All right, good morning, everybody.

Shout out to Rancho, shout out to Westco, our other campuses.

Just quickly, turn in your Bibles, if you would, to Judges 6, in the Old Testament, Judges chapter 6.

Going to do something I don't get to do very often, but I want to ask, Clive just stood up.

So Clive Raharui, Clive, stand up.

Is your lovely wife here?

Yeah, and Johanna, stand up, and Paige, Paige, stand up.

Okay, so you guys, I...

I don't get to do this often because Clive is usually traveling, but Clive Raharui is our managing director, CEO of our radio program.

So he's usually in some part of Europe, all over the world.

And I just want you to familiarize yourself.

So when you see him, hey, say, good job.

Thanks for taking the gospel to the world.

His lovely wife, Johanna, and then Paige's daughter, I call her Miss New Zealand.

She's so beautiful.

But this is a very special family to our church, and they're usually out beating the bushes somewhere for the sake of our ministry.

So we're in a series called Blinded, and I want to start with some true or false questions, see how smart you are.

You ready?

Okay, true or false, being a Christian means that you will never have any problems.

Man, you guys are smart already, one for one.

Number two, following Jesus means that your life will always turn out the way you plan.

Okay?

Three, Jesus' primary goal for your life is convenience.

Man, you guys are getting these easy.

You don't seem like you're struggling.

Four, God's primary goal for your life is for you to successfully build your own personal kingdom with great territory and wealth.

Five, God's primary goal for your life is to advance his kingdom on the earth.

Now, some of you either don't know or you're just shy.

Which one is it?

You're so shy, you can't say you're shy.

All right.

Number six, advancing Christ's kingdom on earth is easy and requires no real effort.

Are you with me?

Now, the reason I'm asking you this, I've actually read these questions about 10 years ago to a different group of people, and they were in shock.

That means there are Christ followers that believe once you become a Christian, your life gets easy.

That God's primary concern is to give you everything that you want.

In fact, there are people who don't believe in God because God hasn't given them something they want, right?

And as we've said before, the real God, if he's the real God, will always contradict you at some point.

Because his primary mission in life for you is what?

Salvation?

And after salvation?

Yeah.

So if you think about the message of the Bible, here's what it tells you.

And remember, being a Christian isn't something that non-intellectuals do.

There are so many what we would call super intellects who have weighed the evidence.

Like a Dr.

John Polkinghorne, the professor of quantum physics at Cambridge University.

Like Dr.

John Lennox, I don't know if you follow him online.

You've got all of these well-educated, superior intellects who have embraced Christianity because they know there is no other explanation for our world other than a first cause, God.

That you don't get something from nothing.

And so because they've embraced God first and have discovered the reality of the historical truth of the resurrection of Jesus, They've embraced Christianity completely.

And then after you do that, you have to ask the question, okay, now I'm saved, what's next?

I'm in a right relationship with God, and it makes perfectly intellectual sense, what is next?

And according to the Bible, you and I are sons and daughters of God that we have been rescued through the atoning work of Jesus Christ on his cross, the number one recognized symbol in humanity, the cross of Jesus Christ.

And now your life and my life, we have become servants.

We've been adopted as sons and daughters.

We are now servants of the living God, which means that we live our lives for who?

Okay.

One of the things that we use to describe our walk with Jesus is the fact that we are people of the cross.

And what that means is God did his best work in Christ.

When Jesus was in the worst place of his life, when was Jesus in the worst place of his human life?

When he was dying on the cross.

And yet it's at that moment that God accomplished an extraordinary victory for all of humanity, the salvation of the world.

If it's true about Jesus, that means it's true about you.

Sometimes God can do his best work in you and through you when you're in the worst season of your life.

Now you think about that and then put that together with some of the passages like James 1 that says, consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.

Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

So we're told that when trouble comes, when the unfortunate events of life come, that we're to consider it joy, not that we're happy in the unfortunate event.

But we know that it can produce something in us, an extraordinary victory that changes, that transforms us.

Then we're told in 2 Timothy 1 that the spirit God gave us does not make us timid, that's the word for fear, but gives us power, love, and self-discipline.

So you and I, if we're truly following Jesus, when the unfortunate events come, we don't panic, we're not fear-stricken, but we are given a spirit of confidence.

of self-discipline, of love, of power.

And then in Romans 8, we're told that everything that happens in our lives, good or bad, God works together for the good, for those who love God and who are called according to his purpose.

So if you were to take a melting pot and you were to put every ingredient inside it that describes the kind of life you and I are called to live, it means that trouble will come in our lives just like everyone else's life.

Wouldn't it be great if when you become a Christ follower, You go through this escape hatch into a world void of trouble.

In fact, I've tried to warn you before.

I guarantee you, when you first become a Christian, you've got a target on your back.

Your trouble is going to get more intense in some ways.

So you put trouble, and then we're told that we're going to have peace, and we're supposed to trust in the sovereign God, and we're told that there are going to be extraordinary victories that come through the most difficult, unfortunate seasons of our lives.

