The rage of Satan and his hellish army of demons and men are against Christ's church. He seeks to weaken, cripple, and ultimately destroy any witness for the gospel in the world. Yet God has His warrior for the hour. The calling and the raising of a weak and fearful Gideon is a wonderful testimony to God's sovereign work of calling, building and using an army of seemingly small and weak warriors from among His people. If you are fearful and ready to halt, as you feel the pressures and are discouraged, then look again to God's past dealings in raising up the nothings of this world and making them effective instruments in His hand.

Heavenly Father, we need our hearts to be open to Thee. We know that Thy Word should not be treated as an academic thing, merely an exercise in words. Lord, our problem is not the fact that we know much, but that we do not have that experience of thy working in our hearts, and a heart that runs after thee. Lord, we pray that thou wouldst then work in our hearts. We realize that even Satan knows much and his demons know much.

But they are not saved. So Lord, we pray that that was then open the minds of our understanding and speak with that voice which raises the dead and builds up the saints. So help them for Christ's sake. Amen. Amen.

Well if you have your Bibles, please turn to Judges chapter 6. Judges chapter 6. Judges 6 and we'll read from verse 11. I will have to just break into this account. Judges 6, 11.

And there came an angel of the Lord and sat under an oak which was in Ofrah, that pertained unto Joash the Abi-Ezrait. And his son Gideon threshed wheat by the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him and said unto him, The Lord is with thee, the mighty man of valor. And Gideon said unto him, O my Lord, if the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen us? And where be all his miracles which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?

But now The Lord hath forsaken us, and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites. And the Lord looked upon him and said, Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have Not I sent thee? And he said unto him, O my lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? Behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house.

And the Lord said unto him, Surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man." And he said unto him, if now I have found grace in thy sight, then show me a sign that thou talkest with me. Depart not hence, I pray thee, until I come unto thee and bring forth my present and set it before thee." And he said, I will tarry until thou come again. And Gideon went in and made ready a kid and unleavened cakes of an ephah of flour. The flesh he put in a basket, and he put the broth in a pot and brought it out unto him under the oak, and presented it. And the angel of the Lord said unto him, Take the flesh and the unleavened cakes, and lay them upon this rock, and pour out the broth, and he did so.

Then the angel of the Lord put forth the end of the staff that was in his hand and touched the flesh and the unleavened cakes and there rose up fire out of the rock and consumed the flesh and the unleavened cakes. Then the angel of the Lord departed out of his sight. And when Gideon perceived that he was an angel of the Lord, Gideon said, Alas, O Lord God! For because I have seen an angel of the Lord face to face. And the Lord said unto him, peace be unto thee, fear not, thou shalt not die.

Then Gideon built an altar there unto the Lord and called it Jehovah Shalom. Unto this day it is yet in offer of the Abba Esrait and it came to pass the same night that the Lord said unto him take thy father's young bullock even the second bullock of seven years old and throw down the altar of Baal that thy father hath, and cut down the grove that is by it, and build an altar unto the Lord thy God upon the top of this rock, and in the ordered place, and take the second bullock, and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the grove which thou shalt cut down. Then Gideon took ten men of his servants and did as the Lord had said unto him and So it was because he feared his father's household and the men of the city that he could not do it by day that he did it by night. And when the men of the city arose early in the morning Behold the altar of Baal was cast down and the grove was cut down that was by it. And the second bullock was offered upon the altar that was built.

And they said one to another, Who hath done this thing? And when they inquired and asked they said, Gideon the son of Joash hath done this thing. Then the men of the city said unto Joash, Bring out thy son that he may die, because he hath cast down the altar of Baal, and because he hath cut down the grove that was by it. And Jorai said unto all that stood against him, Will ye plead for Baal? Will ye save him?

He that will plead for him, let him be put to death, whilst it is yet morning. If he be a god, let him plead for himself, because one hath cast down his altar. Therefore on that day he called him Jerubael, saying, Let Baal plead against him, because he hath thrown down his altar. Then all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the children of the east 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 Abba Yezir was gathered after him.

