Staying in God’s Will

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Transcript:

Well, if you would, turn with me in your Bibles to Judges chapter 6 tonight. Judges chapter 6. And we’re going to continue looking at the story of Gideon and how God called him and how God used him to free the people of Israel and to turn the hearts of the nation back toward God.

And just to recap where Gideon has come from, what brings us to this portion tonight. Gideon was not the strongest man in Israel. As a matter of fact, he was from kind of a backwater tribe, and his family was one of the weakest in his tribe, and he was one of the least important in his family.

And during a time when Israel was at one of its darkest moments, when they didn’t even have enough food to eat. It was bad enough that they were taken over by other countries, but we see that all throughout the Old Testament. There were times that they were taken over by other countries, Even in New Testament times, they were sort of run by the Romans.

But things weren’t usually this bad where the country that has taken over them says, yeah, by the way, you’re going to farm all year and then all the food you produce is going to go to us. So the Midianites left them with nothing to eat. And Israel’s at one of its weakest and darkest moments.

And God calls Gideon, who was acutely aware of his own shortcomings, calls him while he’s threshing wheat in a wine press, which is not the best place to do that, but it’s the place where he could do it and hide it from the Midianites so that he could just eke out a little bit of food for his family, just squeeze out a little bit of a living so that his family didn’t starve to death. This man who’s so beaten down by his circumstances and preoccupied with just surviving a little longer, God calls him and says, I want you to raise the defense of Israel. I want you to go and lead my people into battle.

I want you to be the one to restore the country from the Midianites. And all through it we see that Gideon’s response is sort of, who, me? And as I’ve said all through the last two messages on this topic, I think most of us can relate to that.

That God calls us to join the spiritual battle for his kingdom and against the principalities and powers of darkness in this world. And if you’re anything like me, you look at your own shortcomings and your own inadequacies and you look at all the other people around that you think God could use in a better way and you say, who, me? But God chooses to use the unqualified.

God doesn’t need anybody. You know what? God could present himself in such a way that everybody in the world would hear the gospel all at once.

He could do that, but he chooses to use us. God could have snapped his fingers and made all the Midianites fall dead and liberated Israel that way, but he chose to use Gideon. Because that way everybody sees the power of God at work.

Everybody sees that God has taken this insignificant man and has raised him up for this task. And we see Gideon as somebody who says, who me, but when it comes right down to it, he’s willing to be obedient to God. He’s willing to be obedient to God over everything else, as we saw last week.

God told him, go tear down the altar to Baal. Go get rid of the Asherah poles, the holy trees. Go get rid of your fathers, the bulls that he uses to sacrifice to those things. I want you to get rid of them and I want you to make a sacrifice to me.

And that’s exactly what Gideon did, even though he was afraid for his life. He went and tore down the altar. He used the stones to build an altar to the Lord.

He chopped down the holy trees and used them as firewood. and he took his father’s livestock and used them to make a sacrifice to the Lord. So Gideon is somebody who’s willing to be used of God, and Gideon is somebody who’s willing to be obedient.

Now, I tell you that because I’ve never quite known what to do with this story for years. The way I was taught and the way I was raised, looking for signs was not what you were supposed to do. I know that there are some strains of Christianity that they look for signs all the time, God, give me a sign of this.

God, give me a sign of that. I was taught, you know, Jesus criticized the Pharisees for looking for a sign. You know, they were always wanting a sign to validate his ministry.

Even though they’d seen all the miracles he’d done, they’d seen God’s word play out just as he said it would. They’d seen all these things to validate who he said he was, and yet there wasn’t enough belief there, enough faith there to believe that he was who he said he was. And so Jesus told the Pharisees, you know what, forget you.

The only sign you’re going to get is the sign of the prophet Jonah, which is a fancy way of saying that just like Jonah spent three days and nights in the belly of the well, so Jesus would spend three days and nights in the belly of the earth, in the tomb, in the grave. And then just like Jonah was spit up by the well, so death couldn’t hold Jesus Christ and he’d rise again. He said, that’s the only sign that you’re going to get.

