It's good to be with you this morning in Balomina. This is my first ever Bible class. Knowing the caliber of the Bible classes that you get here, you'll be very gracious and patient with me. We're going to turn, please, to the Word of God, to Judges chapter 6. Judges chapter 6. We're going to look at this portion of the Word of the Lord this morning. Judges chapter 6. And we'll commence reading at the verse number 11. Judges 6, verse 11, and let's hear the Word of the Lord. And there came an angel of the Lord and sat under an oak, which was an ophra, that pertained to Joash the Abiezrite, and his son Gideon threshed wheat by the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him and said unto him, The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valor. And Gideon said unto him, O my Lord, if the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen us? And where be all his miracles which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt? But now the Lord hath forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites. And the Lord looked upon him and said, Go in this, I might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. have not I sent thee? And he said unto him, O my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? Behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house. And the Lord said unto him, Surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man. And he said unto him, If now I have found grace in thy sight, then show me a sign that thou talkest with me, Depart not hence, I pray thee, until I come unto thee, and bring forth my present, and set it before thee. And he said, I will tarry until thou come again. And Gideon went in, and made ready a kid, and unleavened cakes of an ephaph of flour. The flesh he put in a basket, and he put the broth in a pot, and brought it out unto him under the oak, and presented it. And the angel of God said unto him, Take the flesh and the unleavened cakes, and lay them upon this rock, and pour out the broth. And he did so. And the angel of the Lord put forth the end of the staff that was in his hand, and touched the flesh and the unleavened cakes, and there rose up fire out of the rock, and consumed the flesh and the unleavened cakes. Then the angel of the Lord departed out of his sight. And when Gideon perceived that he was an angel of the Lord, Gideon said, Alas, O Lord God, for because I have seen an angel of the Lord face to face. And the Lord said unto him, Peace be unto thee, fear not, thou shalt not die. Then Gideon built an altar there unto the Lord, and called it Jehovah Shalom. Unto this day it is yet an ophrah of the Abiezrites. Amen. We'll end our reading at verse number 24, and we'll turn to the Lord and seek His blessing upon the Word even now. Let's pray. Our God, our Father, we come humbly before thee and in through the peerless and precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ. We acknowledge that thou art God, beside thee there is none else. We thank thee, Father, for the word of truth. We thank thee, Father, for the living word. We bless thee, O God, for this thy day. And Lord, we come into thy presence. We plead no merit but his merit. We plead no righteousness but his. We come before Thee in all our weakness. We thank Thee, Father, that Your Word is promised to give power to the faint. And to him that hath no might, Thou dost increase strength. We thank Thee, O Father, that we can think of the words of the psalmist when he said that Thou hast girded me about with strength. And Father, Lord, we come to Thee in all our weakness. We come to Thee, as it were, just like Gideon, when he confessed his absolute weakness before Thee. We pray that we would be endued by power. We pray that we would be endued by the might of the Spirit of the Lord. We pray that he would come and possess me, the vessel. I pray that you would empty me of my sin, empty me of all my notions of the flesh, O Father, and give me thy Spirit. We pray for thy children that have, Lord, taken the time to come, not to hear me, but, Lord, to hear thee. We pray that you would speak to them this morning, that you would encourage them, instruct them, and guide them. Lord, give them an ear to hear thy voice. Lord, to God it speaks to thy people. And Father, now we look afresh to thee. I pray that you would give me thy Spirit. Help me to magnify thy dear Son. I pray this in Jesus' precious and worthy and all-prevailing name. Amen. Now here in Judges 6 this morning, we have the call of God to Gideon. And it came in a time when Israel had departed from the Lord and fell into sin and idolatry. Read that in verse number 1. It says there, And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord. Now this is sad when we think of the note of victory that is sounded in Judges chapter 5. The song of Deborah and Barak. But 40 years had passed since that victory. Only 40 years since God gave a great victory unto the children of Israel, and these people had departed from the Lord and fell into sin and idolatry. How did such a change come about in 40 years? Was it a sudden fall into this sad state of affairs? Well, I don't believe it was so. It was gradual. It was subtle. I want you to picture the land there at the end of that great victory of Judges chapter 5. The Hebrews, they went vigorously to their work in the field and in the town. Everywhere now, because they had liberty, they were breaking up new ground. They were working in the fields, building houses, repairing