Calling and Courage: Gideon

Well, good to see a number of you that I typically see at the 830 service.

Welcome. Time change Sunday has to be the worst custom in Western tradition that we've ever come up with. But it looks like many of you were in a good mood because I know that you are finally excited that spring looks like it is here. Not me. I've been hurt entirely too many times this season on this hope already.

So I'm holding out hope until I've seen it for a little bit longer. Welcome Summit Church at all of our campus locations in Riley Durham. The other day, I was perusing some articles. And I came across one that was listing out an updated list of the most common phobias in our culture. The American Psychiatric Association doesn't give the official list, but it defines a phobia for us by saying it's something that causes such stress that it interrupts normal life function. Something that causes such stress that it interrupts normal life functions.

Of course, there are the usual things on the list, things like arachnophobia, which is of course the fear of spiders, ophidiophobia, the fear of snakes, if like for many of you that would interrupt normal life functions. Necrophobia, the fear of death. Glossophobia, the fear of public speaking. Interestingly, people rank the fear of public speaking as higher than they do the fear of death.

So that means as Jerry Seinfeld often says, most people if they had to go to a funeral, they would rather be the guy in the casket than the one on stage giving the eulogy. I was linked to this article because it caught my interest since I, you know, do a little bit of public speaking. It speaks for how you can overcome the fear of public speaking. And this is what it said.

It's a legit article. And I quote, before you go on stage, stand still and feel the ground beneath your feet. Close your eyes and imagine yourself suspended from the ceiling by a thin thread. Then imagine you're made of rubber. Look into the mirror and make a horse's laugh with your lips. Why not lie on the ground and pretend you're floating or just collapse on the ground like a limp doll?

So if you guys ever wonder what I'm doing backstage right before I walk up here, now you know. That included a lot of more non-traditional fears like octophobia, the fear of the number eight. Olfactophobia, which is the fear of foul smells. How about this one? Doraphobia, which is the fear of animal fur.

That's right. It's not what you expected, is it? I have, as a dad of three girls, I have the other doraphobia, which, not that one. Tokophobia, which is the fear of pregnant women. Jason Gaston, I kid you not, our student pastor, swears that he has this. I'm like, your wife has several kids now.

How did you, whatever. Then there's ompholophobia, which is the fear of belly buttons. Did not specify whether innies or outies are the more terrifying of the two. Irakibutterophobia, which obviously is the fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth. Windbagophobia, which is the fear of long sermons. No, no, I just made that one up.

Here's an interesting one. Nomophobia, which is the fear of being without your phone or having it in another room. 50% of people exhibit extreme anxiety symptoms if they are placed in a room without their phone or their phone is in another room.

So I know a number of you are exactly like that, which is why you've checked your phone six times already since I got up here. But fear of whatever kind, whether serious or not, is a part of life. And many people say that your success in life is in large part determined by how well you learn to make and manage your fears.

C.S. Lewis said that courage is the least talked about of all the Christian virtues. He said, but it is absolutely essential to all the others. He said, because none of the other virtues, he's channeling Aristotle here, by the way, none of the other virtues are you going to be able to persevere him without courage. He says you can be virtuous in every way, but courage is what gives you the tenacity and the perseverance to press on in those things. So we're going to look at a story today in Judges chapter six that explains to you where courage comes from, how you get it and how you maintain it.

It's our fourth week in this series called Broken Savior. So if you've got a Bible, Judges chapter six, as you are turning there or scrolling there or however you're going to get there, I will confess to you that for years I have struggled with courage. Sometimes that surprises people because I come off as a guy of such diesel bravado.

But that is mostly just a veneer. In high school, I struggled to find courage to stand up to friends when they were doing things that I knew was wrong. I shrunk back from sharing Christ with somebody that I knew I needed to share Christ with, or maybe it was to speak truth to a friend that was going to be difficult. And I pulled back out of fear. I've made financial decisions that were based on fear. Fear has kept me, it's interrupted the normal life functions, if you will, of obeying God. I would imagine that there are any number of people here at one of our campuses this weekend that are immobilized by some kind of fear. Your life, your normal life function of obeying obedience has been disrupted because of it. Maybe it's a fear about the future. You've gotten medical news recently that leaves you uncertain about what's ahead and what is coming for your family. Maybe your marriage is not going well at all. And you wonder, what's my family going to look like in a year?

What's it going to look like in six months? Or maybe your kids are making some really poor decisions and you are afraid of what's happening as they grow up and where they are headed. Maybe it is the fear of entering into a new relationship. I know single people here at the Summit Church, they will quite often hear about ones that will not enter into a good relationship because they're scared of commitment. For others, it is fear that keeps you from ending a relationship that you know is wrong. Maybe you are paralyzed by the fear of never being in a relationship.

