Mighty Men of Valor

SCRIPTURE

Judges 6:11–12 NKJV

11 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!”

OPENING

The world’s definition of what it means to be a man has changed.

We’ve traded Marshall Dillon for Dylan Mulvaney.

But God’s definition of what it means to be a man has never changed.

Like the Marines: God is looking for a few good men.

God’s Word gives some warnings about the lack of Godly men in our society.

Act like men.

1 Corinthians 16:13 KJV 1900

13 Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong.

1 Corinthians 16:13 ESV

13 Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.

Where have the Godly men gone?

Micah 7:2 NKJV

2 The faithful man has perished from the earth, And there is no one upright among men. They all lie in wait for blood; Every man hunts his brother with a net.

Psalm 12:1 NKJV

1 Help, Lord, for the godly man ceases! For the faithful disappear from among the sons of men.

We need some Godly men in the church in these last days.

Mighty Men of Valor

Valor

Brave

Courageous

Fearless

Backbone

Boldness

MESSAGE

In Judges 6, Israel is in the middle of a conflict with the Midianites. The Midianites were descendants from a Abraham. Abraham had a son named Midian with his second wife Keturah after the death of Sarah.

The Midianites were responsible for trying to contaminate Israel with false religion and sexual immorality. The Midianites conspired with Moab to have the false prophet Balaam curse Israel. Later a Midianite woman named Cozbi had sexual relations with a Simeonite man as part of Baal worship (Numbers 15).

So the Midianites here in Judges 6 represent the schemes and attacks of the devil today, on our society and on our churches, to compromise with the world. And one of the tenants of the false religion of the world today is to pervert God’s definition of a man and the distinction between what it means to be a man or a woman.

Understand, that the abominations of homosexuality, transgenderism, and men acting like women is an attack by the devil on the authority of the Word of God. Because God’s Word is clear.

1 Corinthians 6:9–10 KJV 1900

9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, 10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.

And God called out a man my the name of Gideon from a little family, out of the tribe of Manasseh and said, “you mighty man of valor.” God heard the prayers of the people of Israel who cried out because of the oppression of the Midianites, and God raised up a judge in Israel to stand up against the enemy.

I believe God is desiring to raise up some men and women of God in these last days who will stand up for what’s right.

So why did God call Gideon a “mighty man of valor?” What did God see in Gideon? And what is God looking for in us today?

Gideon Was Honest With God

Judges 6:13 NKJV

13 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.”

SOMETIMES IT IS DIFFICULT TO SEE GOD MOVING IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DIFFICULTY.

WE NEED SOME MIGHTY MEN OF VALOR WHO ARE NOT ASHAMED TO TALK TO GOD.

Gideon Doubted Himself

Judges 6:14–15 NKJV

14 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?” 15 So he said to Him, “O my Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.”

HUMILITY IS A SIGN OF STRENGTH.

GOD SEES IN US WHAT WE DON’T SEE IN OURSELVES.

WE NEED SOME MIGHTY MEN OF VALOR WHO WILL SEEK JUSTICE, LOVE MERCY, AND WALK HUMBLY WITH OUR GOD.

Gideon Needed Confirmation

Judges 6:16–17 NKJV

16 And the Lord said to him, “Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat the Midianites as one man.” 17 Then he said to Him, “If now I have found favor in Your sight, then show me a sign that it is You who talk with me.

WE NEED SOME MIGHTY MEN OF VALOR WHO CAN DISCERN THE VOICE OF GOD.

Gideon Offered a Sacrifice to God

Judges 6:18–24 NKJV

18 Do not depart from here, I pray, until I come to You and bring out my offering and set it before You.” And He said, “I will wait until you come back.” 19 So Gideon went in and prepared a young goat, and unleavened bread from an ephah of flour. The meat he put in a basket, and he put the broth in a pot; and he brought them out to Him under the terebinth tree and presented them. 20 The Angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened bread and lay them on this rock, and pour out the broth.” And he did so. 21 Then the Angel of the Lord put out the end of the staff that was in His hand, and touched the meat and the unleavened bread; and fire rose out of the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened bread. And the Angel of the Lord departed out of his sight. 22 Now Gideon perceived that He was the Angel of the Lord. So Gideon said, “Alas, O Lord God! For I have seen the Angel of the Lord face to face.” 23 Then the Lord said to him, “Peace be with you; do not fear, you shall not die.” 24 So Gideon built an altar there to the Lord, and called it The-Lord-Is-Peace. To this day it is still in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

WE NEED SOME MIGHTY MEN OF VALOR WHO WILL LEAD IN WORSHIP.

