What to Do When the Odds Are Against You: Empowered by God

The following message from Pastor Greg Laurie is made possible by some special friends of this ministry. Pastor Greg? I wanted to say a special word of thanks to the Harvest Partners who make this ministry possible. Next time you're online, check out Pastor Greg's personal blog at blog.GregLaurie.com. God goes out of His way to find ordinary people to do extraordinary things.

Why? So He gets the glory. We all want to do good things, but today Pastor Greg Laurie points out we can do God's things if we focus on bringing Him glory. The Lord in effect says, it's not about who you are, it's about who I am. So we say, who am I? God says, really nobody, but who am I?

I'm the great I am, and I'm the one that's going to do the work through you. This is the day when the lost are found. This is the day for a new beginning. Amazing grace how sweet the sound. Again you hear all the angels are singing. This is the day, the day when life begins. 19th century novelist Charles Edward Montagu said, there is no limit to what a man can do so long as he does not care a straw who gets the credit for it.

And there's truth to that. And there's absolutely no limit to what a man can do when he's empowered by God and seeks only God's glory. Today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie shows the example of a man who drew on God's strength and provision to accomplish an impossible feat. We will see what the Lord wants us to learn from this account. Let's grab our Bibles and turn to the book of Judges chapter 6. Judges chapter 6 and we are in our World Changer series which is normally based in Hebrews 11 and still is to the point.

But the character we are going to look at today, the world changer we are going to spend a little time with is only mentioned in a word in the great heroes hall of faith. So we are going to deal with a text that tells a story. And the title of my message is what to do when the odds are against you.

Does that sound like an interesting message? Are the odds against anybody right now? Are you facing some challenges and difficulties and it's not looking good for you?

What to do when the odds are against you. And now we are going to look at a man that had no potential that we can see whatsoever. Yet he became a bona fide world changer and his name is Gideon. And Gideon well it is kind of surprising he made it into the hall of faith.

This was not a perfect guy. He had a weak beginning and quite frankly he didn't have the best ending either but he made it into this exclusive list of courageous men and women who put their faith into action. You know what I find interesting about Hebrews 11 the heroes hall of faith or what I call world changers is God never mentions their sins. He tells us about their accomplishments done through faith. But He never mentions their flaws or their shortcomings. But other verses do. But in this particular record those things are not mentioned.

So when we look at a guy like Gideon this gives hope to people who are not extraordinary but more on the ordinary side. You weren't the best student. You weren't the class president. You weren't the most beautiful.

You weren't the most handsome. You were that person that when they were picking who was going to be on what team to play baseball you were one of the last ones picked. Was that anybody here? That was me.

It was so sad. You know there are a bunch of people. Ok we will take that person. We will take that person. And at the end it would be me and a three legged dog.

Ok. And they would still pick the dog over me. Then finally someone would say alright fine we will take Laurie. Laurie you can be first base.

I am all excited. I can play first base. No we want you to be first base.

We want to put our cleats in you when we slide in. So you know I know what it is like to be that guy. But listen to this. God goes out of His way to find people like that. God goes out of His way to find ordinary people to do extraordinary things.

Why? So He gets the glory. You see.

Because that person will say there is no way I could have ever done that on my own. And that is really the story here. People to change the world.

And you know what. Gideon's world was messed up big time. Really it was a horrible situation. The people were morally upside down. And that is because they are spiritually upside down. Whenever there is a spiritual breakdown there is going to be a moral breakdown.

And there is going to be a cultural breakdown. And the verse that sort of explains everything is Judges 17 6. It says, in those days Israel had no king so the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes. The people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes. Let me do a paraphrase.

Everybody just did their own thing. Sort of like well today where someone will say, Well you know what I don't believe in your truth. That is your truth. I have my own truth and I will do what I want to do.

And I will live by the dictates of my conscience because my God would never tell me to do thus and so. Etcetera. They just sort of make it up as they go. So things were in chaos. Not unlike the wild west. And so the Lord raised up judges. Judges to rule over Israel.

13 in total. 12 of them were men. One of them was a woman. By the way when we think of judges don't think of like supreme court judges running around in robes. These were more like lawmen of the old west.

