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 towards 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 orders.
- Gideon’s first battle is the battle with self to surrender to the will of his Commander-in-Chief (God)
- Few men can have very much or very many and NOT brag and boast in themselves; even humble men.
B. God revised Gideon’s population but not his power to win; v.3
- One never knows how many people DON’T want to be with you in the first place.
- 22,000 left on the first-round elimination because of fear.
- Fear is not having real resolve about the situation or the cause.
- Fear is not knowing or accepting the real purpose for being there in the first place. (It was God’s fight, not theirs.)
- Fear always worries about the negative outcomes and never sees the positives.
- Fear always looks for ease, comfort and compromise.
- Fear happens when you feel you are not good enough, therefore, you take the popular road that is well traveled. You long to walk with the majority or follow what somebody else is doing.
- Real leaders like real soldiers have a dare to die for the cause. They lead forward with the last man standing to complete the mission.
- Real leaders welcome fear as a factor of motivation to do something…anything but sit!!!! Fear to a real leader increases the risks but it also enlarges the rewards. (Names some historical risk takers.)