The Faith of Gideon

And it also mentioned a rainbow. Good morning again to all of you, and I'm very glad to be able to be up here again today. It's always, always wonderful to get up and head out and look at the sun. Now it's way up in the sky. You know, I'm not leaving early enough that you see sunrise. It's already up a ways, so it's very nice to travel up here each Sabbath morning.

Well, as all of you know, we've been going over the weightier matters of the law, and we've covered that in general. We've talked a little bit about judgment or learning to make good judgments. We talked some last time about mercy and about how merciful God is to us and how He expects that of His children. That's what we're going to be the children of God. We're going to need to learn and value the aspect of mercy that God extends. And, of course, the last one of these weightier matters is faith. And I plan to give a sermon on faith regarding walking humbly with God, because that is...

That's not the sermon today, but I plan to do that. So those of you who wrote down the wrong title for today, Mr. Barnett can get his eraser out. I want to give that as I thought about what should... Faith is too big of a topic.

It's a huge topic. And in a sense, it's an all-consuming topic, and that's on purpose, because that's what we're expected to do throughout the entirety of our lives. How much faith do you really need? Well, you need to have faith in the right things. That's one aspect. But ultimately, we live whether we're younger, as some of our younger people are, whether we're middle-aged, like most of us, or whether we're older. Ultimately, we're going to need faith throughout the entirety of our existence. And you can never say, well, I have enough faith, or I have more faith than necessary, or you can just say, I have faith.

But we see descriptions in the Bible where people are asking for more faith. The disciples are asking, well, Lord, increase our faith. And of course, Jesus, when He's out there on the water with the disciples in the boat, saying, well, why do you not have faith? Why did you not believe that I'd come out and get you, or I'd help you, or I'd rescue you, or I'd calm the storm? Why didn't you believe that? And of course, there's a lot of other examples. And so faith is truly a tremendously large topic.

But I want to, I guess, this sermon today is kind of about faith, but in a sense, it's a little bit of a digression. Because I wanted to go through the example that we have of Gideon. Gideon, as I'm pretty sure all of you know, is one of the judges that you can read about in the book of Judges. One of the judges that was, that existed during the time between Joshua, who obviously followed Moses, and then for quite a long period of time until you get to the time of Samuel, and you see Samuel, Eli and Samuel, and then eventually Saul and David. You know, that's kind of where the storyline, the book of Judges is an unusual book in a sense, because you can read some somewhat bizarre things in there.

Things that were unusual, things that seemed to oddly happen. And yet in Hebrews 11, you see Gideon included in the listing that Paul provides of people of faith. Now, when I read what little you can read in Judges 6 and 7 and 8 about Gideon, I can see that he did have to have some faith in God. And yet it also looks like he faltered at times. And even later, you know, I'm not sure exactly what he was doing there in the latter part of chapter 8.

It sounds a little bit unusual. And yet, I don't know that that's what God wants us to think about. You know, God was not fully converting, you know, all the people he even at times influenced in the Old Testament. He is transforming us. He is transforming those of us that he has called to understand the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy and faith. And we are to live by faith.

So, as I said, the book of Judges covers the time frame. That is, I think you could describe it as only in the people of Israel. You know, they had been brought out of Egypt. They had been wandering around in the wilderness. They were beginning to be installed into the land of promise, the Promised Land. That was not an easy process. That was a hard process. And yet, after Joshua died, you see somewhat of a dark period. And I think you see that described.

If you look at Judges, chapter 21, the very last verse, again, I'm sure most of you realize this, the very last book of the book of Judges. Chapter, I think it's 21. So there's 21 chapters in the book of Judges. I didn't count up. I don't remember how many Judges there were during that time. But the description, or the conclusion at the very end, chapter 21, verse 5, in those days, there was no king in Israel. All the people did what was right in their own eyes. That doesn't sound like a formula for success.

That sounds like a formula for disaster. And really, what you find as you read about the different Judges, that God intervened and helped them with a particular incident. And this is certainly the case with Gideon. What we can know is that God delivered Israel from the Midianite oppression through Gideon. That's all. I don't know that Gideon is the main focus. God is the focus.

And faith in God is the focus that we can take away from this story. And then I think we could think of what lessons we could apply to ourselves today in the Church of God. So let's go back to Judges, chapter 6. And I'm going to kind of quickly go through this.

