How Do You Measure Your Faith?

Brethren, I use the Life Application Bible commentary and also the preacher's outline in sermon Bible commentary for the preparation of this material today. I'd like to begin by asking you a question. Do you ever feel boxed in by life? Do you feel that sometimes life herds you into a corner, into a cul-de-sac, and there's no way for you to escape? You feel that there's troubles coming at you from every angle?

You think maybe the situation seems to be nearly impossible. God had a situation that He actually orchestrated many, many years ago. We know it as the children of Israel leaving Egypt. We know it as the children of Israel being led by God.

God led them right there to the side of the Red Sea. You had mountains that made it possible for them to escape to the south and to the west. The Red Sea was on the east, the only direction the compass that was left of them was the north, and Pharaoh was coming from that direction. They were hemmed in by all of those factors. But God did that purposely. There are times where God will lead us into the various challenges we find ourselves in.

Many times as God leads us there, it appears there's no way out. That's the way it appeared to these folks. The whole idea was that God wanted them to learn to trust Him, to learn to trust Him, to not look at the around, but focus on the above. Today, God wants us to leave spiritual Egypt. He wants us to leave and flee from Satan. Back in those days, Pharaoh represented Satan. He wants us to move forward and to go through and over around all those things that we might think are insurmountable that would be like a Red Sea.

Now with that in mind, let's go over to Hebrews 10, because today we're going to talk about faith. Hebrews 10, the very end of the 10th chapter is much like an introduction to the faith chapter, chapter 11. Here in Hebrews 10, verse 38, Hebrews 10.38, it says, Now the just shall live by faith, but if anyone draws back, my soul has no pleasure in him. The just shall live by faith.

Brethren, how exactly do we do that? How do we do that? We drop down into chapter 11, the faith chapter, and we read verse 6. But without faith, it is impossible to please him. Now we want to be pleasing to God, but we need faith to do that.

Without faith, it is impossible to please him. For he who comes to God must believe that, number one, God is. And number two, that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. So if you and I want to walk by faith and please God, we have to appreciate who he is, his power, his glory, his majesty, all of those things.

And then also, if we want to live by faith and walk by faith, it says that we must diligently seek him. And I was asking myself this week as I was preparing the message, you can be asking yourself, how diligent have we been? How diligent have I been? How diligent have you been? And seeking God. You see, brethren, God wants a personal, dynamic relationship with you that will transform your life. That's how you and I live by faith. That's how we walk by faith, by having a personal, dynamic relationship that transforms us, so that we become the people God wants us to be.

And it says he rewards us. Now, unfortunately, over the years, I've known too many people who thought that reward would be a better job, or a bigger home, or a nicer car. If God gave us nothing else as a reward, but that he would give us that relationship with him, isn't that reward enough? A better relationship with God the Father and Jesus Christ. A relationship whereby we have unlimited access to the great God.

What could be any better for a Christian, a man or woman of God? What can be any greater reward than to have that relationship with God and Jesus Christ? Well, we've got to diligently seek him, it says. Now, there's some other things I want to bring to your attention. I'm kind of framing the concept of what I want to cover today in the sermon. Let's go over here to Luke chapter 18. Luke chapter 18.

We will be talking about faith, but what about faith? That's a, you know, a very deep subject, a multifaceted subject. What about faith? I've covered many sermons over the years I've been your pastor about faith. Luke chapter 18 verse 8. Christ says, I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, when Christ comes at his second coming, will he really find faith on the earth? Christ asks an interesting question. When he comes for his bride, will he really find faith on the earth? That's a question that should kind of really echo deeply in our hearts and minds, because he's really talking to his church there. Well, I find faith, you know, obviously there's not going to be that much faith in the world, but will there be faith in the church? Now, let's look at a couple of other scriptures, again, to help frame what we want to cover today. Second Corinthians chapter 5. Second Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 7.

Here in Second Corinthians 5-7 it says, for we walk by faith, not by sight.

We walk by faith, not by sight. What does that mean? Exactly. What are the ABCs of that? What are the nuts and bolts of that? If somebody were to, you know, from the world or somebody who you work with or whoever next door neighbor, they would ask you, what does it mean to walk by faith? How would you begin to respond to that?

Galatians chapter 2, one last scripture I want to read to help frame the material for today, Galatians chapter 2 and verse 20. Galatians 2.20.

Where it says, I have been crucified with Christ, it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. In a life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Once again, I ask the question, what does that mean exactly? What are the nuts and bolts of living by faith? How do we do that? How would we explain that to somebody? Well, brethren, the theme of my message today is this. If you would like to take notes, write this across the top of your paper. Faith that pleases God is not judged by its measure, but by its focus. Faith that pleases God is not judged by its measure, but by its focus.

As we're going to see today, God is not into numbers. They don't mean a great deal to God. They shouldn't mean a great deal to us. What we want is focus. What we want is quality. Today, we're living in some very challenging times. Over the last number of weeks, I've talked about focus. A few weeks ago, I quoted you a one individual who said, when times are blackest, we need to focus all the more so we see the light. Times are getting a little dark right now in a lot of different ways, as was brought out in the opening prayer. Things happening in the world, things happening in this country, and certainly things happening in this church.

