God's Glory Through Weak Men

Let's pray. Let's pray. Our Father, now open Your Word to us. This ancient story, which You've told us is meant for us today, living in this age. Help us to discern what You would from this, that we might serve You well. we are thankful that you have called us in the Lord Jesus we are glad we are here to worship you now Lord increase our joy as we listen to you as you speak to us plainly in your word give us confidence in you help us to realize how you work and in so realizing Lord step out in faith to serve you thank you once more for your word help us now we pray that your spirit work in our hearts to make this come alive for us.

And Your Spirit would work in our hearts to see our own place in this story. Now thank You again, in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. We all know that we've been called to reflect God's glory. That God's glory is what we're supposed to be about.

What is the chief end of man? The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. We saw that last week. How does God display and reflect His glory? How does He do that? Well, we all know that.

He saves and uses powerful people like celebrities and politicians and famous athletes, right? He does it through powerful people. No, He doesn't. He doesn't do that at all. His normal way of operation is not to use the powerful, not to use the celebrities, not to use the politicians. How many times have we said, oh my goodness, if only, right, if only Peyton Manning would come to Christ, wouldn't he have a great effect on this world, right?

You might pick someone else, but that's how we think, right? If only the political power would go this way, then God would do some mighty things in our country. And if we don't get that political power, oh my, look it, everything's going to fall apart. That how we think Sadly that too often how we think We feel that way We think that way God glory is going to be seen when powerful celebrities really are called of God.

But that's not how God works. I'm looking at this congregation right now. Guess what? I don't see one famous person out here. Not one. Not one celebrity.

Right? No one here that I can see has played college football at Division I level and gone on to the NFL. I don't see any powerful political people in this congregation. Hmm. Is God failing in his work? I don't know.

Well, let's find out as we turn to Judges chapter 6. You know, we find ourselves almost in impossible situations, don't we? We find ourselves in very difficult situations. and we wonder how God will possibly use any one of us. And yet, that's the story of Judges 6. Because here was a man like you, in impossible circumstances, asked to accomplish an impossible task, and he's the last guy you'd have asked to do it.

Judges chapter 6. The people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord gave them into the hand of Midian seven years. And the hand of Midian overpowered Israel, and because of Midian, the people of Israel made for themselves the dens that are in the mountains and the caves and the strongholds. For whenever the Israelites planted crops, the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the east would come up against them.

They would encamp against them and devour the produce of the land as far as Gaza and leave no sustenance in Israel and no sheep or ox or donkey. For they would come up with their livestock and their tents. They would come like locusts in number. Both they and their camels could not be counted, so that they laid waste the land as they came in. And Israel was brought very low because of Midian.

And the people of Israel cried out for help to the Lord. When the people of Israel cried out to the Lord on account of the Midianites, the Lord sent a prophet to the people of Israel. And he said to them, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, I led you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of bondage. and I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all who oppressed you and drove them out before you and gave you their land.

And I said to you I am the Lord your God You shall not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell but you have not obeyed my voice Now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor. And Gideon said to him, Please, sir, the Lord is with us.

Why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt? But now the Lord has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian. And the Lord turned to him and said, Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the land of Midian. Do not I send you? And he said to him, Please, Lord, how can I save Israel?

Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house. And the Lord said to him, But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man. And he said to him, If now I have found favor in your eyes, then show me a sign that it is you who speak with me. Please, do not depart from here until I come to you and bring out my present and set it before you.

And he said, I will stay till you return. So Gideon went into his house and prepared a young goat and unleavened cakes from an ephah of flour. The meat he put in a basket and the broth he put in a pot and brought them to him under the terebinth and presented them. And the angel of God said to him, take the meat and the unleavened cakes and put them on this rock and pour the broth over them.

And he did so. Then the angel of the Lord reached out the tip of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes. And fire sprang up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened cakes. And the angel of the Lord vanished from his sight. Then Gideon perceived that he was the angel of the Lord. And Gideon said, Alas, O Lord God, for now I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face.

