Scripture Passage: Hebrews 11:32-34

The champions of faith listed in Hebrews 11 give us an idea of the kind of people God uses to accomplish His mighty plans.

Hebrews 11:32-34 says, “…For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon… who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle…”

This passage reminds us of Gideon’s story in Judges 6-7 and shows five characteristics of people that God uses.

First, God uses common people.
By His Spirit, God turned Gideon, a once fearful farmer, into a valiant warrior.

God does not rely on our abilities, but on our availability to Him to work through us in extraordinary ways.

Second, God uses cleansed people.
Before God could send Gideon to battle, Gideon had to do away with the idols in His life and surrender in worship.

Adrian Rogers says, “An idol is anything you love, fear, serve or value more than God.” God will not use us if there is unconfessed sin in our lives. We must crush our idols, repent, and be cleansed from the inside out.

Third, God uses courageous people.
In Judges 7, God gives Gideon the command to send away soldiers who are afraid. This shows us that God can better use a smaller number of brave souls than a larger group of fearful ones.

As children of God, we have been given a spirit of power and love. This does not mean we become naturally courageous—it means we are filled with His Spirit.

Fourth, God uses cautious people.
We are called to be on guard at all times, ready to fight against the temptation to sin.

Adrian Rogers says, “Sin is a combination of an unexpected opportunity, an unprotected life, and an undetected weakness.”

Finally, God uses confident people.
Gideon led the charge with confidence because He knew God was with Him.

God gave them victory that day, and when we are confident that God is with us, we can be used in victorious ways.

Apply it to your life
God has mighty plans and He wants to use us to accomplish them. Make certain that your heart is clean. He may not use you the way you expect, but if you make yourself available to Him, He will use you.

