This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

(upbeat music) - I'm glad you joined us for day four of week two of our look
through the book of Judges. We're going to move from Judges chapter six to Judges
chapter seven today. Still looking at the life of Gideon, faith lessons from the
life of Gideon.

And today we're going to learn some lessons about how to defeat an enemy in your
life. Now Gideon's enemy is the Midianites, the enemy of the people of Israel.
And we're going to learn some truths about how God gives us victory by faith.

Your enemy might be in the form of a person or a group that's against you. Or it
might have to do with a battle with temptation that you're going through, a
struggle with depression that you're facing in your life. An enemy is anything
that's working against the working out of God's promise in your life.

The Midianites were working against the working out of God's promise in the
lives of the people of Israel, them living in the promised land. An enemy is
anything that's working against the working out of God's promise in your life.
And you have this sense that God doesn't want it to be that way.

You have this sense that God wants a victory in your life. But you look at
yourself and you think, how's that going to happen through me? I don't know that I
have the faith.

You look at yourself and you think, I'm not bringing enough to this battle to
have victory in this battle. Or maybe you've been defeated so often in the
battle that you feel like I'm just going to be defeated one more time. When we talk
about the victories that God wants to work in your life, they also have to do
with some positive things.

With the battles of achieving the victories, the dreams that you know that God
has for you. Where are you going to find the time, the energy, the money, the ideas
to do what God has called you to do? For a lot of us, this is the main issue.

We know who we are, we even know what God wants us to do, but we don't know
where to find the resources to do it all. We don't know where to find the
strength to have the victory. And there's two choices we can make.

We've been talking about that all the way through the story of the book of
Gideon, of the life of Gideon. Two choices you can make. Number one, you can
rely on your resources to try to attain the victory.

That's not going to work. I'm sure you can see the pattern here through the life of
Gideon. The life that falls short of significance is all about you.

Your perspective, your strength, your resources. Now, God wants to use your
strength. He wants to use the resources that he's put into your life, but he
doesn't want you to rely on those resources.

But here's the problem. It is easier for us as human beings to try to rely on
our resources than to trust and to rely on God's resources. Because we can see
our resources.

They're right there in front of us. We know we have them. And we can also
control our resources.

They're never going to get out in front of us. They're never going to ask us to do
something we don't want to do. But if we rely on our resources, we're never
obviously going to see the victories that God wants to work through our lives,
'cause they don't come through our resources.

So the way that doesn't work to see God's victories in your life is to rely on
your resources. So what does work? What does work, and this one might surprise
you, is you watch God use your weaknesses.

You watch God use your weaknesses. The way to victory, you might have thought I
was going to say it's through God's resources, but actually, the way to victory is
through your weaknesses. That's how God brings victory in the lives of his
people.

Your weakness is any place where it's evident to you that you don't have the
resources to do what God's asking you to do. It could be a lack of ability or
energy or experience. It could be a physical or an emotional or a spiritual
handicap.

It could be a hurt from your past. It could be an anxiety about your future. And
we tend to think, when I get rid of that weakness, then God can use me.

Then I'll see the victory. But we'll always have that weakness. We'll always
have at least some weaknesses in this world.

And until you understand that God wants to use even your weaknesses, you'll
never understand how he wants to work through your life. Now look with me at how
God taught Gideon this incredible truth. It's in Judges chapter seven, verses
two to seven.

The Lord said to Gideon, as the battle was beginning, you have too many warriors
with you. If I let all of you fight the Midianites, the Israelites will boast to
me that they saved themselves by their own strength. Therefore, tell the people,
whoever is timid or afraid may leave the mountain and go home.

So 22,000 of them went home, leaving only 10,000 who were willing to fight. But
the Lord told Gideon, there are still too many. Bring them down to the spring,
and I will test them to determine who will go with you and who will not.

And when Gideon took his warriors down to the water, the Lord told him, divide
them in into two groups. In one group, put all those who cup water in their
hands and lap it up with their tongues like dogs. In the other group, put all
those who kneel down and drink with their mouths in the stream.

Only 300 of the men drank with their hands. All the others got down on their
knees and drank with their mouths in the stream. The Lord told Gideon, with
these 300 men, I will rescue you and give you victory over the Midianites.

Send all the others home. Now, what I think is one of the funniest stories of
the Bible, God reduces Gideon's army from 32,000 to only 300. They are reduced
to the level of depending on God.

