(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Song number 75 on Jordan's Stormy Banks. Song number 75. . . . On the first On Jordan's Stormy Banks I stand and cast a wishful high To Canaan's fair and happy Where my possessions lie I am bound for the promised land I'm bound for the promised land Oh who will come and go with me I am bound for the promised land On the second All o'er those wide extended plains shines one eternal day There God the sun forever rains and scatters night away I am bound for the promised land I'm bound for the promised land Oh who will come and go with me I am bound for the promised land On the third No chilling winds nor poisonous breath can reach that healthful shore Sickness and sorrow pain and death are felt and feared no more I am bound for the promised land I'm bound for the promised land Oh who will come and go with me I am bound for the promised land On the last When shall I reach that happy place and be forever blessed When shall I see my father's face and in his bosom rest I am bound for the promised land I'm bound for the promised land Oh who will come and go with me I am bound for the promised land All right At this time we'll have Pastor come up and he will read us the announcements All right well good morning welcome to shelter faith Baptist Church If you've got a bulletin and you open it up on the inside left you'll see where it says weekly church service times We've got Sunday mornings at 10 30 Sunday evenings are at 6 and Wednesdays at 7 PM Underneath that list of soul wanting times if you've got any questions 208-391-5323 is the number to call Next page under announcements Let's see here soul wanting training class We're not going to do it this Saturday and we're going to take this next Saturday off and then we'll start the Saturday after so normal soul wanting time this coming Saturday Let's see here in honor of Pastor Appreciation Weekend Sunday April 28th we're going to have a potluck so I'm going to bring a bunch of meats here So if you like or you can please bring a side dish or a dessert to share Men's leadership class will be Friday May 10th Mother's Day May 12th Let's see here Birthdays for April So we've got tomorrow We've got a birthday tomorrow Mary Olise She's a big girl And then on the 24th is mine and on the 27th we have our very own prophet Isaiah his birthday is on the 27th And I've got the perfect person to give him a spanking next weekend so I'm looking forward to that We are a family integrated church We don't separate children from parents for any reason If you need privacy Dads you're going to use this room to your left This hallway here Down the next one your monitor should be all set up ready to go Don't forget to turn your phones off or place them on silent so they are not a distraction And last but not least on this red table We've got these communication cards If you have a prayer request or a praise, write it down Drop it in the offering box and I'll make sure and get it We'll get it to the appropriate place And with that being said We're going to go ahead and have one more song and then we will have the Bible reading Alright everyone turn to song number 316 A little bit of ways away in your hymnal song number 316 I have decided to follow Jesus On the first I have decided to follow Jesus I have decided to follow Jesus I have decided to follow Jesus No turning back No turning back On the second Though none go with me Still I will follow Though none go with me Still I will follow Though none go with me Still I will follow No turning back No turning back On the last The world behind me The cross before me The world behind me The cross before me The world behind me The cross before me No turning back Alright At this time we will have the Bible reader come up and they will read us the chapter Good morning everybody Open your Bibles to Judges chapter 7 Judges chapter 7 Judges 7 starting in verse 1 And it shall be that of whom I say unto thee This shall go with thee The same shall go with thee And of whomsoever I say unto thee This shall go with thee The same shall go with thee And of whomsoever I say unto thee This shall go with thee The same shall go with thee And of whomsoever I say unto thee This shall go with thee The same shall go with thee The same shall go with thee The same shall go with thee And of whomsoever I say unto thee This shall not go with thee The same shall not go So he brought down the people unto the water And the Lord said unto Gideon Everyone that lapeth of the water with his tongue As a dog lapeth Him shall thou set by himself Likewise everyone that boweth down upon his knees to drink And the number of them that lapped putting their hand to their mouth Were three hundred men And the rest of the people bowed down upon their knees to drink water And the Lord said unto Gideon By the three hundred men that lapped will I save you And deliver the Midianites into thine hand And let all the other people go every man unto his place So the people took victuals in their hand and their trumpets And he sent all the rest of Israel every man unto his tent And retained those three