Responding to God’s Voice
Because the kids are with us this morning…Let me see how you do with this superhero quiz.
Q: Why do the Hulk’s tulips look so healthy?
A: Because he has a green thumb.
Q: Why won’t Captain America use the metric system?
A: He refuses to support a foreign ruler.
Q: Why was Aquaman angry with Aqualad?
A: His grades were below “C” level.
Q: Why didn’t the Joker join the Penguin’s club?
A: He thought it was for the birds.
Q: Where does Spiderman go for information?
A: The web.
Superheroes are still popular today. While I haven’t kept up with the new action figures, I went to see X-Men one and hope to see X-Men 2: I can recall reading the comic books when I was a kid. It is interesting though, that our appetite for superhero escapism is directly proportional to our feelings of powerlessness. Unfortunately, superheroes don’t really exist. Most heroes are more like the man in this next story:
I read a story recently about a young woman who was on a pleasure cruise. As she was leaning against the ship’s rail scanning over the clear blue ocean, she lost her balance, and was thrown overboard. Immediately another figure plunged into the waves beside her and held her up until a lifeboat rescued them. To everyone’s astonishment the hero was the oldest man on the voyage ...an octogenarian. That evening he was given a party in honor of his bravery. "Speech! Speech!" the other passengers cried. The old gentleman rose slowly and looked around at the enthusiastic gathering. "There’s just one thing I’d like to know," he said a bit angrily, "Who pushed me?"
Isn’t that a little like most of the biblical heroes? They are called to do something they aren’t comfortable with. But when they hear God, what else is there to do?
King David was originally a simple shepherd boy.
Joseph was a household slave.
Moses was an eighty-year old sheep herder.
Gideon was a common laborer working on the threshing floor of a mill.
1. Let me tell you some of the story of Gideon.
a. This is the time after Joshua has died, and a succession of what the bible calls “Judges” are raised up to deliver the –un-unified people of Israel from a variety of oppressors.
i. Gideon’s story starts off showing him as a farmer, threshing his wheat in a winepress, so it cannot be seen and stolen by the Midianite raiders that have been ravaging the land.
b. Look at Judges 6:11-17:
i. 11 Then the angel of the LORD came and sat beneath the oak tree at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash of the clan of Abiezer. Gideon son of Joash had been threshing wheat at the bottom of a winepress to hide the grain from the Midianites. 12 The angel of the LORD appeared to him and said, "Mighty hero, the LORD is with you!" 13 "Sir," Gideon replied, "if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? And where are all the miracles our ancestors told us about? Didn’t they say, ’The LORD brought us up out of Egypt’? But now the LORD has abandoned us and handed us over to the Midianites." 14 Then the LORD turned to him and said, "Go with the strength you have and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I am sending you!"
ii. First of all, Gideon doesn’t realize he is speaking to an angel (messenger.)
1. And the angel calls him a MIGHTY HERO even though Gideon is hiding out from the raiders by doing his wheat threshing in the basement of a winepress.
2. Funny how God sees us much differently than we see ourselves!
3. And that is part of the reason why we have to hear Him. We need to hear His perspective because it is the only one that counts!
iii. Lets look at Gideon response:
1. He does so with an excuse!
2. He tries to redirect the question by putting the focus back on God and not himself.
3. He asks, “Why doesn’t God do something about this Midianite problem? These guys are a real nuisance!”
4. And God says through the angel…that’s why I’m here, Gideon! I’m calling you to deliver Israel from the Midianites!
a. Gideon, going to use YOU!
b. I’m choosing You!
5. And Gideon’s response is exactly what you would expect. He’s overwhelmed!
iv. As a Pastor, I see God calling people to do things all the time. The trouble is they don’t even realize it.