I won't try to read maybe as much as you might wish to read. Most of it is in chapter 6 and 7 and 8 of Judges.

And you can pretty easily read through this. But in Judges, chapter 6, it says in verse 1, the Israelites did what was evil inside of the Lord. Lord gave them into the hand of Midian for seven years. So obviously a dark time. They're supposed to be going into a promised land. They're supposed to be blessed and have abundance.

Clearly, during these seven years, they have oppression. They have an attack coming. And as we need to keep in mind that this attack was something God allowed, in a sense, to show what He was able to do. Now, many of these people certainly remembered or understood the history of Israel having been in Egypt and being brought out. You would think that they would still have that in mind, although it doesn't seem, you know, what is it about us? What is it about people? What is it about me? You know, I can have something happen that strengthens my faith and encourages me and uplifts me, and then I can't remember the next week or the next month.

And that's kind of the way we are, and certainly that has to be the way the Israelites were. It says in verse 2, The hand of Midian prevailed over Israel, and because the Midian of Midian, the Israelites provided for themselves hiding places in the mountain caves and strung. You know, they were in distress. They were clearly the people of Israel supposed to be blessed and honored in the Promised Land. You know, they were hiding. They were hiding in the caves. And it says in verse 6, the Israelites were greatly impoverished because of Midian, and they cried out to the Lord for help.

So that was the most, you know, that maybe is what they should have learned. Chapter 6, verse 6, you know, we all need to cry out to God for help. And as they cried out, it says in verse 8, the Lord sent a prophet to the Israelites, and he said, Thus says the Lord, the Lord God of Israel, I led you up from Egypt, and I brought you out of the land of slavery, and I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians. But in the very last sentence down in verse 10, you have not given heed to me.

I've done all these marvelous things for you. I've rescued you. I've brought you out of distress. And yet, about me, you're not focused on my leadership, because God was the one, says there were no kings, as yet set up. That was going to be later. And yet, everyone did publish right in their own eyes. Again, you see that not only in the last verse, you see it in chapter 17, verse 6.

It repeats the same thing. It says, everybody did publish right in their own eyes. And so, in this case, you see in verse 11, how God intervened in Gideon's life. The angel of the Lord came and sat under an oak tree, which belonged to Joash.

Joash was Gideon's father. And it says, as he did this, his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide from the Midianites. So he's back hiding. Gideon, you know, it doesn't appear that he is probably the most likely savior for the people. He's back, you know, in the cave, doing some work, trying to get some food, trying to get enough, but he's doing that in hiding. And it says in verse 12, the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, what does he say to him? He says, you are the most wonderful, powerful, overwhelming, capable individual in Israel, and I am going to use you... well, that's kind of stretching it a little.

What he says is, the Lord is with you, you mighty warrior. In essence, it was almost predicting what was going to happen. It wasn't really talking so much about Gideon, as we're going to see, because, you know, he knew he was pretty low on the totem pole. He knew it was unlikely that he could be used by God to rescue and deliver the people of Israel.

But in verse 13, Gideon said, sir, if the Lord is with us, then why is all this disaster happening to us? See, why is this happening? Where are all his wonderful deeds that our ancestors recounted to us, saying, did not the Lord bring us out of Egypt? And now the Lord has cast us off and given us into the hands of Midian. So they had, you know, maybe not forgotten what God had done, but they clearly were not looking to him in faith. And that's, of course, the point of Hebrews 11. Gideon is to be an example of faith. Faith in God, at least in this particular case.

The Lord turned to him and said, go in this might of yours and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian. I hereby commission you. See, so he was given a job. He was given a mission. He had a purpose.

And yet he made an excuse, but sir, or Lord, how can I deliver Israel? My clan is the weakest in my NASA. I'm the least in my family. He said, I'm, you know, I'm not the right person to pick.

I don't think you know what you're doing. That's what he was telling God. You must not know that, look, I'm back here hiding in where I'm managing, you know, crushing the wheat out here in the cave because I'm not the strongest man. I'm not a mighty warrior. I'm not able to do what you tell me. But of course, the answer in verse 16, the Lord said, but I will be with you.

That's what he said. I will be with you and you shall strike down the Midianites, every one of them. And so, you know, that was, in essence, the initial calling of Gideon.

God came to him. He understood. He was very weak. He understood. He was very limited. He understood. He wasn't a individual. And yet, that really wasn't the focus of what God was going to do.