And by the way, if the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is not enough to convince you to believe in Jesus Christ, there is no evidence that is going to convince you. You have made up your mind, you’ve closed your mind, and you’ve said, I’m not going to believe in Jesus Christ no matter what. There is no evidence that I, and that’s a pretty, you know, the world likes to say Christianity is closed-minded.

I’d say that’s a pretty closed-minded way to live your life. There is no evidence anywhere that could ever conceivably convince me that Jesus Christ, I don’t care what the evidence is, I will never believe. That’s basically where the Pharisees were, and so Jesus told them, shame on you, you’re wicked, you’re always looking for a sign, and you’ve ignored what God said.

And so with that, it’s been a struggle all these years to understand what to do with Gideon. Because the story we’re going to look at tonight takes Gideon just after he’s made this sacrifice, just after he’s torn down this pagan altar, and God has told him already, I’m going to use you in the defense of Israel. And then Gideon seeks a sign to validate that, but I think I’ve nailed down the difference here.

And if you haven’t already turned there, Judges chapter 6, we’re going to start in verse 33 tonight, where we left off last week. And it says in verse 33, Then all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the children of the east were gathered together and went over and pitched in the valley of Jezreel. And the valley of Jezreel, you see a lot of battles in biblical times at the valley of Jezreel.

And some sources say it’s also called Megiddo. that’s where they get the name Armageddon from that it’s this big valley that runs through runs kind of southeast to northwest through the northern third of Israel. So it’s kind of in the middle of the country and it goes from the middle of the country to the coast to the Mediterranean coast. So what he’s saying here is these children of the east these tribes from the east that have been oppressing them have come in with their armies and they’ve marched west into the middle of the country.

Now if you’re wondering why I’m giving you a geography lesson, it’s this. The point he’s making is that the armies of these pagan countries that want to destroy Israel are not just on the outside. They don’t just have their tax collectors in there and border skirmishes.

They have their armies right there in the heart of the country. They have pushed all the way through to the middle. Sort of like when World War II started.

It was one thing for the Germans to be on the edge of France out there by the Belgian border. There’s another thing when they finally reached Paris. You look at that and it’s sort of game over when they get to the middle of the country.

Well, for them, the Germans are in the middle of the country. The Midianites are there in the Jezreel Valley. And they’ve pitched in the Valley of Jezreel.

In other words, they’ve pitched their tents. They are there in the heart of the country and they’re staying. They are planning, I believe at this point, they are planning to, if not wipe out the nation of Israel, then they are planning to totally bring it under their control more than they already have.

Whatever their intent was, nothing good is going to come for Israel out of this. And the time has come for God to do something. And so verse 34 says, but the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon.

So God had already called Gideon for the purpose of raising this defense for the nation of Israel. and it says the Spirit of God came upon Gideon. It’s like God’s telling him now is the moment, now is the time.

And he blew a trumpet and Abiezer was gathered after him. And he sent messengers throughout all Manasseh who also gathered after him. And he sent messengers unto Asher and unto Zebulun and unto Naphtali and they came to meet him.

So he sends messengers out to all these northern tribes and says we’ve got to go now. But as these messengers are going, Gideon stops to make sure. Stops to make sure.

And I’ve looked at this, again, as I said for years, and thought, God has already called you. God has already called you to lead the defense of Israel. Why are you now saying, God, I just want to make sure?

And the more I’ve looked at this, I really believe it was Gideon saying, I want to make sure that you’re saying now. Because it says in verse 34 that the Spirit of the Lord came upon him. The Spirit of God moved him.

He felt the Spirit leading him to say, this is now. And so he starts with the preparations, but even at that, Gideon says, I want to make sure. I want to make sure I’m understanding this correctly.

So Gideon said unto God, verse 36, If thou wilt save Israel by my hand as thou hast set, behold, I will put a fleece of wool in the floor, and if the dew be on the fleece only, and it be dry upon all the earth beside, Then shall I know that thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said. And it was so. For he rose up early on the morrow and thrust the fleece together and wringed the dew out of the fleece and a bowl full of water.

