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 Welcome to the Lansdale Life Church podcast.

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

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 Thank you for joining us today.

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 Jesus, we thank you that we can gather together tonight. We thank you, Lord, that we are here

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 among friends in fellowship with each other, Lord, and in fellowship with your Spirit, Lord. We

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 thank you, Lord, that your Spirit and your Kingdom, Lord, are within us, God. And wherever we go, God,

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 your presence goes with us. We thank you for this opportunity, God, to just immerse ourselves

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 in Scripture, Lord. And through that process, we grow closer to you, Lord, and closer to your

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 heart, God. And you go closer to us, and we begin to learn more of your ways, Lord. You teach us

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 through Scripture. You guide us through Scripture, God. You are a light to us. And we pray, God,

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 that you just open up our hearts, God, and clear our minds, Lord, to receive what you have for us

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 tonight, Lord. And we pray that you speak to us through your Spirit, Lord, and we will become

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 more in tune, more aware, God, of you and your presence in our life and the direction you have

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 for us, Lord. We pray for opportunities, Lord, to take your Kingdom to those around us, Lord,

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 in a real, tangible way. In Jesus' name, amen. All right. So we are in Judges 7 tonight.

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 And Judges 6, you know, Israel was once again in this cycle of rebellion and oppression and sin.

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 For seven years, the Midianites had basically devastated the land and destroyed the crops and

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 livestock, forcing the Israelites to hide in caves. And through all of this, God calls an unlikely

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 hero by the name of Gideon, who himself is hiding and is in fear. And we'll learn more about that

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 by the end of chapter 6 that John took us through last week, Gideon was reluctantly answering the

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 call of God to gather an army and to begin looking across the valley at the massive Midianite force

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 that was in front of them. So it kind of sets the stage for what's going to be happening in

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 Judges 7. Now, I named this the original 300, because if you're a guy, most likely a guy,

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 you saw the 300 movie years ago with Gerard Butler. And it was very much a guy movie,

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 so just lots of just great, you know, violent scenes. And it's, you know, it's the story of,

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 you know, Leonidas, the Spartans, and they were going up against the just

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 massive and destructive Persian army. And this is a story that even if you haven't seen the movie,

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 you know, you most likely have heard the story of Leonidas and the 300 Spartans who held off for a

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 brief time the Persians and the immortals. And, you know, they were strategically placed in this

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 narrow pathway, thermopoly, it was called, and only a certain amount of Persians could get through

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 at a time. So they did a devastating amount of work to the army before they eventually

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 succumbed to them. But they had similar odds against them. It was 300 Spartans

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 against, you know, between they say 100 and 150,000 Persians. And we'll see here that there are

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 about 300 of the Israelites, of Gideon's Israelites, going against 130,000 Midianites. Not just

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 the way that they went about battle was radically, radically, radically different. Leonidas was a very,

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 you know, egotistical, strong, you know, man who relied on his strength and his leadership,

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 whereas Gideon did the exact opposite that we will see. So let's start with the text.

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 So Judges 7-1 starts out. Early in the morning, Jerobo, that is Gideon, and all his men

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 camped at the spring of Herod. The camp of Midian was north of them in the valley

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 near the hill of Moreh. So it already starts out with something a little confusing. Jerobo

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 was the name Gideon received after tearing down his father's altar to Baal in chapter 6.

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 It essentially means, let Baal contend with him. Now, I have no idea. I kind of researched this and

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 I really can't come up with any reason why they introduced this name and then just abandoned it.

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 So, you know, they gave him this name and it had some meaning to it, but then they immediately go

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 back to Gideon. So some of you might be a little bit more astute at researching that and might

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 find out why. And he did that because I'm sure there's always a reason.

