Good morning.
As has been said, I am not Pastor Andrew.
! Pastor Andrew spent the week, as John was just praying there, Pastor Andrew spent the week
! investing in the teens in their mission trip to Skyview Ranch.
And as he was doing that, then I have the opportunity to bring the word this morning.
So we look forward to hearing the report.
In our family, we got maybe a little bit of a sneak preview with our son Ethan being on the trip.
Got to see some of the pictures and hear some of the stories, but neat to hear how God was working.
So all that to say, my name is Andy Manwiller.
My family and I, we've been coming for about 17 years here to Maranatha.
My wife and I have been married for 26 years, 9 months, 26 days.
We have 4 awesome kids.
It is so much fun.
But I love reading, listening to God's word.
I love teaching and sharing what God is teaching me.
So I'm thankful for the opportunity to share this morning.
So let's go ahead and pray again.
You can never pray too much.
And as I pray out loud, you pray quietly, as Pastor Conner used to say.
You can multitask during the message.
You can listen and you can pray for me.
And we'll dig into God's word together.
So let's pray.
Thank you, God, for your word, that it is truth.
And we pray this morning that you would sanctify us through your truth.
May your words be many and mine be few.
And I just pray that this would be a sweet time of digging into your word together.
That we would leave here changed by the singing, the fellowship, the word, just this opportunity to be in your house.
Thank you, God, for the freedom we have to do this.
May we not take it for granted and use it for the fullest for your kingdom and your glory.
So take this time and use it in our lives.
And equip us to go and be the church and do what you've called us to do this week.
In Jesus' name, amen.
Have you ever felt like God wanted you to do something that you didn't really feel capable of doing?
Or maybe calling you to do something that maybe you don't want to do, you're not willing to do.
Maybe it's sharing the gospel with someone.
Maybe it's trusting in the gospel for ourselves.
Maybe you're playing the game and it's time to do business with God.
Maybe it's getting to know our neighbors.
Maybe it's serving in church somewhere.
Maybe it's investing more in our families.
Investing in our relationship with our spouse.
Investing into our children.
Whatever it is, God calls us to do these things.
God has things for us to do that, again, sometimes we're maybe not able to do.
Or maybe we're not willing.
And today we're going to be looking at another example.
One of the many examples.
Last week we looked at Barak and he seemed a bit unwilling.
If you go with me, I'll do this.
Today we're going to look at another judge.
And just part one, I believe in two weeks, I think Pastor David is going to be preaching part two of Gideon.
But we'll see Gideon's fear, his apprehension.
And maybe we can identify with that.
And then God can use that to open our eyes and challenge us to grow and serve him even with things that we don't think we can do.
Or things maybe we're not willing to do.
So the background, we're going through Judges this summer.
And just a reminder of it, one of the saddest verses in the Bible is in Judges 2.10.
So if we look at Judges 2.10, it says,
I mean, this is crazy.
This is, you read through the Pentateuch, Genesis through Deuteronomy, and even Joshua.
And you see what God had done, bringing them out of the land of Egypt and doing all these miracles.
And then that generation didn't pass that on to their children.
It's been said that Christianity is never more than one generation away from extinction.
All it takes is one generation to not pass on the truth.
And Christianity goes away.
Now, God will not allow that to happen.
His word is true and he is always at work.
But we need to be passing that on.
And so from this, all those great things God had done, and then a generation rose up that wasn't taught, wasn't told these things.
And then we see there's this cycle.
And verses 11 through 15 kind of give us that cycle.
Pastor Andrew and others have kind of talked us through this.
But look at verse 11.
And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals.
There's this cycle of when we forget God and we turn to sin and we run from him.
And we see this cycle happening over and over.
We've already seen three iterations of this.
In chapter 3, in Judges 3 verse 7, it says,
And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.
They forgot the Lord their God and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth.
That's the setup where the people turned away from God.
God brought pain into their lives.
They called out to him.
He rose up a judge.
In this case, it was Othniel.
And he delivered them.
And this cycle that happens over and over again.
And this was the first iteration of that.
Look at verse 12.
And the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.
And he strengthened Eglon.
And this was the setup.
There's this cycle.
How many times did the Israelis have to go through that cycle?
How many times do I have to go through that cycle?
Chapter 4 verse 1.
And the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.
After Ehud died.
They were following a person rather than God himself.
The people would turn away from God.
And God would bring pain into their lives.
God brings pain into our lives for our good.
With my children.
There's not much better in life than being a husband and father.
Being a dad is so fun.
It is so cool.
But sometimes that does mean teaching and training and disciplining my children.
Not just trying to zap them when they do something wrong.
But when they sin, when they disobey, they're hurting themselves.
They're setting themselves up for worse failures.
And I want to bring pain into their lives.
As I've heard it said, turn up the heat.
To get their attention.
To turn them back to what is right.
To me.
But ultimately to God himself.
And that is what God is doing.
God's discipline is always for our good.
Whether it's discipline that comes because of my own sinful responses.
Or sometimes he just brings pain into our lives.
Because of the circumstances around us.
And so God is always trying to get our attention.
That's kind of the main point we want to look at today.
That God is with us.
We'll see how we should respond to that then.
And God is always working.
Am I working with him?
So this cycle, we've already looked at three different cycles.
Starting in chapter 6.
So today, again, we're going to go through all of chapter 6.
I've got 40 verses and 32 minutes.
Here we go.
I'll try not to go too long.
But that's all right.
Verse 1.
Here's the setup for Gideon.
