Against All Odds April 21-22, 2018 *****

Transcription

1 Against All Odds April 21-22, 2018 ***** Welcome to Crossroads. My name is Andrew, and I m one of the pastors here. If you are new to Crossroads, I m glad that you re here today, and I hope you feel welcome. Back in February, I was consumed with watching the Winter Olympic Games. I especially like watching the obscure sports like biathlon and curling. Curling is a bizarre sport, but I loved watching it. I didn t understand half of the words the commentators used, but Google helped me to get the basics of the game. Team USA has never won gold in curling until this year! The Men s curling Team defeated Sweden to the win the gold for the first time in history! This was a true underdog story. The team captain, John Shuster, had been to the Olympics before, but in 2014, he was cut from the official team by the USA Curling organization. But, he didn t give up. Shuster put together an independent team of misfits. One teammate manages a store in Minnesota, one worked at Dicks Sporting Goods, and another was a full-time engineer. In an interview, Shuster said that People coined us Team Rejects. Facing the odds, Team Rejects got to work and they started to win. The team won bronze at worlds in 2016, and first place in the U.S. national championship in They also earned the right to play in the Olympics this year. After beating Canada in the semifinals, Team USA met Team Sweden in the gold medal match. The teams were tied 5-to-5 near the end of the game, but then Team USA made a play to score 5 points breaking the tie and making the score 10 to 5. That clinched the gold and pretty soon, Team Sweden conceded the match. Since then, people have been calling that moment a Miracurl on ice. I m confident this story will be a movie someday. I think that most of us like an underdog story. We like cheering for the person that others have given up on. We root for the unlikely hero or the athlete that gets passed over. Does it ever feel like you re an underdog in your own life story? I believe that there are some situations that feel like the odds are against us. It may be a career situation where there is a threat of downsizing or layoffs. It could be a personal issue that we can t seem to resolve in our lives. A bad diagnosis. A spouse wants a divorce. A rebellious child. A difficult boss or supervisor. A financial emergency. How do we face the odds? Today, we are going to look at a story in the Bible about a man named Gideon who faced incredible odds. His story is found in the book of Judges 6-7. Page 1 of 6

2 Gideon s people (the Israelites) were being severely oppressed by their enemies. During the harvest season, the enemies rode in on horses, swarming the country and terrorizing the Israelite farmers by stealing their food and butchering their cattle and sheep. The enemy set fire to their homes and killed anyone who stood in their way. Children became orphans and families had no food for winter. Many people fled into the mountains to hide in caves. They tried to survive with any food they could find. Everyone was scared and hopeless. Desperately, the people cried out for God to rescue them. One day, Gideon was secretly hiding food from the enemy and God appeared to him through an angel. The Lord called on Gideon to rise up and defeat the enemy and rescue his people. Gideon thought, Am I the right person for this? I am not a general or political leader. But God reassured him. Trusting God, Gideon took a public stand against the enemy. He destroyed the Midianite idol in his home town built to a false god. This was bold. Gideon wasn t hiding anymore. He had just declared war against the enemy. Next, Gideon gathered a large army. When the call went out, 32,000 volunteers joined Gideon, but the odds were still pretty bad. By my estimate, the enemy had more than 135,000 soldiers against Gideon s 32,000 volunteers. These were not good odds! But Gideon was confident in God and he marched on, until God stopped him. God says, Gideon, I don t like these odds. Gideon probably thought, Glad you noticed! We don t have enough men! But God said, Gideon, I don t like these odds. You have too many men. Gideon responded, What?! Too Many Men?! We need all the help we can get. Gideon announced, Anyone who is afraid to fight must leave and go home. With that, 22,000 leave. Nearly 70% of the army left! Nervously, Gideon starts making plans for the battle, until God stops him again. Gideon, I don t like these odds. Maybe Gideon rolled his eyes. God says, We need fewer men. Take only 300 with you into battle. Can you imagine how Gideon felt?! He didn t ask for this job. He was content to hide in the caves and avoid trouble, but God called him to save the nation. And now, his army is cut down 99%! For 300 to defeat 135,000, each of the 300 would have to kill 450 enemy soldiers. 450 to 1 are not just bad odds, it is impossible! I wonder, why did the 300 stay? If I saw 99% of the army leaving, I would not feel very confident! The night before the battle, Gideon and his 300 soldiers creep through the woods to the edge of the enemy s camp in the dark. Gideon gathers his leaders around and says, I have a secret weapon, guys. We aren t going to use our swords. We don t need horses or cavalry. I ve got a secret weapon. On my command, we are going to blow our trumpets and shout as loud as we can. That s it! And that s exactly what they did. Armed with trumpets and torches of fire hidden in clay pots, on the signal, the men smash the clay pots, blow the trumpets and shout as loud as they can. The enemy camp is caught by surprise and thrown into confusion. In Page 2 of 6

