Gideon Series

Chico Alliance Church

November 10, 2002

Pastor David Welch

“Gideon”

Unlikely Heroes Part Three

Introduction

We have focused on the individuals listed in Hebrews chapter 11 as people who believed God in spite of the difficult circumstances they found themselves and who God used to bring about eternal impact in their circle of influence.

You see, all of us have a circle influence.

That circle is different froe everyone.

It may be larger or smaller.

Some will never leave the small community in which they live.

Scripture records many who impact only one or two people while they lived but whose faith and testimony has touched thousands.

Some think that because they do not have a world wide ministry they are not effective for God.

God wants me to tell you that he is not concerned about the size of your impact but your trust in Him.

God call all of us to impact our present circle of influence.

Don’t try to change your circle of influence or broaden it.

Be faithful where you are with what you have.

Then God will trust you with greater impact later.

"He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much. "Therefore if you have not been faithful in the use of unrighteous wealth, who will entrust the true riches to you? "And if you have not been faithful in the use of that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own? "No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth." Luke 16:10-13

The only thing that pleases God is trust leading to obedience.

Trust and obey for there’s no other way.

Without faith it is impossible to please Him.

Hebrews talks about those who demonstrated faith.

And what more shall I say? For time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets, who by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Hebrews 11:32-34

We have looked at the circumstances of Barak and Deborah in the period of the judges.

We explored how God used Barak and acknowledged him even though he was reluctant at best and chicken at worst.

The point was he acted with trust and obedience.

We explored the five elements of the cycle of sin pointed out in judges so prominently but is true of everyone’s journey from the fleshly to the spiritual.

Slide

Sin -- Slavery -- Supplication -- Salvation -- Silence (rest)

Today we look at the cycle which begins in Judges 6 and continues through chapter 8 where God enlisted another unlikely hero to bring dramatic deliverance to the people of God.

Many of us will certainly be able to identify with Gideon in more ways than one.

May we not only be encouraged by the kind of people greatly used by God but also discover some insights along the way into His ways.

Read the whole passage

I. An impossible Situation

Sin

They again did evil in the sight of God.

Remember the issue is not whether it is evil in our eyes but what is evil in the sight of the Lord.

These people were perfectly comfortable with their life choices.

They were in bondage because they were doing evil in the sight of the Lord.

Slavery

C.S. Lewis wrote in his book, The Problem of Pain, "God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world." God was shouting to His people, as He sometimes has to shout at us when we refuse to listen to His Word.

The Midianites were basically starving out the Israelites.

They would keep stealing their lunch and breaking their toys.

The people were so intimidated they continually hid in nearby caves.

The people were significantly outnumbered by the Midianites.

Supplication

So Israel was brought very low because of Midian, and the sons of Israel cried to the LORD. Judges 6:6

The people were demoralized by their circumstances.

Salvation

God is the only true source of deliverance.

Through this passage we bumped into some important points regarding God’s part.

II. An unlimited God

• Self revealing God

We encountered a God who speaks and lets His plan and purpose be known.

• Early revelation of a Triunity

The Scriptures reveal that it was YAHWEH who spoke to Gideon but we also find that the visible messenger was the “ANGEL of the LORD.”