roads, organizing traffic. They were advancing in their own lives and in the national life of Israel. But they started to fall into their old ways and their old paths. The old habits of the friendly dealings with the Canaanites in the land started to talk to them of the prospect of the harvest and the crops. And even then, joining in the festivals of the new moon and the harvests. In the cities, the old inhabitants of the land, that's the Canaanites, they started and began to sacrifice again to Baal. Now earnest Israelites, they were indignant about this. They called for action, but really the mass of the children of Israel couldn't be roused to do anything. Peace and comfort were better than purity and conflict. At the center of the land of Israel, there was a coalition of cities. Hebrew and Canaanite cities. Shechem was at their head. And Shechem, they had recognized Baal as their lord and master and began to worship and serve him. In the northern tribes, the knowledge of Jehovah was scant. And the people believed that if they lived and multiplied, inherited the land, cultivated it, they believed that their purpose, the purpose that God had for his nation, was fulfilled if that's all they did. Multiplied and were prosperous. They began to leave off the worship of the Lord and they stopped offering the atoning sacrifice. This is in that picture of our land today. Yes, even many of God's children. They'd rather have peace and comfort and conflict and self-sacrifice. Prosperity and development are more sought after, and it's hard to rise the majority of the people of God. It seems to be the few that come to the special times of prayer. It seems to be the minority instead of the majority that come, as it were, to the midweek prayer meeting. It's hard to rise the masses, even the children of God, to come and worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. Matthew Henry warns, that let all that sin expect to suffer, and let those that return to folly expect to return to misery. And that's exactly what happened. God, in keeping with his own word and his own promises, he brings judgment upon the nation. He orders circumstances. The people of his own particular affection. We always must keep that in mind. The children of Israel were the people of God's particular affection. And he brings them into such an experience that the Midianites oppress them for seven years. See, it was the Lord, and the Lord is sovereign in all things. In verse one, we read there, and the Lord delivered them. It was the Lord that brought them under the heel of the Midianites. Why did he do this? Well, they had become self-reliant. And Israel were guilty of the two things that they were notoriously guilty of. Firstly, they had a failure to maintain a clear line of separation. And secondly, they had a failure to remember the Lord. A failure to maintain the clear line of separation and a failure to remember the Lord. Not only was the Midianites that came up against them, but we see there in verse 3 that the Amalekites and the children of the east, they came as well. There was like a confederacy. The Arabians are the children of the east. And here these people were who were at one time at variance with one another, and yet they come united in their cause to afflict the children of the Lord. And this is nothing new. We can think of the days of Christ. When those who at once would be at variance with one another, they came together and united against the cause of Jesus Christ. It tells us in Acts 4 in verse 27, for of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together. A fulfillment of Psalm 2 in verse 2. And yet again, how true it is in our day and generation, groups that would be usually at variance with one another seem to be united against the true cause of Jesus Christ. But it must be seen in this portion that extermination was not the enemy's tactic. Rather, it was to plunder and to pillage. And you and I, we must be thankful for the land that we live in. We're not persecuted unto death, but rather it seems that the enemies of God, they want to plunder and pillage our gospel heritage by the passing of laws that are contrary to the word of God and by the suppression of gospel preaching. Yet when we read in verse number six, it says there at the end of that verse, and the children of Israel cried unto the Lord, This judgment had a positive effect. It turned the people again to the Lord and it set God's people praying. And it was an answer to prayer that God sent, rather than a deliverer, He first sent an expositor. He sent someone to explain why they were in the situation they were in. You see, there's this unnamed prophet of the Lord that comes before the man Gideon. And when you and I come to Judges 6, we automatically go to, as it were, Gideon, the great deliverer, the Savior. But first of all, the Lord sends an expositor, someone that tells him why they're in the situation they're in. This is the common cycle of the Lord. and the common cycle of what happens here in the book of Judges. Rebellion, retribution, a cry for rescue, repentance, and then the Lord raises up a man. In verse 8 we read, the Lord sent a prophet unto the children of Israel. Now this prophet does not speak to these people in a way that they might have wanted or in a way that they might have feared. They might have wanted this prophet of the Lord to come and say, well, you know, you're doing a good thing now. You're turning again onto the Lord and well, it's