Pride insurance is what is happening here. God says, if I let you do it with
this many, you're going to be prideful. Let's try it with 300.

God knew that day that they needed more than just a victory. They needed to
recognize that God gave the victory. And while having 32,000 fighting might have
clouded that, God was going to give the victory either way.

But they could have fooled themselves into thinking they were doing it if there
were 32,000. With 300, it would be abundantly clear only God could have done
this. Now, look again at how God got Gideon to this place of dependence.

We learn later that he's going up against an army of 135,000 with only 32,000.
So he's already facing impossible odds. And then God says, nope, too big an
army.

Just ask, is anyone timid? Anyone not feel like fighting today? Let them go
home.

How many people in a battle situation, do you think at any time are going to say, I
think I'd rather not fight today? 22,000 went home, 22,000. Imagine how
depressed Gideon is in this moment.

And then God says, I want to cut it down a little more. Let's do a test. And
Gideon's thinking, okay, maybe it's like a warrior's test where we're going to see
who can throw a spear the longest, who shoots the best with the bow.

But no, God says, let's do a water drinking test. Gideon has to be thinking,
what, a water drinking test? Go down to the water.

Those who lap out of their hands like a dog, those are the ones that I want.
Now, I've read some people who say, oh, those are the people that were better
warriors because they were aware, they were looking around as they were lapping
out. That's not the point at all.

The point is there were only 300 that did it. And God wanted the 300, not the
32,000. Gideon and these 300, they defeat an army of 135,000 enemy troops.

How did they do it? How in the world did this happen? Look at Judges chapter
seven, verses 16 to 21.

Dividing the 300 men into three companies, he, Gideon, placed trumpets and empty
jars in the hands of all of them, with torches inside. Watch me, he told them,
follow my lead. When I get to the edge of the camp, do exactly as I do.

When I and all who are with me blow our trumpets, then from all around the camp,
blow yours and shout, for the Lord and for Gideon. Gideon and the 100 men with
him reached the edge of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, just
after they had changed the guard. They blew their trumpets and they broke the
jars that were in their hands.

The three companies blew the trumpets and they smashed the jars, grasping the
torches in their left hands and holding in their right hands the trumpets that
they were to blow. They shouted, a sword for the Lord and for Gideon. And while
each man held his position around the camp, all the Midianites ran, crying out
as they fled.

It almost sounds like a joke. Take a trumpet, a torch, and a clay jar, and
that's how we're going to win the victory. And they surrounded the enemy, and you
can see what happened.

When they blew the trumpets and they shone the lights out all of a sudden, it
seemed like the army was much larger around them than was actually true. Because
in an army, not everybody had a trumpet, but everyone here had a trumpet. So
they hear all these trumpets, they see all of these lights.

And some people look at this and they say, oh, what brilliant military strategy.
Of course it's not brilliant military strategy. If just one of the enemy had
caught onto what was happening and told the rest of the Midianites, they would
have been destroyed in an instant.

This was a strategy that relied on God confusing the minds of the enemy. It
worked only because they obeyed. It worked only because they obeyed, and God
confused the minds of the enemy.

Now something interesting happens here. The light couldn't shine out until that
jar was broken. And God's still shining his light out of broken jars.

He's still shining his light out of our lives. When we bring our brokenness to
him, God wants to use our weaknesses. When I talk to church leaders about
following God and leading from God, I almost always try to share my struggles
with deep insecurity through my life.

Because the truth of the matter is, we all face certain measures of insecurity.
And if we're going to see God work in our lives and through our lives to use us,
we're going to see how he wants to use our weaknesses. And this is so important,
we're going to spend some more time tomorrow on this truth in the process of how
God works this out in our lives, how he uses our weaknesses.

But for today, as we begin a look at this, the place to start is by, in essence,
offering those weaknesses to God. Recognize that he can work even there. Let's
pray it again.

And in prayer, I invite you to say with me, God, I offer my weaknesses to you. I
know I've always thought you only want to use my strengths. Now, I'm seeing in the
life of Gideon, you want to use even my weaknesses.

You want to work in my life, even in the midst of my weaknesses, and sometimes
even through my weaknesses. So God, help me to think differently. Help me to
stop thinking that because I am weak, you can't use me.

Help me to begin to think that as I offer those weaknesses to you, you can do
miracles, miracles of faith through my life in this world. I offer them to you,
Lord. In Jesus' name, amen.