Judges Study 2026-09-23

Welcome to the Lansdale Life Church podcast.

If you're seeking a closer relationship with Jesus Christ, this podcast is for you.

Thank you for joining us today.

All right.

Our focus, Lord, comes to you because what you have done for each independent life here.

Our focus is directed toward who you are and what you are.

Thank you for blessing us, watching over us, and loving us so much.

And we thank you, Father, that we can gather and we can break your word, look at the

meaning of things that were bygones and years and thousands of years ago.

And yet, in that truth, we see redemption in everywhere we read and everything that we

talk about.

So, Father, bless us tonight as we break the bread and we trust, Lord, that we will

be fed and edified and give you the glory in Jesus' name, everyone said.

Amen.

Amen.

Well, before we start tonight, I'm trying a new approach to the general lesson.

I usually take the chapter outline and go through it line by line.

Tonight, I am just going to hit the highlights when I get to that page, and

then we will take the sections that are applicable to information and put them

on the page, read through that, give you a little bit more definition, and then talk

about that.

So, I don't know whether it's going to work or not.

I've been thinking about trying to do something different than trying to load you

up on the front end because some of the stories that we have gotten into are

rather complex, and yet, you need to know the background and the logistics of

what's happening in order to get a better perspective.

So, tonight, we're talking about Gideon.

We're talking about his calling and preparation in Judges 6, 1 through 40.

So, instead of going through every one of these lines and giving you that total

perspective, I'll just read the red line, and it'll help us understand what's at

least going to happen.

So, Israel sins if that's nothing new, and the Midianites oppress the Israel, and

then God sends an unnamed prophet.

We'll never know who he is, but it's unnamed, and he declares the word of the

Lord, and that's a word of repentance, and then the angel of the Lord calls Gideon.

He sits by a tree and he calls him, and Gideon responds very strangely, and then

Gideon tears down Baal's altar as an instruction that was given to him, and the

spirit of the Lord comes upon Gideon, and then they war, and then Gideon's two signs

with the fleece in 36 through 40.

So, now, what we'll do, we'll talk a little bit about that summation, you can

see that through these scriptures, we see God continually demonstrating his love

to us, even when we were wayward or are wayward in our life and in our decisions.

Any mends to that?

Yes, like a hound dog of heaven, if you remember that sixties declaration, and

Gail's shaking her head, yes, so you're dating yourself, and then God's

redemptive desire for us is so much greater than our desire for him.

That's hard to believe, because in a traditional sense, oh, he's too busy, he's

got a lot of things to do, but yet, you know, through the scriptures, if you read

him, he cares about everything, he wants to be involved in everything.

That's why he says, cast your cares upon me.

And God then so craves our fellowship, and that's where we spend time with him,

that he will go to great lengths to call us and to bring us out of the sin that

we're in, the mire, the muck, the whole thing that we tend to get into when we

run our own lives.

And then I guess my question is, can anyone here quantify his love for us to

the lengths that he will go to redeem us?

I don't think we can.

We can give descriptions of things in our personal life, which would be different

than yours and yours and yours.

But to quantify the whole application of what God does is certainly a very

difficult thing to undertake.

I would say it's impossible.

There are many theologians, many books, thousands of pages, and yet it's still

not exhaustive in what his relationship is to his people.

So let me give you a background of the Midianites.

Let's set some perspective.

They were not simply an indigenous tribe that Israel failed to remove.

They weren't even part of the Promised Land.

They were a different nature, and they didn't live in Canaan.

And this, again, was not an opposition group, a splinter group trying to get

even, trying to come back at Israel.

They didn't even live there.

They were an external tribe to the southeast of Canaan, and that they

invaded seasonally for certain things, and certain things we'll be talking about.

And they lived, again, below and right of Israel.

The Midianites were not unknown people to Israel.

If you think about it, there are certain interesting things that come up.

In Exodus 2, 15 through 21, Moses fled Egypt after he was found out, and he

wanted to lead a life, bury himself in the desert, and where did he go?

He went to the land of Midian, where he married Zipporah, his wife, and he

lived there, and then God called him.

And then in Numbers 22 through 25, those three chapters, it talks about the

Midianites that were involved with Moab in trying to, and attempt, undermine

the Israelites through Balaam and through the city of Peor.

So there is a context of who they were all in the scripture before this.

And then Judges 6, 3, 3, 6 describes a cycle of annual invasion in Israel's land.

In other words, they came from the southeast, southwest, invaded the land,

and this is what they did.

Israel plants, the Midianites arrive, the crops are destroyed and stolen,

the livestock is taken.

And when you look about harvest, that's where all the calves are born,

that's where all the, you know, the fertility is already established,

so now they're taking all that wealth, and Israel becomes impoverished again,

and again, and again, and then Israel cries out to God for help.

That's the cycle that we see.

So the Midianites were a terror, and consequently, they goaded the nation

Israel into finally asking for repentance and help, of which the Lord gave them.

So now this is where we kind of change, so we're going to take one of those

topics, verses 1 through 6, and at least read it in an abbreviated form.

So Israel does evil in God's sight.

He allows the Midian to oppress Israel for seven years.

So that whole cycle, every fall that happens, Midians destroy Israel's crops

and livestock, and then it becomes, they become greatly impoverished, and they finally,

again, cry out to God.