The focus was, I, the Lord, I will be with you. And that's going to be repeated a couple of times here. I will be with you. And so, you know, I'm not going to read through all of this, but I think, again, you can do that. Or if you certainly remember the story, actually, I guess, verse 17, Gideon said, if I found favor in your sight, show me a sign that it is you who speak with me.

Don't depart from here until I come to you and bring out my present and set it before you. And I'll stay until you return. And so, Gideon has an interaction here. He finally figures out that God was going to help him. God would. God had called him. He said he would be with him. And so, he was going to help him. And yet, you actually find that Gideon was somewhat fearful.

He was somewhat reluctant. He needed to be encouraged. And that's why you can read through, again, the latter part of chapter six. And then, as we get into chapter seven, you know, you're familiar with what he asked God to do. I need you to show me what I want you to do or what you're going to do with me. And so, if we drop down to verse 36, Gideon said to God, in order to see whether you'll deliver Israel by my hand, as you've said, I'm going to lay a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. And if there is dew on the fleece alone and it is dry on all the ground, then I'll know that you're with me. Verse 38, it was so.

And when he rose early the next day, he, and so it was, I'm sorry, and it was so. And when he rose the next morning, he squeezed the dew from the fleece to fill a bowl of water.

Now, there must have been a lot of dew on that particular piece of fleece.

And, of course, Gideon responds, well, let me, in verse 39, make another trial with the fleece just one more time. So he goes through, and of course, he reverses the thing. I'm going to leave the fleece out. I want you to have it be perfectly dry, but then just dew everywhere. And, of course, that's exactly what God did.

In verse 40, God did so that night. It was dry on the fleece only, and on the ground there was dew.

So, God was willing to try to help Gideon believe. He did this two different types of miracle with the fleece. And later, you're going to find, as you read through chapter 7, how that troops that were not really adequate, the people he had to work with against the number of people the Midianites had to begin with, was that they were already at a huge disadvantage, one to four.

If you look up the numbers, I think it says, well, Israel has 32,000.

The other Midianites have 135,000. I think that's the exact numbers.

And so that comes out to about one to four. So, clearly, if it was two to two, you might think you have a chance, but it's one to four. They've got four times more people than we do, more soldiers.

And so, you know, God goes through here in chapter 7 an intricate description of reducing the number that Gideon had. He says, now 32,000 is way too many for me to do what I'm going to do. And so he drops them down to 10,000, and then later, in verse 7, the Lord said to Gideon, with these 300, I will deliver you. And again, you can read through how it is that God actually did that or how, you know, this reduction occur. And he even said in verse 9, that night, the Lord said to him, get up, attack the camp, for I've given it in your hand. But if you fear to attack, go down to the camp with your servant and hear what they're saying to each other. So not only had God done a couple of miracles with the dew and the fleece, he had also reduced the ranks from 1 to 4, which was bad odds anyway, to 1 to 450.

Now this was insane odds. This was not looking good as far as Gideon was concerned, but God even told him. I know this might look a little bit impossible to you. It might look like you don't have a chance, but I want you to remember that I am with you. You need to have faith in me.

The numbers don't count when I'm on your side. And of course, when he went down, verse 13, Gideon and his pal went down, and there was a man telling a dream to his comrade, and he said, I had a dream, and it was a cake of barley bread tumbled into the camp of the Midianites, came to the tent and struck it, and it fell down and turned upside down, and the tent collapsed.

And the comrade answered, well, that is none other than the sword of Gideon, the son of joy, from man of Israel into his hand God has given Midian and all the army. So, whenever Gideon went down to here, you know, what are they saying? What is it that this seems very odd? Gideon heard, verse 15, the telling of the dream and its interpretation of what happened. Verse 15, it says he worshipped God. It doesn't really show that he really had a lot of connection to God up to this point. He realized how weak he was, he realized how much help he needed.

