SERMON: WHY THE CHURCH?

 I.  Introduction

            -- turn in Bibles to Eph 4:11-16

 Ephesians 4:11 So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

 14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. 16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

 

            -- when the coronavirus pandemic began, I got into an argument with a friend on Facebook about the church -- as you remember, we had to close our churches as part of the measures that were taken to try to fight the virus -- some churches, like ours, received this order as a call for self-sacrifice -- to shut down and live out the biblical mandate to protect and care for the least among us -- in this case, those most vulnerable to infection

            -- other churches, though, were defiant -- they refused to shut down and met in defiance to the Government’s orders because they felt the order was a violation of the First Amendment and their right to gather to worship, despite the risk

            -- this friend of mine offered up another explanation for why pastors wanted to keep their churches open regardless of what the Government said -- she wrote, “it’s the money -- all that these pastors and these churches care about is money -- and if they’re shut down, they aren’t getting any money” -- when I objected, she argued back, “you don’t have to go to church -- you can just pray at home -- this is all about money and power” -- at the end, her final response was that we don’t need the church -- no one needs the church

            -- her words cut deep -- they wounded me -- is this what the world thinks about the church? -- is this how they truly see us?

 

            -- this argument caused me to spend some time thinking about the church -- we’ve talked in here before about what the church is -- and we’ve looked at the passage from Acts 2 where we see a picture of the early church -- a community of believers coming together in true fellowship to worship God and do life together -- but have we ever considered the question that my friend posed? -- do we really need the church? -- do we really need to come together on a regular basis in order to be a Christian?

            -- I’ve had this discussion with other believers throughout the years -- I can’t tell you how many people have told me they don’t come to church because they don’t need it, especially during deer season -- a man once told me, “I can worship God from my deer stand -- I don’t have to come to church”

            -- and now, in this information age we live in, we have so many resources and so many places we can go to learn about Jesus -- we can watch sermons or listen to Bible studies 24/7 on the internet or on TV or the radio -- we can access millions of resources and articles about Christianity and religious life on the internet -- we can even have discussions with other Christians in other countries, all from our living room couch

            -- when the pandemic hit and our churches closed, many churches offered virtual meetings on Facebook or Zoom or other platforms -- and as churches have started reopening, many people have decided to not come back, but just to watch and participate online from their homes -- it’s so much easier than getting up and getting dressed and going all the way to a building for a one-to-two hour meeting

            -- so, why the church? -- is there a reason for us to have this place to come to and meet? -- to physically come together? -- or can we just live out our Christianity as my friend suggested -- at home and in private?

            -- that’s what I want us to talk about this morning

 

II.  Why the Church?

            -- look back with me at Ephesians 4:11-12

 

Ephesians 4:11 So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up

 

            -- the church is the only enduring evidence of the presence of Christ Jesus in this world -- it is the only institution that Christ built when He was on earth

            -- think about it -- even though Jesus walked on this earth for 33 years -- even though He touched the lives of so many people during the three years of His earthly ministry -- even though His teachings are recorded for us in the Scriptures -- He left nothing behind but His Spirit and the church

            -- even though He was a carpenter, He never left behind a wood carving of His message

            -- even though He would write, He never left behind a single parchment or letter that He wrote -- in fact, the only record we have of Him actually writing anything was when He wrote on the ground in the presence of the mob and the sinful woman -- letters that would be erased with the next wind or the next rain

            -- even though He was flesh and blood just like us, He didn't even leave a body -- no bones -- nothing but an empty tomb

            -- Jesus left nothing to prove that He ever existed except the Holy Spirit within us and the body of believers that we call the Church of Christ

           

            -- here in these verses we see the creation of the church -- Paul tells us that it was Christ who set apart some individual believers to be apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers -- for one purpose -- to prepare God’s people for works of service -- so that the body of Christ -- the church -- might be built up

            -- in 1 Peter 2:5, Peter said the church was the spiritual house of the Lord -- and that we individual believers were like living stones, being put in place and used to build the house of God

            -- in every mention of the church in Scripture, we see it described as a community of believers coming together under the lordship of Jesus Christ to be His body and His presence in this world -- and Christ expected us to belong to it

            -- the testimony of the early Christians was that they belonged to local groups of believers -- in Acts we read of people being added to the numbers of the church -- in Timothy, we read of the lists of widows that was maintained in the church -- obviously, the early churches had a membership list of some type that listed who was part of that particular local body of believers

            -- the instructions on spiritual discipline given by Jesus and by Paul do not make sense unless you acknowledge a membership list in the local church -- Paul says to put unrepentant, backslidden believers out of the fellowship -- how do you put someone out of fellowship unless you have a way of putting them in?

            -- so, obviously, Jesus wanted us to be in a church with other believers -- it is a Biblical mandate for believers to be part of a local body of Christ

            -- but that doesn’t answer our original question, “Why?” -- why did Christ establish the church and command us to belong? -- what purpose does it serve -- in our lives and in this world?

 

            -- look back at verse 11 again

 

Ephesians 4:11 So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. 14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming.

