GOOD MORNING! The beginning of March- if you can remember that far back – we roared like Lions – roared like the weather and I think it was quite the roaring March weather. Don’t you? It is now the end of March and March goes out like a lamb and?  Wow – yeah!!!  More peaceful and calm, and is it teaming out there with new life – like lambs being born – like beautiful spring flowers opening – like beautiful daffodils.  So – instead of roaring like a LION – let us take a second to be quiet like a lamb – and maybe think thankful thoughts for spring – maybe take thankful moments to remember easter coming up. And I will pray for my message to be meaningful and part of God’s action plan.

Moment to be silent…  thank you…

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I LOVE THIS INSIGHT WRITTEN IN ECCLESIATES: He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

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I love SPRING – before summer gets too hot – and wow we are MOTIVATED in Spring to get moving – I got outside yesterday – planted flowers and cleaned up my yard.  I had to pull some leaves out so that my daffodils could bloom less encumbered…  They weren’t going to wait for me – and that is like the Lord – He works in HIS TIME… There’s scripture and great song lyric:  The Lord makes things beautiful in His time.

SING:    Lord, please, show me everyday   —   As you’re teaching me Your way  —-   That you do just what You say   —   In Your time  — In your time, in your time – You makes all things BEAUTIFUL – In your time…

And today we’re going to talk about the Lord making things happen – our God of action – helping us – some would say tolerating us – when we are to respond to God’s call and maybe delaying –

and I will be sharing just a small snippet of Gideon and his calling and his answering the call,  But especially about God IN ACTION…

I am appreciative of this sermon series coincidental with our mission statement – to Know God, Show Love, Grow Community

TODAY we are learning KNOW GOD – by Knowing God in Action – and I love that – ACTION!!! – both by God and by us – and when we are to be “Responding to God’s Call” – there is BOTH the need for us to “Be STILL” – and to “BE MOVING” – but most importantly remembering that God wants us to “BE HIS”…   

For being STILL – we remember a previous speaking of Elijah that he had to be still and “hear” God in the stillness and in the gentle whisper of the wind.

For being MOVING – let us remember our GOD OF ACTION – remember the sermon on Isaiah where Isaiah first said: “For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips” Essentially saying “I’m not worthy” – and GOD IN ACTION – an angel touch to Isaiah’s lips in a purifying manner.

“with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”

Then Isaiah felt able to respond to God’s call willingly: “Here I am , Send Me!” 

And OH, what amazing prophesy that Isaiah was able to deliver to the people of the time and to us:   this is an excerpt from Isaiah 40, I am SO glad that Isaiah responded to God’s call and wrote these words:

“Behold, His reward is with Him, And His work before Him. He will feed His flock like a shepherd; He will gather the lambs with His arm, And carry them in His bosom, And gently lead those who are with young.”

Yes – we our God of Action IS a Shephard.

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SO – our opportunity today is to learn about OLD TESTAMENT worker Gideon – God calling Gideon, speaking to him – This is like God speaking to us – for sure – and what strikes me is when we are able to know God enough to talk back to Him and know He tolerates that – YES to QUESTION HIM!!! yeah! – This is a perfect topic for me – and for us – for Gideon – like verifying verifying – double checking – asking for proof…

Gideon was a man who was minding his own business – and an angel of the Lord came to him while he was threshing wheat – he had to do this hidden – down in a winepress to keep quiet – afraid for the Midianites who were an issue for Gideon’s people of the day… These scriptures are from Judges 6:

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.”

¹⁷ Gideon replied, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign that it is really you talking to me. ¹⁸ Please do not go away until I come back and bring my offering and set it before you.”

And the Lord said, “I will wait until you return.” – God had the confidence to try to convince Gideon “am I not sending you?” – meaning ‘I GOD have got this!!!’  And yet Gideon had to be sure…

WOW – CAN YOU IMAGING US MAKING GOD WAIT – OH YEAH – WE DO THAT ALL THE TIME…  AND GOD WAITS! 

