Gideon | Running with the Giants - Week 3

you know i think all of us love a good underdog story it always makes a great movie you think about rudy remember the titans or what about rocky i mean who could ever forget rocky balboa i mean there's rocky one and rocky two there's rocky three and there's rocky four and there's rocky five and there's rocky six and then there's creed one and creed two and it's gonna go on until eternity i think but we love to cheer on those who have all the odds stacked against them so friends i'm asking you today what about you do you ever feel like the odds are stacked against you maybe you feel like things are never going to get any better friends i will promise you that god has not lost sight of you i don't know what you're going through or what's going on in your life but i promise you god has not lost sight of you he specializes in impossible situations and he loves you more than you could ever begin to imagine or comprehend listen your circumstances might not change hear me on this your circumstances might not change but against all odds you will and that's what we need to remember is that even though we may not like what we're going through god has not forgotten us and he's promised that he's working all things together for our good and my friends i believe that's the greater miracle i promise you that god wants to work in your life god wants to work in your story which is really what this series is all about that we've been on for the last three weeks called running with the giants if you've been here if you've not been here we talked about hebrews chapter 11 which is the heroes of faith chapter which basically the writer of hebrews just begins he defines faith for us in verse one and then from there he begins to give us one example after another of men and women that were giants of the faith and that's what he does through the entire chapter talking about men and women who even though things might not have been going well in their life they made a decision they made a choice that they were going to trust god they might have been underdogs they might have been viewed as less than in society but they made a decision to trust god and god used them in an amazing way so our theme verse for this particular series has been hebrews chapter 12 verse 1. you remember we will read it each week so you get through with the definition hebrews 11 1 then he gives us examples then it comes to 12 verse 1 therefore because of everything he's just got through saying he says since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses the cloud of witnesses are the giants that's gone before us the men and women of faith that have already gone before us in the old testament but then you come to the new testament and there's also men and women of faith or men and women that are giants of the faith in the new testament and then in the last 2 000 years there have been men and women that are giants of the faith and i would tell you that sitting in in all of our auditoriums across central indiana are men and women that are giants of the faith these might be people that were considered underdogs but at the same time they were people that made a decision to trust god no matter what those are giants that's what we're talking about since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses let us throw off everything that hinders everything that's slowing us down everything that's keeping us from god's plan being fulfilled in our life let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles us trips us up and let us run and as i've said each week this is the reason for the title of the series let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us let us run with a perseverance with a determination with a commitment to the purpose to the plan that god has planned out for us so he says we are surrounded by a bunch of underdogs that put their trust in god now i'm guessing that if you're like most americans you've done uh some binge watching over the past 10 months of the covet season i know sandy and i certainly have i i think at the time especially during the first part of covid where where you couldn't go anywhere everything was closed down and there really wasn't anything to do i think sandy and i worked literally no exaggeration we worked five one thousand piece crossword puzzles we stacked them on a table until we got so sick of doing crossword puzzles and we tried to find stuff on television it just there wasn't much to do because we were used to being out and busy and that type of thing and so i think probably a lot of you did some binge watching over the last 10 months well our story today the reason i'm saying that is because our story today is kind of like a mini series if you will and today we're going to binge watch through six episodes together with no commercial breaks you don't have to worry about that it's about an ordinary guy by the name of gideon that's who we're talking about today and you'll find the script for all six episodes of this story in an old testament book called judges and it's found in chapter six and chapter seven and i think you'll see it's one of the most amazing stories where you absolutely when you're done reading this story and again guys can i just say right here i've said this each week and i'll continue to say it each week please go home and read the entire story because i'm only giving you the highlights there's so much more to each one of these stories than i have time to tell in a 30-minute talk so go home and read the entire story but i think when you read