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.
Amos 3:3 ask a very interesting question, Can two walk together, except they be agreed?
Illus: I heard of how two men were trying to get a piece of heavy furniture through a doorway. They were unsuccessful until it was realized that they were trying to move in opposite directions. Can two walk together, or carrying a piece of furniture, except they be agreed on which direction they are going.
A lot of folks would love to have this wonderful life of walking with God each day, but they are not willing to walk according to the way the scriptures tells them they are to walk.
It is a wonderful life when we can have God almighty with us wherever we go.
I talk with Christians and they tell me they do the same thing on their job. That is, as they worked with their hands they are constantly talking to God on their job.
Now I feel sorry for some folks.
Why?
They have these ear phones in their ears and as they work they are listening to TALK RADIO or some wild music that has nothing to do with God.
But Gideon and God had this special relationship…GOD WAS WITH HIM!!!
God was special with Gideon and Gideon was special with God!!!
Illus: Many of use to enjoy listening to Paul Harvey. But what many do not know about Paul Harvey he and his wife had a very special relationship with each other.
In fact, when he was inducted into the radio Hall of Fame. When he gave his induction speech, he told everyone that this was one of the greatest moments of his life.
He could have compared that moment in his life to many wonderful things that had happened to him, but he compared that very special time when he was inducted in the hall of fame, to the thrill of kissing his wife for the first time.
The lost world do not understand how precious God is to us and how precious we are to God.
HOW DO WE KNOW THAT GOD WAS SPECIAL TO GIDEON?
We know THIS VERY SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP Gideon had with the Lord, was something he wanted, because God does not force Himself on anyone.
You see, we have a world full of people that do not want God in their lives. They want to fill their lives with sin, and the activities of this world, and there is no room in their lives for God.
Illus: God gives them a 168 hours a week, and they will not give him one hour a week.
They say they do, but they do not want God in their lives. And God honors their wishes and stays out.
But Gideon was not this way. God was with this MIGHTY MAN OF VALOUR! He was no ordinary man.
Let’s look at his life. First we need to look at -
I. THE CALL OF GIDEON
We see so many wonderful things in his life.
A. THE PERSON
Look at Judges 6:11, "And there came an angel of the LORD, and sat under an oak which was in Ophrah…”
Evidently it was a beautiful day in Ophrah. (a city about sixteen miles north of Jericho)
HOW DO WE KNOW THAT IT WAS A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN OPHRAH?
Because the Bible tell us the angel of the Lord was relaxing and sitting under a tree. This would not have happened had the weather been bad.
When this appearing of this angel Gideon may have been in the field plowing nearby and the angel of the Lord appeared unto him.
This actually happened!!!
Today we have people claim they have such experiences.
Sometimes we will hear them say The Angel of the Lord appeared to them in a dream.
When we hear these ordinary people talk like this, we can’t help but wonder why don’t we have such spiritual experiences.
Listen, when it comes to:
• Physical world so much of what we hear is fake news.
• Spiritual world we have people making all kinds of claims and it is also fake news.
Listen, a person can claim all kinds of things, but just because they claim something does not mean it is true. (Mickey in the sound room can claim to be a brain surgeon, but it is not true!)
They can claim anything they want to claim but we do not have to believe what they claim.
But there have always been those who made claims that God showed them THIS or THAT!
Illus: For example, Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormon cult, claims the angel Moroni appeared to him in a cave with golden tablets, and he wrote the Mormon Bible from those golden tablets that he claimed the angel Moroni gave him.
But the only problem we have these golden tablets after they showed these tablets to Joseph Smith he took them back to heaven.
We have to take his Word for the Mormon Bible that this angel gave him that is full of MIS-INFORMATION and CONTRADICTIONS!!!
Now he can make that claim, but I do not have to believe it! And I do not believe it!!!
Illus: A man had 40 wives and one of them only 14 years old, how could you believe anything he says.
There have always been men and women who have made ridiculous claims, and there are people who will believe anything they hear. ANYTHING!
Illus: There are some folks that you can walk up to, and look and act spiritual, and tell them that God appeared to you in a space shuttle, and they will look you in the face and say, “Praise God, that’s wonderful!”
There have always been those who have MADE CLAIMS, and there has always been those who would believe anything they hear.
We do not have to believe everything that mankind claims, The only thing we have to believe is the infalliable, inerrant Word of God.
