GOD, GIDEON AND GRACE

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1 SERMON to call GOD, GIDEON AND GRACE Type of meeting: Bible text: Morning worship Judges 6:11-17; 7:1-8 GNT Background The children of Israel are at a low point in their history After the joy of escaping from Egypt, thwarting the Egyptions, having survived those 40 years wandering in the desert, at last they have entered the Promised Land. But things are not all that they should be. Moses and Joshua are dead. They have entered the Promised Land but they have not conquered it. Instead of obeying God and having nothing to do with the locals, they had compromised with them, lived alongside them, become very comfortable with them and before they realise it the Israelites have become just like them, worshipping idols and forgetting all about the God of their ancestors. And God allows them to go their own way, to reap the rewards of their disobedience and unfaithfulness and so they are defeated by the enemy, forced to serve them and live in fear and oppression. Periodically God s people would come to their senses and cry out in desperation to him. God would hear them and he would raise up a leader to defeat their enemies. These leaders were called judges; but z they were more freedom fighter than legal eagle z they were often the most unlikely of candidates z Samson, perhaps the most famous of the judges, was made weak and vulnerable by his love of women z Jephthah, another of the judges, was an outlaw and adventurer, the son of a prostitute z Deborah was not only a woman but a married woman at that, whom God used to defeat the enemy and establish peace for 40 years So these judges weren t the recognised crème de la crème of Israelite society, they were not the obvious choice to rescue God s people. And neither was Gideon Bible reading: Judges 6:11-17 GNT Then the Lord s angel came to the village of Ophrah and sat under the oak tree that belonged to Joash, a man of the clan of Abiezer. His son Gideon was threshing some wheat secretly in a wine press, so that the Midianites would not see him. The Lord s angel appeared to him there and said, The Lord is with you, brave and mighty man! Gideon said to him, If I may ask, sir, why has all this happened to us if the Lord is with us? What

2 happened to all the wonderful things that our fathers told us the Lord used to do how he brought them out of Egypt? The Lord has abandoned us and left us to the mercy of the Midianites. Then the Lord ordered him, Go with all your great strength and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I myself am sending you. Gideon replied, But Lord, how can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest in the tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least important member of my family. The Lord answered, You can do it because I will help you. You will crush the Midianites as easily as if they were only one man. Gideon replied, If you are pleased with me, give me some proof that you are really the Lord. Judges 7:1-8 GNT Gideon Defeats the Midianites One day Gideon and all his men got up early and camped beside Harod Spring. The Midianite camp was in the valley to the north of them by Moreh Hill. The Lord said to Gideon, The men you have are too many for me to give them victory over the Midianites. They might think that they had won by themselves, and so give me no credit. Announce to the people, Anyone who is afraid should go back home, and we will stay here at Mount Gilead. So twenty-two thousand went back, but ten thousand stayed. Then the Lord said to Gideon, You still have too many men. Take them down to the water, and I will separate them for you there. If I tell you a man should go with you, he will go. If I tell you a man should not go with you, he will not go. Gideon took the men down to the water, and the Lord told him, Separate everyone who laps up the water with his tongue like a dog, from everyone who gets down on his knees to drink. There were three hundred men who scooped up water in their hands and lapped it; all the others got down on their knees to drink. The Lord said to Gideon, I will rescue you and give you victory over the Midianites with the three hundred men who lapped the water. Tell everyone else to go home. So Gideon sent all the Israelites home, except the three hundred, who kept all the supplies and trumpets. The Midianite camp was below them in the valley. Sermon Gideon Coward or Conqueror? Let s consider Gideon. He s down in the wine press, busy working, secretly threshing wheat. No doubt he s hot and tired threshing wheat is hard work especially when you re trying to be quiet and don t want to attract attention. Ever read this passage and wondered why he s down there in a wine press with wheat? HE IS AFRAID! He s there because he s afraid, desperately afraid of the Midianites, who rule over the Israelites with a rod of iron. To be caught harvesting grain was an offence punishable by death.