So that's what it says in the six verses.

So now, if you remember the never-ending cycle of apostasy that Danny talked about

in his application a couple weeks ago, he talked about it, and it's the sin cycle,

commonly called.

It's where Israel sins, and they then are oppressed because the blessing is taken away.

They repent, they get deliverance from God, repentance first, then deliverance.

Then they have peace, things are good, and then they redo the whole cycle again,

and they relapse into where they're not supposed to be.

So that's what Danny did.

He killed that idea of what that is.

So here's a question for you.

Why does Israel so quickly relapse into paganism?

Why do you think that happens?

You know, you look and you read about these things and say,

well, my gosh, I don't think I would have done that, and maybe we wouldn't have.

Gail, what's your thoughts?

Because they don't really fear God.

Okay.

That's a very broad statement, but that's basically where they're at.

Because that leads to disobedience.

God is a convenience in their eyes.

When it's good, it's good, and when it's bad, it's bad.

Any other thoughts?

Also, when they see the other nations and they say, I want to be like them.

Yes, see the other aspect of it.

Well, we want a king, too.

Yeah.

The thing with Saul.

Yeah, they like to let the other nations.

So, one, their hearts, two, is what they see in physical, in other tribes.

Now, I don't know whether this cord is going to get back there or not.

Yeah, it's okay.

Number one, I'm a vegan guy.

You know what that means?

Okay.

I'm a vegan guy, and I deal with a lot of hardcore diseases.

So, my feeling is when you're eating livestock, you're eating the death.

You're eating the death of the mother, you're eating the death of the sister,

you're eating the death of the family.

That has to affect your brain.

Okay, so make that applicable to what you're doing.

So, what it is, is why they relapse because they're thinking it's not straight.

It's filled with death and harm from killing the animals.

So, they're thinking it's not straight.

Okay, so...

My opinion.

Well, that's okay.

So, why did they...

So, you take a jail.

You give me any prison or in jail.

You give me 30 days, that prison is going to be mellow.

You give me any juvenile delinquent.

You give me 30, 60 days, that juvenile will be mellow,

which means when you're eating death, it becomes part of who you are,

and that's why Israel relaps.

Okay.

My opinion.

All right, that's okay.

I guess I eat a lot of death then.

I'm a meat eater.

So, anyway, that's okay.

I mean, that's where we're at.

And there is some reconciliation to that thought.

But let's take a look a little bit further down the line

and see what we got here.

All right, you get out of there.

All right.

So, idolatry, like you were looking and saying,

okay, gee, what do they have over here?

Offered things that appealed, appealed heart, again,

to their desires, their fears, and what?

Their longing for control.

Those whole common things that we deal with.

And what did that manifest itself into?

Israel's desires then, an ultimate downfall, were these things.

They certainly needed fertility.

They wanted fertility.

The increase of their families.

They wanted rain for their crops.

Because, remember, they were all agrarian people.

There was no industry going on as such.

They wanted healthy animals to reproduce,

to give them the meat that they needed.

Agricultural prosperity, those that were farmers,

had wheat, had grain, had barley,

if you remember the sacrifices that were given.

So they wanted that.

They wanted sexual fertility to increase their families.

And they wanted protection from the enemies.

This is what they wanted.

They didn't think that God could do all that.

You know, it's like the old saying.

The Lord helps those who help themselves.

Remember that old cliche years ago?

God, I can do that.

I don't need the Lord.

Well, sometimes we do.

Sometimes we don't know.

We always need the Lord.

So how is that applicable to us today?

What are our desires and ultimate downfall?

And you can equate right across the line here.

Fertility is marriage, family, acceptance,

those things that we all look for.

The reign of crops is the financial provision

because it was crops, it wasn't money.

Then now it's money.

So that was an equation.

And then the healthy animals,

the anxiety about, again, possessions and assets

and things that we want to build.

And then the agricultural prosperity is our careers,

our success, and the business becomes so important

and consumed, we are consumed by that

that we forget the Lord because we're doing business.

Sexual fertility, again, the sexual pleasure

and gratification that people are certainly looking for

in our society.

And then lastly, the protection from our enemies.

For us, it's security and control.

So you were getting there with what your declaration was.

So there's nothing uncommon and nothing new.

It just generationally repeats itself time and time again.

And of course, God and his sovereignty

has given us a plan that repeats itself time

and time again for those of us

that have accepted the Lord.

So let me ask you these questions.

Do simple questions lead us to our downfall?

And this is where I kind of could go

if it wasn't for the Lord.

I believe in God, but I'm afraid

that he won't answer all my prayers.

Or will I be safe in his hands?

I don't know whether God will provide this,

so I need another way to make sure I get it.

And will I have enough money for my retirement?

That's always the thing,

when you finally raise your kids and put them through college

and then you start saving for retirement

and you say, okay, here comes the date,

getting closer, getting closer.

Do I have enough money?

Can I retire?

It's funny how people think.

And will I succeed at my career?

And will I experience the pleasure

and fulfillment of my desires?

So those things are questions

that we could broadly ask ourselves

that may be trip points for us

because what does Satan do?

Did God say, he talks in our ear?

Yes, Gail?

