God’s Powerful Spirit Works in Ways Both Mightily and Quietly!

But tomorrow is the day of Pentecost. A very special day in the plan of God. You know, God's plan offers salvation to all of mankind. We've talked about that on a number of occasions over the course of a number of years that I've been your pastor. Tomorrow is a very special day in a number of ways. One of the ways it's so special is the coming of God's powerful spirit. In the Old Testament times, in the church in the Old Testament, various holy men and women of old, prophets, prophetesses, various people, you know, people like Deborah and so forth, they had the use of God's Holy Spirit. But it was, you know, they were very few people. Now, today, even though in one sense, it's still very few people, but at least it's the whole New Covenant, New Testament church has access to God's Holy Spirit of power. And one of the things that makes it so good for us as Christians is the fact that that spirit of power places us in God's family. We know from John chapter 6 that we have to be called by God, and we're called by God. You know, it's His spirit. And, you know, when you think about it, we take that so much for granted, but when you think about that and meditate on that, that the great being who created the entirety of the universe, he reached down and turned something on in your mind. He turned something on in your heart.

That he's not done with the rest of the world. Very few people have been called by God. You are one of them. Very... now everyone will have their chance. God loves everybody. But it's not everybody's chance right now. It's your chance right now. And the question we have to ask ourselves, are what are we doing with that chance? But God is... He's taken His Spirit. He's touched your heart. He's touched your mind. And He's called you to His church. Most of us in this room are baptized members of the church. And we understand what the definition of a Christian is. It's not just somebody who does good works. You can be a Buddhist and do good works. You don't even have to believe in Christ and do good works, or be a good person, be a good husband, or be a good father. You know, many people who are atheists could be good people. It's not a matter of being good. The definition of a Christian is somebody who has God's Holy Spirit in them. We see that in Romans chapter 8 and verse 9. We won't turn there. But we also know this. That God doesn't give His Spirit to people unless they obey Him. Acts 5.32. Yeah, we won't turn there. So we have to obey, which means you've got to understand the truth of God, the plan of God, and so forth. And then God gives you that tremendous Spirit. Let's take a look. There's a number of things I want to discuss with you that lay the foundation for today's sermon. Let's get into it by turning to 1 Corinthians chapter 12.

1 Corinthians chapter 12.

1 Corinthians chapter 12 and verse 13.

1 Corinthians 12-13. For by one Spirit, God's Holy Spirit, by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body. So God's Spirit places us into His family. By one Spirit we were all placed and baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and all been made to drink into one Spirit. Verse 27. Same chapter. Now you are the body of Christ and members individually. So God's Holy Spirit of power puts you into the body of Christ. Let's go to Colossians. We're going to take a look now at a series of scriptures. There's a progression of thought here that we want to look at. Again, it's the basis for the sermon today. Colossians chapter 1 verse 24. Colossians 1-24.

Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ for the sake of His body, which is the church. So God's Spirit places us in the body. The body is the church. You see the progression of spiritual thought here. 1 John chapter 3 verses 1 and 2. 1 John chapter 3 verses 1 and 2.

Behold, verse 1, behold, manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called the children of God. So that Spirit puts us into the body. The body is the church. The church is, you know, we are the family of God, the children of God. Verse 2, beloved, now we are, now we are the children of God. Not just at the time of the resurrection. We are the children right now. And we're the children because of God's Holy Spirit of power. So the Holy Spirit places us in God's family. But it does something else. God's powerful Spirit gifts you. God gives you tremendous gifts as members of His church, as members of the family. Let's go back to 1 Corinthians chapter 12. 1 Corinthians chapter 12. If you want to look at a number of scriptures here, the show is something when we combine them together. 1 Corinthians chapter 12 and verse 7.

