Courage In The Face of Fear
Part 2: “Gideon: From Coward to Conqueror”
Judges 6:11-40
Intro – do you have any idea how many phobias there are? Phobia = fear of something…eg. arachnaphobia = fear of spiders…claustrophobia = fear of enclosed spaces
-no definitive, official number of phobias…depends where you get youe information… they are in the hundreds…
…one thing in common was the top ten phobias…
-in no particular order:
flying, public speaking, heights, the dark, intimacy, death, failure, rejection, spiders, commitment…
I’m sure we can all relate to one or more of those phobias…
Here’s one I found interesting:
Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia (not fear of hippos) = fear of long words!
Here’s one that I’m dealing with myself: homilophobia
= fear of sermons…
One of the phobia sites concluded their long list of phobias by saying: “So there’s my list, but I’m afraid I may have forgotten something”…
Last week I began a series called Courage in the Face of Fear. I began by pointing out how the world gives us so many reasons to be afraid…I won’t go over the list again, because you can come up with one just as easy as I can…
…but the Devil is using the news of the world, things that are happening locally and globally to shout the message: “Be afraid; be very afraid…”
And most of us are vulnerable to that message of fear because it plays right into our natural tendency to chose fear over faith…it plays right into our imaginations that something terrible is going to happen to us or those we love…
…and the Devil has found such an effective tool to keep God’s people bound up, immobilized or retreating into a fortress mentality…
The world shouts: “be afraid, be very afraid.”
But last week I announced to you, that God has an entirely different message: “do not fear; do not be afraid…” Take courage, it is I. Don’t be afraid…”
And those who have ears to hear what the Spirit is currently saying to the church…that is a widespread message…makes me wonder what God is preparing us for…
And in the weeks ahead I am asking God to deliver us from a spirit of fear and to build in us a spirit of courage, faith, boldness and fearlessness in the facing of these challenging days both personally and as followers of Jesus in an increasingly dark and evil world…
-even for those of you who consider yourselves brave and fearless and not easily frightened, God wants to increase that spirit within you so you can help and inspire others in the days ahead…”courage encourages courage…”
And one person in the Bible that God helped deal with their fear was Gideon…
…please turn in the OT to Judges 6…Gideon is one of my all-time favorite Bible characters…I can relate to him on so many levels…and many of you know the story of Gideon,
…especially the part where he defeats a Midianite army of 135,000 soldiers with 300 unarmed men…
…and how he prays for a sign from God that he will be victorious and God gives him the sign of the fleece…puts it on the ground and asks God to make it wet one night and dry the next night…and God does just that, thereby giving Gideon great courage to know God is with him and is going to help him defeat the Midianites…(talk about double confirmation!)
But what some of you may not know is Gideon’s back story…how he came to the place where he was enabled step in to this challenging role of leading the Israelites to fight the Midianites…it’s the story of how a coward becomes a conqueror…it’s the story of how God takes a fearful person and transforms him into a powerful and effective warrior…
…have you found Judges 6?…let’s pray…
I see four ways God transforms Gideon from a coward to a conqueror…(going to only look at the first one this week and the other three next week…first way God transforms fearful Gideon is found in vv. 12-16…and it is by giving him…
I a God-given identity (6:12-16)
-read…
-musn’t let the significance of threshing wheat in a winepress escape you…you usually thresh wheat in an open space where the wind can blow away the chaff…but Gideon is hiding from the oppressive Midianites…
Gideon, and all of Israel for that matter, is so afraid of the Midianites, so oppressed, so beaten down, so discouraged…that their fear is in control and they are in complete bondage to the powerful Midianites…
-the background is given in 6:1-6…(read…)
So we first find Gideon firmly bound up by the chains of fear…which is so clear when you read the way he responds to this angel of the Lord…(which, by the way, could have been a physical appearance of Jesus Christ…Christophony…)
-re-read 6:13-15…maybe this is how some of you feel today…
OK, so here’s how God begins the transformation of a coward into a conqueror… He names Him…He pronounces Gideon’s God-given identity…He declares a destiny by giving Gideon His name for him…
“Mighty Warrior”…v.12…”the Lord is with you, Mighty Warrior…”
-Gideon is anything but a mighty warrior at this point in his life…but that’s how God sees him…
This is where the transformation of Gideon begins which enables Gideon to choose courage over fear…to obey what God calls him to do instead of run from it…because God tells him who he really is…
The Power of Identity
Do you know who you are? Who God says you are? There’s lots of people trying to name you, give you an identity, determine your destiny…
Many of us are given false names by other people or even ourselves…some of you grew up being told by people that you were: ugly, useless, a mistake, not wanted, a misfit, damaged goods, a failure…you’ll never amount to anything…
Many of us name ourselves in our own thoughts (outloud): stupid, idiot, dumb, no good, not good enough…want to disappear, be invisible…
Friends, God wants to heal you from that horrible wounding, and those lies…which play right into the Devil’s plan to hold you back…keep you down…defeated, fearful…
…and God wants to do that healing, in part, by telling you who you are… who He says you are…what your God-given identity is…what His name is for you…
What God Calls You in the Bible
What name do you think God would give you? What identity does He see when He looks at you? I can tell you for sure that it’s not any of those names I just read…
eg. when Jesus looked at Peter in the NT, He didn’t say, “You are Peter, brash and head-strong, the one who opens his mouth before he thinks…”
Instead He says, “You are Peter and on this Rock I will build My church…” Mt. 16:18
eg. When God speaks to an old childless couple named Abram and Sarah who have no human chance of producing a legacy, He does not say, “Hey you washed up old people; you’re done; there’s nothing more you can do for Me…”
Instead He says, “your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations…” Gen. 17:5
eg. when God speaks to a man threshing wheat in a winepress for fear of an enemy He doesn’t say, “hey you sniveling coward…you spineless wimp…”
Instead He says, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior…”
“Bill’s” Story
There is a man I will call Bill (and you will understand why in a moment) who has an effective ministry to men in the prison system… Bill attended one of the church’s I pastored and was an outstanding man of faith and courage in his walk with God…to meet Bill is to meet a man of devotion, commitment and courage…
-but the truth is, even the name Bill gave us wasn’t his real name. Here’s why.
