Judges chapter 6. This is a great story. I would encourage you to go back and read this
story in Judges chapter 6 and 7. We won't cover all of it in great detail tonight, just
for time purposes. But it is a great story. We're going to hit a few verses. And it's
good homework. So go back and read it and see the stuff that we missed. Also, why you
all are turning to that before I forget, tomorrow night we will be having a cottage prayer meeting
at the Freemans. Some of you are saying, we just had it there last night. Well, good news.
We're having it there again. And so nobody has signed up. They graciously volunteered
to host it again. And so what we need maybe is a little bit of help. If some of y'all
who are coming would be willing to bring a little bit of food, maybe some snacks or some
finger food, maybe bring a pizza or a bag of chip or a batch of cookies or whatever.
If we could all bring a thing or two, somebody bring some drinks, we'll have enough. And
that way they don't have to do all that. They cooked enough last night. So if y'all are
willing to bring something and help with that tomorrow, they're going to provide the place
and we'll provide the food and the prayer and the fellowship. So y'all tell Dana before
you leave tonight what you'd be willing to bring to help her with that. So thank y'all
for hosting that again for us. And then Friday night, it'll be at Fish and Diane's. And so
if y'all haven't been coming to these, I would invite you to come and encourage you to come
at six o'clock. It's been a really good week. We have had some good time in song and some
good time in prayer. It's been good fellowship. Just a lot of people just kind of pouring
out their heart and lifting up their requests and their praises to God. And it's been a
really beautiful week. And so I would encourage you, if you can come tomorrow night and Friday
night at six o'clock to come and be part of that. Bring a friend with you. We don't have
a limit. You can bring and invite as many people as you want to. We'll be glad to have
them. So tomorrow night, back at the Freeman, six o'clock, Friday night at Fish and Diane's.
All right. Judges chapter six. Judges chapter six. We'll start in verse one, but I'm going
to kind of just jump through it and hit a few verses throughout this story. I was reading
some scripture last night and I read one of these scriptures that we're going to talk
about tonight. And I thought, man, what a powerful moment in the life of Gideon. And
really maybe we can have such a powerful moment in our life, in this revival, or maybe at
some point in the future, should God see fit to bless us and use us in a similar way. So
let's pray and we'll get started. God, we come to you. I thank you for the freedom that
we have to come into your house. I thank you for your people. I thank you for loving us.
I thank you for Jesus. I pray God that you would hide me behind the cross. I thank you
for your good word. And I pray, dear Lord, that your Holy Spirit would speak to us in
your word, that there would be something maybe that we need to hear in this tonight, something
that would help just begin to restore us, to draw us closer to you, to cause us to call
on you and to trust in you, dear Lord. I pray that your Holy Spirit would be among us. I
pray that as we prepare for this revival, that your Holy Spirit would be among those
who are going to lead us, that your Holy Spirit would be among us as we come, dear Lord, that
we would feel your presence, that it would have an impact in our life, that it would
change our heart and change our life and change our attitude, dear Lord, that it would transform
us and transform our church and transform our community, God. And that only can come
through your power of the Holy Spirit. So I pray, God, that tonight we would be ready
for that, that we would seek that, and even now, dear Lord, that you would be among us.
All these things, dear Lord, for your glory tonight, I ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.
Judges chapter 6, verse 1, the Israelites did what was evil in the sight of the Lord,
so the Lord handed them over to Midian seven years. Now, the book of Judges is kind of
a repeat over and over. The story goes like this. God blesses his people, his people sin,
God turns his people over, he punishes his people, God sends a judge to deliver his people,
his people come back to him, his people sin, and the cycle repeats itself. And so in this
part of the cycle, we're going to talk about a man named Gideon. Now, the way that God
was going to deal with his people here was through the Midianites and some of the other
folks around, as you read through those chapters, you'll see. But mainly the focus is on the
Midianites. And so God's people had done what was evil. They weren't following him. They
weren't seeking him. They weren't listening to him. They were living in disobedience.
