Facing Overwhelming Odds: Gideon
- Skip Heitzig
- Feb 24, 2022
- 27 min read
The Giant of Overwhelming Odds - Judges 7:1-15 - Skip Heitzig
Turn in those Bibles to the book of Judges 7.
Judges 7. Seventh book in the Old Testament. Just
so you know, this little film that we show every
week, this wasn't done in some Hollywood vault.
This was done by our own staff. Our own team did
this. They did such a good job at this media.
Judges 7.
So there's this Amish family, and they went to the
city for the very first time in their lives. And they
ended up at a mall. So, they were completely
overwhelmed by the sights, the sounds, the
crowds, the stores, the lights. And they, in the mall,
came to an elevator. And they watched as the
elevator doors opened and an elderly woman
stepped in, and the doors closed and it went up
and it went down. And then, when it came back
down, the doors opened and this young beautiful
woman stepped out. And so, the little boy said,
"Papa what is that?" And he said, "Never mind son.
Just go get your mama quick."
I don't know what you feel like or how you react
when you are feeling overwhelmed by something,
but chances are you've used that word in the past
year, year and a half, two years. With the events
that have occurred in our world, you have perhaps
felt overwhelmed. That's the word a lot of people
have used.
One news source said people are feeling more
stressed, anxious, and overwhelmed than ever
before. And one of the reasons why it feels or
seems overwhelming to us is we start thinking,
well, we didn't see that one coming. We didn't see
coronavirus shutting down the world, and the
economic freefall. And if that happened, what else
could happen? What does the future hold for us?
In ancient times, when they drew maps out, the
map makers, the cartographers, they would draw
what they knew. And so they would draw the land
masses and the lines for the countries, that's what
they knew. But when they were writing down or
drawing what they didn't know, they would, at the
edge of the map, simply write these words.
"Beyond here, there be dragons." And to use our
own little analogy, we might say, beyond here,
there be giants.
We don't know what the future holds, but we
know that God's got it covered, and I want to talk
to you about that today. We have been studying
standing up to giants. We began with the giant of
conformity, and we saw how Daniel didn't bend,
that he refused to indulge himself in the delicacies
of the king. He didn't conform to the culture. We
looked at the giant of silence, how John the
Baptist stood up and spoke up against the abuse
of hypocrisy of King Herod, Herod Antipas. We
looked at the giant of apathy, how Nehemiah had
a pretty cushy job and he decided that he would
leave his comfort zone and be involved in God's
work. We looked at the giant of fear, how David
took on the whole Philistine army, and, in
particular, that intimidating NBA guy named
Goliath. We looked at the giant of self, and we saw
that Esther put her life on the line to save the
Jewish people with the words, "If I perish, I perish."
Today, we want to look at another giant. And I'm
calling this the giant of overwhelming odds. What
do you do, how do you act, how do you calibrate,
when the odds just seem overwhelming? When
the news that comes to you is just so devastating,
so intimidating. Now, let me just sort of set it up,
and I'm going to give you the numbers of the
army, and I'm going to count on you to remember
these. In fact, I'm going to test you during this
message.
So, the Israelite army-- under a guy by the name of
Gideon in chapter 7 of Judges-- the Israelite army
has 32,000 men. The enemy army-- the Midianites-- has 135,000 men. So, he is outnumbered four to
one. So how many people are in Israel's army? No,
32,000. We'll get this. Don't worry, by the end you
will have this memorized. 32,000. How many are in
the enemy's camp? 135,000.
So, that's what we're up against. Gideon is facing
not a giant, but a giant army. He is outnumbered,
which is precisely the position we find ourselves in
as believers today. We are always outnumbered.
You know that, right? That is our MO. That's how
we operate. That's our modus operandi. We are
always outnumbered. There's always more
unbelievers than there are believers. There are
always more faithless people than there are
faithful people. But sometimes, we know that, and
on top of that, we have family issues and health
issues and economy issues, and it all piles up and
we feel overwhelmed.
And I love David's prayer in Psalm 61, "When my
heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the rock that is
higher than I." I want to show you how to get to
that rock. I want to show you five keys to standing
strong when the odds are against you, when the
circumstances seem overwhelming. And here's
what's great about this story. What's great about
this story is it's not just a story of a man with a
small army against a big army. It's a story of a
weak man who leads a small army against a big
army. He's a man of very frail faith. He's learning.