The people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.
And the Lord gave them into the hand of Midian seven years.
This is now the fourth time in the book where we see this cycle happening.
And this time, the pain is Midian.
It was kind of fun.
I'll try not to take too much time on this.
It was kind of fun just looking up all the times Midian appeared in the Old Testament.
Who is Midian?
Midian was actually a son of Abraham by Keturah in Genesis 25.
After Sarah had died, he had another wife and he had Midian.
Midian moved east.
He's connected with Moab and the Ishmaelites.
And they were often kind of a thorn in Israel's side.
God used them often to bring discipline, pain, discomfort to turn their attention to God.
The traders who sold Joseph into slavery in Genesis 37.
It's the Ishmaelites, but the Midianites are also mentioned there.
It's almost synonymous a little bit.
So again, they're connected in that way.
When Moses killed a man, he tried to deliver God's people in his way instead of God's way.
He fled and he fled to the land of Midian.
And his father-in-law was the priest of Midian.
If you remember the story of Balaam and the donkey, the donkey that talked,
the Midianites were a part of the group that wanted to have Balaam curse Israel.
And when that didn't work, Balaam was sneaky.
It's fascinating if you read through it.
Balaam then had them sneakily introduce sexual sin into the nation of Israel to try and undercut what God was doing.
And it was actually a Midianite woman that was brought into the camp.
I hadn't noticed that before.
And putting that together, that was in Numbers 25.
And Moses ultimately was told to take vengeance on Midian.
So there's this give and take.
And God used these people in the lives of Israel to bring pain and to draw him back to him.
Does God sometimes bring challenging people into our lives to point us back to him?
How do I respond to that?
So let's see what happens.
So there's the setup.
Again, the people turn from God.
God brings pain into their lives to draw them back to him.
Verse 2.
And the hand of Midian overpowered Israel.
And because of Midian, the people of Israel made for themselves the dens that are in the mountains,
and the caves, and the strongholds.
So because of the oppression, they're trying to survive.
And it's kind of fun as you read through Scripture.
When in 1 Samuel, 1 and 2 Samuel and such, when David is running from Saul,
he hides out in the caves and the dens.
And I think this is kind of where those came about.
It's kind of cool.
As you look through that, like he didn't make them himself.
They were already there.
But anyway, Scripture ties together.
And just dig into Scripture.
God's Word is the foundation, not just for an academic exercise,
but to know the God of the Word.
Anyway, I just thought that was kind of neat.
So they're hiding.
They're trying to find these secret places so they're not found.
Why?
What was happening?
What was Midian doing?
Let's look at verses 3 through 5.
For whenever the Israelites planted crops,
the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the east would come up against them.
They would encamp against them and devour the produce of the land as far as Gaza
and leave no sustenance in Israel and no sheep or ox or donkey.
For they would come up with their livestock and their tents.
They would come like locusts in number.
Both they and their camels could not be counted,
so that they laid waste the land as they came in.
We can't even imagine this.
We can't even fathom this.
We live in such peace and prosperity.
Yes, things are hard.
Yes, circumstances.
And you could point to all kinds of things going bad.
But can you imagine living in this,
where it's not just like, oh, prices are up or whatever like that.
Like people are coming and stealing,
and there's literally nothing left.
This discomfort, we can't even fathom this.
God actually calls us, back even from Genesis,
we are called to bring order out of chaos.
We did a work, a connect group work study,
and we talked about this one of the weeks that I taught.
And God, one of our jobs in life is to bring order out of chaos in your home.
We have to bring order out of chaos because chaos happens naturally,
but we bring order.
That's part of being good stewards of this world and bring order out of chaos.
But these people were destroyers.
They were disruptors.
May we not be destroyers and disruptors,
but may we be bringing order out of chaos.
And they were suffering these consequences,
these people coming in and just causing chaos in their lives
to an extent, again, that we can't even begin to fathom.
And we don't have time to dig into it,
but I'd encourage you sometime to read through Deuteronomy 28,
and it's paralleled in Leviticus 26.
Deuteronomy 28 is really clear.
It's really cool.
God says, God gives some blessings if they obey.
God's rules and guidelines are always for our good, okay?
God's rules and guidelines are always for our good,
even if it doesn't feel like it.
And he says, if you obey me, you'll have blessing.
Now, we are not, we are under a different covenant,
but the concepts are true.
The Proverbs, these things are generally true.
And he would say, if you obey, this is what's going to happen.
But he also promised them, if you disobey, this is going to happen.
And if you still don't turn to me, this is going to happen.
And if you still don't turn to me, this, and if you read through it,
it's fascinating to see the cycle, the downward, it's going to get worse and worse.
And I think we're kind of in this.
And as has been mentioned, like Pastor Andrew talked about,
not necessarily looking forward to some of the end chapters, right?
And just the horrid mess that is the book of Judges.
And that can be my life and your life if we don't heed the warnings.
God keeps his promises.
And that's also true of not just giving us the fruit of the Spirit and love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
But it's also that he will bring pain into our lives to draw us to him.
Again, God's goal in his rules, his guidelines, and the circumstances he brings
is always to turn our attention to him.
So may we fix our eyes on him.
So what happens here?
So we got the setup.
They turned from God.
God brought the Midianites.
Things are bad.
Verse 6.
And Israel was brought very low because of Midian.
And the people of Israel cried out for help to the Lord.
This is what we should do.
Do we allow difficulties in our lives, whether brought about by our own sin
or just because we live in a broken world,
do we allow those things to turn our attention to God?