this particular story you step back and say oh my gosh wow only god so let's start with these six episodes the first episode is i called it the pilot the pilot and it's found in judges chapter 6 verse 1 it says the israelites did evil in the lord's sight so the lord handed them over to the midianites for seven years again and again and again and i've mentioned this before because this theme is true in every one of these messages and the theme is that in the old testament the israelites continued to do evil in the sight of the lord the israelites were god's chosen people but they continued to do evil in the sight of the lord they would rebel against god things would get really bad they would repent they would then cry out to god he would forgive them and rescue them and yet it wasn't long before they went back and they did the whole thing all over again and this is the pattern we see through the entire old testament so as i've told you many times before the thread that runs all the way through the old testament in the new testament is relationship the whole theme of the old and new testament is god trying to restore a relationship with the people that he loves and so we see them again rebelling against god repenting and coming back to get to god and then re rebelling again against god and this goes on and on they continue to live their life listen to me guys they continue to live their life as if god doesn't exist you know nobody can answer this question about you but you are you living your life as if god doesn't exist or do the people in your life recognize there's something different about you do they recognize your love for god do they see a difference in your life because often times we are christians in name only we're not actually living for him and that's what the israelites were doing and so before we shake our heads and wag our fingers in their face and say man shame on you we have to recognize that sometimes we're guilty of doing the same thing and so you say they continue to live their life as if god didn't exist and so you say well steve why would god allow that god didn't allow it why didn't god stop him steve i mean couldn't god just say no more of this i'm done with this well friends why would god allow it in our life as well and the reason is the same answer because the greatest blessing that god has ever given mankind is the blessing of free will god has given every single one of us free will the freedom to make our own choices so that we're not some puppet on a string that every decision we make is because because god forced us to make it we have free will we have the freedom to choose god's not going to force you to serve him and yes that and yet that also means listen to me that also means we have to deal with the consequences of those choices so yes you have the freedom to make your own choices but when you do you have you can't look at god and say god have you forsaken me because you are gonna every one of us are gonna reap the consequences of our choices good or bad so even though their sin absolutely broke the heart of god he would let them make their own choices and they would again and again again go into this self-destructive tale spin which of course brought horrible consequences into the nation it brought horrible consequences into their life you know again we shake our head in disbelief we think what double-minded people they must have been it's horrible and yet guys we're often guilty of the same thing we come to church and worship and then on monday we live our life just as if god didn't exist we go back to our old way of living that's what we need to be cautious of sometimes we don't even give god a thought until the weekend sometimes we don't give god a thought until we come to a crisis in our life and then we cry out for help oh my god help me in this lord help me jesus please rescue us and then god rescues us he steps into our situation he works a miracle in our life or he works a miracle in our situation and then we go right back to living for ourselves until the next crisis takes place until the next crisis happens and then we can also be guilty at times i think of playing the victim i could spend a lot of time on this but i think you get the just what i'm talking about you know i wouldn't have had that affair if she would have paid more attention to me i wouldn't have done that if she had paid more attention to me god asked adam an example in the old testament god asked adam why he had eaten of the forbidden tree he had made it very clear very plain he wasn't supposed to do that and adam did and so he asked him why did you eat of the forbidden tree and adam's response was what it was because of that woman you gave me it's her fault deflecting casting blame refusing to take responsibility we want to blame others or we oftentimes want to blame god for the situation that we find ourselves in and sometimes guys sometimes stuff just happens you know we live in a fallen world and even the most innocent people can get caught in the fallout but guys listen to me please more times than not we're reaping what we sow more times than not we are reaping what we sow but the sooner the sooner we can own our bad choices and take responsibility for our behavior the sooner we humble ourselves and start honoring god with our lives the sooner things will start to change so again it was the result of their own bad choices that the nation of israel was under the domination of the midianites and then they were under the domination of the midianites for seven long years these midianites were ruthless