People claim all kinds of things these days…
Illus: People like this remind me of the fellow who stood up in front of a congregation one day, and he said God gave him a vision with large letters “PC”, that appeared in the clouds. He said, PC stood for Preach Christ. After several years of doing this, and things were steadily getting worse, he appeared before that same congregation and said, “A few years ago I stood before you, and I told you the Lord gave me a vision of these large letters “PC”, that appeared in the clouds.” He said, “I want you to know, PC did not mean PREACH CHRIST, it meant PLANT CORN!”
Most ORDINARY Christians will tell you they have never had a
(1) Vision or a dream of God,
(2) The Lord Jesus,
(3) Or even of an angel.
But there are some very ORDINARY people who claim frequently to have visions and dreams.
Humor: I believe for many of them it has to do with their DIET! They need to quit eating some of that junk food they are eating before they go to bed.
The Bible says that Gideon was a MIGHTY MAN OF VALOUR. He was no ORDINARY MAN, GOD WAS WITH HIM, and the angel of the Lord did appeared unto him.
But notice this, he might have looked like an ordinary man in the sight of men, but in the sight of God HE WAS NO ORDINARY MAN.
God wants to have that SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP WITH EACH OF US!!!
One of the biggest lies of the devil tells is that God only uses special people. And like all lies of the devil this one is based on a half-truth.
God does use only special people, God doesn’t use them because they are special, they are special because God uses them.
Listen to the word of God 1 Peter 2:9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.
You understand how special you are don’t you?
You are special enough that God was willing to send his very own Son to die for you.
You ever think that was a cop out?
You know if God loved us that much he’d come himself?
Illus: If you are a parent then you know the difference, there are many people here today I’d lay my life on the line for.
But there isn’t one that I’d give one of my kids for. And yet that is exactly what happened and because you are so special Jesus Christ willing came to this earth, lived thirty three years and died on a cross, was laid in a borrowed tomb and after three days rose from the dead. Willingly he did that not because he had to but because you are that special.
Special has nothing to do with:
• How you look,
• What you can do,
• How smart you are,
• How much money you have…
special has everything to do with the fact that you were created as very unique individual by none other then the master of the universe.
Illus: Someone said,
• “The same God who drew rainbows across the rain washed skies,
• The same God who paints the morning sunrise and the evening sunset,
• The same God who scooped out the Grand Canyon with his fingers, who moulded the rocky mountains with his hands and threw the milky way into the midnight sky, that same God created you.”
God sees each of us as a very special person. When He created us he wired us all for a certain job.
It isn’t our ability nearly as much as our availability that is important to God.
Illus: Zig Ziglar said “You are the only person on earth who can use your ability.”
• As parents we want our children to be the very best they can be and there is nothing wrong with that but we can’t be the very best for them.
• God looks down at his children and he wants us to be the very best we can be and to be the very best that we can be. But we have to do it.
This farmer called Gideon God used him to bring about one of the greatest victory that we have ever heard about.
Look through the Bible at the people that God used:
• Gideon was a farmer,
• Moses and David were shepherds,
• Peter was a fisherman,
• Matthew was a tax collector, a tax collector
For crying out loud. And God used them all, not a superstar in the bunch.
Gideon knew that he did not have these natural abilities.
Look at Judges 6:15 “And he said unto him, Oh my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house.”
Gideon knew within himself that he was not up to the task that the angel of the Lord had asked him to do. He did not want to be in the spotlight! He did not volunteer for this job.
Illus: Gideon reminds us of the football game where these two teams were playing and they were beating the socks off of the other team. They were be carried off on the stretcher one after the other each time one of them ran the ball.
The coach began to send in the substitutes one after the other.
Soon the fans began to holler, “Let Johnny Play, Let Johnny Play”. The coach tried to ignore them.
But they kept hollering, “Let Johnny Play! Let Johnny Play!” After about 20 minutes of this, the coach let Johnny go into the game.
The crowd said, “Let Johnny run with the ball!, Let Johnny run with the ball!” But the coach ignored the fans for about five minutes. And finally he could not take any more, so he sent the message in, “Let Johnny run the ball!”
But instead, the quarterback let everybody but Johnny run the ball.
The crowd was still hollering, “Let Johnny run the ball”, and finally the coach called the quarterback to the side lines and said, “I sent a message in for Johnny to run the ball, why aren’t you listening to me?”
