INTRODUCTION
A. Forest Gump was a popular movie some years back.
1. Forest was a mentally challenged child born in rural Alabama.
2. When it came time to go to school, his mom was told that he would have to go to a special school.
3. She convinced the principal of the public school to let him attend even though his IQ was below average.
4. She always said to Forest, “You’re no different than anyone else.”
5. Later in the movie, Forest entered the shrimping business and did very well.
6. He bought a fleet of boats and had many people working for him.
7. It seemed he had finally found his destiny.
8. Then word came that his Mom was sick and dying.
9. With great haste, he made his way home to find out that she had cancer.
10. As they were talking in the room, she spoke of her destiny and how a part of that was to bring him into the world.
11. Forest then asked, “What about me Momma? What’s my destiny?”
12. She told him he would have to find that out himself.
B. This is a question that all of us have no doubt asked ourselves at some point in life.
1. It is probably a question that is asked in the years prior to graduation and maybe after.
2. Many enter college not knowing immediately what they want to major in.
3. Majors are often changed several times during the college years.
4. My brother is in his early thirties and just recently quit his full time job to go to college full time and finish his bachelor’s degree.
5. What he is majoring in now is not what he majored in when he first entered college.
6. Many leave high school and enter the world of work not knowing what they really want to do.
7. People sometimes go from one job to the next in search of what they are supposed to be doing in life.
C. Graduation is a time of contemplation.
1. Now that you are at the end of this segment of your journey, what is next?
2. It can be a scary time, a time of joy and a time of sadness all rolled into one lump.
3. In all the indecision that might be a part of our lives, we can still be a hero for God.
4. Being God’s hero is the most important thing we can do, and Gideon shows us how to do that.
BELIEVE GOD HAS A PLAN FOR YOU
A. Gideon ruled during the period of the judges.
1. This was a time of great instability in the nation of Israel.
2. Joshua had led the Israelites into the land of Canaan, and they had for the most part conquered the enemies who lived there.
3. After Joshua and his contemporaries died, a generation of Israelites grew up who did not know the Lord or serve him.
4. God used enemies to inflict punishment on his people.
5. When they cried out for help, he would send judges, or local rulers, to lead the Israelites to fight against the enemy.
6. But after the enemy was defeated, the Israelites would again grow complacent and disobey God.
7. The cycle would start all over again.
8. Gideon was one of these judges.
B. The condition in Gideon’s time.
1. “Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites. Because the power of Midian was so oppressive, the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in mountain clefts, caves and strongholds.”
2. The Israelites would plant crops only to have the Midianites ruin them.
3. God sent an angel to Gideon to tell him of God’s plan that he was to deliver the Israelites from the Midianites.
4. Gideon objected, “But Lord, how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.”
5. Gideon needed to recognize that God had a plan for him.
C. Joseph is another example of one who recognized God’s plan.
1. Joseph was a dreamer, and dreamed of a time when he would rule over his family.
2. His brothers hated him because of his dreams, but his father took more careful notice of them.
3. Joseph’s brothers finally sold him into slavery, and he ended up in Egypt and eventually in prison.
4. Through God’s direction and overruling power, he was eventually delivered from prison and made the highest ruler in the land.
5. One of his responsibilities was to dole out food to people who needed it because of the famine in the land.
6. Who should come before him and bow down but his brothers who needed food.
7. He eventually revealed himself to them, and they were very afraid that he would take revenge on them.
8. He assured them that though they had meant him harm, God used it for good to deliver them and his family from starvation.
