Episode Transcript
WEBVTT
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We come to God's word tonight and
now again, our Lord, we come
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to you because, Lord, this
is your word that you have given to
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us, and Lord, we need
you to illuminate it and enlighten it to
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our eyes. Oh God, we
pray indeed that we will see wondrous things
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out of your law. We thank
you for it, Lord, we thank
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you for giving it has something that
we can use as a guide in our
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life that is there and that really
is eternal and infinite. Lord, we
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can never come to the end of
it, no matter how much we read
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and study it. We're always learning
new things, and so tonight, Lord,
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we asked that you would indeed show
us new things from your law that
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perhaps we haven't seen before. Your
word doesn't change and, Lord, your
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word is truth, and so we
ask you to bless the reading of it
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to your people, as well as
the hearing of it in Jesus name.
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Amen, if you want to turn
in your bibles to the book of judges,
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as we read God's word tonight,
and again, I want to remind
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you what I'm reading is indeed the
very word of God. Then Jerobabo,
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that is Gideon, and all the
people who were with him rose early and
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in camp behind the spring of beyond, beside the spring of Herod, and
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the camp of Midian was north of
them, by the hill of Mora in
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the valley. The Lord said the
Gideon, the people with you are too
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many for me to give the media
knights into their hand. Let's Israel boast
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over me, saying my own hand
to save me. No, therefore proclaiming
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the ears of the people, saying
whoever is fearful and trembling, let him
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return home and hurry away from Mount
Gilead. Then twenty two thou of the
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people returned and ten thousand remained.
And the Lord said, the Gideon,
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the people are still too many,
taking down to the water and I'll test
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them for you there. And anyone
of whom I say to you this one
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shall go with you, she'll go
with you, and anyone whom I say
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to you, this one shall not
go with you, shall not go.
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So he brought the people down of
the water and the Lord said to Gideon,
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everyone who laps the water with his
tongue as a dog laps you,
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shall set by himself. Likewise,
everyone who kneels down to drink, and
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the number of those who lap putting
their hands to their mouths were three hundred
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men, but all the rest of
the people knelt down to drink water.
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And the Lord said to Gideon,
with the three hundred men who laped,
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I will save you and give the
Media Knights into your hand. Let all
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the others go, every man who
was home. So the people took provisions
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in their hands and the trumpets,
and he said all the rest of Israel,
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every man to his tent, retained
the three hundred men. The camp
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of Midian was below him in the
valley. That same night the Lord said
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to him, arise, go down
against the camp, or I've given it
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into your hand. But if you're
afraid to go down, go down to
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the camp, but pure your servant, and you shall hear what they say
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and afterwards your hands shall be strengthened
to go down against the camp. Then
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he went down with pure's servant to
the outpost of the armed men who were
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in the camp, and the median
nights and the amalekites and all the pepole
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of the East ly along the valley
like locusts and abundance, and the camels
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were without number, as the sand
that is on the seashore in abundance.
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When Gideon came. Behold, a
man was telling a dream to his comrade,
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and he said, behold, I
dreamed a dream, and behold,
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a cake of barley bread tumbled into
the camp of Midian and came to the
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tent and struck it, so it
fell and turned it upside down, and
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so the tent lay flat. And
his comrade answered, this is no other
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than the sort of Gideon, the
son of Joash, a man of Israel.
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God has given into his hand midian
and all the camp. As soon
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as Gideon heard them telling of the
dream and his interpretation, he worshiped and
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he returned to the camp of Israel
and said arise, for the Lord has
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given the host of Midian into your
hand. And he divided the three men
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into three companies and put trumpets into
the hands of all of them and empty
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jars with torches inside the jars,
and he said to them, look at
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me and do likewise. When I
come to the outskirts of the camp,
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do as I do. When I
blowed the trumpet, I and All who
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are with me then blowed the trumpets
also on every side of all the camp
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and shout for the Lord and for
Gideons and the reading of God's word.
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Please be seated. So tonight I
want to pick up the story of Gideon.
