Deborah Unsung Heroes

Hey kids, it's Dave, your storyteller for Big Camp Online 2021. We are going to be looking at the theme of God's Unsung Heroes. Unsung heroes, that's a fun word to say. An unsung hero is someone who's a hero, but we don't talk about them very much. What we're going to discover this week is that each and every one of us are actually unsung heroes of God. Today we're going to be looking at a story, a couple of stories, stories about the idea that God's followers— God's leaders are followers. God's leaders are followers. And the way we see this is that they lead wisely. And when you lead wisely, it's because you're not leading with your own ideas, but you're leading with God's ideas. When I was a little boy, my uncle was a professional motocross racer. I would go some Sundays and watch him race, and he would go round and round the track on his motorcycles, and he'd fly through the air and land amazing jumps and wreck sometimes. And then when he was done racing, he would take his motorcycles back to my grandpa's house where he lived with— because he was just a teenager. And then he would put all his motorcycles in the garage and he would put all of his body armor in the garage and his helmets and everything. And he had a beautiful setup, even at a trophy room with all of his trophies. And I had a tiny little motorcycle. His were like 125s and 250s. I had a tiny XR80. Wasn't actually mine, it was his. He'd won it as a trophy in a race that he was in. It was a season of races and whoever finished top of the season won this little motorcycle. And obviously they wanted to give a motorcycle racer a little motorcycle so that he would give it to someone who was younger and they would become a motorcycle racer. I never became a motorcycle racer, but when I was riding that little motorcycle, I liked to pretend I was one. I would tear around the tracks that my uncle had built with his back tire down in the valley. He had ridden them so many times that there were ruts in the corners, and he would take his truck down there with a shovel and he'd build jumps. And there was these beautiful tracks that he'd made, and I would watch him, and he'd go off the big jumps and just fly through the air. Vroom! And his engine would make a cool sound because it'd go— As he throttled down the other side of the jump. And then I would come when he wasn't there, I would go on the same track and I'd be like— And then I'd get to the jump and I'd be like— And where he'd been like vroom and flew, I'd be like little tiny jumps. And then down the other side. And I thought I was doing great things, but I was really going pretty slow. My motorcycle was actually capable of doing a lot more, but I was a little bit timid until I did something. I went into the garage one day and I got my uncle's motorcycle armor out and I put on the vest that you lace up in the front that has the big pads on it, and I put on the elbow pads, and I put on the pants that have the leg plates in them, and the knee plates, and I put on his giant boots that were big for me, and then I put on his helmet, the racing one, the big face mask, and I buckled it up, and I got on my little XR80, and I went back down to that track, and I flew! I started riding pretending I was my uncle, and I was tearing around that track, and I was pushing my bike to the limit, and I was riding like a real professional. I was being led by a professional, my uncle. And I had lots of fun on that little motorcycle pretending that I was Tim, Uncle Tim. And when we follow God, we do amazingly great things for Him without realizing that we're actually in the picture. Like, we just go and do what we do and we don't think about, this is me doing this, because we're pretend— well, we're not pretending, we're living in the image of God. We're following him, we're doing what he's asked us to do. And so our actions and our reactions are not our own, but they're the way Jesus would act and react in those situations. The Bible story that I want to tell you today about an unsung hero is about a lady. It's a— Deborah sat under a tree called the Tree of Deborah, and she listened to people bring their cases to her of things that they couldn't figure out. Maybe somebody had stolen something, or maybe somebody had lied. And she was a judge in Israel, and she was also a prophet. And people would bring the messages to her. They would bring questions to her. They would bring tough decisions to her, and she would listen to them. She would pray about it, and then she would give God's answer. So she was leading wisely because she was trusting God for answers. One day the king of Israel came to her and he said to her— his name was Barak— and Barak came to her and he said, "The enemy's army, Jabin's army from Canaan, they're huge. They've got these 900 steel, iron, iron chariots, and these chariots tear through the land, and I'm terrified by them." And Deborah said, "I would be terrified by them too." And she said, "But you have God on your side." And he said, well, I know that in theory, but I just want to know that we're going to win the battle and I'm scared. And she said, you will win the battle because you have God on your side. And he said, have you been shown this? Do you know this? She said, yes, God has shown me you will win the battle against Jabin's armies. The general Sisera will come to attack you, but he will not win, even though, yes, he will bring his 900 chariots. And Barak said, but are you really sure? Are you really sure? Are