And that's what keeps you making these bad decisions about who you're with because you're just terrified of the idea of being alone as you go through life. Well, today in the book of Judges, we're going to see a guy, get this, who was not courageous. He's not a model, but he is somebody that God made into somebody courageous. He made him into a hero. And what you're going to see is that God doesn't reward courage in people.

God gives courage to people. The people of Israel decided that they could not provide crops to Midianites. They would come up against them and leave no sustenance in Israel, no sheep, or ox, or donkey. They would come like locusts in numbers, so they laid waste to the land as they came in.

They were like the IRS. They devoured everything in its path. Not only did they take the crops, they took the animals and the tools that the people used to produce the crops. Verse six. and Israel was brought very low because of Midian, and the people of Israel cried out for help to the Lord. When the people of Israel cried out to the Lord on the account of the Midianites, the Lord sent a prophet to the people of Israel. And the prophet said to them, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, I led you up from Egypt, I brought you out of the house of slavery, I drove out your oppressors from before you and gave you their land, and I said to you, I am the Lord your God, you shall not fear, but you have not obeyed my voice."

Now, stop for a minute, this is kind of odd, is it not? They cried out to the Lord for deliverance and he sent a prophet. They weren't asking for teaching, they were asking for help.

This would be like you being stranded on the side of the road and calling AAA for help, but instead of sending a tow truck, they email you a pamphlet on safe driving. Israel's problem, however, was not, the reason God did this is their problem was not the Midianites. They were their own problem, and so they were asking for deliverance, but what God said to them is you first need a sermon. Yes, I want to deliver you, I want to help you, but what you most need is to be delivered from the problem that is you.

And I would very humbly say to you that there are many of you listening to me that are in that very category this weekend. You're here seeking something from God, you need something from God, and it's not that God didn't want to give it to you, it's that what he wants first from you is to turn the spotlight onto your hearts. Let me be very clear with you, not every instance of suffering is in response to disobedience.

In fact, I would say that most instances are not. God is not always trying to teach you something when you suffer. Believers often suffer like Jesus did having done nothing wrong, but sometimes suffering is. Psalm 119, 67, the psalmist says, before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now after I was afflicted, now I obey your word. There is sometimes that God sends some kind of trouble into our life, not to pay us back for our sin, but as we often say, to bring us back from our sin, and I think it's at least worth you asking the question this weekend. Maybe you came here thinking you needed something from God, and what God needs to do is turn the spotlight on your heart and say there's something in you that is walking away from me, and this trouble that you're going through is there to wake you up to what I am trying to do in your life. Verse 11, now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth tree at Oprah and told Gideon, look under your seat and see if there, no, no, no, she didn't say that. He didn't say that. All right, how did the people, here's what happens in verse 11.

Here's the question you should be asking as you're reading this. What happened to the sermon? How did the people respond? Did they repent? Isn't that how a sermon ends usually, is that there's a response, and did the people repent or not?

Here's the thing. God interrupted the sermon with deliverance. He doesn't even wait for a response, and there is something very important about your relationship with God that you should learn from that. You see, it's not that you and I get ourselves into a place where God then comes to us and helps us after we fix ourselves before we ever even respond. God has already started the salvation process, but God demonstrates his love for us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. It wasn't that you got yourself in a condition and God came and loved you, it's that God came to you, he saved you, and then he drew you back to himself. So yes, God has a sermon for you this weekend, but he has already provided the substance of your deliverance.

Because he's like a father pursuing a child. All right, well, the angel takes a seat by this tree at Oprah, while Gideon was beating out wheat in the wine press to hide it from the Midianites. Now, let me tell you a little something about threshing wheat, in case you don't do that often in your backyard. In those days, the way that you would thresh wheat is you would put it into a basket and you would throw it really high up in the air when a breeze was blowing, and the breeze would blow away with the light part, what they called the chaff, and the heavy part, the good stuff, would fall back down into the basket. And the wine press, which is where Gideon was, would have been a terrible place to thresh wheat.

Why? Because a wine press is in this kind of like divot underground. There's not that much wind underground.

Why would Gideon choose a wine press as a place to thresh wheat? Well, it tells you it's because he is afraid. He is hiding in a hole. The point is, this is no Jack Bauer. This is no Chuck Norris.

This is no Nicolas Cage. Verse 12, the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, the Lord is with you, oh mighty man of valor. If this were a stage play, at this point, everybody in the audience would have laughed. I mean, Gideon is hiding in a hole.