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We left it off last time at
the end of chapter six, so
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I'm picking it up, of course, at the beginning here of Chapter Seven.
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We ended last week with the famous
story of Gideon and his fleecees,
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and so tonight we come to the
preparation of the battle between Gideon's forces and
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the media nights and the AMALEKITES.
Now, as one of the curiosities that
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happened every once in a while in
life, I'm going to refer tonight,
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as I mentioned this morning, to
some similarities that happened in our text that
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also are very similar to things that
happened in the text of the Shakespeare play
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that we read on Friday night.
And I bring that up partially to give
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you something that I came across years
ago. That one of the oddest things
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I've ever came across in God's word. You may you know this, you
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may not, but I've always found
it very curious, although I cannot explain
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it, but I want to give
it to you before I really get into
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the text this evening. You may
know that the King James Version was published
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in sixteen eleven and that one of
the debates that goes on is whether or
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not William Shakespeare actually had anything to
do with the translating of the King James
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Bible. Well, in Sixteen Eleven
William Shakespeare was forty six years old.
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If you go in your bibles,
and you don't have to do this tonight,
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but you have to have a King
James Bible, but if you go
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into the King James Bible and turned
to psalm, forty six because Shakespeare was
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forty six years old, and you
count from the first word in the psalm
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forty six words, the word is
shake. If you count backwards from the
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palm, ignoring the Sila, and
you go forty six words back, the
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word back is spears. So Shakespeare. Now you can take my word for
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it, but you can also go
home and check that out. But it's
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a very, very, I think, interesting thing and I don't quite know
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what to do with it. But
anyway, we're going to go to the
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text to night, beginning with versus
one through eight. So at the beginning
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of the Chapter Gideon begins with an
Army of thirty two thousand men and if
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we look ahead to chapter eight,
it appears the enemy had a force of
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about a hundred and thirty five thousand
men. So Gideon is already beginning with
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a great disadvantage and a victory with
those odds, which is four to one
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odds, would be a very great
victory. But Gideon has a mass this
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army, and it has been said
that the only thing necessary to be a
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leader is to have people follow you. So Gideon now meets that criteria.
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And we see in verse one that
the armies of Gideon are camp by a
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spring, which is a good idea
and a good military strategy, because one
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of the things, of course it
can happen in battle, is that men
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can become very thirsty and the heated
battle, and so you want to be
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by water so that they can continue
to fight. And it also appears that
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they are camped above the media nights, and if you've studied any kind of
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military strategy through the years, you
understand that the high ground is very,
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very important. I remember reading in
several accounts of the civil war of different
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battles where that high ground was was
very important and the objective of the people
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was to make sure they had that
high ground. So what that tells us
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is, even though God is promising
that Gideon is going to win the battle,
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doesn't mean that you put all military
strategy out of the picture. I've
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met people like that in my life, Christians who, rightly or wrongly,
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that say God has promised that he's
going to do something in their life,
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and so they immediately began to cast
all common sense to the wind and begin
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to act a certain way because,
after all, God has told me this
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is going to happen. And so
God has told me he's going to meet
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my financial need, my debt that
I have, so I'm going to go
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ahead and buy this boat Um and
so people do those kind of things.
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But Gideon Does Not Dismiss Military Strategy
and in verse three, God begins the
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first purging of Gideon's army and a
suns. This is a very practical test
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and it results in a tremendous lessening
of the forces. The qualification to leave
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is very simple. If you're afraid
of going into battle, go home now.
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I was never in the military and
uh, therefore, of course I
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was never in combat. So I
greatly respect those of you who were in
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the military and uh, I know
there's several in this church, but from
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those who served in combat I've heard
various things. Some have said they were
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very afraid the night before the battle
to go into battle and others have seemed
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to have no fear at all.
And that appears is to be the case
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here in Gideon's army, that there's
kind of a division of in fact many
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more who are afraid to go into
battle and others who appear not to be
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afraid at all. And I know
myself well enough to know that when Gideon
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said whoever is fearful, I'd have
been out the door. I wouldn't even
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waited to hear the rest of it. I had just said I'm heading home
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and I know how I am and
I and I wouldn't be waiting. Thomas
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Fuller says after this test there were
fewer people, but not fewer men.