Well, I've been reading this book by John Bevere again,

the awe of God.

And he's basically saying that the main thing is

that we have to trust God and obey him.

And we have to revere God.

And we show our reverence for him by being obedient.

And this is what the Israelites failed to do

over and over and over, they didn't trust and obey.

And so they're consequently going

to keep having this downfall.

And it even says in James,

you don't get what you want because you're asking a miss.

You're not asking what God wants you to ask for.

You're asking for your own selfish desires.

So it starts there, I think, with pride.

You know, we can go back

and if any of you remember when we were talking

about the mapping that I did with Esau and Jacob,

the terrible family situations they come from.

The mother lied, the brother stalled.

You know, they didn't treat that child.

So, you know, that's in the DNA somewhere along the line.

And all of a sudden you come out,

oh, no wonder it's the family,

it's the 12 tribes, it's the 12 sons.

And so, hence, this is what we have.

Okay, I think she was first than you.

Yeah, we don't know what's best for us.

I married a man and his family was from the main line

and I really wanted the security and the stability

and a better life for my children.

I married him and we backslid in our faith.

We stopped going to church and we were broke.

We were desolate and if I hadn't married him

and made Jesus my husband and put God first,

we would have been a lot better off

and spared a lot of pain.

And we just, God knows what's good for us.

Like we have little kids and kids,

kids would eat dessert morning, noon and night

if we let them.

And, you know, we have to,

we know what's good for our kids.

God's knows what's good for us.

I'll wrap it up with a joke.

There was an atheist walking through the woods

and a bear started chasing him.

And he said, God, God, and the clouds roll back

and God says, you haven't talked to me in a while.

What now?

Convert the bear, make the bear a Christian.

God's like, are you sure that's what I want?

Yes, God, make the bear get saved.

God said, okay, fine, clouds close up.

The bear stops a foot away from him

and is totally serene, puts his paws together,

bows his head and says, dear Lord,

thank you for the meal I'm about to receive.

Yeah, right, that's good, that's good.

All right.

Actually, the third one reminded me of,

I don't know whether God will provide

so I'll go another way.

And it reminds me of King Asa.

Asa was really leaning on God.

And then he went to another ally to help him in war.

And God said, why did you go to him

when you could've came to me?

And then he got sick and went to a doctor.

He says, you could've came to me.

Like, it reminded me of that.

Like, why did you go another way?

And he lost his way just in those two things.

He was fine.

Why did he do it?

There's something about the ability of us decision makers.

There's not a pattern in our mind

that's all the same with every individual.

And it's just amazing how some people make choices

and you look at it and say,

boy, that was a dumb choice that person made,

but yet we may turn it around.

Some of the things that we have done in our experience too,

we make some dumb choices, that's for sure.

Okay, so we talked about two things

which was obedience, and what was your other one, Gail?

Trusting.

Yes, trusting, okay, that's good.

All right, let's take a little bit further.

Let's ask the question.

Have difficult circumstances ever caused you

to recognize a spiritual problem

that you had previously overlooked?

And you can explain that.

In other words, you're going along,

difficult circumstances, and all of a sudden you realize,

and now that can be through the mouth of others.

It can be the conviction of God,

but all of a sudden you realize

you were in error going the wrong way.

What's that look like?

Anybody ever experienced that?

All right, we see head shaking.

We'll go to Gail first.

We have to go to Gail.

Yeah, that's fine.

So I'm not gonna go into the big whole long story

because probably you're familiar with it,

but several years ago I did something

that really aggravated my daughter, Sally,

because I was just being obedient

and just doing what God told me to do,

and then she didn't talk to me forever since then.

But recently, I was reading another John Bevere book,

The Bait of Satan, and it was talking about

how as Christians, we're not to allow ourselves

to be offended.

We're supposed to be forgiving,

and so I realized that I had this whole list of stuff

against Sally that I hadn't forgiven her for,

and I was really offended by her attitude towards me,

and I thought I was justified in being defensive

and angry with her because of the way she was treating me

until I read that book and realized,

I need to be forgiving no matter what she's done.

I need to forgive.

Did you forgive her?

Yes.

All right, okay.

Good, long story short, very good, very good.

You know, those things like Gail was talking about,

you wanna hold on to them because you're justified.

And then when God comes along

and he kinda convicts you, it's, oh my gosh,

I gotta give that up.

I don't wanna do that.

I wanna feel angry.

I wanna, you know, it was unjustified.

I can remember, I was in business for quite a few years,

and before I traded my career there

to a career in education,

and I had one individual that absconded funds from me,

and it was about $14 or $1,800.

It was a federal offense.

And when I found it out,

my bookkeeper pointed it out to me,

and I said, okay, so what do I do?

So I felt bad, and then I felt angry,

and then I thought, okay, Lord, what do I do in this?

And I wanted to get even.

You know, that was the first response,

but I thought, okay, and this guy's a Christian.

You know, that really makes it worse.

And so I kind of looked, and I thought,

okay, Lord, this is not right.

I don't wanna feel this way.

So I forgave him, and then fired him.

But it's just one of those things

you can easily attach onto that thing

because you feel you're justified.

You know, he messed over me,

so I'm gonna do something to him to make him feel bad.

