What’s your story today? What’s your story for 2017?
Many of us have had great opportunity this year to overcome or to be overcome.
The tendency of most humans is to, at one time or another, ‘get stuck’ – to get into a rut. To settle into a place of being passive, to be absorbed, to be carried away by life.
In other words: ‘not challenging life’ but instead allowing our lives to be dictated and controlled by the outward circumstances and inward emotions that come to all of us.
Today my goal is this: I want to stir us up.
2 Peter 1:12-14
12 For this reason I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things, though you know and are established in the present truth. 13 Yes, I think it is right, as long as I am in this tent, to stir you up by reminding you, 14 knowing that shortly I must put off my tent, just as our Lord Jesus Christ showed me.
Foundation Scriptures: Let’s encourage and challenge ourselves with the scriptures
I Cor. 15:57-58
Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.
II Cor. 2:14
Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place.
I John 5:4-5
For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world – our faith. Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
Our victory is tied to what we believe about Jesus Christ.
Overcome: nikao – mightiest prevail
Conqueror – hupernikao: to gain a surpassing victory/we are pre-eminently victorious
- of God – over darkness
- of Christ – over death, hell and the grave – the power of sin
- of His followers
- of Faith
The Bible is filled with stories of men and women who overcame great opposition – one of my favorites is the story of Gideon:
Change, Growth, Overcoming can happen. ‘The story your living today doesn’t have to be the story you live tomorrow.’
Big Thought: Just ‘One Word’ from God has the power to change our lives.
Gideon: We find the story of Gideon during the period of Judges.
Why is Judges so important?
The time of the judges brought about great apostasy in Israel. ‘Apostasy in Christianity is the rejection of Christianity by someone who formerly was a Christian. The term apostasy comes from the Greek word apostasia ("ἀποστασία") meaning defection, departure, revolt or rebellion. It has been described as "a willful falling away from, or rebellion against, Christianity.’
The nation underwent political and religious turmoil as the people tried to possess those parts of the land that had not yet been fully conquered. The tribes fought among themselves, as well, nearly wiping out the tribes of Manasseh (Judges 12) and Benjamin (20–21). The pattern of behavior in the book of Judges is clear: the people rebelled through idolatry and disbelief, God brought judgment through foreign oppression, God raised up a deliverer—or judge, and the people repented and turned back to God. When the people fell back into sin, the cycle started over again.
Ironically, in this book we meet many heroes of faith: Gideon, Samson, Deborah, Jephthah, Ehud . . . flawed individuals who answered God’s call to deliver the Israelites in sometimes dramatic form. The book includes many of the most graphic, violent, and disturbing scenes in all Scripture—some in the name of righteousness, others in the name of evil.
What's the big idea?
As Exodus established, Israel was God’s people—He was their King. They had forsaken the covenant established at Mount Sinai. In Judges, He disciplined them for following other gods, disobeying His sacrificial laws, engaging in blatant immorality, and descending into anarchy at times. Yet because they were His people, He listened to their cries for mercy and raised up leaders to deliver them.
The story of Gideon: during the time of Gideon the children of Israel were stuck in a nasty pattern: over and over again the word says:
- The children of Israel complained
- The children of Israel murmured against
- The children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord
- The children of Israel did not believe
Judges 6:1-16 NKJV
1 Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord. So the Lord delivered them into the hand of Midian for seven years, 2 and the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel. Because of the Midianites, the children of Israel made for themselves the dens, the caves, and the strongholds which are in the mountains. 3 So it was, whenever Israel had sown, Midianites would come up; also Amalekites and the people of the East would come up against them. 4 Then they would encamp against them and destroy the produce of the earth as far as Gaza, and leave no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep nor ox nor donkey. 5 For they would come up with their livestock and their tents, coming in as numerous as locusts; both they and their camels were without number; and they would enter the land to destroy it. 6 So Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites, and the children of Israel cried out to the Lord.
7 And it came to pass, when the children of Israel cried out to the Lord because of the Midianites, 8 that the Lord sent a prophet to the children of Israel, who said to them, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘I brought you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of bondage; 9 and I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out before you and gave you their land. 10 Also I said to you, “I am the Lord your God; do not fear the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell.” But you have not obeyed My voice.’”
What is the significance of this for us as N.T. believers? 1 Cor. 10:6-11
Judges 6:11-12 11 Now the Angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth tree which was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon threshed wheat in the winepress, in order to hide it from the Midianites.