 

            -- here we see one of the main reasons we need the church -- it is the wellspring of the gospel -- it is the place where we find Jesus -- where we grow in grace and in the knowledge of Christ -- it is the place where we become mature in our faith -- attaining to the whole measure of the fulness of Christ -- in other words, it is where we become who Christ has called us to be

 

            -- in Ephesians 4:1, Paul urges us to live a life worthy of the calling we have received -- we fulfill that command only within a community of believers -- for it is here that we are taught and experience Christ and grow into mature believers -- you can’t do that alone

            -- that’s why Jesus called and gifted certain individuals to be pastors and teachers and evangelists -- to help train up new believers and to disciple them in the faith -- to teach them the right path -- to correct them when they are led astray by the waves of popular opinion or the winds of false teaching and the deliberate scheming and falsehoods of those who seek to deceive

            -- that’s why Jesus tells us that wherever two or three are gathered in His name, He is there -- it’s because it is in relationships with others that we experience Christ -- that we share His message of grace -- that we truly become His hands and His feet, ministering to others

            -- it is walking in faith with others that we learn what true faith is -- living out the truth of the gospel together in this world

            -- you can’t do all of this on your living room couch or in a deer stand -- can you learn about Jesus at home? -- sure -- can you pray and worship Him at home? -- sure -- but can you truly apply and live out your faith at home? -- no -- we need others -- we need the church

 

            -- verse 15

 

Ephesians 4:15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.

 

            -- here we see that the world needs the church, too -- the church in recent years has become passive -- it has become a place to go to rather than a vibrant community that goes out into the world -- it has become a place where we seek to be entertained, rather than to be built up and prepared to go out and serve others

            -- but that is not the church Christ envisioned -- He calls us to go out and serve others in His name -- to speak the truth in love -- to tell others of the gospel message -- of the good news of salvation and the forgiveness of sins and eternal life in Him -- the message of the church is a fragrant scent -- a light shining in the darkness -- a city set upon a hill

            -- the world needs this -- the world needs the church to give it hope -- to remind it of a better future and a better place -- and to be the example of moral propriety in a world gone mad

 

            -- a friend of mine once wrote, "Imagine, if you will, what a community would be like if the only church left was rundown and decayed to the point of being condemned -- stretch your imagination even farther and think what a community would be like if the Bible had been out of use for so long that no one even would know what you meant if you said the word "Bible"

            -- in the most war-torn and ravaged regions -- in the dangerous inner city areas throughout the world -- it is the church that stands as the last beacon of hope and refuge -- it is the church that stands with wide open arms and offers redemption and restoration and renewal -- when darkness threatens to overtake all, it is the church that shines bright and says, “no”

            -- this is what the world needs -- this is what the church is supposed to do -- sadly, it appears as if that is not what we are at this moment -- otherwise, my friend and the many who commented on her Facebook post would not have agreed that the church was no longer necessary or needed in the world today

            -- our failures, though, do not negate our purpose or the need that Christ saw as He established the church with His very presence -- may we become who Christ called us to be as His body on earth

 

            -- verse 16

 

Ephesians 4:16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

 

            -- finally, we need the church, too -- not only as the place where we learn and grow in grace -- where we are discipled and mentored and learn to go out and serve others

            -- no, we need the church because the church supports us -- the church is the tie that binds -- the whole body is joined and held together by every supporting ligament -- by each individual believer

            -- we support each other in times of want and in times of plenty -- when someone in the church is hurting, we are called to support them -- when someone in the church is in need, we are called to give of our very self to meet their needs -- when someone in the church is hungry or thirsty, we are called to bring them food and drink

            -- and when we are in need, we to turn to the church for support, too

            -- my friend said all the church cared about was money -- that money was the reason pastors were defiant and not willing to shut down their in-person meetings

            -- money is needed -- even Jesus had the original twelve disciples take up collections -- and Paul mentions in his letters that he was collecting offerings from the churches to take to Jerusalem -- not to build a brick-and-mortar facility -- not to replace the carpets or to paint the outside of the building -- but to meet the needs of the church and to support the ministry and outreach to those in the world

            -- I rarely talk about money in the church because I know what kind of reception it gets -- even before this pandemic, I’ve heard people say, “all that church talks about is money” -- but the church needs money -- it needs resources -- it needs people -- if it is to fulfill the calling that it has received -- if it is to be the light in the darkness and a true source of refuge and hope in the world

            -- the people who complain about churches receiving money from members don’t complain after the hurricane when the church brings in food and water -- they don’t complain when the church shows up to rebuild homes and clean up debris -- when the church opens the doors and offers shelter from the storm

 

            -- do some churches and pastors mismanage their resources? -- do some churches and pastors abuse the financial trust that is given to them? -- absolutely -- but that doesn’t mean that all churches and pastors do that -- and that certainly isn’t the reason to say that churches no longer are needed

            -- I know of a church in Tifton that years ago made a decision on how to use their financial resources -- they would use what they needed for the minimum maintenance of their facility -- lights -- water -- etc -- but all the rest would go to missions -- to meeting the needs of their neighbors -- and this little church -- just a handful of faithful believers -- sends over $100,000 annually to support missions across the world

            -- we need churches like this -- the world needs churches like this -- we need people who come together in the name of Jesus -- who are joined and held up by every other member -- who do what they are called to do and support each other to build up the church and to be the hands of feet of Jesus in the communities where they gather

            -- why the church? -- is it needed? -- yes, without a doubt

 

III. CLOSING

            -- A few years ago, Andrew Sullivan wrote a cover story for Newsweek titled "Christianity in Crisis: Christianity has been destroyed by politics, priests, and get-rich evangelists." -- he urged people to "Forget the church” and just “Follow Jesus"

            -- Mark Galli wrote a thoughtful response to the article and it’s call to abandon the church -- the same call my friend was making on Facebook at the start of the pandemic

            -- Galli admitted that people in the church can exude self-righteousness and mean-spiritedness -- but he made the case that the church is the perfect place to follow Jesus and learn how to love like Jesus.