Years ago, Bill and another man were involved in a murder…Bill and his partner broke into a facility attempting to steal something, but things went terribly wrong…the break-in led to the murder of a person who confronted them…Bill’s partner committed the murder…which made Bill an accomplice…
-both men were caught and sentenced…
Bill served a number of years in prison…and that’s where he was introduced to Jesus by a faithful prison chaplain and became a new person in Christ…
…after a few years, Bill agreed to give information about his accomplice that further implicated him in other crimes…
-for Bill’s confession, he was let out early…and was given a new identity…a new name …and he started a new life in our area far away from where the crime took place and where he had served time…
-the only hitch is…his partner was also let out some years later and Bill knows this man will likely attempt to find him to get revenge…
Bill lives with the daily reality that this may be his last…a knock on the door could be the end of his life…yet he faces this reality with confidence and courage because he knows that his life is in God’s hands…literally…
…so he has just abandoned himself to God…He serves God with everything… cause he’s got nothing to lose and everything to gain…
So how does God see Bill? as a criminal, an accomplice to murder? or does He see him as an anointed godly servant of God?
Bill knows who He is, Who’s he is…what his indetity in Christ is…who He belongs to and who is taking care of him, empowering him, using him powerfully in ministry…
I’ve said this to so many people…”God is more interested in your future than He is in your past…”
-if you are a Christian, your past has been dealt with; its sins and failures and mistakes and horrible things have been forgiven and cleansed by the blood of JC…
-thru the gospel of JC, you have been made righteous by Christ’s sacrifice for you…
-you are no longer defined by your past or by any identity that has been conferred upon you from whatever source…
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old has gone, the new is here!” 2 Cor. 5:17
* so, stop living in your past…continuing to be the old person that Christ came to save and transform…
…the only thing that matters now is what God thinks of you…who He says you are…all the rest are opinions and lies… that need not define who you are anymore…
You need to open your Bible and have a conversation with God and ask Him how He sees you…what He calls you…what His name for you is and what His identity is for you…
…and to receive His word to you vs. deflect, downplay, debate…reject it…
God’s Names For Us
I’ll give you a small preview of what you’re going to hear from Him…here’s a list of some of the names God has for us from the Bible…
My child – Jn 1:12
My friend – Jn. 15:15
chosen person – 1 Pet.2:9
God’s special possession – 1 Pet. 2:9
redeemed and forgiven – Col. 1:14
free from condemnation – Rm.8:1-2
citizen of heaven – Phil. 3:20
God’s co-worker – 2 Cor.6:1
God’s workmanship – Eph. 2:10
a minister of reconciliation – 2 Cor. 5:17-20
Christ’s ambassador – 2 Cor. 5:20
you have not been given a spirit of fear, but of power, love and a sound mind – 2 Tim.1:7
I could keep going…but you get the idea…it’s best if you hear directly from God Himself what He says about you…what He calls you…how He sees you…
-get some time alone with God, open your Bible…and hear what He has to say…
You ask, “how is this going to help me deal with fear and make me courageous?” It’s going to help in ways you can’t even imagine…
…primarily, this will set you free from any false identity that Satan would use to keep you bound and afraid and immobilized…
…and it will give you the courage to move forward in a life of bold faith, just like Gideon was able to do…
When God tells you who you are, He imparts courage…
Gideon needed a reason to step out of that hidden winepress and onto the battlefield…and He found it, first of all, by discovering his God-given identity…
There are at least three more things God did to transform Gideon, but that’s going to have to wait until next week…
Jesus Christ The Ultimate Conqueror
Let me close by pointing out one last thing…Jesus Christ is the ultimate Conqueror…He is the one who has defeated all the powers of sin and hell by His victorious death and resurrection…and instead of looking within ourselves to find courage to face challenging times…we only need to look at Jesus and the courage He had to stare sin and death in the face and come through as the Victorious Conqueror…
Heb. 2:14-15 He too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.