3 So Gideon is afraid. He s hiding away, praying that nobody will see what he s doing. And suddenly God s angel comes to him and greets him with these words: The Lord is with you, brave and mighty man! (v12). The NIV translates the verse, The Lord is with you, mighty warrior! When I first read that, I wondered whether there was a hint of sarcasm in the angel s greeting. At that precise moment, Gideon was more frightened farmer than mighty warrior, more coward than conqueror, and certainly more victim than victor. And yet the angel greets Gideon with: The Lord is with you, mighty warrior! I don t think the angel of the Lord was being sarcastic. I believe he was reminding Gideon about who he was and in whose company he was. The Lord is with you! When God is with us, we have all the resources of Heaven available to us. We can do anything, we can be anything by God s grace, through the power of his Spirit at work within us. Grace was the difference between Gideon the Coward and Gideon the Conqueror Grace God s unmerited favour. God looked down on Gideon the frightened farmer and God saw that he had the potential to be a brave and mighty warrior. And so God gives Gideon his marching orders (v14) Go with all your great strength and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I myself am sending you. Gideon s response to this command was effectively: Go with all my great strength? Hardly, Lord! (v15b) My clan is the weakest in the tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least important member of my family. Go with all my great strength and rescue Israel? You re joking, right? But Gideon is forgetting GRACE as we often do God s unmerited favour. Gideon has forgotten (or perhaps he never knew) that with God, though we are weak though we are afraid, though we are powerless in him we are strong. The Apostle Paul knew this to be true. In 2 Corinthians 12:9 God says to him: My grace is all you need, for my power is greatest when you are weak. Paul concludes, I am content (with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions and difficulties) For when I am weak (when I realise I can t do it on my own), then I am strong (in him). Gideon is not at that point in his understanding yet. He hasn t learnt this truth for himself. So Gideon asks for a sign, confirmation that he really is the mighty warrior God has need of. Look at verse 36 (and remaining verses to the end of the chapter), You say that you have decided to use me to rescue Israel I don t believe it s a bad thing, when we hear God calling to us, that we test our calling not test God but test our calling that we confirm that it is right, that we pray and search Scripture, that we listen to the advice of mature Christians, that we engage our minds as well as our hearts in discerning God s

4 will for our lives. This is what Gideon does, and by the end of chapter 6 he is confident enough to take on the Midianites. But he still hadn t learnt about grace. And so God teaches him about grace by reducing his army of 32,000 to just 300 men! Judges 7:2: The Lord said to Gideon, The men you have are too many for me to give them victory over the Midianites. They might think that they had won by themselves, and so give me no credit. With the understanding of grace (when I am weak, then I am strong in God) comes humility. I once heard a Canadian officer suggest that humility is best defined in this way: Humility is agreeing with God about who you are. Humility is not false modesty. Humility is not constantly saying, I m sorry but I m really not very good at that, I don t have any gifts. Humility is agreeing with God about who you are. God has a plan and a purpose for each of our lives. He looks at us and sees our potential, as he did with Gideon, but we need to agree with him about it. Statisticians tell us that every person does one thing better than 10,000 others. There is one thing (at least) that you do better than anybody else in this hall, possibly better than anybody else in your neighbourhood or town, perhaps even within the ranks of the entire Salvation Army! I wonder what it is what s it for you? Wouldn t it be awful if you never discovered what that one thing was and never learnt how to use it in fulfilling the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20)? As we look at how God chose the 300 men, first out of an army of 32,000 and then 10,000, to accompany Gideon, we realise that there was method in the seeming madness of the selection process (v5): Separate everyone who laps up the water with his tongue like a dog, from everyone who gets down on his knees to drink. God had a unique assignment for Gideon and his men, and those who would so easily drop their guard by getting down on both knees to drink, did not have what it would take to get the job done. Corporately, I don t think any of us would argue about who we are before God this morning. We are The Salvation Army, called to go for souls and go for the worst, given the job of seeking the least, the lost and the last. There was a time when we did saving souls better than anybody else; when Salvation Army was an apt description of who we were. But if we re honest, that s no longer the case. Sadly, we currently don t see that many souls saved through this Salvation Army of ours. Of course it does still happen, but it s the exception rather than the rule. One of the exceptions happened in the most unlikely places and was brought about by the most unexpected person. Her name was Marion and she was one of the oldest soldiers that we had in our first appointment. She was about 86 and had become quite fragile and very confused at times. She was taken into a nursing home for a while for observation and I visited her while she was there. I was concerned to see how frail she had become, but when I spoke to her she assured me that she was fine and having a great time talking to the other residents.

5 In fact, she said, yesterday I led one of the ladies here to the Lord. As simple as that: I was talking to the lady, told her about my friend Jesus and led her to Christ. It struck me then, as it does now, that we don t have to be young or strong or a gifted preacher to save souls. All we need is to love God, be obedient to his promptings, and then allow ourselves to be a channel of his grace to others. For when we are weak, then he is strong. God has a unique calling for each one of us. This unique work will depend on our giftings, passions, life circumstances and opportunities. All callings are equally valid and necessary teachers and healers, administrators and artists, carers and advocates, entrepreneurs and athletes. The list is unending. But this morning, on this Candidates Sunday, we hear the Apostle Paul s words: the scripture says, Everyone who calls out to the Lord for help will be saved. But how can they call to him for help if they have not believed? And how can they believe if they have not heard the message? And how can they hear if the message is not proclaimed? And how can the message be proclaimed if the messengers are not sent out? (Romans 10:13-15). Today, God walks amongst his Army of Salvation and he sees the mighty warriors in our midst, those whom he is calling to be leaders of his people and to lead them out on to the battlefield. This morning, as we pray, ask God to reveal to you whether you are a modern-day Gideon, one in whom he sees the potential to lead his people. Then pray for the humility to agree with God about this, and the grace to respond as he declares: Go I myself am sending you. Ephesians 2:10 says this: For we are God s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do.

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