Gideon

All right, if you would open up your Bibles to the book of Judges, in your pew Bible,

it's page 242.

We got some real estate that we're going to cover this morning, but I got a question for

you.

For those of you who have driven, driven cars, do you know what happens when your alignment

is out of whack?

You're going to pull to the left or pull to the right.

Now, if your alignment to Christ is out of whack, if he's not the controlling center

of your life, do you know what happens?

You're going to pull one of two ways.

You're going to either pull towards a fullness of fear of others, or you're going to pull

towards being full of yourself.

And we're going to see that in our next judge this morning, Gideon.

Gideon embodies both a fullness of fear of other people, a ruling fear, and then we're

also going to see that he becomes full of himself.

But there's also a moment where we will see him full of faith.

He is the next imperfect Savior who accomplishes a temporary salvation.

And if you're just joining us this morning, as we've been making way through the book of

Judges, we are seeing judge after judge, imperfect after imperfect man being used by God to accomplish

a temporary salvation.

And with Gideon, we go from bad to worse.

This is a turning point in the book of Judges.

Judges, what follows is Abimelech, and then Jephthah, and then Samson, and these guys.

It's amazing that God works at all.

God's people are faithless, and yet God remains faithful.

In Judges 6 through 8, there are actually four acts, like a play, acts of a play.

And each act has a number of scenes.

So I'm going to walk us through at a brisk pace, but then we're going to get to a point

where I'm going to ask and answer this question, what does this mean for us today?

And there's going to be a warning, and there's going to be a wooing.

How do we keep ourselves from being ruled by fear?

How do we keep ourselves from being full of ourselves?

Full of faith in our perfect King and Savior, Jesus.

So let's look at Acts 1.

This is Judges 6, 1 through 10.

Act 1 has a couple scenes, and it sets the stage for the debut of Gideon.

But this is more of an introduction.

And scene 1 in verses 1 through 6 is something we've seen again and again.

The people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, verse 1.

We'll be told what that evil is in a second.

And then what God responds because of his jealous anger, he loves his people.

And so what he does is he gives them over to the hand of the Midianites.

And they are one of three people groups, a Canaanite coalition.

The Midianites, we're going to see also the Amalekites, the people from the east.

God hands them over to them, and this is what happens in verses 2 through 5.

Like a swarm of locusts, these peoples come at the harvest.

And what they do is they start eating up all the grain.

And it puts Israel into famine situation.

It's oppressive.

So they hide in the mountains.

After seven years of this oppression, verse 6, Israel cries out to God.

So that's kind of scene 1 of Act 1.

And then what we expect next because of the book of Judges is for God to raise up a deliverer.

But there's a new development here.

In verses 7 through 10, God sends an unnamed prophet.

And look what this unnamed prophet says.

Thus says the Lord.

This is verse 8.

The God of Israel, I led you from Egypt.

And I brought you out of the house of slavery.

And I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians.

And from the hand of all who oppressed you.

And I drove them out before you.

And I gave you their land.

And I said to you, I am the Lord your God.

You shall not fear the gods of the Amorites and whose land you dwell.

Now, what the prophet is saying is reminding them on behalf of God of what God has done.

You're my people.

I have delivered you.

I'm your savior and king.

Again and again.

You see those eyes repeated.

And the new development is, but you have not obeyed my voice.

This is just getting at this spiraling down that we see through the book of Judges of the people of Israel.

I've done all this for you, but you continue to reject me.

And he points to the evil in his sight.

You've taken on these other gods.

The goddess of the Amorites.

Baal and Esherah.

So act one starts with the setting of a stage.

Israel is again disobedient.

What's going to happen?

Instead of standing out, they blend in to the Canaanites.

It's Canaanization.

Act two.

And this is in verses 11 through 32 of chapter six.

Gideon's debut.

And Gideon debuts to mixed reviews.

Scene one.

It takes place in the town of Ophrah.

Not to be confused with Oprah.

Ophrah.

