Hall of Faith: Gideon - Message Only

in the book of hebrews chapter 11 we find the hall of faith an impressive collection of people who put their trust in god on display for all to see among these people we find an unlikely warrior named gideon god called him out of fear out of doubt and against all odds to lead a small army to claim victory over a mighty enemy how did god lead this man from weakness to a warrior let's continue our journey through the great hall of faith well i want to welcome everybody here today i also want to welcome everybody via the tv and the internet stream we're glad that you're a part of the sagebrush family as well i got an interesting text this morning at four o'clock in the morning my oldest daughter is pregnant and her water broke so uh she just texted me a picture a few minutes ago she's watching our service in the hospital as i'm waiting for the arrival of my grandson and uh pretty excited about that so shout out to my daughter uh i love you i'm proud of you and to trey her husband stay by the head friends uh for all that's good and right stay by my daughter's head would you you'll thank me later on trey uh for that we're in the middle of a series called the hall of faith and today we're going to talk about an unlikely hero his name is gideon let me start off by telling you a story in 1835 there was a band of texas rebels who took on some mexican soldiers in an outpost in san antonio skirmish lasted for a few days the mexican soldiers were driven away that skirmish is where the alamo is at for 25 years texans tried to get their independence from the mexican government so there was 183 men who entered into the alamo with the motto of victory or death now these were strong courageous men men like colonel william travis men like davey crockett james bowie they had one mission and one mission to get the independence of texas to actually be a reality in their lifetime well if you know anything about history you know that the mexican authorities weren't excited about what happened at the alamo and so they sent their best general a man named santa anna and he brought along with him thousands upon thousands of mexican troops and they surrounded the alamo and then santa anna offered terms of surrender to the 183 men who found themselves locked up inside of the alamo of course these men refused to surrender it's one of those moments that history will never forget when colonel william travis gave the following speech he said those prepared to give their lives in freedom's cause come over to me and they took a sword out of a sheath he drew a line in the dirt and immediately all 183 men crossed over the line james bowie who was sick with typhoid pneumonia demanded that his bed be taken over across the line well they knew they needed reinforcements because they were outnumbered so greatly so they sent a man named james bonham he traveled 95 miles made his way through enemy lines traveled 95 miles to an outpost to try to get soldiers to come as reinforcements when he got there the soldiers were already gone facing other battles there were no reinforcements that were going to come so after santa ana realized that they weren't going to surrender for 11 days he pounded against the alamo and those 183 men they fought back and then on march the 6th 1836 they just led a charge against the alamo and all 183 men perished but not before they had killed 600 mexicans soldiers now here's the question what havoc became of james bonham the man who went to get the replacement troops to get the reinforcements he could have gone anywhere he was free from the battle do you know what he did he got back on his horse made his way back through enemy lines went back inside the alamo he said he'd rather fight and stand and die with his brothers and that's exactly what he did now mexico thought they had won a great victory and they did at the alamo but it was the turning point of the war from from that point forward every battle every soldier had one phrase on their lips remember the alamo now friends that's an amazing story of courage isn't it well the next person we're inducting into god's hall of fame didn't have any courage at all he was a wuss all right just say it for what it is gideon was a wuss but i love the stories in the bible that talk about these kinds of things because it gives hope to a wuss like me here's what i want you to get is god wants to take you where you are today and he wants to lead you to where he wants you to be and he does that one face step at a time one step after another step after another step and then you'll look back and say look at what god has done look how far i've come compared to where i was friends god wants to change wimps into warriors so let's talk today about how he does it let me give you a little background to gideon gideon arrives on the scene during a time in the old testament history of the israelite people a time called the judges judges were men or women that god raised up for a particular time to face any kind of enemy that came against the israelites andrew when he talked last week about samson that was also during the period of the judges now i hope that you're doing the daily devotionals i hope you're following along and you're reading the bible passages i promise you at the beginning of this series that if you would follow along you would read these stories you get a better grasp of god's word than you ever