So what Gideon says is, God, send me a sign. Show me that I’m really understanding this, that this really is your plan. He said, I’m going to put a fleece, a piece of sheep’s wool.

I’m going to put it out there overnight, and in the morning, let it be wet with dew, and let the ground around it be dry. Now, if you have any experience, as I do many, many times, of leaving your car windows down overnight, you realize that when it rains or dews, there is no containing it. You know, the rain, the dew, the wetness of the morning, it doesn’t get up to where the edge of your car door is and say, oh, I’m not supposed to go in there.

No, no, you come and try to get in your truck the next morning and everything’s wet. Okay? If it’s wet outside, it’s going to be wet on that upholstery.

It doesn’t observe clear limits here and say, well, we’re only going to go in the fleece and not on the ground. It doesn’t work that way. It normally, that’s not a normal thing to have happen.

So Gideon is asking God to show him a sign with something that you just don’t see every day. And he said, God, if you really want me to do this, if this is really your plan, if this your will, then let the fleece be wet and the ground be dry. And so Gideon leaves the fleece out and the next morning he gets up, the ground is dry, and he goes and he rings out the fleece over a bowl and he gets a whole bowl full of water.

So God gave him the sign he asked for. But because Gideon’s human, and just like me, I want to make sure, God, is this really what you want? I mean, you’ve given me enough evidence already, but let me make sure, he says in verse 39 and Gideon said unto God let not thine anger be hot against me and I will speak but this once Gideon says to God please please please please don’t be angry with me okay and I think God understands our frailty he says God please don’t be angry with me he says just indulge me this one more time this is the last time I’m going to ask I’m not going to ask again but I’ve got to make sure please don’t be angry with me but let me prove I pray thee but this once with the fleece just case I was wrong, show me one more time.

Because I probably, I don’t know that this is what’s going through Gideon’s mind, but I would probably think to myself, why did I ask for that sign? Somebody could have come and coincidentally dropped a cup of water or something on the fleece and nothing else. You know, that’s how my mind would work.

Why did I ask God for such an obvious, such an easy sign? Never mind what a coincidence that would be if God allowed somebody to come by and drop water on But you know, whatever was going through Gideon’s mind, I’ve got to make sure. Because ultimately Gideon realizes God is calling him to do something huge that Gideon is not equipped to do.

I would think if I got a call asking me to lead American forces into battle in, I don’t know, Iran, Russia, whoever we’re mad at at the moment, North Korea, I would want to make very sure that God, you know, that not only the president had not gone insane, but that God was really telling me to go do this, because I have absolutely no qualifications to lead anybody into invading another country. Okay, I have no military training whatsoever. I know that’s shocking to y’all.

So Gideon says, I just have to make sure. Let it now be dry only upon the fleece, and all the ground let there be dew. So he says let the reverse be the case.

And again, the dew of the morning, all that moisture that we find in the morning, it does not observe boundaries. So you set that fleece out there, the dew isn’t going to say, oh, we only belong on the ground, not in the fleece, not in the carpet, not in whatever fabric you put out there. No, everything is going to be wet.

So he says let the ground be wet with dew, but let the fleece be dry. Because ultimately that’s not something somebody could fake. That’s going to be more impressive.

And verse 40 says, And God did so that night, for it was dry upon the fleece only, and there was dew on all the ground. So he got up the next morning, and he sees that the ground is all soaking wet, and that fleece is as dry as it can be. Now again, I’ve always wondered, why Gideon got away with this?

Because it seems so opposite of everything I was taught to believe or do. And it does look at first glance like it goes against some of the other things we’re taught in Scripture. Quit looking after a sign.

In the New Testament, Jesus, I already said, the Pharisees, he told the people even, quit looking after a sign. Just obey God. Just do what you’ve been told.

Quit looking for signs and just obey what you already know. But Gideon here was allowed to look for a sign. And as I said, the more I’ve studied this, I’ve come to the conclusion, Gideon was not doubting God here.

Gideon is doubting his own understanding. Gideon’s already shown that he received God’s call. Gideon’s already shown that he’s willing to obey God’s call.