In verses 11 through 18, the angel of the Lord comes to Ophrah to call Gideon to rescue Israel from the hand of Midian.

In verses 11 and 12, we see a little tongue-in-cheek from the angel of the Lord.

Because Gideon is beating out wheat.

Do you see where he's beating out wheat?

He's beating out in a wine press.

He should be beating it out in a threshing floor.

Do you know why it's in a wine press?

Because he's hiding.

So the angel of the Lord says, look how he addresses him.

The Lord is with you, almighty man of valor, who is beating out wheat in a wine press.

It's a little tongue-in-cheek.

Immediately, it starts making you wonder, who is this Gideon guy?

Gideon responds, a little sassy himself.

In verse 13.

And Gideon said to him, please my Lord, if the Lord is, quote-unquote, with us, why then has all this happened to us?

And where are all the, quote-unquote, wonderful deeds, quote-unquote, that our fathers recounted to us?

That generation of Joshua that has now passed away.

Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?

But now the Lord has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.

This isn't a strong start for Gideon.

He is questioning God's faithfulness.

He is seeing the circumstances that he's in.

And he doesn't seem to recognize that what the prophet has just said,

that this people has not been obeying the voice.

That's why they're there in this situation.

He's blaming God instead of taking responsibility for what he's contributed to them being in this situation.

God seems to ignore that in verse 14 and says,

Do I not send you?

And in verse 15, Gideon kind of flips the script a little bit and kind of goes,

Woe is me.

What?

Go?

Verse 15.

How can I save Israel?

Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I'm the least in my father's house.

I'm a nobody.

I am of a clan of nobodies in the tribe of Manasseh.

What can you possibly do with me?

This is fear.

This is unbelief.

This is not what one would expect.

This is not a flattering picture of Gideon.

So Gideon, God says to him,

But I will be with you.

God doesn't rub Gideon's back and say,

Oh, you have a low self-esteem.

You're so special.

He says,

I am with you.

And Gideon seems to have a little bit of a change of heart.

And then he puts God to the test.

We're going to see this again.

He says,

He says,

Show me a sign.

Show me a sign in verse 17 that it is you who speak with me.

And so then he prepares a meal in verses 18 through 24.

And he presents it to the angel of the Lord.

And the angel of the Lord touches it with his staff.

And it's consumed by fire.

And the angel of the Lord disappears.

And all of a sudden,

Gideon realizes he's been in the presence of God.

And he says,

Whoa, no!

I'm going to die!

I mean, this guy is on a roller coaster.

And God speaks to him.

Shalom.

Verse 23.

Peace be to you.

Do not fear.

Again, it's that fear that so characterizes Gideon.

You shall not die.

It's quite a scene, isn't it?

Scene 2 in verses 25 through 32 is just further development of the same.

God then calls Gideon to go destroy the altar of Baal and Asherah.

And what I want you to notice is whose altar it is.

In verse 25,

Take your father's bull and the second bull, seven years old,

and pull down the altar of Baal that your father has.

And cut down the Asherah that is beside it.

These are the gods of the Amorites.

His father, Joash, is a Baal worshiper.

And God is telling him,

You tear that down, and then you build an altar to me,

and you present, you offer the bull to me.

I'm your God.

Gideon grabs some guys and does that.

But did you notice when?

Look at verse 27.

But because he was too afraid

of his family

and the men of the town to do it by day,

he did it by night.

Fear.

He's full of fear.

Fear.

This debut is a debut of a man full of fear.

The men want to know who did this.

It turns out it was Gideon.

And so the men go and say to Joash,

Hey, give us your son.

We're going to kill him.

Where's Gideon?

He's Amai.

Hey.

His dad defends him.

Hey, if Baal wants to pick a fight,

let him fight his fights,

his dad says.

Gideon picks up an interesting name,

Jeroboam,

which means the one who Baal fights against

at this point.

Both scenes,

they point to this man Gideon

as being full of fear.

Afraid.