hundred men And the host of the Midian And it came to pass the same night That the Lord said unto him Arise, get thee down unto the host For I have delivered it into thine hand But if thou fear to go down Go thou with Phura Thy servant down to the host And thou shalt hear what they say And afterward Shall thine hands be strengthened to go down unto the host Then went he down with Phura His servant unto the outside Of the armen that were in the host The Midianites The Midianites and the Amalekites And all the children of the east lay along In the valley like grasshoppers for multitude And their camels were without number As the sand by the seaside for multitude And when Gideon was come behold There was a man that told a dream unto his fellow And said, behold, I dreamed a dream And lo, a cake of barley Bread tumbled in the host of Midian And came unto a tent And smote it that it fell And overturned it that the tent lay along And his fellow answered and said This is nothing else save the sword Of Gideon the son of Joash A man of Israel For into his hand hath God delivered Midian And all the host And it was so, when Gideon heard The telling of the dream And the interpretation thereof That he worshipped and returned in the host of Israel And said, Arise For the Lord hath delivered into your hand The host of Midian And he divided the three hundred men And their companies And he put a trumpet in every man's hand With empty pitchers And lamps within the pitchers And he said unto them, Look on me And do likewise And behold, when I come to do When I come to the outside of the camp It shall be that as I do So shall ye do When I blow with the trumpet And all that are with me Then blow ye the trumpets also Every side of all the camp Gideon So Gideon and the hundred men That were with him came Onto the outside of the camp in the beginning Of the middle watch and they put But newly set And they had but newly set the watch And they blew the trumpets and break The pitchers that were in their hands And the three companies blew the trumpets And break the pitchers Pitchers and held the lamps In their left hands and the trumpets In their right hands to blow With all and they cried The sword of the Lord and of Gideon And they stood every man in his place Round about the camp And all the hosts ran and cried and fled And the three hundred blew the trumpets And the Lord set every man's sword Against his fellow even throughout all the hosts And the hosts fled To Beth, Shittah and Zareth And to the border of Abel Mahola unto Tabith And the men of Israel Gathered themselves together out of Naphtali And out of Asher And out of Manasseh and pursued after the Midianites And Gideon Sent messengers throughout all Mount Ephraim Saying come down against the Midianites And take before them the waters Unto Beth, Beura and Jordan Then all the men of Ephraim Gathered themselves together And took the waters Unto Beth, Beira and Jordan And they took two princes Of the Midianites Orep and Zeb And they slew Orep And Zeb they slew At the winepress of Zeb And pursued Midian And brought the heads of Orep And Zeb to Gideon On the other side Jordan Brother Chris you want to pray for us? Alright Amen Judges chapter number 7 So this week we are going to take a look at The battle of 300 I know Hollywood's got their own version And that is Far far inferior To this story here Last week we talked about the Altar of Baal That Gideon threw down And talked about the groves And so we are going to pick it up right after that Where a bunch of people join themselves Unto Gideon And for some reason the majority Of them wind up leaving Gideon so we are going to look at that And the reason for that And the story exposes a weakness In the majority of people Most people have this weakness Some people learn to control it And so I titled this sermon Why are most people weak? So we are going to take a look at why God reduces Gideon's army From 32,000 Down to 300 There is a reason for that Very valuable lesson And I think it will be very applicable So let's start off here And look at verse number 16 So the Bible says here And he divided the 300 men Into three companies And he put a trumpet in every man's hand With empty pitchers And lamps within the pitchers And so we will talk about that here at the end But basically you've got 300 men That all have three different Things that are given to them We've talked about this before The three being a picture of completeness Or perfection In the Bible And so you can kind of see that there Now keep your place there in Judges 7 But go to Isaiah chapter number 14 Isaiah chapter number 14 And what you are going to find Over and over again Throughout the story You are going to find the same principle Really throughout the entire Bible And that is this Man looks at large numbers as strength Man looks at large numbers as a weakness Now in the world Of course this means things For example If we were to go on to World War 3 Obviously the Chinese having A 200 million man army Would be a very big problem Even if we have more sophisticated weapons I don't care You put a butter knife in the hand