Just An Old Wimp

Sunday 3-29-15 (Martinez, Argentina)

Scripture reading:    Judges 6-7     Ps 52      1 Cor 14

S.   Judg 6:11-16  Gideon son of Joash had been threshing wheat at the bottom of a winepress to hide the grain from the Midianites.  The angel of the LORD appeared to him and said, "Mighty hero, the LORD is with you!" "Sir," Gideon replied, "if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? And where are all the miracles our ancestors told us about? Didn't they say, 'The LORD brought us up out of Egypt'? But now the LORD has abandoned us and handed us over to the Midianites." Then the LORD turned to him and said, "Go with the strength you have and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I am sending you!" "But Lord," Gideon replied, "how can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest in the whole tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least in my entire family!" The LORD said to him, "I will be with you. And you will destroy the Midianites as if you were fighting against one man." NLT

O.  The Midianites terrorists are making life impossible for the Israelites, burning their fields of grain and attacking continually.  Gideon is hiding from them while threshing some wheat for his family to have something to eat.  Suddenly a powerful angel of the Lord appears before him with this greeting, "Mighty hero, the LORD is with you!"  “Excuse me,” Gideon answers, “You have got the wrong address.  I’m no hero.  I’m a wimp!  Can’t you see I am down here behind the wine-press trying to keep out of sight of the Midianite terrorists?  I’m a nobody.  I am the weakest of my family and my whole tribe is the weakest of all Israel.”  And God’s angel says, “Good!  That makes you just the man I am looking for to drive the Midianites out of here.”

A.  I can identify with brother Gideon.  I have always been a wimp.  My mother taught me to be a wimp.  When the big boys beat up on my skinny frame, she quoted scripture… “I say unto you, that ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.” She believed that the King James version came straight from heaven.  It was good enough for her… and for us.  I guess God prefers wimps sometimes so that all can know our victories and really not ours, but His.

P.  God, You sure got yourself a ground-level-wimp when You called me to ministry.  I was a “walking inferiority complex” just like brother Gideon.  That’s why I know that every victory is Yours.  All Your hero Gideon did is follow Your instructions and You scared that whole massive enemy army out of their wits so that in the middle of the night they fought each other in the confusion. 

Lord, I need You once again today.  I preached my heart out last night and now have two more opportunities to minister today, but I am too weak, too ignorant… just a wimp… and what’s worse is that I’m an “old wimp.”  If any victories are to be won today… You are going to win them.  You did it for Gideon back then so, I am counting on You today.  Amen.

Ralph