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 them. And Gideon said unto the Lord, If thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou has said, behold I will put a fleece of wool in the floor." And so on. We'll end the reading there and trust that God will bless his word. Now my subject is, is God's calling, building, and using warriors in this day and age, in this day of and culture of chaos.

How does God raise men? Where are they found? What are they doing? How will he use them? So let's look at Gideon.

I encourage you to read the whole passage regarding the life of Gideon. We are introduced to a remarkable judge by this name, Gideon. Gideon is a study in contrasts. On the one hand he was a man who led a handful of warriors against a far larger army and won a great victory. That's what we know of him.

That's what we always think, Gideon and his army, the 300 men. That's what comes to mind, or the fleece that he put out. And so that's what we think. On the other hand Gideon was filled with doubts. Are you filled with doubts?

Gideon had fears. Gideon had questions. He was a man who questioned God's plan, yet he did God's will. Gideon was called to be a judge during a time that men did that which was right in their own eyes. He was called in a time of intense trouble in Israel.

That's the time we are called. That's every time, every age. It's not a special age that we are living in. God has put you here in this part of his vineyard, in this part of the world. And he put Gideon at that time there.

The nation was suffering under a grip of Midianite oppression. They watched helplessly as their land was stripped, their homes and villages were destroyed as their lives were endangered. Their condition is summed up in that verse 6 where the Bible says that they were impoverished. That's a good word. This word literally means that they were slack or slacken.

It is to do with a rope. It is to be to be feeble. They were at the end of the rope, we would say. Figuratively, that's what's to be oppressed. They're stretched.

They're under tension. The people of Israel felt as though their nation was destroyed and their lives were over. Do you think you're living in such a land that the nation is really the fabrics of the nation is destroyed it is unraveling. Israel's main problem was that they counted out God. That's what their problem was.

They cried out to him but they did not necessarily believe that he was listening or that he was able to do anything to help them. But God always has a message and so the verses 7 through to 10 is a message from the Lord. The Lord sends a prophet. He sent a prophet to remind them of the Lord's grace in their lives and to call them to a place of repentance. But not only does God have a message, he always has a man, he has a people that he uses.

He raises them up, he develops them, he disciples them, and he uses them. In this passage before us, We have Gideon. His name means he who cuts down. That's what Gideon means. And while Gideon does not look like much, He has much to offer.

At the time that he was called, in the end, he would be responsible for cutting down the enemies of God's people. So let's think about this in the time that we have. First of all, I want you to notice of Gideon's circumstances. We need to think about that just briefly. The theme in Judges is that the nation, the people of God, it's not the heathen, It's the people of God.

Those who profess to be Christians or those to be followers of Jehovah. They are the ones who are doing that which is right in their own eyes. But verse 11, it reveals even more in the conditions in Israel at that time. Look at it. And there came an angel of the Lord and sat under an oak which was in Ophrah and pertained unto Jorash the Abba Yisra'at and his son Gideon threshed wheat by the winepress to hide it from the Midianites." That tells you volumes about what was happening in Israel at that time.

That was a time of poverty, That's what it's talking about. We know that Israel did not have a lot during these dark desperate days. If we read the verses 4 to 6, it would make it clear and they, it says, And they encamped against them and destroyed the increase of the earth and so on. Eventually, or evidently, Gideon and his family had been able to hide away a small amount of wheat. And he was threshing that wheat behind a wine press to hide it from the Midianites.

Why do we think he had a small amount? The reason is that he was doing it by hand. You don't do something by hand unless it is a small amount. If it is too much, you would get animals to do it for you. You would use some sort of a large tool to do it.

But he was there doing it just by himself. And that tells you they had only little. It was a time of poverty. It was also a time of oppression and helplessness. We have thought about that already.

Gideon was hiding while he threshed. Because he knew that the Midianites would take the small amount of grain that he had if they knew about it. Gideon and his people were suffering under the lash of intense persecution. He's hiding from the enemy. He's just as defeated and just as frightened as the rest of the nation.

