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With You Are Too Many

“I’ll tie one hand behind my back just to make it a fair fight!” says someone who believes himself at a great advantage to start with.  But what about God?  If He’s going to fight for you, what does He have to do to make it a fair fight for your enemies … or so you can understand His power?

Isaiah records that one angel slew 185,000 Assyrians, and yet Jesus said in Gethsemane that He could call 12 legions of angels to Him if He wanted to.  With a legion being 6,000 strong, that’s a total of 72,000 angels capable of handling 13,320,000,000 enemies.

With God on your side, who indeed could stand against you?

I.  Judges 7:1-21.  But, Gideon didn’t understand that.  He lived in a time when the great things that God did for His people were just dusty stories from long ago (don’t know what that’s like!).  Just telling Gideon that He will be with him is not enough for trust in God to be built.  So, through a series of tests, God shows Gideon that He will take care of him.  God had to get Gideon (full of man’s idea of strength) out of the way so God could be seen as GOD.  Paring down Gideon’s army to a mere 300, the bully, Midian, flees.

II.  Exodus 14.  In fact, throughout the Bible God uses impossible situations to show His power.  Gideon cites God saving them out of slavery in Egypt with the plagues, but it is at the Red Sea that God is seen as GOD.  Armed for battle in all of man’s strength (Exodus 13:17-18), the Israelites were nevertheless disorganized and unprepared to meet Pharaoh’s army.  Backed against the water with chariots bearing down on them, God–through Moses–parted the water and the Israelites walked through as on dry ground while the Egyptians drowned.

III.  Romans 8:26-31.  The cross is, of course, the greatest impossible situation in which God was seen to be GOD.  And, we have the reassurance that if God would not even spare His own Son for us that there’s nothing He wouldn’t give us.  He fights for those who trust in Him to be GOD, and so He uses those who can get themselves out of the way, be still (Psalm 46:10), and let Him battle for them (1 Corinthians 1:18-31).

But do we?  So often we go at the impossible situations in our lives with our own strength and resources.  Like Gideon, we need to know that God is GOD, and that when He is fighting for us, there’s nothing resembling a fair fight!

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He Went About Doing Good

When someone says ‘good enough,’ he’s referring to a minimum standard he hopes he has met.  Many around us often express that they hope the good they have done will be ‘good enough’ to get them into heaven–as if God is weighing deeds with some great cosmic scale.

In addition to believing that God has a minimum standard for entrance into heaven, another problem with this view is that it eliminates Jesus and His work on the cross and in the tomb entirely from the solution for sin.

I.  Acts 10:1-48.  If there was such a cosmic scale, Cornelius had tipped it heavily towards the good.  He had good deeds as well as having a good character … but God said that all that was not ‘good enough’ and sent Peter to preach the gospel to him.  It was after Cornelius obeyed the gospel that he had salvation.

II.  Hebrews 5:7-9.  Once God had taken on flesh in the person of Jesus and went about doing good works as Peter described Him to Cornelius (Acts 10:38), wasn’t that ‘good enough’ to get Him into heaven?  After all, Jesus was sinless (2 Corinthians 5:21).  No, He needed to learn obedience from what He suffered and with loud tears cry out to God who was able to save Him.

III.  Ephesians 2:8-9.  Having been saved through Jesus’ obedience, we must not think that we can ever be ‘good enough’ to somehow work our way to heaven.  Rather, we, who are in Christ, do good works out of obedience to the One who saved us through His obedience.  We walk as Jesus did (1 John 2:1-6).

We must examine why we do good things.  Are we doing them to earn our way to heaven (working) or are we doing them as acts of obedience (walking)?  ‘Good enough’ is never ‘good enough’ with God.  He holds us to the maximum standard that His Son has met, so that in Him we can meet it too.  This is why the gospel truly is good news!

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He is a New Creation

As the road is wide that leads to destruction, much of mankind are caterpillars concerned with things below.  It’s when one realizes a need, turns, and obeys the gospel that he enters Christ through baptism and changes to be born a member of Christ’s body the church.  From there the butterfly … erm, Christian … walks (or flies–to keep the illustration consistent) as Jesus did upon that narrow road that leads to eternal life.

I.  Romans 5:18-21.  Sin marred the image of God that we were created in, but Christ was the perfect image of God who lived perfectly and then died so that in Him we could be restored to that perfection (Romans 6:1-14).  When we enter the chrysalis of Christ, we become a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17-19).

