Mighty People of Valor
The late Joseph P. Kennedy – the father of John Fitzgerald Kennedy – our 35th president of the United States – Is noted for the popular power phrase…
When the going gets tough – the tough get going!
It sounds real good and it envisions people reaching down deep in desperate times and fighting their way out of a corner.
The only problem with that is – what if God was the one who put you in the corner?
How many of you knows that God wants you and I to be totally dependant upon Himself?
• Not our own abilities!
• Not our money!
• Nor our world connections!
I don’t know about you – but when something breaks in my life I am forever trying to find a way to fix it.
Sometimes that is okay – If it means changing a light bulb.
But if it is has to do with the battle for your peace – it might not be something you can fix.
I want to share with you today a message of faith – a message to point you in the direction of the author and finisher of our faith – the Lord Jesus Christ.
In the book of Judges Chapter 6 it says that Israel had done evil in the sight of the Lord – and God delivered them into the hands of their enemies – the Midianites for seven years.
• Some people believe that you can short change God and get away with it.
• Israel tried it – and they wound up as slaves of the Midianites for seven years.
Page 1
Judges 6:6 (NKJV) So Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites, and the children of Israel cried out to the LORD.
Aren’t you glad that God’s anger can be turn away with repentance?
The Bible says that there was one man in Israel who God trusted.
Judges 6:11-12 (NKJV) Now the Angel of the LORD came and sat under the terebinth tree which was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon threshed wheat in the winepress, in order to hide it from the Midianites. 12 And the Angel of the LORD appeared to him, and said to him, "The LORD is with you, you mighty man of valor!"
The word valor means strength and power – valiant.
2 Chronicles 16:9 (NKJV) For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him.
• God is ready to show His power and His deliverance to those who will be loyal to Him.
• And so it was with Gideon – God was ready to show Himself strong for Gideon.
But Gideon is discouraged – his heart is disturbed because for seven years they have been enslaved to Midian.
Listen as he talks to the Angel of the Lord (this is what is called a theophany – a physical manifestation of God – it is Jesus)…
Judges 6:13 (NKJV) Gideon said to Him, "O my lord, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, 'Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?' But now the LORD has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites."
Do you ever get discouraged and cross with the Lord?
Page 2
• You can hear the defeat in Gideon as he communicates his despair.
• How many times have you said – But God – I’ve tried and tried – but it seems I can’t win?
• And that is exactly the place where the devil wants all believers…
• He desires for you to think God has forsaken you.
• And in this case – God has drawn back His hand from Israel because of their sin.
• As it has been said many times – sin will take you further than you want to go – and keep you there longer than you wanted to stay.
But then Jesus turned to him and said something important…
Judges 6:14 (NKJV) Then the LORD turned to him and said, "Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?"
Now this is a powerful revelation.
It is rare that God says –
• You have the might…
• You have the power…
• You will save Israel from the Midianites…
But then He says – and you better hear this – I have sent you!
And then Gideon goes through this great tirade of humility…
• God – how can I do this thing…
• I am the weakest one in the whole country…
But look at the answer God gives Gideon…
Judges 6:16 (NKJV) And the LORD said to him, "Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat the Midianites as one man."
Page 3
Hallelujah!
You shall defeat the Midianites as one man!
I was searching for a phrase to say last Wednesday night and I could not remember it – but it will surely fit here…
Rev. Jerry Savelle ends every program with this:
Satan is defeated – God is exalted – And Jesus is Lord!
Somebody needs to shout to the Lord this morning.
Now in the remainder of chapter 6 Jesus instructs Gideon how to challenge the enemy.
• He was to go tear down the religious altar of the Midianites…
• Cut down the wooden image of their god…
• Build a proper altar unto the Lord and sacrifice a seven year old bull unto the Lord.
• Gideon and ten of his men did this at night.
• And in the morning Midian came out to see their statute cut down their altar destroyed and a new altar of sacrifice unto the Lord.
What we are seeing here is a type of repentance.
God requires Israel to forsake the sins of the past and publically come and worship Him.
But how many of you knows this angered the Midians – and when they found out who did this thing – they came to take Gideon’s life.
• The Apostle Paul said in Romans 8:31 – If God be for us – who can be against us!
Judges 6:34 (NKJV) But the Spirit of the LORD came upon Gideon; then he blew the trumpet, and the Abiezrites gathered behind him.
In Gideon’s day – this is the anointing to fight.
This is power of God falling upon the man of God.
Page 4
And he blew the shofar – and the Abiezrites came an fell in behind him.
The battle is on – someone is going to walk off this battlefield a winner.