Gideon Destroyed the Altar of Baal

Judges 6:25–35 NKJV

25 Now it came to pass the same night that the Lord said to him, “Take your father’s young bull, the second bull of seven years old, and tear down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the wooden image that is beside it; 26 and build an altar to the Lord your God on top of this rock in the proper arrangement, and take the second bull and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the image which you shall cut down.” 27 So Gideon took ten men from among his servants and did as the Lord had said to him. But because he feared his father’s household and the men of the city too much to do it by day, he did it by night. 28 And when the men of the city arose early in the morning, there was the altar of Baal, torn down; and the wooden image that was beside it was cut down, and the second bull was being offered on the altar which had been built. 29 So they said to one another, “Who has done this thing?” And when they had inquired and asked, they said, “Gideon the son of Joash has done this thing.” 30 Then the men of the city said to Joash, “Bring out your son, that he may die, because he has torn down the altar of Baal, and because he has cut down the wooden image that was beside it.” 31 But Joash said to all who stood against him, “Would you plead for Baal? Would you save him? Let the one who would plead for him be put to death by morning! If he is a god, let him plead for himself, because his altar has been torn down!” 32 Therefore on that day he called him Jerubbaal, saying, “Let Baal plead against him, because he has torn down his altar.” 33 Then all the Midianites and Amalekites, the people of the East, gathered together; and they crossed over and encamped in the Valley of Jezreel. 34 But the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon; then he blew the trumpet, and the Abiezrites gathered behind him. 35 And he sent messengers throughout all Manasseh, who also gathered behind him. He also sent messengers to Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali; and they came up to meet them.

WE NEED SOME MIGHTY MEN OF VALOR WHO ARE NOT AFRAID TO STAND AGAINST THE WILES OF THE DEVIL.

Gideon Needed Confirmation Again

Judges 6:36–40 NKJV

36 So Gideon said to God, “If You will save Israel by my hand as You have said— 37 look, I shall put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor; if there is dew on the fleece only, and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that You will save Israel by my hand, as You have said.” 38 And it was so. When he rose early the next morning and squeezed the fleece together, he wrung the dew out of the fleece, a bowlful of water. 39 Then Gideon said to God, “Do not be angry with me, but let me speak just once more: Let me test, I pray, just once more with the fleece; let it now be dry only on the fleece, but on all the ground let there be dew.” 40 And God did so that night. It was dry on the fleece only, but there was dew on all the ground.

GOD IS PATIENT WITH US EVEN WHEN WE NEED SOME EXTRA ENCOURAGEMENT.

WE NEED SOME MIGHTY MEN OF VALOR WHO ARE NOT AFRAID TO BRING THEIR WEAKNESSES BEFORE GOD AND SURRENDER COMPLETELY TO HIM.

Gideon Led Israel to Victory

The Midianites brought 135,000 to the battle (Judges 8:10).

Gideon raised an army of only 32,000.

But God said that was too many.

God told Gideon to tell all the men who were fearful and afraid to go home.

22,000 men walked away from the battle and went home.

That left Gideon with 10,000 against 135,000 of the enemy.

But God said that was still too many.

So God told Gideon to take the 10,000 men down to the stream of water and test them there.

Those who lapped up the water with their hands (staying alert) keep. Those who kneel down and stick their mouth down in the water (don’t stay alert), send them home.

9,700 men knelt down to drink and were sent home.

300 men lapped up the water and God said “by these 300 men I am going to save you and deliver the Midianites into your hand.”

Gideon readied his 300 men for battle

But God must have known Gideon was still unsure of himself and needed a little more encouragement. So He told Gideon to sneak down to the camp of the Midianites at night. And Gideon overhead one of the men recounting a dream he had about a cake of barley rolling down the hill and destroying one of the tents of Midian. And another Midianite man said, “this is the sword of Gideon, and into his hand God has delivered Midian and the whole camp.”

This was enough to give Gideon the faith, the courage, the boldness, the backbone, the strength that he needed to attack the enemy. That night as the enemy slept, Gideon ordered his 300 men to each take a trumpet, an empty pitcher (jar of clay), and a torch inside the pitcher and surround the enemy’s camp.

Gideon instructed them that when he blew the trumpet, they were to blow their trumpets, break the pitchers, and shout, “The sword of the Lord and of Gideon!”

The enemy awoke to the sound of 300 trumpets and 300 pitchers being broken. They saw the torches of fire surrounding them and it threw the enemy into so much confusion that the Bible says the Midianites started fighting and killing each other. 120,000 of the Midianites were killed and 15,000 fled. The men of Israel pursued the enemy and completely destroyed them and their leaders.

CLOSING

WE NEED SOME MIGHTY MEN OF VALOR WITH SOME TRUMPETS, PITCHERS, AND TORCHES.

Trumpets

Represents the proclaiming of the Word of God.

Sounding the alarm.

The call to battle.

Broken Pitchers

Too many men feel like they are not worthy. None of us are worthy.

God is not looking for perfection, He is looking for direction.

What makes you a Mighty Man of Valor is not your strength, your smarts, your abilities. What makes you a Mighty Man of Valor is walking by faith, surrendering your heart and life to Jesus, and leading your family to follow Him.

We’re all broken vessels. We are all in need of the Potter to reshape us from a vessel of dishonor to a vessel of honor.

Torches

We still have flaws. Like and old jar of clay sometimes there are some cracks and flaws that God is still working on. But understand that even through those cracks that the light of the torch of God’s grace can shine through us.

But it is when we allow God to break the hard outer shell of our hearts, to take out a heart of stone, and give us a heart of flesh, that the light of Jesus Christ shines the brightest.

ALTAR CALL