Warriors or Wimps 3

Hello Everyone,

Rather than abandoning us, God chooses to transform and strengthen us.

He consumes us (Judg. 6:17-21).

¹⁷ Gideon replied, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign that it is really you talking to me. ¹⁸ Please do not go away until I come back and bring my offering and set it before you.”

And the Lord said, “I will wait until you return.”

¹⁹ Gideon went inside, prepared a young goat, and from an ephah of flour he made bread without yeast. Putting the meat in a basket and its broth in a pot, he brought them out and offered them to him under the oak.

²⁰ The angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened bread, place them on this rock, and pour out the broth.” And Gideon did so. ²¹ Then the angel of the Lord touched the meat and the unleavened bread with the tip of the staff that was in his hand. Fire flared from the rock, COMSUMING the meat and the bread. And the angel of the Lord disappeared.

Gideon wondered about the wondrous signs his ancestors experienced.

Judg. 6:13 “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.”

He soon found out that the wonder was in the consumption.

Because we are the consumer in every other area of our lives, we bring that philosophy to God as well. In the economy of Christ, we are not the consumers; we are that which is consumed.

When Gideon followed the instructions, laying out the offering on a rock, the Angel of the Lord consumed it with fire (v. 21).

Romans 12:1-2 reminds us that we are the living sacrifice.

Hebrews 12:29 reminds us that our God is a consuming fire.

For men to step up and be courageous fathers, it means being consumed by God. For Christians to step up and be mighty warriors in the army of God, it takes laying our lives on a rock and being completely consumed by God.

• Is your life consumed by progress or by being used by God?

• Is your life consumed with yourself or by your desire to serve others?

• Is your life consumed by career or by being centered on family?

He breaks us Judg. 7:1-8.

Early in the morning, Jerub-Baal (that is, Gideon ) and all his men camped at the spring of Harod. The camp of Midian was north of them in the valley near the hill of Moreh. ² The Lord said to Gideon, “You have too many men. I cannot deliver Midian into their hands, or Israel would boast against me, ‘My own strength has saved me.’ ³ Now announce to the army, ‘Anyone who trembles with fear may turn back and leave Mount Gilead. ’” So twenty-two thousand men left, while ten thousand remained.

⁴ But the Lord said to Gideon, “There are still too many men. Take them down to the water, and I will thin them out for you there. If I say, ‘This one shall go with you,’ he shall go; but if I say, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ he shall not go.”

⁵ So Gideon took the men down to the water. There the Lord told him, “Separate those who lap the water with their tongues as a dog laps from those who kneel down to drink.” ⁶ Three hundred of them drank from cupped hands, lapping like dogs. All the rest got down on their knees to drink.

⁷ The Lord said to Gideon, “With the three hundred men that lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands. Let all the others go home.” ⁸ So Gideon sent the rest of the Israelites home but kept the three hundred, who took over the provisions and trumpets of the others.

God often uses that which is weaker and less likely to win to accomplish His purpose.

He made a stuttering man His mouthpiece (Moses) and a shepherd boy a mighty king (David).

He made a simple virgin (Mary) the mother of His Son and an enemy of God (Paul) the champion of the church.

God often gets GLORY when the weak become weaker only to surprise the world with His might and strength.

Greater Things Are Still to Come!

Pastor Phil