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The story here in Judges 6:11-18 is concerning
Gideon. I'm sure that anyone who has ever had a Bible lesson - has been taught about this
wonderful Bible character named Gideon.
But I want you to notice a statement in VERSE
13 that is made, and I want you to underline
this statement,
"WHY THEN IS ALL THIS BEFALLEN US?"
What a statement!
WHY THEN IS ALL THIS BEFALLEN US?
Have you ever wondered that?
The Preacher says that the Lord is for us,
then why is all this happening to us?
And that's exactly what Gideon said.
This afternoon I want to give you several
points to help you answer the question:
"WHY THEN IS ALL THIS BEFALLEN US?"
This was a very difficult time in the history
of the nation of Israel. It had been over
forty years since they had left the land of
Egypt to go to the promised land.
They should have entered the promised land
quickly, but they didn't - they chose a
committee to figure out God's will - YOU DON'T EVER CHOSE A COMMITTEE TO FIGURE OUT GOD'S WILL.
A deacon board does not know the will of
God.
God knows the Will of God.
And God tells the Man of God.
And then the Man of God tells the people of
God.
And so they appointed a committee to run the
Lord's work like you do the world's work -and that never does work - and for forty years
they wondered in the wilderness - just barely
away from the promised land.
The promised land was just over the
mountains.
Just over there.
SO, now the forty years is over. They entered
into the Promised land and praise God they
finally made it.
BUT, there were some serious battles they had
to fight.
The Battle of Jericho, for example.
The Battle of Ai.
and many battles were fought.
And with the defeat of Sisera, that ended the
conquest of the promised land.
NOW, they are so happy, they're tickled to
death.
BUT WAIT A MINUTE - more enemies are about to come, but this time it's not enemies within the land, it's enemies from outside the
promised land.
After forty years in the wilderness.
After forty years of fighting for the promised
land.
They thought their troubles were over.
From the south came the Midianites.
And the Amlekites, the fightingest people in
the world, came to join with the Midianites.
Other tribes called the Children of the East
come to join with the Midianites and the
Amlekites.
And the first thing they start doing is
stealing all the animals from the children of
Israel.
Then they began to plunder the crops.
The children of Israel had begun to run and
hide in the mountains and caves to protect
their lives from these warriors.
Then entire villages began to disappear.
Completely burned and gone.
Four chiefs led these warriors:
Zeba - known as the man killer
Zalmona - known as the pidalest
Ora - known as the raven
Zip - known as the wolf
These fierce warriors began to attack the
children of Israel, to steal their animals,
plunder their crops, and destroy their
villages.
Can't you imagine the children of Israel?
Can't you just hear their conversations?
Finally after forty years in the wilderness.
Forty years of battling for the promised
land.
Finally when everything seems like it's
okay.
HERE COMES THE ENEMY AGAIN!
And the children of Israel began to ask, What
in the world is happening?
One heartache is passed.
You're looking forward to some relief.
And you finally settle down.
AND ANOTHER ATTACK HAPPENS.
And here we are trying to do right.
Our animals are being stolen.
Our crops are being plundered.
And the worst war that could ever happen is
suddenly upon them!
One day, a shy, little Israelite was threshing
his wheat. And he was hiding.
There were two reasons why he was hiding:
1. He was the smallest man of the smallest
family of the smallest tribe of the smallest nation in the world -
that's a pretty good reason to hide
that be about like Jack Lambert fighting Mike
Tyson.
2. He was hiding because he was protecting what little wheat he did have - so they wouldn't steal his wheat.
He's hiding behind the wine press.
Threshing his wheat.
AND THEN ALL OF A SUDDEN, THE ANGEL OF THE LORD COMES AND SAYS THESE WORDS: "The Lord is with thee."
I can just see old Gideon saying, "Yea...I'm
here hiding, trying to thresh my wheat behind
this wine press, and everybody is hiding in
the mountains and caves, our sheep are all
gone, our cattle are all gone, the wheat is
almost completely destroyed, and you've got
the nerve to tell me that God is with me?"
And the Angel of the Lord said, "The Lord is
with thee."
