Hey, welcome to Traders Point. We are so incredibly glad that you are here.

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1 Sean was right. You guys look great. You sound great. Turn to the person next to you and tell him, You sounded good. You sounded good. You sounded really good. Now, that s for all the people that can t sing, like me, a little confidence boost. It s very encouraging. Hey, welcome to Traders Point. We are so incredibly glad that you are here. If you are new or you are just checking us out, we would love to extend a special welcome to you. If you are joining us here mid-series, I want to fill you in on where we ve been in the last couple of weeks. We ve been in this series called, Someday: Codeword for Never. We ve been talking about how you and I have become professional procrastinators. We know how to put things off that we don t want to get around to. We have become lovers of the snooze button or we ask for deadline extensions. And there are things, whether we value them or not, whether we want to do them or not, we can just push off to another day not today; just someday. And we have been talking about those of us who need to deal with our past. Last week, Aaron gave a great message on forgiving the person who has hurt you. And, if you weren t here with us, I really encourage you to go online and check that out. It s a really powerful message on what forgiveness really means. It s not letting that other person win, it s letting Jesus win. And when we forgive the person who has hurt us, we are releasing ourselves from the bondage that that can hold us in. Some of you responded really, really strongly to that and we are so glad to have had you here last week. This morning we are going to be talking about those of us who have said, Someday, I will take a step of faith. Someday. There is something that God is calling me to. Something that I feel like I really should do, I would even like to do. I fully intend on doing it someday, but just not right now. I don t have the resources. I don t have the experience. There are all kinds of things that we say to get ourselves out of taking that next step of faith. I want to say next because that s really important. No matter who you are in this room, this is going to apply to you. Whether this is your first step or if it s your one-hundredth step, this is going to be for you. Now, I know a lot of us as we hear sermons we try to figure out right off the bat how to not let this apply to us. That s kind of the goal. Sorry to burst your bubble you re in on this one. So no matter how long you ve been with Jesus or how short you ve been with Jesus, there is always a next step. Maybe you re new and you re checking this thing out and you re not even sure if you re in on Jesus. In fact, you re a little cynical and a little critical of this whole deal. Maybe the next step for you is just engaging in the dialogue. Considering, maybe for the first time, who Jesus is and what He means to our world. Maybe you ve been around here for a little bit, but you ve remained anonymous. That s cool, and we want to give you that opportunity for a while, but at some point, we would love to know you and let you Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved.

2 be known. And so maybe it s time to let people know who you are be aware of you. Let people know who you are. Maybe you ve been doing this for a really long time and this whole Christianity thing, this whole faith thing is really familiar to you. You were born going to church, you ve got Bible studies on your shelf, your highlighter is running low because you highlight everything, and you ve kind of figured this thing out, and you feel really comfortable with it. Maybe God is trying to interrupt that rhythm by asking you to serve in a context that is not only not familiar, but is also a little uncomfortable for you and break up what you thought this was all about. So, no matter who you are, no matter how long you ve been doing this, there is always a next step. This is a journey. And so, God is calling you to something next. Now, why is it that we talk ourselves out of this sometimes? Why is it that God seems to be calling us to something in front of us and we d actually like to do it but it s going to be a someday thing, not a today thing? I think there are actually a couple of reasons we hear them a lot. The first reason that we hear a lot is, I m not a person of faith. I m just not a person of faith. I don t have this overabundance of faith. I find it hard to trust people. I have a hard time going into anything without a hundred percent certainty that it s all going to work out for the best. Certain people are really good at faith and they just seem to jump at everything. I m a little more reserved. If that s you, if that s been one of your reasons, I d like to suggest that maybe you have more faith than you re letting on. Maybe in everyday life you have faith in a lot of things. So, think about this. Think about all of the faith that it took you to get here this morning. Some of you set an alarm clock. You said, I want to wake up at this certain time and so I am going to trust and have faith in my alarm clock that it s going to go off. Unless, of course, you are my wife who has chosen to wake us up to M.C. Hammer every single day. I m not kidding. I m not making this up. At 5:45 in the morning, I hear Can t Touch This (do-do-do-do) Can t Touch This. I hate that song. I hate it. I m an angry waker-upper. I just wake up angry naturally that doesn t help. So, if you want a good way of ruining your favorite song, make it your alarm clock. But, you have faith. You have faith, because of your past experience. You can trust that the alarm clock is going to work. Many of you rode in a car or drove a car on the way over, and when we drive, we have faith in the people in oncoming traffic. We have faith that they are going to obey the laws of the road and that they are interested in their self-preservation and our self-preservation. Therefore, they are going to stay in their lane. So, when you pass somebody on the road that is coming at you, there is a really good chance that you don t just wince and then breathe. That would be very exhausting and rush hour would be the end of you. You just have faith. When you sat down in the chair you currently find yourself in, you probably did not push down on it, look around it, make sure that all of the bolts were in place and make sure that you could put something heavy on it. No, you probably just plopped down because you have faith that it would hold your weight and that we have done our job in creating a chair in which you can sit. And so what we do is take past experiences, reasonable expectations, and we have faith. So, whether you say you are a person of faith or not, you ve had some faith to show up this morning. Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved. 2

