Fleeces, Fear, and Faithfulness | Sunday, March 17, 2024

Amen, amen. Thank you very much, Anthony. Good morning! Or maybe I should say, top of the morning to you all. You can have a seat. Welcome to Cross Connection Church. We're so glad that you are here on this St. Patrick's Day morning. I tried to wear something green; it's not quite like Irish green. It's more like California San Diego green. You know, it fits here.

I've been to Ireland several times, and the green in Ireland is real green. What we have here, this time of year when we get a little bit of green, is kind of brown but with a slight tint of green. That's what my jacket is this morning.

We are so glad that you are here with us. This morning, we are not going to actually be talking about St. Patrick's Day; we are going to be talking about the Book of Judges. If you have your Bible, you can open up to the seventh book of the Bible, the Book of Judges. If you don't have a Bible, you can raise your hand, and one of our ushers will bring you one. If you don't own a Bible, then you can keep that as a gift this morning.

If you've been with us over the last several weeks, we have been in this very fascinating book, the seventh book of the Bible, and I'm calling this series "Dumpster Fire." That's why there's fire on the screen behind me. It is a dumpster fire because, in this fascinating book, the people of Israel during this time in their history are just going from one dumpster fire to the next.

The storyline of the Book of Judges revolves around a statement that shows up seven times in the book, where we read these words: "The children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord." Those words come up at the beginning of seven cycles that happen in the storyline of this time in Israel's history. This happened about 3,300 years ago. The Book of Judges took place during that period of time, and it was at that time that the children of Israel found themselves drifting away from God and being unfaithful to Him. They began to drift towards idolatry and immorality.

Just as God had warned them through Moses in the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy, He said that if you will be obedient to God's word and keep His statutes and commandments, then you will reap the blessings of obedience. But if you depart and go towards idols and drift towards immorality, then you will reap the consequences of your sin. You will reap the consequences, which are a curse.

So here in the Book of Judges, we see that every single time the children of Israel had a good and godly leader, they would follow the Lord.

The leader would die, and when that leader died, the children of Israel would do evil in the sight of the Lord. They would begin to bow down to and serve the gods or idols of the people who lived around them. As a result, they would drift towards immorality and slide into a time of distress. Many times, the nations around them would oppress them, conquer them, and the children of Israel would find themselves in that place of oppression, experiencing the consequences of their sin. In the midst of that, they would cry out to God.

Because God, as He is revealed in the Scriptures, both in the Old Testament and the New, is gracious and merciful, He would hear their cry. He would raise up another judge, another leader, who would come and deliver them from their enemies, leading them back towards righteousness to repent and follow the Lord faithfully for the time that judge lived. However, when that judge died, we read those words seven times in the book: "And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord."

So far, as we've been going through this book, we have been introduced to a number of the different godly leaders that God used. One was named Othniel, and then there was an individual named Ehud. There was also a very brief mention of a judge named Shamgar. We didn't spend much time talking about him, but we did discuss Deborah and Barak. Last week, in chapter 6, we were introduced to one of the greats of the judges, one of the standouts, you might even call him the greatest of all time—Gideon. He is a standout among the judges of Israel throughout their history, and even into the time of the New Testament.

In the New Testament book of Hebrews, when the author is writing about those individuals in times past who had great faith in God, he mentions Gideon first among the judges. In Hebrews 11, we read, "And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon, and Barak, and Samson, and Jephthah, but also David and Samuel and the prophets." These great individuals of faith, through faith, subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, and escaped the edge of the sword. Out of weakness, they were made strong. I think that's one of the things we are going to see about Gideon this morning: out of weakness, they were made strong.

Strong, they became valiant in battle; they turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Certainly, Gideon was in mind when the author of Hebrews wrote these words: women received their dead raised to life again. Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection.