they were evil they were desert no mans that raided the israelites promised land relentlessly in fact their evasion was so massive that god's people listen god's people had to literally go underground for their own safety and they were living in caves and canyons just to survive well the midianites destroyed all of their crops they took all of their livestock and they brought them to the brink of starvation it was serious look at verse six it says so israel was was reduced to starvation by the midianites then the israelites cried out to the lord for help they finally get so miserable and desperate don't miss this guys they finally get so miserable and desperate that they cry out to god for help you say well that's good right it's good but it took them seven years before they did they went through all of this difficulty they went through all of this struggle they went through all these critical periods in their life for seven years before finally somebody said maybe we should call out to god and ask him for his help what in the world were they waiting for and yet again maybe not seven years but we can be just as guilty i i've heard people so many times in my life they'll say to me well steve i've done everything i can the only thing left for us to do now is pray listen instead of prayer being our first defense it becomes our last resort prayer needs to become the first priority prayer needs to become the absolutely the first thing we do if and listen i'm a big believer in uh habits in creating spiritual disciplines in our life and one of the habits that you should create is that prayer becomes your first line of defense that whenever you get bad news i don't care what it maybe you get a call from a doctor maybe you get a call from your banker maybe you get a call from your spouse i don't know whenever you get bad news your first line of defense would be the first thing i'm going to do is pray i'm going to seek the mind of christ i'm going to seek his wisdom i'm going to seek his direction and then i'll decide what i'm going to do from there but before we do anything else and if you're married you might do it with your spouse or you might do it with your kids or you might do it with a friend and say i just need you to come pray with me i just got some bad news and before i talk to anybody or do anything i just need somebody to pray with me it needs to become our first line of defense and i promise you guys if you'll begin to do that on a regular basis it will become a habit it'll become a spiritual discipline in your life remember in first peter chapter 5 verse 7 it says cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you that's what you're doing when you make prayer your first line of defense you're casting your cares your worries your concerns all of it on god saying god i don't know what's about to happen here i just heard about this god but i need you right now i need you i put my trust hole in you no matter how this thing turns out jesus never wanted us to carry these struggles alone he never intended for that he told us to cast our care upon him because he cares for us he wants us to give it to him and to trust him with it so the next time you find yourself in a difficult situation the first thing you need to do is pray and friends can i remind you that regardless how long it takes you to reach that point of humble desperation hear me no matter how long it takes you to reach that humble point of desperation god has never stopped thinking about you it took them seven years to say oh wait a minute let's call on god and sometimes fear takes over and we forget about god we're so consumed with worry and fear and anxiety that we forget all about god's involvement in this well the whole time you've been off on your own trying to do this thing without god's help i just want you to know god has never stopped thinking about you you have never slipped from god's mind he knows exactly where you are he knows exactly what you're going through and he knows how this thing's going to turn out so why in the world would we not want to look to him first he sees beyond your rebellion or your disobedience he sees beyond your disregard and he will never that's the great thing about a grace is god he will never throw it back in your face and say are you kidding me after all you've done you have ignored me for months you have ignored me for years there's no way i'm going to help you absolutely not that's not the heart of our god when you cry out to god in prayer he hears your prayer and he responds to your prayer it may not be the way you want him to respond but god will respond to your prayer you might not be able to see what he's doing even when you can't see him we just sang it even when you can't see him he's working so you may not be able to see what he's doing but i will promise you that god is at work in your life in the upper story in the invisible realm verse 7 when they cried out to the lord because of midian the lord sent a prophet to the israelites he said this is what the lord the god of israel says i brought you up out of slavery in egypt the prophet reminds them that god is faithful and through this prophet god says to them i brought you up out of slavery in egypt i parted the red sea i fed you manna and heaven and i provided you water from a rock i drove out your enemies and i gave you their land but i also told you i also told you not to worship all of the little gods of your enemies i warned you that they would lead you down some dark roads but you wouldn't listen you ignored me and that's why you were in the situation