This is like going up to a four foot 11, 130 pound man and saying, what's up, big fella? It sounds like mockery. But listen, and this is probably the main point today, it's not mockery. Gideon is not called because he is courageous because he is courageous as a result of God's call. God is not describing him as he is. God is describing him as how he will be. You see, God does not call the brave.

He makes brave the called. And so when he comes to us, he does not start with what we are. He starts with what he intends to make us in Christ. God, when he comes to you, does not start with you and the condition you are in. God sees you according to what Christ is going to make you. And he calls you by that name.

Is that not good news? It is because when God came to you and he found you, you were in a mess. You were in a total mess. And if God describes you as where you were, you would not have wanted to have heard that. But God came to you and he spoke a word over your life. That word was in the resurrection of Christ. And this is not what you are.

It is what you will be. So he says to a man in a hole, get up mighty man of valor. Verse 13, but Gideon said to him, two questions. Number one, please, sir, if the Lord is really with us, why then has all this happened to us? Now, based on what you know from the text already, that's a very wrongheaded question, isn't it? I mean, has God left the people? No, the people have left God.

Second question is even more confusing though. Where, God, are all your wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us? Well, first of all, Gideon, there's an angel sitting in front of you.

I think that would qualify as a wonderful deed. But look at specifically God's answer. Verse 14, the Lord turned to him and said, go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian. Do not I send you? God's answer to Gideon is, where are all my wonderful deeds?

Geads, Didion. Where are all my wonderful deeds? Gideon, why, I'm about to do them through you. You see, we often look to heaven and we ask God, where are you? And God turns it around on us and says, you are to be the work of God.

You are to be my work in this generation. And by the way, who is this angel that is speaking to Gideon? You want a little Bible trivia?

Did you see, if you read through this, you'll see starts to see contradictions. For example, the angel talks about God in the third person and he is called an angel. Yet in verse 14, Gideon addresses the angel directly as God and the angel does not correct him. This was a mystery all through the Hebrew Bible. They really couldn't figure this out, but it made sense after the coming of Jesus. This is what theologians call a Christophany, a Christophany, which is a pre incarnate, a before baby Jesus appearance of Jesus Christ. When Jesus showed up, this makes total sense because Jesus talked about God in the third person, but Jesus was himself God. This is simply Jesus showing up before he appears in the womb of Mary. So verse 15, Gideon said to Jesus, please Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh and I'm the least in my father's house.

I mean, I'm cowering in a hole for crying out loud. Verse 16, the Lord said to him, but I will be with you, but I will be with you. This is God's one line answer to everything.

You can underline something in the story, that's the phrase, everything you need is in that statement. I will be with you and you will strike the Midianites as one man. In other words, you're gonna take out this massive Midianite army as if this is one puny little guy. Verse 17, and Gideon said to him, if now I have found favor in your eyes, which is kind of a petulant question, isn't it? Because then angel is standing there having a conversation.

I think you can conclude he's found favor in his eyes, but nonetheless, show me a sign that it's you who speak with me. So the angel tells Gideon to go prepare some food and Gideon puts it on the table and the angel takes the staff and touches the food and the food burst into flames and the angel disappears. And Gideon says, okay, I'm convinced for the moment.

Verse 25, that night the Lord says to him, pull down the altar of Baal that your father has. In other words, Gideon, we gotta start this right in your own house and go build an altar to the Lord your God on the top of the stronghold there. So Gideon took 10 of his servants and did what the Lord had commanded him, but because he was too afraid of his family and the men of the town to do it by day, ah, the little coward did it by night.

Again, this is no William Wallace. Yet God doesn't criticize Gideon for this because to God, obedience is more important than bravado and Gideon obeyed. Well, the next morning, everybody gets up and says, what happened to our God? And then somebody said, Gideon did it.

We saw him out last night. And they said, let's kill Gideon. Verse 31, but Joash, who was Gideon's father, said to all who stood against Gideon, if Baal really is a god, why don't you let Baal fight for himself? Verse 32, therefore, on that day, Gideon was called Jerabel, that is to say, let Baal defend himself because Gideon had broken down his altar.

Again, don't miss the humor here. This small cowardly guy gets the nickname, Baal tail whooper, is essentially how you would read that in Hebrew. Well, after this, verse 33, the Midianites launch a massive assault on Israel, at which point the angel of God reappears to Gideon and tells him to mount a resistance against this assault. And Gideon says, okay, God, again, how can I be sure you're going to do this?

