“Every plan God lays before you will have success when you follow His plan”
We had an amazing Sunday at Crosspointe. Worship was off the charts! I am so proud of our Worship team, they have been putting in time and pursuing excellence and you can see it. It was powerful and spirit led! There was one saved and a full alter at the invitation. Sunday evening we had Crosspointe 101, our membership class, and there were 4 active duty Marines who attended! I am excited to see what the Lord is going to be doing in the coming months. As you can see we are also changing the blog and will be updating our media during the service over the next few months. God is doing great things.
Judges 7:1-7
1 Then Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) and all the people who were with him rose early and encamped beside the well of Harod, so that the camp of the Midianites was on the north side of them by the hill of Moreh in the valley.
2 And the LORD said to Gideon, “The people who are with you are too many for Me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel claim glory for itself against Me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’ 3 Now therefore, proclaim in the hearing of the people, saying, ‘Whoever is fearful and afraid, let him turn and depart at once from Mount Gilead.’” And twenty-two thousand of the people returned, and ten thousand remained.
4 But the LORD said to Gideon, “The people are still too many; bring them down to the water, and I will test them for you there. Then it will be, that of whom I say to you, ‘This one shall go with you,’ the same shall go with you; and of whomever I say to you, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ the same shall not go.” 5 So he brought the people down to the water. And the LORD said to Gideon, “Everyone who laps from the water with his tongue, as a dog laps, you shall set apart by himself; likewise everyone who gets down on his knees to drink.” 6 And the number of those who lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, was three hundred men; but all the rest of the people got down on their knees to drink water. 7 Then the LORD said to Gideon, “By the three hundred men who lapped I will save you, and deliver the Midianites into your hand. Let all the other people go, every man to his place.”
God’ does not need your talents He just needs you. Every plan God lays before you will have success when you follow His plan! The United States is known as a Christian nation; however the gospel light is not shining.
Here are the encouraging statistics:
In the United States there are 15,000 Christian radio stations and 300+ Christian television stations, 70+ million people who say they ate born again, 62% of Americans say they made a commitment to Jesus Christ, 96% of Americans are “believers of god” not all of whom believe in Satan and hell (Jesus spoke more about hell than heaven).
Here are the discouraging statistics:
The United States is the world’s biggest user of prisons, 1.1 million Americans are in prison, 1 million teens run away from home every year, suicide is the second leading cause of death for teens, the number 1 killer of children are their parents, 50 thousand drug addicted babies are born in California every year, this year 1.5 million babies will be aborted.
The country claims God is important but the actions say different. Christians as a whole seem to say one thing and do another. What God asked Gideon to do did not make sense at all, but he did it. God is not concerned with the size of the army, just as we should be concerned with quantity in our church we should be concerned with quality. Life is not what happens to you it is how you respond to what happens to you. How important is god to you? It’s easy to rely upon your talents but it is hard to turn away from that and turn toward Him.
The first thing God asked Gideon to do was…Excuse the Cowards.
We live in a world where God is as accessible to us as ever before. It is easy to get a Bible. We have access to the things of God. They were outnumbered 4 to 1 yet God said “The people who are with you are too many for Me to give the Midianites into their hands “ (Judges 7:2) often times we fail to listen to the second part of that statement “, lest Israel claim glory for itself against Me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me. God is not in the business of you saving yourself; He is in the business of saving you so you can give Him the glory. (Isaiah 42:8) God commands Gideon to do the impossible. Every time God does something for us, with us, or through us He wants us to say this is the lords doing (Psalm 118:23). The greatest victories are in what you behold not what you do. God does not have a measuring stick He just says trust me, yet so many times the glory that is Gods people claim for themselves. At best we can say God used us for greatness. (Judges 7:3) Gideon did something no other general has ever done. He let the timid and the scared go home. Too many Christians lack courage. We hold the fort instead of shouting “onward forward for the Lord”. We are going to fight sin not other Christians. We are going to be about the big things of God. We want to fight the sin and love the sinner. Cowards have no place in God’s army. And the greatest battle will not be fighting Satan it will be fighting yourself. (Deuteronomy 20:8) Cowards and critics are contagious but great faith in God is also contagious. God can use the frail but cannot use the fearful. Faith and fear can not dwell in the same heart.
The second thing God asked Gideon to do was…Exclude the Careless.
The army went from 32000 4:1 to 300. Gideon is walking his journey of faith. Gideon got on board with God’s plan. His plan the best plan. God gives a test. You might think lapping water is a little thing but a series of little things ass up to a whole lot. It’s the little things that will bring you down. And God is watching those little things. The two dangers in war are to overestimate the enemy (cowards) and the second is to underestimate the enemy (careless).
The third thing God asked Gideon to do was…Enlist the committed.
These me were the spiritual Marines that God wanted. Gideon’s army was down to 1% of what it was when he started. The lesson is simple. The master’s minority is better than the majority. God +1 is a majority. Quality not quantity.
With the Lord before us, Jesus beside us, the Spirit within us, and the Bible behind us there is no foe we cannot face.
