God Can Use You

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Transcript:

We’re going to be in Judges chapter 6 this evening. Judges chapter 6. The way the Bible talks about our service to God and talks about our lives of faith, it sometimes uses the symbolism of a battle.

Paul said that he had fought the good fight, that he had, as he was approaching the end of his life, he talks about his life as a battle and talks about how he’d fought the good fight. He told Timothy, I believe it was, I should have looked this up beforehand, but he told either Timothy or Titus to endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. All throughout the New Testament, we’re given this imagery of the life of faith as being a battle. And we’re given the same picture even more clearly, I think, in the Old Testament, as well as we look at these examples of great men and women of faith who many of them were engaged in not just spiritual battles but literal battles as well.

Now that can be problematic for some of us because when we think about doing battle, we tend to think of our own military as Americans. I know that’s where my mind goes. And I think about the U.

S. military and these guys are some of the best trained warriors on the face of the earth. They know what they’re doing.

The special forces, I’ve watched documentaries about them, and my goodness, they could come in here and kill me and not even bat an eye about it. Probably before I knew what hit me. I mean, these guys are well-trained, elite warriors.

They have worked for years. They’re at the top of their physical and mental preparation before they go into battle. And when you think about our spiritual life as a battle, when you think about it in those terms, if your mind immediately goes to these incredibly prepared elite warriors, then it’s hard to imagine how we could measure up and do battle.

Because most of us, I don’t care how spiritual you are, most of us look at ourselves and we realize our shortcomings, and you probably look at yourself and think, there’s no way, if God’s looking for elite warriors in his army, there’s no way he’s picking me. I feel that way often. Some of you may have the same feeling.

There’s no way God is picking me to be one of the elite warriors in his army. And yet we are called on to engage in this Christian life that is like a battle. And not a battle against people around us.

Not a battle against flesh and blood. The Bible tells us that we do not war with flesh and blood, but with principalities and powers and spiritual wickedness in high places. Our battle is not.

. . I heard a pastor say at one time that if it bleeds, it’s not your enemy.

So I want to clarify that right now. When I say we do battle, we are not like radical Islam where we go out and we slaughter the infidel. When I say we as Christians do battle, I’m talking about the spiritual battle with our own flesh and with the powers of darkness around us.

That we are fighting a spiritual battle to build the kingdom of God. And you probably are like me thinking, well, I’m sure God could find better people to use than me. And it’s with that thought that I want over the next few Sunday nights to look at the life of Gideon.

Because Gideon, at the end of his life, is somebody who’s recognized as just an incredible warrior. But he’s somebody who didn’t start out that way and certainly didn’t start out feeling that way. He started out feeling exactly that sentiment that I’ve described.

God, you can find much better people to use than I can. You can find much better people to use than me. And so I think Gideon is a great example.

Now, he’s somebody who was engaged in a literal physical battle, but we can’t ignore the fact that there was a spiritual component in it. And so even though it’s not an exact comparison, because we’re not going to go out and slaughter Midianites tonight, I think. I don’t know if there are Midianites as an ethnic group around anymore, but we’re not going to be called on to go out and slaughter the Midianites.

Probably not going to be called to go out and do physical battle against anyone. But the principles still are there and still apply, as Gideon provides us with an example of somebody that shows that God can use us. And tonight, that’s what I hope you take from this, is that God can use you in His service.

God can use you to do battle for His cause. God can use you to advance his kingdom through this spiritual battle. As we battle against the flesh that wars within us, as we battle against spiritual wickedness around us, as we battle against the powers of darkness that want to drag our friends and loved ones into hell.

And we’ve been put here to do battle against that. Not battle against our friends and loved ones, but to fight back and to try to give everybody around us an opportunity to hear about Jesus Christ and respond. And so we’re going to look at Judges chapter 6.

We’re going to start in verse 11. If you have time later on, I would encourage you sometime tonight or sometime this week to go read the beginning of chapter 6. I’m not going to read the first 10 verses to you tonight.

It’s back story. It’s important, but I don’t figure you want to be here all night. And you know I would take all night to explain them.

