SPEAKER_00: And then we had the question of, am I too much?
SPEAKER_00: As Gideon had to test God looking for assurance.
SPEAKER_00: And what we found is that our weak faith is not too much for God.
SPEAKER_00: Our weak faith is not too much for God.
SPEAKER_00: He loves to bring strength out of weak faith.
SPEAKER_00: And then week three was Am I enough?
SPEAKER_00: Do I have enough?
SPEAKER_00: It was a question of resources.
SPEAKER_00: And the answer is no, actually.
SPEAKER_00: God doesn't want you to be enough on your own.
SPEAKER_00: He wants to refine your self-reliant faith, refine it down into a wonderfully dependent faith.
SPEAKER_00: And so remember, Gideon, the story of the 300, that God would grow you just enough into the image of Christ to where your faith would be dependent and satisfied with God.
SPEAKER_00: And so not 301, not 299, that God would give you enough to be reliant on him.
SPEAKER_00: And so this morning, as we come to the end of the Gideon story, we have our fourth question of insecurity.
SPEAKER_00: And let's see if you can spot it as we go along.
SPEAKER_00: And so Judges chapter 8, we're going to be reading the entire chapter on page 245.
SPEAKER_00: So Judges 8, starting in verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: Then the men of Ephraim said to him, What is this that you have done to us?
SPEAKER_00: Not to call us when you were went to fight against Midian?
SPEAKER_00: And they accused him fiercely.
SPEAKER_00: And he said to them, What have I done now in comparison with you?
SPEAKER_00: Is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the grape harvest of Abezer?
SPEAKER_00: God has given into your hands the princes of Midian, Orib, and Zeb.
SPEAKER_00: What have I been able to do in comparison with you?
SPEAKER_00: Then their anger against him subdued when he said this.
SPEAKER_00: And Gideon came to the Jordan and crossed over, he and the three hundred men who were with him, exhausted, yet pursuing.
SPEAKER_00: So he said to the men of Succath, please give loaves of bread to the people who follow me, for they are exhausted, and I am pursuing after Ziba and Zalmuna, the kings of Midian.
SPEAKER_00: And the officials of Zuckas said, Are the hands of Ziba and Zalmuna already in your hand that we should give bread to your army?
SPEAKER_00: And so Gideon said, Well then, when the Lord has given Zeba and Zalmuna into my hand, I will flail your flesh with the thorns of the wilderness and with briars.
SPEAKER_00: From there he went up to Penuel and spoke to them in the same way.
SPEAKER_00: And the men of Penuel answered him as the men of Sucath had answered, and he said to the men of Penuel, When I come again in peace, I will break down this tower.
SPEAKER_00: Now Zeba and Zemuna were in Kalkarkor with their army, about fifteen thousand men, all who were left of the army of the people of the east, for there had fallen a hundred and twenty thousand men who drew the sword.
SPEAKER_00: And Gideon went up by the way of the tent dwellers east of Nobah and Jogbaha, and attacked the army, for the army felt secure.
SPEAKER_00: And Ziba and Zamuna fled, and he pursued them, and he captured the two kings of Midian, Ziba and Zamuna, and he threw all the army into panic.
SPEAKER_00: Then Gideon, the son of Joash, returned from the battle by the ascent of Herez, and he captured a young man of Succath, and he ate questioned him, and he wrote down for him the officials and the elders of Succath seventy-seven men.
SPEAKER_00: And he came to the men of Succath and said, Behold, Zeba and Zalmuna, about whom you taunted me, saying, Are the hands of Ziba and Zalmuna already in your hand that we should give bread to your men who are exhausted?
SPEAKER_00: And he took the elders of the city, and he took thorns of the wilderness and briars, and with them he taught the men of Succath a lesson.
SPEAKER_00: And he broke down the tower of Penuel and killed the men of the city.
SPEAKER_00: Then he said to Ziba and Zamuna, Where are the men whom you killed at Tabar?
SPEAKER_00: They answered, As you are, so were they.
SPEAKER_00: Every one of them resembled the son of a king.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, They were my brothers, the sons of my mother.
SPEAKER_00: As the Lord lives, if you had saved them alive, I would not kill you.