Then Gideon gives us our text here in Judges
6:13,
"...if the Lord be with us, why then is all
this befallen us?
If the Lord be with us, why, after all we've
been through, is this happening?
If the Lord be with us, why all these
Midianites?
If the Lord be with us, why all these
Amlekites?
If the Lord be with us, why then all these
Children of the East?
If the Lord be with us, then why are all of
our animals gone?
If the Lord be with us, then why are all of
our crops being plundered?
If the Lord be with us, then why are these
four, wild generals?
A lot of us could ask that question this
morning?
A lot of us here this morning could ask that
question, couldn't we?
If the Lord be for us, then why are all these
things happening to us?
Some little girl who has been deserted by her
daddy is bound to ask the question, "If the
Lord be for me, then why is this happening?"
The young ladies in this room this morning who are having to raise the children in church
alone because the husbands are too sorry to
get right with God, whose husbands make fun of them and cuss them, I'm sure they ask the
question from time to time, "If the Lord be
for me, why is this happening to me?"
HEY - GOD IS FOR YOU!
And no matter what you are facing this
morning, God is for you!
And I wish I could take you one on one and
look you square in the eyes and say -
GOD....LOVES....YOU
And I wish I could get you to believe that.
I want you to understand this morning that God Almighty LOVES YOU!
GOD LOVES YOU!
GOD LOVES YOU!
GOD LOVES YOU!
But we say, IF God loves me, then WHY is all
this befallen me?
Let me give you two observations before I give you my message:
1. Man needs obstacles
I want you to understand something about us
that we don't always understand about us.
Man needs obstacles.
The very nature of man is that he has to
conquer something in order to be happy.
We need obstacles.
2. If man has no obstacles, man creates his
own obstacles
If we don't have any obstacles, we create our
own obstacles.
A race to run is not enough, you know what we do, we put up hurdles to make it more
difficult.
It's not enough to run from here to there,
man's got to put up some hurdles.
WHY? Because we create our own obstacles!
We like a challenge, there's just something
about us, we just enjoy a challenge.
Man needs an obstacle.
Man needs a battle to win.
Man needs a struggle to endure.
What's he do? He climbs a mountain. Dumbest thing in the world. And then when he gets to the top - let's go find another one.
What else does man do? He buys a set of
weights. And so he put a 100 lbs. on it - and
is he satisfied - NO - he puts 150 lbs on it
and then 200 and then 250, 300, 350.
A man grunts, sweats, hurts, gripes, and then
what does he do? HE PUTS MORE WEIGHT ON!
What about this - put up a ramp and take a car and jump over some smushed cars...Or puts those same cars in a row and jumps over them on a motorcycle.
Put a bar up and see how high we can jump over the bar...Take a round steel ball weighing 16 lbs. and see how far you can throw it.
We need an obstacle and God knows it!
SO, we say, If God be for us, then why all
these illnesses?
why all the cancer,
why all the surgery,
why the financial reversals,
GOD KNOWS YOU CAN'T WIN WITHOUT A BATTLE,
God knows you can't endure hardness with
having hardness,
And He places inside of you a desire to be a
winner,
So in order for you to be a winner, He puts
obstacles in your way,
To help you be a winner by being a winner.
NOW, THAT WAS MY INTRODUCTION...
Let me give you three quick thoughts are we're going home.
1. GOD PUTS THOSE OBSTACLES IN FRONT OF YOU SO THAT OTHERS CAN SEE THAT IT CAN BE DONE
God puts those obstacles in front of you for
others.
God puts those obstacles in front of you for
others sake.
God puts those obstacles in front of you so
that others can see that it can be done.
And so God puts those in Gideon's life,
And God puts those obstacles in your life,
And God puts those obstacles in my life,
FOR WHAT REASON?
So that God can could show thru us, and
demonstrate thru us to others that it can be
done!
God wants you to show people who will follow you that it can be done!
Gideon has inspired thousands thru the
years.
Gideon and his 300 against 120,000 warriors.
And you think you got it rough.
Look at Gideon's obstacles.
And ladies and gentlemen, God is using your
life and my life so that others can see that
it can be done!
Ohhh, you folks that have cancer this morning,
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