3 the dark, 300 shouting warriors sounds like thousands. The enemy was so terrified that they started swinging at anything that moved. In all the chaos, the Bible says that the enemy started killing each other! Gideon s men didn t raise a single weapon that night and God won the victory - Against All Odds. Today, we are not facing thousands of enemy soldiers, but you may feel like the odds are against you. I believe there are a few things we can learn about God in this story. Let s look together at what God can show us about facing the odds. First, God sees your potential before you can. Gideon was not leading an army when God found him. He was hiding from the enemy and scavenging some food in secret. Let s look at Judges 6:12-13, 12 When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, The Lord is with you, mighty warrior. 13 Pardon me, my lord, Gideon replied... Gideon says, Excuse me? Who are you calling a mighty warrior? 15 My clan is the smallest, and I am the youngest and weakest in my family! It s easy to doubt ourselves, but God is with you. It s easy to make excuses about a new opportunity. You might think, I lack experience. I m not trained in that area. I m too old to start something new. Or a parent encountering a difficult situation with a child. It s something that you never dealt with and you don t know any other parents facing the same thing. God knows your potential. He has chosen you and not anyone else to be the best parent for your child. Sometimes regret tries to keep us in fear. A divorced person might think, I ll never marry again. I have so much pain from the last marriage. I don t have the potential to be married again. Against all odds, God sees your potential before you can. God saw Gideon s potential, and then he showed Gideon the first step to take. Judges 6: Tear down your father s altar to Baal and cut down the Asherah pole beside it. 26 Then build a proper kind of altar to the Lord your God on the top of this height. Using the wood of the Asherah pole that you cut down, offer the second bull as a burnt offering. 27 So Gideon took ten of his servants and did as the Lord told him. But because he was afraid of his family and the townspeople, he did it at night rather than in the daytime. Before going to battle, the first step was getting rid of the false gods in Gideon s hometown. Gideon s publicly declared that he was completely loyal to God. He even had to go against his family! God doesn t always show us the next ten steps. He shows us the first step. Take the first step. Sometimes, the first step is the riskiest. Sometimes, the people closest to us don t understand why we are taking a step of faith to follow God. In 1954, a young man had just graduated from Boston College with a PhD in theology, and he was looking for a job. Two churches in New England offered him to be their pastor. Three colleges offered teaching jobs. Then, a small Baptist church in Montgomery, Alabama, asked him to be their pastor. This young man s name was Martin Luther King Jr. and he was reluctant to move his family to the south. Page 3 of 6

4 In Montgomery, African Americans were not allowed to go to the same schools or eat at the same restaurants as whites. It was a culture of prejudice. Dr. King wrote, If I accepted a church, should it be one in the South...or one of the two available in the North? I have a chance to escape from the long night of segregation. Can I return to a society that condones a system I have abhorred since childhood? 1 Dr. King, however, believed that God wanted him to go to Montgomery. So he took the first step and moved his family. One year after Dr. King arrived in Montgomery, a woman named Rosa Parks was arrested because she would not give up her bus seat for a white man. That started the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Thousands of people stopped riding the buses in Montgomery protesting racism. Dr. King was not immediately involved in leading the protest. In fact, his first role in the protest was only copying meeting notes! At this time, Dr. King was not a famous, national figure, but as the protest gained momentum, Dr. King emerged as a strong leader. The protest organizers voted to select him as their leader. The rest, as we know, is history. When Dr. King took the first step to move to Montgomery, I m confident he had no idea God would place him at the front of the Civil Rights movement that would change the nation. What step do you need to take? Is there a conversation you need to have? Is there an opportunity for change? Take the first step. Make the phone call. Apply for the interview. Write the check. Send the . Naturally, we ask ourselves, What if the odds get worse after the first step? What does Gideon s story show us? Judges 7:2-4 2 The Lord said to Gideon, You have too many men. I cannot deliver Midian into their hands, or Israel would boast against me, My own strength has saved me. 3 Now announce to the army, Anyone who trembles with fear may turn back and leave Mount Gilead. So twenty-two thousand men left, while ten thousand remained. 4 But the Lord said to Gideon, There are still too many men. Next, the men go down to the water for a drink of water. Judges 7:6-7 6 Three hundred of them drank from cupped hands, lapping like dogs. All the rest got down on their knees to drink. 7 The Lord said to Gideon, With the three hundred men that lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands. Let all the others go home. Scholars have debated the significance of the three hundred who drank water out of their hands and no one has a consensus. The point is, however, that God wanted to dramatically reduce Gideon s army. God doesn t always change the odds; He changes your faith. In Gideon s story, God wasn t interested in better odds, he wanted stronger faith. 1 A Testament of Hope by Dr. King. Page 4 of 6