And it was then, I guess 10 years later,

was still in business, and I met his wife.

They were then divorced later on

in a trade show out in California.

And she came to me, and it was unsolicited.

I said, hello, Nadine, how are you,

da, da, da, you know, small talk.

And she said, John, she says,

I wanted you to know that that was not my decision.

She said, I'm sorry that we ever did that,

and I apologize.

I said, hey, it's all, I mean, I forgot about it.

But it was the idea that there was forgiveness to him,

and then on behalf of her husband or ex-husband,

and she came up and asked for forgiveness,

I said, okay, that's a cleanse palette.

I mean, that finishes the whole thing.

So, you know, you can keep on those things,

and I wonder where you would be, and I would be,

if we kept grabbing ahold of those things.

After a while, we'll stone our growth in the Lord

because we're so affixed on those things.

And isn't it true that the longer you keep affixing

on these things, the bigger they get,

and the colder you get in your relationship with the Lord

because you're so into it.

So, that's good.

Any other thoughts?

All right, seven through 10 now.

God sends an unnamed prophet.

God reminds Israel that he delivered them from Egypt.

In other words, this is what I did.

He laid it all out there.

And he commanded them not to worship

the Gods of the Amorites, but they failed to obey him.

So, he made the clarion call,

and that's what he said to them.

Now, God's love is not withdrawn from his people

when they disobey.

But his blessing and favor can be affected by their,

and this is back to what Gail said, disobedience.

You know, there's a whole provision

that's laid out for you,

and so when you're not walking in that, what happens?

Well, you begin to see things that aren't nearly as clear

as when you were walking with the Lord

because of this impediment.

So, God's grace is freely given.

God loves us the way we are.

But God's blessing is often experienced

within the boundaries of obedience.

It's not that it is, if you do this, I'll do that,

but it is a condition of covenant

for us to obey him and listen to him.

And Israel did not lose God's covenant relationship.

They certainly did not.

But they lost the enjoyment of his protection and blessing

because they turned from him,

and as you would surmise, things got worse

and they were deprived and they were afraid

and they didn't have enough to eat.

Judges 6-11 says God didn't begin

by telling Israel how to defeat the Midianites.

What he did first is that he reminded them

why the Midianites have been allowed to oppress them.

Look, this is what you did not do.

This is what has happened now.

So he lays it all out there, very clear,

very straightforward, and the fundamental problem

isn't the military getting over the issue

of who's gonna fight who, it's what?

It's the spiritual battle.

That's the issue that God wants to get to.

So now another question, what is the difference

between God's love for his people

and his blessing or favor toward his people?

What's that look like?

What's the difference of that?

We touched on it.

Between God's love, which is unconditional,

and his favor?

Just rod and staff.

Pardon?

It just makes me think of the rod and staff of a shepherd.

The shepherd doesn't lose his love and care for the sheep,

but he has the rod to correct them

and the staff to gently lead them.

That's just the picture that I see with the question

is it's not that he has removed his love,

it's now I have to get the rod out instead of the staff.

And it's always we removing ourself

in the sin of the mind or sin of action

because he doesn't move, I mean, he's there.

Yeah, and also it's just like you are with your kids.

You love your kids, nothing's gonna change that.

But when they misbehave,

you're not gonna be blessing them with stuff

because they don't deserve it.

But it hasn't changed your love for them.

Isn't it funny how the picture of father and son,

mother and daughter and family interact

just like God loves us, it's just identical

the way creation has been brought about.

And I see blessing, God says he'll bless you

and I see obedience with blessing.

Yeah, that's right.

That's a good way to look at it almost.

And that's not a bargaining chip.

It's that you want to be obedient

and through obedience he will give you blessing,

that's for sure.

All right, yes, Jackie.

He's got it.

Our best interest in mind.

And so, we learn through our choices and all.

But we always know, we should as a mature Christian

know that he loves us.

Well, God can't do everything.

I was always told in college, in Eastern,

and I think, well, okay, you're going to theology school

and this is what your thoughts are?

Oh my gosh.

So, it's funny to see the reaction

between the two groups of people.

All right, God's love is rooted in who he is.

He is love.

And his covenant faithfulness is unto us

while his blessing and favor are related

to how his people respond to his obedience.

You said it all, very good.

And then God's love is not earned by our performance.

We can't earn that.

And it's not automatically withdrawn when we fail.

It's as we drift away and as we get consumed

within ourself that we begin to fail

and we begin to see things turn different.

And God's blessing and favor refer more specifically

to his provision, protection, guidance, success,

peace, and enjoyment of his presence,

fulfilling his purposes in our life.

That's the whole crooks of the thing.

Do we want God's presence?

And if so, and you seek him, he will give you

the things of your desires, of your heart.

And these things can be affected by disobedience.

So we said that, that was very good.

All right, now, the next series of verses 11 through 24

is the angel of the Lord calls Gideon.

So Gideon is secretly threshing the wheat.

And in some translations it says in a little valley,

others it says in a wine press.

And he was doing that because he was afraid of the Midianites.

He was stooping down.

He's probably doing it night.

And the angel of the Lord calls to him

and says, oh mighty man of valor.

And here this guy's trying to survive

and somebody says that, oh yeah, right, okay, man of valor.