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so Um that that's how he looked
at it. So you think that losing
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two thirds of your army would be
enough and in verse four God Says No,
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people are still too many. And
so again God has another winnowing tests
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that he's going to do. And
so God tells Gideon to take the people
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down to the water and that he
will do a test there. Now,
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the text is really hard here,
I'll tell you that. And nobody is
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I shouldn't say no, but very
few people are in agreement here exactly what
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happens. Now you perhaps, like
me, have hurt through the years that
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the whole test was about people who
would get down there and and uh,
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you know, some would just stick
their head in the water and lap like
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dogs or whatever. Someone do that, or others would raise their uh,
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put the water in and then bring
it up so that they could be alert
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and look around. And that was
the reason for the test. The text
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isn't clear. I know it might
be clear in your version, but if
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you grab another version you might say, well, wait a minute, this
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is saying the opposite Um. So
we're not exactly clear what the reasoning was
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behind this Um. But Um,
the point is here not that we have
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to figure out a military reason for
the test, but this is God's test.
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He can do what he wants and, to be honest, if you
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CANNA end up with three men,
I don't think it really matters if they're
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people that look around when they're drinking
water. I don't think that's going to
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be the thing that changes everything.
So so we don't really know, and
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we don't have to. We could
just say that this is the test that
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God chose. This is God's way
of eliminating the army that he wanted to.
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In fact, I could make an
argument the other way. They say
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that God's actually leaving those who are
maybe the least alert so that the glory
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of the battle would all go to
him. But we'll leave the point undecided
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at this point. But God has
done when he's purposed. He's brought Gideon's
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army down to a mere three hundred
people. Matthew Henry notes here. We
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often find God bringing great things to
pass by a few hands, but this
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was the only time that he purposely
made them fewer. As I'm reading this,
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I was reminded of the words of
Jonathan Uh to the young man that
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carried his armor in vers semi fourteen. He said, come, let us
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go to the garrison of these uncircumcised. It may be that the Lord will
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work for us, for nothing can
hinder the Lord from saving by many or
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by few. And you know that
they wrought a great battle that day.
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So first nine we come to the
night or the battle. Now again,
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I've never been in military combat,
but I've heard from others that it can
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be very unsettling. The night before
battle can be tough for many soldiers to
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sleep, and it might be that
way with Gideon. I know, I'm
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sure your pastor is aware of this
as well, that when issues come up
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in the church, it's oftentimes at
night time that those things begin to bother
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you very much and cause you not
to be able to sleep at night because
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you're thinking about those things. But
God, in verses nine to eleven,
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is going to give Gideon assurance.
And note in verse ten that God acknowledges
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Gideon's fear. He says he knows
that he has a fear. Is a
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natural response. Now it might be
that others don't have it, but it
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is a natural response to going into
a battle where you're facing an enemy that
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is much more uh numerous than you
are. And God doesn't condemned Gideon for
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his fear, but instead he's going
to show him something else, which all
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he's already done several things, but
he's going to show him something else to
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try to allay that that fear.
And here I make the first allusion to
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the play that we read on Friday
night, because you remember in the play
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Henry goes down to the troops,
the soldiers disguise so that people do not
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know who he is. And now
Gideon is going down. Now the difference,
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of course, is Gideon's going into
the enemy's camp and Henry went into
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his own soldiers. But yet I
thought that there was something there. It
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was interesting that both of these come
up the same week, that that I'm
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part of those kind of things,
and so um and so he goes in
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and then the first thing, when
God says go down, the first thing
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Gideon sees is really not very comforting. He sees two very distressing things.
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He sees that the enemy were like
locust for an army, for a host.
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They were they were just everywhere.
And I know if I would have
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been Gideon, I'd have thought,
Lord, if this is supposed to comfort
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me, it's not working. Uh
this, this doesn't seem too good.