not as bad as what it seemed and well, just have a nice day and carry on the way you're going. They might have wanted a message like that, something as it were to soothe their ears and their consciences. But they didn't get a message that they might have feared. This expositor, this explainer didn't come and say, you think the last seven years were bad? Wait till you see the next seven years. No, this man just comes and he gives a word of explanation. And in those verses 8, 9, and 10, this man, he tells them, he reminds them of their redemption, how they were brought out of the land. And then he talks to them about the protection that they were given. But then he focuses in on their obligation to fear the Lord. And while men and women nowadays, they want to know about the great deliverance and redemption that God has wrought through Christ, redeemed from sin, delivered from hell, and they want to know what it is to have the Lord protect us in our times of trial and trouble, yet many don't want to hear the last part, the obligation to fear the Lord and to serve Him in the beauty of holiness. The Word of God reminds us in 1 Thessalonians 4 and 7, God's people were called unto holiness. It's because the children of Israel had left off their obligation to serve the Lord in purity and in holiness that God brought them into judgment under the heel of the Midianites. This is the setting in which God calls a man. This is a setting in which God extends a call to Gideon. And that's what we're looking at this morning, the call of God to Gideon. God's call to Gideon. And I want you to notice that it's in the midst of this falling away, in the midst of this oppression, that God calls a man, that God calls man and woman to serve Him. God does not need a favorable spiritual environment in which to call his people to serve him. In fact, when we read through the Scripture, when we read in church history, it's oftentimes when the situation is most adverse to the gospel that God calls some of its most choicest saints. We can think of, in this, the 500th anniversary year of Martin Luther, Could times have been more dark in Europe when God called a monk to bring about a reformation? Times were dark here in Judges chapter 6. And times are spiritually dark in our day, but God is still sovereign, and God still calls men and women to serve him. The first thing I want to notice when we think about Gideon, I want us to think about the Christ of Gideon. the Christ of Gideon. Look at verse number 11. It says there, and there came an angel of the Lord. Now, it was the Lord that drew near to Gideon. It was the Lord that came, and as it were, came alongside this man, Gideon. God took the initiative. It was God's prerogative. and spiritual revival and spiritual deliverance has its origin and has its foundation and the fountainhead is in God, not man. Man cannot stir up revival. Man cannot, as it were, pray down revival. Revival comes alone from God. It tells us in verse number 11, And there came an angel of the Lord, Now in the Old Testament, the angel of the Lord is always speaking of a pre-incarnation appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ, a Christophany. Later in verses number 14 and 23, it identifies this angel as the Lord, Jehovah. It says in verse 14, and the Lord looked on him and said, and then in verse number 23, and the Lord said unto him, this was the Lord. The God of glory came and drew near to this man. But when we look at these two verses, 11 and 12, I want us to picture the scene. It says that the angel came and sat under the oak. But look at verse 12. It says, and the angel of the Lord appeared unto him. Now what does this lead me to conclude? Leads me to conclude that the angel was there, but Gideon could not perceive him. He could not, as it were, sense his presence until the angel appeared, revealed himself onto Gideon. Gideon's eyes were holding that he could not see. And in this we see revelation. The revelation of God to mankind. Sinful man can never come to the knowledge of God in and of himself, because of the blindness and the sin of his heart. Yet God is a God of grace, and God is a self-revealing God. And God has revealed himself unto mankind. And God in the Old Testament and in the New revealed himself to mankind by three modes. Prophecy, theophany, and miracle. These are the ways in which God manifested himself, revealed himself onto mankind. Prophecy, theophany, and miracle. And here we have a theophany. As it were, a physical appearance of the Lord. We can think of all our theophanies in the Old Testament times. We think of the pillar of fire by night, the pillar of cloud by day. That's a theophany. All our miracles, this was God revealing himself unto mankind. But yet all these modes of revelation of God, they find their epitome. They find their end in the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Lord Jesus Christ is the ultimate theophany. He is the prophet of the Lord, and there is no greater miracle than God manifest in the flesh. And so you and I, we need no new revelation. We need no new prophecy. We need no new redemptive miracle. We need no new vision of God. For the Word of God, it tells us in Hebrews 1 and 2, For God has spoken unto us in these last days by Jesus Christ. And the canon of Scripture is a closed canon. And those modes of revelation, we will not see them no more because they are in and find their epitome in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why we can