folks. What difference is it gonna make? What is your life gonna count for? Don’t you give me that business that you’re just an ordinary person. Don’t you tell me you’re too old. Too young, too poor, too uneducated. You see, you’re calling brother, Not many mighty, not many noble at call. Now, God may not use you the way uses somebody else. You let God decide that you don’t choose your place of service. Would you make yourself available to go? God will use Adrian Rogers ability to apply Biblical truth to everyday life was one of the many things that made him such a remarkable pastor, teacher and writer today on love worth finding, he’ll be bringing that uniqueness to this series of messages that were calling champions of faith. Have your bibles open to Hebrews chapter 11. And join us for today’s message. And if this message is an encouragement to you, remember, you can stream this message again and download. Pastor Rogers outline notes and other resources to go along with this message all at L WF dot org. Now, let’s join Adrian Rogers Turn to hebrews chapter 11. We’ve been working our way through this wonderful chapter. We’re calling it champions of faith. And we come now to verse 32. He has given us one champion after another. And then in verse 32, he says, And what shall I more say for time would fail me to tell of Gideon and of Barack and of Samson and objectify and David also, and Samuel and of the prophets who through faith, subdued kingdoms wrought righteousness obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions quenched the violence of fire escaped the edge of the sword. Out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight. The army’s of the aliens. Now we’re going to take some of these names in here and today, we’re gonna be talking about Gideon. one of the things about Gideon that is particularly impressive to me is that he was an ordinary man and God used him mightily title the messages people that God uses or how to be used of God. Would you like God to use you? I mean, would you really, will it make any difference that you live? What is your life really ultimately counting for? Who are the kind of people that God users. Now, let me tell you the situation for a passage description by the way, turn back over if you would to judges Chapter Six Judges chapter six. And we’re going to find here the life of this man Gideon that we’re talking about today who is listed as a champion of the faith. Now in our passage of scripture, we’re going to find something about Gideon. He’s kind of hunkered down judges six verse 11 and there came an angel of the Lord and sat under an oak, which was in Oprah that pertained under jewish The Abbot is right and his son Gideon thresh wheat by the wine press to hide it from the media nights now he’s not up on the threshing floor, he’s down at the wine press the threshing floors up on the hilltop, so the wind will blow the chap away the wine presses down there to collect the wine. So he’s hiding now from the Media nights. And the Angel of the Lord appeared unto him and said unto him, The Lord is with the mighty man of valor. That’s one thing Gideon would not think of himself as being folks, a mighty man of valor. As a matter of fact, he is frightened to death. And he says, 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 the miracles which our fathers told us of saying did not. The Lord bring us from Egypt. But now the Lord hath forsaken us. Now there are many of us who feel the same way. Oh, how wonderful it was back in the olden times when God was moving mightily. But now God has turned its back on us. God has forsaken us. And and and hear Gideon’s trying to blame it on God Gideon, Here’s waiting on God! God is waiting on Gideon, as we’re gonna see The Lord has forsaken us and delivered us into the hand of the midnight. And the Lord looked upon him and said, go in this, thy might underscore that in this, thy might! Now here’s a man frightened to death. God calls him a man of valor and speaks of his might. And thou shalt Save Israel from the hand of the media night. Have not I sent the and he said unto him, Oh, my Lord, where with 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 many nights as one man, God says, get in. I’ve got a job for you to do. And you’re a mighty man, he said, Lord, do you know who you’re talking to? Lord, of all the families in Israel, all the tribes. My tribe is the least. All the families in that tribe. My family is the poorest and all of the kids in that family. I am the runt of the litter. You’re saying that God is gonna use me. God is saying yes, get in. I’m going to use you. Now, I want you to listen to me. Are you listening? Don’t you dare insult God by saying God can’t use you! Don’t you dare do it. Don’t you say. Who am I? How can God use me? I’m just an ordinary person. I want to show you today, friend that God can use you and you? Yes, you ma’am, you sir, you team. You can be in God’s Hall of Champions. Now let me give you five characteristics of people that God uses number one, God uses common people, God uses common people. Look again in verse 14 and the Lord looked upon him and said, go in this, thy might. And thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the media nights. Have I not sent the and he said to him, Oh my Lord, where we 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, I will be with thee. And thou shalt smite the Midi Nights as one man. Here was a fearful farmer. But God says he is a man of valor. Why is this? God did not see Gideon as