U-Turn Week 3- Calling> Doubts

Big Idea: Your doubts don’t disqualify you from God’s calling.

Primary Scripture: Judges 6:11-16, 7:1-25

Supporting Scripture: Isaiah 41:10

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CAPTURE (Why should students pay attention to and care about your message?)

· Have you ever had the feeling that “everyone belongs here except me”?

· Did you know that when Simone Biles was growing up in foster care, she was told that she was too small for gymnastics?

· Or that Michael Jordan got cut from his high school basketball team?

· Or that Lin Manuel Miranda was told that Broadway audiences would never connect with hip hop?

· This tension—the struggle between self-doubt and stepping into something bigger—is exactly what we’re exploring in the third week of our U-Turn series.

· We’ll see from this week’s story from the Book of Judges—having doubts doesn’t mean that God is done with you.

· This week, we’ll meet Gideon, one of Israel’s judges.

· God chose Gideon not because he had it all figured out, but because God's strength shows up most powerfully in our weakness.

SCRIPTURE (What does God’s Word say?)

· For 18 years, Israel has been under the thumb of the Midianites who would wait until Israel had done all the work of growing crops, then swoop in and steal everything right before harvest.

· The Israelites were left with nothing, forced to hide in caves and mountains just to survive.

· Gideon was hiding in a hole in the ground, just trying to survive.

· He's secretly threshing wheat at the bottom of a winepress so the Midianites won't see him.

11 Then the angel of the Lord came and sat beneath the great tree at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash of the clan of Abiezer. Gideon son of Joash was threshing wheat at the bottom of a winepress to hide the grain from the Midianites. 12 The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, “Mighty hero, the Lord is with you!” (Judges 6:11-12 – NLT)

· Gideon was frustrated, confused, and basically told God, “If You're really with us, where have You been this whole time!?”

· That level of honesty just shows that Gideon wasn’t the kind of person who was just going to fake it or say the right things.

14 Then the Lord turned to him and said, “Go with the strength you have, and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I am sending you!” 15 “But Lord,” Gideon replied, “How can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest in the whole tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least in my entire family!” 16 The Lord said to him, “I will be with you. And you will destroy the Midianites as if you were fighting against one man.” (Judges 6:14-16 – NLT)

· God stops the back and forth with one line that changes everything – I will be with you.

Now, let’s go back in time for a minute to Moses.

Moses is talking to God and says this:

Exodus 33:18–19 “Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.” And the Lord said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.”

"Goodness" means Yahweh or "I am"

God spoke his name "I am" to Moses, and he promised Gideon that "I am" is with you. 

Moses, like Gideon was hesitant to follow God's calling and didn't feel like he was good enough. 

But God reminds them both that the great “I AM” is with them.

God is ALWAYS enough to get the job done THROUGH us.

When He calls, He promises His presence will go with us.

· Gideon finally says yes and starts assembling an army.

· He gets 32,000 men together but then God does something completely unexpected. He starts downsizing.

· God tells anyone who's scared to go home, and 22,000 guys leave.

· God takes one look at the 10,000 remaining soldiers and tells Gideon, “Yeah… that’s still too many!”

· God comes up with what might be the most bizarre military recruitment test in history: a water-drinking exam.

· He tells Gideon to take all his soldiers down to a stream and watch how they drink. The ones who get down on their knees and drink directly from the stream? Send them home. The ones who cup water in their hands and lap it up like dogs? Those are the soldiers we’re gonna keep.

7 The Lord told Gideon, “With these 300 men I will rescue you and give you victory over the Midianites. Send all the others home.” (Judges 7:7 – NLT)

· Think of it this way: if a school bus holds 50 people, Gideon went from needing 640 buses to just 6.

· God wanted it crystal clear that any victory wouldn't be from military strategy—it would be from Him.

· God tells Gideon to sneak over to the enemy camp and listen to what the enemy is saying.

· Gideon overhears a Midianite soldier telling his buddy about a dream where a loaf of barley bread rolled into their camp and knocked over a tent.

· The other Midianite soldier says, “That can only mean one thing—God has given Gideon victory over us!”

· Even the enemy knew what was coming.

· Gideon went back and prepared for battle.

· First, he divided his 300 men into three groups and gave each soldier a ram's horn and a clay jar with a torch inside. No swords, just noise makers and fire.

· At midnight, they surround the enemy camp, and on Gideon's signal, they blow the horns, smash the jars, wave the torches, and shout, “A sword for the LORD and for Gideon!”

· The Midianites woke up in total chaos, thinking they were surrounded by a massive army, and since they didn’t know what was going on, they just started fighting each other in the darkness.

· The 300 didn’t even need to lift a single weapon. The panic was so intense that the enemy started fighting themselves.

· Gideon sends his men to chase down the ones who fled and finish the job, and victory was won.

· God used Gideon, someone who was full of fear and doubt, to lead an army into a battle they never could have won on their own.

· That kind of victory only makes sense when God is the One making it happen.

INSIGHTS (What might this Scripture mean?)

1. God sees beyond our fear.

· Your fear doesn't define you in God's eyes. God sees past that fear to who you really are and who you're becoming.

· God sees the influence you don't even realize you have.

10 Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand. (Isaiah 41:10 – NLT)

· God looks beyond our fear and says, "I see who you really are, and I'm with you."

· God wasn't describing how Gideon felt—He was declaring who Gideon was, even when Gideon couldn't see it himself.

-Your true identity isn’t found in anything this world has to offer. Your identity is found in CHRIST. Seek His face if you really want to know who you truly are and what your purpose is in this world.

2. God shows His strength in our weakness.

· Your weaknesses don’t disqualify you; they make more space for God to show up.

· God often uses the least likely people in the least likely moments to do the most powerful things—so the credit goes to Him, not us.

3. Our doubts don’t stop God.

· God doesn’t expect you to have all the answers, He just wants you to take the next step of faith.

· God is bigger than our uncertainty. He keeps moving His plan forward, even when we're still figuring things out.

ACTION (How could we live this out?)

1. Believe what God says about you.

You may see yourself as weak, but God calls you chosen.

At times, you may feel invisible. God calls you seen.

You may feel like you’re nothing special. God calls you His masterpiece.

· This week, pick one verse that reminds you who you are in God’s eyes.

· A good one to start with is Ephesians 2:10.

10 For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. (Ephesians 2:10 – NLT)

· Write it on a sticky note and put it somewhere you can't avoid seeing it—your mirror, your car, your phone lockscreen, wherever works for you.

· Each time you read it, ask yourself, “Do I believe this is true about me?” And let God’s truth speak louder than your self-doubt.

· Over time, as you keep reminding yourself of what God says about you, you’ll notice His voice becoming louder than your doubt.

2. Rely on God, not just your own abilities.

· This week, when you face something that feels overwhelming, pause and pray this simple prayer:

“God, I know that I need you. Please help me to trust you in this situation.”

· Then take one step forward.

· God shows up when you lean on Him, not just yourself.

3. Turn your questions and doubts into prayers.

· This week, every time a doubt or question pops into your head, make it your goal to immediately turn it into a prayer.

· God wants your honesty, not a performance.

· When you bring your doubts to God instead of keeping them to yourself, you're not carrying them alone anymore.

*Prayer*