Mighty People of Valor
The late Joseph P. Kennedy – the father of John Fitzgerald Kennedy – our 35th president of the United States – Is noted for the popular power phrase…
"When the going gets tough – the tough get going!"
It sounds real good and it envisions people reaching down deep in desperate times and fighting their way out of a corner.
The only problem with that is – what if God was the one who put you in the corner?
How many of you knows God wants you to be totally dependant upon Himself?
• Not our own abilities!
• Not our money!
• Nor our world connections!
Personally when something breaks in my life I am forever trying to find a way to repair it.
Sometimes that is okay – If it means changing a light bulb.
But if it is has to do with the battle for your peace – it might not be something you can fix.
I want to share with you a message of faith. A message that will point you in the right direction toward the author and finisher of our faith – the Lord Jesus Christ.
In the book of Judges Chapter 6 it says that Israel had done evil in the sight of the Lord – and God delivered them into the hands of their enemies – the Midianites for seven years.
Some people believe that you can short change God and get away with it.
• Israel tried it – and they ended up slaves of the Midianites for seven years.
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Judges 6:6 (NKJV) So Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites, and the children of Israel cried out to the LORD.
Aren’t you glad that God’s anger can be turn away with repentance?
There was one man whom God favored in Israel.
Judges 6:11-12 (NKJV) Now the Angel of the LORD came and sat under the terebinth tree which was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon threshed wheat in the winepress, in order to hide it from the Midianites. 12 And the Angel of the LORD appeared to him, and said to him, "The LORD is with you, you mighty man of valor!"
The word valor means strength and power – valiant.
2 Chronicles 16:9 (NKJV) For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him.
God is ready to show His power and His deliverance to those who will be loyal to Him.
• And so it was with Gideon – God was ready to show Himself strong for Gideon.
But Gideon was discouraged – his heart was disturbed because for seven years they siffered as slaves to the Midianites.
Listen as he talks to the Angel of the Lord...
Judges 6:13 (NKJV) 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 forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites."
Do you ever get discouraged and question the word of the Lord?
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You can hear the defeat in Gideon as he communicates his despair.
How many times have you said – "But God – I’ve tried and tried – but it seems I just can’t win?"
And that is exactly the place the devil wants all believers to be in…
• He desires for you to think God has forsaken you.
In this case – God had withdrawn His hand from Israel because of their sin.
As it has been said many times, "sin will take you further than you want to go – and keep you there longer than you wanted to stay."
But then the Angel said something very important for him to hear…
Judges 6:14 (NKJV) Then the LORD turned to him and said, "Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?"
Here is a powerful revelation.
It is rare that God says –
• You have the might…
• You have the power…
• You will save Israel from the Midianites…
But then He says "I have sent you!"
And then Gideon goes through a tirade of humility…
• "God – how can I do this thing…"
• "I am the weakest one in the whole country…"
But look at the answer God gives Gideon…
Judges 6:16 (NKJV) And the LORD said to him, "Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat the Midianites as one man."
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Did you catch that?
"You shall defeat the Midianites as one man!"
In the remainder of chapter 6 Jesus instructs Gideon how to challenge the enemy.
• He was to tear down the religious altars of the Midianites…
• Cut down the wooden images of their god…
• Then, build a proper altar unto the Lord and sacrifice a seven year old bull unto the Lord.
Gideon and ten of his men did this under the cover of darkness.
• And the next morning Midian came out to see their statutes cut down, their altars destroyed and a new altar built in fashion to the Lord of Host.
This is a type of repentance.
It is a reversal of what has been practiced in the past.
God required Israel to forsake the sins of their past and publically come and worship Him.
Of course, this angered the Midians. And when they found out it was Gideon and ten men of valor who did this thing, they came to murder them.
The Apostle Paul said in Romans 8:31 "If God be for us who can be against us!"
Judges 6:34 (NKJV) But the Spirit of the LORD came upon Gideon; then he blew the trumpet, and the Abiezrites gathered behind him.
In Gideon’s day – this is the call to war. God has released the anointing to fight and they were going to fight.
The anointing of heaven is the power of God falling upon the physical man equipping him to do what he otherwise could not do.
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He blew the shofar and the Abiezrites came an fell in behind him.
The battle began and someone is going to walk off this battlefield a winner.
Someone is going down in defeat this day... and someone is going to walk off this field of battle waving the colors of victory!
The people of Israel stood with Gideon.
They were ready to fight.
They had had enough!
But not hear the rest of the story. This is an amazing God showing how great He really is!
Judges 7:1-3 (NKJV) Then Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) and all the people who were with him rose early and encamped beside the well of Harod, so that the camp of the Midianites was on the north side of them by the hill of Moreh in the valley. 2 And the LORD said to Gideon, "The people who are with you are too many for Me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel claim glory for itself against Me, saying, 'My own hand has saved me.' 3 Now therefore, proclaim in the hearing of the people, saying, 'Whoever is fearful and afraid, let him turn and depart at once from Mount Gilead.' " And twenty-two thousand of the people returned, and ten thousand remained.
Do you recall what God told Gideon when He came and talked with him under the terebinth tree at Joash's threshing floor?
He said – "Gideon – you shall defeat Midian as one man!"
Not many men - but one man!
How many times do we try to instruct God on how He needs to do things?
God – do it this way – it will work better!
God – call my favorite evangelist in - he can fix this issue...
God - I will call my prayer committee together and we will find a solution…
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God does not need your instruction. He already has a plan that will work. All God needs is your obedience to do what He directs you to do.
God told Gideon - "you have way too many people – if I give victory to Israel they will claim all the credit.
Tell every man that is fearful and afraid to leave.