He's growing in his faith. He's learning to trust
God.
Chapter 7 of Judges is a battle scene. The enemy
has come into the land. There's a coalition of tribal
nations, Midianites, Amalekites, people from the
East. They all band together, they come in, and
they invade the land of Israel. So, I want to show
you those five keys to standing strong.
Here's the first key. Your faith is gradual. That is,
you have faith in God, but that faith grows. And
God doesn't expect you to get all As on the first
day of class for a test or a class that may take a
year for you to sit in. Your faith, and the journey of
your faith, is gradual.
So look at verse 1. Judges 7:1. "Then"-- get this
name, don't ever name your child this name--
"Jerubbaal"-- or, the Hebrew pronunciation, Yeh
ru-buh-al. Yeh-ru-buh-al. I'm not going to even
pronounce it that way. We're Americans, so we're
going to say Jeru-bale. So, "Then Jerubbaal, that is,
Gideon"-- I'll explain that in a moment--
"Jarubbaal, that is, Gideon, and all the people who
were with him rose early and encamped beside
the well of Harod, so that the camp of the
Midianites was on the north side of them by the
hill of Moreh in the valley."
What I want you to notice is the very first name we
get for Gideon in chapter 7 isn't Gideon. It's a
name with pagan ties. It's a nickname that his dad,
who at one time was a pagan worshipper-- he
worshipped like God, the God of Israel, and this
god named Baal-- it was the nickname that his
dad gave him. And it's there to remind us that
Gideon, though he's going to be used by God, had
the influence of paganism from his dad in the
past.
Now, if you know your Bible, you know that Gideon
is not just an Old Testament hero, but he makes it
all the way into the New Testament. Do you know
what book he's in in the New Testament? The
book of Hebrews. So, the writer of Hebrews gives
the Hall of Fame-- the Hall of Fame of Faith-- and
he lists all these faithful examples, and he says,
"And time would fail me to tell you about Gideon
and Barak and Samson and Jephthah." So , he
begins not with faith, but he ends up in the Hall of
Faith. Do you know how Gideon started? How
Jerubbaal started? Fearful. That's how he began
his journey of faith. He believed in God, but he was
so timid. Let me explain.
When God calls him in chapter 6, it says that he
was threshing wheat at the winepress. Now, we
would just read that through and not maybe
understand the background of why that is
important. Nobody threshed wheat at a winepress
because the winepress is down in the valley. The
place you thresh wheat-- the threshing floor-- is on
the top of the mountain. And the reason you do
that is because the afternoon breezes carry the
chaff away. So you take a pitchfork full of your
grain, throw it in the air, the wind blows the chaff
away, the grain falls on the rock. That's where you
thresh wheat. He's not doing that. It says he
threshed wheat in the winepress-- listen to this--
in order to hide from the Midianites. Does that
sound like a man of faith? No, it sounds like a man
of fear. A man of fear.
So, it's funny when the angel of the Lord shows up
while he's throwing that stuff in the air, and he
says, hey, what's up? That's kind of a paraphrase.
And he says, you mighty man of valor. And I'm
guessing Gideon is looking around, going, is there
somebody else here that I don't see? Who's he
talking to? He's talking to the man who would
become a mighty man of valor, but was not at that
moment. He began very fearful.
OK, forward a little bit more in chapter 6. In
chapter 6, God comes to Gideon. He says, Gideon,
your dad has a statue in his backyard of Baal. I
want you to cut it down. I want you to kill it. Cut
down the statue. Burn it. Get rid of it. What's
interesting is that the name Gideon literally means
hacker, or hewer, or one who cuts something
down. So, God comes to Gideon in this journey of
faith and he says, Gideon, it's time for you to live
up to your name. Go cut down that cult object
that your dad has been worshipping.
Now, why would God require that of him? Because
he's about to lead an army, that's why. Before you
can ever lead publicly, you've got to work on
things privately. You've got to start in your own
backyard. And so, he starts in his dad's own
backyard. But even cutting down the statue, he
wouldn't do it during the day. He did it at night,
secretly.
So this is Judges 6:27. "Because he feared his
father's household and the men of the city too
much to do it by day, he did it at night." You can
say, well, that's just practical. Maybe, but he's still
scared. He started out scared, and God calls him to
do something. He does it, but he's still timid.