3 Another thing that we hear a lot is people making excuses for why they can t take that next step. God s calling them to something, but they can t quite do it. They re not a hero. Now, maybe you haven t vocalized it just like that, but this is kind of what we mean. How many of you love action movies? You just love action movies a lot of guys/a few ladies. You love the action movies where the cars drive fast, and all the buildings explode, and the guy gets the girl. That s kind of the plot of every action movie ever. So, it s a great excuse for us to go to the theater for 90 minutes, turn our brain off, and enjoy something. I don t know if you ve done this I ve done this a lot. I ll watch an action movie and I ll see the hero and think I could be like that dude. I could look like him. I could be like The Rock. I ve gotten close. I m just not there yet. I could be muscular. I could be courageous in the face of adversity. I could overcome all of these obstacles. I could be that guy. I m going to do it. I m going to leave here and go work out. And then, I get to the parking lot of the movie theater and I see Coldstone Creamery and I think, Maybe another day. Someday I ll become an action hero, just not today. And as I m polishing off my ice cream cone, I m even more deflated because I thought I could do it, and now I m not, and I m just equally discouraged. And a lot of times when it comes to faith you can have that similar experience. When I hear a story of a family here at the church that is leaving their life here behind to go serve full-time as missionaries in Kenya I think, Man, look at them and look at me. I can t be like that. Or, the story of my buddy Ryan who came over to our house for a Bible study and he had really been marginal in church, he knew a little bit about it but wasn t sold out. When he came over to a pastor s house, he genuinely thought there was going to be this five-foot tall Bible on the coffee table that we would read out of, and [instead] he found a bunch of kids toys everywhere. But he gets here and God starts working on his heart and now, a little over a year later, he is going into full-time ministry. And we think, These people seem to have faith that I don t have. So, when I get into this comparison trap, I find that if I am not a hero, then God must not be calling me to something, or I just can t do what He is asking me to do. And so, when God asks us to do something when God is calling us to that next step, not to leap, not jumping over the Grand Canyon of faith that next step, we start listing our weaknesses. Right? We say, Here s why I can t do that. I don t have I m not smart enough. I m not rich enough. I m not goodlooking enough or whatever enough. And so we say, Here are all of my weaknesses, God. That s why I can t do what You re asking me to do. But this morning as we dive into Judges chapters 6 and 7, I would like to propose that God might have a different interpretation of our weaknesses. Where we feel like they re disqualifying us, it may mean something entirely different to God. So, here s the game plan. We re going to open up to Judges chapters 6 and 7. So, if you have your Bible or your Bible app, you can get over to Judges. It s in the Old Testament in between Joshua and Ruth. What we re going to do is we re going to read the account of a guy named Gideon. And we re going to go through it and make a few observations then ask the question, What does that mean for us? I Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved. 3