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 It's just a matter of being able to find it. So this is a significant thing to think about

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 in context of what happened here and what is happening here. So before Gideon could go up

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 against the enemy and before he could be the hand of God, you know, going against the Midianite,

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 God had to confront the idols inside his own household, inside his own camp. So, you know,

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 if we look back to Judges 6, 25 to 32, Gideon destroys the Baal altar and then the Spirit of

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 closed Gideon and he begins to gather the army. So, you know, he had to deal with what was in

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 his own camp before he could go out. So just to give you some context, and I looked for

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 some photographs here and some maps to try to give you a little context and I just couldn't

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 really find anything that gave the right perspective of the lay of the land, let's

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 just say. So they were at the base, so Gideon and his men, they were at the base of Mount

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 Gilboa. So at the spring of Herod. So centuries later, Saul would be in this exact same location.

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 They have it as a slightly different name in 1 Samuel 29.1, but it's the same exact location. So

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 he gathered his armies here as well, Saul did, and it was at the same spot, Mount Gilboa,

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 and he was fighting the Philistines. And unlike Gideon, you know, who ultimately trusted in God

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 in 1, Saul acted out of fear, he acted out of his own ambition, and he ultimately died in battle

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 in this very spot centuries later. So, Midian was camped down below in the valley. So they were at

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 the base of the mountain where the spring was, and we'll talk about the spring in a minute,

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 and the Midianites and Malachites, they were all down further in the valley.

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 So, let's move on to 2 and 3. So the Lord said to Gideon,

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 you have to take many men. You have to take many men. I cannot deliver Midian into your hands,

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 or Israel would boast. No, he says, I'm sorry. You have too many men. I cannot deliver Midian into

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 your hands, or Israel would boast against me. My own strength has saved me. Now announced to the army,

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 anyone who trembles with fear may turn back and leave Mount Gilead. So 20,000 men left,

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 while 10,000 remained. You have too many men. Just what a leader wants to hear before he goes into battle.

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 So, as he's facing already, what did I say? Four to one odds. So there was 130 some thousand odd

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 Midianites and Malachites, and there was 32,000 of them. Big odds. So every person,

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 every Israelite would have had a kill, four. That's pretty significant odds, but God makes

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 this incredible statement, you have too many men. So the people were too many for God to give

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 the Midianites into their hands. So out of 32,000, 20 some thousand left, and he was left with 10.

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 From Gideon's perspective, he had too few already with the 32,000. From God's perspective,

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 he had too many. So God says,

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 with that many, you might be able to say you kind of did it on your own.

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 And what I love about this is, you know, God knows our hearts. He just knows our hearts.

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 And he knows human nature. I mean, he knows that, especially in battle like this, or

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 people rely on themselves. And how often do we struggle with this idea ourselves?

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 Quick to do something on our own, quick to do something in our own strength.

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 I don't know about you, but I do it far too often. I'm quick to jump in with

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 my solution to things, and I'll get this done for you. And in doing that, we rob God of the glory

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 that's due him. So God knew this, and God is engineering circumstances that

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 will not allow anyone with reasonable logic to look at it and attribute it to human strength.

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 It'll be, he's laying out a scenario that is impossible to have been done with human

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 strength. So Gideon's left with 10,000 men after 22,000 leave.

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 So this is not the first time that God has, shall we say, coached his people

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 through this. It's not the first time that God has challenged the strength of man, saying,

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 you can't do this on your own. You might think you can, but you can't do this on you. And if

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 you do it on your own, you won't receive the blessing that I have for you, and I won't get

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 the glory that I need to get from this. So Deuteronomy 28 says, this is where

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 God is giving instructions for various things, and one of these things is warfare.

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 So he's giving instructions to Israel, and he basically says, if any one of you is

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 afraid or faint-hearted, let him go home, said his fellow soldiers will not become disheartened.

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 So this is not just a kingdom principle and a God principle, but this is just

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 one of those things that just has absolute truth to it. We've all been around

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 people who are encouragers, and they pull us forward with them. And we've also been around people

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 who are downers, and they bring us down with them. We've been around courageous leaders

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 that we would follow anywhere. Do you remember another, not so much of a guy movie, but it

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 could be a guy movie, The Patriot with Mel Gibson. Do you remember at the end where they're

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 basically on the retreat, they're getting crushed, and the British army is just going

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 full force after him, and they are running in fear, and Mel Gibson picks up the flag and starts

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 running against the grain of his men. And he's saying, follow me, and they all just turn and

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 follow him, and it just turned the complete force of what was happening against them for them.