II.  Colossians 3:1-17.  God’s ways and thoughts are so much above our own (Isaiah 55:8-9), yet in Him we are united with him and change to live differently.  Our minds and hearts need to be set on things above, not on earthly things.  After all, butterflies have wings and do not have the concerns of caterpillars.

III.  Ephesians 2:4-10.  The flutter (collective noun for a group of butterflies) that make up the bride of Christ works (obedient living) for the Bridegroom, walks as the Bridegroom (1 John 2:3-6) does, watches for the Bridegroom (Luke 21:34-36), and waits for the Bridegroom (Hebrews 9:27-28).

Jesus has made us to be a new creation as we enter the chrysalis of His body, the church, and are reborn as something entirely different.  Why live as if we don’t have wings?

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If the Lord is With Us

In the midst of a culture that was reaping the consequences of sin and turning away from God, God calls Gideon and declares that He is with them.  Citing the great ways of the past in which God showed Himself to truly be with them, Gideon asks a question that Christians could certainly ask today, “If the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us?”

I. Matthew 14:28-33.  We have the same reassurance that Gideon received–that God is with us (Matthew 28:20) and that He will never forsake us (Hebrews 13:5-6), yet we, like Peter stepping out of boat, take our eyes off Jesus because the winds around us are so fierce.  Our circumstances and situation in a dark world are going to rage (2 Corinthians 4:16-18).  This doesn’t mean that God is not there.  We must fix our eyes on Him (Hebrews 12:1-3) to not grow weary or fainthearted.

II. Judges 6:11-32.  More than just his circumstances, Gideon was overwhelmed because he saw his weaknesses and helplessness in the midst of the culture he was a part of.  Most Christians feel this way today.  We, like Gideon, can take great reassurance that this is exactly the situation in which God works (1 Corinthians 1:25-29) so we may not boast.  Paul, in pleading for the ‘thorn’ to be removed from him, was told that God’s power in his life was made perfect in Paul’s weakness (2 Corinthians 12:8-10).

III. Judges 6:33-40.  Jesus said if we had faith as small as a mustard seed, then nothing would be impossible for us (Matthew 17:20).  God readies Gideon to take on His people’s enemies by first taking a ‘smaller’ step at home.  After he tears down his father’s altar to Baal and burns his Asherah pole, Gideon is defended by his earthly father and his heavenly Father sends him an army.  We too need our faith tested if we are to become mature and complete (James 1:2-4).  Are you willing to take that step?

Are circumstances or weakness coloring your perspective?  Or, are you seeing clearly through faith?

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She Gave Him Milk

To ‘fight like a man’ is to overtly confront a problem with brute strength.  Somehow to ‘fight like a woman’ has come to mean that the fighting is weaker–but only if compared to how men physically fight.  Women fight in subtler ways–we often call them ‘wiles’–that are just as strong or perhaps stronger than a man’s way–and they learn young!

My wife likes to tell the story of how our youngest at two years of age came to me with her blond pigtails and big, pleading eyes upset because her favorite pink nightgown was in the dirty clothes hamper.  I reassured her that when it was washed she could have it back.  She replied with a cute smile, “That would make me happy!”  A minute later I had to explain to my wife why I was doing laundry in the middle of the week.

I. Judges 4:17-22.  Sisera failed to understand this.  After Barak did not have the courage to ‘fight like a man’ and do what God had told him to do in defeating Sisera, Israel’s judge, Deborah, told him that a woman would claim credit for the victory over the Canaanites.  Although the Kenites were part of Israel, Sisera had no doubt found hospitality in Heber and Jael’s tent before.  Running from Barak, Sisera begs Jael for water, but she gave him milk and a place to sleep.  Then she put a tent peg through his head!  That was not what he expected, but Jael was praised for fighting like this (Judges 5:24-30).

II. 2 Corinthians 2:10-11. Satan, the father of lies (John 8:44) fights through deception.  Failing to ensnare God-in-the-flesh in the normal way he trapped men (Luke 4:1-13) and losing Jesus’ followers to the gospel, he really tries to outwit us with his schemes.  A lion seeking to devour at any opening (1 Peter 5:8), Christians must truly take up the armor of God against Satan’s ‘wiles’ (Ephesians 6:10-11).