            -- he writes that there's "no other way to learn love except by plunging in with people like this …. So the church seems to be an academy of love, and the place where the love of Christ meets us more objectively, especially in word and sacrament."

 

            -- the church today may be wounded -- it may be flawed -- it may not be what Christ intended -- but that should not stop us from trying to live out our faith together as His body -- as His church -- because the world needs us -- and we need the church

            -- Christ said that the church was to be the salt of the earth -- we are called to do more than passively exist as a building we go to on Sundays -- we are called to do more than collect funds to maintain a shrine or an institution -- we are called to meet the needs of believers and this world -- to season and flavor this world by sharing with them the good news and the grace of the risen Christ

            -- we are called to bear Christ's name -- in our lives -- in our homes -- and together as His church -- we are called to be the teachers -- the mentors -- the disciplers -- the keepers of the Book -- of the Holy Bible -- to make sure it does not disappear from memory or gather dust on our shelves -- to make sure that it is lived out in our lives and in our homes and in our communities

            -- we are called to build upon the faith of those who have gone before and to lead our families and our communities in following the way of God and not the way of this world

-- we are called to stand against spiritual decline and to be God's light in this community and in this place

 

            -- is the church needed? -- emphatically, YES!

            -- so, go -- and be the church today

            -- let us pray

SERMON: WHAT CAN I DO?

I.  Introduction

            -- turn in Bibles to Judges 6:1-16

 6:1 The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites. 2 Because the power of Midian was so oppressive, the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in mountain clefts, caves and strongholds. 3 Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples invaded the country. 4 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. 5 They came up with their livestock and their tents like swarms of locusts. It was impossible to count them or their camels; they invaded the land to ravage it. 6 Midian so impoverished the Israelites that they cried out to the Lord for help.

 7 When the Israelites cried out to the Lord because of Midian, 8 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. 9 I rescued you from the hand of the Egyptians. And I delivered you from the hand of all your oppressors; I drove them out before you and gave you their land. 10 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.”

 11 The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. 12 When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.”

 13 “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.”

 14 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?”

 15 “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.”

 16 The Lord answered, “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive.”

         -- several years ago, a local businessman decided to convert his business from a dry goods store into a tavern for financial reasons -- and even though the town where he lived was a dry county, it looked like he had enough support from the county commissioners to push it through -- it was just a matter of time before he could open up this bar up for business

-- a group of Christians from a local church got concerned and planned an all-night prayer meeting -- they wanted to ask God to intervene and stop the tavern from opening up in their community

-- so, on a Sunday night, the Christians gathered for their prayer service, and on the very next day, lightning struck the bar and it burned to the ground -- the owner of the bar sued the church, claiming that the prayers of the members were responsible

-- the church hired a lawyer to defend them in court and argue that they were not responsible -- "we're only a small church -- what could we have done to cause this to happen? -- all we did was pray”

-- the judge who presided over the case was a man who was very wise -- he read the arguments presented by both sides, and after his initial review of the case, he stated, "no matter how this case comes out, one thing is obvious -- the tavern owner believes that God worked through the prayers of this small church and the Christians do not"

 

            -- you know, over the course of my ministry, I have developed this theory about the way small churches think and operate -- I call it the “reverse-Napoleon complex” -- let me explain what I’m talking about

            -- everyone in here is probably aware of what the psychologists call the “Napoleon complex” named after the French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte -- Napoleon was a very short man -- he definitely did not stand head and shoulders above the crowd -- and because he was so short, he developed this drive to excel in other areas of his life

            -- most historians agree that Napoleon compensated for his short height by seeking power through war and conquest -- in other words, because Napoleon was small, he sought to do more and to have more than those around him to make up for the difference in physical appearance

            -- in our world today, we see men just like Napoleon who have this same drive for power and influence brought on because they have an inferiority complex about their height or some other aspect of their lives -- this is what psychologists call a “Napoleon complex”

 

            -- but in the church, we see an opposite dynamic at work that I call the “reverse-Napoleon complex” -- based on the Napoleon complex, you would expect small churches to be the driving force in Christianity today -- you would expect that they would be trying to compensate for their small size and their small resources by seeking greater influence and greater power and greater results than larger churches near them -- but that’s not the case

            -- just like the church in the story I told you about the tavern that burned down, the mind-set of many churches is, “we’re just a small church -- what can we do? -- if we had more people, we might be able to do something for God -- if we had more money, God could really use us -- if we had more people praying, God would listen and respond to our prayers more often”

