Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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Infinite Fun at Boondocks
Went to Boondocks with youth group.
Got these bracelets which gave us infinite rides for three hours.
We could go anywhere, do anything.
Go carts?
Yup, bracelet.
Ropes course, bam! LASER tag, mini gold, bowling, all the things, just flash the bracelet and you’re good to go.
Where is my version of that for life?
I’m a good guy, and I follow a good God.
Why doesn’t God give me a bracelet where I just get infinite blessings?
Perfect job?
Bracelet.
Need a parking space?
Bracelet.
Faced by trial or tribulation or heartbreak, or any challenge?
Bracelet and the heavens open up and miracles upon miracles descend and… I just win.
Why doesn’t God make it so we just win?
Why doesn’t God just give us all fantastic success?
Infinite blessing?
Free rides everywhere we go?
Now you are all brilliant theologians and I bet you have already come up with some answers.
But stop that for a moment, and just dream with me.
Wouldn’t that be kind of awesome.
Maybe for one day, one year?
Limited time offer, but I could make some things happen!
Here’s a guy who won.
The Legacy of Gideon
Heroic Leader
A Gentle Word
Crisis: the men of Ephraim, the most powerful tribe at this time, are upset that Gideon has won the victory without him.
But with a gentle word, Gideon implies that the hardest part is yet to come and Ephraim will be key in mopping up the Midianites.
Judges 8:1
Crisis solved.
Revenge
Skipping down to verse 18, we get another little victory for Gideon.
He pursues and captures Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of the Midianites.
He captures them and...
Here we hear that his brothers were killed.
Judges 8:18
Here we hear that his brothers were killed.
But we also see the contrast between the coward he was, now represented by his son Jether, and the mighty man of valor he is now.
Gideon - H
He has achieved peace among the tribes, he has achieved the peace of victory of his enemies, and then we see again the pattern of shalom, the pattern of peace we see for each judge.
Peace for a season
Gideon was successful and the land had rest.
In this he fulfilled the promise and prophecy spoken over him by the angel of God: the Lord is with you, o mighty man of valor.
Israel will be delivered by your hand.
He showed himself as a wise leader, he got revenge for his family, and he obtained victory over the enemy and peace for his people for forty years.
All is well, and you can’t really argue with success, right?
Why doesn’t God just give us all such fantastic success?
Why can’t we all be like Gideon?
Because we might all end up being like Gideon.
Infinite Ice Cream
I shop at Costco and about 4 trips in a row I bought there pack of vanilla ice cream.
I kept forgetting I had some and oooh.... ice cream sound good.
So at one point I had half a dozen tubs of vanilla ice cream in my freezer.
I had the good stuff.
What is the solution to that?
All right kids, gather round… Ice cream sundaes and root beard (please don’t correct, keeping Dylan going on “root beard” as long as possible) root beard floats for days.
Let’s just eat all the ice cream in one sitting.
It’s good stuff.
And I want to give good gifts.
Why not give it all to my children?
Why don’t I give my kids endless desserts?
Because it would be bad for them.
It would make the sick.
It would make the unhealthy.
It would hurt and harm them and so I have to be careful with how I give them those blessings…
Because they can’t handle it.
All the goodness at once would damage them.
A Good Father knows a Good Gift and not to tempt me too far with
Every gift and every victory carries with it the temptation of self.
Self-glorification, self-sufficiency, and self-righteousness.
My body couldn’t handle infinite ice cream.
It would destroy me, and the process would be gross and painful.
Wrapped within the victory, wrapped within the blessing, inherent in any gift is this temptation: I am going to focus on the Gift rather than the Giver.
I am going to see the Blessing as my due.
I am going to see the Victory as my accomplishment.
Gideon sees fantastic
I am going to grab the glory.
Wannabe-King
This is the path of Gideon.
Threaded right through this telling of Gideon’s fantastic success and victory we see trouble...
Jealous anger.
Judges 8:5-9
Nowhere do we see God telling Gideon to do this.
These are his countrymen, probably the tribe of Gad.
“I will flail your flesh”… “Do you know who I am???”
And to make it worse, this isn’t an empty threat, Gideon follows through.
Judges 8:
I’ll teach YOU not to give sandwiches to my men!
A little mad with power?
The Spoils
But Gideon has won this great victory and the men of Israel want to make him their king.
Probably not all of them, it doesn’t say, but a contingent of men come to Gideon:
This has the appearance of humility and piety.
This is actually what He should say.
The lesson of Judges and Samuel and Kings is that God wants to be King of His people and every-time someone else takes that throne, the people suffer.
The nation suffers.
The relationship suffers.
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