So just a brief overview of the first ten verses. Basically the Israelites ran from God as they tended to do. They rejected God.

They rejected his word and his wisdom. And as the book of Judges says so many times, every man did what was right in his own eyes. So the Israelites basically took an anything goes attitude.

Do whatever you want. Do whatever feels good kind of attitude. And it led their hearts away from God.

They rejected him. And as a result, God stepped in and said, that’s fine. You don’t want to do things my way.

You don’t want to keep the covenant. Because their covenant with God was that he would be their God. He would be their protector.

And they would be his people. But they would keep his commands. And God doesn’t look at them and say, fine, I’m done with you for good.

But God’s response to this is, okay, you don’t want to keep the covenant. Let’s see what life is like outside the covenant. Kind of like when you tell your child, okay, well, if you don’t want to live under this roof, Go pack your bags and see how difficult life can be.

You’re not really, I mean, seven, eight, nine-year-old, you’re not really kicking them out to the street, but you’re getting them to think about, here’s what life would be like under this roof, or not under this roof. God says, all right, let’s see what life is like outside the covenant. And so God didn’t hurt the Israelites.

I mean, God didn’t do anything to them. God didn’t really even send the Midianites. All God did was say, okay, my hand of protection that’s been holding back the monsters, here we are.

And then the Midianites did what they would have done anyway, what they wanted to do anyway. The Midianites came in, and they took over Israel. They took over parts of Israel.

They oppressed the people. They enslaved the people to an extent because they were having to, the Israelites were having to provide them with food. And in many cases, the Midianites left them with nothing to eat.

And it was just a very dark time in Israel. And so when Gideon comes on the scene, it’s a time in Israel when not only is there this dark cloud of the wicked Midianites, the false god-worshipping Midianites, hanging over Israel, but even his own people have not walked with God. Even his own people, by and large, have rejected God.

But it’s when enough of them got together and said, okay, God, we’re sorry, we want to do what you want, that God would always raise up a judge. And that’s what he did with Gideon. So we go to verse 11.

During this dark time in Israel, it says in verse 11, And there came an angel of the Lord and sat under an oak tree, which was in Ophrah, that pertained unto Joash the Abiezrite, and his son Gideon threshed wheat by the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. Okay, so it’s explaining to us where he was found. This is not a fairy tale.

This is not a made-up story. This is something the Jews would have understood to be talking about something that really happened to a guy who really lived in a place that really existed. Okay?

Gives us all the dates, not dates, the names and the places. So Gideon is here threshing wheat in a wine press, or by a wine press, and what they would do to thresh wheat is they would toss it in the air, and hopefully the idea there is that the grains of wheat fall back down because they’re a little heavier, and the chaff or the grass, the weeds, whatever, gets blown away. You would throw this, And a lot of times, my understanding is that they would stand up in a high place where there would be a breeze.

But instead, Gideon is down here in the low place. He’s down by a wine press doing this to hide. I’m not sure how effective it was, but Gideon is down there trying to do whatever he can to feed his family.

And so when the angel of the Lord steps into this story, when God sends his angel to call Gideon, Gideon is just a little nobody guy down there in the valley trying to do all he can just to take care of his family, just to get by and survive a little longer. He doesn’t have dreams of glory. He doesn’t have visions of battle in his mind.

He’s just doing all that he can to get by. And I think a lot of times we feel the same way. God, I don’t have these visions of grandeur and this plan of how I can expand your kingdom.

I’m not the one you would call. I’m just down here trying to get through the next day. And God looks at us and says, I can use you anyway.

Those are the people, too, that God likes to use. You look all through the Bible at the people that God calls and uses, and it’s not always the people that we would pick. So he’s down there by the wine press.

He’s hiding from the Midianites, threshing wheat. And it says in verse 12, And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him and said unto him, The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valor. Now I’ve always pictured this as Gideon down there threshing the wheat and the angel shows up and says, The Lord is with you, mighty man of valor.

In other words, you great warrior, God has strengthened you. And if I’m Gideon, I’m looking around saying, Who, me? Is there somebody else here that you’re talking to?