But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the prophet of all. So you are given, you know, each of us has been given who have been baptized. We've been given each of us a God's Holy Spirit for the prophet of the whole church. We combine that with verse 11. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills. So notice several times here we're seeing where God has given each of us the power of His Holy Spirit. It's His will to do so. He wants to do so. Verse 18, same chapter. But now God has set the members, each one of them, in a body just as He pleased. So God has given you His Holy Spirit of power as He wills, as He pleases. He's gifted you to be a part of this family. Now the last thing I want to cover here before we get into the main thrust of the sermon as we're laying the groundwork is that our Father God is no respecter of persons. He's no respecter of persons. I'm going to quote one verse here from two different translations. You probably don't... Well, some of you may have one of these on your lap. It's Acts chapter 10 and verse 34. The King James, which I think some of you have on your lap, says this. Then Peter opened his mouth and said of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons. God is no respecter of persons. The good... the God's word translation takes that same verse, Acts chapter 10 and verse 34, and says this. Then Peter said, Now I understand that God doesn't play favorites. God doesn't play favorites. Okay, so I've laid the groundwork. We have seen that God's Holy Spirit has placed us into His family. We've seen that God's Holy Spirit gifts His family. We've seen that because of the Spirit, we have that God is no respecter of persons. Therefore, brethren, as you and I think about the day of Pentecost, as you and I think about all the scriptures, who is it in the scriptures you admire? Why can't you or I be like them? Who is it? Abraham or Moses or David or Joshua or Peter or Paul or John or Mary or Mary Magdalene or Deborah or, you know, you name the woman's name. Ruth. God is no respecter of persons. You can be, with God's power, what these people are and were. It's up to you and I, though. Last week we talked about that big powerful caterpillar truck. Remember that? A truck that is so huge, so mammoth, that when fully loaded, it's equal to 752 Volkswagen Bugs. I was talking to Wayne Stewart before services. Wayne, how do they get that thing on site? I said, it can't go under, you know, it's two stories high. It can't go under on the freeway. Couldn't get under the bridges. Wayne said, I believe, and I think Wayne is correct. They build that thing on site. The only place that truck ever is going to be is there in that quarry doing the mining. You know, so here you talk about power, but that truck doesn't do anything unless you turn on that ignition. God's Spirit won't do anything for us in this room unless we properly use it. You want to be like Deborah? You want to be like Mary, the mother of Jesus? You want to be like David? What's stopping us? We've got the power of God. I'm not trying to be vain when I say that. God's no respecter of persons. He says, you know, follow me. Now today, and the point I want to make today is this, in some senses it follows on what Wayne gave you earlier. My theme is this, if you want to take notes, write this across the top of your page. God's powerful Spirit works in ways both mightily and quietly. God's powerful Spirit works in ways both mightily and quietly.

Today we're going to look at two men from the Old Testament. Both of these men show the mighty power of God working. And we're going to look at two women from the New Testament. And they also show the power of God working mightily, but quietly. The quietly. All servants of God, all their names are in the scriptures, all good examples for us, and there's not a reason why you and I can't, you know, we emulate Jesus Christ. But there's no reason why when we see these various people and what they accomplish, that with God's power, with His help, we can't do the same. The first person I want to talk to is a man by the name of Gideon. We've gone through his life story on a number of occasions, but one of the things I want to draw your attention to is that Gideon was just an ordinary guy. Prior to God giving him his special calling, he was just an ordinary fellow. He was from a very ordinary, undistinguished family. He was one of the younger kids in the family. He was basically nothing. He was just Joe Blow Gideon. You know? But God called him to take the lead in defeating the Midianites. These Midianites have become quite a harm to the Israelite people, especially the tribes of Manasseh, Asher, Zebulun and Athalai. After they were working hard to plant crops and to work with the crops and get the crops ready, and the crops are just ready to harvest, as soon as they're just ready to harvest, the Midianites would come in and take all the harvest. They'd leave enough for them, for the Israelites, to kind of carry on. But they would take as much as they possibly can and then head back to their country. And the people there in Israel were just sick and tired of watching their countrymen go through all that trial. So God calls Gideon.

You know, God doesn't seem to give Gideon an awful lot of wiggle room. He says, Gideon, you're a mighty man of valor. Gideon's probably saved up with me. He says, and you're gonna do some things. And there's no way... I don't see any wiggle room there. Now, we maybe don't have all the conversation, but there's not much wiggle room there. God says, you know, our father is such a charismatic individual. He says, you know, Gideon, you can do this. I'll be there with him. You can do this. He says, yeah, I can do this. But he didn't know what he was about to do. And that's one of the stories, one of the subplots of the whole story.

He didn't know what he was going to be. He knew he had to go and attack and defeat the Midianites. But he didn't know all the specifics. And, brethren, there's a lesson there for us too. God calls us, and we don't know all the specifics of what's going to be coming in our life and what we need to be doing. Let's start our journey here with Gideon in Judges chapter 6. Gideon was one of the judges. Judges chapter 6. And verse 34. Judges 6 verse 34. But the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon, God's Holy Spirit.

He was one of the few people in the Old Testament Church in Old Testament times that had the use of God's Holy Spirit. His Spirit came upon him. Now, God already had done some things through Gideon. But let's take a look at now as we start getting to the crunch as to what God wanted to do, what takes place here. Starting here in verse 36. So Gideon said to God, If you will save Israel by my hand as you have set, look, I shall put a fleece of wool on the refreshing floor.

If there is dew on the fleece only, and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that you will save Israel by my hand as you have set. And so it was, when he rose early the next morning, he squeezed the fleece to Gebbe, he run out the dew out of the fleece, a bowl full of water. Then Gideon said to God, Do not be angry with me, but let me speak just once more. So obviously Gideon knew his Bible. He knew the story about Abraham and Lot and all that.

