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We’ve been going as a church body. We’ve been going through the Old Testament. Uh, I would say it’s Old Testament survey. But when I took Old Testament survey in school, it took a lot longer than what we’re going through. Um, at the pace we’re going through. But we’re kind of doing a big overview of the Old Testament to get a big picture of of what God’s doing in the Old Testament. I think a lot of times we tend to focus on the New Testament because it’s a lot easier to apply to our lives, and we kind of forget about the Old Testament, and we forget how much good stuff there is in the Old Testament for us. Uh, but just kind of a review of where we’ve been. Um, we we already looked at Moses, Abraham, Joseph, we looked at creation, those things. Um, so we’re up through Genesis. We completed Genesis. We looked a little bit into Exodus with the life of Moses. And today we’re going to skip quite a few books and jump into judges. So kind of between where we are and where we were, uh, Moses led the people out of Egypt. He led the nation of Israel out of Egypt. They were in slavery. They disobeyed God and God said, you’re not allowed to go into the Promised Land yet. So they had to wander around for 40 years. That generation then died off. Joshua took over and then leads the people into the promised land.
You also have the Book of Leviticus, which is the book of the law. This is where God gave them in great detail the law. And this is the book. If you are ever questioning how grateful you are for Grace. Um, read the book of Leviticus and you will be ever grateful. There’s so many laws and details in there, you know, if this happens, then you need to do this. And as a result of that, if this happened like it’s like the books you used to read as a kid where you choose your ending, you know. And to get this ending, turn to page 28 or whatever. It’s kind of like that, but they all end with either being cut off from the nation and not being allowed to be a part of the nation anymore, or you were able to return in fellowship. But it’s a great detail and it’s very, um, very tedious if you think about trying to keep all of these things that God gave them. And so we look at Leviticus and are grateful for Christ and His grace, and putting an end to the need to fulfill the law. Um, numbers is the book where God counts the nation of Israel. There’s a census. It’s a lot of begats where so and so begat so and so begat so and so. And you get a lot of genealogy in there. Um, Deuteronomy literally means second law. Um, so by the time Deuteronomy is written, the first generation that came out of Egypt that received the law in the book of Leviticus had basically died off.
So Moses kind of as his last farewell tour. Um, unlike the Rolling Stones, he actually had an end and he did a farewell tour and called it good. Um, and so he does a farewell to her and his kind of farewell tour is these last five sermons which make up the Book of Deuteronomy, which is kind of a retelling of the law for this, this new generation, to kind of remind them of where they came from. And then you have the Book of Joshua, which is the conquest of the Promised Land, where they actually go in and take the Promised Land. Uh, Joshua then dies and you’re into the book of judges and after Joshua dies, Israel goes into a state of what really is the majority of the Old Testament, where they have a period of ups and downs, where they obey God and things are great, and then they disobey God and something bad happens. Typically an opposing army or nation would come in and they would, uh, excuse me, they would they would take over the Israelites and enslave them. Then the people would repent of their sin and then come back. So today we’re going to look at judges. Just kind of a quick overview. It’s written somewhere between the 14th and 11th centuries. All these events take place in that time frame.
Israel would, like I said, obey, disobey God. God would send in an army to oppress them or enslave them. And then he would call up a judge. The people would cry out for deliverance. They’d realize the error of their ways. God would raise up a judge who would then deliver them from the the. Um. The oppressor. Uh, it’s actually, if you read the Book of Judges, it’s an entertaining read. There’s a lot of stories kind of packed into it. And if you’re if you’re an action movie fan or a superhero fan, the book of Judges is is good for you. There’s a lot of casualties in it. It’s a bloody book. There’s about 260,000 casualties that take place throughout all of the battles. If you read the book, it’s got some really bizarre stories. Like I said, if you’re into the action movies or anything, Hollywood really doesn’t have anything on the Bible. Um, Ehud, for example, he’s in judges chapter three. This is one of my favorite stories. So the king is Eglon, and he’s the one that’s suppressing Israel. And it literally says in chapter three that King Eglon was a very fat man. Um, and so Ehud makes an 18 inch sword and straps it to his leg and goes into the king’s chamber, and it says that when he stabs the king in the stomach, that his stomach swallows the sword. And so, like all 18in of the sword, are in the guy, and he escapes.