I don’t know if you realize that I’m a farmer and I’m hiding. This doesn’t scream courage in battle. He’s down there hiding and threshing his wheat.

Yet the angel of the Lord says this to him because God saw Gideon’s potential. God saw the potential to use Gideon. And the potential wasn’t there because Gideon had something great inside him, but the potential was there because God looked at him and said, this is a man who will be willing to be used. And that’s the secret a lot of times, is that God typically uses those who are willing.

Now we look all throughout the Old Testament and all throughout history, and we see where God used people like Nebuchadnezzar, by and large a wicked king. God used him in ways that he didn’t even realize he was being used. And what the Greeks did and what the Romans did and the Persians as they’re fighting these battles and empires are moving in and moving out and borders are changing, it was all part of God’s plan.

So God can use people even if they’re not willing. But there’s something special about the nobody who’s willing to be used by God. So verse 13 says, And Gideon said unto him, O my Lord, If the Lord be with us, why then has all this befallen us?

Now, I don’t take this as Gideon doubting God’s word, because at this point we have no recollection that the angel has identified himself as the angel of the Lord. Now, when we think of the word angel, we think of the creature with wings and a halo. And there is, you know, the Bible does speak to God having created what the Bible calls cherubim, those things that were flying around God’s throne in Isaiah chapter 6.

It does talk about the winged creatures in the book of Revelation. It does talk about Gabriel. God has created angels as we understand them, but the word angel really comes from the word messenger.

That’s why it’s also used, the word angel is used to denote the, maybe the pastor in the book of Revelation, is my understanding of it, and I think that’s what Brother Terry’s been teaching as well. Y’all didn’t know I was the angel of the church. did you?

Well that’s a sobering thought. The word angel means a messenger. So I’m not saying that it’s not a cherubim but an angel of the Lord is really not identifying just that it’s this creature but that it’s a messenger that God has sent.

And so it might be the winged creature but it might not have the wings on right now. Because sometimes the angel of the Lord shows up and people don’t realize he’s an angel, they think he’s a person. In the book of Genesis, when the angels went to Sodom to warn Lot, Lot and the people of Sodom all thought that they were just regular men.

So he shows up and he says, you mighty man of valor, the Lord is with you. I don’t take it as, and Gideon says, hey, if God was really with us, then why has all this happened to us? I don’t take it as Gideon doubting God’s word there.

I take it as Gideon doubting the word of some stranger who’s just shown up by his wine press and says, God’s with you, you mighty man of valor. And Gideon’s probably thinking, what are you on? I’m down here by this wine press.

You’re saying God’s with me. Look around at what’s happening to us. And it makes sense.

Because sometimes we can look at all the chaos that feels like it’s constantly about to break loose in America and think, is God’s hand of protection and blessing really on America right now? It’s hard to imagine, but then I think about how much worse it could be. And I can still see God’s providence.

But in verse 13, he says, O my Lord, if the Lord be with us, why then has all this befallen us? Why has all this happened to us? And where be all his miracles, which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?

But now the Lord hath forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites. So he says, you say God’s with us, but then why are we in this situation? Now, that’s not necessarily a challenge either.

That’s not necessarily sitting around and saying, shame on God for letting this happen. Gideon probably understood, the people of Israel were supposed to understand, that the struggles that they were going through were because they had abandoned God. So my understanding of the question is not shame on God, how can God really let this happen?

My understanding of the question is to say, how can you say that God is still with us, that God is still protecting us, that God is still leading us, when we’re under his punishment, when we’re under his discipline. He’s basically asking this stranger that’s wandered in, don’t you see what’s going on here? Don’t you see where we are?

And what this shows me is that Gideon is a man who feels beaten down by his circumstances. Gideon’s a man who feels beaten down by his circumstances. And think about what they are.

His circumstances are that there’s this foreign occupying army that’s come in and taken over his country. And it was open season on anybody who served the God of Israel. On top of that, it’s not even like Israel was united against the Midianites.