have confidence in the Word of God. And we don't need, as it were, a man to come with another revelation that he says that God has given unto him. In fact, that's where many of the cults come from. They talk about some appearance, a vision, a dream, a revelation, but yet when the record of Scripture, the canon, is closed, we will have no more of these modes of God revealing himself unto mankind. God reveals unto us Himself through Jesus Christ John 17 3 that tells us that this is life eternal that they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ Whom I assent we know God through the Lord Jesus Christ And that means that you and I that have seen Christ by faith I You and I that have had this revelation, that our eyes of faith have been opened, we must pray that God would make himself known unto others through his word. It tells us in Acts 17, verse 27, when Paul was preaching at Athens, he said that God there, he's not far from every one of us. And God is an omnipresent God. And yet the ungodly, they can't see Him. They do not know His presence. We need to pray that He would reveal Himself unto them. And only He can do this. Gideon was here. The angel of the Lord was under the oak, and yet he did not see Him. His eyes were holding until the Lord revealed Himself unto Gideon. You see the revelation there, but we also see the communication. In verse number 12, it says, And say it unto him. God is not only a God that reveals himself, but God is a God that communicates to man through the Word. And here is the messenger of Jehovah, the angel of the covenant, and this angel speaks to Gideon. And what does he say? Well, in verse number 12, it says, The Lord is with thee. This is a word of fellowship, companionship, and union. And this is the message of God to mankind. It's a word of reconciliation. The Lord is with thee. 2 Corinthians 5, 19 tells us that God was in Christ Reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. And this is the message of God to mankind. This book, it's a word of reconciliation. Now, how could Gideon be in such a relationship? Gideon, like all men, born a sinner. guilty, condemned, unclean, estranged from God. How could God say unto this man that I am with thee? How could God say that I am in fellowship with thee? I am in union with thee? Well, when you notice verse 23, the angel brought him a message of peace. The message of reconciliation, it's a message of peace. For he said unto Gideon, Peace be unto thee. Fear not, thou shalt not die. The enmity had been removed. And Gideon there in those verses when he says, Tarry until I come and bring my present or my offering, my sacrifice, was by type and shadow, as it were, laying upon that rock. It was a picture of Christ. Gideon, by faith, was looking forward to Calvary. The Bible tells us that it's only through Christ, through the blood of his cross, that you and I have peace. We hear today of many talking about, I wonder, did he make his peace with God? I wonder, has she made her peace with God? Well, it's impossible. for any man of themselves to make their own peace with God. We are strangers. We are enemies. We are rebellious. There's only peace through Christ. Here, Gideon, the Lord revealed himself unto him. The Christ of God made himself known unto this man, Gideon, at the foot of the tree. And today it's only at the foot of the tree that sinners, that sinners come to know the Lord Jesus Christ. You and I that are saved unto us is committed this word of reconciliation. And you and I that by faith have seen the Lord through his word, you and I, we must pray. Pray to the Lord that he'll make himself known unto the ungodly. I believe you have a mission coming up. I believe the promise of the Lord, that the Lord will be near. But the ungodly will not know he's near, will not see him by faith, except the Lord makes himself known unto them. How? Through the Word, the Word, and in Christ. For he is the epitome and the end of all the three modes of God's revelation unto mankind. We've seen the Christ of Gideon. Let's look a little at the character of Gideon. In this passage, we see some of the characteristics of the individual that God calls and uses. Firstly, we see that Gideon was hardworking. He threshed wheat by the winepress, it tells us in verse 11. If you look at verse number 27, it tells us there, then Gideon took ten men of his servants. So Gideon belonged to a family that had hired servants. And yet he himself was willing to get stuck into the work. He himself did not want to sit back and watch others do the work. Now usually the thresh wheat And there's some that are older than me here. I only know a class harvester. That's all I know when you're threshing out wheat. But maybe if you're of the older generation, to thresh wheat, you beat it out. You took it in a sieve. We've actually one at home in the farm, and you'd have tossed it, and the wind would have blown away the chaff. You need to do it in an open space, an open area. But he tells us here in this verse that, excuse me, that Gideon, he threshed it by the winepress. in a sunken hollow in the ground, an eastern sun, possibly not a breath of wind, and yet this young man was engaged in hard work and labor. Yes, maybe without much profit, without much success, and yet he was willing to be engaged in the work that he could put his hand to. And when God calls men, young men for service, even young women as well. It is the norm of God that he calls those that are already engaged in the