I invite you to turn with me tonight to Judges 6, Judges 6. We read together the first 24 verses, our text being particularly verses 11 through 24. Judges 6, 7, and 8 deals with the episodes of Gideon. And tonight, in essence, we begin a series within our broader series of Judges. but a series of sermons on the judge with regard to the judge Gideon. We read together the first 24 verses again, the text beginning at verse 11. Hear now the Word of God. Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and for seven years He gave them into the hands of the Midianites. Because the power of Midian was so oppressive, the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in mountain clefts, caves, and strongholds. Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites, and other eastern peoples invaded the country. They camped on the land and ruined the crops all the way to Gaza and did not spare a living thing for Israel, neither sheep nor cattle nor donkeys. They came up with their livestock and their tents like swarms of locusts. It was impossible to count the men and their camels. They invaded the land to ravage it. Midian was so impoverished, so impoverished the Israelites, that they cried out to the Lord for help. When the Israelites cried to the Lord because of Midian, he sent them a prophet who said, this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says. I brought you up out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. I snatched you from the power of Egypt and from the hand of all your oppressors. I drove them from before you and gave you their land. I said to you, I am the Lord your God. Do not worship the gods of the Amorites in whose land you live. But you have not listened to me. The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Oprah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, The Lord is with you, mighty warrior. But sir, Gideon replied, 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 us into the hand of Midian. The Lord turned to him and said, Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian's hand. Am I not sending you? The Lord, Gideon asked, How can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my people. The Lord answered, I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites together. Gideon replied, If now I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign that it is really you talking to me. Please do not go away until I come back and bring my offering and set it before you. And the Lord said, I will wait until you return. Gideon went in, prepared a young goat, and from an ephah of flour he made bread without yeast. Putting the meat in a basket and its broth in a pot, he brought them out and offered them to him under the oak. The angel of God said to him, Take the meat and the unleavened bread, place them on this rock, and pour out the broth. And Gideon did so. With the tip of the staff that was in his hand, the angel of the Lord touched the meat and the unleavened bread. Fire flared from the rock, consuming the meat and the bread, and the angel of the Lord disappeared. 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. The Lord said to him, Peace. Do not be afraid. You are not going to die. So Gideon built an altar to the Lord there and called it, The Lord is Peace. To this day it stands in Oprah of the Abiyaz Rites. Well, beloved, that certainly sounds familiar, doesn't it? Once again, we hear the same old song as the downward spiral in the saga of God's people continues. Israel once again had forgotten who had brought them peace. Once again, they went their own way. Once again, they rejected God. So again, the Lord stayed faithful to His promise, to His threat of punishment, and gave, literally handed them over to the Midianites and others. But of course, led by the Midianites. Again, in some way, relatives of the Israelites, at least through Moses. The Midianites, you see, were nomads. They were desert people. They were people on the move, going from place to place. And as they were on the move, they depended upon others for their survival. And the best and the easiest way to get what they needed was simply to take it. Go in and steal it. And what the Israelites were told in the first part of the chapter, verses 3-5, whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites, and other eastern peoples invaded the country. They camped on the land and ruined the crops all the way to Gaza and did not spare a living thing for Israel, neither sheep nor cattle nor donkeys. They came up with their livestock and their tents like swarms of locusts. It was impossible to count the men and their camels. They invaded the land to ravage it. You see, basically what they couldn't fit on their camels or in their pockets, they burned, they destroyed. But notice, it wasn't their intention to kill the people of Israel who would plant the crops for next year's invasion then. It wasn't their intention to kill them, only to leave them dirt poor and hungry and in need, to leave them in poverty, to leave them without any strength, which is exactly what they