Gideon - Possible Lives of Faith SERIES - May 24-25, 2014

OPEN

·      Welcome all those in Urbana, watching online, and at our other campuses.

   ·      Been encouraged as we’ve unpacked the FAITH of great characters in the Bible (Abe, Canaanite woman, Paul) and how the impossible of their lives became possible through their belief in God’s power.

   ·      Today, we will look at another character: Gideon

   ·      And we hope to unpack the idea that “Faith is Relational.”

PRAYER

ME

Can you remember a time in your life, when everything seemed impossible??

I can . It was about 7 years ago…

·      Corrie had just lost her job.

·      I was working 3 jobs at the time.  

·      Corrie was trying to start a new home daycare business.

·      One of our best friends was getting a divorce due to an ugly affair.

·      Corrie’s mom had just had a stroke & heart issues.

·      Two of our close friends’ small businesses were failing.

·      My long-time accountability partner’s health was going south fast.

·      Our son was wrestling with the dog, got scratched and had to go to the emergency room to get his faced stitched up (that’s hard on a 2 year old)…

·      and to make matters worse I hit a rock with the lawn mower, it shot out & shattered our sliding glass window, lol… that was a bad day!

WE

Now, some of you can relate that this is how life feels to you right now… or maybe it’s only one of those things: finances, your marriage, you/your family’s health, your job, or something silly like a broken window that has just thrown you off your game.

Dilemma: When our lives get filled with stress, worry, doubt and anxiety… it can be tough to have faith in the midst of it. It can be tough to believe in a God that you’ve never seen (and some of you have never met).

But even more than that, it can be tough for us to just interact with God through those times. What we want to do is interact with our friends & family… maybe complain a little… but it can be tough to put our trust in the Father to come through… and it can be even tougher to partner with Holy Spirit to do Kingdom stuff when our lives are shouting so much louder.

The truth is this: “Faith is Relational” – not a set of rules, principles, statements

In order to tackle the impossible of our lives with faith, we must remain in relationship with the Father.

GOD

If you have your Bibles today, turn over to the book of Judges

·      near the beginning of the OT)…

   ·      we will put the text up on the screen for the main verses (the story is 3 chapters long)

   ·      for those without a Bible, we encourage you to download a YOU Version AP on your phone or pick up a FREE Bible at the connect desk.

We are going to be in Judges chapters 6-8. This is after the time of Moses and Joshua, but before Israel had kings. They were lost and kind of leaderless. They’d put their trust in many things, but rarely in the Father who was pursuing them.

We will be looking at the life of a normal guy who put this “faith is relational” idea to great practice… and in turn became known as one of the “heroes of the faith.”

ISRAEL’S BAD DAY:

6:3 For whenever the Israelites planted crops, the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the East would come up against them. 4 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. 5 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. 6 And Israel was brought very low because of Midian. And the people of Israel cried out for help to the Lord.

Wow, that sounds like a hard situation to have faith in the midst of doesn’t it? The whole country is in terrible shape… no crops, no food, no nothing after the attack. But the people did something amazing here, they talked with God about their problems… and God responds. The FATHER pursues the relationship with them. He decides to visit with Gideon.

Not maybe the person I would choose. Gideon is the son of a farmer and he is hiding as he’s processing the wheat from their farm. God shows up and sees past Gideon’s fear and excuses and calls him into his destiny:

6:12 and said to him, “The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor.”

This is huge! We must begin to understand that God knows who we really are & He’s willing to seek us out in relationship to tell us!

Gideon is not a warrior… he’s a “hider” from the enemy and the son of a farmer. There is no history of battle in his family’s life. But when God tells him his identity, he responds. And, his words are full of doubt. Why has this happened? Where is God? Why is God letting bad things happen to good people?

The Father responds again with his identity: 6:14 “Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian.

But Gideon still doubts. I am weak. I can’t do this? My people are weak.

The Father responds: 6:16 “But I will be with you.”

And Gideon still doubts! Show me a sign first God! Which the Father does through igniting fire in a rock and consuming Gideon’s sacrifice.

You see, doubt isn’t something that our Father is afraid of. The key in Gideon’s life and in our lives is to keep the conversation going!

(1) Faith Is Relational, even when we doubt…

   ·      When I look back at that season 7 years ago, I remember the doubts that crept in. “What am I doing wrong God?” “Do you even want us planting this church?”

   ·      What was key for Corrie and I was continuing to worship Him… continuing to ask for His guidance… continuing to be in close enough relationship with the Father that we could hear His voice.

   ·      I believe I never have had a richer prayer time with God than through this season. Even though life felt like crisis, my personal worship times were amazing. – Afternoons in the auditorium at the church.

After Gideon’s first encounter with God, he began to take small steps of faith in obeying his call/destiny. The first thing he did was to destroy the local fertility gods’ statues (Baal/Asherah) and replace them with altars to the Lord. You see, Gideon’s family, friends and town had decided to put their trust in someone else to re-supply their crops and livestock. Not only would him doing this make him a social outcast, but also it might cost him his life.

6: 27 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.

The town wants to kill Gideon, but he is spared… the next thing that happens is even crazier. All of Israel’s enemies and oppressors unite as one and cross into their territory to destroy them…

winning one battle made resistance stronger (John 10:10).

God shows up again… and the relationship continues.

Remember: in the first encounter Gideon has, God tells him who he is, “a warrior.” This time, God empowers him to action 6:34 But the Spirit of the Lord clothed Gideon, and he sounded the trumpet.

   ·      And this is really how God continues to work in and with us today.

   ·      He calls us by a new name (son/daughter) through the death/resurrection of Jesus.

   ·      PLUS, when that barrier is broken down, He comes in power into an intimate relationship with us by the indwelling presence of His Spirit.