Now, we come to chapter 7, and in chapter 7, he's
going to lead this army. He's going to do these
great exploits. We're told in Judges 6:34, the Spirit
of the Lord came upon him, so that's a good thing.
He's got the Holy Spirit, he's empowered by God to
do this. But even filled with the Spirit, he's still
scared. He's still timid. He's still fearful. Because he
says, you got to show me a sign. I need a sign that
you're in this.
So, God gives him not one sign, not two signs,
three signs. Sign number one, fire comes out of a
rock and consumes the sacrifice. That's a pretty
good sign. Sign number two, he takes an animal
hide, a fleece, puts it out. The next morning, there's
dew on the fleece but there's no dew anywhere
else in the land. That's the second sign. Gideon
didn't know if that was just a fluke of nature, so he
wanted God to repeat it but reverse it. So He gives
him a third sign. There's no dew the next day on
the fleece but there's dew everywhere else. Three
signs.
So, he believes, he acts, he's called upon to lead an
army, but all the way along, he's still scared, and
God has to confirm it. Here's what I want you to
see. Hunting giants is a progressive skill. It's a
progressive skill. You learn how to do it. And you
learn how to do it gradually over time. Gideon
started out fearful before he ever became faithful. I
hope that encourages you. He started out fearful
before he ever became faithful.
In Psalm 144:1, we read this. "Blessed be the Lord
who trains my hands for war and my fingers for
battle." You're in a learning process. You're in
school God is teaching you through your life,
through the trials, through the difficulties, in this
journey of faith, how to hunt giants. You're a work
in progress. And here's what I mean. You believe in
God, but sometimes you're afraid. You trust, but I
have a little bit of fear and trepidation here in this
area. Right? Is that true about you? Yeah, it's true
for most of us.
It's like the guy in the New Testament who
brought his son to Jesus who was demon
possessed. He said, please heal my son. Jesus said,
all things are possible to him who believes. And
the man said back to Jesus, Lord, I believe, but
help my unbelief. I trust you, but I'm scared. That's
Gideon. That's the journey of faith. We're all on it.
You are in process.
Long before I ever stood before heads of state and
rulers with the gospel, I stood in my classroom. I
stood with my family. I had to make a stand with
my friends and at work. And God knows that you
are in this process, and He cuts you a lot of slack.
He doesn't condemn you. He understands.
I love the Bible verse that says, God knows our
frame and remembers that we are dust. God
knows what you're made out of. He doesn't have
high expectations for dust, right? It's like, OK-- not
to put you down, not to put me down-- I don't
expect a lot out of dirt. I know what you're made
out of. You're human, and it's only natural for
humans to trust but have a little bit of fear mixed
in with it.
So, I love also Hebrews 4. Jesus is called our great
high priest who sympathizes with our weaknesses.
So, here is the gradual growing of Gideon's faith.
By the way, why does God test our faith? And He
does. He's testing Gideon's faith, every little
increment here. He's testing his faith. Testing,
testing, testing. Why does God test our faith? Any
takers on that? That's good. I'm hearing some
good answers. Let me give you two of them.
Number one, God tests your faith not so He can
find out what kind of faith you have. It's not like
God's saying, gosh, I got to find this out. He knows
already going into it how much faith you have or
don't have. But, you don't. So the test is to reveal to
you the level of your faith.
Number two, God tests your faith, and I heard it
shouted out, so it will grow. So, I go into the gym.
The only way for those muscles to grow is for you
to put some resistance on them, and when that
resistance, those weights, are added, and the
muscle breaks down, it's going to build back up.
And so, the trials, the hardship, the testing of your
faith is what builds you up. God tests your faith. A
faith that can't be tested is a faith that can't be
trusted. So, your faith is gradual.
Second key. God's math is unusual. And we would
even say, God does weird math. He does it way
differently than we do. So, there's Midianites and
there's Israelites. How many people are in the
Israelite army? 32,000. How many in the enemy's
army? 135,000. You got the number down now.
32,000 to 135,000. Four to one odds.
By the way, Midianites were like a Bedouin tribal
peoples in ancient times. I don't know if you know
this or not, but Midian was one of Abraham's sons.