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And the second thing that's very frightening
is he sees how many camels that they
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have. It's like sand upon the
seashore. It's like Abraham's seed that Gideon
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sees. Camels were a huge advantage
in warfare in the desert. Very advantageous
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to have them and Gideon didn't have
them. And again this is not a
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comfort. But then, in verse
thirteen, Gideon happens to come upon a
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couple of people talking and he overhears
something about the battle. Someone's telling a
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comrade a dream that he had and
apparently at least one of the soldiers has
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been able to sleep before the battle
because he's had a dream and maybe he's
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not afraid because he knows the median
nights, the Amalekites, the people of
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the East, have a tremendous advantage
over Gideon and his army. But the
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dream he has is troubling. It's
a dream of a cake of barley bread
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coming into the host of the media
nights and coming and smashing the tent.
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Now it's a very uh strange dream. Barley cake cannot smash tents and things
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like that, but nonetheless, the
other fellow of the Fellas, seeming to
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have the gift of interpretation, says
this cake is a sort of Gideon and
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this represents that God has given the
median nights into his hand. And so
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in verses fifteenth to eighteen, we
have the response of Gideon to what he
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has heard and the first thing that
he does is something all of us should
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do right away when that as clear
to us that God is going to deliver
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us. It says he worships.
When the people of Israel got to the
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other side of the Red Sea and
Pharaoh's army had been drowned, they saying,
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I will sing unto the Lord,
for He is triumph gloriously the horse
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and rider thrown into the sea.
But the second thing he does is to
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go and tell his troops when God
is revealed, and it appears after this
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episode and Gideon Worshiping, he's now
a new man. He's a different kind
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of leader. Now he is confident
that God is going to defeat these armies.
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And so in Verse Sixteen we have, I would say, one of
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the strangest military strategies ever used in
an army battle, and divides the three
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men into three different companies. I
assume. I don't know, but I
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assume the companies were of a hundred
men each, and he equips them all
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with, the course, those very
potent weapons that you're going to use in
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a military battle, trumpets and empty
jars, and that's what he gives them,
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although at least they're going to put
a torch inside the empty jars.
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Now, amazingly, we don't read
about a single soldier saying uh, Gideon,
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I don't know how much you've read
about military battles, but trumpets and
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lamps are really not the weapons of
choice. But nobody says that. When
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I was a teenager we put on
a Spaghetti dinner our youth group did for
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our Church and we did a bunch
of skits that we had written and Um,
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something that we had stolen. But
I remember one of the things we
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talked about was one of the soldiers
of the Media Knights being interviewed after the
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battle where they had been defeated.
And he said Yeah, he said sure,
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we were at he said if you
ever heard Gideon, soldiers play trumpets,
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they're terrible. So I don't know
if that's exactly what happened. The
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scripture doesn't tell us that, but
the scripture does Dallas that they fled.
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And so, in versus seventeen and
eighteen, Gideon tells the army to do
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exactly as he does. He's now
taking his place as the leader of the
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army. He's playing the game of
Simon, says, and he says you
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do what I do, and he
said when we go into the camp,
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I'm going to blow my trumpet and
the rest of the army, you also
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blow your trumpet and instead of saying
for King and country, they are going
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to shout out for the Lord and
for Gideon. Well, what do you
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think? It's a strategy gonna work? You don't know because we haven't read
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that far. Come back next week
I'll tell you whether or not it works.
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Well, let's make applications. This
evening. As I said, after
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worshiping God, Gideon is a new
man and the first thing he does is
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he gives all glory to God.
He says the Lord has given the host
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of Midian into your hand. The
Lord has given, he understands it's all
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of God, but not only to
describe glory to God. He he says
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it in the past, asked tense. The Lord not will give. The
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Lord has given the media nights into
your hand. No, I'm not trying
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to tell you some word of faith
doctrine or something along that but there are
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times then, when that happens,
when faith in God calls those things which
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are not as though they were.
God called Abraham and said you're now going
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to be a father of of of
a multitude. So I'm changing your name
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to Abraham, and Abraham says,
well, you know, I I've got
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Ishmael and that's pretty much yet.