Israel had brought this on itself by rejecting God. So anybody that stood for God, anybody who wanted to serve God, faced opposition not only from these foreign invaders, but from his own people. And we’ll see that in the next couple weeks, the strength of that opposition that he would face.

They were starving. They were in hiding. It was a horrible, dark time in Israel’s history.

And it would be hard to live in a time like that and not feel beaten down by your circumstances. It would be hard to be in a situation where you’re worried about, am I going to be able to feed my children today? Am I going to even be able to make it through this next day?

Or is somebody going to come and slaughter me? What’s going to happen? When you’re in fear for your life and your children’s lives, it would be hard to be in a circumstance like that and still have wonderful dreams in your mind about doing battle for the kingdom.

And sometimes you can feel beaten down by your circumstances just like Gideon. God, I know you’ve told us to do battle. I know you’ve told us to advance your kingdom.

I know you’ve told us that the picture that’s painted for us is that the kingdom moves forward and we’re always on the offensive, that the gates of hell will not prevail against the church and there’s no such thing as defeat. We just move on to the next victory. But God, it doesn’t feel like that because I’m in circumstances X, Y, and Z.

and those circumstances that beat us down can be different for different people. It can be concerned about your finances. It can be concerned about your family.

It can be concerned about any number of things. You know the things you worry about better than I do. But there have been times in my life where I couldn’t see past the next six hours.

Forget thinking about doing battle for the kingdom of God. I’m so beaten down by circumstances I didn’t even want to get out of bed. And you’ve probably been there.

And if you haven’t been there, you probably will be at the same point. Gideon was a man beaten down by circumstances. And not only is he pointing out and saying, look at where we are.

Look at the circumstances we’re in. But in that same verse, in verse 16, he says, And where be all his miracles which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt? But now the Lord hath forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.

And again, he’s not saying that he thinks God was wrong to do that. He’s just saying, Here’s where we are. God’s power is far from us.

Because he looks at the miracles that God had done for Israel and in Israel and through Israel, and there’s a long list at how God had preserved them and protected them. And he looks back at it and says, God led us out of Egypt. God led us through the wilderness.

God did this. God did that. There are several places in the Bible where somebody just starts making a list of all the things that God did for Israel.

And you look at how God had protected Israel, and sometimes miraculously so, in the past. And Gideon knew those stories. But he looks at it and he says, now he’s not doing that. Right now, I’m not seeing the miracles.

Right now, I’m not seeing the Red Sea parted. We’re here dealing with these Midianites. I’m not seeing the Red Sea parted.

I’m not seeing the pillar of cloud and fire leading us. I’m not seeing the plagues turning back the Egyptians. I’m not seeing God orchestrating the kidnapping of Joseph so he could spare Israel from a famine.

I’m not seeing God providing the ram to Abraham so that Isaac wouldn’t have to be sacrificed. You go through Israel’s history and see God’s provision and all these miracles that he did. And Gideon says, I’m not seeing that.

Gideon was in a place where it felt like God’s power was far from him. You ever been in that place in your life where you felt like God’s power was far from you? God, I read about all these miracles in the Bible.

I read about your power. Sometimes I even hear other people now talking about the amazing things you’re doing in their lives, and I just don’t ever see it. I don’t feel it.

Sometimes we don’t see God at work even though He is. And I thought of this years ago. It seems fitting tonight as Texas is being battered by a hurricane.

Remember those people in your prayers, by the way. But I thought of this example years ago that when you’re standing in the eye of the hurricane, when you’re standing in the storm, in the middle of the storm, and you look out and all around you, all you see is storm, then it looks like the whole world is the storm. That’s all there is.

When you’re outside of the storm, when you’re not looking at storm all the way around, when you step back from God’s perspective, I’m sure you’ve seen the videos, the animation where they’ll show the hurricane map on the globe. Well, from God’s perspective, outside the storm, the storm is tiny. When you’re in the middle and all you’re looking at is the storm, it looks huge.

