Blogger's Note: God used this service and this message to really speak to me. While I've been happy with my choice to change churches, part of me had been curious as to how my old church was doing. Events on Facebook over the last couple weeks with a few members from my ex-church, combined with tonight's message, has changed all that. Tonight, more than ever, I felt this in my heart how much I love Good News. I confidently say that I now have absolutely no qualms about switching, and am so very grateful to have a place that is encouraging, welcome, and full of Word and Spirit and Truth. To God be all glory!
To recap from Part 1:
Sermon message:
We really are going to get blessed.
Thesis: fight for your future.
Caveat: we are not fighting politically, physically, financially, etc; we are fighting spiritually.
God cares about your future b/c He cares about you b/c He wants you blessed b/c He wants you to be a blessing to others. Your future will influence other people's lives.
Your future can be great.
Your marriage can be great.
Your children can be great.
Your job can be great.
Your relationships with others can be great.
Now picking up where Part 1 left off:
Consider Gideon:
Because the power of Midian was so oppressive, the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in mountain clefts, caves and strongholds. Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples invaded the country. They camped on the land and ruined the crops all the way to Gaza and did not spare a living thing for Israel, neither sheep nor cattle nor donkeys. They came up with their livestock and their tents like swarms of locusts. It was impossible to count them or their camels; they invaded the land to ravage it. Midian so impoverished the Israelites that they cried out to the Lord for help.
Judges 6:2-6 - https://www.biblegateway.com/passage?search=Judges%206:2-6&version=NIV
Problem:
Israel sowed, but their enemy came and harvested instead.
Solutions:
Speak over your seed.
The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.
Proverbs 18:21 - https://www.biblegateway.com/passage?search=Proverbs%2018:21&version=NIV
Stay strong in the faith:
Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.
Galatians 6:9 - https://www.biblegateway.com/passage?search=Galatians%206:9&version=NIV
Regarding fighting for our future:
We win when:
Seeing what God sees. (Trust in God's perspective.)
Gideon trusts God even when he is in survival mode:
The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior. ” “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “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.”
Judges 6:11-13 - https://www.biblegateway.com/passage?search=Judges%206:11-13&version=NIV
When we're in survival mode it's likely when we're being attacked. But God sees it differently. When you run, stop! Let God minister to you.
As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.” He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not.
Romans 4:17 - https://www.biblegateway.com/passage?search=Romans%204:17&version=NIV
God sees you differently than the way the enemy and you see yourself. But God's way is the correct perspective.
Consider how God sees Jacob:
God said to him, “Your name is Jacob, but you will no longer be called Jacob; your name will be Israel. ” So he named him Israel.
Genesis 35:10 - https://www.biblegateway.com/passage?search=Genesis%2035:10&version=NIV
Consider how Jesus sees Peter:
And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
Matthew 16:17-18 - https://www.biblegateway.com/passage?search=Matthew%2016:17-18&version=KJV
And even Peter himself wrote:
But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light;
And Gideon said unto him, Oh my Lord, if the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen us? and where be all his miracles which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt? but now the Lord hath forsaken us, and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.
Judges 6:13 - https://www.biblegateway.com/passage?search=Judges%206:13&version=KJV
God wants to bless you. The answer is: God is God! Trust Him.
The Lord turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?”
Judges 6:14 - https://www.biblegateway.com/passage?search=Judges%206:14&version=NIV
Then the Lord turned to him and said, “Go with the strength you have, and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I am sending you!”
Judges 6:14 - https://www.biblegateway.com/passage?search=Judges%206:14&version=NLT
See your challenge(s) through God's promises.
The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, “Mighty hero, the Lord is with you!”
Judges 6:12 - https://www.biblegateway.com/passage?search=Judges%206:12&version=NLT
Gideon makes an excuse.
God makes him a promise.
Then the Lord turned to him and said, “Go with the strength you have, and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I am sending you!”
Judges 6:14 - https://www.biblegateway.com/passage?search=Judges%206:14&version=NLT
“But Lord,” Gideon replied, “how can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest in the whole tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least in my entire family!” The Lord said to him, “I will be with you. And you will destroy the Midianites as if you were fighting against one man.”
Judges 6:15-16 - https://www.biblegateway.com/passage?search=Judges%206:15-16&version=NLT
Israel's problem. But then they cried out to God:
These enemy hordes, coming with their livestock and tents, were as thick as locusts; they arrived on droves of camels too numerous to count. And they stayed until the land was stripped bare. So Israel was reduced to starvation by the Midianites. Then the Israelites cried out to the Lord for help.
Judges 6:5-6 - https://www.biblegateway.com/passage?search=Judges%206:5-6&version=NLT
Other encouraging truth as we fight for our futures:
What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us?
Romans 8:31 - https://www.biblegateway.com/passage?search=Romans%208:31&version=NLT
I know the Lord is always with me. I will not be shaken, for he is right beside me.
Psalm 16:8 - https://www.biblegateway.com/passage?search=Psalm%2016:8&version=NLT
For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.
Philippians 4:13 - https://www.biblegateway.com/passage?search=Philippians%204:13&version=NLT