And then Gideon questions.

Why is Israel suffering if God is with them?

This can't be.

And then Gideon replied that he only heard,

now that's just interesting, he only heard

of God's miracles that happened long ago.

You know, it seems so remote when it's put that way.

When all that we have studied in the Exodus

and the giving of the temple

and the rituals that they received

and God's presence was there.

And now generations, and here we are,

he only heard of them.

Secondarily, it's sort of cold

the way it's spelled out there.

Then God's commissioning Gideon.

He says to Gideon, go in your might

for I am giving you power to rescue Israel.

That's a commission to go

and an enablement with power to do what he is asked to do.

So he is equipped by declaration from the angel.

And we're gonna come back to that.

Gideon doubts God saying this, again,

my clan is the weakest one in Manassas.

And everyone else in my family

is more important than I am.

I'm a nothing.

Here I am, underneath the rock, so to speak.

Gideon views himself as what?

Hiding and afraid, that's the one thing that we see.

He doesn't know God's ways.

He heard of them, but he doesn't know them.

Do you think that after seeing the parting of the Red Sea

and the cloud by day, the pillar of fire by night

that you weren't a believer?

I mean, that would be still impressive,

but he only heard about it because he didn't experience it.

He doubts God, and then he focuses on his weakness.

Ah, I'm at the least of all these things.

And then he declares his insignificance.

That's what he feels about himself.

Now question, in light of that,

what self-made limitations have you overcome

since God came into your life and now speaks to you?

What have you overcome?

What's that look like?

What have you gotten victory over?

What limitations, what self-limitations have you had?

Go ahead.

I'm sorry, guys, we're not like, what are you?

I don't know whether I'm gonna reach it.

There you go.

Number one, I'm almost 80 years old, and I rock.

I've written 30 books.

That's through about God.

I've written about Chinese medicine

that explains every part of the body

and how is God related.

Right now, I'm on a mission to go to

as many churches as I can,

and give out green smoothies, God's food.

My goal is no disease in this world.

I think that could happen.

I think God is the ultimate answer

for pretty much all work disappears.

All mental illness disappears.

All crime history disappears,

as long as you have God in your heart.

Okay, now equate that to your limitation,

and now you're writing books.

No limitation, and because of God's commandment,

he goes, yes, spread the word.

What do you feel about yourself

when God started to call me?

I'm an addict when I don't wanna do it, or?

I don't know what I felt.

I just felt I was called upon.

Okay.

And then just do it, I don't wanna thank you.

So you yield it pretty shortly after God called you.

It took a while.

Yeah, it all-

It's been an effort.

Yes, I understand that.

Any other thoughts?

I've always suffered from low self-esteem,

and I was diagnosed with dyslexia when I was little,

and having a learning disability,

and I mean, I did graduate from college

with a three-point range GPA,

but I still, underneath it all,

don't think I'm smart enough to get a real job,

like a good job.

I've always worked menial jobs,

and, you know, feel that I've had limitations, so.

Did you think less of yourself than you should have?

I've always had a tendency to put myself down,

even when I didn't know that I was doing it.

I've gotten a little better being up in years,

but I still have that intimidation

of going into the corporate world.

Like, it's scary.

I had an experience during junior high,

and then in high school, you know,

again, I don't know how it is today,

but the guidance counselor always wants to talk with you,

and ask you about your career,

and I wasn't particularly a good student in high school.

All I want to do is race cars

and build hot rods and things like that,

and that was antithetical to what my parents were into.

They were into church life,

and the guidance counselor,

I think it was in 10th or 11th grade,

called me in and I, you know,

I don't know whether it was supposed to be a shock or not.

She said,

Crouch, he said,

you're not going to amount to anything.

And that stuck with me.

That's terrible, man.

Yeah, I mean, yeah.

So it stuck with me, and then,

okay, this is what I am,

and this is what I like to do,

so I did that, and all of a sudden,

I realized that that's not me,

and then I ran away and went into the service,

and the service paid for my college education,

and here I am doing what God wants me to do,

but it's those things when it was like,

it was sudden.

I thought everything was cool.

And she said,

Crouch, you're not going to amount to anything.

I said, wow.

You know, then, like you,

you kind of, you second-guess yourself and whatever.

Any other thoughts?

Any other limitations?

You know, this is kind of just a minuscule dumb one,

but I just, thinking over my life,

when I was a young person,

you know, I was always someone who was,

you know, I never wanted to like,

give my reports at school in front of people,

and you know, I was very nervous about

doing anything in front of anyone,

and it's funny,

but when I think about when the Lord came into my life,

and I began to start getting an understanding

of how much he loved me,

getting in front of people now,

there's no fear.

And it's not nerve-wracking.

It's not anything,

because it's just like,

you know, it doesn't matter how bad I feel,

whatever I'm talking about,

because, God, you still love me.

There's only one criticism that I have to her,

why she didn't put the hat on on Sunday.

You know, I thought, sure you were going to do that.

Okay.

I thought, boy, this is a good,

she's going to look cool in that hat.

And then you went through your thing,

and you walked off with a hat,

and I said, aww.

All right, anyone else?

Any other limitations that have kind of smacked you around,

and limit you in your thought processes?

All right.

Another question.