Now, let's take a look over here at Matthew 13. Matthew 13.

This helps us understand a very important principle. Matthew 13 verse 31 and 32.

Another parable he put forth to them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field, which indeed is the least of all the seeds. But when it is grown, it is greater than all the herbs and becomes a tree, so the birds of the air come and nest in its branches. So here we see a mustard seed is very, very small. Very small. And yet it does powerful things. If we go over to Matthew 17, Matthew 17 and verse 20.

Now, here in Matthew 17 is a story about a young man who is in need of a healing. The disciples are not able to affect that. The family brings this young man to Christ. Notice what Christ says here, Matthew 17 verse 20. So Jesus said to them, Because of your unbelief, for surely I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, Move from here to there, and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.

Now, my theme today is that faith that pleases God is not judged by its measure. It's not a matter of quantity. It's not a matter of hugeness. If you've got the faith as a grain of mustard seed, just that little bit, finally focused like a laser beam, finally focused, the Bible says you can move mountains.

Now, I guess the critic would say, Well, I've not seen too many mountain ranges moved.

So no one must have any faith on this earth. No one probably ever had any faith on this earth. You are familiar with the phrase, a Bible idiom. This phrase where it talks about moving mountains is just that. It's an idiom. It means to remove difficulties. If we have a laser beam-like faith, we may have just a little mustard seed worth. But if it's really concentrated, hitting the one spot it needs to hit, then we can move difficulties and remove difficulties.

The greatest difficulties in human life can be managed by our faith that God gives us and God strengthens in us. Think of the kinds of mountains that are out there. Fear. That's a mountain. Faith can deal with that. Disappointment. I gave a sermon a few weeks ago about being disappointed with leadership in the church. Depression and despair. Those are mountains for a great many people.

Sickness. Horrible sickness. Debilitating sickness. That can be a mountain to somebody. Temptations. Issues that people have that they just simply feel they can't get away from. They're hobbled by. Guilt is a mountain. Weariness. Loneliness can be a mountain. Persecution. Heartache. All those are mountains. But if we have that faith and it's focused like that laser beam, then God says, Christ says, we can remove those mountains, whatever those mountains are.

Now, as I was thinking about our subject today, what it means to walk by faith and not by sight, I got to thinking about the situation we find ourselves today in the church. And I thought, what can I give the people here in Detroit and Ann Arbor? And I got to thinking about one man's life I think really suits our need. And that man's name is Gideon.

There's more ink in the book of Judges on that man than any other man, including Samson. There are a lot of lessons to be learned and lessons that will serve us well during this time of difficulty in God's church. Let's turn over to Judges 6. This will be a launching point. I'll be going to other places today. But let's take a look at Judges 6, the first ten verses. Get a little bit of background as to what Gideon was facing.

Judges 6, verse 1. And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, so the Lord delivered them into the hand of the hand of Midian for seven years. Now as trials went, this was a relatively short period of time, seven years, but they were a really tough seven years. Verse 2. And the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel because of the Midianites the children of Israel made for themselves the dens, the caves, the strongholds which are in the mountains. So it was whenever Israel had sown, the Midianites would come up, also the Amalekites and the people of the east would come up against them, and they would encamp against them and destroy the produce of the earth as far as Gaza, and leave no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep, nor ox, nor donkey.

For they would come up with their livestock, with their tents, coming in as numerous as locusts, both they and their camels, were without number, and they would enter the land to destroy it. So what you have here in the time of Gideon is this invasion.

This was not a perpetual thing where the Midianites would just stay there all year long. This would be an invasion, an incursion for a while, and then they would go back to their homeland. But what would these people do? Well, they would wait until the crops are all about ready to be harvested or harvested, and then these folks would come. And it says, you know, they were like locusts, and they had these camels.

Now, you and I, in America, we don't think much about camels. But when I say camel here, you think about an Abram's tank, because they were able to travel a hundred miles in a day, and they were a lot of these folks. And just as they were about to start reaping the harvest, or they had just gotten the harvest, the Midianites would come, take everything away, but they hadn't hit.

See in verse 2 where they were hiding things in caves? The only thing that was spared was what they hid. Not only would they hide their food stuffs, they would hide some of their family, because the Midians would come and take them too. These were seven really tough years. Really tough years.

Verse 6. So Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites, and the children of Israel cried out to the Lord. Now isn't this the story of the book of Judges? The people would sin because of being oppressed. They would cry out to God, Please help us! God would then help them. Things would be better for a short time, then they would go back to their sins. Then they would be oppressed. Then they would cry out to God. And the cycle went over and over again. Verse 7. They came to pass when the children of Israel cried out to the Lord because of the Midianites, that the Lord sent a prophet to the children of Israel, who said, Thus says the Lord God of Israel, I brought you up from Egypt and from out of the house of bondage, and I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of all who oppressed you, and have drove them out before you, and gave you their land. And they also said to you, I am the Lord your God. Do not fear the gods of the Amorites, and whose land you dwell, but you have not obeyed my voice. Because of that, God had to spank them, had to show them the error of their way, had to get their attention. God didn't want to do it that way, but that's what the Israelites left God in terms of a tool.