And so what God did was he handed them over to the Midianites for seven years. Now, we
see this. Oftentimes, the way that God brings judgment on his people, in the Old Testament
especially, is he just kind of removes his hand of protection from them. Now, as long
as they're obedient to God, God is fighting for them. It is God who is fighting their
battles. It's God who's taking care of them. But then they abandon God and God just kind
of removes his protection. And without God, they're hopeless because what are they going
to do without him? What are we going to do without him? What are we going to do if we abandon
God? There is nothing or no one else we can trust in. And so these people were living
in evil. So God says, okay, I'm taking a step back. I'm going to let these Midianites really
kind of have their way with you for seven years, for a long period of time. This wasn't
for a day or two. This was a long period of time that God was dealing with his people.
Nevertheless, even though God was bringing some judgment on his people here, God was
going to be faithful to deliver his people. And this time, the judge that he was going
to use was a man by the name of Gideon. Now, in Judges chapter 6 verse 15, we see this.
The Lord's calling on Gideon here and listen to what Gideon says in Judges 6, 15. He said
to him, Please, Lord, how can I deliver Israel? Look, my family is the weakest in Manasseh,
and I am the youngest in my father's house. So what does Gideon say? He says, I'm not
good enough for the job. I'm too weak. I'm not strong enough. I'm the weakest one in
the weakest family in the tribe of Manasseh. I'm the weakest one. And here he's making
an excuse. Now, this is kind of similar to what Moses did when God called Moses. Well,
I'm not a good speaker. But here's something that you may notice when you look through
the Bible, Old Testament, New Testament, that the people that God chooses are not necessarily
extraordinary people by worldly standards. They're just kind of average people, or maybe
even as Gideon would describe himself here, below average, just a weakling, nothing fancy.
Even the disciples that Jesus chose, that probably would not have been the group that
the other religious leaders of the day would have chosen. But yet Jesus kind of picks this,
if we can call them a rag-tag group of different people from different walks of life. None
of them, I don't think we could classify as super fancy or super awesome in a variety
of ways. They were just kind of normal, hardworking men that had flaws, that sometimes spoke out
when they shouldn't, maybe did some things that they shouldn't have done. And Jesus picked
these guys, and here God picks Gideon, and he says, look, Gideon, I want to use you.
I want to use you. Now, in Isaiah, we see that famous verse where he says, here I am,
send me. Now, that's a good response. If we feel God calling us to do something and leading
us into something, a good response would be, here I am, Lord, send me. And maybe sometimes
that's our response, but maybe not. Maybe sometimes we're more like Gideon, and we have
some opportunity to serve, some opportunity for God to use us, some opportunity for us,
for God to work in our life and to use us to work in somebody else's life. And whatever
it is before us seems really scary. God, I'm not good at talking to people. God, I don't
know enough of your scripture to serve you in that way. God, I don't want to go to that
place. I'd feel uncomfortable. I don't know what to say. I don't know what to do. I'm
not in good enough shape. I'm not smart enough. I mean, we come up with a variety of excuses.