And sometimes our eyes are so focused on the storm that we’re in that that’s all we see, and it looks like the whole world is a storm. And when we’re that focused on the storm, we can’t see God at work outside the storm, even though He is. And it’ll look like God’s not doing anything in my life.

It’ll feel like God’s not doing anything in my life. It’ll feel like the power of God is far from us. But if you think to one of the verses from the book of Acts that I talked about in the Lake of Charlottesville, the Bible says that he created all man from one blood.

I’m paraphrasing a little bit. That he created all man from one blood so that we would inhabit the earth and he would draw the limits of our habitation that we might seek him though he is not far from anyone else. God is always close by.

I talked about that passage in the context of us all being made from one blood but the end of that is very important as well God is not far from any one of us and sometimes it feels like God is not at work in our lives maybe you have been or maybe you are right now in a place in your life where it feels like how can I do battle for the kingdom how can I do anything for God it feels like God is a million miles away no, God is not a million miles away God may feel a million miles away and our feelings will lie to us our feelings will deceive us God is at work even if we don’t even if we don’t recognize it even if we don’t see it happen God is at work and God was at work in this circumstance as well I mean we have the benefit of hindsight realizing this is an angel of the Lord that God has sent to Gideon to call him up to do something so clearly God is at work but Gideon’s in a place right now where all he can see is the storm and it feels like God is far from him.

Maybe you’ve been there, maybe you are there now. It feels like God’s power is far from you. That doesn’t mean that he is far from you.

Verse 14, And the Lord looked upon him and said, Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have not I sent thee? So God at this point speaks and says, Go, go in your strength and power, which for Gideon was not that much.

He was just supposed to take what little strength and power he had, and God would provide what he needed. Go in your strength and power, and you’ll save Israel from the hand of the Midianites, because I’ve sent you. Gideon on his own couldn’t save anybody from anybody.

As I’ve mentioned a few times, Gideon was down there hiding by the wine press. But God says, you go and you will save Israel. You will succeed.

You will be victorious, because I’ve sent you. And he said unto him, O my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? He doesn’t laugh at God and say, no, that’s not possible, you’re crazy.

He looks at God and says, how? He’s struggling to understand how God could use him. Wherewith, that word wherewith is a fancy older English way of saying how.

Wherewith shall I save Israel? My family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house. Manasseh, if memory serves, is one of the tribes that was under the thumb of the Midianites.

And he says, in the tribe of Manasseh, my family is one of the poorest in the whole tribe. And in my family, I’m the least one there is. Now, I don’t know if that means the shortest, if that means the runt of the litter.

I don’t know if that means the poorest. But in whatever capacity he’s thinking, he is the least in his father’s house. So in this weakened tribe of Manasseh, he’s from the weakest family, and he’s the weakest link in that family. He’s saying, God, how am I going to save Israel?

Folks, Gideon felt like he had nothing to offer God. Gideon felt like he had nothing to offer God. And really, the truth is, here’s the truth, he didn’t.

And you may feel like, well, I have nothing to offer God. And you don’t. That preacher’s so mean, he said, I had nothing to offer God.

I don’t either. I’m a sinner. I’m weak.

I deal with the same struggles and heartaches that y’all do. the same fears and doubts and circumstances beating me down. Folks, we’re in this together.

So if I say you have nothing to offer God, I’m right in there with you. With one finger pointing at you, they’re three pointing back at me. I have nothing to offer God either.

None of us do. You realize God doesn’t need any of us to do battle for him. God desires us to step into the battle, and it’s him who does battle for us.

The only thing that we have that makes us useful to God is our willingness. Gideon had nothing to offer God you have nothing to offer God I have nothing to offer God in light of what God has God possesses all the power and all the might all the strength all the wisdom he could ever need he could accomplish his purposes with or without us we’re irrelevant he chooses to use us even though he doesn’t need to he chooses to use us for our benefit not for his and our willingness is really the only thing that matters now he can still use you even if you’re not willing it uses you in a totally different way. We have a privilege of being part of God’s work that he would choose to use us if we’re willing.

And so verse 16, we’re going to go through these next few verses fairly quickly. He’s come to the point where he started out feeling beaten down by his circumstances. He felt like God’s power was far from him.