1 Thessalonians 5.17 says to pray without ceasing.
And the idea there is just being in that constant attitude, that mindset of prayer,
that whenever something good happens, our first response should be,
thank you, God, for this.
And as soon as something bad happens, our response should be,
God, what do you want me to learn?
God, how can you show your glory?
How can I make you look good in this?
What do I do?
Our first response should be to turn to God.
And that's what the people of Israel finally did.
May we be quicker to turn to him in our circumstances.
So that's the background.
What does God do when the people turn to him?
Let's read verses 7 to 10.
When the people cried out to the Lord on account of the Midianites,
the Lord sent a prophet to the people of Israel.
And he said to them,
God sent a prophet.
God reminds them of what he's done for them.
He reminds them of how they've been rescued from slavery.
He shows them how they've fallen short of his glory and how they've disobeyed him.
And that the goal, again, is always obeying his voice.
God's rules, his guidelines, his directions, his instructions, his tasks
are always for our good and his glory.
He sent a prophet.
Today, he's given us his word.
He's given us pastors and teachers.
He's given us the church.
I am so thankful for this church.
This is our church family.
And we have pastors who preach the word to us faithfully.
Pastors and leaders who invest in our lives.
God has sent us his word.
Am I listening?
Not just going through it rote.
Like, oh, I read my Bible today.
Check the box.
Oh, I went to church today.
Check the box.
But no, are you here to listen?
Are you here to hear from God and his word?
When you read the Bible, do you read it on a regular basis?
And do you listen?
Listen, God is giving.
God is calling to us all the time.
But am I listening?
Is my heart hard?
Or am I listening?
Tom Zentz, a few weeks ago on Memorial Day, talked about how we need constant reminders.
May we humble ourselves to recognize, I need these reminders.
I have been brought out of the house of slavery of my own sin.
I am a slave.
I'm either going to be a slave to sin or a slave to God.
You tell me what you think is the better taskmaster.
I want to be a slave to the God who loves me and has my best in mind for my good and his glory.
May we be reminded of the truth of the gospel and live in it every day.
So that's the background.
It's verses 1 through 10.
The next section, and that was, if you're following along, I don't have my slides up there.
That's all right.
I'll tell you what the blanks are.
Cycle of apostasy was the first one.
A-P-O-S-T-A-S-Y, if anyone wants to spell it there.
The second one is Gideon's call.
Gideon's call.
So we have the background.
The people called out to God.
And God sent them a judge.
Someone to deliver them.
And here is the call.
And we're focusing on his story today.
Verse 11.
So there's this guy, Joash.
He's from the tribe of Abiezer, which is in Manasseh.
We'll see that come up later.
And the angel of the Lord.
I'll let Pastor Andrew go into all the theological details of who the angel of the Lord is.
But for now, this is God speaking to Gideon.
And where's Gideon?
Gideon is scared.
He's hiding.
He's trying to provide for himself and his family.
He's in the wine press.
So that was a place that was lower, underground.
And they would, like, the threshing of the wheat, they're throwing it up.
And the wind would blow away the chaff so that you have just the good stuff left.
But he's in a pit trying to hide.
And so it's hard work.
He's scared.
He's hiding.
He's still trying to provide for his family.
He's trying to make it through.
Do we find ourselves maybe sometimes in those circumstances?
Life is hard.
And we just, Proverbs 37, try again.
Psalm 37, 3 is a verse I want you to write down and think through as we go through this.
Trust in the Lord and do good.
Gideon's doing that.
We'll see his faith to a certain degree here in a minute.
But Gideon's doing that.
The angel of the Lord comes, hangs out under a tree.
And then he speaks to Gideon.
Let's look at verse 12.
And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him,
The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor.
He's got the right guy?
Gideon's hiding in a pit trying to do his work in a way that doesn't even work very well.
And he calls him a mighty man of valor.
And he says, and this is key as well,
The Lord is with you.
This is a theme in the Old Testament.
This is a theme throughout the whole Bible from the beginning to the end.
The Lord is with you.
So remember, God is with us today as well.
But this is fascinating, right?
He calls Gideon a mighty man of valor.
Was Gideon acting like it?
No.
He was not acting like it.
But God saw something in him.
Or more likely,
God saw what he was going to equip him to become
something more than he is now.
The world will tell you,
Look within yourself.
Follow your heart.
Lies.
Don't believe it for a minute.
But God saw something that he was going to do in Gideon.
And so, you know what?
Gideon couldn't do this.
Gideon didn't even want to do this,
as we'll see necessarily.
But God is calling in him.
God was going to work in him
to will and to do of his good pleasure.
It's a verse we're going to look at at the end.
God sees things that he's going to do in us.
He calls us to do things that we're not doing right now.
He calls us to be things that we aren't right now.
And let's see how Gideon responds.
Verse 13.
And Gideon said to him,
Please, sir, if the Lord is with us,
why then has all this happened to us?
And where are all his wonderful deeds
that our fathers recounted to us,
saying, Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?
But now the Lord has forsaken us
and given us into the hand of Midian.
Okay, I definitely read that with a certain tone.
That's how I think he said it.
You might think differently.
But clearly, regardless,
he clearly doubted.
But the fascinating thing is he knew the truth.
He knew the stories of what God had done.
While Judges 2.10 was true,
apparently his father had passed some truth on to him.
We'll be talking about his father more here in a minute.
But he heard the stories.
He knew of it.
But the fact is,
he didn't see it right now.