And some of those things might be true. We might not be very smart. We might not know
much of God's scripture. We might not be in very good shape. We might be scared to go
to the places that God calls us. Those things may very well be true, but nonetheless, God
calls us all the same because God does not call us to serve him because we have somehow
met the qualifications that God says, okay, here's my qualifications. What he does is
he picks the men and the women who are right for the job and he says, I will help you do
the job. And we need to remember that. When God calls us to do something as individuals
or as a church, it may seem like a big task. It may seem overwhelming. How are we going
to do it? We're going to do it through God who calls us to do it. And that's an important
thing for us to remember in our individual life and our life as a church. So here Gideon
was called by the Lord to do this work. He's called to stand up for God's people. He's
called to stand up against this enemy. He's called to stand up against this idolatry that
God's people are caught up in. And he's kind of reluctant as maybe you and I are, but what
we're going to see is that God uses him in a very powerful way. Skip on down to Judges
chapter six, verses 25 and 26. We're kind of skipping a little bit here. We're going
to, we're really going to kind of take part right in the middle of that. The last part
of 25 and 26. We'll start at the beginning of 25 and I'll tell you the part we're going
to kind of focus on when we get there. So chapter six, verse 25, on that very night,
the Lord said to him, take your father's young bull and a second bull, seven years old. Okay,
listen to this part right here, starting right here. Then tear down the altar of Baal that
belongs to your father and cut down the Asherah pole beside it. Build a well constructed altar
to the Lord your God on the top of this rock. So what was the problem that God's people
were dealing with? Well, they had abandoned God and what did God tell him? He said, look,
you don't need to have any other gods before me. Do not worship any idols. And what did
God's people often do? In the Old Testament today, even among us in this church, we don't,
we don't carve out something out of wood or stone, but we have these things in our life
that becomes our idols. Sometimes maybe they're not even things that necessarily are bad,
but we put so much emphasis on them that they become an idol, that they become the most
important thing to us. And so God's people, Israel here, they were worshiping these idols,
this idol of Baal and this Asherah pole, the pole that they would have gone to worship
these false gods and to have committed their idolatry and the things that they were doing.
And so what God does is he picks Gideon, he says, you're the man for the job. Gideon says,
hold up. And then God says, yep, you're the man. Here's what you're going to do. You're
going to go to your father's Asherah pole and where the Baal is that the people are
going to worship and you're going to destroy those things. You're going to destroy them.
Now this is good scripture for us. He says, you're going to destroy those things that
are there, those idols that are there, that sin that is there. You need to remove it.
You need to get it out of there. Now this is good instruction for us. There may be some
sin in our life. There may be some idols in our life. There may be some things in our
life that have taken the place of God, some things that we are focusing way too much of
our time and our attention to. And maybe it is time for us, maybe this is a good week
as we're right on the, on the, on the edge of this revival, getting ready to get kicked
off. Now may be a good time for us to say, God, there are some things in my life that
should not be there. There are some things in my life that I'm putting too much focus
on and maybe today is the good day for us to begin to destroy those things. Those altars
in our life that we go to, those altars of greed and hatred and anger and, and envy
and strife and, and all of these things that are not good. Perhaps it's time to begin to
tear some of those altars down. And that's what God tells Gideon to do. Go and tear this
altar down and listen to what he says in the next verse. Build a well constructed altar
to the Lord your God on the top of this rock. So it's not just a tearing down and destroying
the old. It's not just a destroying the old altar, but replacing it with a new altar,
with a well constructed altar, with an altar that's built on stone, with an altar that's
built on a good foundation. You see these altars they had built, they were altars to
a, to a false God, to an idol that was not going to save them. It wasn't Baal who brought
God's people out of Egypt. It was God who brought his people out of Egypt. Baal was
a, was a, was a no significance, of no strength. He was nothing. And so his altar was nothing.
And so what did God realize his people needed to do? He realizes that they needed to come
back and begin to worship him. They needed to come back to a better altar. They needed
to take the old altar out, the old ways out, the old sins out and come to a better altar
that was going to come with better blessings. And so what does he tell him? He says, build
a well constructed altar to the Lord your God on the top of the rock. So that's what
we need to do. We need to see what, what altar are we going to in our life today? Are we
kneeling before the altar of the world and the things of the world? Because I'm going
to tell you what, the altar of the world is pretty bad and the things of the world are
pretty bad and the idols of the world are pretty bad. And we're not, we're not above
those things because those temptations come to us and, and we fall into those temptations
sometimes. We begin to idolize people or we begin to idolize things. Maybe we need to
begin to tear those altars down and we need to come back before the altar of God. That
we need to come back to a well constructed altar, an altar that's built on Jesus Christ
as the cornerstone. That we say, Jesus, I need to put you back in first place in my
life because maybe you fall into second and third and fourth and fifth place. But, but
now is the time, it's a good time. It's a time of revival. I hope for us that we would
come before the Lord, that we would say, it's time for me to refocus. It's time for me to
get straight. Life's hard, life's stressful. I've got some sins to spend in my life. I've
just kind of been slacking and I hadn't been seeking you and I hadn't been serving you
and I've been doing what's evil in your sight, just like your people did in the old Testament.