of each one of those people If they've got courage That's a problem But when it comes to spiritual warfare You can see that man looks at numbers As a strength but God looks at large numbers As a weakness So just to kind of show you this principle here You are in Isaiah chapter 14 I'm going to read for you a verse out of Luke chapter 13 And so this is a question That the disciples ask Jesus And it's very important to listen to this So the Bible says You just stay in Isaiah 14 So the disciples say this Then said one unto him Lord are there few That be saved And we know the answer to that If you read the rest of the passage The answer is obviously yes We know that there are few That find the truth So what does that mean? Well that means that the majority of people Become something The majority of people unfortunately Due to their own choice Wind up going to hell But what is said in the Bible About that majority And so this Talking about The devil Also the king of Babylon It's kind of a parallel passage here But I just want you to look at verse 10 So these people are in hell And they are looking At Satan and they say this All they shall speak and say unto thee So this is God Saying this is what's going to happen Art thou also become weak As we This is just a reality Man looks at large numbers As a strength And Christians often will have this same attitude We've all had this before We've all been like man if we could just have like 500 people in church we'd be able to get A lot more done That's not necessarily true That is not necessarily true Nor is that the right mindset But when you look at this verse here What do these people say When people go to hell what do they realize They have no power They can never escape they can never get out And so they are weak and so that's why I titled the sermon Why most people are weak There is a flaw that the story And judges is trying to highlight Trying to expose And you guys know the sayings The world says all the time Well there's strength in numbers You really think that Most people are wrong I'll just do what most people say And if Jesus really is real Or you know the sins of everybody I'll just be grafted into that That's what most people tend to think Most people think there's no way that the masses The majority could be wrong But according to the bible You're going to see that that is not true The majority is weak We've talked about this in the last couple of months But it's in the story so let's look at it Now go back to judges chapter number 7 Let's begin to break down Gideon's army So Gideon starts like I said 32,000 people 32,000 people And God tells him you know what Gideon That's still too much Too many people And so we need to reduce that So God comes up with a plan To make that happen Now look at this first test here First basic test Keep in mind where we're at in the story The children of Israel have gone into idolatry They've gotten enslaved By the Midianites So the Midianites have oppressed them Taken away weapons, they're taking away food They're taxing them very heavily And so the children of Israel are now crying out to God God raises up Gideon And so what needs to be done At this point in the story Well a war needs to be started With an army of the Midianites Which according to chapter 8 is somewhere around 135,000 people Okay So right here you've got 32,000 And then you've got the army of the Midianites 135,000 roughly I would be like in my own fleshly wisdom Like well let's keep all 32,000 Let's just try to trade them up Get them some wisdom here But God has different plans Now look at this very first test here In verse number 3 So the Bible says Now therefore go to proclaim in the ears Of the people saying Whosoever is fearful And afraid Let him return and depart early From Mount Gilead And their return of the people 22,000 And there remained 10,000 So out of 32,000 people They were given one easy test Okay Hey if anybody's fearful If anybody's afraid you can leave Without consequence Without anybody making fun of you Just go ahead and go back to your tent Go back home and go live your life And the majority what do they do I'm out okay So what does this teach us about human nature That's what we need to understand Well keep your place in Judges 7 But just go back to Judges chapter number 6 Real quick okay And let's just review Three verses that we talked about last week As we closed out last week's sermon Okay so after Gideon Does something that takes a lot of courage Okay and throws down the altar of Baal Faces the people that now want him dead And so on and so forth And after he gets the ball rolling Okay because remember if God's gonna deliver the nation They need to get rid Of that idolatry They need to get right with God And call upon him That has now happened So look at verse 33 Look at the first word there Then okay then So that means something new is coming Something new has happened There's been a change in culture here Then all the Midianites Were gathered together and went over And pitched in the valley of Jezreel But the spirit of the Lord Came upon Gideon and he blew A trumpet and look at