Limiting factors

review:

Review of last week, we need to walk in the power in the Spirit. We are limited, or more truly, incapacitated when it comes to overcoming sin our lives. We are helpless when it comes to do anything for God without His POWER from on high.. He made the disciples wait in Jerusalem until

Setup:

I can’t think of a better story in all the bible than the story of Gideon, when it comes to God showing His power in our weakness. When it comes to living outside of our limits..

— today, I want to do somewhat of an overview of Gideon’s life as his is a good example of what living by faith looks like..

— The background is the Jews had begun to worship false gods,

Judges 6:11 Now the angel of the LORD came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress 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, O mighty man of valor.” 13 And Gideon said to him, “Please, my lord, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the LORD has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.” 14 And the LORD turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you?”

Intro:

Setup:

Prayer

Story/Transition: something about development? Like cooking? You start low shelf and develop your skills..

background:

- /God's people are oppressed, and they cry out. /God sends raises someone up to deliver them. /God's people find rest but become complacent God's people rebel.. /God's people are oppressed..

- They began to follow after other gods. Plural. Baal and the female goddess Asherah.

- Gideon was in a hidey hole. The enemy had brought him and the people to a spot where they were so scared of coming out of into the open that they had to live “underground”

- That’s the goal the enemy wants to ++Limit your movement, limit your impact, limit your fruitfulness. EVEN YOUR VIEW OF GOD..

- If we can be INEFFECTIVE- INERT- IMMOBILE then the enemy has achieved his objective

- But GOD WANTS TO UNLEASH YOU.

- why is this happening to us?

C.S. Lewis said it like this, "God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains. It's His megaphone to rouse a deaf world."

1. Fledgling / floundering Faith

— we have to start somewhere on our faith journey..

— I'm not too familiar with sports recruiting. But I am pretty sure the recruiter wouldn't be looking for his next star player hiding under the bleachers!

— “The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor.” 13 And Gideon said to him, “Please, my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us?

— “Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house.”

— Well, we've got a winner here! Got to work on his confidence a little bit but ok.

— Then, Gideon still can’t wrap his head around this.. And, in the beginning Gideon didn’t have this amazing faith.. He had to ask for God to prove Himself: — 17 And he said to him, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, then show me a sign that it is you who speak with me.

— So God has him prepare a meal..

21 Then the angel of the Lord reached out the tip of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes. And fire sprang up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened cakes. And the angel of the Lord vanished from his sight

— THEN, Gideon realizes— He just GOD.

— Wherever you are at with your faith journey, you have to start somewhere..

— Jesus can do a lot with a little bit of faith.. the size of your faith has no impact whatsoever on the size of your God..

Matthew 17:20 He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.”

— Mini application: When we sense that God is coming our way, we know that for whatever reason, GOD CHOSE US.

— ++Eph. 1:4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,

— Even me? Isn’t there someone more holy? Like Gideon, we feel like there’s someone better, someone who deserves favor. Or Like David said:

++Ps. 8:4  what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?

— This is the origin, beginning of your faith.. It might be fledging at first.. It all starts with belief. The belief that God Himself would come your way, would put His finger on your heart. Call you to Himself. Call you to His purposes..

2. forming Faith

— As we begin to move in our faith journey, we go beyond simply belief but adding obedience to it.

— We are no longer being conformed to the image of the world.. The pattern of this world, but we are being formed into His image by His word..

— So, this is the next step that Gideon has in his Faith Journey..

25 That same night the Lord said to him, “Take the second bull from your father’s herd, the one seven years old. Tear down your father’s altar to Baal and cut down the Asherah pole beside it. 26 Then build a proper kind of altar to the Lord your God on the top of this height. Using the wood of the Asherah pole that you cut down, offer the second bull as a burnt offering. 27 So Gideon took ten of his servants and did as the Lord told him. But because he was afraid of his family and the townspeople, he did it at night rather than in the daytime. 28 In the morning when the people of the town got up, there was Baal’s altar, demolished, with the Asherah pole beside it cut down and the second bull sacrificed on the newly built altar!

— This is is a little sneaky ok. But this is BOLD. This is breaking down the pattern that his father has passed down. This is going against the grain of popular opinion.

— My dad had an early 70’s VW bug in the garage that he had been working on for quite a while. Took him some time to get it where he wanted it..

— So, could you imagine? If God told me to take a sledge hammer to his classic car?

— This would’ve hit Gideon the same way but even more so.. You know that bull, the one he’s been saving for 7 years for the special occasion? You know that altar that you helped daddy build, kind of bonded over it?? Yeah that’s getting torn down!

— Along the way in your journey of faith, there will be moments you will be reading the Word, and your response will be: Nope, don’t like that!

— As a matter of fact, when reading the Word or hearing the Word preached sometimes you’ll be comforted for sure, but often you will be confronted..

