Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Tuesday, October 29th. No matter what you face, as a believer, God is always there to provide encouragement. Let's listen to the series to see how God proves Himself as our strength and assurance when we face a test of courage. Well, God has a plan for your life, but not only that, He has many plans for your life. He may have an overall plan for your particular life, as He does all of us. But there are many plans among that plan. Decisions we have to make, things He wants us to accomplish in life.
But whatever they are, we know this for sure. His plan is always the best plan. It'll always bring Him glory.
And we know that we always have His presence and His power in our life to fulfill whatever that plan may be. Now, you may be in a situation this morning that things aren't going too well for you. You feel discouraged. Maybe it's in your relationship with somebody. Maybe it's your finances.
Maybe it's your health. Whatever it might be, you just feel like you're being tested. You're not sure what God is up to in your life.
You just can't figure it out. And you're wondering why He doesn't answer your prayer. And you feel like you're being tested over and over and over again. Well, if He is testing you over and over again, it's for a reason. And what you and I need to do is to learn how to respond to those tests. And ask ourselves the question, God, what are You up to in my life?
What is it You want to accomplish? Because He always has a purpose. God doesn't do anything without a preordained purpose. And remember this, that He's omniscient.
He knows exactly all the details, past, present, and future. So, whatever you're facing in life, He has something that He intends to bring out of that that is very good. Well, our Scripture today is two chapters in the book of Judges. And I want to talk about this whole issue of the call for courage in our life. Many times what we face in life demands courage.
Sometimes we don't have it. And one of the interesting things about this passage is this. How often God is willing to encourage us.
How often He's willing to step out far beyond what we think or expect to encourage us in whatever we're facing in life. So, if you'll turn to this sixth chapter of Judges and the seventh chapter. And let me give you a little background of what's happening here. And if you will notice in this sixth chapter, the people of Israel have sinned against God and here's where they are. The Bible says in verse one, then the sons of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord gave them into the hands of Midian seven years. For seven years they've been captive.
And this is the way they've been treated. The power of Midian prevailed against Israel. Because of Midian, the sons of Israel made for themselves dens which were in the mountains and caves and the strongholds.
For it was when Israel had sown that the Midianites would come up with the Amalekites and the sons of the east and go against them. So they would camp against them and destroy the produce of the earth as far as Gaza, and leave no sustenance in Israel as well as no sheep, ox, or donkey. But they would come up with their livestock and their tents.
They would come in like locusts for numbers, but they and their camels were innumerable. And they came into the land to devastate it. So, Israel was brought very low because of Midian, and the sons of Israel cried to the Lord.
Now why were they in such a terrible condition? Well, the Scripture says in verse ten, And I said to you, I am the Lord your God. You shall not fear the gods of the Amalites and whose land you live. But you have not obeyed me. They were where they are because they disobeyed God.
And I think this is the same question some people ask. They say, Well, Lord, why are You allowing these things to happen in my life? And so, this is where they were. And so, there are several things I want you to get from this passage of Scripture.
Most of all is this. I want you to see how God, again and again and again, is willing to encourage us when we're afraid, when we don't know what to do next, or when we feel like everything is against us. There is a continuing message of encouragement. So, the first thing I want you to notice is this, that God calls those whom He's equipped for the task He has in mind. That is, whatever God calls you to do, He's already equipped you. It would be unfair for God to call you to do something He's not equipped you to do.
That doesn't mean that you're not to improve on your particular call and get an education or keep training, whatever it might be. But whatever He's called you to do, He has equipped you to do it. So, when God begins to work in our life, He understands that sometimes we need courage. We need courage to do what He calls us to do.
Verse sixteen, But the Lord said to him, Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat Midian as one man. So Gideon said to him, If now I shall have found favor in your sight, then show me a sign that it is you who speak with me. He said, I want to be sure of this. I want to be sure that this is God speaking to me.
And that's always a right idea. In other words, if you feel like that the Lord has said something to you, or you're not sure, or somebody else challenges you in what you're doing, all of us want to know whether we're listening to God, we're listening to somebody else, or we have made it up for ourselves. And so, he says, I want to be sure who it is that's telling me this. And so, what he does, beginning in the nineteenth verse, Then Gideon went in and prepared a young goat and none leavened bread with an ebb of a flower. He put the meat in the basket, the broth in the pot, brought them unto him under the oak and presented them. The angel of God said to him, Take the meat and the unleavened bread and lay them on the rock.
Pour out the broth, and he did so. Then the angel of the Lord put out the end of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened bread, and fire sprang up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened bread. Then the angel of the Lord vanished from his sight. When Gideon saw that he was the angel of the Lord, he said, Alas, O Lord God, for now I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face. He wanted to be sure that this was God who was speaking to him. And so, what did God do?
