Sunday Sermon | Into Fear, Into Faith

When life doesn’t go the way we hoped, it’s easy to wonder if God has abandoned us. In Into Fear, Into Faith, Pastor Jason Smith walks through Judges 6 to show how God often grows our faith—not by removing our fears, but by walking with us straight through them.

Through the story of Gideon, we see a God who meets His people in hiding, patiently proves His presence, and calls them forward into courageous obedience. Rather than wiping away hardship, God strengthens faith as His people face fear with trust in Him. This message reminds us that faith is not formed in comfort, but in obedience when the outcome feels uncertain.

Key Takeaways:

• God often grows our faith by walking with us through trials, not removing them
• Fear begins where faith ends—but faith grows when obedience begins
• God is patient and kind when we ask, “Are You really with me?”
• True confidence comes from God’s presence, not our strength
• Faith that is tested becomes faith that is real, resilient, and lasting

Scripture: Judges 6–7

Sermon Link:
Listen to the full sermon from First Baptist Church Boerne: www.fbcboerne.org/sermons

If this message encouraged you, consider sharing it with someone who may be facing fear, uncertainty, or a difficult season.

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Transcript

Welcome, Setup, And Why Judges 6

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Well, good morning, church family, and happy new year. Turn with me in your Bibles to Judges chapter 6. Judges chapter 6. That is pretty early in your Bibles. So if you are a guest with us this morning, let me welcome you. My name is Jason Smith. I have the privilege of being the pastor here of First Baptist. So starting next week, I'm going to begin a new series on our mission, vision, and values as we go through the book of January. After that, I'm excited. We're going to walk through the book of Jonah as a church, and then we're going to start the Gospel of Mark. And that's going to take us through most of 26. Actually, probably through the rest of 26 in the Gospel of Mark. But that means that this morning, believe it or not, is an open week for a pastor. That means I get to preach about whatever I want. That doesn't happen very often for me. So I want to take you into a personal situation and scenario and why we're going where we are this morning. So a couple weeks ago, I had a conversation with someone personal to me. Let's call her Jenny. Okay. I believe. I know that He's big enough to just, man, solve this problem. But I doubt and I get fearful. And when He doesn't do it, I think in the back of my mind, God is not pleased with me. He knows that because I have doubt, He's not taking that trial away, and I'm just sitting in it. Pastor, can you help me? To which I replied, Jenny, maybe it's not the fact that you have this trial and God either whooshes it away or that he's displeased with you. Maybe God wants to show you himself by walking with you through the trial. That God actually shows himself strong and mighty in your life instead of magically wiping away all of your trials, that the true mark of a Christian is not that they don't go through trials just like everyone else, but rather that the Christian has God with him through the trial, through the fire. And I'd rather think you need to reposition your orientation such as to say, God, all right, yes, you are big enough to completely remove this. But if you want me to walk through this trial, God, will you give me the strength? Will you walk with me? Now, I don't think that she's alone in that. Amen? Do the rest of us have that exact sort of sentiment when trials come your way? You think of it like this obstacle that is ruining my plans. Let's get that out of the way so I can get back to my plans. Or you have the feeling, you know what? God's pretty disappointed in me right now. That's why this is there. Listen, I want to show us through Judges chapter six, one of my favorite passages in scripture. Uh, if you if you're the type of person that marks your Bible, I preached on Judges 6 about five years ago, okay? Uh, so you caught me there. All right, but this is a story of Gideon and Judges 6. So listen as I read. Uh, we're gonna start in Judges chapter 6, beginning in verse 1. Then the sons of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord gave them into the hands of the Midian seven years. The power of Midian prevailed against Israel, because of Midian, the sons of Israel made for themselves the dens which were in the mountains and the caves and the strongholds. Now skip down to verse 7, because all it says up to that point is that Midian would come in and steal all their food and their crops. Okay? I'll explain it. Now it came about when the sons of Israel cried to the Lord on account of Midian, that the Lord sent a prophet to the sons of Israel and said to them, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, It was I who brought you up from Egypt and brought you out from the house of slavery. I delivered you from the hands of the Egyptians, and from the hands of all your oppressors, and disposed them 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, whose land you live, but you have not obeyed me. Will you pray with me? Heavenly Father, as we open your word this morning, as we prepare our hearts to take the Lord's Supper, as we press into the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ, Father, we pray that you would teach us through your Spirit, God, that you would teach us faith. Faith walking with you, facing our fears and walking with you. God, I pray across this room. I know that your sons and daughters are dealing with lots of issues in life, many circumstances, and we are filled with fear, and we don't quite know how to deal with them. Father, I pray that you would give us a word from you this morning. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So as our scene opens, we quickly realize what a mess we are in. Verse 1 tells us that Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord. Now, in your mind, you might immediately think, oh, well, they were a bunch of murdering, thieving, sexually immoral, and on and on. But let me caution you against that. Okay? Because when you do that, you think, oh, I'm nothing like those guys. But in Judges, there's a cycle that happens, and it begins in chapter 3 of Judges. And in chapter 3, the text explains what he means when it says that Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord. So look, it's on the screen. Judges 3, 5 through 7. The sons of Israel lived among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivatites, and the Jebusites. And they took their daughters for themselves as wives, and gave their own daughters to their sons. This was to form alliances, and served their gods. The sons of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and forgot the Lord their God, and served the Baals and the Asherah. You see, Israel does not delight in the Lord. God is not worthy of their attention and affection, and instead they have turned aside to their flesh. Okay? They pursue power, alliances, greed, lust, all the gods of this world. And they have forgotten who God is and what he has done for him. They have forgotten his love, his compassion, his provision. Now that sounds a little more relatable, right? We've all been there. In fact, God told them as much through the prophet when they cried out to him. Listen to God's desire. God says, I want to bless you. Was it not I who brought you out of the house of slavery, verse eight? We're back in chapter six. Was it not I who rescued you from the hands of your oppressors and gave you this land, verse nine? But you have not obeyed me, verse 10. So verse 1 tells us, and the Lord gave Israel into the hand of Midian seven years. Now Midian didn't care about political control of Israel. All they wanted to do was come in and plunder all their crops and their livestock. They would wait till Israel did all the hard work of plowing up the land, growing, raising the livestock, and then a certain time of year, they would just whoosh in and steal everything. Verse 5 tells us that they would come in like a swarm of locusts, destroying everything. And Israel is starving, their land is ravished, their sheep and their goats are gone, and they are forced to live in the cliffs during certain times of the year for their safety. Seven long, brutal years. Now you know that there were plenty of uprisings. Just imagine you were a young, strong, fit man at that time. What would you do? Are you gonna let them just steal your crops? Of course not. But every time they rose up, they lost, they were defeated, and more and more men, young and old, were slain. And Israel got weaker and weaker. In fact, in 819, we are told that Gideon's brothers were killed in such a fight, simply trying to protect their home, not willing to hide anymore. And Gideon was there, and their death has been burned into his memory. And so verse 6 tells us that Israel was brought very low because of Midian. And then the sons of Israel cried out to the Lord. Now, as the curtain draws back in verse 11, it tells us of where our hero, Gideon, is, that he was beating out wheat in a wine press in order to save it from the Midianites. Verse 12 the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, The Lord is with you, O valiant warrior. Now, most of us don't catch the agricultural oddity that's mentioned in this text, because when was the last time that you were threshing wheat? Okay? You thresh wheat on a hilltop because you need wind in order to thresh the wheat. But Gideon is actually in a giant hole in the ground that was there so that you would stomp out grapes. Now you see the irony. Okay? Gideon is hiding. He's fearful, he's afraid, he's looking over