have before well gideon is going to be the mighty warrior that god chooses to go against a group of people called the midianites the midianites were the hill people they would come down on the cover of darkness they would ransack the israelite villages they would rape the women they would murder the men and they would take back all their crops and this went on for seven years for seven years that's what they endured it got so bad that people abandoned the villages they abandoned the town they started living in caves they got their crops and they put their crops in the caves so the midianites couldn't find them and when we find gideon we find him underground as well here's what the bible says judges chapter 6 verse 11. the angel of the lord came and sat down under the oak and oprah that belonged to joe asked the ibiza right where his son gideon was threshing wheat in a wine press to keep it from the midianites when the almighty when the angel of the lord appeared to gideon he said the lord is with you mighty warrior now i've never threshed wheat before what i've told is that when you thresh weed it's pretty dusty kind of experience so you want to make sure you're doing that outside where there's a breeze where the dust can blow away from you so why in the world is gideon threshing wheat down below it's because he's a wuss that's why he's hiding from the midianites and so an angel lord comes to him and says the lord is with you mighty warrior now if you get an idea of what gideon looks like think of sheldon in the big bang theory all right you kind of get an idea of what i'm talking about if you're a little bit older think of urkel from family matters okay and if you're a little bit older think of barney fight from the andy taylor show okay if you're laughing right now that one you're super old you understand what i'm saying all the young kids are like who in the world's barney fife never heard of that guy before in my life so here's here's gideon he's threshing weed the angel comes and says the lord is with you mighty warrior and i can just imagine gideon looking around going are you talking to me because i've been called a lot of things in my life i've been called weak i've been called puny i've been called a wuss i've been called a lot of things but i've never ever been called a mighty warrior you must have the wrong person because whatever it is that you want me to do i can't do it look at what the story continues verse 14 the lord turned to him and said go in the strength that you have and save israel at a midian's hand am i not sending you but lord gideon asked how can i save israel my clan is the weakest in manasseh and i am the least in my family gideon says first off i don't know if you understand this or not but there's 12 tribes of israel and i'm from the smallest tribe and in the smallest tribe there's a really small clan i'm from that clan and in that clan there's a small families i'm the smallest family and in that smallest family i'm the smallest one so you pick the smallest of the smaller the smaller the small of the small to be calling a mighty warrior i can't do what you're asking me to do right off the bat fear and insecurity is getting the best of gideon now let's pause for just a second how many times does the same thing happen to you god comes to you and he says this is a small step of faith that i want you to take i want you to do this for me i want you to say this for me i want you to give this for me and we say i can't do it i can't do it you know i'm so sick of hearing christians say i can't do it because the bible says that we could do all things through christ who gives us strength i'm so tired of hearing that kind of stuff aren't you tired of hearing that or when somebody says it's too hard it's too difficult i'll never be able to overcome this i'll never be able to battle against this wait a second i thought you were more than a conqueror because of jesus christ i get so sick of people saying well it's impossible there's no way no one's ever done it before wait a second nothing is impossible with god but we discount all that don't we we we look at our abilities we look at our skills we look at our talents we say god you obviously have picked the wrong person i can't do it i'm insecure i've blown it before there's no way you can use me in the manner that you're calling me to be used find somebody else now how do i know about that because i do that you would think in all my years of following jesus that i would overcome fear right i always tell you it's the battles between fear and faith and can i let you a little secret if you're waiting for the fear to go away before you do something significant for god you will never do anything significant for god the fear is never going away did you hear me the fear is never going away so embrace the fear use the fear be courageous courage is not the absence of fear it's moving forward in spite of the fear i can't tell you the number of times i feel like god's saying i want you to go this direction i want you to do this i want you to have this conversation i want you to lead the church in this direction i'm thinking no way there's no way it's too big it's too significant i don't know that you've got the right man for the job do you know what i do when fear starts getting the best of me i get in the word of god i need the courage of these people in the scriptures and all their stories that