            -- rather than using their size to motivate them to even greater levels of ministry, small churches tend to get emotionally crippled and end up thinking that God can’t use them because they aren’t big enough -- and large churches tend to reflect the same view -- looking down on smaller congregations in a condescending way because they don’t believe that small churches can accomplish anything either

            -- it’s this reverse-Napoleon complex that is driving the mega-church movement in America today -- it’s this reverse-Napoleon complex that causes denominations to put on training seminars and courses to help small churches grow so that maybe one day they can start doing real ministry and start having an impact for Christ in their area

            -- I read a book several years ago on growing your church and making a real impact in the community for Christ -- the author presented several ideas for churches to try in their community to increase interest in the church and in the gospel message -- I thought I might try a few of his suggestions -- but then the author wrote, “Of course, this is only applicable to the smaller churches -- those with congregations of 200 members or more” -- and with that statement, he basically said that any churches that were smaller than 200 members were really not viable communities who could do anything for Jesus today

            -- the overall message that is coming out from the Christian community is that small churches are cute, but just not effective -- small churches are a curious oddity, but they really can’t anything for God

-- but, you know what? -- that type of thinking is wrong -- it’s simply not biblical -- it goes against everything that we see in the Bible -- in fact, I was thinking the other day as I was reading an article about the fastest growing churches in America and looking at an ad for a church-growth seminar that if Jesus was here today, some denominations would be encouraging Him to go to a workshop to help Him grow His church

-- if you think about it, Jesus only had 12 people in His church at the end of His ministry here on earth

 

-- if you get nothing else out of this message today, I want you to get this -- there's nothing wrong with being small -- size does not limit what God can do through you

 

II.  Scripture Lesson (Judges 6-7)

-- if you want to see what God can do with the least of these -- if you want to see what God can do with small churches and small people, look at the story of Gideon here in Judges 6 

-- before we look back at this passage in more detail, let me give you the context so you know what’s going on and how this passage fits in the whole scheme of things

-- the Book of Judges covers the first 350 years of the nation of Israel right after they entered the Promised Land

-- this is sometimes called the “Dark Ages” of the Israelites because it was a time when the Israelites would turn away from God and start worshiping idols -- God would respond by sending an enemy against Israel, which caused the Israelites to turn to God for help -- finally, God would raise up a deliverer who would rescue them from their enemies and lead them back to a right relationship with Him again

-- these deliverers were known as “judges” -- and Gideon was one of these judges during this 350-year period

 

-- look back at verse 1-10

 

6:1 The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites. 2 Because the power of Midian was so oppressive, the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in mountain clefts, caves and strongholds. 3 Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples invaded the country. 4 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. 5 They came up with their livestock and their tents like swarms of locusts. It was impossible to count them or their camels; they invaded the land to ravage it. 6 Midian so impoverished the Israelites that they cried out to the Lord for help.

 

7 When the Israelites cried out to the Lord because of Midian, 8 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. 9 I rescued you from the hand of the Egyptians. And I delivered you from the hand of all your oppressors; I drove them out before you and gave you their land. 10 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.”

 

 

-- as Judges 6 opens up, we read that the Israelites have once again turned away from God and were doing evil in His sight -- because of this, God allowed the Midianites to oppress the people

-- not only did the nation of Midian come against Israel with their military might, but they also took away Israel’s way of life and their livelihood -- they destroyed the crops of the Israelites and forced them to flee their cities and live in caves and shelters in the mountains

-- their situation looked hopeless -- they had no homes -- they had no resources -- they had no food -- so, once again -- in desperation -- they repented of their sins and they cried out to God for help -- they asked Him to send a deliverer who would save them from the power of Midian

-- now keep in mind that Midian was a powerful nation with a vast army and lots of resources -- when God responded and said that He would send a deliverer, the people were expecting Him to send someone powerful -- someone who had a lot of resources -- a lot of men at his disposal -- someone who was comparable to Midian and who could go toe-to-toe with them in a battle -- the people were expecting God to send someone like Rambo or Schwarzenegger or John Wayne with the calvary -- but look who God sent

 

-- verse 11-16

 

6:11 The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. 12 When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.”

 

13 “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.”

 

14 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?”

 

15 “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.”

 

16 The Lord answered, “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive.”

 

-- God sent Gideon -- Gideon -- here is this guy who is so afraid of the Midianites that he is hiding in a winepress threshing wheat -- he’s not even brave enough to thresh the wheat on the threshing floor where it should be done

-- in verse 15 he tells us that he’s from the tribe of Manasseh, the weakest tribe out of all the 12 tribe of Israel -- and not only is he from the smallest and weakest tribe, but his clan is the weakest in that tribe -- to make matters worse, Gideon points out that he is the least in his own family -- in other words, Gideon is the lowest of the low -- he is the weakest and least powerful of any person or clan or tribe in the entire nation of Israel -- but this is who God chooses to use to deliver the nation of Israel from the power of Midian

 

-- notice in verse 11 that it says that “the angel of the Lord” came to Gideon at Ophrah -- just so you know, when you see that phrase, “the angel of the Lord,”  in the Old Testament, that is an appearance of the preincarnate Jesus -- if it says, “an,” angel of the Lord, then it’s an angel -- but if it says, “the,” angel of the Lord -- then it’s God Himself appearing in human form

-- so, God Himself comes to Gideon while he’s threshing wheat in the winepress and in verse 12, He calls Gideon, “mighty warrior” -- Gideon was not a mighty warrior -- as we just saw, Gideon was a small man -- so, why would God call him “mighty warrior?”