SPEAKER_00: So he said to Jethur his firstborn, Rise and kill them.
SPEAKER_00: But the young man did not draw his sword, for he was afraid, because he was still a young man.
SPEAKER_00: Then Ziba and Zamuna said, Rise yourself and fall upon us, for as the man is, so is his strength.
SPEAKER_00: And Gideon arose and he killed Ziba and Zamuna, and he took the crescent ornaments that were on the necks of their camels.
SPEAKER_00: Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, Rule over us, you and your son and your grandson also, for you have saved us from the hand of Midian.
SPEAKER_00: Gideon said to them, I will not rule over you, and my son will not rule over you, the Lord will rule over you.
SPEAKER_00: And Gideon said to them, Let me make a request of you.
SPEAKER_00: Every one of you give me the earrings from his spoil, for they had golden earrings because they were Ishmaelites.
SPEAKER_00: And he answered, We willingly give them.
SPEAKER_00: And they spread a cloak, and every man threw it in the threw in the earnings of his spoil, and the weight of the golden earrings that he requested was seventeen hundred shekels of gold, beside the crescent ornaments and the pendants, and the purple garments worn by the kings of Midian, and besides the collars that were round the necks of their camels.
SPEAKER_00: And Gideon made an eff out of it, and put it in his city in Orpha, and all Israel hoored after it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and to his family.
SPEAKER_00: So Midian was subdued before the people of Israel, and they raised their heads no more, and the land had rest for forty years in the days of Gideon.
SPEAKER_00: Jerobal, the son of Joash, went and lived in his own house.
SPEAKER_00: Now Gideon had seventy sons, his own offspring, for he had many wives, and his concubine who was in Shechem also bore him a son, and he called his name Abimelech.
SPEAKER_00: And Gideon, the son of Joash, died in a good old age, and was buried in the tomb of Joash his father at Orprah of the Abazarites.
SPEAKER_00: As soon as Gideon died, the people of Israel turned again and hoard after the Baals and the and made Baal Bareth their God.
SPEAKER_00: And the people of Israel did not remember the Lord their God, who had delivered them from the hand of all their enemies on every side.
SPEAKER_00: And they did not show steadfast love to the family of Jerobal, that is Gideon, in return for all the good that he had done to Israel.
SPEAKER_00: This is the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray as we give our attention to God's word.
SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, we pray that you would help us as we give closer attention to this disappointing end to the story, that you would help us not be left in our disappointment, but instead lift our eyes to find the better answers you would give us.
SPEAKER_00: We ask this in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: So tonight we have our fourth and final question.
SPEAKER_00: Who will be the hero?
SPEAKER_00: It's really the core question of idolatry.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, idolatry is uh the temptation to center our lives around anything and anyone else beyond God?
SPEAKER_00: It's the question of who will be the center of your life, who will call the shots?
SPEAKER_00: Who will be your hero?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you remember that classic 80s song from Bonnie Tyler.
SPEAKER_00: Holding out for a hero.
SPEAKER_00: Where have all the good men gone?
SPEAKER_00: And where are all the gods?
SPEAKER_00: Where's the streetwise Hercules to fight the rising odds?
SPEAKER_00: Isn't there a white knight upon a fiery steed?
SPEAKER_00: Late at night I toss and turn and I dream of what I need.
SPEAKER_00: I need a hero.
SPEAKER_00: I'm holding out for a hero till the end of the night.
SPEAKER_00: He's gotta be strong and he's gotta be fast and he's gotta be fresh for the fight.
SPEAKER_00: I need a hero.
SPEAKER_00: I'm holding out for a hero till the morning light.
SPEAKER_00: He's gotta be sure and he's gotta be soon.
SPEAKER_00: He's gotta be larger than life.
SPEAKER_00: Who will be our hero, larger than life in our life?
SPEAKER_00: You know, in many ways, I think the time of looking for a knight in shining armor, it might seem old-fashioned now.
SPEAKER_00: But the desire to find someone or maybe be someone who is large enough in resources or influence or strength is there.
SPEAKER_00: We want to be confident and safe.
SPEAKER_00: We want to know that it's gonna be okay.
SPEAKER_00: And so our aim this morning is to be reminded of the goodness of God in being our King.