So crazy stuff like that. Hollywood, Hollywood can’t come up with that kind of stuff. They try. But then you have the story of Shamgar, who took an ox goad, which is what you would prod your oxen along as they plowed. And he killed 600 people by himself. It’s crazy stuff. Uh, then you have Jael, who took a tent peg and drove it through the opposing king’s head and pinned his head to the ground with a tent peg. Just crazy, gruesome stuff that you really like. Why is that in the Bible? I don’t know, but it’s impressive. And it gets your attention because you just got done reading Leviticus and numbers, and you’re like, all right, I need something to happen to wake me back up while I read through the Bible. And then judges comes along and it gets your attention. Then you have the stories of Samson, which a lot of us know. You know, he great man of strength. He to get revenge on the Philistines. He ties Foxtails together and then lights them on fire and sends them through the fields, running to burn all their crops like just crazy stuff. And that’s the book of judges. But in between some of those stories, in chapter six, we get to Gideon, which is kind of a bizarre story also. But that’s where I really want to focus today, because it gives us a lot that we can apply to our lives today.
So if you want to go ahead and grab the Bible in front of you, or you can follow along on the screen. We’re going to be in judges and we’re going to be in chapter six, and we’ll start in verse one. In Judges chapter six one, it says the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord gave them into the hand of Midian. Seven years and the hand of Midian overpowered Israel. And because of Midian the people of Israel made for themselves the dens that are in the mountains, and the caves and the strongholds. For whenever the Israelites planted crops, the Midianites and Amalekites and the people of the east would come up against them, they would encamp against them and devour the produce of the land as far as Gaza, and leave no sustenance in Israel, and no sheep or ox or donkey, for they would come up with their livestock and their tents. They would come like locusts in number. Both they and their camels could not be counted, so they laid waste to the land as they came in. 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 account of the Midianites, the Lord sent a prophet to the people of Israel. And he said to them, thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, I led you up from Egypt, and brought you out of the house of slavery.
And I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians, and from the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out before you and gave you their land. And I said to you, I am the Lord your God. You shall not fear the gods of the Amorites, in whose hand in whose land you dwell. But you have not obeyed my voice. So like the rest of the story of judges, and a lot of the stories you read in the Old Testament, Israel disobeys God, they turn to idols. In this particular story, we know. They turn to the to the false god of Baal, to to Baal, and worshiped Baal and Gideon. The people are getting oppressed, and they finally realize after seven years that something needs to happen. They realize what they’ve done. They cry out to God for deliverance. God sends a prophet and then raises up Gideon, who will? Who will then deliver them. And so we look at this and we talked about it last week. And throughout that, when you read the Old Testament narratives through the through the Old Testament, it’s not necessarily good to directly apply what you read in the Old Testament to your life. For example, if if you sinned today, odds are God isn’t going to send an overwhelming nation to come and conquer you and enslave you and oppress you, that’s probably not what the consequence that you’ll face.
But we can we can glean application from it. That’s why we like to read the New Testament, because it’s a lot easier to apply. Like in the book of Ephesians, when Paul tells husbands that we’re to love our wives like Jesus loved the church. That’s easy to apply to us today. It’s the same application for us as it was for them. So we like to read that because it’s easier. But in the Old Testament it can get kind of confusing. But to kind of think about it, we have consequences and there are consequences for sin. Just like the Israelites had to face consequences, we face consequences. Some of them are obvious. Like if you if you go and you get drunk, and then you get in a car and drive and you get in an accident, the consequence of your sin is evident. You you did what was illegal. You broke the law. You got an accident, potentially hurt yourself or someone else. And so that’s obvious. Other sins. The consequence of those sins might not be as obvious. A couple of weeks ago, we looked at the life of Joseph and Lust, and we talked a little bit about lust. And you think about lust in your head. And the consequence of that lust might not be directly evident to you in your life right away. But if you think about the habit or the sin habit of watching pornography, it doesn’t have a direct effect necessarily.