did. And it was so bad that the Israelites hid whatever possessions they could in the mountain caves. And it says that they did this seven years in a row. Now, we might be tempted to say, well, that's not as bad as before. The episodes we considered before was 18 years of oppression or 20 years of oppression. This was seven. That's not so bad. But you see, this was actually worse. Again, their sustenance, their very livelihood was being stripped of them and much more of this kind of oppression and Israel might face extinction. And no doubt, at least it wouldn't surprise me if the Israelites were crying out, What happened to the land flowing with milk and honey? What happened? Where did it go? Of course, we're told that the Israelites did cry out to the Lord for help, but most likely, again, this was only a cry of desperation from their distress, from their oppression, from their hardship, and not true repentance. Nowhere do we get the idea that they truly repented. And before God sent them help, He sends them a prophet, as verse 8 tells us, to tell them how it was. To give them the facts of the situation. And through the prophet, God reminded them. He told them what was what. And God's message through the prophet was that the Israelites' problems were not His fault. He is not the one to blame for this situation. It was their fault. Through the prophet, the Lord reminded them of their deliverance from the bondage of Egypt. He reminded them of God's work of cleaning up the land before them that He had given to them. He reminded them of His first commandment. Thou shalt have no other gods before Me. And then He says those heart-wrenching words at the end of verse 10, But you have not listened to Me. But you have not listened to Me or obeyed Me. Beloved, may it never be that any one of us should ever hear those words from the Lord. But you have not listened to Me. Again, we don't read of any sincere repentance whatsoever from the Israelites. But it's clear from our text, verses 11-24, that even though they had not yet repented, God still takes the initiative. As He always does, He takes the first step to draw His people back, to reform them His way. And then with this background, we consider God's calling of a reformational leader. Again, tonight beginning a series within our broader series on judges. And we have before us in these verses, in God's calling of a reformational leader, we have before us the issue of election. Secondly, the style of election. And then finally, the effect of election. And first of all, in this opening scene, as the curtain opens, what do we see? Well, verse 11 begins by telling us the angel of the Lord came. Now, boys and girls, angels we know are ministering spirits sent by God to minister His Word to carry out the will of God. But here we need to understand we don't have just any old angel, but we have the angel of the Lord. Verse 14 says, the Lord turned to him to Gideon and said. In other words, we believe that this angel was the Lord Himself. It was the pre-incarnate Christ who spoke to Gideon face to face. In the Old Testament, the angel of the Lord, the pre-incarnate Christ, made a number of appearances. For example, in Genesis 18, the three visitors come to talk to Abraham, telling him that he and Sarah would have a wife. And we're told there that the one who spoke was the Lord. In Judges chapter 13, as we hope to consider later on, the angel of the Lord came to Manoah and his wife, Samson's parents. Again, these were in times when God's people were in need of God's saving power. There are other instances as well of the appearance of the angel of the Lord. But the fact is that whenever the Lord appeared, it was for the purpose of salvation. But then our attention shifts to Gideon. Now, most likely if you remember anything about Gideon, you think of the fleece. Sometimes you hear that even today. Well, I put my fleece out. You know, I'm trying to decide what I should do, whether I should go to this college or whether I should take that job. And well, I put my fleece out, referring to what Gideon did. Or we might think of Gideon's small band of 300 men who went out against 144,000 men equipped with what kind of weapons? Torches, trumpets, and glass jars. But that's not the beginning of Gideon. The beginning of Gideon is far from what those episodes seem to suggest. What's he up to? What's his reaction now to this visitor who happens to be relaxing under the oak tree in his hometown? Was this visitor simply a traveler who was passing through and who stopped for a little R&R before he decides to take up his journey tomorrow? See, the text doesn't tell us whether there was anything unique about this angel that should have given Gideon any sort of hint that he was an angel. In this case, the Lord was showing Himself to Gideon as a man. But anyway, Gideon had other things on his mind. We're told in verse 11 that he was threshing wheat or beating out wheat in a winepress. Why? To keep it from the Midianites. Now that activity itself was kind of an odd situation because normally that kind of work was done on