Afraid what people will do.

Afraid how people will respond

if he is faithful to his God.

Now everyone in this room

understands what it means

to be afraid of other people.

Don't we?

Christians and non-Christians alike.

You see, here's what's going on.

When you get God amnesia,

when you forget

who your God is,

when Jesus ceases to be

the controlling center of your life,

you are going to pull.

You're out of alignment.

And so here we see a man being pulled

to being afraid of other people,

being a fearful man.

Now if you're in the room

and you're not a Christian,

here's what you need to know.

Maybe you're thinking about

becoming a Christian.

You're going to need to lay down

what other people think about you

in order to be a follower of Jesus.

You need to deny yourself,

take up your cross,

and follow him.

Act 2 here is the debut of Gideon

and he's full of fear.

So let's move to Act 3.

Gideon's divine transformation.

Because there's a divine intervention.

He goes from being full of fear

to being full of faith.

Just look at 7.15 real quick.

Two words.

He worshipped.

He worshipped.

Let's see what happens.

The first scene is in verses 33-35.

There's this drawing of the battle together.

We have the Canaanite coalition,

the Midianites, the Amalekites,

and the people of the east.

We know from chapter 8,

this is 135,000 men.

135.

Kenosha and some change.

And we also see that Gideon is there

and he has a group of

a partial coalition of Israel.

Not all of the tribes,

just part of them.

It just kind of goes to the

disunity happening among the nation.

Manasseh, verse 35,

Asher, Zebulun, Naphtali.

But the thing that you need to know,

the X factor.

Oh, by the way,

there's only 22,

no, 32,000 of the Israelite soldiers.

135,000.

32,000.

The X factor, of course,

is this spirit of the Lord

who clothes Gideon.

Scene 2, 36-40.

Gideon is very aware of the numbers.

And then he goes into

the whole fleecing incident.

Do you remember this?

God has told him,

go, I'm sending you,

I'm with you.

It's a command and a promise.

And Gideon,

he balks.

Notice, it starts with an if.

36,

If you will save Israel by my hand,

as you have said.

If, though,

I need more proof.

This isn't obedience.

This is balking.

This is a waffling.

This is a man,

again,

showing his fear.

He's not trusting the Lord,

but testing the Lord.

And so he says,

hey,

I'm going to lay out

a fleece of wool,

and when I wake up,

hey,

if it's packed with water,

then I'll know it's you.

And God does it.

Verse 38,

it was so.

And so you think

he's going to go out

in battle, right?

No.

Look what he does.

He's like,

then Gideon said to God,

let not your anger

burn against me.

Let me just speak

one more thing.

Could you just do it again?

Just this time,

keep the fleece dry

and all the ground

wet around it.

And God does it.

It's so.

You know what this points to?

If you are a Christian

who are putting out

fleeces to God,

the intention's great.

You see it in your Bible,

right?

But the actual thing

going on here

is unbelief.

This is not an example

to emulate.

This is Gideon

in fear

putting God

to the test.

And yet God,

he's so merciful,

he does it,

but I've got to be honest

with you.

God's got something

else rolling.

who's fleecing who?

Check out what happens next.

So you think coming out

of this,

Gideon's like,

okay,

let's go to the battlefield.

But we know that he's

a little iffy.

And then,

this happens.

Look at verse chapter 7.

This is scene 3.

God exposes Gideon's fear.

Just imagine

if you're Gideon.

Knowing what you know

about his givenness

to fear,

check it out.

The day arrives,

verse 1.

They're getting ready

for battle.

In verse 2,

God says,

wait, time out.

You know what,

Gideon?

They got 135,000.

We've got 32 grand.

I'll tell you what,

we just got too many.

Too many.

If you're Gideon,

what's going on in you

at this point?

You're having your fears

exposed is what's going on.

And so,

God,

he says,

if anybody's afraid,

let them go home.

