Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. The story of Gideon and the defeat of a huge Midianite army is all about one thing. Who gets the glory for victory? God made sure no credit went to Israel by limiting their numbers to 300 men.
As we face our own battles, we must never lose sight of this crucial truth. From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, I've stood at the spring of her road where Gideon bade his men drink so he could pick out the 300 God wanted him to use.
The Bible says that place is there and you can still lap the water when you visit. Dave, I'm so glad that you remembered that because we were together actually and we read the scriptures and we were there at the spring and we thought together about the great victory that God won. And of course, as you mentioned in your intro, God made sure that the number of people used were very small.
It was a very small number in comparison to the large armies that they defeated, that God might get the glory. You know, as I look back on my life, God has given me many opportunities, but from the sincerity of my heart, I say this. I do want to give God the glory and I hope that all who are listening join me with the same motivation. Let me ask you a question.
Would you consider praying about helping us here at the Ministry of Running to Win to grow the ministry even greater so that more people might hear the good news of the gospel? Well, at the end of this broadcast, I'm going to be giving you some important information. For now, I want us to think back to what happened so many centuries ago as God won a great victory for His glory. But here's what happened. Okay, now, we can't understand this unless we realize, I need to emphasize again, it is the dead of night, pitch black. Suddenly, you see all of these torches. You say, well, it's only 300, but these people were sleeping, the Midianites, they were asleep. And they begin to hear this tremendous banging as these jars are breaking. They hear the trumpets blaring, they wake up, they have their swords, and anything that moved was thought to be the enemy. And in the confusion, they basically slaughtered one another.
And that was how the victory was won. Parenthesis, how does God judge evil people? What happens? We as a staff and I'm sure that you in your own life had at times have prayed that there are people who are evil and we say God bring them into judgment.
What does He do? Does He come out of heaven and vaporize them? He could. Normally, however, what God does is, as a person who is evil, begins to gain more confidence in his ability to sin and get by. He begins to overreach and pretty soon he gets caught in his own net. And he himself then discovers that he has overreached so far that he's been caught by his own sin. That's what happened even during the time of Jesus when Satan inspired people to put Jesus on the cross.
Why would he do that? It says in the book of Corinthians that even the rulers of this world, if they had known that they were crucifying the Lord of glory, they wouldn't have done so. Now they should have known and some did know. But the point is simply this, that Satan overreached. When Jesus was dying there on the cross, he thought to himself, I have won a victory. But he did not know that in winning that victory, in quotes, was actually his defeat because Jesus died to redeem us. And as a result of that death that he died, Satan was defeated. We are going to be exalted above the angelic realm.
Our redemption was purchased. A group of humanity from every tribe, kindred, tongue and nation was bought for God. Even when Satan was doing his worst, God was doing his best.
You pray for that person, that person who is into evil, and ask God to have mercy upon them, but also ask that they would overreach and ultimately be judged by their own sin. Well, these Midianites, they ended up killing one another. Now that wasn't the end of the battle exactly because pretty soon, Gideon's getting criticism now from the other tribes.
For example, the tribe of Ephraim was upset and said, why didn't you call us to the battle? You know, especially because it was so successful, they wanted to have been a part of it. Success has many fathers.
Failure is an orphan. Now that the victory was won, they all thought, wouldn't it be nice if we were in the limelight and had participated? So Gideon finds out that, you know, it's one thing to fight the enemy without, but oftentimes what you have to do is to fight the enemy within. And believers divide among themselves and sometimes that takes more energy resolving than the fight against the world, the flesh and the devil.
It's always that way, isn't it? What I'd like to do is to give us some lessons because the topic of this message is how does God win battles? And we want to talk about our battles. We want to talk about our country.
We want to talk about where we live and apply God's word to our hearts. First of all, and this has been said a dozen times and you've heard it, but I need to say it again. You can't be too small for God to use, but you can be too big for him to use.
It can't be too small. You know, God, God delights to take that which is despised, that which is small, that which is unassuming and he loves to use it for his glory and he, and he likes to make sure that as a result of that it is not simply a matter of giftedness. It is not simply a matter of talent, though we thank God for that, but it is a matter of humility. It is a matter of recognizing that the battle is the Lord's and not ours even if we are involved in the process. The scripture says that God is able to save by many or by few. I don't know what personal battle you may be fighting today, but as you look within, if you see nothing but weakness and nothing but a sense of inadequacy because of the challenge, if you find within a certain fear, even that you're not up to what God has laid on your plate, that in itself is okay, but don't stay there. You look at God. Our eyes are upon thee because you can win by many or you can win by few. What is God looking for?