His circumstances and his feelings
did not match the truth that he knew.
Can anyone else identify with that?
Because I can.
I don't know.
I have struggled with a lot of things
in the last year, several years.
But God is so good.
But circumstances and what I know to be true
don't always match.
Does that mean that I'm disqualified?
Does that mean that we're disqualified
if we have doubts?
If we're with Gideon and we doubt?
And maybe even we say these things to God,
maybe even with a tone?
Well, see, the answer is no.
Gideon poured out his heart.
He shared what he thought.
David, in the Psalms,
pours out his heart.
Some of the Psalms are hard to read.
It's okay.
The key is he's going to God.
He's responding to God
and his work in his life.
So verse 14.
Gideon says,
yeah, whatever,
whatever's going on.
But verse 14,
Did he answer Gideon's question?
No, he didn't.
Which sounds a little bit like Job, right?
Job did not get direct answers.
If you remember last summer
when we went through Job,
the main point of that
when we got to the end was
just trust God.
Fix your eyes on him
and do what he's calling you to do.
Trust him in the midst
of your circumstances.
And Gideon gets a similar answer.
He gives Gideon a task.
He says,
go and save your people.
But more importantly,
it was God
who was telling him to do this.
God gave him clear instructions.
Has God given us
any clear instructions?
If you open your Bible,
can you find some clear instructions?
Husbands,
love your wives
as Christ loved the church.
Don't focus on her part.
Focus on yours.
That's not today's topic though.
Children,
obey your parents.
Fathers,
bring up your children
in the nurture
and admonition of the Lord.
Speak the truth
in love.
There's so many instructions
we have been given.
We have been given tasks
and therefore are good.
They're not easy.
We don't always feel
like doing them.
They don't always work
the way we want.
But God has clearly
given us tasks.
And even the Great Commission,
God has clearly given us
that task.
Our main goal in life
is to glorify God.
And one of the best ways
we do that
is by going
as we go
into all the world,
preach the gospel,
make disciples.
We have been clearly
sent to do this.
What was Gideon's response?
And Gideon said to him,
please Lord,
how can I save Israel?
Behold,
my clan is the weakest
in Manasseh
and I am the least
in my father's house.
Again,
he's responding honestly
and it may be factual.
He's hiding in a wine press
using it for a task
that it's not designed to do.
His family apparently
is small in the tribe.
I'm just going to take
his word for it
at that point.
But Manasseh is a small tribe.
In fact,
half the tribe's
on the other side
of the Jordan,
if you remember.
Half of them settled
over there.
So it's a smaller,
they took a lot of land,
but so he's struggling.
He's looking at it.
How can I do this?
It's an honest assessment.
But where's his focus?
His focus is still
on himself.
His focus is still
on who he and his family
are on their own
without God.
Moses did this
when God called him.
If you read through
Exodus chapter 2 and 3,
you'll see Moses
throws up five excuses
and God sometimes
doesn't even directly
answer them.
It's all about God
focusing on him.
Giving excuses.
May we not give excuses.
And again,
it could be,
I think God is revealing
how empty Gideon is.
How needy Gideon is.
He doesn't see God working.
We saw that in verse 13.
And he knows that
he's not sufficient
to do these things.
God brings us
to our lowest point
so he can fill us
with himself.
Because it's God
who gets the glory,
not us.
And God can use us.
We can do great things
for him.
But it's not
in our own strength.
And sometimes God needs
to bring us
to the end of ourselves.
Would it be better
to humble ourselves
before the Lord
and he will lift us up
as James said
rather than having him
humble us?
That God opposes the proud
but gives grace
to the humble
again in James.
So God is revealing
his need.
And so what happens here
in verse 16?
Again, the focus
is not on Gideon.
The focus is not
on his family.
The focus is on God himself.
God has called him
to do this thing.
Again, this is a theme
throughout the whole Bible
including in Revelation.
One of the best parts
of being in heaven forever
is God's presence
with us
in an even more
tangible way.
God will be
with his people
and he will be
our God
and he will be with us.
It's I will be with you.
Whatever God
is calling you to do,
whatever hard things
are happening in work,
I've talked to many of you
about my work, right?
God is with you
wherever you are
no matter how hard it is,
no matter what is going on,
God is with you.
You are not alone.
You also have
the body of Christ
but God is with us.
And he says
you're going to strike
the Midianites
as one man.
You'll have victory
as I am with you.
We have been given
tasks as well.
Again,
family,
church,
all these different things.
I do want to just talk
very briefly about
Matthew chapter 28,
the Great Commission.
We tend to focus
on the fact,
go therefore
and make disciples
of all nations,
baptizing them
in the name of the Father
and the Son
and the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to observe
all that I have commanded you.
Don't forget the end.
Behold,
I am with you
always to the end
of the age.
God is with us.
We tend to also forget
verse 18.
Let me read that one.
All authority
in heaven
and on earth
has been given to me.
Go therefore.
God is the one
who has called us
to these things
and who is sufficient
for these things.
Nobody,
but God is
and God will work
through us.
Like Gideon,
we need to get our eyes
off of ourselves
and on to God
when God says,
I will be with you.
Let's go
and take steps of faith,
trust in the Lord
and do good.
After this,
we'll see how Gideon responds
just like any of us would do.
More doubt.
But God is so gracious.
Look at verses 17 and 18.
And he, Gideon,
said to him,
If now I have found favor
in your eyes,
then show me a sign
that it is you
who speak with me.