One of the phrases that we've often used is that God is able to bring incredible victories, beauty, pattern, design out of the chaos of our lives.

Now, here's the deal.

For this to happen, for God to be able to take these unfortunate seasons in our lives and bring something extraordinary out of it, you've got to make a resolution.

You've got to resolve before trouble comes.

If you wait until trouble is there, it's too late.

You've got to decide up front that you're going to live by these resolutions.

I'm going to give them to you.

And I want you to write them down and put them on your refrigerator door in the front of your Bible.

And if you start to live your life, now this isn't some magic formula.

This is straight from one narrative in the Old Testament.

But you see it throughout the entire Bible.

If you will live by these seven resolutions, I can promise you that God will take some of these unfortunate events, if not all of them, and bring extraordinary victories out of them.

Okay?

So you'll find the resolutions in a wonderful narrative.

The story in the Old Testament, if you've never read the Bible, there are these awesome stories in the Old Testament that can really motivate you.

And you find these resolutions in Judges 6.

So let me start reading.

This is the narrative.

This is how it begins in verse 1.

The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites.

Because the power of Midian was so oppressive, the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves and mountain cliffs, claves, and strongholds.

Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites, and other eastern peoples invaded the country.

They camped on the land and ruined the crops all the way to Gaza and did not spare a living thing for Israel, neither sheep nor cattle nor donkeys.

They came up with their livestock and their tents like swarms of locusts.

It was impossible to count them or their camels.

And they invaded the land to ravage it.

Many and so impoverished the Israelites that they cried out to the Lord for help.

Okay, first resolution you got to make is that you believe that whatever comes into your life, that God will use your difficulties to build your faith in him.

Now, the reason God has to build your faith and trust in him is because there's no such thing as a life that is called to mediocrity.

God is calling you to live an extraordinary life.

But to do that, he's got to make sure that you don't run away every time trouble comes.

And instead of running, fighting, kicking, and screaming, when things don't go the way you'd planned, you would take a deep breath, stop, and you would immediately go to God.

That would be your first option.

You would go to God and say, God, what do you want to teach me?

What extraordinary victory do you want to bring out of this list of unfortunate circumstances?

In Judges chapter six, here's the setting.

We were just told that every year that Israel was ready to harvest the crops.

The Midianites, 135,000 of them, would come down out of the mountains into the valley and would destroy, would burn all the fields, would kill all the livestock.

They're trying to commit genocide slowly.

And for seven years, this happens again and again and again.

And in verse six, we're told that Midian so impoverished the Israelites that they cried out to the Lord for help.

Now we're told in the narrative that God hears their their cry, their prayer?

that God responds and he decides he's going to use a man by the name of Gideon.

Gideon is P-O-H, plain old human.

Nothing special about him.

When God calls Gideon, Gideon is doing two things.

He's pressing the wheat in the wheat press while at the same time looking over the wall to see if the Midianites are coming.

He's terrified.

And suddenly in verse 12, an angel of the Lord shows up.

And when the Lord appeared to Gideon, He said, the Lord is with you, mighty warrior.

Gideon's response is sarcasm.

Basically, don't call me your valiant warrior.

Can't you see I'm hiding here?

I'm terrified.

And you're telling me that the Lord is really with us?

I don't think so.

Have you looked around?

Midianites keep coming down every year to destroy our crops and our livestock.

Where's this God our forefathers told us about?

Crossing the Red Sea and causing the walls of Jericho to fall.

If the Lord is really with us, angel, Mr.

Angel, why is all this happening to us?

Now, if you were God, and that's the key, you're not, but you would probably say to Gideon, have you ever stopped to think about that your life is in a mess because of something you did?

We read the verse that says Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord.

The last verse of this chapter says every man did what was right in his own eyes.

So God could have said, You want the truth?

You can't handle the truth.

The truth is that you're in this situation because you're idol worship.

You've abandoned the Lord God who brought you into the promised land.

You have a sense of entitlement and there's no praise and no worship in Israel.

Maybe these two things are tied together, but you know what?

God doesn't do that.

It's a beautiful thing to realize.

God has no interest in reminding you of all your failures.

As soon as you kneel to pray, he forgets them all.

It's a beautiful thing.

See, you think God treats you like you would treat somebody else, but not God.

As soon as you humble yourself, no matter what you've done in the past, doesn't matter.

God says, okay, you've called on my name.

You've humbled yourself.

So now I'm going to deliver you.

In verse 14, the Lord turned to him, that is Gideon, and said, go in the strength that you have and save Israel out of Midian's hand.

Now, why would God say that to him?

Because Gideon saying, don't call me warrior.

Don't say that you're with us and God says, okay, you want to play that game?

Go do it yourself.

Go rescue Israel in your own power, in your own hand.

And then in verse 16, the Lord answered, I will be with you, Gideon, and you will strike down all the Midianites together.

Now let's go back and think about what's going on.

Gideon is facing incredible odds.