his shoulder, waiting for the next attack. When the angel of the Lord appears to him, the Lord is with you, O valiant warrior. Isn't it amazing that God is not discouraged by the scene? Because God sees what Gideon will become. Verse 13, Gideon replies, If God is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his miracles, which our fathers told us about? Saying, Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt? But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian. I want you to see where Gideon's faith is, how he reads the situation. He is a piece of driftwood, if you will, amongst a sinful culture. Gideon has inherited the stories that were passed down of God moving in generations past. But Gideon's never seen God move himself. Gideon doesn't know God personally. Why has all this happened to us? Seven years of Midian's crushing rule. His own brothers killed. And his only conclusion is that God is not with us because bad things are happening. It's God who has forsaken us. That's it. God's character is on to He has forsaken us. Where are all His miracles? Do you see the false dichotomy that's there? It's either God waves his magic wand and makes all of these bad things go away, or God doesn't care at all. He doesn't care. He's forsaken us. Now, like I said at the beginning, I think it's important for you and I to camp out here because I think this is an area that every one of us deal with. Friend, when I read my Bible over and over and over again, I see that God teaches faith in the midst of the fire. When you are desperate for him, God swoops in and saves. He moves and he grows your faith. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, where did they meet God? In the fire. We love to remember how God spoke to Elisha and that still small voice. But we tend to forget, you know, Elijah was running for his life from King uh from Queen Jezebel. Or we love to remember, you know, how God parted the Red Sea for Moses and Israel. But how quickly we forget. You realize that Israel was pinned in by the most powerful army on planet earth right before that. You see, these aren't party tricks for God. He is teaching faith in the midst of trial. And just in case you think I'm cherry-picking Old Testament stories to prove that point, let's walk through five New Testament passages. Listen, they're going to be on the screen. I want you to, I'm going to read them to you. Allow them to wash over you. 1 Peter chapter 1, verse 6. In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials. There it is. You've got trials. Why? So that the proof of your faith, by the way, is more precious than gold, which is perishable, even though tested by fire, your faith may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Listen to me. Your faith is going to be presented at the resurrection. Your faith, when you stand before the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, your faith is going to be presented. Listen, your faith wasn't just that that saved you, it wasn't just that moment when you said, Yes, Jesus, I'll make you my Lord and Savior. Save me. That was just the beginning. Your faith will be presented on that final day. James 1, 2 through 4. Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. Your faith is like a muscle, it grows. When you work out, you get stronger, you become more mature. That is what your faith is like. Romans 5. And not only this, but we also exalt in our tribulations, knowing that tribulations bring about perseverance. And perseverance, proven character. And proven character, hope. And hope does not disappoint. Because the love of God has been poured out within our heart through the Holy Spirit who is given to us. The testing of your faith produces actual hope. You see that? Actual hope. And that hope is actually tied to you experiencing the love of Jesus Christ poured out through the Holy Spirit. Trials produce actual hope and actual experience of God's love. See it? Hebrews chapter 12. He starts, he's talking about when your parents discipline you. Says, all right, for your parents disciplined us for a short time as what was best to them. But he, that's God, disciplines us for our good, so that we may share his holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful. Yet to those who have been trained by it afterwards, it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. Every trial is for your good, and it is producing holiness and peaceful righteousness in you. Final one, Second Corinthians chapter four. Paul writes, Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day, for momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison. Now, this is written by the Apostle Paul, who was stoned, shipwreck, beaten. He says, Every trial that you go through, every suffering that you endure, whether it's you lose your job, you you're ostracized from your family, you're persecuted. Your health fades, even cancer. Every