Gideon is the first of the four judges that the author of the Book of Hebrews mentions in what we refer to as the Hall of Faith. He was one of the greats. However, if you were with us last week, you might remember that though he is marked out as this great judge of Israel, he was someone who wrestled with fear. He was definitely marked by hesitancy and reluctance.

I don't know about you, but I can relate to Gideon. There have certainly been times in my life, over the last couple of decades—25 years, really—of seeking, following, and serving the Lord, where I too have been a little bit fearful, hesitant, or reluctant. I think that probably many of us experience what we see in Gideon in this passage. Many of us can relate to that hesitancy.

I am so grateful that God inspired the author who recorded these stories in the Book of Judges to include not only the highs and victories of individuals like Gideon but also the lows. The reality is that though we may experience high highs and victories, there are many times when we go through pretty low valleys and experience the lows of life.

One of the indications that this is God-inspired scripture is that the individuals who are considered the heroes of the faith in the Old Testament are presented to us warts and all. There is a well-known Jewish historian who lived in the second century A.D. named Josephus, who recorded what is called the History of the Jews. This history follows very closely to the Old Testament scriptures, and he also discusses some other things that are not in the Old Testament.

What is interesting about the historian Josephus is that he has a way of glossing over the lows of the histories of the nation of Israel, or at least trying to spin it, as if their lows are actually their highs. He is very patriotic in that sense. However, the scriptures, like the Book of Judges, show the weaknesses of individuals like Gideon as well. I am so grateful for that because what we discover when we go through stories like these in the Book of Judges is that many times the people that...

God chooses to use regular people with normal fears and failings. They are people like you and me; they are not awesome superhero saints or extraordinary powerhouses. Although God uses them many times to accomplish great feats, they are still just regular individuals with fears, failings, hesitancies, and reluctances. Many of the individuals that God chooses to use in the great stories of Scripture and throughout history are often fearful and ordinary.

It is such a blessing to me that God reveals this in the pages of Scripture. He chooses to use those who are nothing, the weak, and sometimes the despised. He chooses to use the defective, dejected, and rejected. Maybe you feel just like that this morning, and that means that God can choose you and me to accomplish great things for His kingdom.

Now, why does God do this? I have shared it a number of times over the last few weeks. An answer to that is given to us in the New Testament book of 1 Corinthians, chapter 1. Paul writes these words in 1 Corinthians 1:27-29: "God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise. God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame those things which are mighty. And the base things of the world, the things which are despised, God has chosen, and the things which are not to bring to nothing the things that are."

Why? Verse 29 tells us that no flesh would glory in His presence. You see, God chooses to use the weak and the despised, the base and the foolish, because it is often through those individuals that He is most glorified. When He uses them for great things, like we will see in the story of Gideon in this passage today, His strength is made perfect in our weakness.

There is no way for the weak, feeble, and foolish to say, "Look what I did." In reality, when you are used by the Lord and realize that you are very small in comparison to the great task He has set before you, you say, "All glory goes to God." That is the way it ought to be. The chief end of man is to glorify God. God wants to glorify Himself in and through your life and my life as well.

God wants to use us in similar ways that He used Gideon 3,300 years ago. He desires to use us. God has purposes and plans that involve us. The problem is that most often, when we see the purpose and plan before us, we have an inkling or a sense that God wants to use us in that thing. We tend to see that task as being way too big and ourselves as being way too small to accomplish whatever it is that lies before us.

This leads to point number one this morning: sometimes I need a little bit of help believing before I step up and step out. When I see the task before me and view myself in light of that task, I discover that I often need a little bit of help believing before I can take action. This is certainly what we have seen in the story of Gideon so far in Chapter 6.

In Chapter 6, God comes to Gideon. We don't know how old he was, although he was still living in his father's house, which was typical during that period. It is likely that he was a relatively young individual when God first called him. At that time, Gideon was threshing wheat in a wine press. We may not fully understand what that means today, but he was separating the wheat from the chaff, a task typically done in a higher area where the wind could carry away the chaff while the grain fell to the ground. However, he was threshing wheat in a wine press, where there was not much wind. The reason for this was that he was trying to hide what he had harvested from the Midianite army, which would come in every season and steal away the fruitfulness of the land.