But the Lord said to him, Peace be to you. Do not fear. You shall not die. Then Gideon built an altar there to the Lord and called it The Lord is Peace To this day it still stands at Ophrah which belongs to the Abiezrites That night the Lord said to him take your father bull and the second bull seven years old and pull down the altar of Baal that your father has and cut down the Asherah that is beside it and build an altar to the Lord your God on the top of the stronghold there with stones laid in due order.

Then take the second bull and offer it as a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah that you shall cut down. So Gideon took ten men of his servants and did as the Lord had told him. But because he was too afraid of his family and the men of the town to do it by day, he did it by night. When the men of the town rose early in the morning, behold, the altar of Baal was broken down and the Asherah beside it was cut down, and the second bull was offered on the altar that had been built.

And they said to one another, Who has done this thing? And after they had searched and inquired, they said, Gideon the son of Joash has done this thing. Then the men of the town said to Joash bring out your son that he may die for he has broken down the altar of Baal and cut down the Asherah beside it. But Joash said to all who stood against him will you contend for Baal or will you save him?

Whoever contends for him shall be put to death by morning. If he is a god let him contend for himself because his altar has been broken down. Therefore on that day Gideon was called Jeroboam that is to say let Baal contend against him because he broke down his altar. And all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the east came together and they crossed the Jordan and encamped in the valley of Jezreel.

But the Spirit of the Lord clothed Gideon and he sounded the trumpet and the Abiezrites were called out to follow him. And he sent messengers throughout all Manasseh and they too were called out to follow him. And he sent messengers to Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali and they went up to meet him. then Gideon said to God if you will save Israel by my hand as you have said behold I am laying a fleece of wool on the threshing floor if there is dew on the fleece alone and it is dry on all the ground then I shall know that you will save Israel by my hand as you have said and it was so when he rose early next morning and squeezed the fleece he wrung enough dew from the fleece to fill a bowl with water then Gideon said to the God let not your anger burn against me let me speak just once more please let me test just once more with the fleece please let it be dry on the fleece only and all the ground let there be dew and God did so that night and it was dry on the fleece only And on all the ground there was dew.

So reads this story of Gideon. Well, let's get an idea of what's going on here as we begin. Israel's been in Canaan now for about 120 years. 120 years have passed since they entered the land with Joshua. They're nothing more than a loose confederation of tribes. They're a nation only in the sense that they're an ethnic nation.

Okay? They don't have a king. they don't have a central government. They're a loose confederation of these tribes. The tribes are continuing the conquest of the land began when Joshua led them in. They're still in the process of taking the land. They have been confined to the hill country.

They have not been successful on the plains along the sea coast, the flatlands. They have great difficulty conquering the plains whose inhabitants possess the latest technical development in warfare, which is the iron chariot. But that isn't the real problem. Their problem is not that they're up against the latest technology in warfare. That's not the issue.

The real problem is spiritual declension. Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, or Israel did evil in the sight of Yahuwah. Can I remind you again, and I always do this because I think we need to get this in our heads. When you see Lord in the Old Testament, and it's all capital letters, capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D, that is God's personal name.

His name is Yahuwah. So whenever you see Lord in all caps, that's his personal name. It's not just the Lord. It is Yahuwah. That is his name. That is the God of Israel.

That is the true and the living God. That is how he revealed himself. as Yahuwah, the great I Am. That is what Lord, all in capital letters, means. Alright? So they did evil in the eyes of Yahuwah. The tribes were not realizing success because God had brought judgment on them.

And what they were doing was chasing after the Canaanite fertility god, Baal. Baal was the god of fertility. Now Asherah cuts down the Asherah What the Asherah The Asherah is the female part of this fertility cult So you got the male Baal and you got Asherah the female part right You got to have both in order to have fertility. And part of that worship, that always in these ancient fertility cults, there's all kinds of sexual immorality going on.

You would go to the temple in order to have sexual relations with the temple prostitutes there in order to ensure the fertility of your ground, of your wives, of everything. That was part of the worship. That's what made it so disgusting. See, they were not trusting in God to give them fertility, to give them all that they needed. Remember, this is a culture that depends on the ground.