It's an impossibility.

There's 135,000 well-trained Midianite warriors, and there's only 32,000 you Israelites.

None of them are warriors.

They're farmers.

32,000 against 135,000.

That's better than a four to one odd.

In Gideon's mind, he's wondering if he can trust God.

Now, not trust that God would keep his promise, but he's probably wondering to himself, I wonder if God is about to finish the judgment on the nation of Israel, and he's luring into this battle to finish us off.

Because in his mind, there's no way 32,000 farmers you can go up against 135,000 Midianite warriors.

So he goes to God and he says, now God, verse 36, if you will save Israel, like God already told him that he would, so he's questioning the word of God.

God, if I can trust you here, if you're gonna give us Midianite into our hands, as you promised, he said, look, I will place a wool fleece on the threshing floor.

So Gideon says, God, if you're really gonna save us, I'm gonna put a wool fleece on the threshing floor.

And when I wake up in the morning, I want the dew to be on the fleece, but the ground to be dry.

So he wakes up the next morning, there's dew on the fleece, the ground is dry.

Now Gideon comes back.

Now imagine this.

He says, now God, don't be angry with me here, but let's do this again just so I can make sure.

Tomorrow when I wake up, let's make the dry on the fleece and the dew on the ground.

And God does exactly that.

So does that mean fleece throwing is a way whereby to determine the will of God?

The point of this passage is not that.

The point of this passage is, listen now, God is so patient with you when your heart is right.

I mean, I've met people who say, I'll believe in God if he does this, this, and this.

But your heart's not right.

You're asking God to prove him, himself, which he's already done in the magnificent creation, in the created order.

But when you humble yourself, and your heart is right, and you really do want to be used by God to do grandiose things, his patience with you is off the charts.

Because he knows you're weak and you're feeble.

In your humanity, you struggle.

You think that God is tit for tat basis.

I do good for God.

God does good for me, but God doesn't work like that.

God knows you're weak.

God knows we're sinners, but when your heart is right and your motivation is pure, his patience with you is off the charts.

And because of that, God will take every opportunity to build our faith and every opportunity to demonstrate his faithfulness to his word.

He is looking for opportunities to build your trust and faith in him.

Now listen, you're never going to read or you're never going to rather know what faith is or learn faith and trust in God by reading it in some book, especially not mine.

So how are you going to learn faith and trust in God?

God's going to pull the rug out from under you enough times to where you finally get it.

You're not going to be able to do it on your own.

Your only hope is God and his power to deliver you.

Until you get to that point...

God will keep pulling the rug out from you again and again and again to see how you respond.

And when God can trust you to trust him, that's when amazing things start happening.

When you stop running and panicking and ensuring your own defeat and going to God as a first option, that's when extraordinary victories come your way.

Resolution two, God will often require us to do something that is unreasonable.

Now, this is where most of us experience defeat.

Go back, 135,000 Midianites are in the valley.

They are well-trained, well-equipped warriors.

There are only 32,000 Israelite farmers, better than a four-to-one odd.

So Gideon now is gonna have his first board meeting with God where the strategy is going to be unveiled.

So if you're Gideon, you're thinking this, okay, I've only got 32,000 men, four-to-one odds, we're farmers, they're warriors, so God must have an incredible strategic plan.

And here's the plan that God gives him in Judges 7 verse 1.

Early in the morning, Jerubel, that is Gideon, and all his men camped at the spring of Herod.

The camp of Midian was north of them in the valley near the hill of Moreh.

The Lord said to Gideon, you have too many men for me to deliver Midian into their hands.

Can you imagine?

Gideon probably said, God, is this the new math?

It's 135,000 warriors against 32,000 Israelite farmers.

That's better than a four to one audit.

You're telling me we have too many men?

Yep, you got too many men.

And then God says, I want you to give the men two tests.

The first test is I want you to line them all up in the valley and stand before them and say, okay guys, how many of you are afraid?

Raise your hand.

22,000 raised their hands.

22,000 of the 32,000 said I'm afraid.

But God had already told them back in Deuteronomy 20, when I tell you that we're gonna go into battle, And we're going to win because it's my power, not yours.

There's no excuse for fear.

And if you're afraid, one coward breeds another coward and will spread through the camp.

So if I tell you I'm going to do something, I want you to trust my word, believe me, because only then will you do what I tell you to do for the ultimate victory.

Otherwise, you're gonna try to take control and bring the victory yourself, which will ultimately bring your defeat.

Once I give you the word.

If you refuse to move forward in faith, you will never live the extraordinary life, and you will never have extraordinary victories.

And folks, this is true in any area of your life.

You have to get to the point where you decide, do I trust God and his word or not?

That's why I talk to some of you young people about the sacredness and purity of sex, that God's way to trust his way and his word means...

that sex is reserved in the context of marriage between a man and a woman.

If you violate that on the outside, you just bring demise on yourself.

You bring destruction because you're in direct disobedience of the word of God.