Gideon found himself in a fearful and frustrating position. In that moment, God came to him and said, "You are the Mighty Man of Valor that I have chosen, and I am going to deliver Israel by your hand. I will work through you to bring about my great work of delivering the children of Israel from the Midianite army."

Gideon's response was likely similar to what you or I might say. He asked, "Lord God, how can that possibly be the case? I come from a clan that is the weakest in my tribe, and I am the least in my father's house. I am nothing."

Sometimes, we need a little bit of help to believe that God can empower us to step up and step out. Gideon expressed that he was the smallest, that his clan was the weakest in the tribe of Manasseh, and that he was the least in his father's house. But God assured him, "Surely I will be with you."

Defeat, or you shall defeat the Midianites as one man. That's an awesome statement. We are going to discover, as we go through this story in this chapter and the next, that the Midianite army that would come into the Promised Land during this period of time numbered around 135,000 men. God says to Gideon, as he is threshing wheat in a winepress, "I am calling you to deliver your people, the children of Israel, and I will deliver the Midianites into your hand as one man. You alone, I am going to work through you."

Now, Gideon wasn't entirely sure. If you were in his sandals, you probably wouldn't be sure either that this was the Lord speaking to him. He says, "I'm going to need a little bit of proof that that's actually you, God." God listens to Gideon's request. Gideon goes and makes a meal offering to God, which he offers to the Angel of the Lord who appeared to him. By a miraculous event, the meal that he offers to the Lord is consumed by fire that arises out of a rock. Gideon thinks, "Okay, I guess that's you, Lord."

Then God says, "All right, here's the first thing I want you to do. Before you can deliver the children of Israel from the Midianite army, you have to take a stand against sin in your own house." His father, Joash, had built an altar to a false god, a Canaanite god called Baal, and he also had an altar to another Canaanite deity called Asherah. Both of these gods were served in sinful and immoral ways, and this was in the household of Gideon. God says, "I want you to go and tear that down, because before I can deliver you and your people from the armies of the Midianites, you need to take a stand against sin in your own house."

When Gideon is confronted with this, he is fearful. We read about it in Judges 6:27: "But because Gideon feared his father's household and the men of the city where he lived too much to do this by day, he did it by night." We can chastise Gideon for having fear, but we still need to recognize that he was at least faithful. He did what God called him to do, even in spite of the fear that he had.

Then the Lord says, "Hey, listen, I want to deliver you from the hand of the Midianites." After he is kind of rescued through this situation where he tears down the altar in his own father's household, he still is unsure. He is still fearful and hesitant to do what God has called him to do. That brings us to...

What Gideon is probably most well-known for by a lot of people who read through the Scriptures is the saying, "I need to set out a fleece before the Lord." This phrase comes from Gideon in Judges chapter 6. We read that God has called Gideon to lead the armies of Israel against the Midianite army, which numbered about 135,000 people. God says, "I’m going to deliver you and the children of Israel from the Midianites by your hand as by one man," and now He is calling Gideon to do this.

In Judges 6:34, we see that the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon, and he blew the trumpet, the shofar. The Abiezrites, the people of his own clan, gathered behind him. He then sent messengers throughout Manasseh to all the people of his tribe. It would be as if Gideon were in mighty Escondido, blowing the trumpet, and all the people of the Abiezrites gathered to him. He also sent messengers to Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, reaching out to places like Riverside, Los Angeles, and Orange County, saying, "Come on, gather together; we’re going to go against the Midianites." So they all gathered together to meet him.