You're going, I don't remember that. There was
Isaac and there was Ishmael, but that was with his
first wife, Sarah. After she died, he got married
again to Keturah, and had a whole bunch of kids.
One of them was named Midian. He goes down
into the Sinai desert in northern Saudi Arabia, and
that's his area. By the way, Jethro, the Father-in
law of Moses, was a Midianite priest. So they have
ties way back. At this time, they have invaded the
land and they've encamped around. They're
stealing their crops. They're terrorizing them. And
there are way more of them than there are of
God's people. So, it already seems impossible,
32,000 to 135,000.
Now, look at verse 2. "The Lord said to Gideon, 'The
people who are with you are too many.'" Uh, hello?
Because that's not what I was thinking. Yeah, God,
I wanted to talk to you about the size of my army
because I'm outnumbered four to one. And I was
just about to say, I have too few, and what did you
just say? "The people who are with you are too
many for me to give the Midianites into their
hands, lest Israel claim glory for itself against Me,
saying, 'My own hand has saved me.'" How many
of you think Gideon was shocked when God said
that? Yeah, I do. I think he was pretty shocked.
Did you know that we rarely think that size--
bigness of size-- is a hindrance to the work of God.
Most Christian organizations, most churches don't
see size as a hindrance. They see that as a good
thing. They see the hindrances as things being
small, not big. But when things are large, and
resources are abundant, and there's lots of people,
it's often harder to trust God. What we trust in is
our resources. Those resources may be from God,
but it doesn't take much faith when the
cupboards are full, and the money's in, and the
crowds are there.
Sometimes, churches are wowed by size and
statistics, and they think they're strong because
they're big. That's a misconception. I want to
throw up on the screen what Gary Inrig wrote, just
a little portion. He says, "You cannot be too small
for God to use, but you can be too big. That is why,
as you look around, you will see God working in a
powerful way in the lives of some very weak
people." Well, I hope that encourages you.
Because if you're thinking, man, I just feel so weak.
Perfect. You are a great candidate for God to use.
Do you know that? God has chosen the foolish
things of this world, the weak things of this world,
to confound the mighty and the wise. Size can
hinder the work of God.
Now, wait a minute. I have 32,000. They have
135,000. You're telling me I have too many? Did
you notice how God wrote that, or put that, how
He spoke it? "The people who are with you are too
many." What's the next two words? "For Me." "Too
many for Me." I know they're not too many for you,
Gideon. You think you need 10 times more. Too
many for Me. Who's doing the work here? Who's
doing the fighting here? God's doing the fighting.
Too many for Me to deliver them into your hands.
Listen to this principle, never forget this. Difficulty
must always be measured by the capacity of the
agent doing the work. Difficulty must always be
measured by the capacity of the agent doing the
work. Gideon, you're not doing the work. You're
going to blow off some trumpets and hit some
jars. That's basically what you're going to do. I'm
doing the work. I'm doing the deliverance. And
difficulty must always be measured by the
capacity of the agent doing the work.
So, God's math is pretty simple. It's pretty
straightforward. Here it is, here's God's math. I'm
here, and it doesn't matter how many are out
there. They're outnumbered because I'm here.
That's what Martin Luther said. He said, "With God,
one is a majority." So, here's God's math. I'm here.
No matter who's out there, they're outnumbered.
Here's another story in the Old Testament. Elijah
the prophet, 2 Kings 6. He goes to a town called
Dothan. He's there with his buddy, his assistant.
And his assistant looks around one morning, and
he sees that he is surrounded by Syrian soldiers,
the army of Syria camped around them. And
they're ready to pounce on Dothan to kill Elijah
and his buddy. So, he looks around, the servant,
and says, alas, my master. That's Bible talk for, oh
no, we're toast. Alas, my master, what shall we do?
And Elijah, he's just so cool. He goes, chill out,
dude. Now, that is a paraphrase. He actually didn't
say that in the Bible. Maybe in the NSV, the New
Skip Version. But, it's like, relax. Literally, it says, "Do
not fear. Those who are with us"-- listen to this--
"are more than those who are with them." That's
God's math. Those that are with us are more than
those who are with them. That's God's math.
Now, let me throw something fun at you. In
Deuteronomy 32, before this was written in the
law, God promised his people, hey listen, if you
obey Me, if you do what I say, if you keep my
commandments, listen to these words, one man
shall chase 1,000, and two will put 10,000 to flight.