And so he says, You know what? How about if we try this? Just let's just reverse this. Then Gideon said to God, Do not be angry with me, but let me speak just once more. Let me test, I pray, just once more with the fleece. Let it now be dry only on the fleece, but on all the ground let there be dew. And God did so that night. It was dry on fleece only, but there was dew on all the ground.

You know, brethren, over the years I've been in the ministry, in this August, I'll have been 30 years in the full-time ministry, August 16th. 35 years, five years in addition, being in the ministry without being an employee of the church. 35 years along those lines. And in all those years, there have been plenty of people who talk about, I'm asking God for a sign.

If God shows me a sign, I'll do this or I'll do that. You read that section of Scripture carefully. Gideon's not asking for a sign whether he should go and attack the Midians or not. That's a given. God says, You're going to do it. I'm going to be there. So that's not what's being done here. Gideon wants to be encouraged. And so Gideon goes to God and says, Hey, Father, man, you've got an army of one. You've got me.

And you want me to go against 135,000 Midianites. We know the number because it says that in the eighth chapter. So he needs encouragement. Brethren, as you face long odds in your life, you need encouragement. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with you opening the Bible to this portion as you're kneeling next to your bed or your chair or wherever you pray. Or if you can't do that, you're just laying in your bed or you're standing, you're walking. However you pray to God, you can open up the Bible here and say, Father, I know you know how to read.

You inspired this scripture. I want to be encouraged just like Gideon was. So you give me something that encourages me. And God did just that. Let's continue on in the story. Chapter 7, verse 1. Then Gideon gives his other name. Then Gideon, all the people who are with him rose early and camped beside the well of Herod. So the camp of the Midianites was on the north side of them by the hill of Mo'rae in the valley.

And the Lord said to Gideon, the people who are with you are too many for me to get to the Midianites and to their hands. Let Israel claim, let Israel claim glory for itself against me, saying, My own hand has saved me.

Gideon only had an army. You know, he called the arms and 32,000 men came and said, We will fight with you. 32,000 against 135,000. God says, That's way too many. God, our God, Old Testament, knew our God always wants us to move forward in grace. He wants us always to realize, brethren, that we do what we do through the grace of God. It's not our strength. It's by His grace. Verse 3, Now therefore, proclaiming the hearing the people, saying, Whoever is fearful and afraid, let him turn and depart at once from Mount Gilead. And 22,000 of the people returned, and 10,000 remained. I told you last week, I made mention last week, God doesn't want cowards. He didn't want cowards here. Because, cowards, cowards, you know, fear is like leaven. It spreads. You don't want it in an army. And God doesn't want it in a spiritual army. You and I can't cower and be afraid of Satan and the demons in the world. We have proper respect for their power. But God doesn't want us to knuckle under, cowardly, shaking and feared to Satan and the world. He wants us to be, He gives us the spirit of a strong mind and power. The Bible says, no, no cowardly person is going to be in God's kingdom. And that's true for, that's true for Christians. And as I made mention last Sabbath, you know, sometimes we think about courage in terms of a soldier storming a battle line. Or we think about a fireman going into a burning building. And those are types of courage. But when you, in the quietness of your life, say you're not going to knuckle into your lusts and to Satan the devil and to this world and to this society. When you hang tough with God, that takes courage. You're not going to get any medal. You're not even marching in band. Come and salute you. But God, when the time is right, He'll look you in the shoulders, that charismatic father of ours, give you a big bear hug and say, well done. Well done. You are a brave person in the last part of the history of mankind. When it was so hard to be a Christian and keep your mind straight, you showed courage in what you did. So here we see that we've gone from 32,000 to 10,000. Verse 4, But the Lord said to Gideon, the people are still too many. Bring them down to the water, and I'll test them for you there. Then it will be that of whom I say to you, what shall go with you, that same shall go with you. And where I say to this one, shall not go with you, the same shall not go. So He brought the people down to the water, and the Lord said to Gideon, everyone who laughs from the water with his tongue as a dog laughs, you shall set apart by himself, likewise everyone who gets down on his knees to drink. And a number of those who laughed, putting their hand to their mouth, was 300 men. So we go from an army of 32,000 to an army of 300. And this army of 300 has got to go up again. It's 135.

35,000 battle-tested troops.

You know, I remember years ago I saw this westernist called the Magnificent Seven. And there were seven guys against, I think, 40 or 50 of these outlaws. As they were recruiting the seven good guys, one man said, Steve McQueen, he said, well how do we have on our side?

He said, right now we've got three. And Steve McQueen said to Eulbrenner, I admire your vision of what good odds are. You know, three at that time, there was three there eventually was seven. But here you've got the odds here, brethren, are 450 to one. Now if you're a soldier on a battlefield and you have 450 guys coming at you, you feel pretty lonely, right? So here we're talking again about the grace of God, the power of God.