And then Gideon comes up with his own brilliant idea. God, I'm going to put this animal skin, this fleece out on the ground. If you're really with me, then in the morning, let the ground be dry, but let this fleece be soaking wet. Verse 38, and it was so. When he arose early the next morning and squeezed the fleece, he wrung enough dew from the fleece to fill a bowl with water. Gideon said, wait a minute, wait a minute, God, that was way too easy. What I meant to say, what I meant to say was, let the ground be wet and the fleece be dry.

That would be a real miracle. Verse 40, and God did so that night and only the fleece was dry and on all the ground there was dew. Ah, the famous fleece test. This concept has been more abused and more twisted than just about anything else in the Bible, including by me. People come up with these litmus tests to determine if God is really in something. I'm going to show you this in a little while, but that's not really the point of what's going on here. God trying to give you a way to make decisions.

We'll come back to that, but let's just ask you, let's get to it in order. What can we learn about courage and calling from this story? What can we learn about courage and calling from the story?

I'm gonna give you five things. Number one, we learn that God does not call the brave. He makes brave the called. When God comes to you, He never starts with what you are. He starts with what He intends to make you in Christ. So He looks at a man cowering in a hole and He says, men of valor, stand up. Man, you see God do this all through the Bible. He comes to Moses who has a speech impediment and he stutters all the time. And God says, I'm gonna make you the greatest orator. You're gonna stand in front of Pharaoh and people are gonna still be talking about your teaching 3000 years later. And Moses says, but I can't hardly put three sentences together. And God said, I will be your mouth.

Maybe the clearest example is Abraham, the father of our faith. When God comes to him, when he's in his 80s, he has no children, he is sterile. And God says to him, you are going to be a father of many nations.

That was so humorous, it was mockable. That's why Sarah laughed. But God says in the book of Romans, Romans four, that Abraham was the father of our faith because he believed what God said, even when there was no evidence to back it up. He believed that God calls into existence the things that do not yet exist. When you come to God in faith, you believe things not based on what they are in you, but what God has declared them to be.

You believe that just like God, Paul says, declared to Jesus in his body in the grave that it was alive and it became alive. You believe what God has said about you and you believe it when God says you are going to be righteous, you are going to be a saint, you are going to be a man of valor, that though you are not that in yourself, God is going to make you that in Christ and he is going to overturn the law of death in you and make you alive. The question becomes, will you believe him? You see, because Satan also will speak to you, but he's gonna do it in a different way.

Satan is the one who starts with who you are and what you've done and defines you by that. And by the way, he says true things to you. He whispers to you, you're a failure, you're a coward, you're a reject.

And then he lines up a bunch of evidence that is true to prove those things. That's why he's called the accuser of the brethren, because he before God and before you will just remind you of what you've done and what you are. But God comes to you and he speaks a louder word and he says, no, you are a saint, you are righteous, you are my beloved, you are a mighty man of valor. But you say, God, I'm none of those things and God says, I know, but you will be. You wanna know how you tell the difference between the Holy Spirit's voice and Satan's voice? Satan starts with who you are and what you've done and beats you up for it. The Holy Spirit will also point out your sin, but he will start with a declaration of what he's making you in Christ and he will grow you up into that. Satan will constantly remind you of what you are and define you by it.

The Holy Spirit will start with what God has made you in Christ and he will say, this is what you will be and this is how you will grow. I've told you before that my worst parenting moment I think came when I was my oldest daughter who's 11 now, was six years old. She's always been a little timid to try new things and we get frustrated because we'd go to the fair and she wouldn't wanna ride the rides.

You know, we would, I don't know, she wouldn't wanna, you know, go like body surfing with me in the ocean, wouldn't wanna skydive, just all kinds of frustrating things. And when she was six and my second daughter was four, they were riding the back of my car and I was driving down the road, I was telling her about something we were about to go do. Maybe we're going to Disney World and I was talking about the Dumbo ride, but whatever, I just remember her being getting this look and her being like, oh no, no, no, I'm not gonna do that, I'm scared. And I saw, look back at her and I'm like, I'm like, sweetheart, you have got to overcome this fear of trying new things because if not, you're gonna struggle all through, you know, because you're always gonna have new stuff in your life. And my daughter drops her head and she says, I know daddy, sometimes I think I'm just a big scaredy cat. And in my finest parenting moment, I said, that's exactly right.

And if you don't change, you're not gonna go anywhere in life. And my four-year-old daughter, I look back up and just that moment, I see my four-year-old daughter looking over at her and she says, no, Karis, you are not a scaredy cat, you are my big sister. And I was like, oh, my daughter is the voice of the Holy Spirit and I am the voice of Satan. But see, that is exactly what God does and what Satan does when he comes to you.