He's looking for people who are courageous, who have faith as we noticed and focus. You give yourself to him in your helplessness. It's like the boy giving the lunch to Jesus. This is all that I have five loaves and two fish, but thank God that all the loaves and all the fish are in the hands of Jesus and you let God take it from there. Not in a passive sense, but where you can actually rejoice in the fact that the Lord begins to fight for you and takes up your cause. I pray that God will release you from that sense of anxiety, that sense of inadequacy, that sense of retreat in your personal battles, that with your eyes on God, that you may take a step forward. Today I speak to those of you in discouragement.
Yes, in weakness, maybe physical weakness, spiritual weakness. You are not too small for God to use, but I'll tell you something. Many of us have lost a battle after battle because we've been too big, too big.
This leads us to a second lesson. God is more concerned that he get glory. Notice this now. God is more concerned that he get glory than he is that we win a battle. I wish that that could be branded upon our foreheads. You say, well, I think that God wants us to win all these battles in America.
Maybe yes, maybe not. He is more concerned that he get glory than that we win the battles morally and spiritually in this country. Notice the text there. Chapter seven, verse two of Judges. The Lord said to Gideon, you have too many men for me to deliver Midian into your hands in order that Israel may not boast against me, that her own strength has saved her.
If you're new to this church, you may be wondering this question. Why would God be so concerned that he get the credit? Why is it that everything from Genesis to revelation, why does it revolve around the glory of God?
I could give you 20, 30, 40 verses today that proved that. I chose Israel for my glory. God saved us for his glory, his glory, his glory.
Why? First of all, because it's a matter of truth. If he saved us, it is he who saved us. If he wins battles, it is he that does it. So we should be giving the credit to the person to whom the credit is due.
That's part of the answer. The other part is that God as God has to value that which is supremely valuable, don't you think? He certainly is not going to attach value to something that is not of infinite value. And the only thing that he can attach value to that is of infinite value is himself and his glory.
And that's why everything contributes to it. And that's why he is more concerned that he get glory than that you and I win our battles. You say, oh, you know, I'm in this battle and I don't know where to turn because it is so excruciating. And I feel sorry for you because we've all been there.
But listen to me carefully. God is more concerned that he get glory than that you and I get what we want no matter how badly we want it. I'm convinced that this is why God doesn't heal all the people that we pray for. You know, we think to ourselves, well, God would really get glory if so and so would be healed and be able to, you know, be healed of all the diseases and all. And he would get glory and he would get glory. But sometimes God gets glory not by our deliverance, but by the strength and the courage and the ability and the and the steadfastness of faith that he grants us through the experience. Because he says your faith in the midst of this trial makes me look good. It rejoices me, it pleases me, but it also is a witness to all of the community of those who know you of my sustaining power in the midst of tragedy and trial. And his glory is more important than our own deliverance.
Want you to know today that God was more concerned about his glory in this story than he was about Israel's slavery to the Midianites. I guess this all brings it down to the business of motive, doesn't it? So I have to get more clear, perhaps, and ask you as I ask myself, what battles have we lost because of mixed motives? What battles have we lost? Because at the end of the day, we wanted to win this battle, but there was a part of it that said, I want to get credit for it.
And you can hardly wait to tell your friends how you won that battle. And there's something within you that says, I just can't give all the glory to God. And God withholds deliverance. There was a young preacher called to the ministry, I suppose, but very arrogant.
God still had a job to do on him, I guess. And he was asked to preach at a church and he marched up to the pulpit with such a sense of arrogance. It was a new word that I learned the other day. It's called hubris. Are you acquainted with that word?
Never knew that it existed, but met somebody who used it all the time. So I thought I'd better check it out in the dictionary. So he walked up and pretty soon he began to stumble. He forgot what he was going to say.
He mispronounced words. 10 minutes later, tail between his legs, figuratively speaking in great shame and humiliation, he walks down from the platform. Old minister took him aside and said, young man, if you had walked up there with the attitude that you had when you came down from there, you might've actually come down from there with the attitude that you had when you walked up there. Those of us who are in public ministries have to constantly be examining our motives. We can never say I've examined my motives and I'm pure. We always ask, is it the glory of God? Is it the glory of God? Because God will not bring deliverance where we want the credit for what he does through us is a final lesson and in some senses it might be the toughest of all. Yesterday's victory does not help in today's battle.
Yesterday's victory does not help in today's battle. We have people, you know, who are called Gideon's. Gideon's put Bibles in motel rooms. It's a great ministry by the way. And from time to time, we've supported that ministry and some of you are Gideon's. God bless you. But if you ever meet a Gideon and you want to have a little fun with them, say, oh, you're a follower of Gideon.
Oh yeah, yeah. We liked the way in which he, he won that battle. And then say with a smile, okay, are you following the Gideon of judges chapter seven or chapter eight? Which Gideon are you willing to emulate?
You know why I mentioned that? Because Gideon ended badly. Look at chapter eight verse 22. The Israelites said to Gideon, rule over us, you and your son and your grandson because you have saved us from the hands of Midian. But Gideon told them, I will not rule over you, nor will my son rule over you.