What direction, calling, or purpose

has God revealed to you,

in spite of these limitations,

since he came to dwell within you?

Okay, there's the limitations,

but now what is he doing in your life,

in spite of these limitations?

I don't, you know, I don't,

I don't mind getting up in front of people,

but when I first took speech in high school,

you know, you get up in front of the class,

and you do all these, you know,

reports onto this, and of that, and whatever,

and they got more complex,

the more the semester went on,

and the subject matter was deeper,

and you know, I just, great fear and trepidation,

but you know, and so I've overcome that end of it.

Any thoughts as far as where you're at,

what your calling is, in spite of

what your limitations are,

what your self-diagnosed limitations are, were?

All right, okay, we covered it then.

We'll continue on.

So you're getting a picture here.

Oh, woe is me, says Gideon.

So, verses 25 through 32,

God commands Gideon to destroy his father's altar to Baal.

Gideon obeys, but does it at night because he's afraid.

The men of the city then want Gideon's head,

and they want to kill him because of what he did.

He tore down the Asherah pole,

and he smashed the idol.

And then his father, Joash, defends him,

and I thought that was good,

saying that if Baal is really a God,

Baal can defend himself, and he stood up for his son.

I thought that was commendable.

Then Gideon receives the name Jerabel,

meaning essentially, let Baal contend.

So, that's what now happens.

So, God first addresses the idolatry.

Okay, we talked about that before he rescues them.

God cannot move forward for us

if sin stands in the way of redemption.

We touched on that obedience.

And then Gideon probably wanted God

to change his circumstances, like everything else.

Lord, take me out of these things.

Deliver me from.

And probably, as we all know,

that there is greater blessing and maturity coming

when we walk through them with God's grace

than if we would have been delivered from them.

So, the next point is,

we often ask God to remove the Midianites from our lives

while he is asking us to tear down the Baal

in our own hearts, whatever that may be.

Only you know what that is.

God first charged, changed Gideon's allegiance,

because he was looking at life,

and this is the way it is,

and oh my God, this is who I am.

And this altar and wooden pole then becomes a lesson

about what competes with God

in our worship and alliance to him.

And as God has probably revealed to you many times,

there are certain things.

It's like I always have used the illustration

that's not uncommon,

that God wants to come into your heart,

but how many rooms of your home are you going to give him?

One, the living room.

Well, there's bedrooms and there's a locked basement.

I don't want him in there.

And then after a while, you go along and okay,

you kind of open the door to the basement.

Oh, it's all trashy down there.

Close the door open.

And then he cleans that up,

and after a while, you have a clean house.

That's what God wants.

So, 33 through 35,

the Spirit of the Lord comes upon Gideon,

Midian Amalek and the other Eastern peoples

gather against Israel and they call for a battle.

So, there's a clarion call.

The Spirit of the Lord comes upon Gideon.

Now, isn't that interesting?

What does this phrase mean, comes upon Gideon?

Well, I believe it was the Holy Spirit,

although it wasn't given at that point in time,

but the Holy Spirit has ascended on different people

in the Old Testament and empowers him

and strengthened him and equipped Gideon

to accomplish something well beyond his natural ability.

So, there was this inspirational time

when God through the Holy Spirit came to him.

It does not mean that Gideon suddenly became

a different person intellectually or physically.

As we know, it's still us, but God works through us.

So, what did Gideon see in all this?

Gideon saw his inadequacy.

We could say amen to that sometimes, right?

I mean, you know, Lord, I'm not adequate.

What did God see?

Well, God saw his potential through God's power

coming into his life.

God looks at us, not what you are, who you are,

but he looks at the finished product

or the mature product way down the way.

Aren't you glad he looks at that and he encourages you

and he gives you strength to do what he desires you to do?

Then Gideon focused on who he was.

We already went through that listing of things,

whereas God focused on who he would become.

That's the way God looks at us.

And then last, Gideon saw his weakness

and we all deal with that in some fashion or another.

And then God supplied his Holy Spirit to strengthen him,

to do the work of service that he called him to.

Okay, question.

How do we move from focusing on our inadequacies

to allowing God to do his transforming work in our life?

What does that look like?

How do we move from being stuck,

not sure of ourself, hiding under a rock,

thrashing the wheat in the wine pit

to transformation of ministry?

What's that look like?

How does that happen?

Well, God wants us to focus our attention

off of ourself and onto him.

And it's just like Peter,

when he was walking on the water to Jesus,

as long as he stayed focused on Jesus, he could walk.

As soon as he took his eyes off of Jesus

and looked at the circumstances around him,

he started to sink.

So it's the same thing with us.

It comes down to prayer.

You have to pray because we're all feeling adequate

in something.

And I think we need to pray and say,

God, I trust you and you're gonna fall through

what you're gonna fall through.

And I'll add to that, pray without ceasing.

Because sometimes you pray and okay,

then you forget about it,

then you go back and then you trust.

Yeah, sure you do.

Yeah, trust it.

Yes, Jenny.

I think just having the humility

to recognize our limitations

and to ask the Lord to make up the difference

and to know that we can't do it alone.

God doesn't call the qualified,

he qualifies the ones he calls.

Yeah, he puts the calling first,

he fills the vessel.