SPEAKER_00: That even as we see the disappointing end to Gideon's story, we're meant to be invited to entrust ourselves to the one person whom God has set apart, who is indeed the good and capable hero.
SPEAKER_00: And so as we go along, we're gonna be answering the question mostly in the negative.
SPEAKER_00: Who is the hero?
SPEAKER_00: It's not you, it's not Gideon, it's only God and his promised king.
SPEAKER_00: And so, who is the hero?
SPEAKER_00: Well, first, it's not you.
SPEAKER_00: Actually, the greatest threat and idol in your life, the one thing that will most easily take over and kick God from the center of your life, is the one thing we haven't talked about yet in our mini-series.
SPEAKER_00: And as Taylor Swift says, it's me, hi, I'm the problem, it's me.
SPEAKER_00: Not me, but you.
SPEAKER_00: You yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the bad news that you actually make a horrible king of your life.
SPEAKER_00: You, as the center, is actually one of the most dehumanizing things you can do.
SPEAKER_00: It's surprising that you at the center of your life is the most dehumanizing thing you can do.
SPEAKER_00: And so, if an idol is anything that takes over as a center force in your life, in that way it will define your hopes and your fears.
SPEAKER_00: It will make everyone and everything negotiate their meaning and their position in relation to the idol.
SPEAKER_00: And so, how does that work when the idol is you?
SPEAKER_00: Well, the most influential person in your life is yourself.
SPEAKER_00: You're always with yourself, you're always listening to yourself.
SPEAKER_00: You will always be tempted to give yourself whatever you want.
SPEAKER_00: And what are your worst fears?
SPEAKER_00: Yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Your failures, your limitations, your secrets.
SPEAKER_00: And what are the problems when these fears, if they rule your life, they're always with you?
SPEAKER_00: What about your dreams?
SPEAKER_00: Your daydreams or your nightmares, both with you at the center?
SPEAKER_00: What community do you have when you are the center of anything, minimal and less, because no one will relate to you just the way you want.
SPEAKER_00: Because most likely they are all wanting to be the center of their world as well.
SPEAKER_00: You see, why can't self be king?
SPEAKER_00: Because of these two central desires in the human heart, may define their fulfillment in God and never filled apart from him.
SPEAKER_00: Significance and safety.
SPEAKER_00: With you as the hero, you will always serve significance and safety, and those two can't thrive together.
SPEAKER_00: And so to be significant, you will have to risk.
SPEAKER_00: But to be safe, you will have to minimize risk.
SPEAKER_00: And so what will happen?
SPEAKER_00: You will be torn, almost at war, even with yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Remember that quote from Tim Keller.
SPEAKER_00: He says that to be loved but not known is comforting but superficial.
SPEAKER_00: Not significant.
SPEAKER_00: To be loved but not known is comforting but superficial.
SPEAKER_00: It's not significant.
SPEAKER_00: And yet to be known and not loved is our greatest fear.
SPEAKER_00: Not safe.
SPEAKER_00: So let me show you why I'm pulling these points out of this story in particular.
SPEAKER_00: If you look back down in chapter 8, it begins with Gideon and his 300 men moving on from their great victory against the 130,000 Midianites.
SPEAKER_00: And you would expect them to be welcomed home as heroes.
SPEAKER_00: But look what happens.
SPEAKER_00: They are faced with threats of safety and significance.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: Then the men of Ephraim said to him, What is this you have done not to call us when you went to fight against Midian?
SPEAKER_00: And they accused him fiercely.
SPEAKER_00: Now to understand what's going on here, we need to know a little bit about the Ephraimites.
SPEAKER_00: They were one of the top tribes of sorts.
SPEAKER_00: And so remember, there were twelve tribes of Israel officially, but as the tribe of Levi got set apart to be the priests, they wouldn't have land.
SPEAKER_00: And so to kind of make up for that, Joseph had two sons who were especially dear to him.
SPEAKER_00: And so Joseph's two sons kind of became in part a replacement, one of them replacing Joseph and one of them replacing Levi.
SPEAKER_00: And Ephraim was the greatest.
SPEAKER_00: And so when Jacob, the grandfather, the patriarch of the family, when he goes to bless Joseph's sons, he slips the order.