1. They bring me their complaints and say, “The church ought to do this or that!”
2. Some are especially passionate about their observations.
a. And they don’t realize that their passion is from God! Passion is one of the ways God speaks to us.
b. I recall, in my church in Massachusets, a couple coming to me and complaining that we had no “young marrieds’ ministry.” God allowed me to recognize the passion in their voice and to reply to them the way God replied to Gideon!
i. Why don’t you start one? I will walk with you as you do it and support and encourage you. If God is in this, then it will succeed! And it did.
c. Another person came to me and asked why we didn’t have an AWANA program for the children of the church to disciple them better. I felt the Lord’s leadership to reply, “Why don’t you start one?”
d. Just like God said to Gideon, “Go with the strength you have and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I am sending you!"
3. Many times our passion is a part of our dialog with God…
a. and He says to each of us …Go and do it!
b. And you know what we often say?
c. We offer our excuses…we are overwhelmed…
i. we say, “but I am not a leader”
ii. or “I’ve never had any training in this or that”
iii. INSTEAD of hearing and REESPONDING to God!
v. Look at some of Gideon’s excuses. (remember, Moses offered a bunch too!)
vi. 15 "But Lord," Gideon replied, "how can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest in the whole tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least in my entire family!" 16 The LORD said to him, "I will be with you. And you will destroy the Midianites as if you were fighting against one man." 17 Gideon replied, "If you are truly going to help me, show me a sign to prove that it is really the LORD speaking to me.
c. Gideon now goes from the attitude of self-doubt to one of: “Is that really you Lord?”
i. I wonder how many of us have heard God and then replied, “Is that really you God?”
ii. I hope that from my message last week you learned and beginning to personally experience the truth that communication with God is supposed to be a NORMAL part of Christian life.
1. We should be hearing from God regularly.
iii. And as we learn to recognize his voice, we will stop asking “Is really You talking to me”
d. But Gideon, I believe at this point, has not heard from God before.
i. This is his first encounter.
ii. The passage goes on to say that he is told to lay out a meal on a rock (and it was a costly one, for a family that was near starvation because of the raiders in the land) and the angel touched the rock and flames consumed the meat and the bread and the angel disappeared.
iii. Now look in verse 22:
1. “…and the angel of the Lord disappeared. When Gideon realized it was the angel of the Lord, he explained, “ah, Sovereign Lord! I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face!”
2. v23: “But the Lord said to him, “Peace! Do not be afraid. You are not going to die.”
3. Did you notice what changed in this conversation?
a. The angel or messenger, is no longer there!
b. Gideon is hearing God in his own spirit now.
4. This is a key passage for Gideon as it should be for you and I.
a. Gideon no longer needs an “angelic messenger” (disguised like a person, I think of Touched by an Angel) , but now has come to a place of hearing God in his own spirit. In fact, God no longer uses an angel to talk to him, but speaks to him in his spirit.
5. God desires to have you hear Him in your spirit too!
a. You don’t have to wait for an angel to come to visit you.
b. You can hear Him speak to you, answer you and instruct you.
2. Last week, I spoke to you about the many ways that God speaks to us…through His Word, through circumstances, through audible voices, through small voices, through other people, and through dreams and visions.
a. I encouraged you to begin journaling…I am curious, has anyone journaled this week?
b. I wonder how serious most of you really were last week when so many of you said you were convicted of your need to “hear God?”
i. Are you willing to work at listening to God?
ii. Journaling is a form of ACTIVE listening.
iii. It in its simplest form is keeping a record of what you hear God saying.
iv. It can be as easy as writing down what you hear God saying on slips of paper and leaving them in your bible, or as complex as maintaining a notebook with entries for each day.
c. Please don’t think you can listen passively and somehow expect that God is going to shout and make Himself heard. You and I must listen to God actively or we are giving mere lip service to Him.
d. The devil would love nothing more than to have you deaf to God’s voice, because if you don’t hear God, you cannot respond to God!
e. But for us, sometimes I wonder if the reason we don’t respond to God is because we are refusing to listen.
i. Listening requires a change of lifestyle.
