Pastor Jonathan Smith
May 6, 2007 - W0718

Join me in my favorite opening prayer:  Lord, speak to my heart and change my life.  Amen.

It’s pretty easy to go through life expecting others to step up and take the consequences of what we want to happen.  We love when we see others doing the things that we want to see done but how many of you feel that, more and more each day, it seems that the Lord is looking directly at you, saying that it’s time for you to step up – for your family, friends, and maybe even the greater community around you?  The good news is that we can learn a lot from this guy named Gideon who started without a clue but ended up saving the nation of Israel.  The story of Gideon shows us how we can overcome when things get overwhelming.

Gideon:  Overcoming the Overwhelming

To begin, we need to understand Israel’s situation:  “Then the sons of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord; the Lord gave them into the hands of Midian seven years” (Judg. 6:1).

Midian was a pagan nation east of the Jordan river, and because the sons of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, the Lord gave them over to the enemy – the Midianites. The Bible says the Midianites came in like locusts – their armies and camels were innumerable.  As a result, the Israelites were displaced from their homes (the Promised Land) and Israel was reduced to starvation…all because of their disobedience to God.

This is sort of like us, we have the potential of God’s abundant life but when we choose our own way (sin) instead of His way, we remove ourselves from His protection and we open the door to the enemy to come in to steal, kill, and destroy.  Furthermore, he steals our desire to meet with God and we get deeper and deeper into since.  We can then find ourselves like the Israelites…overrun and overwhelmed by the enemy.

·        Sin takes us out of the blessing , protection and provision of the Lord and opens the door for the enemy to come in to steal, kill, and destroy.

“So Israel was brought very low because of Midian, and the sons of Israel cried out to the Lord.” (Judg. 6:6)

Israel lost everything and it was very very sad except that they were finally humbled before the Lord and started to cry out to the one who could help them.  That was the turning point.  And guess what, that’s the key for us too.  It’s called repentance. It means to change your ways and change your direction, to stop turning away from God and start going in His direction.

·        Repentance opens the door for God to come in to bring healing and restoration to our lives and circumstances.

When the Israelites cried out to the Lord, He sent them a prophet.  All the prophet did was tell them exactly what they did wrong and why they were in the state that they were in.  He did not tell them that God was going to come fix things.  This is important to note because God requires honesty in our repentance. The bottom line is that God can fix anything but He requires honesty in our relationship with Him.  For example, if you’re having problems in your marriage, don’t pray, “God, please fix my spouse.”  The prayer He is more likely to answer would sound something like, “God, my marriage is messed up and I need your help.  I haven’t been the protector/provider/leader/loving spouse that I should’ve been and now I don’t know what to do.  Help me to be the spouse that I should be and restore our marriage to be what you intended for us.”  It’s the humble, honest prayer that releases God’s power into your situation.  It’s called grace.

Israel humbled itself before the Lord and opened the door for God to come in.  So what did God do?  God sent an angel to where Gideon was – in a wine press.  “The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, ‘The Lord is with you, O valiant warrior’” (Judg. 6:12).

Gideon was not a valiant warrior.  Did God get it wrong?  No, God never gets it wrong.  Rather…

1.     GOD CHOOSES TO WORK THOUGH ORDINARY PEOPLE, SEEING THEM NOT AS THEY ARE, BUT AS WHO THEY CAN BECOME WITH HIM.

Gideon has some issues.  In fact, Gideon questions God and accuses Him of abandoning them for no reason. But the Lord looked at him and told him to God would use him to deliver Israel.  Gideon’s first response was to deny God’s claim by professing how in capable he [Gideon] but…“The Lord said to him, ‘I will be with you.  And you will destroy the Midianites as if you were fighting against one man’” (Judg. 6:16 NLT).