But God called him a father of a
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multitude. There have been some times
in my life, and perhaps you can
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uh agree with me or or say
the same thing has happened to you.
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There have been times in my life. There have been few, but there
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have been times where God assured me
in my heart that something was going to
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happen and he was going to do
it and I knew beyond the chef out
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of a doubt, that God would
come through and there was never any question
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in my mind. I wish that
happened all the time, but it doesn't.
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But some of those times are very
inspiring to me. To know that
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God is going to do it improves
his faithfulness. So why do you think
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God reduced Gideon's army to the size
that he did? As I said,
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the initial odds were already great.
They were already four to one. And
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I said after the first leaning there
were only ten thousand Israelites lead, which
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now the odds are about thirteen to
one, which, with by my public
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school math that that's even worse odds
than than four to one. But then
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when God trimmed the army to three
now, or, excuse me, to
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Gideon's army, the three D now, the odds are approximately three hundred to
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one. At this rate it is
basically impossible to attribute victory to military strategy.
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In preparing for this sermon, I
I looked up military victims or victims
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victories in histories against great odds and
there were very impressive victories. And one
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again we read about in the Shakespeare
play on Friday night when we read about
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Henry at Agincourt, and they're the
odds were perhaps three or four to one
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against. But none of the battles
that I looked at where the odds is
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great as the odds at Gideon was
facing in this. But we know that
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God could have, if he wanted
to, taking the army down to one
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and still won the battle. So
why does God reduce Gideon's army? God
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does things to show us at whatever
progress we have made, whatever success we
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have, it's all of him and
all of Greece. In reducing the armies
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to three D God leaves no room
for doubt that the battle and the victory
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belonged to him. Even with ten
thousand troops against a hundred and thirty five
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thousand troops, there was room to
believe that. Still perhaps the battle would
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have belonged and given credit to Gideon's
Army for Superior Strategy. But with only
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three hundred nobody could make that claim. God is saying, when this is
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done, I am the only one. We should receive glory and credit for
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this battle. From the size of
the army at first Gideon's army has been
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reduced. That's that's more than our
current inflation rate digit. That's so,
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that's that's a lot. But not
only should Gideon, in this current Army
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of Three d think about that,
but what about those who got redacted?
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What about those who were declared redundant? What would they ever say? What
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right would they have the glory?
And again, back to Henry, the
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fifth right, he said to them, he said to the truth. One
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day you look back on this day, when when the holiday comes around,
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and you will be glad that you
can say I was in that battle,
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I fought in that battle. But
these members of Gideon's army couldn't do anything
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of the of the sort they had
nothing to bring about. They weren't there,
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they didn't even fight. They would
say they won the battle, but
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I wasn't even a part of it, and so they would have to say
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again the victory is all of God. The application is easy, isn't it?
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We're works driven people, aren't we? I'll tell you that's something I
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struggle with all the time. I
know it's not true. I know it's
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all of God. And people said, well, well, come on past,
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we can talk about the triumph of
grace. WE'RE gonna sing amazing grace.
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We've we've talked about grace tonight in
the various elements of worship and and
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all of that. And and I
say yes, yes, yes, and
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I'll probably walk away from this pulp
and say, oh, that was a
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good sermon. But to see,
that's because we're just works driven and often
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wrong. Even the Great Apostle Paul
face the temptation to be driven by works
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in Second Corinthians Twelve, seven to
nine, a very familiar passage. He
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says so to keep me from becoming
conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the
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revelations, that thorn was given me
in the flesh a messenger of Satan to
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harass me, to keep me from
becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with
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the Lord about this, that it
should leave me, but he said my
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grace is sufficient for you, from
my powers made perfect and weakness. Therefore,
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I will boast all the more gladly
of my weaknesses, or the power
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of Christ may rest upon me.
What's his temptation to become conceited? Why?
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Because he's receiving revelations, even in
writing this book that he's writing right
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here. He's REC even revelation from
God and he could say yes, yes,
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it's me. God chose me.
I must be something special because he
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gave me all of these revelations.
