Gideon says - Kiwis can fly.
The New Zealand national bird is the Kiwi:-
Although a remarkable bird as a national emblem for our people it is, on the face of it something that leaves a lot to be desired!
KIWI, a flightless bird in the genus Apteryx, closely related to the extinct Moa. The kiwi is restricted to New Zealand. The bird is about the size of a chicken and has short, stout legs, no tail, tiny useless wings, a gray or brown hair like plumage, catlike whiskers, and a long, straight or slightly curved bill with nostrils near the It is very shy and during the day hides rolled up in its burrow in the dense forest, venturing out at night. Its food is mainly insects and earthworms. It taps the ground with its feet to locate a worm burrow, which it then probes with its bill to extract the worm. . Only the male sits on the egg during the 75-day incubation period.
The Maori’s hunted the Kiwi for food but his relative the Moa was hunted to extinction - little wonder - the Moa was a formidable bird.
What kind of timid image does the Kiwi provide for New Zealander’s?
After all doesn’t something that is very shy and during the day hides rolled up in its burrow in the dense forest, venturing out at night portray a picture of weakness rather than strength.
How much more appropriate would be an image of the Moa which is the size of two very hefty Rugby players?
In actual fact at the beginning of the account of Gideon, Gideon appears very much like the Kiwi:- JDG 6:11 The angel of the LORD came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. 12 When the angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon, he said, "The LORD is with you, mighty warrior."
Like the Kiwi, Gideon is hiding from his predators - very shy of the Middeonites - threshing out his wheat to keep it from his enemies.
How he reminds us of the Kiwi - But then an amazing thing happens here in this climate of secrecy - and fear an angel from God appears and makes an amazing statement - "The LORD is with you, mighty warrior."
Now that is a strange thing to say to a man who is avoiding conflict in a winepress.
If you had a man like King David who slew Goliath and saved Israel - then you could understand it.
But when it is said to this kiwi like Gideon it leaves you scratching your head.
Imagine someone going to the Kiwi and saying wow this is an amazingly powerful Moa!!
Now the Moa is related to the Kiwi according to the experts.
Listen for a moment to an encycloepedia description of a Moa:---
MOA, an extinct, flightless, ostrichlike bird which inhabited New Zealand. The largest species, Dinornis maximus, stood about 13 feet (4 meters) high and weighed about 500 pounds (225 kg). The chief peculiarities of the Moa were its lack of even the rudiments of wings, the extreme development of its legs, which appear to have been of almost elephantine proportions in one species, and its four toes.
Put the fearfilled creature of the night Kiwi beside the powerful 225 kg Moa and there is no comparison.
Put Gideon beside David or some of the great soldiers of the past and there is also no comparison.
But the thing we can fail to see is that the angel was not looking at Gideon as he is now but what he would become.
In some ways the Angel was talking about the spiritual DNA of Gideon and his potential rather than what he is now.
I seem to remember some years ago Scientists talking about recreating the Moa from DNA of some sort - Imagine in your mind them getting the DNA from the Kiwi combining it with an emu and some fossil remains of a Moa and manipulating a new generation of superbird’s called the Moa - toss in a bit of Eagle and you may have the worlds first flying Moa with legs the size of an elephant - at such a moment you would have to say that Kiwis can fly!!!
Whilst that is just a flight of fantasy, and we need to be careful in the whole area of genetic engineering, what we can marvel at is the miracle that God can wrought in a life that is surrendered to him.
Let’s look at Gideon again - Two weeks ago we considered the book of Judges, and we found that the Israelites were not living life as God intended it to be lived. Instead of being faithful and obedient to the Lord, they forsook the Lord, they went after other gods, and they intermarried with the Canaanite women. God wanted them to live a life that would so reflect his glory that all the nations would ask, "what is it about the Israelites? God seems to bless everything they do." But because of compromise and disobedience, Israel ended up in bondage and captivity over and over again.(taken from sermon central.)
By the time we get to the story of Gideon in Judges chapter 6, Israel has already experienced 43 years of suffering under the harsh rule of the neighboring nations. Yet they still have not learned their lesson. This chapter begins the fourth cycle of sin, judgement, supplication and deliverance in the book of Judges (See Judges 2:10-19).
A satellite picture of the area would reveal that camped not to far from Gideon was a massive army of 132,000 soldiers with one purpose in mind - the suppression or annihilation of the Israelite people - from our satellite spy cam we would see that massive army and we would see raiding parties going out hassling and terrorising the locals - we would see a vulnerable and helpless population.
What we would not see was God’s secret weapon Gideon because he was hidden in a winepress.
At this point what was on Gideon’s mind?
He wanted Survival
Food - (that is why he was threshing wheat.)
Approval. (He lived with people who had false God’s and had done nothing
About them.)
A desire for God’s blessing - JDG 6:13 "But sir," Gideon replied, "if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our fathers told us about when they said, `Did not the LORD bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the LORD has abandoned us and put us into the hand of Midian."