Gideon did prepare that offering – and then FIRE flared from the rock, consuming the meat and the bread. ²²When Gideon realized that it was the angel of the Lord, he exclaimed, “Alas, Sovereign Lord! I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face!”

²³ But the Lord said to him, “Peace! Do not be afraid. You are not going to die.” ²⁴ So Gideon built an altar to the Lord there and called it The Lord Is Peace.

SO GOD HAD GIDEON’s ATTENTION NOW…   Then God forced the hand of the situation and stirred up the conflict between all the groups of the area – by having Gideon destroy the false god Baal’s altar and build one to God – and make a sacrifice on that one… 

Our God of Action was setting the stage for a battle – one in which Israel would triumph by Gideon’s lead but by God’s Plan and God’s Power.

But not before Gideon QUESTIONED GOD!!! We learn this was “the ask”:

³⁶ Gideon said to God, “If you will save Israel by my hand as you have promised — ³⁷ look, I will place a wool fleece on the threshing floor. If there is dew ONLY on the fleece and all the ground is dry, then I will know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you said.” 

REALLY? IS GOD A MAGICIAN? IS THIS LIKE A PENN & TELLER SHOW? 

BUT REALLY: ³⁸And that is what happened. Gideon rose early the next day; he squeezed the fleece and wrung out the dew – a bowlful of water.

WOW – GOD DID IT – AND OH – YOU THINK GIDEON WAS SATISFIED?

³⁹ Then Gideon said to God, “Do not be angry with me. Let me make just one more request. Allow me one more test with the fleece, but this time make the fleece dry and let the ground be covered with dew.” ⁴⁰ That night God did so. Only the fleece was dry; all the ground was covered with dew.

WOW – GOD DID IT AGAIN – I CAN make fun of this BUT I SHOULDN’T AND I WON’T – BECAUSE I TOO AM GIDEON – QUESTIONING A PLAN FOR ME – AREN’T WE ALL?

Gideon wasn’t testing God’s sovereignty or testing God’s plan. GIDEON WAS TESTING GOD’S SPECIFIC CALLING OF HIMSELF – and if he believed this prediction to come true – AND OUR GOD OF ACTION SHOWED TO BE A GOD OF WAITING – AND A GOD OF PATIENCE – AND A GOD OF PROMISE – AND A GOD OF ANSWERS – AS WELL AS A GOD OF ACTION…

Gideon was testing God’s specific calling of himself… BOTH: Is this really YOU God asking me? (Emphasis on God).  And is that really You God asking Me (emphasis on ME)…  SO GIDEON wanted to know: LORD DO YOU HAVE MY FRONT AND MY BACK?

Did God punish Gideon? NO – He NOT ONLY let him ask, God performed miracles – very specific miracles upon request. It wasn’t like Gideon meant to ask like asking ‘a genie in the bottle’ – can I have riches and etc. Gideon  didn’t even ask like Solomon would – for wisdom. Gideon actually asked “if it is really YOU, Lord…?” AND “Is it really me???????????”

YES, GIDEON IT IS YOU.

Gideon kept asking God many times to prove this was THE CALL… that the plan was TRULY from God – and if it would succeed – remember Gideon said ‘hey Lord – You didn’t help on ON TIMELINE”…  HMMM…

Later we will see that Gideon DID answer the call after all. But in all this questioning, God kept RINGING – and then God kept the line warm until Gideon came back and said “Yes Lord”. God was like “can you hear Me now? Can you hear Me now?”

AND we don’t have time to read all thru the battle plan today but I urge you to sit sometime this week with this judges scripture – AND SEE THE ACTIONS THAT GOD TOOK – HE Wanted Gideon to fight with such a low number of soldiers – YEAH – Because the Lord wants it to be known that it is HIM Who made the victory.

Gideon was like modern day us – checking the Caller ID before picking up the phone. And he didn’t just look at the area code because you know those cellphone spammers – using our own area codes, Gideon would be like someone who would pick up the phone and say: IF that really IS You, Lord, Can you give me proof? You know that advice that we should ask for a code word, so we verify that we don’t get scammed.

