gideon sermon synopsis

Judges 6

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

The continuing cycle of God's people:

1. Dwell in the land with contentment.

2. Get restless and start doing stupid stuff

3. Fall into bondage.

4. Cry to God.

5.Experience Abba's Rescue

6. Dwell in the land with contentment

and so forth...

The kids just didn't get it. Short memory and a wandering heart leaves them unable to rest.

Then the angel of the LORD came and sat beneath the oak tree at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash of the clan of Abiezer. Gideon son of Joash had been threshing wheat at the bottom of a winepress to hide the grain from the Midianites. The angel of the LORD appeared to him and said, "Mighty hero, the LORD is with you!"

A mystifying passage!  Gideon is hiding wheat from the midianites and the angel of God calls out to this fearful man "Might Hero!" 

Lesson #1: God sees our destiny as much if not more than he sees us today. Before Gideon led anything but farm animals, God tagged him as a hero.

In Chapter 6 verse 15 we see a man giving reason's why God shouldn't use Him.

Lesson #2: Man's qualifications for leadership are different from God's qualifications. Being in the right family, in a place of power are really of no use to God. God glorifies himself in weak, powerless, and unimportant people because in using them He reveals the power and awe of His glory.

Listen to what the angel of the Lord says to Gideon as they begin to parse the army down to a remnant.

GOD said to Gideon, "You have too large an army with you. I can't turn Midian over to them like this--they'll take all the credit, saying, "I did it all myself,' and forget about me. (Judges 7:2- The Message Bible)

God always will choose a remnant. When given the choice of working through 32,000 or 300, He'll take the 300 every time.

The warriors weapons:

A Pitcher to break:  God can use our brokeness to defeat the enemy

A Trumpet:  Making a joyful noise (praise and worship) is our greatest weapon against the demonic.

God defeated the Medianites with a small remnant. We have a choice between a life in the masses or a life in the remnant. It's pretty scary to be in the remnant. It takes lots of fortitude and chutspa. But the really great life is in there!

Do we take the sword of the Lord or do we use our human weapons? Here's a list of manmade weapons:

• The Sword of Self Sufficiency
• The Sword of Wrath
• The Sword of Pride
• The Sword of Revenge
• The Sword of Performance
• The Sword of Religiousity
• The Sword of Manipulation
• The Sword of threats
• The Sword of Anger
• The Sword of Gossip
• The Sword of Intellect
• The Sword of Self-preservation
• The Sword of Lies
• The Sword of Unfaithfulness