But now may be the time that it's time for us to tear down those altars of old and come
before the altar of the Lord that's been established by Jesus Christ. And that's exactly what God
calls Gideon to do. Now Gideon, he was still kind of afraid about this. He, he wasn't really
willing to go out and do it at night. During the day, he went out and did it at night.
But nonetheless, he did what God called him to do. And what God was calling him to do
was to call God's people away from sin and to reestablish God's people on the word of
God and on the truth of God and on the works of God and on the greatness of God. And that's
what we need in our world today and our country today. We got so many idols and so much sin
and so many people are celebrating so much stuff that's just pure evil. And it's time
that those altars are torn down. And maybe God's going to use us in some way in the lives
of the people that we encounter and the community that we encounter and the world that we encounter
that maybe God's going to call us in some way to begin to help tear down some of those
altars and some of those lies of the devil. You know, so many times we see in our world
today that what's evil people call good and what's good people call evil. But we want
to be those who point people to the word of God and to the truth of the gospel of Jesus
Christ that we can show them what is good. And maybe today God wants to use us to begin
to tear down some of those false idols and altars in our life that God can begin to work
in us to use us to tear some of those things down in our world. Judges chapter 6 verse
34. This is the verse that I read last night that really caught me when I read it. Judges
chapter 6 verse 34. The spirit of the Lord took control of Gideon. The spirit of the
Lord took control of Gideon. What a beautiful and powerful thing for us to think about.
Now, we see this sometimes in the Old Testament that the spirit of God comes down on somebody.
We see it in the New Testament. We see it in the book of Acts. We see that even when
we become Christians that the Holy Spirit indwells in us. But we also see these occasions
that the Holy Spirit comes upon people in a powerful way. And maybe you've experienced
that in your life. There are times that probably in your life maybe you were by yourself and
you felt the spirit of God. That you really begin to seek God and you really begin to
call out to God and you really begin to read his word and you pray to him and you trust
him and you listen to him. And there are times in our life when we feel the spirit of God
and you've probably been to a church service, maybe here, maybe somewhere else. There are
some times that you really feel the spirit of God moving. That's not to say that the
spirit of God didn't at work every time we come together. But there are sometimes there
is something different where God's spirit just seems to move in a different way, in
a powerful way, in a mighty way that just kind of shakes us to our core. And that is
a beautiful and a powerful thing. And that is my prayer this week for us as individuals
and for us as a church. That God's spirit would move on us in a powerful way. That God's
spirit would shake us and reignite a fire in us and excitement in us, a joy in us. That
we would praise God and serve God and repent of our sins and be willing and open to whatever
God may call us to as individuals and as a church. And I pray and I hope that God's spirit
will be poured out upon us. And it was for Gideon. And that's how Gideon was able to
do the things that God was calling him to do because God had enabled him. And it was
the very spirit of God that says what in my translation it says took control of it. Here's
a better translation. This will be from the NASB. In the same verse, NASB says, so the
spirit of the Lord covered Gideon like clothing. Now that's a better translation of the original
Hebrew language there. The word is used there. That's what it means to be clothed. It's as
though the Holy Spirit was on Gideon like he was clothed, like he was wearing a cloak,
like he was wearing a coat, like he was wearing a robe. That the Holy Spirit just kind of
engulfed Gideon, that he was clothed in the power of the Holy Spirit. And that should
be what our desire is and what we seek in our life. That the Holy Spirit would be among
us and upon us in that same type of way. And we see the same type of language. We see here
in the Old Testament that Gideon was clothed with the Holy Spirit. We see that same type
of language talking about Christians in the New Testament. If you want to flirt with me,
you can. The Romans chapter 13 verse 14. Romans chapter 13 verse 14. In the verses before,
Paul had been telling them not to do any evil. That's kind of summarizing. But then he says
in Romans chapter 13 verse 14, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no plans to
satisfy the fleshly desires. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Same type of language. That
Gideon was clothed in the Spirit. And Paul says that we as Christians are to be clothed,
are to put on Jesus in the same way that we would put on a coat. And then we see a similar
thing in Galatians chapter 3 verse 27. For all of you who are baptized in Christ have
clothed yourself with Christ. Now that's the same type of language we just saw of Gideon.
