Warriors are Wimps 2

Hello Everyone,

Judg. 6:1-2

The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites. ² Because the power of Midian was so oppressive, the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in mountain clefts, caves and strongholds.

God’s people were handed over to humiliation at the hands of the surrounding nations because of sin and unfaithfulness to God.

When we abandon God, consequences are widespread and it affects everything about our lives.

Men have abandoned their homes because they are afraid.

Judges 6:11 The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites.

When we abandon God, oppression mounts and men respond in fear. Gideon was threshing wheat by hand rather than using cattle. This tells us the small amount of wheat he actually had.

And rather than doing it on a floor built for threshing, he was in a wine vat out of view for fear of being caught. Gideon was living his life in fear.

We’ve allowed the world to come in and capture our homes and our families and our purposes because we are afraid.

Our children are being kidnapped by sin and brainwashed by popular culture while we shrink in fear of what might happen to us if we fight back.

Many of us would rather our kids look like the world and fly under the radar than stand out for Christ and pay for it.

Men have abandoned their homes because they are weak.

Judges 6:15 “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family. ”

Our only excuse for apathetic Christianity is weakness; whether we mask it behind pride or behind humility and fear, the response is still weakness.

And weakness comes from ignoring strength!

Gideon certainly was not strong on his own merit.

God’s response to God’s call in Judges 6:16: “But I will be with you.”

God often chooses and calls people who are weak to fulfill His purposes because in our weakness, He is made strong.

2 Cor. 12:10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

When we hide behind weakness, we slap the God of the universe in the face because weakness isn’t about recognizing our limitations.

It’s ultimately about ignoring the POWER of God available to us.

·        When God calls, He equips.

·        When God calls, He provides.

And when we answer His call, He sustains us toward victory.

Many men today have abandoned their God-ordained responsibility to fight for their families because they have rejected God’s first-place status in their lives.

Even some Christian men who call Jesus Lord have forgotten God in the face of a warring world.

LISTEN: 2 Timothy 1:7 “For God has not given us a spirit of fearfulness,

but one of power, love, and sound judgment.”

God wants to answer our excuses with empowerment and to replace our fearfulness with fearlessness.

Greater Things Are Still To Come!

Pastor Phil