That's how he is. Not a special character. Nothing. He's just normal. He's just like us.

He's hiding from the enemy. It was a difficult time for God's people. Now let me encourage you today, like Israel we are also living in difficult times. We are living in days of great attacks and spiritual departures and battles and that causes us to be in in spiritual poverty. We feel it.

We are not in revival days. We are not living in times of great prosperity. God is working. Oh he is. But we are living in days when the government, the society in general, they're, they're, they're, they've grown.

I was going to say they are growing increasingly, but they have grown hostile to the things of the Lord. We are living in days when it seems that there is little spiritual power amongst God's people. Are our churches powerhouses? What are we achieving? In some ways we are living through times that strongly resemble those that Gideon and Israel faced in their day.

Now verse 12. You have Gideon's commission. His great commission that is given by the Lord to him. So he's hiding, he's weak, he's like just like everyone else. Verse 12 says, and the angel of the Lord appeared unto him and said unto him, the Lord is with thee, the mighty man of valor.

And so while Gideon is hiding from the enemy, the Lord knew exactly where Gideon was. Nobody else knew, but the Lord knew. The angel of the Lord, it says, appeared unto him. This was not an ordinary angel. In verse 13 the angel is called Lord.

And when the Lord speaks to Gideon he comes with words of hope. He comes with words of assurance. He promises Gideon something. The angel of the Lord appeared unto Gideon and said the Lord is with thee. What we have here is a theophany.

It is an appearance of God in a visible form to man. Literally what you have here I would put to you it is a Christophany. This is one of the many occasions in the Old Testament when our Lord Jesus Christ the coming Messiah for them appeared to individuals before he was born in Bethlehem. Remember how he appeared physically To Adam and Eve in the garden in the cool of the day. He appeared to Abraham in the tent door.

If you read Genesis 18, you see that there is to one of the angels Abraham bows and he calls him Lord. Did you think about that? And he calls him Jehovah. So when Jehovah's Witnesses come to your door and say, oh, Jesus Christ did not come, or God did not appear in the flesh, you point to Genesis 18. That's just a side issue.

He appeared to Hagar in the wilderness. He appeared to Moses. He appeared to Moses a number of times in the barren bush and so on. The Midianites did not know where Gideon was hiding, but the Lord did. Are you hiding?

Are you weak? The Lord knows where you are. He had his eye on Gideon the whole time. Even when Gideon was unaware of it, God was with him, watching him, and he had plans. He had worked out from eternity past, his decree had gone forth.

And these things were simply the fulfillment of the eternal decree of God. God was sovereignly working and that truth should comfort our hearts as well. We have the same promises in the Word of God. We have so many promises that we could quote. Even better promises the scripture says to us.

In John 14 and verses 17 and 18 our Lord Jesus Christ says, even the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him but ye know him for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless, he says. What wonderful word that is. That word comfortless, it is a pregnant word. It has so much in it.

It means a child that is without parents. I won't leave you As a child alone, walking about. By yourself, alone, fearful. You won't be orphans. I won't leave you orphans.

And then he says, I will come to you. He must come to us because he knows where we are. God is everywhere. Friend, the Lord is with you. That's what the angel said.

The Lord is with thee. So we can say to every child of God, the Lord is with you. In every situation, through every valley, across every mountain, the Lord is with thee. It literally means the Lord's power is on you. That's the Hebrew.

The Lord's power is on you. Now did Gideon see it? No, he could not see it. Nor could he sense it. Oh, how much we depend on our feelings.

He couldn't sense it. And for sure it didn't look like it. But he was about to be used of the Lord in a powerful way. And the same is true in our lives, friends. If you were to only grasp the truth that we are indwelt by the Spirit of God.

Have you thought about that? Can you understand it? Can you take it in the almighty God by his spirit dwells within his people. What humbling thought that is. The limitless power of God and what God can use.