suffering you endure is light and momentary because it is producing an eternal weight of glory, which is back to the beginning, your faith on display at that final moment. Do you see what God is doing in you? That trials, everything, God is trying to grow and produce faith in you because that faith is what will be presented before Jesus on that final day. Believer, you must be settled with the fact that God aims to grow your faith. He aims to grow it by walking with you through trials, having you face your fears and deal with stuff. You hear what I just said? God wants you to deal with stuff. I know you've got stuff that you just kind of keep pushing off, not dealing with, just kind of lingers. You just keep pushing it back there. God wants you to deal with stuff. So here with Gideon, you think God just snaps his fingers and says, All right, Gideon, you cried out to me. The people cried, I'm just gonna make those Midianites just go away. No. Look at what he does in verse 14. He says to Gideon, Gideon, go in your strength and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian. Have I not sent you? Say, what? My family's nobody. I'm the youngest in my family. Right? He's got a whole list of excuses. God says, but I'm with you. Gideon says, All right, how do I know you are with me? So I want you to notice how patient God is to uh to allow us to ask this question. How do I know you are with me? That is what this entire text is about. How do I know you are with me? So Gideon says to God, stay here. Uh he says to the angel of the Lord, stay here, and I'm gonna go and prepare an offering. What's funny about this account is Gideon goes and he slaughters a goat, he bakes bread, and he comes back with a pot of soup. All right. So you can imagine the angel of the Lord sitting there. I mean, how long does it take you to do all that? Some good time. He stays there. Gideon comes back with this entire meal, this offering. Angel Lord tells him, set it on a rock right here. Take, take the goat out and just set it on a rock. And God causes fire to come out of the rock and consume the goat. Now, how's that for showing Gideon, right? I am with you. The Lord said to him, Peace be to you, do not fear, you shall not die. Then Gideon built an altar there to the Lord and named it the Lord is peace. Now, watch what happens next, because God just did something awesome for Gideon, right? If you, when you read this account, you stop there and you think, Well, God's never done something like that for me. I never had fire come out of a rock and consume a goat. Watch what happens next. God calls Gideon forward into obedience. That same night, God comes to Gideon and says, Tear down your father's altar, which by the way, we learn is the whole town's altar to Baal and Asherah. Tear down that altar and rebuild an altar for me in its place and sacrifice two of your father's bulls. Okay? Now that is a huge step, huge step of obedience. Gideon does it. He's afraid, the text tells us in verse 27, he's afraid, so he does it at night. Now, what you and I need to understand is fear begins where faith ends. You see, up until now, Gideon's faith has only been inherited stories and the fact that God just caused fire to come out of a rock. But God is now asking Gideon to put his faith into action, to step out into obedience. Right? He's got fear of man. This is a whole town's altar. Yes, I want you to tear it down. Gideon faces his fear and reclaims the space as a worship spot for God. Okay? God protects him, and Gideon's faith grows. Now, fast forward to verse 36. Because after this scene, it's now the time of year when the Midianites come again to plunder and to ravage the land. And scripture tells us that Gideon is filled with the Spirit of God and blows the trumpet that Gideon knows that God is going to use him to lead Israel out from underneath Midian. So he blows the trumpet, and all of Israel begins to gather. Now that night, Gideon is so stinking, afraid, he can't go to sleep. Put yourself in his shoes, right? He can't go to sleep. So he asked God for another sign. Verse 36, God, if you are going to save Israel through me, like you said, could you, could you, I'm gonna lay this fleece of wool on the threshing floor. And when I wake up in the morning, could you make all the ground around the fleece bone dry, just completely dry? But could the fleece be sopping wet? God, I'm afraid. I need to know you're here with me. So he goes to sleep that night, wakes up the next morning. You know the story. God does it. God does it. But Gideon, what does he do? He says, God, can I ask one more time? God, don't be angry with me. Right? You know how God does something, you're looking for God, and he does something, and you're like, wait a second, was that just a coincidence? Like, I don't know what happened. Like they would, was that just let's reverse it. But look at what he says. Do not let your anger burn