February 8, 2015 - How God Turns Nobodies Into Somebodies (Goehner)

How God Turns Nobodies Into Somebodies

Hebrews 11:32 and Judges 6 & 7

Judges 6:11 – The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a wine press to keep it from the Midianites.

Verse 12 – The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.

Four Steps To Becoming Somebody Usable:

Step One: Affirmation.

Verse 12 – You are a mighty warrior.

Verse 13 – But sir, if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all His wonders that our fathers told us about when they said, did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt? But now the Lord has abandoned us and put His hand into the hand of Midian.

Verse 15 – But Lord, Gideon asked, how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Mannasseh, and I am the least in my family.

-The wrong village.
-The wrong family.
-The wrong guy.

Verse 14 – Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?

Verse 16 – I will be with you, and you will strike down the Midianites as if they were but one man.

-I am sending you.
-I’m going to be with you.
-You can’t fail.

Step Two: Revelation.

Verse 22-24 – When Gideon realized that it was the angel of the Lord, he exclaimed, Ah, Sovereign Lord! I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face. But the Lord said to him, peace! Do not be afraid. You are not going to die. So Gideon built an altar there, and he called the altar, the Lord is Peace.

Altar: A personal commitment to God.

Lesson: Before you are ready to fight external battles, you must have internal peace.

Step Three: Confrontation.

Three Tests:

-God may test you spiritually.

Verse 25-27 – Tear down your fathers’ altar to Baal, so Gideon took ten of his servants and did as the Lord told him.

Exodus 20:3 – Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.

-God may test you emotionally.

Lesson: Service for the Lord always begins at home.

-God may test you physically.

Judges 6:30 – The men of the town demanded of Joash, bring out your son. He must die, because he has broken down Baal’s altar.

Verse 31 – But Joash replied to the hostile crowd, are you going to plead Baal’s cause? If Baal really is a god, he can defend himself.

Step Four: Transformation

Verse 34 – Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon.

Lesson: Power always comes after testing.

Luke 4:1 – Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, was led by the Spirit into the desert.

Verse 14 – Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit.

January 25, 2015 Becoming A Stronger Person

BECOMING A STRONGER PERSON

Hebrews 11:32

Judges 13:24 – The woman gave birth to a boy and named him Samson.  He grew and the Lord blessed him.

Three Things That Will Weaken Your Life

1. Self Indulgence.

Judges 14:1 – Samson went down to Timnah and saw there a young Philistine woman.

Verse 2 – When he returned, he said to his father and mother, I have seen a Philistine woman, not get her for me as my wife.

Verse 3 – His father and mother replied, isn’t there an acceptable woman among your relatives or among your own people?

Galatians 6:7-8 – Don’t be misled, remember that you can’t ignore God and get away with it, a man will always reap just the kind of crop he sows!  If he sows to please his own wrong desires, he will be planting seeds of evil and he will surely reap a harvest of spiritual decay and death.

Lesson One: Strong people discipline their desires.

1 Corinthians 6:12 – I will not be mastered by anything.

Proverbs 25:28 – Like a city whose walls are broken down is a man who lacks self control.

2. Bitterness.

Judges 14:18 – He was burning with anger.

Judges 15:3 – This time I have a right to get even with the Philistines.

Judges 15:7 – Since you acted like this, I won’t stop until I get my revenge on you.

Judges 15:11 – I merely did to them, what they did to me.

Judges 15:3-5 – I will really harm them.  He went out and caught three hundred foxes and tied them tail to tail in pairs.  He then fastened a torch to every pair of tails, lit the torches and let the foxes loose in the standing grain of the Philistines.  He burned up the shocks and standing grain, together with the vine yards and olive groves.

Judges 15:15 – Finding a fresh jawbone of a donkey, he grabbed it and struck down a thousand men.

Lesson Two: Strong people restrain their reactions.

Proverbs 29:22 – An angry man stirs up dissension and a hot tempered one commits many sins.

Proverbs 11:32 – Better a patient man than a warrior, a man who controls his temper than one who takes a city.

3. Carelessness.

Judges 13:4-5 – See to it that you drink no wine or other fermented drink and that you do not eat anything unclean, no razor shall be used on his head.

Judges 16:7   Verse 11   Verses 13-14

Verse 17 – He told her everything.

Verse 19 – Having put him to sleep on her lap, she called a man to shave off the seven braids of his hair, and his strength left him.

Verse 20 – He did not know that the Lord had left him.

Lesson Three: No one ever plans to be a failure.

Verse 21 – Then the Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes and took him down to Gaza, binding him with bronze shackles.  They set him to grinding in the prison.

Verse 22 – But the hair on his head began to grow again after it had been shaved.