Think of Wyatt Earp showing up in town. To try to bring some law and order. So God raised up these judges who were in many cases warriors as well. So we are sort of picking this story up chronologically as we look at the world changers. And Joshua has passed from the scene. Remember God raised up Moses to deliver Israel out of Egypt and lead them through the wilderness to the brink of the promised land. God raised up Joshua to take them into the promised land. Now Joshua has died. And this just reminds us that God is looking for world changers for every generation. Moses was a world changer for his day. Joshua was a world changer for his day. And now we need a new one and so the Lord is going to pick out this guy Gideon.

And things were messed up because here is the problem. It was the year 1256 B.C. It had been 200 years since Israel marched on Jericho. And though they saw the walls fall by the power of God of that great city things had changed because they did not finish the job. God told Israel to drive out the inhabitants of Canaan. The Canaanites which included the Amorites, the Hittites, the Ammonites, the Jebusites, the Parasites.

All the sites. God said drive them out. And Israel obeyed partially.

So now what has happened is these Canaanites have come back to haunt them and ultimately rule over them. And this happens to us as Christians sometimes. You know we will commit our life to Christ and we will say, Lord you can have the key to every door, to every lock in my life except these two over here. Leave this closet alone. I keep my skeletons in this closet here. I don't want you messing with this other area of my life. Lord you can have everything but leave my finances alone.

You can have everything but leave my marriage alone or leave my singleness alone or leave my career alone. That is mine Lord. No. No.

If I don't let Him be Lord of all is He Lord at all? And so they had allowed the Canaanites to continue to grow and get stronger and now they are going to come back to haunt them. Sort of like if you tried to cut down an old tree in your backyard but you didn't uproot it. You just cut it off and left the stump.

It is only a matter of time until it will sprout again. And so now these Canaanites have come back with a vengeance. And why did this happen? Because the Israelites had turned from God and they turned to false gods. And we read in verse 1, Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord and He handed them over to the Midianites. By the way footnote the Midianites are the first to domesticate the camel. Have you ever spent time around a camel? They are a really weird looking animal. One person said a camel is a horse that a committee designed.

You know. It is like nothing makes sense about a camel. They are ugly but they are incredibly efficient. They can go days without drinking water.

They can move very quickly and they spit. I know this from experience. Being over in Israel there is like you know there are camels you can climb on the back of and pay a few shekels and get your shot taken. Your photo taken. They don't charge you anything to get up on the camel but they do charge you to get off. Right. So you are up there.

Oh nice cable. Right in your face. So imagine you are the Israelites and over the hill comes Midianites armed to the teeth riding camels. They look like creatures from Star Wars or something. It is frightening and so they are dominating the people and the people are hiding. They are afraid. They are devastated. And so they started calling on God. God help us. By the way there is nothing wrong with calling out on the Lord if you are in a moment of crisis. Let me take it a step further. You are stupid if you don't call out on God in a moment of crisis.

Well I don't know. Christianity is for weak people. It is a crutch. Oh no Christianity isn't a crutch.

Christianity is a whole hospital. Ok. You need God's help. And if you have half a brain you will call on Him.

And here is the good news. The Lord will hear you if you call on Him when it is sunny and wonderful or if it is stormy and horrible. He will hear your prayer. He says in Jeremiah 33 3 God speaking, Call to Me and I will answer you.

I will tell you great and hidden things you have not known. So the Lord is not going to answer their prayer in a very unusual way. He is going to send the answer through a guy named Gideon. In a moment we will see although the world may value confidence and self assurance, God values those who are humble. And we will see Gideon qualified.

That is next. Caring about listeners whose lives have been changed because of the radio ministry of a new beginning is so encouraging. A new beginning.

What a perfect name. Pastor Greg and staff, I'm a proud mother of two and a fairly new born again Christian. I struggled with drug and alcohol addiction for many years but have been sober for some time now. I thought I had become close to the Lord but late last year something happened to me. Something I still to this day can't even put my finger on except to say I was completely attacked by darkness. My world as I knew it seemed to turn upside down. I felt completely alone and it felt like I had no one to turn to.

Even now just thinking about it, tears flow down my cheeks. In my absolute determination to stay out of my own head and the negative thoughts that seemed to be flooding it, I turned on the radio and began listening to your program. It was as if the Lord was speaking directly to me through you.