That we would be clothed in Jesus Christ. What we wear represents who we are. Here's
a good example of that. You've been watching the Olympics. You'll notice that every country
they got their uniform on. Everybody from every country is wearing the same uniform.
They all match. And their clothes, what they're dressed in, represent who they are and who
they represent. And that's how we are to be as Christians. We are to be clothed in Jesus
Christ. That people see Christ in us. Now we don't wear a shirt that says Jesus, but
we do have our actions. And what do our actions say? And what do our words say? When people
look at us, are we those that they see who are clothed in Jesus Christ? That is, is the
way that we act and the way that we present ourselves, does it show that we represent
who Jesus is? Does it show that, hey, we are here for Jesus Christ. We are on team Jesus.
And that ought to be evident in how we live our lives. And so Gideon was clothed with
the Spirit of God. And the Holy Spirit of God works in us as brothers and sisters in
Christ. And as brothers and sisters in Christ, Paul says, look, you need to put on Jesus.
You need to be clothed in Jesus. And so we need to strive to do that. We need to strive
to make that a point in our lives. That we are those who are clothed in Jesus. That we
put on Jesus every day before we get ready to walk out. That we say, okay, today, Lord
Jesus, I'm going to represent you. Today, Lord Jesus, when people see me, let them see
you. And when we sin and when our mouth gets away from us and our attitude gets away from
us, and it does sometimes, they're not seeing Jesus. They're seeing us. So we have to say,
all right, I need you to help me, Lord. I need you to help change my heart. I need you
to help my weaknesses. God, if you want to use me for your kingdom, I want to be willing
and I want to be able, but I need you to help me, dear Lord. And I need your Holy Spirit
to be upon me. And I want to put on Jesus and everything that Jesus is so that I can
be like him and follow his example. And when the Holy Spirit comes upon us and we put on
Jesus and begin to live like Jesus, God can use us in a powerful way. But only when we
tear down those altars of sin, only when we come before the altar of Jesus Christ with
his crucifixion and resurrection, only when we put on Christ can God begin to use us and
the Holy Spirit can come upon us. And when he does, powerful things happen. If you continue
reading the story of Gideon, Gideon eventually gets a group of men. He gets ready to go take
on these Midianites and God tells him, he says, there's too many men. Now you would
think if you're going to war, you're going to fight a bunch of people. And it says of
the Midianites that they were countless, essentially, that there was a lot of them, it says in the
scripture, a ton of them. And so Gideon had gathered up, when you turn to chapter seven,
32,000 men. And God said, that's too many. And so 22,000 of them lived. And God says,
that's still too many. And listen to what God says. God says in Judges chapter seven,
verse two, the Lord said to Gideon, you have too many people for me to hand the Midianites
over to you or else Israel might brag, I did it myself. So Israel was going to say, oh,
I did it myself. So what God is saying is, I don't want you to trust in anything you
can do. I don't want you to trust in your army. I don't want you to trust in your weapons.
I don't want you to trust in your skills. I want it to be known that the only possible
way that this miracle, that this act that's about to occur is going to be by me. So that
my people will know my power. So he's got Gideon ready to serve, ready to go. He's got
us 32,000 people, 22,000 lead. Then he's got 10,000. Then he says, you still got too many.