After Holy Spirit comes on Gideon, he doesn’t just rush into battle. First, he has a two day conversation with God double-checking what He wants Gideon to do going forward (explain fleece). You see, not only is our faith relational when we doubt, but:

(2) Faith is Relational, even when we step into the unknown.

·      Let’s go back to my story for just a minute. Not only did we need to talk with Jesus during the crisis, but also as our days went forward.

   ·      We kept talking with Him as we prayed for our friends’ crisis. – weekly to Jeff’s to pray

   ·      We kept talking with Him through our own family’s struggles. – Detroit trips and Corrie/I praying

   ·      We kept worshipping Him for His goodness & how He’d called us His own. – we knew He’d never leave us nor forsake us

   ·      We kept thanking Him for the small victories in the midst of the storm.

Let’s wrap up Gideon’s story.

It is just amazing how Gideon now pushes forward. First, God shows up and tells Gideon who he is… Second, Holy Spirit comes on Gideon… Finally, the Father shows Gideon that it’s not by his strength but by the strength of the Lord alone will the battle be won.

7:2 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.’ 3 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.

Too many men?! Isn’t that the point?!

When we get in crisis, we want to surround ourselves with enough people, money, or power to get the job done… but God wants us to have faith in Him, not in our own resources. Take a look at the story again. The number of warriors went from 22k to 10k, but God’s not done.

7:4 And the Lord said to Gideon, “The people are still too many. Take them down to the water, and I will test them for you there, and anyone of whom I say to you, ‘This one shall go with you,’ shall go with you, and anyone of whom I say to you, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ shall not go.” 5 So he brought the people down to the water. And the Lord said to Gideon, “Every one who laps the water with his tongue, as a dog laps, you shall set by himself. Likewise, every one who kneels down to drink.” 6 And the number of those who lapped, putting their hands to their mouths, was 300 men, but all the rest of the people knelt down to drink water. 7 And the Lord said to Gideon, “With the 300 men who lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hand, and let all the others go, every man to his home.”

At this point, Gideon knows that it’s not him who will win the battle… it can’t be him, not with 300 men. Gideon has to step into the unknown with all of his doubts and trust in faith that God will come through. But, he doesn’t have to do that in a vacuum. It’s done in relationship with the Father who loves him, calls him by his true identity and empowers him to action.

To make a long story short, Gideon and his 300 men together with some supernatural help from the Lord conquer an army that is over 100,000 strong!

As Gideon wins the battles in chapters 7-8, we see him keep the relationship going:

   ·      He does exactly what God tells him to do (7:9-14).

   ·      Dream/Interpretation

   ·      He worships God when he realizes the Lord’s truth (7:15).

   ·      He gives God the credit for the victory (7:18-20).

You see, not only is faith relational during our doubts and unknowns, but…

Faith is Relational, even after we have won the victory.

·      Let me tell you 1 story of victory in the midst of our life from 7 years ago.

·      As believers we are called to tithe. When we were struggling to make ends-meat and had babies to feed, this was always a tough check to write.

·      One month, we paid the bills and only had money left over for our tithe or our food/diapers… we wrote the tithe check.

·      What happened over the next 24 hours was our 300 men against 100,000 experience:

o   First, we didn’t have stamps to mail the bills we just paid – they showed up in the mail (along with return address labels) that day from our State Farm agent.

o   Also in the mail that day was baby formula (Ethne an infant) and coupons for more, free baby formula.

o   Later that afternoon, someone anonymously left diapers on our front porch.

o   The next day, 4 bags full of groceries showed up on our doorstep.

o   Finally, there were some random checks dropped off that week.

·      Pretty amazing what happens when we step out in faith!

·      And we kept the relationship going: worshipping and praising God for His provision… thanking Him for coming through when we couldn’t see the victory through our crisis!

·      And telling others about the goodness of how our God had come through!

YOU

Now, you may be sitting there today still full of doubts and unknowns… and I get it. Those totally make sense! Even the great men and women of faith from the Bible were not without their concerns… and that’s the point.

Begin to share those doubts and unknowns with your heavenly Father who loves you and thinks of you so differently that you probably do yourself. He’s a good Dad who wants to give good gifts to His kids when they ask Him.

And even more than that, His resources are beyond anything we can possibly imagine… 

   o   The power to heal you/your family physically.

   o   The power to mend broken hearts and relationships.

   o   The power to flood your family with fresh resources and your cupboards with food.

All He’s asking us to do is believe… believe enough in Him to enter into relationship with Him… then He’ll do all the blessing! He just wants our faith and our friendship.

WE

Every encounter/interaction with God is supernatural. AND one event with God could forever change your destiny.

Gideon ruled his nation for 40 years of peace after that battle… a nobody, farmer’s son, full of doubts and unknowns, trusted the Lord through a “relational faith” and had the course of his life changed.

When faced with our own doubts, we need to “STOP, LOOK and LISTEN” to reconnect with the Father.

“Stop” and remember that the Father is with us.

When Gideon is mentioned in the great faith chapter of Hebrews 11, he is among those of whom it is said “the world was not worthy.”  And yet, Hebrews 11 also says, “he did not receive what was promised.” (11:39)

But, we have received what was promised: An intimate relationship with the God of the universe. By His Spirit, He has come to live inside of us because Jesus has paved the way, through the cross, for an intimate relationship that knows no boundaries and no hindrances! “Look to Jesus” & remember this truth of righteousness.

ACTION: “Listen” to what the Father is saying, no matter what is going on in your life. If He loves us enough give us His Son as a sacrifice and His Spirit as our personal comfort, power & guide… then I believe He will see our entire crisis and come to help us through them.