300. 300. Facing 150,000. But notice something happens again that's very interesting. God understands, you know, now when Gideon quote-unquote signed on for the assignment, he may have known there was 135,000 of the enemy. He may have thought God was going to give him all these angels and all these chariots and all the, you know, thousands and thousands of people. He didn't know he was signing on. Well, you're going to attack that bunch with 300 guys.

He didn't know that. Just like you don't know what your future holds out for you. You know, there may be something very big in your future. There may be something very big in your life right now. When you were baptized, you didn't know that this thing was going to be coming at you. But now it's there. And we walk one step at a time with God's help. Verse 9, it happened on the same night the Lord said to him, arise, go down against the camp. This is chapter 7 of Judges, verse 9. Go down against the camp, for I have delivered it into your hand. But if you are afraid to go down, go down to the camp with your servant, and you shall hear what they say, and afterwards your hand shall be strengthened to go down against the camp.

So God says, I'm giving you a real man-sized challenge. And you know, you need some more encouragement. And I'm going to give you some more encouragement. Now, I'm not taking the trial away. I'm not lessening the trial. The trial is actually getting bigger. He's got only 300 men now. But God says, I will give you some encouragement here. So he went down with Purah, his servant to the outpost of the armed men who were in the camp.

Verse 12, now the Midianites and the Amalekites and all the people of these were lying in the valley as numerous as locusts, and their camels were without number as the sand by the seashore and multitude. In other words, they're looking down in the evening, they're seeing all these campfires, they're hearing all this discussion, they're hearing the roar of the group.

And he knows he's got 300 guys. Verse 13, and when Gideon had come there, there was a man telling a dream to his companion. He said, I've had a dream. To my surprise, a loaf of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian. It came to a tent and struck it so it fell and overturned, and a tent collapsed. Then the companion answered and said, this is nothing else but the sword of Gideon, the son of Joash, a man of Israel. Into his hand, God has delivered Midian and the whole camp. Brethren, think about what we're seeing here.

God says, I'm going to encourage this guy. You know, his knees might be a little quivering here. He may be having second thoughts, and so I'm going to encourage him. But how does God do this? God encourages him out of the mouth of the very enemy. He's going to defeat. Out of the mouth of the enemy, he's going to defeat. God encourages him. And so it was when Gideon, verse 15, heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation, that he worshipped.

He returned to the camp of Israel and said, arise, for the Lord has delivered the camp of Midian into your hand. You know, John Wayne is playing Gideon here. He's saying, guys, saddle up. You know, time to go.

Starting here in verse 16. And he divided the 300 men into three companies.

Now, you know, if you were that bunch of guys, you're thinking, man, we can see the glow of the campfire of the Midianites. You know, you can see there's a bunch of guys down there. 135,000. You know, I'm sure the word goes, gets to these fellas, man. Great, great bunch of fellas. And we're going to divide our troops into three groups, 100 of each. Who does that? Well, you know who did that? One of the greatest generals in American history, Robert E. Lee. Robert E. Lee, if you're a Civil War buff, I'm not really, but I've seen enough History Channel specials to know. He always was outnumbered. You know, in one sense, the South never had much of a chance, but the South had great fighters. They had the best of generals, but they didn't have the same kind of population. They didn't have the same kind of manufacturing capability as the North. And Robert E. Lee was always outnumbered. One of the things that Robert E. Lee always did successfully, all the way up until Gettysburg, is he would take, he had a smaller group of men. He might have 60,000 or 70,000 as he had in Gettysburg. He's going up against 90,000 or 100,000. But he would split his forces and just befuddle the Union troops. In Gettysburg, the tide turned. By that time, he had gotten so proud of his accomplishments, and he had never lost the battle until Gettysburg in 1863. But in Gettysburg, he thought his men were Superman. They could do anything. They went into battle. They were really close, but they lost. And the thing that's interesting about numbers, one of his great generals was Jeb Stuart, who was a cavalry man. And Jeb Stuart had, Robert E. Lee had devised a plan where you take 5,000 of our men, you go behind the Union line, and then you just cause all sorts of panic with your 5,000 men. And so here, Jeb Stuart's going around the back. He's about ready to unleash hell on the Union troops. And you've got this brash young, I think he was a colonel at the time by the name of George Armstrong Custer.