But primarily it says that you really don't trust God and you don't think his way is the best way.

And if you don't trust God and you don't think his way is the best way, God says, go home.

Can't use you.

You might get into heaven, but he says, go home.

You're no use in the battle.

You're not taking the battle seriously.

And if you don't trust me, I can't use you.

The same thing is true with your prayer life.

And I talked to you about if you're not engaged in a conversation with God on a regular basis, then of course you're going to be depressed.

Of course you're going to have anxiety.

Of course you're going to be frustrated for most of your life because you're still trying to take the reins on and on.

In any area of life where God says, do this, don't do that, he wants you to trust him because he has your best interest in mind.

You violate that trust.

Yes, you might get into heaven, but he can't use you.

And there's no extraordinary victories coming your way, no matter what you tell yourself.

So of 22,000 men left, that means there's only 10,000 now.

135,000 versus 32,000, that's four to one odds.

10,000 versus 135,000, that's 13 to one odds now.

And then we come to verse four.

But the Lord said to Gideon, what?

There are still too many men.

We're at 13 to one.

And God says, I want you to have a second test.

Now listen, here's what he tells them to do.

He says, I want you to take the men down to the spring of Herod, which is adjacent to the enemy camp.

And I want you to take them to the spring, and I want you to tell the men to take a drink of water.

And I want you to watch how they drink.

Some of them are going to get down like a dog on all fours and lap the water like a dog with their tongue.

And some of the other men are going to get down on one knee, and they're going to scoop the water with their hand up into their mouths.

I want you to pay attention to those who get down on all fours and lap the water like a dog, and those who lap the water like a dog, send them home.

Out of the 10,000 men, 9,700 lap the water like a dog.

That only leaves 300.

300 now.

135,000 to 32, 4 to 1.

135,000 to 10,000, 13 to 1.

Now it's 135,000 well-trained warrior Midianites.

against 300 Israelite farmers, there's got to be some misunderstanding.

Now, what's going on at the spring?

Well, if you went down adjacent to the enemy camp, and you got down on all fours, and you drank the water like a dog, you took your eye off the enemy to get your own need met.

But if you get down on one knee, and you have your left hand on your sword, and one hand free to scoop the water up into your mouth, That means, yes, you're meeting a physical need, but at the same time, you've got your eye on the enemy.

I think this is a wonderful, beautiful metaphor here.

It shows that you're not serious about the battle, that in your mind, God is still there and he still exists for your purposes, not you for his.

Because if you're serious about the battle, you're aware there's always an enemy.

And if you're not serious about the battle, here's the problem.

Now you think about this, and this is why some of you struggle, and I don't know who you are, but it's always part of the Christian growth.

It's always part of the path, the struggle.

If you're not serious about the battle that you're in, as soon as God asks you to sacrifice, to give something up for a greater love, a greater cause, the kingdom of Christ, you're not going to do it.

If it's still all about you getting your physical personal needs met, and God asks you to give up some of those personal needs, you're not going to do it because it's still about you.

If you want God to do extraordinary things and give you extraordinary victories through the unfortunate events of your life, you've got to get to the point where you are willing to say, God, this battle is serious.

I want to be a part of something that is changing the world.

I want to be part of something that's building a kingdom that is not shakable, that's eternal.

I guarantee if that's your heart, God is going to ask you to give up things you love for something that you love more.

And if you're not serious about the kingdom, every time, every time, you're going to say no.

But if you are serious, you'll see it as a privilege, a privilege to give up something that you love for something that you love more, the kingdom of God.

And there's a spiritual truth to be found here, and it's this.

Our response to seemingly insignificant tests you will often be the determining factor of what God will do in our lives.

Every little thing that happens to you, every moment of the day is another little test to see how you respond.

And somebody asked Chuck Swindoll once the question, well, if that's true, Mr.

Swindoll, if it's true, then what if I fail the test?

Does God give up on me?

And his answer was, no, God never gives up on you.

You just guarantee that you're going to stay in the same test until you pass it.

So you're the kind of guy, oh man, this is coming too close to home.

You're the kind of guy that gets upset on the 210?

Because people keep cutting you off.

Guess what?

People are going to cut you off every day until you learn how to respond.

You know?

You're in a line in coffee class and somebody gets in front of you and orders like, 20 coffees, man, 20.

And you've got to sit there and you don't handle it well.

Guess what's going to happen the next morning?

Somebody's going to come in with 30 coffees.

And that's a small, simple test.

But the thing about it is you think you're safe.

You think that when God requires you to give up something you love for something you love more, that you're safe by withdrawing and hiding.

You think that when unfortunate circumstances come into your life, you think by kicking and screaming and rebelling and trying to get out of it as soon as you can, you think that makes you safe.

But in reality, you're not safe because God now is going to hone in on that.

He sees that, he's coming after you.

Because his primary mission in your life.

is to use you for something extraordinary.

And he can't use you for something extraordinary if every time something unfortunate comes into your life, you kick and scream and shout.