In verse 36, Gideon said to God, "If you will save Israel by my hand as you have said..." God had previously stated in verse 16, "I will deliver Israel by your hand as by one man." Gideon continued, "Look, I’m going to put a fleece of wool out on the threshing floor, on this hard rock surface. If there is dew on the fleece only and it is dry on the ground, then I shall know that you will save Israel by my hand as you have said."

Gideon expressed his concern to the Lord, saying, "The Midianites are a big army. I blew the trumpet, and the people from San Diego, Los Angeles, Riverside, and Orange County all gathered with me, but I don’t have quite a big army. I just want to make sure that you’re really going to come through and save us, so I need you to show me a sign."

For some of you who have been around the Bible for a while, you might say, "Hey, wait a minute! Didn’t Jesus in the New Testament say a wicked and perverse generation seeks after a sign, and none shall be given to it?" I thought God said you shouldn’t seek a sign, and yet Gideon is here seeking a sign. How do these things go together? Well, I want to suggest to you that the reason Jesus...

In his day, as he was ministering among the people of Israel, the scribes, the Pharisees, and the Sadducees—the really super spiritual religious people—were not believing in him. He was already performing signs and miracles, casting demons out of people, giving sight to the blind, raising the dead, and feeding the multitudes. Still, they were coming to him and saying, "That's not enough; we want more." He responded to them, saying, "A wicked and perverse generation seeks after a sign. No sign will be given to you." He pointed out that if the works he had done among them had been done in sinful places like Sodom and Gomorrah, they would have believed and repented. Yet, despite all he had done, they would not believe or repent.

There is not exactly an apples-to-apples comparison here. Gideon said to God, "I think that you're calling me to do something, and I want to follow you and trust you, but I need some sort of support here." I am so grateful that God is gracious and patient with us in those instances. I think he is because he actually wants to use us in his work. God had a good work for Gideon to do; he wanted to deliver his people, the children of Israel, from the Midianites. He said, "I'm going to use you." Gideon responded, "All right, I'm willing to be used by you, but I've got a small army."

As we go through this passage, we discover that he has 32,000 men, while the Midianites have 135,000. Jesus also said that if anyone goes out to war, they should count the cost of whether they, with 10,000, can go against an army that has 20,000. Here, Gideon is doing what Jesus would tell us to do; he is counting the cost. He comes before the Lord and says, "I've got a test. Here's my test: I'm going to take a fleece of wool and put it down on the ground overnight. If I come in the morning and the wool is wet and the ground is dry, then I will know that you are sending me to do this." He is putting a fleece out before the Lord because sometimes we need a little help believing before we step up and step out.

As we read in verse 38, when he arose early the next morning and squeezed the fleece together, he wrung out the dew of the fleece—a bowl full of water. He got up in the morning, went to check it, and just as he had prayed, the fleece was wet while the ground was dry. God did exactly what he had asked him to do. You would expect that Gideon would say, "All right, let's go!" However, he was kind of like me. He looked at the whole situation and thought, "Okay, wait a minute; it could have been a..."

Coincidence, right? I mean, isn't that what we do? It's like you say, "All right, Lord, we're going to go in this direction. Heads, we go this way; tails, we're not going." We flip a coin, it comes up heads, and we go. That's two out of three, right? That's what he's going to do.

Look at this verse, Judges 6:39. So Gideon said to God, "Please don't be angry with me, but let me speak just one more time. Let me test, I pray, just once more with the fleece. Let it now be that the fleece is dry, but the ground is wet." It could have been a coincidence. I mean, maybe that fleece sucked up all the water. So let's reverse it: if I wake up in the morning and the fleece is wet, I'm going to know that You are with me. God is gracious and patient.

In verse 40, God did so that night. It was dry on the fleece only, but there was dew on the ground. So what do you do at that point when God's purpose and His plan are before you? An open door is set before you, and God has been gracious, patient, and faithful with your requests. Now, Gideon, it's your move.