Your words were quenching a thirst I didn't even know I had. Sermon by sermon I began to feel God's undying love for me. I really believe that you all played a huge role in saving my life and bringing me closer than I ever could have imagined to the Lord. I want to say thank you with all of my heart.

I feel like you all are my family and I will forever have a place in my heart, in my mind and on my radio. How have these daily studies in God's Word encouraged you? Why not drop Pastor Greg an email and let him know? Send it to Greg at harvest dot org.

Do it today while you're thinking about it. Again that's Greg at harvest dot org. Well we're in Pastor Greg's World Changers series. And today we're learning from a world changer named Gideon in the message titled, What to do when the odds are against you. As our story begins we find Gideon trying to prepare a little bit of wheat, hiding behind the walls of a small wine press, hardly a picture of heroism and courage. He was like the rest of Israel, hungry, hurting and humiliated. And the Lord said, there's my man.

So the story begins. Judges 6. Look at verse 12. And the angel of the Lord appeared and said, I'm reading from the New Living Translation, Hey mighty hero, the Lord is with you. Gideon said to him, Oh my Lord, if the Lord is with us, then why have all these things happened to us? And where are all of his miracles, which our fathers told us about, saying, Did not the Lord bring us out of Egypt? And now the Lord has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites. And then the Lord turned to him and said, Go in this might of yours and you will save Israel from the hand of the Midianites.

Have I not sent you? We will stop there. Interesting response on the part of Gideon.

He complains. Here is the Lord coming to him and he says, Hey, why has all of this happened to us? You know where is all the miracles that we hear about in the old days? I heard about a mom that was teaching some Bible stories to her children. Actually to her daughter in particular. And she told her daughter about the great battles of Joshua and the story of Daniel in the lion's den.

And the little girl turned to her mom and said, You know what mom? God was a lot more exciting back then. Maybe you feel that way sometimes.

You hear about the stories of things that have happened in other generations. And God could have rebuked Gideon. God could have said, What are you talking about Gideon? You brought this on yourself. You and your people with your idolatry.

But yet the Lord did not do that. Effectively said, Look we have got a job to do. Let's get going. Sort of like when you are trying to leave your house and get your kids ready and a shoe is missing and you are searching for a doll. Sadly it is the dad looking for his doll.

So you know you are looking. We have got to go. You say, Kids just get in the car. We will sort it out later. We have got to. Just get in the car. Ok. And the Lord is saying that to Gideon. Look I don't have time to deal with your whining and your lame questions. It is going to happen. And it is going to happen right now.

So let's get going. Now Gideon immediately protests. Verse 15, Lord how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh. And I am the least of my father's house. Modern interpretation of that would be, Hey I am the runt of the litter. I am the lowest of the low. And God said, Yeah well you are the guy I want. That brings us to point number one if you are taking notes.

Number one. God uses people who are humble. God uses people who are humble. By the way if you talk about how humble you are you are a long ways away from real humility.

I have met people. I am a very humble person. I am so humble. In fact I am humble. They are like humble. I am so humble I dropped the H. I am just humble. You are actually probably really arrogant because you are always talking about how humble you are. See a humble person. A really humble person. Doesn't tell you they are humble. They are just shocked that you would even notice them.

They would be surprised if God would call upon them. That was Gideon. He was genuinely humble. It is someone who sees himself for who they are. In fact Gideon asks the Lord in verse 15, Who am I? Who am I that you would call me?

And I love the response of the Lord. The Lord in effect says, It is not about who you are. It is about who I am. So we say, Who am I?

God says, Really nobody. But who am I? I am the great I am. And I am the one that is going to do the work through you.

So let's get going. I love how he is greeted initially verse 12, Mighty hero the Lord is with you. What kind of thing is that to say? To a guy who is hiding.

I mean picture. Here comes the angel of the Lord. Hey mighty hero. The Lord is with you.

Gideon is probably like, Is there another mighty hero in here? Because you can't be talking to me. That would be like going to a kid who can't throw a football right and saying, Hey Tom Brady. How is it going? Or a little girl that is failing a math class. Hey Einstein.

How are you doing? It is almost like a mockery to call him something like that. I don't think Gideon felt like a mighty hero.

I think he probably felt more like a pathetic zero. But yet God reassures him that he is the one. But first there is going to be a test before he leads Israel into battle.