Now, that's background. I've got a number of key issues here that we can learn as we study the discussion here about Gideon. Key number one is that God often calls the least likely person to perform mighty acts.

God often calls the least likely person to perform mighty acts.

I'm not going to turn there. In our in-home Bible studies, we're going through the book of 1 Corinthians. But at the very end of that first chapter in 1 Corinthians, verses 26 through 31, you might want to jot that in your notes, in that section it talks about who God calls. God calls the weak of the world. He's not calling the high and the mighty. He's calling the weak, the humble. Why is he doing that? Because he doesn't want anybody to glory. Anybody to say, well, I did it on my own. We can't do it on our own. We have to do it with God's help. But here in Judges 6, we're going to see how God is now going to call a man who was very...he wasn't much of anything. Do you consider yourself much of anything? Chances are probably no one in this room thinks of themselves as a great hero, thinks of himself as somebody who should be in the Hall of Fame of Faith. I'm sure Gideon didn't think of himself that way. We're going to see that in just a moment. Yet God called him to do some mighty works. Brethren, who knows? There's a story of Esther in the Bible, and here was a young lady that was called upon to save a whole nation. Not just the whole nation, but the Jews throughout the empire. And what did her uncle say to her when she was afraid, or she thought she might lose her life? Mordecai said, you know, Esther, God perhaps has called you for such a time as this. Brethren, who knows whether God is not calling and working with you right now? That someday, you know, no one probably...you'll never have...be called up to the front of the room here in church, and probably no one's going to put anything around your neck saying valor on it.

But one of these days, you'll stand toe to toe with Jesus Christ, and he may well look at you and say, you know, I appreciate your prayers, I appreciate your fastings, I appreciate your zealousness. It is because of you that I was able to bless your household, or I was able to bless your local church, or the people in your region, because I wanted to bless you, much like God did with Joseph. Don't underestimate what God can do through you if you've got a proper attitude. Now, let's take a look. Key number one, as I said, God often calls the least likely to perform mighty acts. In here, the focus, verses 11 through 15, the focus here is on God's greatness, not our weakness. God's greatness, not our weakness. As I think about our situation in God's church, I would think fairly shortly we're going to lose some numbers, and we're going to be weakened.

I don't know how I would define shortly, but we're heading that way.

But God is not concerned about numbers. He's concerned about quality, and what we've got in our hearts, and what we've got in our minds, and the relationship we have, and the focus we have on Him. Let's take a look here now, chapter 6 of Judges, verse 11. Now the angel of the Lord, talking about Christ, the angel of the Lord came and sat under the teremonth tree, which was an opera, which belonged to Joash, while his son Gideon threshed wheat in the winepress in order to hide it from the Midianites. So here we see Gideon in a very small little area. He was getting foodstuffs ready for his family, so they wouldn't be stolen by the Midianites. Verse 12, and the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor.

Now how would you think if God came and sat right next to you right now, right this second, and talked about you, whether you were a man or a woman, a mighty man of valor, a mighty woman of valor, what would you think if Christ just sat next to you right now and said that about you? You'd probably think, me? What have I done? How am I a hero? Well, the truth of the matter is, at this point in time, Gideon hadn't done anything. He hadn't done anything. But what you might want to write in your notes is Romans 4 and verse 17. Romans 4, 17, because in Romans 4, 17, it says that God calls those things which are not as though they are. God knew what he was about to do through this man. He was a humble man. He was a lowly man. He was nothing. But God was everything. And this man was going to be a tool in God's hand. So in some ways, God is saying this to him to encourage him. Verse 13, and Gideon said to him, Oh, my Lord, if the Lord is with me, then why is all this with us? Then why has all this happened to us? And where are all the miracles which our fathers told us about saying, Didn't that the Lord bring us up from Egypt? But now the Lord has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.

But I want you to look at verse 13 real carefully. Here is Gideon, a man of faith. He is in the Hall of Fame of Faith. He is in Hebrews 11, verse 32. And he is asking God questions. He is not doing the Abraham thing here. When God told Abram to do something, he just said, Okay, let's go pack up and go. Now, here is a man who says, I've got some questions for you. I'm not seeing miracles like we used to have. Where are all the miracles in the church? Brethren, I say that to let you know that God works with us in any number of ways. We can be mighty people of faith and still ask questions. To ask a question, there is nothing wrong with that. To question God. We've heard it in the sermon today. To question God. There is nothing wrong with it. God is going to help him.

There are different ways we arrive at the faith God wants us to have. Abraham just simply did it. This guy is asking questions.

Maybe you are full of questions right now about various things. There is no sin in that. Ask God to help you with those questions and he will. Verse 14. Then the Lord, again this is who this angel the Lord is we saw there in verse 11. Then the Lord turned to him and said, Go in this might of yours.

What might of his?

God's Holy Spirit.