against me. Please let me test you one more time. This time, can it be reversed? Can all the ground around the fleece be wet, wet, wet, but the fleece bone dry? And God does it. Now you may be reading your Bible, and if you're anything like me, you say, wait a second. In Deuteronomy chapter six, God specifically says through Moses, do not test God. Do not test God. And here, Gideon is testing God. So here's what I want you to notice. In the account of Deuteronomy, Israel had been walking through the wilderness. And as they were going through the wilderness, they were being tested by God. You see, they had seen miracle after miracle after miracle. Amazing things, right? Just imagine if you walk through the parting of the Red Sea. So now when Israel is in the wilderness, God wants to test them to say, Do you trust me? Even if things are hard, if you're in the middle of the do you trust me? You've seen my hand of provision, do you trust me? But Israel doesn't trust God. Instead, they demand that God produces water out of a rock. Okay? That's where it says they test it. But with Gideon, Gideon has been obedient the whole way along. He's been obedient. He steps out in faith, but Gideon is scared. Gideon's faith is being stretched. And the question with Gideon is, God, are you with me? Do you hear me? God, are you with me? And to that question, God bends over backwards. That's the purpose of the entire account. That God is with you. God has extreme patience and kindness towards that question. As he's growing your faith, if you ask the question, God, are you with me? You can see what God does. So on my spot, my apologies. So now catch the scene. We're good. So after after God does the fleece back and forth with Gideon, watch what he does next. He calls him into a further step of obedience. So the armies are set, the Midianites have come, they are set for battle, and Israel is on their side. If you comb through the text, you find out that the Midianites and the Amorites, they have a hundred and thirty-five thousand swordsmen. And when Gideon has blown the trumpet and Israel has gathered, they have 32,000. Now, those aren't great odds, those are four to one. All right? Now, you can imagine how this goes. You're sitting around that night and you're looking at yourself, you're like, I got my four, I got my four, but I don't know about Henry there. He's kind of just here to bring out the snacks at halftime. I don't think he's got four. Okay? And then God says, No, no, no, no, time out, Gideon. Those numbers are too good. Okay? Those numbers are too good because you are prideful and you will think you have won the battle because you are a great fighter. Okay? Like you guys got skills or something. So here's what I want you to do: ask everyone if they are afraid, and if they say yes, tell them to go home. So he does. And 22,000 people leave. They didn't like those four to one odds. Okay? So now it's 135,000 to 10,000. Okay? That's 13 to 1 odds. And God says, still way too close. You guys are arrogant. You're so prideful. You will think you did this in your own strength. Here's what I want you to do. Gideon, go down to the water, let everyone get a drink. Don't tell them what you're doing. Watch as people get a drink. As they scoop down, they cup the water, they drink it, put them onto one side. If you see anybody, and I mean anybody, scoop down, get that uh water in their hand, and then begin to lap it like a dog, put them to the other side. Okay? There's 300 absolute lunatics in the group. Any of you, would you lap water like a dog? Wouldn't you just drink it? I mean, you can confess right now. We'll we'll lay hands on you. Like, why on earth would you let but there's 300 lunatics? You know what God says? I'm gonna take the 300. 300 now versus 135,000. And God says, now that I've got these crazies, all right, now you will know that it is me that is moving and no one else. So listen, remember where we started all the way back in 13. Remember, Gideon asking, if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are his miracles? So often our definition of if God is with us is in our prosperity, and if we are free from harm, safety, security, no risk. Keep evil as far from me as possible. Then I will know God is with me. But in this text, when God starts moving and revealing himself, he calls Gideon into fear, into faith, because that's where his faith is going to grow. Tear down the altar that everyone's worshiping at. You, the youngest, the least of all, lead them into battle. Give me the 300, that's who I'm going against 135,000 with. Believer, why would it be any different for you? Why would it be any different for you? God is calling you into faith to face your fears. Not to magically wipe them away, quit running, quit hiding, quit distracting yourself. They're not gonna disappear. God wants to show you his power as you walk through them. You say, but I can't, they're too