Someone is going down in defeat this day – and someone is going to walk off this field of war flying the colors of victory!
The people of Israel stood with Gideon.
They were ready to fight.
They had had enough!
Judges 7:1-3 (NKJV) Then Jerubbaal (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. 2 And the LORD said to Gideon, "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.' 3 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.' " And twenty-two thousand of the people returned, and ten thousand remained.
What was it that God told Gideon when He came and talked with him when he was in hiding threshing wheat?
He said – Gideon – you shall defeat Midian as one man!
God did not ask for one single person to fight this battle but one man – Gideon!
How many times do we try to help God out?
God – do it this way – it will work better!
God – call my favorite evangelist in on this…
Get my prayer committee in on this…
Page 5
God said there are too many people here – if I give victory here they will claim they are the ones who did it.
Tell every man that is fearful and afraid to leave.
22,000 men walked off the battlefield.
God cannot use people who are faithless and fearful.
Why? Because they cannot see victory before it has come.
Faith always see victory even before it has arrived!
22,000 walks away leaving 10,000 fighting men on the field.
But God does something even more astounding…
• How many of you knows that God is amazing.
• His ways are past find out – Roman 11:33
God said to Gideon in verse 4 – there are still too many to fight with you!
• Verses 4 – 6 says that God put them to the test to see who could fight.
• He instructed Gideon to take them to the water to drink.
• Those bend down and lapped the water like a dog were dismissed.
• Those who knelt and cupped the water in their hands were chosen to fight.
Judges 7:7 (NKJV) Then the LORD said to Gideon, "By the three hundred 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."
God does not need great numbers to do mighty things.
All He needs is a man or woman mighty for God.
Gideon – you can do more with three hundred than a nation could do with 32,000.
Page 6
It has always amazed me – the mathematics plan of God is supernatural.
Deuteronomy 32:30 (NKJV) says… one can chase a thousand, And two put ten thousand to flight…
That is the way God rolls…
Gideon – send 31,700 of your men home – you can keep 300 – the rest of them you don’t need…
Zechariah 4:6 (NKJV) "This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: 'Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,' Says the LORD of hosts.
Friends – we stand together in a nation that once honored God.
• The United States was established on Biblical principles and standards.
• We once had pride in our Christian stand – our Constitution and Bill of Rights.
• We once were One Nation Under God – Indivisible – With Liberty and Justice for All!
• But our nation has went whoring after pleasure rather than righteousness.
• Many have turned their eyes away from God – and are now serving the mammon.
Listen to this pastor this morning…
• We are walking the same road that Israel walked in Gideon’s day.
• One morning we might awaken to find that our liberties has been taken away.
• We might find that we have become a nation of slave to the economy…
o to a national health system…
o to the next step in the liberal program of slavery…
Page 7
o the assuming of all profits and income by an international one world economic system.
We used to call it socialism and thought it to be one step away from communism.
• Now people are being told that social medicine and social economics is the best thing since cherry pie.
My friend don’t be disillusioned by the lies that flow freely from liberal America.
• The only hope that we have is in the Lord.
• Stop and listen to God!
• Hear His voice this morning and know that He is answer to the plight of our nation.
We are a nation that has done as Israel
Gideon took three hundred men…
• Divided them into three companies…
• Put shofars in every man’s hand…
• And empty pitchers with lamps inside…
They surrounded the enemy on three sides…
And when Gideon blew the shofar…
• They broke the pitchers revealing their lighted lamps…
• They blew their shofars…
• And they shouted: "The sword of the LORD, and of Gideon."
The Bible says the Midians scattered and ran…
And before the end of the day the battle victor was Gideon and his 300 men.
America needs some Gideon’s who will rise up and say “I’ve had enough.”
Page 8
• I am tired of bowing to the god of abortion in this country.
• I had enough allowing a 3% ungodly minority running roughshod over my great nation.
• I am through with bowing to the gods of religion, the gods of sex, the gods of drugs and alcohol, the gods of money and the gods of government.
• God I don’t care how foolish it looks or sounds – I am ready to follow you to victory.
Amen?
Let God be God in this place!
Let the Lord of Glory – the God of Gideon – let Him be our commander and chief.
2 Chronicles 7:14 (NKJV) if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
Sing Acapella:
In the harvest field now ripened
There’s a work for all to do;
Hark! the voice of God is calling,
To the harvest calling you.
Refrain:
Little is much when God is in it!
Labor not for wealth or fame;
There’s a crown, and you can win it,
If you go in Jesus’ name.
________________________________________
I have a powerpoint built to use with this sermon. Contact my email and leave yours. Will send it to you.
