Sermon Tone Analysis
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Zero to Hero
One day you pick your kids up and set them down.
And never pick them up again.
One of my life goals is to put that day off as long as possible, and so I practice picking up heavy stuff and setting it down.
There was a day 5 years ago where, for about 6 months, I couldn’t pick my kids up, even baby Dylan.
I was walking around like Quasimodo due to a massive herniation in my L4-L5 lumbar.
Thank God for surgery.
But afterwards, the worst thing I could do was to do nothing.
The doctors recommended building up the muscle all around the spine to protect it.
And so I started looking for coaches.
Jono and I went to every Crossfit gym for a 7 mile radius.
And we picked two great coaches, Brandon and Courtney, and I placed my physical well-being in their hands.
The idea is: they know how I can get stronger.
And they know how I can do it safely, at the right speed, at the right time, the exact right level of challenge.
I remember working on squats, and there’s a 16 year-old girl over there doing squats with 135 lbs… and the coach hands me a long PVC pipe.
Start with that.
A bit embarrassing, but more embarrassing was how sore I was the next day from “lifting” that half-pound pipe!
I remember
How do I Grow in Faith?
Juggling?
How do I become a hero of faith?
What is the process?
And, I learned this from Pastor Rod, to ask boldly in prayer for the true desire of my heart, not to hedge with God or myself in the asking.
I maybe be disappointed with the outcome, but I can bring that up with Him too.
Well, today I am going to simplify it down to a two step process which is really just one thing.
We see this played out in the life of the great Heroes of Faith - Gideon.
How do I become a hero of faith?
From Zero to Hero
Gideon - One Step At a Time
At the Beginning of the Story
Judges 6:
Gideon has our same question.
Why can’t I be in a great heroic story of God saving his people???
He is… he’s just in the beginning of that story.
And here it comes.
Step 1 - The Meal
Gideon starts with what he knows.
Stranger in town - give that guy some dinner.
And he makes a huge amount of food.
Judges 6:19-
This is a HUGE amount, 40 pounds of flour.
And a goat, which was a valuable sacrifice.
Gideon goes big… and God receives it as a sacrificial offering.
He transforms it.
Judges 6:
Waste the food, fine, Gideon does it.
Judges 6:21
The angel does his Gandalf move and vanishes.
and then...
The angel disappears… and then the LORD said to him?
How does he speak to him?
We don’t know, but apparently not through the angel anymore.
I think, as we see later, it moves to a subtler form of communication, but the text doesn’t really say.
Step 2 - The Altar
But God wastes no time and gives Gideon his next assignment.
He was faithful with the meal thing, will he be faithful in the next?
Judges 6:25-
Baal?
Asherah?
Gideon did it.
He did it in a safe, kind of sneaky, maybe a little bit cowardly way… but he did it.
The next day all the townspeople freak out and they want to kill Gideon.
They search and it would seem Gideon hides in his dad’s house, because it is his dad that defends him.
“Baal can contend for himself, I’ll kill you if you try to touch my son!”
I like this guy.
Step 3 - the Trumpet
Now all the enemy comes to town.
The moment they had feared.
Judges 6:33-
Gideon is led by the Spirit, empowered by the Spirit of the LORD, and he sounds the trumpet and his whole clan comes out.
And he sends the messengers (the beacons are lit, Gondor calls for aid) and the tribes of Israel rally to his banner.
This is hero time.
This is the crescendo.
The armies have gathered, the hero has proven his worth and now the nation is following him.
In three steps we have gone from zero to hero and Gideon has got to be riding so high right now!
But… he’s not.
In fact, Gideon gives us such tremendous insight into the heart of a hero here… I love this so much.
The armies are gathered, the victory is near.
One more march, one more day, and the next day is going to be SO GOOD.
They have too much army, it turns out.
But Gideon is not full of unshakeable faith and unending confidence.
He, in fact, is still wondering if God is with him.
Two days of reassurances:
That is a pretty good test.
How could that happen?
That’s a miracle!
Wait is it?
Which way would it happen naturally?
Maybe the fleece would normally stay dry and the ground will be wet, like it ran in a trickle all around the fleece?
… I need to test the opposite.
Judges 6:36-37
Judges 6:
God, let me be sure.
How can I be sure?
Let me be more sure than I am right now.
This is not a “how-to discover God’s will” passage.
Nobody else does this.
Seeing all the ways God had already communicated to
How patient God is with Gideon.
He knows his fear and insecurity and He answers.
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