If you have a bad harvest this year, You starve next year. And so they're trying to cover all their bets. They're going to the local fertility god and goddess in order to get what they need. Now, it's not as though they had abandoned their god, Yahuwah. They still worship him, but they incorporated the fertility cults into their worship. In other words, they're covering all their bases.

Okay, we'll give our allegiance to Yahuwah, but we'll also do this, just to make sure. Just to make sure everything works. Right? That's what they were doing. Now from the beginning of its existence as a nation, Israel had been told by God, I am Yahweh your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me.

He was clear on that. God not only demanded, but deserved, exclusive, undiluted allegiance. He had graciously set his love on this nation and had freed them from their slavery. But this people ran after the local fertility cults, prostituting themselves and committing spiritual adultery against their God. And so God chastised them by withholding success and delivering them into the hands of their opponents.

That's the reason why they're not successful. Iyer chariots notwithstanding, they could have overcome that if they had been worshipping exclusively their God. Now at this point, Israel then is oppressed by the Midianites and their allies for seven years. These marauders, these nomads would appear at regular intervals. It seems they would appear at harvest time right In order to get the harvest of the Israelites They were so numerous they looked like a swarm of locusts as they came over the land It was impossible to count them And they savaged the whole country from Gaza to the north.

Gaza is mentioned because that's the southernmost point of the nation. And this is all taking place in the northern part. Because this is Manasseh, and he sent messengers to the northern tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali and so forth. But so they had come and they had swept through the entire country and were devouring everything they had. They would steal their cattle and beasts of burden.

It got so bad and the people were so impoverished that they started carving out dens and strongholds in the mountains and what they would go there in order to shelter themselves and what little crops they could salvage. They would take up there in order to winnow them. Finally, they became so impoverished that in desperation, they cried out to their God for help.

In response, what do we see? God sends an unnamed prophet. He reminds them of God's might and greatness in defeating their past oppressors. And he gives them the reason for the oppression. It isn't that you're weak in military might, which they were, but that's not the reason why. The reason why you're having so much trouble is because you have sought out other gods.

You have been unfaithful to me. And so there you have it. An incredibly powerful, numerous enemy. You can't stand against him. So who would you pick to lead the forces against him? Who would you pick?

I'd probably go after a guy like Patton or Schwarzkopf or Lee or Grant. but Gideon is not the kind of guy you want leading your forces it would seem. Who do we normally call on? What do we normally think at this point? We don't think of weak nobodies. We think of powerful somebodies. Who does God choose to carry out His work?

It's His work. They put it all in His hands. we're desperate for help. Well, here's what we find. God calls you. That is, God calls the insignificant and the nobodies to display His glory Now look you already know where this whole sermon is going don you It the nobodies We've got to get this into our heads. Right?

Honestly, I think we miss this so much. And the whole tenor of Scripture is along these lines. God displays His glory by using insignificant, weak nobodies. He always, or nearly always, works that way. Here's the narrative of God raising a judge, one to accomplish His work. Now remember what the book of Judges is about.

It's the continuing story of God raising what we call judges. That's the way it's normally been translated. And what these folks did were to lead the forces against their enemies, to defeat them, and then to lead the people in the proper worship of God. It wasn't just defeating their enemies. It was to lead them in the proper worship of their God. To deliver them and to lead them back to the proper kind of worship.

Now notice who God calls here. Have you figured out what kind of man Gideon is like through this narrative? Let's think about this. Number one, he is a fearful man. He is a fearful man. Where do we find him as the scene opens on Gideon?

We find him thrashing wheat in one of those rock shelters that was hewn for a wine press. He was, in fear, thrashing the wheat. He's not going to do it openly. Would you match this guy with these circumstances? Taking care of an enemy as numerous as a swarm of locusts who come over the land, the entire land. Is this the kind of guy you'd go after?

A fearful guy? Not only that, he is, and this is really important to see, he is a doubter. A major doubter. It's funny. I don't know if you've noticed the irony of it. Verse 12, And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor.