work. We see this in Scripture. The Lord called Moses while he was looking after the flock. The Lord called David from the field when he was attending his father's flock. The Lord called Amos from behind the herd. The Lord called the disciples when they were mending their nets. He called others when they were casting their nets. He called Levi at the receipt of custom. Of course, there are exceptions, but exceptions never, never make the rule. God calls those that are actively engaged in the work. And you and I were called to work and labor and progress may be slow, and productivity may not have been when we had, as it were, more liberty, more freedom, without the oppression of the laws of the land. Yet you and I were called to labor for the Lord. I wonder, have you, have I, have we been like that woman who said at the feet of Christ, And when she was, as it were, rebuked, the Lord said she had done what she could. She had done what she could. Let us not be weary in well-doing. We'll reap if we faint not. It wasn't long after this encounter that Israel would not need to thresh the wheat in a winepress, but victory and liberty would be given to the land and the people could work, work without restraint. We should pray for the young people, for congregations that they'll get involved in the work, that they would get involved in the work in their local congregation and not be, as it were, pulled away and never work in their home congregation. For the Word of God gives us a template in Acts 1 and 8. They shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem The disciples were to start at their home place. And you and I should pray, and I always worry and fear for young people that are willing to maybe go away on a mission trip to a far land and work there, maybe among the boys and girls, and yet, when I see them in their own home congregation, they're not involved in the work of God. And I wonder, is that the template? God called Gideon when he was at work at home. May we work, may we have the characteristic of Gideon, may we be hardworking. But then I want us to notice his heart. Heart in verse number 13. And here I believe this is the burden of the message. This is the bit that gripped my heart. After the Lord had said unto him, the Lord is with thee. The mighty man of valor and Gideon said unto him, O my Lord, If the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen us? Here's his heart. Here's his burden. Now Gideon's language possibly here shows a lack of reflection. For the very chastisements that God had brought upon his people showed that God's presence was still among them. Whom the Father loveth, he chasteneth. Remember verse 1, I said, let's not forget, and the Lord delivered him. However, this was a man who felt deeply the plight of his people, those who he lived among. How could he enjoy his own harvest when the Midianites were robbing and plundering all around him? Even though the Lord said to him, the Lord is with thee, Gideon answers, why then is all this befallen us? He wasn't a self-centered, self-seeking man, but he had a heart for those that were around him. He had a burden. He couldn't understand. He knew the power and the promises of God. You look at verse number 13. Here's a man that remembered the past. But he wasn't living in the past. He remembered the past, but he was living in the here and now. And he knew about the power of God, and he knew about the promises of God. And I believe not only did he know them, but he believed them. And he couldn't reconcile this in his heart and his mind. He couldn't understand why they were in such a situation that they were in. Thought, this is not how it should be. This is not the way it ought to be. Why are we under oppression? The Lord said that we would be the head and not the teal, and here I am, I'm threshing wheat in the winepress. I see Gideon, every beat, he's reasoning this out within his heart. And he's got this burning contradiction within his soul. knowing that he doesn't doubt God, knowing he believes the Word and the promises of God, and yet he can't reconcile it. And men and women, I wonder, do you have that burden in your heart? And I know you don't doubt God, and I know you don't, as it were, disbelieve his promises, that where two or three are met together, he said that there he is in the midst. Those mighty promises call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things which I knowest not. I will pour waters upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground. And I know, I know that you believe. And I know that you believe in the power of God, and God is able to do anything. The children's meeting chorus, God can do anything, anything but fail. And yet, I wonder, are you like Gideon? Do you have the holy why? Why? Why's all this befallen us? I trust that we would not be as people that just hold to a creed and hold to it tightly And yes, we believe the record of the Word of the Lord, and we believe our God. But if all we are holding to is a creed, and do not experience the movings of the Holy Ghost, then we have dead orthodoxy. That's all we have. May we have a burden like Gideon, an internal wrestling while you're in the factory, while you're at home. Why? Why? I remember the works. And I know here in Ballymena, you remember the mission, the mission that's talked about. And you're having a mission coming up. We are to remember the past, but we live in the present. I believe this stirred his heart. gave him a holy