— If you aren’t challenged you are doing your walk wrong!!

— ++I like the graphic of the Chosen - fish swimming the opposite way.. That is the faith walk!!

— When we started tithing, we saw the principle of being generous in the Bible, saw that our financial struggle was connected to not really trusting God..

— At first, when in that particular area of our faith was stretching.. “Nope, don’t like that..”

— Your faith will lead you against the grain.. The call of discipleship, it leads you against the grain of culture..

— He will lead us AGAINST FAMILIAL IDOLS. Value systems that we grew up with. Addictions that were normative. All these things Jesus calls us into boldness to cut them down.

— Consider for a moment why the Jews were in this situation to begin with, when they pursued other idols they brought un-health and dysfunction into their lives..

— When we invite the Rule and Reign of God into our lives, we move forward into a place of victory..

3. flourishing Faith

a. curating your faith friends

— The rest of the story God uses him to weed down from 32,000 to a fighting force of 300 to overthrow thousands of Midianites.

— Judges 7:2 The LORD said to Gideon, “The people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel boast over me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’ 3 Now therefore proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, ‘Whoever is fearful and trembling, let him return home and hurry away from Mount Gilead.’ ” Then 22,000 of the people returned, and 10,000 remained.

— God was having anyone with little faith removed from the crew. He didn’t want people that didn’t trust God 100 percent on team..

— He was looking for people that didn’t trust their own strength.

— There would be no boasting in this engagement because of their numbers..

— So God curated the people that would go into the action..

— Then after the massive troop reduction, God says “The people are still too MANY”

— Judges 7:6 And the number of those who lapped, putting their hands to their mouths, was 300 men, but all the rest of the people knelt down to drink water. 7 And the LORD said to Gideon, “With the 300 men who lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hand, and let all the others go every man to his home.”

— So God reduced them even further to 300. Talk about going against the grain. This is flourishing faith. This is Gideon making on paper the worst kind of decision a military leader could possibly make..

— I wonder as a small application here, who’s your crew? It’s important who you are on team with!

— Is your crew speaking faith? Are they speaking trust in what God says? Or are they speaking fear? Are they telling you to trust in something else other than God?

— Are you curating the voices in your life? What are you listening to? The NEWS? FB? More than the Word of God? Sometimes we need to cut those voices that incite fear, we need voices that stimulate our faith!!

b. true champion

— 19 So Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the outskirts of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, when they had just set the watch. And they blew the trumpets and smashed the jars that were in their hands. 20 Then the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the jars. They held in their left hands the torches, and in their right hands the trumpets to blow. And they cried out, “A sword for the LORD and for Gideon!”

— So, here we have 300 men coming at night, with one hand on their trumpet, one hand on their jar.. Where’s their sword?

— This seems like a crazy strategy, but it seems with God’s direction Gideon was ahead of his time.. Hundreds of years later, Roman generals would speak about these exact kind of tactics to give shock and awe to throw the enemy into confusion..

— So, this jar with a light inside is telling. This to the whole essence of the story:

— 2 Cor. 4:7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.

— We are weak but He is strong, He chooses jars to use for His glory. Humans, when broken, they shine ever more strongly the light of Christ.

1 Cor. 1:26 For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. 30 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31 so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

— This story points to Jesus, the angel of the Lord is known as a theophany where Jesus shows up pre incarnation..

— when Jesus shows up, His Word, His Way His power, He comes to weakness and creates strength

— He comes to people in bondage and brings freedom!

— The light of the gospel has come today, because of the work on the cross

— He comes and lives in jars of clay..

— The addiction is broken by the power of Jesus, the power of the enemy overcome by Jesus,

— in our weakness, His strength made perfect!!

— COMMUNION

English Standard Version Chapter 11

23 For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

-- AS a matter of fact Jesus is the true champion in this story

-- Biblical scholars agree This "Angel of the Lord" is in fact Jesus Himself, or the theological term is "Theophany of Christ"

-- Not like the incarnation where He came in the flesh, but Christ who was and is and is to come!

-- When He comes and speaks His words bring us out of a corrective, cramped, and limited space. He makes champions out of cowards. He brings strength to the weak, and life to the dead!

-- Multiple times Gideon tested the source and the words being said, and each time Jesus proved Himself! HE AND HIS WORDS ARE TRUSTWORTHY

-- He will lead us AGAINST FAMILIAL IDOLS. Value systems that we grew up with. Addictions that were normative. All these things Jesus calls us into boldness to cut them down.

Matthew 10:34 “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.

-- He will lead us away from what seems culturally normal

-- I believe it is time to CHOP CHOP. I especially believe this season is a season for men to start coming out of their corrective, cramped caves and hear the Word of God. Become a champion. Jesus rose from the grave so we can too. -- --- We have the power of Christ living in us. It is time for us to no longer be cowards when it comes to our families