The same Spirit you have. Go in this might of yours and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. And so he said to him, Oh my Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed, my clan is the weakest of the Manasseh and I am of the least of my father's house. My family is nothing. I am not Rambo. I am not Rambo's butler. I am nothing. And so here you have an individual who realizes what his station in life is. He realizes he is nothing. And yet God often uses a person like that to perform mighty miracles. Brethren, never shortchange God. Never shorten his arm.

What mountains are before you right now? What mountains are before this church right now? We've got some pretty significant ones right now. Let's not shorten the hand of God at all. Let's make sure that we are looking firmly at him. Because if we do, and we have that proper focus, we can remove those mountains. We can take care of business. Key number two. Key number two, as we are looking at the life of Gideon.

Walking by faith.

We are now going to look at the nuts and bolts here. Walking by faith starts with dedication to God.

We want to have faith. We want to have the kind of faith to be there, to help us be strong with our relationship with God. Be there for our family. Well, it starts by dedicating ourselves to God. I'm not going to turn there, but in Romans 12, verses 1 and 2, we see a New Testament guiding principle with that. I've gone through two or three sermons now. In Romans 12, one of these years we'll get out of Romans 12. We'll spend a whole sermon on verse 1. We are a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. We are to have our hearts and minds transformed and renewed.

We are to dedicate ourselves. We see that over here in Judges 6, verses 25 and 26. Let's take a look at this. Judges 6, verses 25 and 26. Now it came to pass the same night that the Lord said to him, Take your father's young bull, the second bull of seven years old, and tear down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the wooden image that's beside it, and build an altar to the Lord your God on top of this rock in the proper arrangement, and take the second bull and offer a burnt offering with the wood of the image which you shall cut down. Now what we've got there in verse 25 and 26 is a perfect example of the days of Unleavened Bread, isn't it? I didn't do the research to find out what time of the year this was, but here you've got something that's very interesting in that he's getting rid of the sin, and it happened to be his father's sin.

Father was into idol worship, just because your family has some issues doesn't mean God can't work with you.

So here he's going to tear down this idol. He's going to build on top of, build with that wood from the idol, and altar to God, and he's going to make a burnt offering, a burnt sacrifice as there in verse 26.

Now we went through a number of years ago looking at the major offerings of God, all five of them. The burnt offering was a voluntary offering. It was a sweet-smelling aroma to God. The only thing we did voluntarily, and what the burnt offering was symbolic of, was total surrender and dedication to God.

Total surrender and dedication. God wants to say, okay, what's this guy going to do? I'm giving him his marching orders. He's got to have to go in and do some things. He's going to tear something his dad built up. He's going to have to replace something on top of that, and then I want him to dedicate himself to me. That burnt offering, that bull that he's about to kill, an offer, offered the whole animal. It wasn't just a part of the animal, it was the whole animal. Sometimes minus the skins and the larger animals, like a bull, but generally the whole animal, the head, was offered. Now for us as Christians, that represents something. The head represents our thoughts, what's happening in our mind.

As you read the Scripture, I'm not going to take the time to go through all the various things, but you see it there in Leviticus chapter 1. To take the fat and offer that, the fat represented our increase, our goods, our prosperity. They were to sacrifice the inner organs, much like you and I would sacrifice our thinking and also our emotions. Those need to be gods, too, and consecrated to God. They would take the legs and offer those which are representative of the way we walk. All of those were given to God in that burnt offering, showing total dedication to God.

Now, at the beginning of this sermon, I asked if you ever felt that life was boxing you in. Brethren, what Midianites do you have in your life? What Midianites are coming into your life and making a shambles of maybe, maybe not your whole life, but maybe in a part or a section of your life? Where you have unrest, where you don't have peace. They kind of drive in and then they drive back out. They've done their damages like the Midianites and then they drive back out. Well, if we want to walk by faith, we need to start to dedicate or rededicate ourselves to God. And only you in your minds I know where you are at. Only I know where I'm at with that. Our prayer life, our fasting life, our study life, the way we work with God, the way we allow God to work with our hearts and minds. Are we bringing every thought into captivity or are we kind of lazy about that? Are we kind of lazy about that? So, key number two is walking by faith starts with dedication to God. Key number three. Key number three. Walking by faith means having opposition. We just don't sit around in a circle, locking arms, singing kumbaya. All lollipops and lemonade and life. We're under our shade tree and life is good. We're fat and sassy. Now, we're going to have opposition. As I gave in a sermon, put a marker here. Let's go over to Ephesians 6. Our enemy is not our brother and sister in the faith, although we are having some issues right now with some of our brothers and sisters in the faith. Our enemy are not our brothers and sisters. They can be wrong and so can we. Our enemy is Satan the devil. And we need to make sure that's always square in our mind.

Ephesians 6 and verse 12. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood. It's not our brothers and sisters. We didn't wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

That's where the battle is. With a spirit entity. Now, if you are not careful, if I am not careful, he can do significant damage to you or I and cause us to think and act in a way that is unbecoming for us as Christians. And we've all fallen victim to that. But we have to realize where the source is. Let's go back now to Judges 6. Let's want to hit a few highlights here showing what Gideon was up against. Judges 6 and verse 33.