-- it wasn’t because of who Gideon was -- it wasn’t because of who Gideon’s family or his tribe was -- it was because the Lord was with him

-- you see, that’s the thing that a lot of people miss when it comes to churches and what churches can do for God -- does a small church have a lot of people to depend on? -- no -- does a small church have significant financial resources to depend on? -- no -- does a small church have a lot of material possessions or large sanctuaries? -- no

-- so, what do they have? -- they have the Lord with them -- in Acts 3:6, when the crippled man at the gate Beautiful asks them for money, Peter and John reply, “silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you -- in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk” -- and the man got up and walked

-- here’s the thing -- Peter and John only had one thing -- they had the Lord with them, and it made all the difference

 

-- Gideon only had one thing -- he had the Lord with him, and it made all the difference -- Gideon may not have been a mighty warrior when he was hiding in a winepress threshing wheat, but with God by his side, he was about to deliver the nation of Israel from their worst enemy

-- in verse 14, God tells Gideon to go in the strength that he has to save Israel from the hands of Midian -- God didn’t change anything about Gideon’s situation -- He didn’t send an army to gather around the winepress for Gideon to command, although that comes later -- He didn’t have money fall out of the sky for Gideon to use to buy weapons and food and other resources -- He didn’t give Gideon supernatural wisdom or strength or stature

-- the only thing Gideon had was the presence of the Lord by his side, but that made all the difference

-- in fact, when the men of Israel did rally around Gideon’s call to fight Midian, God wouldn’t let Gideon take all of them into battle -- skip over to Chapter 7, verse 1-7

 

7:1 Early in the morning, Jerub-Baal (that is, Gideon) and all his men camped at the spring of Harod. The camp of Midian was north of them in the valley near the hill of Moreh. 2 The Lord said to Gideon, “You have too many men. I cannot deliver Midian into their hands, or Israel would boast against me, ‘My own strength has saved me.’ 3 Now announce to the army, ‘Anyone who trembles with fear may turn back and leave Mount Gilead.’” So twenty-two thousand men left, while ten thousand remained.

 

4 But the Lord said to Gideon, “There are still too many men. Take them down to the water, and I will thin them out for you there. If I say, ‘This one shall go with you,’ he shall go; but if I say, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ he shall not go.”

 

5 So Gideon took the men down to the water. There the Lord told him, “Separate those who lap the water with their tongues as a dog laps from those who kneel down to drink.” 6 Three hundred of them drank from cupped hands, lapping like dogs. All the rest got down on their knees to drink.

 

7 The Lord said to Gideon, “With the three hundred men that lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands. Let all the others go home.”

 

-- as chapter 7 opens, Gideon has an army of over 30,000 men surrounding him -- he thinks he’s ready to do something for God -- finally, he has enough people -- finally, he has enough weapons -- finally, he has enough resources -- finally, they are as big as everyone else

-- but look at what God says here in verse 2 -- “You have too many men -- in order that Israel may not boast that they defeated Midian in their own strength and in their own power, you need to reduce the size of your army”

-- and so, God told Gideon to send home everyone who was afraid -- 22,000 men went home, leaving Gideon with a pitiful army of just 10,000 men -- but God looked at that army and said, “Nope, you’ve still got too many” -- so God had the men drink water from a stream to further whittle them down -- and when all is said and done, Gideon is left with only 300 men to fight against the entire Midian army

-- when he looked at that army of 300 men compared to the Midianite army, do you know what Gideon thought? -- “We’re too small to do anything -- we don’t have enough people -- we don’t have enough money -- we don’t have enough resources -- God won’t be able to do anything through us -- maybe if we were larger, He could -- but not now”

-- but you know what? -- with only 300 men and faith in the God who was with him, Gideon went into battle anyway, and he defeated the entire Midian army once and for all -- never again would the nation of Midian be a threat to Israel

 

III.  Closing

-- let me remind you what I told you in the start of this sermon -- size does not limit what God can do through you -- the only thing that can limit you is you

-- the only thing that can keep God from working in us and through us in our belief in the power of God to use the smallest things in this world to do great things in His name

 

-- think about Chick Fil A and the story of Truett Cathy

-- Truett Cathy started out in Atlanta with a restaurant so small, it was called the Dwarf Grill -- later, he called it the "Dwarf House" -- it only had 10 stools and four tables

-- and, when he opened it, he didn't offer a full menu like all the other big restaurants had -- he didn't even offer hamburgers -- all he offered was chicken sandwiches and french fries -- and he did something else strange -- he refused to open on Sundays, even though other restaurants got over 20% of their income on that day -- Cathy wanted to make a stand for God

-- for almost 20 years, Cathy operated the Dwarf House -- it was the only restaurant he had -- but this restaurant met a need in the community -- McDonald's didn't have chicken sandwiches -- neither did the other big restaurants -- and business grew