he was. God saw him as he could be with God’s power upon him. You see, it’s not what you are in and of yourself. We might be common as such. Look on down to verse 34 the bible says, But the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon. Do you see that the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon in the hebrew language. It literally says the Spirit of the Lord clothed himself with Gideon. How would you like for God to wear you like a suit of clothes and therefore it is not necessarily the man. It is God in the man God will wear you friend like a suit of clothes. God uses common people. God can use you say men. Now, secondly God uses cleansed people. Look if you will now in chapter six verse 25 it came to pass the same night that the Lord said unto him, take thy father’s young bullock, that’s a young bull. Even the second bullock of seven years old and throw down the altar of bail bail was a filthy fertility god they sacrificed the Children to bail, they committed fornication and and adulterous acts in the name of bail. They were, it was the god of sexuality. It’s the same god that has taken over America today and throw down the altar of bail that thy father hath and cut down the grove. That is by it, that is there’s an altar here. You take a bull hook a chain to it and pull that alter down and build an altar unto the Lord thy God upon the top of the rock in the ordered place and take the second bullock and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the grove which thou shalt cut down. Now they worshiped bail and groves. So he says, you tear down the altar, uh take the grove, cut down the trees, build a fire and offer a blood sacrifice. Their point if you want God to use you, you’ve got to take the idols out of your life. If you want God to use you, you have to take the idols out of your life. You say well pastor, this is a modern day. We don’t have any idols Who are you kidding? What is an idol? Something made of sticker stone. Not necessarily let me tell you what an idol is an idol is. Anything you love more. Fear more serve more value more than God. That’s an id anything you fear more, love more serve more value more than God. That is an idol. It doesn’t matter what it is. No three, God not only uses common people and God not only uses cleanse people, but God uses courageous people. Look if you will in verse 12 and the angel of the Lord appeared unto him and said in him, The Lord is with thee. Now watch this thou mighty man of valor, valor. We don’t use that word much, but it means courage courage. Now, not only was God going to uh use Gideon, but God was gonna make Gideon a general. And he said, Gideon blow the trumpet, gather an army And he did and 32,000 people came to help him to deliver Israel from the oppression, oppression of the media. Nights now begin in judges. Chapter seven, verses two and three. And the Lord said unto Gideon. The people that are with thee are too many for me to give the media nights into their hands lest Israel vaunt themselves against me saying mine own hand have saved me. Now. Therefore go to proclaim in the ears of the people saying _. This whosoever is fearful and afraid. Let him return and depart early from Mount Gilead and their return of the people 20 and 2000 and they remain 10,000. Here they are 32,000 people. General Gideon says, listen to me, I have an announcement. If there’s anybody here who is afraid we can’t use you go home your excuse. 32,000 After the stampede, Gideon gets up and brushes himself off. 10,000 are all that’s left. He’s lost 2\/3 of his army. They’ve gone home today. If you’re a coward, God cannot use you, friend. I’ll tell you what, I’m not by nature courageous. Well, maybe I am a little bit by nature, but if you come after one of my loved ones, you will face one of the bravest men you’ve ever seen. Well, the bravest men you’ve ever seen. If you would’ve started after my wife or one of my Children friend, you’d be facing a brave man. Do you know why? Because I love them. Do you love the Lord? God has given us the spirit of power and of love and of a sound mind. And that word. Sound mind literally means a mind that cannot be stampeded. It means a mind that sees things as they are not afraid of phantom’s not afraid of spooks, not stampeded by the sinister Minister of Fear, Who is the devil get filled with the spirit of God and you’re going to have not only an assurance that God can use you, but you’re gonna find yourself unusually courageous. Now, here’s the next kind of person that God uses. God uses uh cautious people. You say that’s contradictory. No, it’s not. Look now, if you will hear chapter seven verses four and eight at four through eight. And the Lord said unto Gideon, the people are yet too many. Bring them down into the water, and I will try them for thee there. And it shall be that of whom I say unto thee. This shall go with thee. The same shall go with thee, and of whomsoever I shall say unto thee. This shall not go with the the same shall not go. So he brought down the people unto the water. And the Lord said Unto Gideon, everyone that lap with of the water with his tongue is a dog lapping him, Shalt Thou set by himself. Likewise. Everyone that bows down on his knees to drink. And the number of them that lapped, putting their hand to their mouth were 300 men. But all the rest of the people bowed down upon their knees to drink water. And the Lord said unto Gideon by the 300 men that lapped Well, I save you and deliver the media nights into thine hand and