a flat, hard, circular area anywhere from 25 to 40 feet in diameter called a threshing floor. And these floors were located, they were in open areas close to the grain fields. That makes sense, from where the wheat had just been harvested. And a threshing sledge was used that would roll over the piles of wheat. And these threshing sledges were built of heavy wood studded underneath with sharp stones or iron spikes. And they were pulled by oxen or horses or donkeys or anything of that nature, some large animal. And again, they would roll over the piles of grain to begin that separation process of the wheat from the chaff. And then the people would throw that wheat and chaff into the air. The wheat was a bit heavier. It would fall straight down to the threshing floor. And the chaff, of course, we know, the wind would carry that away. We read about that in Psalm 1, don't we, with regard to the wicked. Not so the wicked. They're like the chaff which the wind blows away. The garbage. the refuse, the waste. But that was the normal process with regard to dealing with the harvested wheat. But here's Gideon. He's beating the wheat in a winepress. Now, this was almost the exact opposite of a threshing floor. A winepress. We know where they loaded it with grapes and they stomped on those grapes to juice them. And a winepress, you see, wasn't a large flat area. It was more like a bowl. It was dug down, possibly into a large stone of some sort. That's where Gideon was. And he was probably beating it with a stick because there's no way he could get a threshing sledge in there. But the point is, Gideon's methods show us his intentions again to keep his work secret from the Midianites. He was in a hiding place. And in order to carry out this work, he had to resort to the primitive stick-beating methods, kind of like us giving up our automobiles and going back to the horse and buggy or giving up our wash machines and going to the washboards down by the riverside, you know, doing the wash by hand, or giving up our computers and keeping all of our records simply with pencil and paper. And we could come up with a number of examples like that. But from the conversation that follows, it seems that while he was doing this work, Gideon had his mind on God's people. He was thinking about the oppression that they were under, that they were suffering. But now this is a potentially serious situation because here's this stranger and at that time if we were in Gideon's shoes it wouldn't be wise to make small talk with just any old person who was passing by because you never know, it could be a Midianite in disguise. Boys and girls, your parents teach you over and over again reminding you not to talk to strangers. And in this past week we've been reminded of that again, haven't we? In a very vivid way with that 11-year-old girl from Florida just a week ago being led away and we see that haven't we with the surveillance camera in a way that we've probably never seen that before literally being held by the wrist and led away never to be seen alive again i think a little bit that might have been the situation that gideon was facing you've got to be careful there gideon doesn't show hospitality he doesn't greet the angel he doesn't bring out the customary water to wash the dust off the angel's feet So the angel greets him and he says, The Lord is with you, mighty warrior. Mighty warrior. What a greeting. Is that some kind of a joke? It's ironic, isn't it, given the situation that we find Gideon in, in which he's introduced. But it's also a prophetic greeting, given what we will see Gideon would become by God's grace. But what kind of greeting is that? Here's Gideon, scared stiff of the Midianites. He's hiding in a wine press. What kind of soldier is that? On the one hand, we can say this was a soldier who had had enough. And we don't know if Gideon really heard the words, mighty warrior, but he did hear the words, the Lord is with you. And now it's as if he hears the joke. He says, if the Lord is with us, then why has all this happened to us? Where are all His wonders that we've heard about? We can imagine Him saying, so the Lord is with us? Is that why our land is overrun by these occupying forces? Is that why our people have to take a harvest time vacation in the caves and the mountains? Hardly a holiday inn. Is that why we have to hide every little bit of food possible just to stay alive? Think of World War II, beloved, and the German occupation of Holland. Think of the World Trade Center attack. Think of the moral decay all around us and the fact that even as believers, every day more and more it is being shoved in our faces, the abortion rights, the homosexual rights, euthanasia, and so much more. And sometimes aren't we just a little bit tempted to cry out, Is the Lord really with us? See, Gideon says, no. The Lord has abandoned us. Well, then from here, the Lord tells Gideon to go and deliver or save Israel because the Lord is sending him. And we're not surprised, or we shouldn't be surprised at Gideon's response. No, no, no. You've got this all wrong. Not