The God Who Chooses The Weak

Introduction

If you have a Bible I want to invite you to open to Judges chapter 6. This is giong to be part one of part two in walking through the journey of Gideon in the book of Judges. Today, I’m going to to talk to you about The God Who Chooses THe Weak…and you will see this theme in the text.

That God oftentimes chooses to use the person who gets chosen last.

Growing up in school, you do have folks that get picked last for teams. For whatever reason that might be. If you were like me, than you were one of the last usually, haha. Just cause I was no good at any sport in high school except spike ball. But, let’s not pity me today.

The connotation that goes with being picked last has to do with skills, strengths, ability. That being last means that you may not be as strong as someone else, fast as someone else, smart as someone else, the list goes on and on. And with that you can feel inadequate and that you don’t contribute anything really to the team, sport, or whatever it is.

But Here is the deal, God is in the business of using unlikely people to do extraordinary things for him.

You may be here today thinking things like, “I am insignificant. I’m just a normal Christian. I’m nothing to look at.” Well believe it or not, there are numerous people in the Old & New Testmaent that would agree with that YET God chose them. And one in particular that we are going to read about today. Gideon.

And what I want you to understand is that God uses the weak to do extraordinary things for him and that he is inviting folks like you and I to confidently follow his calling.

Let’s read in Judges 6.

Midian Oppresses Israel

6 The people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord gave them into the hand of Midian seven years. 2 And the hand of Midian overpowered Israel, and because of Midian the people of Israel made for themselves the dens that are in the mountains and the caves and the strongholds. 3 For whenever the Israelites planted crops, the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the East would come up against them. 4 They would encamp against them and devour the produce of the land, as far as Gaza, and leave no sustenance in Israel and no sheep or ox or donkey. 5 For they would come up with their livestock and their tents; they would come like locusts in number—both they and their camels could not be counted—so that they laid waste the land as they came in. 6 And Israel was brought very low because of Midian. And the people of Israel cried out for help to the Lord.

7 When the people of Israel cried out to the Lord on account of the Midianites, 8 the Lord sent a prophet to the people of Israel. And he said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: I led you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of slavery. 9 And I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out before you and gave you their land. 10 And I said to you, ‘I am the Lord your God; you shall not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell.’ But you have not obeyed my voice.”

Israel’s Need

So the nation of Israel in this passage has returned to doing what is evil in the eyes of God. This is a recurring pattern that we see with the nation (which in honesty is no too far off the church) where there tends to be a ebb and flow, a rhythm to following Yahweh. Seasons of faithfully following, seasons of intentional rebellion. In this passage, the nation of Israel is rebelling.

And because of their rebellion, God gave them over to the midainites for seven years. And God paints a picture of their desperate situation. There are making dwellings in mountains are all of their labors are essential in vain.

Where they work, and live, the Midianites come in and take away all the produce and livestock and it left the Israelites and in a place of pure disaster.

So what do they do? They cry out to God.

In verses 6-7, Because Israel was brought low, they cried out to help from the Lord.

Let me pause here for a moment. It is not unheard of for the Lord to bring his people low when they do not seek his face. The Lord disciplines those whom he loves (Hebrews 12:6). God was the one that gave them up to the Midianites. Was it because he hated them? No. Its because he positioned them in a place where they would see their need for him again.

Don’t be surprised in life when you are in a season of running from God, and he will use different circumstances in life to draw you back in. He will bring you low so that he would be made high again in your life.

Gideon’s Calling

So let’s keep reading and see what happens with a man named Gideon.

The Call of Gideon

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?” 15 And he said to him, “Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.” 16 And the Lord said to him, “But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man.

So i want you to notice something here. Gideon is beating wheat and hiding it in his winepress so that the Midianites do not know. This angel appears to him and says, “o man of might valor”. Giving him an affirmtation towards his character.

And he begins to question why all of these are happening and where is the Lord’s continual forsakeness of them. And in its in the midst of this that the Lord ask Gideon to save Israel.

And Gideon responds not shockingly back to his request. He says, “Lord how can I save Israel. My clean is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.”

He simply reaffirmed that there was no way. He was weak.

How you ever felt that way? God calls you to live for him but you feel like its impossible.

What do you feel weak in?

There are a myriad of weaknesses that we hold in our lives. And I just want to make the case that in comparision to the Lord, you and I are infinitely weaker. Right? But there are things in this life that continually show our weakness.

Our ability to sustain ourselves. Our ability to fight sin. Our willingness and committment to live in obedience, pray, live courageously for Jesus. We all have a common thread of this.

Why does God choose the weak?

God chooses the weak to display his strength.

It is precisely in our inadequacies that God uses those characteristics, those flaws, to soverignly display his glory and might.

Consider the word’s of Paul in 2nd Corinthians 12.

9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Paul is receiving the Word from the Lord and he says my power is made perfect in your weakness. So I KNOW that when I am weak, then I am strong. Not because of who I am but because of who God is.