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 So there's a spiritual aspect of this, but then there's also an emotional and mental aspect of

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 this where God is saying in Deuteronomy, look, if you're going to be fearful and faint-hearted,

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 just stay back, because we need men of courage here. And he was saying the same thing to Gideon

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 speaks. Zechariah 4.6 says, this is the word of the Lord to Zerubal, not by might, nor by power,

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 but by my spirit, says the Lord. And when we have faith in those words and we're able to move

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 forward with that, we're not believing in ourselves, we're believing in who's in us,

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 and for us, and behind us, and driving us forward. So God was simply reducing Gideon's army by

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 eliminating their ability to take credit for it. So he was systematically reducing it. So

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 think about it this way, in our own lives. Sometimes it's not necessarily God taking something away

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 from us, but it's God removing something from us that's prohibiting us from trusting him.

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 So it's not taking away something that's of value, something that we need,

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 it's maybe something that we're leaning on too heavy, something that we're trusting in too much,

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 instead of trusting in him. 4-8 says, but the Lord said to Gideon,

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 there are still too many men. Take them down to the water, and I will thin them out for you there.

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 If I say, this one shall go with you, he shall go. But if I say, this one shall not go with you,

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 he shall not go. So Gideon took the men down to the water. This would be the spring, by the way.

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 There the Lord told him, separate those who lapped the water with their tongues

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 as a dog lapsed from those who kneeled down to drink. So 300 of them

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 drank from cupped hands, lapping like a dog. All the rest got down on their knees to drink.

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 The Lord said to Gideon, with the 300 men that lapped, I will save you and give the Midianites

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 into your hands. Let all the others go home. So Gideon sent the rest of the Israel's home,

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 but kept the 300 who took over the provisions and the trumpets of others.

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 So it's a weird scene, right? But God is saying, you still have too many people.

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 But what a weird way to separate, right? I mean, it's kind of, it's weird.

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 But this gives you kind of a visual of what was happening. So you had some who were bending over

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 and others who were, you know, kind of sitting upright and drinking like this.

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 So God separated them according to how they drank. Now, there's some teaching that says, well,

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 the reason that God did this was a very practical reason because, you know, the ones that were

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 sitting up and they were ready or standing up and doing this, they were alert. Their heads were

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 up. They were watching around them in their circumstances, while those that knelt down were

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 much more vulnerable. We don't know. The text is not explicit about it. And again, you know,

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 there's conjecture about various things, but we just know that sometimes God does obscure things

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 to just make a point of something. And this was one of them. So he just separated them based

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 on, based on that. So 300 were chosen. So we went from 32,000 to 10 to 300.

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 So each man, each man, if they were going into battle, would have to kill 450 millionites.

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 One person would have had to kill 450 millionites. That's impossible. I mean, it's impossible.

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 I mean, just think about it. And that's exactly what God wanted. So God wanted the impossible.

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 A small force, because the size of the force was part of the message that God was saying.

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 And again, this isn't the first time something like this has happened. First

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 annual 14-6, Jonathan said to his young armor bearer, come, let's go over to the outpost

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 of those uncircumcised men. Perhaps the Lord will act on our behalf. Nothing can hinder the Lord

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 from saving, whether by many or by few. So he basically just says to his young armor

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 bearer, not even a warrior, someone that's, let's just go over to these uncircumcised men

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 and take care of business because God is going to be with us.

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 So, Psalm 27 says, some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord

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 our God. We trust in that. 2 Corinthians 12.9 reminds us that God's power is made perfect

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 in our weakness. And that is oftentimes so difficult for us to process, that God can do

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 the impossible through our weakness. Why was he doing this? Because impossible circumstances

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 make God's involvement unmistakable. God turns a difficult battle into a humanly impossible

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 battle. So let me share something with you on a personal note.