In New Zealand today what does the average church attender want.
They want Survival -
Food - Most people today are very concerned about their jobs.)
Approval - Many today want the approval of the society around them.
Prayer
Bible reading
Fellowship
A desire for God’s blessing.
In other words we want the same things that Gideon wanted.
The truth is that many do not have what they would like spiritually - it isn’t yet theirs!!!
We won’t have these things if we stay in the same position as Gideon in what is actually a winepress.
How then do you get out of the winepress????
I want to suggest to you three practical steps that you can take to advance god’s Kingdom purposes for your life. For you to become the kind of person that God intended for you to be.
The first step is to get a God given vision.
Your personal vision needs to include two things -
1. Who you are in Christ (You need God’s wiring diagram for your life.)
2. Get a vision of what a person like you can achieve.
When Gideon was down in that winepress - you can be pretty sure that he felt unhappy about his state and his ability to do much about it.
But when God speaks into his life Gideon gets God’s vision of who he really is in Christ.
You need God’s vision of who you really are.
What the angel gives Gideon is a picture of who he really is.
When the angel says:- "The LORD is with you, mighty warrior." He is identifying something in Gideon’s character that isn’t evident yet - -
God has a vision for your life as well - what you are to become may well not be evident now..
Throughout history there have been numerous examples of people who have achieved great things having previously been in obscurity or in a totally different role.
Some of the greatest people in the Christian church were previously something very different.
The apostle Peter was an impetuous fisherman.
Paul was a member of the group of Pharisees and actively persecuted Christians until his timely conversion. After that he became an outstanding Apostle of the church.
Augustine was living a reckless life until he was thoroughly changed.
If Gideon had’ve just heard that word and done nothing with it you would never have heard of him but as it is, he accepted that word and began to live the vision.
So you need God’s vision for your life.
That does not necessarily mean that you are going to be great in the world’s eyes - but it does mean that you will fulfill your God given destiny.
Hand in hand with that is an understanding of what you are without God - sort of like a torch without it’s batteries - there is nothing worse than someone who really believes that they are the greatest.
Gideon was great because he recognised that his dependence was on god not on any greatness of his own.
(Sermon Central.)
In an April, 1988 edition of Sports Illustrated, their was a story titled "Ali and His Entourage". Sports writer Gary Smith went to Ali’s farmhouse to interview the three-time world champion. On the floor leaning against the walls, were mementos of Ali in his prime. Photos and portraits of the champ punching and dancing. Sculpted body. Fist punching the air. Championship belt held high in triumph. "The thrilla in Manila."
But on the pictures were white steaks – bird droppings. Ali looked into the rafters at the pigeons who had made his gym their home. And then he did something significant. Perhaps it was a gesture of closure. Maybe it was a statement of despair. Whatever the reason, he walked over to the row of pictures and turned them, one by one, toward the wall. He then walked to the door, stared at the countryside, and mumbled something so low that Smith had to ask him to repeat it. Ali did.
"I had the world," he said, "and it wasn’t nothin’. Look now."
There is no point in fulfilling a vision that God hasn’t given to you.
In order to fulfill your vision you may need to die to your old self.
As it says in
Galatians 2:20 "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
The following ad once appeared in a London newspaper: "Men wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful." The ad was signed by Sir Ernest Shackleton, Antarctic explorer. Amazingly, the ad drew thousands of respondents, eager to sacrifice everything for the prospect of meaningful adventure.
In England, there is a paper factory that makes the finest stationery in the world. One day, a man touring the factory asked what it was made from. He was shown a huge pile of old rags and told that the rag content was what determined the quality of the paper. The visitor couldn’t believe it.
In weeks he received from the company a package of paper with his initials embossed on it. On the top piece were written the words, "Dirty Rags Transformed."
The same is true of the Christian life. Only Jesus can transform our lives from what we were, into something new and wonderful....
The truth is when we are seeking God’s plan for our lives we know the general plan it is just the specific vision that we are seeking:-
EPH 1:11 In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, 12 in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory
God’s plan is that we might live for His glory - not our own - it is how we do that that we are trying to clarify.
Then you need to get a vision of what a person like you might achieve.
Sometimes it is good to just find someone who is already living out your vision.
Murray Robertson was telling me when he was here recently that he took time a few years ago to go and spend time with Jackie Pullenger in Hong Kong. Jackie Pullinger was very successfully touching lives that were broken in Hong Kong - what better place to visit and learn from.
Once you have your vision - the second thing you need to do is burn your bridges - nail your colours up - let people know where you are coming from.
How do you do that.
Gideon went to his Father’s house and destroyed the idol -
JDG 6:24 So Gideon built an altar to the LORD there and called it The LORD is Peace. To this day it stands in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.