He says, you need to get him to drink from the water. Every how they drink is going to
determine which ones I'm going to use. And God said, okay, the ones that drink this way,
those are the ones you're going to use. 300 men, three from 32,000 to 300 men. And God
says, okay, now you're ready. So now you've got this, this million knights that are, that
are, that are just numerous, numerous. And God says, I want you Gideon to go with these
300 men and I want you to take care of business. And here's what he sent with them. A trumpet
in one hand and a pitcher or a jar with a torch in the other hand. Now you got 300 men
going up a ton up against a ton of million knights and they ain't, they ain't got nothing
but a trumpet and a torch inside of a jar. And God said, go. And you know what they did?
They went and they went and they surrounded the people and Gideon said, when I give you
the signal, you do what I tell you. Gideon gave them the signal and they broke those
jars. They broke those pitchers. They got their torches. They blew their trumpets and
they began to holler and all the million knights and the others that was there, they got up
in a state of confusion. They didn't know what was going on and the enemies began to
kill themselves. God did that with Gideon and 300 people against this countless number
of million knights and their friends. They began to kill one another and then they hightailed
it out of there. And that is the power of God. But that could have never happened if
Gideon would have not been willing to do what God called him to do. But he was willing and
because he was willing, the spirit of God came upon him and God was able to work in
a miraculous way. And we don't come here tonight glorifying Gideon. Yeah, we recognize that
he was obedient to God, but we come here and glorify God because God said, look, my people
are going to know that it was me who did this miraculous work. Maybe some of us are Gideons
tonight. Maybe some of us, there's something that God has called us to do. Now, I suspect
that God probably hadn't called any of you to go fight some army with tens of thousands
of people. And so if God can overcome a huge army with no telling how many people with
300 men, then surely whatever he's calling you to do, he's got the power to do it through
you. He's got the power to let his spirit work in you if you'd let it. Maybe this needs
to be a season for us to tear down those altars of sin in our life, to build a better altar,
to come to, not build, but to come to a better altar that's been built by Jesus Christ that
we would trust in him and that in trusting in him that we would seek him tonight, that
we would seek him in this week to come, that God's spirit will be poured out upon us in
a mighty way. Let's pray. Father God, we come to you. We thank you for your good word. I
pray dear Lord that your Holy Spirit would come upon us dear Lord. Maybe we are like
your Israelites in this story. Maybe there is a lot of evil in our life. I pray that
you would help us to repent of that dear Lord. Maybe we are like Gideon in this story. Maybe
you're calling us to serve you in some way. And dear Lord, we might be making excuses
and they might all be good excuses, God. We might be just as weak and just as nothing
as Gideon felt like he was. But nonetheless, you used him dear Lord. And so I pray that
if you call us that we would be so faithful that you would use us in the same way. Dear
Lord, I pray that if there is sin in our life that we would tear that sin down and that
we would replace it with Jesus Christ, God. I pray that your Holy Spirit would be among
us. Your Holy Spirit will work in our lives, in our hearts tonight and tomorrow and next
week that you would begin to do mighty things dear Lord. Not for our glory, but for your
glory. Dear Lord, we don't ever want any good thing that's done to come back to us because
God, we're just serving you. You're the one who does the work. You're the one who did
the work through Gideon. You're the one who brought the deliverance through Gideon. And
God, you will be the one who does the work through us. So whatever you call us to, I
pray that you would help us to be obedient. I pray that you would pour your Spirit out
on us to give us the power and the strength to do things that are beyond our wildest imaginations,
that are greater than anything that we could possibly do on our own dear Lord, because
we don't come here tonight trusting in our strength because we're pretty weak. But we
come here tonight trusting in your strength that's been established through Jesus Christ,
crucified and resurrected. So I pray God that if there's one that has not trusted in Jesus,
that maybe tonight would be the night. And for those who have trusted in Jesus dear Lord,
I pray that we would keep Jesus first in our life. And I ask these things in Jesus' name.
Amen.