Does that not ring kind of ironic in your eyes? Or in your ears? Sorry. Right? Mighty man. This is not a man of valor.

And then, do you notice his response in verse 13? And Gideon said to him, Please, sir, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are... And where are all His wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us saying, did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt? And now the Lord has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.

Do not miss this. Have you ever noticed in the Old Testament this refrain keeps happening? And that is, the Lord God who delivered you out of Egypt with all these marvelous plagues, He is the one. We've seen that as we went through the book of Numbers, right? The consistent refrain is, this God delivered you by mighty deeds and mighty power. Now because you know that, step out in faith and go.

And here's Gideon saying, oh yeah, I've heard about all that. Yeah, yeah, I've got it. I know the orthodox answer. But it's not working. Now we're talking about not only someone who's a doubter. We're talking about a challenger.

He's not buying it. Right? What do you mean the Lord is with you? God's not with me or with anyone else. Sure, the prophet may talk about God's mighty power, but I don't see it. He's actually challenging what the angel of the Lord said.

So you've got a fearful man, you've got a doubter, you've got someone with absolutely no power and no status. What does he say? Well, the Lord says to him, calls him a mighty man of valor, and he goes on to say, what's this mighty warrior business about? My clan, right? My family is the weakest one in the entire tribe, and I am the least of the whole family.

Right? Our clan is the weakest in the entire tribe, and I'm the lowest guy on the totem pole. Why are you saying these things to me? What's the point that God wants you to get here? What's the point? When God calls for service, God calls those who you would least expect.

He would call those who you would least expect. Now again, the Apostle Paul sums up the whole tenor of Scripture here in 1 Corinthians 1. So I want you to turn there. I say again, we've got to get this into our minds, into our heads, into our thinking. When the Apostle Paul writes this he can look over the whole of biblical history and write these things 1 Corinthians 1 verse 26 For consider your calling, brothers.

Not many of you were wise according to worldly standards. Not many were powerful. Not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.

Listen, does that not describe Gideon? Does that not describe Gideon? Certainly it does. Why does he do it? So no one will be able to boast. And because of him, you're in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that as it is written, let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.

What's the point? The point is God uses insignificant nobodies with no power and no influence in order to accomplish great things so that God is glorified. People will say, you certainly couldn't have accomplished this. There must be God. That must be the answer. You see?

You can't boast. You can't boast at all. You know, I think about this. I think about, I went to a Christian college, right? I think about the people today who are serving God. All the giants, I'm sorry, not all the giants, many of the giants of our college days, the ones who were so spiritual they got the President's Award, the ones who were the BMOC, big man on campus in a Christian college, the spiritual giants, the ones who everybody looked up to, right? who had a great reputation.

Most of those, I'm telling you, most of those have dropped by the wayside. And then I think of some of the other guys I knew and gals I knew. I think about Dave. I can't even remember Dave's last name. Walking into his room, and he's sitting in his room smoking a cigar and blowing it out the window of the dorm. Now you've got to remember, this is a Christian college.

You're not allowed to smoke. Here's this guy flagrantly smoking a cigar in his room. He goes on to serve the Lord. A deacon in some church I think of Al Dunn Al Dunn was the leader of the rebels on campus And no one knew this, but Al was paying his way through a Christian college by playing his guitar at bars. Now they didn't know that. If they'd known that, he would have got booted.

But there's Al, right? I don't even know why he was there. man that guy is one of the straightest shooting pastors you would ever meet today I saw him just two years ago at the fire annual conference it's like wow is this the Al Dunn that I knew in college the answer is no it's not the Al Dunn you knew in college I think of Dave Slusher Dave was a pagan at a Christian college guy goes out and now he's serving the Lord in incredible ways and it's these troublemakers, these doubters and challengers, these never pick them. They're the ones that God used.

I could go on and on. I just I don't know. Maybe I was with the wrong crowd. I don't know. I just know so many of these people. And it's amazing to me.

I think of those people every time I read 1 Corinthians chapter 1. It's amazing what God does. He doesn't use the big and the powerful, and the ones who have great reputations. You know? When God calls, though, remember this too. He calls nobodies, but in the process, if He calls you, He empowers you.