Then all the Midianites and Amalekites, the people of the east gathered together, and they crossed over and encamped in the valley of Jezreel. So you've got this group here. How big a group we have. Chapter 7 and verse 12. Now the Midianites and the Amalekites and all the people of the east were lying in the valley as numerous as locusts, and their camels were without number as it stand by the seashore in multitude. Talking about a tremendous army here. Much bigger than anything these Israelites had there in that vicinity. Over here in chapter 8 of Judges, in verse 10. Now Kebah and the Zalmuna were at Karkor, and their armies with them about 15,000 men. All who were left of the army of the people of the east for 120,000 men who drew the sword at falling. Now, we've not gotten to this place yet, but I wanted to read that section to show you, verse 10 to show you, that the armies that were considered these great armies was 135,000 men. 135,000! Now, you know the story of Gideon well enough to know. It's no big surprise. We're going to peak forward here a little bit. But you're going to have 300 guys going against 135,000. How do you like those odds? 135,000 against 300. Talk about 300 Spartans? Man. This is something else. This is opposition. This is good opposition right here.

Tremendous opposition. Last night, as I was putting my thoughts together, I thought, well, 135,000. How do we relate to that? Well, the city of Ann Arbor is about 115,000. So if you can think of the city of Ann Arbor, and since you're not from there, it may be a little more difficult, but if you think of 300 people, okay, let's go surround Ann Arbor. All 300 of us. That's kind of tough. Kind of tough.

Let's put a mark on there in Judges and go over here to 2 Corinthians 2.

2 Corinthians 2.

And verse 11. 2 Corinthians 2.11, Unless Satan should take advantage of us, for we are not ignorant of his devices. Satan has devices. Like these explosive devices you see there in Afghanistan.

Explosive devices that are meant to blow our minds. Satan's got a great many of them. I just want to give you a few here. We've gone through this and times past, but these are things. This is the opposition we face.

Doubt. Doubt.

People, before I got out of my car today, people were asking me a question about some situation in a church.

Mr. D., who do we look to?

You know who you look to? You look to God. You look to God. You keep that in your hearts and your minds. You always focus like a laser. You look to God. I'm not going to turn there. Romans 3.4 says, Let God be true in every man, every man a liar.

We trust God. We only trust men as they follow Christ. Another explosive device Satan uses is negativism or defeatism.

In your notes, you might want to put Luke 18, verse 27.

With God, nothing is impossible.

We're facing some significant challenges in this church right now. I'm not going to go through all the numbers here with you today. I'll probably be doing that sometime in the fairly near future. But we face some real challenges. You know, brethren, I've got to be honest with you. The reason I'm giving this sermon today is because I probably need it more than any of you.

As I know what's happening behind the scenes, as I read various things, I know what's coming at us, and I know it's not going to be pretty.

But I also know that with God, all things are possible. And I also know that with God, He doesn't care about numbers, whether our numbers are diminished. We've got the whole story of Gideon. How many people did God save in Noah's day? The whole world perished with the exception of eight people.

God's not into numbers. He's into quality. He's into quality. And you want to be building that quality, and I want to be building that quality in our hearts and minds now. Another tool that Satan used, another explosive device, would be discouragement. Discouragement. Oh, man, we've got these issues, and this is happening, and this person's saying this, and this is happening over there. Let's turn over to 2 Timothy chapter 1. 2 Timothy chapter 1.

And allow this, allow your mind to be bathed in these thoughts. 2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 7. For God has not given us a spirit of fear. That's not where God lives. God doesn't live in fear. God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, dunamis, the same word where we get dynamo and dynamite. God has given us a spirit of power and of love and of a sound mind. Power and love and sound mind.

Satan would love to distract us. He would love to blow our minds, to be doubtful, to be negative, to feel defeated, to feel discouraged, to just kind of put our tail between our legs, say, well, I'm just going to walk away and not going to do much of anything.

But I don't care if we've got 300 people left. We've got a work to do. And we better be about our Father's business. Numbers of God are meaningless. It's quality. It's focus that's important. Over here in the book of Ephesians, book of Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 27, Ephesians 4, 27 says, Do not give place to the devil. Don't give him that toehold. How do we give him that toehold? Anger. Letting anger develop into bitterness because of unresolved offenses, unresolved conflict.

Those are a tremendous basic operation that Satan loves to work out of. This last week, for those of you who have got the Internet, I sent you the midweek spiritual pick-me-up I call Thoughts for Your Consideration. This week, and I want to quote a couple of areas here from that, this week my premise was that peace comes from calming internal conflict. Do we have some internal conflict in this church? You better believe we've got some internal conflict in this church. Why is that? Because we... What results from that? A lack of peace results from that. And as I say in my write-up to you, I said, The Bible bears witness to the fact that if we can't calm the internal conflict in our hearts and minds, that a destructive spirit will be born that will produce destructive fruits.

Some people can't have peace with others because they aren't at peace with themselves.