How's that for math? According to God's math, all
Gideon needed, then, was 27 men to fight 135,000
Midianites.
All of that to say this, don't be surprised if God
starts trimming your resources. If He starts tearing
down your strength. And you say, man, I'm not as
strong as I used to be. I'm feeling weaker and
weaker and weaker. Paul the Apostle thought
that. He had a thorn in the flesh. 2 Corinthians 12,
he prayed to God about it, and God came to him
and said, "My strength is made perfect in your
weakness." "My strength is made perfect in your
weakness."
Listen, man's extremity is God's opportunity. That
was a good place for an amen, right there. All
right, that's good. Man's extremity is God's
opportunity. God likes when you're weak because
you lean into Him. You lean in Him. You trust Him.
When you got the resources, the strength, the
bigness, you don't do that. When you have none of
that, you lean into Him. So God's math is unusual.
Here's the third. People's fear is transmissible.
People's fear gets passed on. It's like coronavirus.
Others get it. People's fear is transmissible. I'm
going to add to that, people's fear, or faith, is
transmissible.
Look at verse 3. "Now therefore"-- this is God
talking to Gideon. You got too many, Gideon. "Now
therefore, proclaim in the hearing of the people,
saying, 'Whoever is fearful and afraid, let him turn
and depart at once from Mount Gilead.'" OK, stop.
He's already outnumbered. How many are in his
army? 32,000. You thought this number keeps
changing. 32,000. How many are in the enemy's
army? OK. 32,000 to 135,000.
So, he's already outnumbered, and then God says,
whoever's scared-- here, I'll make the
announcement-- any of you in my army afraid to
go to war? Go home. And Gideon's expecting that
nobody's leaving. They know what they signed up
for. They're in this army to fight. Nobody's scared
here. Well, let's finish verse 3. "And 22,000 of the
people returned, and 10,000 remained." Wow, 2/3
just walked out on Gideon. They just bailed. They
dropped their weapons. See ya, I'm going home.
Bye. I'm scared. See ya. Just like that.
So, he was already outnumbered four to one. Now,
there are only 10,000 people left. Here's what you
may not know. What God called Gideon to do with
this was standard operating military procedure in
the Old Testament. That was. When God gave the
law to Moses, He said, when the people go to war,
there are four exemptions I'm going to list. Four
reasons why they don't have to go to war and
fight.
This is Deuteronomy 20. "What man is there who
has built a new house and has not dedicated it?
Let him go home." It'd be frustrating to plan and
build and save and have a house, and then you get
drafted to go to war and you can't enjoy it. So, God
says, go home, enjoy your house. That's number
one.
Number two. "What man is there who has planted
a vineyard and not eaten of it?" Again, very
frustrating. You plant, you fertilize, you water, it
grows up. You got the grapes, but you can't enjoy
it because there's a war. God says, no, you stay
home and enjoy the vineyard.
Third exemption. "What man is there who is
betrothed to a woman and has not married her?"
You got the wedding announcements,
everybody's coming, you're all happy, and then
you have to go fight? God says, no, let him stay
and get married and enjoy.
Here's the fourth exemption, listen to this one.
"What man is there who is fearful and
fainthearted? Let him go and return to his house,
lest the heart of his brethren faint like his heart."
You know why God said that? Because fear is
contagious. Fear is contagious. One timid soldier
can do more damage than a whole bunch of
enemies. I mean, imagine if the battle begins, and
in the middle of the battle, 22,000 people leave. If
22,000 people leave, everybody is gone. It would
be mass panic. It would be crowd panic. We see
this in stadiums when there's some threat that
happens and people try to rush out and they
trample others because of it.
John Wesley wrote, "Give me 100 men who fear
nothing but sin and love nothing but God, and I
will shake the gates of hell." I don't need a lot. I can
shake the gates of hell with just 100 faithful
people. It's all I need. You see, a few people with
faith is better than a lot of people without faith.
You want a lean, mean, fighting machine.
G. Campbell Morgan, I'm going to throw this up,
said, "The trouble today is that the fearful and
trembling man insists on remaining in the army. A
decrease that sifts the ranks of the Church of men
who fear and tremble is a great, a gracious, and a
glorious gain."
