One Of The Greatest Battle Ever Won!

And these two professions deserve a lot of praise because they risk their life to protect people in harms way everyday!

But among these who protect us each day, I also have a lot of praise for the farmers in this country.

These are the men and women who feed the world.

If we ride by and see a farmer living in a nice home, be happy for him/her because he puts the food on our table.

They really do not get the praise they are worthy that is so essential to our survival.

If they were to go on strike and refuse to do their job we all would literally starve to death in a short period of time.

Illus: Speaking of farmers reminds me at the 1997 North American Christian Convention, author Stuart Briscoe told the old story of a farmer who was walking along the road with his horse and his dog.

• A pickup truck came racing by and knocked them off the road into the ditch

• The farmer sued for damages: Including loss of work time, claiming he had a broken leg, some facial injuries, and several cracked ribs that kept him bedridden.

• The defense attorney told the judge, "Your honor, shortly after the accident occurred, my client heard the farmer say he had never felt better in his life!"

• The farmer explained, “Yes your honor, that is exactly what I said, but let me explain why I said that. After he ran over my dog, and ran me and my horse off the road, we were lying in the ditch. The driver of the truck got out of his truck.

• Seeing that my horse had a broken leg, he took out his shotgun and shot my horse in the head to put him out of his misery.

• Then noticing that my dog was bleeding and suffering terribly, he took his shot gun and shot my dog in the head.

• Then he stood over the top of my mangled body, holding his shot gun at my head, and asked, “How are you feeling?” I said, “Never felt better in my life!"

Today we want to talk about another farmer that had some problems of his own. His name was Gideon.

But Gideon was no ordinary farmer. For example, the angel of the Lord appeared unto Gideon, and said he was a, “mighty man of valour!”

WHAT MADE GIDEON A MIGHTY MAN OF VALOUR?

He goes down in Hebrews 11 as one of the great heroes of the faith. We see from the scriptures:

• It was not because of his charming personality

• It was not because he came from an affluent family

• It was not because of his achievements in academics

• It was not because he was voted in as the “Farmer of the Year”.

Look at Judges 6:12 “And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him, and said unto him, The LORD is with thee, thou mighty man of valour.”

Look at the word “Valour”, this is the Hebrew word, chayil, (khah'-yil) which means MIGHT, POWER, STRENGTH, and STRONG.

When you take adjectives like this to describe a man, you know you are not talking about an ordinary man.

But notice, WHY HE WAS NO ORDINARY MAN, “And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him, and said unto him, THE LORD IS WITH THEE, thou mighty man of valour.”

Notice these words, before the Word of God tells us HE WAS A MIGHTY MAN OF VALOUR, THE WORD OF GOD TELLS US WHY… THE LORD IS WITH THEE

Some might be saying, “Preacher, the Lord is with everyone, He is omnipresent, wherever man is, God is there.”

This is true, but when the scripture when tells about GOD BEING WITH GIDEON he is referring to the fact Gideon AND THE LORD HAD A VERY SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP!!!

You see, God is not with everyone the way he was with Gideon.

Illus: I imagine that Gideon through out the day as a farmer as he was plowing and he walked behind that plow he was talking to God and God was talking to Him.

It is wonderful that we have a close relationship with God in the house of God but we can have one also with Him in the field plowing.

That is, when I come into this place of worship I can feel God’s presence, but I am glad to tell you sometime when I am not in this house of God I can feel God’s presence also.

The Bible tells us that Enoch walked with God every day. One day Enoch was walking with God and the Bible tells us as they were walking evidently Enoch got so close to the Lord that the Lord tells us ENOCH WAS NOT BECAUSE God took him.