In chapter 7, verse 1, then Jerubbaal, which is a name that was given to Gideon, and all the people who were with him rose early. They encamped by the Well of Herod, so that the camp of the Midianites was on the north side of them by the hill of Mora in the valley.

It's worth recognizing that here in chapter 7:1, there are a number of names of locations mentioned. Those names remind us that this is not fiction; this is history. These are actual places that existed in time and history—places where you could actually go and identify where they are. There have been archaeologists for the last several hundred years who have done just that with the Scriptures. They read about places and locations in the Bible, and they go and look for these areas. They find actual carvings in stone and clay that say, "This is that place," and they go, "Wow, just as the Bible had said."

So here in Judges chapter 7:1, we're given some location data, so we know this actually took place. God had said to Gideon, "Go, you Gideon are going to save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Surely I will be with you, and you're going to defeat the Midianites as one man." God has proved to Gideon through...

A number of signs indicate that it is indeed God who is speaking to Gideon. Now he has 32,000 individuals who have followed him to go into battle, encamping against the Midianites, who have 135,000 people. He is ready; God has promised and assured him that this is God's word. However, remember the word that God had said: "I will be with you, and you shall defeat the Midianites as one man."

Look at verse two. The Lord said to Gideon, "The people who are with you are too many. There are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel claim glory for itself against me, saying, 'My own hand has saved me.'"

Gideon might have thought, "Oh God, come on! The odds are severely stacked against us. The Midianites outnumber us nearly five to one. We've got 32,000; they've got 135,000. They have harshly oppressed us for seven years, coming into the land like locusts to destroy everything."

Gideon has this small band of soldiers—32,000 against 135,000. What do you mean there are too many? God says, "Well, listen, if you go out with 32,000 and you beat them with 135,000, there's no doubt some of you are going to be like, 'Hey, look what we did! We're pretty awesome! We got this thing going on.'"

So God says, "I just can't work with this. You have too many people." If I were Gideon at this point, I would be saying, "No, no! Look at them! I don't have too many people!"

Therefore, God says in verse three, "Proclaim in the hearing of the people. Stand before your army of 32,000 and say, 'Listen, whoever of you is fearful and afraid, you can go home.'" I can imagine Gideon thinking, "Please, please, please don't go home! If you're afraid, you can go home."

As a result, 22,000 people return, and 10,000 remain. He loses two-thirds of his army. At this point, if you're Gideon, are you not just saying, "Well, I'm kind of afraid too, so I'm out"?

Point number two: sometimes God is teaching me to trust even when it seems insane and impossible. I feel like I've been...

Learning that lesson a lot for a very long time, sometimes God is teaching us to trust even when it seems insane and impossible. Years after this, in the book of 1 Samuel, we are introduced to another individual at another time in Israel's history when they were being oppressed by another group of people called the Philistines. This young Jewish man, his name was Jonathan, had a sense that God was leading him and his friend, who was next to him, his armor bearer, to go and fight against the Philistines.

Jonathan makes this great statement of faith in 1 Samuel 14:6. He says, "Nothing restrains the Lord from saving by many or by few." I love that! What a statement! There is nothing that keeps God back from saving by many or by few. God's word to Gideon was, "I will be with you, and you shall defeat the Midianites as one man."

I have discovered, and maybe you've seen this as well, that God seems to enjoy putting us in insane and impossible situations. I think He does this to show Himself mighty on our behalf. He does this to prove His power in spite of our weakness. He does this to glorify Himself in and through us. He does this to prove that it is true that with God nothing shall be impossible, as Luke chapter 1 says.

To truly demonstrate that it was all God and not Gideon, look at verse four. The Lord said to Gideon, "The people are still too many." Okay, Lord, I had 32,000. You said to tell all the people who were scared to go home, and 22,000 went home. I got 10,000. What do you mean that's too many? They outnumber us 135,000 to 10,000! God says, "The people who are with you are still too small."