Please do not depart
from here
until I come to you
and bring out my present
and set it before you.
And he said,
I will stay
until you return.
This is again
the setup
for the next paragraph.
He's asking for a sign.
Verse 19.
So Gideon went,
Gideon went into the house,
prepared a young goat,
unleavened cakes
from an ephah flour,
the meat he put in a basket
and the broth he put in a pot.
He brought them to him
under the terebinth
and presented them.
Gideon wants to show hospitality.
Gideon wants to show his hospitality
by providing a meal.
And what happens here?
There's more.
What does the angel of the Lord
do with this?
The angel of God said to him,
Take the meat
and the unleavened cakes
and put them on this rock
and pour the broth over them.
And he did so.
Then the angel of the Lord
reached out the tip of the staff
that was in his hand
and touched the meat
and the unleavened cakes
and fire sprang up from the rock
and consumed the meat
and the unleavened cakes.
And the angel of the Lord
vanished from his sight.
It's kind of like Elijah
pouring water on the sacrifice.
But that happened after this,
so I can't use that
as an illustration.
But Gideon probably had in mind,
he knew the scripture,
he knew the stories.
Back in Leviticus 9,
verses 23 and 24,
I don't have time
to look at that right now,
but you can go look that up later.
Back in Leviticus 9,
23 and 24,
when Aaron,
the priest,
was consecrated
and they made a sacrifice,
the glory of the Lord
appeared to the people
and fire came out
and consumed the offering.
God had appeared to him
and fire came out
and consumed the offering.
God was there.
God was present.
And so what was his response?
Look at verse 22.
Then Gideon perceived
that it was the angel of the Lord.
And Gideon said,
Alas, O Lord God,
for now I have seen
the angel of the Lord
face to face.
What was me?
There is humility here.
He recognizes
that in God's presence,
he is nothing.
And this happens
throughout scripture.
Job,
when God confronts him,
he puts his hand
over his mouth.
He repents
and dust and ashes.
Moses,
at the burning bush,
he takes his sandals off
because he's on holy ground.
Isaiah,
when he sees God,
says,
Woe is me,
for I am undone.
I am a man of unclean lips
and I live among
a people of unclean lips.
We see this again
in a little bit
with Samson
and his parents.
The only valid response
to realizing
God is at work
is to humble ourselves,
to recognize
who we are
and who God is.
Do we turn
our attention to him?
Do we allow
our circumstances
to point us to him?
How does God respond
to Gideon's recognition?
Verse 23,
But the Lord said to him,
Peace be to you.
Do not fear.
You shall not die.
When all this is going on,
my circumstances
are out of my control.
When I am lost
and I am undone
and I'm seeing God working,
God brings peace.
So often throughout Scripture
when an angel appears
to a person,
he says,
Peace be to you
because they're ready
to freak out.
When Jesus appeared
to the disciples
after he rose from the dead,
he said,
Peace be to you.
He said it like two or three times
because they needed it.
I need that.
I get so anxious.
I don't know about you,
but I'm getting older
and so like feelings
are bigger now.
It's like this is weird.
I shared some things
that are going on
and at least two people
said to me,
Oh, you're telling me
you're in your 40s.
Okay, message received.
Life changes
and sometimes it's hard
and sometimes it's good,
but regardless of where we're at,
God is in control
and if I fix my eyes on him,
there is peace.
God's kingdom
is not of this world.
He does not promise
a nation to rise up
and that's like the Jews
thought they were going to rise up
and take out the Romans.
That's not what God promises us.
His kingdom
is not of this world,
but it is of the heart
and what God promises us
is not comfort
and ease
and riches.
It's not what he promises.
He promises us
love,
joy,
peace,
patience,
kindness,
goodness,
faithfulness,
gentleness,
and self-control.
That's the fruit,
the evidence
of the spirit
of God working in us
and that is so much better
than anything else
whether we have
great riches
and great things
or we have not.
The kingdom of God
is of the heart
and as we rest in him,
he gives us
and brings us peace.
We need that.
We need to fix our eyes
on God himself.
And so what happens
when Gideon realizes this
in verse 24?
Then Gideon built
an altar there
to the Lord
and called it
the Lord is peace.
To this day,
it still stands
in Ophrah
which belongs
to the Abiezrites.
Another good response
to realizing
that God is at work
is building a reminder.
We are forgetful people.
Again,
Tom Zent shared that
with us
on the Memorial Day service
and it's been said
from the pulpit
many times,
I am a forgetful person.
We are forgetful people.
I need reminders.
Do you have any reminders
of when God
was working in your life?
We have black lava rock
out in front.
We've chosen that
as our landscaping
because you don't have
to do it every year.
But my wife
has taken some rocks
and painted them white
and written on them
things that God has done.
So when you go out front
out of our door,
there's these bright white
reminders of what God
has done.
It's just a small thing.
I'm very good
at forgetting them.
I'm very good
at walking right past them
and not remembering them
or letting them
focus my mind on him.
But I have the opportunity.
Do you have any reminders
of what God has done
in your life?
So that when you face
hard times,
you can look back
and see God has done
this for me.
God has done this
for the Israelites.
God is going to take care
of me now
as I go forward.
Setting up these reminders
of who God is
and what he's done.
Jacob did this
with his rock pillow.
The two and a half tribes
at the end of Judges
do this.
They set up a reminder.
Hey, we are a part of you.
We need reminders.
We are forgetful.
Even Peter and Paul
talk about reminding
people of truths.
I need these reminders
and I'm guessing
you do too.