you were in right now but nevertheless i love that but nevertheless i love you i've heard your cries and i'm about to move in your life okay that's the first episode episode one episode two is the visitor we go to judges 6 11. it says then the angel of the lord came and sat beneath the great tree this is important i'll talk about this in a minute the angel of the lord i'll come back to that then the angel of the lord came and sat beneath a great tree at oprah which belonged to joash the clan of advisor gideon's son of joas was the threshing wheat at the bottom of a wine press to hide the grain from the midianites the angel of the lord there it is again the angel of the lord appeared to him and said mighty hero the lord is with you now when it says the angel of the lord that is actually an old testament appearance of jesus whenever you read the angel of the lord that's what they call a christophany or a pre-incarnate appearance of christ so just remember that any time in the old testament when he talks about the angel of the lord it's a christophany a pre-incarnate appearance of christ that's actually jesus that's coming into their presence so gideon is looking around and so he says to them mighty hero the lord is with you i love that and so gideon is looking around like mighty warrior are you talking to me i think you've got the wrong guy i'm not a mighty warrior i'm just a simple farmer you know we all have people in our life that are constantly trying to label us or trying to define us you will have those people that are trying to tell you that you are worthless or stupid maybe they're trying to tell you that you're ugly or odd or inadequate or insignificant the problem is is that oftentimes we listen to those voices when god tries to help us understand who our true identity is we oftentimes respond back to god and say oh you must have me confused with someone else i'm not a mighty warrior i'm not a man of god i'm not a woman i'm not a woman of god i'm not a child of god you must have me confused with someone else because you see i've been told that i'm unlovable i've been told that i'm too fat i've been told that i'm too slow i've been told that i'm not very bright i've been told that i'm an addict my parents say that i'll never amount to anything my co-workers make fun of me my boyfriend says i'm pathetic oh listen to me friends i don't know what you've heard from other people but god says you are loved god says you are priceless god says you are treasured god says you are the apple of his eye in god's eyes you are a mighty warrior whether you feel like it or not whether you have believed that before or not you are a mighty warrior you are a child of god he doesn't want you to walk through life wearing the labels that other people try to fix on you he wants you to have the confidence that you are indeed a child of god that he loves you well gideon comes back with a question we see it in verse 13. he says sir gideon replied if the lord is with us why has all this happened to us and where are all the miracles our ancestors told us about didn't they say the lord brought us up out of egypt but now the lord has abandoned us and handed us over to the midianites you see gideon is having a crisis of faith right now he's having some doubts he's having some struggles and yet maybe think about this for a minute maybe it's because gideon has forgot how god's people have ignored him gideon has lost sight of the fact that they've been ignoring what god has been telling them to do for years they've been ignoring that they've refused to what god has instructed them to do sometimes guys we do the same thing we'll make some poor choices in our life and then when it doesn't work out the way we want it to we get mad at god for the consequences but god you promised to meet my needs yeah but maybe you've been spending foolishly i asked god to heal my marriage but she still left me yeah but you did refuse to go to counseling you see guys i'm just saying it's much easier to cast blame it's much easier to point fingers or to get mad of god when we in fact didn't do our part really the easiest way to understand it is that we're in a partnership with god and god is faithful listen to me god is faithful to do his part thousands of promises in the new testament and god is faithful to meet his promises but there's also every promise has a prerequisite a part that we play a responsibility that we have and so if we do our part god is faithful to do his part well god didn't get defensive he didn't say let me tell you something about personal responsibility gideon no he simply said you know what gideon i'm right here i'm right here let's not worry about what happened yesterday let's decide what you're going to do today let's decide what you're going to do right now verse 14. it says then the lord turned to him and said go with the strength you have get in go with the strength you have and rescue israel from the midianites because i'm sending you god says so so god challenges gideon he says step up mighty warrior be obedient to what i'm calling you to do i'm calling you out i'm giving you some instructions now i want you to be obedient i've heard their cries and i'm about to make my move and i'm going to make it gideon through you guys i think you might be surprised to know how many times god has actually whispered that in your ear how many times that god has told you a similar type of thing maybe not on this scale but god is trying to get you to step into a situation he's trying to work a miracle in someone's life and he wants to work that