Gideon is saying here, is it now? Is it this? As I felt this pressing from the Spirit to say, now, now we’re going to go deal with these guys who are in the Jezreel Valley.

I want to make sure that I’m understanding this is what you’re calling me to do. Gideon wanted to make sure that he was in the center of God’s will. That’s the basic important thing for us to understand here, is that Gideon wanted to make sure that he was in the center of God’s will.

As believers, if we’re to do anything, we need to make sure that we are in the center of God’s will. If we’re not, we’re only going to accomplish what we can do, which is not very much. God’s will is the best place for us.

Now, I heard growing up many times that the safest place for us is the center of God’s will. The center of God’s will is the safest place for you. And I never really questioned it all that much.

I get what they’re saying. But then you think about the early Christians who were slaughtered for their faith. You think about people today who are losing their lives and their freedom and their families for their faith.

Are they out of the center of God’s will? We’ve got to be real careful with that, because that’s a kind of a name it, claim it, prosperity theology thing. That, hey, if you’re in the center of God’s will, he’ll take care of you and you’ll never have any problems. That’s not what the Bible teaches.

And I first started to think about this when I was in college. We’d send people out from our church on summer mission trips and send them to work with our missionaries, different high school and college students. I went to the war-torn land of Quebec.

No, actually, I loved Quebec. I keep telling Charla when we retire, we’re going to go someplace colder and we’re going to retire to Quebec if I ever decide I want to retire. I went there, but a friend of mine was going to the Philippines, and they were just starting to have the rumblings of the al-Qaeda-related groups in the Philippines.

It was a couple years after the Abu Sayyaf kidnapped that missionary couple from Kansas, and eventually killed the man and released the woman. And as we’d gone up on Sunday night at the end of the service and laid hands on her, commissioning her to go to the Philippines for two or three weeks, our pastor was talking about it and said, the center of God’s will is not always the safest place for you. And I got to thinking about those missionaries who were in the Philippines at that moment and got kidnapped.

I mean, they were there doing what God told them to do. But he said this, and I believe this to be true. The center of God’s will may not be the safest place for you, but it’s the best place for you.

It may not be the safest place. In other words, you may have troubles. Actually, we’re virtually guaranteed to have troubles.

Jesus said so. You’re going to have trials. You may be put in jeopardy.

And you know what? Sometimes obeying God, we may not come out of it alive, but it’s the best place for us. How can you possibly say someplace you may not come out of alive is the best place for you?

Because obedience is always best. We are supposed to look at things from a different perspective. God’s people are not supposed to be bound by an earthly perspective. To say that my only goal here, my only aim, is to do what works out best for me.

Now see, we realize, as was talked about in the 5 o’clock class, you can’t take it with you. Any of the stuff you accumulate, you can’t take it with you. Most of the stuff we do on earth is not going to, I mean, it’s all going to burn up anyway one of these days.

There’s a very small window of what we focus on, a very small slice of what we focus on that actually matters in eternity. And when you start taking that narrow piece that really matters in eternity and you broaden it to where that’s the bulk of your focus, you look at things a little different. And when you start prioritizing the kingdom and say, yes, it may be unsafe for me to go there, but it benefits the kingdom.

Yes, it may hurt me to go there. It may be uncomfortable to do that, but it benefits the kingdom. When you start looking at that, when you flip that earthly perspective on its head, start to see things completely differently.

And we can say that God’s will, the center of God’s will may not be the safest place, but it’s the best place for us. And especially as Gideon’s about to go do battle against the Midianites for his country and for his God, he needed to know that he was in the center of God’s will. And Gideon, to my knowledge, didn’t have a promise.

Unless I’ve missed it, I need to reread it. But to my knowledge, didn’t have a promise that he was going to come back in one piece. but God said he was going to use him to set Israel free.

And when you look at it from God’s perspective, Gideon being in the center of God’s will and going to do battle against the Midianites, he could have gotten hurt or even killed. But Gideon’s saying, is this where I need to be to accomplish what you’ve given me to do? Is this what’s right for your calling?

