It's In You

Dr. Wayne A. Lawson

Senior Pastor

Perfected Praise Worship Center – OKC, OK

Preached Sunday, July 25, 2010

www.perfectedpraisewc.org

bishop@perfectedpraisewc.org

TITLE: IT’S IN YOU

SCRIPTURE: JUDGES 6:11-12

I stopped by this morning with a simple message. This is a message that the Holy Spirit began working with me on a few weeks ago and it has fired up my spirit. I pray that you will be encouraged and your spirit man will be lifted. I want you to know this morning as God continues to bring members to this Church from various DENOMINATIONS – STATIONS IN LIFE - SPIRITUAL MATURITY LEVEL:

• That no matter what stage of life you are in

• What hindrances lay in front of you

• How much you lack in gifts, abilities, or knowledge

• God desires to use you in extraordinary ways to expand His kingdom

Do you ever think to yourself that God is unable to use you? Maybe you feel that you aren’t very gifted or talented. Not really sure how you will be able to fit into this ministry and its various needs. Maybe you feel just like an ordinary person. Or maybe you feel less than ordinary and you will never be able to be used in a significant way for the Lord. Well, I want to give you some encouragement this morning. I want you to know that this message is just for you.

Today we are going to begin by taking a look at this Old Testament figure by the name of Gideon. Many of you probably are familiar with the name Gideon. If you have ever stayed in a Hotel or Motel, the Gideon’s are the ones who place the Bibles in hotel rooms around the world. Prior to Bibles being placed in hotels around the world, there was a man named Gideon whom God used in an extraordinary way. We are going to see what we can learn from the narrative of Gideon that may prepare us to be used by God in an extraordinary way, we will understand that – It’s In You.

After Joshua led Israel to occupy the Promised Land, the people of Israel served the Lord throughout his lifetime. But after Joshua’s generation died, Israel turned away from the Lord God. During this time the nation of Israel was occasionally led by Judges who were raised up by God to call the people together for common good and to bring them back to proper worship of God. Typically there was a cry from the people for justice and salvation from an enemy and then God, in his Mercy would raise up a leader.

Just before our scriptures unfold, the land had peace for 40 years. Then the people again start doing evil in God’s sight. In our text we find for the past 7 years God has allowed the people of Israel to be attacked and abused. They brought it on themselves because of their Idolatry and disobedience. They are living in the Promised Land but fighting all the different neighbors that they failed to remove when they first entered the land. They have even taken on religious practices strictly forbidden by God.

• Throughout the era of the Judges we see a repeated cycle of God’s blessing

• Spiritual complacency

• Sin – Idolatry

• Suffering at the hands of enemies

• A cry for help

• God’s deliverance through someone He raised up – in this case, Judges

• Gideon is one of the people God raises up during this time to lead the Israelites

Now the time leading up to the specific events found in our text this morning concerning Gideon are that Israel has been sinning by turning to false gods and the Lord has given them into the hands of the Midianties. The Midianites would attack the Israelites and take their crops and destroy what they did not take. This had been going on for about 7 years when God came to Gideon with a simple message – It’s In You.

It is at this point that we are first introduced to Gideon. We find him doing the work of a farmer. He is Threashing Wheat, which is pretty normal stuff. Except of one detail, he was THREASHING WHEAT IN A WINEPRESS. The Bible talks about using Oxen in the process of threashing wheat. They would walk around a post and drag a log or a sled with weight or a person riding on it to crush the grain.

• That is what Gideon was trying to do

• Clean up enough wheat to feed somebody, maybe his family or to sell

• However, he was trying to do this working in a winepress

Normally a threshing floor was on top of a hill to take advantage of the wind from any direction. A floor might also be in a valley where the wind is fairly constant. The evening breeze caught the chaff and let the grain kernels fall to the ground. A wine press on the other hand was normally down in a valley. It was a stone pool often carved out of rock. The grapes were smashed and the juice collected in the reservoir that collected in jars and wineskins.