If we really thought about these things and had that before us, our walk would be different. God is with me. God is with me. The Lord is with me. The Spirit is with me.

The infinite God is with me. The omnipotent Lord is with me. It would change our lives. But then think about God's perception. That's how Gideon saw everything.

It was all bad. Gideon's perception, or God's perception. The Lord says something that is truly amazing. He looks at Gideon and he says to him, thou mighty man of valor. It's amazing.

This is what God is seeing. His God's perception. Here is a man who is afraid of the enemy, that is hiding behind a wine press. He's hiding behind a wine press. Wine press is not a Big thing.

Have you ever seen one? It's not a big thing. You don't need to have it big. He's crouching down, working away, hiding quietly so no one can hear him. What he's doing?

He's afraid. He's full of fear. But the Lord saw what he had for Gideon. This is a man that God has chosen. This is his elect.

This is the one who will be the Savior of Israel. This is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. God intended to take Gideon and use him in a great way. The phrase that the Lord used refers to a man who is charging right into the face of the enemy. This word, the mighty man of valor, that's what the commentators would would say.

It doesn't make sense. It didn't make sense for Gideon and yet it was true. That is what the Lord saw. That is his perception. That is what he looks to.

Do you know the Lord knows you? The Lord knows you far better than you even know yourself. And even anybody else that you can say, this person knows me so well. The Psalmist says in Psalm 139 verses 1 & 2, O Lord, thou hast searched me, he says, thou has searched me and known me. Thou knowest my down-sitting and mine uprising.

Thou understandest my thought afar off. That's how God knows us. The apostle says in Hebrews 4 and verse 13, neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight, but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. Everything is open. Everything is naked.

There are no covers. There are no curtains. Nothing. No walls. My friend, how do you see?

You may often look at your life and see mistakes, you see failures, you see problems and these are real, they are true. You are seeing yourself as a person, maybe I'm talking to a father, to a mother, you see yourself, you're failing. You say, what am I doing? Half of the time I don't even know what I'm doing. I'm trying to do this and that and there's so many pressures and so many people who are also watching me.

I'm trying to raise the standards as I look at them and you see yourself as a person who's just losing. You lose far more than you win. And you see a person who from all appearances is always coming up short and we do. It is a true account. But what does God see?

Now there is nothing good in us that he sees. There's nothing that pleases him in us at all. There's nothing special about you. Or to say that in some places that is heresy or you'll be badly treated to say there's nothing special about you. There was nothing worthy of praise.

There is nothing good and all the good things that you thought you did, Your righteousnesses are filthy rags dirty in the sight of God. Nothing is in you that woos the heart of God towards you. You by nature are his enemy. You are vile and wicked and depraved to your core. Your thoughts, your will, your nature.

What does God see? When Jesse looked at David, he saw his youngest son. He saw a mere boy who was not worthy to be called to the family gathering with Samuel. When The Lord saw David, this is my chosen, this is my anointed, he saw a king. When Gideon's family looked at him, they saw a weakling.

All he was good for was threshing some wheat. The Lord saw, here is my judge, here is a warrior. I am going to disciple him. I am going to work upon him. The same is seen in Saul, the same is seen in Saul of Tarsus, the same is seen in Peter.

Study Peter's life. See what kind of a man the Lord chiseled out his image day by day. You wouldn't spend that time with Peter, but the Lord did. And he does the same with us. What does God see?

Something else I want to point your attention to, verses 13 to 16. Here you find this man whom the Lord calls to be his man, the mighty man of valor. He's a man who is so confused. That's what he is in those verses. Verses 13 through to 16.

When Gideon hears the words of God, he is amazed by what he hears. He can't see. The Lord can possibly be talking to him. So he reacts to what the Lord says by questioning the Lord's words. Do you see how weak the man is?

Do you see how his faith is weak to question God's Word? What are the things he questions? He questions that God is even present. Do you question God's presence in your life? Is God really in my life?

