Dig Deeper - Sunday 19th July
Sermon Reflection Questions - Courage in Ordinary People: Gideon
Judges 6:11-24
Link to service
Dig Deeper notes from Sunday 19th July service
This week we begin our new summer sermon series – Unexpected Courage: ordinary people God used. Over the next few weeks, we will be looking at ordinary men and women in the Bible that God uses to do extraordinary things.
This week we will look at Gideon, and the courage he showed when feeling weak and unprepared.
Every single person will have weaknesses and times in life where, whether we want to or not, we have to do things we don’t feel ready or prepared to do.
The book of Judges tells us of the constant cycle of self-destruction the Israelites are in. The once faithful Israelites start to turn away from God, by worshipping other gods and committing acts of sin. This then sees them being overpowered and oppressed by others. When the oppression becomes too much, the Israelites realise their errors, and repent to God and in God’s love and mercy, He helps deliver them out of the hands of suffering – but sooner or later, the Israelites return to their sinful ways and the cycle begins again.
In the passages we are concentrating on, the Israelites have been oppressed for seven years by the Midianites who have taken all the Israelite’s livelihood, livestock and crops.
There are three points to consider when we look at Gideon’s example:
1. God meets us in the ordinary.
2. God equips us.
3. God will never leave us.
God meets us in the ordinary.
We find Gideon under a tree, threshing wheat in a wine press. This is not the usual way for wheat threshing to happen, usually threshing wheat would be done in an open space so that the chaff would blow away, leaving the wheat to be collected easily. Gideon was undertaking this task whilst hiding from the Midianites so that the wheat was not stolen.
But it is in this very place that God meets him.
It is not uncommon for people to meet God when they are at their weakest and most vulnerable, and this is not by chance. Gideon is hiding and working.
God doesn’t solely focus on the physical or intellectual attributes a person has – this is not what defines a person to God.
God has eyes to see further than we could ever imagine. God sees our hearts, and he knows who we are intimately.
God saw David as a king when he was just a humble shepherd, he saw the apostle Paul as a missionary when the world saw him as Saul, the one who was persecuting followers of Jesus.
As with David and Paul and Gideon, God sees past the limitations we have as humans. He sees us with the potential He gifts us – but that potential will only ever be possible if we lean on and abide in Christ.
God equips us.
We may feel weak, we may feel inadequate for the task ahead, we may feel unprepared, but if we try to do things in our own strength, we will most likely fail. The way in which we gain strength, gain courage to move forward is to worship the Lord – the one who will give us that strength and courage we need.
By prayer, singing, fasting, spending time in silence - so many different ways we can submit to God, submission to the Lord is not weakness, it is acknowledging that He is Lord and saviour, and that we are choosing to follow Him.
When we worship, we are tuning our hearts and minds into God – we are filled with a strength that can only come from the Lord.
God equips us to go out and reach all those who are yet to meet Jesus. He gives us powerful testimonies to share with others, filling us with the courage to talk to friends and family, people we work with, people we meet in the street. God gives us servant heartedness to treat others with the love and respect that he shows us.
God promises to be with us.
Gideon asks the following question; “Pardon me my lord but if the lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said did not the lord bring us up out of Egypt? But now the lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.”
Gideon wasn’t saying this out of anger, he was asking the question that probably everyone was thinking – where is God in the midst of all this suffering?
Scripture doesn’t skirt over this subject of suffering - Job suffered great loss and pain. The death of children, losing his livelihood, his wealth, his health. But through all of this, when Job was at his very weakest, he still clung to God and His faithfulness.
We read in the Bible of the countless times the Israelites turned away from God, and yet every time they repented and turned their faces towards God, He would reach out to them. The issue was never God turning away from them, but them turning away from God.
Verse 16 tells us “The Lord answered, I will be with you.” God didn’t chastise or assign blame; God simply reminds Gideon – I will be with you.
And these words are found throughout scripture – Jesus’ great commission – the promise to his disciples in Matthew 28 – He tells them to go and make disciples of all nations, but the promise “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
There is never any promise that by following Christ, we will get to live a life that is straight forward, and that we will never suffer or be weak.
The eternal and everlasting promise we are given is that God will be with us always. Through the good times and the bad, walking in front of us, behind us and beside us, and even in the times where we feel lost or alone – in hiding or trying to become invisible to the world around us, He will always be there.
Questions for reflection and discussion.
From these points, we can apply this to our own lives in the following way:
Firstly, we can acknowledge that we don’t have to wait for the extraordinary for God to meet us. He will meet us in the right place at the right time.
This week, let’s pray each day that God will open our eyes and ears to Him and for us to recognise His presence in the ordinary busyness of life.
Secondly, we shouldn’t see our limitations as weakness. We can be quick to put ourselves down, but God tells Gideon, “Go in the strength you have, am I not sending you?” God isn’t telling Gideon to go when he feels ready and strong enough, he tells him to go and reassures him that He is with him.
Where is God telling you to ‘go’ this week, even if we don’t feel ready or prepared? Pray that God will show you where He wants to send you and ask Him to be with you to give you strength.
Thirdly, we need to understand that it is through God’s presence and peace that we get peace ourselves. The external circumstances for Gideon had not changed. He still lives in an oppressed area and was the youngest son in the weakest family, the only thing that had changed was Gideon’s heart for God.
Recognise things in your life that may be heavy or difficult, and ask God to give you peace and strength to face the challenges before you, knowing that the circumstances may not change externally, but pray that your heart recognises God’s ultimate peace.
Prayer.
Heavenly Father, thank you for the scriptures and the many examples you show us of the ordinary people you have worked through. We pray that in our lives; you meet us in the ordinary. That through our limitations and weaknesses that we feel and recognise, you give us the courage and strength to step out in faith for you. Thank you for giving us your peace.
In Jesus’ mighty name.
Amen.