Whatever strength you have,

he then brings you to a level of ability to do that

and we cannot do it on ourself.

Yes.

I was just gonna say that I think

sometimes we forget to repent.

Yeah.

And when we see inadequacies in ourselves,

I think when we realize that we're using them

as excuses and when we bring it to God

and we repent for thinking that way about ourselves,

he has a bigger platform to work, shall we say.

You will do this.

Okay, Lord.

Yeah.

Yeah, there's a friend of mine in our retirement community.

He's not a very healthy man and long story short,

he had to go to the hospital over in Lansdale here

and I thought, well, you know, I need to visit him

and then I thought of every excuse.

You know, today I was telling Ken,

I had a prayer meeting that I officiated,

then I spoke at a luncheon and now we have tonight

and I thought, well, I can't do this.

And then I passed his wife in the hallway

and she says, oh, Gene called you,

he's excited about you coming.

I thought, okay, that's it, so tomorrow I'm going.

And it's not like I didn't want to,

but you know, circumstances and you know,

you go, okay, well, maybe if yes,

but so that's all now taken care of, I'm going.

And you can ask me Sunday if I was obedient, okay?

If you put eyes on it, then I know I'll do it, right?

Okay.

Acknowledge our inadequacies.

Lord, I don't have these things,

I don't have these attributes, but don't dwell on them.

Acknowledge them, get them out there.

Lord, you're gonna have to fill me

and do something in my life in order for me to do the calling.

And Paul did not deny his weakness, he brought it to God.

It's been in the epistles many times.

Shift your focus from what you can't do

to what God can do.

And that's kind of what you said, Jenny.

Instead of asking, what can I do, which is nothing,

begin to ask God, what can you do through me?

And he will fill that in.

Ah, there we are.

How are y'all?

Do you want to take the mic and take over here for us?

Yeah, no, I'm not wrapped up yet.

God bless you.

All right, surrender rather than strive.

And you know, in traditional church,

there's a lot of striving that goes on

to get to attain to.

And if we understand what that's all about,

we don't have to strive anymore

because he brings the strength

through his Holy Spirit to us.

And then in 12.1, Romans 12.1, it says,

he calls us to present ourselves to God as a living sacrifice.

And then allow God to change things

from the inside out.

Romans 12.2, be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Well, I can't do these things, I don't have that ability.

No, you don't.

But inside, God transforms you by the Holy Spirit

and gives you the adequacies that you need.

And then the last, trust the process.

And this is interesting.

A piece of clay doesn't become a finished vessel instantly.

Isaiah 64.8, we are the clay

and you are the potter, oh God.

And all of us are the work of your hands.

Let me digress a little bit.

My wife is in ceramics down in one of the community rooms.

And I never realized what goes into making pottery

because she's roped me in now

because she doesn't have the dexterity,

so I have to help her.

And to be honest with you, I don't like to be there,

but I help her because I love her.

But the ceramics, I mean, first,

you take the piece of clay

and there's this great big marble table.

You literally pound the clay

and get the air pockets out of it.

And all the resistance and you can make the equation,

I'm not gonna go through all that.

And then after you're finished kneading it

and working it and making it pliable,

then you take it over to this mill

under a piece of tarpaulin, cloth top and bottom

and you roll the clay like you would dough.

You know, my gosh, you know.

Then you form it in whatever fashion

and then maybe it doesn't work well

or you wanna change things in your...

And I think, you know, this is such a long process.

You know, I like immediate gratification,

something that lasts an hour

from the beginning to the completion.

But no, this takes weeks to do.

And I think, you know, Lord, that's a good example

because I understand it takes time

to be formulated and readied

and made into the vessel of choosing

that not what we want, but what he wants.

And sometimes we rip that clay off that thing

and wanna make ourself into something

that we can't just start all over again

because what he wants is what he wants.

Obedient children.

All right, so we get the picture.

All right.

Gideon's two signs with the fleece.

Gideon asked God for confirmation of his calling.

The first request was make the fleece wet

and the ground dry.

I wanna make sure it's you, Lord.

And he wasn't sure.

So then he says another request,

make the fleece dry and the ground wet.

And then God patiently, and I use that word,

confirms that he will deliver Israel through Gideon.

Now let's take a look at that.

I would not regard putting out a fleece

as a normal way for a Christian to hear from God today.

For one thing, Gideon had already received

very clear direction in Judges 6.14.

Be strong because I am giving you the power.

That way we made an asterisk on that.

And Judges 6.16, rescue Israel

because I am giving, going to help you defeat them.

So there was a surety of his commitment to this.

Now, rather, the inward voice of the Holy Spirit

should be the one that we are listening to.

And it has strong biblical support

because in Romans 8.14, it says,

for as many as are led by the Spirit,

they are the sons of God, led by the Spirit.

Romans 8.16, the Spirit itself bears witness

with our spirit, in other words,

there's confirmation within.

The Holy Spirit's guidance should never be

automatically equated with every thought

and feeling and impression or inner voice we experience

because you probably know a lot of people

that have gone off on the deep end.

God hears things and they can hear God in a rock

and so to speak as things go on.

Our emotions can mislead us.

We can sincerely believe something is from God

when perhaps it's not from God.

So let's develop this a little bit more.

