Obedience Brings About Victory Series

Sermon Date: Februrary 11, 2007

INTRODUCTION:

98 yds lay ahead of him and his team was looking to him for leadership and guidance. Their opponent was ahead and time was running out and victory did NOT seem possible!

But they began to listen to their fearless leader and play by play they inched closer and closer to their goal of winning the game! They were obedient to his play calls, they did not question his authority and they performed their jobs and did not try to do someone else’s job!

John Elway took the Denver Broncos down the field and scored the tying touchdown and the Broncos won the 1986

AFC Championship game with what is now affectionately known as “The Drive”

Today in life you may be facing great and mighty challenges that seem to be TOO big to overcome, but I want you to understand that when we are faithful to God and we are obedient to His calling on our lives… victory is assured!

We may not see the victory right away, and we are going to have to do our share of the work… but victory is assured! Today I want us to read about a man who did not believe God could use him to be victorious… but He did!

Turn with me to Judges 7:21-22 and stand with me as we read from God’s Holy Word…

21 Each stood in his place around the camp; and all the army ran, crying out as they fled. 22 When they blew 300 trumpets, the LORD set the sword of one against another even throughout the whole army; and the army fled as far as Beth-shittah toward Zererah, as far as the edge of

Abel-meholah, by Tabbath. Judges 7:21-22 (NASB)

This morning I want us to look at how God guarantees victory for those who heed His call and are obedient to His voice! And this morning I want to share 3 observations about obedience to God’s plan for your life… the first observation is…

1. OBEDIENCE MEANS ACCEPTING THE RISK OF THE TASK (6:12-15; 25-27)

12 The angel of the LORD appeared to him and said to him, "The LORD is with you, O valiant warrior." 13 Then Gideon said to him, "O my lord, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, ’Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the LORD has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian." 14 The LORD looked at him and said, "Go in this your strength and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian. Have I not sent you?" 15 He said to Him, "O Lord, how shall I deliver Israel? Behold, my family is the least in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father’s house." Judges 6:12-15 (NASB)

25 Now on the same night the LORD said to him, "Take your father’s bull and a second bull seven years old, and pull down the altar of Baal which belongs to your father, and cut down the Asherah that is beside it; 26 and build an altar to the LORD your God on the top of this stronghold in an orderly manner, and take a second bull and offer a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah which you shall cut down." 27 Then Gideon took ten men of his servants and did as the LORD had spoken to him; and because he was too afraid of his father’s household and the men of the city to do it by day, he did it by night.

Judges 6:25-27 (NASB)

Our nation was founded on people who were willing to take great personal risk. For a long time risk was something that was weighed on a daily basis by everyday people because it simply was a part of life.

You picked one thing over another because you had weighed the risk and come to a conclusion that one risk was more palatable than another.

For example, farmers have walked a risk-filled path in that daily they had to weigh whether this day or that day would be the better one to disc the field.

This is because the weather was something out of their control and all that they had was their “folk” prognostication and intuition for predicting rain or sun, farming had traditionally been a pretty risky business. That is, of course, until the advent of modern weather forecasting. Today risk is far less of a factor in farming.

And although today we live in society that is no less “risky” than in the past, we DO live under a governing system that has made it its job to “save us”, “to secure us” from as much RISK as possible.