SPEAKER_00: Ephraim the youngest is blessed as the greatest.
SPEAKER_00: Common theme in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: And so as history went on, Ephraim became a powerful and dominant tribe.
SPEAKER_00: And so the story of Joshua, for instance, Joshua the great leader who conquered the land, he was an Ephraimite.
SPEAKER_00: And so the Ephraimites, they were somebody's.
SPEAKER_00: And you see what's happening here.
SPEAKER_00: They aren't celebrating the victory of God because why?
SPEAKER_00: Because they feel that their significance has been threatened.
SPEAKER_00: Right away from this great victory, Gideon runs into the danger of significance.
SPEAKER_00: And he pacifies them with some kind of ancient words of flattery.
SPEAKER_00: And so we don't need to get too much in the details, but basically, you guys have done so much better than I've done.
SPEAKER_00: And it works.
SPEAKER_00: But then he moves straight on into the next conflict.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 4, Gideon and his men, they're pursuing the last remnant of the Midianite army.
SPEAKER_00: And their exhaustion, in their exhaustion, they come upon kind of two towns that are on the eastern border of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: And so right on the border of Israel and the east, the border of Israel and Midian.
SPEAKER_00: And in verses 6 and 8, if you look down, these two towns, they turned Gideon away.
SPEAKER_00: And what we're meant to see is that it is basically out of fear.
SPEAKER_00: And so as towns along the border, on the east of the Jordan River, they were at the towns perhaps most at risk of a Midianite resurgence.
SPEAKER_00: And remember that they have seen this story year after year after year.
SPEAKER_00: Every fall, the people of the East would flow into the land, and they were the stomping grounds.
SPEAKER_00: And so even though they might want to support Gideon, they need to see it fully done first.
SPEAKER_00: They've seen every story fall so far.
SPEAKER_00: And they can't let their guard down, even just for Gideon.
SPEAKER_00: And so it's this interesting reality that they are actually still oppressed.
SPEAKER_00: Even though Midian has been defeated, they are still oppressed.
SPEAKER_00: They're still holed up in their fortress.
SPEAKER_00: You can think of it just as in chapter six, when the ripples of God's salvation flow in as their army gathers around Gideon.
SPEAKER_00: So now, after the battle, the ripples of victory are supposed to go out.
SPEAKER_00: And these towns, they seem just a bit too far away.
SPEAKER_00: They have no capacity to enjoy the enfolding victory of God because they're too concerned about playing it safe.
SPEAKER_00: You know, when we read the Bible, I think most of the times we find it most accessible to relate to the main characters in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe even the heroes that we might dare to be ourselves, with God's help, of course.
SPEAKER_00: And we have been learning and relating from Gideon, but actually, often in the Bible, the characters we should relate to most is the everyday people, those people who Gideon represents.
SPEAKER_00: And what we're meant to see in the everyday people is that you notice they continue to struggle with the idolatry of self.
SPEAKER_00: That to be significant, the Ephraimites would risk it all, even standing against God's hero.
SPEAKER_00: And to be safe, the people of Penula and Succath would build fortresses, perhaps not even to let God in.
SPEAKER_00: This is what happens when self is the idol.
SPEAKER_00: You know, Madonna, a great pop star of decades-long influence and success.
SPEAKER_00: When she was first getting started, she gave this interview in Vogue in 1990, before some of you were born.
SPEAKER_00: And in Vogue in 1990, she says this.
SPEAKER_00: She says, I have an iron will, and all of my will has always been to conquer some horrible feeling of inadequacy.
SPEAKER_00: I'm always struggling with that fear.
SPEAKER_00: I push past one spell of it and discover myself as a special human being, and then I get to another stage and I think I'm mediocre and uninteresting, and I find a way to get myself out of that again and again.
SPEAKER_00: My drive in life is this horrible fear of being mediocre.
SPEAKER_00: That's always been pushing me, pushing me.
SPEAKER_00: Even though I become somebody, I still have to prove that I am somebody.
SPEAKER_00: My struggle has never ended and it probably never will.
SPEAKER_00: You notice the duel fields, insecurity and fear, significance and safety.