But the consequence of that sin is indirectly, you’re supporting and encouraging slavery in the sex trade and sex slavery, because that’s that’s what the industry does. A lot of the the girls that get stuck in that trade have to drug themselves with drugs or alcohol to, to numb the pain and reality of what’s happening to them throughout. And and when you watch that, you encourage that the consequence of your sin is the fact that you aren’t directly affected necessarily, which you are. The last time I preached, I talked a lot about the effects that that that pornography can have on your mind. But the consequence of your sin also affects other people in in their enslavement in that particular sin. So it might be directly obvious, like the drunk person who gets in an accident and kills someone. It might be not so obvious, like the man addicted to pornography who’s encouraging the enslavement of women around the world for for abuse. And so whether the consequence of sin is obvious physically or not, there is a consequence for sin. And if you read in the New Testament, in Romans chapter six and verse 23. Says the wages of sin is death. The consequence of our sin is death, spiritual separation from God. Sin has a consequence. And in first Corinthians chapter six, verses nine through ten, it says, do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived, neither sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, men who practice homosexuality, thieves, the greedy, drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
Sin has a consequence, the consequence of our sin. Today. The consequence of Israel’s sin in the Old Testament is separation from God. Because of sin there is a consequence, and the consequence is you do not get to spend eternity with God. Praise God, though those verses, both Romans chapter six and first Corinthians don’t end there, because like in judges, there was a consequence for the sin, but God gave us a way out. Romans 623 goes on and says, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. In first Corinthians 611 goes on, and it says, and such were some of you, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and by the spirit of our God. And I really like First Corinthians because we tend to read verses nine and ten and we’re like, absolutely, 100% agree. Those people don’t don’t belong in heaven. Those are people. Wouldn’t be I wouldn’t consider those people Christians if their life is marked by those things. And then we get to verse 11 and it says, and such were some of you. And we’re like, okay, hold on, wait a minute, Paul. That was a little, a little bit low that you just grouped us all in with all these other people.
But verse 11 puts us all, reminds us all that all of us have that consequence of sin, that we all fall short, and we do not deserve to inherit the kingdom of God, but but we were washed. We were sanctified and we were justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. I think one of the problems that we tend to fall into, one of the ditches we tend to fall into, is we don’t want to underestimate God’s love. So we focus on the fact that God loves us, which is amazing. And the fact that God, God chooses to love me is still blows my mind. But we tend to forget God’s judgment and we underestimate his wrath on sin. God, your sin and the consequence of your sin killed God. When Jesus died on the cross, Jesus is God. Your sin killed God. That’s the consequence of sin. It’s not something that we need to take lightly. It’s not something that we need to brush off. Sin is serious and it has a consequence. But praise God that there there was a solution to the consequence. Just like for the Israelites, God would raise a judge to deliver them from their oppressor. God came and gave his Son for us, that we can be freed from the oppression and the consequences of our sin and our disobedience to him. Romans five eight says, But God shows his love for us while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Christ didn’t wait for us to realize, okay, we’ve screwed this up and then come and save us. Christ died and saved you while you were still a sinner. While you didn’t deserve it, while you were still enemies with God, God delivered you from the consequences of those sins in your decisions. And just like, just like God gave, gives us Christ and saved us from our consequences, he raises up in judges. He raises up Gideon, who comes in and saves the day for the Israelites. And if you skip ahead to verses 11 through 12 and judges still in chapter six, it says, the angel of the Lord came and sat under the Terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, the Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor. The one thing I really like about about Scripture and when you read is a lot of the heroes in the Bible, whether it be Old Testament or New Testament, when you read about them and you kind of look at their life, you realize that they really weren’t that impressive of people. It says here that Gideon was beating out the wheat in the winepress. He typically, if you beat out the wheat, you’re going to be on the threshing floor where you harvest wheat.
But he’s hiding in the winepress, and it says that he’s hiding from the Midianites. But then the angel of the Lord comes and says, the Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor. It’s like, wait a minute. The guy who’s hiding is a mighty man of valor. Okay, it doesn’t really make sense, but it’s really it’s a theme throughout all of Scripture. If you if you look at King David, when God, when God chooses King David to lead the nation of Israel, he chooses the guy out in the field playing a harp to lead the nation. He skips over all the brothers who are in the army and who were were big in stature. They were. They looked like kings. And he skips over all them and he says, no, the guy that’s out in the field playing with the harp, that’s the guy I want to lead the nation. He’s like, are you sure? Because you know, he’s going to have to like, go into battle and lead them in war and and he’s going to kill a giant. And you want the harp player, you know. Okay. All right. You know what you’re doing. So okay pick King David. But then you look even in the New Testament you look at Peter and it’s like, all right, Jesus, you’re going to pick your 12 disciples who are going to who are going to carry on your legacy and spread the gospel to the world.