What does God say in response to Gideon's doubts? Well, look at verse 14. After he said, I don't believe any of this stuff. Verse 14, he says to Gideon, And the Lord turned to him and said, go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Do not I send you? And he says to them, please Lord, how can I save Israel?

Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh and I am the least in my father's house. And the Lord said to him, but I will be with you and you shall strike the Midianites as one man. So in other words, he says, I'm going to empower you. I'm going to be with you. God chooses people always for a mission and endows them with the power to do it. It's not your power, it's His.

You see this, for example, in Matthew 28. In Matthew 28 where it says go and make disciples of all nations That a pretty big task Right How By baptizing them and teaching them to obey all that I commanded you and what's the last phrase of the Great Commission? And lo, I am with you always to the end of the age. So I'm going to give you this impossible task.

I want you to make disciples of all nations. Right? And I will be with you to the end of the age. By the way, several months ago, one of our glimpses, our little church history inserts that we put in, I hope you read those. One of them was a whole, one of those papers devoted to the fact that the evangelists that turned the world upside down were the nobodies, the church members.

They turned the world upside down because they were just faithful people to God. now Gideon suspects that he's talking to God's representative suspects actually that he's talking to God himself by the way, little footnote here this isn't part of the sermon it's just something I was thinking about and didn't put it on the paper do you know, at just about every one of these incidents where the angel of the Lord shows up somewhere in that narrative it switches a little bit to where it says this is the Lord speaking right? You see that with Hagar in Genesis 16 you see it with Abraham in Genesis 19 wherever the angel of the Lord turns up at one point at certain points in the narrative it ends up that the Lord is speaking then it may go back to angel of the Lord but there's always a point in that narrative where it's actually God speaking now how can God be there in an appearance? I don't know some of you have asked me about that save it for another day I'm not sure.

There's all kinds of theories out there. Alright? One of them being that I like that this is Jesus before He took on human form. But in some way, it appears. Either way, He knows this is the Lord. He's terror-stricken.

By the way, because of the mission, this is the first time He asks for a sign. He asks for a sign. And I don't know if you picked this up. He goes in and gets this stuff and pours the broth on. And the angel of the Lord just sits there and he takes his staff and he just kind of goes like this. touches that rock, and the thing just goes, a fire comes out of that rock.

That's a pretty good sign, I'd say. But God reassures him at that point. Terror strikes him. He says, oh no, I've seen the angel of the Lord face to face. I'm a dead man. And the angel of the Lord says, don't, no, no, you're not.

He reassures him. He reassures him and says what the Lord said to him, Verse 23, peace be to you. Do not fear, you shall not die. Then Gideon built an altar there to the Lord and called it, the Lord is peace. To this day it still stands at Ophrah, which belongs to the Abiezrites. So God assures him then.

So God picks nobodies. This is the last guy you'd go to. He's even doubting the orthodoxy of his faith. He's saying, yeah, I heard all about this God. He's not with us. He's forsaken us.

And that's the one that God chooses to lead them. The weakest of them all. Now note this. Verses 25. Let's pick it up at 25 through 32. When God calls you, He expects exclusive allegiance.

Exclusive allegiance. Here comes the real test for Gideon. As God's deliverer, he must call God's people back to proper worship. So God says, Gideon, destroy the idolatrous symbols in your own town and institute Yahuwah's worship. Start there. Start in your town.

Gideon complies. He desecrates Baal's symbols. He desecrates the idol worship complex that they've built in their town. But still, still, when does he do it? He does it when? At night.

Why? Because he's still afraid. But he does it. He does it at night. He gets a number of his servants from his household and they go out and they destroy the Baal worship complex, erect an altar to Yahuwah, and sacrifice the bull. Well, the townspeople get up in the morning.

By the way, that's still progress. That's still progress. He making progress Alright Now the times people see what happened and they do some investigating and they find out it Gideon and they are really ticked off And they're not angry because Yahweh's altar has been put there. Do you notice why they're angry? They're not angry because they put His altar there.