miracle through you but you're not obeying him you're not doing what he's asked you to do more times than not god is going to work through you and he's going to work through me but remember guys i've said this to you so many times before god will never ask you to do anything that he that he won't first give you the ability to carry it out so if god whispers something in your ear and he tells you to do something i promise you he's going to equip you to do it he's not trying to get you to fail he doesn't want he's not going to get some kick out of you messing up he's asking you to do it because he's going to give you the ability to carry it out you know you might be the very one that god wants to use in a situation in your own family you might be the very one that god wants to use to reach a co-worker you might be the one that god wants to use to deliver compassion to those in a city that are in need of help that are in need of hope and just like god said to gideon he might be saying to you hey mighty water hey mighty warrior i want to use you so go be obedient and go because i will be with you gideon immediately starts to make excuses look at verse 15 he says but lord getting replied how can i rescue israel my clan is the weakest in the whole tribe of manasseh and i am the least in my entire family i mean whoa it's me guys when god asks you to do something do you immediately start to make excuses again sometimes we do it not even thinking it's just like we're feeling like a sense of god saying i want you to do this or go here and we're immediately saying i can't go there god you know we may not even say god we may think it's our own conscience but the reality is it's god whisper in your ear saying i want you to talk to that person you're thinking i can't talk to that person i'll be late for this appointment no i can't do that when in fact it's god whispering in your ear that he wants you to talk to that person but we've got to learn to listen to that still small voice we've got to learn to be sensitive to the whispers of the holy spirit when god asks you to do something you need to determine i'm not going to make excuses i'm going to go out on a limb and i'm going to try it i'm going to try to be obedient to the lord so so he says so gideon says with all of his his excuses i'm the weakest christian i know my family's the weakest spiritually that i know there are so many others god that are stronger spiritually that are more skilled that a more qualified god why don't you just use them verse 16 the lord said to him i will be with you he's trying to give him confidence he's trying to reassure him i will be with you and you will destroy the midianites as if you were fighting against one man whoa there's a lot of midianites you will destroy them as if you're fighting like one man you may not be much by yourself but i'm just telling you with god on your side you are a mighty warrior and the same is true for every single one of us so gideon then prepares an offering to the lord and he gives it to the angel of the lord which remember is jesus incarnate and the angel touches it and fire flames up and it consumes it and then he disappears and as you might imagine gideon is standing there seeing all this and he's blown away and he thinks you know he's blown away and he thinks man i am in trouble i just got through seeing the face of the lord so what i'm trying to tell you is right at this moment gideon recognizes this wasn't just an angel gideon recognizes this that this was a pre-incarnate of god jesus and so he's terrified because he said i've just seen the face of god am i gonna die okay so that ends episode two and now we go to episode three which is demo day demo day if you've ever watched any of the home improvement shows on hdtv then you're like millions of other americans that watch those on hdtv chip and joanna gaines or property brothers or flip flop or so many others that are out there well part of the excitement of the show is demo day where they take a sledgehammer and they begin to destroy all the old stuff right and so episode three begins with god telling gideon before i can really use these he says gideon before i can really use you these other gods have got to go get in i'm about ready to use you in a major way but until you get rid of all these other gods it's not going to happen i want you to tear down your father's altars to the false god baal and then i want you to take that asher a poll it's got to go he's trying to get them to see that it's the worship of other gods that have gotten your people in the mess they are they know better the jewish people know better but they've begun to worship other gods and so he says so what i want you to do gideon is i want you to build an altar to me now in the old testament i'd really like to spend more time on this but let me just give you a brief in the old testament um they would build an altar because in the old testament the holy spirit didn't reside in them only certain people had the holy spirit uh priests prophets and kings were the only ones that had the holy spirit in the new testament we're all priests is what it teaches us and so all of us have the holy spirit my point is in the old testament for them to worship god they had to build an altar which became a platform of worship in the new testament the altar is our heart our heart is our platform or it's our place of worship which is what we try to get you to enter in every service we have we always have a time of worship why because we want you it's like coming in the old testament be like coming to an altar