Let’s go to the synagogues, the temple, and the gates of the city, where all the educated and respected people hung out. And Jesus is like, no, no, no. Let’s go down to the fishing docks and talk to the fishermen who barely graduated third grade. That’s the guy I want him. Okay, well, we’ll get him. But you do know that that he’s going to deny you three times and you’re still going to build your church on that guy? Yeah, that’s the one. Okay. All right. So we’ll pick Peter. So we got David who played the harp and at one time broke all ten commandments in one fell swoop. Uh, and God chooses him to lead the nation. And then you have Peter, who wasn’t educated, probably smelled because they didn’t really have hot water showers back then. And he was a fisherman. And he’s going to deny Jesus, and Jesus chooses them. And then you look at Paul the Apostle when we first meet Paul, when we when we read the book of acts, his name is Saul, and he’s on his way to kill Christians. And then by the end of the book of Acts, history tells us that Paul then is beheaded for himself. Being a Christian when we first meet. When we first meet Paul, he’s holding the coats of the men, throwing stones and killing Christians in support of the martyrdom of Christians and killing them. And then by the end of the book, he himself gives his life for what he was once attacking.
And it’s like, that doesn’t make sense. It’s like taking Osama bin laden and then putting him in Congress or the Senate or President or something. It just doesn’t. It’s a total transformation. It doesn’t make sense. Somebody who is so anti something and then becoming the most prolific writer and preacher of his generation doesn’t make sense. Even last week we looked at the life of Moses. Moses had a speech impediment. He couldn’t talk. He told God, God, why did you choose me? I can’t talk, you want me to go to Pharaoh, who’s the king of the most powerful empire in the world and talk to him? I can’t talk, and God’s like, yeah, you’re going to go and you’re going to talk, and it’s going to be fine. And it doesn’t make sense. The people that God chooses to do what he does, but that’s who he chooses. God doesn’t need the most gifted, the most accomplished, the most profound speakers. He needs a willing heart. He needs a servant that’s willing to serve. And that’s what he found in King David and Peter and Paul and Moses. And here in Gideon, God isn’t concerned whether where your status is God isn’t concerned with what abilities you have. What he’s concerned with is if you’re willing to use those abilities for him, however mediocre they may be, he wants your heart to be willing to serve.
If you read Isaiah chapter six, verses one through eight, it’s one of my favorite passages in all of Scripture. I kind of call it the Christian life in a nutshell, because here we see Isaiah, and it’s a perfect picture of of where we as Christians find ourselves. In Isaiah six one through eight, it says, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on on a throne high and lifted up. The train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings, with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. And the foundations of the threshold shook at the voice of him who called. And the house was filled with smoke. And I said, woe is me, for I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said, behold, this has touched your lips. Your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for. And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then I said, here am I, send me.
And so Isaiah sees God in all of his glory, and he realizes the disconnect between him, a sinner and holy God. And he cries out, woe is me! He realizes the consequences of his sin because he sees God when it says the Lord of hosts, it means that God is a warrior preparing to do battle, and he’s getting ready to come and do battle against sin. Isaiah realizes, I’m a sinner, and this great God that I just saw the glory of is prepared to come and do battle against me. Woe is me. I’m a dead man because this God is ready to deal with my sin. And these are the consequences of my sin. And he cries out and God forgives. Isaiah it says that the seraphim comes and touches his lips, signifying that he cleanses him and forgives him. And then God says, who will go for us? Whom will I send? And Isaiah says, here am I, send me. You see, that’s really that’s what the Christian life is all about. At some point, if you are a Christian, you you’ve had an experience where you realize that I am a sinner. There is a separation between me and the holy, righteous God that I cannot gap. Isaiah doesn’t see God in his righteousness as a as a warrior coming to do war against sin and say, God, I know you’re getting ready to come and do do war against sin.