And you just, you're a chronic worrier.

You're chronically trying to sort this out, take control of it yourself, and get out of it as soon as possible.

That is not gonna do anything in your relationship with God, and you cannot be used to do something extraordinary if that's your attitude.

So God is always looking.

He's always looking.

And sometimes he may ask you to do something in your mind that seems unreasonable, but it's only because you don't have all the information, right?

Number three, God will always lead us to do that which gives him the most glory.

Look at verse two again in Judges 7.

The Lord said to Gideon, you have too many men for me to deliver Midian into their hands.

In order that Israel may not boast against me that her own strength has saved her.

Now here's the thing, four to one odds.

If it's four to one odds and Israel wins the battle, they could say, man, the odds were against us, but we mustered our courage.

We defeated the enemy.

Look at us.

If it's 13 to one odds, you could still say, you know what?

It was difficult.

We didn't think we could win the battle, but we were tough.

We were courageous.

We did it.

But when the odds are 135,000 to 300, 450 to one, the only way you can be victorious is God.

Do you realize that in those moments in your life when you feel so weak that you know there's nothing you can do about it, that's when you're finally in a position of strength?

Because that's when you'll stop fighting and trying to control everything, and you'll give it over to God, and you will say, God, the only way that I can win this battle and overcome this unfortunate event in my life is if you take control.

At that moment, you know it, God knows it, and guess who gets the glory for the victory?

God.

I had a young college student walk up to me once and say, Pastor Jeff, the God of the Bible seems to be a glory addict.

He doesn't seem to be able to get enough of it.

He always wants his glory, his glory.

Well, remember, glory just means honor, distinction, and renown.

And a great example of this is, let's say my son Delaney got cancer, and I have the cure.

Now, this is where I become jealous for him.

Because he may have all these other people that are telling him that they have the remedy, but I know they don't.

Only I have the remedy.

So I want him to come and listen to me.

I want him to honor my words, to trust in me, to give me glory and distinction and renown.

I want to draw him away from imposters and counterfeits toward the thing that can really bring the victory.

In the same way, God is jealous for you.

You are constantly bombarded with promises that can never deliver.

And yet we demand that we're going to pursue them.

If God truly loves you, he's not going to sit on his hands while you glorify or hold in high regard or treat as excellent and splendid something that can never satisfy or deliver.

In this way, God is jealous.

He wants you to come to him.

He wants you to hold him in the highest regard because he's the only one that can give you the victory.

That's God, which means there's a fourth resolution and it's this.

God will usually strip us of everything we depend on other than himself.

Oh, this is a hard one, isn't it?

Gideon had 32,000 men.

God said too many.

10,000, too many.

300 is a helpless little bunch.

They are untrained and ill-equipped.

So Gideon has his second meeting with God.

Now, Gideon's probably thinking at this point, okay, 300 gets 135,000.

Surely God has.

an arsenal that he's going to give me a secret weapon that only requires 300 men to operate, and that's how we're going to win.

So he goes and has his meeting.

And if you read through the narrative, here's what God says to Gideon.

Gideon, here's your arsenal.

Here's what you're going to give the 300 men.

And he doesn't say anything about swords or bows or arrows, javelins or spears.

He says, your arsenal is this, trumpets, clay jars, torches, and your voice.

Man, if I were Gideon, I got to tell you, I'd be saying, what kind of arsenal is this?

I mean, I guess I could hit him over the head with my trumpet.

or I could throw a clay jar at him.

I could burn him a little bit with these torches.

Unless Israel were really bad singers, I don't know how their voice is a weapon, but here's what Gideon's learning.

Every single one of us, listen now, every single one of us, when this kind of trouble comes, whether we hear a diagnosis.

Whether it's worry about what might happen or might not happen in the future, lose a job, financial disarray, children walk away from God, whatever it is, all of us have a go-to, and it's usually not God.

We have our personal way of handling it.

If you're the personality type that wants to control everything, typically you will become...

A chronic worrier.

A chronic worrier, all that means is you are a chronic deliberator.

You are constantly thinking about how you're going to get out of this situation.

And the point is, what God wants you to do is not be a chronic worrier and start manufacturing or orchestrating events all around to get out of this thing or rescue you from what you think is unbearable.

He wants you to become a chronic prayer where you say, God, I don't have the instruments, I don't have the weapons to overcome this.

What I need is you, and God, I'll give you the glory, but I know you can do all things.

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

I know that, God, so I submit to you.

The problem is all of us have that go-to, and God is going to spend the majority of your life stripping that away from you until all you have left is him.

If it takes a lifetime, he'll do it.

Some people develop coping mechanisms where I'm just going to entertain myself and block it out.

Or I'm going to do this and block it.

I'm just going to enjoy the pleasures of life and I'm not going to think about it.

You know what God will do?

Strip every single one of them away from you.

Some of you, again, are just going to map out a plan.

Here, I'm going to do this.

I'm going to say this to them.

I'm going to say this to her and him.