A Buckeye, born in Ohio, grew up in Monroe, Michigan. He had the Michigan 7th with him. Custer had 500 men. That's all he had. And so he says, guys, saddle up. We're going. And so those 500 men went out to meet 5,000 men. And when Jeb Stuart saw the approach of General, or Colonel Custer, he turned around and says, there's got to be more guys here. So he turned around and says, this must be some sort of ambush. So Custer, with his 500 men, turned to flight to 5,000. Got the same sort of thing happening here. He's got three groups. We go back here to verse 16. But notice what he says. He divided the 300 men into three companies. He put a trumpet into every man's hand. Think of the spiritual ramifications, brother, near. We've got a trumpet in our hands. We are to do a work of a trumpet, a witness. So each man had the trumpet. Each man had an empty picture. That's like us. We're earthy vessels. And we're full of hot air. That's what we are. But notice, they put torches inside the pictures. And that flame represents God's power, God's Spirit. So here they've got their picture with a flame inside. They've got the trumpet. And in verse 17, he says to them, look at me and do likewise. Watch. And when I come to the edge of the camp, you shall do as I do. And when I blow the trumpet, all who are with me, then you shall blow the trumpet, everyone on the whole side of the camp, and say, the sword of the Lord and of Gideon. That story, that dream, that guy got, that probably worked its way through the camp, or large portions of the camp. Then they hear these pictures breaking. They see these bright lights. They see people coming down, screaming, probably with a rebel yell, like our southern troops. And just scared these guys. And so they begin to commit. I don't have time to go for all. They began slaughtering one another. They began slaughtering one another. There's a lesson to be learned here, brother. The lesson is that God will give us His Holy Spirit, and He leads us one step at a time, just as He led Gideon one step at a time. Gideon had a great task to do. You may have something that's very great for you to do right now. Well, we all have a great thing. That's called the work of God. But you may be going through a particular trial or challenge right now. A very great thing. Take it one step at a time with God's power, just as Gideon did. Don't worry about the future. Just ask God to be there with you in the future to handle a situation step by step as it comes upon you. Let's throw our attention to the next man who did mighty things with God's Holy Spirit of Power. This man's name is Caleb. You know him as one of the spies who came back with a good report. You know, you had Joshua, you had Caleb. Let's turn to Numbers, begin with Numbers 14. There's something we want to touch base with here briefly. Numbers 14 and verse 24.

Numbers 14, 24. But my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit in him, has followed me fully. Now some commentators will say, well, you know, he had a positive mindset. He was like Dale Carnegie. Well, I guess you can get that out of this. But what I get out of this, when it's combined with the idea that he's following God fully, is the different spirit he had was God's Spirit of Power. Here's a man with God's Spirit of Power, and he followed God fully. And when he came back, he said, you know, we can go into this Holy Land, into the land of Canaan. We can make it ours. Let's go do it. And Joshua said the same, but the other 10 guys said, no, we can't do it. Let's go to Joshua now, Chapter 14.

Take a look at some interesting things here about Caleb. Joshua 14. We're not going to talk about the spy mission that Caleb was on. We're going to talk about something that happens 45 years later. And brethren, please hear this. We're talking about Caleb's life 45 years after the spy mission. What happened 45 years later? As Paul Harvey would say, what is the rest of the story? Joshua Chapter 14, Verse 6. Then the children of Judah came to Joshua and Gilgal, and Caleb the son of Jehunath, said to him, you know the word which the Lord said to Moses, the man of God concerning you and me in Caddish Barnaiah. So what you have here is Caleb is going to Joshua's friend and saying, you know, we were promised some things. We were promised some land. We were faithful. It's been 45 years. I want to claim my promise. Brethren, when you see God's promises in the Bible, you claim those promises. Now, we've got to be astute to know which is a promise.

Sometimes we think God promises, you know, for healing example, that whenever we're annoyed, we will be healed. Well, I guess people say, well, I'll be healed in the resurrection. Well, yeah. People normally aren't thinking about that. They want to be healed right now. Does God heal everybody right now? The answer is no. So is it a promise, ironclad promise from God? He's always going to heal somebody. Well, at some point, brethren, we all die. And everyone, I don't care if we're alive, when Christ comes out of his return, everybody in this room will die.

We may only be dead for a split second, and then our bodies are changed to spirit, if we're alive when Christ returns. But we will all die. It's appointed all men to die once. We will die. So understand what it promises. But here, Caleb says, you know, I was promised this land. Verse 7, I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me to Caddish Barnae to spy out the land, and I brought back the word to him, as it was in my heart. Nevertheless, my brethren who went up with me made the heart of the people melt, but I wholly followed the Lord my God. So Moses swore on that day, saying, Surely the land where your foot is trod shall be your inheritance, and your children's inheritance forever, because you have wholly followed the Lord my God. Now behold, the Lord has kept me alive, as he said, these forty-five years, ever since the Lord has spoke this word to Moses while Israel wandered in the wilderness. And now here I am this day, eighty-five years old.

So here's a guy. The first thing he does, he's praised God. Praise God for all. He's lived a good life. And you know, he's still quite the Viking type guy. He's eighty-five years old, but you don't want to get too mad at you. He's still a mighty man of war. Now, most of our eighty-five-year-olds, I'm sixty-two years old. I don't know that I would have the stamina or the strength or whatever to, you know, I would get out of his way if he wanted a seat. Sir, Caleb, you take that seat. He was a man to be reckoned with forty-five years later when he's eighty-five years old. But he gives God praise for what God has done in his life. Verse 12, chapter 14 here, verse 12. Now therefore give me this mountain which the Lord spoke in that day. For you heard that in that day how the Anakin were there, and the cities were great and fortified. It may be that the Lord will be with me, and I shall be able to drive them out as the Lord has said.