Is Satan starts with true statements about what you've done and uses that to define who you are, but what God does in the gospel is he declares a louder word and he says to things that do not yet exist, he speaks about them as if they do and by faith, you become those things. So God says to you, righteous, God says to you, living one, God says to you, mighty man of valor, and you become those things, God does not call the brave, he makes brave the called. Or here's another way of saying it, God does not call the equipped, he equips the called. If you're waiting for God to give you all you need before you obey, I'm gonna go ahead and tell you, you're never gonna get there. Because we're like, God, if you'll show me the supply, then I'll obey, give me the provision and I'll follow you. God says, nope, not how it works. You obey and I will show you the provision and the supply.

You cannot put them in the opposite order. And there are a number of you this weekend that God has told you to do something and you were like, God, when you show me how you're gonna do it, I'll do it. And God says, nope, that's not how it happens.

You step out and obey, you put your foot on the water and then you'll walk on water and not before. Number two, this story shows us that we are the activity of God in our generation. God answered Gideon's question, God, why aren't you doing awesome stuff in our generation like you did for our grandparents with a statement, Gideon?

Oh, I'm here to use you. We're the activity of God to others. Most of you know that last year I wrote a book called Jesus Continued and the idea, I got that title from Acts 1.1 where Luke, who is the writer of Acts and is also the writer of the gospel of Luke, opens up Acts this way. In the former book that I wrote, the gospel of Luke, I recorded all that Jesus began to do and to teach. And I explained that began to do and to teach implies that Jesus is continuing to do and to teach in the book of Acts.

You see, it's not that in the gospel of Luke, Jesus was the one doing and teaching and now in the book of Acts, it is the church that is doing and teaching in his place, is that Jesus was at work in his flesh and blood in the gospel of Luke, but he is just as much at work in his body, the church, now in the world. The idea is that Jesus is continuing what he does in the world. He is continuing his ministry through you. And he does that by means of spiritual gifts that he gives to every believer, 1 Corinthians 12, seven. What is happening, a spiritual gift is not just a really cool talent that you have, a spiritual gift is the manifestation of the presence and the spirit of Jesus that is literally channeling through your body to somebody else. That's why I am aware that when I am up here, it's so serious to me because I know it is literally the spirit of God that is speaking to some of you. And that's not because I have a great deal of confidence in my spirituality or my abilities, it's because I understand what a spiritual gift is. I understand what a spiritual gift is, I understand that he has given many of you the ability to touch, to heal, to pray, to channel faith. It is what God is doing through you. You are the activity of God in this generation. The hesitation of God working in the world is not his hesitation in heaven, it's mine and your hesitation to believe him and be used by him. Here's a verse I'll often use with our pastoral team that I would love to just chisel into whatever foundation in our church I could find. It's Amos chapter five verse four. Thus says the Lord to the house of Israel, do not seek Bethel, do not enter into Gilgal, do not cross over to Beersheba, seek the Lord and live.

And you're like, what? All right, why the three random cities in this list? Okay, Bethel. Bethel was the place where God appeared to Jacob, made a covenant with him and did the whole ladder thingy.

You remember that? Gilgal was where the children of Israel emerged out of the wilderness after 40 years and God split the Jordan River and he renewed his covenant with him. Beersheba was the place where God appeared to Abraham and gave him the covenant that essentially gave him the promised land. In other words, these are three places that signify for Israel God literally coming down and touching earth. And evidently by Amos' day, they were in the habit of sitting around the campfire and talking about the good old days. Oh, wouldn't it have been awesome to have been there at Gilgal when the children of Israel saw God split the Jordan River?

Wouldn't it have been awesome to have been there with Abraham and God gave him that covenant? And God says to them through Amos, would you shut up about what I did in the past? Because I am not a God of the past. I'm a God of the present and I'm a God of the future. And the mighty works that I want to do are not something of yesterday. They are something of today. You see, I believe very much that God's work and his greatest works are not behind us.

They are ahead of us. And I believe some at church, we can weary God by always talking about how awesome it must have been in the days of Billy Graham. How awesome it must have been in the days of the Great Awakening or in the days of the Reformation or in the days of the early church.

Why? Because God wants to work in our generation. And you see, I'm a dad of children and my children, Lord willing, will one day grow up and have children and I need God to move in their lives and in their children's lives.

And I'm also in a nation that seems to be on a race backwards into hell. And I'm also in a world where there are still 2.2 billion people that have never heard the name of Jesus and there are 6,000 unreached people groups. So I believe that God's greatest work are not something that we talk about in the past.