And it is going to be a test in his own home. God told Gideon to tear down the altar his father Joash had erected to a false god. He said, Go tear that altar down.

And by the way while you are doing it I want you to take his prized bull and I want you to barbecue it just so he understands what is coming down. And Gideon did what the Lord told him to do. And that was not easy.

Bringing us to principle number two. World changers are faithful in little things. God says, Go tear down the altar of your father. And Gideon did it. And by the way the Bible says he did it at night. Some would be critical of him. Oh he shouldn't have done it at night. He should have done it in the light of day. Yeah so what?

He did it. You know there are people today that love to criticize. They think they have the gift of criticism. They always find what is wrong. They never have solutions.

They never want to be a part of the solution. They just like to critique. Well I don't like the way you guys do this. And I don't like the way you guys do that. Greg I don't like the way you do evangelism. We don't like your crusades. And we don't like the way you call people to Christ. You don't do it right.

Okay I'll ask how do you do it. Well we don't do it. Oh well I like my way of doing it better than your way of not doing it. Okay. Now I'm not saying everything I do is perfect.

It isn't. But I'm doing the best I can do to reach people with the gospel. So my question is what are these other people doing? It's easy to be an armchair quarterback. But world changers are willing to put it on the line.

They're willing to take chances and take risks. And so he did what the Lord called him to do. Verse 27 says he did it at night because he was afraid of the other members of his father's household and the people of the town. And you know what happened? After he tore down the altar of his dad the people were so angry and they wanted to execute Gideon.

Pretty harsh. But amazingly and in an interesting little twist in the story the father of Gideon, the guy who set up the altar to Baal is the one who defends him. And the father says to the people why are you defending Baal?

Why do you argue his case? If Baal's really a god let him defend himself and destroy the one who broke down his altar. See I think deep down inside dad was proud of his son. Joash was proud of Gideon.

Wow my boy is doing really well. In fact it even seems like the faith of the father was rekindled. But this brings up an important point. The hardest people to reach are your own family. The first place you need to take a stand for your faith in Christ is with the members of your family.

With your father, with your mother, with your husband, with your wife, with your son, your daughter, your extended family. See I'm now a follower of Jesus Christ. But a lot of times they're skeptical because they've probably known you since you've been you know knee high to a grasshopper.

They're thinking oh what's this kid gonna tell me? And so you need to just live it. Maybe we think they need a sermon every day. No there's a point when the sermons are done.

Just start living the sermon now and be a godly example. Listen even Jesus when he walked among us during this earthly ministry did not reach his family. And by that I mean they didn't all believe in him. Can you imagine having Jesus as a sibling? And oh yes Jesus had brothers and sisters the Bible tells us this. And imagine being compared to Jesus.

You know Mary might have got the kids together and said now kids come on really? Can you not do your chores? Why can't you be more like your big brother Jesus? He does his chores. No one ever tells him to do them.

He does them cheerfully. Look how he makes his bed every day. Look how obedient he is. Look at how respectful he is to myself and to Joseph. Kids you need to be more like your brother Jesus. In fact Joseph made these little wooden bracelets in his shop the WWJD.

Wear these. What would Jesus do? Mom come on. Jesus is like perfect mom.

He like never loses his temper. So you think okay perfect example. Everyone would believe. No they didn't.

They didn't believe until he was crucified and risen again from the dead. So the point is make your stand in your home. So Gideon passed the first test with flying colors. Well there's a lot more to learn from our study of Gideon as Pastor Greg Laurie continues his message here on A New Beginning called What to Do When the Odds Are Against You. You'll have a final illustration for today in just a moment and we'll pick up again on our next program. And you can get an instant replay of anything you missed today by going to our website harvest.org. You can hear the study again and even download a permanent copy if you'd like. Or listen by way of our Harvest mobile app. Or call us anytime 24 hours a day at 1-800-821-3300.

That's 1-800-821-3300. And then we're so happy to make available a new resource for the holiday called The Jesus Storybook Bible, A Christmas Collection by Sally Lloyd-Jones. In fact she's here with Pastor Greg and me today along with Pastor Greg's wife Kathy.

Kathy? Sally, I think that when we speak to our children or tell our children Bible stories, we are so careful to not admit our own fears, our own shortcomings, and what I love about your stories is that you're very real and honest with children. You're not shielding them from some of the gentle realities that they need to begin to be talked to about, that there are things that go wrong, that there are times when we are afraid. How do you take those difficult times in a child's life and address them through your stories based on what the Bible has shown you?

Yes, I think that's so right. You don't hide the fact that sad things happen. And children right now will have experienced sad things happening, losing grandparents or who knows?

That's true. So they know and children know from a very early age that not everything is right with the world. And so unless we tell them the truth, they can't trust us. So I think that just to encourage that, obviously, we have to say it in age-appropriate ways. But if we can process scary things with children while they're on our laps, then they can have their feelings while we're there in a safe place.

And that will just prepare them and equip them. Because I think the main thing is when, yes, we protect children, but we also have to get them ready. So I think this year, perhaps the telling of the truth is, yes, everything is not all right with the world, but our headlines don't come from the news. They come from this story, which is the story underneath all the stories. And it's about the God who is still in charge, even though everything looks completely out of control. He's not, and he has a good plan. And I think it's just declaring the truth so that a child knows we're not sort of making it all easy and simplistic.

We're telling them, yes, everything is out of control. Wow. Great insights from Sally Lou Jones, everybody, who you're listening to right now. And she's a prolific author of children's books and most notably the Jesus Storybook Bible. And now, this special book that we're offering called A Christmas Collection of Stories, Songs, and Reflections for the Advent Season, written in Sally's beautiful way, and narrated also by David Suchet, the outstanding actor, illustrated again by Jago, who she's worked with before, really has a great style as an artist.

I really appreciate the graphic quality of this. And this is a beautiful book, hardcover book, with this button you push periodically, interactive features with David Suchet's voice and a Christmas song and a lot here. And this is going to be a delightful, very helpful, a resource for you in the Christmas season to get your children or grandchildren focused on what Christmas really is all about, the most important of all stories. And so we want to send you a copy of this book for your gift of any size to help us continue on with our radio ministry that we call A New Beginning.

Because as you know, we teach the Word of God every day, and we give people an opportunity to come to Christ. So if that's important to you, if you believe more people need to hear the Bible taught and they need to hear the gospel so they can believe in Jesus, then we appreciate whatever you can send to our ministry. And really, I will send this to you for your gift of any size. You'd frankly pay quite a bit of money for this if you were to order it online or buy it in the store. And some of you can give a little more, and maybe some of you not give as much, but give what you can and we'll rush you your copy of the Jesus Storybook Bible Christmas collection.

Yeah, that's right. And you can contact us right away at 1-800-821-3300. We're here around the clock to take your call at 1-800-821-3300. Or send a note to A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, California, 92514. Or just go online to harvest.org and look for the Jesus Storybook Bible, a Christmas collection. Well, next time, Pastor Greg has more insight from the humble man of God named Gideon.

But before we go for today, he has a final illustration to share. Years ago when I was a brand-new Christian, I was attending Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa. So I made an appointment with Pastor Chuck Smith, who's now with the Lord, and I sat down in his office and he was there behind his desk and I said, Pastor Chuck, I want to be used by God.

I want to serve the Lord here. And I thought he might say, well, Greg, why don't you do one of the Bible studies here or maybe preach for me Sunday morning? And Chuck said, okay, great, I want you to go talk to one of my associate pastors. His name is Pastor Romain. Well, I didn't know who Pastor Romain was.

I found out fast enough. He used to be in the Marine Corps. He was a drill sergeant. And here I come, some young hippie kid, and I said, hi, I'm here to serve the Lord, and Chuck sent me to you.

And Romain knew exactly what that meant. That meant free janitorial work. So I said, okay, Greg, here's a broom. Go sweep over there.

And when you're done, go over there and clean the toilet. Excuse me, I didn't volunteer to be a janitor. I volunteered to serve the Lord. But they understood if I could not be faithful in the little things, how could they entrust me with anything greater?

And they got a lot of free work out of me, by the way, doing that. But I understood, I just need to do what I'm asked to do, and then I would be given another responsibility. And then maybe I could answer the phone and counsel someone.

Then maybe I could go make a hospital call. And then maybe I could go teach a little Bible study. Jesus said in Luke 16, unless you're faithful in small matters, you won't be faithful in large ones. If you cheat even a little, you won't be honest with greater responsibility. So you start small. And in the day, the day when life begins.