4 promise it s simple. I promise there are no strings attached. That s exactly what we re going to do. You guys good? Are you ready? Two people awesome. Here s the way that Judges is set up. Let me just kind of paint the picture for you. Throughout the Old Testament and a lot of the Bible, you hear about the nation of Israel. It s a people group that God set apart for His purposes. They were His people. He had a lot of interaction with them, and we read their history here in the Bible. And the problem with Israel is they had really great moments of spiritual fervor and excitement and then that would fade and they would find themselves in valleys of despair. It s a good thing that you and I have progressed past such behavior and that we have figured all of this out, right? We re nothing like Israel at all. Israel had these great moments of faith and then these great valleys of despair. And so what we find in their history is that at one point they were described in a theocracy which means that God was their governing body. In Judges, we see an introduction to where there was a position of judge. A judge s job was to provide leadership, to hear the grievances of the people, and to make wise rules. So, there are people (like you and me) put in that position to do that job. Now, you can imagine that would be difficult and many of the judges over, and over, and over again may have started out strong, but then lost their way. In fact, the only judge to keep it together entirely was the only female judge (and all the ladies in the house said, Hey! ). Her name was Deborah and, prior to Gideon, she was the most recent judge in Judges, chapter 5 and where it leaves off is that there were 40 years of peace under Deborah. She was great. She was wise. She followed God and she kept Israel on track. At the end of chapter 5, you may even be inclined to think, Hey, maybe they got it. Maybe they figured it out. Maybe this 40 years of peace will be enough for them to stay focused on God and not get so distracted like they did every other time. But then, you dive into Judges, chapter 6 in verse 1 and read this. If you will join me Judges 6, verse 1. It says, 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. So, here we go again. Israel just can t stay focused and they fade back into their old behaviors of worshiping false gods. It says that they did evil in the sight of the Lord and therefore He removed His hand of protection and allowed Midian to oppress them for seven years. So, here s what s going on. We have a very simple case of cause and effect. The cause was Israel s disobedience; the effect was the oppression of Midian. Israel first disobeyed God, then God removed His hand of protection cause and effect. So, that truth confronts us with the reality that many of us would like to avoid. I am included in that. There may be a cause and effect in my life. In Israel s case, they disobeyed God and God removed His hand of protection. And in my life when I find that things are difficult or when I m struggling I have a lot of questions. I have a lot of doubts. Things aren t going well I have certain tendencies that I think you might have as well. My first thought is to look at all the other people in my life and how they re treating me. Things are hard, they re not going very well, and I m looking at all the other people thinking, Look what he did to me. Look what she said to me. Look what he took from me. Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved. 4

5 So, I look at all the other people in my life and say look at what they re doing to me. And then to a certain degree I chalk the others up to maybe being random or coincidence. But verse 1 introduces the idea that there might be a third option. I might have to consider that I have played a role in my circumstance. Maybe I have contributed to the current status of my life. So, this is what verse 1 is saying. Our disobedience can create our circumstance. Now, none of us love that idea. None of us would love to think that we have contributed to difficulties in our lives, but at least we have to take a moment and think is it possible? Is it possible that my disconnection and disobedience to God has contributed to the current status of my life? I would love to blame everybody else. I would love to think that this is totally random, but in reality, I have to at least consider, maybe for a moment, that I have contributed to the way my life has played out because that was Israel s case. They had disobeyed God. He had removed His hand of protection. That was what was happening: cause and effect. In the next verse, it goes on to describe just what this oppression looked like. For lack of a better term, Midian was basically bullying Israel. Israel would grow the crops they needed to survive throughout the year. They would raise up the food and at the exact moment when it was time for the harvest, Midian would surround their cities and kick them out. And then they would eat all of their food. Imagine this. In an agricultural society, you use your entire year to grow your crops and then big bullies come in and push you out of your house and you have to go hide in a cave while you watch them eat all of your food. They are literally stealing your lunch money. That is what s happening. And so Midian is bullying Israel and not just one year. This wasn t an isolated incident. It was year, after year, after year for seven years. This is what Midian was doing. So, you can imagine their desperation. At the end of those seven years, it says that Israel cried out to God. Maybe you ve been in a moment where you ve cried out to God out of desperation. And I have a feeling that their prayers were probably pretty specific, like asking God to get the jerks out of there. Or maybe to have them choke on their food and die, something like that. Or, asking God to please send them a savior. Please, rectify the situation. Please fix it because that was not the way it was supposed to be. In typical God fashion, He sends not what they ask for, but what they need. And I know that, in my life, often what I m asking for is probably the worst possible thing I can get. Instead, God gives me what I need. And in this forum, God does not send a savior. He does not send a miracle cure. He does not wake up the next day and the Midianites are gone. He sends a prophet. Look what the prophet says here in verses When the people of Israel 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, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: I led you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of bondage. And I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out before you and gave you their land. You shall not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But you have not obeyed my voice. So, God sends a prophet to confirm what we learned in verse 1. Their disobedience created their circumstance. God did not take off on them. God did not quit on them. It was they who had been distracted. They were the ones who lost their way. And so the prophet lays out this really difficult truth Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved. 5