Let me tell you about how good I am. I did this and I did that. No, Isaiah says, okay, I’m dead. I am a dead man. It’s over. And at some point, if you’re a Christian, you’ve had to come to that realization that nothing that you can do is good enough. Nothing that you can do can can bridge that gap. And Isaiah comes to that realization, he cries out for forgiveness. And if you’re a believer today, you’ve come to that realization and you’ve cried out for forgiveness, and Christ forgives you, and God forgives you and takes away that sin. And then the next logical step, if you’re a Christian, is then here am I. Send me. Okay. God, I realized that that there is a gap in the consequences of my sin or separation from you. Cleanse me. Forgive me. I accept your sacrifice on the cross that Jesus made. Forgive me of my sins. Christ. God forgives you of your sins. And then your your response should then be, here am I. Send me. It’s not. Thanks for forgiving me. I’m going to go back to doing what I was doing. And then when I need you, I’ll come back and we’ll talk then. But in the meantime, I’m going to be over here. And then we come back to God. When something bad happens, we talk to him again. No, it’s God, you’ve forgiven me.
What can I do for you now? Where can I serve? What can I do? The first 11 chapters of Romans, Paul brilliantly explains and sets forth the gospel, and he starts with the sin issue and the separation that that causes, and the fact that we as people can’t do anything about it. And then he talks about Christ coming in, the sacrifice that that is. And it’s by faith and belief in him that saves us. It’s not by fulfilling any works of the law or anything like that. And then in chapter 12 he starts like this. In chapter 12, verse one, he says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. He says, therefore. So he’s laid out the gospel and he shares it with you. And he says, in light of this gospel that I just shared with you, in light of the fact that you don’t deserve salvation, but God gives it to you anyway because of his grace. In light of all of that, the least that you can do, the only reasonable thing that you can do is give your life back to God. It said a lot of times in Christian circles, and it’s kind of cliché, but it makes a lot of sense. God died for you. The least you can do is live for him. And that’s what Paul says.
And that’s that’s what we we see in the life of, of many of the great, great leaders in the Bible is the fact that they didn’t bring much to the table, but they realized who God was and who they were. And in light of that, they wanted to serve him with whatever they could. Moses with his speech impediment, Gideon with his fear, David with his inconsistencies, Peter with his with his poor education and emotional reaction. A lot of times I really like Peter. He’s probably my favorite of the apostles, if you have to pick one, because I can really relate to him. He has to learn the same lessons a lot over and over, and he’s kind of slow. And so I relate to him. And so I like the fact that God can use him to do something, because it gives me hope that that maybe I can do something also. But Gideon, like the rest of the great leaders in the Bible, realizes that he needs to be willing to serve, and so he’s willing. And so if you jump ahead, we’re going to jump into chapter seven and verse one, Gideon answering the call of the Lord being willing to serve. And, uh, chapter six, we see that the Midianite army has come and they’ve camped out in chapter eight. If you read, you realize that the army that came and camped out to to come into Israel and take, take over the land like they had been for the last seven years, coming and taking all the crops and livestock.
It’s about 135,000 men in this army. It says that the men who drew the sword or warriors, army, uh, aficionados, they were trained warriors coming to do battle. And there’s about 135 of them. We pick it up in judges chapter seven, verse one, and it says that then Gideon and all the people who were with him rose early and encamped beside the spring of Herod. And the camp of Midian was north of them by the hill of Moreh in the valley. The Lord said to Gideon, the people, who with you who are with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel boast over me, saying, my own hand has saved me. Now therefore proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, whoever is fearful and trembling, let him return home and hurry away from Mount Gilead. Then 22,000 of the people returned, and 10,000 remained. So if you’re doing math here, still doesn’t quite make sense what God’s doing here. So 135,000 enemy army. We’ve got 32,000 on our side. And God says, no, you’ve got too many. You’re going to say that it was because you had so many people. It’s like there’s still 100,000 more of them. And he says, get rid of some of them. So get Gideon is like, all right. So whoever’s afraid, go back home. And I’m looking at the odds and I’m saying, okay, 135 32.
I’m scared. I’m going home. So I’m one of the 22,000. I’m already out. Like I wouldn’t have stayed. And so, so 20, 2000 leave. We’re down to 10,000. God says no, it’s still too many. So he puts a test before him. So in verse four it says, uh, the Lord said to Gideon, they’re still too many. And he says that take them down to the water, and whoever drinks the water a certain way, keep them and whoever doesn’t send them back home. And by doing that, Gideon’s army is cut down to 300. And verse seven it says, and the Lord said to Gideon, with the 300 men, I will save you, and give the Midianites into your hand. Okay? 32,000 taking on 135 would have been really impressive. That would be a pretty impressive victory. If you’ve ever studied. I love the History Channel. I love it when they do the World War two stuff and things like that. And when you think about the numbers, fighting against the numbers 32, against 135 is impressive. And God says it’s too much. I’m going to show you how amazing I am. We’re going to cut it down to 300, 300 people against 135,000. God says that’s the right number for me. That’s what I want to do. And Gideon says, okay, God. Um, it was already really hard. You called me to lead these people. Um, and now it doesn’t even make sense.