You know, it's no big deal to add another god to the worship complex. Fine, if you want to put Yahweh's altar there, fine. We're okay with that. You can do that. But don't take away the other things. Right?

They're really mad. What makes them angry is that Yahweh's altar is the only altar left in the Baal Asherah worship complex. All the rest has been destroyed. This is the only one there. Now listen, this is important. God demands and deserves exclusive allegiance.

Let me tell you something. This is something the world will not listen to, But this is what we need to say loud and clear. God is intolerant. God is an intolerant God. He will not tolerate any other God competing for your affections. There is no other God but Yahuwah.

He is the only one. Christianity is by nature exclusive. And natural man hates that. Listen, when you are called to God in Christ, God calls you to an exclusive allegiance to Himself. What is the Gospel? The Gospel is believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Right? And what happens? Remember what we saw in 1 Thessalonians 1? For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God. Unless you worship the triune God, the God who has revealed Himself in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, unless you worship that God, you are worshiping a false God. and God says, I deserve all your worship.

Every last ounce of everything you are belongs to me and to me alone No other loyalty accepted God chose you You were called You came to Christ not only asking Him to save you from sin but pledging your allegiance to Him and to Him alone Boy, we've got to get that in our heads. Especially in this society that says, hey, every religion is okay. No, it's not.

You want to hear the truth? There's only one religion acceptable. and it is the religion that proclaims God in the face of Jesus Christ. That's it. Everyone else, can I say it? Everyone else is wrong. Even talking to this group of people, I know that's just kind of hitting you a little bit.

I mean, we're actually to believe and to say that? Absolutely. Absolutely. You know, the early Christians knew this very well. When the emperors wanted to solidify their power, they came up with this idea. And that is, every subject of the Roman Empire should go to a temple devoted to the emperor, take a pinch of incense, just a pinch of incense, throw it in the fire, and say, Caesar is Lord.

No big deal. You get a certificate that says you did it, and you're okay. We'll leave you alone. But Christians couldn't do it. They just could not do it. They could not say Caesar is Lord.

They would not say it. And they died because they refused to take a pinch of incense, throw it in the fire, and say Caesar is Lord. They died over that. Why? Because they knew one thing. Jesus is Lord.

The very first confession of faith that you're going to find is found in Romans chapter 10. Listen to what verse 9 and 10 says. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

Jesus is Lord. There is no other Lord. There is no other God. There is no other religion except Jesus. God demands our exclusive allegiance. Now from that point on, Gideon is given special power. the Holy Spirit comes on him and he gathers an army.

But here's the last thing I see in this story. Sometimes God will stoop to our weaknesses Here the famous fleece story We all know it right It was not intended to gain guidance from God. It was intended to confirm the guidance already given. Notice what it says. Verse 36, Then Gideon said to the Lord, If you will save Israel by my hand as you have said, behold, I am laying a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. if there is dew on the fleece alone and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that you will save Israel by My hand as you have said.

As you have said. God had spoken to him. God had given him a confirming sign. God had even given him His Spirit. Gideon's request here is not an expression of faith. again, it is an expression of doubt and unbelief. Again, this shows Gideon's tendency to doubt.

This is not a model for decision making. Do not ever say, Lord, if you want me to do this, then give me this sign. I know someone in our extended family who one of Becca's cousins asked her to marry him. and she said, I'll know it's God's will to marry him if my grandma's wedding ring fits my finger. It did, and they got married. But that's not the way to determine whether you should marry someone.

Alright? Don't do that. Don't ask God for signs. Do you know that Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for asking for signs? He said, don't do that. A wicked and perverse generation asks for signs.

Don't ask God for signs. But, it's interesting to me that because of the severe circumstances, God gave in to Gideon's weakness. Sometimes God will stoop to our weaknesses. And this is God stooping to Gideon's weakness. Do you ever doubt? Does God immediately say, well, you lack faith, I'm done with you.

Now, if you were God and you were looking at this guy, what would you say? I'd say, okay, how many times do I have to get this to you? You're done. Right? God doesn't do that. Sometimes He stoops to our weaknesses.