And then I'm going to do this.

And then the end result is I'm out of this.

And God's going to strip all of that away from you.

God wants to get you to the point when something happens in your life that is devastating, your first move is him.

And if he has to remove everything out of your life that you go to, he will, in order that the only choice you have left is to get down on your knees and say, God, God, rescue me.

You know, I know it's an old thing, but I remember when I was growing up, pastors always used to talk about this guy who falls off a cliff, and there's a stump jutting out of the rocks, and it catches him by the cloak, and he's hanging there, but he's about to fall to his death, and he yells up over the cliff, please, is there anybody out there?

Help, help, is there anybody out there?

Finally, after about 10 times of going through this, a voice comes back and says, yes, God is here.

Let go.

Let go.

And the man says, is there anybody else up there?

Right?

Typically, that's not how we want to respond.

We want to take control and God's going to strip us of everything.

In fact, here's why God must be your go-to and your only go-to.

Because God releases the power of the Holy Spirit through us and in us.

to the degree we are totally, helplessly, and completely dependent on him.

God releases the power of the Holy Spirit through us and in us to the degree we are totally, helplessly, and completely dependent upon him.

So if you say, I'm going to get out of this unfortunate circumstance, I'm going to defeat this disease in my life, I'm going to overcome these odds, it's going to be half me and half God, then you get half God and half you.

But if you want all God, You submit to God.

You become a chronic prayer and you say, God, do whatever you have to do in my life, but you're the only one that can give me the victory.

And at that point, God releases the power of the Spirit, gives you the wisdom of the Spirit in you so that you can experience an extraordinary victory.

Now five, God will often encourage us or God will send us encouragement when we grow faint hearted.

Okay, this is my favorite part of the story.

Do I have you still?

Almost there.

Now, it's not like God says, I'm going to allow or send this unfortunate circumstance into your life.

And you know what?

I'm going to stand back and just watch how you do it on your own.

No.

God knows that we're weak.

And God knows that there's no way we can survive unless there's a fourth man in the furnace.

You know the story.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego do the right thing.

They're probably confused.

We've done the right thing, and still we're going into the furnace.

But when they get into the furnace, who's there?

The son of man or the son of God.

And most theologians believe this is a pre-incarnate Christ in the furnace with them.

And when you go through something like this, where God allows unfortunate events into your life, he assumes the responsibility to walk with you through this thing.

You get this prevailing presence.

So he sees that Gideon is weak.

Now he could say, you know, you're weak and I'm tired of dealing with you.

Man, I'm glad God's not like that.

Instead, here's what happens in Judges 7 verse 9.

During the night, the Lord said to Gideon, get up, go down against the camp because I'm going to give it into your hands.

If you're afraid to attack, go down to the camp of your servant Purah and listen to what they're saying.

Afterward, you will be encouraged to attack the camp.

So God said, Gideon, array your army for battle.

Gideon, do I sense a little bit of fear in you?

Yes, God, it's 450 against one.

I understand.

So get your servant Purah, and I want you to go down on the outskirts of the camp, and I'm going to lead you to a specific tent, and I want you to hear something.

Now, there are thousands of tents in the valley because there's 135,000 Midianites, but God led them to a specific tent.

where he had just sent a man a specific dream.

And the contents of the dream are specifically designed by God for Gideon.

So there are two Midianites hanging out in the tent, waiting for battle.

And one Midianite says to the other in Judges 7.13, I had a crazy dream.

A loaf of barley bread came crashing down, and it hit this tent and threw it up into the air, and the tent came crashing down.

What does this mean?

God not only gave the dream, he gave the interpretation in verse 14.

His friend responded, this can be nothing other than the sword of Gideon, son of Joash, the Israelite.

God has given the Midianites and the whole camp into his hands.

What?

I love reading commentators on this because they all skip over it.

There is no way you can get this interpretation from that dream.

No way.

Unless God gave the dream and then God gave the interpretation.

The result is that when Gideon heard that, he was so awed.

Do you know what he did?

He and Purah pulled out the instruments right there by the enemy camp and started praising and worshiping God.

I don't think Gideon at that point cared who heard him.

I don't think he was afraid for his life.

He had just been told by God.

He had been encouraged to such a degree that he was ready to do anything for God.

And every time I read this little section, I think, man, what a beautiful act of God loving a man.

One great act of kindness God demonstrates is sensitivity to a man who had grown faint-hearted, his unconditional love to a man who was willing to be obedient, and his sovereign power at a very strategic moment.

Hey, have you ever thought about giving up just on everything?

Do you think that your pastor ever thinks about quitting?

Every Monday morning.

Man, when you're tired and you've poured yourself out and the next day comes and you think you've got to do it again and again and again.

And we have a saying.

Now, take this with a grain of salt, but we say, ministry would be great if it wasn't for people.

And wouldn't church be great if it wasn't for people?

I mean, wouldn't your life group be great if only you were in it?

Right?