5 My family has seen God transforming faith in the midst of tragic circumstances. My in-laws, Bob and Kristen, were confident God wanted them to have children and raise a family. The first baby boy was stillborn, and the second baby boy passed a few days after birth. They lost two baby boys within 2 years of each other. Of course, the family asked questions like, Why did God let this happen? If we couldn t have children, why did we get pregnant twice? They began to doubt they would ever have children. It is impossible describe the grief and hopelessness in such a tragic situation. Bob and Kristen were still convinced, however, that God wanted them to raise young children so they looked into adoption, trusting God with each step. In 2009, they got a call that Brenden was being born in California and they could adopt him. God had cleared the way! As soon as they got the phone call, Bob and Kristen found affordable direct flights and were in California within 12 hours. Kristen is a teacher and had the summer off so they could leave right away. On top of that, Bob s boss owned a furnished house in California that they stayed at for a month to work out the adoption logistics. God changed their faith. A couple of years later, Bob and Kristen were contacted again because Brendan's birth mother was pregnant with another boy and they were allowed to adopt him. Now, these two brothers are growing up in a loving family. God s plan had not changed, the odds did not change, but their faith changed. When the odds are against us, we can feel depressed and angry. The loss of a job feels defeating. A diagnosis leaves us distraught. We can doubt God; we can doubt ourselves. And, it s okay to doubt. Doubt is not the enemy of faith; certainty is the enemy of faith. If we are looking for certainty, we will always come up short, but if we are seeking God, he will provide confidence to move forward. Confidence is different than certainty. Certainty trusts in the odds. Confidence trusts in God. We can be confident against all odds because of Jesus. Jesus faced the worst odds. Jesus was killed on the cross and it looked like evil had won. The odds were against him and those close to Jesus were left hopeless. But three days later, He rose from the dead! He beat the odds. He won the battle against evil. If your faith is in Jesus, you can have confidence and hope against all odds. Gideon had his doubts. He was afraid, and he repeatedly asked God for signs. In chapter 6, Gideon put out a couple of tests. Some people criticized Gideon for testing God or having doubts. God is not afraid of our questions and doubts. Gideon doesn t ask God make the odds better, he asks for more confidence that God is with him. On the night before the battle, God gives Gideon more confidence. Judges 7: During that night the Lord said to Gideon, Get up, go down against the camp, because I am going to give it into your hands. 10 If you are afraid to attack, go down to the camp with your servant Purah 11 and listen to what they are saying. Afterward, you will be encouraged to attack the camp. This sounds counterintuitive. God says, If you re scared of the enemy, get closer to the enemy! God wanted Gideon to trust him. Page 5 of 6

6 When the odds are against you, trust God, not the odds. When we trust God and not the odds, God will increase our confidence in Him. Trusting God, Gideon secretly sneaked close to the enemy camp, and he overheard two enemy soldiers talking. One of them had a dream that the entire camp was destroyed, and the second soldier said, That sounds like Gideon! We better get out of here! Judges 7:15 When Gideon heard the dream and its interpretation, he bowed down and worshiped. He returned to the camp of Israel and called out, Get up! The Lord has given the Midianite camp into your hands. Notice what Gideon did in verse 15, he bowed down and worshiped. Right before going into battle, he stopped, dropped to his knees and worshiped. That s supernatural confidence! Against all odds, Gideon worshiped God. He found confidence in God s presence. We can find confidence when we trust God and not the odds. When you feel like you re losing, against all odds, it s time to worship. It s time to go to God s presence for comfort and confidence. Jesus faced terrible odds just like Gideon. On the night before his crucifixion, Jesus was in the garden praying. He dropped to his knees and he sought the presence of the Father. When Jesus stood up, he had confidence to face the odds. You may be in a battle and you feel like you re losing. You may walk out of here to face a new challenge you didn t expect. If your faith is in Jesus, there is hope no matter what battle you are fighting. Today, God invites you to worship, in spite of the odds you re facing. Come into his presence and find confidence. As we sing the next song, maybe you need to take a knee, like Gideon did. If so, the altars are open. Maybe, you ve been fighting the odds with your own power and today you need to surrender your life to Jesus, the one who fought for you, died for you, and can give you hope because he overcame death. Will you put your faith in Jesus today? As we worship, come into God s presence and receive confidence and hope. Page 6 of 6