It's something we look forward to in the future. We are the activity of God in this generation and I will not for one second believe that we are here to coast until the rapture. I believe that we are here to see the kingdom of God take place in Raleigh-Durham and through us in the world like no generation has seen. And I will never give that up and we're always going to keep pushing for that because we are the activity of God in this generation. You are asking, God, why aren't you active in my family? Why aren't you active in my workplace?

Why aren't you active on my campus, my college campus? And maybe what God is saying to you this weekend is you are my answer to that prayer. I put the spirit of God in you.

So be the conduit of my power. Number three, this story teaches us that revival starts at home. Gideon's first assignment was to get rid of the idol in his father's house. You see, before you can do battle with the enemies around you, you've got to throw off the enemies within you because these idols will weaken you and make you ineffective in what God has for you. You say, well, I ain't got any idols in my house.

Well, maybe that's because you don't understand what an idol is. For Gideon's family, these weren't things that they worshiped instead of God. They hadn't forsaken God and just given themselves to idols. These idols were things they worshiped, listen, in addition to God. They never rejected God. They just substantiated God with idols that guaranteed other things that they felt like they needed. So there was an idol that guaranteed rain and there was an idol of Baal that guaranteed fertility. Again, these weren't in the place of God. They were in addition to God. Now we hear that and we say, well, that's so silly. Ancient superstitions thought you can put idols and statues up.

You're missing the point. Where do you have places that you aren't sure you can trust God so you have other things that act as a backup in your life? I give you two sure signs of an idol. Anytime you see any one of these two things, and by the way, they always go together, you can always know there's an idol there. Anytime you see one of these two things in your lives, the metaphor I've used is they're like smoke from a fire.

You can trace the smoke back down and find the altar of unbelief in your life. Here they are, disobedience and anxiety. For example, many people do not feel like they can trust God in the area of relationships.

They're like, God, you're awesome and everything. I believe that, but I've also got to be happily married if I'm going to be happy in life. And you don't seem to be providing it in the way that I want at the moment.

So I'm off to take that area into my own hands. And so they compromise in relationships. We have girls here this weekend that are sleeping with their boyfriends, not because you think it's okay and not even because you really want to. It's because you feel like if you don't, you're going to lose this relationship. And if you lose this relationship, you feel like there's no way you can go on in life.

That's because you simply don't believe God. So you got to take this issue into your own hands. We have people who are with people they should not be with. We have people who are leaving their marriages, walking out in hopes of a better one, because this is just not something they can trust God with. We have other people that feel like they couldn't be happy without a certain income. So they will cheat at their business. They will cheat on their taxes.

They will harm their family by working all the time. Or they refuse to be generous when God tells them to be generous. Disobedience is a sure sign of an idol.

Listen, I'm going to say this. I say this with no self-interest, but I tell you, if you do not tithe, that indicates that money is an idol for you. I'm not saying that because I'm about to take an offering. I'm saying that because if you can't obey God, it's because you feel like, God, you're awesome and everything. But I really can't obey you there because I also got to make sure I keep my hands on this because I really trust that for the future. Disobedience is always accompanied by anxiety.

So you're worried about your ability to hold on to your relationship or to get one or to hold on to your finances. Maybe you worry about your kids all the time because you feel like you just can't trust God with them. Disobedience and anxiety are smoke from the fires of unbelief. And before God can ever really use you in the mission, He's got to go to war against your idols because you will never do well battle with the enemies outside of you until you've gone to war with the ones within you. Number four, this story shows us that courage is not the absence of fear. Courage is following God in the midst of fear. God's one line answer to Gideon's fear, His one line answer to Gideon's sense of inadequacy is I am with you. That's what God's one line answer to every feeling of fear and inadequacy.

So I've really only got one question for you on this. What would your life be like in any situation that makes you afraid if you knew God was with you? Before you went into the surgery, an angel appeared at your side and just said, I want you to know that I am with you and I will be with you under the knife and I'll be with you when you wake up. If you went into a new job and on the first day of that new job, God says to you at the breakfast table, I'm going with you in this job. If you entered into a new relationship on the first day, God said, I'm with you. If you begin a new ministry and God said, go because I am with you. If you knew you were supposed to talk to somebody about the gospel and it made you nervous, but before you open your mouth, God just grabbed your hand and said, Hey, I want you to know I'm going to be in you speaking. I'm going to be beside you.

I am with you. If you're dealing with a problem in your home with your marriage or your kids, God says to you, go and be courageous because I am with you. That's God's one line and answer to everything. It's like Isaiah 43 says, is that God, whatever he sends us into, God goes with us.