this And Abizer was Gathered after him So the people of this town said okay Cool trumpet's blown we're gonna join ourselves To Gideon look at verse 35 And he sent messengers Throughout all Manasseh Who also was gathered after him And he sent messengers Unto Asher and unto Zebulun and unto Naphtali And they came up to meet him So he's got these people From his nation that have joined unto him He's now at 32,000 People and God says first of all This is too many okay And I've got a real easy way to reduce The number just ask one simple Question hey who's scared Hey who's scared if you're scared you can bounce You can go home okay and of course That can preach by itself because we know this Fear is a Snare unto men and it's contagious And so on and so forth but That's not what we're dealing with we want to know Like why was the majority of people When given the option afraid What in the world's going on here so go back To chapter number seven And just keep your place there and I'm gonna Have you guys go to proverbs 14 Okay so what that teaches us Is that when the going gets tough Okay look at this the tough Get going home that's really what this Tells you okay the tough get going Home gi joe had it wrong He had it wrong he said well you know when the Going gets tough the tough get going and if you're An 80s kid you probably understand what I'm talking About but In reality a lot of people Think they're tough but When the rubber meets the road and Something very difficult Is presented to you And God says you know what this is gonna require Some self starters this is gonna require Some self builders this is gonna require some people With attention to detail Most people are like yeah I kinda wanna come in after The hard part like After the beaches have been stormed After the majority of the city's been taken Then we'll come in and Take part in the battle that's how Most people are that's what this Teaches but this also teaches Us that in the majority of Situations the Majority cannot be counted On okay that's just Unfortunately a reality That I've seen in life And I'm sure you guys have seen it as well Given the opportunity when a Very difficult task is put On the table most people won't Do it okay This also teaches us That what is right and what is Wrong is not determined By the individual Nor by the majority you're there in Proverbs 14 look at this here in verse number 12 So the Bible says this There is a way which Seemeth right unto a man But the end thereof Are the ways of death Okay so man Devises a way and says you know I think this is right that branches Off into many ways And God is saying those ways Lead to death okay And the obvious answer here the obvious One that we can all think of Is the way to heaven the Bible says it's very Easy it's very simple it's a very Simple road but what does man do man Says well it's not quite that Easy okay you gotta Do this and you gotta do that and you Gotta say this and you gotta go through that That's how you get to heaven but What do those ways do they lead To death okay So again there is a way Which seemeth right unto a man but the end There of are the ways of Death okay that's telling Us that right and wrong is not determined By the individual man nor By the majority but by the word of God Okay and I want to show you Did I have you go to First Samuel 8 Go to first Samuel chapter 8 if I didn't Okay we're going to take a look at a picture of this here So in first Samuel chapter number 8 This is after Really as the system of judges Is closing down The people have now gotten weary okay They're tired of the rollercoaster going up Serving God going back into idolatry Getting enslaved and the whole Circle getting rescued and they Have a way that they think is right Okay so what they've been doing is they're looking around At all the other nations in the world and saying man They've got a king they got a king they got A king that's strength Okay cause that king can really muster up a lot of People and go to war and he's out There giving commands and it looks cool And there's large armies and they got all this Gear that looks awesome Okay so man Has devised a way And God has been from the beginning trying to Tell his people hey guess what This is a better System okay But the people decide you know what we want to be Like the world we want to go with the flow we want to go with The majority here Look at how God takes this We're going to look at verse number 1 first look what it says It says and it came to pass when Samuel was old That he made his sons judges Over Israel Look at verse 2 Now the name of his first born was Joel And the name of his second Abiah They were judges in Beersheba And his sons walked not In his ways but turned aside after Lucre took bribes and Perverted judgment now Samuel Was a great guy Samuel loved the Lord Samuel served the Lord very Very zealously but unfortunately His children did not turn out that way Verse number 4 Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together and came to Samuel unto Ramah so look at the effect That this has on the nation okay Samuel is somewhat to blame In this