With God, It's Possible

With God It’s Possible

GNLCC 11/18/2001 Judges 6:1-10 Hebrews 10:19-31 Judges 6 & 7

Toby

When was the last time in your life in which you wanted to try something or accomplish something, but you were afraid that you might not succeed so you didn’t even try? When was the last time, in which you went out and did something that you did not think you could do, but you did it and are glad that you did. Each of those experiences leaves us with a certain feeling inside. The first memory has that gnawing feeling of regret, and the second immediately brings a “Yes” to our memory.

Rick

There are many experiences that we choose to try on our own, and they do not always lead to victory. I worked at a camp one summer on a lake. I desperately wanted to learn to water ski. I tried my hardest, but I simply could not get up on the top of the water when the boat took off. Now I had prayed for God’s help. For some reason or another, I had to accept, God had not called me to be a water skier, because if He had, I would have been on the water. When we say, with God, all things are possible, we must remember things become possible when God calls us to do them. There is a temptation to say, “I want to do this and I will do it because with God all things are possible.” The biblical truth is once God has told us to do something, with God it becomes possible to bring it to reality.”

Toby

Warren Weirsbe once said, “God’s commandments are God’s enablements.” Once God has called and commissioned us to do something, all we have to do is obey God by faith and God will do the rest. God cannot lie, and God never fails. Faith means obeying God in spite of what we see, how we feel, or what the consequences might be. No one does a work for the Lord without having to pay a price to overcome some kind of fear. We find that fear present in Moses, in Gideon, in Jeremiah, in Mary and even in Jesus there in the Garden of Gethsamenae. Today we are going to focus in on Gideon in Judges Chapter 6 & 7.

Rick

God’s people’s lives were miserable thanks to the Midianites. Now imagine being farmers. You go out and plant your seeds, waters the fields, pull the weeds, and doing all you can to make your food grow. Then just as you see the food is growing and about ready to be harvested, you see this cloud of smoke coming from the east. That cloud of smoke is due to the Midianites and the animals coming by the thousands to trample your garden and to have the animals eat all the food you have grown. They leave, but its too late to plant anything again, and now you’ve got to figure out, what am I going to eat for the coming year to get me through the winter.

Toby

Now meet Gideon. He’s just a farmer whose trying to get him some wheat for his next meal. Normally when a farmer was threshing wheat, he would be outside tossing the wheat into the air, so that the wind could blow away the chaff which was the bad part of the grain. But Gideon is doing this down in a hole in the ground in a winepress. He wants to make sure no Midianite sees him and possibly takes away his food. There he is trying to be as secret about the whole process as possible.

Rick

Why God makes the decision He makes is often beyond our understanding. He sends an angel out to Gideon. The first thing the angel says to Gideon, “The Lord is with you, oh mighty warrior.” Tell the person next to you, “The Lord is with you, oh mighty warrior.” Isn’t it amazing, that at one point the Scriputres remind us that we are but dust, our lives are like the morning cloud which passes away, and we have not served God as we should, and yet still God turns around and says great things about us. All the circumstances surrounding Gideon’s life said that he was the exact opposite. But how many of you know, when God says something about us, it does not matter what our circumstances say, because with God, its possible.

Toby

When God looks at us, He does not see us as simply a small church on East 105th street. He sees us a mighty warrior with a mission to make a difference in Glenville and the greater Cleveland area. God is ready to do something new in this area. Don’t you find it interesting that God has called Cleveland Church of Christ, Lee Memorial, Glenville Church Of God, and Glenville New Life all to build new buildings for ministry and outreach into the community. Yet none of us sat down together and said, what is your church planning.