He said, “Coach, I got the message and I called the play to let Johnny run the ball, but Johnny said he does not want to run the ball.”
This is the way Gideon was. He was not like those who must always be in the spotlight. He recognized that he did not have any special talents that stood out above everyone else.
This mighty man of valour’s life was filled with humility.
He had a difficult time for he considered himself average. He told the Lord “…Oh my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house.”
Gideon was not a man who was going around TOOTING HIS OWN HORN! He said:
• My family is a poor family in Manasseh
• And on top of that I am the least in my father’s house
GIDEON was exactly the man the Lord was looking for to do the job.
You see there are people who are always more qualified it seems, than the people God has selected to use. But God can not use them, because they are so PROUD.
If God was to use them, they would use the task God called them to do to exalt themselves.
This is why 1 Cor. 1:27,28 states, “But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are.”
Notice, God can only use the HUMBLE. But notice something else, we have looked at THE PERSON, but look at-
B. THE PLACE
Notice what Gideon was doing when the angel of the Lord appeared before him.
Look at Judges 6:11, "And there came an angel of the LORD, and sat under an oak which was in Ophrah, that pertained unto Joash the Abiezrite: and his son Gideon threshed wheat by the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites.”
He is busy doing something. God can not use PROUD PEOPLE, and God can not use LAZY PEOPLE.
Listen, across this nation, our churches are filled with talented people, but yet across this nation, church after church today is struggling.
Why?
Because many churches are filled with LAZY people.
Illus: Our churches today remind us of the work force in this country. There are people who believe that the reason the business man goes into business, is to create jobs.
No, he does not go into business to create jobs, he goes into business to make money.
• And listen, if an employee is not willing to work and make him some money he can not use them.
• And listen, if you are not willing to work, God can not use you either.
God can not use some because of two reasons:
1. Some are too PROUD for God to use
2. Some are too LAZY for God to use
Notice, when God selected Gideon:
• He was the ideal candidate for God to use, because the Bible says he “threshed wheat by the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites.” In other words, he was doing something.
• When the Lord called Peter, he was mending his nets. He was doing something. God knows it is no use to ask some people to do things, because if He did, they are to lazy to do them!
We have looked at the CALL OF GIDEON, but let us also look at-
II. THE CHALLENGE OF GIDEON
While each day ORDINARY men are doing what everybody else is doing, there are others out there that are pushing themselves to the limit to become the best they can become.
But the greatest challenge for man can be found in serving the Lord. This is the reason that many will not come to the Lord and serve Him, they are not UP TO THE CHALLENGE!
Illus: A fellow came to D.L. Moody and said, “I was listening to you preach, and you literally butchered the English language.” Mr. Moody with a smile on his face said, “I am using my bad English to preach the gospel with, what are you doing with your good English for the Lord?”
Gideon had the challenge to face the enemies of God. There were two kinds of enemies which Gideon had to face.
Conclusion:
God took this dirt farmer, a mighty man of valour, and 300 men, and pulled off one of the greatest military victories that has ever occurred.
For example, in the Old Testament, an army of some 15,000 Midianites invaded Israel for the purpose of "hijacking" their food supplies.
Gideon called the Israelis army together. Some 30,000 showed up to form an army that was probably large enough to defeat the Midianites.
Gideon was told by God to "downsize" his army by telling the volunteers that anyone who was afraid or "indisposed" to fight could go home. About two-thirds, or 20,000 did so, leaving Gideon with about 10,000 men.
God further told Gideon to take his remaining troops to the river to drink. Most drank by burying their face in the water, but a few knelt, and used their hands to lift water to their mouths.
Gideon was told to use only the latter few, some 300 in all. These were supposedly the equivalent of "special forces" picked by God.
When they went to battle, they used unusual "shock and awe" tactics,
• Blowing trumpets,
• Flashing torches,
• Throwing stones noisily,
rather than standard assault tactics using sword and spear.
This has to go down in history as one of the greatest battle ever fought and won. And this great victory was due to a farmer who felt like he was incapiable to do such a thing!!! But when God calls us to do a job, God then equips us to do the job.
I. THE CALL OF GIDEON
A. THE PERSON
B. THE PLACE
C. THE PROVISION
II. THE CHALLENGE OF GIDEON
A. THE ENEMIES WITHOUT
B. THE ENEMY WITHIN