-- finally, in 1967, Cathy opened the first Chick-fil-A restaurant in Atlanta's Greenbriar Mall -- but he didn't change the way he did business -- he still didn't try to do everything the big chains and the big restaurants did -- he just sold chicken sandwiches and fries -- and he didn't try to make his restaurants bigger than his neighbors -- he just did what he felt God had called him to do

-- and, by doing what God called him to do, God blessed him -- currently, there are over 2,400 Chick-fil-A restaurants in 47 states -- a far cry from the original Dwarf House that Cathy started with

-- an article in Atlanta Business Chronicle several years ago noted that Cathy could make a fortune if he made a public stock offering for Chick-fil-A, but he refuses to consider it -- he said, "We're able to do a lot of things that we couldn't do if we were a large public company" -- Cathy has made the decision to keep Chick-Fil-A small

 

- it’s like Malcolm Gladwell wrote: “the fact of being [small] can change people in ways that we often fail to appreciate: it can open doors and create opportunities and educate and enlighten and make possible what might otherwise have seemed unthinkable”

-- do we need to be large to do great things for God? -- do we need more people in order to be effective in ministry and sharing the gospel with others? -- do we need more finances or more resources to serve God? -- No! -- all we need is what Gideon had -- the Lord beside us and faith in His power

 

            -- so, the question I want to leave you with this morning is, “Do you believe? -- Do you believe that this small church of 10 people can do the impossible with Christ by our side?”

            -- God took 300 men and defeated an entire nation -- and when the world saw that, they knew that only God could have done it

            -- God wants to do similar things through us -- He wants to do great things through us -- but we have to believe it’s possible

 

            -- as we close, I want to encourage you to dream big dreams for this church -- I want to encourage you to envision great ministries that will come to pass -- there is nothing that God can’t do through us, if we only believe -- if we only trust -- if we only have faith

            -- as you pray this week, ask these questions, “What does God want to do through us that will make the city of Naylor stand up and notice? -- Where is God calling us to go next so that His name will be glorified?”

            -- let us pray

             

SERMON: WHOSE VOICE ARE YOU LISTENING TO?

 

I.  Introduction

            -- turn in Bibles to 1 Samuel 17:20-40

 

20 Early in the morning David left the flock in the care of a shepherd, loaded up and set out, as Jesse had directed. He reached the camp as the army was going out to its battle positions, shouting the war cry. 21 Israel and the Philistines were drawing up their lines facing each other. 22 David left his things with the keeper of supplies, ran to the battle lines and asked his brothers how they were. 23 As he was talking with them, Goliath, the Philistine champion from Gath, stepped out from his lines and shouted his usual defiance, and David heard it. 24 Whenever the Israelites saw the man, they all fled from him in great fear.

 

25 Now the Israelites had been saying, “Do you see how this man keeps coming out? He comes out to defy Israel. The king will give great wealth to the man who kills him. He will also give him his daughter in marriage and will exempt his family from taxes in Israel.”

 

26 David asked the men standing near him, “What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?”

 

27 They repeated to him what they had been saying and told him, “This is what will be done for the man who kills him.”

 

28 When Eliab, David’s oldest brother, heard him speaking with the men, he burned with anger at him and asked, “Why have you come down here? And with whom did you leave those few sheep in the wilderness? I know how conceited you are and how wicked your heart is; you came down only to watch the battle.”

 

29 “Now what have I done?” said David. “Can’t I even speak?” 30 He then turned away to someone else and brought up the same matter, and the men answered him as before. 31 What David said was overheard and reported to Saul, and Saul sent for him.

 

32 David said to Saul, “Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him.”

 

33 Saul replied, “You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a young man, and he has been a warrior from his youth.”

 

34 But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, 35 I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. 36 Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. 37 The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.”

 

Saul said to David, “Go, and the Lord be with you.”

 

38 Then Saul dressed David in his own tunic. He put a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet on his head. 39 David fastened on his sword over the tunic and tried walking around, because he was not used to them.

 

“I cannot go in these,” he said to Saul, “because I am not used to them.” So he took them off. 40 Then he took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd’s bag and, with his sling in his hand, approached the Philistine.

 

            -- the novel, Don Quixote, by the Spanish author Cervantes, is recognized as one of the most influential novels in history -- it tells the purported true story of Alonso Quixano, an ordinary Spaniard in the early 1600’s -- Quixano became infatuated with the age of chivalry and because he couldn’t sleep, he spent all his days and nights staying up and reading tales of chivalry and the romantic stories of knights and their adventures until he went insane -- as Cervantes put it, “his brain became dry”

            -- he read so many stories about knights that he began to believe the voices he read were really talking about him -- and, so one day, he woke up and became someone else -- Don Quixote, the legendary man of La Mancha -- called to be a knight and to go out and defend the honor of his country and his lady

            -- now since he did not live in the age of knights, he had no armor -- so, he scrounged around and found mismatched pieces of old armor that were laying around in various places -- he put them on and mounted his old tired horse and went into the countryside, looking for adventure

            -- “I know very well who I am,” he said, “and I know who I can be."