So here, I am going to develop a test for you. "Bring them down to the water, and I will test them for you there. Then it will be that of whom I say to you, 'This one shall go with you,' the same shall go with you. But whomever I say to you, 'This one shall not go with you,' the same shall not go with you."

Brought the people down to the water, and the Lord said to Gideon, "Everyone who laps from the water with his tongue as a dog, you shall set apart into group one by himself. Likewise, everyone who gets down on his knees to drink, you shall set aside into another group, group two."

Now, the number of those who lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, was 300 men, but the rest of the people got down on their knees to drink the water. Here’s the test: God says to take them down to the spring, down to the water, and just watch. Every single one who gets down on their hands and knees and drinks the water like a dog lapping it up is in group one. Everyone who gets down on one knee and brings the water up to their mouth is in group two.

So now Gideon has 9,700 in group two and 300 in group one. You can imagine Gideon at this point, thinking, "Please be group one, please be group one, please be group one." There’s all kinds of commentary about this whole scenario. Commentators like to say things like, "Well, the ones who got down on one knee were the really vigilant ones. They were paying attention, being safe, and looking around with their eyes wide open as they drank water," or "They were just really old and couldn’t get down on all fours." Who knows? Whatever the case, he has group one and group two.

The number of those who lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, was 300 men; the rest got down on their knees. Then the Lord said to Gideon in verse 7, "By the 300 men who lapped, I will save you and deliver the Midianites into your hand. Let all the other people go home, every man to his place." You knew that was coming. Jonathan later would say, "Nothing restrains the Lord from saving by many or by few."

Point number three: sometimes God brings me to the brink to stretch and test my faith and faithfulness. Will I believe? Will I obey?

So the people took provisions, verse 8, and their trumpets in their hands. He sent away all the rest of Israel, every man to his tent, and retained those 300 men. Now the camp of Midian was below him in the valley. It happened on the same night that the Lord said to him, "Gideon, arise and go down against the..."

Camp, for I have delivered it into your hand. I can only guess that Gideon at this point is on the brink of losing his mind. I mean, if you were with Gideon and you were one of his friends, as Gideon says, "Well, the Lord has said that we're to keep the 300," would you not be saying, "Are you sure you're hearing from God?" At this point, it seems a little absurd.

But God comes and says, "Now's the time. You're going to go down, and I'm going to deliver them into your hand." For the eyes of the Lord look to and fro throughout the whole earth to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose hearts are loyal and obedient to Him. God says to Gideon, "I want you to go down. You're going to lead the army into the valley with these 300 men, and you will take the Midianites."

Look at this verse: "If you are afraid to go down"—yes, yes, I'm afraid—"go down to the camp with Pura, your servant, and you shall hear what the Midianites say. Afterward, your hearts, or your hands, will be strengthened to go down into the camp." So then he and Pura, his servant, went to the outpost. They snuck up there to spy on the armed men who were in the camp.

It's one of those situations like in the New Testament, where there was a man who brought his demon-possessed son to Jesus in Mark chapter 9. The Lord said, "All things are possible to him who believes," and the man replied, "Lord, I believe; help my unbelief." In this situation, it just seems unbelief is stacking up. Three hundred versus 135,000—the odds are insurmountable. There is no possible way, by the strength of 300, that he can overcome the 135,000.

There would be greater odds that my high school alma mater, Orange Glen, the Orange Glen Mighty Patriots, would be able to overcome Tom Brady's Patriots at their best than in this whole situation. I mean, my Mighty Patriots can hardly overcome like San Pasqual on a good day. There is just no way.

Now the Midianites, the Amalekites, and all the people of the East were lying in the valley as numerous as locusts, and their camels were without number, as the sand of the seashore in multitude. When Gideon...

A man was telling a dream to his companion. Gideon was there with his servant, Pur, and they sneaked into one of the outposts. In the middle of the night, they found a camp of Midianites on watch. As they arrived, they overheard a conversation between two Midianites. One said, "I have had a dream. To my surprise, here’s the dream: a loaf of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian. It came to a tent and struck it so that the tent fell, overturned, and collapsed. A loaf of barley bread!"

