Be of good courage

Sermon notes from Sunday 21 January 2018

Judges 6 verses 1 - 16

"Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he will strengthen thine heart; wait I say, on the Lord." Psalm 27 verse 14

The first week we looked at this verse we looked at from the point of vew of finding our inspiration and encouragement.  That is only found in the Lord himself.  Then we looked at the instruction the Psalmist gave us - wait.  Waiting is difficult.  Is there something in your life at this moment that maybe the instruction of the Psalmist has to be applied to today?  Just as Moses waited for the cloud to move before the Israelites continues on their journey through the wilderness we have to wait on the Lord to find his timing.  We want to move onto the little phrase "be of good courage".  We are going to look at this incident in the life of Gideon to see how we can move on.  The children of Israel are now settled in the land of Canaan.  The generation of the Israelites that came out of Egypt have died and this generation know not the Lord.  This man Gideon was a man God would use.  What background did he have?  His father worshipped the gods of Baal so Gideon was influenced by this in the home.  He lived in a time of apathy, coldness and slackness.  Our time is really no different than the time Gideon was in.  Maybe God will lay his hand on you to be the representative for him in the year ahead.  Gideon lived in a time when there was no king in Israel, a time when every man did that which was right in their own eyes.  Here comes the God of heaven and he puts his hand on Gideon.  He tells him "I have a mighty task for you, you will lead Israel from the hand of Midianites."  After telling us to wait on him, the Lord now tells us to be of good courage.

The responsibility Gideon was ignorant of.  Gideon was unaware of what depended on this meeting.  He was sitting under the oak tree threshing.  The angel came to speak to him, instructed him on what he would do.  He did not know what depended on that meeting though.  It was a time of spiritual darkness in Israel.  They had forgotten about the belssings their forefathers had experienced.  Sometimes we think to backslide is a difficult thing but not so.  We might read and pray and do all sorts of things but we could be in a backslidden state.  Israel was like that.  They had forgotten about the blessings of God.  They had been delivered from the hand of the hard task masters in Egypt.  They had gone done to the Red Sea and God opened up a way for them to walk across on dry ground.  God delivered them into the land of Canaan but now we find the Midianites and children of the east had formed an allegiance to come down every year and destroy the crops in Israel.  Look at verses 1, 3 and 7.  Every year the crops were destroyed.  They got before the God of heaven and cried and repented.  God heard them.  That is what we need today.  Men and women getting on their knees before God to pray and plead for our land.  It is for people to catch a vision of what God can do.  God allows Israel to be overrun.  People were now praying.  Verse 8 God sends a prophet in verse 11.  God looks for a man, the person to send into Israel to deliver them from this state.  What a responsibility this man had.  He saw the apathy and the responsibility on his shoulder.  God was looking for a man.  Maybe that is what God is looking for today.  Maybe there is someone crying unto God of heaven and he has put his hand on you.  People are fed up with what happening around them.  Fed up with religiousity, there must be something more.  God is looking to you today.  Responsibility for your family, your workforce today because God is looking for someone.  Maybe like Esther of old.  A nation that would be annihilated, wiped out.  Mordecai told Esther she had to go in and speak to the king.  Yes she was married to the king but that would put her in a terrible position.  Before she could gain an audience with the king she had to wait on the sidelines.  Only when the king reached out the sceptre to her was she allowed to come in.  if he had taken a dislike to her at that moment of time she could have been put to death.  She was taking her life in her hands.  God was laying his hand on this young women out of all in the Persian empire at that time.  God was working behind the scenes all along.  Maybe there is someone crying on God of heaven today.  God is looking for a person to go and reach someone for him.  Maybe that person is you today.  Like the widoww woman of Elijah`s day.  She was gathering up a few sticks, going to bake a cake as that was she had left and then her and her son would die.  God told her to put him first.  He would bring a child of God to her and she was to look after him, feed him and if she did that the barrel of meal would never waste away.  The responsibliity was on her shoulders.  Jesus in his day pointed back to this story and said there were many widows in that time but only one was chosen of God.  As we come into the house of God today what a responsibility is on us.  Are our lives open to God today?

The recognition that was made.  Gideon has a view of Israel in this backslidden state.  The enemy is coming down every year and destroying the crops, the whole harvest - verse 11.  God shows this great example for us to learn from it.  Gideon was threshing, the enemy was attacking Israel but where were the people of Israel.  Think of the amount of work that went in every year in preparing for the crops and then the harvesting of it.  Every year at harvest time the Midianites and children of the east destroyed the crops.  Where was Gideon at the time of the harvest - under an oak tree threshing.  Where are the rest of the Israelites - verse 2 - hiding in caves, up in the mountain and in dens.  The enemy was having the upper hand.  Gideon was out taking what was left, salvaging something out of this great loss, doing what he could.  He may have been doing it secretly but he was doing what he could to provide for his famly and maybe even for his neighbours.  He was getting on with what he could do.  God saw it and God was going to use it for his glory.  Are we really standing against the enemy, fighting for what the devil has robbed people of?  The devil is on the move today, attacking our young people, attacking the generation to come.  The devil is not worried about the little church sitting under unsaved teachers or ministers, he is worried abou the place where the people hear they need to be saved.  We need to be battling against that enemy today.  The enemy will come in subtlely and dangeoursly and effectively.  We have got to be praying for our children and making sure we do for them all we can do.  The devil wants the next generation.

The reassurance he was given.  The Lord had already used Joshua in a previous generation and he had himself told the people to be of good courage.  The Lord had told Joshua he would be with him and would not forsake him and now he was promising the same to Gideon.  Verse 14 have not I sent thee?  Verse 16 I will be with thee.  We have that same reassurance.  When the apostle Paul said all men forsook me yet the Lord stood with me.  During the shipwreck Paul told everyone to believe on the Lord and tust in God alone to save them.

The resiliance he showed - verses 13 - 15.  The Lord reassures him from all the arguments against this job he had to do.  Before he goes he has to be of good courage.  He has to set those fears and failures and those things that became so big, to set them apart, to forget about them and go on with the Lord.  He had to keep his eyes on the Lord.  Perhaps there are doubts and fears in your life, perhaps even unbeliefs - what if God says put your eyes on me, wait on me but also be of good courage?