He realized he had nothing to offer God. He felt like he had nothing to offer God. Well, God chose to use him anyway.

Verse 16 said, And the Lord said unto him, surely I will be with thee and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man. God how am I going to save Israel because I’m going with you? With the power of God he said you’re going to deal with the Midianites like the whole stinking Midianite army is just one guy.

And I’ve said for years that one person plus God is a majority. Well really the truth is God is a majority himself. God calls the shots whether or not one of us gets on board or not.

But with God going with him with God doing battle for him of God behind him. He said, Gideon, you’re going to deal with the whole Midianite army like they’re just one guy. This is not even going to be a challenge.

Verse 17, and he said unto him, if now I, this is Gideon speaking, if now I have found grace in my sight, then show me a sign that thou talkest with me. Gideon was always asking for signs, and we’ll talk about that some more in the coming weeks. Show me a sign that you’re talking with me.

Show me a sign. Gideon, I think here, is saying, am I dreaming this? God, show me a sign that you’re really talking to me.

Depart not hence, I pray thee, until I come unto thee, and bring forth my present, and set it before thee. And he said, I will tarry until thou come again. So Gideon says, stay here until I come back with my offering.

And God said, I’ll be right here. Verse 19 says, and Gideon went in and made ready a kid, and unleavened cakes of an ephah of flour, the flesh he put in a basket, and he put the broth in a pot. and brought it unto him under the oak and presented it.

So Gideon has taken a baby goat, he’s put the meat in a basket, put the broth from cooking it in a pot, he’s brought a basket of these unleavened cakes, and he’s brought it and put it under the oak to present it to God. And the angel of God said unto him, Take the flesh and the unleavened cakes, and lay them upon this rock and pour out the broth, and he did so. So he’s taking this rock and making it into his altar, making this offering.

And the angel of the Lord put forth the end of the staff that was in his hand and touched the flesh and the unleavened cakes, and there rose up fire out of the rock. Folks, fire shot out of that rock and consumed the flesh and the unleavened cakes. After he’s already poured out the broth around it.

It’s kind of like Elijah. Even the water couldn’t stop the fire of God. Then the angel of the Lord departed out of his sight.

And when Gideon perceived that he was an angel of the Lord, Gideon said, Alas, O Lord God, for because I have seen an angel of the Lord face to face. And the Lord said unto him, Peace be unto thee, fear not, thou shalt not die. So Gideon realized here it was a sign from God that God really was calling him.

When the angel touched the rock with the staff and the fire came out. Because that doesn’t happen every day. It was a sign from God.

Gideon realized God really was calling him. Verse 24, then Gideon built an altar there unto the Lord and called it Jehovah Shalom, which means God is my peace. Unto this day it is yet in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

So in case anybody in their time was thinking, well, this is just a made-up story. They said, by the way, the altar’s still there. You can go see it.

It’s over there in Ophrah. So the point of this is to look at all the things that Gideon felt. All the things where Gideon fell short.

And I don’t know about you, but I see myself in a lot of his concerns. I see all the reasons why I can’t do anything for God. I see all the reasons why God should pick somebody other than me.

to serve him. And yet God called him anyway. And there’s a very important truth at the center of this story that God is glorified by using the unqualified.

God is glorified by using the unqualified. Well, God wouldn’t want to use me because I’m unqualified. No, no, that’s how God is glorified in the situation.

We’ll see in a few weeks how God looks at Gideon and says, your army’s too big. If you go defeat the Midianites with this big army, everybody will say, Look how tough Israel is. You need to get rid of some of these guys.

So when you go in and you beat them with such a little contingent of men, everybody will say, look at what God did. And if God used the powerful, if God used the rich, if God used the smart, if God used the good looking, if God took these people that we ooh and aah over in the celebrity magazines and God used them to reach people and God used the powerful to turn people to Him, if God used the wealthy to finance his missions program, if God used people who seemed from a human standpoint to have something to offer, then everybody would look at that and say, well, look at what they did. Look at how well Bil

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