The battle in the field is the outgrowth of what's happening in the heart.

In that particular section, I conclude by saying, the world is filled with people who pace themselves like an imprisoned lion within a cage. They are seeking release from an unknown something which is actually themselves. They have imprisoned themselves through their own thoughts, attitudes, and ways of living. I think that's very much the case for what's happening in God's Church right now. It doesn't have to be true for you. We don't want it to be true for you. You know, I would say this to the Detroit Church as well as to the Ann Arbor Church, as well as to the Ann Arbor this morning. I'll say it to you here in Detroit. If I can use the word and say, I'm proud of you, I am proud of you, because I have a number of friends quite literally around the country and some in different parts of the world. And I know that in some of their congregations, they've got a great deal of upset. There are people that come in, they're trying to divide congregations, they're trying to push certain ideas. It's upsetting to the people in those congregations. In some cases, people are saying, you know, I just won't go back to that local church because it's so upsetting. Well, I salute you. Don't be too puffed up. But I salute you in that that doesn't happen here. I appreciate the maturity that you've shown. Now, if it's happening, I don't know about it. But I appreciate the maturity you've shown that you've come here and you're dedicating, you want to dedicate yourself to God, to His way of life and to doing the work of God. And I salute you for that. And you keep on doing that.

No matter what any other person does, you can't keep that relationship with God, and you're going to be squared away, you're going to be all right. So key number three is walking by faith means having opposition. Key number four. I've got six of these for you. Key number four, walking by faith means God will encourage you. Walking by faith means God will encourage you. Let's go over here to 2 Thessalonians 2.

2 Thessalonians 2. And verse 16. In the sermon of today, Jerry was talking about God giving you various gifts that you might need to get you through life, to help you to be a light, to give God honor and glory. Notice what it says here in 2 Thessalonians 2. Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and our God and Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting consolation, everlasting encouragement, and good hope by grace. We've talked about in times gone by that grace is a multifaceted subject just like faith is. There's one aspect of grace that deals with the forgiveness of sins, but there's other aspects of grace. Paul talked about God's grace would be good for Him and sufficient for Him in times of trial. But here we have a situation where God's grace helps us to be encouraged. Verse 17. Comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word and work. So God is there to encourage you. You ask God for that encouragement. You focus on the loving hand of God in your life and what He's done for you. I don't think I'm alone. When I read the story of Israel coming out of Egypt, all the mighty miracles that pop that nation loose from their captivity, and then they would begin to murmur and complain, and then God would give them more miracles. He would give them water. He would give them food in the desert. He would guide lead them. The pillar of cloud, the pillar of fire, going through the red sea. All these various things God did for them. And then they would continually murmur. And in my mind, I said, what's wrong with those people? All the while not realizing I do it myself. And probably so do you. You know, you and I go through life and grumble and complain. You know, God's not with me, this and that and the other. And why is God doing this? Jerry brought out again in his message earlier today. Well, God brought Israel to that red sea. Wherever you're at now, God has led you there. Now, we may have taken some side trips that God didn't plan because of our bad judgment. But we are basically where God wants us. And how many times has he intervened? How many red seas really have you gone through? How many times have you been healed? How many times have God intervened? In my life, so many, I can't remember them all. And so who am I to look at those Israelites and say, what's wrong with those people? What's wrong with Randy Delisandro? That he can't remember all the various times God has intervened? You know, the fact that he called me. Some 15-year-old kid living in Roseville, Michigan. What's Roseville, Michigan? You know, that's no great address. Living right next to a freeway. But God decided to call a 15-year-old kid, didn't call any of his family, called me. Eventually, he sent me to Ambassador College, gave me a tremendous education, gave me an opportunity to have his Holy Spirit have my sins forgiven. I've been granted the opportunity to be your pastor, which has been a priceless privilege for me. What has God done for me? So many things, you know, so many things in so many areas.

Walking by faith means God will encourage you. You remember all those things God has done for you. Let's go back to Judges 6. Because, again, unlike Abraham, here's a guy who, you know, one of the Hall of Fame guys in terms of faith, but he was different than Abraham. And just because you're different doesn't mean there's something wrong with you.

Let's take a look at something here. In some ways, it's kind of humorous. This is Judges 6.

Here we're going to see how this man is going to focus on what God has done in his life. Judges 6, verse 36, Then Gideon said to God, If you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said. So Gideon's going to put God to the test here. Look, I shall put fleece of wool on the threshing floor, and if there is dew on the fleece only, and it is dry out all on the ground, then I shall know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said. And so it was. When he rose early the next morning and squeezed the fleece together, and rung out to dew out of the fleece, a bowl full of water.

Now Gideon's quite the character. He's not going to stop there. Verse 39, Then Gideon said to God, Do not be angry with me, and let me speak just once more. Let me test, notice how he says this, let me test, I pray, just one more with the fleece. Let it not 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 the fleece only, but there was dew all on all the ground. Now here's a guy that needed some encouragement. Here's a guy that God worked with. Didn't do this sort of thing with Abraham.