And so. So I’ll do it. But. Okay, so oftentimes in our lives, though, that’s kind of what happens when we follow God is it doesn’t necessarily make sense. But that’s that’s what God wants us to do. I don’t know if I’ve ever shared with everybody. I don’t even know if I’ve really shared with many of you on on one, on one level, how I actually ended up in Utah, but it doesn’t make sense. I was working a job, making way more money than a 20 year old should make, who had minimal bills, and God was like, no, I want you to quit that and focus more on, on, on the youth work that you’re doing in the church. And I’m like, okay, so all right, well, all right, I’ll quit, quit that job and get a part time job. And I start doing that and I go to school, um, for, for some Bible training to be able to better equip myself for ministry. I had finished two years of classes. By the time I finished those two years of classes, I knew that God was asking me. It was time for me to move on. My dad’s a pastor back east, and I’d grown up my whole life under his under his pastoral leadership, and I had been, um, been doing ministry under his leadership for the last four years. And I knew it was time for me to move on my first option, and really, the only choice in my head that was going to make sense was if I moved to Florida, where my brother lives.
He lives in South Florida. Um, has access to anything that you’ve ever wanted to do? Like, um, he knows people with fishing boats. We can go out in deep sea fish. He knows people that have hunting property where we can go shoot pigs and whatever else. He just like, if if you like guy things, he he has access to it. Um, and plus it’s South Florida, so it’s like 75 in December, and I can wear flip flops all year. And I hate wearing shoes and socks. So Florida was was where I was going. That was in my head. Okay. God. You want me to move? Obviously you want me to move to Florida. So that’s where I’m going to go. So I started pursuing Florida. But Nathaniel Word got to Nathaniel that I was looking to move and he he planted the the Utah bug in my ear quite persistently. And he planted and harvested and planted and harvest and he, um and so finally I was like, all right, I’ll come out and I’ll visit and I’ll see what this Utah place is all about. And so I know I’ve known Nathaniel for a large chunk of my life. He actually was, uh, he did an internship as the youth director when I was in youth group back in West Virginia. And I went on a missions trip with him and everything.
And he was friends with my brother, so I knew him pretty well. So I came out to visit him and Stacy and took took a week, came out and visited, and I was like, yeah, okay, that that might be an option now. Okay. So Florida is still where I’m going to go, but there’s another option if I really wanted to. And so about ten months after that visit, I came out with a missions team. And really, that’s when when I was really impressed with God’s direction on my life to come to Utah. And that’s when I knew at the end of that week, Nathaniel dropped us off at the airport and I shook his hand and said, I’ll see you in about a month. And just a little bit over a month later, I moved here from Utah. But when I moved here, this is the part that doesn’t make sense. The this makes the least sense. I think when I moved here and looking back at probably not the best idea, but I, I moved here. When I moved here, I had enough money for my first month’s rent in about $600, and that $600 was to drive from Ohio to Utah and last till I found a job, whenever that might be. Um, and it doesn’t doesn’t. It’s still in my head. It’s like, how did that work? Like, really? Um, but sometimes what God asks us to do doesn’t make sense.
I don’t want I don’t want to tell you the story. To think that I’m something awesome because I was dumb enough to drive across the country with $600 and hope I could live for an unknown period of time. Don’t follow that example necessarily, especially if you are a father and a husband. Please don’t put your family through that. But it I fought God the whole way here. If you’ve ever driven any resemblance of that trip and you’ve driven through Iowa and Nebraska and Wyoming, there’s a lot of time to talk to to God, because a lot of those places don’t even have cell phone service, which is amazing that in 2010, they’re still places in America that don’t have cell phone service, but they don’t have anything. And so no cell phone service. I’m the only one in the car. I’ll talk to God about this. And I fought him almost the whole way. Um, are you sure? Is this just a test for, like, you tested Abraham with offering Isaac. And I’m going to get to turn around and go back home sometime. Um, because that’s what I. That’s what I wanted. But because it didn’t make sense to me, I’m like, okay. Oh, and when I drove across the country to save money, I thought it would be a good idea to not go ahead and renew my license plates. So I drove all the way from Ohio to here with expired tags on my plates, because I didn’t want to spend the money on those so I could spend money on food.