Watch this carefully. He wanted to encourage him. You and I never need to feel bad about asking for God to encourage us. God is an encourager. He wants to encourage us. And that encouragement gives us courage to step out and do exactly what God would have us to do. And so, He says, Lord, I'm hearing what You're saying and I want to be sure that I do exactly what You'd have me to do.
But He says I need encouragement. So, here's what He does. And this is what God will oftentimes do. He will oftentimes challenge us to do something that's maybe not quite so difficult in order to encourage us and get us ready for something more difficult in life. And so, this is what I see that He does in this passage of Scripture. Because in this sixth chapter, the Scripture says here, and He's asking God not to depart from Him and so forth. The Lord said to him, here's what I want you to do.
Because He's called him now and He's having to wrestle with getting in about whether He thinks He can do this or not. So, here's what I want you to do. I want you to take a couple of bowls from your father and I want you to go down and destroy this image of Baal, this God of Baal. And I want you to destroy the ashroth, mother of Baal.
I want you to destroy them and on that same place, I want you to build an altar to God. And so, what was God doing? He was challenging Gideon for a task. It was a dangerous task to get him ready for the big thing that God had in mind. So, this is why you and I need to be sensitive what God's doing in our life. This may be some small task that you feel that you have or some test you have in your life.
Maybe it's a test of relationship, whatever it might be. And you've got to decide how you're going to respond. Are you going to respond in a godly fashion? Say, God, I don't understand this, but I'm going to do exactly what you tell me to do. Or you say, I don't understand this, I don't think it's fair, and the answer is no. Then watch this.
You will never know where you'll be in life. And I want to give you an illustration. I'm sure I've said it before, but I want to tell you how absolutely important this is. I can remember when I'd been a pastor a few years and God had challenged me to do something that I was afraid to do.
That's just the bottom line. I was afraid. And so, I kept praying about it and telling God why I couldn't do it, why I shouldn't do it. And I could name some other people who ought to do a better job of it than myself. And you know, God doesn't hear all that stuff.
He just lets it go by. But anyway, I said it. And so, I finally decided I'd go up in the mountains and spend a little time praying, which I did, and talk to God about it. And I thought I'd about settle that. And I came home three days before the decision had to be made.
I was stretched out lying in the sun porch in my house in Miami and God spoke to me very clearly. You have two choices. You can do what I've called you to do and find out what I will do with you the rest of your life. Or you can disobey me and spend the rest of your life wondering what I would have done with you had you obeyed me.
That settled the issue for me right there. And I looked back and realized if I had said no to God, I would not be where I am. I would not be preaching the gospel.
I would not be able to have the awesome privilege I have. And I'm saying all that to say this to you. You think some little decision's not a big deal. But sometimes those decisions that don't seem to be all that significant is a big deal with God. For if I'm not willing to do the little thing that He calls me to do, why should I believe that God would trust me with something even greater?
And so what He does here is simply doing what? God is using this test in His life to get Him ready for something far more important. And so God is willing to give us encouragement, but we must be willing to be obedient to Him. Then sometimes even the most courageous often desire added assurance of God's presence in their life.
It doesn't make any difference how strong we may be. Nobody is beyond desiring and needing God's encouragement in their life or whatever may be going on. So think about where are you in your life this morning?
And I had two testimonies just from the morning service. And one is a couple who were really on the verge of divorce. And at the end of the message, they were holding each other's hand, squeezing each other's hand and saying, You know what? We're going to make it.
You can make it if you're willing to trust God. And so He gives us encouragement because He loves us. He understands our weaknesses. He understands our frailties. He understands when you're having a relationship with somebody, with your husband or wife or whatever it might be. One person's thinking one thing, the other person's something else. And at that moment you just can't seem to get together.
You think, Let's just forget it and let's just walk away. It just might be that that's the moment in your life that God has allowed you to come to His place in order to use you to be a blessing to many other people's lives or whatever He may want to do. But God will never tell you to disobey Him. He'll never tell you to walk in disobedience.
He'll never tell you to do something that's ungodly and unbiblical, unrighteous in His eyes. And He is more than willing to give us encouragement in our life, whatever that encouragement may call for. So I would ask you, Where are you this morning in your relationships?
Where are you in your relationship to your job, your husband, your wife, your children, your parents, your finances, your health? Are you giving up? Are you being discouraged? And what I want you to see in this passage, and I'll say this over and over again. He uses this passage to be an encouragement because here's Gideon to whom he said in the very beginning, O valiant warrior. So he could not have said anything to a young Israelite. There would be a greater reason for him to have courage and so forth.
O valiant warrior. Now he didn't feel that way. Why did God say it? Watch this, because God knew what He was going to do in Gideon's life. And oftentimes God will speak to you in prayer or through His Word and say something to you that doesn't maybe make any sense to you at that particular point.
And yet God is doing something, getting you ready for something very significant. So when you look at Gideon's life here and how God used him, and I would say even the most courageous person oftentimes needs that encouragement. So look, if you will, in the seventh chapter now and beginning in this verse, verse. Then Jerubal, that is, Gideon, and all the people who were with him rose early and camped beside the spring of Haran.