yearning for God to come and move. And may we have a holy yearning for God to come and work in mighty power. Also see his humility. Time is rushing away. See his humility. He says there that in verse number 15, my family is poor in Manasseh. Well, is this so? This man had ten servants in his household. This is not bad when the children of Israel were making their homes in caves and dens. Rather, I believe this is humility. Humility and modesty of the man. He does have no high thoughts of himself, nor of his family. compares himself in a comparative way to the enemy that was as grasshoppers that came in. And really, what are we against the great enemies of the gospel? Gideon was evidently a man of ability and talent and industry. Yet in verse 15, when he says this thing, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house. He knows that he of himself possesses no power against this great enemy. This is true humility. True humility is not inability. And it seems to be now that when you hear people preaching about service for the Lord, well, it's only the imbeciles that God uses. Yes, God does use the weak. But cast our mind through the history of the church and look at the men that God used. They were mighty men of intellect. They weren't weaklings. The languages they knew, the scripture they knew. You think of Dr. Paisley and his memory and his mind, and Spurgeon who read, I don't know, many hard books a week. These men weren't weak, but what had they? They had true humility, and they laid their gifts, their talents before the Lord. That's humility. Humility is not inability. John Flavell said that they that know God will be humble, and they that know themselves cannot be proud. He was a man of humility, he was a man of hesitancy. He halted, and here we see his human aspect. He was only a man. He says, if now I have found grace in thy sight, then show me a sign that thou talkest with me. Possibly an element of fear, he was cautious with the call of God, And yet God deals with them in grace, for God remembers our frame, and he knoweth that we are but dust. That's the character of the man. Just quickly and finally, I'll give you the headings, the charge to Gideon. He was commissioned to go. The Lord said, go, and this I might. Have not I sent thee? And as the church of Jesus Christ, you and I have been charged, commissioned by God to go. And he says, Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. All power is given unto me in heaven and on earth. See, Christ now is a mediator king, has been given all power. He rules, he reigns for us, and you and I can go in the knowledge that he is our sovereign king. He was not only charged to go, he was charged for the conflict. He says, I shall smite the millions as one man. the warfare that we are called to. God's service is a battle, it's a conflict, but we must remember that we're fighting against the defeated foe. And then we have his concern. What was Gideon's great concern? Verses 25 and 6, and for sake of time, we can't read it, but verses 25 and 6, he was to raise again the altar. The Lord said unto him to take the bullock of seven years, Now, normally it was the firstling of the herd or the flock that was taken, but the Lord says, take the second bullock of seven years. Why? Well, for seven years, the children of Israel had left off the atoning sacrifice. Yes, they were under oppression for 40 years. They had departed. When we read from Judges 5 to Judges 6, it's a period of 40 years, but it was only seven years that they were under the heel of the Midianites. Why? Because they had left off. the atoning sacrifice. And so this second bullock of seven years, every year of its life represented a year for which the children of Israel did not offer the sacrifice. And Gideon had to erect that altar upon a mount so that all Israel would see. And that's the charge to you and me. That's our great concern, is to uplift Christ and His work. Now, we have skimmed over this passage in Judges 6. We've seen the Christ of Gideon, a self-revealing and communicating God. The character of Gideon. I wonder, do you and I, we fit that spiritual character? Hard-working. A heart. Humility, laying our gifts or talents at Christ's feet. Yes, we are human as well. No wonder are we fulfilling the charge to Gideon. The church has been commissioned to fight the good fight of faith. And while we are to be engaged in many other things, our chief concern is to uplift Christ and Him crucified. Let's bow our heads in prayer and seek His blessing upon His Word. Let's pray. Our God, our Father, we thank Thee for the life of Gideon. We thank Thee for what we can learn from this passage. Lord, we thank Thee that Thou art the ever-present God. Lord, we believe Thy Word. We do not doubt that, Lord, that You say, said in Your Word, You'd never leave us nor forsake us. Lord, we ask for the sense of Thy presence. that you would make yourself known unto us through the word, engaged in the work of the Lord. Give us the characteristics of this man, Gideon. Give us a heart. It's a burden for those that are around us. Help us not just to be content with what we have. Enjoy the blessings and keep them to ourselves. The way we look at our neighbors and our fellow countrymen and see the bondage that they're under. And God, we pray that you would help us as we're charged and commissioned for the conflict. May our chief concern be always to uplift Christ. Lord, we pray this in our Savior's worthy and precious name. Amen.