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 So, my company, I have a small company. My company over the past two weeks

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 lost a significant, significant piece of business, like the kind of business,

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 the kind of loss that can crush a company like ours. And I had to lay off

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 some people, which was just weighing so heavy on me. Some good people, people that had been

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 there for a long time. And this had been weighing and weighing and weighing on me

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 because I could see how impossible, such a large piece of business. And as I was

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 talking to the team after we had to lay some people off, I'm saying to them,

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 we don't have anything in front of us right now. We don't have anything in our pipeline

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 that's even a fraction of the size of what we just lost. So there's nothing in front of us

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 that's even close to it. The chances of us landing a piece of business like that

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 in the near future, it's impossible, almost. So I laid some people off Monday, and I'm laying

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 in bed Monday night, and I'm just about nodding off. And God gives me this, and I've been working

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 on this lesson since last week. And God just gives me this gentle nudge

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 and says, you're not connecting the dots here, are you?

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 And I thought for a minute, and I'm there, how could I have not been connecting the dots

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 with this lesson and with my situation? I'm faced with impossible odds. And I'm basically

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 even telling my own team that the ability to do this is just not going to happen in the near future.

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 Could happen six months down the road as we work on it. But something that

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 is impossible for me, and this all comes down on my shoulders because I'm

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 the owner of the company. So I'm bearing that weight. And God is saying, aren't you connecting

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 the dots here? Aren't you connecting the dots, Gideon? And it just dawned on me that I can't,

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 that it is impossible for me in this situation, but it's not impossible for God. God can do

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 anything. In fact, my perspective, I was holding God back from this.

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 So it's a powerful lesson for us to learn, and we don't like these kind of lessons. We don't,

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 none of us, none of us want to be in a situation where we feel vulnerable and helpless.

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 We don't. We build up strongholds around us, whether those strongholds are our wealth, whether those

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 strongholds are people that help us, whether those strongholds are positions in our workplace.

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 We build up strongholds. We build up things around us that keep us protected

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 and strong because we don't want to be vulnerable. And God needs us

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 to be weaker and vulnerable so he can be his strength for us because impossible circumstances

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 make God's involvement and God's glory and God's power unmistakable.

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 What's humanly impossible, what Gideon was looking at here, was humanly impossible.

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 You can't not give the glory to God.

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 So 9 through 11. Now the camp of Midian lay below him in the valley. During that night,

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 the Lord said to Gideon, get up, go down to the camp, because I am going to give it into your hands.

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 If you are afraid to attack, go down to the camp with your servant, Pura, and listen to what

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 they are saying. Afterward, you will be encouraged to attack the camp. So he and Pura, his servant,

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 went down to the outpost. God knows that Gideon is still afraid. He knows. And God says,

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 get up, go down to the camp, because I am going to give it into your hands. And notice the tense.

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 God speaks directly of the victory before it even happens. It's over before it even started.

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 God is telling him the victory is already yours.

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 But God is saying to Gideon, it's so, you know, to watch God as he's guiding Gideon through this

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 is just to me, just such a picture of a shepherd and how God leads us through these places.

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 God is basically saying, if you're afraid to go down, because he knows Gideon is still afraid,

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 he knows our hearts. He knows in the situations how we feel. We put up a front to people

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 that sometimes makes people view us differently, but God knows our heart.

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 So this is important because Gideon's faith, when we think of Gideon, when you think of that picture

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 that I had up in the beginning, my perception often of Gideon is that he's this fearless leader

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 with confidence who went into battle with 300 men and basically took out 130,000. But it's not

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 really who Gideon was. Gideon repeatedly struggled with fear and lack of confidence back in Judges

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 6.15. How can I save Israel? He says, how can I do it? Judges 6.17, Gideon says, well, okay, God,

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 if you think you're going to do this for me, give me a sign of some sorts. Judges 6.27, you know,

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 the altar at night because he's afraid of what the others are going to do and what they're going to

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 say. Judges 6.36, he asked for another sign. And then in Judges 7.10, you know, God just says,

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 come on, I know you're still afraid. And what God is saying here is when he's saying go down

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 to the camp, God is telling Gideon to move towards his fear. Go towards your fear and face your fear.