6 in front of Israel that God is not just a God of truth. He is, but He is also a God of grace and mercy. And so God begins to lay out His plan to save Israel from the oppression of Midian. Now, if you read through the Bible very often, you re going to find that God has this really weird habit of picking the wrong person for the job. I think God was just terrible at human resources. I don t know why He did it really bad interview skills (I m not sure), but He always picked the wrong person for the job. So, for instance when it was time to save Israel from Egypt, He picked a fugitive on the run from murder charges. That was Moses. It seems like a bad person. Or, when He was ready for a new king of Israel, He went to a man named Jesse and didn t pick his oldest, strongest son, He picked his youngest, weakest son and that was David. And when His spies were in Jericho and they needed a place to stay, they went to the apartment of the town prostitute that was Rahab. And, when He needed someone to raise Jesus here on earth He chose a teenaged, unwed mom that was Mary. And, when it was time to have the first missionary to extend the Kingdom of God throughout Asia, He picked a former Pharisee with a list of hate crimes on his record and that was Paul. In fact, the only servant that I would have signed off on for God (had I been consulted) was one of the twelve disciples. And he was the one he was the CFO, he kept all of the money for the disciples and his name was Judas. That didn t turn out very well. And so is it possible, just for a second, that we should consider that when God chooses people for the job, He knows what He s doing. And that no matter their lack of qualification, no matter their lack of experience, God might have something in mind for them. In Judges 6 we re going to see who God chooses to relieve Israel from the oppression of the Midianites. Let s look here at verses of chapter 6. It says, Now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor. All right. Let me explain a little bit. What Gideon is doing is he is trying to farm. That s what he s trying to do. He s trying to farm the food that they have grown. What they would do is they would gather a bundle of wheat, they would beat it and then toss it in the air. The beating would loosen the grain so the wind would carry away the chaff, which is the stuff they didn t want, and the grain would fall to the ground. That s how they did it. The problem with Gideon is that he is farming inside. I don t know if you have ever tried to farm inside a little difficult. So, what he s doing is he is beating the wheat, tossing it in the air, but he s inside a winepress so there s no wind to carry away the chaff. He is in very un-ideal circumstances. And what did it say? It said he was scared. He was afraid of the Midianites. He was being bullied and so he was hiding from them. Now, this is not exactly a slow motion, guns a blazing reveal of our action movie hero, is it? Gideon is a fearful farmer who is cowering in the sight of Midian and that s who God chooses to be His servant. And then an angel of the Lord comes up to him and says, O mighty man of valor. Now, I don t know if the angel was sarcastic like me or if he put air quotes around it like O mighty man of valor but this Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved. 6

7 just does not describe Gideon at all. He is literally afraid. The reason he is in the winepress is because he s scared. He s not a mighty man of valor. But the angel says he is the man for the job. Look what Gideon says next. I think you and I have said some very, very similar things. Verse 13 he voices some concerns that we have all the time. It says, 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. So what Gideon is saying is that life is really hard; therefore, God must not be around. You and I have come to this conclusion independently very often that when life is difficult, when things are not going very well, when we are scared, when we don t have all the answers, when it doesn t seem like things are lining up, that must mean that God is not around. That s the conclusion that Gideon has come to. And often that s the conclusion that our culture has come to as well. In moments where there is a natural disaster like Super Storm Sandy or a mass shooting in Newtown, the narrative is often, Where was God? Because something really, really bad happened and that must mean that God was not around. This is what Gideon vocalizes and this is what you and I have felt at moments in our lives if we are really honest. Because life is hard, God must not He either must not be around or even worse, He is around and doesn t care. And that s where Gideon is. He s just being honest. He asked the angel of the Lord. And again, typical God, He doesn t answer the why question. He doesn t answer why because honestly the answer to why probably wouldn t help us all that much. He points to the who. He says that it isn t about why; it s about who. He s about to point him toward, He s about to use him for something gigantic and in the end he ll understand. So, Gideon has been called and the angel says he is the man who is going to release Israel from the oppression. And, like all good action heroes, like all of our movie stars who are faced with adversity, he starts making excuses. That s what Gideon does. So, let s read here as Gideon tries to talk himself out of God s calling. Verse 15-16, And he 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. And the Lord said to him, But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man. So, what Gideon does is exactly what you and I have done many times. God has asked us to do something and we say, I cannot and here s why. I am weak. I do not have what it takes to do the job. Gideon lays out his resume and says, Look, I m truly terrible. I am the weakest of the weak. You do not want to use me. Have you ever had someone fish for compliments in a conversation with you? They say, Ah, I look so fat. And you say, No, you re so skinny, girl. That s what I do. Or someone says, I m so dumb. And you say, No, you re great; you re smart. This is kind of what Gideon is doing. He tells God he is way too weak and God agrees that he is truly terrible for the job. Gideon is absolutely right. And He does not really pour into Gideon. He does not encourage him. Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved. 7