1. We have to put away the distractions.
2. God has to assume first place in our life…not 2nd place, 3rd or 4th.
3. Will you give Him first place…or will you remain the way you are? And settle for a life empty of miracles and absent from God’s presence?
4. The passage we will look at tonight is a part of Gideon’s response to God’s voice. It is Gideon giving God first place.
a. Gideon’s obedience to God’s call led to him being used by God. Even though we are not looking at that until tonight, I want you to be certain today…hear me…you will not hear God in big things until you obey His voice in the little things in your life.
5. I hope you will make that choice today.
3. I believe that you and I will see a message emerging from these passages in Judges concerning Gideon. That message is that God is less concerned about our fear and doubts than He is about our refusal to do what He tells us to do.
a. Judges 6:33 “Soon afterward the armies of Midian, Amalek, and the people of the east formed an alliance against Israel and crossed the Jordan, camping in the valley of Jezreel. 34 Then the Spirit of the LORD took possession of Gideon.
i. Unlike now, the Holy Spirit of God did not live inside of believers, but “visited” them, coming upon them with power. You and I, if we have given our lives to Christ, have the Holy Spirit dwelling in our spirit.
1. It is through the Holy Spirit that you will hear God!
2. It is through the Holy Spirit that you will have the boldness to do God’s will
ii. He has taken possession of us permanently, because Christ has bought us.
iii. The only reason you might not hear God is because God might not have you!
1. And you may wish to make a decision today, to let God have you! STOP running from His control and allow Him to have you as His own.
2. He made you and He bought you. Won’t you give yourself to Him todeay?
b. Judges 6:34-“He blew a ram’s horn as a call to arms, and the men of the clan of Abiezer came to him. 35 He also sent messengers throughout Manasseh, Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, summoning their warriors, and all of them responded. 36 Then Gideon said to God, "If you are truly going to use me to rescue Israel as you promised, 37 prove it to me in this way. I will put some wool on the threshing floor tonight. If the fleece is wet with dew in the morning but the ground is dry, then I will know that you are going to help me rescue Israel as you promised." 38 And it happened just that way. When Gideon got up the next morning, he squeezed the fleece and wrung out a whole bowlful of water. 39 Then Gideon said to God, "Please don’t be angry with me, but let me make one more request. This time let the fleece remain dry while the ground around it is wet with dew." 40 So that night God did as Gideon asked. The fleece was dry in the morning, but the ground was covered with dew.
c. I find it fascinating that God did what Gideon asked. This is what many of us call a fleece. It is a sign. And many of us have read about Jesus condemning the requests of the religious leaders for signs, so we think that signs are no longer useful or valid to the Christian.
i. So let me say something about signs as a means of hearing God.
ii. Signs
1. If you are not willing to travel with God’s leadership or rulership for your journey, no amount of signs will ever help you.
2. But signs are legitimate.
a. We find this in Scripture at many places.
b. When we look just at the New Testament, it starts of right at Jesus’ birth.
i. The shepherds receive a sign, Luke 2:12 “And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.” (AV)
3. Even after Pentecost God continues to give signs and miracles, to encourage faith in his people, and as a testimony to an unbelieving world, so that they are left without excuse.
a. Paul tells about this in 1 Corinthians 14:22
i. “So you see that speaking in tongues is a sign, not for believers, but for unbelievers; prophecy, however, is for the benefit of believers, not unbelievers.”
b. Signs shall be with us until the second coming,
i. Matthew 24:30 “And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.” (AV)
4. The important issue with signs is that your focus be right.
a. You should wholeheartedly and earnestly be seeking God, and not looking for a sign that you will use to confirm what you have already decided upon.
b. In other words: You should not seek signs, but God. If you look for signs as an end in themselves, you are on the wrong track.
c. As Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1:22 “For the Jews demand miraculous signs, and Greeks look for wisdom.” (NIV)
d. We don’t demand signs. We WELCOME them because they help our faith.