okay I don't have time to really break that down But I want to show you this So verse 5 and said unto him behold Thou art old and thy sons Walk not in thy ways Now make us a king to judge Us like all the nations So I mean Just because Samuel In his zeal to serve the Lord Obviously neglected to spend enough Time with his children His children later in life did Actually guess what guess what they did They departed from the ways of the Lord Did not serve him completely And it became a vexation unto the nation So what they're saying now is like oh Well I guess we ought to turn to the world I guess we ought to turn to a secular system To get right and to actually be a powerhouse And to be a powerful nation Okay but there's also another Underlying issue here look at verse 6 But the thing displeased Samuel When they said give Us a king to judge us And Samuel prayed unto the Lord It would have been better if they would have said hey You know your kids are just jacked up They're just not fit for this we need to ask God If he could give us some different judges That would have been the best thing That would have been the right thing to do But they're fed up they've had enough and they're like You know what we want to be like the other places We want to be like the other nations give us a king Now look at how God takes that Okay remember Man looks at large numbers as a strength However God looks at large numbers as a weakness And you see that right here in verse 7 God says unto the voice of the people And all that they say unto thee For they have not rejected thee Here it is But they have rejected me That I should not reign over them So that is really what's at the heart Of the request Of the children of Israel God takes that personally And I believe that God takes it personally When we adopt the mindset Well we can't be great in Boise We can't be great as a church We can't be taller than the other ones Okay that is a weakness God looks at that and says what's wrong with you That is weakness That's not how I establish things God's word is powerful Gideon calls it later on in the chapter The sword of the Lord And of Gideon And that's the mindset that all of us Need to have Go to Exodus chapter 23 real quick Exodus chapter number 23 So we see that going with the majority God's strength is always sufficient For our needs In any situation And most of the time in life You will feel outnumbered You will feel outgunned You want to know why? Because we are outnumbered We are outgunned There are more people that are lost Out there in the world Than that are saved And understand the word of God So when you're at work You're going to be the odd man out You just have to accept that and realize that And learn to stand strong In that situation Because it is not going to change But this also gives us Another obvious lesson In that we need to always observe the herd Okay when the majority of people are deciding to go one way We as God's people need to step back And be like hold on for a second Okay what's going on What do we know about this situation Okay well the majority of people here Are rejecting themselves with a secret sauce Well who's behind this? Who's driving this? Who's pushing this? Okay We need to look into those things And make a legitimate Logical wise decision On whether or not that is something That we need to partake in And I'm sure you understand What I'm trying to say So back, you're in Exodus 23 Look at verse number 2 The Bible says right here Thou shall not follow Do evil Neither shalt thou speak in a cause To decline after many to rest judgment Look this is the world we're living in today Where judgment is put on the table As evil Oh you're a bigot, you're a racist, you're this, you're that Don't judge We all get that, we hear it every single day Whereas the Bible says We ought to judge righteous judgment The spiritual judgeth all things And we need to learn the word of God So that we can take a look at situations This is the way we're going to go We're not going to follow the multitude Now obviously today we see the multitude Doing all sorts of evil All sorts of harmful things to themselves To other people And we want no part of that Now go back to Judges chapter number 7 So far what do we got? We've got this very simple test 32,000 people That join themselves unto Gideon God says hey that's too much That's too much So what we're going to do right now before we move on Is that look at how God's Treating the Midianites Because we know they got about 135,000 people And God's like 32,000 is way too much For these idiots God's actually insulting the enemy Which is a lesson that he hopes his people would see And not get envious Or super jealous over If you get what I'm trying to say Because I wonder if a lot of these people At least in this next crowd That didn't get selected to go on the first mission Oh man that's terrible I could have done this and I could have done that And actually you do see that with Ephraimites in chapter number 8 Ok so we've got 32,000 God says hey anybody that's scared Hit the road you can go home right now That's it you're scared go You can