8 He says this (and this is so crucial for us if you have a highlighter) the angel of the Lord says this he does not say, Gideon, you are strong enough. Gideon, you are smart enough. Gideon, people like you. He doesn t say that. He says, But I will be with you but I will be with you. It s not about Gideon s resume. It s not about his strength. It s not about his smarts. It s not about his experience. It s about God s Presence. It s God s presence being with Gideon that qualifies him for the job. That s what this is all about. And so as the story continues here, we see that God calls Gideon to immediate action. Immediate action, and this is exactly what we have been talking about throughout this series. Someday, I really intend on doing things, but just not yet. God does not allow Gideon six months to pray about it. He does not offer him an opportunity to meet with his financial advisor and assess the risk. God calls him to immediate action. Look at what it says here in verses That night That night. God didn t even give Gideon 24 hours to sleep on it, 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 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. So Gideon took ten 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 here s what God does. God tells Gideon that He is calling him and He wants him to move now like now. He says there is an idol in your father s backyard. So, this kind of starts pulling the curtain back a little bit on Gideon and it starts to make a little bit of sense. His people have been oppressed for seven years and his dad was the one in charge of keeping the false idol in his home. So, no wonder Gideon had a hard time hearing from God and even realizing the call on his life, he was just unfamiliar. At this moment, we need to pause and ask if it is possible that our unfamiliarity with God is getting in the way of us hearing His call. Is the lack of time that we re spending with Him, the lack of intimacy in our relationship what s getting in the way of us taking that next step. Because we don t trust strangers, do we? So, Gideon s lack of relationship with God was getting in the way of him hearing the call. So, what does Gideon do? To his credit, he obeys and he gathers ten of his men and waits until it s nighttime to tear down the idol. Now, why did he wait to tear it down at night? Because he was scared. He was scared of his dad. He was scared of the family. He was scared of the men in the town. He was just genuinely scared. Many of us, if we re really honest, have this next step of faith that God is calling us to, but we re really concerned about what people are going to say, or what our family might think, or how we might be rejected or look flat out weird. And so we really wish we could just do it at night like Gideon. Again, our hero is not that blazing. One commentator put it like this, Obedience was essential. Heroism was optional. Obedience was essential; heroism was optional. So, is it possible that God is not calling you to a heroic act that s going to make a poster, but instead calling you to obediently take that next step? Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved. 8

9 As the account rolls on, Gideon is not all that assured just yet and he asks for a sign from God. He tells God he is going to lay out a fleece and what he wants God to do is he wants Him to make it soaking wet but the ground all around dry when he wakes up. That s really what he wants God to do. If God will do that, he promises to follow Him. He goes to sleep; wakes up. Wet fleece, dry ground. And you would think that s great. But, Gideon asks God to actually reverse it the next night. Dry fleece, wet ground that will be the thing that gets him over the hump. Goes to bed, wakes up. Dry fleece, wet ground. And before you guys (and before I I found myself doing this this week) get a little too judgmental saying, Oh, if an angel of the Lord appeared to me and if he made fleece wet and the ground dry or whatever, I would totally follow. I would totally do what God is asking me to do. First of all, no you wouldn t. And I know this. Here s how. You and I have overwhelming evidence that God is for us in our lives. Whether we recognize it or not, there is just overwhelming, jaw-dropping evidence that God is for us in our lives and you and I still struggle, still struggle following His call. I mean if anything should motivate us it should be the cross of Jesus Christ. We have that. Gideon didn t. And you and I still struggle to follow the call of God. So, here we have Gideon who is just like us a fearful farmer who is being called to be Commander in Chief. So, now we have our who. We know who God has called. It is Gideon the scared guy, the guy who doesn t have any qualifications. In chapter 7, we make the transition into how. First, we know the who now we re going to find out the how. Earlier in chapter 6, it says that Gideon was clothed with the Spirit of God. I love that idea. He was literally wearing the Spirit of God. And through that power not Gideon s own ingenuity, not his brilliance, not his character or anything like that it was through the Spirit of God that he assembled an army of 32,000 men. He had gone from fearful farmer to Commander in Chief in about 20 verses. That s a really impressive turnaround. Now, he s got this army of 32,000 men and when I think about 32,000 men, I personally have never led 32,000 men (maybe you have, I don t know) it just seems like a big army. But in comparison to the Midianites, it s very small. In fact, the army of Midian is compared to the grains of sand on a seashore they re just everywhere. You can t even count them. That s how many guys he s going up against. So 32,000, while sizeable, still make him the underdog in this situation. But God is not done dropping bombs on Gideon yet. Watch what He does in chapter 7 at the very beginning, we re going to read verses 1-3. Then Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) and all the people who were with him rose early and encamped beside the spring of Harod. And the camp of Midian was north of them, by the hill of Moreh, in the valley. The Lord said to Gideon, The people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel boast over me, saying, My own hand has saved me. Now therefore proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, Whoever is fearful and trembling, let him return home and hurry away from Mount Gilead. Then 22,000 of the people returned, and 10,000 remained. So, here s what s happening. Gideon rolls up to the Midianite camp and he has his 32,000 behind him and says that they re going to do this, they re going to take it on. And actually, God says that he has way too many dudes. He needs to shrink that because (and we re going to figure out why). Gideon gets up Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved. 9