And the camp of Midian was on the north side of them by the hill of Morah in the valley. The Lord said to Gideon, the people who are with you, this is His army now. The people who are with you are too many for Me to give Midian into their hands, for Israel would become boastful, saying, My own power has delivered Me.
Now watch that. Oftentimes, God let us sort of hang out there. We think, well God, this is unfair.
He knows exactly how He's going to deliver us in whatever situation He's got us in. But remember this, it's always important to God that He be glorified and not us. When we begin to take credit for what we're able to do with His power and His presence, we begin to take credit, what happens? We get prideful, we get arrogant, and here's what happens. The next thing you know, the next test we have, we fail because we think we're the ones who accomplished the last one.
I can't say that strongly enough. I've seen that happen in people's lives. I've seen it happen in pastors' lives and people in business.
In other words, I accomplished something great and now I'm Mr. Thus and So. And this is how big my church is.
And next thing you know, you know they're not even in church. And so, God doesn't put up with pride. If there's one thing He hates, it's pride. And He says, pride always goes before destruction. So, here's what He said. He said, if I allow you to take thirty-two thousand men against these hundred and thirty-five thousand Amalekites and Midianites, and you equip them, you're going to have a reason to be prideful. Look what you did. Say, here's what I'm going to do.
I love this. Listen, the Lord said to Gideon, the people who are with you are too many for Me to give Midian into their hands, for Israel would become boastful, saying, My own power is delivered Me. So, He tells him why. Now therefore, come, proclaim in the hearing of the people, saying, Whoever is afraid and trembling, let him return and depart from Mount Gilead. So, twenty-two thousand soldiers returned and left ten thousand. God, are you sure you did the right thing here? Twenty-two, no, but that's two out of every three left. Suppose you'd have been the general and what you said, you said, because you probably were totally convinced that all those men were courageous and bold.
I would never let you down, Gideon. And two out of every three of them go home. And what they were saying is, We're scared. Well, that left him ten thousand. That's ten thousand against a hundred and thirty-five thousand.
That's pretty bad odds. So, God said to him, Well, that's pretty good. That's not good enough. Then the Lord said to Gideon, The people are still too many. And I imagine Gideon was about to flip over at this point. You better say that again, God, I didn't quite get that. Then the Lord said to Gideon, The people are still too many.
Bring them down to the water and I will test them for you there. Therefore it shall be that of those I say to you, This one shall go with you, he shall go with you. But every one of whom I say to you, This one shall not go with you, shall not go. So, he said, No, I'll determine who's going, you've got ten thousand, I'll determine who's going to be with you and who's not. And then, so he brought them down to the water, the Lord said to Gideon, You shall separate everyone who laps the water with his tongue, as the dog laps, as well as everyone who kneels to drink. Now the number of those who lapped, putting their hands to their mouth, was three hundred men, but all the rest of the people kneeled to drink water. Now here's what he's saying.
This is the way God was working. He said, If he stoops down and does this, you keep him. But if he kneels down and he's looking at the water, send him home.
Because that says that he's not sensitive, he's not being cautious, he's not being alert, he's looking at the ground instead of looking to see where the enemy are. So what does that leave him? Three hundred. Now, you know, we read this in the Bible and smile, but if you'd have been General Gideon, I don't know that you'd have been smiling. He knows they've got a hundred and thirty-five thousand down there.
And the Scripture says about them in verse twelve, Now the Midianites and the Melichites and all the sons of the east were lying in the valley as numerous as locusts, and their camels were without number as numerous as the sands of the seashore. He knew what he was up against. He had three hundred men.
He had to be thinking. Let's go back and recount this a little bit, Lord, and reevaluate this and see if what we can do. The Lord said to Gideon, I will deliver you with the three hundred men who leapt and will give the Midianites into your hand, so that all the other people go, each to his own home. So the three hundred men took the people's provision and their trumpets into their hands, and Gideon sent all the other men of Israel to his tent, but retained the three hundred men, and the camp of Midian was below him in the valley. So below them in the valley is this vast host.
He said, they're like grasshoppers. You can't even camp the camels and all you have is three hundred men with a pitcher, a torch, a trumpet, and a sword by their side. That's all you've got. And I'm sure Gideon must have thought, now let's go back and count this again. Do you mean three thousand? No. Or maybe thirty thousand? No.
Three hundred. No, watch this. Listen carefully. It doesn't make any difference what you and I have or don't have. When God commands us to do something, remember two things you have. You have the power of God and the presence of God with you.
And when you have those two things, it doesn't make any difference what somebody else has or how armed they are or how much they have or whatever it might be. When you have the power of God and the presence of God, you're always a majority and you're always better armed, better equipped. Thank you for listening to A Call for Courage. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or InTouch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of InTouch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.