There's some spiritual ramifications here. Caleb, you know, he's just not saying, I do some land, give me some land, and I want it to be easy. The giants were still living there.

The fortresses of the people were still there. Caleb, if he wants that land that was promised to him, he's got to get those people out of there. He's got to go up against the giants.

You know, David had Goliath to go through. Caleb here is a lot of Goliaths. He's got a whole nation of Goliaths and cities and strongholds. He's got to root out before he can get what he was promised.

But in the end, that's what he was wanting to do. And brethren, you and I have a job to do, and that is to proclaim the Word of God to the whole world. We've got that job. We've had that job ever since you and I have been converted, come unto God's church. And, you know, God has not called us to a life of ease. He's called us to a life of being a good soldier in his army.

Verse 13, And Jauph shall bless him, and gave Hebron to Caleb, the son of Jehunath as an inheritance. But again, Caleb still had to go out there and do business. He still had to go out there and clear the way. Hebron therefore became the inheritance of Caleb, the son of Jehunath, the Kenazite to this day, because he wholly followed the Lord God of Israel. He got what was promised to him after he battled and took out the enemy. You and I will get what is promised to us, which is the kingdom of God. But you and I have got to battle first. We battle our own human nature. We battle the society. We battle Satan. It's not a life of ease. It wasn't for Caleb. It's not for us. We've got God's Holy Spirit of power to help us do these things. God is no respecter of persons. What he did for Caleb, he'll do for you and I. Verse 15, in the name of Hebron formerly was Kirajath Arba. Arba was the greatest man among the Anakin, then the land had rest for more.

So after the fighting, doing all he needed to to subdue the people and get them out, Caleb had rest. Lesson learned here. God rewards older spirit-filled believers.

In our churches, we've got a lot of older people. We've gone well past 21 years of age.

Those days, we can do laps around most of us. There are some of us in this room who are they're young and vibrant and the rest of us are old and vibrant.

We've done laps around the age of 21. I've almost done it three times now.

But look at what Caleb did. The first thing he did when he went to Joshua, he's praising God.

He praises God for the journey of his life. And his life was not an easy life. Your life's not an easy life. But he praised God for that journey. He boldly claimed God's promise.

Again, brethren, I say to you, you boldly claim the promises you see in Scripture.

Hebrews 4 says, to come before God's throne of grace boldly.

He courageously took on God's enemies. 45 years after he was given the original assignment, he completes that assignment. Now he goes and says, we can take the promised land. Of course, they wandered for 40 years because they didn't have the faith to go in. But 45 years later, Caleb goes in and gets the job done. The job God's called us to, you know, it's going to take the rest of our life and we can do it. And after a life of Godly accomplishment, he was given rest.

So here you've got two men. You've got Gideon, you've got Caleb, mighty men of valor who work powerfully because of the power of God's Holy Spirit. Let's now take a look at a couple of ladies in the New Testament. They also did powerful things, but they did it on a more quiet basis. But they're still powerful nonetheless. God's Holy Spirit working in them very powerfully. First woman we're going to look at is Lydia. There's only, what, three, four verses.

Four verses in the Bible about Lydia. Let's take a look at Lydia here in Acts 16. We've gone through Acts 16 a number of times in the past. The reason being, this is the chapter that shows the beginning of the church in Philippi. If you're studying one of the books of the Bible, Philippians, Colossians, you really need to start not there, but start in the book of Acts and get the background to how that church was started and formed. Let's take a look at what the Bible says about Lydia explicitly and implied. Then we want to take a look and notice some things about her. Acts 16, verse 13. And on the Sabbath day we went out to the city, to the riverside, where prayer was customarily made. And we sat down and spoke to the women who met there. Now it doesn't say that she was there, but as you look at the rest of the context, we understand she was there. Now a certain woman named Lydia heard us. She was a seller of purple from the city of Thyatira, who worshiped God. That's what we think she was there in verse 13. The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul. And when she and her household were baptized, she begged us, saying, If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and stay. So she persuaded us.

Then verse 40, last verse of the chapter, after Paul and Silas are, they get out of jail.

So they went out of the prison and entered the house of Lydia. And when they had seen the brethren, they encouraged them and departed. Now what do we see here about Lydia? Brethren, you all are aware that in Scripture the Bible talks about the beauty of marriage.

It talks about the role of women as wives, as mothers, and all the beauty that is there.