Now that doesn't mean that we ought to put out fleeces. Because Christ, again, rebuked anyone who's looking for it. But it does mean that God in his providence will often help you when you're weak. So here you are. You say, I know I've got to witness to my friend. I know I have to witness to him.

But you're feeling scared. Hasn't God commanded you? Yes. Hasn't he given you his Holy Spirit? Yes. Hasn't he enabled you and promised you his presence?

Yep. So here you are. You're sitting at the table with your friend during lunch. And you're just like, okay, I've got to do it. I've got to do it. What am I going to do?

How am I going to do it? Your mind's a jumble. Everything's running around in your mind. You're scared. and then your other Christian friend sits at the table and starts kind of sharing the gospel with him. Pretty soon you join in and you're both going at it, right? Sometimes God stoops to your weakness and His providence, He sends someone along.

I think of my own life. I remember how absolutely terrified I was to talk to people one-on-one. Standing up here talking to you right now is a piece of cake. Some of you are out there going, I don't know how you can do this. How do you stand in front of a group of people and talk? That just terrifies me.

This does not terrify me. You know why? I'll tell you why. None of you are going to stand up and start arguing with me. I can say whatever I want and none of you are going to argue with me. You're not going to give me grief.

You're not going to stand up. You're not going to lead a bunch of people out of here. I can say whatever I want. That's easy. But when I'm in my office, toe-to-toe with somebody, that isn't so easy. And it used to terrify me.

And I come here to this church and I believe God sovereign I believe He planned everything God is in control right I knew Scripture had answers I knew all of this but I was absolutely terrified and would avoid it like the plague. And then one day, a friend of mine, he doesn't know anything about my fears, a guy I went to seminary with sends me this pamphlet about this counseling course in Lafayette, Indiana. and it's like okay you know I really need to learn something and so I got on board and it changed my life because God providentially used it. God did not say to me look you've been through three years of seminary you've been through about three years of raising a family now you've seen me at work will you get over it you knucklehead.

God didn't do that. So in his providence he stooped to my weakness and God will do that. Now that's not an excuse for you to just, you know, not do anything. It's to say, God sometimes stooped to your weaknesses. God is patient and forbearing and like he did with Gideon, he'll still use us and he'll stoop to us in our weaknesses so that we glorify his name.

Listen, God will glorify himself through the empowered, through the divinely empowered efforts of weak nobodies Do you know how that true Do you know how you can just bank on that Because God used Jesus Do you remember what one of the disciples said when he heard that Jesus came out of Nazareth? What good can come out of that town? Jesus did not have the background.

He did not have the credentials. He did not have anything by earthly standards that would caused people to look at him. I mean, for goodness sake, he was born in a stable. Right? And then he went to live in a town that everybody thought was the most impure in the whole land. And he came out of nowhere.

He was a nobody. And what happened to him? They nailed him to a cross. That doesn't look very powerful to me, does it to you? And yet in the very weakest point, the very lowest point of the ministry of Jesus, the very point where he looked absolutely powerless, is when God accomplished the most powerful thing in the history of mankind. He purchased a people for God and accomplished their redemption.

That's how I know that God will certainly use weak people. Nobodies. You see? Are you a doubter? Are you fearful? Are you weak Listen the answer to all that is yeah that me Well listen it is not your weakness that keeps God from working it's your delusions of strength when you start saying okay I'm pretty confident now I can serve God that's not the place to be when you can say God I don't think I can do this I desperately need your help God will use you remember God uses those who don't have power or credentials or any of those things he uses weak people who look to him Father thank you for your word thank you for the story of Gideon Lord we can see ourselves in that man Lord impress upon us that you do great things through weak people.

Please, Lord, help us to see that. Help us to quit looking for the magic formula and to realize that in ordinary, everyday circumstances, you work through ordinary people and you accomplish great things. So, Father, give us the kind of faith that looks to you in our weakness, counting on you, not on ourselves, but on you to accomplish it through us. Thank you in Jesus' name.

Amen.