leave 22,000 are gone and so what are we left with? We're left with 10,000 Look at verse 3 Now therefore go to proclaim in the years of the people Saying Whosoever is fearful and afraid And the Lord said unto Gideon The people are yet too many Bring them down unto the water Now I want you to pay attention To this next phrase here This next sentence Ok look at this right here And I will Try to Bring them down unto the water And I will Try to Bring them down unto the water And I will And I will try Them for thee There And it shall be that of whom I say unto thee This shall go with thee The same shall go with thee And of whomsoever I say unto thee This shall not go with thee The same shall not go So what you're about to read here is God trying or testing Discerning this crowd of 10,000 people And he's looking for a certain Characteristic in these 10,000 People and you already know only 300 of them have that ok The reason why I'm bringing this up is because a lot of scholars Will say a lot of I've heard a lot of pastors say you know there's nothing Magical there's nothing Super virtuous there's no real Lesson to be learned here it's just that God Wanted to use 300 people and that's it Ok that's not the way that I see it Because this verse here is very clear God says to Gideon I Will try them for thee Why does he say that? Well because God Looks at man differently Than man looks at man we all know That God is all knowing he's everywhere He's always present and his Thoughts are high above Our thoughts and he can see Things within us that we can't see In ourselves and so God Is doing a favor for Gideon says I'll take Care of it I will do the selection you Don't have to worry about it you just follow my Directions ok so we've got this 10,000 people left Over here that are ready to fight They are ready to go ok But God is only going to Choose 300 for the starting Of the war ok now later on These people are going to be used ok They're going to be used in the rest of the Battle but for the start of it For the very start up God says I only need 300 so that means 9,700 Are going to have to go home ok Now before we go to verse 5 Back up to verse number 2 Look at verse 2 again And the Lord said unto Gideon the people That are with thee are too many For me to give the Midianites into their hands Lest Israel vaunt themselves Against me saying mine own hand Hast saved me so God keep in mind God is looking for people that are Not selfish Ok he wants people that are selfless He wants people that are Vigilant he wants people that Have this characteristic of putting Others first and themselves Last and I believe This is my opinion but I believe that is what You're going to see in this next test so let's Talk about it ok look at verse number 5 now here's the test Verse 5 so he brought Down the people unto the water And the Lord said unto Gideon Everyone that lapeth in the water With his tongue as a Dog lapeth him shall Set by himself likewise Everyone that boweth down upon his Knees to drink ok Now when I was a kid maybe you guys couldn't relate I don't know you know we would try to Like mimic dogs and you know play house Whatever and try to drink water like a dog And just goof around it's very difficult Ok and the First time I read this I was like Did they drink water like that back then? And I read it again I was like oh I get what he's trying to say I get what he's trying to say let's read it again Slowly just so that we're all on the same page Ok so he brought down the people unto the water And the Lord said unto Gideon everyone that lapeth Of the water with his tongue as A dog lapeth ok well we know that A dog uses his tongue to draw the water Into his mouth ok So how does man Drink water well there's Two ways that God is going to look at this Crowd here and determine how they Drink water so I'm looking around here Who's drinking water out of a bottle you know Why don't we have a test here who's drinking Water out of the bottle ok now So there are two groups of people one group of people Takes the water in their hands Ok and they put it to their Mouth so as a dog laps with his tongue To bring the water to his mouth There are 300 people that will use their Hands to bring water To their mouths and what's different about This group of people is that they do not kneel Ok that is very important they do not Kneel ok the other group They just draw they see the water they get down Underneath and just like start chugging away Ok because they're thirsty they're tired I mean things were definitely different Back then but that's the Test you got those two groups of people Ok so keep that in mind Both vastly different from each other And none of them look nobody could have prepared For this ok that's the thing We all need to understand nobody was going to prepare for this Like I wonder what the test is going to be Ok God is trying to Show Gideon there's a certain characteristic That is already instilled In a small group of people in here and that Small group of people I will use to Do a great thing to start A war with 135 Thousand people Ok look at verse number 6 And the number of them that