SPEAKER_00: And yet, 30 years later, here in an interview with The Guardian this time in 2019, the interviewer, they're kind of doing a reflection of her entire career, and they ask her about a moment in 1984 when she was first starting.
SPEAKER_00: So her first tour as a debut musician.
SPEAKER_00: She's interviewing with Dick Clark, and she says that her ambition is to rule the world.
SPEAKER_00: And so they ask about her 35 years later.
SPEAKER_00: He says, 35 years on, Madonna laughs when I mention it.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, she nods.
SPEAKER_00: Sorry for saying that.
SPEAKER_00: The thing is, she says she wasn't confident at all back then.
SPEAKER_00: It was all affront.
SPEAKER_00: I may have been insecure, I may have felt like a nobody, but I knew I had to do something.
SPEAKER_00: If I was going to make something of my life, I had to know, you know, hurl myself into the dark space to go down the road less traveled.
SPEAKER_00: Otherwise, why live?
SPEAKER_00: And as the interview goes on, they come back and they ask her whether, after all their success, whether she still has this same ambition.
SPEAKER_00: And she says, When I said I wanted to rule the world, I didn't say I want to be the most famous person in the world.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't say I want to be the richest person in the world.
SPEAKER_00: I said I wanted to rule the world.
SPEAKER_00: She thinks for a moment.
SPEAKER_00: What did I mean then in my very young mind?
SPEAKER_00: I think it just meant that I want to make a mark on the world.
SPEAKER_00: I want to be somebody.
SPEAKER_00: Because I grew up feeling like a nobody and I wanted to make a difference.
SPEAKER_00: I think that's what I meant.
SPEAKER_00: And the interview says that with a handshake, she's off, or rather, I'm off, politely ushered from the room while Madonna sits on the sofa.
SPEAKER_00: 35 years later, still trying to strike the right balance between insecurity and fear and significance and safety.
SPEAKER_00: Talk to others, they'll tell you the same story.
SPEAKER_00: There's interviews with Tom Brady or Aaron Rogers, great athletes who have achieved the top.
SPEAKER_00: Stories of people with finance and careers who have done amazing things.
SPEAKER_00: It's almost always the same story that when identity roots on self, you are stuck between the battle, the war, between insecurity and fear, or significance and safety.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the point at the beginning.
SPEAKER_00: You make a horrible hero of your life.
SPEAKER_00: You at the center is a life that is never centered.
SPEAKER_00: And yet, as this story goes on, someone like Gideon isn't enough either.
SPEAKER_00: And so who is the hero?
SPEAKER_00: It's not you, and it's not Gideon.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I hope we've grown to have some affection for Gideon, maybe some empathy or understanding.
SPEAKER_00: And yet, despite all that we've seen Gideon achieve and grow, he does come to a tough end.
SPEAKER_00: You know, it really is hard to end well.
SPEAKER_00: And so let's remember that the Bible says those godly older Christians among us are worthy of honor.
SPEAKER_00: It is hard to end life well.
SPEAKER_00: And so let's look in the middle of a passage.
SPEAKER_00: It's hard to gauge exactly what's going on with Gideon.
SPEAKER_00: It's hard to evaluate exactly what we're meant to take away.
SPEAKER_00: And so starting in verse 10, Gideon and his men, they mop up the victory, and so they they defeat the final remnant of the army of the Midianites, and then in verse 13, on his way back, he returns to these two towns to kind of mop up those issues as well.
SPEAKER_00: And at first, you know, verse 16 is a little bit humorous as Gideon, he gets the list of the 77 elders, and he gets the briars, and he does what he said he would do.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna come back, I'm gonna put you over my knee, and I'm gonna teach you a lesson.
SPEAKER_00: But then in verse 17, things get much more serious.
SPEAKER_00: You see, Gideon, he tears down the defenses of Penuel and he kills the men of the city.
SPEAKER_00: His own countrymen.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe he's just making hard decisions of leadership.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe he's just bearing the weight of the sword of justice.
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's like that tension from that uh great movie, A Few Good Men.
SPEAKER_00: You can't handle the truth.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe we can't handle the truth of the hard things that have to be done in war.
SPEAKER_00: But as the story develops, it definitely leaves us with a bitter taste in our mouth.