You see, and here's why. When you feel
overwhelmed, it's different than feeling stressful.
We all get stressed. There's a number of things
that cause stress in our lives. It could be our job. It
could be our family, relationship with a friend, or
health. We're stressed. But, when you have one,
two, three, four, five, several things piling up, and
you start feeling overwhelmed, that's like stress on
steroids. And when you're feeling overwhelmed,
you don't need people around you filled with fear.
You need people around you filled with faith.
They're the ones that are going to carry you
through. And you need not only fearless people,
you need people who are alert. They're watching.
They got your back. They're ready for action.
And I want you to see that in verse 4. "The Lord
said to Gideon"-- OK, you've got 10,000. So how
many were in the army? 32,000. How many were
in the enemy's army? Yeah, come on, group
participation. 135,000. Now, how many are in the
army? 10,000. 135,000. Their odds haven't changed,
but the odds toward Gideon's defeat go way up.
OK.
I lost my place. Verse 8. "The Lord said to Gideon,
'The people who are still too many, bring them
down to the water, and I will test them for you
there. Then it will be, that of whom I say to you,
"This one shall go with you," the same shall go with
you, and whomever I say to you, "This one shall not
go," the same shall not go.' So he brought the
people down to the water. And the Lord said to
Gideon, 'Everyone who laps from the water with
his tongue, like a dog laps, you shall set apart by
himself. Likewise everyone who gets down on his
knees to drink.' And the number of those who
lapped, putting their hands to their mouth, was
300 men. But all the rest of the people got down
on their knees to drink water.
Then the Lord said to Gideon, 'By the 300 men
who lapped I will save you, and deliver the
Midianites into your hand. Let all the other people
go, every man to his place.' So the people took
provisions and their trumpets in their hands. And
he sent away all the rest of Israel, every man to his
tent, and retained those 300 men. Now the camp
of Midian was below him in the valley."
We read this, and I go, this is weird. What does
drinking water have to do with fighting a battle?
Well, the way a man would drink water in those
days would tell an awful lot about the man. If on
one hand, he bows all the way down, gets on all
fours. And here's the stream of water, and he just
bows down like this, drinks water, what's he
looking at? Just the water, right? He is
predisposed. He is vulnerable. He is not able to act
quickly, right? Because he is just into drinking the
water. Self-gratification.
But, if somebody bows down slightly, and takes
water in his hands, and brings it up to his mouth,
and laps it, he still has eyes out. He's less
vulnerable. He's on the alert. He has his priorities
right. There's a sense of urgency about him. I think
that's behind this little test.
Listen, some people take unnecessary time with
necessary things. You got to do it, you got to drink.
Everybody has to do it. But some people take
unnecessary time with necessary things. There's
no sense of urgency about their lives. There's no
sense of priority. And you need people around you
in a battle that have a sense of vigilance, right?
Peter said, be sober, be vigilant, because your
adversary, the devil, walks around like a roaring
lion seeking whom he may devour. Get friends on
your side like that. Fearless people, watchful
people. Fear is transmissible.
Here's the fourth. Enemy's words may be helpful.
Your enemy's words may be helpful. Now,
normally I wouldn't say this, and you wouldn't
expect a pastor to say, go listen to your enemies.
You would think the pastors would say, don't listen
to your enemies. They don't trust God. Don't listen
to what they have to say. You need to just listen to
words of faith, et cetera. But in some cases, it's
actually helpful for you to listen to your enemies
because what they say, what they reveal, will be
encouraging to your heart. I want you to see that.
Look at verse 9. "It happened on the same night
that the Lord said to him, 'Arise, go down against
the camp, for I have delivered it into your hands.'"
In other words, strike by night. "'But if you are
afraid to go down, go down to the camp with
Purah your servant.'" Now, the fact that he goes
down to the camp with Purah his servant
indicates that he was afraid. He's still fearful.
"'And you shall hear what they say, and afterwards
your hands shall be strengthened to go down
against the camp.' Then he went down with Purah
his servant to the outpost of the armed men who
were in the camp." So, get the scene. He's being
real sneaky here. He takes Purah, shhh, let's go.
Let's go. Tiptoe. We're going to the camp of the
Midianites. I don't know why, but God said if I'm
scared, I should go do this, and I'm really scared, so
let's just go down. Come on, come on.
