Kintsugi: Gideon, the Fearful Warrior (Morning)
Notes
Transcript
Intro:
When I was small maybe 4 or 5 years old, I went to Florida to visit my cousins. In the backyard they had a big in ground swimming pool with a small slide.
We decided to go swimming. I loved slides. So immediately I ran to the slide, climbed up the ladder I never stopped to consider the slide was in the deep end of the pool.
Well, I had never been in deep water before. In fact, I really didn’t know how to swim very well.
I went down the slide. Next thing, I remember looking up and seeing my mom leaning over the edge of the pool looking at me looking up from underneath the water. I was able to swim up to the top and to the side. When I camp up I started coughing because I had sucked in a little bit of water.
For years, I was terrified of water. I think I wore arm floats until I was 10 years old.
This experience caused me to fear for many years. While I wasn’t actually injured. I was injured inside. The fear kept me from enjoying swimming.
How many of you have ever have had a bad experience that made you scared for a long time? It made you feel like you were no longer brave.
(allow a few volunteers to share)
Did that experience make you scared to try it again?
Sometimes hard times can makes us scared. It can make us feel like we can’t be brave.
Today we are going to look at guy in the Bible named Gideon. Were going to call Him.
Gideon: Our fearful warrior.
1 The Israelites did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. So the Lord handed them over to Midian seven years,
2 and they oppressed Israel. Because of Midian, the Israelites made hiding places for themselves in the mountains, caves, and strongholds.
3 Whenever the Israelites planted crops, the Midianites, Amalekites, and the people of the east came and attacked them.
4 They encamped against them and destroyed the produce of the land, even as far as Gaza. They left nothing for Israel to eat, as well as no sheep, ox, or donkey.
5 For the Midianites came with their cattle and their tents like a great swarm of locusts. They and their camels were without number, and they entered the land to lay waste to it.
6 So Israel became poverty-stricken because of Midian, and the Israelites cried out to the Lord.
Q: So what was happening to Israel and Gideon?
A: The Midianites are attacking them. burning down their crops and leaving them without any food.
11 The angel of the Lord came, and he sat under the oak that was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash, the Abiezrite. His son Gideon was threshing wheat in the winepress in order to hide it from the Midianites.
12 Then the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, “The Lord is with you, valiant warrior.”
Q: So where was Gideon when the Angel came to him?
A: He was hiding his food.
Q:What did the angel call him?
A: Valiant warrior
Did Gideon see himself as a brave warrior?
Now something had happened to Gideon that caused something to break inside of Him. What was it?
So then why did the angel call Gideon a valiant warrior?
Because God knew when he was done fixing him he would be something stronger than he was now.
So lets look at how this came about.
13 Gideon said to him, “Please, my lord, if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened? And where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about? They said, ‘Hasn’t the Lord brought us out of Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and handed us over to Midian.”
Have you ever felt this way. We read about the things God can do but in our situation we ask a very real question?
Where is God now? Why hasn’t he changed my situation.
Notice the God didn’t tell Gideon, hey sit back, relax, and I will take care of everything for you.
In fact in Gideon’s lack of faith, he called him to act in faith.
14 The Lord turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and deliver Israel from the grasp of Midian. I am sending you!”
But Gideon had a another problem. He was nobody!
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 family.”
In Gideon’s eyes nobody thought he was worth following. He came from a small family and he was the youngest. Why would anyone follow him?
But look at what God told him.
16 “But I will be with you,” the Lord said to him. “You will strike Midian down as if it were one man.”
Notice God did not tell Gideon, you are stronger than you think. You are braver than you know. Because the truth was Gideon wasn’t strong or brave. He due to his circumstances was broken just like this pot in front of us.
Gideon still didnt believe
17 Then he said to him, “If I have found favor with you, give me a sign that you are speaking with me.
18 Please do not leave this place until I return to you. Let me bring my gift and set it before you.” And he said, “I will stay until you return.”
19 So Gideon went and prepared a young goat and unleavened bread from a half bushel of flour. He placed the meat in a basket and the broth in a pot. He brought them out and offered them to him under the oak.
20 The angel of God said to him, “Take the meat with the unleavened bread, put it on this stone, and pour the broth on it.” So he did that.
21 The angel of the Lord extended the tip of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened bread. Fire came up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened bread. Then the angel of the Lord vanished from his sight.
22 When Gideon realized that he was the angel of the Lord, he said, “Oh no, Lord God! I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face!”
23 But the Lord said to him, “Peace to you. Don’t be afraid, for you will not die.”
24 So Gideon built an altar to the Lord there and called it The Lord Is Peace. It is still in Ophrah of the Abiezrites today.
God takes broken people and makes them in to something useful.
Gideon did not need to be strong or brave. What he needed was God to be with Him. God is the glue that takes our broken parts and puts them back into place.