me. My family is the smallest and the weakest in Israel, and I'm nothing. Not me. You've got the wrong guy here. Sounds a little bit like Moses, doesn't it? Maybe it sounded like some of us at times in our life when we sense the Lord is calling us to do some sort of work in His kingdom. Even if it's talking to a classmate, boys and girls, about the Lord. Or whether it's speaking with a co-worker. No, you've got the wrong person. Not me. Yeah, Gideon, you're right. You are nothing. The key? I will be with you. And then the question becomes, will Gideon take the Lord at His word? Remember, Barak, he didn't. He said to Deborah, if you will go with me, then I will go. But if you won't go with me, then I won't go. Will Gideon take the Lord at His word? I think he did. From here on in our story, Gideon begins to realize that this is no ordinary man. He presents the gift of food which the Lord receives as a sacrifice and Gideon builds an altar to the Lord and called it the Lord is peace. Not the Lord will give peace, but He is peace. By God's grace, Gideon expresses his confidence that indeed the God who is peace would also then once again bring peace. And during all of this and throughout these episodes as we will see, Gideon's faith is being strengthened. This is Gideon's calling to be God's reformational leader. It may seem like a strange way of calling, doesn't it? But the issue here is that our sovereign Lord calls His reformational leader by way of the custom or right of election, God's right of election. God elected Gideon. Notice Gideon didn't volunteer. Not at all. And this becomes even more clear when we recognize the nature of Gideon's reply to the angel. Now, remember that earlier, the prophet had gone out preaching repentance. He told them clearly. He told them word for word exactly why they were being oppressed. There was no secret here. They had not listened to God, but instead they had other gods before Jehovah. Now some believe that this prophet may have been some sort of a circuit rider and an itinerant preacher going around to God's people from village to village, from church to church we might say. Even today there are some. I know Fred Bergheis' son who's a minister in the Methodist church in the East Coast. He preaches, I believe, at three churches every Lord's Day. Small congregations. And maybe that's the kind of preacher, prophet, this man was. And no doubt he had been to Gideon's town too. But what happened? Was there any change? Did Gideon's family clean up their act? Did they destroy the altars to Baal? The answer, I'll tell you, is no. Look at verses 25 and 26 that we hope to consider next week when Gideon does tear down Baal's altar. It hadn't been done yet. But to put it in our terms today, did they burn the mementos that become our idols like our trophies and our awards of whatever kind or anything that we use to draw attention to ourselves? Did they dethrone those things that had become more important to them than God? Sometimes some of us talk about what would you take if your house was in the line of fire as many were a few months ago. And you had only a couple of minutes to grab a few things. What would you take? Well, we hear things, well, I'd take my pictures, my photo albums. I'd take my important papers. I'd take some of my jewels, my car, hopefully. Some, but not many, say I would grab my Bible. I would grab the Word of God. With Gideon and the Israelites, the big question is, did they repent? Well, apparently not, because even after the detailed scolding of the prophet, and as if he had never come and said one word, Gideon basically says, you know, we just don't get it. It doesn't make sense to us. We just don't understand why all this has happened. God's ways are a riddle to us. They're a question mark. kind of like us doing something we know we shouldn't do and then being reminded later. We try to act all innocent about it. Boys and girls, if your mom tells you to go take a bath and you go to the bathroom and you fill that bathtub up to the top, or try to at least, and mom comes in and sees the water, the waves, going over the side on the bathroom floor and reminds you, you're not supposed to do that. Well, I didn't know. Yeah, you did. But for those of us who've ever got caught speeding in our cars, We try to use the excuse, well, I didn't know how fast I was going. Yeah, you did. Yeah, you did. Gideon argues that God's ways are mysterious. And he says it all with such a pious face. You see, through Gideon we see lots of piety, but we see very little respect, no respect for God's Word. Again, sounds familiar, doesn't it? Many people say they want to be saved, but they want it to be according to their terms. Many people say they are obedient, but it's a convenient obedience. If it's convenient for me, I'll be obedient. If it fits my lifestyle, if it suits my purpose. With Gideon's attitude, beloved, we come to see the real miracle here. Now we might be tempted to ask, why doesn't God just start over? He talked about that with Moses, remember? I'm going to wipe him out. I'm going to make a