That’s a promise that you can hold onto.  What it is basically is saying is that you and God make an overwhelming majority – an unstoppable force.  So God told Gideon to go tear down a temple that belonged to his father, and because he was obedient and did it…

“Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon, and he blew a trumpet, summoning the Abiezrites to follow him” (Judg. 6:34 NIV).  And he becomes the valiant warrior that God had seen in him before.  He became the leader empowered by God to call together an army to lead Israel – and they came.

2.     OBEDIENCE TO GOD RELEASES THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT INTO YOUR LIFE TO TRANSFORM YOU ACCORDING TO GOD’S WILL.

I know that a lot of you have things in your life that you want God to transform but He hasn’t done it.  I have a question for you, “Is there something in your life that God has asked you to do but you haven’t done it yet?”  Let me encourage you to fully obey Him and see if He doesn’t release the Holy Spirit into your life to do things that you wouldn’t even believe are possible.

So anyway, we have Gideon, one ordinary guy who suddenly stepped up but he’s got a real tough job ahead of him.  He blew the trumpet and 32,000 men gathered around him.  Sounds like a good size army but remember that the enemies’ army was “innumerable.”  If you think about it, the Bible says they were innumerable but we know (if you go back to Exodus) that they could count to at least 600,000 so how big could this Midianite army be?  Even if we took a low estimate of 650,000, they would still outnumber the Israelites by 20 to 1.  But then here’s the kicker, God told Gideon that his army was too large – because if Gideon defeated the Midianites with a large army, people may think that Gideon’s army actually defeated them and they wouldn’t credit God.  So needless to say, God whittled down the army until…“The Lord told Gideon, ‘With these three hundred men I will rescue you and give you victory over the Midianites.  Send all the others home’” (Judg. 7:7 NLT).

The odds are not 2160:1 and God says, “Yeah, that’s about right.”  What’s God trying to tell us here?

3.     KNOW THAT IT IS NOT THE SIZE OF YOUR ENEMY OR YOUR CIRCUMSTANCES, BUT ONLY THE GREATNESS OF YOUR GOD THAT MATTERS.

It doesn’t matter how small you are or how big is your circumstances. All that matters is how great is your God! The battle is anti-climactic.  At night, the 300 Israelites surround the Midianite army with trumpets and torches covered with earthenware. At a designated time, the Israelites blow their trumpets and break their earthenware.  In the confusion, the Midianites start killing each other until most of them are gone.  A few of the soldiers and their king were left and they started to run.  Gideon and the 300 weary men pursued them.  They had to finish the job that God called them to do even though they were weary.  What kept them going to pursue God’s will?  What keeps you going to keep going when you’re so weary?

“Come to Me, all you who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matt. 11:28)

“Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.” (Acts 3:19)

What going to keep you going when you’re weary?  Only one thing for sure…the presence of God.

4.     WHEN YOU ARE WEARY IN THE MIDST OF THE PURSUIT, GET BACK TO THE REAL RELATIONSHIP WITH JESUS.

It only works if it’s real to you. So many people have relationships with their churches, with others in their church, or even with the pastoral staff of a church but you need a real and direct relationship with God and you can get that through your daily devotions.

*** DRAFT***

DISCUSSION SUGGESTIONS

1.      Tell about a time when sin prevented you from receiving God’s blessing and made you an open target for the enemy.  What happened?

2.      Tell about a time when true repentance brought about healing and restoration in your life.

3.      Think of a time when someone else’s confidence in you helped you to do/become more than you thought you could.  Knowing that God views you not as you are but as He knows you can be, how will that affect you?

4.      Obedience to God transforms you according to His will.  Is there some area in your life in which you’re not obeying God’s commands?  What is preventing you from being transformed according to His will?

5.      Share about a time when your enemy or circumstance was overwhelming but God’s greatness prevailed.  Or, describe a current situation that you are finding overwhelming and allow others to pray for God’s greatness and grace for victory over your circumstance.

6.      Do you have a real relationship with Jesus?  If so, how do you know?  If not, what steps can you do to build a real relationship with Him.