… my head, heart and hands are feeling heavy… that’s when I lift them just a little bit higher… that’s when I Yadah a little louder… when I hallel a little more energeticly… by the way, Halleljuah means Hallel YHWH it means to Praise the Great I Am with all that I am… It is that “I will still become more undignified then this” kind of praise…

•     So when it is hard to lift your hands in praise, listen to your pastor now… THAT’S WHEN YOU LIFT YOUR HANDS HIGHER… When it is hard to sing a praise… That’s when you sing the praise a little louder…

•     JUDAH HAD LOST 40,000 men in 2 days in a fight that GOD TOLD Judah to go into… that GOD TOLD JUDAH to go first in…

•     And Judah persevered…Isreal, with Judah at it’s front did not waiver… THE PEOPLE OF GOD, LEAD BY JUDAH KEPT FIGHTING… And just like Jesus in the tomb, THE STORY DOESN’T END ON THE SECOND DAY…

Judges 20:26–28 NKJV

Then all the children of Israel, that is, all the people, went up and came to the house of God and wept. They sat there before the Lord and fasted that day until evening; and they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord. So the children of Israel inquired of the Lord (the ark of the covenant of God was there in those days, and Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, stood before it in those days), saying, “Shall I yet again go out to battle against the children of my brother Benjamin, or shall I cease?”

And the Lord said, “Go up, for tomorrow I will deliver them into your hand.”

•     And that is exactly what God did… the rest of the chapter details the complete and utter destruction of the army of Benjamin…

•     Listen church, I don’t know when your victory is coming… maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow… I know it WILL come, even if that victory comes in glory… but this much I do know… victory today or not, your PRAISE needs to keep going up.

•     Listen… some of y’all don’t even Yadah when things are good… if that’s you, ask God to change your heart… I want to be a church that VOCALLY praises God in all things in all times…

•     Build that habit now, before your praise starts taking casualties, if you will… before it get’s hard to praise… let praise be all you know… all you know to do…  so when things get hard you just double down and praise all the harder…

•     Now this brings me to the final point for Judah, which I don’t know about you, but it is so exciting of a revelation for me…

•     Jesus is called the Lion of Judah…

•     He is from the Line-of-Judah and is the Lion of Judah… see what I did there…

•     But listen, if Judah means praise then Jesus is THE LION OF PRAISE… so that’s my second point this morning, hail the Lion of praise.

Point Two – Hail the Lion of Praise

Genesis 29:34 NKJV

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.

•     Now currently we are Genesis 29, next week we will be in Genesis 30… but if we jump forward to almost the end of Genesis, in Genesis 49 we see Jacob’s last words, he calls all his sons together and gives them each a kind of prophetic blessing, like his father did for him and Esau… Look what he says to Judah…

Genesis 49:9–10 NKJV

Judah is a lion’s whelp; From the prey, my son, you have gone up.

He bows down, he lies down as a lion; And as a lion, who shall rouse him?

The scepter shall not depart from Judah, Nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh comes;

•     Judah is a lion… a young lion… yes…. but one who can not be roused… and the scepter… the kings staff shall not depart from Judah… nor shall the lawgiver, the authority to govern… all the government will be from Judah… and we know that is true because all the Kings of Israel come from David who is from the line of Judah…

•     But then it says “until Shiloh comes”… that Shiloh is a prophetic name for Jesus, the Prince of Shalom… the Prince of Peace. And if there is any doubt who that Shiloh is, well the verse we started with from Revelation makes it very clear.

Revelation 5:5 NKJV

But one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals.”

•     Judah was a Lion’s Welp… but Jesus is no welp… He is THE Lion of Judah! Shiloh… He is the Lawgiver, the government is on His shoulders… The scepter is in His hands… He is the King of Kings!

Hebrews 1:8 NKJV

But to the Son He says: “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your kingdom.

Revelation 19:16 NKJV

And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS

•     Literally, jesus is the Eternal king… The Lion of Yadah… the Lion of Praise rains for eternity as king, the scepter shall not depart from His hand!

•     Now I said this last week but I want to say it again… Jesus is the Lion of Praise because He is the source of our praise.

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.

•     By Him we offer praise, and too Him we offer praise…

•     In other words… without Jesus I am not sure there is much to praise God about… if we are just destined to be destroyed in eternity for our sins… what praise should I sing?

•     But through the Lion of Praise I have salvation… through the Lion of Praise I have a reason to praise.

