This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

(upbeat music) - Welcome back for day two of week two on our look through the
book of Judges. We started yesterday looking at the life of Gideon and how you
and I can begin to hear God's call in our lives. That it starts with discovering
your identity, who you are.

But it doesn't end there. There's more than just knowing something about
yourself and following God's call. The second thing you have to do is you have
to decide your activity.

You have to do something about it. Identity is who you are. Activity is what you
do.

What does God want you to do based on who he's made you to be? When Gideon hears
God's promise for his life, that he wants to do something through him, that he's
this mighty hero, his first response is frustration. His first response you see
in Judges 6, verses 13 and 14.

Sir, Gideon replied, if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us?
And where are all the miracles our ancestors told us about? Didn't they say the
Lord brought us up out of Egypt?

But now the Lord has abandoned us and handed us over to the Midianites. And then
the Lord turned to him and said, go with the strength that you have and rescue
Israel from the Midianites. I am sending you.

Gideon hears that God wants to use him and it just all spills out. All the ways
that God had let him down. Everything that wasn't working.

Now in his complaints, he's totally missing the fact that God wants to use him
to solve the very problems that he's talking about. He's the answer to all these
frustrations that he's sharing. It's true many times in all of our lives.

When you notice a problem and no one else seems to see it, you feel frustrated.
Like why isn't anybody doing something about that? Well, probably because God
wants you to do something about it.

Often it's because God wants you to do something about it. As Gideon is
complaining to the Lord, his words are classic. They express in a few sentences
the major things that our doubt seems to settle on.

Why has all this happened, he says. He's asking the question, why the present?
Why are things like they are?

Why me, Lord? Where are all the miracles which our Father told us about? Where
the, he's asking the question here, where's the past?

Not what about the present, but where's the past? Where are the good old days?
Where's the initial enthusiasm that I had for ministry?

Why aren't things like they used to be? And our doubt settles there about
whether God can use us. And then he says this great line, the Lord has abandoned
us.

He's saying, as you see many of God's servants say throughout the scripture, we
have no future. Hope is lost. There's no possibility of change.

Now the truth of the matter is, God was there with Gideon in that very moment
that he's saying God's abandoned us. He just didn't recognize it. He says, sir,
why has this happened?

And then we see later, the Lord said to him, he doesn't even recognize that God
is with him speaking in that moment. And in that moment, God says two important
things to Gideon that will help to get him past these questions and into what
God wants to do in his life. They do the same thing for you and I, if we'll hear
what God says to Gideon that day.

First thing he says is, and I want to spend just a moment on this one, is am I not
sending you? God says, I'm sending you and I know what I'm doing. God does the
sending and he can be trusted.

That truth cuts through a lot of our doubt and a lot of our questions. When it
comes to God using you, do you see God as an advisor to help you make decisions
about your best usefulness or do you see him as the Lord, the one in control of
life's direction? Is he a counselor or a commander?

Those who listen to God just for counsel, I'll decide whether I want to follow it
or not. They never hear anything from God 'cause God is not a counselor where we
decide on whether we think it's good advice or not. No, he is the Lord.

So when you listen saying, what do you want me to do? I know you have the
strength that I don't have and the wisdom I don't have, then you get to these
moments of, okay, I don't understand it, I don't think I have the strength to do
it, but am I not sending you? God is sending me, so he's going to do things that
are above and beyond what I can do.

And then God says a second thing to Gideon that I want to spend a few more minutes
on 'cause it's so important. He says, Gideon, here's what I want you to do. I
want you to go in the strength that you have.

If you're going to live out God's call for your life, if you're going to do in your
life the things that God wants to do through your life, you've got a choice. You
can either wait for the strength that you don't have or you can go in the
strength that you do have. Let's look at both of those.

You can wait for the strength that you don't have and it's pretty easy to see
the strength that you don't have. It's pretty easy to see what we all have
lacking 'cause we all have things that are lacking. Because of that, one of the
great traps of life is the wait till I have more trap.

When I have more money, then I will be useful to God. When I have more time,
then I'll be able to do that for God. When I have more energy, then I'll be able
to start that ministry.

When I have more help, then I'll be able to serve God. I'm waiting for strength
that I don't have and it's never going to come. You're going to wait the rest of your
life 'cause it's never going to be there.

That's not how you get started. That's not the example of every person of faith
in the Bible. The example of every person of faith in the Bible is what God
tells Gideon to do here.

You go in the strength that you do have. Go in the strength that you do have. We
tend to say, "God, prove yourself to me.

"Give me more than I need and then I'll trust you "and I'll move ahead. "Give me
the financial windfall and then I'll give. "Or supercharge me with energy and
then I'll serve.

"Or give me love from others and then I'll love others. " God says, "No, it's as
you trust me "that you see me working in your life. "It's as you start with what
you have "that the miracles start to happen in your life.

" I know some of us, we think, "God, I'm going to sit here "until you prove
yourself in some way "with some confidence that comes up from within "that I
haven't had before, "some external resource that hasn't been there before. "I'm
going to sit here and wait until you prove yourself "and then is when I'm going to be
able to be useful "'cause I don't have the confidence to do it yet. "I don't
have the resources to do it yet.

" But it doesn't work that way. In essence, you're trying to outweigh God.
That's a very poor position to be in because God is very patient.

And he has more time than you do. He's from everlasting to everlasting. You can
play this game all of your life and never be useful because you're waiting for
strength that you never are going to have instead of moving ahead in the strength
that you do have.

God says, "Go in the strength that you have. " Now, God says, "Go in the
strength that you have. " But what do you do when you feel like you don't have
any strength?

I want you to look back with me at Gideon's first response to God's call because
it might be exactly how you are feeling right now. Judges six, verses 15 to 16.
"But Lord," Gideon replied, "how can I rescue Israel?

"My clan is the weakest in the whole tribe of Manasseh "and I'm the least in my
entire family. " The Lord said to him, "I will be with you. "I will be with you.

" Gideon says, "God, anyone else might be able to do this, "but not me. "I am
the least likely to have faith. " And God says in answer to that, to Gideon, "I
will be with you.

" What a truth. This is a truth to change the timid and doubtful into the called
and useful. This is the truth that changed Moses from shepherd to national
redeemer.

That changed Jeremiah from teenager to prophet. That changed Peter from
fisherman to fisher of men. That changed Gideon from worrier to warrior.

We say, "I can't do it. "I can't take a step of faith "because I'm afraid I will
fail. " Let me give you two guarantees in life.

Guarantee number one, you will fail. You're a human being. Of course you're
going to fail sometimes.

Human beings fail at times. None of us are perfect. But here's the second
guarantee.

God will never fail you. That's the one you hang on to. When you hang on to that
second guarantee, you know that even if I fail, God's going to even work in my life
through that failure.

He's going to work even in other people's lives through that failure to get us to
the place that he wants us to be because I can trust him and he will be with me.
Let's take just a moment to spend some time with him and hear those words in our
hearts. Our Father, we come to you and we ask you to help us to hear the truth
like we never have before maybe.

That you'll be with us. You will be with us. There is no circumstance of life.

There's nothing we can do that can prevent that truth. You're the God of the
universe and you've promised in Jesus Christ that you'll be with us in any and
every circumstance. And so Lord, help our faith not to be based on our
circumstances, not to be based on our feelings about ourselves or any other
anybody else.

Help our faith to be based on this truth that you'll be with us. You are
trustworthy and we can follow you. We can trust in you.

Would you plant that truth in our hearts like never before? We ask this in
Jesus' name, amen. Now this truth, God will be with you is one I really want you
to get.

So tomorrow we're going to talk about how you can know that God will be with you.