The other Midianite responded, "This is nothing else than the sword of Gideon, the son of Joash." Can you imagine Gideon at that moment? He must have thought, "Wait, did he just say my name? How do they know who I am? I’m from the smallest clan in a nobody tribe, and I’m the least of my father’s house." Yet, this guy said, "That barley loaf is none other than the sword of Gideon, a man of Israel. Into his hand, God has delivered Midian and the whole camp."

When Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation, he worshiped. The word "worship" means he was in awe; that’s what worship is. He was blown away. He returned to the camp of Israel and said, "Arise, for the Lord has delivered the camp of Midian into your hand."

Point number four: fearlessness is not a requisite of faithfulness. We often think it is. We believe that before we can do something, we must have no fear. However, I don’t think there is a step of faith that does not involve fear, because then you’re moving.

Fearlessness is not a prerequisite for faith. Gideon divided the 300 men into three different companies, with 100 in each company. He put a trumpet into every man's hand and empty clay pitchers with torches inside the pitchers. He said to them, "Look at me and do likewise. Watch, and when I come to the edge of the camp, you shall do as I do."

They were going to surround the camp from three different points. When Gideon blew the trumpet, he instructed all of them to blow the trumpet on every side of the whole camp and say, "The sword of the Lord and Gideon." These words were significant because they related to the interpretation of the dream that had been shared. The dream indicated that Gideon, the son of Joash, and the men of Israel would defeat the Midianites.

Gideon and the hundred men with him came to the outpost of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, just as the watch was being posted. They blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers that were in their hands. The three companies blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers, holding the torches in their left hands and the trumpets in their right hands. They cried out, "The sword of the Lord and Gideon!"

What was happening here? The best way to piece it together is to understand that they had a torch inside a clay pot and a trumpet in their hand. At a certain point, they broke the clay pot and held up the torch. The rush of oxygen caused the torch to flame up dramatically. They blew the trumpet and yelled, "The sword of the Lord and Gideon!"

In verse 21, every man stood in his place all around the camp, and the whole army of the Midianites ran, cried out, and fled. When the 300 blew the trumpets, the Lord set every man among the Midianites' swords against his companion throughout the whole camp. The army fled to Beth Acacia, toward Zera, as far as the border of Abel Meholah to Tabath. The men of Israel gathered together from Naphtali, Asher, and Manasseh and pursued the Midianites.

Those clay pots held up the torches. They blew the trumpet and shouted, "The sword of the Lord and Gideon!" This scene is reminiscent of the children of Israel going around Jericho, another impossible feat. They yelled, "The sword of the Lord and Gideon!" The Midianites woke up amidst all of this and looked around, perhaps thinking they were surrounded by a great army when, in fact, it was just 300 men. In the chaos, they began to fight against one another and fled.

Certainly, there are times when we need a little help to believe before we step up and step out. It is true that God sometimes teaches us to trust even when it seems insane and impossible. God brings us to the brink to stretch and test our faith and faithfulness. But it is also true, point number five, that God has always proved Himself trustworthy when I followed Him by faith. There is no doubt that there are times I need a little help, and God is gracious and patient. However, God has always proved Himself trustworthy when I followed Him by faith.

There are times when we wait and wait until we feel, "Okay, I can really do this now." He remains gracious and patient, but He calls out to us to follow Him by faith. Faithfully, that is what it means to be a disciple, a faithful follower of God. He, by His Spirit, enables us to do great things that we cannot imagine doing on our own. In and of ourselves, we certainly could not accomplish them because we are not sufficient. As it has been said, one with God is a majority.