Um. Again, it just doesn’t make sense. Not a logical thing to do. But like I said, I’m not telling you that. So you think that I’m something special? I’m telling you that because following God might not make sense, but in the long run, it’s worth it. Because I was willing to not make sense and move. Here I met a girl who is way out of my league. Um, and, um, convinced her that I was as good as she could do, and. And as a result, we got married. I have a daughter now, and, I mean, for what? Didn’t make sense. It’s still a lot of times we go through things as a as a family and as a couple and serving God. That don’t make sense. We’re not really sure why, but we know that it’s worth it because it’s what God wants us to do. And I’m telling the story to encourage you that if what God’s asking you to do doesn’t necessarily make sense. It’s okay because sometimes we can’t see what’s ahead. But God can. The omniscient, sovereign God of the universe has a plan, and sometimes his plan doesn’t make sense to our finite minds, but to his infinite mind, it makes perfect sense. Gideon was just a normal guy who was hiding from the Midianites like everybody else in Israel.
But Hebrews 11 names Gideon among the hall of faith. Gideon. Even he doubted God. When God first appears to him and calls him, he says, okay, well, how do I know this is really you? And so he comes out and he gives a puts a meal before God on this rock, and God, the angel of the Lord is speaking to him, touches the rock and it’s consumed with fire. Then later when God says, okay, I want you to lead the army out against the Midianites. Getting like, okay, well, just so I know this is you, I’m going to I’m going to put a test before you. And if this is the answer, then I know it’s yes. And if this happens, then I know it’s a no. And so God does it. And he says, okay, well that was too easy. So I’m going to do it again. But I want the opposite to happen. And then I know that will mean yes and no. And so God does it. So three times not only is getting hiding, but three times he questions whether this is real. But he obeyed. He knew the consequences of the sin of Israel was the persecution and the oppression that they were under. He turned from his idol. He answered the call of God even though it didn’t make sense. And even though God took his army down to nothing, he still followed and obeyed. And Gideon overtook the army of the Midianites.
And it says, uh, later on, as you read it says that the army got so tired from killing all of them that they needed a break because they were chasing and killing the Midianites for so long that they got tired. And we see that Gideon, because he did what didn’t make sense and was willing to serve. God used that to do great things. Gideon on his own couldn’t defeat that army with all 32,000 of his men. Or 10,000, and especially not 300, but because Gideon was willing to use what he had for the service of God. God took that and did great things. So I don’t I don’t know where you’re at. I don’t know where each of you are at individually. But God doesn’t care about what you think you have or what you think you can bring to the table. God wants your heart and a willing servant to use whatever you have. And if you’re willing to give that to him and serve him, he can do great things with whatever you have to offer, even if it’s just being a friend, even if it’s just being friendly to someone. God can use that to do great things. And when you see visitors come to church, if you welcome them and talk to them and greet them. Anybody can do that. Anybody can talk to somebody. God can use that to do great things? Well, I don’t talk to people. I’m kind of shy.
I like to keep to myself. Okay, well, you can do any number of other things. You know, church needs clean sometimes. Things need fixed around the church. There’s something that you can do somewhere with the gifts that you have if you give them to God. And one thing that I found in my in my life growing up with my dad as a pastor, seeing a lot of different ministry, one thing I’ve learned is that oftentimes. If you don’t have the gift to do it, that’s what God wants you to do the most, and he’s going to help you do that. Naturally. I don’t like to talk to adults. You guys intimidate me, right? That’s why I like to hang out with the youth group and teach them. Because we’re on the same wavelength, we’re on the same level. And I still like to play video games and fart noises still make me laugh. So I like to talk to them. But you guys are you guys are more mature and so you intimidate me and but I love God’s Word and I love studying it. And God uses uses that even though I would rather talk to the teenagers, he can use it. And I’m praying that every time I have the opportunity to share, I just pray that in whatever incoherent rambling that I have, that God would use it somewhere to help someone. And God is asking you to do the same thing, whether you like to do it or not. God’s asking you if you’re willing to serve him.