10 there in front of the army and tells them that if they are scared, they can go home, no strings attached just take off. Imagine yourself in Gideon s shoes. You re saying that because you re supposed to, but there s no way you actually want them to listen to you. And then two-thirds of your army takes off on you. Imagine how devastating that had to have been for Gideon, the leader of the army, to watch two-thirds of his men take off and go home because they were scared. Now, why does God do that? What does it say there? What was God s motivation behind pruning the army? He says that if they (referring to the 32K) take on this army and win, they re going to take the credit. They re going to think, Look at our ingenuity, look at our brilliance, look at our military tactics. We are awesome. Check us out. God says that He can t take that risk because He s in it for His glory. He needed them to give Him the credit for this victory. And if they won with 32,000, they wouldn t. This brings up the great idea of credit stealing. Maybe you have had this happen to you before, maybe you have been in a group project and someone took credit for all of the work that you had done. It actually reminded me of this commercial if you ve watched football over the last four months, you ve probably seen this. Take a look at this commercial. video Girl: These new phones they got us are great. Yeah, it s the Galaxy Note 2. Girl: Girl: Girl: Girl Girl: Boss: You can do two things at the same time. Watch videos and text. Hah! Puppies. Or you could watch the earnings report and take notes like we re supposed to. Or you can make it look like me and Paul from accounting are dancing. Or you could be doing some work and some other kinds of work. Or you could draw a picture of you sitting at your desk. Look, I m Mike, I m working. Or you could get fired. and, I m boring. When it s all done, you can share it instantly. So, can I get it? Yeah. Either of you put together the earnings reports, yet? Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved. 10

11 Girl: Yes, me. Totally. 100%. Boss: Boss: Girl: Girl: What?! Oh, you re fast. Why don t you [talking to girl] tackle the next quarter and umm [addressing the guy] You eat yet? Polynesian? Pumbaa Platter? [nods] YES! I could Keep up the good work. I will keep up the good work. All right. So we love that because the credit thief got caught and was busted and we hate it when people take credit for the work that we have done. And that s what God s ensuring here. If they won with 32,000, they would take all of the credit. He needed them to have fewer men so that He would get the glory. Now, Gideon and God were looking at this battle through two different lenses. Gideon was looking at it through the lens of his immediate circumstance. He thought this battle was about Israel right now. It s about Israel getting out of the oppression of Midian. It s about them having a better life. It s about things not being so hard. And God loves them enough to where He wants to make their life nice. That s what Gideon was thinking. God was looking through a very different lens. He was less concerned about Israel s immediate circumstance, and more concerned about Him receiving glory. You see, God s really into Himself receiving glory and at first pass that may seem arrogant or a little selfish. But in reality God deserves it and that s why it s okay. If you and I were demanding glory, then it would be selfish and then it would be arrogant. But God s the One, the only One, worthy of the glory and so He s setting Gideon up so that there will be no other explanation other than God s presence for the victory. So, we go from 32,000 to 10,000 and God says that actually, that s too many. And He s going to take them from 10,000 He wants all 10,000 to go down to this body of water and here s what they re going to do. They are going to get a drink and if they put their face in the water and drink directly from the source, then Gideon can send them home. If they put water in their hands and lap it up like a dog, then he can keep them. Now, was this an exercise in table manners? No. This was about God pruning down the army. Get this 9,700 men drink straight from the body of water and go home. That means Gideon is left with 300 soldiers to take on an army that was described as the grains of sand on a seashore. Frame of reference. This middle section [in the sanctuary] has 352 chairs. I counted them. It would be like them taking on an Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved. 11