He'll walk with us through the flames. There are times God will deliver you from the flames. It is more often than not, God will deliver you within the flames.

You see that's with the three Hebrew teenagers, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. When Nebuchadnezzar threw them in the fiery furnace, God didn't stop that from happening, but God went with them in there and he walked through there so that not even the hairs on their head were singed. And what that is, is a picture for you that when you go through the fires of trial and difficulty, when you go through problems, when you walk through the things that would make you most afraid, God says, you have no need to fear because not even the smell of smoke will get on your clothes because I'm going with you. You see, I read a bunch of articles this week about how to overcome fear, most of them secular. And one of the things that's true about all these articles about how to overcome fear, if you're thinking of it from a secular perspective, is they all say the same thing. You got to learn to control your fears. You got to learn to banish fearful thoughts from your mind.

You got to find a happy place, say goose faba or whatever it is that makes you feel calm. It stuck out to me how opposite the Bible's counsel with fear is. The Bible doesn't tell you to close your eyes to anything. The Bible tells you to open your eyes to something greater. It says, don't stop thinking about what makes you afraid, start thinking about the God whose presence is greater than all of these fears that are around you. But see, that leads us to a final question, and that is Gideon's question, how do we know that God is with us? How do we know we found favor? That was Gideon's question.

That's number five. The cross is our wet fleece. The cross is our wet fleece. Gideon asked God to prove he was with him by making a fleece wet when the ground was dry.

I mentioned a moment ago that this concept has been so abused. We give God these random litmus tests to prove he wants us to do something. I will confess to you, it is more than once, as late as my sophomore year of college that I stood on a basketball court with a basketball at half court saying, God, if you want me to ask her out, if this relationship is going to end in marriage, make this half court shot go in. I did that with different girls, and one time I was so wanting it to work out that I shot nine times from half court hoping that God would make one go in, and this one I'm serious. I'm not saying that you should never seek confirmation on any decision that you make. I will tell you that if you do seek some kind of confirmation, that ought to be like one part out of a thousand in what goes into making a decision.

The bigger parts are scripture, prayer, the counsel of other believers. I'm not saying you never do that, but what I'm saying is that's not the main point of what's going on here. First of all, Gideon knew this was unwise.

You know how I know that? In verse 39, look at it, Gideon asked God not to be angry at him. He's like, God, please don't be protected with this. So he knew it wasn't wise. Secondly, Gideon wasn't asking what decision to make.

He already knew what he was supposed to do. What Gideon was asking, listen, was confirmation that God was with him and that God was in control. We have something much better than a wet fleece that shows us that God is indeed in control and that God is on our side, and that is the cross of Jesus Christ. In the cross of Jesus Christ, we see God is indeed in control because we see that in the worst moment in history, when evil looked like it was winning, when people were doing the most horrible things, God commandeered the situation to turn it to our salvation. And what that means, Paul tells us, is if that God was at work controlling that situation for our good, don't you think that in various parts of my life, God is also turning what others intend for evil into the good of my life and into God's great plan for me.

That's what it means. It also shows me, the cross shows me that God is on my side because I see that while I was still a sinner, Christ died for me, and I see that if God did not turn his back on me when I was wandering as a child and putting nails in his hands and his feet, that God will not turn on me now, that I am his child, so I know through the cross what Gideon did not know, and that is God will never leave me, God is fully in control, and God could not be against me because of what Jesus has done. That's what gives us courage. I have my favorite verse on courage in the Bible, 1 John 4.18, there is no fear in love, perfect love cast out, drives out fear.

Look at the next verse. For fear, where does fear come from? It has to do with punishment. Whoever fears has not been perfected in love. Fear has to do with punishment. We see something that makes us afraid and we feel vulnerable, and that sense of vulnerability goes back to the first thing that happened when we sinned in the Garden of Eden, that is, we felt exposed in our nakedness. We felt vulnerable.

We felt afraid, and so in our lives we clothe ourselves with the security of a good job. We clothe ourselves with the security of a good reputation or a good relationship, but at any point we are aware that any of those clothes might be ripped away, but in the cross we see that God has clothed us irrevocably with his love and his presence, and when you understand that perfect love, it drives out any fear because you know God's love is perfect. Think about the different ways God's love is perfect. God's love is perfect in its intensity toward us. God could not love you any more than he does when he sent his son to die for you.