SPEAKER_00: Because look what happens next.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 22, look down.
SPEAKER_00: There's this groundswell of popular movement to make Gideon the king.
SPEAKER_00: And this is a repeated theme of the Old Testament about whether and when Israel would have a king and if it would be the king God provides versus the king the people would demand.
SPEAKER_00: And so this story gets repeated when Saul comes on the scene.
SPEAKER_00: And so Gideon's response in verse 23 is actually really good.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 23.
SPEAKER_00: Gideon said to them, I will not rule over you, and my son will not rule over you.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because the Lord will rule over you.
SPEAKER_00: You see, he gets it.
SPEAKER_00: And in that moment of intense pressure, he comes through.
SPEAKER_00: But then as time goes on, life finds a way.
SPEAKER_00: And in this case, it's the life of selfishness.
SPEAKER_00: So look down verse 24 through 27.
SPEAKER_00: He says he won't be king, but he certainly starts acting like a king.
SPEAKER_00: And so he takes tribute.
SPEAKER_00: And he does it so that he can make an ephod.
SPEAKER_00: And so that's basically the garment of the high priest.
SPEAKER_00: And so it was an expression, a sign of divine access.
SPEAKER_00: And so I am the one who can go in to have access with God, and I am the one who can bring God's.
SPEAKER_00: Word out to you.
SPEAKER_00: And sure enough, Gideon claiming to have a false word and a false position from God, what happens?
SPEAKER_00: He causes false worship from God's people.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 27, Gideon made an ephod and he put it in his city in Orprah, and all of Israel whored after it.
SPEAKER_00: And it became a snare to Gideon and to his family.
SPEAKER_00: It's just a reminder that you need a hero who will speak God's word to you and nothing more and nothing less.
SPEAKER_00: It's one of the evaluations of a church or a ministry or a pastor is you need those who would speak God's word to you.
SPEAKER_00: Clearly, not more, not less.
SPEAKER_00: And as we get to the closing words of Gideon's life and story, we're closing the door of Gideon's heroics.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 28.
SPEAKER_00: Rest for the land.
SPEAKER_00: It's the word shalom.
SPEAKER_00: That at least for a time the land was right.
SPEAKER_00: It's interesting that this is the last time in the book of Judges that there is rest for the land.
SPEAKER_00: This is it.
SPEAKER_00: The best shot.
SPEAKER_00: And this is how it goes.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 30, Gideon, he's collecting wives.
SPEAKER_00: Another thing the king does.
SPEAKER_00: And then the final nail is there in verse 31.
SPEAKER_00: Why are we told of only one of his sons?
SPEAKER_00: Well, look, verse 31, he named his son Abimelech, which means my father is king.
SPEAKER_00: You know, Gideon, he ultimately falls to the same idol that seems to get all of us, self.
SPEAKER_00: It's me.
SPEAKER_00: Hi, I'm the problem, it's me.
SPEAKER_00: And you see that his story, it ends the same way, all the stories of the judges end.
SPEAKER_00: And so judges is a story of an S cycle, a downward spiral of everyone does what is right in their own eyes, and there was no king.
SPEAKER_00: Israel turned away.
SPEAKER_00: They did not remember the Lord, and Israel was not steadfast in love.
SPEAKER_00: And so what do you do?
SPEAKER_00: What do you do when you read a story like this?
SPEAKER_00: This is often the case in the Old Testament that the good is just not quite good enough, and the bad is so repeatable, so predictable.
SPEAKER_00: What are we to take away?
SPEAKER_00: And so one point as we close.
SPEAKER_00: Who is the hero?
SPEAKER_00: Well, only God and his promised king.
SPEAKER_00: And in a way, this is kind of the expected result of any sermon.
SPEAKER_00: Hopefully, you know, you end up with God and you end up with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: But I hope you'll begin to appreciate the dynamic reality of what God has planned to do in the Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That he is the only one who could center the world around himself and have a world centered on goodness, love, glory, and sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: A world centered around you will never be centered, but a world centered around God will be centered around godliness, goodness and love and glory and sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: He is the only person who could be the center and not be selfish.
SPEAKER_00: How do you know?