And that's certainly something that we want to aspire to. But on the other hand, not everybody gets married in their life. That is not God's calling for everybody in their life, man or women. Paul was not defective because he didn't get married. I think sometimes in a church we've kind of almost given people the impression that if you don't get married, you're somehow defective. Well, Paul wasn't defective. Our people, singles, are not defective. They are powerful individuals. They can be powerful individuals that God works with if they allow themselves. And here you've got Lydia. No discussion about a man in her life.

Lydia was a professional woman. She was a professional woman. She was a seller of purple fabrics.

It may well be. You know, Holman Bible Dictionary says this. One of Paul's first converts from European continent was Lydia. She was a native of Thyatira. She probably was a member of a guild there in Thyatira, which dealt in purple dye. So here's a woman who is a professional woman. She may have her manufacturing facilities over in Thyatira. She may have a business there, and she certainly has a business in Philippi. So here's a woman who is a business woman, and a very good one. A very good one. So good. As you see here in verse 15, and when she and her household were baptized, notice it says, her household. There's no discussion of a man there. She could be a single.

She could be a widow. She could be divorced. But there's no discussion of a man there. So here we've got a woman who's got a household that's so vague that she can have Paul's entourage.

In Paul's entourage, you had Paul, you had Silas, you had Luke, you had Timothy. Plus, her household, she may have had family members living. She could have had sisters or cousins or aunts or whoever. And she had servants living there with her. In addition, she had the church there. We see from verse 40. So here's a woman who made a good dollar, made a good living. She was a professional woman, and God points her out as a godly woman. So please, let's keep that in mind. She was very good at what she did. As a matter of fact, in verse 15, when she and her household were baptized, she begged us, saying, if you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay. So she persuaded us. You get the impression from the Greek here that Paul and his group really wanted to hit the road. But she was such a good marketer, such a good sales lady, she sold him on the idea. No, no, no. You need to stay with me. I've got all this room, you know, nice rooms, and we'll get you breakfast, and all these sorts of things. She sold Paul and the group on staying with her. So she was, you know, an interesting lady. But notice what it says here, going to verse 14. A woman named Lydia heard us. Notice how God's spirit is working with her. God's, she heard them. She came to the Greek here, gives you the idea that she perked up, she paid attention, she listened, she kept on listening, she gave herself over to what she was listening to. It wasn't just a casual curiosity. Now, she was really intent on listening.

It says here, she was a seller of purple from the city of Thyatira, who worshiped God. And notice, the Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul. To heed. She heard, and then she heeded. When I counsel people for baptism, I say, how do you know God's calling you?

Number one, God opens your mind and your heart. You couldn't get that from any other source than God. Your next-door neighbor can't give you that. Your parents can't give you that. No one gives you that. God has got to open up your heart and mind himself. To see the truth. To understand the truth.

But plenty of people see and understand the truth. Over the years, I've been in many people's homes, who understood the truth about the Sabbath and the Holy Days and this and that and the other. And yet, they've not done what you've done. Talking about courage. You had the courage to go to your boss and say, I can't work from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset. I've got these days in the spring. I've got these days in the fall. I can't work for you then. Brother, that takes courage. That takes courage. And you've shown that courage. But you know what? That shows you God's called you. You had the knowledge, but then you... Like they said in Acts 2, after hearing a Peter sermon, it's the way God works with his family. After they heard the sermon in Acts 2, they said, What shall we do?

So you hear, then you heed, and you do. And you've done that. You've got more than just a hearing. You've got to do the doing. And then verse 15. Now here's where she is a woman. She's obviously a very she's a hardworking, industrious woman who's positioned herself well, and very much in a man's world. You ladies, you may... You know, where you work. I see some of you smiling. It may be the good old boy network where you work. And you know, women are kind of an afterthought. But it was worse back in these days, back in the Roman Empire. That was a lot worse back in those days. So here you've got a woman who's competing in a man's world and doing so very successfully. But notice, when she was baptized, her household was baptized, she had this entourage come in. She had the church meet there in her home. And so what I'm saying to you ladies, and to you fellows who are single, is that hospitality is a powerful way to serve God's people. Hospitality. You know, in the English language, there's a family of words that are related. Hospitality, hospital, and hospice. They're all related words. There, you know, hospice and hospitality, these are places where people are cared for. These are where people are taken care of. And you can work powerfully in people's lives when you have people over to your home. When you have people over to your home, you can exchange your lives with them. You can encourage them and help build them up in a proper way. You can go through scriptures, have Bible studies, all sorts of things you can do to be there for other people. Some of you in this room are very good at that.

I think all of us can grow to be better at it, but some of you are very good at that.

But so many times in a church, the problem we have is, I don't want to invite people to my home. I've got such a humble home.

You know, brethren, I've been in a lot of people's homes, and you know, I don't think any of us go into somebody else's home and say, hey man, this is a humble home. What's wrong with you?