5. Gideon’s focal point seems to be right here. His focal point is the Lord.
a. It is important to make sure of that for your decisions too.
b. When you find yourself on the crossroads of life, you should involve God.
c. You should not just marry someone, not decide upon a job or a ministry without making sure about the will of God.
d. This implies asking God first and finding out as much about it as you can in Scripture.
e. Check your conclusions about God’s will for your life with Scripture.
f. But even then, it is also possible that our fallible minds misinterpret God’s revelation..
g. That is why you should ask the Lord for the guidance of his Spirit and always validating it with scripture.
d. Gideon was timid, afraid, but God emboldened him with a sign to encourage his faith.
i. Gideon is a timid man. He is afraid.
ii. His timidity and fear is still at the root of his life…and God knows it.
iii. In fact, it is not just in spite of, but I like to think, because of his timidity that God used him.
iv. Gideon has no basis for which to boast. He is from the smallest clan, he is the least of his family, and his faith is so weak God has to strengthen even that.
v. But what I like about Gideon is his willingness to listen and once convinced that he has heard God, he lets nothing stop him from responding to God’s instruction.
e. What I see in Gideon however, is not a refusal to obey.
i. He isn’t making excuses anymore.
ii. He knows he is hearing from God so he is constantly checking to make sure he has heard God right.
f. As we see the timid Gideon, we see him talking with God. That is the uniqueness of Gideon. He talks, and he listens and he discerns God’s voice.
4. Gideon again hears from God:
a. The next morning, after being convinced that the fleeces were a word from God, Gideon is camped, preparing for attack. But he hears God’s voice.
i. God’s voice is often counter-intuitive. Perhaps that is one way that Gideon was able to recognize it?
ii. (Judges 7:2-3) “The Lord said to Gideon, ‘You have too many men for me to deliver Midean into their hands. In order that Israel may not boast against me that her own strength has saved her, announce now to the people, “Anyone who trembles with fear may turn back and leave Mount Gilead.” So 22,000 men left, while 10,000 remained.”
1. I wonder at this point, why Gideon didn’t say, “God is that really you?”
2. He has to wonder about such a command, but the biblical account says nothing about his doubts here…he simply says what God tells him to say.
iii. (Judges 7:4) “But the Lord said to Gideon, ‘there are still too many men. Take them down to the water and I will sift them for you there.”
1. Gideon is probably fortunate that he hasn’t heard the test until after it happens, because if I were him, I would have begun to argue with God at this point.
2. God sorts out the drinkers by those who get down on all fours and gulp the water from those who cup the water to their face while standing, and lick the water while they watch the horizon for the enemy.
a. I could chase a rabbit and tell you some fascinating facts about his soldiers, but our message is about Gideon, and not about his army
3. Only 300 remain. The word says, (Judges 7:7) “The Lord said to Gideon, with the 300 men that lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands.”
4. By this time, I think Gideon is getting used to hearing God speak.
a. He no longer has any doubts that it is God speaking to him, although he may yet be fearful.
iv. One more time God speaks to Gideon. (Judges 7:9-11) “During the night the Lord said to Gideon, ‘Get up, go down against the camp because I am going to give it into your hands. If you are afraid to attack, go down to the camp with your servant Purah and listen to what they are saying. Afterward, you will be encouraged to attack the camp. So he and Purah his servant went down to the outposts of the camp.”
1. This is actually rather funny to me. Gideon was afraid –
2. He should have been one of the ones to be sent home in the first elimination!
3. But the Lord had chosen him and was being merciful to him
v. (V12-15) Now the Midianites and the Amalekites and all the sons of the east were lying in the valley as numerous as locusts; and their camels were without number, as numerous as the sand on the seashore. 13 When Gideon came, behold, a man was relating a dream to his friend. And he said, "Behold, I had a dream; a loaf of barley bread was tumbling into the camp of Midian, and it came to the tent and struck it so that it fell, and turned it upside down so that the tent lay flat." 14 His friend replied, "This is nothing less than the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel; God has given Midian and all the camp into his hand." 15 When Gideon heard the account of the dream and its interpretation, he bowed in worship. He returned to the camp of Israel and said, "Arise, for the LORD has given the camp of Midian into your hands.
b. I want you to imagine for a moment, what you would feel like if you were in Gideon’s shoes.
i. You know already you are on a mission from God, you have already heard his voice, you have had visits from angels, and you have seen God confirm Himself through not just one, but two fleeces.
ii. Gideon’s army being made smaller and smaller, and now he must either fight by faith or not at all;
iii. God therefore here provides recruits for his faith, instead of recruits for his forces. I.
iv. He furnishes him with a good foundation to build his faith upon.