SPEAKER_00: Because he sent his son.
SPEAKER_00: So let me just show you some of the ways that we see the story of Gideon fulfilled in the life of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You know, God sent his son not to hide from the suffering of his people like Gideon down in the wine press.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus came to enter in.
SPEAKER_00: God did not require a sacrifice from his son to be acceptable to God, but he gave a sacrifice so that we could be accepted.
SPEAKER_00: God's son did not test him to gain his assurance, and yet God tested his son in the wilderness so that we could gain assurance, that he was like us and yet without sin.
SPEAKER_00: God's son also went into battle against overwhelming odds.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't three hundred against thousands, but it was one against the devil and the rulers and the principalities of this world.
SPEAKER_00: And having won that victory, God did not take vengeance on his enemies.
SPEAKER_00: But they says that while we were still sinners, he sent his son to die for them.
SPEAKER_00: You know, God's son, it didn't he did not need to fake it as a prophet or a priest or a king.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says he's a prophet who would teach his people to worship in spirit and in truth.
SPEAKER_00: He was a priest who would enter into the temple of God to take the final word.
SPEAKER_00: He was a king who was openly and publicly acknowledged before his father at his ascension and given the name above every name.
SPEAKER_00: His king did not collect wives like trophies, but he took one as his bride, the church.
SPEAKER_00: He is a king who did not demand tribute from his people, but he poured down his gifts of intimacy upon them and his steadfast love.
SPEAKER_00: And when God had a son, he gave him a better name.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, he will save his people from their sin.
SPEAKER_00: And as we read in our New Testament reading, when God had a son, he gave rest for his people.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, Anyone who would come to me, I will give you rest.
SPEAKER_00: And so who is enough?
SPEAKER_00: Who is good enough to be the hero at the center of your life?
SPEAKER_00: I hope the story of Gideon drives us to the only answer.
SPEAKER_00: If you put your trust, if you center yourself around God and his chosen king, let me remind you of the heroic life that God will have for you.
SPEAKER_00: This is the passage from Hebrews 11, what God says about Gideon's life despite this end.
SPEAKER_00: Hebrews 11, starting in verse 32, he says, What more shall I say?
SPEAKER_00: I don't have time to tell about Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, gained what was promised, who shut the mouths of lions, they quenched the fury of the flames, escaped the edge of the sword, whose weakness was turned to strength, and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign enemies.
SPEAKER_00: Women received back their dead, raised to life again.
SPEAKER_00: There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released, so they might gain an even better resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment.
SPEAKER_00: They were put to death by stoning, they were sawed in two, they were killed by the sword, they went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted, and mistreated, and the world was not worthy of them.
SPEAKER_00: They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground.
SPEAKER_00: These were all commended for their faith.
SPEAKER_00: Yet none of them received what had been promised, since God had planned something better for us, so that only together with us would they be made perfect.
SPEAKER_00: You know, when God looks back at Gideon through his son Jesus, even though his life ended with a battle with the greatest idol of all, self, in his grace through the Lord Jesus, God said, commended.
SPEAKER_00: And what God said about Gideon, he also said about all these other unnamed heroes of faith from Hebrews 11.
SPEAKER_00: And amazingly, amazingly, you are not the hero of your life.
SPEAKER_00: And yet, this is what God would say about you well as well.
SPEAKER_00: If in your faith, if you join together with all those who have waited together until all is made perfect, he would say, This world would not be worthy.
SPEAKER_00: And so he would make a world that would be even better.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray that we can walk forward in the life of faith, centering around our hero, the Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, we thank you for your great creativity, not only in the stories you have told us, but even in the way that you have providentially brought history together.
SPEAKER_00: That we can learn in such interactive ways that we find ourselves in Gideon, we find ourselves in the people.
SPEAKER_00: And ultimately we need to and want to find ourselves in the Lord Jesus, who is greater and better, and fully the hero we would need.
SPEAKER_00: And so would you remind us of this?
SPEAKER_00: Invite us into the life you have purchased for us, so that all we who would confess the name of Jesus would confess a life of greatness planned together for the perfect world you would create.
SPEAKER_00: Be with us as we struggle on in faith until then.
SPEAKER_00: We ask in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.