And God says you need to realize it's
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not of you, Paul, it's
all of grace. Earlier, in chapter
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eleven of the same epistle, he
spoke about all of the different things he
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had gone through and and he could
boast in those things and and the temptation
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was was there to boast and he
talked about boasting and his weaknesses and and
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I don't know if there was some
kind of struggle at all that maybe he's
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thinking, well, maybe I shouldn't
be boasting and these things. I don't
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know. But again we all have
to realize what the Apostle said earlier and
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the earlier epistles to the Corinthians where
he said, what do you have that
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you did not receive? If then
you received it, why do you boast
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as if you did not receive it? But we do, we still boast
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about it. We have to keep
learning. And let me say if there's
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one problem I could bring out of
the text you to day that Gideon had,
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and I would say the Gideon's problem, it was a lack of assurance.
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That told you. He's already laid
out fleeces. He's already asked God.
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God's answered him several times, several
ways. He answered him in the
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two fleeces that were miraculous. He's
assured him again and again and he's told
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him he's going to do it.
But Still Gideon is not convinced, and
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so God gives him one more sign
by having him be in the right place
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at the right time to hear a
dream. Gideon. They think, Oh
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that Gideon, what a Maroon.
I mean God keeps telling him and he's
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not convinced. But wait a minute, is that one finger pointing at Gideon,
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hiding three that are pointing back at
us. How many times has God
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assured us? How many times have
we read, I will never, never,
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leave you or forsake you? How
many times have we read? WHO
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shall separate us from the love of
Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or famine
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or nakedness or danger or sword?
Has It as written, for your Sake,
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we're being killed all day long.
We're regarded asleep shape to be slaughtered,
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knowing all these things were more than
conquerors to him who loved us.
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For I'm sure that neither death,
nor life, nor angels, nor rulers,
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nor things present, nor things to
come, nor powers, nor height
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nor depth, nor anything else in
all creation, will be able to separate
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us from the love of God,
in Christ Jesus, Our Lord. Is
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that a lot? Is that enough? Let me give you another one.
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No temptation has overtaken you. That
is not common to man. God is
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faithful. He will not let you
be tempted beyond your ability, but with
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the temptation he'll provide a way of
escape that you may be able to endure
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it. We're saying it tonight.
I love this verse for some reason,
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and to him. NOO that I
grew up with. This verse was not
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in that Song, but it's my
favorite verse. The soul that on Jesus
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has leaned for repose. I will
not, I will not desert to its
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foes, that soul, to all
hell should endeavor to shake. I'll never,
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no, never, no, never, forsake they say. Well,
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pastor, you don't know my sin. No, I don't, but God
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does, and I know that.
God says we confess our sins, he
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is faithful and just to forgive us
our sins and to cleanse us from all
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on righteousness. So if you're like
Gideon, as I close, lacking assurance
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tonight, if you're under a guilt
of sin, it makes you think God
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has forsaken you. If your heart
cries out to God tonight, if your
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desires to him, he will forgive. He will not forsake you. Another
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Hyman, our song book says,
I came to Jesus as I was weary
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and worn and sad. I thought
owned in him a resting place, and
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he has made me glad. Come
on to me, our Lord said,
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all Ye that Labor and are heavy
laden, and I will give you rest.
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Received the comfort of the Lord Tonight. I know that God will never
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forsake you. Cling to him.
Trust in Christ, who is our only
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hope in this sad, sad world
that we live in. Trust in him.
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Can We pray, Lord, we
thank you tonight for your word and
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the promise that we read, as
we see in Gideon, and we understand,
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Lord, that he needed to learn
the lesson of grace. And many
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of us tonight still struggle with our
own works as to what part of plays
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in our salvation. But, Lord, may we trust fully in your grace,
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your amazing grace that is beyond the
power of our tongue to tell.
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Lord, I pray, speak to
your people tonight and if any lack assurance
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in their hearts tonight, if any
are struggling because of some sin or reoccurring
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sin in their life, let them
tonight receive of your grace and no God,
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that you love your people and you're
never gonna let them go. We
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pray this all in Christ name.
Amen.