He was skeptical, and so he needed to have his faith tried or encouraged, and I guess that's one of the ways that we have even thought about, you know, how it is that we are to grow. His faith needed to be trained, and this is, I think, the way we can apply it to us. But you can see how that, verse 16, he divided the 300 men into three companies who put trumpets in their hands and empty jars and torches, and they go down, they surround the camp, make it sound, make it look like, you know, the Israelites are all over the place, make it look like, now there's going to be a horrendous rout here, and of course what happens is in verse 22, they blew the 300 trumpets, and the Lord said, every man soared against his fellow, and against all the army, and the army fled. And so they started to kill each other, the Midianites did, and not, you know, have the men of Israel be very much involved at all. And so God provided an incredible victory. And of course, you know, he had worshiped God, he had come to recognize, well, if I'm going to be victorious, then God is going to have to be with me. And he had been encouraged by the miracles, he had been encouraged by what he'd heard down at the camp, and so here he is now involved in a great victory.

And yet, as you read through this, in chapter 8 is triumph, and yet in verse 22, the Israelites said to Gideon, well, we want you to be our ruler. We want you to be a rule over us, you and your sons, and your grandson also, for you have delivered us out of the hand of Midian.

Now, what was it that Gideon knew? He says, look, I didn't have a chance.

I didn't have the strength, I didn't have the might. I was either just extremely lucky, which he also knew wasn't the case. The Lord is the one who delivered Midian into the hand of the Israelites. And so he said, me and my sons will not rule over you. Gideon said to him, verse 23, I will not rule over you. My son will not rule over you. The Lord will rule over you. So he actually told them the right information. And this was actually something that the people of Israel experienced, that the Lord ruled over them, and even at times intervened in the lives of these judges. And up until the time when they demanded a king, God even gave them a ruler, He gave them Saul. And yet later David would come on the scene, and Solomon and then the rest of the kings of Israel and Judah would be there. But even at the time when Samuel was setting up Saul, you know, God told him, well, Samuel, they're not rejecting you as a priest or as a judge, perhaps as a final ruler or leader there before kings were set up. He says, they're not rejecting you, they're rejecting me. And see, this was what Gideon wanted to project. Now, again, the latter part of this, you know, it looks like he's setting up some type of idol. And yet, it says in verse 28, the land had rest for 40 years in the days of Gideon. So things went a little better for a very short period of time, and it says ultimately Gideon died. And in verse 35, the Israelites did not exhibit loyalty to Gideon's house in return for all the goods that he had done to Israel. See, they continue to forget God. So that's kind of the story that you read here about Gideon, and it... I hope that we can draw. I'm going to point out three things that I think are pretty obvious in this whole story. Now, the first thing is that God selected Gideon and gave him a mission. Now, how does that apply to those of us who are part of the Church of God today? Well, you know, we all realize that we've been drawn into the Church of God. We didn't volunteer for that. We didn't, in a sense, search for God. He opened our mind and brought us to where we could see that, well, we needed help. And he said, I'm not beginning, you know, with the most powerful group of people on earth. I'm beginning with people who are in need of help, who are not the wisest, who are not the most wealthy, who are not the most noble.

I'm going to work with you to complete the mission that I give you, which is proclaiming the Kingdom of God. See, we have that mission. And, of course, as we look at the Church today, directly the United Church of God, we don't have that many people. You know, we used to have more people. We've got very few people today, eight or ten or twelve thousand, depending on how you might count. And yet, does that make any difference to God? No. Not according to Judges 7.

Now, he says it doesn't make any difference. I can do what I want to do with whomever I choose to work with. And I want us to look in 1 Corinthians. Of course, you know that this 1 Corinthians chapter 1 is a fabulous chapter in the New Testament.

It talks about the Church at Corinth, a church that Paul was writing to, a church that he had established. God had used Paul to begin to proclaim the gospel of the kingdom to the people in Corinth, and God drew many of them into that congregation. And yet, what we see when you read 1 Corinthians is that there were a lot of problems there. There were a lot of sins. There was a lot of competitiveness. There was a lot of divisiveness. There were all kinds of things. They were arguing among themselves. They were arguing over who had the greater gifts. Paul has to tell them all of this in 1 Corinthians. We read that throughout the book. But here in chapter 1, he just begins to say in verse 10, I appeal to you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, all of you, that you should be in agreement and that there should be no division among you, and that you be unified in the same mind and the same purpose. See, that's really what he's going to talk about in chapter 1 and really 2 and 3, that you all need to be divided. And he says in verse 13, all of you have been brought into the church through Jesus Christ. You are a part of the church because God drew you to Jesus Christ and the blood of Jesus covers your sins.

And so he asks in verse 13, has Christ been divided? And so he goes ahead to describe this. See, these are critical issues that Paul is talking to the Corinthian church about.