III. 2 Corinthians 10:3-5.  Jesus, however, fights like God–through obedience, truth, and sacrifice found in the gospel.  Through these ways and because He was made like us in every way, He has defeated the devil and death (Hebrews 2:12-14).  Now we, in Him and through Him, are able to fight like Him–if we can clearly see through Satan’s deceptions that would keep us blind to how powerful we truly are when restored to the image of God that we were created in through the gospel.

How do you fight:  Like a man?  Like a woman?  Or like God?

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With You I Am Well Pleased

A humorous series of pictures on social media shows dogs’ expressions before and after being told that they are “good dogs.”  We, too, want to hear from God one day, “Well done, good and faithful servant,” but are we willing to make it our goal to please Him and walk in obedience?

I.  John 12:42-43.  Ever donate to some cause just to get a trinket in return?  Though our motives are often selfish, we often tell ourselves that we attend church and do good deeds because we love God and others.  But, it is with ourselves mostly that we are pleased.  Fear of many things keep us from obeying God’s commands and pleasing Him.  We must be careful not to be at home in this world (2 Corinthians 5:1-5).

II.  Mark 1:9-11.  The life of Jesus is a good study in how to live to be pleasing to God.  When He was baptized, we see His Father expressing this.  We also see this at His transfiguration in Matthew 17:5.  We understand that Jesus pleased God because He was even obedient to death (Philippians 2:5-8), but the great thing is that through His obedience, He gave us the opportunity to please God (Hebrews 5:7-9).

III.  1 Corinthians 10:1-6.  God is not a soccer mom who has an over-inflated view of His child.  Nor does He lavish fake praise when He knows how separated from Him because of sin we are.  Heaven is not a participation trophy!  Instead, we are warned not to repeat the sins of those who have gone before us because God was not pleased with them.  By living by faith, we are able to please Him (2 Corinthians 5:6-10).

No, we don’t earn our way into heaven by good works, but we must be an obedient child to one day hear God say, “Well done, good and faithful servant!”  That would not be possible for us to hear if Jesus had not gone before us and obeyed perfectly to the cross.

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Gave Him as Head Over All

As I’ve taught my four kids how to drive, I’ve wished for a brake on the floor of the passenger side of my vehicle.  It’s just so hard to give up control over many realms of our lives–but especially when it comes to spiritual things.  Allowing Jesus to be lord or head over us is difficult.

In answer to the popular bumper sticker, “God is my co-pilot,” Christians who understand this principle of Jesus as head have said, “If God is your co-pilot, switch seats.”  This doesn’t mean at all that God should control us as robots, but rather that we need to live our lives in submission to Him.

I.  Ephesians 1:15-23.  Our Head is exalted above every name.  All other churches, groups, clubs, organizations, and businesses are temporal.  Many do a lot of good in the world for a lot of people, but when one day the elements melt in the heat, all of them will be gone.  Only the church that Jesus promised to build (Matthew 16:18) and bought with His blood (Acts 20:28), His bride, His body is eternal.  God invests so much, including His great power, into those who make up His body.

II.  Matthew 8:8-10.  For the church, our Head is over all things.  All authority in heaven and on earth was given to Jesus through His death, burial, and resurrection.  Even sinners will be put under His feet in the Judgment to come (Hebrews 10:12-14).  He understands what it means to be our Head, but we struggle to submit to our Head.  Sin and selfishness or adding or taking away from our Head’s Word exalts ourselves as Head over us, no matter how we justify it to ourselves.

III.  2 Peter 1:3-4.  Our Head’s body is the fullness of Him who fills all in all.  In all other groups, there is a separation between the management and the workers.  Not so in the one eternal organization, the Lord’s church.  Using marriage to illustrate the relationship of the Head to His body (Ephesians 5:22-24), we understand that Jesus gives us every blessing so that we may be partakers of the divine nature.  In other words, He fills us and we are His fullness.

Now that is a Head that we can freely submit ourselves to!  His bride does submit to the Bridegroom.  The big question is–are we as individuals submitting to our Head to be part of His bride?

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Will Not Lead to Your Glory

When we look at the time of Judges as God’s people seeking to live for Him in an evil world all around them without compromise or complacency, the parallels to today are evident.

One of the greatest struggles is having the courage to do what God asks when it is so easy to shrink back.