of god and worshiping him it's what you're doing he said well i'm not coming to any altar you are because it now resides in you you have the altar your heart is the altar of god that's your platform of worship and so it should be god i worship you because of who you are so again there's more to it i'd love to tell you but we did need to move on so he makes the sacrifice of a bull and he takes the asher pole because god tells him this this idol this astral pole that they worshipped and he takes it and it becomes the firewood he cuts the thing up he burns it down listen guys let me just say this before i go on i know that idolatry feels like an obsolete term that conjures up pictures of primitive people bowing down before statues i get that and i get that oftentimes we read about idolatry and we say that is just so ancient what does it have to do with today but idolatry is a major theme not just through the old testament but basically through the new testament as well in fact i would tell you that idolatry is just as much a problem today as it was in the old testament we just have to understand how the enemy works in our life author tim keller i i've seen so many definitions on idolatry but author tim keller defines an idol like this he says anything an idol is anything more important to you than god it's anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than god it's anything you seek to give you what only god can give did you get that it's anything that absorbs your heart and imagination anything that absorbs your heart and your imagination more than god listen to how paul describes it in romans chapter one they exchanged the truth about god for a lie and they worshipped and served created things rather than the creator that's an idol whenever whenever you begin to worship anything else whenever an idol it's just like sin an idol is when something becomes more important to you than god does it's like here's god and all of a sudden this thing enters your life and it's now more important to you than god is it's become an idol in your life and so and they worshipped and served created things rather than the creator who is forever praised amen instead of loving god with all of their hearts at times guys we find ourselves bowing in need to materialism at times fi guys please hear me on this i'd love to break each one of these down but just hear me we find ourselves bowing a need to materialism we find ourselves bowing in need to politics we find ourselves bowing in need of success we find ourselves bowing a knee to status we give our energy and our devotion to shallow shallow-seeking relationships and to self-gratification consequently our affections are all out of order because friends listen a man-made god can't save me a man-made idol or god can't save me it can't rescue me it can't sweep me away from my failures it can't it it can't give me a bigger purpose or transform my life it can't give me eternal life only jesus christ can do that only relationship with jesus christ can do that you see if we chase after all the things of this world we miss out on knowing and experiencing the true and living god listen god created you he created you and he wants to be daily involved with your life so gideon takes a deep breath and he says okay i get it it's demo day but he's afraid of how the people are going to respond he's sure his family is going to be mad at him and he's sure the townspeople are going to be mad at him so he decides he's going to do this in the middle of the night and so when the people wake up the next morning they discover that someone has torn down the altar to baal and so they had just built a new altar and their asheropol is nothing but imbers well they are angry they are ticked it says in chapter 6 verse 29 that people said to each other who did this and after asking around and making a careful search they learned that it was gideon the son of joash bring out your son the men of the town demanded of joas he must die for destroying the altar of baal and for cutting down the asheropol but joash shouted to the mob that confronted him why are you defending baal why are you defending this idol we do the same today why are you defending these material possessions rather than being self-aware and acknowledging that it's a problem in your life why are you defending it so he says why are you defending baal will you argue his case whoever pleads his case will be put to death by mourning if baal truly is a god let him defend himself and destroy the one who broke down his altar from then on gideon was called to rub baal which means let baal defend himself because he broke down bale's altar that's episode three now we're ready for episode four fleeced so god's spirit begins to move in getting and makes him a respected leader among his people he becomes i guess the best way to describe it is he becomes like a general among his troops to the people he has everyone's confidence i mean all of a sudden they see gideon as a leader they see him as a mighty warrior and they're willing to follow after him they're willing to listen to him everybody sees him as a leader except himself he's struggling with a whole lot of self-doubt ever been there i have he's struggling with a whole lot of self-doubt it's like god i hear you listen god i hear you telling me to go but i don't know i don't know god look at judges verse 36 it says then gideon said to god if you are truly going to use me to rescue israel as you promised prove it to me in this way i will put a wool fleece on the threshing floor tonight if the fleece is wet with