Is this what’s right for your kingdom? Which at that time was the nation of Israel. And so he says in verse 37, that he put a fleece of wool on the floor.

and he asked God for a sign, then I’ll know that you will save Israel by my hand as you’ve said. Not questioning that God had called him to save Israel, but questioning, is God going to use me now? Is this the time to act?

Is this the battle to go into? Let me know if this is the time that you’re going to save Israel by my hand. Because it’s not good for us to step outside of the center of God’s will.

I’ve written in my notes, it’s dangerous to step outside of God’s will, but we just talked about that. That’s not exactly the case. I’ll put it this way.

It’s dangerous to the mission to step outside of God’s will. And sometimes we can do that when we go beyond what God’s will says. God says, I want you to do this.

And I say, oh, okay, and the next step. It’s like I tell my children, go wash up for supper. Or no, I’ll tell them, go clean your toys up.

Go clean your toys up. This is when we’re getting supper ready. And next thing I know, my kids have their hands washed and they’re sitting there at the table.

dinner’s not for another 30 minutes I just had something else for you to do see all I’ve done is tell them clean your toys up and they think from that I’m supposed to get ready for dinner no you’ve gone beyond what I told you to do and it’s not ready I had something else I needed you to work on we do that too God says do this and then we want to go 15 steps ahead of what or beyond what God said and it can be dangerous to the mission we can go before you don’t want to get outside of God’s timing either I get God knows I feel this way I might as well say it I hate it When I know that God’s saying this is what needs to happen, but wait. Wait for what? But God’s timing and my timing are not the same thing.

Sometimes I know that God’s calling for something, and I think it’s right now. Before I came here, I was at Lindsay, and I felt like God was telling me my time was running out there, that he was getting ready to move me on. I said, okay, and I started thinking like I’m out of here next week, that God’s going to call me somewhere else next week.

It was another year. And in that time, I’m thinking, but God, you told me. And I’m trying to push for somewhere else.

I’m trying to go here. I’m trying to go there. Not because I didn’t love Lindsay, but because I knew God was telling me you’re supposed to go someplace else.

And it was another year before y’all called me here. And I hate to think what would have happened if I’d pushed a little harder to leave there earlier. Because I’m like, God says, but yeah, God said, but I was getting outside of God’s timing.

You don’t want to go beyond what God says, and you don’t want to go before God says. Stay in the center of God’s will if you want to accomplish the mission. All right, moving on.

I could camp out on point number one all night. Something else I learned from Gideon is that there’s a difference between questioning God and asking God a question. There’s a big difference between questioning God and asking God a question.

I don’t mind hearing, how do the birds fly? I do mind hearing, how do you know that? Conversations I have with children.

One is saying, I would like to know. and the other saying, I’m not sure you know or I demand to know what you know. Can I stay up late is fine.

Why can’t I stay up late is not fine. There’s a difference and God reacts to them differently. Asking God a question, God may not always answer it.

Sometimes the answer may be you don’t need to know right now. So I should say sometimes God doesn’t always provide the answer we want but God tends to provide a gentle answer in the scriptures when we see somebody ask him a question. On the other hand, somebody questioning God doesn’t work out too well.

I always think of Job on this. God, how could you let this happen? God, why did this, why?

And then we see chapter after chapter of God saying, Job, where were you? Where were you when I created the universe? Where were you when I set the earth in motion?

Where were you when I made the seas and told them how far they could go? And I’ve always imagined, you know, Job starts out firing his angry question at God, and God begins to question him while Job’s trying to get a word in edgewise. Well, before Job can even try to answer that one, God says, well, where were you then?

Before long, Job just gives up and realizes. And we see at the end of the book of Job. Spoiler alert for you if you’ve not read it.

Job comes to the realization that he doesn’t know as much as God. And he can demand an answer from God all he wants, but God doesn’t owe him an explanation for anything. God doesn’t owe him a sign.

and Job finally says yes you’re right you are the one who created all this you’re the one who set all this in motion I can’t even imagine that I know as much as you do and the lesson for us there is we should trust God that he knows what he’s doing even if we don’t understand it God knows what he’s doing Gideon here is not questioning God it would be a totally different story if Gideon was saying God just exactly how do you think you’re going to accomplish a defeat of the Midianites with me and these other guys that are with me How does that work, God? That would be questioning God. But instead we see in verse 39 how Gideon comes to God so humbly.

