THE BIG IDEA: To review men in the Bible that God called and used in His service to make Him great among men.
BIBLE FACT: God uses His own sovereignty to process and to call whom He wills into His employment to represent and to serve Him.
How God Chooses The Man
God calls the man (Divine invitation)
God breaks the man (Divine motivation)
God makes the man (Divine dedication)
God blesses the man (Divine inspiration)
God uses the man (Divine exaltation)
Gideon: God’s Bravest Man of Faith (The Search For Faith In You)
Faith To Trust The Trainer
Arabian horses go through rigorous training in the deserts of the Middle East. The trainers require absolute obedience from the horses, and test them to see if they are completely trained. The final test is almost beyond the endurance of any living thing. The trainers force the horses to do without water for many days. Then he turns them loose and of course they start running toward the water, but just as they get to the edge, ready to plunge in and drink, the trainer blows his whistle. The horses who have been completely trained and who have learned perfect obedience, stop. They turn around and come pacing back to the trainer. They stand there quivering, wanting water, but they wait in perfect obedience. When the trainer is sure that he has their obedience, he gives them a signal to go back to drink.
Now this may be severe but when you are on the trackless desert of Arabia and your life is entrusted to a horse, you had better have a trained obedient horse. We must accept God’s training and obey Him.—Source Unknown
I. The selection process for winning the battle; (Judges 7)
A. God in control as Commander-in-Chief for Gideon’s battle; vv.1,2
- God becomes Gideon’s Chief decision maker and strategist by executive order.
B. God revised Gideon’s population but not his power to win; v.3
C. God’s message of subtraction is in His winning math; vv.4-7