Super Heroes Need Not Apply

Super Heroes—Please Don’t Apply

11/7/1999 Judges 6:11-18 Luke 1:5-17 Text Luke 1:5-22

Back in the olden days when I was a kid, everybody had a super hero of some sort. It might have been Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Hulk, Iron-Man, The Avengers, Spiderman, The Hawk, The Phantom, Flash, SuperGirl, The Eighth Man, the Six Miliion Dollar Man, or Aquaman. My favorite hero was a robot named Gigantor. He was controlled by a little boy with a box. He was a massive robot about 40 feet tall and could beat up anybody and stop crime anywhere. I always enjoyed watching super heroes in action.

I have noticed that even though I preferred watching super heroes, God enjoys using ordinary people to make things happen. God rarely ever chooses a hero type person to do great things for Him. God is in the business of using ordinary people to do extra-ordinary types of things. If we come to God with super hero type qualities, God will often choose to use us in ways that our hero kind of qualities take a secondary place. Moses and Paul are the only two people I can think of who were really somebody before God called them, and yet neither served in the previous capacity for God after they were called in the areas they had been big shots in before.

The thing about God is that when God sees us, God never sees us as just ordinary people. God sees future super heroes when touched by his power. In our Old Testament reading, The Midianites were greatly beating up on God’s people. They would wait for God’s people to plant their crops, and just before they got ready to harvest them, the Midianites would bring in massive numbers of sheep, goats, and cattle to eat up the food which was ready to be collected by the people.

God also knew in a few months an army of a 135,000 armed warriors would be attacking His people. When God looked through the resumes of those present, God eliminated all the super heroes, and held on to one that said, Name : Gideon. Experience: Poor farmer from a small clan in the tribe of Manassah. Battle Experience: None—Will Flee And Hide In A Cave At First Sight Of The Enemy. Faith: Weak—Must Have A Sign In Order To Believe. Availability: Busy At The Moment Hiding From The Midianites. Check back after the war is over.

Now if most of us had a read this resume, we would have written Gideon off as a coward with no chance of leading anybody into battle, and we would have been absolutely right. But we don’t always see people as God sees them. God reads the resume and says, “now this is the person for the job.” God sends down the angel of God.

The angel says to Gideon, “Well look out there you mighty warrior.” Gideon, says, “excuse me, you talking to me? I’m no mighty warrior. As a matter of fact I’m just a scared, poor farmer trying to get a little wheat before the Midianites find out I’ m here. I don’t even remember the last time I saw a mighty warrior anywhere near this place.” The angel says ”oh know there’s been no mistake. I know who you are oh Mighty Warrior and you will lead the people of God into a great victory over Midian.”

One of our biggest problems is we think we cannot do what God has told us to do, and we cannot be what God has called us to be. In our own strength we may be right, but in the power of God all things are possible. Gideon was a mighty warrior and did not even know it. He was a mighty warrior not be cause he was a super hero, but because God said, “ I will be with you.” If you read the rest of the story of Gideon you will discover how he and 300 men took on the Midianite army and won.

Some of you here today are great in the eyes of God and you don’t even know it. You’re like Jacob when he said, “Surely the Lord is in this place and I did not know it.” You don’t understand the power of the Lord is in you to make you mighty. You are mighty wives and husbands. You are mighty leaders in the church. You are mighty children at home and in school. You are mighty lawyers, pastors, doctors, business people, and other professionals and don’t even know it.

It’s all because you are looking at yourself through your eyes or somebody else’s eyes rather than accepting what God has to say about you. There’s not a person here today, who has become all that God intends for them to be. Sometimes we let some setback or discouragement keep us from going on with the Lord.