So, they go down, verse 12. "The Midianites and the
Amalekites, all the people of the East, were lying in
the valley as numerous as locusts." I mean, there's
135,000 of them. "And their camels were without
number, as the sand by the seashore in multitude.
And when Gideon had come, there was a man
telling a dream to his companion.
He said, 'I've had a dream. To my surprise, a loaf of
barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian,
and it came to a tent and struck it so that it fell
and overturned, and the tent collapsed.' Then his
companion answered and said, 'This is nothing
else but the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a
man of Israel! Into his hand God has delivered
Midian and the whole camp.'"
Now, God just gave Gideon another sign. Another
sign. He got fire out of a rock, the fleece thing, the
fleece thing again. Now, he just sneaks into the
camp and he happens to hear a conversation
spoken out loud about a-- you know, I had this
weird dream last night. Yeah, it just woke me up,
just now, man. There's this piece of bread, this loaf
of bread came tumbling down, destroyed the tent.
What's up with that? Well, the guy said, well, I'll tell
you exactly what's up with that. That is a prophecy
saying that we're about to get wiped out by this
guy named Gideon. And Gideon just happens to
hear that and be there at that time.
This is where I'm going with this. So often, you and
I are afraid to engage with unbelievers. We're
intimidated by them. Let's say they're agnostic,
atheist. Maybe they're real smart, they're clever in
their arguments. They're very articulate. We're
afraid to engage with unbelievers because we're
afraid of what they might say. We're afraid we
won't be able to stand up to their arguments.
We're afraid to answer the questions that they
have coming. We're afraid we're not going to be
able to penetrate their defenses. But listen to
them. Sometimes, when you listen to them, they
will betray their true feelings. They will reveal to
you that God has been working on their hearts,
and it will encourage you.
I can't tell you how many times this has happened
to me. I'm just going to give you a couple
examples. Number one. When I was in my college
training-- it was a UCLA program-- I was at San
Bernardino County Medical Center where there
was a radiology internship. I worked there every
day. So, I'm going to work. And I noticed this one
guy, he was an orderly. He would pick up patients
and bring them down to the wards-- from the
wards, down to radiology. And I noticed him, and
I'd say hi to him. I didn't know much about him,
but come to find out, he claimed to be a Satan
worshipper. Now, I don't know if he really was a
Satan worshipper, but he claimed it. And I don't
know if he just wanted to scare little kids or scare
me, kind of look at me and go, augh. So, I'd wave
at him, and, come to find out also, he lived right
across the street from my apartment.
One day, in an afternoon, knock on my door. I
opened the door. It's Satan worshiper guy. And he
comes, and his eyes are shifting a little bit. He
goes, this is going to sound really weird. I work
with you. I notice you. I go, yeah, I've seen you at
the hospital. He goes, well, I've seen you too. And
I've watched you with people. And, I don't know
how to put this, but it's like you glow. I said, what?
Come again? I what? Well, it's like you have a
glow. I'm thinking, OK, I work in radiology, maybe I
should go look in the mirror, and maybe I have
radioactive poisoning or something. I didn't notice
any glow.
But he said, no, I noticed you have something
about you. I invited him in my house because it
was such a weird thing. And just as he was talking
about it, and I listened to him, and listened to his
arguments and his rebuttals to things, I could see
God has been working on his heart. And I said,
would you like to receive Jesus Christ as Savior?
And he goes, I would like that. And I got to pray
with him to receive Christ that afternoon. That's
one.
Number two. I worked in another hospital with a
gal who worked at the front desk. And she knew I
was a Christian, and she didn't believe what I
believed. And she brought evidence and papers
and articles to work, and wanted to show me that I
was wrong and she was right. And this went on for
days and weeks.
And one day, one evening, I walked her out in the
parking lot, the St. Joseph hospital in Orange. I
walk her out to the parking lot, to her car, and she
still has her papers, and she's saying this and
saying that. And I stopped in the parking lot, and I
said, Linda, throw in the towel. She goes, what? I
said, stop. You're fighting God. I have a hunch that
all of this wrangling that you are doing is because
you are convicted by God and you know that you
need to receive Christ. Am I right, Linda?
And I did not expect what happened next. She
broke down weeping. She broke down weeping.