D. We need to believe God has a plan for our lives.
1. We don’t have to be someone special in this world’s opinion for God to have a plan for us.
2. We don’t have to be born with a silver spoon in our mouth to be used of God.
3. We don’t have to come from the upper class of society.
4. In fact, most of the people Jesus called to be his followers were not special at all.
5. Many of his disciples were fishermen.
6. One was a tax collector, and they were certainly despised in society.
7. Jesus often demonstrated harshness with the elite of his day but was very gentle with the downcast and troubled.
E. What is God’s plan?
1. God’s plan at the basic level is for us to follow him.
2. He sent his Son Jesus Christ to die for our sins.
3. He wants us to accept that forgiveness and choose to follow him as our Lord.
4. I Peter 2:9 describes us, “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”
5. Beyond saving us from the penalty of our sins, God has a further plan for your life.
6. It is a plan that each of us must discover and follow.
7. We must learn to listen to the Spirit of God working in our innermost lives to determine that plan.
8. Stevie Wonder, that great singer, said, “We all have ability. The difference is how we use it.”
F. The Andy Griffith episode where Opie has to raise birds.
1. Opie has a new slingshot, and he is enjoying shooting rocks at things.
2. Coming into his yard, he sees a bird in a tree and shoots a rock at it, never intending to actually hit it.
3. He hits and kills the bird, and then discovers that it has a nest full of little ones.
4. Andy helps him get the little ones down, they put them in a cage, and Opie begins to care for them.
5. He enjoys finding worms to feed them, and before long they have grown and are flapping around the cage.
6. Andy keeps reminding him that one day they will have to let them go.
7. When the time comes, Opie wants to put it off a little longer, but he finally decides to let them go.
8. He was afraid he had not done a good job of raising them and that they might not be able to fly but they did.
9. You see, he had a plan to raise those birds, and he carried out that plan.
PREPARE FOR GOD’S PLAN
A. What about Gideon?
1. God sent he angel to share the plan with Gideon, but Gideon had to be prepared.
2. He had to first trust God that it was his plan for him to deliver his people from the oppressive Midianites.
B. Gideon’s request for a sign.
1. He asked the angel to give him a sign if he was really talking to him.
2. Gideon asked the angel to remain there until he could bring an offering.
3. Gideon returned and placed the meat and bread on a rock.
4. Then we read, “With the tip of the staff that was in his hand, the angel of the Lord touched the meat and the unleavened bread. Fire flared from the rock, consuming the meat and the bread. And the angel of the Lord disappeared.”
C. Further preparation.
1. That same night God appeared to Gideon again and told him to tear down his father’s altar to Baal and Asherah.
2. Then he was to build a proper altar to the Lord.
3. Being afraid of his father and others in the town, Gideon did this during the night.
D. The preparation of the army.
1. “Now all the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples joined forces and crossed over the Jordan and camped in the Valley of Jezreel. Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon, and he blew a trumpet summoning the Abiezrites to follow him. He sent messengers throughout Manasseh, calling them to arms, and also into Asher, Zebulun and Naphtali, so that they too went up to meet them.”
2. Knowing God’s plan did not negate the need for preparation.
E. We must prepare to follow God’s plan.
1. The first way we prepare is to trust Christ as our Savior.
2. Then we need to get involved in prayer, Bible study, fellowshipping with other Christians and other spiritual activities so that we can know where God wants to use us.
3. Most of all, we must listen to that inner voice of God speaking to us by his Spirit.
4. When we are following God’s plan, we will know because we will have peace in our lives.
F. The young man who applied for the job of farmhand.
1. When the farmer asked for his qualifications, he said, “I can sleep when the wind blows.”
2. The answer puzzled the farmer, but he liked the young man and hired him.
3. A few days later, the farmer and his wife were awakened by a violent storm.
4. They began to check things out to see if everything was secure.
5. They found the shutters shut and securely fastened, a good supply of logs by the fireplace, the farm tools in the storage shed, the barn locked, and the animals calm.
6. All the while the young man slept soundly.
7. The farmer then understood the meaning of what the young man had said.
8. Because he did his work loyally and faithfully in good weather, he was prepared for the storm when it broke.
TRUST GOD FOR THE PLAN’S REALIZATION
A. Gideon’s Army
1. When he summoned his fellowmen to fight with him, 32,000 showed up.
2. God told him this was too many.
3. If they defeated the Midianites with this great army, they might think too much of themselves.
4. Those who were afraid were allowed to leave-22,000 left.
5. The Lord said this was still too many.
6. He told Gideon to take them to the water and separate those who kneeled to drink from those who lapped the water like a dog.
7. The 300 who lapped was the force God wanted Gideon to use, and he was successful in the fight.
B. Following God’s plan doesn’t mean there won’t be setbacks.
1. There will be bumps along the road, and some will try to discourage you from your direction.
2. Romans 8:28, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
CONCLUSION
A. The story of Dostoevsky (dos to jev’ ski), famous Russian writer.
1. Most famous work was Crime and Punishment.
2. Periodically squandered his health and fortune on alcohol and gambling.
3. Early in his life he underwent a virtual resurrection.
4. He was arrested for belonging to a group judged treasonous by Tsar Nicholas I.
5. To impress these young radicals of the gravity of their errors, he staged a mock execution.
6. Dostoevsky and those with him were dressed in white death gowns and led to a public square where a firing squad awaited them.
7. They were blindfolded, had their hands tied and were paraded before a gawking crowd and then tied to posts.
8. As the command, “Ready, aim” was heard, a horseman galloped by with a pre-arranged message from the tsar that he would commute their sentences to hard labor.
9. Dostoevsky never recovered from the near death experience.
10. As he boarded the convict train to Siberia, a woman handed him a New Testament, the only book allowed in prison.
11. He poured over this book, and after ten years in prison, emerged with unshakable Christian convictions.
B. God can do wonderful things in our life.
1. God can make us into his heroes.
2. We must believe he has a plan for our life, prepare for that plan and trust him for its realization.