Abraham didn't need that. But you know, God works with each of us according to our own... We all have our own little peculiarities. We all have our own little weirdities. You know? And that was his. His own little brand of weirdness. And God worked with that. And he was going to be a mighty man of valor and a tremendous judge in Israel. There are different ways to get to the same location. So just because somebody exhibits their faith a little differently than the earth doesn't mean it's not a great faith. He was shown something. And God, in his mind, he was able to respond.

Now I'll say this about asking God for science. Be careful with that. Certainly I don't mean to in any way poo-poo what we have here in Judges 6. But I'd hate to think that some of you going home tonight are saying, Well, I've got a decision to make. God, if these next three stoplights are all green, I know which way you want me to go.

Be careful with that kind of thing. Just be careful with that. Key number four was walking by faith means God will encourage you. Key number five. Key number five of the six, walking by faith means not looking to physical circumstances alone. Not looking to physical circumstances alone. Let's go over to that faith chapter, Hebrews 11. Hebrews 11. Verse 1. Now faith is the substance. Now here we're seeing what the nature of faith is. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Faith deals with unseen factors. Faith deals with spiritual dynamics that the human eye doesn't see. For by it the elders obtained a good testimony. By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible. Faith believes there is another dimension, a spirit dimension, in which there is tremendous power. And so walking by faith means we're not looking to physical circumstances.

We go back now to Judges, this time chapter 7. Judges chapter 7. Here we're going to see Gideon focusing on the spiritual dynamics of the situation. And brethren, you and I have to ask ourselves, are we doing the same thing? As you and I are confronting the Midianites and the Amalekites in our lives, as we are coming face to face with our mountains, are we looking at this thing from a spiritual perspective or a physical perspective?

Judges chapter 7 verse 1. Then Gideon and all the people who were with him rose early on in camp aside the well of Harod, so that the camp of the Midianites was on the north side of them, by the hill of Amorah in the valley. And the Lord said to Gideon, The people who are with you are too many for me to give to the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel claim glory for itself against me, saying, My own hand has done this.

Verse 3. Now therefore proclaim in the hearing of 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. So here they are about to go up against an army of 135,000. 135,000. They began with an army of 32,000. That's roughly four to one odds. You like those odds? Four to one? You want to go into a fight where there's four of them and one of you? But then they went down to a lot less than that. 10,000. 10,000. Basically, we have 13 to one odds. But it gets even better.

Verse 4. And the Lord said to Gideon, The people are still too many. 10,000! That's too many. The people are still too many. Bring them down to the water, and I'll test them there for you. Then it will be that of whom I say to you, This one shall go with you, the same shall go with you. And whoever I say to you, 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 lapsed from the water with his tongue, as a dog lapsed, you shall set apart by himself. Likewise, everyone who gets down on his knees to drink. And the number of those who lapped, putting their hands to their mouth, was 300 men. But all the rest of the people got down on their knees to drink water.

Verse 7. The Lord said to Gideon, By the three hundred who lapped, I will save you, and deliver the Midianites into your hand. Let all the other people go, every man to his place.

You thought four to one odds is kind of harrowing? I mean, would you like to play a pickup game of basketball, or is four of them in one of you? What are the odds now? The odds are now 450 to one. 450 to one. God says, Ah, that's about right. That's about right. Here we see the fact that walking by faith means not looking to the physical circumstances.

God overpowers the physical circumstances. Please keep that in mind. God overpowers, you know, that unseen hand, that other dimension. God overpowers the circumstances. All things are possible through God. We don't have to have a spirit of fear, but of a sound mind, because we are resting upon the great God. That brings us to our last key for today, key number six.

Key number six, walking by faith means God will fight our battles, but we must do our part. Walking by faith means God will fight our battles, but we must do our part.

If you're looking there in Judges chapter 7, drop down here to verse 16. Judges chapter 7 verse 16.

Then He divided the three hundred men into three companies, and He put a trumpet into every man's hand. Every one of these people, every one of these three hundred, there's something that they each have. This is Judges 7, 16. He put a trumpet into every man's hand. He also put an empty pitcher and also a torch.

Now, for those of you who like numbers, three is a number of judgment. God was going to judge the Midianites. Three is also the number of finality. They were going to be dealt with once and for all, at least in terms of what we have in this episode. Now, turn our attention. I think there are some... and this may be my own heresy here, my own speculation. But what do those three things represent? I don't have time to read the whole story and what they did, but to me, that trumpet represents the work of the church. We are to sound a blast. We are to warn the people. The trumpets were used in time of war.

This work is to prepare our nation and the world for the second coming of Christ, and Christ will be coming during a time of world war.

The jar, a earthen jar, represents a humble, kind of a hollowed out earthen vessel. It represents you and I. And of course, that torch, the flame representing God's Spirit, is power. So what you have here are human beings who are humble before God, full of zeal, full of God's Holy Spirit, with a work to be done.

Numbers are not the key. What is key is what God wants to be done, not the numbers. So here in Judges 7, we drop down to verse 21.

So right here you see 120,000 of these men are either routed or killed.