let all the other people go every man to his own place. So the Lord took Victuals in their hands. So the people took Victuals, that’s food and their trumpets! And he said, All the rest of the of Israel, Every man into his tent And retain those 300 men, and the host of Midian was beneath him in the Valley. Now God says, Alright, Gideon, you’ve sent the fearful home. Now get in. There’s another test. Bring the people down here to the brook of Arad and tell them to drink water. It’s hot in that valley. I’ve been in that valley, I’ve been to this very brook and he said, Alright, men break ranks and get a drink of water. Now the people began to divide themselves. These 10,000 that were left. There were some men who got down like this, put their mouths in the water and began to suck up the water. Can you imagine how vulnerable a man would be to the enemy like this? With his neck bared and the bible says the enemy was right up there. There they are! Down with their mouths in the water sucking up the water. There were 300 men, however, who drank like this, putting their hand to the mouth, looking around. These were cautious men. No cautious men, you say. I thought we wanted courageous men. Yes, courageous and cautious. I love the balance of the bible. The bible says in nothing. Be terrified by your adversaries, but the same bible says, Be sober, be vigilant, your adversary! The devil goes about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour how careful we need to be! You know what san often is! Sin is an unexpected opportunity, an unprotected life and an undetected weakness. You put those together and you go down the bible says, Let him to think of the standard take heed. Let’s default! We must rush on. God uses a cautious people. Friend God also uses a confident people. A confident people look if you will. Now in chapter seven, verses 12 through 15, and the mini nights in the am like kites and all. The Children of the East lay along the valley like grasshoppers for multitude, and their camels were without number as the sand by the sea side for a multitude. And when Gideon was come behold, there was a man that told a dream unto his fellow, and said, Behold, I dreamed a dream! And lo a cake of barley bread tumbled into the host of Midian, and came unto a tent and smote it, that it fell and overturned it, and the tent lay along, and his fellow answered and said, this is nothing say, this is nothing else save the sword of Gideon, the son of joe ash, a man of Israel for into his hand, hath the Lord delivered Midian and all the host, and it was so that when when Gideon heard of the telling of the dream, and the interpretation thereof, that he worshiped and returned unto the host of Israel and said, arise, for the Lord hath delivered into your hand the host of Midian. Now what happened is this? Now? Here is a man, here’s a man who’s a common man. Here’s a man who is a courageous man. Here’s a man who is a cautious man. But now he needs to be a confident man. He needs to understand that God is with him. So the Lord does something for him. He says um Gideon, I want you to get a a buddy and I want you to go into the camp of the enemy and I want you to wreck annoyed her. I want you to go down there into the camp, I want you to see what is happening. And so here goes Gideon and he somehow slips past the guards and he gets right into the middle of the camp of the Media nights and he comes up to a tent and here’s two people in the tent talking and Gideon is eavesdropping! One man said to the other man, I had a terrible dream last night, he said, what was it? He said, there was a a loaf of barney brand barley roll of bread and it came tumbling down the hill and he said, it hit a tent. And when it did it knocked the whole tent down, the whole thing collapsed. Just a roll of barley bread. The other man said, you know what that was? You know what? You saw that role of Barley bread that was Gideon, That was Gideon. Gideon heard all of this. And the man said we’ve lost. Why? Why? Why? That’s that’s just Gideon we’ve lost. Now think about it. Party brand friend. Barley bread was the poorest bread you could get. It wasn’t it wasn’t a whole wheat, it wasn’t vitamin enriched, that was poor man’s bread and it it comes tumbling down and destroys the whole thing. When Gideon heard that, he went back and said, fellas, we’ve won. We have one. Listen, let me tell you something. There is a dread in hell over you. You say me, I’m just barley bread. That’s the point. The devil hopes that you never really understand who you are, what you have in the Lord, jesus christ. So I’m just a piece of barley bread. That’s right. Listen to me, I have seen people too big in their own sight for God to use. I’ve never seen a man small in his own site that God could not use. But God is going to use you. There is a dread in hell that one of these days God’s people gonna wake up as to who they are and what we have in the Lord jesus. Those people in that tent were already afraid. That’s the devil’s crowd. They knew. Get in Gideon was known in hell. Are you known in hell? I want my name to be on the bulletin board in hell. I wanted to be in hell’s post office? There he is. Adrian Rogers, He’s dangerous. He’s just barley bread, but he’s dangerous friend, you can’t have your name posted in heaven’s Hall of Champions unless you have it posted in hell’s post office of enemies get in. Was known in hell as a man tried to catch some demons out in the Book of Acts. Actually seven of them seven sons of Skeevy steven’s