It is easy for us to look at the world around us today and think the task seems far too big and that we are way too small. To bring it home to March 17th, I wonder if St. Patrick didn't also feel that way. In his own writings, he mentions that when he was 16 years old, he was kidnapped by Irish pirates. He lived in Britain and was made a slave for six years in Ireland. He finally escaped and made it back home, and it was there that he ultimately became a missionary who returned to those who had taken him and enslaved him. He preached to the people of Ireland.

Ireland is the story of how, through him, they were converted from paganism to Christianity. You can look at the world around you and say it's just too big and I'm just too small. But one with God is a majority. I can absolutely guarantee you, based on what I've seen in the Scriptures and in my life, that God has called every single one of you to greater things than you could imagine. He is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that you can ask or think.

You may think, "Well, I'm just passing out a donut," or "I'm just giving a bulletin to someone who comes into the church on a Sunday morning." No, you're not. It's not just anything. It may seem to you to be a small thing, but it might be a much larger thing than you realize. When you hand that card to someone and say, "Hey, I'd like to invite you to come to Easter at my church," remember that within ten miles of this building, there are nearly a million people who live here. Many of them do not know God or the Gospel. The only Christian they really have any contact with may be you when you're at work, school, in your neighborhood, or maybe even within your own family.

Research has shown that eight out of ten of those people would come to church if someone invited them. You might just give them a card and say, "Hey, I'd like to invite you to come to Easter. The service times are 7:30, 9, and 11." You could say, "I'll meet you out in the parking lot," because it has also been shown that a lot of people are fearful to come into a church. Maybe you were that person at one point in time. They are fearful to come into the church because they think they might spontaneously combust or their heart might stop. That probably won't happen, but we have fire extinguishers and we have an AED, so they'll be fine.

It might seem like a small thing, but it won't be in that person's life. Here’s what I've discovered: God always takes us from one small step to a bigger step and then to an even bigger step after that. Every single person I know who is serving God today in some major capacity started with one small step, where they just handed a bulletin or a card to somebody else. It always starts with one small thing. God wants to do great things, and our culture desperately needs the grace and power of the Gospel.

I'm finding something interesting. Maybe you're seeing this too. We all recognize that the culture we live in has significantly shifted in a direction away from the things of God, but it is the truth of Scripture.

The principles of the Christian religion have brought about the culture that we so enjoy in the West. As the culture shifts away from that, there are many people who have never been to church or been involved in church who also feel orphaned. As the culture shifts in progressive directions, they wonder what on Earth is going on and where they are going to go. There are a lot of orphaned people out there—sheep without a shepherd—who are lost. There is only one good place for them to go: to Christ.

You are His ambassador. He has called you, filled you, and poured out His Spirit upon you to be His light in a dark place. You are to sound the trumpet and proclaim the sword of the Lord. He wants to use you in that way, and there is much work to be done here in San Diego County, California, and the United States of America. But it starts with that one small step.

Oh God, pour out Your Spirit upon Your people. Give us boldness. Amen. Would you stand as we pray that prayer? Father God, we need Your grace. I thank You that You are so patient with us. Sometimes it takes us a long time to listen, obey, hear, hearken, and heed. But Lord, as we begin to take that single step of faith, You meet us with grace and strength. When we take another step, You meet us with more grace and strength.

When we reach out our hand or open our mouth to share the good news of who You are, You give us more grace, more strength, and the words to share. God, I pray that You would do that. Lord, I pray for this town, this community here in North County, for Escondido, Valley Center, San Marcos, Bonsall, and Rancho Bernardo, and all the surrounding areas. There are many people in this area that You are desiring to draw to Yourself, and You want to use us.

I pray that You would overcome our fears and anxieties. Whatever way You need to prove Yourself to Your people, Lord, would You open our eyes to see and strengthen our hands and feet to move? God, do a work, we pray, because without You, we have no hope. But Lord, I thank You that we have great hope because we trust in You and Your great power. We praise You, Jesus. We thank You.

It's in Your name that we pray, and all those that agreed said, "Amen."