we've read have you noticed that every single one of them was afraid that every single one of them said oh no you got the wrong person i can't pull this off i can't do it i'm encouraged by that i'm encouraged when i read the passages scripture where it talks about jesus picking his 12 disciples do you know anything about the 12 disciples that jesus picked they were the losers of their day you know that right they were the ones who had already dropped out of rabbi school they didn't make the grade and so they were sent back to their father's business and so peter andrew james and john were all fishermen working in their dad's business and they were terrible fishermen did you know that there's not one place in scripture where it says they caught any fish without jesus you ever notice that it's the craziest thing all night they don't catch squat do they then jesus shows up and says hey i want you to throw your nuts over here i think you'll catch something oh wow we caught some fish that's the first time ever they're terrible fishermen too they are the partiers of their day friends listen to me if i lined up 200 people up here and i said you can interview them and pick 12 people who are going to change the face of human history you wouldn't have picked any of them you would have bypassed i would have bypassed every single one of them but god saw something in them you see god sees things in you that you don't see in yourself and that's the way it was for gideon god sees something in gideon that he doesn't even see in himself now here's what's interesting there's an interesting exchange that takes place because the next thing gideon says is listen he says i think you got the wrong person i'm not a very significant person at all i'm not a person of influence i'm not a person of power or wealth i don't have any big muscles or anything i'm not a great leader oh and by the way mr angel i don't think our god is that great either that's what he says he says if god was so great then why am i hiding in this wine press if god's so great why are all the people over in the caves hiding their crops from the midianites that have come down and raided us for the past seven years if god's so great why has he turned a deaf ear to our prayers again and again and again you ever been there it didn't work out the way you wanted it to work out your prayer was not answered the way you hoped that your prayer would be answered and it shook you more importantly it shook your faith and you began to wonder where's god in the midst of this i understand that too this past week my youngest daughter had her fourth back surgery it lasted seven hours and they did an incision on her that's over 20 inches long and they spread her back and her side wide open i've got pictures i'm just kidding i'm not going to do come on now i do have pictures if you catch me i'll show you some pictures if you want to see them some of you are gross and you like that kind of stuff it's nasty i'll tell you that right now one of the things you need to know about cammy and i is that we read the bible a lot together a lot every every night and whenever we get ready for a surgery that she's going to endure we go back to the old testament to the great stories of faith and courage because she needs faith she needs courage going to that first surgery man i i gave her pep talk after pep talk man it's the best preaching i've ever done for one person in my life and she went in there positive confident i went in there positive confident knowing that god was going to use the doctors and move their hands and he was her she was going to be restored she was going to be whole but she wasn't so we get ready for the second surgery she said dad i need the word of god and i need a pep talk so for a week leading up to the surgery i came up with pep talk after pep talk after peptide god's going to do it god's going to do a miracle god's going to knit you together he's the one that you together in your mother's womb you're fearfully wonderfully god's going to do it and it didn't happen then there was two procedures and the procedures didn't work and then there was a third surgery and we're leading up to it and she's like dad i need i need faith i need courage and i said okay and and it didn't work so we come up to the last one and she says da dad i i need you to read the bible with me i need some pep talks my faith it's shaky i don't understand why hasn't he healed me i said cammy we are continue to seek the word of god but i'll be honest with you right now i don't have much to give you i don't have much to give you because my faith has been shaken to on the day before the surgery we opened up the bible i said tammy i got nothing to give you i've given you every story i know to give you i said let's just read something from the book of mark and so we read mark chapter 2 and in mark chapter two there's three times where god heals somebody and i said tammy i believe that god's gonna do it i believe with all my heart that god is going to do a miracle in your life and she said dad i believe it too now we don't know if the surgery was successful or not we won't know for the next couple of months to be honest with you until she's fully healed up and and we know what we've got and if there's another surgery down the way but but here's what cami and i and my wife and my kids have all decided as for me and my house no matter what comes our way we will