Beware of Spiritual Amnesia, Part 3

It is frightening to think about the future of the up-and-coming generations if apathy and carelessness continue to strengthen their grip. Welcome to Leading the Way Audio with Dr. Michael Youssef, online at ltw.org. Coming up next, Dr. Youssef continues his challenging series called, Beware of Spiritual Amnesia. Today we're going to meet a man by the name of Gideon and the reason Gideon is such a likable character because really all of us see ourselves in Gideon. This man exhibited doubts which hindered his faith many times and yet he is mentioned in Hebrews chapter 11 which we call the Faith Hall of Fame. By faith Moses, by faith Abraham, by faith Gideon. Through the life and the experience of Gideon, hear God's guidance and discernment for the challenging days of 2024 and beyond.

Listen with me as Dr. Michael Youssef begins this episode of Leading the Way. I've learned through the years few things about discerning the will of God and particularly when we were going through the big ones and we had a bunch of big ones in our lives. And let me share with you just few things that I trust will help you as they help me. When I am seeking to discern the mind of God, the first thing I am sure to do is to be under the lordship of the Lord Jesus Christ completely. That every area of my life comes under his lordship. And the second thing I do is I try to put my desire in the neutral.

I don't want to fall in love with this or fall in love with that thing or wanting this and God I want this and I want this. I put myself in neutral so the Holy Spirit can work his will in me. And the third thing is that I expect God to speak to me through his word.

I expect the Lord to speak to me through open and shut doors, through a godly praying friend to speak to me through the circumstances. And the fourth thing is test the spirits. Ask the question is what I am about to do or I am doing going to bring glory to the Lord?

Is it going to glorify his name? Is what I am about to do or I am doing is consistent with the word of God or is it contrary to the word of God? And then the fifth thing that I would urge people to do is wait upon the Lord. Wait for his timing. Read the scripture. Who is the one who always hurrying people to do things? The devil. Who is always saying wait, wait, wait, the Lord.

It's in his word. It took me two years from the time I began to feel the absolute burden inside of me about birthing this church, the church of the apostles to the time we actually had our first service. Two years and let me tell you something. Anybody will tell you waiting is easy.

It is not. Waiting is never easy. Waiting for God's timing is not easy. But I can tell you this.

It will grow you up like nothing else. And today we are going to meet a man by the name of Gideon. And the reason Gideon is such a likable character because really all of us see ourselves in Gideon. This man exhibited doubts which hindered his faith many times. And yet he is mentioned in Hebrews chapter 11 which we call the faith hall of fame. By faith Moses, by faith Abraham, by faith Gideon. This man who is full of doubts is mentioned in Hebrews 11 by faith Gideon. And that gives me hope. In fact before I point my finger at criticizing Gideon I look in the mirror and there I see the endemic of my fallen nature.

And here is what all of us must learn. Before God can use Gideon to deliver his people from the menace of the Midianites. God had to deliver him from his faithlessness. God had to empower him to overcome doubts. God had to release him from his own feeling of inadequacy. In many ways this chapter 6 of the book of Judges is basically asking four questions. It doesn't do it but if you read it carefully all the four questions are being answered.

The first question is this. Does God abandon us? Verses 1 to 13. Secondly, can I trust the will of God for my life?

And the answer in 14 to 24. Thirdly, will God watch over me after I obey his will and when the heat of the battle start coming on. Verses 25 to 32. Finally, will God fulfill his promises to me? And the answer in verses 33 to 40.

Here's the first question. Does God ever abandons us? Verse 13. When the Lord comes, this by the way is what we call Theophany. That is the Lord Jesus Christ appearing prior to the incarnation. He is when you say the angel of the Lord. This is the Lord Jesus Christ. And he comes to Gideon and when he calls him to become a deliverer, you know what he says? He said, oh why bother.

That's my words not his. God has already abandoned us. He's forsaken us. How many times the mercy of God and the grace of God and the hand of God and the provision of God. How many times we've seen it again and again and again.

Over and over and over. And yet the moment we experience that chastising of the Lord for our sin. The first thing we do is, where is God? Where is God? Where has he forsaken me?

Hear me right please. God's discipline for sin is the clearest indication that he hates sin but loves us. Jesus said those whom the Father has given me, I will lose none.

Not one will perish from my hand. So you are in the protective hand of God if you belong to Jesus. And because you are in the protective hand of God, he chastises you, he chastises me. When we forsake him, when we run after other little gods. But he never never never never never forsake us. God was teaching Gideon that obedience to the Lord builds character.

Disobedience destroys character. Israel was being chastised by God by using the Midianites. Those Midianites would swarm down like locusts, especially just as they were at the time of the harvest. When they're ready to get the crop, they come in and they burn it and they steal it and they take the livestock, everything in sight. And the crops and the livestock represented Israel's future.

Beloved please listen to me. You don't need to have a great deal of imagination to see that our future generation is our greatest human asset. Our future generation is our greatest future investments. Our future generation is our greatest human potential. And if we do not equip the future generation with the word of God, if we do not equip them for battle, they will do what Israel did.