And he says you need to, you know, whenever you act that way, you are simply carnal.

Chapter 3, verse 4, when one of you says, I belong to Paul and another says, I belong to Apollos, are you not? Simply carnal. Isn't that just simply doing what seems right in your own eyes as we read about the people in the days of Gideon? And so to back up to chapter 1, he says in verse 26, brethren, maybe in verse 25 of chapter 1, God's foolishness is wiser than man's wisdom. God's weakness is stronger than any human strength. See, he wanted the people there in the church at that time, and I think God wants us to realize as we study the clear inequity that Gideon had in this battle against the Midianites, it doesn't matter, you know, how many we are, it matters that we realize that God is with us, and that he wants us to be united, he wants us to be cooperative, he wants us to be teachable.

In verse 26, he says, consider your own calling, brethren.

Not many of you were wise by human standards, not many of you were powerful, not many of you were of noble birth, but God chose what is foolish in the world to confound the wise. God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. He chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not to reduce to nothing, things that are. And then he says the reason why, so that no one might boast in the presence of God. He says, I'm working with those of you that I have drawn into the church, I'm working with you, I'm going to give you a victory, I'm going to allow you to succeed, I need you to have faith in me, I need you to trust me, which could be another description of faith.

But he says, you know, I'm not starting out with, you know, the most fabulous, overwhelming human capacity to achieve my proclaiming of the kingdom of God. I'm going to do that through those who are weak. And he goes ahead to say in verse 30, talking about no one can boast in the presence of God. Verse 30, he is the source of your life in Jesus Christ, who became for us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption in order that as it is written, let the one who boasts boast in the Lord. See, our focus in achieving the mission that we've been given is to realize that God has selected us on purpose because he doesn't want us. He hasn't actually, we didn't read the one verse, I think, in Judges 7 that says, well, Israel, you know, will think it was their power that got us the victory if I don't reduce it down to 300. That's what God said.

And so the first thing we can say, and clearly when we read this in 1 Corinthians, is that we want to have faith in God. Faith that God is able to do the impossible. Faith that he is able to overcome insurmountable odds because we believe and have faith in him. Now, the second thing we learned from Gideon was that he was flawed. He actually was quite flawed. He had a lot of doubts. He was afraid. He was fearful of what might happen, and he needed faith training. Now, wouldn't that be applicable to all of us today? We're all flawed. You know, we all sin.

We need our faith strengthened. We even need some of the things like Gideon needed.

We need, you know, the dew on the fleece and not everywhere else. We need the dew on the ground and not on the fleece. We need, you know, a messenger that says, we're sunk. You know, that's what Gideon got. God gave him those different experiences of encouragement and reassurance, and his faith was bolstered. He was, in a sense, in faith training.

And so let's look at Ephesians 1. Ephesians is, of course, another book that Paul wrote to the church.

And in Ephesians 1, in verse 15, he's talking about the people in the church there.

Now, this church, you know, seems to be, you know, written about in a pretty positive way.

They're told that they also need to be united. They need to, you know, be seeking or endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. That's what they're told, and that they need to build each other up in love. Here in Ephesians 1, verse 15, he says, I've heard of your faith in the Lord. I've heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and I've heard of your love toward the saints, and I, for this reason, I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers.

See, Paul was telling them, you know, you need to be encouraged. You need to be uplifted. You need your faith training to continue, and yet he was saying, I'm giving you this encouragement because I know that you need that. And see, even though, as you know, we get reports of this and that bad thing that we asked to pray about, we're also given reports that are positive, ones that are, you know, good outcomes, ones that show God's involvement, show his intervention. We need those as well. And he goes on to say, I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of Glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him so that with the eyes of your heart enlightened. See, what has God actually given us? Well, he's enlightened our hearts. He's given us understanding that he is not given to everyone in the world. Now, what do we proclaim? We proclaim the kingdom of God, and at that time he's going to open up understanding. But he says, and Paul tells the people at Ephesus, I've given you understanding. I've enlightened your heart so that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, and what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe according to the working of his great power. See, now, Paul was being encouraging. He was trying to lift them up. He was trying to get them to be mindful that, well, you know, you're in a process of faith training, and I can see you're doing well, but I want to continue to encourage you to look to God. He says in verse 20, God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seeing him at the right hand of the heavenly places, far above all rule, and authority and power and dominion above every name that is named, not only in this age, but in the age to come. And he has put all things under his feet, and he has made him the head over all things for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that fills all in all. He was telling them, you've been drawn by the Father into the Church of God, under the headship of Jesus Christ, who you need to continually look to for help and for strength.