So we move into
the next paragraph
starting in verse 25.
It brings us
to the third point.
So the first point,
cycle of apostasy.
Second was Gideon's call.
The third is Gideon's
first step.
S-T-E-P, step.
So God's got his attention.
He gives him
his first task.
Here we go.
Verse 25.
25 and 26.
That night,
the Lord said to him,
take your father's bull
and the second bull,
seven years old,
and pull down
the altar of Baal
that your father has
and cut down
the Asherah
that is beside it
and build an altar
to the Lord your God
on the top
of the stronghold here
with stones laid
in due order.
Then take the second bull
and offer it
as a burnt offering
with the wood
of the Asherah
that you shall cut down.
His first assignment
is to tear down
the altar of Baal
and the Asherah
that his father had
and replace it
with an altar
to God
and sacrifice.
So Gideon's dad
is an interesting character,
isn't he?
I think he clearly
told Gideon about God
because back
when the angel of the Lord
first appeared to him,
he knew,
where's all these things?
I've heard these things,
but where is it happening?
So his father had told him,
but yet,
but yet he has an altar
of Baal
and an Asherah.
He's two-faced.
He's double-minded.
I'm guessing he felt
the cultural pressure
and wanted to fit in,
wanted to look good
to those around him.
After all,
we're in the judges, right?
And everyone was doing
what was right
in their own eyes.
So I want to look good
to as many people as I can.
Change starts
in the home.
It starts with me.
It starts with my family
and then God can use it
from there.
So first,
what idols do I have
in my life?
What idols are
in my family's life?
I need to tear them down
and replace them
with the things of the Lord.
So may I ask you,
what idols are in your life?
What idols are in our lives
that we can get rid of
in my family?
Look around your house.
What are some things
that are idols?
Look at your calendar.
Look at your budget spreadsheet
if you're as geeky
as I am about that kind of thing.
You can tell a lot
about yourself.
There's sayings about that.
You can tell a lot
about yourself
by your money,
your time,
what you watch,
your calendar,
things like that.
So evaluate those things.
What things need
to be torn down
and what altars
to God need to be built.
So what does Gideon do?
Verse 27.
So Gideon took the men
of his servants,
took 10 men of his servants
and did as the Lord
had told him.
But because he was too afraid
of his family
and the men of the town
to do it by day,
he did it by night.
So he obeyed,
kind of.
But he took a step
of faith.
God told him to do it.
He took 10 people with him.
God told him to do it.
He didn't want everybody
to know,
so he did it at night.
But he took a step.
Are we willing
to take those steps?
Like Nicodemus
came to Jesus at night.
So many other examples.
People afraid
but doing what's right.
Trust in the Lord
and do good.
What is a small step
I can take?
What is a small step
you can take?
And maybe,
how can I do it boldly?
Trusting in the Lord.
But there are consequences.
It doesn't always go well.
He was afraid of his family.
And we'll see,
rightfully so.
Verse 28.
And when the men
of the town
rose early in the morning,
behold,
the altar of Baal
was broken down
and the Asherah
beside it was cut down
and the second bull
was offered on the altar
that had been built.
And they said to one another,
who has done this thing?
And after they had searched
and inquired,
they said,
Gideon,
the son of Joash
has done this thing.
Then the men
of the town
said to Joash,
bring out your son
that he may die.
For he has broken
down the altar of Baal
and cut down
the Asherah beside it.
He took a step
for God
and now his life
is being threatened.
Sometimes things
don't go as planned.
God's plans
are not always ours
and sometimes things
get worse
before they get better.
But am I willing
to follow
and trust God
anyway?
The cultural response,
kill him,
cancel him,
whatever.
It's pretty drastic.
Most of us
will not face death
by standing up
for God.
Maybe we just
get looked at funny.
Maybe our families
won't like to change.
Again, after all,
he was afraid
of the family.
What happened?
Dad, why do you
want to meet together
and do family Bible time
at night?
Why are you making me
read the Bible every day?
Why are we serving?
I'd rather go play.
Why is this happening?
Our family might not like it.
We might be made fun of.
Maybe more serious consequences,
losing our job.
I'm pretty sure
at this point
we're not going
to face death.
The day may come.
Are we ready for that?
God is good
and he's worth
consequences for.
Am I willing
to stand for God
even if people
don't like it?
Luke 9, 23-26
is a good passage
to read through
as a reminder.
Jesus said,
take up your cross
and follow me.
Deny yourself
and if you
don't be ashamed
of God before men.
So Gideon
took this step of faith
and what happened?
The people didn't like it
but look at verse 31.
But Joash said
to all who stood
against him,
that's Gideon's dad,
Joash said
to all who stood
against him,
will you contend
for Baal
or will you save him?
Whoever contends
for him
shall be put
to death by morning.
If he's a god,
let him contend
for himself
because his altar
has been broken down.
Gideon took
a step of faith
secretly
but his dad
was impacted.
His father
got his act together.
He said,
okay,
yeah,
that's wrong.
I shouldn't have done that.
Let me stand up
for God now.
Our steps of faith
will have impact
for others.
As for me
and my house,
we will serve the Lord.
1 Timothy 4.12
This is a good reminder
that Gideon
took the step of faith
and his father,
someone older than him,
was impacted.
Do not let people
look down on you
because you're young
but set an example
for the believers
in word,
in,
I don't have that one
memorized very well.
Word,
spirit,
faith,
purity.
I butchered that one.
Go look it up
for yourself and see.
