Purpose in a Dreary Place

Intro:

Church here we are again with another virtual service. This so unprecedented that I cannot remember a time other than biblical history in which the church physical doors was closed so long. Even though things are a little better we are still in dangerous times. With almost 55,000 confirmed deaths from Covid-19, another 36,000 that have been lost or not confirmed, and almost a 1 million confirmed cases in America yeah we are not out of the woods yet. The truth of the matter is that we are in a dreary place, fighting and invisible enemy, and dealing with a capitalistic country. All fo these enemies are dangerous and real. This disease has hit us in places that we didn’t even know existed. We have been hit physically with sick bodies in hospitals and quarantined homes. We have been hit mentally dealing with death and quarantined separation where people like extroverted self are almost crazy because of separation. We have been hit spiritually by not being able to come and worship together in our normal edifaces, and dealing with a disoriented amount of death without the full honor of life celebration. Yes we have been hit. I do want to encourage you this morning! Just because you have been hit America, Tennessee, and in our local communities does not mean we are out. We serve a God who will not only rebound you, but God will make your better out of a bitter situation! Sometimes we have to understand that what God allows, God has plans for it to bless you and give Him Glory! So, don’t get down because you are in a dreary place, but be encouraged because God can hear you when you call on his name. I am reminded in a season like this that the prayers of the righteous avails much. In other words cry out to God and God will hear you and God will answer you! Tell somebody next to you to keep calling on HIM, because God is about to shift this for your good!

Called Out:

Here in the text I want to recognize a few things and then I will get out of your way. The first thing I want you to recognize is where is He? Gideon the name means hacker or hewer is threshing wheat in a wine press? So Gideon is performing a task in what is seemingly the wrong place. The reason Gideon is in a wine press instead of a the wheat threshing floor is because Israel had sinned before God. Israel disobeyed God when God told them do not have dealings with the gods lower case g of the Amorites for I am the Lord thy God. So they began to worship the gods of those in whom God has gave them victory over. Can I pause right here? So many times I talk to and watch people who turn themselves over to a losing diety. How many times are you going to follow after people who are losing? Drugs, sex, fame, popularity, coolness, and man made rewards will always corrode. How many times will we say it won’t happen to me? How many times are we going to lose sons and daughters at the hands of drugs and gang violence? How many times are we going to fall children for what God has told us to stay away from. How many baby daddy’s do we have to have? How many baby momma’s do we have to have. How long will we allow our disobedience to cause us to be broke, busted, and disgusted? God is saying I told you not to touch that! God is saying I told you not to hand around with them! God told you not to go over there, but your lust for what someone else has consumed you and caused you to lose what God gave you! God issued a seven year sentence on the children of Israel due to their idolatrous ways, and I may say that’s what we are dealing with right now. We have worshipped money and economy more that the God who gave it to us. Gideon is threshing wheat in a wine press, because he was in captivity! Every time anyone would thresh wheat on hill like normal the Midianites and the Amalekites would come and steal it. So Gideon is hiding in a dreary place where there is no wine in the wine press. Can I repeat it he’s in a dreary place!

The next thing we need to take note of is that the angel of the Lord showed up. Some of y’all missed your shout, because you have been praying and calling on God! You have been asking God to show up, and here God shows up! Which lets me know that God will show up when you call on him! Watch the text now. Don’t miss this. When the angel shows up the angel calls him a man of valor. Now here is Gideon threshing wheat in the wrong place because he is hiding, but the angel sitting under the Terebinth or Oak tree chilling calls him a mighty man of valor. I want to encourage some of you today that God has already named you even though you are not living out your title right now. God called him who he was going to be, because sometimes we forget who we belong to. See parents we need to put this into practice. Can I testify a little. A pastor who is a prophetic friend of mine came to this very church and said to me and my wife that our son was the son of promise. My wife went home and purchased a small erase board and wrote promise on it and put it over his bed. Now let me inform some of you that as soon as the devil heard and read that he began to attack. My son doesn’t always act like what he was prophesied to be, but can I remind you of something Life and Death is in the tongue. So when my son begins to act like something that does not line up with the prophecy I call him by his prophetic name. Why because I am giving life to the name that God has called him, and some of you are discouraged because your life has not lined up with your prophesied title. Can I encourage you this morning although you are in a dreary place that has not changed what God has purposed in your life. Sometimes God will use the dreary place to stir up that calling, that gift, that name, that blessing, that opportunity, that next in your life! When God shows up he will rename you to the purpose he has called you. I dare you take a moment and rename your children, rename your wife, rename your husband, rename your job, and rename your church. It is no longer what is was when God shows it becomes what God has purposed it! Call them great, call them wonderful, call them mighty, call them beautiful, call them OUT!!

Our Response:

Sometimes our predicament taints our testimony. Gideon’s response is OK if I am this mighty man of valor why am I hiding? If God is with me why are we in captivity. How can I do these things, because I am from the least tribe with the least amount of money and political power? See he thought because he was from the split tribe of Manessah and Ephraim that he was of the least, but He forgot that his tribe came from Joseph the great overcomer of the Hebrew people. Sometimes life will cause us to forget what God has put in us! In his veins flowed the blood of one of the great patriarchs and children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob which means the blood of the promise flowed through him. Sometimes we forget who we are because of what we are going through, and we question the one who can bring us out. Let us not forget it was not God’s will that they were in this predicament in the first place it was there sin that caused it! Some of the dreary places we are in is not anyone’s fault but our own. Some things we chose, but God tried to tell us and we did not listen. So we begin to blame others for our own demise, but instead of blaming let us own where we are and let God move us forward. I am not negated that outside forces, people, and/or circumstances did not contribute to your dreary place, but I am saying that blaming does not solve anything. Call on the one who can change everything with one word!

Close:

All I am saying is watch the text now is that Sin separated you and placed you in dreary place where you are completing tasks not assigned to the place where you are. After you blame God, blame your name, blame your situation, and disregard who is speaking to you. God will still call you by a new name that doesn’t match up with your current situation! In other words God is pruning you for your purpose. If you are laid off just maybe God has something better. If you are furloughed just maybe God has a better plan for your life. If you are in a dreary place just maybe God is about to change your name. When I read the text I am reminded of the fact that sometimes God uses the most precarious things to get us to our purpose. Can I give you the purpose it’s right here in verse 16, “And the Lord said to him, “Surely I will be with you, and you shall [e]defeat the Midianites as one man.” Not meaning by yourself but with people who have the same mind as you. I come to remind you that your dreary place is about to drive you to the people and purpose that God is calling you to. So instead of blaming and complaining some of you need to start PRAISING!