It's actually

out of Deuteronomy 20

where God makes this provision

to all of Israel's armies

that if there's any soldier,

they're afraid they go home

because they don't want

fear spreading among the ranks.

Do you know what the irony is?

Jeroboam is afraid.

Gideon is afraid.

So,

22,000 say,

I'm afraid.

I'm out of here.

Leaving 10 grand left.

And so,

now we've gone from

135k

against 10k.

And then,

verses 4 through 8 happens.

the people are still

too many.

We got too many.

And so,

with a kind of a drinking

of the water test,

God winnows his troops

down from 10,000

to 300.

135,000

against 300.

Now,

the question is,

why?

Why?

What is going on here?

Two reasons.

Look at verse 2.

God says to Gideon,

that first drawdown,

the people with you

are too many for me

to give the Midians

into their hand,

lest Israel boast over me,

saying,

my own hand has saved me.

See what's going on there?

God's saying,

all glory goes to me.

I'm winnowing the troops down,

so there's no question

who's going to win this victory.

It's going to be me.

Do you see it?

The other reason why

is to expose Gideon's fear.

Gideon came out of the fleece incident

thinking,

okay,

and now God just pulls the fleece

right out from underneath him.

You're going to have to trust me, Gideon.

In scene 4,

in verses 9 through 18,

God not only addresses Gideon's fear,

he encourages him.

Verse 9, chapter 7,

that same night,

the Lord said to him,

arise, go down against the camp,

for I have given them into your hand.

Wait, but Gideon, 10.

But,

but if you're afraid

to go down,

God knows Gideon.

God knows you.

But if you're afraid,

you can take a buddy.

You can bring a friend,

your servant, Purah,

and when you go down there,

listen to what they say.

And so they get down to the camp,

and verse 13,

there is this Midianite soldier on duty,

and look what he says.

He shares a dream that he has.

Behold, I dreamed a dream.

And behold,

a cake of barley bread,

not,

not the most imposing feature,

a loaf of bread.

A cake of barley bread

tumbled into the camp of Midian,

and came to the tent,

and struck it so,

that it fell,

and turned it upside down,

so that the tent lay flat.

He's obviously

kind of upset about this.

And then this other

Midianite soldier

gives the interpretation

of the dream,

to which he says,

this is no other than

the sword of Gideon,

the son of Joash,

a man of Israel.

God has given into his hand

Midian and all the camp.

This is God encouraging Gideon.

You know what's amazing about this?

God has personally spoken to Gideon.

God has used an angel of the Lord

to speak to Gideon.

God has sent a prophet

raising up issues.

And it's only when it comes

from the mouth

of two Midianite soldiers

that Gideon believes.

Verse 15,

as soon as Gideon heard

the telling of the dream

in its interpretation,

he worshiped.

Here's a man full of faith

all of a sudden.

His fears have been transformed

into faith.

God has intervened

mercifully,

graciously.

He's exposed the fear

and then encouraged him

in the fear.

He's come out of this thinking,

God is at work.

And then when you look down

at what happens next,

he rallies his troops.

He blows the shofar.

He, troops,

come on together.

All 300 of you.

Breaks them into three divisions,

gives them some strange instructions,

and then he's like,

follow me.

He's a man clothed by the Spirit.

But what happens next,

in verses 19 through 25,

is actually the battle.

Gideon's 300,

this is nighttime,

they surround the Valley of Jezreel,

they surround the camp

of 135,000.

And Gideon blows his shofar.

And everybody else.

And then they smash the jars,

and there's a torch inside.

And so all of a sudden,

there's light shining.

And so in the middle of the night,

Gideon has surrounded

this huge army,

and now they are kind of

making this incredible sound.

And all of a sudden,

there's these lights

all around them,

and God uses it

to set this

Canaanite coalition

into great confusion.

They draw their swords,

and they start killing each other.

Do you know what's in the hands

of Gideon's 300?

Not swords.

A shofar,

a trumpet,

and a lamp.

God routes

this 135,000 people,

and it doesn't look like

this 300 draws a sword

on the battlefield.