nation out of you. Why doesn't He just create a new people for Himself and destroy the old? What motivates God to put up with people who are long on self-pity, but very, very short on self-understanding? What motivates God to put up with you and me? See, this, beloved, is God's electing grace. Here we see God's law or custom or right of election demonstrated. You see, God came to choose Gideon not because he was a repentant fellow or because he was a brave leader or because a fearless warrior. Gideon wasn't any of these things. But, as we will see, he would become these things by God's grace and through the power of His Spirit. In God's absolute sovereignty, he chose Gideon just because he wanted to. Gideon had nothing to offer God that would make God need or even want Gideon. And so it is with you and me. We have nothing to offer God that would make Him need us or want us. Sometimes we think we deserve to be Christians. We think that that's our right. And we come before God with proud hearts. But beloved, we don't deserve it. Not one deserves it because all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. The Lord's ways are mysterious. But the mystery here, Gideon, is not why God left you. But the mystery is why He came back. That's the mystery. Why did God send His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross to suffer the wrath of God for your sins and my sins? Why did He do that? That's the mystery. Why does He preserve us for all eternity? Why does He save us from eternal death? The answer is simple. It's grace, isn't it? God's amazing grace. And what a reason, beloved, to rejoice, to give thanks, and to sing. We notice then briefly also the style of election. Gideon says in verse 15, But Lord, how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family. In other words, I can't do it. No one will follow me anyway. It's a waste of time trying. Again, I'm sure a number of us, myself included, have said, I can't do it. When I think sometimes if we examine a little closer, the truth is, I don't want to do it. I don't want to get up and challenge that person in the restaurant who's taking the Lord's name in vain. I don't want to go comfort that one who is struggling with death and really doesn't know where true comfort comes from. I just don't want to. God's style? He takes the weakest and the poorest and the smallest for His army. He picks the totally unuseful for His use. Look around at all of us, huh? The totally unuseful for His use. Why? So that His glory will be seen. So that His might may be revealed. God said, my strength is made perfect in weakness. God doesn't want anyone boasting before Him or before man that this work of Reformation belongs to Himself or Herself. He doesn't want anyone bragging or boasting about how many people they have led to the Lord or about how much work they are doing for the Kingdom of God. He just wants you and me to do what He has called us to do. Reformation. God's way. His way has included David, the baby, the youngest in the family. It's included Samson, the morally corrupt. It's included Jesus from the despised town of Nazareth. Think about Paul, the persecutor of God's people. And we could go on and on. In short, except for our Lord Jesus Christ, those who are called by God are called first to recognize their inability or limitations or poverty to perform His work. We are called, He wants us to recognize, to acknowledge these things, but not to make excuses for them. I remember when I was seriously considering for the first time the call to the ministry and after discussing with my wife and I came up with four things that I can't do. I can't be a minister because I can't write two sermons every week. I can't stand in front of a large group. I can't lead a Bible study. There's one more that I cannot remember but within the next couple of years the Lord knocked three of them down one by one, giving me the opportunity, pushing me out of my comfort zone to do the things, except for writing two sermons, of course, that I said that I could never do. See, the key again, the Lord says, I will be with you. See, not one of us can walk the Christian life on our own two feet. Not one of us can do what God requires of us apart from His sustaining grace. But the beauty of it is He says, I will be with you. And verse 14 says again, The Lord turned to him and said, Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian's hand. Am I not sending you? In other words, Gideon, I, the Lord, am the strength you have. I am your strength. You can't give me anything that I don't already have. I don't need that from you. And people of God, again, what that means for you and me today, as hard as it may be to grasp, is that God doesn't need us. Not at all. But, he chooses to use his people. Now, if you don't believe this to be an awesome privilege here, then something is not right. But as well, if you're a bit like Gideon and you think that you are totally useless in the church, that you have nothing to offer, then you never know. God very well may plan to use you in some way. But finally, beloved, we