1. There is nothing like a word from God to be a footing for our faith.
v. God gives him a word of promise to attach his faith to, and then gives him the faith he will need for the adventure.
vi. And you can see Gideon’s response…it is one of WORSHIP.
1. Worship is the action that I recognize that God is God and I am not…and because of that, I owe Him all I am!
2. Gideon bowed in worship.
3. He knew God was totally in charge.
4. When God speaks to you…when you get those glory bumps (as Twila calls them) and know your are hearing Him, do you casually dismiss Him…or do you stop and look to heaven in awe that the God of the universe has chosen you?
5. What happens next? Gideon has an army of 300 men whose hands are going to be filled with musical instruments and flashlights, their swords are at their sides, but their hands will be filled so they are essentially useless weapons.
a. 16 He divided the 300 men into three companies, F111 and he put trumpets and empty pitchers into the hands of all of them, with torches inside the pitchers. 17 He said to them, "Look at me and do likewise. And behold, when I come to the outskirts of the camp, do F112 as I do. 18 "When I and all who are with me blow the trumpet, then you also blow the trumpets all around the camp and say, `For the LORD and for Gideon.’ "
b. The bible says that the Midianite army, all 160,000 of them struck each other in the night in the confusion, unable to see their enemy, hearing the trumpets (usually one trumpet per division), so they could extrapolate…that there was a big army and it was upon them. They couldn’t see friend or foe and they didn’t have night vision goggles. So each killed whoever they came across, because confusion reigned. God delivered them into Gideon’s hands.
c. Gideon heard God, Gideon made sure it was God, Gideon acted upon what God said, and Gideon saw God win the battle.
6. This is the message for the day:
a. Are you listening to God? Have you realized He is speaking to you and you might not even know it? He may be calling you to step out in faith…and you may just think that someone else will do it.
i. But if He has given you a passion for something, He also may be saying to you, “Go and do this and I will be with you!”
ii. Gideon needed to understand who he was, but more importantly, He needed a personal encounter with God. Napoleon’s soldiers used to say, “When Napoleon takes our hands and looks at us, we feel like conquerors.”
iii. And God’s word says to us: “We are more than conquerors through Christ”
iv. Will you sit back or will you respond to His voice today?
b. Perhaps you have heard God but are hedging, you are holding back. He has told you to take action in your life, or to take action toward someone and you are resisting.
i. You might be saying, “I can’t do that” or “I wouldn’t know how”…rather than saying, “Show me Lord How.”
ii. I encourage you to stop offering excuses to God and instead offer yourself.
iii. If God’s Spirit dwells within you, He will provide you with what you need to do His will.
iv. God loves to show Himself strong when we feel weak. He delights in the difficult, but He specializes in the impossible. In Luke 18:27, Jesus said, “What is impossible with men is possible with God.”
1. Someone has said that we should “attempt something so big for God that unless He is in it, it will fail.” I’m sure that’s how Gideon felt.
2. When our numbers are reduced, then we know its God who is doing the work.
3. 2 Corinthians 12: 9:“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
v. So will you let go and do what God has told you to do?
c. Or maybe…you just can’t hear God at all. Either you aren’t listening or you aren’t yet His child. You can change that today. You can receive the gift of God’s love found in His Son by simply asking.
i.
ii. A couple years ago Time Magazine ran a cover story that caused a stir. The question was asked, "Is God Dead?" The next day reporters asked Billy Graham, "Is God dead, Dr. Graham?" He replied, "Are you kidding? I just talked to him."
iii. God isn’t dead, but you may be spiritually dead toward Him. But you don’t have to remain that way. You can receive spiritual life so that you can begin to hear God today.