But we can set an example
for others
and God will use that
in the lives of others
whether they're older than us
or younger than us.
Are we willing to humble ourselves
and learn from people younger,
older,
and work together?
We'll talk about this
in a little bit.
We need all generations.
We need gray hairs.
We need young people.
We need everybody
together as the body.
So again,
this was a good response.
If Baal's God,
let him deal with it.
Kind of like Elijah.
Elijah says,
you know,
how long will you limp
between two opinions?
If Baal's God,
follow him,
but if the Lord is God,
follow him.
Do you and I believe
that the Lord is God?
It's easy in this setting
to say yes.
Tomorrow,
when we go to work,
when we go to play,
when we go to whatever,
go to our homes,
do we still believe that
and is it still true
and are we willing
to stand up
and say that
even when it's not popular
and may come with consequences?
Are we willing
to follow him
even if it's costly?
So what happened?
Verse 32,
therefore on that day,
Gideon was called
Jerob Baal.
That is to say,
let Baal contend against him
because he broke down
his altar.
He didn't die.
Again,
he saw God,
he didn't die.
He was threatened,
he didn't die.
He was branded though.
He was called derogatory names
from then on.
It's a small price to pay.
Don't worry about idle threats.
Proverbs 26.2
says like a sparrow
by flitting
or a swallow
and it's flying
so a curse unfounded
will not come to rest.
I love that verse by the way.
I love barn swallows.
They're my favorite birds.
There's some out in the backyard.
They just,
they always are flying.
You never see them land
and just like that,
these kind of curses,
you're going to be called
Jerob Baal.
May Baal get you.
It'll never land.
I don't have to worry about it.
I can trust my God
and he will take care of me.
So we move into
Gideon's next assignment.
That's the next blank
and I'm sorry,
that blank is small.
Gideon's next assignment.
Write that in there
as best you can
and then Gideon is ready.
Okay?
Gideon's next assignment
and Gideon is ready.
Let's see what happens.
Verse 33.
Now all the Midianites
and the Amalekites
and the people of the east
came together
and they crossed the Jordan
and encamped
in the valley of Jezreel.
He just faced his family.
He just faced his tribe
and now the enemy
is amassing.
He handled,
he weathered the last storm
now comes the next one.
The bad guys
are joining together
and they're hanging out
in the valley of Jezreel.
We've got a standoff going.
Verses 34 and 35.
But the Spirit of the Lord
clothed Gideon
and he sounded the trumpet
and the Abiezrites
were called out
to follow him
and he sent messengers
throughout all Manasseh
and they too
were called out
to follow him
and he sent messengers
to Asher, Zebulun
and Naphtali
and they went up
to meet him.
Woohoo!
We're getting the band together.
We're going to go attack.
This is good.
The Spirit of the Lord.
Notice that it was God
working in him.
We need to be open
to God working
and seeking in him.
Seeking out his direction,
his will,
being willing to submit
to that.
God was with him.
He called out his family.
He called out,
and maybe that was an impact.
His dad stood up.
His family joined him
in this battle.
As we take one small step
of faith,
there can be ripple effects.
God can use that
in bigger ways.
And then he called out
three more tribes.
He's ready for the big time.
But then comes
verses 36 to 40,
which Gideon is ready
was the second part
of point four.
Point five is,
or is he?
Or is he?
We see doubts
surface again.
Verses 36 and 37
says this,
Then Gideon said to God,
If you will save Israel
by my hand,
as you have said,
behold,
I'm laying a fleece of wool
on the threshing floor.
If there's dew
on the fleece alone
and it's dry on the ground,
then I shall know
that you will save Israel
by my hand,
as you've said.
Gideon says,
Whoa, whoa, whoa,
slow down a second.
This is great,
but you know,
I'm having doubts.
I'm not sure anymore.
God, are you sure?
He's asking for a sign
and trusting God.
Often,
our biggest successes
are followed
by our greatest challenges
and failures.
1 Corinthians 10, 12
says,
Beware you who think
you're strong,
lest you fall.
Be ready.
Beware when you think
you're strong.
Don't continue
in your own strength
what God has begun
doing in you.
Let him complete his work
even when it's hard.
Philippians 1, 6.
He who began
a good work in you
will be faithful
to complete it.
Am I willing
to trust him?
When God starts working,
am I willing
to keep going
in his strength
and not my own?
Use the talents,
gifts,
abilities that he's given me
but not do things
in my own strength.
Verse 38.
So he does the fleece thing.
I'm not going to go
too deep into this
and make things up.
Let the main things
be the plain things
and the plain things
be the main things.
What happens here
in verse 38?
And it was so.
When he rose early
the next morning
and squeezed the fleece,
he wrung enough dew
from the fleece
to fill a bowl of water.
Then,
so God answered.
God is gracious.
Sometimes he answers
with the fleece.
Sometimes he doesn't.
Kind of like with Job.
So what does Gideon do?
Then Gideon,
verse 39.
Then Gideon said to God,
let not your anger
burn against me.
Let me speak just one more time.
Please let me test
just once more
with the fleece.
Please let it be dry
on the fleece only
and on all the ground
let there be dew.
Again,
I'm not going to
over-spiritualize this
or make things up.
You know what I think
happened here?
Gideon's first test,
he was off a little bit, right?
What happens
if you put,
if I put a t-shirt
on my back porch
at night
and there's dew
and then the sun comes out,
the ground,
the deck is going to be dry
but the t-shirt's
still going to be wet, right?
Oops.