It is the most intense love in the universe. God's love is perfect in its constancy with us because we know that there's nothing that could separate us from the love of God. Anything that could, God put on the head of Jesus and punished him for it in our place for so can instead of us. We may see that God's love is perfect in its sufficiency. We were created for the love of God and our souls find their fulfillment in tasting and drinking of that love. We are, we are, God's love is perfect in its sovereignty over all things in our lives. We know that he commandeers every molecule of the universe to work out his good and perfect plan for us.

God's love is perfect in its intensity and its constancy and its sufficiency and its sovereignty with God's perfect love. What else could there be to be afraid of? So when they're getting ready to go into the promised land, God says to them, number 23, 23, there is no sorcery that can succeed against Jacob. You see, the people were like, oh, what if we go in there and what if the people have bigger armies? What if they have more powerful magic than we do? What if, you know, Lord Voldemort is on their side and they're going to put a curse on it? And God says, would you shut up about, who cares if Lord Voldemort is on their side? I'll mention his name because his name is nothing. My name is bigger than his name and there's no sorcery that he can give that's going to overcome that. Psalm 56, 11, and God I trust says, David, I shall not be afraid.

Why? Because what could man do to me? What could man do that would override the plans of the Almighty God?

The answer is nothing. If you are afraid about anything this weekend, it is because you have lost touch with one of those four dimensions of the perfect love of God. You either have lost touch with its intensity and its constancy. You've lost touch with the fact that God loved you with a perfect love. God sought you when you were his enemy. God made you a child.

He promises because Christ was forsaken for you that you'll never be forsaken. You've lost touch with its sufficiency. You think that there's something else you got to have, money, relationship. What if you think I got to have that too?

No, it's sufficient. You've lost touch with its sovereignty. You've lost touch with the fact that there is not one stray molecule in the entire universe that God has not commandeered for his glory, your good, and his plan. True courage comes from the presence and the promises of God. And the presence and the promises of God are given to us in Christ. You see, what God wants you to know this weekend as you go is that he goes with you and none of the fire will touch you. When Jesus gave his disciples what we call the Great Commission, it was dangerous.

You're going to go all throughout the world and you're going to preach Christ to people who are going to hate you and try to kill you. What we fail to notice sometimes is what he says right before he tells them that. It's basically what he told Gideon. He says, go into all the nations and preach the gospel and behold, I am with you until the end of the age. The Great Commission, listen to this, grows out of the great announcement.

The commission to go comes out of the announcement that he goes with. God is sending you, some of you, into various things. Some of you, it's a ministry assignment. Some of you, it is a conversation.

Some of you, it is a trial. And what God says is, go my son, go my daughter. Be a mighty or man or woman of valor because I am with you. If God is sending you somewhere, I can tell you exactly what he says to you.

Listen to my voice and hear his promise in that. God first of all says, saint, righteous one. You say, God, I don't feel like a saint. I don't feel like a righteous one. God says, I know. I see you for what you are, but I also see what the resurrected Christ is making you and I see what you are in him.

So saint of God, let go of the past and walk into the future. He says, my ambassador. My ambassador means that I will provide for you.

I won't send you on a mission where I won't provide for you. You're my ambassador. You're my son.

You're my daughter. I'll never leave you or forsake you. He says, you are going to be a mighty man of valor. Be strong and courageous.

Go into this place for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. You see, virtues like courage don't grow out of our personality. They're not something we work up through learning enough scripture. Virtues like courage flow from our identity in Christ. Virtues like every virtue, courage does not lead us closer to salvation. Courage comes from our salvation. So do not look to your courage to give you identity in Christ. Look to your identity in Christ to give you courage. Your identity in Christ has given us a gift.

It's in the promises of God. So are you a coward? Join the club. Join the club and believe in the promises of God because God doesn't call or reward the brave. He makes brave the called. The called. Your courage will come from your identity in Christ and the fact that God is with you with a perfect love that can never be separated from you.

Why don't you bow your heads if you would at all of our campuses. Listen, where is the Holy Spirit? Where is he beckoning you to follow you? Where is he beckoning you to follow? This morning can you say, I will go if you will go with me. I will follow.

Just say yes and follow. By the way, as you're doing that, the first thing the Lord Jesus Christ says to you is follow me into eternity. He came to you and this is what he said. Listen, I purchased your soul. I paid for your sin, but you got to receive it as a gift. Follow me. Follow me. To receive it as a gift, you have to turn from your sin and trust in Christ as Lord and Savior.

If you've never done that, I'd invite you to do it right now. Say yes to Jesus and begin this journey right where you sin. Lord Jesus, I turn from my sin and I trust you as Lord and Savior. Father, I pray that we would be people of courage because we would be people with eyes wide open to the salvation and the identity we have in Christ. Make us mighty men and women of valor. We pray in Jesus name.