Why fleeces can become problematic.

Suppose I say, God, if I should take this job,

let the first car I see tomorrow be red

and long behold, the car is red.

Goes, oh, God told me.

Okay, that's great.

The scripture never establishes this

as a method of divine guidance.

It doesn't say that, but remember,

Gideon came from a very weak state.

He had to physically see something.

The danger is that we can begin to create tests for God

rather than leaning and learning on the spirit of God

and trusting him and his voice and his leading.

That's where he wants us to be.

He wants us to be so attuned to him

that we hear that still small voice on the inside.

Yes, this is what you should do.

No, this is what I don't want you to do and so forth

rather than putting these things such in physical things.

And it says in Matthew 4.7,

Jesus warned against putting God to the test.

So that way of exercising faith

is not a healthy relationship with the Lord.

Gideon's fleece reveals his lack of maturity

and we said that, his lack of faith.

It shows that he was continuing in his weakness

when he did that, though God showed him

in verse 14 and 16 what to do.

Yet God accommodated him.

How then should we understand God's voice?

Well, what's that look like?

In a very short form,

God primarily reveals himself to us through his word.

The Holy Spirit takes the word,

brings it to our conscience.

Our consciousness is then learned

and trained by the Holy Spirit.

We begin to hear God's leading

and then we begin to execute.

And also wise counsel, which is the church among us

and the circumstances that can confirm things.

But it's just not this well.

We all make the car red.

You know, that doesn't work.

John 10, 27, my sheep hear my voice

and I know them and they will follow me.

Don't say, how can I get God to give me a sign?

Say this, how can I become so familiar with God's word

and so sensitive to his Holy Spirit

that the voice inside will begin to speak to me

and I will recognize and follow it?

Now that is a learned process.

That doesn't happen overnight.

When you begin to yield and you experience

a calling of something that God wants you to do,

you get so excited.

But that should be the common way

when we move through life on a daily basis.

That he speaks to us and he guides us

and he works with us.

And as we become visibly taken with the word of God

and let that Holy Spirit work through us

and we begin to hear that, that voice becomes something

that is very regular in our relationship

and very, I wouldn't say loud,

but you know it's distinctive between what my emotions are

and what God wants.

And that's a learned process.

If you don't spend time in his presence just waiting,

reading God's word and doing it, it ain't gonna work.

Okay, five minutes of reading, two minutes of prayer.

I'm out the door.

It's not gonna really work.

God will honor you, but it won't work in the long term.

Yes.

Well you know how you said here

that being in his word and all that

and I mentioned this a couple weeks ago

with the one guy I've mentioned.

I told you a while back to Helens.

He says we have to look at everything

from a divine viewpoint.

And also Billy Graham says that we have to look for God

in the fingerprints, look for his handiwork

in his fingerprints all around us.

He's constantly speaking to us

and we have to be aware of it.

You know what's interesting, along those same lines,

our house opens up into a vault sunroom

and it has skylights in it and there's a great big view

and out that view is nature and birds

and we have a lot of flowers.

We get hummingbirds and yellowbirds and the whole thing

and it's so beautiful.

And I have been recently in the last year and a half

after we listened to Dutch sheets in the morning, right?

Then the bird songs come up and I punch that

and we do some devotions with it.

And I got so enamored so recently with nature

just letting it speak to me.

Lord, I mean, and every bird is different in its color.

And you know, that's another sign that we can draw upon.

I mean, it's soothing to the soul,

you know, to the spirit too that you look at these things

because that's his creation.

You know, it's just another aspect of what he is to you

or who he is to you.

Yeah, yeah, for sure.

Now, don't get me wrong.

I'm not gonna go off into a theology of birds.

No, that's not gonna happen.

No, we're grounded.

All right.

So.

God calls an unlikely and faithful man.

He transforms his faith through obedience

and uses him to deliver Israel.

Not because Gideon is naturally courageous.

We covered that.

He's anything but.

But because God promises surely I will be with you.

And that's the story that we give.

Then the question becomes to you and I,

what am I missing because I am looking at my limitations

instead of trusting God's presence?

And that's an unanswerable question

that I won't ask publicly,

but it's what you wanna go home with.

What's God saying to you?

What is this?

What am I missing?

What could I be?

What could I be doing?

Who could I be in a greater sense in his word

and strengthen?

Because I'm looking at my limitations

instead of trusting God's presence.

So Lord, we thank you tonight

for what you have done in all of our hearts.

We thank you for participation.

We thank you, Lord, that we can converse about your word.

We thank you for the lessons

that we can learn from Gideon.

Lord, you loved him in spite of his own limitations

and you used him.

So use everyone here tonight.

Let the Holy Spirit dwell strongly within them, Lord.

Let them feel your presence and hear your voice, Lord,

so they can do your bidding.

And Lord, we won't pick and choose

those things you want us to do.

We will yield to them no matter what the cost, Lord,

and the time and the treasure that we have

that we would glorify you in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, amen.

God bless you.

Thank you for coming tonight.

Thanks for joining us at Lansdale Life Church

as we praise God and discuss his word.

Don't forget to join us for Worship Lives Sunday mornings

at 10 a.m. Eastern on YouTube.

Be blessed and have a great day.

Amen.