The Lord will rule over you. I wish that there'd be a period there in the Bible and then we could just pronounce the benediction right now and go home. But he said, I do have one request that each of you give me an earring from your share of the plunder because each of the Midianites wore earrings. Hey, that's an interesting little parenthesis there. It was the custom of the Ishmaelites to wear gold earrings. We're talking not only about women, I guess, but about men.
But let's hurry over that. Then they answered, we'll be glad to give them. So they spread out a garment and each man threw a ring of his plunder into it. The weight of the gold rings he asked for came to 700 shekels.
We're talking about between 40 and 75 pounds of gold. And this doesn't count the ornaments, the pendants and the purple garments and all of the other things. And Gideon made the gold into an ephod.
What is the ephod? It was a piece of clothing worn by the priest by which he determined the will of God. Now you read the book of Judges, the ephods apparently weren't working. You don't see any intervention really of the priest that I know about. So Gideon probably thought, huh, here's a need I'll meet it. So he takes and makes this ephod implying possibly that he's going to take over the role as priest. And he placed the ephod in Oprah in his town and all Israel prostituted themselves by worshiping it there and it became a snare to Gideon and his family. Gideon, God asked you to clean up the idols in your father's backyard and you did. Why are you falling again into idolatry? Listen to me carefully. Those of you who have fallen into various sins in your past, I want you to know that the temptation for you to revert back to form is strong and you'll never get over that temptation.
So watch it. And those of us who perhaps haven't done those sins, we have to watch it too. God knows our hearts.
But you could go through the scriptures and find time and time again where people who are into one form of sin before they met God ended up being tempted and falling again. Not only that, but I mean he's got all kinds of wives. He has 70 children and when he has a son, he names him Abimelech.
You say, well, who in the world is Abimelech? Do you know what that means in Hebrew? My father is king. It doesn't sound so humble, Gideon, as you're thinking about dying, does it?
Listen to me carefully. You can win a battle today and you can say, thank God that on this day the battle has been won and you can fall into sin tomorrow. You cannot take it for granted. We cannot assume that because you're running the race that you're going to end well. History would warn us, warn me, warn you about the possibility of great failure even at the finish line. Boiling it all down to a simple sentence.
What do I want you to grasp, take hold of? Victory is God's business. Victory is God's business. Faithfulness is ours. Now of course, even there, you know, he helps us be faithful and all, but the simple fact is that blessed are those who can fight their battles knowing full well that the battle is the Lord's just as we were singing.
This is, this is God's. I'm going to remain faithful. I'm going to hang in. I'm going to keep believing. I'm going to keep praying, but I'm going to continue to punt the ball in God's direction and say that at the end of the day, you are the one who wins battles.
My eyes are on you and all the glory goes to you. Then God begins to notice and begin to say, I will begin to fight. I wonder if even the church in America today has still not humbled itself with all of the things that we want to do politically to win our nation back. Have we finally come to the end and said, God, you are the one who wins and we will simply trust and be faithful. Somebody else asked George Mueller the secret of his success.
You'll remember that he was the one who began those orphanages and did so in faith. And he said, there came a day when I died. I died to the world with its approval. I died to my friends and their opinions. I died to my own opinions and preferences. I died to myself.
No wonder God won so many battles for him. Are you there? Am I there? You've never trusted Christ as savior. I want you to know that the first step is to believe in Jesus who died for sinners so that you can be reconciled to God. And from then on, you begin a whole life of submission, a whole life of giving to God, knowing that the battle is the Lord's. My friend, that actually is the desire of my heart that I might die to self, die to the approval of others, die to success as it is generally defined and live fervently for God. I hope that that's your desire as well.
I trust that it is. I'm holding in my hands a letter from someone who connected with us from West Africa. Why West Africa? Well, perhaps you've heard me say it before, but running to win is in 50 different countries in seven different languages. But this person writes to say that because of listening to the ministry of running to win, the word of God has never been so real to me as when I listen to these teachings.
These are powerful teachings, and I share them with my Christian brethren. Would you like to become a part of the ministry of running to win? Perhaps you are willing to pray and ask God if you would become what we like to call an endurance partner. You say, well, what's an endurance partner?
Well, that's someone who gives regularly to this ministry. Of course, you need info, so here's what you do. Go to rtwoffer.com. That's rtwoffer.com. Click on the endurance partner button, or you can call us at 1-888-218-9337. When you become an endurance partner, well, you're actually joining the running to win family.
Go to rtwoffer.com, click on the endurance partner button, or call us at 1-888-218-9337. You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois, 634. Running to Win is all about helping you find God's roadmap for your race of life. Pastor Erwin Lutzer, concluding, How God Wins Battles. Another message on the topic we've been down this road before, taken from the book of Judges.
Next time, we'll learn what to do when evil rules. Thanks for listening. For Pastor Erwin Lutzer, this is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.