want to also look at the effect of election. What was the effect on Gideon? After Gideon offers the food gift to the Lord and the Lord receives it, Gideon knows that he has seen God face to face and the Lord assures him that he will not die. Now, you see, this was indeed a wonderful assurance because Gideon knew that the Lord had said to Moses in Exodus 33 through verse 20, No one may see me and live. And this too was another sign of Gideon's election by God. But the effect on Gideon was twofold. First of all, he built an altar to the Lord And by this act, Gideon shows his thankfulness and his obedience to the Lord. The prophet had said, Away with the altars of Baal, build altars to the Lord. But Gideon had not yet done it. He hadn't listened. But now, by the grace of God, he had been converted. Now he obeyed. He built an altar to the Lord. And again, as we will see next week, the Lord willing, he tore down Baal's altar. But the second effect was that Gideon received an assurance of his calling. The last part of verse 14 says, Am I not sending you? If the Lord was doing it, then no one could oppose Him. Gideon had a 100% assurance of his calling and also his office as God's reforming leader. And another way that we need to look at this, beloved, is that God's sovereign election qualifies one for His office. Whether it be for the office of king or prophet or judge or believer, if God elects and God calls, that's qualification enough. No one can argue with what God does. And the point here is that the call often precedes the gifts. Now, not in our perspective, huh? Not in our perspective. When we look at others. But the call often precedes the gifts. Even when we look at ourselves most often, that's what I want us to understand. When we look at ourself and what God may be calling us to do, we don't see the gifts. So we say, God can't be calling us. But the call often comes before the gifts. God doesn't call because you have the gifts. He does like He did with Gideon. He calls and then gives you the gifts to fulfill your calling. For elder, for deacon, for minister, for missionary, for parents, as parents, young people, leaders. Teachers, school board members, for you can fill in the blank. Congregation, Reformation, God's way. Here God chose Gideon as his reformational leader and we might be tempted to think, well, you know, Gideon, he was a really fortunate man. The world would say he was a lucky man. I won't use that word. He was a fortunate man. After all, he saw the angel of the Lord with his own eyes. He heard the Lord's reassuring words with his own ears. He was given signs. God appeared to him. So how can I know just as concretely and just as surely that I'm elect, that I'm called, that I'm sent, that I'm saved? How can I know? Look again at verse 23. But the Lord said to him, Peace, do not be afraid. You are not going to die. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, our God says to His people, that to those whom He has called, To those whom He has given a new heart to believe on Him, peace. Do not be afraid. You are not going to die. That's our comfort, beloved. That eternal death has been removed from us. See, God speaks just as clearly to you and me today as He spoke to Gideon. Through His ordained ministers of His Word, we have all heard Him say, grace and peace to you. From Him who is and who was and who is to come. And from the seven spirits who are before His throne and from Jesus Christ Himself who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from among the dead and the ruler over the kings of the earth. You see, these are more than just the pious words of the minister. They're not His words at all. This is God's call to battle and our motto for war is go in the strength you have. And therefore we need to ask who is richer? Who is richer? Gideon, for having seen the angel of the Lord and receiving a sign or the church for having heard from our ascended Lord Jesus Christ grace unto you and peace reformation God's way what way will he use to reform his church to continue day by day to reform his church will it be by schism will it be by heresies will it be by trials will it be by division Will it be by a change in government? Will it be by any of these things? Will He use any of them? We don't know. But we do know that He will use His Word, which is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And congregation, once again, Gideon points forward to God's incarnate Word, Jesus Christ. Our Lord Jesus Christ, in the eyes of the world around Him, He was far from a reformational leader. He didn't fit the bill. He didn't have the qualifications. He wasn't the man for the job. He had to flee for His young life shortly after He was born. He was just the son of a carpenter. He was from Nazareth. He couldn't save Himself, they thought. But Jesus Christ brought about the greatest and the most necessary reformation His church has ever seen when He paid the penalty for her sin, when He pacified the wrath of God against her, and when He delivered her from the power of the devil. And He continues to