This Week # 2-26

This week in OFF ROAD we had the privilege of having Jon Talbert continue our, “Becoming who you are,” series as he walked us through the story of Gideon. Now if you don’t know this story let me give you a little background because it is pretty crazy (as are a lot of old testament stories). Gideon’s story can be found in the book of Judges.

Gideon was a weakling, he was the weakest of the weak. The Bible says that he came from the weakest tribe from the weakest clan from the weakest family. This guy was the one you wouldn’t want to choose for any kind of fight, but God did. God told Gideon that it was time to bet the bad guys (the Midianites) and that He was going to accomplish this through Gideon. Gideon trusted God even though he only had 32,000 and the Midianites had 135,000. Yet, even though the Israelites were way out numbered God decided, through some really weird ways, to whittle Gideons army down to only 300. Yeah, 300 verses 135,000. Not only that when it came time to battle God equipped them with a horn, a clay jar and a torch- that’s it. In the end the 300 men surrounded the Midianite camp at night, all blew their horns, threw down their jars and help up their torches. This created so much commotion that the Midianites, believing that the Israelites were attacking them and where in their camp, drew their swords and started killing each other (thinking that each other were the others).

Gideon’s story of being way out numbered and still trusting in God and following Him shows us that we need to:

1. Walk in confidence because God is there (Look at Gideon. He had an impossible task, but he walked in confidence because he knew nothing was impossible with God.)
2. We need to walk in humility because God is doing the work. (God whittled down Gideon’s army so that everyone would know that it was God who won the war. When God works through us we need to be humble and give credit where credit is due.) 1 Corinthians 1:27- “God uses the foolish things of this world to shame the wise. God chose the weak things to shame the strong”
3. We need to know we are empowered by God. (Gideon, the weakest of the weak was used to destroy an entire army. If God can empower the weakest of the weak he can empower you too.)

Ask your children these questions this week:
Is it easy or hard for you to put your confidence with God? Why or why not? What does that look like?
Has there ever been a time were you have seen God work through you? What was that like?
When do you feel you need God the most? When do you rely on Him the most?
What would you like God to empower you to do?