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 God is transitioning him from hiding from the Midianites to confronting them.

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 He's forcing him to confront his own fear. There's a great quote that I love.

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 It's not a scripturally-based quote. It's from a Roman stoic named Seneca. And he said,

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 we suffer more in our imaginations than we do in our reality.

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 Think about that for a minute. We suffer more thinking of the worst case scenario.

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 We suffer more worrying about what someone might think or do. We build things up in our minds and

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 we go over and over and over and over and over again in our minds, making it out to be this

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 huge thing that nine times out of ten turns out to be nothing, right? We suffer more and we are

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 fearful more in our minds than anywhere in reality. And that is a truth. And people,

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 it's something that we have to change because you're going to see here that when

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 Gideon changed his mindset, everything changed. We have to change our minds. That's what the word

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 repent means is we change our minds, we change our direction, we change and we go in that

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 opposite direction. We have to learn to use the power that God has given us to change how we

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 think about things. Scripture is loaded. It's everywhere in Scripture where it tells us to

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 think about these things. Think about what's good. Think about what's pure. Think about what's

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 right. Set your minds on things above. Set your minds on Christ. Look at the power of these,

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 but we have to focus on what God has in front of us and who God is in us

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 instead of allowing these things to build up in our minds because that is exactly,

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 exactly what was happening to Gideon. He was suffering in his mind and in his imagination

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 and that fear was building up. And God is saying, go down to that camp.

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 Go down and listen to what they are saying. With your own ears, Gideon, listen to what's happening

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 and be encouraged. Be encouraged. So the Hebrew idea behind this word encouraged is it carries

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 a sense of be strengthened by what you hear down there. Be made firm by what you hear down there.

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 So be strengthened by this. So Gideon needs this level of reassurance and God is saying,

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 go down to that camp and listen with your own ears. So God didn't send him into the camp

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 to learn whether he could win or not. He didn't send him down there to alter strategy or to

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 steal strategy or to understand what they were doing. He had already promised him that he was

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 going to win. He sent them down to build confidence, to build his faith. And notice that God didn't

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 remove what Gideon feared. He just took him closer to it so he could see what it was.

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 So faith, for us, faith isn't the absence of fear.

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 Faith is obedience while fear is presence. We believe and we push through that fear.

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 Joshua 1.9, be strong and courageous. The Lord your God is with you.

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 2 Timothy 1.7, God has not given us a spirit of fear.

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 12 through 15.

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 The Amininites and the Malachites and all the other eastern people that had settled in the valley

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 thick as locusts. Their camels could no more be counted than the sand on the seashore.

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 That's a sight to see. Gideon arrived just as a man was telling a friend his dream.

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 I had a dream, he was saying, a round loaf of barley bread came tumbling into the Midianite

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 camp. It struck the tent with such force that the tent turned over and collapsed.

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 His friend responded, this can be nothing other than the sword of Gideon,

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 son of Joash, the Israelite. God has given the Midianites and the whole camp into his hands.

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 So they were fearful as well. When Gideon heard the dream and its interpretation,

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 he bowed down and worshiped. He returned to the camp of Israel and called out,

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 get up, the Lord has given the Midianite camp into our hands.

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 So God lets Gideonite hear with his own eyes, with his own ears.

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 Even though he does, what's he see? He sees this overwhelming army, thick as locusts.

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 So many camels like the sand, you know, on a shore. He's face to face with the size of this army,

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 yet he hears this and Gideon listens as they describe the dream, a loaf of barley

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 as it tumbles into the camp.

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 Why barley? What's the significant of barley? You know, barley was a common, inexpensive grain.