22,000 men walked off the battlefield.
God cannot use people who are faithless and fearful.
Why? Because they cannot see victory before it has come.
Faith always sees victory even before it has arrived!
22,000 walks off the battlefield and goes back home.
10,000 remain to fight.
But then God does something even more astounding…
• How many of you knows that God is amazing.
• His ways are past find out – Roman 11:33
God said to Gideon in verse 4 – there are still too many to fight with you!
Judges 7:4–6 (NKJV) 4 But the LORD said to Gideon, “The people are still too many; bring them down to the water, and I will test them for you there. Then it will be, that of whom I say to you, ‘This one shall go with you,’ the same shall go with you; and of whomever I say to you, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ the same shall not go.” 5 So he brought the people down to the water. And the LORD said to Gideon, “Everyone who laps from the water with his tongue, as a dog laps, you shall set apart by himself; likewise everyone who gets down on his knees to drink.” 6 And the number of those who lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, was three hundred men; but all the rest of the people got down on their knees to drink water.
9,700 men went home.
There is something important in these verses about the men chosen to fight against the army of Midian...
God is looking for soldier who are alert to the approach of the enemy.
God is looking for men who will not be caught by surprise.
1 Peter 5:8 (NKJV) 8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.
Satan is seeking whom he may devour. He cannot devour those who are alert and sober.
But he is looking for those who are lazy, relaxed, drunk on the world.
Judges 7:7 (NKJV) Then the LORD said to Gideon, "By the three hundred men who lapped I will save you, and deliver the Midianites into your hand. Let all the other people go, every man to his place."
God does not need great numbers to do mighty things.
All He needs is a man or woman mighty for God.
Gideon – you can do more with three hundred more than a nation can do with 135,000.
That was the odds...
According to Judges 8:10 Midian had about fifteen thousand, of the army of the East and one hundred and twenty thousand men who drew the sword.
Gideon - 300 men of valor.
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It has always amazed me – the mathematics plan of God. It is never natural... it is always supernatural.
Deuteronomy 32:30 (NKJV) 30 How could one chase a thousand, And two put ten thousand to flight, Unless their Rock had sold them, And the Lord had surrendered them?
Friends, that is the way that the real and living God rolls…
Gideon – "send 31,700 of your men home" – "you can keep 300" – "the rest of them you don’t need…"
In 319 BC - 889 years later the prophet Zechariah would record in chapter 4, verse 6 - "This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: 'Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,' Says the LORD of hosts.
Friends – we stand together in a nation that once honored God.
• The United States was established on Biblical principles and standards.
• We once took pride in our Christian stand – our Constitution and Bill of Rights.
• We were once One Nation Under God – Indivisible – With Liberty and Justice for All!
• But our nation has went whoring after gods of pleasures, sins, drugs, rock and roll, Hollywood, entertainment, rebellion and the almighty dollar.
America is drunk on the blood of 63,000,000 innocents slain on the abortion altars of this wicked nation.
• Many have turned their eyes away from God – and are now chasing the god of the dollar bill.
Listen to this pastor this morning…
• We are walking the same road that Israel walked in Gideon’s day. We are walking the same pathway of Sodom and Gomorrah in Abrahams day. We are trekking the same mistakes as in Noah's day.
• One morning we might awaken to find that our liberties has been taken away.
• Our right to freedom of speech - gone! Our right to own and bear arms to defend ourselves against tyranny of the government - gone!
We might find that we have become a nation of slave to a one world economic system that legislates how much wealth you can have, what you can buy, how much you can buy...
o a national health system that legislates who can live and who are no worthy to live anymore because of their lack of value to society…
* to a national religious system that legislates who you can worship, where you can worship and how you can worship...
o Slavery is the next step in the conquest of socialism - a liberal program of leeching from the common hard working people to make the nation more balanced.
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My friend don’t be disillusioned by the lies that flow freely from liberal halls of America.
• The only hope that we have is in the Lord.
• Stop and listen to God!
• Hear His voice and know that He is answer to the plight of our nation.
Gideon took three hundred men…
• Divided them into three companies…
• Put shofars in every man’s hand…
• And empty pitchers with lamps inside…
They surrounded the enemy on three sides…
When Gideon blew the shofar…
• They broke the pitchers revealing their lighted lamps…
• They blew their shofars…
• And they shouted: "The sword of the LORD, and of Gideon."
The Bible says that 135,000 Midians scattered and ran for cover…
And before the end of the day Gideon and his 300 men of valor conquered the great army of Midian.
America needs some Gideon’s who will rise up and say “I’ve had enough.”
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• I am tired of bowing to the god of abortion in this country.
• I had enough allowing a 3% ungodly minority running roughshod over my great nation.
• I am through with bowing to the gods of religion, the gods of sex, the gods of drugs and alcohol, the gods of mammon and the gods of government.
• I don’t care how foolish it looks or sounds – I am ready to see change in America.
Let God be God in this place!
Let the Lord of Glory – the God of Gideon – let Him be our commander and chief.
2 Chronicles 7:14 (NKJV) if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
Sing Acapella:
In the harvest field now ripened,
There is a work for all to do.
Hark, the Master's voice it's calling,
To the harvest, calling you.
Does the place you're called to labor,
Seem so small and little known?
Well, it is great if God is in it,
And He will not forsake His own.
Little is much when God is in it
Labor not for wealth or fame
There's a crown, and you can win it
If you go in Jesus name
And when the conflict here has ended,
And our race on Earth is run;
He will say, "If you've been faithful,
Welcome home, My child, well done".
For little is much when God is in it.
Labor not for wealth or fame.
And there's a crown, and you can win it,
If you go,
If you go,
If you go in Jesus name.