big. I know, that's the whole point. That's the whole point. You can't, but God can. God is with you. Listen to me, I'm not blowing smoke. One of the greatest privileges of my life as being a pastor is walking with so many of you through absolute horrible situations, deep hurt, abuse, situations that are so problematic. All we can do is cry out to the Lord and see God move and power and strength to save, to save marriages, to save the prodigal, to move as only God can. Greatest privilege of my life is to see God move in those instances. And he promises to reveal himself to you, but you have to face your fears. So catch how this story uh ends. In fact, God's not done. Because in chapter 7, verse 9, God comes to Gideon and says, All right, it's time for the battle. It's the night of the battle. But Gideon, if you're still scared, here's what I want you to do. You can go down and you can listen, sneak up and listen to the camp of the Midianites and hear what they're saying. So Gideon does. He takes one other guy, they go down, they listen, and God had been giving the Midianites dreams about them getting destroyed. And the guys say, Yeah, Gideon, I've heard this, Gideon is gonna come destroy us. And Gideon can't believe it. He's like, This is incredible, this is amazing. So Gideon runs back to camp. He's like, All right, you baddie 300, it's time to go. Here's what we're doing: we're taking torches, we're taking a trumpet, and everyone grab a pot. Sounds like a good plan, right? And he says, Come with me and do whatever I do. So they in the middle of the night, they encamp around Midian. They have 300 with their torches, and they shout, This is a sword for God. Think about that as you're holding a trumpet. This is a sword for God. And they blow the trumpet as loud as they can and they break their pots. And God wakes Midianites up with mass confusion. They stand up and they slay one another. And then they run away. Says like 120 die that night. And then, like every good Bible story, Gideon chases every one of them down and kills every last one of them. Okay, that's the way every good Bible story ends. And Gideon saw for himself the miracles of the Lord. And he knew that God was with him. From hiding in a wine press to chasing the enemy. Oh valiant warrior. So, believer, as we step into twenty twenty-six, God is calling us to step into faith. Amen. What faith obstacle is in front of you that you have just been begging God to remove? And hear me, He can. And he might. But maybe you have been making excuses and not facing your fears and hoping that he will just whisk everything away. This sermon is for you. Because right now you realize that you need to say to the Lord, Alright, God, I will walk through the valley, I will face this if you will. Walk with me. As we turn to the Lord's Supper, I want you to open the bread. Take the bread out. Hold it. We will take this together. As a Christian, it is your understanding. Your only hope of acceptance before God Almighty is in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. It is because he was broken for you. It is because he died in your place that God accepts you and that God calls you his own. We confess our sins to keep short accounts. But God has already accepted you. You are already in the family. Hear me again. Your full acceptance is because God is satisfied in the finished work of the Son. I want you to meditate upon that for just a moment. We will take this together. This is my body. Now I want you to prepare the cup. With the cup, friend, I always want you to remember the victory that Jesus gives us. Again, it's not because you are worthy. It's because of what Jesus has done on your behalf. This entire account with Gideon has been about can I really trust that God is with me, even though things are difficult? So as you meditate upon this, I want you to see the new covenant of Jesus' blood. And I want you with confidence and faith to say in your heart, God is with me. For this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. Will you pray with me? King Jesus, we praise you. We praise you that though we are sinful, you have pursued us and you have accepted us in your finished work. That we can come to you in faith. Father, you've taught us this morning how much you greatly desire to grow our faith. And we do recognize that that means like a muscle, it needs to be tested and grow. Father, help us to see the eternal value of our faith. And that at the end of our lives, the thing that we present to you, King Jesus, on that final faithful day is our faith. Help us to see the value in that. Help us to trust you and to say to you, I will walk through the valley. I will walk through whatever circumstances you desire if you want me to. But God, I've got to know that you are with me. I confess to you my fear. I confess to you, I'm at the edge of my faith. God, I've got to know you are with me. In Jesus' name we pray.