JDG 6:25 That same night the LORD said to him, "Take the second bull from your father’s herd, the one seven years old. Tear down your father’s altar to Baal and cut down the Asherah pole beside it. 26 Then build a proper kind of altar to the LORD your God on the top of this height. Using the wood of the Asherah pole that you cut down, offer the second bull as a burnt offering."
Gideon does two things one he focuses on God - builds an alter to him and secondly he replaces the idol with an alter built to God.
The reason that I have revisited this topic after talking about it last week is I really want you to understand what you need to do in order to "be a flying Kiwi" in relation to the things of God.
You know Gideon could have gone off to defeat the Middianites with a great tribe of Israelites - but you know he wouldn’t have succeeded.
Why is that?
Because he would have lacked the blessing of God. We need to demolish the alters of our lives that take the place of God in our lives.
How do you identify them?
The answer is what is it in your life that you place a deep dependence on instead of God?
That thing has to be demolished - or diminished.
If it is a bad thing that is morally indefensible it must be demolished - knock it down just get rid off it - If it is essentially a good thing that is out of place then the task is to put it in the correct place. An example of this could be an interest that replaces worship.
Think for example of the man who builds a model railway up in his ceiling - he is a fanatic - he has rolling stock and locomotives and loves building beautiful scenery - Meetings with his fellow train worshippers rob him of the opportunity to share the gospel - there is all the regional conferences of model train owners that are held on Sunday and take the place of worship and in the end the thing that absorbs this mans life is model trains!!
There is nothing wrong with a model train - maybe he should have one - but when anything takes over our lives like this it becomes an idol.
You won’t demolish idols like that, though unless you have a vision of where God wants you to go. Once you do it is easy to demolish idols.
When I was young and growing as a Christian the company I was working for was a great company but there was an atmosphere of drunkenness, lewdness, adultery and so on that I felt I couldn’t stay there and grow as a Christian. My history had gone back so long with these people that I found their culture was strangling my Christianity. At my farewell, a man who was a friend of mine asked why I was leaving. He was a man who had what I would call a drinking problem. I told him that I didn’t feel I could be a Christian and remain there because of the culture. He was astounded he thought you could easily be a Christian and work there - which was true.
But I knew I couldn’t. Because of his drinking I thought he couldn’t either.
Just a few years later he died of a heart attack at about age 35.
His idol had, I believe killed him.
You really have to do what you’ve got to do to demolish the idols in your life.
Here in our area it can be any one of a number of things - but the biggest two are I believe
Work and entertainment.
Work because most folk around here are not in a forty hour a week situation most of us are working 50 60 even 70 hours a week or more - so much so that it can rob us not only of worship but also of God’s call on our life.
This is a complex matter, but it is one we need to solve because if we don’t, we will not play much of a part in advancing the Kingdom purposes of god in this area. Work is good - money is helpful but not if it robs us of God’s vision for our life.
In the story of the rich young man Jesus tells this young man what he must do to inherit eternal life:-
MT 19:21 Jesus answered, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."
MT 19:22 When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.
MT 19:23 Then Jesus said to his disciples, "I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.
God isn’t necessarily calling you to get rid of all you’ve got but he is asking you to release what you have to him. The release will liberate you and without that release you will struggle to fulfill the purposes of God.
The other thing is leisure - sport - self entertainment, fulfillment and so on.
In the eighties and nineties of last century we saw a real movement towards self awareness - self fulfillment and so on but this thing has grown over the years to inappropriate levels.
We need to be so careful that we are not putting self over God.
Because we can become our own idol.
The third thing that Gideon does is something for God - he just keeps busy doing what he needs to do in order to defeat the Middianites.
He does something!!!
What happens? - Once he gets going God takes him seriously and begins to help Gideon - His help comes in a surprising way he helps by giving him less to use in the battle because God looks beyond the battle to the party afterwards and sees that if there are too many men in the army, then pride will come in and rob them of long term victory. But Gideon does something - he gathers 32,000 people together - not the thing that will in the end win the battle but it leads to his success.
God makes the adjustment but we need to do something - God will join in because he will see your heart.
Two frogs fell into a tub of cream. One looked at the sides of the tub, and saw that it was too
high to crawl over and said, "It’s hopeless." He resigned himself to death, relaxed, and sank to the
bottom. The other one determined to keep swimming as long as he could. "Something might happen,"
he said. And it did. He kept kicking and churning, and finally he found himself on a solid platform of
butter and jumped to safety....
Why am I revisiting this topic again?
Because I believe this message contains critical keys that will revolutionise your Christian life.
Kiwi’s can fly - At least Christian Kiwis can.
Here’s the three points again.
1. Get a sense of God’s vision in your life -
2. Get rid of the idols in your life
3. Do something to begin to fulfill your vision.
Simple isn’t it? - If you buy into it you will be an agent of great change for this church and more importantly, for the Kingdom of God..
More than that you will transform your own life and be an agent of change in your own family and community.