And every time in phases in my life when I've had to face something, and it's taken me 40 years of ministry to learn this, but I'm not so phased anymore.

It doesn't bother me that much anymore because I know if this is happening, God's got something far better than I could ever ask for, hope for, or imagine.

But every single time I enter one of those seasons, without fail, God, he'll wait to the moment that I'm on the edge.

That's a question I'd like to ask him.

But when I'm on the edge, every single time, somebody encourages me, and then I just bow my neck and say, man, God, thank you for that.

Let's go.

Let's go.

I ask you, the reason that Gideon was so encouraged is he stayed in close proximity to God and the people of God.

And I keep telling you, if the totality of your spiritual experience...

is one hour and 15 minutes on a Sunday morning, you're not going to make it.

You're not going to make it.

You've got to do life with people so that when those difficult times come, they're the ones that will speak into your life, the word of encouragement that will sustain you because when God speaks to us, he usually uses people, friends, accountability, people around us to speak truths into our lives.

You know, I mean, my buddy Rick reads in this service, and sometimes after a game of golf, he's a wreck, and I have to encourage him.

You know, I think he's ready to give up the game, and I got to say to him, hey, you know what?

Really, you're not that bad.

You only lost 12 balls today, but you're not that bad.

You know what I mean?

There is something about Rick and I's relationship.

We don't talk about golf that much.

We talk about life, life.

And if you don't have somebody like that that can encourage you and hold you accountable, I'm telling you, you will be isolated.

And God is trying to communicate encouragement to you, but you're not hearing it because you've moved away from the source.

And you'll feel isolated.

You'll feel alone.

Now, the question is, what happened?

How does this story end?

Well, number six, God is always working.

This is the end now.

Stay with me.

God is always working on the other side of the camp to accomplish his purposes.

God says, Gideon, here's what I want you to do.

I want you to take that trumpet, and I want you to take the 300 men, and I want you to encircle the camp of Midian.

So you're going to have to space yourself out.

And I want you to take those trumpets.

And when I tell you, I want 300 men to blow the trumpet at the same time.

Then I want you to take that clay jar and smash it on the ground.

And then I want you to raise the torch in the air.

And I want you to say, a sword for the Lord and for Gideon.

Now, if I were Gideon, I'd say, what's that going to do?

And the answer is nothing unless God wants it to do something.

But remember, this dream, by this Midianite, by this time, had spread throughout the entire camp.

Everybody was terrified of the name Gideon.

Not only that, if you read the narrative carefully, the timing is everything because it's between watches.

So when this group of guards are sleeping because they've been up all night, are returning to their tent to sleep, and the new guards are coming up, and they've got sleep in their eyes because they've been sleeping now that it's their turn to guard, that precise changing of the guard when everybody's half-sleep is when God told them, blow the trumpet, smash the clay jar, raise the...

torch and say, a sword for the Lord and for Gideon.

And when that camp, when the Midianite camp heard the name of Gideon piercing the darkness, the Bible says, you know what the Midianites did?

They thought everything that moved was an Israelite.

They killed each other.

No, Israel didn't have to lift a finger.

They just killed each other.

And then they were so terrified, they started running.

Now, can you imagine that?

I think this is hilarious.

300 men chasing 135,000.

I mean, can you imagine one man chasing 450 people?

Something's wrong here.

But they're terrified.

I wonder what would have happened if Gideon at any point would have decided to do this his own way.

You know, maybe, okay, God gave us this, but I've got 300 javelins here.

Just put that down in your pocket.

What would have happened?

One of our elders at our elders meeting this past Wednesday brought an incredible devotion and remind me of something Tim Keller said.

Tim Keller said, God will either give us what we ask or give us what we would have asked if we knew everything he knows.

God knows exactly what you need and he's more interested in that than what you think you can't live without.

God is always working on the other side of the camp.

If God asks you to forgive somebody and you're convicted to do that, and you sit around worrying all the time, well, what if they reject me?

What if they don't respond well?

Hey, that's not your issue.

God convicted you to do this, and you better believe if he convicts you to do that, he's working on the other side of the camp.

When God calls you to do something, I mean, I don't know how to explain this.

I don't know how to explain this.

I knew at about the age of 19 This is crazy now, but it's okay.

I knew at the age of 19 that one day my messages would be heard around the world.

I didn't try to do anything, but I knew the calling was there.

And then this bozo, Clive Raharui, shows up one day at my door and says, I've sold my company, I've left my business, and I don't know why I'm here, but God told me I'm to take the message of the gospel to the world.

Uncanny.

Because if he's calling you to do something, he's calling other people to do something, and he'll bring them all together in the appropriate time to give you extraordinary victories.

Because with the supernatural power of God comes the wisdom of God and the instruments, instructions from God that leads you to your greatest victories.

Now, I'm way over time, so I got to say this.

Was his faith built?

If you read the rest of the narrative in chapter eight, do you know what happens after Gideon chases these 135,000?

Of course, it's less than that because some of them are dead already.

But they're fleeing, the 300 men.

