Called To Courage Series

Called to Courage

Jeffery Anselmi / General Adult

Fearless / Fear; Obedience / Judges 6:11–27

Don’t be afraid; you may be weak, but God is strong

OPENING SLIDE

INTRODUCTION

• “Fearless” is a three-week series that looks at the story of Gideon and what it means to have fearless faith.

• God wanted Gideon to be a man of valor—ruled by peace and marked by courage, rather than being ruled by fear and marked by cowardice.

• God wants the same for us.

• This series will demonstrate that Christian courage is not grounded in human power but in divine power.

• Let’s begin our series, Fearless, Unshakable Faith, by looking at Gideon being called to courage.

• If you read the Bible carefully, you will notice a pattern in the way God works.

• God has a tendency to call the weak.

• Not the obvious heroes.

• Not the most confident.

• Not the most impressive.

• Instead, God repeatedly calls people who feel unqualified and inadequate.

• Moses said, “I can’t speak.”

• Jeremiah said, “I’m too young.”

• And Gideon… Gideon was hiding in a winepress trying to thresh wheat in secret.

• These are not the people we would normally choose to accomplish great things.

• But they are exactly the people God chooses.

• Because when God uses the weak, His strength becomes unmistakable.

• That reveals something important about Christian courage.

• Christian courage does not come from our strength or heroics.

• It comes from the empowering presence of God.

• And that means as followers of Christ we are not called to live lives ruled by fear and cowardice.

• We are called to live with inner peace and courage because God is with us.

• That is the lesson we see in Judges 6:11–27, and that is still how God works today.

• Let’s begin our journey by looking at Judges 6, beginning with verses 11 and 12.

• Before Gideon ever acts with courage, before he ever leads an army, and before he ever defeats the Midianites, God comes to a fearful man named Gideon and calls him something that must have sounded almost unbelievable.

• God speaks identity over him.

Judges 6:11–12 NET 2nd ed.

11 The angel of the LORD came and sat down under the oak tree in Ophrah owned by Joash the Abiezrite. He arrived while Joash’s son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress so he could hide it from the Midianites.

12 The angel of the LORD appeared and said to him, “The LORD is with you, courageous warrior!”

MAIN POINT 1 SLIDE

I. God Calls Us Beyond What We See In Ourselves

• In Judges 6:1-11, we see one of the cycles in the book of Judges play out.

• The cycle in the book of Judges is as follows:

• The nation would fall into sin and forsake God.

• After numerous warnings from God to correct their behavior, which went unheeded, God would send another country to enslave and persecute the nation.

• Eventually, the nation would repent and cry out to God, who would send a judge to save them.

• Then, after a period of time, the cycle started again.

• This cycle happened 7 times in the book of Judges.

• At this point in Judges, the nation was crying out, and God was sending a judge.

• Guess who is getting the call.

• When the angel of the Lord appears to Gideon, the scene is pretty ironic.

• Gideon was hiding.

• He is threshing wheat in a winepress—a place that was never meant for threshing wheat.

• Normally wheat would be threshed in an open area where the wind could separate the grain from the chaff.

• But Gideon is doing it in secret because the Midianites were raiding Israel and stealing their crops.

• And it is in that moment—when Gideon is hiding in fear—that God shows up and says, "The LORD is with you, mighty warrior.”

• You can almost imagine Gideon looking around thinking, “Who is He talking to?”

• Gideon didn’t feel like a warrior.

• He felt weak, afraid, and uncertain.

• Nothing about Gideon’s circumstances—or Gideon’s self-perception—suggests he is a mighty warrior.

• But God was not calling Gideon based on what Gideon looked like in that moment.

• God was calling Gideon based on what Gideon would become through God’s power.

• And that is a pattern we see all throughout Scripture.

• God calls people beyond what they see in themselves.

• God called Abram, an old man without children, and told him he would be the father of nations.

• God called Moses, a reluctant shepherd, to confront Pharaoh and lead Israel out of Egypt.