When the heat is on, they will run and they will hide in the mountains. And they will never stand up. Many times we as parents and adults, we fail to set the example for the next generation. And that is why they are running and they are hiding from the Midianites of their time.

Instead of standing up and being counted. But if God is teaching us something here, beloved listen to me. He is teaching us that God will never abandon us. That he longs for us to come back to him. That he longs for us to cry to him. That he longs for us to turn to him.

That he longs for us to intercede on behalf of the future generation. Look at verse 10. While God charging his people with ingratitude to him for what he has done in the past and yet in his mercy and in his grace he was raising Gideon to deliver them.

What a great God we have. Let me tell you a few things about Gideon. Gideon was a very insecure man. Nobody can accuse him of having self esteem.

Healthy self image. He was insecure about his tribe, his clan. He was insecure about his own place in his family.

Gideon expressed total inadequacy and lack of qualifications. But listen to me. Listen, listen, listen, listen. God specializes in these.

He specializes in these situations. God loves to take an inadequate, weak, insecure people and he transforms them to serve his purpose in life. And you have to understand that God does not have difficulty using the weak and the insecure.

He has difficulty using the pride, the proud and the arrogant and the haughty and the self confident. But I don't want you to miss verse 12. Verse 12 is really funny.

I mean you have to read it in the original to laugh. The angel of the Lord appears to Gideon and he says, The Lord with you mighty warrior. You know what?

I'm convinced in my own heart that Gideon must have looked around. Who's he talking to? Are you talking to me?

No, no, no. You're not talking to me. Surely you're not talking to me. This man was lacking in faith. This man was lacking in vision. This man was lacking in courage. This man was lacking in credentials. He was lacking in background. He was lacking in preparation. This man was hiding and thrashing some weeds so he can feed his father.

This man felt defeated and negative and hopeless. And God loved it. Because he can do something with that. Can he do something with you? You better believe it.

I don't care how you feel. You come to him and say, here I am. And you watch out what he's going to do. The Lord calls him mighty warrior.

How come? Listen to me. Because the Lord sees you as he wants to make you to be. The Lord sees you with the potential that he has for you. The Lord sees you as you can be, not what you are. The Lord sees you in the context of your dependent on his resources, not your human inadequacy.

Dads and moms, particularly grandparents, listen to me. If there is a message that we need to pass on to the next generation, it is this. God sees them as mighty warriors for him.

Don't you discourage him from that. God sees them as what they can be through his power and through his strength. Amen belongs here. God saw Gideon as he was going to be and do not what he was.

Why? Ah, so that everyone would know whose power delivered them. The hand of the Lord. Listen to me. How many of us, how many of us are busy limiting God? How many of us are so busy limiting God's future work in us because of our past? Are we allowing the past to be like ball and chain that is holding us from doing great things for God? Does God ever abandon us? Secondly, can I trust in God's will for my life?

Verses 14 to 24. The Lord said, go. Why? Because I just called you a mighty warrior? Because I hope that you're going to make it?

No. He said, go because I'm sending you. I'm sending you. You see, beloved, God sends. When he sends, he equips. When he leads, he guides. When he promises, he fulfills. Look at verse 17. He said, if you really, really, really want me to go, show me. But you know what? Listen carefully.

You know what? God doesn't really get very upset or fall off his throne when you ask him. He's never get offended when you ask him for confirmation. He knows of what we're made. He's so gracious. He's patient.

He's persevering with us. I remember the time when I was crying to the Lord to discern his will before birthing this church. And I said, Lord, just show me. And the Lord used the most unlikely people to show me.

It's the most amazing thing. And I would say to the Lord, I never, ever, ever want to disobey you when I said to you back in the 60s, I go. I didn't put conditions on my going. I serve you any way you want me to serve you, any way you want to take me.

I don't want to disobey you, but I want to be sure that I am hearing your voice, not my own, and not others. And God was never offended by that. He was not offended by Gideon. Even when Gideon had the kind of second time, sort of like really pushing his luck. God was not upset at all.

But please don't miss this point. Gideon was not asking for God's confirmation just for the fun of it or just out of pure doubt. He genuinely wanted to know, and I'll tell you why.

It's in the text. He did not seek the confirmation of the Lord on the cheap. He sacrificed. With food so scarce, and the crop is being stolen, and the livestock is being slaughtered, he takes an offering. Huge sacrifice for him. Huge price that he was paying, and he places it on the altar.

In fact, when he saw the fire, he was very terrified. See, many of us want God's confirmation, God's blessing, and we want it all on the cheap. We don't want to sacrifice anything.

As long as you don't touch what's mine, give me more. This man put it all out there. In fact, when Gideon sees that fire, he not only becomes terrified, but immediately he calls the place Jehovah Shalom. God is my peace. God is my total well being.

Hear me right on this one. Wanting to have confirmation of God's will is not a sin. Do you want me to repeat this? Wanting to know the confirmation of the will of God enough is not a sin. Because you can trust God's will for your life.

I know there's always joy, there's always peace, there's always contentment when you know you're obeying God, even if you go through suffering. So let me ask you, does God ever abandon us? No. Can we trust God's will for our life?