It's an incredible win

for God.

They put this army on the run.

They call in the other 10,000,

Naphtali, Asher, Manasseh.

They're like,

hey, let's go get them.

So they all go and get them.

Gideon texts his friends

in Ephraim and say,

hey, we got them on the run.

Let's go.

So the Ephraim army joins in.

The Ephraim army,

they track down two princes

of Midian,

Oreb and Zeb.

They capture them,

kill them,

bring their heads back

to Gideon.

It's gruesome.

God's got the victory.

Who's the hero?

God's the hero.

God has not just

beaten 135,000

with shofars and lamps.

He has seemingly beaten

Gideon's fearful heart.

Which brings us into Act 4.

We've gone now from

Gideon's debut,

a mixed review,

a man full of fear,

to Gideon's transformation,

divine intervention.

He's a man full of faith.

And now,

Gideon's demise.

There's something new about him

we're going to see.

He's full of something,

for sure.

Let's see what it is.

Scene 1,

chapter 8,

verses 1 through 3.

The Ephraimites

take issue with Gideon

and they're saying,

hey man,

what's your problem?

Why didn't you call us in

when you were getting

in the battle?

And what Gideon does,

it's not fear of people here.

He does something else.

Verse 2,

what have I done now

in comparison with you?

Look down at verse 3.

What have I been able to do

in comparison with you,

Ephraim?

You know what that is?

Flattery.

He's manipulating them.

He's not afraid,

he's flattering.

The next scene is in verses,

starts in verse 4.

Gideon is now chasing

two kings,

not princes,

kings of Midian,

Ziba and Zalmunna,

and he's crossed the Jordan

and he's got a tired

bunch of dudes.

And so he goes

to the men of Succoth

and then he's going to go

to the men of Penuel

and he's going to ask

for some kind of refreshment

for his guys.

And the men of Succoth,

in verse 5,

they say to him,

well he says to them,

please give loaves of bread.

My dudes are exhausted.

And the officials of Succoth

in verse 6 say,

are the hands of Ziba

and Zalmunna

already in your hand

that we should give bread

to your army?

In other words,

Gideon,

I think you're counting

your chickens

before they're hatched.

I don't see any king

with you.

They're intentionally

not participating.

It would have made

anybody mad.

And then the people

of Penuel

do the same thing.

He said to the men

of Penuel,

well,

verse 8,

they answer to him

the same way

as the men of Succoth

and with both of them

he threatens them.

There's going to be

some consequences

to this, guys.

I've got to go

chase these kings.

And what we see

is this threateningness

happening.

He's not afraid of them.

Something's changed

in Gideon.

He's full of something.

It's going to become

clearer as we go.

Scene 3,

verses 10-12.

Gideon and his boys

catch up to the kings,

Ziba and Zalmunna.

They capture them.

And then the next scene

is they bring them back.

They bring them back

to the men of Succoth,

the men of Penuel.

And he says in verse 15,

Behold Ziba and Zalmunna,

men of Succoth,

about whom you taunted me,

saying,

Are the hands of Ziba and Zalmunna

already in your hand

that we should give bread

to you men

who are exhausted?

And then he takes

those 77 leaders

of Succoth

and he whips them publicly.

It's vindictive.

It's really harsh.

It's almost something

a king would do.

A Canaanite king.

And then,

with the men of Penuel,

he breaks down the tower

just like he said,

and he kills the men

of the city.

He kills,

by the way,

these are other Israelites.

This is over the top.

He's being harsh.

And if that's not enough,

the next scene,

scene 5,

verses 18-21,

now he's with

these two kings.

And he says,

Hey,

where are these people?

Where are the men

that you killed

at Mount Tabor?

And they're like,

well,

they're dead.

In verse 19,

he says,

They were my brothers,

the sons of my mother,

as the Lord lives.

He's swearing,

by God,

if you didn't do that,

I would have let you live.

And then he tells his son

to gut him.