dew in the morning but the ground is dry then i will know that you are going to help me rescue israel as you promised so he puts this fleece out to god he says i'm going to we call it a fleece because of the story because he puts the fleece out he says i'm going to need a sign god i'm just telling you i want to trust you i want to believe you i'm just going to need a sign but then it happens god responds to his request exactly the way what he asked for the ground is dry the fleece is sopping wet gideon says okay what about two out of three you ever do that with god you ask god to make something clear and he makes it clear and you come back with well i know but how about this prove it prove it to me by doing this do you ever do that like maybe you know maybe this was just a coincidence you know i know what appears as if god answered my question or answered my fleece but maybe it was just a coincidence so god let's do it one more time this time i'm going to reverse it make the ground wet but the fleece dry once again it happened exactly the way he asked now guys i don't think we should put out a fleece i just think that there's probably no greater and and i think we can all be guilty of this i've done in the past and you may have as well or i said well god if this is really what's what you want me to do do this and what that is is that there is no there is no statement of a lack of faith greater than trying to put out a fleece it's basically saying god i don't know if i have confidence in you i don't know if i can trust you so prove to me that you're speaking to me so we want to put a police out so i'm just telling you i don't think it ever pays to put a fleece but god is looking what god is looking for in you and what god is looking for in me is faith for us to trust him without the proof i don't need to prove because i know that god is god and he's in heaven and he's in the invisible realm he's already at work if you're unsure you say but steve it's not that i don't trust god i just have some questions about how i should respond then get with a trusted christian friend or pastor and talk about those things but eventually i'm just saying if you want god's involvement you have to trust him faith is faith is like walking right up to the edge of our knowledge faith is like it's walking right up to the edge of our knowledge and then taking one more step god this is all i know i'm coming as far as i can come with what i know and now i trust you trust means moving into the unknown undefined it's stepping into an open door of confidence and belief that god is moving on the other side of that door and that's hard but that's what without faith it's impossible to please god episode five braveheart this scene opens with gideon putting this ragtag army together again i hope you'll go and read the whole story because seriously these guys were skinny hungry and cave-dwelling guys that did not have any idea how to even fight i mean if you'd see them you would be thinking oh my god i'm going to fight with them they didn't have a chance of defeating the mighty midianites it's kind of it kind of makes me think of the scene that's the reason i titled this episode braveheart because it makes me think of the scene from braveheart where one side you have this sophisticated military power and on the other side you have these farmers with pitchforks and axes and shovels with their faces painted blue and they're wearing women's plaid skirts and i'm sure gideon looked around at this crowd at these guys that are assembled here and he's thinking he's thinking what did i get myself into this is crazy this is absolutely nuts guys we're going to die we are going to die to make matters worse god looks at gideon's army and he says didion you have too many men and he's thinking are you kidding me too many god we're going to be cremated the way it is god says listen even the odds stacked even though the odds are stacked against you you're going to win your guys are going to win but when they do they're going to be tempted to boast about how they defeated the incredible army they're going to be signing autographs and tweeting and telling all their friends on social media you should have seen us we were absolutely awesome so get in that's why i want to remove any temptation to do that i want this to become very very obvious that i did this not you i don't want israel to have any doubts that the victory was from me so go ahead and give your guys permission gideon go to your men give your guys permission to leave if they want to leave so gideon's trying to be obedient he says okay if you guys don't want to be here you can go home 22 000 of them went home they're like yeah i'm going see you 22 000 go home now the odds are really stacked against them they have 11 000 men left against literally no exaggeration hundreds of thousands of soldiers eleven thousand men who don't even know how to fight are going to take on hundreds of thousands of trained soldiers and gideon is like what are we supposed to do now god we only have eleven thousand and god looks down and says uh still too many he's like what he said still too many i want you to bring him down to the water and tell him to get a drink if they get down and they lap it like a dog send them home if they cup the water with their hand i want you to take those to do that into battle kind of crazy i know but that's what god told him so he does it listen over 10 000 men laughed it like a dog now they're down to 300 men chapter 7 verse 7. the lord told gideon with these 300 men i will rescue you and give you