Consider the continual theme that runs through leaders throughout the New Testament and the Lord still using them.

Moses, leading the nation of Israel but asked the Lord to use someone else to speak to Pharoah due to his speaking ability.

David, the youngest of his family, quickly noting that the Lord will deliver him in 1st Samuel 17.

45 Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46 This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand

Joseph who lie in prison after being sold in slavery, God was actually using this for good.

The list goes on and on, but God is in the business of choosing people in their deepest moments of weeknesss to display his strength. He affrims this in the next chapter of Judges (but that is in next’s weeks sermon), but he also affirms it throughout the counsel of God’s Word.

So let me tie it full circle. Whatever you feel like your weaknesses are, whether it be a dispotion to sin, a fear of man, whatever it may be… these are exactly the things that God uses to display his strength.

Sinful Addiction that you feel like can’t be conquered? You can’t do it on your own. But God can.

Fear of man? Someone you that you are terrified of? God will make your couragous.

And most notably from this passage...Has God asked you do to something but you feel like you are the wrong person for the job? Believe it or not, you exactly the kind of person that God is asking, but he chooses folks like you and I to do extraordinary things for him and through him.

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See, when you reconize your weekness, you are opening your arms to depend wholly on God and through that means his work is accomplished.

For example, yesterday, we moved into town and we were setting up all kinds of things and I struggle deeply with putting things toether if it doesn’t work perfectly on the first try. And I couldn’t get our crib together for Heidi.

So naturally I start pouting and throwing a fit because its not working exactly how I want to and the more I try to do it by myself the worse off I get. And so eventually I had to cave in and Lex comes in and she knocks out on the frist try while I hold it up and it makes me look ridculous. But she came in and helped and the work was finished.

See, this is how God has strucutred his calling to us. That Its in our weakness we call to him, and God comes in and moves.

There is no move of God where God is not called upon. There is a reason why in verse six in changes from Israel being brought low to them immediately calling for help. We need God. God wants to work in us.

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Now, how is it that God meets those needs and shows his working in us. Notice what he says in verse sixteen and its what I believe this passage hinges on.

God’s Response

He says in this moment to go, lead the poeple of Israel and save than from the hand of Midian. And he says “I will be with you.”

Understand something here: It is the presence of the Lord that makes you confident in your calling. When you are asked by God to do something, you boldly go ahead because you know that he is with you.

Well, that sounds a little too good to be true. How does that actually work?

Do you know what one of the scariest actions that you could do as a follower of Jesus? Its walking through church buildings at night. You wanna test your faith, walk through this building in the pitch dark.

What is a wonderful atmosphere on a Sunday gathering, bright, coffee brewing (in a perfect world, but fear not its coming back), turns into an eerie silence with moonlight coming in through colored stained glass. And its just different.

And one of the greatest challenges of pastoral ministry is more often than naught being the lock up guy for random things, and so I get that blessing of an opportunity. And so along the way I made the decision that I was no longer going to do it alone, but I’m going to walk through it with the most fearless guy I know, Justin Barnett.

When I go alone, I’m afraid. But when I’m with Justin and he’s telling me a story of someone or something, I feel better. I’m not alone and his presence helps me get through it. The reality is true infinitely more with the Lord being with us always, we don’t have to be timid, afraid, or worried.

Well does that really affect me?

Now here is the amazing thing...Watch this: “There is no such thing as a believer who is alone.” Because God is always with us.

This passage gives clarity and life to Psalm 23 and Matthew 28.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. Why? Because you are with me. And in Matthew 28, and behold I am with you always to the end of this age.

His presence, his withness, brings confidence to your calling.

So, whatever God asks you to do. You can go folks. You can share the Gospel with your co-worker. You can demonstrate hospitality to your neighbor. You can live sent lives. You can live generously. All of the areas we find our shortcomings in, we move forward because God is with us and in us.

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The reason he is always with us is because he is in us. Ephesians 1 tells us that when you are saved, you are sealed with the Holy Spirit. Meaning that you are now a temple of God, and his Spirit dwells in you. So when someone asks the question, how is God ALWAYS with me?

It’s not because he is hovering over your shoulder like the angel and demon from Tom and Jerry cartoons. Its because he actually lives inside.

Christ said in his final moments that when he ascends and that not soon long after the Holy Spirit would descend upon the people who believed. And the economy, the location of the Holy Spirit CHANGED. His spirit that was present in the tabernacle was now living inside believers.

Does he live in you today?

There is only one way to see this.

In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, 12 so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. 13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory. - Ephesians 1

Folks, if you do not believe in him today. The word of truth is that Jesus died for sinners. And he rose from the dead to conquer sin. And By believing in him, you are sealed, with a guarenttee on the inheritance of Jesus.

Trust in him.

So if someone were to ask me, would I rather boast in my strength or weakness? I believe we should boast in our weakness, so that his strength would be made known as he works through us.

Let’s pray.