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 You remember, I don't know, six months ago when we were talking about, in Acts,

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 the spring festivals where we talked about the first fruits. There's two festivals of the

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 first fruits and the first one was barley and it was the lesser grain. So wheat is considered,

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 you know, the better grain. So barley is common, it's inexpensive grain, it's associated with

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 ordinary people and it perfectly represents Gideon, right? Because that's who he is. So

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 he considered himself insignificant, Gideon did, least of the weakest clan. So barley loaf

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 represents kind of humble meek Gideon or Israel. The tent represents the powerful Midianite army

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 and the loaf overturns the tent because God uses the weak to defeat the strong. So God

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 chose the weak or the lesser things to display his strength. And this became so evident to Gideon

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 that when he went down there and he came back and said, yep, this is ours. God's given it to us.

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 1 Corinthians 1, 27, you know, God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise.

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 God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. The power wasn't in the barley loaf,

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 it was in the God who sent the barley loaf.

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 What we bring to the kingdom is not because of us. It's not because of our goodness and our

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 talent and our abilities or our prosperity. It's not because of anything that we have,

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 it's because of God's Spirit, God's kingdom in us. It's him in us.

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 Gideon's circumstances didn't change. Nothing changed. He still saw this massive

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 army before him. What changed was his perspective. There were still 300 Israelites going up against

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 135,000 Midianites. His mindset changed. How he viewed the situation changed.

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 God opened up his eyes.

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 And God was about to accomplish extraordinary things through this ordinary person.

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 And he does the same through us when we have faith and when we believe.

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 Another bit of that scripture that just really spoke to me was when Gideon's eyes were opened

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 to this, when the light was turned on for him, he immediately worshiped God.

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 He immediately worshiped God. So before he fought, before he engaged, he worshiped God and thanks him.

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 His heart was now ready. His heart was ready. And you can see through this next bit of scripture

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 that when his mindset changed, when his heart was ready, his attitude changed.

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 Everything about him changed. And he began to not make excuses and not be fearful,

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 but he began to think strategically for God.

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 Dividing 300 men into three companies, he placed, this is Gideon, dividing 300

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 into three companies. He placed trumpets and empty jars in the hands of all of them with torches

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 inside. Watch me, he told them, follow my lead. When I get to the edge of the camp,

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 do exactly as I do. When I and all who are with me blow our trumpets,

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 then from all around the camp, blow yours and shout for the Lord and for Gideon.

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 So first of all, this is a very strange battle plan.

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 Wouldn't you agree? Not quite what we would expect. Most definitely not what Leonidas

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 would have done with the Spartans. Leonidas was going head on with the Immortals,

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 but his mind shift, his mind and his perspective have shifted from fear and doubt and reservations to

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 strategically, here's how we're going to do this, guys. Unconventional, but strategic.

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 So he divides them up. He's got trumpets, he's got empty jars, he's got torches,

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 and they're not conventional battlefield weapons.

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 So we have a man who was a chapter ago, and even in the beginning of this chapter,

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 a leader that was fearful and not confident to someone who was bold, confident, fearless.

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 He was a different man. He was a different man.

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 19 through 22 says Gideon and the hundred men with him reached the edge of the camp

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 at the beginning of the middle watch, just after they had changed the guard.

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 They blew their trumpets and broke the jars that were in their hands. The three companies blew

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 the trumpets and smashed the jars, grasping the torches in their left hands and holding them in

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 their right hands. And the trumpets, they were blow. They shouted a sword for the Lord and for

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 Gideon while each man held his position around the camp. All the Midianites ran, crying out

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 as they fled. When the 300 trumpets sounded, the Lord calls the men throughout the camp to

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 turn on each other with their swords. The army fled to Beth Sheeta toward Zera,

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 as though the border of Abel and Menelah near Tabith. So this is the attack. Not at all what we

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 were expecting. But picture this. I mean, just picture you're in that camp and you're in a deep

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 sleep and it's dark and suddenly you're awakened by smashing jars, trumpets blasting every direction,

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 torches appear, you know, in the camp. Hundreds of men shouting, you know, you wake up already

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 disoriented. The Midianites believe that they are surrounded by a massive army, panic erupts

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 in their midst. And in the darkness and in the chaos, they begin attacking each other.

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 Pretty good plan, right? Pretty good plan. So there were three groups of 100 and they were

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 tactically around the camp and they were causing so much chaos that they didn't even go in

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 with swords. They didn't even go in with weapons. They didn't even go in with all of these things

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 because the Midianites basically killed themselves.