His son doesn't.

So he does.

Gideon kills them.

And you're left saying,

this was personal.

This was vengeance.

This was Gideon taking vengeance

for what these men did

to his relatives.

This is not something

this man should have done.

Vengeance is mine,

says the Lord.

But it gets worse.

The next scene,

in verses 22-28,

the men of Israel

said to Gideon,

Rule over us.

Be our king.

You and your son

and your grandson.

Let's set up

a dynasty.

For you have saved us

from the hand of Midian.

Be our king.

And then,

in verse 23,

Gideon gives the right answer.

I will not rule over you

and my son will not

rule over you.

The Lord will rule over you.

Sounds great.

But here's the thing.

Gideon's actions

show otherwise.

Because what we see next

is this.

And then Gideon said to them,

Let me make a request

of you.

A request.

And then he has them all

give one of the gold earrings

of all of the men

that they have killed.

And what it amounts to

is a huge amount of gold.

43 pounds.

1.3 million dollars

on today's market.

And with that,

he makes an ephod.

It's probably an image.

Brings it back to

his hometown.

Not Oprah.

Ophrah.

And look what happens

in verse 27.

All Israel whored

after it there

and it became a snare

to Gideon

and to his family.

Remember what happened

in Ophrah to begin with?

Baal.

False worship.

And now there's

false worship again.

Goes from bad to worse.

There's one more thing

I want to point out

and then we'll bring

this thing to bear.

It happens in verses

29 through 32.

Gideon,

we're told in verse 30,

has 70 sons.

Seven zero sons.

I know what you're wondering.

How can one woman

bear 70 sons?

That's impossible.

Yes, it is.

And the reason why

he's had 70 sons

is because

he's had many wives.

Verse 30.

This was forbidden

of the kings

just generally.

One man,

one woman

for life and marriage.

But of the kings

of Israel.

They weren't to have

multiple wives.

Deuteronomy 17, 17.

Lest one turns

his heart from

the Lord.

And verse 31,

his concubine

who was in Shechem,

she was a Canaanite.

She bears him a son

and calls his name

Abimelech.

Great name.

Until you know

what it means.

You know what it means?

My dad is king.

My father is king.

Gideon

names his son

my father is king.

The same Gideon

who says,

I will not rule over you

but the Lord

will rule over you.

No.

You know what he's full of?

He's not full of fear.

He's not full of faith.

He's full of himself.

God,

this is pride.

All of this

flattery,

all of this

harshness,

all of this

vindictiveness,

all this

taxing

and creating

an image

for people to worship,

to think of yourself

as a king

when you're not.

He's pretending

to be a king.

It's all pride.

He's gone from

being full of fear

to full of faith

to full of pride.

You know what I think

happened?

This is speculation.

Remember verse 22,

rule over us,

you and your son

and your grandson also

for you have saved us

from the hand of Midian.

I think he believed it.

I think he believed it.

The very thing

that God said

he's going to winnow

his army down

so that no one

would question

who saved Israel

from Midian.

Oh man.

Gideon's demise

is that he's

full of himself.

This is pride.

In Gideon,

we see the good,

the bad,

and the ugly.

The good.

He worshipped.

He obeyed

at some point.

I mean,

he is in Hebrews 11

hall of faith.

But we see the bad

not just

he's full of fear.

God repeatedly

speaks to him

in his fear

again and again.

I'm with you.

I'm sending you.

The Lord is with you.

The ugly is

he's full of himself.

You know what happens

in chapter 8?

God never speaks once.

God's speaking

all over the place

in 6 and 7

addressing his fear

but God doesn't speak

once in his pride.

God opposes the proud

but gives grace

to the humble.

Gideon is an

imperfect

savior.

A pretend

king.

And God uses him

still to accomplish

a temporary salvation.

But you know

who the real hero is?

God.

Yahweh.

The one who calls

Gideon.

The one who exposes

Gideon's fear.

The one who encourages

Gideon.