300 guys. 300 guys, and not one of them is lost.

You know, they talk in history about Andy Jackson and the Battle of New Orleans. It's a famous battle. It took place during the War of 1812. It was a battle because of the way how slow communications were back in those days. The war between England and us was already over, but the war had not gotten to Andy Jackson and his band of people near the bayous there in New Orleans. And so here you have these crack, the best army in the world, the British. And I forget exactly how many thousand. They had 4,000 or 5,000 men. I think Andy Jackson had 1,800 men or something like that.

You know, the odds were not good. And it was a very hot day, and these English are marching the way they would straight at Andy Jackson's line. And, you know, of course he had Jean Lafitte, the pirate. They had cannon. They had superior rifles, those long squirrel guns. And the bottom line was several, I forget exactly the numbers, but the British lost, I think, many hundreds. And I think Andy Jackson lost 6 or 8 guys.

Don't quote me on the exact numbers, but it was something like that. Something like that. But here you've got 300, and not a single one of them is lost. And they've either killed or routed 120,000 people. 120,000 people. What does that tell you? Okay, Chapter 8, Verse 4 of Judges. When Gideon came to the Jordan, he had already routed or killed 120,000 with his men. When Gideon came to the Jordan, he and the 300, so there we see, not one of those guys dropped.

Not one. He and the 300 men who were with him crossed over exhausted but still in pursuit. They were pursuing 15,000 guys, 300. Now there's a lesson, therefore, in Verse 4. Now the lesson is that we are to work hard all of our lives to root out unbelief, to root out sin, to root out things that shouldn't be there. Tremendous story for the days of Unleavened Bread. Tremendous story for us in our lives with God. You know, we want to walk by faith. Well, again, we've got to dedicate ourself. Even though we're exhausted, we've got to continue on and ask God to give us the strength.

Time is moving along here, as well as verses 5-9. Let's just read a little bit of this. Chapter 8, verse 5. Then he said to the men of Sukhoth, this is Gideon, says to the men of Sukhoth, Please give loaves of bread to the people who follow me, for they are exhausted, and I am pursuing Zeba and Zalmuna, kings of Midian. And the leaders of Sukhoth said, Are the hands of Zeba and Zalmuna now in your hand, that we should give bread to your army? Here you've got 300 guys chasing 15,000 guys. And they're tired. And they're weary. And they've been through battle. That takes an emotional toll on a person. They're hungry. And yet, their fellow countrymen say, Well, you know, we don't like those odds.

15,000 against you, 300? We don't like those odds. Now, you know, Gideon's already taking care of 120,000. So these odds are nothing. But here you show, here you have a contrast here of a group of people who show total faithlessness. They were looking at the numbers.

And basically, Gideon says, I will remember this. What you're saying here, I will remember this. Verse 8. That he went up from there to a penuel and spoke to them in the name of the same way. And the man of penuel answered him as the man of Suckoff. We're not going to help you either. Get lost. So he spoke to the man of penuel and saying, When I come back in peace, I will tear down this tower. I'll tear it down. And so then you see the guys keep on going after. Eventually, here we see in verse 12 that these two kings are captured.

Gideon does his part. He and his 300 men rout 135,000. Many of those were killed. Others ran into the bushes. Gideon has the prize of these two kings. That's the story of Gideon. Now, of course, the people wanted, when they saw how great this was, and he was a mighty man of valor at this point, notice what it says here in chapter 8, verse 22. Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, Rule over us, both you and your son, and your grandson also. For you have delivered us from the hand of Midian. But Gideon said to them, I will not rule over you, nor shall my son rule over you.

The Lord shall rule over you. Brethren, you remember that statement. Right now in the church we've got two groups. Both claiming to be on the side of righteousness, both claiming to be right, both having a set of facts that back up their point of view, and each set of facts, there's no reconciling to facts when you look at what the two sides are saying. My art goes out to the brethren. Of course, now I know where I stand and what I believe, because I know the guys we've got on our current council.

I know their character. I went to school with four of those men. A fifth man performed the wedding for Mary and I. A sixth man, my wife Mary, lived with Mr. and Mrs. Holiday for a number of months before we got married. Mr. Kubik was the one who did our wedding. I know those men. I know their character. But the bottom line is, what we see here in verse 23, the Lord shall rule over you. You keep that in your heart and mind. You don't have to worry about this group or that group.

You remember your relationship with God. You remember the faith that pleases God is not judged by its measure, but by its focus. You have a laser-like focus on the things of God. You have a laser-like focus on what the Bible has to say, and you will never be disappointed by anybody. By God, I should say. Men will disappoint you. We talked about that several weeks ago. But God and His Word will never disappoint you.

In Luke chapter 18, verse 8, Christ said, When the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth? Brethren, that's up to you. It's up to me. What are we going to do about the story of Gideon in our lives? Are you and I going to follow the example of Gideon? Are we going to follow the things he did? Are we going to make the various keys to walking by faith a part of our lives? Well, that story has yet to be told in our lives. Let's make it a point that we are going to please God by focusing in on Him.