sons going out there? Exorcist to cast demons out. They came against the man who was filled with demons and the man in whom the demons were turned on. This man on these men stripped the clothes from them, beat them up. They ran like whipped puppies naked, fleeing. What had happened is this they said to this demon possessed man, We assure you in the name of Jesus whom paul preaches come out of him. That second hand religion, they didn’t say in the name of jesus, whom I know in the name of Jesus whom paul preaches that secondhand religion, you can’t say in the name of jesus, that Adrian preaches, you have to say the name of jesus, whom I know, you know what the demon said this really funny. The demon said to these seven, huh? Yeah, jesus, I know and paul, I know who are you? Who are you and they’re running because their name was not known in hell. Your name needs to be known in here. The demons need to know that you’re somebody an ordinary person. Barley bread. Common, courageous, cautious, confident that God can use you. God gave victory that day. Would you like to live in victory or you just want a written of you? There was a man born. He lived, he died folks. What difference is it gonna make? What is your life going to count for? Don’t you give me that business that you’re just an ordinary person? Don’t you tell me? You’re too old, too young, too poor, too uneducated. You see your calling brethren? Not many mighty, not many noble call. Now God may not use you the way uses somebody else. You let God decide that you don’t choose your place of service, but you make yourself available to God and God will use you. I believe that. Do you believe it? That’s about heads. Father, God, I pray in the name of jesus that you will help us. Lord as a church as individuals. Lord to be surrender to you. Lord usable in the battle and father to bring glory to jesus. Now while heads about an eyes are closed. I’ve been speaking today to God’s Children, I’ve been speaking today to those who are saved, not to the unsaved, but to the saved. Now before you can be used of God in any of these other ways I’ve mentioned. First of all, you’ve got to know jesus as your personal savior. And Lord let me tell you this, that we’re sinners. Sinners by birth, by nature by choice and by practice. Our sin deserves judgment. But God wants to save us and God will save us anybody who will trust him. The bible says it clearly and plainly believe on the Lord, jesus christ and you will be saved. What do you believe about jesus? That he died for your sins? That he shed his blood for you that was raised from the dead? That he is willing and able to save you and will save you. Would you pray a prayer like this? Oh God! I am a sinner. I am lost. I can’t save myself. But now today with all of my heart like a little child, I trust you to save me. Come into my life, forgive my sin cleanse me and save me and thank you for doing it? Help me never to be ashamed of you take all there is of me and use me for your glory. Amen. Well, amen God has been moving in these services and I’m so grateful that you’ve been watching you noticed that I asked those present to give their hearts to jesus christ and I thank God for those who responded. But many of you who watched through this ministry also responded. And you said along with these in this building, I received christ into my heart. I thank God that you did. Now if you did, would you please write to us and let us know number one, we will rejoice. Number two, we will sincerely pray for you. Number three, we will send you free of charge some materials to help you to get started in your christian life. It is so important that you learn how to be a follower of jesus christ. So write to us and ask for the new believers materials and we’ll send them right out to you. God bless you. We hope that you’ve been encouraged by these character studies from Hebrews Chapter 11 That we’re calling champions of faith. You can stream this message again, share this message with a friend and download other resources related to this message all at L WF dot org or the my L WF app while you’re there, be sure to check out our new bible studies on today’s topic as well as many other topics at L WF dot org. You can also subscribe to our day. Daily heartbeat emails. Each heartbeat contains a daily devotional for Adrian Rogers, 90 seconds. A profound truth also from Adrian Rogers as well as a link to our daily radio program, all in one place, delivered directly to your computer or mobile device each day. Or you can catch up with our program each week on our facebook page or Youtube channel and on the my L WF app. Thanks for joining us for today’s message, We’ll see you next time. Light has absolute power over darkness. The darkness cannot put out the light. The light can put out the darkness, Light is more powerful than darkness and truth is more powerful than error. The times are growing dark, but as Adrian Rogers says, they are gloriously dark because the light of christ shines brighter in the darkness. In his book. Standing for Light and Truth, Pastor teacher and author Adrian Rogers offers insights and guidance to help you live with Godly integrity and to shine his light in a world growing dark for your gift. This month, we’d love to send you standing for light and truth request yours when you give at 1 806 47 94 100 or you can give online at L WF dot org. Stand boldly for truth in these dark days of deceit Call or go online today.”}],”items”:[{“start_time”:”3.8″,”end_time”:”4.44″,”alternatives