1. Believing in Jesus means to place your trust in Him, to recognize that you cannot make life work without Him. Believing means that you receive the free gift that Jesus gives…paying for you the price of your sin and rebellion.
2. Jesus said, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.”
iv. Won’t you receive Him today…have you heard His voice calling your name? Don’t refuse Him. Respond to Him. During our time of invitation you can step out of your pew, walk down this aisle and I will pray with you to let God change your life forever. Don’t hold back.
v. In Hebrews 3:15 the writer urges, "Today, if you hear his voice do not harden your heart."
If you are ever going to find God’s calling in your life, you have to pay attention to the vertical drama going on above you that proclaims, "You have been chosen!"
Do you remember how wonderful it felt when you were chosen? When the kids were picking sides for a game of baseball, and you were chosen. Or when the phone rang and someone asked you to the prom? Or when the letter finally came from a college saying you had been chosen for admission? Or when the prospective employer said, "We had a lot of candidates, but we chose you"? You were chosen. That is also at the beginning of your story with God.
You can never forget that. You can never forget that ordinary you were chosen by God to play an extraordinary role in his drama on earth. And you can never forget that the reason you were chosen was never because you looked good. Your calling has nothing to do with your talents and resume. God already has all of the talent he needs. So why were you chosen? Only because God wants your heart.
d.
e. You have an army of 300 men whose hands are going to be filled with horns and flashlights
f. 15 When Gideon heard the account of the dream and its interpretation, he bowed in worship. He returned to the camp of Israel and said, "Arise, for the LORD has given the camp of Midian into your hands.
g. 16 He divided the 300 men into three companies, F111 and he put trumpets and empty pitchers into the hands of all of them, with torches inside the pitchers. 17 He said to them, "Look at me and do likewise. And behold, when I come to the outskirts of the camp, do F112 as I do. 18 "When I and all who are with me blow the trumpet, then you also blow the trumpets all around the camp and say, `For the LORD and for Gideon.’ "
i. He told them now, it is very likely, what they must do, else the thing was so strange that they would scarcely have done it of a sudden, but he would, by doing it first, give notice to them when to do it, as officers exercise their soldiers with the word of command or by beat of drum: Look on me, and do likewise. Such is the word of command which our Lord Jesus, the captain of our salvation, gives his soldiers; for he has left us an example, with a charge to follow it: As I do, so shall you do
ii. These soldiers, if they had swords by their sides, that was all, they had none in their hands, but they gained the victory by shouting "The sword.’’ So the church’s enemies are routed by a sword out of the mouth, Rev. 19:21.
iii. As typifying the destruction of the devil’s kingdom in the world by the preaching of the everlasting gospel, the sounding of that trumpet, and the holding forth of that light out of earthen vessels, for such the ministers of the gospel are, in whom the treasure of that light is deposited, 2 Co. 4:6, 7. Thus God chose the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, a barley-cake to overthrow the tents of Midian, that the excellency of the power might be of God only; the gospel is a sword, not in the hand, but in the mouth, the sword of the Lord and of Gideon, of God and Jesus Christ, him that sits on the throne and the Lamb.
iv. the 300 men kept their ground
v. Normally, only a few of the soldiers carried trumpets for signaling because hands were needed for weapons and shields. Likewise, only a small number would be assigned torches to illuminate the battlefield during the night. Therefore, when the Midianites heard the blast of 300 trumpets and saw the myriad of torches, they naturally assumed there was a massive army that would be charging into the camp. They got spooked and started running around like crazy, killing one another. Many died and others got away, with Gideon in hot pursuit.
7. I think you would respond when you see just HOW in control God is! You worship! It is the only appropriate First response to such a revelation!