Hey God,
I got that backwards.
Can we try it again?
I think that's all
that happened here, right?
Whatever.
I'll let Pastor Andrew
correct me if I'm wrong
or he can go deeper
if he wants
but then he gives
that clear sign.
Okay,
if I put the t-shirt out
and now
if the t-shirt's dry
but they're still due
then God did something
because that's what,
you know,
that's not what happens
in the normal
natural world.
So he asked
for another go at it
and God is gracious
enough to answer.
Look at verse 40.
And God did so that night
and it was dry
on the fleece only
and on all the ground
was due.
Sometimes God is gracious
and gives us those answers.
He gives us that assurance
that we're following him
and sometimes he doesn't.
Am I willing to follow him
and walk by faith
even if I don't feel like it,
even if my circumstances
don't change?
Am I willing to follow him?
So now
Gideon is continuing
to be humbled.
He's amassing an army
and
in two weeks
we'll see what happens
in chapter 7.
But for now,
so what?
What's the takeaway?
I go home this afternoon.
I go to work tomorrow.
I got all these things
going on in my life.
What difference
does this make?
I've heard it said
God doesn't call
the qualified
but he qualifies
the called.
You might not feel
like you can do
what God has called you to do.
And what God calls us
to do is hard
because our sinful hearts
fight against it,
whatever it is.
But God will work in us,
again,
to will and to do
of his good pleasure.
We'll look at that verse
here in a little bit.
But I want to encourage
and challenge us.
Are we taking steps
of faith?
What is God calling you
to do?
To grow spiritually?
Maybe to trust Christ
as Savior?
to lead your family?
To invest and love
your wife
as Christ loved the church?
To invest in your children
even when it's hard?
To witness to neighbors,
to coworkers?
Maybe get involved
in the church?
May I just say,
as my wife and I
oversee the nursery ministry,
we can always use
nursery helpers,
isn't this a blessing
up here?
The people who play?
Do you play an instrument?
Come and join us.
One of the principles
of our music ministry here
that Pastor John
introduced in 2012
when he started
was more is better.
Maybe God is challenging
you to say,
hey, I play the whatever.
Can I do that too?
Serve with,
there's children's ministries.
I want to challenge you,
wherever you're at,
young people,
serve.
Get involved.
There's nursery opportunities,
children's ministry opportunities.
Get involved and serve.
You guys do a good job
of this overall.
Maybe God is calling you
to step up
and do different things.
For those who are older,
it is not time
to make way
for the next generation.
It is time
to serve
with the next generation.
May I encourage you
and challenge you,
don't check out.
There's no retirement
from the family of God.
We need the gray hairs
of which I'm now being.
We need the gray hairs
and the green horns.
We need to work together
to grow and sharpen
and encourage each other.
May this church grow
and serve one another.
So what is God
calling you to do?
Again,
maybe it's something
in the church.
Maybe it's missions.
Who knows?
Maybe it's something else.
But are you willing
to serve
and get involved?
Like Gideon,
there's nothing special
about Gideon.
He was broken.
He was small.
But God was going
to work in him.
Two passages
to look at
and then we'll close
in prayer.
Philippians 2,
12 and 13.
I've quoted this one
a couple times,
but you can see it
for yourself.
Philippians 2,
verses 12 and 13
says this,
Therefore,
my beloved,
as you have always
obeyed,
so now,
not only as in my presence,
but much more in my absence,
work out your own salvation
with fear and trembling.
For it is God
who works in you,
both to will
and to work
for his good pleasure.
Excuse me.
God is the one
who works in us
to will,
to be willing to,
to want to do
what he called us to do
and then to follow
through and do it.
Will we rely
on his strength
to do it?
So if you've never,
if God's calling you
to step up
and do something,
would you step out
and do it?
Trust in the Lord
and do good,
whether it's family,
church,
whatever it is.
And for those
who have been serving
for a long time,
thank you.
We need the faithful,
people who have been
serving and doing this
for years
and continuing to do so
as an example
and teaching and training
the next generation
and serving with them
and bringing them up.
But remember,
it's not about you.
And for us,
let's not,
let's not trust
the older people.
Let's trust the God
that they are pointing us to
because 1 Corinthians 1, 26
and following says,
for consider your calling,
brothers.
Not many of you were wise
according to worldly standards.
Not many were powerful.
Not many were of noble birth.
But God chose
what is foolish in the world
to shame the wise.
God chose
what is weak in the world
to shame the strong.
God chose
what is low
and despised in the world.
Even things that are not
to bring to nothing
the things that are
so that
no human being
might boast
in the presence of God.
It's all about God
and His glory.
It starts with me
and my life,
me and my family,
me and my church
and we can impact the world.
What is God calling you to do?
Will you take that step,
trust in the Lord
and do good?
And may we watch
and see what God does
for His glory.
Let's pray.
Thank you God for Gideon.
Your patience with him.
Thank you that you are
patient with us.
God, I pray that you would
work in us today
as we sit here
and we're maybe
riled up
and we feel
the call,
the excitement.
Lord, will you work in us
to will
and to do
of what you're calling us to do?
Lord, would you work in us?
May we have strong,
godly people
in this church.
May we have strong,
godly families
in this church.
May we be a strong,
godly family
who loves you,
loves each other
and shares the gospel
with the world.
Go with us
and use us
for your glory
in every place
that you have placed us
with the real people
in our lives.
Help us to invest
for your glory
and your kingdom.
In Jesus' name,
Amen.
Thank you.
You're dismissed.