•     You see Jesus is the Lion and the Lamb. The perfect lamb was slain so that I might be forgiven, but He rose again as the Lion of Judah… no longer to be slain, but now to conquer… now to rule, now to be praised… and that juxtopistion, that Lion and Lamb Juxtoposition comes from this passage in Revelation by the way…

Revelation 5:5–6 NKJV

But one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals.”

And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as though it had been slain…

•     Because the Lamb was slain I am able to praise the Lion of Praise who reigns for ever… HAIL THE LION OF PRAISE!

•     You gusy picking up what I am laying down… maybe I am just a theology nerd, but this stuff excites me.

•     Now listen, if Jesus is our Lion of Praise, and praise goes first… THEN JESUS GOES FIRST.

•     Which for me is great, I would rather go into battle with a Lion in front of me than to go into battle on my own strength…

•     Think of the havoc a war trained lion would do on the ancient Battlefield! HAIL THE LION OF PRAISE!

•     And listen if the Lion of Praise is going into the battle first, well then the armies of heaven are going to follow after Him…

Revelation 19:11–16 NKJV

Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself.
 He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses. Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations.
And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS

•     Listen, think back to the sermon last week… about our PRAISE going before us into battle… if Christ is our Lion of Praise… then when we start our Battles with praise we are starting our battles by Sending in Christ to our battles… what stress do you have in your life that can withstand the armies of heaven… what battle is so great, what trouble is so harsh… that it can withstand the Son of God riding in on a white horse with a sword in His mouth and fire in His eyes?

•     We can be like David facing Goliath… ARE YOU SURE YOU CAN HANDLE THIS BATTLE DAVID?

•     WHAT? Don’t you know who my God is? He already has won battles way harder than this for me… He saved me from lions and bears… which by the way church I would rather get into a fight with a giant than get into a fight with a bear or a lion… I think my odds against Deacon Dan, albeit low, are still way better than my odds against a Syrian black bear!

1 Samuel 17:37 NKJV

Moreover David said, “The Lord, who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” And Saul said to David, “Go, and the Lord be with you!”

•     I don’t know why this was on my heart, but I guess someone needs to hear it… the kind of Bear that would have attacked david would be a Syrian Black bear which weighs 900 pounds or more… 900 poounds of  muscle and claws and fangs and terror…

•     Goliath, with all his armor on, standing over 9 feet tall… with all his armor, would have only weighed about 750 pounds…

•     You see when David Yadah’ed about God delievering him from the Lion and the bear… he wasn’t talking about it like a warm up for battle… he was saying “My God has delivered me from worse!”

•     So when we go into battle, like David went into battle, we don’t need to go in with fear and axiety… we go in with the Lion of Praise at the forefront… and angle armies behind Him… we go in KNOWING that the Lion of Judah is going to win the Battle!

•     Because we have seen Him do it before!

•     Now before I close this down let’s just look at one more area of praise when we consider Jesus as the Lion of Praise…

•     Remember from last weeks sermon? Praise over problems? Well if Jesus is the Lion of Praise then instead of saying praise over problems then we can say JESUS over problems!

•     No matter how dark, no matter how difficult… even if I can’t see deliverance… if I chose to praise, then Jesus is there… and if Jesus is there then well, I have a reason to Praise… and if I praise then Jesus is there… and if Jesus is there then I have a reason to praise!

•     I know it sounds like circular reasoning, but it is what Scripture teaches us…

Psalm 22:3 NKJV

But You are holy, Enthroned in the praises of Israel.

•     God is enthroned in the praises of His people… He inhabits the praises of His people… So if I praise in the midst of my problems, then Jesus is invited into my problems…

•     Do you see how looking at Jesus as the Lion of Praise can change our perspective in our Christian Life… Alright let’s close this thing down…

Conclusion

Turn On Children’s Class Lamps

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.

•     Praise Over Problems… even though her problems weren’t going away… she still chose to praise… not as a solution to her problems, but simply because God has been good to her.

•     Praise Goes first… Even though Judah was the fourth born, he became the largest and most influential tribe… it is from his name we get the name Judea, it is because of him that Israelites are called Jews. Judah goes first, Yadah goes first… first into battle, first into promise, first in all areas of life, we need to keep yadah first!

•     Praise must persevere… even when it takes hits… even when it is hard to praise… even when our praise sufferes casualties… Praise keeps fighting…

•     Hail the lion of Praise. Jesus is the lion of Yadah… Jesus over Problems, Jesus goes first, Jesus perseveres… Hail Hail the Lion of Praise…

•     And just like last week I am going to give the same invitiation this week. If you do not know the Lion of Judah you can know Him personally today… YOU can know this Lion of Praise… He can be your King, Your friend, Your Savior, Your everything.

Gospel Call