The one who

miraculously delivers

Israel from

the Midianites

with just 300

and no swords

drawn.

This God

who delivered

Israel from Midian

he took on flesh.

he became a man

and walked among us.

He lived a perfect life

that none of us

could ever live

and then he died

on the cross

in the place

of sinners

for our being held

in the grip

of the fear of man

for being held

in the very hand

of being full

of ourselves.

He delivered us

from that.

He's no other

than Jesus Christ.

The greatest

hero

of all.

Jesus is the perfect

Savior

who has accomplished

a permanent

salvation.

Just think

of Gideon.

Full of fear.

Folded like a cheap suit.

Did things in the dark.

Think about Jesus.

Fearless.

Matthew 4

standing before

the devil himself

contending

resisting

not backing down

not shrinking back

pressing in.

Think of Jesus

before the Sanhedrin

and before Pilate.

He doesn't back down.

He stands his ground.

Think of Jesus

Matthew 27

when he's nailed

to the cross

he does so willingly.

not hiding

not asking

for signs

fearlessly

doing

the will

of his father

and he's doing

that today

and tomorrow

and forever.

He's totally

God

totally man

and he's alive

today.

The other thing

about

about Gideon

is that he was

full of himself.

Jesus was anything

but

he humbled himself.

Listen to

Philippians chapter 2.

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

Have this mind

among yourselves

which is yours

in Christ Jesus

who though

he was born

what was in the

form of God

did not count

equality with God

a thing to be grasped

but emptied himself

by taking the form

of a servant

being born

in the likeness of man

and being found

in human form

he humbled himself

by becoming obedient

to the point of death

even to death

on a cross.

He's the perfect king.

He wasn't full

of himself

he humbled himself

to accomplish

a perfect salvation

a forever salvation

not the

chapter 8

verse 28

for 40 years

for forever years.

You know what that means?

Jesus is the

perfect savior

the true king

the rightful king

the forever king.

who accomplished

our salvation

forever.

So we can say

by your hand

you have saved us

from ourselves.

What does this mean

for us?

The warning is this

for those of us

in the room

who are prone

to be full

to be full

of fear

rules you

keeps you up

at night

it's a temptation

common to man

do you know

what you're being

called to do?

Instead of hide

and be silent

and exercise

false humility

you're to confess

that

to the Lord

you're to repent

of that

that has no place

in ruling your heart

when Jesus

is the controlling

center

of your

heart

of your being

it's this

fear of others

that needs to be

confessed

and repented of.

The other side

of this

is being full

of yourself

pride

being a flatterer

being a manipulator

seeking vengeance

when that belongs

to the Lord

you need to

confess your pride

you need to

repent of your pride

turn from it

Gideon didn't

when you forget

your God

when you have

this God amnesia

when you forget

that Jesus

is the controlling

center of your life

you will either

be a man fearer

or revere yourself

so how do we

keep from doing that?

Here's the wooing

Jesus is the

treasure of your heart

fullness of faith

in Jesus

and when you are

trusting in Jesus

and he's the controlling

center of your life

these other things

get crowded out

daily remind yourself

of him

daily thank him

for what he's done

in you

what he's doing

and when you do

these stir longings

in your heart

for your king

and they put

to death

fear of man

fullness of yourself

there's a warning

and a wooing

we must heed

which way do you pull?

do you pull?

do you pull

towards fearing

what people think

about you?

or do you pull

towards being

full of yourself?

we see both

in Gideon

and what we see

in Jesus

is the only way

forward

fullness of faith

in our perfect

savior and king

Jesus

the ultimate deliverer

let's pray together

God

we thank you

for the example

of Gideon

we see

how he did

model faith

to some degree

but we also

heed his example

fearing man

being full of himself

and God

we turn from that

that is not

who we want to be

that's not who

you've

called us to be

God

would you fill us

clothe us

by your spirit

so that we would

walk in the victory

you have won

in Jesus name

we pray

amen

you