And she stood with me in the parking lot and
prayed to receive Christ. To this day, she and her
family are still walking with the Lord. So, when
those things happen, they build up your faith.
Sometimes, you need to listen to your enemies to
find out what God is doing in their lives.
And then fifth, and finally. We only have a couple
of minutes to finish this off. Fifth, our worship is
essential. Look at verse 15, it closes out the
paragraph. "And so it was, when Gideon heard the
telling of the dream and its interpretation, that he
worshipped." You're going, well, yeah. He just had
four signs from God. Yeah, but follow me here. "He
heard the telling of the dream and it's an
interpretation, he worshipped. He returned to the
camp of Israel and said, 'Arise, for the Lord has
delivered the camp of Midian into your hand."
Here's what I want you to notice. Gideon
worshipped before the battle, not after the battle.
Now, he may have worshipped after the battle. He
probably did. Praise God, we won. But before the
battle, he was a worshiper before he was a warrior.
You see, worship reorients you when you're in a
battle. It recalibrates your spiritual GPS, so to
speak. It adjusts your compass. It reaffirms your
purpose.
So, there's a great passage in Romans 8. I know
you know it. Paul said, in all these things, we are
more than conquerors. In all these things, we are
more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
It's one thing to be a conqueror. What is it to be
more than a conqueror? More than conquerors,
those are three words in English. In Greek, it's one
word, [SPEAKING GREEK] And it means, the best
translation is, you'll be a hyper conqueror. In all
these things, we are hyper conquerors. We are
super conquerors.
Well, what's the difference between a conqueror
and a hyper conqueror? Super conqueror? To be a
conqueror is to rejoice when the battle is over. To
be more than a conqueror is to rejoice before the
battles start. And that's Gideon. He goes, boys, the
Lord has given the enemy into our hands. Let's
march down. That's how you stand when you face
overwhelming odds. That's how you stand up to
devastating news.
Abraham Lincoln, president of the United States-- I
talk about overwhelming times, the Civil War. He
said, "I have been driven many times to my knees
by the overwhelming conviction that I had
nowhere else to go." There's nowhere else to go.
There's no plan B. It's plan A all the way. It's trust
God, trust God, trust God.
And so, he paused and he worshipped. He'd been
praying, and now he worships. All of that deep
prayer life. You've heard the name John Knox, the
Great Reformer of Scotland. John Knox was a
pretty fiery preacher. He got in the face of Mary
Queen of Scots many times. He just sort of said it
like it was. You need to repent of your sins, on and
on and on. So, there was a debate between them.
Mary Queen of Scots said, "I fear the prayers of
John Knox more than I fear all the armies of
Europe." That's quite a statement, isn't it. "I fear the
prayers of John Knox more than I fear all the
armies of Europe." The Midianites should have
been afraid of the prayers of Gideon, because he's
the guy who took the battle.
So, as you map out your future, as you look ahead,
and you are tempted to say, I don't know what the
future holds, it's been such a bad year, couple of
years, granted. It's OK, it's OK. You're fearful. You're
learning. We're all getting our faith feet on. But,
know this. God's got you covered. God's got you
covered.
In the old times, when they made maps,
cartographers-- did I tell you this already? Beyond
here, there be dragons, right? So, as you look at
your future and map it out, instead of saying,
beyond here, there be dragons. How about,
beyond here lay the everlasting arms of God, who
holds you right where He wants you.
Father, thank you for this incredible story, and all
of these lessons we have been learning about men
and women of great faith and great courage. And I
pray, Lord, that you will make us such. A people
who trust you. We are weak. We are fearful on
many occasions. You know what we're made of.
You know our frame. You remember that we're
but dust. But Lord, what you can take with dust--
what you can do with dust. We're just clay pots,
but that clay pot filled with your Holy Spirit is a
mighty weapon. I pray, Lord, that you will use us in
this faithless generation-- Paul called it-- faithless
generation. Make us faithful, men and women full
of faith. In Jesus's name we pray. Amen.
To be a conqueror is to rejoice when the battle is over. To be more than a conqueror is to rejoice before the battles start. And that’s Gideon. He goes, boys, the Lord has given the enemy into our hands. Let’s march down. That’s how you stand when you face overwhelming odds. That’s how you stand up to devastating news.