serve the lord blessed be the name of the lord my god my savior listen me let me tell you something because some of you are very discouraged today because it hasn't worked out the way that you hoped that it would he didn't answer your prayer the way you hoped that he would answer it i want you to hear this god never wastes pain he never wastes pain he's not doing something to you he's doing something in you if god brought you to it he will get you through it i believe that with all my heart and i want you to remind you of this this is not your home this is not your home and god never promised you that everything was going to work out the way you wanted to god never said that there's not one verse of scripture where god says that you know what god says he says i'll be with you in it i'll walk with you i'll comfort you i'll strengthen you i'll give you a peace that passes all understanding he didn't say he'll remove you from it sometimes he does sometimes he does a miracle but sometimes the greater miracle is that he's in that in the midst of it with you and this is not our home friends i want you to remember this we're just passing through we're just passing through and we're going to a place where there is no more death there is no more sickness there is no more back pain there is none of this stuff because the old order of things has passed away because our god has made everything new again so i got to ask you a question i've got to ask you a question what are you expecting god to do because i think for some of us your faith has been shaken and you're not expecting god to do anything because he didn't do something in your situation before and i'm telling you to hold on i'm telling you not to give up i'm telling you to have that defiant faith that says no matter what comes my way i'm holding on to the lord because he's going to hold on to me what are you expecting god to do there was a grandma had her granddaughter over and they had a nice time together and it was time to go to bed so she's tucking her granddaughter into bed and the granddaughter uh says hey grandma we need to pray and grandma said well absolutely and granddaughter said well is there anything i can pray for you for grandma and the grandma said well you know i haven't had rain in quite some time be nice that we had some rain granddaughter said okay great i will pray that we get rain so they bowed their heads they closed their eyes they began to pray and they prayed for about 30 seconds 45 seconds it was then that the grandmother felt a tug on her shirt so she opened up her eyes she looked down her granddaughter was looking at her and she said do you want some thunder and lightning with that rain she's believing that god's going to do it and with everything you've got you've got to have a childlike faith you've got to believe that god will do exceedingly abundantly more than anything you've ever dreamed or imagined i'm holding on to the one who can do it and he will do it in his time and in his way and one day one day friend it'll all make sense it might be on this side of eternity it might be on the other side of eternity but one day it will make sense to you well guess what god's given gideon a pep talk the lord answered getting he says i'm going to be with you and you will strike down all the midianites together god said i'm going to be right there with you gideon but he knows that gideon's got this really weak faith and so he says let's get a small victory first i'm going to show you that i'm faithful he says get in the first thing i want you to do is i want you to tell tear down the altars to baal they had all these altars of baal that they worshipped this false god had to do with sexual immorality it had to do with infant sacrifice i mean you think about the loss of a single child and then you think about people coming in mass with thousands of newborn babies offering them to a pagan god it was heinous it was gross and it had to go so god says to get him first thing you're going to tear down all the altars to baal well this puts getting in an awkward situation because his dad is the one who put the altars up and how many times do you think gideon stood up against his dad remember we're talking about sheldon here right well look at what happens gideon took ten of his servants and did as the lord told him but because he was afraid of his family and the men of the town he did it at night rather than in the daytime okay he's scared fear is still getting the best of him but he still does what god asked him to do right he tears it down at night and then word gets out that something has gone down and the townspeople aren't happy about it so they gather around they're going to kill gideon and gideon is so afraid that he won't stand up for himself he won't say now this is why i did it thus saith the lord no he's hiding guess who comes to his defense it's his dad his dad says to the mob if baal really is a god he can defend himself now this was a huge test for gideon it's the test of who you're living for getting are you going to live for the approval of your dad and of your town's people or gideon are you going to live for the approval of god you're going to do what god wants you to do are you going to do what everybody else wants you to do i remember when i was a student pastor kids would change their hair styles they would change their clothing they would change their musical taste almost