It is possible that appearances of the angel of the Lord were manifestations of Jesus before His incarnation. Jesus declared Himself to be existent “before Abraham” (John 8:58), so it is logical that He would be active and manifest in the world. Whatever the case, whether the angel of the Lord was a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ (Christophany) or an appearance of God the Father (theophany), it is highly likely that the phrase “the angel of the Lord” usually identifies a physical appearance of God.
Notice that the Angel of the Lord came and sat down. He walked right into Gideon’s stuff. He is with us. To HELP us. To bring us UP.
Gideon is hiding. Threshing wheat normally takes place in a large, open space. The thresher tosses the grain in the air, letting the wind blow away the chaff. The picture of Gideon threshing out the wheat in a small, enclosed winepress conveys his fear of the Midianites.
Gideon is full of fear. Hunger. Desperation.
What do people do when they’re afraid? They do things they’re not supposed to do. Like thresh wheat in a winepress. Winepresses are for crushing grapes. Threshing floors are for threshing wheat. But Gideon is so afraid, he’s doing things he’s not supposed to do.
God never wanted it to be this way. Gideon is not supposed to be afraid of the Midianites; he and his people are supposed to drive them out. But his fear has taken hold of him. Maybe you can relate to that.
Are there things in your life that have taken hold of you, things that God never intended for you to be connected to or afraid of? If so, then I think you’ll relate to Gideon.
If anybody else were to walk up to Gideon in this moment, they’d see a scared little man trying not to draw attention to himself. Yet, the angel of the Lord addresses Gideon with a different title: “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior,” (6:12).
When others look at Gideon they see a fearful man, trembling in the winepress. But God….
12 And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, The Lord is with you, you might man of valor (fearless courage) vs. 13 And Gideon said to him, O sir (But God), if the Lord is with us, why is all this befallen us? And where are all His wondrous works of which our fathers told 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.
- What’s Gideon’s reply? But God!!?? Why…..
- Gideon didn’t talk like a mighty man of valor
- Gideon didn’t think like a mighty man of valor
- Gideon didn’t act like a mighty man of valor
- Gideon didn’t look like a mighty man of valor
What’s is the Lord’s response to Gideon?
Example: Have you ever been in a conversation with someone who was dead wrong in what was being said? You turn your head, your body language; maybe shake your head – no! - I can see the Lord doing this with Gideon….
vs. 14 The Lord turned to him and said, Go in this your might, and you shall save Israel from the hand of Midian, Have I not sent you?
- The Lord once again – points back to what He said in vs. 12 the Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor…
vs. 15 Gideon said to Him, Oh Lord, (But God!!!) how can I deliever Israel? Behold, my clan is the poorest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.
Once again – Gideon points back to His circumstances: I don’t have any money / I’m the youngest in my family – my older brothers would do better
- Again, the Lord points back to what’s said in vs. 12 the Lord is with you, might man of valor!!!
vs. 16 And the Lord said to Him, Surely, I will be with you, and you shall defeat the Midanites as on man.
Remember Gideon: What did God say about Him? The Lord is with you, mighty man of valor – Gideon got it – and God used He and 300 men to deliver Israel….
God told Gideon – the Lord is with you, mighty man of valor….What does God say to us today about who we are?
2 Cor. 5:17 If any man be in Christ…..a new creation…
Isn’t it interesting that Paul told Timothy – therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God that is in you….
It’s our tendency to forget what kind of man or woman we really are….Remember….
The def. of insanity? To expect my life, circumstances and condition to change without doing anything differently…..
Example: remember the name: the man who was hiking and climbing through a canyon? As he was negotiating over and around a rock – His arm got stuck? What did He do? I can either die here or I can do something and get out of here – He choose to do something instead of staying stuck and dying….
Jesus has done everything we need to get us unstuck – we don’t have to die stuck!!!!
“We don’t have to Live stuck.”
May I encourage the believer in Jesus today….
We come to Him believing that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
Put on the garment of praise for the spirit of Heaviness.
Matt. 11:28-31 Come unto me all you who labor and are heavy laden and find REST
Psalm 100:1Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands!
2 Serve the Lord with gladness;
Come before His presence with singing.
3 Know that the Lord, He is God;
It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves;[a]
We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.
4 Enter into His gates with thanksgiving,
And into His courts with praise.
Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.
5 For the Lord is good;
His mercy is everlasting,
And His truth endures to all generations.
No comments:
Post a Comment