Is He working in my life? Is He working in our church? Is He working in this nation? Look at it, verse 13, And Gideon said unto him, O my Lord, if the Lord be with us, Why then is all this befallen us? If the Lord is, be with us.

That's speaking of his presence. Gideon wants to know where the proof of God's presence can be found. Where can you find God working in this place? If God was really with his people, shouldn't they be experiencing victory instead of defeat? So he's questioning God's presence.

He's also questioning God's work. God wants, or Gideon wants to know, where all the miracles have gone. Look at it again, verse 13. And where be all his miracles which our fathers told us of, saying did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt? But now the Lord has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.

So he wants to know where all the miracles have gone. Where is God? It had been 250 years since God delivered Israel from Egypt through those ten devastating plagues. It had been 200 years since Jordan parted and Israel crossed over on dry ground into the Promised Land. Gideon wants to know where God who performed all those miracles has gone.

He's forsaken us. It's true. He has done that. That's how he thinks. Look at verses 14 and 15.

Another thing he questions, God's wisdom, God's knowledge. How blasphemous that is. Do you see, this is a child of God. This is someone that God is going to use. Is asking these questions.

Are you like him? If you're like him, then there is hope. Hope for you as well. It says, And the Lord looked further down, and the Lord looked upon him and said, Go in thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have not I sent thee?

And he said unto him, Oh my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? Behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house. Are you wise? You're saying I'm going to save, but look at my life. Do you really know?

Do you know me? Oh, well, I see you found where I am, but that doesn't mean that you know me? And so when the Lord says answer the question verse 14 he is still unhappy. He is still unhappy. He is still questioning.

God is not omniscient. He says to the Lord, you can't be right. I won't be the deliverer. Look, my father's house is poor. Did you know that, Lord?

And so, No one will follow me. I am a nobody. I'm from a poor family. No one will follow me. And no one in my father's house respects me.

And we know that Gideon's father was an idolatry, verse 25 tells us. It may be that Gideon was an outcast within his own family because he refused to worship their false gods with them. Are we like Gideon? You read the words of God, you read it daily and you see the will of God for you. In what ways the Lord wants you to serve him?

In what way the Lord calls you? In what way he instructs you? He opens his mind to you, he opens his heart to you. He says This is what my will is for your family, for the church, for the state. All of these things I've shown to you.

These are the certain things I want you to do. But then we are filled with fears, sense of our own inability that refuses to trust him. And Gideon did exactly what Moses did when the Lord called him from the burning bush. But both of these men came up with excuses as to why they could not do what the Lord had said to them that they would do and this is his will for them. Both men felt like the the job was over, over their heads.

Both felt like they were inadequate to the task at hand. Well in themselves yes they were. But the issue was the Lord was with them. That's the point. The Lord was with them.

It was the Lord who was saying these things. It wasn't merely another man. It was God who said it. The real problem with Gideon and Moses and with us as well is that we tend to focus on what we are. We are so man-centered rather than focusing on who he is, who God is.

Without the Lord, we are weak. Without the Lord, you fail miserably. Fail creatures of the dust, Isaac Watts would say. With him we are mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. That's what the Apostles said.

The Psalmist says in Psalm 127 verse 1, except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it, except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain. Our Lord said this and it's often times repeated again. It ought to be repeated again and again because we forget it. I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit.

For without me ye can do nothing. The Apostle says in 2 Corinthians 13 and verse 5, examine yourselves whether ye be in the faith, prove your own selves, know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you. Do you see the powerful words that he says? Don't you know this? Don't you know it yourself?

That Jesus Christ is in you except ye be repropates. We need to learn to be God conscious. I know I can do nothing by myself and in myself, but I must believe That what he has said, that with him all things are possible. Not with me. If I can come to a place where I understand that He is able, even if I am not, then I can be used of God.

Gideon isn't there yet. You see the progression in his life. If you read through to the end of chapter 8, You see the progression. He's changing. God is a disciple maker.

That's what he does. Sometimes it pushes us further into fields that we don't like. Oftentimes it is the case. Gideon isn't there yet. So he makes excuses for why he can't do what the Lord is calling him to do.