He says, let not thine anger be hot against me. In other words, he’s saying, please God, don’t be mad at me. Gideon realizes he may be on the edge of overstepping his bounds here and he acknowledges it and he’s contrived about it.

There’s a difference between questioning God and asking God a question and the difference is the difference between arrogance and humility. It’s okay. I really believe it’s okay for us to come to God and say, I don’t understand.

Can you help me understand this? It’s a totally different situation entirely for us to come to God and say, you owe me an explanation. If you learn nothing else from tonight, take this home with you.

God doesn’t owe you anything except things you don’t want to have. God owes me death, separation, and eternity in hell. That’s what God owes me.

I don’t want any of that. So I don’t want to talk about what God owes me. But I firmly believe, as I look in the Scriptures, when people come to God with honest, humble questions, He may not give us the answer that we want, but I see God is okay with that.

He even tells us in the book of James, if any man lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives liberally and upbraideth not. Upbraiding means, the way I would say it today, is going to tear you up. And if I had come to my daddy with that attitude, I’m not doing what you say until you tell me why.

My daddy would have torn me up. He probably still would today. I may be 30 years old, but my dad’s a marathon runner, so what I know from that is he can outrun me.

He can catch me. He would tear me up. But to come to God with an honest question and a humble heart, we have the promise of God’s word that he’s not going to tear us up for asking.

So Gideon went, he didn’t question God. He asked God a question. And the reason why it was so important to ask God this question and make sure that he was at the center of God’s will is because he knew that the task he’d been called to was something only God could accomplish.

And we’re going to see that over the next couple of weeks, that it was very clearly something only God could accomplish. But already, even with what we know now, that God has called somebody out of the wine press, threshed wheat, and said, you’re going to raise the defense of Israel. The fact that Gideon is the kind of man who says, who me, tells us he recognized that, okay, if you want to use me for this, I know I’m just the tool here.

I’m not the one doing it. This is something only God can do. Because even as he’s asking the question in verse 36, he says, if thou wilt save Israel by my hand.

So he fully acknowledges, yeah, you’re going to use me, but let me know if this is what you have in mind. Let me know if this is what you plan to do. So he recognized that the defeat of the Midianites, the rescuing of Israel, really was ultimately something only God could do.

Why do you want to make sure you’re in the center of God’s will? Because God’s called us to do things that only He can do. Or better said, God’s called us to participate in things that only He can do.

God has called us and chooses to use us as His tools to accomplish His purposes. Now, if the hammer is going to go try to drive in some nails and build a house, you better make sure the arm is going to be there to swing it. And if we’re going to go and accomplish the things that God’s called us to do, if we’re going to go and do battle for the kingdom, if we’re going to stand for right and wrong, if we’re going to preach the gospel, if we’re going to try to make disciples of others, if we’re going to.

. . All the things that God’s called us to do as we serve Him in this wicked world, all these things that God’s called us to do require His power to do them.

We better make sure that instead of us going somewhere and saying, okay, God, this is where I’m working, show up. God didn’t work for us. It’s better we find out where God’s working and where God wants us and we show up there and wait for Him to do what only He can do.

That’s why it’s so important for Gideon to say, God, is it now? God, is this what you had in mind? This specific thing where the ball seems to be rolling, is this what you had in mind?

Because if this wasn’t what God had in mind, it wasn’t going to work. If this was not the time that God intended to use Gideon to defeat the Midianites, it wasn’t going to work. When we step into the battle, it doesn’t work without God.

The mission is not accomplished, cannot be accomplished without God. And so we need to make sure that we stay in the center of God’s will. And sometimes that means just stopping and checking.

Sometimes by reading the scripture, sometimes by prayer, sometimes through just the unction of the Holy Spirit, we stop and check, is this what God wants me to do before we forge too far ahead, get too far ahead of ourselves, too far ahead of God’s will, and throw the whole mission into jeopardy.

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