12 army of thousands, and thousands, and thousands. He is a major, major underdog. And, possibly God has a purpose behind this. So we see here in verses of chapter 7 we re going to see what happens. Gideon has one last burst of confidence from a dream that he hears and he knows that it is time to go and conquer. Here s what he says in chapter 7 verses Just listen to Gideon s plan, As soon as Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation, he worshiped. And he returned to the camp of Israel and said, Arise, for the Lord has given the host of Midian into your hand. And he divided the 300 men into three companies and put trumpets into the hands of all of them and empty jars, with torches inside the jars. And he said to them, Look at me, and do likewise. When I come to the outskirts of the camp, do as I do. When I blow the trumpet, I and all who are with me, then blow the trumpets also on every side of all the camp and shout, For the Lord and for Gideon. Did you hear that plan? That s terrible, truly a terrible idea. Here s what Gideon did he has 300 [the Midianites have] thousands he s going to give his army a trumpet and a jar. Got it? Good. Look, I played trumpet in middle school band, very poorly, and no one was afraid of me because I had a trumpet. It just doesn t work. It s not a weapon. It s not intimidating. But Gideon says here s what s going to happen. You have a trumpet and a jar. We re going to surround them and make a bunch of noise and that s going to win the day. Still pretty crazy. Here s what we need to learn and here s the truth. God uses unlikely people like Gideon and unlikely methods like trumpets and jars so that He gets the glory. That s what happened. He used unlikely people and unlikely methods so that He got the glory. So trumpets and jars it is. And often you and I so quickly disqualify ourselves because all we have is a trumpet and a jar. We ve never led an army before and God knows. He knows. Is it possible that God is using that with very real intentions? So watch this. It works. At the end of chapter 7, verses here s how it plays out, Then the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the jars. They held in their left hands the torches, and in their right hands the trumpets to blow. And they cried out, A sword for the Lord and for Gideon! Every man stood in his place around the camp, and all the army ran. They cried out and fled. When they blew the 300 trumpets, the Lord set every man s sword against his comrade and against all the army. So here s what happens. Gideon s plan is to surround them, make a bunch of noise and that s going to win. And it does. They surround them. They blow the trumpets and the army of Midian wakes up in confusion and fights each other to the death. The Israelites win a battle without ever engaging in handto-hand combat. Is there any other explanation other than God s presence in that? No. Maybe maybe God wanted it that way. So, what does this mean for us? I doubt you have ever been asked to lead an army or blow trumpets or tear down physical idols maybe that s not it. But is it possible that God is calling you to that next step, that He wants to use you? And you ve been using your weaknesses and your shortcomings as disqualifications and God sees it the other way around. Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved. 12

13 So, here s the truth for the day. My weakness is not my excuse, it is my qualification. Weakness is not my excuse, it s my qualification. Is it possible that God is calling you, not in spite of your weakness, but because of it? That s why He s calling you. And so you have to wrestle with this idea, Is it possible that God wants me to do something big for Him in spite of my weakness actually because of it, because of my weakness? So how does this play out? How do we do it? I want to give you three steps to taking a step. Step #1 You might have to tear down the idols in your backyard. You might have to tear down the idols in your backyard. You see, before Gideon was ever able to assemble an army or command them in battle, he had to first go to his backyard and tear down the idol. And the idol was the thing that was getting in the way of Gideon hearing God clearly. Now there s a really good chance that you don t have a statue in your backyard some kind of false god (I get that), but maybe for some of us it could be our bank account, our financial security. And we have worked hard for those resources, and we have been wise with them, and I am totally for that. I m not promoting recklessness, just to be clear. Is it possible that our financial security has been the thing that s gotten in the way of us following God s call? Because it wasn t in the 10-year plan, it wasn t on the spreadsheet. And so, if it s going to take financial sacrifice, it almost immediately gets turned off in our head. If it s going to take money, then we re out. Is it possible that that s the idol? Is it possible that it s your popularity or your reputation? You think, If I were to do what God s asking me to do, people are going to think I m crazy. Have you ever had that thought? Has that ever held you back? Maybe your reputation and popularity isn t the idol in your backyard maybe it s the kids. Their future, their safety, and their security you hold so tight to that that you re not ever allowed to be flexible and it s gotten in the way of following God s call. So, first we need to tear down the idols in our backyard so that we can hear God clearly. Step #2 Acknowledge the call. How many of you did this in school? The teacher was in front of the class teaching through something and she asked a question and she was obviously looking for an answer, but no one wanted to answer. So, what would you do? You d avoid eye contact. This is elementary 101, right? You do not make eye contact with the teacher. You look at your shoes. You look at your desk. You look at the ceiling. Whatever you do, do not make eye contact with the teacher or else she will call on you. Guaranteed, 100% of the time. Some of us have been avoiding eye contact with God. We hear His voice and we know that He s calling us to something. But we re looking at our shoes, we re looking at the desk, we re looking at the ceiling, and we re just avoiding eye contact at all costs because we re scared, because we think we re too weak which leads us to Step #3. Step #3 Embrace the weakness. Embrace the weakness. Your resume and all that it lacks does not disqualify you. It may actually qualify you for the job. It may be why He wants you in the first place. And so instead of hiding your weakness, embrace it and say the only way that this works is if God is in it. He says, But I will be with you. Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved. 13