He makes his excuses are twofold. He tells the Lord that he did not have money, he did not have honor. These are the things. He tells him that he can't afford to do the Lord's work and he tells him that no one else knows him. What does it matter?

What does it matter? The Lord owns The cattle on the thousand hills. It doesn't matter if men honor us, what God thinks matters. God has especially used those who don't seem to accomplish his work in this world. This is what the apostle says in 1 Corinthians 1 verse 26.

For ye see your calling brethren how that not many wise men after the flesh not many mighty not many noble are called but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise and God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things that which are mighty and base things of the world and things which are despised hath God chosen yea the things and things which are not to bring to naught things that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence. That's what the Lord says. Oh, look at all the passages and the examples in the Word of God. Abraham, he's in pagan land, he's in the air of the Chaldees, he's an idolater to be the father of the nation of Israel. He used Joseph as slave to save the world, that known world.

He used Moses as shepherd and a murderer to deliver his people. He used Jephthah, the son of a prostitute. Think about that. The shame of that. To deliver Israel.

He used the unnamed servants. So many of them. Unnamed. We don't know who they are. Little boy here, little girl there.

That girl who tells Naaman about God, that boy who stood and instructed regarding the Apostle Paul when he was in prison. He used a Matthew tax collector to write about Christ, the king of the Jews, the soul of Tarsus. So many examples could be, could be given. And Israel had cried out for a deliverer in verse 7 of chapter 6 of Judges. And God answered them with a weak man, a fearful man, Gideon.

God uses all these people and countless others down through the years, both inspired writing and uninspired history, because they had got all things worked out? No. Because he is a willing and able God to answer prayer and to use weak men. This is his glory. This is the beauty of the truth of God.

So are you making excuses about your situation, your circumstance? I can't do these things. Yet the Lord has called and spoken to us in his word. I can't make the impact. This is left for great leaders.

This is left for pastors to do. These are the conference speakers' job to do these things. No, the very fact that we have these conferences is that you might be encouraged to be the servants of the Lord. To serve the Lord that you might lead a nation. That's what it is.

It's a part of disciple making and leadership. It's not so that you might be simply hearers only and to hear sermons by those whom God has called to minister. No, no. That's not the intention. If it was, then churches would be merely preaching houses.

That's all it is. And when the preacher goes, the church fails and vanishes away. It has happened. There are various ministers throughout the history of the church who were great men of God, preached so well, as soon as they were gone, their church was also gone. It disappeared.

I think about, I don't want to be too harsh, but I think about the Westminster Chapel in London. Under the preaching of Martin Lloyd-Jones, a great man of God. But as I hear of men and women who went and they're members of that church, they say to me, At the end it became a preaching house. People came just to hear the preacher. They didn't come to actually be led and to be discipled and to actually serve the Lord and do something for God.

They just had come to hear the great doctor preach. My time is gone and, is it gone? Oh, ten minutes, okay. Well, we're just one third through. But I will finish in 10 minutes.

Just giving you an appetite of you need to learn about Gideon. You need to study him. So don't make excuses what we can't do. God is with us. That's the thing.

It's nothing to do with you. It's the fact that God has called. God has called the church into being. God has called the people into being. And we are to be living instruments in his hands.

So you should be discipling your families, teaching them every day the truth, and praying for the Lord to work in our church every day in special way. And you give that time. The world and Satan will fill up your time. Give that time. If you don't intentionally be active in seeking to obey the Lord, Satan will snatch it away from you.

So here's a man who's confused, looking from outside. It doesn't look like Gideon would amount to much in the Lord's work. He's fearful, he is timid, he is filled with self-doubt, he has more questions than he has answers. However Gideon is being brought to a place of service. The Lord is willing to take Gideon's just like he is and shape him and us into what he wants him and us to be.

But just further on, verses 25 onwards. What do we read? The Lord says to him that he's going to be a deliverer. And Here the Lord gives a command to Gideon and God commands him and God commands us to action and service where we are. That is so important.