Gideon wanted proof. Gideon wanted his version of code words – miracles that no one else would know about – remember he was hidden in the threshing floor – this conversation was just between him and God – and God certainly allowed this line of questioning because God really DID want Gideon in this plan – HIS PLAN…  GOD PICKED HIM – God picks US TOO… and waits for our answer.

—   A side story – my daughter successfully took her driver’s test yesterday – and we were watching her (after a successful parallel park) go up to the light for the road portion – and immediately wondered if she was going to take the right on red – this is by the mall….  WELL, she said later that she wondered the same thing – she knew she COULD take the right on red – and she asked the driving official – she felt comfortable enough to ask! – And it is a common conversation we all have – “can I take this right on red?” – well the driving official said “I can’t answer that question.” Hmmm…  well, she waited and that is safest of course – and isn’t that like US asking God as a friend “can I do this? Should I do this? Can You wait here until I am ready?” and instead of God saying “I can’t answer that” – God may wait with you in the silence until the answer – or God may give you signs, like He did for Gideon…

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It was convenient for Gideon to pick up fleece, a common sense object of the day that certainly held water,  if you have ever washed a wool sweater. Yeah 

Here is a fleece – and I have a beautiful memory of my son loving this as a youngster in a reading nook of his room – it holds a lot of water when wet!

I know it is NOT a coincidence with easter coming up that we think of our March going out like a LAMB – and we know Jesus as a LAMB on the move.

Isaiah gave us prophecy – AND WE NOW KNOW THIS OF JESUS – THAT GOD IS A GOD OF ACTION.

Remember the Isaiah 53:6-7 scripture. All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned, every one, to his own way;  And the Lord has laid on Him (JESUS) the iniquity of us all. – He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth.

Jesus was silent action as that lamb that day and He continues to be a God of VOCAL and PHYSICAL Action for THE DISCIPLES AND for US: Like Doubting Thomas, Jesus showed Himself…  JESUS then said to the apostles to wait until the advocate comes – at pentacost – WAIT FOR THE HOLY SPIRIT… 

WE SIMPLY ARE TOLD TO TRUST AND TAKE ONE DAY AT A TIME.

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QUESTION: SO, are we like Gideon and have to HEAR, SEE God in Action ? – and we can take this reminder that it is OK to say: “what’s the plan today Lord?” – what is the plan here? and the Lord waits for us to figure it out and often he does send a signs…

Remember,  “THE SPIRIT” CAME UPON GIDEON – remember that the Holy Spirit comes and re-energizes the situation for us – we can ask for a fresh filling of Holy Spirit – this is not like gold dust that wears off but a filling of Jesus HIMSELF – a comforting – an understanding – and a DRIVE…

Deborah, my name sake, was a Judge in the scriptures before Gideon, she was all about telling people that God’s victory is already won. Deborah said: “Has not the Lord gone ahead of you?”    We need to believe that…

We don’t think that our actions are as monumental as Gideon’s for a big battle – but they are for us and for the Lord… Each step we take with the Lord, for the Lord, is part of His victory. Because at the bare minimum, IT GIVES US THE CONFIDENCE TO TRY to live each day in His Love.

I want to close with a great Lauren Daigle song speaking of the Lord with us :

I keep fighting voices in my mind that say I’m not enough

Every single lie that tells me I will never measure up

Am I more than just the sum of every high and every low

Remind me once again just who I am because I need to know

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You say I am loved when I can’t feel a thing

You say I am strong when I think I am weak

And you say I am held when I am falling short

And when I don’t belong, oh You say I am Yours

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And I believe – Oh, I believe – What You say of me – I believe

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Please pray with me:  Lord, May we hear YOUR Call – see YOUR Actions – and take our part in YOUR Work. We know Lord that the best first place to start is to LOVE YOU – and know YOU LOVE US. We know Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is YOUR PURPOSE, the Lord’s purpose that prevails.” 

Thank YOU, Lord, for standing by us, waiting on us, and strengthening us.

Amen