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 Powerful, powerful, powerful thing.

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 And the last section here says Israelites from Natali, Asher and Manasseh were called out.

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 They pursued the Midianites. Gideon sent messengers throughout the hill country to Ethraim

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 saying, come down against the Midianites and seize the waters of the Jordan ahead of them

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 as far as Beth Bara. So all the men of Ethraim were called out and they seized

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 waters of the Jordan as far as Beth Bara. They also captured two of the Midianite leaders, Orib

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 and Zeb. They killed Orib on the rock of Orib and Zeb on the wine press of Zeb.

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 They pursued the Midianites and brought the heads of Orib and Zeb to Gideon who was by the Jordan.

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 So in all of this chaos, they flee. And now all of a sudden the battle expands to more.

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 And I immediately said, well, wait a minute here. Didn't God just say, okay, the 300,

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 that's going to be it because I'm going to use 300? Gideon wasn't disobedient to God here.

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 By calling for additional Israelites, we have to look at the timing of this.

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 So God chose the 300 to break the Midianite army. So he says, with 300 men that lapped,

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 I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands. He said in 7 and 7.

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 There's a nuance in here. So God didn't say human participation was unnecessary.

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 He demonstrated that human participation wasn't the source of the victory. So he broke the camp

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 and then the rest just kind of took care of what else was going on. So once it was broken,

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 the Israelites participated in pursuing and God gives them the victory.

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 So Gideon started out by saying, how can I save Israel?

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 And he learned here that the answer to that was he couldn't. He couldn't save Israel,

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 but God could through him. And so often this is my response. What can I do

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 to help? What can I do if my kids have a problem or my grandkids or if a friend or if someone at

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 work or even this situation at work, people are looking to me as to what can I do to fix this

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 problem? And the answer is nothing. I can do nothing. We trust in me.

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 So this story is ultimately not a story about what Gideon did with 300,

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 which is the story that went through history about Leonidas in the 300. Look what Leonidas

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 did with just 300 men against the Persians. This isn't a story about what Gideon did with 300.

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 It's a story about God's power on display through human weakness.

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 And this should be, people, the story of our lives. God's power on display in us.

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 A couple things.

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 God sometimes reduces our resources to increase our dependence on him.

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 God wants us to lean on him, not on what's around us.

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 Courage is not the absence of fear. Courage is pushing through the fear.

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 I would often ask my dad. My dad was in World War II and he was in a B-24 Liberator and he was a

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 Liberator was about four to five missions and my dad was on 36 missions.

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 And I would ask him, I said, weren't you afraid? He said, yeah, I was terrified.

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 I was terrified, but I just did it. I just did it. I had to do it. He just pushed through.

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 So courage isn't the absence of fear. It's the ability to push through when fear is all around us

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 and in us. God is already working where you are afraid to go. We all have places where

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 we're afraid to go and things we're afraid to do. God knows these fears that are in our hearts.

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 We don't always make them known to others around us, but God knows them and he's already working

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 us through those fears, whether we know it or not. God uses ordinary people to accomplish

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 extraordinary things, that's you and I. The battle belongs to God, but we still have to participate

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 in it. So God didn't need Gideon to be fearless or his army to be strong. He simply needed them

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 to trust and obey and show up, and he did the rest. And that's exactly what happened.

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 We don't have to have all the answers. We don't have to have all of the resources. We don't have

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 to have the strength. We don't have to have the confidence. We simply have to have the courage

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 to show up, to trust in God, and take those next steps. Sometimes the 300 in our lives,

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 the place where we feel outnumbered or inadequate is exactly where God teaches us

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 that his strength is greater than our limitations, where he says, my grace is sufficient,

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 for my power is made perfect in your weakness.

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 Thanks for joining us at Lansdale Life Church as we praise God and discuss his word.

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 Don't forget to join us for Worship Live Sunday mornings at 10 a.m. Eastern on YouTube.

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 Be blessed and have a great day!