I.  Judges 4:1-10.  Barak had already been told by God to free His people in battle.  This is what the prophet, Deborah, told him when she summoned him.  Yes, Barak was reluctant to obey.  Lacking the courage to do what God had asked of him, he put his trust in Deborah rather than God.  If she would go with him, he would obey.  This road, she told him, would not lead to his glory.

II.  James 4:17.  We often read this account and teach about headship.  Because a man wouldn’t obey, his glory was given to a woman.  But there’s more going on here.  Barak’s sin was one of omission.  He knew the good he ought to do, but he chose to do nothing.  This was Adam’s sin as well.  While his wife was being tempted by the serpent, Adam, who was with her (Genesis 3:6) did and said nothing.  The saddest struggle God’s people have today in an evil culture is our inaction in the face of opportunities for the Kingdom that God gives us each and every day.

III.  2 Peter 1:3-4.  Jesus, however, seized the opportunity to die in our place, so we might share in His glory.  Because He obeyed, He became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey Him (Hebrews 5:7-10).  Therefore, the road that leads to our glory is one of obedience to God’s commands.  We must NOT do what we should NOT do, and do what we should do.

This means, unlike Barak, living out what the pages of Scripture tell us to do or don’t do while surrounded by an immoral culture that calls for you to compromise or be complacent.

Do you have the courage to obey though you may be the only one around you to do so?

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Obtained with His Own Blood

When my dad would leave for his two weeks’ active duty in the Navy Reserves every year, he would tell me I needed to be “the man of the house” and take care of my mother.  He didn’t expect me to take care of things that were beyond an eight year-old like fixing the washing machine or drive to the store for milk, but it didn’t stop me having fantasies of wrestling a robber to the ground in the middle of the night to save mom.

In many ways, Jesus wants us to take care of His bride, the church, until He returns.

I.  Ephesians 5:25-27.  As Paul spoke with the Ephesian elders, he states that Jesus’ church was “obtained with His own blood” (Acts 20:28).  Like a medieval knight battling a dragon to rescue the princess, Jesus overcame sin and death on the cross to win those who would be His.  The church is His bride, His treasured possession, that He gave Himself for.  He died for His greatest love!

II.  Hebrews 13:7-17.  Jesus obtained His bride with His blood, but He has gone to prepare a place for her (John 14:1-3), and entrusted her to shepherds.  Speaking to those same elders, Paul states that they are to “care for the church” (Acts 20:28).  Like my dad trusted me to care for my mother while he was away, the Good Shepherd (John 10:11-16) entrusts His greatest love with shepherds under Him.

III.  Revelation 19:7-8.  Every bride needs to make herself ready for her wedding day!  The church is no exception.  When the bells ring, it is not time to roll out of bed.  Knowing that our Knight, our King of Kings, has shed His blood for us to rescue us from such a foe (Revelation 5:9-14), we must don our fine linen (righteous acts) and be eagerly waiting for Him when He returns for us (Hebrews 9:28).

Are you by obedience and repentance making yourself ready for when the groom comes for His bride?

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But He Could Not

A man went to his neighbor to borrow a shovel but was told that he couldn’t because the neighbor had to take his wife to the doctor next Tuesday.  “What’s that got to do with me borrowing your shovel?” the man asked.  “When you don’t want to do something,” the neighbor answered, “any excuse will do.”

We make excuses to not trust and obey God all the time: no one’s interested in the gospel!  I’m too busy to read my Bible!  I’m too exhausted to go to church this morning!  We placate ourselves with these, but does God accept any of our excuses?

I.  Judges 1:1-18.  God’s people had just lost a great leader in Joshua, but God had promised to be with them in conquering the land if they would just trust and obey.  As long as everything was going well, they did not struggle to do what God asked of them.

II.  Judges 1:19-36.  It did not take long, however, for their faith to meet resistance.  As soon as the going got tough, those who thought themselves tough could not or did not do what God asked of them.  They began to make excuses instead and just accept that that was how things were.

III.  Luke 14:16-24.  Oh, how that sounds like God’s people today!  God has given us the same promise today that He will be with us (Matthew 28:18-20).  He has even said He will give us the same power (Romans 8:31-32) today that He gave His people all those centuries ago.  God was not pleased that they did not trust and obey Him (Judges 2:1-5).

Will we trust and obey (1 John 2:3-6) or make excuses?