Yes. Thirdly, will God keep watch over us? Once we obey him and get into the battlefield and the battle heats up, can we trust him never to leave us? That he'll be with us in the heat of the heat.

Watch over us in the heat of the battle. Remember, Gideon's family were Jewish. You see, the Jews never pushed Yahweh out completely, they just took him out of the center place.

They pushed him to the periphery. Much is like so many people who call themselves Christians, there's so many called Christian homes. Jesus is not at the center, he's at the periphery.

Everything else is occupying their mind, everything else occupying their time, everything else occupying their pocketbook and their budget. But Jesus is out on the periphery and that's how it was. In fact, Gideon's father stooped so low that he became a priest of Baal.

Imagine. And so for Gideon to challenge Baal, as God asked him to do, he had to, it meant that he has to defy his father. That he had to defy his family. That he had to defy his neighbors. That he had to defy the culture.

That he had to defy all the pressures of society all around him. And things got so bad that they were so knee deep in compromise and they were not aware of it. They did not even know it, they were knee deep in apostasy but they did not know it, they were oblivious to it. They have developed a mass amnesia as to the centrality and the importance of the centrality of Yahweh in their life.

They forgot all about the hand of God that blessed them through the years. In other words, Gideon was to stand up and be counted. He was to swim against the current of culture. That he was to stand against the flood of society. And so the question was, will God keep watching over me in the heat of the battle? Will God be with me in the thick of the battle? Will God keep watch over me when I obey his will and begin to pay a price? Will God be with me in the den of lions?

Would God be with me in the fiery furnace? Look how gracious God is, look at the text, it's so incredible. God knew of Gideon's tendencies so he basically got him to practice at home. Before he got out in society at large and tear down all the...

He got him to practice at home and beloved listen to me. You can never be strong in your faith anywhere else if you're not strong in your faith at home. If you're not modeling Christ for your family at home, it is impossible for you to model Christ in your workplace.

And as our society becomes increasingly hostile to biblical truth, listen we've been saying it's coming, we've been seeing it coming and it's here. Many of us are going to be tested and I wonder what will you do, what will I do? As far as I'm concerned from this end of the pulpit where I stand, I can tell you for the records, let the chips fall where they may. I will never cease to preach the gospel of the truth of the gospel and the full counsel of God. If I end up in prison, wonderful. Will God watch over me then?

You better believe it. He stood by Peter in the prison, he stood by Paul in the prison, he stood by all of his faithful children who paid the cost of discipleship. Now I don't wish it, I don't want to see it happen, don't misunderstand me. I don't have a martyr's mentality.

I don't like my comfort just as much as you do. Gideon's assignment was not easy, but God was with him and that's enough. And when Gideon destroyed the altar of Baal in his father's house, the people were up in arms, they were mad, they were angry, they want to kill him. But God even used his compromising backsliding apostolic father who sold out to Baal to defend him.

Don't miss that. If you are a compromising Christian, let me assure you that you will not be able to build an altar for God until you tear down the altars of the lizard gods in your life. And only you know what they are, I know what they are. To me, God will not share his glory with another. Before Gideon can declare war on the Midianites, he had to declare war on Baal. Before you declare war on the Midianites, you have to declare war on the little Baals in your life.

For the next door will not be opened until you go through the first door. Does God ever abandon us? Can we trust the will of God for our lives? Will God watch over us? Fourthly, will God keep his word? 33 to 40.

Listen, this is the amazing thing. God was not looking for the most courageous person. He was not looking for the most powerful warrior.

He was not looking for the best strategist and the greatest thinker. He was looking for a man who was conscious of his own weakness. He was looking for a man who is dependent on God's power, not his own. He was looking for a person who is willing to grow in his faith in God, who is willing to take God at his word and even though he may ask for it three times.

God is always looking for boys and girls and men and women who are available to him. Look at verse 34. Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon. Literally, you know the word means the Spirit of the Lord was worn around him like a suit. It covered him all over.

That's the literal word. The Spirit of the Lord came all over him because God keeps his promises. He will give you favor even among the most unlikely people because God keeps his word. He will give you resources that you have never thought possible because God keeps his promises.

He will guarantee your victory because he never goes back in his word. Beware of spiritual amnesia. That's a personal challenge and it's the title of Dr. Michael Youssef's current audio series. This and other messages by Dr. Youssef are available at ltw.org. That's also where you can stream. You can get podcast information. You can find out about the Leading the Way app and learn how to use your smart speaker to hear other content from Dr. Youssef and Leading the Way. That website again, ltw.org. Now that website is also where you can learn ways to stand with Dr. Youssef as a frontline mission partner. Join Dr. Michael Youssef as a frontline mission partner and passionately proclaim the uncompromising truth of Christ in your community and in closed countries through Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Youssef. As a partner, you're at the heart of this mission. Brand new frontline mission partners will receive special ministry benefits including the On the Frontlines photo booklet as well as exclusive ministry updates and a 20% discount on all resources at ltw.org.

I want to specially speak to our frontline mission partners. You have been standing with me for so many years in partnership in the Gospel of Jesus Christ taking 195 countries. I thank God for you and I pray that you continue to stand together as we take the Gospel to the ends of the earth.

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