overnight and i'd be standing around going when the world just took place we've had another shift in teenage culture and it happens every one well now about every six months now why is that it's because the oxygen doesn't reach the brain that's why that is no that's not why though that's not why it's because they crave what kids crave acceptance and so they'll change to be anything they've got to be to be accepted by other people that's the way it works you think well silly teenagers they'll grow up they'll grow out of that do they because what i see is a lot of adults who act one way at work and one way over here and one way over here and one way over here and they change everywhere they go to be what to be accepted still living for the applause of man still consumed with what everybody says about you whatever else thinks about you at some point in time if you're going to take a step of faith you got to care more about what god says about you than what everybody else does and listen to me if you live for the approval and the applause of man you'll go from a hero to a zero in five seconds flat but god loves you no matter what god's for you no matter what god will forgive you for every stupid thing you've ever done god believes in you god has a plan and a purpose for your life we live our life for him and him alone this was a huge test for gideon and he passes the test now you would think at this point in time gideon's like all right let's go it's go time against the midianites but he gets scared again now that shocks me because the guy has seen an angel if you've seen an angel i don't think you ever doubt god again right but gideon is freaking out so gideon said to god if you'll save israel by my hand as you promised look i'll place a wool fleece on the threshing floor if there's dew only on the fleece and the ground is dry then i'll know that you'll save israel by my hand as you've said what's he doing here he's testing god he said hey god i i think this is what you want me to do but i just want to be certain i mean i know i've seen an angel i know you've saved me from the wrath of the village i appreciate all that but what about this is that the way it is for us you get yourself in a situation you don't know what to do and you're afraid to move forward because you're afraid that god's going to let you down have you forgotten all the ways he's come through for you before all the miracles that you've seen or heard about all the healings that you've seen or heard about all the marriages that have been restored the prodigal sons and daughters that have come home and yet we still wonder is god going to come through in fact when he does come through we go wow looky there maybe there is a god you know what i'm talking about so gideon says we'll make that dry make that weapon and then he comes back the next night he says well make that wet make that dry and i want you to notice that there's no place in scripture where god says you've got to be kidding me right now gideon are you kidding me right now are you ever going to stop being a wimp come on now i need you to be a warrior you so little faith i'm so disappointed in you not one place in scripture where god says that god's just patient and he gives gideon what he needs and after god does these two little small little miracles gideon says well i know that you're god and i know that you're in it and so i'll do what you want me to do and so now it's go time and god says all right gideon it's time to get the army together so gideon makes a cry to all the people and he gets an army together gets 32 000 soldiers together now gideon's got two problems all right let me show you problem number one over here on the big board problem number one is that the midianite army has 135 000 soldiers gideon only has 32 000 men he's outnumbered four to one i don't know if you know that but that's a problem right there and that's the first problem that gideon has but gideon's got a second problem too you know what the second problem is is god comes to gideon and says you got too many men now what would you say in the middle of that why'd you say you got too many men what do you mean i got too many men you can't have enough men when you're going into battle lord i need 32 000 men plus another 32 000 men to be honest with you i don't have enough man and you say i've got too much and god said yeah you'll strut around like you're all that in a box of chicken when you're nothing more in the wing and you act like you did it all for yourself that's what you'll do and the battle gideon belongs to the lord you've got too many men so gideon says well what do you want me to do god said i got an idea get the people together and tell them if anybody's afraid they can go home and gideon says does that include me because i'm i'm starting to get more fearful as this thing continues on i'll tell you that right now and so gideon's obedient he goes before the people he says listen i know some you might be afraid some of you might be scared and if you are you can go home and 22 000 went home so now gideon's got 135 000 midnight soldiers against 10 thousand men his odds have just gone from four to one to thirteen to one gideon says all right go with the ten thousand let's go god said oh no you've still got too many men and kenny says what what you've got to be kidding me right now too many messages that's right you'll be strutting around thinking you're all that you're not all that the battle belongs to the lord gideon says well how am i supposed to whittle it down some more and this is what god told him so gideon took the men down to the water there the lord told him separate those who lapped the water with their tongues like a dog from those who kneel down to drink 300 men laughed with their hands to their mouths all the rest got down on their knees to drink and god said take those 300. 