Lapped putting their hand To their mouth were 300 Men so these people didn't drop the knee And start bringing the water to their mouth Ok they bent over obviously Grabbed the water and started drinking So get the picture here ok they go up to this Body of water scoop Drink ok that's the picture Now the other 9,700 People do this Ok that's what they do That's how they drink the water Now out of those two examples Which one do you think would be more vigilant Everybody's tired Nobody knows for sure The exact plan That's going to happen Ok but yet we know That these 10,000 people aren't afraid Because they didn't leave So what do those two positions Teach us about human behavior Well if you think about it The person that bends over even though he's tired Even though he's weary Even though he's exhausted Grabs the water and starts to drink He can still observe his surroundings He can still see what's going on Whereas the person that drops to the knees Is just thinking about his thirst He's only thinking about himself right there I'm not saying it's a bad thing I'm not saying they're bad people But God's looking for next level people In this crowd of 10,000 And only 300 of these people Have this characteristic already Unstilled in them And God draws that out of them with this test here Ok and so Look at verse number 7 And the Lord said unto Gideon By the 300 men That lapped Will I save you And deliver the Midianites Into thine hand And let all other people Go every man unto his place So again 9,700 people The majority 10,000 drop to their knees And just start chugging Ok and so again I'm not saying they're bad people If you drink water that's you That's your business Ok that's all good Ok but obviously this And again let me just say this is my opinion Ok you might have a different view that's totally fine That's ok But I just see the logical conclusion If you were standing up or even bent over Drinking water like this you could see if an attack was coming You could see what's going on The majority in this situation obviously didn't They dropped to their knees and they're just like oh water water water Ok and so We see that 300 of these people Definitely are not Going to be Moved by The flesh moved by Selfish desires They are obviously in my opinion going to put other peoples Needs above their Own ok So look down And we're getting kind of close to being done here I just wanted to kind of go through Go through the different sections In this story here because there's a lot Now I know up until this point It was just like ok Othniel, Ehud real quick just the judges But as you progress reading Throughout the judges the stories of the judges Become bigger and there's a lot more to go on So that's kind of what we're doing here ok So You're in judges chapter number 7 I'll have you stay there Real quickly just kind of go back over and summarize Gideon's plan here Ok so remember we started off by saying God was going to reduce The army of Gideon from 32,000 All the way down to 300 And each of these 300 people Are going to grab three items Do you remember what they are? They're going to have a pitcher A lamp And something else What is it? That's right a trumpet and what kind of trumpet? Ram's horn right? No I'm just kidding Ram's horn And that's why they get all crazy on that stuff It just says a trumpet I just had a good one So six things real quickly About Gideon's plan We're at 300 people now Each person's got three things They got that lamp, the pitcher and the trumpet I'm not going to get into what those symbolize I don't have time for that right now But how is this going to work? How are these 300 people with these three items Going to take on and start a war With 135,000 people That have been oppressing them For the last seven years How are they going to do that? Well God says hey I've got this all figured out You're going to give these guys these three items And you're going to surround the camp Because what do we see Gideon do? Well Gideon takes these 300 men And he divides them up into three groups So now you've got three groups of 100 people And at night Very smartly they're going to surround The camp of the Midianites Why is that smart? Well because people are getting ready to go to bed It's dark, they can't see Night vision hadn't been invented yet They've got very limited ability to move around Which you can see when you read the chapter Which is why they start killing themselves Because they don't know who's who They get all confused They get all mixed up So we've got the fact that Gideon With just 300 people Is able to surround their camp in a way At night They're going to make them feel overwhelmed And then what's going to happen? Well they're all going to blow those trumpets So now you've got 300 trumpets From different directions Going off at night When nobody's expecting it And then what are they going to do? They're going to break those pitchers That's 300 pitchers breaking That noise going off So there's more terror in the night All of a sudden their lamps or torches Or whatever you want to say there All seen from 300 different directions And then of