 

            -- this morning, I wanted us to spend some time considering whose voices we are listening to and whose armor we are putting on -- we’re going to revisit the familiar story of David and Goliath from 1 Samuel 17 and see what we can learn for ourselves about knowing who we are and who we can be in Christ

            -- rather than reading this entire passage, let me summarize the story for you and then we’ll look at some key verses

            -- as the story opens at the beginning of 1 Samuel 17, we find the Israelite army, under the command of King Saul, lined up for battle with the Philistines in the Valley of Elah -- the Philistines were on one hill above the valley and the Israelite army was encamped on the opposite hill, with the valley below them

            -- every day, Goliath -- a giant who was over nine feet tall would come out of the Philistine camp and come out into the valley and cry out to the ranks of Israel, “Choose a man and have him come down to me -- if he is able to fight and kill me, we will become your subjects -- but if I overcome him and kill him, you will become our subjects and serve us” -- and every time they heard Goliath’s challenge and saw him standing there in his armor with his enormous weapons, the Israelites were dismayed and terrified

            -- this had been going on for forty days when David’s father sent him to the battlefield to bring provisions to his brothers and to see how things were going -- David got to the camp just as the armies prepared for battle and Goliath emerged from the Philistine side and issued his daily challenge

            -- David was incensed at the way Goliath challenged the Israelites and no one did anything except run in fear when they saw him -- in verse 26, David says, “Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?” -- and David was moved to action -- he was determined to take on Goliath in battle and defeat him and tow in the hand of King Saul’s daughter in marriage

            -- but just because you are led by the Lord to do something doesn’t mean everyone around you will support you

 

II.  The Voices of Discouragaement

            -- look with me at verses 28-29

 

28 When Eliab, David’s oldest brother, heard him speaking with the men, he burned with anger at him and asked, “Why have you come down here? And with whom did you leave those few sheep in the wilderness? I know how conceited you are and how wicked your heart is; you came down only to watch the battle.”

 

29 “Now what have I done?” said David. “Can’t I even speak?”

 

            -- David’s brother Eliab heard him speaking with the other men in the army -- he heard David’s indignation at Goliath’s challenge and David’s intent to go out and fight Goliath to defend the honor of God

            -- rather than supporting him, Eliab spoke to him angrily and asked him, “why are you here? -- where are your sheep?” -- what he’s doing is trying to remind David of who he was -- David was the youngest son in the family and he was just a shepherd -- a lowly profession -- not a job where skills or talents were required -- and certainly not a job for a warrior -- with those words, Eliab was trying to put David in his place

            -- how often does that happen to us? -- you get inspired to do something -- to better yourself -- to be more than you are -- and then your goals and your dreams get squashed by the voices of others telling you that you can’t do that -- that you’ll never measure up -- that that is not who you are

            -- we hear that voice a lot from our family and friends -- from those who have known us our whole lives -- and it’s especially biting when it comes from them -- it cuts right down to the core and it can keep us from stepping out and doing what we are called to do

            -- even Jesus was not immune from the voices of family and friends speaking discouragement into His life -- after the beginning of His ministry, Jesus returned to His hometown and began to teach in the synagogue, and all He heard was criticism from those who gathered to hear Him -- in Mark 6:3, it says that the people of His hometown took offense at Him -- causing Jesus to say, “Only in his hometown, among his relatives and in his own house is a prophet without honor”

            -- Eliab goes on to try to put David in his place -- “I know who you really are -- I know who conceited you are and how wicked your heart is -- you didn’t come here to go to war -- you only came to watch”

            -- this shows just how much Eliab really knew about David -- he was judging him based on his own prejudices and on the past -- he had not seen how God was moving in David’s life nor what God was doing through David -- he couldn’t see David as a man after God’s own heart, but instead saw him as his little brother who never would amount to anything

            -- David had heard God’s prompting in his heart to challenge Goliath, defend the nation of Israel, and bring glory to God -- but now another voice is speaking into his ears -- a voice of discouragement that sought to discredit his calling

            -- we need to make sure we listen to God’s voice instead of those who would speak discouragement and dishonor into our lives

 

            -- but Eliab was not the only voice that spoke to David that day -- look back at verses 30-33

 

30 He then turned away to someone else and brought up the same matter, and the men answered him as before. 31 What David said was overheard and reported to Saul, and Saul sent for him.

 

32 David said to Saul, “Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him.”

 

33 Saul replied, “You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a young man, and he has been a warrior from his youth.”

 

            -- here we hear the voice of the king -- when word got to Saul about what David was saying about going out and taking on Goliath, Saul called David before him -- he heard David’s plans -- he heard David’s heart -- but then he speaks to him and tells him, “You are not able to go out and fight against Goliath -- you are only a boy”

            -- where the voices of our family and friends tend to speak judgment from the past, the voices of the world speak judgements based on appearance

            -- Saul looked at David and saw him as the world saw him -- a small shepherd boy -- not a warrior by any stretch of the imagination -- not someone who would ever be able to stand up against a warrior like Goliath -- so, he spoke discouragement based on what he saw

            -- once again, David had to choose between listening to the voice of God or the voice of another -- it comes down to faith

            -- yes, David was a small shepherd boy, but he was called by God to take on Goliath that day -- looking at the situation, there was no way he had a chance -- there was no way he could win -- everyone could see that and everyone said that -- but David didn’t listen to their voices --  he trusted in the voice of God and that made all the difference

 

            -- heroes of the faith aren’t heroes because they’re the biggest and the strongest -- as Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1:27-29, “God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise -- God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong -- God chose the lowly things of the world and the despised things -- and the things that are not -- to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before Him”

            -- heroes of the faith are heroes because they listen to the voice of God -- they believe in what God says about them -- they believe what God says they will become -- and they act on that belief

            -- we need to be discerning in the voices we listen to and the voices we trust, because not every voice speaks truth or God’s will into our lives

 

            -- look at verses 34-37

 

34 But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, 35 I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. 36 Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. 37 The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.”