And it came to pass the same night that the Lord said unto him, take thy father's young bullock, even the second bullock of seven years old, and throw down the altar of Baal that thy father hath, and cut down the grove that is by it, and build an altar unto the Lord thy God, " and so on. There was a specific plan, the Lord says to him exactly what he needs to do. He needs to take the second bullock. God is very specific. He's to take the second bullock.

Evidently the first bullock had been dedicated to Baal. It wasn't there to use. It's already gone. It's already been used for wrong service, wrong worship. So the second one is the only one still clean.

And Gideon is to take that young bullock and he is to use it to pull down his father's altar to Baal. What a sad thing. His father was an idolater. Had been, had received the word of God and yet he had been an idolater. He had been doing what was right in his own eyes.

My friends, you might have a background, you might have a family situation which is not right. Your background is not right. That does not mean it is writing your history, your family's history. Maybe some of you, boys and girls, you may see, you do see faults, you see mistakes. Your parents want you to do better than them.

Your parents want you to build up upon them. That's why they're seeking to disciple you. That's what they are trying to do. So you might say well there's a second bullock. I will take the second bullock.

The first one has gone. The thing has been used up. But there there are still certain things that can be used for God. And the Lord says take the second bullock and go and serve, go and worship, go and cut down the grove, go and do these things that I have called you to do. So the Lord specifically calls upon him to tear down the altar.

He asks him to go and do that which nobody else would do and he did it fearfully. He did it at night. He wouldn't do it in the daytime. He's still, the Lord is working on him. But something's happening.

Steps are being made, taken, and he's beginning to obey God. He's not asking questions right now. He will later on again. But do you see the progression? God is at work.

Is God at work in you? See what God has called us to friends. My time is gone. But see how God calls men. You might be fearful, you might not know many things, you are a failure, you feel weak, and all of those things are most likely true of you and me.

But Look, the Lord is with thee, thou man of valor. There is much to be done for the glory of Jesus Christ. He calls his church to rise up, to obey him. He didn't tell Gideon all that he needed to know there and then. But the first thing, first step, the right worship of God.

And then he takes him, and he makes him a warrior. And he then instructs him about How he should fight, what he should do, what he should use, the timing of everything. All of these things. So what should you do then in this day and age? We are not to fret because the Lord is with us.

We are not to do our own thing because we have the Word of God and to bask in the fact that the future of the Church of Jesus Christ is a glorious one. The church is growing. It is growing rapidly. You may not see it right now with your eyes. You are like Gideon.

You're just seeing what you see right now. But do you see what's happening elsewhere? Do you see what God is doing elsewhere? God is doing amazing things, mighty things. Much in the background too.

And So let us be faithful to what has been revealed to us now. And as God, as you obey him, as you take the steps, as he shines the light before you to go, here is the way walking in it, he says, take those steps and he will shine further on. He has promised it and God is not a liar. So be encouraged, be challenged about these things and may God write his word upon our hearts. Amen.

Let us pray. Our gracious God, how we need thee, often we are filled with doubts and fears. We are confused. We are weak. Yet Lord thou dost call thy people to be valiant for the truth.

To put on the whole armor of God, to see and look to the captain of our salvation, to the King of Kings who is conquering and who is the conqueror. Lord bless thy people here, bless our children. We pray, O Lord, for this army of thy people to see of their calling in this day and age. Lord we pray for those who are cast down because of their backgrounds, their fathers and mothers and the things that they were brought up in the years that the locusts have eaten, the failings that they feel, the things that they have done. Lord, we give the thanks for thy promises.

And we thank you, O Lord, that thou hast called us to look to Jesus Christ, not to ourselves, not to our circumstances. And we thank Thee, He is alive. He's the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. This nation will fall. All the nations of the world will bow before Jesus Christ and we give Thee praise and thanks for that.

Lord, may we bow before thee daily, and then in thy strength to go. We ask these things through Christ our Lord. Amen.