you sure that I'm gonna win? And she said, yes, Barak, I'm really sure. God has told me you're going to win. And he said, well, I just know that God is with you. She said, God is with you too. And he said, well, I just, would you come with me? Would you come to battle with me? She said, I'm a woman, Barak, I don't go to battle. I stay home, I stay under my tree. And he said, I just need to know that God is with me, and so I want you to come to battle with me. Me. And so she prayed about it, and she came back and she said, okay, God said that I can go with you, but he also— oh, did you see the kookaburra in the tree? Look at him looking at us. Oh, he's beautiful. So she says, yes, I'll go with you, but I've got to tell you something. God has told me that you will not win the battle now. He said, but, but you said God said I will. Well, Yes, Israel will win the battle, but you, Barak, will not be the one who gets the credit for it. A woman will win the battle. And he said, you mean you? She said, no, I haven't been shown what it means, but a woman will win the battle in the end. And he said, well, I guess that's okay as long as we win. So you'll come with me? She said, yes, I'll come with you. And so they rode into this valley where they met And the other army came on their chariots, and they rode, and they attacked. And it did not look like they should win. It looked like they should have been destroyed by these 900 chariots and these great warriors. But instead, one by one, the enemy's warriors fell, and Israel's warriors triumphed until Barak was standing. And the men were running away. And the Israelite army were chasing the Canaanite army. And they were running, and they were— there was very few of them, but they were running away. And their, their leader, Sisera, the leader of the enemy's armies, was running ahead of them. And he ran and he ran and he got so far ahead, maybe he was in one of the chariots, I don't know, but he got away so that nobody knew where he was. And he went to this small little village and he saw a tent all by itself off to the side. And he saw a woman out the front of the tent and her name was Jael. And Jael's husband was a shepherd. And he had taken the sheep a few nights before and gone to a valley at a distance. And so she was alone at her tent. And so she came and saw Sisera, the leader of the enemy's armies, and she recognized him. And he came up to her and he said, please, could you, could you help me? And she said, yes, what do you need? And he said, I'm hungry and I need a place to hide and to sleep. And she said, fine, fine, come in my tent, I'll feed you some food. So she made him a nice meal and some warm milk, and then she said, you can lay down there on that blanket. And he laid down on the blanket and he fell asleep. And when he fell asleep— this is gross, but there's some pretty amazing stories in the Bible sometimes— she killed him herself. She actually— the tent that was around them had big pegs that were holding it into the ground. She took one of those tent pegs and a hammer, and she hammered it through his head, and Sisera died. In her tent. And when the armies of Israel came, and Barak got there, and Deborah got there, and the woman came out and she said, "The man you're looking for is in my tent, but he's not a threat anymore." And they went in and sure enough, there on the ground was Sisera, the leader of the armies of Canaan, and he was dead. And the battle had been given to a woman, just as God had said it would. So in this story, we have two fantastic people who who led for God. We have Barak trying to lead for God, but he's not trusting. He's still trusting in himself and he's afraid. I don't have the strength to win this battle. But we have Deborah who's listened to God so long and so many times she's given answers that God has given to her. Even when she doesn't understand the answer, she gives the answer. And so when the king comes to her, she says, yes, I know the answer. God has told me the answer. And she leads wisely because she follows. God's leaders lead wisely because they follow God. They don't lead on their own. They follow. Just like me putting that armor on and following my uncle's example, tearing around on my tiny little motorcycle pretending I was a big professional motocross racer because I was following in the footsteps— well, the wheel treads of my uncle. I was riding like he would ride. And you also, as God's unsung heroes, you can ride the way a champion rides. You can fight the way a champion fights, not because you're great, but because God is great and you are following him, becoming a great leader and becoming an unsung hero. Thank you for listening. I'd like to ask you to bow your heads now as we pray together to finish up. Dear Lord, we thank you so much for nature. We thank you that we can go camping now and then. We know this year we have to stay home because of COVID but we can still go camping as a family like I am right now with my wife. And I ask that you would bless us and help us to remember that we can lead for you. That we lead not because we are great, but because you are great. And we follow you. And in following you, we can do great things because we're going and doing what you've asked us to do and where you've told us to go. Thank you for loving us enough to promise that that you will never leave us or forsake us. You will always be there to guide us and to be our friend and our leader. In your name, amen. Thanks, we'll see you at the next meeting.