And you know what happened?

He comes to this village.

He comes to Sukkoth, which is a village.

And he says to the king of Sukkoth, look, we're chasing Zeba and Zamuna, the kings of Midian, but my men need bread.

Give them bread.

And the king of Zamuna and Zuma say, no, we're not going to give them bread.

So Gideon, with 300 men, And the kings of Zamuna have somewhere around 20,000, threatens them and says, okay, when I'm done with them, I'm coming after you.

And then he goes to Peniel.

He says the same thing to the kings of Peniel.

And he says, my men need some bread.

Give them some bread.

He says, no.

He says, fine.

Then after I'm finished with them, I'll come back and tear down this tower.

This guy is out of control now.

300 farmers and he's threatening thousands and thousands of warriors.

Because he knows the battle is not his.

It belongs to the Lord.

Now, one final question.

One final question.

You'll notice.

Then in Judges 7, verse 7 and 8, the Lord said to Gideon, with the 300 men that laughed, I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands.

Let all the others go home.

So Gideon sent the rest of the Israelites home, but kept the 300 who took over the provisions and trumpets of the others.

So he says, basically, I'm going to rescue with 300.

Here's the question.

Are you one of the 300?

Or have you gone home already?

Oh, you know, Jesus warned us.

Many are called, few are chosen.

Not everybody who says to me, Lord, Lord.

The person who puts his hand to the plow and then looks back is not fit to serve in the kingdom of God.

He told us it would be hard.

Salvation we have, but it's going to be hard.

Can I ask you, the next time something unfortunate comes into your life, Rather than blaming God or blaming others or think somehow that God has abandoned you, stop and say, how is God going to build my faith in him?

What is he going to require me to do that seems unreasonable?

How is he going to lead me to do that which brings him the most glory?

Is he going to strip me of everything I depend upon other than him so I will depend on him and him alone?

I will look for the encouragement he will send me when I grow weary, and I will trust that God is always working on the other side of the camp.

But Jeff, you said there were seven resolutions.

Well, you've got to buy the book to get the seventh one.

Shameless marketing.

Are you one of the 300?

I know that it's old, and I've told it many times, I want to end like this.

My friend Tony Bennett, he assures me that this originated with him, and then the story developed over years and changed.

But he says in 1993, when...

The Charlotte Hornets, he was a point guard, back up to Muggsy Bogues.

Anybody remember Muggsy Bogues?

You NBA fans are the shortest guy, one of the shortest guys ever to play, probably besides Spud Webb.

I don't know the difference, but Tony was back up to Muggsy Bogues for the Hornets.

And the Hornets were relatively a new franchise in the early 90s. They were gonna play the Boston Celtics in game seven.

And if they win game seven, it would be the first time in Hornet franchise history that they would advance to the second round of the NBA playoffs.

And at that time, Tony was point guard on a team that had Alonzo Mourning, Larry Johnson.

You guys remember those big guys?

They were mountain of men.

Said the coach brought them into the locker room and said, hey, I tell you what, I'm going to give you this strategy, but this is an important game.

So Larry, big Larry, I want you to stand at the end of this, and I want you to lead the team in the Lord's Prayer.

We're going to go out with the Lord, and we're going to claim the victory.

I'm not sure God is ever excited about NBA basketball, but anyway, this is how it went.

Immediately, Tony said that Alonzo Mornings started doing this.

Hey, Tony, this is going to be hilarious because Larry and Alonzo were close friends.

He goes, Larry doesn't even know the Lord's Prayer.

This is going to be hilarious.

And Tony said, come on, man, everybody knows the Lord's Prayer.

You grew up in America, you know the Lord's Prayer.

Coach finished the speech.

Larry stood up, all these big men joined hands, and Larry bowed his head and said, Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep.

But if I die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.

And Alonzo Mourning looked at Tony and said, man, he does know the Lord's Prayer.

Oftentimes, we think we know something with such certainty, when the truth is we are so far off base.

And this principle is never more true than when God calls us to endure something, we tend to be certain that it will destroy us.

When the truth is, it's about to bring an exhilarating adventure that will make you feel alive.

and that you will experience God in a way that you never have before, and it will build such courage and faith in you that you will become unstoppable, even chasing 150,000 warriors with 300 farmers.

Father, I pray that there would be great encouragement today for those who are already in the middle of an unfortunate circumstance.

They would take these resolutions and say, you know, I need to respond differently than I am.

Instead of kicking and screaming and panicking, becoming fear stricken, I will get down on my knees and rather than becoming a chronic deliberator, I will become a chronic prayer and I will seek the Lord and in my weakness, I know I will be strong.

I don't mean to belittle anyone's suffering, and I pray that I have not done that, that it is real and it's intense in many lives, but the only way to victory is God.

So I pray for my friends, my brothers and sisters, that they would overcome these odds by trusting in the power and the wisdom of God, and to know that he's always working on the other side of the camp to bring about Something extraordinary.

In Christ's name, everybody said, amen.