reform His church today by drawing His own to Himself from every tribe, every tongue, every nation through the power of His Holy Spirit. And He uses His redeemed people to advance His kingdom, whether at home or on the mission field or simply in society. And it must be our humble confession that God in His grace chooses people. Not those who think that they are already qualified and have the gifts, but people whom He will equip by His grace through His Holy Spirit. He chooses people for the office of believer and equips them to fulfill their calling in this life, to be faithful servants of Him with all that means. He chooses the leadership in the church, the elders and the deacons, the ministers, the missionaries. And He equips them to perform their tasks and duties in His church and for His kingdom. He chooses Christian parents and equips them to raise their children in the fear and admonition of the Lord. He chooses Christian friends. And equips them to support, to encourage, to keep one another accountable. See, again, from our perspective, with regard to others, we tend to reverse the process. We first look to see if one has the gifts. We need to do that in our businesses, don't we? Because you can't hire someone to do the work if they don't know how to do it. Steve wouldn't hire a preacher to do plumbing work because he knows that I couldn't do it at all. It's impossible. So we've got to do that. But sometimes we do that in the church too, don't we? For example, with regard to elder and deacon, before we put them up for nomination, we look to see if they have the gifts. We look at man's outward appearance, but God looks at the heart. But see, again, as I said a few moments ago, when examining ourselves, the perspective is different. We tend to not see the gifts. But notice, for example, the first question in the form for the ordination of elders and deacons asks, Do you believe that in the call of this congregation, God Himself is calling you to these holy offices? It doesn't ask if you are able to visit, or make decisions, or count money, or comfort the sorrowing. It doesn't ask if you have the gifts. I'm not saying the gifts are unimportant. Far from it. because all we need to do is look at Paul's words in 1 Timothy 3 and in Titus to see how important they are. And indeed, with Kingdom Matters, God uses others to see the gifts that He's already given to us, to encourage us in that way. But we need to understand in our own hearts that the call comes before the gifts. God calls us before He bestows the gifts. And for those who heed the call of the Lord Jesus Christ, As He said, as He said to the disciples, I'll take care of the rest when you go out. Don't worry about what you will say. The Holy Spirit will give you the words. It doesn't mean we aren't to prepare if we know what's coming up. But God will give us what we need. Beloved, God has called you and me as believers to be His reformational leaders. And the argument that you don't have the gifts won't work because He will properly equip for His task those whom He has called. He uses the weak, and that's what we are. He simply says, take my word. Take my word and go and serve. As husbands and wives. As parents and children. As teachers and students. As employers and employees. As Christians. As those who live before the face of God. Take my word and go and serve. Be a witness for me. Give that cup of cold water, not by itself, but with the Word of God. But again, congregation, how many times haven't we in our own personal lives avoided this? How many times haven't we turned our heads from an occasion that God has placed right before us to advance His kingdom, to be used by Him to spread the joy of Jesus Christ? Again, we can't do it on our own. We must understand that. And He says, I will be with you. And just like Gideon, God gives us strength when we know that He has commissioned us for duty and He gives us more strength when we know that we have divine leadership and divine companionship. And therefore, beloved, don't resist Him. Because the battle is not ours, it's the Lord's. He will reform His way. If you don't believe in Jesus Christ, then you are like the Midianites. You are an intruder. And unless you repent and believe, you will remain God's enemy. And on the day of judgment, when Jesus comes again to judge the living and the dead, you will try to hide in those mountain caves and those who never knew Him will cry out for the mountains to cover them. For those who look to the Lord Jesus Christ in repentance and faith, what beautiful words they hear from the Lord. Peace. Do not be afraid. You will not die. Beloved, that's ours. That joy is ours. Is it yours? Do you have it? Does it cause your countenance to radiate? Are you filled with that joy? Submit completely to the Lord's call to go in the strength you have because the joy of the Lord is our strength. If you believe in Jesus Christ, God is sending you. He will be with you. And the song that He places on our lips with assurance is in life, in death. Oh Lord, abide with me. Amen. Shall we pray? Father, we pray