Can this house be any humbler? You know, your mama should slap you for having a humble home like this. I've been in homes where I have enjoyed the hospitality so much, and bless their hearts, I've been in some people's homes. They've been so poor. No two dishes matched.

No two dishes matched. You know, the cups, the glasses were assortment of jelly jars. Who cares? You're there for them. To be there with them. And that's what hospitality is, and that has a powerful impact on people's lives. As we get closer to the end of the age, and we face more and more persecution, that's going to be a tremendously powerful way for us to be there for other people. And so, this woman here, Lydia, what was the power that God used in her life? By her example. By her example. She used her home. She used her hospitality. God gave her. God's Spirit flowed into her and used her in a very powerful way. She was one of the founding members there of the church in Philippi. So, here's an example where God's Spirit worked powerfully, but quietly. Quietly. Last one we want to take a look at is a woman by the name of Phoebe.

Phoebe. Only two verses for her. We have four for Lydia. We're going to cut that in half for Phoebe.

Let's turn to Romans 16.

You know, in the Scriptures we've got Hebrews 11.

Hebrews 11 is the Hall of Fame of Faith. Well, in some ways, Romans 16 is another Hall of Fame chapter. It's the Hall of Fame of Character. Paul is writing to the church there. He realizes that he may not get a chance to be there with them ever again. He's writing to them.

And he wants to applaud what he sees in various ones there. So, here we have in verses 1 and 2, we have this woman by the name of Phoebe. First, let's read it. I commend you, Romans 16, verse 1, I commend you to Phoebe, our sister who is a servant of the church in St. Crea, that you can receive her in the Lord in a manner worthy of the saints, and a sister in whatever business she has need of you. For indeed, she has been a helper of many, and of myself also.

So, when you think about this woman and God's Spirit working powerfully in her, what do we see?

And this is a good example that we can really make our Bible study interesting when we really dig into the gold mine that the Scriptures are. It says, Phoebe. Well, what does that name represent?

That's a pagan name of the goddess Diana and Phoebe. Same name. So, the chances are, her parents probably were not church people. She probably came out of the world just as so many of us have come out of the world. She wasn't born into the church. Paul also says there in verse 1 that she is our sister. She is a member of the church. She is a part of the body of Christ.

She is a woman beloved by Paul and by the believers in her church.

She is a sister. And it says there also in verse 1 that she is a servant. And the word servant there is the word we use for deacon or deaconess. So, she probably was the officer of the church.

Women can be officers of the church. We don't ordain women like we once did. I don't know why.

Maybe just because we men just don't fellowship with the ladies like we once did. I don't know.

My 30 years of working in the church, I've seen very few women ordain as deaconess, but we've got several. My mother-in-law is a deaconess. My sister-in-law is a deaconess. Good, good, good folks. Women who serve in the office as deacon, but they serve in the way that a woman would serve. So, she was a deaconess there, a servant of the church in Sennacheria.

Of course, back in these days, they had needs for, because of the separation of the sexes, even more so than now, for women to take care of other women. And that's one of the things that she did. And Paul says, receive her in a manner worthy of the saints. She is a woman.

She is a woman. But she's a servant. Can a woman be a servant? Yeah, she's a deaconess. So, respect the fact that as a woman, she's got an office. Respect the fact that she's a deacon. And it says here, and as sister, whatever business she has need of you, be a help to her. You know, she's been, and what Paul says, Paul says, she's been a help to me. She's been a help to you. So, help her out when she's asking for help.

What's the lesson to be learned here? The lesson we learned here from the life of Phoebe, a valued member of the church in Rome, is that she was a committed servant of the local church.

Can God use you and use His Spirit in you to be a committed servant to the local church?

You know, chances are the church in Philippi wasn't much bigger than what we've got here in Detroit. So many of the churches met in people's homes. They weren't massive cathedrals that would see thousands of people. But Phoebe was somebody who was committed to the people of God. She helped Paul. She helped the ministers. She helped the members in whatever way she could. And you know, there's no discussion about a Mr. Phoebe here. No discussion at all. So once again, I want to hit the thing that if you're single, there's a lot of things we can do when we're single. Men or women, we're not defective. And I only say that because some people would have others believe that because we're single. Paul was one of the greatest saints who ever lived.

And so forth. So, brethren, you know, I know my time is up here. The day of Pentecost is tomorrow. It's a tremendously powerful message to the day. We've seen where God's Holy Spirit of power places us in His family. We've seen that as God places us in His family, He gives us special gifts.

We've seen that as members of the family who are especially gifted, God is no respecter of persons.

What Gideon did, what Caleb did, you can do. What Lydia did, what Phoebe did, you can do.

We can do. We've got God's Spirit of power. The question is, are you and I going to take up the challenge and be the Christians that God has wanted us to be? The answer is up to us. God will be there. He'll give us the power. He'll give us the encouragement, as He did with Gideon. All we've got to do is ask for it. So, let's keep that in mind.