course you have The battle cry which is a picture And really a revealing Of the motivation of these people And what do they say? The sword of the Lord And of Gideon And we could spend hours Talking about that but that's the plan Right there Those three things with those 300 people God said hey that's enough To get these people to kill themselves And to flee so that you can And then go ahead and get the rest of your brethren To come down and mop the rest of them up And clean them all up Which we will talk about next week Okay so that's basically how this battle Goes down that's the wisdom Involved in it and of course who does God use to carry that out? He uses the minority That already had the characteristic of alertness Okay and awareness In themselves And so if you want to build that in yourself You have got to start with the small things Now paying attention to details Is paramount And when you do that it makes subtle Changes inside of you that other people May not be able to tell But it puts you in a position to have the high Ground in situations in life Which is to your advantage And which is what we need because again Like I said earlier we were always Outnumbered in the world So one more thing and we're going to be done here Okay judges seven Look at verse number six again This is pretty interesting here So the Bible says and the number of them that Lapped putting their hand To their mouth were 300 men But all the rest of the people bowed down Upon their knees to drink water Look at verse seven the Lord said unto Gideon By the 300 men that Lapped will I save you And deliver the Midianites In to thine hand And so you can see that the 300 That used their hands to drink The water God says And verse seven I'm going to deliver the Midianites into their hand so it's Kind of you know you might Think oh that's not significant but Look if man's going to write a book Things of that depth are not Going to be found in it okay This is just to be another proof Another one of the infinite proofs That are out there that God wrote and God Preserved the Bible So the last part of the verse there says and let all Other people go every Man unto his place So again most people Are weak unfortunately Because they're trusting in the wrong thing And we know that based off of soul The majority of people that we talk to are Trusting in the wrong thing and of course we know our job Is to get them to trust in the right thing so That they can be saved but this goes Downhill it goes to everyone Even the Christian a lot of times the Christian Can get this mindset we don't Have all the flash and the gear and the People and the noise and the attention So we can't do as much And God's looking at you like hey You're thinking that Your strength lies in numbers and God's Like I'm looking at you as a weak person As somebody who's just not fit For the start of a Battle the start of a War man looks at large numbers As a strength God looks at large numbers As a weakness And that's where we're going to stop the story For this morning and of course we'll pick It up next week so Let's go ahead And bow our heads and have a Word of prayer thank you so much Lord for This church and for everything that you do for us I just pray that you bless the fellowship After the service and the soul winning to come In Jesus name I pray Alright so we're going to have one more song Here and then we will be Dismissed Alright everyone please grab your Hemnals one last time this morning And turn to song number 397 Song number 397 Little is much when God is in it On the first Little is much when God is in it On the first In the harvest field Now ripened There's a work For all to do Hark the voice Of God is calling To the harvest Calling you Little is much When God is in it Labor not For wealth or fame There's a crown And you can win it If you'll go In Jesus name On the second Does the place Your call to labor Seem so small And little known It is great If God is in it And he'll not Forget his own Little is much Little is much When God is in it Labor not For wealth or fame There's a crown And you can win it If you'll go In Jesus name On the third Are you late Aside from service Body worn From toil and care You can still Win the battle In the sacred Place of prayer Little is much When God is in it Labor not For wealth or fame There's a crown And you can win it If you'll go In Jesus name On the last When the conflict here Is ended And our race On earth is run He will say To all the faithful Welcome home My child well done Little is much When God is in it Labor not For wealth or fame There's a crown And you can win it If you'll go In Jesus name In Jesus name Alright, good singing everyone At this time, let's bow our heads and dismiss ourselves in a word of prayer Dear Lord, thank you for this time we had to hear your word be preached. I ask that you please help us to remember these things and apply them to our lives I also ask that you please bless the soul winning after the service, as well as tonight's service In Jesus name we pray, Amen, we are dismissed In Jesus name Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen