You know, we always claim something when it's adding involved. Not many folks want to claim a blessing that has subtraction involved. But I'm here to declare to you from the Word of the Lord: some of the greatest things God will do in your life begin with significant subtraction. Hello, and thanks for stopping by for today's Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Shepherd. Always a pleasure to have you with us.
Well, Gideon was more wimp than warrior—hardly the kind of man the world would call a hero—and yet God called him to lead Israel into battle with a powerful Midianite army. Gideon and his men were vastly outnumbered, but as we'll see today, God made them stronger by first making them smaller. Before we get started, let me invite you to stop by PastorPaul.net when you have some time. That's where you can listen to any of our recent messages on demand, including today's. PastorPaul.net.
The message is called "Taking Only What God Gives Us," and it starts right now. Judges chapter seven, beginning with verse one. Early in the morning, Gideon and all his men camped in the spring of Harod. 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 your hands, in order that Israel might not boast against me, that her own strength has saved her.
Announce now to the people: anyone who trembles with fear may turn back and leave Mount Gilead.
So, twenty-two thousand men left, while ten thousand remained. But the Lord said to Gideon, "There are still too many men." Take them down to the water, and I will sift them for you there. If I say this one shall go with you, he shall go. But if I say this one shall not go with you, he shall not go.
So get in. Took the men down to the water. There, the Lord told him, separate those who lap the water with their tongues like a dog from those who kneel down to drink. Three hundred men lapped with their hands to their mouths. All the rest got down on their knees to drink.
The Lord said to Gideon, "With the three hundred men that lapped, I will save you, and give the Midianites into your hands. Let all the other men go, each to his own place." So Gideon sent the rest of the Israelites to their tents, but kept the three hundred. Who took over the provisions and trumpets? Of the others, will end there. In the last message, we began to discuss the importance of taking only what God gives us.
We noted that in response to the gathering of the Midianites and their allies, the Spirit of God came upon Gideon, and he blew a trumpet, summoning the men of Israel. We noted that 32,000 responded to the initial call. Gideon had to be both impressed and somewhat concerned because, after all, he's facing more than 130,000 of the enemy. He's got a significant host arrayed against him.
So while thirty-two thousand responded to his call, that's impressive, especially for a guy who has never learned how to recruit folks. Thirty-two thousand responded, but they're up against a massive army, and he had to be impressed that that many responded, but also concerned that we're outnumbered more than four to one. But then God speaks up. And says, "Well, actually, I can't do it with this many people." And usually, when we say, "I can't do it with this many people," "I can't do it with this amount of money," "I can't do it with this team," what we usually mean is we need more folks. But when God said, "I can't do it with this," He meant there's too many.
And God said. Go out and tell those who are fearful. Go out and tell the people who really don't want to be here that it's all right. We're giving out honorable discharges, and they can go home. And Gideon.
Had to go out and say what God said. He's already concerned. We're outnumbered more than four to one as it is, and now you're telling me to let folk go if they're afraid.
So Gideon goes out and says that, and twenty-two thousand people, more than two thirds of the initial respondents, say deuces. That means peace. I'm out. Imagine how he feels now.
Now he is not outnumbered more than four to one.
Now he is outnumbered something like fourteen to one. He's got to be seriously panicking now. And yet he hears God say. You still have too many. I want to talk to you more about this point of taking only what God gives us, because we must understand that there are certain missions, there are certain seasons, there are certain assignments, there are certain phases in our walk with God where God will multiply you, bless you.
I first subtracting and dividing, and that runs counterintuitive to what we're used to. We're used to God just piling on, adding, and all of that. You know, we always claim something when it's adding involved. Not many folks want to claim a blessing that has subtraction involved. But I'm here to declare to you from the Word of the Lord: some of the greatest things God will do in your life begin with significant subtraction.
And so, I want to look deeper. We looked at it the entire previous message, and I want to go farther before we wrap it up with the next message. I want us to focus for a little while here on how God and why God did the first of the two siftings. The first one, He said, "Go out and tell people that if they really are afraid, if they are trembling with fear." They really shouldn't be here. It's okay for them to go home.
I want to help you understand why you've got to invite certain people out of your inner circle. I want you to get this. If you get this, it'll bless you the rest of your Christian walk. There are some people you cannot afford to have in your inner circle. Oh, they can be somewhere on the periphery of your life.
They can be somewhere, you know. You can have them in a pocket, in an isolated, defined zone. You can have a role you play in their life, but your inner circle people—the folk who roll with you, the folk who are your ride or die people—ask the young folk what that means. Those folk have. Have to be of a certain variety, and I'm going to show you why.
Negative emotions such as fear, he said, get all the fearful folk and tell them to go home. Negative emotions such as fear can spread like a disease and cause you to forfeit. Your blessings. Their negativity can be contagious. If you spend time with fearful folk, quality time, exposed in an inner circle way with fearful folks, you will have to work very hard to not become fearful yourself.
You got to understand, some things are caught, not taught.
Some things are caught. You hang around them, people who have it, you catch it. My wife and I love cruising. That's our favorite form of vacationing. It's not the only kind we do.
Some folks think when we take a break, we're always going on a cruise. I don't roll like that. Not blessed like that.
Now, if y'all want to bless me like that, you go right on ahead. But we cruise whenever we can. We love it. But one of the things about the cruise industry is because you spend a whole week in relatively close proximity to some folk, they have to be very careful. That when the norovirus is identified on a ship, they have to be very careful before that ship unloads and takes on the next group of folk to try to clean it up.
Just recently, and from time to time, you will hear about a ship where a couple of hundred folk, everybody went on well. But a couple of hundred folk end up sick, crazy sick, vomiting sick, can't enjoy their vacation. Sick, hundreds of people. Why? Because someone contracted that disease, that disorder, norovirus, and just by shaking hands, just by touching something that's been touched by somebody who had it.
And inadvertently, they left it on the railing, and you come and you slide by that, and then you scratch your eye or put your hand up to your face in some way that that disease then enters your body.
Now you caught what they gave you. Nobody taught you anything about the norovirus, but some things are caught, not taught. You don't even have to understand some things, and you still caught it. And the next thing you know, it's just spreading as people just casually interact and casually get contracted, and then they expose themselves, and on and on and on, and it goes. And suddenly, hundreds of folk.
Are messed up with it. I caught it one time in a wonderful hotel. I love staying on Waikiki Beach. It's one of my favorite places, and there's a particular hotel I stay on Waikiki Beach. We were there one time.
I didn't know it, but I contracted norovirus, and there I was in paradise. Paradise had a room with a balcony overlooking Waikiki Beach. And when that thing got through with me, I was so sick I couldn't even walk over to the balcony to enjoy the view, Diamond Head, right there. I was sitting on the sofa shivering. Paradise right over there, and I'm just—you know—it's bad when you're chilly in the summertime.
Still ahead, the second half of today's Destined for Victory message with Pastor Paul Shepard.
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Now let's get you back to the rest of today's message, taking only what God gives us. In the summertime, I'm in there just chilly. Many of them had to go home, leave me because we were scheduled to go, and I got sick the day before we left. And I was too sick to fly home. Plus, it would have been a danger to the people exposing themselves.
So I said, I'm gonna just stay here till I get well. I said, "Y'all just go home. I'll be there as soon as I can make it." And so I called downstairs and told them, "Yeah, I'm sick. I've caught some virus, and I'm just really sick. I'm supposed to check out, but I can't do it today.
I'm going to stay over another day." They said, "Well, this room has been reserved now for somebody else coming in." And I said, "I promise you, Mister. Nobody wants to come into this room right now. Do them a favor, and put them in another room. Cause what I had was in that room. Whatever I had touched could very well be a contract point.
Is somebody here in this message?" There are some folk in your life. Oh, they smile, they grin, they say hello, and all of that. But they have the virus of fear. They have the virus of not being able to believe God, the virus of not understanding the principles of God, not understanding that if God be for you, who can be against you? Not understanding that God is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that you can ask or imagine.
All they know is what they see. They experience the world through the five senses only. They don't have the sixth sense of faith that is to dominate all of the other. They don't know how to walk by faith and not by sight. They don't know how to tell the devil where to go and draw him a map so he won't get lost.
They don't know how to stand their ground. They don't know how to say, "I appreciate what you're saying, but here's what the word of the Lord says." And if you fool around with those folks, you will catch what they have. You're trying to get healed. You're doing fooling with people who are busy telling you they have an uncle who died with what you have. I need somebody who's gonna say, "I see the doctor's report.
I know what they're telling you, but I'm just not convinced God is finished with you yet." And I believe that He'll have the last say and the last word about this situation.
So let's go on and stand in faith. You go on and take your medicine. Go on and do what the doctors are telling you, but don't sit here and write an obituary just yet. Why don't we pray and believe God? Why don't we stand in faith and see?
What he will do? You believe in God to get through this economic downturn? Quit fooling around with people in your inner circle who tell you, "Well, you know, there's a whole lot of people now living in their car. What shape is your car in?" I don't need you fooling around measuring me for my backseat of my car. I need somebody who know how to stand in faith and say, "God is able to make a way out of no way." God can give you a job somewhere and bless your life, even in the midst of this famine.
God is not finished working with you. I was recently in a service where James Fortune was was the music guest, and he shared part of his testimony. He talked about the fact that just a few years ago, he said, "My family and I were found ourselves homeless and living for a while in our vehicle." He said, "But I'm so glad I married a faith walking woman." He said, "At the time when many wise would be sitting there, say, 'I don't believe you took me out of my father's house, and now I'm sitting up here in this car, and would have dragged me down and demoralized me.'" She said, "Honey, this is just a little temporary chapter, sad chapter in the book of our lives, but God is going to turn this around. Stay encouraged, because we're not going to live here permanently. We're going to see the glory of God." And I remember when he stood up and won his first Stellar Award.
He brought his wife up on stage and he said, "I'm giving this to her in the presence of all of you all because I need you to understand. Unless I had somebody walking with me by faith, I would have never made it through that crisis to be able to stand here and let you know what God is doing." I'm glad I married a woman like that, who saw me go through the worst season of my life. And was able to stand with me, and say, "God is not finished with you yet." I know it's bad. I know folk are writing you off. I know folk are through.
Some folk are through with you and writing the obituary of your ministry. He said, "If you're ready to deal with what God is dealing with, we're going to see God do some things now." You got to have the right people. Your inner circle.
Some of y'all can't go anywhere because of your company. Your crowd determines your course. Make sure your inner circle is characterized by people who don't have the disease of fear and doubt and unbelief and second guessing God and murmuring and complaining. You can't afford. People characterized by negative emotions in your inner circle, when you are called of God to walk by faith.
I alluded to this at the end of last message. Let me just revisit it. Numbers chapter thirteen. Moses sent the spies out to spy out the land.
Now they're in the wilderness, believing God for the Promised Land, and so Moses sends spies. Go check out the land. Give us a thorough report. Let us know," he said. "Let us know if there are walled cities.
Let us know if there are powerful people." He said, "I'm not trying to dismiss the realities we're up against. See, walking by faith is not walking in denial. I'm not dismissing anything we're up against." He said, "Going and do a full assessment.
Some folks think to live by faith, you can't even acknowledge that there are challenges. Of course, you can acknowledge. You wouldn't need to walk by faith unless you had challenges." So yes, Moses said, "Check it out and bring back a full report. Let us know what's over there, the good and those that things that are challenging." But they come back. Verse twenty six: Report to the whole assembly and say, "We went into the land.
It does flow with milk and honey. Here is its fruit." Verse twenty eight, but. You got to get all the butt people out of your life, out of your inner circle. That is everybody who loves. Yeah, yes, sometimes, yeah, but have you considered why?
Because that's driven by something that militates against faith. Look at what's behind the butt. But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. Stop right there. True statement, but spoken from a place of doubt, and fear, and unbelief.
See, they could have come back and in their assessment they could have said that you know it's a wonderful land, flows with milk and honey. Here's the fruit. They could have said the people there are large and powerful, cities are fortified, and the but could have been placed somewhere else in the report. If you and I, who walk by faith, had been given the report, we could have acknowledged cities are big, fortified, people are large, all of that. We could have said, but.
Since God said it's ours, since God said it's ours, we just going on over there anyhow. God'll take care of the giants. God'll take care of the walled cities. That's His job, not ours. The problem isn't the but.
The problem is where you put it in the paragraph. The folk who don't know how to place the but. Need to get their butt out of the way. Their butt out of the way. You've got to understand, fear and doubt and unbelief are contagious and destructive in the life of faith walking people.
Fear competes directly with faith, robbing us of our ability to walk in the Spirit and obey God's will. But here's some good news from Second Timothy one verse seven: God has not given you a spirit of fear, but of love, of power, and of a sound mind.
Well, the last thing Jesus told us to do was to go out into the world and make disciples of all nations, and to get that job done, it takes all of us working together.
So today, we're asking all of our listening friends and partners to prayerfully consider making a generous donation to Destined for Victory. When you do, we'd love to send you our latest booklet called "Before Qualified." If you've ever felt called to do something you weren't quite ready to take on, this outstanding resource will help you navigate your way through what can often be a confusing time. The booklet gives you an up-close and personal look at Gideon, a man called by God to be a mighty warrior long before he was brave enough to go into battle. Oh.
So, if you've been stalling on your calling until you feel qualified, called before qualified will remind you. God may not always call the qualified, but He absolutely qualifies the called. Again, that's called before qualified, and it's our thank you gift this month for your generous donation to the Destined for Victory Media Ministry. You can give by phone by calling eight five five three three nine five five zero zero. That's eight five five three three.
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Some of us have people in our lives who are good, so we see or assess, but it's not God's plan. Every good idea is not a God idea. Every good person is not a God person. Every potentially good partnership is not a God partnership. That's next time in our message.
Taking only what God gives you. Until then, remember, He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are destined for victory.