14 So, this morning we want to give you a little bit of help. Aaron has been using this idea that the problem with someday is that it s not on the calendar. Sunday, Monday, Tuesday there s just no Someday that doesn t exist so it s our deflection. Well, this morning we would like to help you put Someday on the calendar. If you have a bulletin, grab it and open it up. There s a box in there I want you to look at. Also, if you didn t grab one, there will be some stuff up on the screen. While you re grabbing your bulletin, if you have a calendar with you, if you have either a paper calendar or one on your phone, grab that in your other hand. I want to talk you through this. What we want you to do is put Someday on the calendar. So, these are four steps of faith. They are not all encompassing. I get that. They are not going to apply to all of us, but these are four big steps of faith that maybe God is calling you to and we re going to put Someday on the calendar. So, first of all, maybe it s baptism. Maybe you ve been delaying. Maybe you ve been putting it off saying, Someday, I would really, really like to do that. Someday I would love to be all in. Someday I would love to experience that, but there are certain things holding me back. Maybe much like Gideon, you re afraid of what your family might think and all the implications of what that would mean. If you need help thinking through that and asking those questions, then we would love to talk you through that. This is not a delay moment; this is today. So, get this. The deadline for next baptism Sunday is tomorrow. So guess when you should sign up? Today. Literally today sign up. Don t put it off. If you have questions or want someone to pray about it with you, we would love to do so. Baptism Sunday, you can sign up today. Next, maybe you ve been around here for a while and you ve considered really investing here. This is your home. This is where you feel fulfilled. This is just where you love to worship, but you ve been a little bit on the margins. You haven t totally put all of your chips on the table. We do this thing called Discovery Process this is our membership deal where we teach what Traders Point is all about, teach what the Bible says about certain things. And then what happens through this, we don t just get members, we get owners and that s what we love. We want there to be a sense of ownership through this process. And so, if you have been delaying, if you ve said, Someday when I get around to it, when I have a Sunday that s free put it on the calendar. Here s what you do: February 17 from 2-4. You can go online and guess when you should register? Today. Today. What about this? Maybe in a room like this you feel a little bit isolated. I get that. It s big, lots of people, it s fun. But at some point we would like to feel connected and it s very difficult to feel connected in a place with a few hundred people, that s difficult. So, what we want to do is take this big group and break it into small groups. We believe that life change happens best in small groups. We believe that community is very intentional with the way Jesus wired us. If you have been debating, if you have been considering becoming a part of a small group, this Saturday we re doing a thing called Group Link. And it s where you can come and meet future leaders of small groups. You can meet them and see what they re all about and find the right fit for you. But we Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved. 14

15 desperately want you in a small group in a community so that you can love others and be loved yourself. And so, if you are considering being a part of community, guess when you should sign up? Today. Now, this is the fun part. They re all fun this is especially fun. Maybe God is calling you to that next step of faith and that means serving in a context that is not your normal. It s serving in a place that you are not familiar with or comfortable with. We have a short-term mission trip callout meeting literally in about 20 minutes. That s what s going on. Here s why we do short-term mission trips. We want to make Jesus famous. We want to help and extend the Kingdom of God. We want people to know about the saving love of Jesus Christ that we have received ourselves and so we go and we serve. Get this. There are 14 trips to 9 different countries from now until July and listen to all of the options. There are sports, construction, business, you can hang out with orphans and kids, you can do special needs ministry, and you can even get into leadership development. So, no matter what you re into, there is an opportunity for you to be used by God in a short-term environment. So, if you are even possibly considering the idea of a short-term mission trip if it kind of piques your interest go up to the Block right now after the service, you can hear about the trips, you can consider one, you don t have to sign up you just get to hear all the details. But guess when you should go? Today. In like 5 minutes literally up in the Block. To be sure that we re ending on point, God wants to use you. I mean that 100% across the board here in this room. God wants to use you. And it s not your heroic acts He s after. It s not your strengths. It s not your brilliance. It s not your good looks. It s not any of that. He s looking to use you so that He can get the glory and that s what this is all about. So right now we re going to sign this song. I love the chorus in it. It goes like this: I know who goes before me, I know who stands behind. The God of angel armies is always by my side. The One who reigns forever, He is a Friend of mine. The God of angel armies is always by my side. God is not calling you in spite of your weakness, He s calling you because of it. What s that next step? Let s pray. If you would, please stand up and I m going to pray for us. Pray for the courage and the boldness to step out and then we re going to sing this together. Hey, God, we come humbly before You embracing our weakness. We know that we miss the mark. We know that we make mistakes. We know that we do not have enough of whatever it takes to do Your calling and that s why we need You. We need Your presence to do this right, to do this big. God, we are trusting You. We are putting this in Your hands as we sing this song. We love You so much. And it s in Your incredible Name we pray. Amen. Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved. 15