 

Saul said to David, “Go, and the Lord be with you.”

 

            -- if David had taken his brother’s words to heart, he would have left the battlefield that day, never to return -- if David had taken Saul’s words to heart, he would never have become the mighty warrior we read of in Scripture -- but David chose to ignore the voices that spoke discouragement and disillusionment and death and instead heard and trusted in the voice of God

            -- he refuted the voice of Saul -- he spoke back to a king because he had heard the voice of the King -- he told Saul that God had delivered him in the past and given him victory over the lion and the bear -- and that he believed God would do the same with Goliath

            -- in the face of overwhelming faith and the conviction of David in God’s ability, all Saul could do was to tell David to go ahead and face Goliath -- but he tried one more time to speak worldly wisdom into the situation

 

            -- look at verse 38

 

38 Then Saul dressed David in his own tunic. He put a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet on his head. 39 David fastened on his sword over the tunic and tried walking around, because he was not used to them.

 

“I cannot go in these,” he said to Saul, “because I am not used to them.” So he took them off. 40 Then he took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd’s bag and, with his sling in his hand, approached the Philistine.

 

            -- Saul realized he couldn’t stop David from stepping into God’s calling to stand against Goliath -- but Saul still didn’t believe -- he did not have faith in David’s ability to stand against Goliath in God’s strength alone

            -- so, he had his armor brought and put on David because everyone knows you don’t go into battle with armor -- David put on Saul’s tunic and coat of armor -- he put a bronze helmet on his head -- and then tied a sword around his waist -- but it didn’t fit -- it wasn’t right -- because it was the wrong armor

            -- just as the world will try to speak counter to God’s voice, the world will also tell you what you are supposed to do and how you are supposed to do it -- David was not called to go into battle against Goliath as anyone else would -- he was called to go into battle in the strength of God and God alone

            -- so, he took off the armor and told Saul he couldn’t go in those -- standing there, dressed in his shepherd’s garb, David took the staff he was so familiar with and the sling he had used in the past and grabbed five smooth stones from the stream -- and stood to face the giant -- and we all know what happened next -- David slew Goliath with nothing more than his sling and a stone so that, as he said in verse 27, “all those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear the Lord saves -- for the battle is the Lord’s and He will give all of you into our hands”

 

III.  Closing

            -- when God speaks and calls you to do something, He’s going to make you able to fulfill that calling in ways you might not imagine -- the world could not conceive of how anyone could stand against Goliath without armor and a sword -- but God dressed David in spiritual armor -- the armor of faith -- and the victory was won

            -- not long after we started Koinonia Church, we heard the voice of God telling us to give school supplies and backpacks to Valdosta Middle School -- to commit to providing them with all the supplies they needed for that school year -- and there was no way that we could do that

            -- we had less than ten people -- we had no budget -- we had no resources -- we had no money -- but God said, “I want you to give the school what they need”

            -- others told us it was impossible -- the voices around us said it couldn’t be done -- “call another church to help,” they said -- “you’re too small to do this”

            -- but we chose to listen to God -- and we stepped out and started to gather what we could -- we asked for donations of school supplies, and a few things came in -- but not enough -- but we persisted -- and we continued to do what we could -- and right before school started, when it seemed like we had failed and just wouldn’t be able to do what God had asked us to do, a check came in the mail from someone outside the church -- we hadn’t asked for it -- we hadn’t expected it -- but it was enough to buy all the school supplies we needed

            -- and when people saw what that little church did and what God provided through us, He was glorified, because they knew we had not done it on our own

            -- what made the difference? -- holding fast to the voice of God we heard speaking to us and discounting the voices of discouragement from those outside -- from choosing to fulfill this calling as God led and not to put on Saul’s armor by asking a larger church to do it for us -- by trusting and believing in faith that God would provide

 

            -- we’ve seen similar things happen here -- remember when this little church of 10 people gave out over 500 Bibles in one month? -- putting a Bible in every home and giving a Bible to every person who asked? -- even when we didn’t have the money to buy them? -- even when others said we were crazy?

 

            -- God wants to do great things through us -- He is calling us to do great things -- things that we can’t do apart from Him -- things that are impossible without Him

            -- if we are going to do what He is calling us to do, then we have to close our ears to the false voices and the wisdom of the world that says we can’t do it -- and trust in Him with all our hearts and minds and souls and strength -- and then, giants will fall and God will get the glory

            -- as we close this morning, I want to challenge you to listen -- to spend some time this week listening for the voice of God -- to close out the voices that are speaking death and discouragement and disillusionment -- the voices that say we are too small to do anything -- that say this church is in its last days -- and trust in a God that wants to revive us and restore us and do great things through us

            -- if God can speak to a small shepherd boy and take down a giant, He can speak to a small country church and revive a nation

            -- let us pray