victory over the midianites send all the others home so gideon collected the provisions and ram horns of the other warriors and sent them home but he kept the 300 men with him now we're ready for the final episode episode six which is the finale at midnight the camp was in the valley and god tells gideon i've given you a victory over them you need to understand gideon i've given you victory over them but if you still need some reassurance if you still need some confidence i want you to sneak down there and listen to what they're saying so gideon grabs another guy and they go to the edge of the valley and it's worse than they ever imagined the other armies this didn't give him a lot of confidence because they found out when they go to the edge they found out that other armies have now joined up with the midianites the scripture says it was like a swarm of locusts there was too many too many soldiers to even count and here's stan's gideon with 300 ill-equipped guys so we go to verse 13. and it says gideon crept up just as a man was telling his companion about a dream so he's overhearing they're listening they're spying and they're listening to this guy talking and the man said i had this dream and in my dream a loaf of barley bread came tumbling down into the midianite camp it hit a tent turned it over and knocked it flat his companion answered your dream can mean only one thing god has given gideon son of joash the israelite victory over midian and all the allies when gideon heard the dream and its interpretation he bowed in worship before the lord he's like oh my gosh thank you god then he returned to the israelite camp and shouted get up get up get up for the lord has given you victory over the midianite hordes well you can imagine how excited getting is when he hears this prophecy this dream being being talked about to another guy so he divides his 300 guys into three groups of people he gives each man a ram's horn and a clay jar with the torch and he tells them to go and surround the camp and keep your eyes on me the whole time guys i want you to keep your eyes on me just do whatever i do when we get to the edge of the camp we're going to create a whole lot of chaos we're going to create a whole lot of noise so as soon as you see me blow the ram's horn then i want you to immediately blow your ram's horn and i want you to shout at the top of your lungs as loud as you possibly can for the lord and gideon for the lord and gideon let's read on verse 19. it was just after midnight after the changing of the guard when gideon and the hundred men with him so they split up three different ways the hundred men with him reached the edge of the midianite camp suddenly they blew the ram's horn and broke their clay jars then all three groups blew their horns and broke their jars they held the blazing torches in their left hands and the horns in their right hands and they all shouted a sword for the lord and for gideon each man stood at his position around the camp and watched as all the midianites rushed around in a panic shouting as they ran to escape when the 300 israelites blew their ram's horn the lord caused the warriors in the camp to fight against each other with their swords it was a massive state of confusion those who were not killed fled to places as far away as beth shitta near azera and to the border you know i've told you this before guys um if you don't know how to pronounce old testament words fake it because nobody else knows how to pronounce them either and people are always so impressed and i am clueless how you pronounce these anyway and to the border of abamahala near near tabitha so now you know how to pronounce these words friends against all odds 300 men armed with horns and pots and torches take out the greatest army on the planet this is one of the most amazing stories in the old testament on a guy that wasn't a soldier he wasn't trained as a warrior like with 300 men that weren't soldiers they were just farmers they didn't know what to do listen when it feels like everything's over but god when it feels like you're at the end of your rope but god so you see actually that's not the end of the story there's actually one more episode and that's the one where you join the cast of characters so guys are you feeling like all odds are stacked against you right now maybe it's financial pressure maybe a practical child is away from god maybe your marriage is in trouble maybe you've got health issues going on maybe an addiction is out of control i don't know i don't know what you're facing but i'm praying that this story would flood your soul with hope i love the passage in romans that says knowing all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us we are more than conquerors through him who loved us for i am convinced that's where my faith lies that's where my hope is i am convinced that neither death nor life neither angels nor demons neither the present nor the future nor any powers neither height nor death nor anything else and all creation will be able to separate us from the love of god that is in christ jesus our lord friends if you feel weak i'm just telling you nothing will be able to separate you from the love of god nothing and it clearly states that we are more than conquerors through jesus christ

Channel: Northview Church

Views: 933

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Northview Church, Northview, Steve Poe, Carmel, Fishers, Westfield, Lafayette, Indy North, Indianapolis

Id: vifqvMzrC1w

Length: 46min 49sec (2809 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 18 2021