And so just as Gideon was flawed and he needed faith training, we're all flawed. We need encouragement. We need reinsurance, and we can often get that, not only from things that happen, but even from the Word of God. By reading what he says, saying, you know, don't worry, don't be fearful, don't be doubting, keep in mind that I am with you. And then the last thing that we read about Gideon was that he told Israel that you need to look to God to be your ruler. He says, I don't want to be your ruler, I don't want my sons to be your ruler, you've got to look to God, you've got to look beyond the physical problems that we have, and God is the one that you need to be grateful for. Maybe we could go back to Judges 8 again.

Judges chapter 8 verse 22, they're asking him to rule over us in verse 23. Gideon says, I'll not do that. I will not rule over you. My son will not rule over you. The Lord will rule over you. You know, that was what he wanted them to be, you know, continually mindful of. And if they were going to benefit from their heritage, if they were going to benefit from being the people that had descended from Abraham and Jacob and had been in Egypt and had come out and been brought into the Promised Land, if they were going to benefit from that, they were going to have to realize that the Lord has got to be our ruler. And of course, this is what you see Paul writing to the church in Colossians chapter 1. Colossians, again another one of the epistles of Paul, writing to another congregation that he was very familiar with, and that he was in a sense helping them understand that they needed to remain steadfast and close to God. Here in Colossians chapter 1, I want to start in verse 12 because he as well is telling them, you know, you've got to continually be mindful that Jesus Christ is the head of the church. You are to look to that ruler.

Here in chapter 1 of Colossians verse 11, may you be made strong with all the strength that comes from His, God's glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience while joyfully giving thanks to the Father in verse 12, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has actually rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sin. He again was reminding them, you know, in order to achieve the good job that God has given His people, in order to accomplish what He'd missioned the church to do, not only proclaiming the gospel but growing in God's divine nature, you want to continually realize what He has done. He has rescued us, verse 13, from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of His beloved Son, and talking about that Son in verse 15, who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, and in Him, by Him all things in heaven and on earth were created. Things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers, all these had been created through Him and for Him. And He Himself, talking about Christ, is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church, He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He might come to have first place in everything. For in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through Him God was pleased to reconcile to Himself all things, whether on earth or heaven, by making peace through the blood of His cross. And you, in verse 21, who were once as strange and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, He has now reconciled in His fleshly body through death, so as to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before Him.

See, who's going to give us a victory? Who's going to give us the glory that we seek?

See, we're going to be glorified as a part of God's family. He tells us, well, that's going to be coming as we continually look to the head and look to the ruler. And in verse 23, He says, provided that you continue securely established and steadfast in the faith without shifting from the hope that was promised by the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, I, Paul, being a servant of this gospel.

See, that's what He wanted them to be reminded of. There were other things that He corrected.

He told them what they needed to do, but you had to be mindful that, well, the Lord is the one who is the ruler. He's the one who is the head. And so as we look to God the Father and Jesus His Son, well, then we have every reason to think that, well, we can complete the commission. See, we don't know how much more has to be done, but we do have a mission, and that mission involves proclaiming His kingdom. So we have a mission that God is going to work through us. We are in the process of faith training. And finally, we simply want, as it says here in verse 23, to be secure, to be stable, provided you continue securely established and steadfast in the faith without shifting from the hope promised by the gospel that you've heard. That's the stability that we can have by simply looking, as Gideon said, look to the Lord to be your ruler. So I think those three points about Gideon would be a good reminder at this time that we want to look to the Lord, the one who is the real power in heaven and earth, the one who is working in us and through us and helping us to overcome. If we're going to overcome, it's going to be because we're seeking the help that doesn't have any obstacles, doesn't have any fallibility. The one who's able to help us, even though we go through difficulties, the one who always is going to help us is Jesus Christ. So just as we find with Gideon that a few with God could overcome incredible numbers and obstacles, we can remember that a faithful few, plus God, is better than many without Him. And as we do that, you know, then we're the ones who are able to be strengthened and stabilized and actually learn to live by faith, as in at least that one incident Gideon came to have faith in God and saw God deliver it. We want to see God do that in our lives as well.