450 to 1. would you do it heck not just no you ain't gonna do it i'm not gonna do it how do i know that because how many times are we afraid to take a little small step this is huge your life's on the line this isn't like god asking you to get baptized because most of us can't even pull that one off i mean the courageous people we saw today getting baptized you're still sitting there dry because you've made excuses you're insecure and you're fearful of whatever else is going to say and you don't want to become a jesus freak so you only take that small step of faith you won't even get yourself into a small group because you don't need a band of brothers or a band of sisters to do life together you'll figure it out on your own how's that working out for you you don't want to be the hands and feet of jesus you've got gifts and talents and abilities but you're not going to use them for the things of god you'll go out and make them for a paycheck but you won't do it for the kingdom of the lord and god says hey i want you to take a step of faith i want you to have a conversation with that friend about me i want you to be a difference maker at your job i want you to be a difference maker at your school and what do we do we just kind of blend we blend in gideon's scared i'd be scared too in fact the bible gives us this insight that after god whittles it down to 300 men the bible says gideon was scared you think so god knows that gideon needs some reassurance and so god says gideon i want you to go in and i want you to go near the midianite camp and i want you to listen to what they're talking about so gideon sneaks down he listens behind the bush and here's a guy said last night i had a dream and the dream was this big loaf of bread was rolling down the side of the hill and it just took out the entire army and the guy who was sitting there listening to the dream says i know what that dream means that's gideon and his mighty men they're going to come and they're just going to roll right over the battle belongs to their lord we've already lost now i've never had a dream where a loaf of wonder bread comes rolling down the hill and kill somebody but it was all getting needed so he goes back to the camp the 300 men facing 135 000 soldiers and gideon says it's go time this is what we're going to do he gives them four things he says i'm going to give you a horn to blow a jar to break a torch to shine and a voice to shout leave your swords behind leave your bows and arrows behind for the battle belongs to the lord he divides him in three groups of 100 each they surround the entire midi night camp and they were obedient even when it didn't make sense they blew their horns they smash their jars they wave their torches and they scream like girls and the midianite army was so confused with what was going around in the darkness that they began to fight against each other and gideon and his mighty men won the battle that day because the battle belongs to the lord yes that's a nice story what's that do with my life well your life belongs to the lord and your dreams belong to the lord and your hopes belong to the lord and your future it belongs to the lord and he's waiting for you to take a step of faith so what is it for you how does god move us from being a wimp to a warrior he does it one step at a time so he here's your homework assignment if you choose to accept it just ask the lord what's one step you want me to take he will immediately put something in your mind and then you push to the fear and you do what he's asked you to do and the next day you do it again and the next day you do it again and over time you're taking one step after the other after the other after the other and six months from now you're going to look back and you're going to see how far god has brought you and how much stronger your faith is today what small step is god asking you to take don't be afraid friends the battle belongs to the lord let's pray dear heavenly father what is that one thing that you want us to do what is that one thing that you want us to give up that you want us to stop doing god how do you want to use us in what ways have we allowed insecurity in what ways have we allowed the praise of man stop us from seeking after you god give us the faith of gideon who was strong enough and courageous enough to run out on that battlefield with not even a weapon knowing that the battle belongs to you give us that kind of faith one step at a time to be the people that we've always wanted to be we ask this in jesus name amen

Channel: Sagebrush Church

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Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: daily devotions, christianity, bible study, church social media, pastor, social media pastor, youtube pastor, sagebrush, sagebrush church, Albuquerque church, New Mexico church, todd cook, pastor todd

Id: g0OolO3si_A

Length: 34min 55sec (2095 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 13 2021